Mexican Chocolate Icebox Cookies

Spicy, Chocolate, and Cookies all in one SIGN ME UP!!!!

I recently got this recipe from Master baker Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts.  The original cookie recipe is from Maida’s friend from Guatemala. The great thing about icebox cookies is that you can always prepare them and leave them in the freezer until needed.  Saving time while baking is one of the best things .

These deep chocolate, crispy cookies are a great addition in to your typical cookie tray. They literally spice up the party. The great thing about these Mexican cookies is the heat from the warm spices doesn’t hit until after you swallow. The taste buds kick in in overtime and you really get a nice sensation in your mouth, just enough spice to make you want more . By all means you can lower the amount of spice, but thats not fun.

Icebox Cookies simply mean, its a type of cookie where the dough is formed and chilled before being sliced and baked. 

theIngredients 
1 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour 

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt 

Generous pinch of finely ground black pepper 

Generous pinch of cayenne

3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 1/2 ( 6ozs) sticks of butter (room tempearture)

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg (room temparture)

1 cup granulated sugar
Directions 

Sift together flour, cocoa, salt,!pepper, cayenne,and cinnamon. Set aside.

In the lage bowl of the electric mixer cream the butter. Add the vanilla and sugar, mix throughly. Beat in the egg, then on low speed gradually add the sifted dry ingredients  scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula and beating only until mixed. Toward the end of the mixing , if the dough starts to crawl up the beater, remove the bowl mixer and finish mixing by hand I prefer using a wooden spoon for this part.

Lightly flour work surface. Turn the dough out to space, lightly flour hands and with your hands, shape the dough into a cylinder about 10 incges long and about 2inches in diameter. Wrap the cylinder of dough in wax paper and place in the freezer until firm. It can also be kept frozen until you’re ready to bake. Before baking adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat to 375 degrees.

Unwrap the dough and with a sharp knife cut into slcies 1/4 thick. place the slices about 2inches apart on ungreased baking pans. Bake 10-11 minutes, reversing the pans top to bottom and front to bake once during baking. The cookies are done when they feel almost firm to touch. let them cool for a few seconds on the pans, remove and transfer to racks to cool, store airtight. Makes 30-40 

Enjoy 

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Polvorones aka Mexican Wedding Cookies

Ingredients

2 sticks of unsalted  butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cup confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup ground almonds

touch of nutmeg

Ready

In a mixing bowl beat butter on high speed, until fluffy and pale yellow.

add 1/2 cup confectioners sugar. continue beating until light and fluffy again. Reduce speed to low. add vanilla and salt, mix until blended .

over a sheet of parchment paper, sift together flour cinnamon, and nutmeg.

add flour mixture to butter and mix on low speed just until blended.

stir in almonds.

cover and refrigerate until dough is chilled about 15mins.

meanwhile

Preheat oven 350. sift remaining 3/4 cups of confectioners sugar in a shallow bowl.

shape the dough into 1 inch balls. place on ungreased baking sheets. bake until cookies are just golden on the bottom 12-14 minutes. Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks. let cool 5 minutes. remove the cookies one at a time, roll them in confectioners sugar. let cookies cool completely on wire racks

Eat and Share

These cookies can be made a few days ahead of time and kept in an airtight container.

 

Walnut-Chocolate-Chunk-Bars

Ok so a few things I need to share with you. This all came about on a Sunday night after a long work weekend. I crave comfort food all the time but really on exhausting end of work weekends. so Brownies were the answer. It all started out as usual ingredient’s lined up and ready, egg was room temperature thanks to a hot water bath and butter was melted and cooling. It was going be a breeze and I can relax and enjoy while finishing a book with only 65 pages left then bed. Well that changed when I realized I didn’t have cocoa for the brownies YIKES!  so now what????? Oh Mr. Baker think GOT IT Blondie’s duh ( brownies silly sister). Same ingredient’s just not chocolate, done and done it was decided. I would use the last 1/2 cup of walnuts in my pantry and a handful of chocolate I had stashed for a day like this. But I must of had a day like this recently because the chips were gone, YIKES AGAIN! So off I went across the street to the amazing Bodega that has saved my life many times in the past and will of course in the future. It gets even better. They didn’t have chocolate chips so I bought a few Hershey bars and figured YOU GOT THIS . So next step was to mix the butter and brown sugar then the dry ingredient’s followed by chopped walnut and chocolate. Smooooth sailing so I thought. I left the Blondie’s in the oven an extra 12 minutes and after they cooled they had a cookie soft yet crunchy texture, hence these are bars but if you leave them in for the 20-25 minutes you will have Blondie’s.

Moral of the story sometimes accidents turn out to be the best things ever when needed. Oh by the way I only got through about 10 pages before I was counting sheep and dreaming of my morning coffee and cookie bar.

Enjoy! And let me know what you think and what you added to your brownie/blondie/cookie bars

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup brown sugar packed. light or dark works

1 egg, room temperature, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda *

pinch of salt

1 cup of all purpose flour

about 1/3 cup chopped walnuts, put aside 9 whole nuts

3  chocolate Candy Bars, leave 9 squares

9 whole walnuts 9  chocolate squares

* 1/8 half of a 1/4 spoon

Ready?

Preheat oven 350 degrees. lightly butter/spray  and flour an 8×8 pan. whisk together the melted butter and brown sugar in a bowl.

Add the lightly beaten egg with the vanilla and whisk some more.

Add the dry ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon until combined then add walnuts and chocolate chunks. Not including the ones set aside.

Place into the greased pan and smooth out to fit the pan. I like to use rubber gloves and really spread the dough out. The back of a greased metal spoon works also . Bake for 20-25 minutes for blondie’s or leave in longer say 12 more minutes. Best way to check to see if they are finished is the old toothpick trick if it comes out dry its all good if it has the batter on it still leave it in longer. Ovens vary.

Allow to cool in pan for 5mins then let them cool on a rack before cutting .

.

 

 

Lemon Caraway Cookies

Lemon – Caraway Dough rolled out

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
grated rind of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 1/2 cups sifted flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven 400
Cream together butter and sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Add caraway seeds, lemon rind, lemon juice and sifted dry ingredients. Mix well.
Shape into a roll 2 inches in diameter. Chill for at least 30 minutes. Cut into thin slices about 1/4 or roll dough out and use cookie cutter shapes.
Bake for about 10mins
Makes 6 dozen

Rye Shortbread Cookies with Orange Zest and Sea salt

Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies

Madeleines