RECIPE: Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

I have a new obsession... it's name is Pinterest.  I am a bulletin board sort person, and while I have many methods of organizing my life like computers, iphones, iclouds and ipads I choose the old fashioned pen and paper sort of way.  This is not to say I don't use my calendar functions, but at work where EVERYTHING I do has to be meticulously organized and at a glance, my bulletin boards are the only way to go. In light of my affinity to bulletin boards, I think Pinterest is one of the most genius inventions in quite some time. Pretty, categorized, online bulletin boards which take my OCD to whole new levels- frankly, it does not get better than that!  My baking board probably has the most pins and is where this delightful little bar came from.  I changed a couple of things in the recipe though (I can't help it!). The recipe I found had ready-made milkmaid caramels in it; I made my own caramel. I tried it with the candies the first time around and decided that I'd rather not have all that artificial stuff in my sugar fix. I also found that when the bars set, those little caramels get a little hard which makes the bars a little messy looking and difficult to cut into perfect little squares. I will post the fleur the sel caramel recipe next, it's super easy to make and eat.... a bit too easy for my own good.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars


4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
12 oz. butter, melted and cooled to room temperature (3 sticks)
2 cups light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
4 cups chocolate chips
2 cups caramel with fleur de sel (1 recipe)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

12" x 12" square pan, greased well.

In large mixer bowl, combine the butter and sugars.  Mix at medium speed until fluffy and incorporated.  Add eggs and yolks one at a time, then vanilla and mix until combined.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.  Add the flour mixture to dough and mix on low speed until incorporated.  Add chocolate chips and mix until combined.

Press half cookie mixture evenly in pan, making sure you cannot see the bottom of the pan.  It's more important to completely cover the bottom of the pan than to only use half of the dough. 

Spread caramel in small clumps keeping it away from the sides of the pan a little. (This makes getting the bars out of the pan a LOT easier). Top with additional cookie dough spreading lightly. It's okay if its not completely covering the caramel.

Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.  

Cool the bars completely, at least 2 hours.  Slice into desired size rectangles or squares. 

The recipe may be halved- use a 9" square pan. 

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

After making frilly cookies for the last couple of weeks, I was craving something chunky and easy. These white chocolate macadamia cookies are crunchy, if softer cookies are more your style, underbake them by a minute or two and remove them from the cookie sheet soon after they come out of the oven. I took these to a crawfish boil today and they were a hit- everyone wants something sweet after eating lots of salty crawfish. (specially me)

Softened butter contributes to the crunchyness of the cookie, microwave the butter for 10 seconds intervals if it's coming straight out of the refrigerator. After adding the egg and vanilla, reduce the speed of the mixer so the dough does not get over mixed. Cashews are a good substitution for macadamia nuts if you prefer. Use the best quality white chocolate available, I use Callebeut and cut it into chunks with a sharp knife. Toasting the nuts at 350 F for 10 minutes heightens their flavor, just be sure to let them cool before adding them to the dough. Bake six cookies at a time on the middle rack of the oven, make sure to put cookies on a cool pan for each batch. The recipe makes 15-16 very large cookies.

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

1/4 lb. butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups chopped white chocolate
1 cup toasted macadamia nuts

Preheat oven to 325 F

1. Place softened butter in mixer bowl,with paddle attachment, beat until light and fluffy. Add sugar and continue to beat at medium-high speed for 3 minutes, scraping the side of the bowl until incorporated.

2. Add egg and vanilla and beat for 2 additional minutes on med-low speed.

3. Sift flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Add to the butter mixture and beat on low until dough comes together. Add chocolate and nuts and blend well.

4. With clean hands, make balls of dough approximately the size of a golf ball or a little larger. Lay on parchment lined sheets and flatten out to a 2 inch circle. Place six cookies per cookie sheet (3 inches apart) and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove cookies with a large spatula and transfer to a cooling rack. Store cookies in a covered container.

Raspberry Linzer Heart Cookies

Happy Valentine's Day!
For me Valentine's day usually means a very busy restaurant and lots of baking. I probably made more cookies this week, than I did for Christmas (and I made a lot of cookies for Christmas!). I've made heart-shaped cupcakes, chocolate cakes, strawberry cakes, chocolate mousse, sugar cookies, Tiramisu, strawberry tarts and raspberry linzer cookies. Tomorrow I will bake tres leches cake and make sure we have plenty of creme brulee. I made these early in the week since they are a little time consuming, but well worth the effort.

I found the easiest way to decorate these is to melt the raspberry jam and spread a thin layer on the base. Work with one cookie at a time, while the jam is still hot and press the top cookie onto the base. (to glue it together). After all the cookies have been put together, sprinkle with powdered sugar- I use snow sugar since it doesn't melt. Snow sugar can be found at baking suply store or online at King Arthur Flour, they have a great selection of wonderful flours and baking essentials. After the cookies have been sprinkled with sugar, fill the hole with more melted jam. The first time I made these, I did had not yet figured these steps out and I ended up with sticky oozing cookies which were yummy, but were a total mess because I put too much jam between them.

Raspberry Linzer Heart Cookies

12 tablespoons unsalted butter (2- 1/2 sticks or 3/4 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1-1/2 cups ground almonds
2 cups flour, plus more for rolling
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
rasberry jam
Powdered sugar or Snow sugar

Preheat oven to 350F

1. In a large mixer bowl, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add egg and conitnue to beat until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add vanilla and almond extract and mix well.

2. In a separate bowl, combine almonds, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Sowly add flour mixture to butter mixture and combine on low speed until incorpoarted and a dough forms.

3. Gather dough, (if dough is a little wet, pull it together with floured hands) then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

4. On a generously floured surface, roll half of dough out to 1/8" thickness (cookies will be thin since 2 are put together). Cut out an even number of hearts, ( I get 24 tops and 24 bottoms). Place the bottoms on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for approximately 15 minutes.

5. For the tops: place whole hearts on cookie sheet, then cut a small heart out of each. (cutting the small heart after the tops are on the cookie sheet helps them keep their shape- since the dough is a little soft, it's easier to transfer a whole heart than a heart "ring"). Bake for 12-15 minutes. Cookies just be just a little golden, the tops will cook faster than the bottoms so watch them carefully.



6. After cookies have cooled, heat the raspberry jam for about 35 seconds in the microwave. Spread a little jam on the bottoms, then gently press tops on. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, then fill the hole with additional jam. Allow the cookies to set for a little while before serving.

Coconut Macaroons

I have found most people have a love-hate relationship with coconut. Either they crave it and can't live without it or they want nothing to do with it. I am a coconut lover, when I was little my family used to go to the beach every weekend- and I mean every single weekend. We had coconut trees at our beach house and fresh coconut water consumed through a paper straw was the drink of choice. But, for me the best part was getting a baby coconut, drinking the water, then having it split in half and scooping out the still gelatinous coconut meat inside. In my world of food, there is not much that can top that.

So until we moved to the United States, for me coconuts were always fresh. There is nothing like a fresh coconut, but in baking there isn't that big of a difference. (Well, aside from the coconut candies, but that's a whole other story!) I have recently found unsweetened coconut which is frozen, I like to use it in cakes and custards because it doesn't add extra sweetness- and I don't like my desserts to be too sweet. But for these macaroons, I used the widely available sweetened flaked variety.



Coconut Macaroons with Orange Zest

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 14 oz bag sweetened flaked coconut
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon Orange zest
3 egg whites at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 F

1. In a large bowl combine coconut, condensed milk, vanilla, and orange zest. Mix well, then set aside.

2. Beat egg whites with a mixer or by hand until medium stiff peaks.

3. Fold egg whites into coconut mixture until egg whites are almost all the way incorpoarted. Do this gently so as to not completely deflate egg whites. I sometimes do it by hand so I control it a bit better.

4. With a cookie scoop (about 2"in diameter), scoop out spoonfuls of coconut mixture and place on a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Cook for 20 minutes or until lightly golden. Store covered, at room temperature.

Alfajores / Caramel Cookies

Alfajores are my favorite childhood cookies, they are a very crumbly shortbread like cookie filled with caramel, preferably Cajeta (Argentinian milk caramel) then rolled in powdered sugar. I had not had much luck when making alfajores, they just never seemed to turn out right. Recently a friend gave me her recipe, but they they didn't come out like hers, which are very good. I think the problem was in the measurements, the cornstarch was in grams while others ingredients were in cups, sort of the type of recipe you need the original baker to make with you the first time and since I am many countries away from from her I had to figure it out for myself. Once I knew what the problem was, (they had too much cornstarch) I was easily able to fix it. So I made batch number two and I think they are just delightful- if I do say so myself!

Notes: When cutting the cookies out, do it as closely as possible and use as little flour as you can without the dough sticking to the table. You can only re-roll the dough out 1 time before it becomes too dry from the extra flour. The butter must be very soft so the dough will hold together- I cannot stress this enough- microwave it for 15 seconds if you have to- just make sure it's soft! You may substitute the Cognac for Grand Marnier or dark Rum. Bake the cookies until they are just starting to color, they are supposed to be very pale. (they also burn very fast- watch them carefully). Also, the cookies are a little delicate so be careful not to break them when spreading the caramel.

You can purchase Cajeta at most specialty food stores, I Know Sur la Table has it. You may also make your own caramel, but please be very careful if you do this:
(I tell you this from experience as my husband has had a can explode) In a medium pot place an unopened can of condensed milk (not the pull-lid type), cover with water at least 5 inches over the top of the can. Cook over medium heat for 2 hours. NEVER let the water boil down and evaporate- that's when the can explodes, add more water if necessary. Let the caramel cool for at least an hour, then open and spread on the cookies. The caramel will keep in the can unopened for about one moth before it starts to crystallize.

ALFAJORES

1 1/4 cup cornstarch
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 lb. butter at room temperature (1 stick)
3/4 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons cognac

Cajeta or home-made caramel (see above)
powdered sugar for sprinkling cookies after they bake

1. In large mixer bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated. Add cognac and mix well.

2. Add flour, cornstarch and baking powder and mix until the dough comes together.

3. Roll out dough over a lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut shapes out and place on greased baking sheets. Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on the size of the cookies. Cookies should be barely brown on the bottom, tops will be pale. Set on cooling rack to cool. Fill with cajeta and cover in powdered sugar. This recipe can be easily doubled.

Palmiers

Palmiers, also known as Elephant Ears are my favorite cookie to accompany my cafe au lait. I only drink coffee when it's cold out, as I don't like hot beverages when it's hot and this morning finally--it turned cold. Yesterday it was 82 degrees and I was wearing flip flops, today I was totally bundled up! So I woke this morning and decided to make palmiers to have with my coffee. Making palmiers is quite a simple task, that is- if you use pre-made puff pastry. (yes, I cheat).

A few notes: watch them carefully, they burn quickly. When turning them mid-way through baking, make sure you wear an oven mitten...the sugar is hot hot. I now have a pretty big bo-bo as a result of not wearing the oven mitten and using a towel instead. Lastly, transfer the Palmiers to a rack right after baking, so they don't continue to brown and stick to the pan.

Palmiers

1 package Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

Set oven to 450 degrees

Allow puff pastry to sefrost for 30 minutes or until pliable.

1. On a clean surface sprinkle 1/2 cup sugar. Place one sheet of puff pastry over sugar and sprinkle with another 1/2 sugar and 1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon and spread over top. With a rolling pin roll into a 10 x 14 inch rectangle, pressing sugar into pastry as evenly as possible.

2. Place the rectangle of dough in front of you horizontally. Visually mark the center of the dough and roll each side as tightly as possible to meet in the center. (it's difficult for me to explain so please refer to the photo of the cookies). You should end up with a long roll.

3. Slice into crosswise 1/2 inch pieces and carefully transfer to a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, placing about 2 inches apart. Bake for 6 minutes or until lightly browned, then turn palmiers over and bake about 3-4 minutes longer. Watch them carefully after you turn them. The Palmiers should be golden brown. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies

Yes, I know the posts are getting a little further apart lately, but things are hectic- to say the least! I have actually been baking and cooking a lot lately, but as much as I would like to, there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything documented and photographed. I am catering a few parties this weekend which means I have a lot of assorted bite size desserts to make between now and Friday. This morning I made Mexican wedding Cake Cookies, they are almost like a shortbread, buttery and flavored with toasted pecans, cinnamon and vanilla; they are sometimes called pecan balls or Russian tea cakes.

I use a special powdered sugar called Snow White sugar for sprinkling the cookies after they bake, I get it in 25 pound bags for the restaurant, but you can get it in a one pound bag from King Arthur Flour. What's great about this sugar is it doesn't really melt so the cookies stay Snow White-- just as the name says. I used to make them with regular powdered sugar, so if that's all you have that will work as well, just sift some fresh sugar over cookies before serving if you are making them ahead. I also mix a few sprinkles of cinnamon with the powdered sugar. To make the balls, I first flatten out the dough a bit with my hands and cut it into equal portions with a knife, this makes them all even and uniform which for OCD girl (me), it's very important they all look the same. Watch the cookies carefully while in the oven, the bottoms should be just golden brown while the tops will be fairly pale.

MEXICAN WEDDING CAKE COOKIES

1 lb unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups toasted pecans, chopped

Extra powdered sugar or snow white sugar and cinnamon for coating.

1. In a large bowl beat butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add sugar and continue to beat until well incorporated. Add vanilla and mix well.

2. Add flour, mix until just combined, then add toasted pecans. Place dough in plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until cold.

Pre-heat oven to 350F

3. Make 1 1/2" balls, place on greased cookie sheet 1/2" apart and bake about 15 minutes or until bottoms are lightly golden. Remove from oven and cool cookies slightly.

4. In a medium bowl mix 3 cups powdered sugar or snow white sugar and sprinkle with about 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Roll cookies until covered with sugar then set aside to cool completely. If making the cookies ahead of time, I sprinkle with additional powdered sugar before serving.

Meyer Lemon Shortbread Cookies

Two years ago I planted a Meyer lemon tree in my back yard, last year it produced four lemons. But this year, my little tree must have really had a good spring and summer because I have more lemons than I can count! They are not only beautiful to look at as they grace just about every fruit bowl all over my house, they are delicious as well.

I baked bread this afternoon and was looking for a small and easy project to make while the bread was rising, so I came up with these little shortbreads. It worked out really well since I needed the oven on to warm up the kitchen a bit so the bread would rise correctly. I used the Joy of Cooking shortbread recipe and added Meyer lemon juice and zest. Perfect day for it...it's nasty out, raining and a tornado watch, but I am sitting here cozily with my cup of tea and cookies.

MEYER LEMON SHORTBREAD COOKIES

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (1 1/4 sticks)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
additional sugar for sprinkling tops

1. In large mixer bowl beat butter and sugars, salt and lemon zest until very fluffy and well blended.

2. Gradually sift in flour and mix well. Sprinkle lemon juice over dough and lightly knead until dough holds together. If the dough is too dry, add a few more drops lemon juice, the dough should just come together- do not over moisten it.

3. Press into an 8" x 8" pan and pierce deeply with a fork in a decorative pattern. Bake at 325 degrees for about 40 minutes or until just slightly darker at the edges. Turn out of the pan while still warm and cut into bars and sprinkle with sugar. Allow the cookies to cool completely on a rack.