SPICED TOFFEE CHIP COOKIES

 Spicy Toffee Cookies warm from the oven

On a hot humid day like today most of you are thinking about a cold beer or a pink lemonade on ice.  I waited until the sun was setting so I could turn my oven on and not overheat my house!  Mind you sipping on the iced beverage did help pass the time.

I have had this recipe sitting in a drawer for months with the intention of whipping it up when I had a few minutes.  These contain spices you often associate with the winter season, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger. In my mind warm cookies with a hit of toffee are great for any season.  Just remember if you know anyone with a nut allergy toffee chips contain almonds.

Today during a terrific yoga class the instructor was talking to the class about contentment and enjoying what you have.  We spend so much time thinking about what to do next, our to-do list, how to get more stuff and ways to run around and do more in less time so maybe, just maybe, we can have a half hour to ourselves.

How does this tie into Spicy Toffee Cookies....well it got me to thinking how happy I am in the kitchen and how very content I am in my new space and how happy I am when something I make turns out as tasty as I hope and that lead me to pull out this recipe that keeps getting put on the top of the pile of 'my bake it up soon' recipes but never seems to get done.  So today I took my yoga instructor's advice and enjoyed all my moments of baking up these easy spiced cookies.  I especially enjoyed the "quality control" portion of the exercise.

These are so quick and easy to make they will be added to my regular rotation.

Spiced Toffee Chip Cookies

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar, light or dark
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup toffee bits (I used SKOR bits)
Optional:  3-4 tablespoons of granulated sugar

Beat butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light.  Add in egg and beat well.  Add in vanilla and mix in well.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.  Add into butter mixture and mix until incorporated (just until you no flour is visible).  Add in toffee bits and stir in well.

Drop by tablespoonful onto prepared sheets and DO NOT flatten.  (You could roll into balls but I find using a medium or small ice cream scoop is easier as the dough is quite buttery.)  Space cookies about 2 inches apart as they flatten out and spread during baking.

If you wish you can roll the blobs of dough or the little balls in the sugar before placing on the baking sheets.  I just sprinkled some sugar over top of the cookies before baking.

Bake about 12 minutes or until set.

Suggestion:  Instead of toffee bits chop up some Skor bars and add in the chocolate toffee bar pieces.

I don't think you can eat just one of these spicy toffee chewy cookies.
 

Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

I seem to be craving chocolate more than usual, which is saying something believe you me, and I remembered a mouth-watering rich chocolate goodie I used to bake up.  I found this easy to whip up chocolate shortbread recipe back in 2006 on the 'Chipits' site.  

I did omit the white Chipits when I baked these up as I wanted to roll them and cut them out into shapes.  By all means add it some white chocolate chips, or mini chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips.  But these are definite winners on their own without the add ins.

The dough comes together nicely in a stand mixer and is fairly soft but can still be quickly kneaded together and patted out to about 1/4 inch thickness.  You could even drop the dough by spoonfuls and flatten slightly with the heel of your hand onto the prepared sheets to hasten the process.

Little Chocolate Angels

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup cocoa

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

chocolate chips if desired

Preheat oven to 300F and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla until creamy.  Add in cocoa and blend well.  Gradually add flour, stirring until smooth.  (I did all steps in my stand mixer using the #1 speed when adding in cocoa and flour).

Roll or pat the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness on lightly floured surface.  (I patted out in 3 different portions for ease of handling.) Using cookie cutter cut out desired shapes and place about an inch apart on prepared sheets.  You can re-roll scrapes of dough.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes until firm.  

Like I mentioned how easy is that and they are superb...well in my humble opinion.

These will also freeze well!  Great with a cup of tea or coffee on a beautiful Sunday in June.

Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate and a Little Peanut Butter

Firstly I should say the opinions expressed in this blog after a week of dieting late on a Saturday night in no way reflect the views of my sponsors.  Oh wait a sec, there are no sponsors and I can say whatever the heck I want!

So before we get to the baking part of tonight's blog I have been ruminating on a recent advertisement I keep hearing over and over and over on the radio.  Now perhaps this ad is irritating me just a tad since I happen to be on my own this evening while each of my boys is out doing there own thing, my ex is on vacation with his latest squeeze and a number of women I know seem to be always on the go looking after everything and worrying about their husbands reactions in case things are not done just how they would like.  How does this tie into the advertisement....well it seems we are not quite busy enough looking after our children, our jobs, our homes, etc. we are now being held responsible for our men's nether regions!!  I have never had a penis nor do I currently have the use of one but it seems I or any woman who comes in contact with their friends/partners/spouses appendage is to be responsible for making sure this area is checked out by the doctor.  I always thought this part of a guy was of the utmost importance to them and as they handle it every day, several times I would imagine, shouldn't they be worrying about it instead of us?

Well I don't know about you but it seems we have enough to worry about with our own stuff since we were probably 10 or 11... like to shave or to wax or to laser...if we laser what happens if the trend changes to the au naturel look and the hair won't come back, what happens if we shave and we get an ingrown and it shows while we are at the beach in our swimsuits, and then there's periods...pads or tampons, leaks both from that and from our bladders due to birthing babies where everybody seems to need to poke around down there and then some (but no one seems to be to concerned about us laying there with a tissue paper sheet covering us and a cold clamp awaiting us) or, OMG, did you see the size of those shears they used to cut us when we're in labour!  As if we don't have enough responsibility with our own parts down there! Were your sweet fellas overly concerned when you were pushing out babies, getting stiched up, etc. etc.  Now imagine if they had to put their package on a tray and have 10 pounds of cold metal come down and squish it for about 25 seconds (you know, like a mammogram).  Probably even less men would go for their check up....but then probably the technology would be changed so they wouldn't have to endure that!  I just feel the ad should be directed at the fellow with the correct piece of anatomy.  So now I feel a bit better! Whew, that has been weighing on my mind.

So now on to tonight's chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and a little peanut butter.  The cupcakes are chocolate with some chocolate chips added in and the icing is chocolate with some peanut butter beaten in with the butter for a yummy mix of flavours.

Tonight's recipe is one my mom found I last Month's Toronto Sun by the food writer.  Since she took the time to cut it out and mail it to me I figured I should give it a try.  The recipe is celebrating 100 years of Hellmann's Mayonnaise and Rita DeMontis includes her tweaked version of the 1937 Hellmann's recipe.

Perfectly shaped Chocolate Cupcakes before Frosting

Chocolate \Peanut Butter Icing

These babies are so simple no mixer is required.  The icing you will need a hand mixer to whip it up but it comes together in a couple of minutes.

I did Google the Hellmann's site and found, what I believe to be the original recipe.  The original includes eggs and a little more sugar.  Try this adapted version designed to make about 24 cupcakes (I got 18)  and see what you think.  These baked up beautifully and came together in just a few minutes with 2 medium bowls, a whisk and a spatula plus 18 lined muffin cups.  I used a large ice cream scoop, I'd say about 1/3 cup size, and that was perfect.

Notice this recipe has no eggs but does require buttermilk and Hellmann's mayo.  Good luck!

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes - Toronto Sun, Wednesday, May 29

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line 18-24 muffin tins with liners.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup good quality cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup Hellmann's mayonnaise
1 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

In bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and baking powder and salt.  In separate bowl, whisk together sugar, mayonnaise, buttermilk and vanilla until well blended.

Add dry ingredients into wet mixture and stir until combined.

Portion out into prepared pans and bake for approx. 20 or until cake tester comes out clean.

Ice with your favourite icing.

To mix up the Chocolate/Peanut Butter Icing I used:
1/2 cup soft butter, about 1/3-1/2 cup smooth peanut butter and mixed it together well with a mixer.  I added in about 3 cups of icing sugar plus some cocoa powder and I also melted about 1/4 cup of milk chocolate chips just because I could.  I used a little bit of cream to make a spreadable icing.

Iced Smooth with Pastel Sprinkles