Lesson #53: Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been searching for an AWESOME chocolate chip recipe! The recipe off the back of the chocolate chip bag is disappointing. Sometimes my cookies are flatten out while they are baking and they taste less than spectacular.

This is one of my first attempts at improving my chocolate chips cookies. I thought that weighing the ingredients (like professional pastry chefs) may improve the cookies. In any case, the scientific side of my personality loves accuracy when measuring ingredients. I also mixed up the chocolate chips. I used a super high quality chocolate (Valrhona - for any chocolate fans!) and included both chopped milk & dark chocolate. I also used a different technique to shaping the balls (check it out on the recipe). I'm not sure this made a huge difference, but these cookies were better than my typical chocolate chip cookies.

LESSON LEARNED: Who knew that perfecting chocolate chip cookies would be so tricky?

Recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies

Lesson #52: Strawberries & Champagne Cheesecake

Strawberries & champagne in a cheesecake? Yes, please! I made this cheesecake for Thanksgiving at my grandma's on Saturday and it went over very well :)

First, you reduce champagne in a saucepan until it becomes sweet and syrupy. While the champagne is reducing, you make a chocolate graham cracker crust. Then, sliced strawberries are layered on top of the crust. The reduced champagne is incorporated into the cheesecake batter and placed over the sliced strawberries. Finally, the cooled cheesecake is topped with sliced strawberries and drizzled with melted chocolate. This cheesecake is a SHOWSTOPPER!

LESSON LEARNED: Don't underestimate the flavor of champagne in a cheesecake!

Recipe for Strawberries & Champagne Cheesecake

Lesson #51: Triple-Chocolate Mousse Cake

I LOVE the holidays! I especially love cooking and baking for other people. It really gives me a good excuse to make desserts that can be shared among many people. For Thanksgiving day, I made a triple-chocolate mousse cake!

The bottom layer is a gooey flour-less chocolate cake. The middle layer is a dark chocolate mousse and the top layer is a white chocolate mousse. The dessert is rich & chocolate-y, but is super light from the layers of whipped cream and melted chocolate. Each layer has a different flavor and texture, which makes this a FABULOUS indulgence.

One important thing to note is serving temperature. I unmolded the dessert right out of the fridge and it was pretty firm. However, I left it out in a dessert table which we finished Thanksgiving dinner and by the time I ate dessert, it was pretty messy. Check out the pictures below :) In any case, this layered cake was EXCELLENT and can be made ahead of time.

LESSON LEARNED: This dessert is best served right out of the refrigerator!

Recipe for Triple-Chocolate Mousse Cake

Lesson #50: Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

I've never thought of making peanut butter cups before. The homemade version of this popular candy is surprisingly easy to make. Trust me, you will impress your friends if you whip up these easy chocolates! I definitely impressed myself and was pretty excited by the finished product.

I would suggest using the best quality chocolate you can. It does makes a difference since there are very few ingredients in the recipe. The peanut butter filling is AWESOME! The peanut butter is melted with a bit of butter, boiled for a few minutes with brown sugar, and sweetened with powdered sugar.

LESSON LEARNED: Making homemade candies is fun!

Recipe for Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Lesson #49: Flaky Cream-Filled Cookies

I love collecting random cookie cutters.  As much as I love holiday cookie cutters, I really only use them once a year. So, I was SUPER excited to make Thanksgiving themed cookies. :)

The dough is a cream cheese baked pie crust which I cut out using small turkey cookie cutters. Inside the cookies are is a marshmallow fluff filling. The cookies bake up LIGHT & FLUFFY and the cream cheese adds just a touch of tangy flavor. Marshmallow fluff is whipped with butter and powdered sugar to create a sweet filling. Because I used a small cookie cutter, these took hardly any time to bake and were a perfect snack-sized cookie.

LESSON LEARNED: I only use turkey cookie cutters once a year!

Recipe for Flaky Cream-Filled Cookies

Lesson #48: Fudge Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Ganache

Yes, these cupcakes contain dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and cocoa powder and are GUARANTEED to satisfy your chocolate craving! I made them last week and shared them with my evening class :)

Most of the time, I could take or leave uncooked cake batter. I usually test a little bit to make sure it tastes OK, but this uncooked batter is AMAZING. I wouldn't recommend eating the whole thing (that is, if you are worried about raw eggs), but a good spoonful probably isn't going to hurt you. It has a mousse-like quality- very light and fluffy. After these cupcakes bake and cool, they have a very fudge dark chocolate taste. I topped them off with some milk chocolate ganache and they were PERFECT!

LESSON LEARNED: Adding 3 types of chocolate to cupcakes = AMAZING results!

Recipe for Fudge Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Ganache

Lesson #47: Peanuty Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

This week I was hungry for a peanut butter oatmeal cookie that, well, tasted a little more interesting than a typical peanut butter oatmeal cookie. I saw a recipe in a food magazine that used toasted pecans in the cookie batter and I was sold!

The neat thing about this batter is that you combine the toasted pecans and peanut butter in a food processor to make a smooth paste. So, in essence, you taste the pecans, but there are no chunks of pecans. If you don't know that there are pecans in the cookies, it makes you wonder why they taste different (and a little better, in my opinion!) than typical peanut butter cookies. I was a little skeptical about how other people would like these cookies, so I took them to my 8am class this week. Only 10 students wanted cookies, but they finished 2 dozen cookies in 5 minutes! I would say these were a SUCCESS.

LESSON LEARNED: Pecans make a good addition to peanut butter oatmeal cookies!

Recipe for Peanuty Pecan Oatmeal Cookies