Category Archives: Cookies and Bars

Double Chocolate Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

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almonds echo the almond extract in the icing

OK, lent is over. Get baking! This cookie contains no hidden health benefits, other than pure pleasure. I made them for two families I am baking for and I hope they delighted in the taste and textures of the rich chocolate with the delicate almond flavor of the frosting.

If you don’t want all the frosting, you can simply make them as a drop cookie and enjoy the soft fudge flavor.
The original recipe for the cookies is adapted from the Betty Crocker Cookbook, circa 1972. Yes, a heritage recipe. I altered them and made them into thumbprint cookies to add a spot for the frosting.

makes a stiff batter

drop into balls

use the tip of a spoon


use your thumb

frosted and adorned

Ingredients for Double Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 oz melted chocolate (or 6 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder plus 2 TBS butter or coconut oil)
1/3 cup buttermilk (I used powdered buttermilk.)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl, beat the butte, sugar, egg, chocolate, buttermilk and vanilla.
Stir in the dry ingredients and mix just until blended. This makes a stiff batter.
Add chocolate chips and stir by hand.
Drop by rounded tablespoons onto a parchment lined (or greased) baking sheet.
Use the tip of a spoon to create a dent – or your thumb.
Bake 7 – 8 minutes until done. This is a hot oven, so watch them carefully.
Take them off the pans and let them cool on a wire rack.
When cool, frost and decorate any way you like.

Cream Cheese Frosting (small batch)
2 TBS butter
2 oz Cream cheese
dash salt
1 TBS milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1-2 cups powdered sugar until stiff

coconut and sprinkles on top

Mix these in a small bowl with a hand mixer.
Add just enough powdered sugar for the frosting to hold its’ shape and no more.
Garnish with nuts, coconut, sprinkles or whatever you like.

Rocky Road Brownies

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Warning, Rocky Road Brownies don’t fit in the “Healthy Food” category but rather in the “I Need Chocolate Now” section of my blog. Well, I don’t really have a separate listing for chocolate desperation, but “cookies and bars” will fill the bill.

I made the Rocky Road Brownies for the couple who won our church auction – Kathy and Chuck. I pledged to bake goodies for six months and these folks were the bid winners.
The money goes towards mission trips for our college students, so everyone wins.

bet you can’t eat just one!

You know I love to make brownies and playing with chocolate is always fun. It’s an easy recipe and one that goes together quickly and bakes in a jiff. You will be in chocolate heaven in less time than it takes to watch an episode of Downton Abbey. As long as you don’t mind warm gooey brownies! Mrs Patmore won’t mind.

Ingredients for Rocky Road Brownies
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder – I used Hershey’s Special Dark
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup dark chocolate chips
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 cup chopped nuts

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Grease a 9″ square pan or line with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, melt the butter and the cocoa together in the microwave.
Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until incorporated.
Stir in the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
Spread in the pan.
Bake 20 – 25 minutes until brownies are almost done.
Remove from oven and sprinkle the marshmallows, nuts and chocolate chips on top.

Setting up in pan


Note: if you want them to look really pretty, put these ingredients on separately and sprinkle them around evenly. I mixed them all together and it was more difficult to get a nice even blend of marshmallow, chips and nuts in each bite.
Bake another 5-10 minutes until the marshmallows are golden and the brownies are set. (Toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean…unless it bumps into a chocolate chip.)

Let them cool, but cut them before they are completely set up. (About an hour.)

I had never made these before but they are worth repeating. Very chocolatey and rich.

Five days after I delivered these to Kathy and Chuck I ran into them at a Lenten Fish Fry. Chuck said he had to let his belt out a notch – High Praise Indeed! Kathy glowed when she spoke about how much they were enjoying the brownies, so I think you should give them a try.

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Pecan Fudge Brownies with Fudge Frosting

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God rested on the seventh day and on the eighth day he woke up and said, “Let’s make chocolate!” And he saw that it was good. Soooo good.

pecan fudge brownies


Then along came St. Valentine who said, “Chocolate is the food of love.” Or something like that. Somehow Madison Ave took it from there and now all Americans are required to eat their weight in chocolate on Valentine’s Day. And I’m OK with this.

Anyone who follows my blog knows there is no shortage of brownie recipes. When I got married I had 12 brownie recipes and an uncracked cookbook. I know have shelves of cookbooks, many with scratch and taste sections…cakes, cookies, bars, brownies, hot fudge sauce.

My writer friends are popping over and in their honor I wanted to make a new brownie recipe. Naturally I have to assist them in their goal to consume enough chocolate for the big day.

plate of yummy


I found a cookbook on my shelves entitled “Intensely Chocolate.” I have no memory of ever seeing this cookbook before. It was in pristine condition, so I suspect it must be new – sans chocolate smudges.
It does bring up a troubling condition: book shopping in my sleep.

Cookbooks seem to arrive on a regular basis and I have no knowledge of them. But they claim I’ve purchased them on Amazon, so who am I to dispute that?

I must have been having a great dream when I selected Intensely Chocolate, by Carole Bloom. Although you never want to have “bloom” on your chocolate… you know, that white chalky stuff that happens when your chocolate has become distressed. If you want to learn more about bloom, and how to avoid it, try Baking Bites. http://bakingbites.com/2012/01/what-is-chocolate-bloom/

still gooey

Valentine’s brownies

Although the recipe for Fudgy Pecan Brownies looked perfect, I found it a bit tedious. For starters it required both unsweetened chocolate in a bar form, bittersweet chocolate in a bar form and unsweetened cocoa powder. Yes, I’m a chocolate addict, but keeping a steady supply of these items is a challenge. And a trip to the store breaks the rhythm of brownie-creation. So I simplified the recipe and changed it a bit.

I hunted through my private chocolate stash in the drawers in my office, dresser and pantry until I found a pile of chocolate to substitute. Instead of the plain bars, I used a 3.5 oz bar of dark chocolate with cabernet grapes and another half eaten bar with crushed almonds. Then I had my trusty Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips step in to fill in the blanks.

So what happened? The chocolate held hands together to create a fudgy, rich brownie with the crunch of toasted pecans. Then just to be sure there was enough chocolate goodness, I added my favorite frosting. Just to be sure.

My writer friends loved them. My husband brought me roses. These are brownies to remember.

Ingredients
5 oz bar of dark chocolate (flavor(s) of your choice)
¾ cup dark chocolate chips
¾ cup butter (1 ½ sticks)
3 large eggs
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp instant coffee powder (smashed to create a dust)
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
3 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder (again, I used dark)
1 cup flour
1 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease an 8” square pan.
Toast the pecans for 5 – 7 minutes and let them cool.
Put the chocolate bar and chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Add the butter and melt.
In a large mixing bowl, crack the three eggs and beat with the sugars, vanilla, coffee and salt.
Add the butter and chocolate mixture carefully.
Mix in the cocoa powder and flour and beat just until incorporated.
Blend in the pecans.

Bake 30 – 35 minutes. Let cool
If desired (and I know you DO desire this) frost with fudge frosting

Fudge frosting
2 TBS butter
4 TBS cream cheese
4 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder
Dash salt
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 TBS milk or cream
1 – 1 ½ cups powdered sugar.

Directions
Soften the butter and cream cheese. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until you have a creamy, spreadable consistency.

Enjoy!

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Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Urban Legend or Legendary Recipe… you decide.

I pledged to bake cookies for the winner of an auction at our church. The money raised is going to help students go on mission trips. A great cause which I’ve embraced for three years now.

Neiman Marcus Cookies


Before I could make a few cookie suggestions, Chuck, the eager auction winner, sent this recipe as a request for my first cookie “deposit.” The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe is an urban legend that has been around for several decades. It’s similar to the Mrs. Field’s Cookie recipe which has also circled the globe.

dark chocolate and mint chips


I made the recipe exactly as is because it was a request, but anyone who follows this blog knows that it is nearly impossible for me to follow a recipe AS IS. And because there was so much batter, I eventually had to divide it into two bowls, so I used different chips in half. A few additional suggestions follow the recipe below.

Grated Hershey bar added little

Over flowing mixer

one tablespoon sized scoop

Nieman Marcus Cookies – original recipe
Makes 10 dozen (no kidding!)
2 c butter
2 c sugar
2 c brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
4 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
5 c blended oatmeal
1 8-oz Hershey bar (grated)
3 c chopped nuts
24 oz chocolate chips (You may want to divide the batter and use different chips in each half. Pictured are one batch wtih semi sweet chips and one with dark chocolate and mint chips.)

Directions
Measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder.
Cream butter and both sugars.
Add eggs and vanilla.
Mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda.
Add chocolate chips, Hershey bar, and nuts.
Roll into balls and place 2 in apart on a cookie sheet. (I used a 1 TBS scoop.)
Bake at 375 for 10 min.
Makes 112 cookies.
Recipe may be halved.

The cookies were delicious, but naturally I have several opinions about them which you may want to consider.
Nana Clare’s Notes:1. They suggest that you might want to cut the recipe in half. Might? This makes 10 dozen, so unless you have a crowd of cooie monsters at the ready, do consider halving it. Or make the batter and freeze in balls. Then bake as you desire, a few nibbles at a time.

2. The huge grated Hershey bar was a pain because my food processor stopped after the first pulse and I had to “grate” these by hand. But regardless, I didn’t think the milk chocolate bar added much flavor so I would ditch it.
3. The recipe was so enormous that eventually I had to divide it into two bowls. I used the traditional semi sweet chips in one bowl and put the dark chocolate and mint chips in the other. That was a winner! The batch that I took to a church function disappeared quickly and people really seemed to enjoy the mint. Butterscotch or other chips would work well too.
4.I thought grinding the oatmeal was a wasted step. Personally, I love oats and enjoy seeing them in baked goods.
5. The cookies would retain their moistness more easily if some of the sugar was changed out for honey.
6. Finally, I would have swapped out some of the white flour for some whole wheat pastry flour, just so I could pretend these are “health foods.”