Raspberry Blondes

One of the joys of living not too far from San Francisco is that family and friends find it no hardship to visit there. We also have family who live in the city, so we are there a number of times a year.

There was a family gathering in San Francisco yesterday, with all four members of the Michigan branch there, all three members of the Sacramento area branch there, Sweetie and I and Coffee Man, the sweetie of T-Rose who lives in SF.

Food is always an important part of any gathering in my family. Mark was in charge of most of the food, so we knew it would be creative, top-notch, perfectly cooked with fresh ingredients, and delicious. In order to work up an appetite, we decided to visit Golden Gate Park, a few blocks away. It was a beautiful day, breezy and bright and not too hot. After a meandering walk in the park, and went up in the De Young museum tower, which gives a 360 degree view.

The entrance to the bay was sort of foggy, but you could see the tops of the Golden Gate Bridge. Then we walked back. There were so many flowers blooming and tiny wild strawberries lined some of the paths. Lots of people, too, but that's part of the fun.

After the walk (which was almost too long for Sweetie as he has been mostly resting the last two weeks), we had mint juleps in honor of Derby Day, watched the running of the race in the terrible muck that the track was, and enjoyed the onion tart which I baked earlier in the day at home. I'll post the tart recipe tomorrow or the next day. It is a variation of this tart. As we caught up on family news, Mark finished off the feast.

The feast was a truly delicious slow cooked pork shoulder with Asian seasonings, served with rice and lettuce cups (well, lettuce and radicchio). Mark had created sauces to go with it which included one with cilantro, lemongrass and ginger, plus a hot one, and some kimchi. There was a delicious salad of roasted corn kernels, avocado, and various kinds of peppers. We almost didn't have room for dessert...almost.

Natasha from Sac area had shared with me that she would be bringing something from Freeport Bakery,

so I knew I should bring something non-dairy for myself. The bakery goody was their famous Princess Cake,

a wonderful creation of sponge cake, chocolate, custard, raspberry jam, much whipped cream and marzipan over it all.

My raspberry blonde bar with fresh raspberries, plenty of aromatic white chocolate, slivered almonds, macadamia nuts and coconut (but no brown sugar) was equally delicious and went really well with a cup of peppermint tea. The bars are moist, very almondy, have lots of mellow but crunchy nuts and the raspberries go so well with the almond and coconut top notes.

Sweetie was fading fast by then, so we headed home. Happy Derby Day! Try some of these Raspberry Blondes yourself the next time you have some fresh raspberries on hand. If you love white chocolate you will love these bars!

Raspberry Blondes 
makes 24

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or non-dairy butter, at room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup macadamia nuts
1 1/2 cups blanched slivered almonds
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup white chocolate chips and chunks (I used about half chips and half hand broken white chocolate chunks)
1/2 pint fresh raspberries, rinsed and dried lightly with a paper towel (don't crush)

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Use cooking spray to lightly coat a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Melt the butter and sugar together in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the butter and sugar are blended and completely melted and starting to bubble gently. Remove the pan from heat and let the mixture cool slightly.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and salt. Slowly whisk the cooled butter and sugar mixture into the eggs just until combined. Whisk in the flour and baking powder to form a loose batter. (Make sure the batter is cool before stirring in the remaining ingredients, otherwise the chocolate will start to melt before the bars are baked.)

Stir the nuts, coconut, and white chocolate chips and chunks into the cooled batter. Pour half the batter into the prepared pan and smooth with a spatula. Distribute the raspberries over the batter as evenly as possible. Pour the remaining batter over the berries and smooth with a spatula.

Bake until the top is shiny and slightly crackled and feels firm to the touch, 30 – 35 minutes. A wooden skewer inserting into the batter should come out with moist crumbs clinging to it. Let cool on a wire rack to room temperature, then cut into bars and serve.

Half Way

Two days ago we hit the half way mark - the winter solstice. We have reached the darkest day of the year after that day more light each day returns to the world until around the 21st of June, when days begin to grow shorter again. Since it was a cold, damp, rainy day it wasn't really obvious. It was sort of dim all day.

 One of the fun things to do on a rainy day is bake cookies. Since it's been blessedly rainy (remember, we are in a four year long drought) for days now, I've been baking for a few days, too. One of the things I baked was a gluten-free, dairy-free version of Santa's Whiskers cookies, so that I can have some at Christmas. I also made a dairy-free and gluten-free molasses cookie which is tasty but not as chewy as I had hoped. The last recipe is for a cookie that seems very seasonal to me, but this one has butter and regular flour, so I won't have any. Sweetie, on the other hand, can eat pretty much anything. He enjoyed these white chocolate-dried cranberry cookies and I can recommend them as easy to make, although not particularly photogenic.

 I looked at a number of recipes, so I don't have attribution for these, having borrowed a bit from here and a bit from there. I think you could add in some nuts if you like and they would probably be even better.

White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white chocolate morsels or chunks
1/2 cup dried soft cranberries

 In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

 Blend in the egg and vanilla
.
On a sheet of waxed paper, or in a bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to the butter mixture and beat to combine.

Stir in the white chocolate and dried cranberries.

Drop 2 tablespoonful dollops of the dough about an inch and a half apart on baking sheets that have been lined with silicone mats or with parchment paper
.
Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for about nine minutes. The edges of the cookies will be golden brown.

Cool the cookies on a rack, then store in an airtight container.

This recipe makes about 18 cookies, but it can be doubled for about 3 dozen cookies.

Fresh Cranberries Are Here

There is nothing quite like the taste of a fresh, crisp, very tart cranberry. I hear they grow in bogs in New England, but I find them every fall, like clockwork, in the produce section in one pound bags. There are lots of fine things to do with them from sweet to savory but today I wanted to make cookies, so I found a recipe for fresh cranberry cookies that also have the essence of an orange via freshly grated orange zest and also the mellow counterpoint of white chocolate. Since these are made with butter and regular flour I let Sweetie be the taste tester and he pronounced them to be very good.

The cookie dough itself is similar to what you would find with a chocolate chip cookie, with butter, brown and white sugars, egg and vanilla. When you add the orange zest it changes everything because you get both the fragrance and the taste from that fresh orange oil contained in the zest.

I cut the fresh cranberries with a sharp knife, but I suspect you could also put them into a food processor and pulse a few times and get the same results. But then you have to clean the food processor pieces...a knife and cutting board clean up super fast. I was getting ready to make dinner when I was making these, so quick clean up was more important than ease of cutting.

The white chocolate could be chunks, but I had the chips I buy from the market, so in they went. I used a disher to scoop up the dough...like a small ice cream scoop with a curved blade that pushes the dough off the tool so it falls on the cookie sheet. I used parchment paper on one sheet and a silicone mat on the other. It didn't seem to make much difference, so use what you have. Greasing the sheet works fine, too.

These charming cookies are tart from the cranberries, sweet from the chocolate and sugars, crunchy on the edges and soft in the middle. They are an altogether fine autumn cookie for you to enjoy, so make a batch, OK?

Fresh Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies - about 36 cookies
from Betty Crocker's website

Ingredients

1/4    cup butter, softened

1/2    cup sugar

1/2    cup packed brown sugar
Grated zest of 1 orange 

1        egg

2       teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2  cups Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour

1/2    teaspoon baking powder

1/2    teaspoon baking soda

1/4    teaspoon salt

1        cup fresh or frozen (unthawed) cranberries, coarsely chopped or left whole

1/2    cup white chocolate chunks or chips

Directions

·         1 Heat oven to 350°F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray or line with parchment paper. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and orange zest on medium speed of the electric mixer until well blended. (The mixture will have the consistency of wet sand.) Add the egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.

·         2 In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to the sugar mixture and stir by hand until almost combined; add the cranberries and white chocolate and stir just until blended.

·         3 Drop spoonfuls of dough about 1 inch apart on a cookie sheets. Bake 12 to 14 minutes, until light golden and set around the edges but still soft in the middle. Let set on cookie sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Experiment #1

Well, the GI situation has encouraged me to try some diet changes, including going caffeine free, dairy free and gluten free, plus no red meat. Although this is a pretty dramatic change for me, I'm looking on it as a chance to expand my baking skills.

Yesterday I tried my first GF cookie recipe. I took the Giant Party Cookies recipe and substituted non-dairy margarine for the butter and made up a GF mix which included white and brown rice flours, tapioca flour, cornstarch, oat flour, millet flour and xanthan gum. I didn't remember to write down the amounts I used, so I can't actually give you the recipe for it, but you can used a GF mix...just be sure it contains xanthan gum or add your own...about 2 tablespoons.

I also took out the nuts, substituted white chocolate chips for half the dark chocolate ones, added 1/4 cup dried cranberries and 1/3 cup golden raisins, plus increased the oatmeal by 3/4 cup so that the cookies wouldn't spread too thin.

The cookies were great and Sweetie, who can eat anything, really liked them. I even made some individual sized cookies ( 6 to a baking sheet) that are still oversized, but perfect for those non-party snack attacks. Yay for #1 GF recipe. Will probably try making bread next.

GF Giant Party Cookies

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

2 ½ cups Gluten Free flour mix
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) non-dairy margarine, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup brown sugar, light or dark, packed
2 tsps. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1½ cup quick rolled oats
1 cups (6-oz. package) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup  white chocolate chips/chunks
½ cup golden raisins
1/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries (sub dried apricot pieces and raisins for nuts)


Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl and beat until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape bowl and beaters. Gradually beat in flour and beat until mixed. Beat in oatmeal. Mixture will be stiff. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Line a 12” pizza pan or large baking sheet with foil. Spray with cooking spray. Put 2 cups of the dough on the foil. Using floured fingers, shape dough into desired shape, circle or heart, square or oval. Make shape about 10” in diameter. Exaggerate the shape since cookie will spread.

Bake one sheet at a time in middle of oven for 15 - 18 minutes until golden brown. Let sit on sheet for 10 minutes, then slide shape on foil onto a cooling rack. Continue to bake the rest of the dough. You can make regular drop cookies with the remainder of the batter if desired.

If desired, once the cookie has cooled, decorate for a party! Mix 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar and enough milk to make a thin icing and drizzle over the cookie in a random pattern. While it is still wet, sprinkle cake decorations (sprinkles, dragees, mini chocolate chips,colored sanding sugar) over as desired.

The Puzzle Continues

The last six or seven months have been some of the worst of my life as far as health goes. UTIs, the flu, surgery on my eyes, amoebic dysentery have all played their part. Yesterday I had a colonoscopy as a method to help discern more pieces of the puzzle of my GI troubles. No results yet but I suspect that there will be changes coming up, some of them dietary. Might mean going gluten free. Might mean giving up nuts and seeds or dairy or maybe just fatty foods. Still thinking about it, but I might continue to bake with gluten and just not eat it myself...more for Sweetie, friends, firefighters, etc.

Earlier in the week I baked one of my favorite cookies, butterscotch bar cookies. No puzzle this time. I love the butterscotch flavor, the cake type crumb and the addition of chocolate and fruit. It makes a big pan of cookies, with plenty to share. This time  I substituted white chocolate chips for the chocolate chips and put in fresh pitted, chopped dark sweet cherries instead of the nuts. These cookies were yummy, but next time (if there is one) I think I would reduce the brown sugar to 3/4 cup and use white sugar for the additional sugar needed so there would be a bit less of the butterscotch flavor. Still, a delicious cookie and made in one pot, so hardly any washing up, especially if you line the cookie sheet with heavy aluminum foil like I did! Do be sure to check often at the end of baking. I left mine in the oven a tad too long and they do get dry.

Chocolate-Butterscotch Bars or Squares

Makes 40 squares - not sure how many bars

2/3 cup butter, margarine, or vegetable shortening, melted

1 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed

3 eggs

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

6 oz chocolate chips (I used white chocolate chips)

1 cup chopped, pitted fresh cherries 

1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt butter in a large pot. Add the sugar. Mix melted butter and sugar thoroughly. Let cool a bit. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add sifted dry ingredients, white chocolate, cherries and vanilla and mix well to combine. Spread in a greased 15" x 10" x 1" pan. Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F) for about 25 minutes. A toothpick inserted in center of pan will come out with a few crumbs stuck to it.

Cut into 40 squares (or some bars if you prefer) while warm. Store in airtight container. Will keep a week if you don't eat them all long before that as I do.

So Many Posts and So Many Views and Irish Blonds

Sometime yesterday when I wasn't watching the number of all time page views for this blog passed 500,000! I started in October of 2006 and I will soon have posted 1,000 posts, so it shouldn't surprise me to reach that many page views, but it does.

When I started, blogging was a fairly new thing, especially food blogging as a specific category. Over the years it has grown and grown, sort of like the food shows that now saturate the TV airwaves. Some bloggers have become more commercial, either by accepting ads on the blog, by using the blog to further a business, or by having give-aways of merchandise of interest to food bloggers and foodies. I did that for a while, having drawings to give away copies of some nice cook books. After a while, though, I decided that I didn't really want to have my blogging be anything other than posting recipes and things about my life, including participation in a few baking groups I belong to or have belonged to. It has become for me a sort of diary and digital recipe box, along with a way to be creative with photographs, writing, and the alterations of recipes.

Today's recipe is a perfect example of that creative impulse. While working on my new Index ...which may take a while...I came across a recipe I had baked for blondies, the anti-brownie. For some reason my mind started turning to how I could incorporate some Irish elements into the recipe, including Irish whiskey. Now I know that chocolate and Irish whiskey go well together since one of my all time favorite cake recipes is for a chocolate Bundt cake with Irish whiskey in it. Putting it effectively into a blondie recipe might be more difficult. Redheads and women with dark hair and fair skin are often the types we associate with Ireland, but they do have blonds, too. Hence, Irish Blonds.

In thinking about Irish baked goods I remembered that they often contain currants (as in current scones and tea brack for instance), so I decided to soak some currents in Irish whiskey, then use the whiskey that didn't soak in as part of the liquid in the recipe. Irish recipes also often contain golden raisins, so I decided to use some of them. I like walnuts in blondies, so those were included, too. Part of the all-purpose flour was replaced with King Arthur Flour Irish whole-meal flour, too. Then I added white chocolate chips, not because they are Irish but because the recipe now sounded like one that would do well with white chocolate.

While they were baking I took a cock-eyed photo of late afternoon light on the farm by the back fence. The fragrance of these cookies baking was too intoxicating to stay in the kitchen.

Sweetie might have just been dazed by smelling them baking when he said it, but he declared these the best bar cookies I've ever made. They are very chewy...think nuts, currants, raisins and the whole wheat flour making them more than usually chewy...but still soft except for the edges by the pan sides. They are fruity sweet instead on overly sugar sweet because I reduced the sugar a bit. You can really taste the Irish whisky, especially in the currants, but it is complementary rather than assertive in flavor. You might enjoy these, too. Believe me, you don't have to be Irish to enjoy them.

Irish  Blonds

A variation of a recipe by Jill O’Connor in Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey, Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth.

SOAKER:

1/2 cup currants soaked in
1/2 cup Irish whiskey

BATTER:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour or Irish whole-meal flour

¾ teaspoon baking powder

MIX-IN INGREDIENTS:
1  cup nuts – I used walnut pieces, coarsely chopped

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup golden raisins

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Use cooking spray to lightly coat a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Melt the butter and sugars together in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the butter and sugars are blended and completely melted and starting to bubble gently. Remove the pan from heat and let the mixture cool slightly.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and salt. Drain the Soaker currents over a small bowl. Set the currents aside and put the liquid drained off into the egg mixture.Slowly whisk the eggs mixture into the cooled butter and sugar mixture just until combined. Whisk in the flours and baking powder to form a loose batter. (Make sure the batter is cool before stirring in the remaining ingredients, otherwise the chocolate will start to melt before the bars are baked.)

Stir the nuts, white chocolate chips, golden raisins and the drained currents into the cooled batter. (I mixed all of the "mix-in" ingredients together in a very large measuring cup before adding to the batter. That way I knew that there wouldn’t be a clump of nuts here and a clump of white chocolate there, but rather a nice mix of all the goodies.) Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

Bake until the top is shiny and slightly crackled and feels firm to the touch, 30 – 35 minutes. A wooden skewer inserting into the batter should come out with moist crumbs clinging to it. Let cool on a wire rack to room temperature, then cut into bars and serve.

Makes 15 large or 30 small bars.

California Blondes

I was working at a drugstore in the cosmetics department when a hair coloring company found the model Cheryl Tiegs and had her be the image of the California Blonde for their ad campaign. She was immediately the 'it' girl for young women. The company sold a lot of blonde hair color kits. The song "California Girls" was in that same era, and the Summer of Love wasn't far behind. Everyone wanted that sunny California look, or to live in California. Of course the older generation saw all of the sex, drugs and rock 'n roll as a sign that California was the hotbed of degeneracy and a land of fruits (gays) and nuts. Having lived in California most of my adult life, they may have a point, but there are just as many ordinary folks here as anywhere else...the wild ones and ones that seem different just get more media attention. Being someone who often felt different while I was growing up, I like the feeling of' being accepted for who I am' that is a California hallmark, at least in much of the state.

Today's cookie celebrates the fruits and nuts, as well as the sunny because it's a blondie, the sister of a brownie because it's like a brownie without chocolate. I added fruits and nuts and used plenty of vanilla. It makes a moist, rich, delicious bar cookie, a bit on the sweet side like a young California girl. Hope you enjoy your California Blondes.

California  Blondes

A variation of a recipe by Jill O’Connor in Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey, Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking powder

MIX-IN INGREDIENTS:
2  cups mixed nuts – I used half and half of pecans and walnut pieces

1 cup mixed dried fruits - I used regular and golden raisins and dried cranberries

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Use cooking spray to lightly coat a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Melt the butter and sugars together in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the butter and sugars are blended and completely melted and starting to bubble gently. Remove the pan from heat and let the mixture cool slightly.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and salt. Slowly whisk the cooled butter and sugar mixture into the eggs just until combined. Whisk in the flour and baking powder to form a loose batter. (Make sure the batter is cool before stirring in the remaining ingredients, otherwise the chocolate will start to melt before the bars are baked.)

Stir the chopped  nuts, dried fruits, and white and dark chocolate chips into the cooled batter. (I mixed all of the "mix-in" ingredients together in a very large measuring cup before adding to the batter. That way I knew that there wouldn’t be a clump of nuts here and a clump of white chocolate there, but rather a nice mix of all the goodies.) Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

Bake until the top is shiny and slightly crackled and feels firm to the touch, 30 – 35 minutes. A wooden skewer inserting into the batter should come out with moist crumbs clinging to it. Let cool on a wire rack to room temperature, then cut into bars and serve.

Makes 16 large or 32 small bars.

Janus

In ancient Roman myth, Janus was the god of beginnings and endings, which is one reason that they named January after him. Now that we are past the shortest, darkest day of the year, it is somehow fitting to begin to look towards the time of year when there will be more light, more growing things, and plenty of time out of doors to enjoy. But it's also a useful time to look back at what worked and didn't work in our lives this past year, to remember the good times, too. I like to look back at the things I've included on the blog. A careful look has reminded me that my list of recipes with links is waaaaay overdue for updating. A New Years's resolution waiting to happen, right there.

One thing I can tell you is that the kidney stone I had last January made a different diet essential; one that does not include as much oxalate. Banished are much loved foods like spinach, chard, chocolate and mery much of whole grains. Limited quantities of legumes, except for lentils, and of flours and other processed grains has also cut into my usual dishes and baking. The good news is that there are still plenty of wonderful foods to enjoy, including things like broccoli and all the squashes, romaine lettuce and iceberg (which at least has crunch) and many other veggies like carrots, celery, tomatoes and cucumbers. I confess that I'm still a bit unbalanced by it since things I had thought were good for me, like whole grains and spinach, are actually bad for me now. So for, say, Christmas Eve dinner, I had a half of one of those great rolls, a small portion of those delicious potatoes, but a goodly portion of the salad since it had romaine, iceberg and red cabbage, plus carrots and tomatoes. Went light on the ham, too, because of all the sodium, but that's a different health issue. In truth the most important part of the meal is the people around the table and the enjoyment of them is full and wonderful and hasn't changed a bit. I still enjoy my occasional glass of wine, too.

Some of the recipes from 2013 that I'm pretty sure I'll return to include the potatoes and rolls on the last post,

these crock pot caramelized onions,

these white chocolate macadamia nut cookies (because I can't have regular chocolate, but I can have white chocolate!),

this oyster stew since there is plenty of soup weather to come (and it better include LOTS of rain since we are in a severe drought right now and NEED rain),

this cherry tomato salad, because it is simple and fast, burrata is delicious, and with our lack of rain I'm not likely to grow anything next summer but cherry tomatoes.

Because there is always a great selection of stone fruits and berries each summer, I know I'll want to make

the free form pie with moondust powder using some of that fruit. Since there is also likely to be an occasion that requires bringing a pot luck dish,

I'm going to keep this post of a wild rice and carrot side dish handy. It has all of the necessary attributes for a good pot luck dish: delicious, sits at room temperature well, filling, pretty easy, can be made ahead, and is unusual. The bowl that it is served in is often the first one empty at pot lucks, so that should tell you something.

We made a lot of good bread this year, but my favorite Bread Baking Babes bread was the Italian flavored

Tomato Basil Garlic Filled Pane Bianco. Not only is the large loaf delicious and stunning to look at, but the same ingredients can be used to make little appetizer rolls. Another great baked good from 2013 is for

classic blueberry muffins. I can almost smell them!

There is also Fast Focaccia, a recipe that I also made for Christmas this year. That sort of brings it all full circle.
Do you have any other favorites from this year's Feeding My Enthusiasms posts? I would love to know what they are!

Buttery Good

The December 2012 issue of Saveur Magazine has a selection of recipes using white chocolate, including the cover recipe for white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. The cookies are a bit crispy and a bit chewy and infused with the complementary flavors of macadamia nuts and white chocolate...always one of my favorite combinations for cookies.

Recently I decided to make a batch of them to bring as dessert for a dinner we were invited to. When I went to the store for the macadamia nuts, I found that a can of nuts with a coffee glaze were far less expensive than plain macadamias. This gave me an excellent opportunity to play with the recipe.

A hallmark of these cookies is a buttery goodness and the almost butterscotch flavor from the brown sugar. Since the nuts had a coffee glaze, I decided to add the flavor of coffee to the batter, too. Some espresso powder took care of that. You could really taste it in the uncooked cookie dough, but it was just a hint of coffee in the baked cookies, so the buttery aspect was still dominant. Every once in a while you also bite down on a bit of the glaze, so you get a sweeter hint of coffee. These were good cookies in the original recipe, but now they are outstanding. The white chocolate is very mellow but a nice counterpoint to the coffee and the nuts keep the buttery flavors going. I used Guittard white chocolate discs, unchopped, but any good quality white chocolate will do. Chop it into chunks if it is a whole bar.

Two parts of the instructions are very important: be sure to beat the butter and sugar for at least three whole minutes. It may seem like a long time, but this helps the sugars dissolve a bit and makes sure that there is enough air in the dough. Also, leave the full two inches between dough balls. These cookies tend to spread a lot.

 

I made super sized cookies that were about 6 inches across when baked, just because it is a fun presentation. No one needs more than one cookie, although I made sure there were extra, just in case.

I know that macadamia nuts are expensive, but once in a while it's nice to treat oneself to a buttery, sweet, nutty indulgence.

White Chocolate Coffee Macadamia Nut Cookies
based on a recipe in Saveur Magazine, Dec. 2012

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons espresso powder
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (1/2 pound)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 oz. roughly chopped white chocolate
8 oz. roughly chopped coffee glazed macadamia nuts
(or use plain macadamia nuts if coffee glazed ones are unavailable)

Whisk together flour, salt , baking soda and espresso powder in a bowl; set aside. In a large bowl, beat sugars and butter on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition until smooth; beat in vanilla. Add dry ingredients and beat until just combined; stir in white chocolate and chopped macadamia nuts.

Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Using a large spoon, shape dough into balls and place 2 inches apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake until golden brown, about 14 minutes.

Remove to a wire rack to cool. Store airtight up to 3 days (if they last that long!).

Country Roads and Cookies

The drive to my friend's home to make mosaics a few days ago took me along many of the roads I drove to work for over 20 years, out into the west county. Narrow two-lane roads, often with no shoulder at the side at all, wind their way past apple orchards and redwood groves, over rough places where there are either patches or potholes. At this time of year the grasses on the verge have turned to shades of pale gold. Here and there you can spot some bright orange California poppies nodding in the breeze. It's hard to drive by the hillside where Max died, especially in summer. I miss him. Once school was out he used to come with me. A friend of his lived not too far from where I worked, so he would spend the day with Mark and I would pick him up after work. It reminds me of our dog Xam, too. He loved to come with me, even though he would spends hours in the back of the SUV. I only took him when I worked a half day. He would get a walk in the woods when we arrived, then another one after two hours and a final walk when we were ready to drive home. I know he spent a lot of time asleep, but he slept during the day at home, too. If I had the office to myself, he could be in the office, where he slept most of the time, too. I think he actually liked the car better. There was always a large bowl of water and some toys and something to chew on. The car was usually parked in the shade of the tall redwoods and he could see the birds and squirrels making their forays in the trees when he was awake. He was such a great dog and a good companion. Even though we love Pi, I still miss Xam.

Roads are the original reason for milestones; a way to mark the passage of distance. Today I celebrate a few milestones that mark the passage of time and, perhaps, dedication. This is the 790th post on the blog and yesterday Feeding My Enthusiasms passed 200,000 pageviews! When I started writing and taking photos and trying out recipes in 2006 I never thought how it would feel, down the road, to know that there is some interest out there in the blogosphere for my kind of musings and food. It feels almost like a hug. Very glad that y'all have enjoyed it, and I hope that some of these recipes are being made in your kitchen. It does take a bit of time and effort to create one of these posts, but then cooking and baking also take time and effort and the results are gone pretty quickly most of the time. I guess over time I'll associate these posts with fond memories, much as I have come to associate country roads with so many good times in days gone by, as well as fine times today.

We have been working this week on the new entry and today put together the first wall framing! Sweetie is the genius behind it all and I've become a pretty good helper. Windows and doors are ordered and today we also worked on the interior plans. Looks like we will be having some beadboard wainscoting...I really like that look.

If you are the praying type like I am, please say a few for two wonderful women I know who are in the process of dealing with cancer. If not prayer, good thoughts are always welcome. They both have great spirit, so I'm pretty sure that their battle with the disease will be successful, but it never hurts to pray...or send good thoughts.

Well, enough catching up...on to our recipe. Todays' recipe is for a cookie that I have been meaning to make for a long time. Our daughter worked after school and on the weekends when she was in high school to earn money for college, plus some to spend on fun stuff. For a couple of years she worked for a cookie company! My favorite was a white chocolate macadamia cookie. You would think that I would bake that kind since I liked it so much. Well, I never did, until yesterday. I think the cost of the nuts put me off. Macadamia nuts have a very hard outer husk and apparently it is costly to process them. The nuts themselves have a buttery quality which goes really well with the mild chocolate flavor of white chocolate. I added some regular dark chocolate chips in, too, because I can. These cookies spread a bit, so leave some room between cookies. They are also a bit thinner than traditional Toll House type chocolate chip cookies, with a little chew to them. Don't forget the vinegar...I think it contributes to the great texture. Give them a try! They would be perfect to take along on a picnic down some country roads.

Classic Macadamia White and Chocolate Chip Cookies
based on a recipe at King Arthur Flour website Makes about 33 cookies

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
¼ cup vegetable oil
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
2 tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 tablespoon white vinegar
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 (4 oz.) white chocolate baking bar, chopped
1 cup (8 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped lightly

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment or a silicon baking mat) two baking sheets.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter, oil, sugars,  molasses, vanilla, and salt until smooth.

Beat in the egg to combine. Beat in vinegar. Beat in the baking soda and baking powder and as soon as they are beaten in add the all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour, combine thoroughly, then add the white chocolate chunks, chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. Stir with a silicone or rubber spatula to make sure mixture is thoroughly combined.

Drop the dough, by tablespoonfuls, onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 15 – 17 minutes, until the cookies are an even golden brown, without any hint of softness in the center. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

If you have enough left, store in an airtight container for, at most, a week.

Dumpy Blondes

When I was younger I took it for granted that visitors would always enjoy something sweet for dessert or as an afternoon (or midnight) snack. Now I assume that guests won't want such things around because it seems that many people are watching what they eat, even when on vacation. That's sad. Vacations seem to me to be a time to ignore our every day assumptions and let loose a bit.

Fortunately I found by observation that our current guests share my opinion, so this afternoon I mixed up a batch of bar cookies to enjoy in the evening. These are on the sweet side, but they have a salty element, too. Since they are inspired by various cookie recipes I've seen that use cereal, pretzels, and potato chips in addition to traditional cookie additions, I'm calling them Dumpy Blondes.

The 'blondes' part is because while they are bar cookies, like brownies, they have a brown sugar and butter background instead of chocolate, making them blondies. I suspect that there may be a recipe just like this somewhere in the blogosphere, but maybe not. At any rate, I started with the Big Blondes variation that I posted here and added salty nuts and salty potato chips instead of toffee bits. They are big in flavor, big in quantity, but dumpy due to the dump of ingredients that make them interesting. Try some!

Dumpy Blondes
A variation of a recipe by Jill O’Connor in Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey, Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
3 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
DUMP INGREDIENTS:
3 cups mixed nuts – I used one cup of pecans plus two cups of a mixture that included salted peanuts, whole almonds and walnut pieces
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup crushed salted potato chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Use cooking spray to lightly coat a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Melt the butter and brown sugar together in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the butter and sugar are blended and completely melted and starting to bubble gently. Remove the pan from heat and let the mixture cool slightly.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and salt. Slowly whisk the cooled butter and sugar mixture into the eggs just until combined. Whisk in the flour and baking powder to form a loose batter. (Make sure the batter is cool before stirring in the remaining ingredients, otherwise the chocolate will start to melt before the bars are baked.)

Stir the nuts, coconut, potato chips, and white and dark chocolate chips into the cooled batter. (I mixed all of the dump ingredients together in a very large measuring cup before adding to the batter. That way I knew that there wouldn’t be a clump of potato chips here and a clump of white chocolate there, but rather a nice mix of all the goodies.)

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

Bake until the tip is shiny and slightly crackled and feels firm to the touch, 30 – 35 minutes. A wooden skewer inserting into the batter should come out with moist crumbs clinging to it. Let cool on a wire rack to room temperature, then cut into bars and serve.

Makes 15 large or 30 small bars.