Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies for Tuesdays with Dorie

Mocha Chip Cookies

A friend and I recently discussed whether she needed a big standing mixer. It’s eye candy for sure, and manages to launch all manner of baking daydreams.

For a long time, I had only a hand mixer, which I hesitated to use because it was stuck in a box in the corner on a very high shelf in the kitchen. A lot of work to take down and put away. So I mixed a lot of cakes by hand, which I rather enjoyed, because I could get in touch with the pioneer within and I could feel smart that I wasn’t using any electricity.

You can make cookies by hand, too, but sometimes a stiff cookie dough can benefit from a little horsepower. Especially the kind that operates on your kitchen counter while you stand back and watch. Take these Mocha Chocolate Chip cookies, for instance. The all-butter dough stayed thick in my chilly kitchen and would have been a beast to mix by hand. I was glad to let the mixer do the heavy lifting.

These cookies feature a coffee-flavored dough absolutely laden with bittersweet chocolate chips. Laden as in a full one pound of chocolate for 2 cups of flour. (Not complaining.) The coffee is not prominent for those who think they don’t like coffee. Rather, it serves as a layer to enhance the chocolate.

The recipe calls for dried apricots, which are optional and which I forgot anyway. I had an issue with the first batch because they turned out too thin for my liking. This is because the large organic eggs I used should have been marked as jumbo. I added about 1/3 cup more flour to the remaining dough and the rest turned out just right.

If you would like to try these cookies, the recipe is being hosted at Galettista. Stroll over to the Tuesdays with Dorie website where you’ll find links to all the participating bloggers.

Cherry Pistachio Slice and Bake Cookies (Gluten Free) for #Baketogether

Cherry Pistachio Slice and Bake Cookies

I’m a bit late in posting this recipe for the December #Baketogether, but that’s how it has been lately in my neck of the woods. When I read Abby’s December recipe for Spicy Ginger Slice and Bake Cookies, my thoughts immediately came up with dried cherries and pistachios.

That’s because of a food memory that won’t go away. Years ago, I tasted a cherry pistachio cake while on a restaurant review. The bistro I visited was a shiny hopeful spot in a Michigan lake shore town that was climbing back from hard times. The bundt cake, with its drizzle of tartly sweet cherry sauce, was amazing. The restaurant has closed and the town still struggles, but that cake has not been forgotten. I probably should try to make one.

In addition to using dried cherries and roasted pistachios, I adapted Abby’s recipe by using a gluten-free flour. I’m not gluten-intolerant per se, but I do like baking with almond flour. I happened on this almond flour blend from Gluten Free Mama and decided to give it a try. It yielded a nicely crisp and slightly sandy textured cookie that my husband and I liked a lot.

Cherry Pistachio Slice and Bake Cookies

adapted from Abby Dodge

2 1/4 cups (10 1/8 ounces) all-purpose flour (I used an almond meal blend from Gluten Free Mama)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon table salt

12 tablespoons (6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup (7 ounces) raw cane sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1/2 cup finely chopped dried cherries
1/2 cup chopped roasted pistachios
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract


Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl until well blended. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy, about three minutes. Add the egg, chopped dried cherries, chopped pistachios, and vanilla and almond extracts, then beat on medium about one minute. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until the dough begins to form moist clumps.

Dump the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Using the plastic as a guide, gently knead into a smooth dough. Shape into a 14-inch-long log, square or round, and wrap well in the plastic. Refrigerate until chilled and very firm, about 4 hours.

For baking, position an oven rack in the center of the oven, and preheat oven to 350°F. Depending on how many cookies you are baking, line or two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Using a thin-bladed sharp knife, cut the dough into slices between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. Arrange the slices about one inch apart on the prepared sheets. (If your cookies look uneven, reshape their sides with your hands. Press cookies lightly with the bottom of a glass to create smooth out the surface.)

Bake one sheet at a time until the tops look dry and the edges are golden brown, about 11 to 13 minutes. Move the sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies sit for five minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack and cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough using cookie sheets that are completely cold.

Lemon Butter Cookies with Citrus Marmalade Ganache Filling

We all know cooks who keep home-made cookie dough on hand. Sometimes there’s more than one variety of dough, nicely tucked in the freezer, legibly identified, just waiting to be called up for action.

I want to be like that, armed with dough for whatever occasion strikes.

Take my friend D. Upon hearing of a church member’s life-threatening illness, she commenced to mixing dough for cranberry walnut oatmeal cookies. It relieved her anxiety. She knew there would be something to nibble on —  either for a time of sorrow or for rejoicing. She told me this as we cleaned the kitchen after the memorial service.

These tender, lemony, not-too-sweet butter cookies would be good for any occasion, and because they’re of the slice and bake style, easy to store and prepare. The recipe is taken from Paris Sweets -- a recipe Dorie Greenspan adapted from Pâtisserie Lerch.

While I was at the stove, my kitchen assistant jumped in to help fold the linens.

From Paris Sweets: Sablés Korova

If chocolate is your drug of choice, try a Korova Cookie.

As I mixed the dough for these intensely chocolate Korova cookies, I could not help but think about other uses for the recipe. Pie dough, for one, the most obvious choice. The proportion of ingredients is essentially that for pâte sablée, the cookie-like crust used in many French pastries.

Yes, this recipe would make a fine tart crust to hold a multitude of sweet fillings. It is just as (or more) intensely chocolate as crusts made from chocolate sandwich cookies, but not quite as sweet.

As a cookie, it is awfully good. Slightly sandy as a shortbread like sablé should be — but with contrasting bits of bittersweet chocolate and the occasional hit of salt crystals from the fleur de sel. I’m not a raw cookie dough fan (cake batter is my weakness), but I really liked the pure chocolate flavor of this dough.

From Paris Sweets: Croq-Télé, TV Snacks for the World Cup

Croq-Télé, TV Snacks for the World Cup

The World Cup is highly anticipated in our household, and we could not be happier that the U. S. Women’s National Team has made it to the final. Their beautiful athleticism and big-hearted play are exciting to watch.

I’m so proud they are representing my country.

For the game on Sunday, I will serve these Croq-Télé — TV Snacks — from Dorie Greenspan’s Paris Sweets. They are salty-sweet, crunchy little things adapted from a recipe by pâtissier Arnaud Larher.

I hoped to make them Wednesday in honor of the USA-France semi-final but didn’t have time. We watched the game without snacks, unless you consider that I bit my nails during the second half, fearing a victory by the formidable French who played with great style and creativity.

It bears mentioning that France’s women played with kilos more class than that nation’s men’s team did in World Cup 2010.

From Paris Sweet: Punitions

Butter cookies based on a recipe from Boulangerie Poilâne via Paris Sweets

These are elegant cookies.

But they are not expensive cookies. Indeed, they are comprised of kitchen basics: butter, sugar, flour and eggs.

Their elegance is the simplicity of ingredients, the lack of unnecessary adornments, that combine to highly satisfying affect. Cookies that are enjoyed for themselves, not for extras thrown in or an icing on top.