Turtle Thumbprint Cookies

I'm so glad I finally got around to making these cookies because they are so pretty. My parents always make fun of me because it seems that whenever I bake something - I've been wanting to make it for "ages". But this time I'm not being the slightest bit dramatic when I say I've been wanting to make these cookies for a very long time. I think I have printed out the recipe every christmas since high school and just never got around to making them. They are pretty labor intensive as far as cookies go and they require a couple ingredients you don't normally have hanging around the house like pecans or heavy whipping cream. But this time I just happened to have every single ingredient that I needed.

I had made caramelitas for my mom because she buys them a lot from whole foods and I thought it would be worth taking a shot at homemade. I nailed it up until I forgot to turn off the burner that I was slow melting the caramel on and subsequently burned a solid circle at the bottom of them when I was supposed to be letting them cool. So dumb. So so dumb. Some of them were salvageable but I was so annoyed about the situation that I didn't bother taking pictures. I also bought two bags of the caramels bc I had never made them before so I wanted to make sure I had enough for the recipe, or if I made a stupid mistake. Turns out I DID make a stupid mistake but I really didn't need to make them again.

Thus, with my fathers overly stocked freezer full of pecans due to excessive purchases during the thanksgiving holidays, I had all the ingredients I needed to make these guys. I didn't have the shortening or coconut oil because I left my shortening at school and my mom couldn't find her coconut oil, but those turned out to be optional. And who is going to buy a big tub of something when you only need one teaspoon anyway.

Turtle Thumbprint Cookies 

For the Cookies:

1 stick unsalted butter, room temp


1/3 cup granulated sugar
 (can also use all granulated)

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg, separated


2 tablespoons milk


1-teaspoon vanilla extract


1 cup all-purpose flour


1/3 cup cocoa powder


¼ teaspoon salt


1-cup pecans, finely crushed/chopped

For the Caramel:

16 unwrapped caramel squares


3 tablespoons whipping cream


Fleur de sel or other flaked sea salt

For the Chocolate Drizzle:


1/2 cup semi-sweet (or milk) chocolate chips


1-teaspoon coconut oil or shortening, optional

My cocoa powder is dark so to sweeten them up I used milk chocolate for the drizzle. Next time I will try and find regular cocoa powder because I thought they were just a little too dark.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Keep the egg white in a small dish in the fridge until ready to use. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Then add the egg yolk, vanilla and milk. Then gradually add the flour dry ingredients to the wet until just combined. Refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350. Whisk the egg white until foamy. Using a melon baller, roll two scoops together (or shape them into 1 inch balls – but the melon baller kept them consistent in shape and size) Dip the dough ball into the whites, and then roll into the pecans until completely coated. With your thumb, press down gently in the center to get the indentation going (will be further pressed after baking). Place on tin foil or silpat.

Bake for 12 minutes. When you remove the cookies from the oven, press down into the previous indentation with a teaspoon and then let cool completely.

While the cookies are cooling, heat the caramels and cream over very low heat until completely melted. When the cookies are cool and the caramel is no longer piping hot, use the teaspoon to pour the caramel into the cookies. Let cool completely.

Melt the chocolate however you prefer. Since I used milk chocolate (and also Hershey – aka not the highest quality), the microwave was quick and easy.

Dulce de Leche filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Fluffy Dulce de Leche Icing

For my roommates, Mike's, 22nd birthday my other three roommates and I threw him a Cinco de Mike-O themed party at our apartment. I made 2 kinds of salsa, guac, quesco, chocolate churro puppy chow (muddy buddies) and Dulce de Leche filled Chocolate cupcakes with Fluffy Dulce de Leche Icing. I had so much fun cooking and decorating. It was like a dream come true. Finally I could put some of my Pinterest knowledge/ hours of "research" into action. I got a lot of my goods from the dollar tree and worked with some things I already had on hand as well - like terra-cotta pots to hold the guac, martini glasses, and this rug thing that works for Mexican costumes (not totally sure what they are called...)

(also I know the pictures aren't amazing...it was at such an awkward time of day, and that really makes all the difference in the world when it comes to pictures of food etc.)

The only part of this recipe that I actually made up was the icing. Because Dulce de Leche is so thick, I wanted something to contrast with that so the cupcake wouldn't be too heavy. The frosting was light and fluffy, while still having a strong enough dulce de leche flavor. I couldn't stop licking the bowl. I had some left over and it actually pained me to throw it out. But of course, it had to be done. 

I used my favorite cake recipe for the cupcakes and I followed several websites like this one to learn how to boil the can of condensed milk to make dulce de leche (it really is that easy!) - hint though, just don't open the can until it is COMPLETELY cool. I was too excited and mine exploded....

Fluffy Dulce de Leche Icing 

1 package of cream cheese, room temperature 
1 small container heavy whipping cream
leftover dulce de leche from the sweetened condensed milk can (whatever I didn't use to fill the cupcakes. I'd say it was about a 1/2 can) 
2 cups confectioners sugar

In a separate bowl, beat the heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form (either by hand or using a mixer - In this case I use the mixer because even if you do over-beat it and it curdles slightly, no one will be able to tell once it is incorporated).

In a larger bowl, cream together the cream cheese and sugar. Then add the dulce de leche.

Using a spatula, gently fold in the whipped cream

The hanging decorations were made out of tissue paper I bought at the dollar tree and thin string I got from Walmart. I cup out each one like a snowflake. Overall, this part cost $1.30. If you buy them online, they can be $10+ - not bad, right?

When a piñata  poops, dulce de Leche filled Chocolate Cupcakes come out

Rich Dark Chocolate Ice Cream (no eggs)

Chocolate ice cream is really difficult for some reason. When I was working at Sucre, it was always the one that had the most problems. After making it a couple of times several different ways, I understand why that was the case. Maybe it's just me, but it always seems to make the biggest mess. Actually, anything that involves melting chocolate is a mess. Probably because the chocolate gets all over your hands, which in turn gets all over everything. But store bought chocolate ice cream doesn't even come close to this stuff. It's the real deal. After I took it out of the refrigerator to pour into the ice cream maker, it looked like pudding. Actually, I bet it could have passed for pudding. Maybe I should try just putting plain ole puddin' in my ice cream maker and see what happens....If i'm lucky the low fat stuff will work so I can trick myself out of making this amazing semi-frozen sin again....

Rich Chocolate Ice Cream (no eggs)
This recipe is from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home 

Ingredients

1 cup whole milk

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate 

1 ¼ cups heavy cream

1 cup evaporated milk

2/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon salt 

First, get everything in place before attempting to start cooking. Trying to make the slurry and prepare the ice bath etc. while trying to watch the pot is too difficult and it leaves you incredibly flustered and overwhelmed.

• In a small bowl, whisk together two tablespoons of the milk mixture with the cornstarch and set aside. 
• Have the chocolate (you can use disks or chopped. I used dark chocolate disks from Whole Foods)
• Fill a large bowl with ice and set a smaller bowl on top with a plastic bag open and ready to go 
• In the sauce pan, combine all of the ingredients, excluding the salt, before turning on the heat. (The recipe says to wait until the milk mixture is boiling before adding the cocoa, but that made a big mess when I did it and the cocoa didn't mix properly. I had to use a, immersion blender and strainer to get most of the chunks out, so I think adding it before is probably the better choice.)

Once everything is in place, NOW you can start cooking your ice cream!

1. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil over medium high heat. Once it has reached that point, reduce the heat so the milk mixture doesn't boil over and make a huge mess. (*hint* if you put a wooden spoon on top of the pot, it prevents the mixture from boiling over. It can only work so well, though, so I ended up adding two wooden spoons towards the end.)
2. Boil the mixture for 4 minutes. 
3. Remove from the heat and pour in the cornstarch mixture.
4. Bring the pot back to a boil, stirring constantly, for about a minute or until it has thickened slightly. 
5. Remove from the heat and pour about a half a cup or so over the chocolate disks. When the chocolate is melted, pour it back into the milk mixture and whisk to combine. 
6. Pour the ice cream into the plastic bag set over the ice bath. At this point the ice should have melted a big, but if not, you might want to add a touch of water. 
7. Chill over the ice bath until completely cool. The plastic bag can be completely submerged into the ice bath like the book suggests, however I think its easier and cleaner to place a second bowl on top to prevent water accidentally getting into the bag and ruining the consistency of the ice cream. 
8. Refrigerate for at least an hour or preferably over night before freezing. 

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ever since I got my ice cream maker, I've kind of been obsessed. I've only done two blog posts so far, but I can't tell you how many times I've already used this thing. Once you fail (which you will, unless you are some kind of ice cream savant), especially a couple of times, you become obsessed with perfection. I think I finally found a fool proof, go-to base recipe that I will probably use for most of my ice creams though, so I can't start experimenting. 

When I worked at the confection studio at Sucre, I noticed we never used egg yolks. But after doing a ton of research on the web, I couldn't really find any recipes that didn't start with some form of custard (which means using egg yolks to thicken the milk, almost like making lemon curd or the filling of a berry tart if you have ever done that...) Well doing this is extremely temperamental and can go wrong at a number of different stages in the process. And the worst part about that is, many times you don't exactly know where you went wrong. Did I curdle the milk? Did I not whip the egg yolks enough with the sugar before adding it to the milk? Was my flame too hot or too low? There is so much going on at once, and so many things that could go wrong, I really needed something a bit more foolproof (heavy cream doesn't grow on trees you know...).

On a random slowish afternoon at work, my lord and saviors walked through the double glass doors dressed as a thin, hipter-ish, middle aged man and his wife. The ones that kind of remind you of your old music teachers and almost always leave a tip (people from the city - and definitely my people working at the uptown sucre know exactly what kind of people i'm talking about. Actually I bet people from certain parts of new york know what i'm talking about too...but I digress...). We started chatting about our amazing gelato and how it doesn't have eggs etc. He also turned out to be a dabbler in the homemade ice cream world as well and he suggested I try Jenni's best ice cream base, which uses cream cheese instead of eggs and a timer rather than candy thermometer (thus excluding the two things I dread about making homemade ice cream).

Obviously I went home and bought the cookbook right away. Of course I will continue to try the traditional custard based ice creams, but for now, HOLY COW this stuff is incredible! Its creamy, rich, and pretty much fool proof. You can even trade out the 3 tbs of cream cheese for marscarpone...which obviously I will be doing very very soon.... 

Homemade ice Cream Sandwiches, made with Jeni's Best Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

The "Cake-y Sandwich Part" Recipe 

which I found on this website

Ingredients 

½ cup unsalted butter, melted

½ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup all purpose flour

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon salt

10 x 15 inch (25 x 38 cm) rimmed baking sheet

Parchment paper

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the melted butter and sugar. 

Then whisk in the egg and vanilla. 

Then add the flour, cocoa powder and salt and mix until incorporated. (since there is no leavening agent, you can't over-mix it - refreshing, huh?) 

In you parchment lined baking sheet, pour in the batter and spread out a thin layer using a offset spatula. - If you don't have one, get one. They are super cheap and come in handy for a million different things. 

Bake for 10 minutes, rotating half way through to ensure even baking. It should be done when the cake is no longer shiny and it has begun to separate from the paper along the edges. 

Let it cool completely and then remove the parchment from the pan to cool even more. If you don't your ice cream will melt and both will be ruined! 

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream 

Ingredients

2 cups milk
4 tsp. cornstarch
1 ¼  cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp. light corn syrup
¼ tsp. kosher salt
3 tbsp. cream cheese, softened
1 vanilla Bean, both seeds and pod, separated 

Directions
Before you start cooking, set up your stations:

(a.) In one small bowl, wisk together 1/4 cup of milk and the cornstarch

(b.) Place the 3 tablespoons of cream cheese in a bowl and set aside.

(c.) Open plastic bag with edges folded over set over a large bowl filled with ice (the ice should melt a bit during the cooking. you can add a bit of water to it later if it isn't ice bath ready by the time you are ready to cool your ice cream)

(d.) In a 4-quart sauce pan (at least - believe me I made this mistake and it was a hassle trying to switch pots in the middle of everything...pictures to follow...) Add the remaining milk, heavy cream, sugar, salt and vanilla bean and wisk together until somewhat incorporated (it should turn a very faint green - the color shows up more during the cooking process)

(e.) 4 minute timer ready to go

NOW you can start cooking (and this is actually the quick part)

1. Over medium high heat, cook the mixture until it comes to a rolling boil. Boil for exactly 4 minutes.

2. Pour in the cornstarch slurry and mix well. Bring back to a boil and cook for 2 more minutes then remove from heat. Remove the vanilla bean.

3. With your small measuring cup, scoop out about 1/4 cup or more of the hot mixture and pour into the cream cheese bowl. Mix very well and then pour it back into the main pot. Stir well until thick.

4. Pour the hot cream into the plastic bag over the ice bath. Let sit for at least 30 minutes or until completely cold. If you don't want to freeze right away, you can also put the plastic bag in your fridge for up to 3 days.

5. Freeze according to your ice cream makers instructions (I do it for about 25 minutes)

Yeah you know you want a bite....

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

At the Hill School we always had a pretty impressive dessert table. Unlike at Elon, there was no glass wall that prevented you from grabbing as many desserts as you could hold (which definitely explains the rather hefty thighs I had in high school). For some reason I had a craving for their chocolate crinkle cookies, which they had actually all the time. I also wanted to try something a little different as well because I feel like all the cookies I bake are generally pretty traditional. These cookies are great, but they aren't my favorite. I'll eat them, sure. But I won't get that insatiable craving that I do for all of my other cookie recipes (the neimans, the ny times chocolate chip, those sugar cookies, the oatmeal ones!! I mean I could keep going...) Its a good recipe to have though and they are definitely pretty to look at too!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies 
Ingredients 

Ingredients

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, melted and cooled

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1 ½ cups packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup whole milk

1 cup sugar

1 cup confectioners’ sugar  

Directions

In a double boiler, melt the bittersweet chocolate. Let it cool completely

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs and vanilla until lighter and fluffier. Then add the melted chocolate.

 

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Instead of dirtying another bowl, I like to sift the dry ingredients over the wet in two stages. With the mixer on low speed, rotate adding the dry ingredients and then the wet ingredients in four rotations. Make sure to always begin and end with the dry ingredients. Cover with bowl with tin foil and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350˚. With an ice cream scoop, scoop out the cookie dough and roll it into a ball. Dip cookie dough ball into the granulated sugar and lightly press into a disk. Then dip it in the confectioners’ sugar. Place the cookies on a silpat or parchment paper (I think tin foil would work too)

Bake for about 14 minutes or until the cookie cracks. I baked it for 10 minutes though because I thought they tasted better a little undercooked because they were less dry (but that’s just me).