Chocolate Orange Coconut Cookie Bites

Spring has finally arrived. I think.

I think we had a really nice day. Then a really hot one. Then a really cold one.

Anyway. I know Spring has arrived, not only because it is after March 20th, but because I have the desire to organize my entire life and bake with citrus. Actually, the baking with citrus desire is kind of a much stronger desire. But I spend a lot of time THINKING about organizing everything in my life.

I made these (because of the desire to bake with citrus, not because of the desire to organize my life, but I DID clean up afterwards so that was a start, right?)

Chocolate Orange Coconut Cookie Bites

• 1 stick unsalted butter (softened)
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg (room temp)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp orange extract
• 1/4 c unsweetened dutch process cocoa powder (I use Hershey’s Special Dark)
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli)
• buttercream (your favorite recipe- I’ll link to the one I use after the instructions)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut (sweetened is OK if that is all you can find, but the cookies will be really sweet)
• 1 tbsp orange sparkling sugar
• 1 tbsp orange zest

1. Preheat oven to 325F, place liners in two dozen mini cupcake cavities.
2. In a stand mixer, beat butter and both sugars until fluffy. Add egg and mix well. Mix in vanilla and orange extract.
3. Sift together cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, and salt directly into mixing bowl and beat slowly until just combined then increase speed until dough is smooth.
4. Using a 1 tbsp cookie scoop, scoop dough into the mini cupcake cavities and bake for 10 minutes.
5. Remove pan from oven, and working quickly and carefully, place a chocolate chip on top of each cookie. Bake for two more minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for five minutes in the pan, then completely on a cooling rack.
6. While cookies are cooling, toast your coconut. (Spread onto a baking sheet and bake at 350F for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Check often and remove before the coconut browns too much.)
7. Mix the coconut with the orange zest and sugar. If you use unsweetened coconut, you might want to add more sugar to taste.
8. When cookie bites are completely cool, top with a swirl of frosting and roll in the coconut mixture.

I like the buttercream recipe from Simply Sweets by Honeybee only in this case I omitted the almond extract.

I’m linking this recipe up to Simply Sweet Saturdays. Now I’m going to go organize something. Or bake something.

Little Bunny Family

A few weeks ago, my friend Melissa texted me a picture of two bunnies sitting side by side. In the picture, you see their backs as they look out into the sky behind them. It looks like they are either enjoying a nice conversation, or enjoying a comfortable silence together. Either way, they were obviously bunny friends having a nice time together.  She said she had sent the picture to our other friend, Kim, because it reminded her of them. Then, she said, she looked at it and it reminded her of me and my kids. I’m kind of obsessed with them. I really liked that, the idea of sitting and looking at the stars with a child on either side of me, talking about their day.

So I made the idea into cookies.

The larger of the bunnies is my absolute most favorite cookie cutter for Easter (it came in a two pack with a carrot last year or the year before from Walmart or Target- I really should have been more diligent about remembering). You could make it a front facing bunny, absolutely, and give it a little face with whiskers and eyes, and little buck teeth, maybe include little paws holding a little carrot. Absolutely. (I may be a little dependent on the word “absolutely”?) Since I was making this based on a picture of bunnies facing AWAY from the camera, I made their backs… with little sugar bead cotton tails.

Since this is my ABSOLUTE favorite Easter bunny cutter, I wanted to make a smaller version of the same shape to be my little bunny Ellie and bunny Ben. This is what I came up with.

I used the mini bunny face (again, I forget where this is from- maybe Wilton’s Easter mini set?) and a small heart (that I KNOW came from Wilton’s graduated heart set). I cut out the bunny face, and a heart. Then I used the pointy part of the heart to cut a notch into the bunny face. I fit the heart, upside down, into the notch, then used a knife to cut the heart flat. Then I used my fingers to pinch the bottom of the heart into two little feet. Now we have little mini bunnies that match my favorite bunny cutter!

This is a quick easy bunny set you can make if you need something for tomorrow. After baking your bunnies and letting them cool, mix up your icing and divide it into several bowls. (As many bowls as shades of icing you want.) Dye one bowl with white food coloring (if you use clear vanilla in your recipe, you may not need to do this.) If you want an ombre shading like I did, line your bowls up next to each other. Start with two drops of color in the first bowl, one drop in the second, one drop of color with a drop of white in the next, and one drop of color with two drops of white in the last. Reserve some white thick icing for outlining. Thin the rest of the white and all of the colors down to a thicker flooding consistency. I like about a five second count for this.

Outline your bunnies with white and let them set for a few minutes. Then begin to flood your bunnies with your colored icing. Do one to two at a time (depending on your climate and how fast your icing dries) then add your white polka dots while your colored base is still wet. Add a large sugar bead for a tail. Continue until all of your bunnies are covered and dotted and… tailed. Let dry completely, or overnight if you can.

So, speaking of my friend, Kim. Keep and eye out for her blog, The Cookie Puzzle, all throughout April.

Speaking of Melissa, I’m linking these bunnies to her blog, Simply Sweets by Honeybee for Simply Sweet Saturdays.

Hidden Easter Eggs

I am so excited that I was a part of this fun project put together by Hani of Hanielas! We were asked to create a project (cookie, not cookie, non-baked-good…anything) that is related to Easter in some way.

I couldn’t immediately think of anything specific to do, but then I walked into Kitchen Kapers and found some fun mustache cookie cutters and an idea took hold.

So, I baked some egg shaped cookies and played around, trying to make them pretty.

Then I dressed them up a little- you know, in costumes.

Then I hid them.

I hid one on the beach……

One in a palace…..

One in the Old West at high noon….

And one in Hawaii. He’s a private investigator now.

Now you have to see all of the other amazing projects! I get a little flutter in my chest when I think that my project stands among this talent!

3D Easter Bunny by Marielle – De Koekenbakkers

Chick Cupcakes by Robin – Bird On A Cake

Mrs. Bunny Centerpiece by Myriam – Chapix Cookies

Cheesecake Easter Eggs by Beth – Hungry Happenings

Cho “Bunny” Greek Yogurt Pops by Jill – Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons

Hidden Easter Eggs by Stephanie – Ellie’s Bites

Easter Egg Cupcakes by Liz – Hoosier Homemade

Easter Treat Pouches by Elena – Just Me

Mini Meringue Cake by Karyn – Pint Sized Baker

Bunny Cake by Kathia – Pink Little Cake

Easter Gumball Machine by Marlyn – Montreal Confections

Easter Island by Laura – A Dozen Eggs Bake Shoppe

Easter Bunny Sandwich by Michelle – Creative Food

Bunny Garland by Sue – Munchkin Munchies

Egg Hunt Pound Cake by Jennifer – Not Your Momma’s Cookie

Dutch Easter Egg by Lorraine – Lorraine’s Cookies

Easter Egg Painting Chicks by Mike – Semi Sweet

Easter Basket Cookies by Amber – Sweet Ambs Cookies

The Carrot Patch Cake by Kim – The Partiologist

Cookie Bunny Pop by Meaghan – The Decorated Cookie

Pretzel Bunnies by Sarah – Miss CandiQuik

I, Robot Egg Cookie by Hani – Haniela’s

Irish Coffee Caramel Cookie Cups

I’m going to go ahead and bet that the first person to put alcohol in coffee had to be the mother of an almost three year old. It just seems like the perfect example of invention being born of necessity. Of course the idea of taking this alcohol spiked coffee and baking it into something probably came from a mom with a food blog, right?

My friend Melissa, at Simply Sweets by Honeybee, has been hosting these weekly link parties. There are no rules, she just wants anyone to link up anything they have been working on. Actually there is one rule- it must be your own work. Everyone likes to show off a bit and have their work appreciated.

I haven’t exactly been using these weekly link parties to get attention- although it would be nice. I mean I’m home all day trying to keep two kids alive and happy, doing laundry, and cooking nice healthy meals. It’s always nice to hear someone say “great job, Steph!” when I know I’m not going to get it from said kids or the husband who benefits from the clean clothes and healthy meals. Lol. And every week, I get a “Great job, Steph” from Melissa. It’s awesome!!!

Anyway- that’s not why I’ve been doing it. I’ve been trying to stretch my imagination and comfort zone- encouraging myself to try making something other than a decorated cookie or a recipe that came from someone else’s work. I’m making it a goal to take a recipe and make it my own, then to play around with the styling and photographing of whatever baked good comes out of my oven.

This week, I had the idea of Irish Whisky Caramel in my head (probably from Pinterest) and with St. Patricks Day coming up, it was a good time to try this. I can honestly say, I was determined to make this work. It took me two batches of caramel and three rounds of cookie trials to get what I wanted, but I’m glad I persisted because these are GOOD.

Before making these, you’ll need to prepare a batch of Irish Whisky Caramels. I used this recipe only I used 1 tsp vanilla rather than the whole vanilla bean and I skipped the step of sprinkling extra salt on top.  Next brew yourself a cup of strong coffee. I boiled it a bit to reduce it and make it a little stronger. You can definitely use it strait from the cup. Add a splash of Bailey’s Irish Creme to the coffee and stir well. If you have a responsible adult with you who can watch your kids, reserve a tablespoon of the spiked coffee, let that cool completely, and drink the rest. If it’s not a good time for you to drink it, just set the whole thing aside to cool off. You’ll only be using a tablespoon full.

Ingredients

• 1 stick of unsalted butter softened
• 1/3c sugar
• 1/3c brown sugar
• 1 large egg at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1tbsp cooled coffee mixture (with or without Baileys)
• 1/4c unsweetened cocoa powder
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4c flour
• Irish Whisky Caramels cut into 1/4inch squares

1. Preheat oven to 325* and line 24 mini cupcake cavities with mini cupcake liners.
2. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment cream butter and both sugars until fluffy.
3. Add egg, vanilla, and coffee mixture. Mix until combined.
4. Mix in cocoa powder until combined, then add the salt, baking powder, and flour. Mix everything until combined.
5. Use a 1tbsp cookie scoop to scoop dough into the cupcake liners. The dough will be sticky.
6. Bake for 10 minutes.
7. Take the pan out of the oven and, working quickly, gently press a caramel square into the top.
8. Bake an additional 2 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and let cool in pan until the cookies are set up (about 10 minutes) then cool completely on a cooling rack.

The longer you let these set up, the more the taste of Baileys and coffee will come out. If you want you can sprinkle a little salt on top or pipe a little whipped cream, or just serve with some Irish Coffee.

Caramel Maple Bacon Cookies

This week, I made about a hundred trillion baby shower cookies. It is definitely the season for babies!

Instead of sharing those today, though, I played around and made something that has been on my mind.

A few months ago I ran to Whole Foods to pick up a few things and they were having a sale on their flavorings and extracts. I bought a few, including maple extract, with no idea what I would use them for. I can’t believe it took me this long to figure out how to use it!

So, these cookies take a little prep work. A few hours before you plan to bake them, you’ll need to make some bacon, using the bacon making method of your choice. Just make it crispy. I bake mine at 400F for 12 minutes or so. Then you’ll need to brown 1.5 sticks of butter. Do this by melting the butter in a sauce pan. Once it’s melted keep stirring it until it turns brown and smells delicious. Then pour it into a bowl and put it back into the refrigerator until it becomes solid again. Third, make some caramel sauce. I used this recipe by Pioneer Woman, you can use any recipe you like or you can use a store-bought jar. Finally, while your bacon is cooling, your butter is hardening, and your caramel is chilling, make yourself a spinach and egg white omelet and squeeze in an hour on the elliptical. Or referee 10 rounds of “I don’t WANT to watch Willy Wonka again, MOM why do we always watch what HE wants to watch???!!!!”

Once your butter is hardened (but still soft, do you know what I mean?) gather the rest of your ingredients.

• 1.5 sticks unsalted butter (browned)
• 6 Tbsp sugar
• 6 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1 tsp maple extract
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• a pinch of salt (optional- the bacon will make the cookie salty)
• 1.5 cups flour
• 8 slices of crispy bacon chopped into small pieces
• caramel sauce for drizzling

1. Preheat oven to 325F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper
2. In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat together the butter and the two sugars until fluffy
3. add  egg, vanilla, and maple extract. Mix well.
4. Add baking soda, salt, and flour and mix until incorporated.
5. Fold in the bacon
6. Bake for about 18 minutes or until lightly browned
7. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet then move to a cooling rack to cool completely.
8. Heat caramel sauce in a small bowl in 15 second increments until it is pourable. Drizzle the sauce over the cookies.

Making the caramel was tricky for me. I’m not sure what happened to the first batch but it was grainy and all wrong. I threw that batch out and made another one. This one worked perfectly, only I think I let it go for too long, as it was a little harder than a sauce. It was a little tough to drizzle, but it was perfect for sandwiching between two cookies.

Either way you make them, you could probably serve them with a cup of coffee and a spinach and egg white omelet and call them breakfast!

I’ll be linking these to Simply Sweet Saturdays at Simply Sweets by Honeybee.

Inspiration Challenge: March {Spring Is In The Air}

Hey… wait. Where did February go?

I know the groundhog said there would be an early Spring, but I didn’t think it was possible to make a whole month actually disappear!

We didn’t get much snow here in New Jersey again. I’m sorry Midwest. I really don’t mean to rub it in. A bit of snow would have been nice, especially since I actually bought the kids snow suits and boots this year.

Anyway, it won’t be too long before we can go back outside to play. And the playground!

There is one sure way to know that spring is in the air around my house. You look for something else in the air:

My kids are OBSESSED with bubbles. In warmer weather we can go through a bottle a day. Since Ben actually thinks he is Willy Wonka, his favorite thing to do is chant “Bubbles bubbles everywhere, but not a drop to drink” while his sister blows bubbles into the air.

Once again, and I’m sorry, I don’t have a tutorial or even multiple photographs. If you do have the desire to make these, I can tell you that the bubble wand is a baby rattle with the little bumps on the side cut off. The bubble bottle is my latte cup cutter ( a gift from my friend Kim at The Cookie Puzzle who knows how to combine coffee and cookies- my two obsessions!). I know I have to get on the ball and get some tutorials out there. I lost my daylight working hours again and I haven’t had a chance to look for a light box.

My friend, Melissa, however MAKES tutorials. Not only does she make them, she records them and shares them on YouTube! She is awesome and she made the most AMAZING “Spring is in the Air” cookie. The way her mind works just stops me in my tracks. So head over to Simply Sweets by Honeybee and see for yourself. While you are there, you can link up your Spring is in the Air cookie.

Next month, we’ll be celebrating April Showers. Warmer weather, humidity wreaking havoc on royal icing again, allergy attacks. There is just so much inspiration to be found in THAT topic! lol.

So, what says “Spring is in the Air” to you?

Lemon Sandies

I’m turning into that lady who complains all the time. I don’t mean to do it, and actually, I wouldn’t even be bringing it up if this wasn’t a cry for help!

SO- I need a little sleep  advice. Advice on how to get more sleep. My son has stopped sleeping. I know you’re saying “again?”. We went through a rough patch almost a year ago when he learned how to climb out of his crib. We got him a toddler bed and put a gate on his bedroom door and soon he was sleeping like a baby again. We got the most complicated gate on the market figuring it would take him a few years to figure it out. Wrong- it took him two months short of one year. Now, with his new found freedom, he’s discovered he has the capability to explore the house at all hours of the night.

So- what do I do now? Any advice? I will be forever grateful if you leave me the solution in the comments section! I would be so grateful that I would tell you where you can find the recipe to make these:

 

Who am I kidding? I’m too tired to be coy. Of course I am going to share. You can find the recipe here. It is by my friend Melissa at Simply Sweets by Honeybee.

I made a few substitutions. Out of necessity, mind you, not because I thought they would be better this way. I didn’t have salted butter, so I added 1/4 tsp salt to the cookie. And I didn’t have pistachios on hand, so I pulverized 1/2c almonds and 1/2c white chocolate chips in a food processor and used that mixture instead. These cookies taste like buttery air. They are so light and fresh. I wish I still had some in the house since I tend to crave carbs when I’m really tired.

OK- thanks in advance for your advice. I know since I told you where you could find this recipe, you’ll hold up your end of the bargain I’m really looking forward to getting a full night’s sleep tonight!

Anzac Biscuits

As of this month, the book club I am in has been meeting for six years. That is six…. years. Short of being married and, well, being Ellie’s mother I don’t think I have ever committed to ANYTHING for six whole years!

We meet once a month and rotate hosting. The hostess provides food and drinks and we usually discuss the book for at least 10 minutes or so. Unless no one liked the book. Then we just proceed directly to wine.

This past month we read Wildflower Hill by Kimberly Freeman which takes place in Australia, specifically the island of Tasmania.

Wildflower Hill is about Emma- a Prima Ballerina in London who is forced to retire when she is injured. Emma returns home to Sydney, Australia where she discovers that her grandmother, Beattie, has left her the remains of a sheep farm in Tasmania. The story flips back and forth between Emma (in present time) and Beattie (in the years leading up to WWII). As we read about Beattie’s challenges, we also read how Emma finds a new life for herself.

Anyway, we all really liked this book. One thing we got into the habit of doing over the past six years is serving food, or at least one dish, that represents the book in some way. Of course, I turned to a group of cookiers in a Facebook group I belong to. I knew a couple of members live in Australia and they did not disappoint! They unanimously suggested this cookie and it made my kitchen smell so good that I want to make them every time I have company. (Note- if you’ll be selling your home the smell of these cookies freshly baked may get you an offer….)

I used a recipe from Martha Stewart, but I made one change (out of necessity). This recipe called for desiccated coconut. Well, I couldn’t even find unsweetened coconut and unfortunately I didn’t leave myself the time to shred and dehydrate my own coconut. So I just used the sweetened coconut I had in my pantry and made a minor adjustment to accommodate the extra sweetness.

Anzac Biscuit (adapted slightly from Martha Stewart)

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups rolled oats (not the instant kind)
• 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup sweetened coconut dehydrated (spread the coconut in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for about 5-10 minutes at 250- watch carefully at about 5 minutes- don’t let it brown. Here are the instructions I followed)
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup (I used Lyle’s Golden Syrup which my husband found at Wegmans in the Great Britain section of their international foods department)
• 3/4 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1/4 cup boiling water

1. In a large bowl combine flour, oats, sugar, and coconut.
2. In a small sauce pan, combine the butter and the syrup and heat until melted.
3. Add the water with the fully dissolved baking soda to the butter mixture and stir until combined. Work carefully because the butter will foam up when the baking soda mixture is added.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix thoroughly.
5. Scoop the mixture onto parchment lined baking sheets with a 1/4 cup cookie scoop about 2 inches apart. Make sure you pack the scoop so the dough sicks together. It will be very crumbly. Flatten the dough slightly.
6. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. The cookies will be golden and firm, but still soft and chewy inside. Your kitchen will smell like heaven.
7. Let cool completely.

If you can find unsweetened desiccated coconut, I recommend that you follow Martha’s recipe. From what I read, it’s more difficult to find than sweetened coconut, so I thought I would share the changes I made to work with what I had.

If you’re in a book club, I recommend both the book, and the cookie!

Do you have any book/food pairings you can recommend?

I’ll be linking this recipe to Simply Sweet Saturdays at Simply Sweets by Honeybee.

Cookie Dough Stuffed Pound Cake

Does anyone else celebrate half birthdays? Because when Ellie was going around telling everyone it was her half birthday the other day, the majority of the people she told looked at me like I was a little bit crazy.

Is it just us moms that will look for any excuse to bake something?

I’ve been wanting to try something with browned butter and one of the most logical (to me) choices seems to be chocolate chip cookies. After all, they are butter based anyway and it just makes sense that the slightly nutty flavor of browned butter would compliment the brown sugary sweetness of a chocolate chip cookie. So, while the kids were eating breakfast, I melted a stick of butter in a small sauce pan, whisking it constantly until it darkened in color and started smelling really good. Then I poured it into a ramekin and stuck it back into the fridge and went about my morning.

Later that day, I took the browned butter back out of the fridge with every intention of making cookies, but then I had to go and complicate things.

I made the cookie dough as I would usually, but I substituted Ener G Egg Replacer Powder for the egg, which is what I do when I intend to eat the dough raw. Then I rolled the dough into teeny tiny teaspoon sized balls, ate a whole bunch of them, and froze the rest. While they were freezing, I made a chocolate pound cake. No big deal. I used this recipe from Baker’s Royale. When the cake was completely cool, and the cookie dough was frozen, I sliced the chocolate cake into slices and used a small square cookie cutter to cut squares from each slice. Then I used a really small square to cut really small squares from the center of the small squares and I stuffed a ball of cookie dough into each really small square. Then I froze the whole mess over night.

The next morning, I made ANOTHER pound cake- this time using the vanilla cake version, also from Bakers Royale. I chose these recipes because they are basically the same, therefore I knew the consistencies would work together. (Also, I halved both recipes since I only needed one cakes worth.)

After mixing the dough, I poured half into my prepared pan, then tightly packed the cookie dough stuffed squares in a row down the center (not pictured are the extra balls of dough that I placed randomly along the sides). Then I poured the rest of the batter on top and baked it all.

Then I told my daughter that I baked her a half birthday cake.

After a small argument about whether or not presents are appropriate for a half birthday (they are not), we sliced up that cake.

And we ate it.

It was a lot of work, but it was worth it. Especially the next day when the flavors had a chance to sit and blend a little. I wouldn’t skip the step of browning the butter, the cake is so rich that it helps to prevent the flavor of the cookie dough from becoming lost in the rest of the cake. Also, don’t skip the freezing steps. That prevents the cookie dough from baking completely and keeps the chocolate cake from drying out.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (Adapted from The New Basics Cookbook)

• 1 stick of butter , melted, browned, and rechilled, then softened
• 1/2 stick of butter softened
• 6 Tbsp light brown sugar
• 6 Tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp Ener G Egg egg replacer powder dissolved in 2 Tbsp water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup plus 2 tbsp flour
• 1/2-3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

(The original recipe calls for baking soda which I used when I made this, but I would have left it out if I had known from the beginning that I wasn’t going to make cookies from the dough.)

1. Cream together the two butters and the two sugars.
2. Add Ener G Egg and vanilla, mix until smooth.
3. Add salt and flour. Mix until incorporated.
4. Mix in chocolate chips.

This evolved into a half-birthday cake when I was going to cut the chocolate cake into hearts but couldn’t get a clean cut and still have room for the cookie dough. It was supposed to be a Valentines cake. Shhhhh. Please don’t tell Ellie.

Speaking of Ellie. She wants to blog. I guess she wants to be like her mommy (or see what the big deal is?) So, occasionally, I am going to let her pick out a recipe from one of her cook books. We’ll make it together. Then she will photograph (with my help) and write about it (all on her own). We may try our first post this weekend. Please be nice. She’s six… and a half.

I’ll be linking this post to Simply Sweets by Honeybee Simply Sweet Saturdays.

Chocolate Cherry Almond Cookies

I had never tried a baking emulsion until last week. One of my best baking/blogging friends sent me a bottle of lemon emulsion and I really want to try it, but I am waiting for warmer, Springier, more lemony type, weather. So with my curiosity about baking emulsions piqued and an extra twenty dollars floating around my bag, I ran into Home Goods (because of it’s reputation for carrying a wide assortment of discounted baking emulsions) to see what I could find. I didn’t hit the jackpot, but the trip was worthwhile. I found a bottle of vanilla bean paste (another thing I have been meaning to try) and almond emulsion.

When I got home, I opened the bottle of almond emulsion- just to smell it- and it reminded me of something I haven’t thought about in years. Amaretto. Back in my college, just starting to discover alcohol, but not sophisticated enough to try something that doesn’t taste like dessert days, one of my favorites was Amaretto and cream. I know- I’m trying not to think about how many calories I consumed in an average night. But there is something about the memory of that flavor that I wanted to try to capture in an actual dessert (now that I focus on EATING my calories instead of DRINKING them). And there is something about approaching Valentines Day that makes me want to cover the whole thing in chocolate.

So- firstly: is the picture a little busy? I got carried away with the Valentines features on PicMonkey (almost carried away enough to sign up for the paid package). Secondly: I’m going to share the recipe I used,because it tasted REALLY good, however something happened in the baking process which caused the surface to bump and crack a little. I’m not sure what it was and I’ll play around a little the next time I can make cookies for fun and see if I can find the issue. Since they are covered in chocolate, the surface of the cookie didn’t matter much. In fact, I also used some cookies from this batch for a few upcoming projects and the surface didn’t even effect the royal icing. SO it might not even matter.

Chocolate Cherry Almond Cookies (adapted from LilaLoa’s Vanilla Variation)

• 2 sticks of unsalted butter- room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
• 1 tsp almond emulsion
• 2 large eggs-room temperature
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips (or semisweet chocolate finely chopped)
• 1/2 cup almonds (finely chopped in a food processor)
• 1/2 cup dried sour cherries (cut into small pieces)

1. Preheat oven to 375F, line your baking sheets with parchment
2. In a standing mixer, beat the butter until it is soft- scrape the sides of the bowl if needed
3. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy
4. Add the vanilla and almond emulsion, then add each egg beating between additions
5. Add baking powder and salt, mix until combined
6. Add flour- one cup at a time and mix until combined.
7. Using about a quarter of the dough at a time, knead the dough until a smooth ball forms (you may need to coat your surface with a bit of flour, but the dough shouldn’t be too sticky). Roll out the dough to 3/8 inch and cut out your shapes.
8. Bake for about 9-12 minutes depending on your oven. I checked after nine and needed another 1 1/2.
9. When the cookies are finished, take them out of the oven and immediately sprinkle with about 1 tbsp chocolate chips (depending on the size of your shape)
10. Let the chocolate sit for about 2-3 minutes until it starts to melt then use an off set spatula to spread the chocolate.
11. Immediately drop on some cherries and chopped almonds.
12. Let the cookie sit until the chocolate hardens and the cookie cools completely.

If you let these sit for a day or two, in an airtight container, the cookie will get really soft and the flavors of the chocolate, cherry, and almond will marry. In this case, it’s okay to have a marriage of three.

Yes, that heart bokeh is one of the PicMonkey effects.