White Chocolate-Macadamia Nut-Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Cherries

At some point last year, I was talking with my mom on the phone on a day when I was trying to decide what kind of cookies to bake. Her first suggestion was White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Cookies. I ended up not making them at the time, but I did stop to wonder: why haven’t I ever made those? Fast forward to a year later, and I knew exactly what kind of cookies to bake for my mom after she fell and broke her ankle. It’s a proven fact that cookies help with all recoveries, I think. I had a recipe from the December 2012 issue of Saveur for exactly this type of cookie. But, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I wanted chunky cookies with oats in them and maybe some dried fruit as well. In Alice Medrich’s Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies, there is a version with oats. However, in that recipe, the oats are chopped to bits in a food processor. I followed the recipe for quantities but stirred everything together by hand and kept the oats whole for maximum chunkiness. And, then I added dried sour cherries. The result was a dangerous thing. I like baking cookies to share, but I kind of wanted to keep all of these for myself. 

I started by roasting two cups of macadamia nuts. I sprinkled on sea salt, and it sticks to the nuts as the oils are released while roasting. They roasted at 350 degrees F for about eight minutes and then were coarsely chopped. This cookie dough is easy to stir together because melted butter is used. Two sticks, or 16 tablespoons, of butter was melted and set aside. One and a half cups of flour were sifted with a teaspoon of baking soda and a half teaspoon of salt. One and a half cups of oats were added to the flour mixture. In a separate bowl, the melted butter was combined with two-thirds cup of granulated sugar, two-thirds cup of brown sugar, and two teaspoons of vanilla extract. The flour mixture was added to the egg mixture and was stirred to combine. The chopped nuts, two cups of white chocolate chips, and two cups of dried sour cherries were added to the dough. Then, the dough was refrigerated for a couple of hours. Because of the melted butter in the dough, it needs some chilling time before baking. Heaping tablespoons of dough were baked on sheets at 325 degrees F for about 15 minutes, and sheet pans were rotated halfway through baking. 

These were indeed chunky cookies just as I’d hoped, and they were packed with great flavors. The salted, buttery macadamia nuts contrasted with the sweetness of the white chocolate, and the chewy pieces of dried sour cherries were a nice fruity addition. I can’t prove they’ll help Mom’s ankle heal faster, but cookies are always good medicine. 

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Milk Chocolate, Nut, and Raisin Clusters

I own the fact that I have an overactive sweet tooth. It frequently takes command of my food choices. That could be why I ran to the kitchen the minute I read about these chocolate clusters. They were in the February issue of Food and Wine in a story about Patricia Wells’ updated edition of her book Food Lover’s Guide to Paris. In the magazine, there are four itineraries for food and shopping tours around Paris. I really wanted to book a flight, but since that wasn’t possible on such short notice, I made candies instead. The recipe is from Chef Alain Ducasse, and they’re sold at his new shop. First, I was surprised that this simple, homey cluster of goodness lacking any sort of chic presentation came from such an acclaimed chef. And, next, I noticed there are cornflakes in the clusters. I believe this is the first French recipe I’ve encountered that called for cornflakes. There are also feuilletine flakes, but rather than ordering those online, I went with the option of using more cornflakes. There are two problems with this recipe. One is that it was very difficult to not eat all of the mixture before even spooning it into clusters, and the other issue was refraining from eating all the finished clusters in one sitting. 

The nuts and fruit could easily be changed out to use whatever you prefer, but I followed the suggested ingredients, other than skipping the feuilletine flakes, to taste the candies as they’re made by Ducasse. Hazelnuts were toasted in the oven and then rubbed in a towel to remove the skins before being roughly chopped. I bought a new container of golden raisins, but they seemed very dry. So, I soaked my raisins in hot water for twenty minutes, drained them well, and dried them on a towel. I used all cornflakes, and chopped, unsalted pistachios. Salt was added separately. The milk chocolate I used has a high percentage of cacao for milk chocolate at 40%. Another surprising ingredient that made me curious about these clusters was the addition of some white chocolate. There was no explanation for it, but I went with the suggested amount. The chocolates were melted and then half of the mixed chocolates was poured over the mix of cornflakes, raisins, and nuts. The mixture was carefully folded to distribute the chocolate, and then the remaining melted chocolate was added and folded until everything was completely coated. I used a tablespoon-size scoop to create the clusters which sat on lined baking sheets until set. 

I’m still wondering why the white chocolate was added. Maybe it made the flavor richer or slightly sweeter? The result was without a doubt delightful. The clusters were sweet and chocolatey with just enough salt for balance, and I did put a few flakes of sea salt on top of each one. The real fun in these clusters, though, is the mix of textures. Crunchy nuts, shatteringly crisp cornflakes, and chewy raisins all covered in chocolate made my sweet tooth very happy. 

Giant White Chocolate Pecan Cookies

I don’t know how I let so much time go by since I last talked about cookies around here. It might be a record of time passed between cookie posts for me. But, as soon as I made these, I couldn’t wait to mention them. I’m drawn to new and different cookie recipes for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes it’s a mix of ingredients I’ve never tried in a cookie before, and sometimes it’s a seasonal thing. With these cookies, I absolutely had to make them for no other reason than they’re big. Actually, they’re huge. These are pancake-size cookies. I have an old favorite Big Thin Chocolate Chip Cookie made from a rich dough that spreads and spreads as it bakes. With that recipe, four cookies will fit on a baking sheet. These Giant White Chocolate Pecan Cookies are made with about a half-cup of dough per cookie, and only three fit per baking sheet. They’re from the April issue of Living magazine, and the recipe is online. You might think it would be appropriate to break each cookie in half or into quarters and enjoy a smaller portion, but I encourage you to go the two-handed approach and nibble through an entire giant cookie at one time. It’s the only way to truly appreciate the thrill of a really gigantic cookie. 

Since I wanted to share these giant cookies with as many people as possible, I doubled the recipe. Flour, salt, and baking soda were sifted together and set aside. Butter, dark brown sugar, and granulated sugar were creamed together before whole eggs and egg yolks were added followed by vanilla. The flour mixture was mixed in, and chopped white chocolate and roughly chopped, toasted pecans were stirred into the dough. Using a big, sturdy food scoop, four ounce scoops of dough were placed on baking sheets with at least three inches between them. The dough balls were lightly pressed to flatten a bit before baking for about 16 minutes. 

With a cookie this big, you’re guaranteed a good mix of crispy and chewy textures. The big, sweet white chocolate chunks and pieces of pecans add more crunchy textures of their own. These easy cookies are fun to make. And, what’s even more fun is everyone’s reaction when they see just how big these cookies are. They’re as tasty as they are huge. 

Black Forest Chocolate Cookies

So, last year I instituted the concept of birthday cookies which allows me to try different cookie recipes and if the result is delicious, I send the cookies off to family members on their birthdays. I’m mentioning this again because May is the most popular month for birthdays in my family, and I’ve been baking lots of cookies lately. There are two criteria for good birthday cookies. First, as I said, they have to be delicious, and the second requirement is that they be sturdy enough for packing and shipping. There’s an extremely simple cookie from one of my favorite books that I thought was going to be perfect. Then, I tasted it. It’s a pecan butter cookie from The Modern Baker, and after making many recipes from this book this was the first that I didn’t love. The flavor was a little flat, and I think the problem was that there was no salt in the dough. Those cookies ended up in the freezer, and I’ll eventually use them for a cookie crust. I’ll also eventually make the recipe again and add some salt. But since I was disappointed with them, I moved on to the Black Forest Chocolate Cookies shown here, and these are from the book Baked. At first, I was skeptical about the six eggs in the ingredient list and wasn’t sure the texture would be right, but an overnight chilling of the dough transformed it into a scoopable state. You end up with a crunchy, dark chocolate cookie filled with chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and dried cherries. This one was worthy of being a birthday cookie.

Chopped, dark chocolate was melted with butter in a double-boiler and then set aside to cool. Meanwhile the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, and salt, were sifted. In a mixer, six eggs, and don’t be scared because six eggs really does work here, were combined with granulated sugar and brown sugar. The cool chocolate mixture was added with some vanilla extract and mixed. The dry ingredients were added and mixed to just combine. Last, the chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and dried cherries were folded into the dough. The dough will seem much softer than cookie dough should, but it needs to be refrigerated for at least six hours or overnight. After being chilled, it’s just right. As the cookies bake, the tops become crackly, and then you have to wait for what seems like forever for them to cool enough so you can start tasting.

These are decadent, richly-chocolaty cookies with pops of sweetness from the white chocolate and dried cherries. And, they passed the sturdiness test for shipping. The coming months won’t be quite as busy for birthday cookie baking, but I’m always looking for good ideas before the next birthday arrives.

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White Hot Chocolate with Vegetarian Marshmallows

Since I made the decision to avoid using gelatin, I had wanted to make homemade marshmallows with a vegetarian alternative. Then, I received a kitchen torch, and the desire to toast homemade marshmallows catapulted this project to the top of the list. I knew there was a vegetarian version of marshmallows made with xanthan gum in Demolition Desserts, but I had read that they don’t set up as firm as marshmallows made with gelatin. I decided to try them anyway. Once I had gelatin-free marshmallows and the ability to toast them, it seemed natural to then float them on top of some rich and delicious hot chocolate. I took a few cues from Ina for the technique and whipped up a white hot chocolate with a little espresso to balance the sweetness and some Kahlua to reinforce the coffee flavor with an alcoholic edge. A sprinkle of cocoa powder before floating the marshmallow added a bit of dark chocolate flavor too.

So, to make vegetarian marshmallows, the process is the same as for making ones with gelatin only instead of dissolving gelatin in a hot sugar syrup, xanthan gum is added after the hot syrup is incorporated into the egg whites. Water, cream of tartar, sugar, corn syrup, and half a vanilla bean were placed in saucepan over high heat and brought to a boil. The heat was reduced to medium, and a candy thermometer was attached to the pan. The syrup was cooked until it reached 248 degrees F, and meanwhile, three egg whites were being mixed in a stand mixer with the whip attachment. The hot syrup was added to the egg whites while mixing, and as soon as all the syrup was added, one and a half teaspoons of xanthan gum was added. You get the same, glossy, sticky meringue. That is then transferred to a cornstarch-sprinkled pan and left to set. I cut some marshmallows into heart shapes, and they did seem softer and a little gooey-er than marshmallows I had made with gelatin in the past. They held their shape well enough for floating on hot chocolate though. For the hot chocolate, I chopped four ounces of white chocolate and heated two cups of milk to a simmer. I poured the hot milk over the white chocolate and whisked until it melted. I poured that mixture through a sieve, just like Ina, into a small, heat-proof pitcher. Then, I added one tablespoon instant espresso, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and a splash of Kahlua. After pouring into two mugs, I topped each with a sprinkle of cocoa powder and a toasted marshmallow.

I have to say I was very pleased with the slightly bitter edges of the toasted marshmallow in combination with the sweet, white chocolate. The resulting color of the hot chocolate itself with the added espresso and Kahlua isn’t exactly a beautiful shade of off-white, but the flavor made up for the unremarkable looks.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

I promised to show some holiday cookies, so on with the cookie parade. This is another one from the Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies publication from last year, and the recipe is available online. The flavors in these chocolate peppermint cookies are very similar to the chocolate mint sandwich cookies I mentioned back in March. But, I think these have a much more festive look. Here, peppermint extract is added to the chocolate cookie dough rather than the white chocolate as in the sandwich cookies, and each cookie is completely covered in melted white chocolate. Broken candy canes decorate the tops. The cookie dough was rolled out and cut into circles, but it would have worked just as well to form the dough into two logs and slice cookies from them. I’ve learned that regardless of whether the mint flavor is added to the chocolate cookie dough or the white chocolate and whether the white chocolate is sandwiched between cookies or used to completely cover them, this is a flavor combination that’s well-received.

The cookie dough was started by sifting together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In the bowl of a mixer, butter and sugar were creamed until pale and fluffy. One egg and one egg yolk were added followed by the peppermint extract. The flour mixture was slowly added, and then the dough was divided and formed into two disks which were covered with plastic wrap and chilled for at least an hour. This is a sticky dough, so it’s best to roll it out between pieces of parchment paper. It may also need to be chilled before cutting rounds. Once all the cookies were cut, they were placed on baking sheets and chilled again for 15 minutes before going into the oven. After baking and cooling, each cookie was dipped in melted white chocolate and topped with crushed candy cane pieces.

They have a snowy, pretty look and fresh, mint flavor. The broken candy cane pieces on top of each cookie add visual appeal and also make the cookies more easily stackable without sticking to each other. I might go back to the sandwich cookie version when it’s not the holiday season, but this mix of flavors is a winner any time.

Chocolate Dipped Ice Cream and Sorbet Sandwiches

It's no surprise that we're having a hot summer here. We always do. We have had an impressive 40 days of temperatures at or above 100 degrees F though, and it's only July 25. From the looks of the weather forecast, we're about to add seven more days to that total. What this means is that all I really want to eat is food that's cold and preferably frozen. Last August, there was a photo in Bon Appetit of a stack of chocolate dipped ice cream sandwiches. The sandwiches were all different flavors, one end of each had been dipped in melted chocolate, and then sprinkled with jimmies or toffee chunks or chopped nuts. This photo had been touched up with added vapor swirls around the sandwiches to further highlight their lovely coldness and perfection as a treat during the heat of summer. That pile of extremely cold sandwiches was something I needed in my freezer. You could use whatever ice cream or sorbet you'd like for the filling, but since I'd been waiting to find fresh, organic cherries for a few weeks, there were a couple I'd had on my mind. First, I made candied cherries and used them in white chocolate cherry ice cream, and then I cooked some cherries and pureed them for cherry sorbet. Both of those recipes are from The Perfect Scoop. The fillings were already delicious on their own, but the brown-butter cookies and chocolate coating with chopped almonds didn't hurt them one bit.

Yes, that was brown-butter cookies. And, the technique, found in the Bon Appetit recipe, for making these sandwiches was an interesting one. The cookie was baked in one solid layer in a nine by thirteen inch pan. I cut the sheet of cookie into four pieces horizontally. Two were filled with white chocolate cherry ice cream, and the other two were filled with cherry sorbet. In each case, the bottom cookie sat at one edge of the pan in which it was baked, ice cream or sorbet was piled thickly on top, and the other cookie piece was placed on top of that. With an off-set spatula, you can smooth the exposed edge. Then, each long piece of filled cookie sandwich was wrapped in plastic wrap, left in the pan, and placed in the freezer to firm up. After a few hours, the cookie bars were cut into separate, little sandwiches. The great news is that these brown-butter cookies cut easily with a serrated knife. They didn't break or chip apart as I feared they might. The cut apart sandwiches were placed back in the freezer once again before the next step. Last, chocolate was melted, one end of each sandwich was dipped into the chocolate and then into chopped nuts, and they set up in the freezer until dessert time arrived.

Almost any cookie would make a good ice cream sandwich, but some are easier than others to bite into after being frozen. The cookies used here performed perfectly for filling, cutting, and biting. The process of filling a long piece of cookie and then cutting the sandwiches after they were frozen and firm worked amazingly well. I haven't decided which filling, the white chocolate cherry ice cream or the cherry sorbet, I like better, but opening the freezer to find two different options for frozen treats is certainly making our hot summer a little more bearable.

White Chocolate Hazelnut Blondies

Have you heard about the national bake sale for Japan? It’s happening in multiple cities this Saturday, April 2, and Austin is one of those cities. As soon as word started spreading about organizing a bake sale in Austin, the positive response was overwhelming. There are currently over 100 volunteer bakers and about 40 businesses contributing to the Austin event. There will be five locations around town for the sale, and all donations will go directly to Americares for relief efforts in Japan. Each location will have an incredible variety of both sweet and savory treats on offer, and for anyone who is unable to take part in Saturday’s event, there’s an online giving page with FirstGiving where all donations also go directly to Americares.

To be able to contribute, in some way, to the recovery process in Japan by baking sounded perfect to me. The timing couldn’t have been better since I just received a review copy of the new book Milk and Cookies which is from the New York bakery of the same name. The book will be released on April 20. It presents recipes for cookie dough bases from which many varieties can be made. For instance, there’s vanilla base dough, dark chocolate base dough, oatmeal, peanut butter, and sugar cookie base dough. Each base has a chapter dedicated to it with different additions for several unique cookies. From the peanut butter base dough, you might make peanut butter-milk chocolate bites or peanut butter and jelly cookies. There are also chapters for special cookies like mocha-cherry drops, carrot cake cookies, and ice cream sandwich cookies, family favorites like biscotti and sfogliati crown pastries, and brownies and bars like Kahlua brownies and pecan bars. Last weekend, I decided to test a recipe for white chocolate blondies to find out if they were bake sale-worthy. The cookie dough itself was made with melted white chocolate, and after baking, the blondies were covered with a white chocolate glaze. The cut bars were chewy, and there were hazelnuts and chocolate chips to add crunch.

First, a pound of white chocolate, and yes, that’s a lot but this recipe makes a lot of blondies, was melted with butter. I used Callebaut white chocolate disks. Next, flour, baking powder, and salt were combined and set aside. Six eggs were mixed in a stand mixer, sugar was added, and then the cooled white chocolate mixture was incorporated. The dry ingredients were added, and last chocolate chips and toasted, chopped hazelnuts were stirred into the dough. The dough was baked in a large sheet pan and allowed to cool before the blondies were topped with a glaze made with cream and more white chocolate.

As a white chocolate fan, these blondies were a big hit with me. The white chocolate in the dough gave the crumb of the bars a dense but tender texture. The semisweet chocolate chips and hazelnuts added crunch and kept the bars from being too sweet. These will definitely be contenders for what I bring to the bake sale, but I have my eye on that peanut butter cookie chapter too.

Chocolate Mint Sandwich Cookies

I had two cookie recipes in mind, and I was trying to decide which one to bake for a party. I called in Kurt to make the final choice. Without even asking for details, he instantly pointed straight at these chocolate mint sandwiches and said: make those. Well, that settled that, not that there was anything wrong with the other option. I knew he’d like the mint, and they do look fetching on the back cover of Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies. They’re thin and crisp chocolate wafer cookies sandwiched with a layer of mint-flavored white chocolate, and this was just one of four ways these cookies were presented in the book. With several of the cookie recipes, Alice Medrich included “upgrades” or variations on the theme. In this case, the base recipe was plain chocolate wafers. The possible upgrades for these were spicy wafers with cinnamon, cayenne, and ground black pepper added to the dough, extra-bittersweet wafers with added ground unsweetened chocolate, and the version I made with white chocolate and mint sandwiched between two wafers.

The dough requires some time in the refrigerator before being cut into cookies which means it can be made well in advance. It was entirely mixed in a food processor. First, flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking powder were pulsed, and then chopped, softened butter was mixed in by pulsing. Last, milk and vanilla were added through the feed tube while the machine was running. The dough was formed into a log, wrapped in parchment, and chilled for at least an hour. Possibly the most difficult part of this recipe was cutting the dough into thin rounds. The log was marked at one inch lengths, and each inch of dough was cut into six skinny, little, fragile cookies. The rounds were baked, and as soon as they came out of the oven, small circles were cut in half of them. I used the big end of a piping tip to cut the circles. When the cookies were cool, white chocolate was melted and mixed with mint extract for the filling. Scant half teaspoons of white chocolate filling were spread on half of the cookies which were topped with the ones with holes.

Naturally, I thought the half teaspoon of filling was not nearly enough. I would have preferred to slather on a thick, generous layer of mint white chocolate, but I was wrong. It was just enough to add sweetness and richness and let the chocolate of the cookies shine through. Kurt made a great choice with this one.

Ambrosia with White Chocolate Whipped Cream

When you think of Southern food, a few classic dishes like biscuits, chicken and dumplings, pimento cheese, and shrimp and grits always come to mind. A new book called Quick-Fix Southern by Rebecca Lang sets out to make those classics and several new dishes doable when time is lacking. I received a review copy of this book, and in it I found recipes for snacking, picnics, salads, parties, casseroles, and of course, Southern sweets. There are cooking tips like chopping greens into thin ribbons to speed up cooking time or cooking everything for shrimp and grits together in the oven instead of separately on top of the stove to reduce active time. And, there are some classics like fried green tomatoes and okra fritters that don’t take long to prepare anyway. Beyond the Southern classics, there are also dishes like catfish tacos, warm curried fruit, and a key lime martini. When I got to the sweets chapter, I was drawn to the ambrosia since citrus is still in season. It’s a simple salad with supremed ruby red grapefruit and navel oranges, pineapple chunks, and a layer of whipped cream.

In the book, the ambrosia is composed as a trifle, but I served it in individual portions. I also took the liberty of garnishing with pomegranate seeds because I still had a couple of homegrown, tiny pomegranates on hand. I have a dwarf pomegranate shrub which actually produced fruits, albeit very small fruits, this year, and those fruits were packed with delightful seeds. So, to begin making this dessert, fresh pineapple was cut into chunks, and navel oranges and red grapefruits were cut into segments. The fruits were placed in a sieve and allowed to drain. Be sure to save the juice that collects for another use or mix it with a little vodka for a quick cocktail. Next, white chocolate was melted and allowed to cool, and cream was whipped. There was no added sugar as the white chocolate added just enough sweetness to the cream. The whipped cream was whisked into the melted white chocolate in two steps, and then it was time to layer it with the mixed fruits.

Coconut usually makes an appearance in ambrosia, and I missed it here a little. Some freshly grated coconut pieces that had been toasted would have been a nice addition, but that would have made this a slightly more complicated and time-consuming dish. As it was, there were certainly no complaints. The layers of fruit and rich, white chocolate whipped cream made for a Southern-style dessert full of fresh flavors with just enough decadence.

Chocolate^2 Chip Espresso Cookies

If there is such thing as a sweet tooth, I would like to suggest that there may also be such thing as a coffee tooth. Going with that assumption, my coffee tooth has been acting up lately, and that led me to this recipe for double chocolate espresso cookies from Demolition Desserts. The cookie dough was made with cocoa powder and finely ground espresso, and dark chocolate and white chocolate chips were added. You might think a dark, chocolaty, coffee-flavored cookie like that would be slightly bitter, but this one wasn’t. I suspect it’s the brown sugar that smoothes out the flavors in the dough. The tender, almost-cakey texture is a nice surprise about them too. You can use any ratio you wish of white to dark chocolate chips, and I went with a whole cup of white to one-third cup of dark chocolate.

In the recipe, the suggested method for preparing the dough is to stir it by hand with a large wooden spoon. I prefer the hands-free method of tossing everything into a mixer, so I went that route. The flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and ground espresso were sifted while the butter and dark brown and granulated sugars were mixed. One egg, vanilla, and salt were added to the butter before the flour mixture was mixed in just until combined. I folded in the white and dark chocolate chips, and then the dough was refrigerated for 30 minutes. Small, one-inch balls of dough were formed and baked for about ten minutes.

These cookies are found at the beginning of the book with a few other versions of the chocolate chip variety like the chocolate chip cookies xs. This particular chocolate chip espresso cookie is also used in the chocolate chip mania dessert found on page 35 of the book. For that, the cookies are baked as minis and are stacked on top of a blondie with brown sugar-chocolate chunk ice cream and chipped cream with dark and white chocolate sauces. That sounds like a great way to satisfy a sweet tooth, a coffee tooth, and a chocolate tooth all at once, but for now, the cookies by themselves made me and my coffee tooth very happy.

Peanut Butter Chocolate and Chocolate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

We were invited to a bbq today, and I volunteered to bring cookies. Being the indecisive sort and hoping to please everyone with one flavor or the other, I made two kinds. These are from Barefoot Contessa Parties!, and she actually shows three types of cookies in that book. I skipped the basic chocolate chunk cookie because I only had so much time and chocolate, and I really wanted to try the other two. The chocolate white chocolate chunk one drew me in because white chocolate is just the best, and the peanut butter chocolate chunk would obviously be delicious too.

I used Callebaut chocolates for these cookies. Their white chocolate is far and away better than other brands I’ve tried, and their 60% cacao bittersweet worked perfectly with the peanut butter. These are very straightforward cookies, and once the chocolate was chopped, it was all downhill. My peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies didn’t spread quite as much as the white chocolate chunk ones, but other than that there were no issues here. Well, there was one issue. Which flavor was better? Kurt decided the white chocolate narrowly edged out the peanut butter. I also loved the big chunks of white chocolate nestled into the cocoa-rich cookies, but the savory peanuttiness with the dark chocolate was just as appealing. Let me taste them one more time, or two more times, and I’ll get back to you about which one is better.

Gingerbread White Chocolate Blondies

Back in May, I baked a couple of things from Martha Stewart's Cookies and realized that I wanted to try every cookie in the book. They all look delectable, are simple enough to create, and all together form a great cookie baking reference. Also, my co-workers have gotten accustomed to my habit of bringing treats into the office, so it was time to grab this book again. This time, I chose the gingerbread white chocolate blondies. Because they are bar cookies, the baking time is minimized. Beyond the time required, I didn’t think too much about this choice and had no idea what I would be unleashing by making them.

Seeing molasses in the ingredient list may have somewhat influenced my decision as I think I’m developing a molasses dependency. The homemade graham crackers made with molasses started it. Then, while making these blondies, I realized that molasses and salt causes a swirling in my brain just like the effect of caramel and salt. This recipe didn’t require an inordinate amount of salt, but it was somehow more noticeable than usual as it played with the molasses flavor. And, then, there’s the white chocolate. White chocolate has always held a special place in my appetite. I used a block of Callebaut which was chopped into chunks. So, molasses, gingerbread, and white chocolate all sounded good.

Apparently, they were, in fact, freakishly good. Everyone who tried one got that jaw-dropped look of wonder. After having a sample, Kurt is searching our kitchen for more, is sure there must be some hidden somewhere, and can’t believe I took them all to work. He might be right. I definitely recommend the book, but if you need some of these cookies before you can get a copy, the recipe is also online.