Coconut Macaroons

I'm always on the lookout for a good coconut macaroon recipe, and this is definitely a great one. It is Alton Brown's Paradise Macaroon recipe (with minor modification), which was his contribution to Food Network's 12 Days of Christmas Cookies circa 2008.

Now, these are coconut macaroons, which are the most common kind of macaroon in the US, although I am sure everyone is also familiar with the French cookies of the same name as well. Why two such variant desserts under the same name? Well, it turns out that "macaroon" is a rather loose term: it can be used to describe a light, small cookie or cake(ish) baked good, commonly with egg whites, some kind of nut and/or almond paste, sometimes coconut, and sugar. The coconut macaroons are most common in the US, while French macaroons, also called macarons, are meringue cookies filled with some type of ganache or buttercream. People tend to use the term macaroon interchangeably for either the coconut or cookie macaroons, and while some people try to exclusively use macaron when talking about French-style macaroons, there isn't a universal convention for distinguishing between the two

These cookies are fairly easy to put together, although there is an egg-whipping step in the middle. Trust me, it is well worth the extra work.

First, combine the coconut, condensed milk, salt and vanilla, mixing well to coat.

Then, in a separate bowl, whip the eggs until foamy, the slowly incorporate the sugar, whipping until medium (aka firm) peaks form (the peak has a gentle curl to it when you lift the beaters out, check this out for a visual reference).  Fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture:

Using a tablespoon or a #40 scoop, scoop out the coconut mixture onto parchment-lined cookie sheets...

And bake for 20-25 minutes at 325 until golden brown.

Take them off the pan and put them on  wire rack to cool immediately, and let them cool down completely. Then, you can melt the chocolate and shortening together (I melted the chips in the microwave in 15-30 second increments,stirring after each time, with the oil), and dip the top of each completely cooled macaroon into the chocolate.

Before the chocolate sets, sprinkle on some chopped macadamia nuts, and DONE!

I used bittersweet chocolate, which I prefer to semi-sweet, and it was lovely. But semi-sweet is just fine, and if you want more of a sweet Almond Joy taste, you can even use milk chocolate. And almonds, for that matter. But I love macadamia nuts with coconut, so tropical!

These cookies are rich and decadent, and the chocolate/macadamia nut combo on the top adds just the right amount of contrast and salt. The extra whipped egg whites gives them a slightly lighter consistency than the usual wet, dense macaroon, but doesn't sacrifice any of the richness and flavor. You won't be disappointed in these!

Coconut Macaroons

Ingredients

• 15-16 oz sweetened shredded coconut (depending on the size package(s) you find)
• 2 oz sweetened condensed milk
• Pinch kosher salt
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 4 large egg whites
• 5 oz sugar
• 12 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1 oz vegetable shortening
• 2 oz finely chopped dry-roasted macadamia nuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325F
2. Combine coconut, condensed milk, salt and vanilla in bowl, mixing well to combine
3. Whip egg whites until foamy
4. Add sugar slowly to egg whites, continuing to whip until medium (firm) peaks form, about 6 minutes
5. Fold egg whites into coconut mixture
6. Scoop coconut mixture onto parchment-lined cookie sheet using a #40 scoop or rounded tablespoons
7. Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown
8. Remove cookies/parchment immediately to wire rack and allow to cool completely before topping
9. Melt chocolate (microwave is fine) and oil until smooth
10. Dip the top of each macaroon into the chocolate, and sprinkle macadamia nuts over the chocolate before it sets
11. Let chocolate set before storing and/or eating

Peanut M&M Cookie Bars

Yes. These. These are my Peanut M&M cookies in a bar form. Identical batter, but a lot less time and fuss. They are chewy, so they do lack that cookie crunch, but they taste delicious nonetheless. I can't decide which I like better, in truth, but I know for certain that when I am short on time, I will definitely be making the bars.  I gave a detailed workflow of preparing the batter in my cookie post, so I won't rehash it here. Instead, I will pick up the recipe where it diverges from the cookie recipe:



Rather than use a cookie scoop to make individual cookies, evenly press the batter into a greased 9x13" pan like so:

Bake for about 30 minutes until golden:

Then you can cut into squares and enjoy. Easy! And yummy! The peanut M&Ms add a wonderful texture and taste to the bars. These were gone from the cookie platter in no time at all!

As you can see from my pics, I got 42 squares from the one pan. I know the squares are small if you cut so many, but honestly, they are pretty rich, so small ones work well. I think larger bars would be overwhelming to eat because they are so much thicker than cookies. But that's just a suggestion.


Peanut M&M Cookie Bars

Ingredients

• 2 sticks of butter, softened
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1/2 C brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 C flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 C pecans, chopped small (but not fine) -- optional
• 1-12.6 oz bag Peanut M&M's in Christmas colors (or holiday colors of your choice)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Coat a 9x13" pan with cooking spray (optional: line pan with aluminum first for ease of lifting out bars)
3. Cream softened butter and sugars until fluffy
4. Add in egg, salt and vanilla and mix until combined
5. Add in flour and baking soda, and mix until just combined
6. Add in pecans and peanut M&M's, and stir until combined evenly
7. Press batter evenly and gently into pan
8. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes, until golden
9. Cool completely, cut into squares (can lift out of pan after 10 minutes if you lined pan with aluminum)

Chocolate Peppermint M&M Bars (Easy Things to Do with Cake Mix #4)

Better late than never! This is a Christmas recipe, three months late. Which means, in fact, that I am getting worse, because my Thanksgiving recipes were only two months late. Oh well.

Incidentally, I think I'm going to change the tagline of my blog to: "Good food...crappy pictures." Seriously. I have no sense of artistry. I snap my pics on my iPhone, in my garish kitchen light, on a messy counter, on a paper plate. If there are Seven Deadly Sins of Food Photography, I commit them all. Simultaneously.

But, don't let my lack of artistic flair deter you from making these bars, because they are super quick and yummy. And like Thanksgiving, with my new kiddo, quick and easy was the name of the game this year.


I didn't intend to make these bars. In fact, I was at a loss for what to make this year for Christmas. Normally, my mom and I make scads and scads of Christmas cookies, but this year, I knew it wouldn't happen. Frankly, I was an overwhelmed FTM, and I was lucky to make it to the shower every day, let alone coordinate the 15+ varieties (no exaggeration) of cookies and cake balls this year.

But then I saw these babies at Target:

White chocolate peppermint M&Ms. Apparently they were a Target exclusive. So I snatched up a bag for baking without a clear idea of what I wanted to do with them. But then I decided to make bars -- they're easier than cookies because it involves one pan and one trip to the oven. And for these bars, I wanted to try something a little different, so I used Devil's Food cake mix as the base. Super easy!

Just combine cake mix, oil, an egg and water in a bowl and mix to combine (by hand is fine, I used a wooden spoon).

Then, add the mix-in, which in this case was the entire bag of M&Ms:

Note: the oil makes the batter, well, oily. The M&Ms get coated with oil and almost fall out of the batter as you mix. Don't worry, it will bake up just fine.

Then, spread it in a pan, bake, cool, and cut!

I managed to have the entire thing done before my little helper woke up!

Color-coordinated with Mommy's baking!

My family loved these things, they were quite tasty, and the bar consistency was perfect. Huge return on taste for a minimal time investment -- just the way I like it! The beauty is, you can use the basic cake mix recipe for any combo of batter and mix-ins! Next year, I think I will try white cake mix with these M&Ms, which should look stunning, visually. I'm also going to try a flavor variation for Easter which, based on my current posting schedule, probably won't make it onto the blog until Halloween. Oh well. Happy baking!

Chocolate Peppermint M&M Bars

Ingredients

• 1 box chocolate cake mix (Devil's Food, Chocolate Fudge, etc)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 egg
• 1 bag of white chocolate peppermint M&Ms (or mix-on of your choice)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Spray  9x13" pan with cooking spray (optional: line pan with aluminum foil before spraying, for easy lifting of bars from pan)
3. Combine cake mix, egg, oil and water in bowl and mix well
4. Add mix-ins
5. Spread evenly in pan (you may have to press down a little to spread evenly) and bake for 20-25 minutes
6. Cool and cut

Peanut M&M Cookies

This post is nice and simple, but a great, great cookie. My mom and I have been making them for year, peanut M&M cookies, in Christmas colors! The original recipe is based on one available on the M&M site, but I've slightly modified it to suit our tastes, and it is even better than the original!




First, you cream together butter, and brown and white sugar, then add in the egg and vanilla.

The, the dry ingredients get added.

And here's where it gets fun: add in some chopped pecans and a WHOLE BAG of peanut M&M's (in Christmas colors, if you can find them).

Stir them in, and then use a #40 scoop to scoop the dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.

Bake them for 13-16 minutes, until golden.

Remove to wire rack after 2 minutes for complete cooling.

And that's it...and these cookies are wonderful. Everyone just loves them, they are consistently the first to disappear from cookie platters, especially once people realize that all those red and green things are actually peanut M&Ms! They are so simple to put together, it is criminal. One batch will make just shy of 3 dozen using a #40 scoop -- and you really should use this scoop, otherwise you will end up with one single lonely peanut M&M per cookie, and I don't know about you, but my conscious just can't handle that kind of guilt! But the good news is that they are so easy, a double batch takes no time at all if you want a few more cookies!

The great thing about these cookies is that M&M's come out with other holiday-colored candies all the time: fall, Halloween, Easter, Valentine's Day -- and these are all great excuses to make these cookies again. Seriously, you want these in your life, and on your cookie platter.

Peanut M&M Cookies
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 sticks of butter, softened
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1/2 C brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 C flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 C pecans, chopped small (but not fine)
• 1-12.6 oz bag Peanut M&M's in Christmas colors

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Cream softened butter and sugars until fluffy
3. Add in egg, salt and vanilla and mix until combined
4. Add in flour and baking soda, and mix until just combined
5. Add in pecans and peanut M&M's, and stir until combined evenly
6. Using a #40 scoop, scoop these cookies onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet
7. Bake at 350F for 12-16 minutes, until golden
8. Coll on sheet for 2 minutes, then remove to rack to cool completely

Rugelach

I've been making rugelach for Christmas for a few years now, as per a special request from my mom a few years back, as they are one of her favorites. I happened upon this recipe from Ina Garten, and with a few modifications, made them my own.

Rugelach is Yiddish for "little corners" (although sometimes it is attributed as being related to the word "royal"), with the -ach ending actually denoting the plural form of the word. It originated with the Ashkenazic Jews of central and eastern Europe, who adapted the tradition of using sour cream in dough from the Middle East. The dough is typically sour cream or cream cheese-based, and it is rolled around a filling that typically contains nuts, spices and/or raisins. Sour cream-based rugelach is typically a yeast dough, while cream cheese rugelach typically uses eggs as the leavening agent. This recipe falls into the latter category.



As far as effort goes, these cookies are on the medium end of the scale: you do have to roll, fill and roll again, but the process isn't difficult, and I have several tips and suggestions to help you on your way. You need some basic ingredients first: some jam (I used a 15oz jar of Polander's because it is naturally low in sugar), ground nuts (I used walnuts) and and other ingredients. Ina calls for raisins. I say "bah humbug" to that, and used mini chocolate chips instead.

You start with softened cream cheese and butter, which you mix together until fluffy.

After it is well combined, you add in the rest of the wet ingredients (sugar and vanilla) plus salt, and beat until combined. You then slowly add the flour and mix until the dough just combines.

Then, you form it into a ball, and cut that ball into quarters like so:

Wrap each quarter in saran wrap, and stick them all in a ziplock bag and chill them in the fridge for an hour.

In the meantime, you can get your filling together: brown and white sugars, nuts and mini chips.

You can also get the cinnamon sugar for sprinkling together, as well as the egg wash.

Now, flour your work surface fairly liberally. Take a quarter of the dough out, pat flour all over it, and roll it into a 9-12 inch circle. Keep the pin well-floured. You'll thank me later. Then, plop your jam right in the center. Ina says to puree it first, I never bother. If you are using jam, it should be fine. If you have preserves with huge fruit chunks, you might want to think about pureeing it first.

I normally spread it around with the back of a spoon in a circular pattern, kind of like how pizza sauce gets spread on dough. Once that is done, I trim the dough to match the circle, leaving maybe 1/2 inch to 1 inch overhang. I always end up with uneven edges when I roll dough into a circle, so this is an important step for me.

Then, take the nut/sugar/chip filling and sprinkle it on the dough.

As you can see from the pic, I sprinkle heavily along the edges, not so much in the center. When you are rolling the actual cookies up, you roll towards the center, and you will find that the filling pushes towards the inside anyway, so it makes rolling a lot easier not to start out with so much filling there.

Then, cut the dough into quarters. It is hard to see in the pic, but you can just make it out.
And then, you take each quarter and slice it into thirds, so you end up with 12 total pieces.

Starting from the outside, you take one piece at a time and roll inward towards the center of the dough.

Place these on a cookie sheet, seam side down, brush with the egg wash and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.

Then, they get baked for 18-25 minutes. The range is large because each oven I try these in is vastly different. Take them out when they are a nice golden color.

You can remove them to a wire rack within the first 2 minutes, to let them cool fully.

These cookies are great. The dough is tender, they are not too sweet, and the chocolate is subtle but definitely present. I made apricot rugelach here, but you can use any flavor of jam you wish. I was toying with the idea of raspberry ones, but I already had raspberry thumbprints made, so I didn't want redundancy. These cookies take a little time, mostly because of the hour in the fridge, but they aren't hard as long as you are well-floured. And, they really make for a nice presentation on a cookie tray.

Consider adding them to your holiday baking this year!

Rugelach
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients
For dough
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/4 C sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
2 C flour

For Filling
2 C walnuts, or other nuts, finely chopped
1/4 C brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
6 tbls sugar
1 C mini chocolate chips (or raisins)


1-15 oz jar of jam for spreading
1 egg beaten with 1 tbls milk, for egg wash
1 tsp cinnamon mixed with 3 tbls sugar for sprinkling


Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Cream the cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light. 

2.  Add 1/4 cup granulated sugar, the salt, and vanilla. 

3. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour and mix until just combined. 

4. Dump the dough out onto a well-floured board and roll it into a ball. Cut the ball in quarters, wrap each piece in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

5. To make the filling, combine 6 tablespoons of granulated sugar, the brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, the chips, and walnuts.

6.  On a well-floured board, roll each ball of dough into a 9-12 -inch circle. 

7.  Spread the dough with 2 tablespoons apricot preserves and sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the filling. Press the filling lightly into the dough.

8. Cut the circle into 12 equal wedges—cutting the whole circle in quarters, then each quarter into thirds. 

9. Starting with the wide edge, roll up each wedge. 

10. Place the cookies, points tucked under, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 

11. Brush each cookie with the egg wash. 

12.  Combine 3 tablespoons granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle on the cookies. 

13.  Bake for 18 to 24 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack and let cool.

Chocolate Hazelnut Toffee Cookies

If Ferrero Rocher and old fashioned monster cookies did the dirty and had love babies, these cookies would be those babies.  Inspired by one of Giada's recipes, the end result ended barely resembling the original by the time I was through tweaking, but the result is a sublime mixing of chocolate and hazelnut, with a hint of toffee. The ingredients list is a little long because of all the mix-ins, but the cookies are straightforward to assemble.



First, you need to toast some hazelnuts. As you can see from the picture above, I opt to buy the pre-chopped 8oz hazelnut bag, which works perfectly. Just spread the nuts out onto a lined parchment sheet, and bake for 10-15 minutes until fragrant and starting to brown. Keep an eye out though, you don't want them to burn.

Then you cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy.

Add in the eggs and vanilla to combine. Then, add in some melted bittersweet chocolate. Premix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and soda, and salt) in a bowl, and add those as well, mixing to combine. Once that is done, you can add the mix-ins: nuts, bittersweet chocolate chips, oats and toffee bits.

I recommend using good quality chocolate for both the melting and the chips, I use Ghirardelli. Also, as pictured above, toffee chips are available in bags for baking, either Skor or Heath (I prefer the latter), but if you can't find them, you can always finely chop or process a Heath bar in the food processor!

Once everything is together in the batter and well-combined, use a #40 scoop to scoop out dough onto parchment-lined cookie sheets.

Bake for about 12 minutes. I can not stress this enough, but the cookies will not look done when they come out. In fact, they will seem underdone and will still be incredibly soft. They will have lost most of their shininess, but will be so soft it will almost look like they are about to deflate. However, trust me, if your oven is truly 350F, and you use a #40 scoop (scraping off excess dough), they should be ready to come out of the oven at right around 12 minutes, even if they are so soft they are souffle-like.

You need to leave them on the cookie sheet outside of the oven for an additional 5 minutes to continue baking before removing them to a cooling rack to cool and harden further. The thing is, these cookies harden. A lot. And if you don't take them out while they are still underdone, you will end up with chocolate hazelnut hockey pucks. Which isn't tragic, they will still taste good, but the consistency will be off a little. I know, I know, it is a leap of faith for me too every time I pull them out of the oven at 12 minutes, but it always ends up being the right call -- unfortunately you'll have to wait until the cookies fully cool down to believe this, because they will be soft right up until they achieve room temperature. But trust me.

And at the end of it, you end up with these:

Chocolate hazelnut cookies that are sure to impress!


Chocolate Hazelnut Toffee Cookies
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1/2 C packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
• 1/2 C old-fashioned oatmeal
• 2 1/4 C flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 11.5 oz bittersweet chocolate chips (Ghirardelli)
• 8 oz hazelnuts, chopped and toasted
• 8 oz toffee bits

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Spread hazelnuts onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and toast at 350F for 10-15 minutes, keeping close watch
3. Cream together butter and sugars until fluffy
4. Add in eggs and vanilla and combine
5. Add in chocolate and combine
6. Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking power, baking soda and salt) into a bowl, and add to wet ingredients, mixing until combined
7. Add the mix-ins (oatmeal, hazelnuts, chocolate chips, toffee bits) and stir until combined
8. Use #40 scoop to scoop onto a cookie sheet, and bake ~12 minutes (cookies will still look raw and too soft when done)
9. Cool on pan for at least 5 minutes before removing to rack
10. Let cool completely before storing