Baci Di Dama

Baci di Dama are an Italian cookie, otherwise known as ladie's kisses.  They are a super cute little hazelnut cookie.

 I like them because they are not overly sweet, and I enjoy eating them for breakfast with coffee (real healthy right?) And for a lot of snacks throughout the day.  

They are addicting, I must warn you. 
And did I mention they are gluten free?

I'm always pleased to find cookie recipes that are gluten-free.  I don't have a gluten allergy, but The Step-dad does, and I'm always looking for recipes I can serve when he's around.

It's not just about being able to serve him good food.

It's about serving good food while no one even notices that it's all gluten free.  

That's the challenge. 

These little bites of heaven stand up to that challenge.  They are soft and crumbly, slightly sweet and nutty.

This is a simple recipe.  Easy, limited ingredients.  And the perfect small sized cookie that you can pop in your mouth in one bite.  And eat for breakfast, midmorning snack, mid afternoon snack, pre dinner snack, after dinner snack.  :)

Alternatively to sandwiching the cookies, you could just dip half in chocolate if you so desired. 

Baci di Dama 

Teressa Murphy's recipe

1 1/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skinned

1 cup rice flour (can sub 1 cup all purpose flour, but note cookies will not be gluten free)

3 1/2 ounces unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, at room temp

1/2 cup sugar

pinch salt

2 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Pulse hazelnuts in a food processor until very fine- should be the consistency of coarse polenta.  Pour into a large bowl and add the rice flour.  Mix and add the butter.  Use your hands to mix together.  Don't be afraid to squish the dough with your hands so the butter holds the flour together. The dough will be smooth and hold together.  If it doesn't, knead until it does.

The dough will still be a bit crumbly and a little hard to handle.  Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces.  Roll each piece into a rope about an inch thick.  Try to make the rope smooth, no cracks.  If it's too difficult to handle, Divide the rope in half again, making 6 one inch thick ropes.  Wrap each rope in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or freeze for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Remove one log from the fridge.  Do not remove all of them, you need them to be cold to be easy to handle and to cook properly.  (Letting the sit at room temp allows butter to soften to much- the cookie will cook into a flat pancake shape versus the half round shape in the pictures).

Use a knife to cut a small sliver of dough.  Press into a ball about the size of a marble. You can try rolling the dough into a marble, but I found dough too crumbly.  Pressing it worked better for me.

Continue pressing dough into same size marbles and place on baking sheet about an inch apart.  When done with that log, remove next log from fridge and continue.

Bake 10-14 minutes, until tops of cookies are lightly golden. Rotate cookie sheets halfway through baking for even cooking.   Let cookies cool completely.

In a skillet, add water until one inch deep.  Bring water to a simmer. Place a heat safe bowl in the skillet, and add the chocolate.  Melt until smooth.  Use a butter knife to gather a little melted chocolate and place on the bottom of one cookie.  Take another cookie and sandwich them together.  

If you're having a hard time keeping the chocolate from drizzling all over the cookie, try dunking one cookie in the chocolate, just until the base is coated, and then sandwiching them together.  Start the process with any unattractive cookies (any that may have melted into pancakes).  No use wasted you're prettiest cookies trying to figure out how to control chocolate drizzle :)

Set the cookies sideways on a wire rack and let the chocolate harden until firm.

Double Mint Chocoholic Cookies

Cookies, cookies, cookies.

This is my first year without family and friends nearby for the holidays.

I don't have any cookie exchanges.

I won't be bringing cookies to work.

You think that'll stop me from baking way too many cookies?!  Heck no it won't.  

The Boyfriend says these taste like thin mints, and he's right.  A thin mint taste with a moist cookie interior.  

Yum.

I baked these as cookies and in a bar form, and I'll be honest, I prefer the cookies.  The cookies turned out absolutely perfect, and while the bars were so good in taste, they are not fun to try to cut into squares.  It just kind of crumbles.  I managed to get a few nice cuts, but mostly we just ate 'brownie crumble.'

To make the cookies more festive I rolled them in red sprinkles. 

Double Mint Chocoholic Cookies

Modified from Cathy Lowe's recipe

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1 tbsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp mint extract

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 10 oz package dark chocolate and mint morsels

5 oz semi sweet chocolate chips

Red sprinkles (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix together the butter, both sugars, vanilla, mint extract, and cocoa.  Add the flour mixture gradually and once combined, add the mint and chocolate chips.  

Roll the dough into 1 inch (or larger if you prefer) balls.  If you are using the red sprinkles, pour a bunch of sprinkles in a bowl and roll each ball of dough in the sprinkles. Place cookie balls on greased baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes and let cool on a wire rack.

Dark Chocolate Coconut Cake

The perfect midafternoon snack- 

coffee and cake!

This Dark Chocolate Coconut cake is not overly sweet or decadent. 

It's sophisticated. 

Deep, dark, and chocolaty. 

The yogurt and coconut add another layer of sweet moistness.

And the glaze adds gives it a sheen chocolate crust.  

The perfect ending to a holiday brunch,

or perhaps a slice during teatime...

this cake will sooth the winter blues away.

You'll note instructions say to bake in a bundt pan.

You'll also notice in the pictures I did not bake mine in a bundt pan. 

A tragedy of moving- lost, forgotten kitchen supplies.

Like Toy Story, only it's my bundt pan and spatulas dancing around my room.

I encourage you to reconnect with your bundt pan though.  

Dark Chocolate Coconut Cake

This recipe is from Grace Parisi for Food and Wine Magazine

CAKE:

 7 oz bag sweetened shredded coconut (about 2 cups)

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 large egg white

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

scant 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 sticks (6 oz) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar

3 large eggs

3 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

2 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups plain nonfat yogurt

GLAZE:

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Make the sweet coconut/yogurt filling. In a small bowl, combine the chopped coconut, egg white, and condensed milk.  Using your hands, form this mixture into an 18' long rope, and wrap in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes, until slightly firm.

2. Make the cake. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and butter and flour an 8-cup bundt pan.  In a small bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate, large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar, beating until light and fluffy, and add the eggs one at a time.  Once combined, add in the melted chocolate and the vanilla.  Finally, add the flour mixture and the yogurt in batches- add a bit of flour, mix, add a bit of yogurt, mix, flour, mix, yogurt, mix, etc until all of the flour mixture and yogurt is gone and batter is smooth. 

3.  Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan.  Remove the coconut rope from the fridge, unwrap, and place on top of the batter, following the circle of the pan.  Let the rope sink into the batter a bit (give it a few pokes to help it sink in) until the rope is beneath the surface and fully covered by about an inch of batter.  

4. Bake for one hour, or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack in pan for 10 minutes, and invert to cool completely.

5. Make the Glaze. Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar.  Once dissolved, remove from heat and immediately whisk in cocoa powder and vanilla.  Let cool.  Do not attempt to pour the hot glaze on a hot cake.  That has disaster written all over it!

6. Once cake is cooled, and the glaze is cooled to lukewarm, brush the glaze over the cake.  Let this layer dry slightly (about 5-10 minutes).  Brush another layer on, let dry, brush, etc until glaze is gone.  Refrigerate the cake- the glaze will set and harden.  

Pumpkin Brownies- Gluten Free!

A little bit of pumpkin, a little bit of chocolate....

Don't mind if I do.

A good (and easy) way to celebrate fall.

Chocolate Cookies AND Banana Maple Creme Muffins

Have a box of apple cake mix lying around and in the mood for chocolate cookies?  Cursing yourself for not buying some chocolate cookie mix for a quick chocolaty cookie snack?  

Or perhaps you have a ripe banana you'd rather bake in a sweet treat than eat it on it's own?

You're in luck. I brought these to an open house last night for Partylite candles, who also has a food line by Two Sister's Gourmet.  I've made this mix before as apple cake, and it's good, but I wanted to show how versatile the mix is.  So I made gooey chocolate cookies- they're soft, rich, and gooey, and so chocolaty!

And the banana muffins were moist, the maple creme adding a little sweetness, and the apple cake mix adding some cinnamon and spices. 

They were a hit. 

On a side note- I told The Boyfriend I made cookies, and he's like 'You gotta stop makin' cookies all the time babe.' (We try not to eat so many sweets). Told him don't worry, they're just for the open house.  

Later that night, with cookies leftover, I text him if he wants me to bring some home, and he says 'HELLS YEAH I DO.'   Guess he liked them.

They were at hit at the party too, and recipes were requested.  So here they are!