Crispy Oatmeal Cookies

The thing about these cookies is that they look.....well, ugly. This photo does not really capture their unattractiveness, but trust me, they were. They were ultra flat - so flat they were almost transparent. But I suppose that thinness is what makes them so crisp. The recipe calls for flattening the dough before baking. I didn't and I'm not sure why they even request it since they had no problem flattening by themselves. They certainly are delicious and they have so much oatmeal in them they definitely taste like a true classic oatmeal cookie. My family prefers thin crunchy cookies while I prefer thick, chewy & cakey. So I try to find crispy cookie recipes when I can. These cookies had gotten rave reviews on allrecipes.com and like I said, they are wonderful cookies. I just wonder if they will stay crispy after storing them?





Crisp Oatmeal Cookies
Based on a recipe from Allrecipe.com

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup shortening
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 cups quick cooking oats

Directions

1. Cream together shortening, margarine, and sugars.
2. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. Mix in flour,spices, salt, and baking soda. Add oats & Mix well.
4. Shape into long rolls and roll in wax paper. Chill until firm.(I simply used my small cookie scoops and place the chilled dough right onto the cookie sheet - did NOT flatten).
   
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
6. Slice 1/4 inch slices and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Press with fork dipped in milk.
7. Bake for 10 minutes.

Maryann's Chocolate Cake

This is another Cake Doctor recipe. I pull out that book when I'm short on time. I had no reason for making these cupcakes other than it just sounded fun. Do you ever just bake on a weeknight just because it sounds fun? I don't even walk in the door from work until about 7:00 pm and then I go to bed about 10:00 but I manage to bake something in those 3 hours along with making dinner, doing laundry, getting the kids ready for bed, playing with the kids and surfing baking blogs! It's nights like these when a cake mix really comes in handy. But anyway, these cupcakes were delicious. Very light and fluffy in texture which kind of surprised me because so many other ingredients were added to the cake mix. I used a dark chocolate cocoa powder which really made them super chocolatey. I iced them with a nice rich, sweet buttercream frosting! Chocolate & vanilla...can't beat that classic combo.







Maryann's Chocolate Layer Cake
From The Cake Doctor Returns

1 white or yellow plain cake mix
1 package (3.9 oz) chocolate instant pudding mix
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/3 cups water
1 cup chocolate syrup
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs

Heat oven to 350 degrees
Prepare Pans (The Cake Doctor makes this as a layer cake - I made cupcakes)


Mix all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer on low speed about 30 seconds until combined. Stop mixer and scrape bowl. Continue beating on medium speed for 2 minutes. Scraping bowl if needed. Pour into pans. Bake until top springs back when lightly touched.

Shortbread Cream Sandwiches

Next to chocolate chip cookies, these are my all time favorite cookie. The combination of my favorite shortbread cookie with a delicious and ridiculously sweet buttercream filling is just sinful. I LOVE these cookies. And don't the little pastel sprinkles just add to the sweetness of them? I made these for a friend I was going to visit today. She lives right across the street from Alki Beach in West Seattle in this little apartment that was built in the early 1900's. It's an old brick building with gorgeous hardwood floors and has more character than any aparment I've ever seen. She has decorated every room with a different theme and different colors. One room is "Old Hollywood" and she painted it all powder pink with black trim. She made a lovely brunch with tea and we sat and ate our quiche and then munched on these wonderful cookies while watching the pounding rain on the beach across the street. What a gray rainy day! I love it!

Ok, back to the cookies....these really do make a beautiful presentation and are so easy to put together. They look professional and package so nicely. I don't know anyone who would not like these and you can be so versatile with them. I ran out of buttercream before I filled all of my cookies so I melted some semi sweet chocolate and dipped several of them halfway in chocolate and then sprinkled the melted chocolate with the pastel sprinkles. You can fill them with a chocolate buttercream. You can put a different flavoring in the cookies. I used vanilla but you could experiment with almond, or lemon or coconut. How about using coconut in the shortbread then sprinkling the sides of the buttercream filling with coconut flakes instead of sprinkles? There sure are alot of options. I've posted this shortbread recipe on my blog a few times now but I will post it again because it's such a perfect and tasty cookie.




Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups butter, softened 2 cups confectioners' sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 4 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.	In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 2 cups confectioners' sugar. Beat in the vanilla and salt. Add flour one cup at a time, mixing well after each. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and place them 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in confectioners' sugar. (I used my really small cookie scoop to get them all a uniform size - that way I didn't have to handle the dough with my hands).
3.	Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until a light golden brown. Buttercream (I have no exact measurements but I just add milk or confectioners sugar till I get the consistency I want). Unsalted Butter - about 2 sticks Shortening - about 1 cup Powdered Sugar - About 6 cups Vanilla - about 1 teaspoon (I use clear vanilla so my icing doesn't get too discolored). Touch of salt Milk, preferably whole or half & half (add till you get correct consistency) Cream together the butter & shortening till fluffy. Add the vanilla or your choice of flavoring. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time along with the pinch of salt. Add milk till you reach the desired consistency. Sometimes I add too much milk and need to add more sugar. Just keep going till your satisfied. I like my icing pretty thick if I'm using it for a sandwich cookie. Thicker than I normally would to ice a cake.

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

There is no one in my house who will eat this bread besides myself and I love it! I got the recipe from the Nestle verybestbaking.com website. It has unanimous rave reviews. I was looking for something to do with my extra cans of pumpkin and I'm sick of making pumpkin cake and I didn't feel like making pumpkin pie and then I came across this recipe. I happen to have a bag of fresh cranberries in the fridge but I couldn't decide between the fresh cranberries or my huge Costco size bag of Ocean Spray dried cranberries - so I used both. The recipe calls for either one. My one single change for this recipe is I added a big splash of vanilla. I'm not sure why, I just love vanilla and I feel like it enhances everything. I ate some of this bread while warm and then tried it again after it cooled, and for once, the cooled product was much tastier than the warm. It just needed to sit for awhile. It would be really good with nuts if you are into nuts. At first I wasn't sure about the addition of orange juice. I figured orange & cranberry are a good match but I like my pumpkin bread or cake to NOT have any orange flavor. But in the end, the orange juice taste was so subtle. It was delicious. I made my bread into mini loaves and I sprayed only the bottom of my nonstick pans, then lined the very bottom with a strip of parchment. I no longer spray the sides of my pans because I find that I get a nicer domed top on my loaves when the sides are left bare - but then again, my pans are nonstick.

And this recipe is sooo quick and easy to put together. It would be fun to make with kids. Oh, and the house smells heavenly while baking!!

I chopped my fresh cranberries. I thought biting into a whole cranberry would be too much.

Very moist and very fragrant. Using oil always makes for a nice moist cake.

Libby's Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 can (15 ounces) pure pumpkin
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup orange juice or water
• 1 cup sweetened dried, fresh or frozen cranberries

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease and flour two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.

COMBINE flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil and juice in large mixer bowl; beat until just blended. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans.

BAKE for 60 to 65 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Recipe makes two loaves.

FOR THREE 8 x 4-INCH LOAF PANS:
PREPARE as above. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes.

FOR FIVE OR SIX 5 x 3-INCH MINI-LOAF PANS:
PREPARE as above. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes.

Marcy's Legendary Chocolate Chip Cookies

ANOTHER new chocolate chip cookie recipe. This recipe is from my Passion for Baking cookbook. It's a wonderful recipe. Not my favorite but very decent. It makes a somewhat flat cookie but not totally flat. I like my cookies really thick with a ridged top and these are smooth and flat on top. But the flavor here is a true and pure chocolate chip cookie flavor. Very tasty! The edges are crispy after removing from the oven but soften after storing them.

Marcy's Legendary Chocolate Chip Cookies

from A Passion for Baking, Marcy Goldman

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1-1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar (I used 1 cup dark and ½ cup light)

1/4 cup white sugar

1 TBSP pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 egg yolk

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 10 5/8 oz)

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1-1/2 cups chopped semisweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350. Stack two baking sheets together and line the top sheet with parchment paper. (I did not bother with this step. I used one baking sheet & lined with parchment.) Arrange oven rack to upper third of oven.

In a mixer bowl, cream butter with sugars until well blended. Add vanilla, eggs, and egg yolk. Fold in flour, baking soda, salt, chocolate chips, and chopped chocolate and blend well to make a thick batter. If batter seems soft and greasy, add 2 to 4 TBSP more flour. Dough should be soft but not too greasy or slick. You can also chill it 10 minutes if you think it has enough flour or let it stand 20 minutes. (I did not do either.) Either approach will help cookie dough "set up."

Scoop or form balls of 7 to 8 ounces of dough and place on prepared baking sheets about 2 to 3 inches apart. If you don't have a scale, use 1 cup dough per cookie; each will measure 3 inches in diameter once placed on the baking sheet. ( I did not make mine this big).

Bake 20 to 24 minutes or until cookies are nicely browned on top and just set-up looking. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before sliding the parchment with cookies right onto a cooling rack.

Chocolate Savannahs

These cookies are a total chocolate overload! Deep, dark, fudgy, intense & very rich. There is a LOT of chocolate in these cookies. They are wonderful and easy to make. They are best when taken out of the oven slightly underdone. They are still good when thoroughly baked but when slightly underdone, they are much more gooey and almost fudge like in texture. Like always, I made a double recipe and it called for 24 ozs of bittersweet chocolate (TWENTY FOUR ounces! Yikes) AND 8 ounces of unsweetend chocolate. And the thing is, all that chocolate did not even amount to a lot of cookies. But I did make bigger scoops onto the cookie sheet than the recipe called for. I used my very large ice-cream scoop. Since the cookies did not spread that much, the cookies weren't huge - probably 3 inches across. The dough, after sitting awhile, becomes very stiff and kind of difficult to scoop out. I guess that's why the cookies hold their shape so well during baking. So after you melt the unsweetened and the bittersweet chocolate to add to the dough, you also add the 6 tablespoons of cocoa powder (remember, double recipe) and THEN you need to add SIX cups of semi sweet chocolate chips! Yowza!! I can't get over it! These are intense and if you know someone who is crazy about dark chocolate, then you must make these cookies for them. In fact, these are so dark in flavor, that I actually added a few more tablespoons of sugar to sweeten them a bit but I'm sure that most folks wouldn't bother. I have made other recipes in the past that were similar but I think these might be the best. There is no doubt, they are fairly expensive to make because of all the chocolate but they are worth it. They would make a lovely gift for someone who was a chocolate fanatic!

This is another recipe out of my Chocolate Chocolate cookbook by Lisa Yockelson.

As the dough sat, it got quite hard to scoop out!

The top of the cookies kind of developed that flakey shiney brownie like texture.

You can see in this photo how fudgy the inside was. Not crumbly at all!

Chocolate Savannahs, Remodeled
ChocolateChocolate, Lisa Yockelson

Ingredients
1/3 cup cake flour
1/3 cup AP flour
3 T unsweetened alkalized cocoa powder
1/2 t baking powder
1/8 t salt
1 1/3 cups plus 2 T superfine sugar
4 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
10 T (1 stick plus 2 T) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to tepid
12 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
3 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper

In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugar, eggs and egg yolk on medium speed for 1 minute (longer if you are whisking by hand. Add the vanilla, melted butter and chocolates and continue beating for another 1-2 minutes, until thoroughly combined.

Combine the flours, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder and sift them into the melted chocolate/egg mixture. Blend in completely. Fold in the chocolate chips. Set the dough side for at least 5 minutes.

Scoop 2 tablespoon rounds of cookie dough onto the prepared cookie sheet, 2 inches apart
(I thought for sure they would spread into one another, but they don't spread much at all)

Bake for 10-12 minutes- just until barely set. (I felt the very edge of the cookie. If it was slightly hardened and kept it's shape, I called them done even though the middle still looked underdone.) The baked cookies will no longer look wet on top but will still be somewhat soft. Let them cool on the sheet for 3-4 minutes and then slide the parchment paper onto a cooling rack and let them completely cool.

Cold Oven Poundcake

I'm so excited about this poundcake! I'm really really thrilled! Look closely....it has a DOME on it! It rose! Hooray! (I get excited about the smallest of things). This cake is a combination of a few different recipes but I think the main difference is that I used the "cold oven" method of baking. I placed the cake batter into a cold oven - no preheating. After placing it in a cold oven, I turned the temp to 325 degrees and did not open the oven door until it was basically done. I had read about the cold oven method in Cooks Illustrated and also a few other blogs. It was a method of baking that I had never tried and the claim was that you'd get a nice rise in your poundcake. A nice dome on my poundcake has always eluded me...until now. And the crumb on this cake is so very tender and fine. It almost has the texture of a cake mix which is not what many folks think of when they think of poundcake. Almost like the texture of the frozen Sarah Lee Poundcake. I think it's awesome. Not heavy or dense. I also put a nice lemon glaze on top. Oh, as for the flavor of the actual cake, I put 3 different flavors in mine. I added vanilla extract, almond extract & some grated lemon zest. It was a wonderful combination of flavors but of course, you can change those flavors to suit your taste.

Yeah, I definitely recommend this perfect recipe. It would excellent with a nice berry sauce on top with a big dollop of whipped cream!


I wish it were daylight so I could have gotten a better photo. But notice how buttery it looks. It was still quite warm when I took this photo, but it was late and I wanted to go to bed. I love warm poundcake though and so did my boys. Mmmmm!

You can kind of see in this photo how the lemon glaze created kind of a slightly crunchy texture on top. It would have been wonderful without the glaze but I love the added flavor and texture and moistness.

This is now my GO TO pound cake recipe. But ya know what? I was so proud of this cake and my husband said "I like your old recipe a lot better". He is talking about the previous flat, dense and heavy poundcakes I have made. Like I said, this newest one was a lot lighter and cake mix like in texture. Not quite fluffy, but a much lighter crumb than my usual pound cakes. Once again, me and him disagree on what is a perfect pastry characteristic. Sigh.

Cold Oven Pound Cake

3 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
1 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)
2 1/2 sticks butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
6 large eggs

Adjust oven rack to middle upper position.

Prepare pans.

( I used my mini nonstick loaf pans and sprayed only the bottom. I've read that spraying the sides of the pan causes the batter to not rise as high because there is no "grip" on the sides. I also put a small lining of parchment paper on the bottom to make sure there is no sticking.)

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in bowl.

Whisk sour cream, milk and extracts & zest in a measuring cup.

With electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined.

Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of milk/sour cream mixture, starting with the flour mixture.

Mix on low until smooth, about 30 seconds.

Use rubber spatula to give batter final stir.

Pour batter into prepared pan/s and smooth top.

Place cake in cold oven.

Adjust oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake, without opening oven door, until cake is golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove cake from oven and cool on wire rack. Remove from pans about 10 minutes later. (I waited about 5 minutes since mini loaf pans cool a lot quicker).

While the cakes were still warm I glazed mine with a mixture of fresh lemon juice mixed with powdered sugar. I used a pastry brush and very generously glazed each loaf.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

Check these babies out!!! These are outrageous! Sinful, decadent and sooooo delicious! This recipe is a combination of a few different recipes. I originally saw these on...I think "Lovin in the Oven" blog. I took her idea but used my own recipes. I've always loved the Ghirardelli brownie recipe. It's in the Ghirardelli cookbook but also listed on the back of their sweet ground cocoa can. So you take any brownie recipe (even a box mix if you'd like), bake it in a 13x9 inch pan, let the brownies cool and then top them with the eggless chocolate chip cookie dough recipe below. I also melted some semi-sweet chocolate chips with a touch of shortening and piped some on top of the raw cookie dough. The whole combination is unbelievable to me! Let me remind you, I love chocolate chip cookie DOUGH more than I do the actual baked chocolate chip cookie. So this recipe is pretty much next to perfect. Some folks said "Oh they are sooo rich!". (me, rolling my eyes). There is nothing too rich for me. I can eat half the damn pan. No really, I can.

The cookie dough spreads nicely on the cooled brownies. It's not a super thick cookie dough but after chilling, it's nice and firm like a soft fudge.

I usually add extra chocolate chips to my brownies but they were just left plain for this recipe.

I know this photo is out of order but some for some reason, I couldn't cut & paste it properly. But anyway, this was the cookie dough I spread on top. It was the perfect amount for a 13x9 inch pan. I used Guittard milk chocolate chips in it.

I really liked the look of the drizzled melted chocolate on top. Might be pretty with some melted white chocolate.

GHIRARDELLI Brownies
From my Ghirardelli cookbook

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups Ghirardelli ground chocolate
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Using a spoon, stir eggs with sugar and vanilla; add butter.
Sift GHIRARDELLI GROUND CHOCOLATE with flour, baking powder and salt.
Stir into egg mixture; add nuts if using.
Spread into greased 13x9 inch pan.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Topping:
1 c. butter, softened
1 c. packed light brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
4 Tbsp. milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Combine first 5 ingredients in a mixing bowl and cream together. Add flour and stir until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread in an even layer on top of cooled brownies.

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

I think I might have posted this recipe before but it is just so damn good that I need to post it again. These definitely are one of my favorite cookies that I have ever made. I orginally found the recipe on allrecipes.com. The recipe is wonderful as written but I have played around with it before using different extracts & an assortment of add ins (coconut, dried cranberries, nuts, lemon zest). This time I followed the recipe (except no nuts) and the cookies turned out perfect as always. Another great thing about this recipe, it's so simple and quick to put together. It calls for 2 cups of butter which sounds like a lot but it doesn't produce a ton of cookies. They are just super buttery cookies. There is a slight amount of coconut extract in here, that at first I thought sounded like an odd addition. It's just enough coconut extract to taste it but it's difficult to recognize the flavor. It definitely adds something to the cookies and makes them over the top good. To really speed up the process, I just used my cookie scoop to place the balls of dough on the cookie sheet (the recipe calls for rolling balls of dough in your hands).

I cannot rave enough about this recipe. You just need to try it. Trust me, you will continue to bake these again and again. Soooooo good!


I know the photos aren't that great but hey, it was late, the light was bad and I wanted to go to bed.

Chocolate chip shortbread cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups butter, softened 2 cups confectioners' sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract 4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted 3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.	In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 2 cups confectioners' sugar. Beat in the vanilla and coconut extracts and salt. Add flour one cup at a time, mixing well after each. Stir in the chocolate chips and pecans. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and place them 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with a fork dipped in confectioners' sugar.
3.	Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until a light golden brown. While cookies are still warm from the oven, dust with the remaining confectioners' sugar.

Cinnamon Apple Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Looking for an easy cake to throw together quickly? This is a great recipe to consider. It's a doctored up cake mix and it's from my new Cake Doctor book! I really really enjoy these cupcakes. The book lists this recipe under "layer cakes" but I needed cupcakes for a birthday so I chose to make these in standard cupcake form. I highly recommend this recipe. Yes, I do love baking cakes from scratch but I must admit, I do love the fluffy texture of cake mix cakes. Such a fine crumb and never dry or crumbly. The flavor of this cake is so autumn like. I added an extra shake of allspice but other than that, I followed the recipe.

I don't own any other Cake Doctor book but I have looked at them several times. Every once in awhile - mostly when I'm short on time - I like to pull out a cake mix and doctor it up to jazz it up a bit. There are sooo many recipes in this book! I want to make at least 50% of them!

I had never bought a spice cake, cake mix before. I usually stick with white & devils food.

They rose nicely. Slightly domed and did not spill over even though I filled the cups 3/4 full.

For the icing, I made a simple cream cheese icing. Cream Cheese, Butter, Powdered sugar, vanilla & milk.

One thing about cake mix cupcakes.....they are so light and fluffy that my big tall cap of icing is so heavy that it makes it tip right over!

Cinnamon Apple Spice Cake
From my "The Cake Mix Doctor Returns" cookbook

1 package plain spice cake mix
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup cinnamon applesauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 large eggs

Oven at 350 degrees
Spray cake pans or line cupcake tins with liners

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop to scrape bowl. Increase mixer speed to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes longer, scraping the bowl as needed.

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake till the cake springs back when lightly touched.



Note: The original recipe in the book calls for one 14.5 oz. jar of spiced apple rings - pureed, but if you can't find those, it reads to use 1 cup of cinnamon applesauce.

Double Decker Fudge Brownies

Oh my word!!!! That's what I have to say about these awesome, delicious decadent brownies. I LOVED this recipe! Just the right amount of chocolatety-ness, sweetness, fudginess, cakeyness & thickness. They were just what I like in a brownie. Everything about them was perfect. I found the recipe in my "Chocolate Chocolate" cookbook by Lisa Yockelson. I love this book but I don't pick it up that often to bake from it. There are sooo many recipes in this book and the photos are lovely. These brownies are a nice cross between a fudgy brownie and a cakey one. They are not extremely dark chocolate but not milk chocolate either. I think everyone should try making these! Yes, they are rich but aren't brownies supposed to be rich? The fudge topping is what makes them so rich but they would not be nearly as good without the fudge topping - in my opinion anyway. The recipe calls for a 9x9 inch pan but I doubled the recipe and used a 13x9 inch pan. There was a little too much batter for the 13x9 so I scooped some out and made some small cupcake size with the extra batter. The 13x9 inch pan ended up with some really thick brownies!

If you really like chocolate, I highly recommend this book. It is PACKED with recipes! It's a very thick book.

I think if you used the 9x9 inch pan that the recipe suggests, your fudge topping would not be so thick. The fudge icing on top starts off being so silky, just like a nice frosting but it sets quickly and becomes fudge like.

The recipe calls for mini chocolate chips to be mixed in the batter but all I had was regular size. The regular size worked fine. They added some extra chocolately chunks to bite into!

These are going to be so difficult for me to leave alone! God these are good!

Double Decker Fudge Brownies
Chocolate Chocolate cookbook by Lisa Yockelson

3/4 cup bleached cake flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate
4 large eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teasoons vanilla extract

(Fudge topping recipe below)

Oven 325 degrees
9x9 inch pan - sprayed

Sift cake flour, all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder & salt onto sheet of waxed paper.

In small bowl, toss chocolate chips with 3/4 teaspoon of the sifted mixture.

In a medium size mixing bowl, whisk the melted butter, melted unsweetened chocoalte, and melted bittersweet chocolate until smooth.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs until blended, about 15 seconds. Add the sugar and whisk till combined, about 45 seconds. Blend in vanilla and melted butter/chocolate mixture. Sift the flour mixture over and stir to form a batter, mixing thoroughly until the particles of flour are absorbed. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Scrape the batter into a prepared pan and spread evenly (batter will be thick). Smooth the top.

Bake brownies for 35 to 40 minutes or until set.

After removed from oven, let the baked brownies stand in the pan on a cooling rack for 3 minutes. Carefully place dollops of frosting (recipe below) on top of the hot brownies. Smooth and spread the icing, being careful not to cut into the top of the brownies.

Let the brownies stand in the pan on a cooling rack for at least 5 hours or until completely cool. The topping should be set and softly firm.

Chocolate Fudge Topcoat

3 3/4 cups, plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 tablespoons milk at room temperature

Mix the powdered sugar & salt in large mixing bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk the melted butter and melted chocolate until smooth.

Blend in vanilla extract.

Pour the chocolate mixture over the powdered sugar, add the milk and beat for 2 minutes on low speed, using an electric hand mixer or until combined and smooth. Scrape down sides of the bowl once or twice to maintain even texture.

Use the topcoat immediately.

Do NOT overbeat this topcoat. Keep mixer on low speed. Overbeating will create volume and spoil the fudge like texture. LOW SPEED!