Deep Dark Chocolate Cookie

Great for sandwich cookies but the dough is difficult to work with, so it requires a bit of patience. I love this recipe because they retain their straight edges, which I think has a very nice look. The cookies are somewhere between soft and hard,which is also nice.

1 egg, large
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cp (240 g) AP flour
1/2 cp (60 g) powdered sugar
1/2 cp (100g) brown sugar (or cut down to 60g for less sweet cookies)
1/2 cp (43g) Hershey's dark cocoa powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 cp (192g) Crisco

• Sift dry ingredients.
• Cream Crisco. Add dry ingredients and mix well.
• Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
• Chill dough for 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Roll half of dough out between two sheets of plastic wrap. Remove top layer and cut into shapes--2" or smaller is easier to handle. Use an offset spatula to remove bits of dough and to pick up the cookies. Lift the bottom layer of plastic wrap if necessary. You may have to mess up a few cookies before you get the feel of working with this dough. If it rips, you can always patch it on the cookie sheet.
• Place cookies on parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for ca. 8 minutes. You'll just have to trust that they're done--don't overbake them. Remove cookie sheet from oven and set it on a cooling rack. Let the cookies sit on the sheet for at least 2 minutes (or even till they're cool) before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Mocha Almond Petit Fours

Almond Cake:

8 oz almond paste

¾ cup sugar

1 ½ sticks butter, soft

4 eggs

½ cup cake flour

½ cup bread flour

--Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare 12x18 sheet pan by greasing and lining with parchment paper.

--Soften almond paste by beating it for several minutes with the paddle. Add a little egg to soften, then add the sugar and butter and cream till very light, about 7 minutes.

--Pour the eggs in very slowly, taking about 5 minutes over all.

--Stir in the flour and spread into the pan. Spread out and bake till firm, about 20 minutes.

--Remove from oven, let sit in pan 5 minutes and remove from tray. When cool, cut in thirds.

Prepare simple syrup:

½ cup hot espresso

¼ cup sugar

3 T cream de cocoa

--Mix all ingredients till the sugar is dissolved.

Prepare the ganache filling:

8 oz bittersweet chocoate

2 oz milk chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

--Boil the cream and then pour over the chocolate. Stir till combined and let cool to room temperature.

Assemble the petit fours:

--Brush one cake layer with simple syrup and then spread some ganache on it. Top with next layer and repeat twice.

--Freeze cakes overnight.

--Cut cakes into desired sizes.

Prepare ganache fondant:

2 cups cream

2 cups bittersweet chocolate

2 tsp vanilla

--Boil cream, pour over chocolate and combine. Add vanilla.

Pour ganache over cakes, which have been placed on a wire cooling rack. Decorate as desired. Suggestion: chocolate covered coffee bean.

Chocolate Cream Pie (Rose Levy Beranbaum)

This is absolutely the best chocolate filling--if it makes it into the pie crust. As a word of warning: don't taste it till you lick the spatula from scraping the filling into the pie crust. Otherwise, you may be tempted to eat it all up! It comes from Rose Levy Berenbaum's The Pie and Pastry Bible.

1 Prebaked 9-inch pie crust
2 large eggs
1/4 cp/24 g unsweetened cocoa, preferably Dutch-processed
3T/28 g cornstarch
3 cp/726 g milk (fat free is fine)
2/3 cp/132 g granulated sugar
pinch salt
6 oz/170 g bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Have ready a strainer set over a medium bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, cocoa, cornstarch and 1/4 cp of the milk until smooth.

In a medium nonreactive heavy saucepan, stir together the remaining 2 3/4 cups of milk, the sugar, and salt. Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a full boil. (You only have to stir it once at the beginning.) Whisk 1/4 cup of this hot mixture into the egg mixture. Whisk the egg mixture into the milk mixture. Cook, continuing to whisk rapidly being sure to go into the edge of the pan, until the mixture thickens and pools a little when dropped on the surface. (This will only take a few minutes.)

Remove pan from the heat and whisk in the chocolate and butter. Continue whisking until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. whisk in the vanilla extract. Using a rubber spatula, immediately press the mixture through the strainer and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the cream to prevent a skin form forming. Allow it to cool to room temperature, or refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Pour the chocolate filling into the baked pie shell. It will fill the shell up to the top. Place the piece of plastic wrap back on the surface and refrigerate the pie for at least 3 hours.

You may top this with whipped heavy cream (1 cup/232 g) sweetened with 1 T powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla and stabilized with 1 tsp (?) cornstarch mixed with the sugar. RLB suggests decorating with chocolate curls and raspberries.

Variation: for a less bittersweet, more milk chocolate filling, replace the milk with half-and-half, decrease the sugar to 1/2 cup/100 g, omit the cocoa and increase the chocolate to 10 oz/24 g.

Store refrigerated up to 3 days.

Do not beat the filling vigorously after cooling, or it will break down. That's because of the cornstarch.

If making the pie a day ahead, it is preferable to brush the baked shell with white chocolate to keep it crisp. You will need to melt about 3 oz and will have about 2/3 oz left over. Chill the chocolate-brushed shell until the chocolate has hardened before filling it. (Personally, I'd just melt 2 1/4 oz and pour it all in and spread it around well.)

Susan's Mum's Chocolate Cake (i.e,, My 30th Birthday Cake)

Susan gave me the best birthday present by slaving for hours to make this cake in our little kitchen nook in Germany. She'd called her mom specially to get the recipe--a phone call being a rare occurrence since it was so expensive (usually reserved for pressing culinary questions). We served the cake on the bottom side of a cookie tin lid. Our table was part of something we found out on the side of the road on a junk pick-up morning that we'd covered with a table cloth from my first landlady. We invited so many people, we didn't have near enough chairs for them to sit in! It was a birthday to remember!


Cake
200 g butter
1/4 cp cocoa
6 T hot water
1 cp castor sugar (finely ground granulated sugar)
3/4 cp self-raising flour
2 eggs, separated

Grease sides of 20 cm (8") square tin and line bottom of tin.

Preheat oven to 180C (350F).

Heat butter, cocoa and water in medium pot to melt butter. Stir to combine then add castor sugar and mix well. Add sifted flour and stir gently. Then mix in egg yolks. Beat egg whites to a stiff foam (peaks will fold over when beater is removed) then fold into chocolate mixture. This is a very moist mixture. Pour into prepared tin.Bake for 30-40 minutes or till cooked. Invert tin on rack and leave to cool.

Filling (Chocolate Cream)

300 ml (1 1/4 cp) cream
300 g dark chocolate
2 T brandy

Bring cream to boil. Remove from heat. Add chocolate (broken into pieces) and brandy. Stir till chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Pour into bowl and refrigerate till spreadable, stirring now and again. Split cake and fill with filling.

Icing

300 g dark chocolate
125 g unsalted butter
1 T milk

Melt chocolate (broken into pieces) with butter in a bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir to blend then add milk. Stir till smooth. Cool till thick enough to spread on topa dn sides of cake.

Grandma Beisler's Caramel Fudge with Bitter Choc

1 box light brown sugar
1 T butter
1 cp whole milk

Put on stove and cook till it comes to a boil. Simmer to soft ball stage. Remove from stove and cool for a little bit. Add vanilla and beat. Pour into buttered pan.

2 squares bitter chocolate
Melt in double boiler and pour over caramel.

Mom says this is always a bit grainy, and I remember that, too.

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (old, old Better Homes and Gardens)

3 T cocoa
2 cp sugar
1/2 cp milk
1/2 stick butter (1/4 cp)
3/4 cp peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla
3 cp oats, old-fashioned

Mix cocoa and sugar. Add milk and butter. Stir till mixture boils. Boil 1 min without stirring. Remove from heat and quickly stir in peanut butter. Add vanilla. Stir in oats. May need a bit more oats. Shouldn't be too runny.

Drop by spoonfuls onto brown paper bag that's been cut open to lay flat.

Moosewood Fudge Brownies

(From Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook)

5 oz unsweetened chocolate (or 15T cocoa and 5 T oil)
1/2 lb (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 3/4 cp packed light brown sugar
5 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cp flour
1 cp chopped walnuts

Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Preheat oven to 350F.

Gently melt the chocolate and then let it cool about 10 minutes -or- mix cocoa and oil.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in the vanilla.

Stir constantly as you drizzle in the melted chocolate. After all the chocolate is in, beat well for a minute or two.

Stir in flour and walnuts. Mix just enough to blend thoroughly.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Cut into squares while still hot, then allow to cool for at least 10 minutes, if you can wait that long. :-)

Chocolate Syrup

From Chocolate on the Brain by Kevin and Nancy Mills

Makes: 1 cup
Prep time: 5 min
Cooking time: 5 min


1/2 cp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cp brown sugar
1/2 cp water
1/3 cp light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

Put the cocoa, brown sugar, water and corn syrup in a small pot and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring continually. Cook for 1 minute. Remove form the heat and let cool. Stir in the vanilla. Serve immediately or when needed.

Grandma's Devil's Food Cake

My grandmother was famous for this light chocolate cake, its cocoa-rich layers spread with sinfully rich, fudgy frosting. My friends maintain that it gets better as it keeps in the refrigerator, but I'll never know for sure because mine always disappears too quickly to find out. --Jim Fobel's Old-Fashioned Baking Book.

Makes one 8-inch 2 layer cake (cut recipe in half for one 6-inch 2 layer cake)

1/2 cp unsweetened cocoa
1 cp boiling water
1 1/2 cp sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 T unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cp granulated sugar
2 lg eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract


Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans.

Place the cocoa in a bowl and pour in the boiling water; stir to dissolve the cocoa and cool slightly.

In a medium-sized bowl stir together the cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat the butter until fluffy, about 1 minute, then gradually beat in the sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time; add the vanilla and beat until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the dry ingredients alternately with the cocoa mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Divide batter between the prepared pans, smoothing the tops. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it; do not overbake or the cakes will become too dry. Cool in the pans on a rack for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edges to loosen from the pans and turn layers out on the rack, placing one upside down and the other right side up.

Brush any loose crumbs from the layers and place one upside down on a serving plate. Spread with about 1 1/4 cp of the frosting. Center the remaining layer, right side up, over the top. Frost the top and sides with the remaining frosting, making decorative swirls around the sides and over the top. Chill to set the frosting but return to room temperature before serving.

Grandma's Fudge Frosting

This thick, fudgy, not too sweet frosting begins with a granulated sugar and heavy cream mixture that is simmered for ten minutes before the chocolate is added, and then cooled to an ideal spreading consistency.

Makes 3 cups.

1 1/2 cp granulated sugar
1 cp heavy cream
6 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
8 T unsalted butter, sliced
2 tsp vanilla extract

In a heavy medium-sized saucepan combine the sugar and heavy cream. Place over moderate heat and, stirring constantly, bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes without stirring. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate, butter, and vanilla, continuing to stir until chocolate and butter melt. Turn into a bowl and cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Refrigerate, stirring frequently, until thickened and of a good spreading consistency. Use to frost a cake before the frosting sets completely.

**I beat the frosting when it gets thick so that it is light and fluffy.