Recipe: Red Velvet Brownies with Cream Cheese Icing Drizzle

I spent last week in Memphis with my boyfriend, making the most of his week-long spring break. We spent a few quiet days in Arkansas, at an old hunting lodge/clubhouse his family is a member of, and spent the rest of the week at his family home. I ate some great food (including a homemade beef and cheddar hot dog in a soft pretzel bun from Hog & Hominy, a burger at Huey's, and of course, cupcakes from Muddy's), met some of his law school friends, had some "arts and crafts" time (we painted pottery and made glass dishes--both were a lot of fun to work on!), and visited a few galleries and museums. As a thank you to him and his family for hosting me, I thought it would be nice to bake brownies and send them down their way. I found this recipe for red velvet brownies and knew I had to try it out—I don't generally play around with baking recipes because they are so precise and I find it hard to change and edit ingredients (it's so much easier to mess up in baking than it is in cooking), so I left it as is, but added a little drizzle of cream cheese icing to give them a little more flavor (makes 'em prettier too). The resulting brownies were perfectly chewy and dense with a light, flaky top, just like a brownies should be, and the drizzle of icing added a little tangy flavor and creaminess to them.

Yields: 1, 9x13 inch pan of brownies (approx. 20 brownie squares)
Prep. time: 10-15 minutes
Baking time: 35-40 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

For the brownies

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1&1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1&1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 oz. red food coloring (if you don't have enough food coloring, add water to get the required measurement)
• 4 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 2&1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 6 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's, because that's all I could find, but a better quality brand will yield better brownies)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
  

For the cream cheese icing drizzle

• 2 oz. cream cheese
• Approx. 1/2 cup powdered sugar (or more, as needed)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp. milk

Directions

Preheat the over to 350*F. Spray a 9x13 inch clear, glass baking dish with cooking/baking spray. Using the paddle attachment in your mixer, beat together the butter and both sugars on medium speed until creamy, light, and fluffy (approx. 2-3 minutes). Add the eggs slowly, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Slowly add the food coloring and vanilla and blend on medium speed until the color is fully incorporated. In a medium bowl, add the flour, cocoa powder, and salt and whisk to mix. Slowly add this mixture to the mixing bowl on medium speed until it's fully incorporated—be careful not too over mix though.  The batter should be quite thick and all of the flour should be mixed in. Pour the batter into the greased baking dish and spread evenly in the dish. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until done (insert a toothpick in the center—if it comes out wet with batter, the brownies need more baking time, but if it comes out clean or a little crumby, the brownies are done). Brownies should be a little flaky on the outside, but slightly moist on the inside. Set aside to cool.

While the brownies are cooling, add the the ingredients for the cream cheese icing drizzle to a small bowl and whisk to blend (you can use the mixer, once clean, to make this go a little faster and to mix it better, but I was too lazy to clean the mixer and ended up whisking together the icing by hand). The finished icing should be thick, but still be able to be drizzled easily. Cut the brownies into squares and, using a spoon, drizzle the icing as neatly as possible over each square (I actually used a squeeze bottle to get more precise drizzles; you can use an icing/pastry bag with a round tip for neater results). Let the icing set (it will not get hard, but rather, it'll thicken and be a little sticky) for a few minutes.

Serve with a glass of cold milk or a mug of hot coffee, or whatever beverage you prefer. Perfect with a scoop of vanilla (or perhaps red velvet, for added red velvet-ness?) ice cream or with some fresh berries. Store brownies in an airtight container and avoid stacking them, if possible, because the cream cheese drizzle will get smeary and smudged.

These brownies are essentially your basic, everyday brownies, but the pop of red food coloring and the sweet and tangy cream cheese icing drizzle add a little pizzazz to them. Great for dessert, for a party, or an afternoon snack, these brownies are chocolaty, chewy, and absolutely delicious.

Recipe: Homemade Slice-and-Bake Cookies (a.k.a. Ice Box Cookies)

For most colleges and graduate schools, it's final exam time, which means there are countless 20-somethings, my boyfriend included, stressing out, staying up late, and eating junk food just to make it through. I thought it would be fun to send a care package to John with some homemade cookies and other goodies to make his law school exam studying a little less awful, and I decided to try out a cookie recipe from one of my recent Bake 1 classes. Ice Box cookies, are they are officially called, are essentially homemade slice-and-bake cookies, called "ice box cookies" because the dough can be made up and then stored in the fridge (or "ice box"), and cookies can then be sliced off one at a time and baked fresh rather than be baked all in one batch. They're very easy to make, and you can dress them up by dying and rolling/shaping the dough into a variety of patterns, including the pinwheel (which I made for John) and checkerboard.

Yields: Approx. 3 dozen cookies (depends on how thin you slice them)
Prep. time: 10 minutes, plus time to chill the dough
Baking time: 12-15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate (rolling into shapes takes a little skill)
Special equipment: Rolling pin

Ingredients

• 2 sticks (or 8 oz.) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 & 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• Food coloring of your choice

Directions

In the bowl of an electric/stand mixer, cream together the two types of sugar and butter (cream together: using the paddle attachment, blend on low to medium-low speed until the sugar and butter are well-blended; a few small lumps are okay). Add the egg yolks and vanilla and blend on medium-low speed until incorporated. Slowly add in the flour, a little bit at a time, until it is all blended into the dough and the dough is slightly sticky, soft, and pale yellow/khaki in color. 

To create a solid-colored dough: Add the food coloring of your choice to the dough and gently knead it into the dough until the dough is completely colored. Wrap the dough up in saran wrap or put in a bowl covered over with saran wrap and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm it up. Remove from the fridge and roll into a large log, then return and chill until it's able to be cleanly sliced through (about 1-2 hours, or 10 minutes in the freezer). 

To create a pinwheel pattern: Divide the dough into two even pieces (it's easiest to weigh each piece on a kitchen scale so that you get equal pieces). You can dye one or both pieces (obviously, use two different colors if you choose to dye both). Gently knead food coloring into one or both dough balls until the dough is completely colored. Wrap the dough balls up separately in saran wrap or put in bowls covered over with saran wrap and chill in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to firm them up. Remove one dough ball and lay it out on a long piece of wax paper covered in a second sheet of wax paper. Tape down the wax paper sheets (just a small piece of tape along the top, bottom, and sides—packing tape holds really well), so they don't move around when you start to roll out the dough. With a rolling pin, roll the dough out into one long, wide sheet, then remove the tape tape from the wax paper and lay the dough on a sheet pan in the fridge to chill for at least an hour (or chill in the freezer for 5-10 minutes). Repeat this process with the other piece of dough. Once both pieces have been chilled, remove them from the fridge (1), remove the wax paper from on top of each (2 and 3) and flip one on top of the other as centered as possible (4). Trim the edges with a knife or pizza cutter (5) to create a straight-edged, even rectangle. The trimmings can be mushed together to create a tie-dye ball of dough that can also be rolled into a log and sliced up into cookies (see #6). Roll the rectangle into a log (you'll be able to see the pinwheel shape when you look at the ends of the log) and chill in the fridge for at least an hour (or freezer for 10 minutes). Either store it in the fridge and slice off cookies as needed, or slice the cooled log down into even slices (6) and get ready to bake. 

To bake them: Preheat the oven to 325*F. On a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, lay out the cookie slices with an inch or two of space in between each. Bake for 12-15 minutes until slightly crispy around the edges and cooked through in the middle, but still soft (they should not be very golden-brown at all though, because that means they're overdone). Remove from the oven, chill on the sheet pan, then remove to a wire rack to chill completely. Store in an airtight container (or eat a bunch right away, haha).

1

2

3

5

4

6 (this roll was made from the scraps of the pinwheel roll)

These cookies are buttery, sugary, and so much fun! They're a great thing to keep in the fridge if you have kids—you can always have fresh-baked cookies when they get home from school or when they want a snack to eat while they work on homework. They're also great as a simple dessert or easy bake sale item, and they hold up really well in the mail (so they're great for to send for Christmas or birthdays). They can be completely sliced up and baked all together too because they keep for days!

Recipe: Valentine's Day Conversation Hearts (White Chocolate-Covered Red Velvet "Truffles")

I absolutely love sending packages filled with baked goods or other edible treats to my boyfriend, John, just for fun (to help him get through all the hours of studying, reading, and writing he does for law school). I knew I wanted to make something new and special for him for Valentine's Day, so I spent a few hours last week researching ideas, before coming across a fun cake pop idea that drew inspiration from those chalky, not-so-great-but-oh-so-traditional Conversation Hearts. I tweaked the idea to make it work for me, and came up with a box full of white chocolate-covered red velvet "truffles" made to look like Conversation Hearts. To make the process a little easier, I used a boxed red velvet cake mix and pre-made cream cheese frosting, and I found this amazing cookie icing that hardens within minutes and used this to write messages on the hearts.
These little hearts took quite a lot of time and a little skill to make, but they turned out great and, from what I can tell, my boyfriend really enjoyed them. :)

Yield: Amount will vary depending on the size of the cookie cutter you use and how thick you make the "truffles"
Prep. and Cooking time: Approx. 2-4 hours total
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Special equipment: Heart-shaped cookie cutter, wax paper, double boiler (or a "makeshift/home made double boiler: a pot and a glass or ceramic bowl that sits partly down inside the pot), cookie sheets

Ingredients

• 1 box red velvet cake mix, prepared, baked, and cooled (I used Duncan Hines brand; it called for the mix, eggs, water, and vegetable oil, and most cake mixes will require these ingredients, so have them on hand)
• 1, 16 oz. container cream cheese frosting (I used Duncan Hines brand)
• 2, 24 oz. bags white chocolate chips (you will probably have some left over)
• Food coloring (the standard red, blue, green, yellow)
• Hard icing for writing on the finished "truffles" (I found a fast-hardening cookie icing that conveniently came in a packet with a piping tip, so it made it very easy to write)

Directions
Scrape the cooled red velvet cake into a large bowl and crumble it into fine pieces/crumbs. Add part of the cream cheese frosting into the cake crumbs and, using a large spoon, spatula, or your hands (I used my hands), mix the frosting into the crumbs. Continue adding and mixing frosting into the cake crumbs until the mixture is completely blended and the cake is dark red, dense, and able to be rolled into a ball (I used almost all of the frosting). Put a piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet and dump the red velvet and frosting mixture out onto the sheet. Spread out the mixture and flatten it out over the entire sheet until you have an even layer (about 1/2-1 inch thick) of cake mixture. Press the heart-shaped cookie cutter into the cake to cut out the desired number of hearts without actually pulling out the cut hearts, then place a piece of wax paper over the mixture and let it chill in the fridge. While the mixture is chilling, melt 1/2-1 cup white chocolate chips in the double boiler (you can melt them in the microwave, but this method can burn the chocolate if you're not careful). Remove the cake from the fridge and gently remove the cake from around each heart cut-out or gently lift the heart-shaped pieces up and out of the pan, then place them on a new wax paper-covered cookie sheet. Pour the melted chocolate into a small bowl and add the desired amount of food coloring to create one color. Using a spoon, gently smear some of the colored chocolate underneath one cake heart on the wax paper, place the heart back on the chocolate, then pour some on top of the heart and smooth to coat. Repeat with a few more hearts (I had three hearts of each color, creating 15 hearts). Melt a new batch of chocolate, transfer to a small bowl, mix in a new color, and repeat the coating process. Repeat this process until each heart is covered (I apologize for not having pictures of this process—when I get into a cooking or baking project, practical thoughts like "maybe I should take pictures so my readers know what I'm talking about" don't seem to cross my mind). Any excess cake mixture can be rolled into balls and covered in melted chocolate to create actual "truffles" (see picture at the end of this post). Place the coated hearts into the fridge and let them chill until the chocolate is completely hardened. Remove from the fridge and, using hard icing and a small piping tip, pipe out messages on the hearts (I looked up images of Conversation Hearts online to give me inspiration). Allow the icing messages to set completely before stacking the hearts. Keep the hearts in the fridge—they're best served slightly cold, with a warm cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate (and the one you love by your side).

These little hearts are whimsical, delicious, and absolutely perfect for Valentine's Day! They take some time and patience to make, but they're well worth it. Just be sure to keep these in the fridge to keep them fresh (they taste better cold anyway)!

Truffles I made with the leftover cake mixture

Recipe: Sugar Cookies with Hand-Colored Sugar Sprinkles

I made these cookies as a gift for my boyfriend, who just celebrated his 23rd birthday a little less than a week ago. I was really bummed out that I didn't get to celebrate his birthday with him in person, so I wanted to make sure he got a great birthday package, full of goodies, in the mail. Along with my little collection of fun, geeky gifts from ThinkGeek.com, I wanted to include something that was a little more personal. Being the chef-wannabe that I am, I thought I'd make him homemade cookies, with some sort of handmade decorations. I sent him a surprise care package earlier this summer with chocolate chip cookies, so I wanted to make something new. He'd mentioned once that his family makes sugar cookies around Christmas time, so I found a recipe in The Cook's Encyclopedia of Cookies that looked just right. The result of my baking efforts: lightly golden-brown cookies cut into star and heart shapes, generously sprinkled with rainbow-colored sugar. Girly and reminiscent of a bowl of Lucky Charms? Yes. Delicious? Indeed. Appreciated by my boyfriend? I sure hope so. ;D

Yields: Approx. 36 (depending on the size and type of cookie cutter you use, you'll have more or less)
Prep. time: 10-15 minute prep., 30 minutes to chill cookie dough
Baking time: 10-12 minutes per sheet
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Electric mixer

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. grated nutmeg
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• Various colors of sanding sugar or (if you want to dye your own, which is pretty fun—directions listed below) white/clear sanding sugar and food coloring (red, yellow, and blue)

Directions
Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and nutmeg into a small bowl, then set aside. With a mixer, blend together the butter/margarine, sugar (not the sanding sugar), and vanilla extract until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well into the mixture. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk (one and then the other, back and forth) to make a soft, semi-sticky dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350*F. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface (keep the flour around, because you'll likely need to add more to the surface to keep the dough from sticking to it). Roll it to about 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into rounds or other shapes using floured cookie cutters. Transfer cut cookies to ungreased baking sheets.

To make the colored sugar: Place a piece of wax paper on a flat surface a put a small pile of sanding sugar on the paper (not too much sugar...just a few tablespoons...you can always make more if you find that the cookies don't have enough sugar topping). Add one drop of food coloring to the sugar and smooth a rubber spatula over and through the sugar, blending the color into the sugar. The color should be light and even throughout the sugar—you want to avoid clumps of sugar that are dark and coated with too much food coloring. If you want a darker color, add more food coloring, but only one drop at a time, and only after blending that drop into the sugar. Repeat the process with fresh sanding sugar and the colors of your choice (for color mixtures, like red and yellow to make orange, add one drop of each color to the sugar and blend and repeat with one drop each if you want a deeper color). Once all of your sugar is dyed, spread it out on the wax paper and let it dry for a few minutes. Pour the dried sugar in a small bowl and stir with a spoon to mix.

Sprinkle the colored sugar onto the cookies on the cooking sheet, then bake the cookies in the oven for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Hand-dyed sugar

These cookies are light, with that perfect soft-yet-crunchy texture. The nutmeg adds a hint of warmth and the cookies are perfect with a glass of milk or a cup of hot tea or coffee. The easy-to-make colored sugar is a great alternative to icing/frosting (which, in my case, could easily have smeared and smushed on the cookies on their trip through the mail). The cookies are delicious, pretty, and perfect for a birthday gift, Christmas cookie platter, or just to have around the house for a sweet snack.

Recipe: Mini Anise-flavored Biscotti with Orange Glaze and Chocolate Drizzle

In my last post, I wrote about the collection of spicy, sweet, and salty spices we collected at Penzeys Spices yesterday and mentioned my plans for some of them. While strolling around the store with my dad, I came across various jars of anise—powdered, ground, whole—and my dad said he'd enjoy the black licorice-flavored spice in a sugar cookie, so my thoughts started swirling around recipe ideas. I picked up a small bottle of pure orange extract as we ventured into the baking and pastry section of the store and knew that that flavor paired with black licorice would work well, so I decided to make some sort of cookie with an orange glaze. After searching for "anise cookies" online and seeing biscotti mentioned several times (my final choice is adapted from this recipe), I decided they would be perfect, especially in our house filled with tea and coffee drinkers who love to dip cookies in their drinks. These cookies take a little time to make, but they're perfect with a cup of tea or coffee and they'd look beautiful wrapped up in a basket or bag and given as a house-warming gift or a dessert for a party.

Serves: Many; yields about 80-90 cookies, depending on how small you cut the pieces
Prep. time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 35 min. - 50 min.
Difficulty: Easy - Moderate

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup olive oil (pure or light)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp. anise seed, crushed or powdered (I used Spanish cracked anise)
• 3 & 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup sliced almonds
• Approx. 1 & 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• Approx. 1/4 cup milk (2%, 1%, or skim)
• Approx. 1 tbsp. orange extract (or to taste)
• Approx. 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli brand)
• Red and yellow food coloring
• White sanding sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350*F. Using a mixer or whisking by hand, lightly beat the eggs, then add in the oil, sugar, and anise, mixing lightly to combine. Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt, and almonds and mix to combine. (I used a mixer to do all of this, keeping it on a slow/low setting—it blended the ingredients more easily and more consistently.) The dough will be thick and sticky, but smooth.
Divide the dough into six pieces, lightly flour them, and roll each into a log about 2 inches in diameter. Place the six logs onto two greased or parchment-lined baking sheets and bake until they each are slightly golden-brown and the center is cooked, approx. 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven and immediately slice logs into about 1 to 2 inch-thick diagonal pieces (remember, these are mini biscotti, so they'll be about 2-4 inches long and about 1-2 inches wide). Place the tray of pieces back into the oven and bake 5-10 minutes (5 if you want slightly softer cookies, 10 if you want really crunchy/hard cookies). Remove from oven, flip the pieces over so the tops of the cookies are now face down on the tray, and bake another 5-10 minutes. Remove from oven and flip the cookies back over so the tops are facing up again and let cool on the baking sheets. The cookies will be light-colored or slightly golden brown.

To make the glaze: Put approx. 1 & 1/2 cups of powdered sugar into a small bowl and mix in the milk, stirring until the mixture is a whitish-clear, semi-thick liquid. Add approx. 1 tbsp. orange extract to the mixture and stir. Add more or less of the extract depending on how strong you want the flavor to be—taste it as you mix (using a new spoon each time, of course!) so you get the flavor you want. For the coloring: I added in two drops of red and two drops of yellow food coloring to get a pale, creamy orange color, but if you want a brighter orange, follow the instructions on the food coloring box or simply add more of each color until you get the desired shade. Using a small spoon, drizzle the orange glaze over the cooled biscotti. Sprinkle white sanding sugar over the biscotti while the glaze is still wet to give the cookies a little sparkle.

To make the chocolate drizzle: Put approx. 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips into a small, microwave-safe bowl and microwave in short spurts (start off microwaving for about 45 seconds, and work down from there until the mixture is melted and smooth). Be VERY careful not to burn or overcook the chocolate—heating it for shorter amounts of time on lower heat is better. Do not add oil, cream, or water to the mixture. Once melted, drizzle the chocolate, using a small spoon, over the biscotti. Sprinkle more white sanding sugar on top if desired.

These cookies are sweet and crunchy, and the orange glaze and chocolate add a little creaminess to them. Biscotti are able to take on a variety of flavors and toppings to create almost endless flavor combinations— chocolate and mint, caramel, coffee, and cherry, to name a few—so play around with extracts, spices, chocolates, and nuts and berries to see what you like best. I'm planning on making a mixed batch of biscotti during the winter holiday season so I can take them to parties and gift them to friends and family, but they're perfect to keep around the house as snacks. They keep in an air-tight container for at least two weeks, and can be frozen for later use.