Coconut Chocolate Chip Biscotti

The last few months I have actually been baking pretty frequently, but two things have been holding me back from updating the blog.  First - It has been dark as I arrive at and leave work each day, making it hard to capture good photos of anything new I do bake.  Second - I've been making a lot of old classics that are already on here, or that don't seem exciting enough to post (my cravings for chocolate +/- peanut butter seem ever present...).   I also actually started worrying for a short period that maybe I had run out of new recipes/ideas - how many variations on chocolate and cookies and brownies can there be??  (Luckily I then convinced myself I am not there yet!).  So I opened of a new cookbook I'd recently received as a gift to look for some inspiration, and stumbled upon this recipe.  Plus I'm currently working nights, which means I can take food photos in sunlight!

The name "biscotti" is an italian word that means twice-cooked, and that is why these delightful cookies are so crunchy.  They are best served with a hot drink to dunk them into - they go especially well with hot chocolate.  The dried out nature means they keep well, so they are a great cookie to make in advance of having company.  The addition of coconut is subtle in flavor, but adds well to the texture, making them a little more moist.

Berry muffins (blueberry or raspberry)

I don't have any story to go along with this recipe, its just a great reliable muffin recipe to have in the binder.  These make a great dense crumbly berry packed muffin, that is fairly fast to whip up, and reliably looks pretty.  The cinnamon crumb topping and the hint of lemon make this muffin rise above others I have tried.  I tend to buy frozen berries (mainly raspberries and blueberries) whenever I see them on sale at the store and stock up on them.  The recipe tastes just as good with frozen berries straight out of the freezer, so there is no need to waste your money on fresh berries, and no need to wait patiently for summer.  The only downside to this recipe is that these really taste best in the first 24-36 hours after baking them.  If you are looking for a berry muffin recipe to last you through the week, then I'd resort to the old faithful banana raspberry muffin (here).

Baltimore Berger Cookies

Back while I was still living in the UK one of my friends brought us some Berger cookies from her hometown of Baltimore.  Like most of the rest of the world, I had never heard of these cookies.  According to wikipedia, they were developed by a baker in Baltimore in the 1850s, adapted from a German recipe.  The base is similar to that of the black and white cookie, aka a soft boring sugar cookie.  But then that simple white cookie is piled high with a fudge like chocolate frosting and that is what makes this cookie shine.  My friend from Baltimore tells me the goal when making them at home should be to have as high a ratio of chocolate to cookie as possible.  I usually aim for 1:1, before the chocolate looks about to topple off the cookie base.

I think I've finally perfected the chocolate fudge topping, now that a few people from Baltimore have tasted them and said they are better than the original.  I shipped some this week to the friend who introduced them to me, and she wrote back that "they taste like friendship and home."  For a blog that is all about comfort food and baking away from home, that seemed like a pretty perfect endorsement (at least for those from Baltimore).

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pretty soon into starting my internship this summer, I realized that fitting things into my weekly schedule other than work, food and sleep was almost impossible.  As usual, this meant that running/exercise was one of the first things to go out the door so I tried to compensate by keeping myself from buying junk food or dessert at the grocery store.  However I developed a bad habit of eating giant spoonfuls of peanut butter dipped into chocolate chips, repeatedly, every night.  Until one night I glanced at the side of the peanut butter jar and learned just how many calories are in one small spoonful of peanut butter...  This encouraged me to dredge up the recipe for these cookies so I could get my delicious peanut butter and chocolate craving satiated with a cookie or two, without consuming a 1000 calories each night.

These cookies are soft, super peanut buttery, packed full of chocolatey chunks, and wrapped in a thin crisp coating of sugar.  They got rave reviews the first time I brought them to work, but that was also on a crazy day, and half of the comments where things like "this is the first thing I've eaten all day, and this cookie is amazing" (at 5pm).  So I brought in another batch on a less hectic day, and they still got rave reviews, and my cookie tin was emptied pretty rapidly.  So if you are one of the smart people out there who likes peanut butter and chocolate, then I recommend you go bake some cookies.

Peanut butter cookies
Minimally adapted from Smitten kitchen
Makes 2-3 dozen

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, softened (or microwaved 10 seconds)
1 cup peanut butter (I use smooth)
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 Tb milk
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup chocolate chips

Optional: 1/4 cup sugar to roll cookies in

Make the cookies:
Preheat oven to 350

1. In a medium bowl, mix the butter, peanut butter, and both sugars with electric beaters until smooth and fluffy
2. Add in the egg, milk, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder and salt, and mix well.
3. Mix in the flour, just until combined, then mix in the chocolate chips by hand, using a spoon.
4. Pour your 1/4 cup of sugar into a small bowl, if you opt for the sugar coaint.  Using your hands form small balls of cookie dough into balls about 1-1.5 inches wide, roll each ball in sugar, then place on a ungreased cookie tray, about 1 inch apart.  Use a fork and press down to slightly flatten each ball of dough to get your signature peanut butter cookie mark.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating tray half way during baking time, until the edges look slightly golden.  Cool on a wire rack and enjoy within 1-2 days (store in an air-tight container).

Coconut macaroons (aka the other macaron)

Coconut macaroons where a dessert I grew up eating only at passover, store bought from a can; which is why I always call these the "jewish macaroons," as opposed to the french macaron that is so trendy right now.  (Though no one else seems to know what I'm referring to when I say that...).  While they were always great, but I never thought to make my own or to eat them the rest of the year, until a friend shared some of her homemade macaroons with me recently.

These are even better than the store bought ones of my childhood, the texture and taste comes out a bit like the inside of a mounds bar.  These are very chewy, delicious and addictive.   What's more, they only require 5 ingredients (2 of which are chocolate), they are gluten free, and they freeze well!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

These last few months have been quite a transition period.  They included finishing vet school rotations, a few trips to the US, planning a conference, studying for finals, planning a move back to the states, and taking final exams...  I have actually fit in quite a bit of baking into that period (its possible I'm a stress baker, oops!), but I only recently realized that I've let the blog fall behind!  My most recent baking has alternated between french macaron's (as usual) and recipes chosen purely to use up ingredients left in our cupboards - which didn't always lead to the most delicious, blog-worthy things.   I do have a few newer recipes to share at some point in the future, but I decided that as I'm moving back to the US, and started this blog about baking American in the UK, maybe an old fashioned classic would be a great transition recipe.  So here I present you with my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.  (My apologies if posts continue to be sparse over the next year, I'm not sure how many hours I will get to spend outside of the hospital walls!)

This recipe, if baked right, will give you a thick-ish cookie, soft in the middle, a little crunchy on the edges, and oh so delicious.  In fact is so good I've often had people ask for the recipe, which is impressive for something as simple as a chocolate chip cookie!  I'm sure anyone who bakes in the US already has their standard go-to recipe for the chocolate chip cookie, but if you ever have any disappointment in the outcome, then I recommend you try out this new variation, it has a few things going for it!  Here are some of the aspects to the recipe that I think makes the difference:

Melting Chocolate Meringue Cookies

Passover is just around the corner, so I thought I would share a pesach-friendly recipe to get everyone excited.  The holiday often is often known for having mediocre desserts, as people try to adapt their favorite every day recipe to not include leaveners, replacing flour with matzah meal etc.  But personally, I prefer to instead choose recipes that are meant to not rise or have flour in them to begin with.  There are a lot of delicious recipes out there that I make all year, that just so happen to be kosher for passover.  I just realized last year that this cookie recipe is one of those... And it is also gluten free!  So this is a great recipe to have in your book, and its fast to whip up.

These melting chocolate cookies are made from meringue, so they are light as air when you pick them up, and melt in your mouth, filling it with a rich chocolatey taste.  Even though they are light, and small, they are full of flavor and decadent, so just one or two little cookies will fill your your chocolate cravings.  These are delicious all year round!