Espresso Chocolate Chip Shortbread

I'd been wanting to make these for a while and finally got a chance to. Very easy although a little time consuming to make, and very delicious with tea or even alone! I made them for the people working on our roof--probably wasn't the ideal thing to serve them, since they probably would have been fine with big simple chocolate chip cookies, but I really wanted to make these!

Espresso Chocolate Chip Shortbread
Recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours
Found on Use Real Butter

1 tbsp instant espresso powder
1 tbsp boiling water
8 oz. unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped OR 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional)

Dissolve espresso powder in boiling water. Set aside to cool to tepid.

Beat butter and confectioners’ sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in vanilla and espresso, then reduce mixer speed to low and add flour, mixing only until it disappears into the dough. Don’t work the dough much once the flour is incorporated. Fold in the chopped chocolate or chips with a sturdy rubber spatula.

Using the spatula, transfer dough to a gallon-size zip-loc bag. Put bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and roll the dough into a 9 x 10 1/2 inch rectangle that’s 1/4 inch thick. As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough so it doesn’t cause creases. When you get the right size and thickness, seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, or for up to 2 days.

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open. Turn the firm dough out onto the board (discard the bag) and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1 1/2-inch squares. Transfer the squares to the baking sheets and carefully prick each one twice with a fork, gently pushing the tines through the cookies until they hit the sheet.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point (I didn’t do that either – I bake one sheet at a time). The shortbreads will be very pale–they shouldn’t take on much color. Transfer the cookies to a rack. If you’d like, dust the cookies with confectioners’ sugar while they are still hot. Cool the cookies to room temperature before serving.

Makes about 3 dozen.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

If you're looking for something to make for breakfast--for guests, family, work, yourself--look no further. Please, stop looking and just try this recipe. It's really, really good, and really, really easy. I've always wanted to try making coffee cake and I finally did it! I didn't eat it with coffee--you don't have to--but it's a delicious cake and was perfectly dense and just...great. I'm not sure what coffee cake is supposed to taste like, actually, but I think it should taste like this one. My older brother liked it a lot, too--and he's a coffee lover and usually doesn't care for most of the things I make--so I'm definitely liking this recipe.

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake
Recipe adapted by The Baker Chick from King Arthur's Flour

Streusel topping
2/3 cups granulated sugar
pinch of  salt (if you use unsalted butter)
3/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling
1 cup brown sugar, light or dark
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder (for color not for taste- you can leave it out if you want.)

Cake
3/4 cup butter softened
1 teaspoon salt (1 ¼ teaspoons if you use unsalted butter)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt. (regular yogurt would also be ok.)
1 1/4 cups milk (anything from skim to whole)
3 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan, or two 9" round cake pans.

Make the topping by whisking together the sugar, salt, flour, and cinnamon. Add the melted butter, stirring till well combined. Set the topping aside.

Make the filling by mixing together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa powder. Set it aside.

To make the cake: In a large bowl, beat together the butter, salt, sugars, baking powder, and vanilla until well combined and smooth.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the yogurt and milk till well combined. You don't need to whisk out all the lumps.

Add the flour to the butter mixture alternately with the milk/yogurt mixture, beating gently to combine.

Pour/spread half the batter (about 3 cups) into the prepared pan(s), spreading all the way to the edges. If you're using two 9" round pans, spread 1 1/3 cups batter in each pan.

Sprinkle the filling evenly atop the batter.

Gently spread the remaining batter atop the filling. Use a table knife to gently swirl the filling into the batter, as though you were making a marble cake. Don't combine filling and batter thoroughly; just swirl the filling through the batter.

Sprinkle the topping over the batter in the pan.

Bake the cake until it's a dark golden brown around the edges; medium-golden with no light patches showing on top, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 55 to 60 minutes for the 9" x 13" pan, 50 to 55 minutes for the 9" round pans. When pressed gently in the middle, the cake should spring back.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for 20 minutes before cutting and serving. Serve cake right from the pan.

Note: If you wanna make this ahead of time for a brunch or something just cover it tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  Bake as directed, but you may need to add 5 mins extra or so since the batter will be cold!

Individual Tiramisu

On Father's Day I asked my dad what his favorite desserts were. One of his top favorites was Tiramisu, so a few days later I made this for dessert. I like the idea of having individual desserts, and didn't want to use raw eggs, so when I found this recipe I knew I had to try it. It was a very easy tiramisu recipe--I do want to try making a large sized tiramisu with raw eggs to see how they compare, though--and super dense and creamy and delicious.

One fun fact about people here back home: I went to Safeway to find the ladyfingers (didn't want to make them from scratch since I was already cooking a dinner I'd never tried before), and everyone was so much nicer than I'm used to. I was walking around and people just asked if I needed help and were super happy about giving me help, and even when multiple people had to be asked to find the ladyfingers, everyone was very sweet. Even at checkout the lady and bagging-boy were so friendly. So not used to that, but it was a good change from the usual grumpiness back where I went to college!

Individual Tiramisu
Recipe (slightly adapted by me) from Foodiebride

Soaking Syrup
1/2 cup strongly-brewed coffee or espresso
1 Tbsp sugar

Filling
8 oz reduced-fat cream cheese
8 oz mascarpone
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp strongly-brewed coffee or espresso
2 Tbsp milk

Assembly
6 5/6-oz clear cups
24 ladyfingers, purchased or homemade
1 oz semisweet chocolate, grated

In a small bowl, mix espresso and sugar, stirring until the sugar has disolved. Set aside to cool.

With your mixer, cream the mascaropone, cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar on medium-high for 3-5 minutes, until light and fluffy. The mixture should feel smooth (not gritty) when rubbed between your fingers.

Remove half of the mascarpone mixture and transfer it to a smaller bowl.

Add 2 Tbsp of espresso and mix well.

Add 2 Tbsp milk to the remaining filling and mix (this is just to thin the filling, the type of milk - whole, skim, etc - does not matter) well.

Trim the ladyfingers so that they come just below the top rim of the cups. Reserve the excess pieces. (The trimmed ends of the cookie are "the bottoms," the rounded uncut ends are "the top.")

Working with one ladyfinger and one serving at a time, quickly dunk the top half of the cookie into the soaking syrup and place in the plastic cup coffee-end (top) up.

Repeat with 3 more lady fingers, arranging them around the cup (if your ladyfingers are thin, you might need to use more than 4).

Place one of the reserved trimmed ends of the cookies into the bottom, followed by a spoonful of the espresso filling, the plain filling, and top with more ladyfinger pieces (when you run out of trimmed pieces, tear additional ladyfingers into small pieces to fit the next layer). Repeat 2 more times to fill the cup.

Sprinkle grated chocolate over the top.

Repeat the process for the remaining servings.

Loosely cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.

The Baked Brownie

I made these at home--I think this is the last recipe I'm posting that I made at home, the rest will be from my new kitchen. They were definitely very good brownies, probably my favorites, though a kid tried them and didn't like them and that may be because of the coffee flavor (everyone else loved them).

Okay so funny story, I had the chocolate melting over the stove and got out the instant espresso powder to make this recipe, only to notice that it was a solid block dried to the bottom of the container. Wow. And I couldn't make these brownies without a coffee flavor for fear that they would not turn out as good, since these brownies were supposed to be some of the best...so I looked online for a substitute, only to find really, none. So I decided to take out some coffee from a bag (It was ground, though not as finely as the powder...okay so I have nooo clue about anything coffee except that I like my skinny flavored lattes from Starbucks) and ground it with my mom's mortar and pestle. And it seems to have worked, though I don't know how the flavor will change when I try this recipe with instant espresso powder. I think they taste great, and I ground the coffee fine enough so that there was no textural difference.

The Baked Brownie
Recipe from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
Recipe found on Cakespy

1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons dark cocoa powder
11 ounces quality dark chocolate (60-72%), chopped coarsely
8 ounces butter (2 sticks), cut into 1 inch cubes
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter the sides and bottom of a glass or light colored metal pan 9x13x2 pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, the salt, and cocoa powder.

Configure a large sized double boiler. Place the chocolate, the butter, and the instant espresso powder in the bowl of the double boiler and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler and add both sugars. Whisk the sugars until completely combined and remove the bowl from the pan. Mixture should be room temperature.

Add three eggs to the chocolate/butter mixture and whisk until just combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until just combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not over beat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.

Sprinkle the flour/cocoa/salt mix over the chocolate. Using a spatula (DO NOT USE A WHISK) fold the dry into the wet until there is just a trace amount of the flour/cocoa mix visible.

Pour the mixture into the pan and smooth the top with your spatula. Bake the brownies for 30 minutes (rotate the pan half-way through baking) and check to make sure the brownies are completely done by sticking a toothpick into the center of the pan. The brownies are done when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Cool the brownies completely before cutting and serving.

Mocha Chip Cookies

Sorry for the lack of a post last week, and for an old recipe this week! I made these cookies over a year ago. I'm pretty sure I found the recipe I used...hopefully. I've been pretty busy because we were finishing up with my Junior Year of classes, and now finals are coming! I have a lot of projects due on Thursday, and then a couple exams I actually have to study for next week, but it's just overall pretty busy. I should have a new recipe (or at least a new item, I may reuse recipes) next weekend.

Also, Happy Mother's Day!!

Mocha Chip Cookies
Recipe by Nestle Toll House

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons Baking Cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 tablespoons Instant Coffee Granules
2 tablespoons warm water
1 cup (6 oz.) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly grease baking sheets.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until light and creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract.

Combine Instant Coffee Granules and water in small bowl; stir until coffee is dissolved. Add to sugar mixture; mix well. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are crisp. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.