A quintessential holiday treat: Peppermint Bark Cookies

Have you ever seen a cookie look more holiday?

It's like instant merry and bright.

And the cookies themselves are delicious.  I know that there is a lot of peppermint bark running around out there right now, but it often is so sweet and over the top that I steer clear.  But, not to worry with these!

The peppermint bark itself isn't very sweet, especially if you use excellent dark chocolate.  And whatever sweetness there is is cut by the shortbread cookie bottom.  Just delightful!

They are also a ball to make: sure to put you in a jolly frame of mind.

You start by  making a shortbread bottom.  Don't worry if you don't have a 13x9 metal pan, I just did it on a normal jelly roll pan and shaped it to round about 13x9.  You can cut the edges if they burn.  Then, right after the shortbread is done baking, you sprinkle dark chocolate over it.

Let that melt and spread it.

Then sprinkle candy cane bits all over it.

Then drizzle it with white chocolate.

Just look at it!

Chill it a bit, then cut.

Enjoy!

And with these, the Bicoastal Chefs wish you a happy holiday, to you and yours!

Peppermint Bark Cookies (from epicurious)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg yolk

6 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup finely chopped red-and-white striped hard peppermint candies, chopped (about 3 ounces)

2 ounces high-quality white chocolate

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray 13x9x2 metal baking pan with nonstick spray.*  Line bottom of pan with 9-inch wide parchment paper, leaving overhang on both short sides of pan.

Whisk flour and salt in medium bowl.  Using electric  mixer, beat butter in large bowl until creamy, about 2 minutes.  Then beat in the sugar.  Continue beating until mixture is light and fluffy, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl, about 3 minutes.  Beat in vanilla, then egg yolk.  Gradually add flour beating on low speed just to blend.

Drop dough by tablespoons full onto prepare baking pan, spacing evenly.  Using moistened fingertips, press dough to form even layer over bottom of pan.  Pierce dough all over with a fork.

Bake cookie base until light golden brown and slightly puffed and edges come away from sides of pan, about 30 minutes [for me, it was more like 18-20].  Place pan on rack, immediately sprinkle with chocolate. Let stand until chocolate softens about 3 minutes.  Using small offset spatula, spread chocolate over top of cookie in thin even layer.  Immediately sprinkle peppermint candy over.  

Stir white chocolate in medium bowl set over saucepan of simmering water, stirring until smooth.  Remove from over water.  Using fork, drizzle white chocolate all over cookies.**  Chill until white chocolate is set, about 30 minutes.

Using paper overhand as aid, lift cookie from pan and transfer to work surface.  Using large knife, cut into irregular pieces.  

Can be made 1 week ahead.  Store in refrigerator, layering with waxed paper or parchment.

Makes: about 36

*I used a larger jelly roll pan and just shaped the dough to 13x9 on it.  Then, when the edges burnt a bit, I cut those off.

**Avoid globs of white chocolate, they are way to sweet. 

My Own Raspberry Layer Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting

When I search for a recipe on google, which gets no exact hits, just those hits google thinks 'you might have meant instead', I get worried.  Maybe everyone in the 'know' knows it would be a terrible idea.  Maybe those flavors just don't mix.  Maybe I misspelled 'cake'.

But, it turns out, sometimes I have ideas.  Ideas people haven't written thousands of recipes for.  Ideas that actually come from me and my culinary self. 

Like: Raspberry Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Now, I know what you are thinking: of course recipes for this exist out there.  Let my testify: you will find armloads of recipes for Chocolate-Raspberry Cake (like this one I did last year), or recipes for Raspberry Torte, or all the kind of cupcakes your heart could desire.  But, listen up google, while I love chocolate based cakes, I wanted something lighter, and while I love tortes, they aren't layer-y, celebration-y enough, and though I'm somewhat fond of cupcakes, they can never ever replace a cake.  What I really wanted was a layer cake, where the layers were raspberry cake and the frosting was dark chocolate.

So, I, much to my chagrin, had to come up with a recipe... of my own.  By which I mean, I pieced together and tweaked other recipes, but still, I felt pretty triumphant by the end.

For the cake layers, I took my cue from a three-layer strawberry cake (thank you, smittenkitchen).  But, it was a small crowd (and a small oven), so I slimmed it down to two layers, and swapped out the strawberries for the raspberries.

Before the steps, here's a tip.  If you don't happen to have 'cake flour', you can make your own.  Just mix 7/8 cup of regular flour and 1/8 cup cornstarch.  And instantly you have 1 cup of cake flour.

After you whisk together the dry ingredients, its time to put together some raspberry puree.  If you are smart (which I was not) you will use a 12 ounce bag of *defrosted* raspberries to get 1 cup of raspberry puree.  Do not attempt this with (a) frozen raspberries (you can't get them through a sieve)

or (b) 1 cup of frozen raspberries (you will never ever get 1 cup of sieved puree from that).

Unlike a lot of cakes, where you begin by creaming your butter and your sugar, for this one, you just throw the butter and raspberry puree in with the dry ingredients from the outset.

But, come on, how charming is the color of this batter?

I couldn't get over it.

Next, beat up some egg whites with milk.  Then, fold some of those eggs whites into the batter, to lighten it up.

Fold in the rest of the egg whites in 2 more additions.

Pour into two butter and parchment-ed cake pans.

Bake for about 30 minutes.

Let rest and turn out after 10-15 minutes.  Let cool for at least an hour, and then you can frost away.  Unlike last time I attempted to frost a cake (and did so with the elegance of a 5 year old),
this time, I surrounded the bottom of the plate with parchment, which I could then drip onto all I wanted, and remove when I was done.

It worked great.

Garnish with some raspberries.

And, this is important, while the cake will be...
 
...very good without extra, fresh raspberries...

...if you serve it with even more raspberries, it will be perfect.  Really, the extra bites of fresh raspberries brings out the somewhat subtle raspberry flavor in the cake itself.  So, they are a must.

 There you have it: my very own Raspberry Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting.

Raspberry Layer Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache Frosting (adapted from smittenkitchen)
For the cake*:
Ingredients:
3 cups cake flour**
2 cups sugar
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup pureed raspberries (passed through a sieve)***
5 extra large egg whites****
1/4 cup + 3 Tablespoons milk
Fresh raspberries

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350.  Butter two 9-inch round cake pans.  Line with parchment and butter the paper.

But the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl.  Whisk together.  Add the butter and raspberry puree.  Mix to blend the ingredients.  Raise the speed to medium, beat until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.

In another large bowl, whisk together the egg whites and milk.*****  Add the whites to the batter in three additions, scraping the sides of the bowl well and mixing only to incorporate after each addition.  Pour the batter into the prepared pans.

Bake for 30-34 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.  Allow the layers to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes.  Invert and turn onto wire racks and peel off the paper.  Let stand until completely cooled before assembling the cake, at least an hour.

For the dark chocolate ganache frosting (I've used this before)
Ingredients:******
8 ounces fine-quality semi-sweet chocolate1/2 cup heavy cream (aka heavy whipping cream)
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon light corn syrup
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions:
Finely chop chocolate. In a small sauce pan, bring cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over moderately low heat, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, whisking until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into pieces and add to frosting, whisking until smooth.

Transfer frosting to a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, until spreadable (30-40 minutes).

Frost the cake, garnishing with fresh raspberries.  Serve with more fresh raspberries.


*I did two layers for this cake, but if you want to do three, follow the smittenkitchen's measurements
**If you don't have cake flour, substitute 7/8 cup all-purpose flour and 1/8 cup cornstarch for 1 cup of cake flour
***I used 12 ounces of frozen raspberries, pureed them in a food processor, and then pressed them through a sieve to remove the seeds.
****Technically, it should be 5 1/3 egg whites, so I attempted to add 1/3 of an egg white, but you might be fine if you just did 5.
*****I'm not quite sure how much you are supposed to whisk the egg whites.  I'm sure soft peaks would be fine, but I just went for really very frothy.
******This makes some extra frosting

World Peace Cookies

Maybe everyone else, or at least the French, are fully aware of the world of sables; however, this is my introduction to it.  And, I'm afraid there is no going back.

Sables are like the French version of shortbread.  They are butter based, which is in no small part why they are so good.  What I fell head over heels for is their texture (again, in no small part due to the butter).  'Sable' in French means sand, and the outside is sandy, with a firm texture, but the inside is tender and melty.  I honestly cannot imagine a better texture for a cookie.  Couple that with the fact that they are chocolate through and through, except for a edge of sea salt, and no wonder these cookies promise to bring world peace!

Start by sifting together your dry ingredients.
Then really cream together the butter.
Add the sugars, vanilla, and salt.
Did I mention that the salt really puts these sables over the top?
Whip that all together.
Now, for adding the dry ingredients, since there is cocoa powder, which tends to explode like a bomb when you mix it, Dorie Greenspan has you cover the bowl with a tea towel while you add the dry ingredients.  Brilliant!

Once the flour is a little incorporated, you can mix it until just incorporated.

Next, add in some chocolate chips.

Make sure they are good, dark chocolate chips.  I like Ghiradelli 60% chips.

Pour that out onto a surface, and shape into a disk.

Divide the dough in half.  And roll each half into a log, wrapping it, and let it chill.

One thing that is wonderful about this recipe is that you can freeze one of the logs, and just slice it off whenever you are ready, i.e., when its midnight and they start singing their siren song...

Once it is fully chilled, you cut the log into disks.  Warning: the cookies will crack when you cut them.

In fact, many of them will literally split in half.
 
Not to worry, that is just their 'nature'.  As long as you squish them back together you will be fine.

Then, bake them off.  They won't look done when they're done baking, but just remove the rack to a baking sheet, and trust it.  Eventually, remove the cookies to the rack itself.

Now, I tried them warm and at room temperature, and while both were good, nothing could ever compare to the warm, melty goodness of the chocolate right out of the oven.

Enjoy!

World Peace Cookies (from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours)
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
5 ounces bitter sweet chocolate, chopped into chips or semisweet chips

Directions:
Sift the flour, cocoa, and baking soda together.

In a separate bowl beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy.  Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.

Turn off the mixer.  Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time.  Take a peak-- if there is still a lot of flour on the surface, pulse a couple of time more; if not, remove the towel.  Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough-- for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don't be concerned if the dough looks a little crumble.  Toss in the chocolate piece and mix only to incorporate.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half.  Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter.  Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.  If you've frozen the dough, you needn't defrost it before baking-- just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer).

Getting ready to bake: Center the rack and preheat the oven to 325.  Line two baking sheets with parchment.

Using a sharp thing knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick.  (The rounds ar elikely to crack as you are cutting them- don't be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie).  Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes-- they won't look done, nor will they be firm, but that's just the way they should be.  Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.