Sugar cookies always look so pretty, but most of the time they taste bland and leave me feeling like I just wasted a lot of calories on what could have been a delicious chocolate chip cookie. Instead of reading through all the sugar cookie recipes I could find in hopes of lucking out on one that actually tastes great, I made Dorie's espresso shortbread minus the espresso. These are pure and buttery with excellent texture. It almost feels like waste to slather it up with cloyingly sweet icing, which also only took me hours to decorate. For decorating cookies, I would definitely recommend royal icing over the glaze kind simply because it has a nicer finish. I prefer the texture of it better too even though the meringue powder has a slightly sour aftertaste. To colour the icing, it is important to use the icing gels instead of food colouring because that might dilute the royal icing too much. When using royal, you also have to make sure to keep it covered because it dries quickly. For one batch of cookies, you'll probably only need to make half a batch of royal icing..
Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan
Baking: From My Home to Yours
Makes 32 cookies
Ingredients
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder (I omitted)
1 tablespoon boiling water (I omitted)
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate finely chopped, or 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips (I omitted)
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional)
Directions
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and confectioners’ sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in the vanilla and, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it disappears into the dough. Don’t work the dough much once the flour is incorporated.
Form 2 discs and refrigerate the dough for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
Roll the dough into a 9 x 10 1/2 inch rectangle that’s 1/4 inch thick or your desired thickness. Use cutters to cut out shapes.
Bake one tray at a time for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating at the midway point. The shortbreads will be very pale–they shouldn’t take on much color. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes and then transfer the cookies to a rack.
Royal Icing
Whimsical Cakehouse
In a large bowl of a clean electric mixer fitted with a whip attachment, whip to stiff peaks:
1/4 cup meringue powder
1/2 cup cold water
Add and mix at low speed with a paddle attachment, until combined:
1 lb confectioner's sugar
Continue mixing at high speed for 5 to 8 minutes, or until the icing is stiff.
Add and mix on low speed until combined:
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
Cover the bowl with a damp cloth while you are working with or coloring the icing, or immediately place it in an airtight container or pastry cone; otherwise, a hard crust will quickly form as it dries.
Yield: 4 cups
A woman who I used to work with asked me to bake cupcakes for a birthday party. This was my first paid cupcake order so it was a little nerve wracking. She gave me a lot of freedom with the flavours, which was was actually worse for me because I can never make up my mind. In the end, I went with raspberry cream cheese because you can never really go wrong with cream cheese frosting... that's why we eat red velvet cupcakes right? I wish I could have done something super cool with the decorating, but it was really difficult to pipe cream cheese frosting without it looking sloppy and melty so I swirled it using my largest round tip. I was beyond excited when she told me how much she loved them!
Amy Sedaris' Cupcakes
24 cupcakes
Ingredients
1 1/2 stick (12 tbsp) unsalted butter
1 3/4 cup sugar (I used 1 1/2 cup sugar)
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 cup milk
Directions
1. Preheat over to 350 degrees (Amy uses 375, but I think that's too high).
2. In a bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt together
3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in eggs, one at a time making sure it's well incorporated
5. Beat in vanilla
6. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with milk. Do not overbeat.
7. Divide batter evenly. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes and toothpick inserted into center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.
9. Cool on wire rack for 5-10 minutes then transfer cupcakes to cool completely
Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 block (8oz) cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup raspberry jam
Beat butter on medium-low speed until smooth and creamy
Add cream cheese and beat on medium-low speed until smooth and creamy (30 seconds-1 minute)
Sift powdered sugar over creamed mixture and beat on medium low until the sugar is all incorporated
Add jam and continue beating.
Make sure you don't overbeat or else the frosting will become soupy.
I can't believe New Moon is finally coming to theatres in 2 days! When I saw the werewolf cupcakes in Hello Cupcake, I knew I would eventually get around to making them. Even though I'm on Team Edward, I had to make something to support Twilight. It only took me forever to try and attempt these because I was afraid they would turn out looking more like blobs. The piping part actually wasn't as hard as I thought it would be even though my super hot hands kept softening the frosting. I would have loved to use all butter, but I think the little bit of shortening was necessary for stability. Store bought frosting might have been easier for piping because of its consistency, but for something that I spent hours working on, it felt like a waste to have to eat the canned stuff. Instead, I kind of came up with my own, beginning with a 1:3 ratio of shortening to butter and then adjusting the other ingredients for taste and consistency. One of the best things about Hello Cupcake is, you don't really have to buy special tools. I wasn't really up for making my own ziplock piping bag so I used the Wilton tip 352
I know a lot of people were disappointed with Twilight, but I think New Moon will be a gazillion times better. It seems to have a more 'real movie' feel to it and they got rid of that annoying blue tint!
Hershey's Perfect Chocolate Chocolate Cake
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa (natural)
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.
VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.
THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.
BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.
CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.
Chocolate Frosting
6 tbsp butter
1.5 tbsp shortening
3 oz chocolate, melted and cooled
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp corn syrup
Melt chocolate and set aside to cool
Cream butter and shortening until creamy and there are no lumps
Add cooled melted chocolate to butter and shortening mixture
On low, add powdered sugar and cocoa until incorporated
Add corn symrup and continue mixing on medium low.
Pamela, thank you so, so much for choosing these!! I would have never tried them on my own seeing as they contain my favourite (not) spices, allspice and cloves. If cinnamon is sometimes too overpowering for me, then there's no question that the other two are way too strong. I was brave this time and didn't reduce the spices... I'm so proud of myself...haha. My cookies aren't as dark because I ran out of brown sugar and had to use half granulated sugar, but they were still delicious. I wanted these to be chewy rather than crisp, but may have underbaked these a little too much because the centre was soft with an almost, but not quite raw dough quality to them. Another 30s-1 minute and these would have been perfect. Next time I'm baking these until they're crisp so I won't have to obsess over getting that perfect chewy texture. I'm surprised I had enough dough to form cookies because this has to be one of the yummiest cookie doughs ever (and I don't generally like cookie dough) 
I think it's obvious that I have no self control when it comes to crumbs and dug into this immediately. The apple cranberry crisp was the perfect version of a pie for the non crust lover in me. I absolutely loved the addition of ginger, which I think made this crisp extra special. The spicy ginger, sweet apples and tart cranberries complemented each other really well. Before baking, I cooked the cranberries and apples with the sugar until they released their juices so I wouldn't end up with soup because who likes soggy crumbs?! It also helps to cut down on baking time, which is a plus considering I used the toaster oven and the ramekin is so close to the coil. So far, there haven't been any explosions... I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Thanks to Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef for choosing this week's recipe
10 more days til New Moon comes out!! Is anyone else excited?!?!
This pumpkin dessert was liked a little more by my family compared to the previous scones or cupcakes/muffins. Thank god because I didn't want to finish the entire bundt myself, even though I halved the recipe (which is why it looks a little funny and short). I really liked the texture of the cake and was glad I omitted the apples. As nice as apples in desserts sound, I find that they add sogginess, which eventually leads to questions like 'eww, why is this cake raw?' and me replying, 'it's not raw, it's apples'. Since there was already so much pumpkin puree in this, I decided that any more moisture would scare my family away. I also used dried instead of fresh cranberries to keep the wetness down. Overall, I really enjoyed this cake, which would have surprised me a year ago when I wasn't exactly open to the idea of pumpkin in desserts... I blame the pumpkin pie!
Thanks to Britin of The Nitty Britty for choosing this recipe!
I didn't get a chance to complete this week's TWD, but if it makes it sort of better, I made brownies (just not the recipe I was supposed to). I know I said I wasn't a huge fan of regular brownies because I find that they're excessively rich, but I didn't want to give up on full fat brownies just yet, especially since they always look irresistable. I decided to give CI's chewy, fudgy brownies a try because they sounded like they would have the perfect balance between chewy and fudgy. To be honest, I was a little disappointed considering how much richer these were compared to the low fat fudgy brownies. I would have thought that more fat = tastier, but these didn't really do it for me. They were a little too light and not 'brownie dense' or fudgy enough. The texture and flavour improved by day 2. These weren't horrible, but I guess they're just not for me. If I'm going to eat something with so much fat packed into a tiny square, they better be special or exceptional!
Chewy, Fudgy Triple Chocolate Brownies
Cook's Illustrated
Either Dutch-processed or natural cocoa works well in this recipe. These brownies are very rich, so we prefer to cut them into small squares for serving.
Makes Sixty-four 1-inch Brownies
5 ounces semisweet chocolate or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate , chopped
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into quarters
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 8-inch square baking pan with nonstick vegetable cooking spray. Fold two 12-inch pieces of foil lengthwise so that they measure 7 inches wide. Fit one sheet in bottom of greased pan, pushing it into corners and up sides of pan; overhang will help in removal of baked brownies. Following illustration 1 below, fit second sheet in pan in same manner, perpendicular to first sheet. Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of almost-simmering water, melt chocolates and butter, stirring occasionally until mixture is smooth. Whisk in cocoa until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.
3. Whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt in medium bowl until combined, about 15 seconds. Whisk warm chocolate mixture into egg mixture; then stir in flour with wooden spoon until just combined. Pour mixture into prepared pan, spread into corners, and level surface with rubber spatula; bake until slightly puffed and toothpick inserted in center comes out with a small amount of sticky crumbs clinging to it, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours, then remove brownies from pan using foil handles (see illustration 2, below). Cut into 1-inch squares and serve. (Do not cut brownies until ready to serve; brownies can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated up to 5 days.)
