Salted Dark Chocolate Flourless Cookies

I’m not going to lie, I made these cookies entirely out of curiousity. King Arthur Flour, which gives recipes that usually involve, you know, flour, had a picture of the best dark chocolate cookies and said that they were flourless. 

The strange thing though, is that there is no starch in them. And no fat. They are not “healthy” cookies with quinoa flour and coconut oil. These ingredients are just flat out missing from the equation.  They are, by far the weirdest cookies I’ve ever made. Egg whites, cocoa powder, icing sugar and vanilla. That’s about all folks. 

Fudgey isn’t quite the right word for them even though that’s how King Arthur descubes them, they get very crispy on the edges, almost they way you would excpect them to if there was corn starch in them, but the centers stay very soft. And, they don’t get stale. At least, I made them 3 days ago and the are still sitting on my counter on a plate without having been wrapped and they are still soft in the middle. 

This is no small miracle friends. 

So without further ado, here is a painfully simple recipe, for very strange, but very delicious cookies

• 2 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-process 
• 3 large egg whites
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Fleur de Sel- a couple tsp for sprinkling on top

Preheat the oven to 350F

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl

Spoon 1 tbsp sized blobs on to a piece of parchment or silpat. Sprinkle some fleur de sel on top.

Bake for about 7-9 minutes, until the top is set but still a bit soft if you touch them. Let cool for a couple of minutes on the pan, and then transfer them to a cooling rack. Enjoy!

Salty Sweet Chocolate Biscotti

If there is a baked good you should always have on hand it’s biscotti. Mostly because it’s easiest to make it in large batches and keeps for nearly ever, but also because it’s delicious and you can eat them with lunch, lunch, dinner, or a late night espresso. (Or if you, like me, can’t drink coffee, a hot chocolate is a wonderful substitute.) 

This is a wonderful recipe for lots of reasons, but mostly because it’s not too sweet. The addition of coffee into it helps bring out the very dark slightly bitter taste of the chocolate, and the sprinkling of salt, alongside the sugar on the top makes you not feel guilty when eating one for breakfast with a hot chocolate!

Salty Sweet Chocolate Biscotti

1 cup Brown Sugar

12 cup Butter, melted

1/4 cup Brandy,

1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

1 tbsp Coffee

1 cup Whole Almonds

3 Eggs

1 3/4 cup AP Flour

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 cup Cocoa Powder

1/2 cup Dark Chocolate Chips

1/2 cup Coarse Sugar-For sprinkling

2 tbsp Coarse Salt- For sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350F

In a large bowl mix together the butter and sugar.

Add in the eggs one at a time mixing well between each addition.

Add in the brandy, vanilla and coffee.

In another bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder.

Gently mix the flour mixture into the butter-sugar-eggs mixture. When it’s nearly all combined add in the chocolate chips and the almonds and mix until it’s just come together.

Divide the dough into 3 pieces and roll each one out into a log, and then flatten it gently on the top. If it’s sticking to your fingers get them a little bit damp and then try again. Do this on a lined baking sheet.

Gently brush the tops of the rolls with water and then sprinkle the salt and sugar on top.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until the rolls are completely cooked throughout. Let cool.

On a cutting board with a serated knife cut the logs into thin pieces, about 1/2 inch thick. Put them back on the baking pan, lying flat, and bake again until they are crisped nicely, about 10 minutes.

Let cool and enjoy- these will last at least 6 weeks in a closed container.

Rosemary Shortbread with Fleur de Sel

I don’t have much of a story here, no charming childhood memory or anything, just a very good cookie. A cookie with rosemary, a hint of lemon, and a smattering of sea salt. The kind of cookie that’s not too sweet or too heavy. Something that is light and crumbly, and buttery and lovely. The kind of cookie that keeps for a few weeks in a sweet little vintage tin, and you can just pop them out when company comes over. Or you can eat them all in one sitting. Just saying.

Rosemary Lemon Shortbread with Fleur de Sel

(loosely adapted from the Tartine Bakery)

1 cup Butter, very soft

1/2 tsp Salt

2 scant cups AP Flour

1/3 cup Sugar

2 tsp Fresh Rosemary, finely chopped.

Zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp Fleur de Sel.

Preheat the oven to 325F

Butter an 8inch square pan or a fancy pants shortbread pan, whatever strikes your fancy.

Mix together the butter and sugar- the butter has to be very soft. If it’s not soft enough put microwave it of put the butter in a double boiler. It should have the consistency of mayonaise.

Add in the rosemary, lemon zest and salt.

Mix in the flour until barely combined.

Press the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for about 20 minutes or until it’s cooked through.

Take it out of the pan and immediately cut them. If you cut them while they’re cold they will crumble.

Sprinkle with the fleur de sel and eat eat eat!

Madeleines

A few years back my sister, a few friends and I went on a croissant-athon. Basically we looked up all the places in Toronto for the best croissants and biked around the city trying one at each place (we did split them, or else we wouldn’t have been able to keep riding!) and my meticulous sister took notes.

My main criteria is what I call the crunch-to-gush factor.

This is not a technical term.

But it is important. It’s the contrast from perfect crisp exterior to meltingly tender interior. It’s something the french do very well. In creme caramel? Check. Parisian macarons? Check. Madeleines? Check Check.

Madeleines are my new obsession. I decided I wanted to make them for the baby shower I threw last week and so, because I was putting so much work in (aka was having so much fun planning it!) I decided to give myself a gift and buy a madeline pan. And then lie to my boyfriend about when I bought it because he’s threatening to leave because me if I fill our apartment with more kitchen gadgets.

Anyways.

Man madeleines are good! And their good because of the crunch-to-gush factor. The perfect browned edges that lead the way into the most moist vanilla scented cakey center. It’s danm near perfect. And very easy if you have a standing mixer, and of course a fancy madeline pan. I bet you could make these in a mini cupcake holder to, if your really jonesing for them, but there’s just something so wonderful about the little scalloped edges.

Madeleines

Adapted from 101cookbooks

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (6 ounces)
2 tablespoons softened unsalted butter (for greasing pan)
3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
a pinch fine-grain sea salt
2/3 cups sugar
zest of one large lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
powdered sugar

a bit of extra flour for dusting baking pan

Brown the butter: melt it on a low heat until it gets frothy on top, and the milk solids get beautifully brown and it smells like hazelnuts, be careful not to burn it!

 

In the bowl of your standing mixer beat the eggs on high speed until light and fluffy. Then slowly add in the sugar tablespoon by tablespoon while keeping mixer on high speed.

Now carefully fold in the flour, salt, and lemon zest, by hand.

Then fold in the vanilla and butter, being very careful not to over mix.

Then carefully pipe the prepared molds 3/4 full of batter.

Bake for about 8 minutes or until beautifully golden brown. Most recipes say to pop them out right away but I found waiting a few minutes made them come out easier!

Tea and Cookies

Sometimes, when it rains for 7 months straight you so sick of your hair being frizzy that you don’t want to leave your house, and your rain boots have holes in them from to much wear, and even though it’s getting warmer and there are flowers coming up you just don’t care because everything looks grey. It happens. There was an odd sunny day last week and I saw the mountains and thought “They really look bigger then I remember” and then of course I realized that I hadn’t seen the tops of them in months and I was used to thinking that they stopped where the clouds started.

Which is all a long way of saying that today I made lavender oatmeal cookies and I am staying inside and drinking tea and reading my book. (which is “Say Her Name” by Fransisco Goldman by the way and it is fantastic. Click here if you want see it’s review in the New York Times.)

Sometimes you just have to accept the rain and make the most of an inside day. These cookies are perfectly melty and crumbly and the oats give just a little more substance and nuttiness and the lavender is not at all perfumey but just gentle and floral. And these go exceptionally well with earl grey tea.

Lavender Oatmeal Cookies

(adapted from a Martha Stewart Recipe)

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp Oats

3/4 cup AP Flour

1/3 cup Sugar

3/4 tsp Dried Edible Lavender

1/2 cup Butter

Preheat the oven to 325F

Line a 8inch loaf pan with parchment

Spread the oats on a baking sheet and bake until just golden and toasty, about 5 minutes.

In a food processor pulse the sugar and the lavender until the lavender is broken up, the sugar is fine and it smells a little perfumey from the lavender.

Add in 1/2 cup of the toasted oats and pulse again until they are broken up into very small pieces.

Add in the flour and pulse to combine. Add the Butter

Pulse about 10 times until the mixture just comes together.

Press into your prepared pan. If its too sticky get your fingers a little wet and then try.

Sprinkle the remaining oats on top. 

Bake for about half an hour or until the cookies are just beginning to get firm to the touch and the outsides are lovely and golden brown.

As soon as they are out of the oven use the parchment to help lift out the cookies and cut them. if you ct them when they are cool thy will crumble.

Then do NOT eat them while they are scorching hot like me because you will burn your tongue. Or do, that’s fine too, they are super delicious.