Heart-y Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Naturally, I have something chocolaty for this month’s installment in my Twelve Cookies of Christmas series.

Today’s chocolate sugar cookies were cut into hearts (although they could certainly be trees or stars or reindeer in December) and iced with a basic butter icing.

They tasted wonderful.

Royal icing would have been prettier and easier to transport than the butter version we used on the cookies—but royal is harder to make and harder to keep. It has to be used right away or it dries out.

I wanted my icing simple and foolproof to use because I had a vision of a bunch of children happily decorating and eating cookies—a vision that came true.



My nephew Michael and his friends in Virginia have been snow crazy this week. No one has been to school. Sleds and snowballs have replaced electronic games (well, almost).

We called around the neighborhood a couple of days ago and asked whether anyone would like to take a break from the snow and come decorate cookies.

We ended up with eleven joyful children gathered around the kitchen table slathering icing and tossing sprinkles around.

The resulting cookies were heavily decorated. (We actually ended up making a double batch of icing to make sure there was enough.)

And they were VERY popular. The pictures above and below were taken with a cell phone (my battery ran out of steam at the critical moment) so they’re a little fuzzy, but you can see that our gang had a really good time. One of them was camera shy so we have only ten in the group photo.

If you enjoy these cookies half as much as the kids did, you’ll be happy indeed………



Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

for the cookies:

1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter at room temperature
1-3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour

for decoration:

1 recipe (2 if you MUST) butter icing (see below)
lots of festive sprinkles

Instructions:

Cream together the butter and the sugar. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in the baking powder, salt, and cocoa, followed by the vanilla. Stir in the flour.

Chill the resulting dough, covered, for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

On a nonstick surface (a silicone mat or a marble board) pat the dough out to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Cut it into the desired shapes.

Bake the cookies on parchment- or silicone-lined cookie sheets for 10 to 12 minutes. They should be solid but not rock hard.

Let the cookies cool on the sheets for a couple of minutes before removing them to a rack to cool. Let them cool completely before frosting them with butter frosting (see below) and sprinkling the heck out of them.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Butter Icing

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter at room temperature
confectioner’s sugar to taste (probably between 1 and 2 cups)
2 teaspoons vanilla
milk if necessary to stir
a couple of drops of food coloring (optional—I used my sister-in-law’s Wilton food coloring, which was excellent; I’ll have to get some!)

Instructions:

Beat the butter until it is fluffy; then add confectioner’s sugar. Beat in the vanilla. Add milk and/or more confectioner’s sugar until the icing is spreadable.

Truffle wasn't allowed to eat any cookies, but she loved being with the kids anyway. They are all her Valentines.

Valentine Chocolate-Chip Blondies

I seldom suffer from writer’s block. On the rare occasions on which it strikes my brain and fingers there is only one foolproof solution: chocolate. I pop a truffle or a chocolate kiss into my mouth. Suddenly I can write.

Why and how does chocolate affect our brains? Scientists have a number of theories about its chemical properties. Here are a few possibilities: It stimulates us. It soothes us. It is good for our hearts. It prevents cancer. It is an aphrodisiac or mimics the feeling of being in love. It resembles certain drugs in its effect on our psyches.

None of these theories has been proven. Perhaps the scientists studying chocolate want to take their time. Certainly it is difficult to imagine a more appealing substance to keep under the microscope for years on end.

I believe that much of chocolate’s effect is psychological and cultural rather than physiological. One of my first memories of chocolate is the heart-shaped box of chocolates my father presented to my mother on Valentine’s Day when I was three. Chocolate represents love in our culture. When we receive it as a gift or pop a piece into our mouths we experience the feeling of being cherished.

This Valentine’s Day I’m giving quite a few people that feeling. I’m following my own taste, however, in presenting a chocolate treat that is not too chocolaty. I’m not a girl who is easily wooed by triple chocolate cookies or chocolate lava cake. I prefer my chocolate tempered with other flavors.

Consequently, the chocolate in these blondies is really a co-star. Their easy, tasty recipe comes courtesy of La Prima Catering. La Prima is a business-oriented catering company in the Washington, D.C., area. General manager Graham McCulloch brought some of these blondies to a party at my nephew’s school. When I raved the company kindly shared the formula.

Of course, La Prima president Dave Evans first had to cut down the proportions since he usually makes enough blondies to serve several hundred people! I am grateful for his perseverance.

You may change the recipe a bit if you like. The blondies are chewier and sweeter if you firmly pack the brown sugar, add another half stick of butter, and cut back to 2-1/2 cups of flour. My sister-in-law Leigh likes them this way. I’m fond of them just the way La Prima makes them, however—pretty and sweet but not too sweet.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

La Prima Chocolate-Chip Blondies

Ingredients:

1/4 pound (1 stick) sweet butter
2 cups dark brown sugar lightly packed
2 eggs, beaten
2-3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1- 3/4 cups chocolate chunks or chips

Instructions:

Grease a 9-by-13-inch pan. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the butter, sugar, and eggs together. Beat until smooth.

Combine the dry ingredients, and stir them into the butter mixture. Add the chocolate chips, and stir until you have a stiff batter.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. You will need to press it down with the palm of your hand in order to get it to hold together and fill the pan. Bake the blondies until they are a very light brown and not wet (25 to 30 minutes).

Cool the blondies on a wire rack. Cut them into 12 rectangles, and cut each rectangle diagonally into two triangles. Makes 24 triangles.

Be mine!

Snow Day: Boston Cream Pie

Sous chefs Anna (left) and Mavourneen (right)

I used to jump up and down when I looked outside and saw fresh snow on the ground. Once I got old enough to shovel and drive through snow it lost a lot of its charm for me. I still like being reminded that it can be a source of joy and play, however.

My mother and I are visiting my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew in northern Virginia to get away from the ice and snow. Last week the snow followed us here for a couple of days, much to the delight of young Michael and his friends.

Unplanned snow days are perfect holidays for kids. The kids don’t have anywhere to go. (In fact, in many cases they CAN’T go anywhere.) They don’t have any extra homework. And they have mounds of cold, malleable snow to slide around in and hurl at each other.

Michael and his friends spent most of the morning last Wednesday outdoors trading sleds, throwing snowballs, and generally frolicking. By mid-afternoon some of them were beginning to long for a little indoor activity. I asked for volunteers to help make Boston Cream Pie. Several kids offered to EAT the pie (and in fact they all ended up getting some), but my most stalwart helpers were Michael’s neighbors and friends Anna Aguto and Mavourneen Carr.

The girls signed up, of course, to bake a “pie”—and they did look a little surprised to discover that Boston Cream Pie is a cake (so named because pie pans were more common than cake pans in the 19th century, and because the recipe supposedly originated in Boston’s Parker House Restaurant). They were terrific sous chefs nonetheless.

I had made the filling (which has to chill) the day before, but the girls helped with every other step of the process—mixing, baking, filling the pie, creating the glaze, and applying the glaze. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner they went just a little wild with heart-shaped sprinkles on top, but the final product was lovely, festive, and consumed before sundown.

I hope we cook again soon. In the meantime, here is our recipe. The filling and glaze are from Dede Wilson’s fun new Birthday Cake Book (published by Harvard Common Press).

This is all that remains of the snow in Virginia.

Boston Cream Pie

Ingredients:

for the filling:

1-1/4 cups milk (whole milk or lesser milk mixed with cream)
1/4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks, at room temperature
2-1/2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 pinch salt
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

for the cake:

1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk

for the glaze:

3/4 cup heavy cream
1-1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
7-1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate, VERY finely chopped

Instructions:

for the filling:

Place the milk in a medium nonreactive saucepan. Bring it to a boil over medium heat; remove it from the heat and keep it warm.

Meanwhile, whisk together the sugar and egg yolks in a medium-size bowl until creamy. Whisk in the flour, cornstarch, and salt until smooth.

Pour about 1/4 of the warm milk over the egg yolk mixture, whisking gently. Add the remaining milk, and whisk to combine. Immediately pour the mixture back into the pan, and cook over low-medium heat. As soon as the mixture begins to boil, whisk vigorously and cook for 1 to 2 minutes to keep the filling from scorching. It should be thick enough to mound when dropped from a spoon. Remove from the heat and whisk in the vanilla.

Allow the filling to cool, stirring occasionally to release heat. When it is almost at room temperature, scrape it into an airtight container, press some plastic wrap on the surface to keep a skin from forming, snap on the cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, until thoroughly chilled.

for the cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 9-inch-round cake pans.

In a large bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar, mixing well. Beat in the yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add them alternately with the milk to the butter batter, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

Wash your beaters so that they are clean for the egg whites! In a small bowl, beat the whites until soft peaks fold. Fold them into the batter, and pour the batter into the pans.

Bake the layers for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on racks for 10 minutes before removing from the pans. Cool the layers completely.

for the glaze:

Place the cream and corn syrup in a large saucepan, and bring them to a boil over medium heat. Remove the pan from the heat. Immediately sprinkle the chocolate in. Cover the pot and allow it to sit for 5 minutes. The warm cream will melt the chocolate. Gently stir the ganache until smooth.

for assembly:

Place one cake layer on a large serving platter. Spread the filling evenly over the layer, and top it with the other layer.

Pour the chocolate glaze on top. Gently spread it toward the edges. Allow it to drop down the sides. You will have a little too much glaze, but your helpers will help you eat it.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 1 hour (up to 6 hours) before serving. It is best eaten on the day on which it is made. Serves 8 to 10.