CHOCOLATE CREATIONS
Making Your Events Sweet
CHOCOLATE CREATIONS CHEWY BROWNIE COOKIES
If you love chewy brownies and soft cookies, you simply must indulge yourself with these decadent cookies.
Warning!
They are a dieter's worst nightmare!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 27 minutes
Ingredients:
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat baking liners.
In a double-boiler, melt 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chunks with the butter, stirring until smooth. Remove the top of the double-boiler to a heat-proof pad to cool to room temperature, but still liquid. (Stir occasionally as it cools.)
In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a separate large bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract using a mixer on high speed. Beat until well-combined, light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the cooled chocolate mixture to the egg mixture, mixing on low speed until combined. Add the flour mixture, stirring by hand just until combined but smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.
Using a small ice cream scoop, drop tablespoon-sized mounds onto prepared baking sheets, spacing them 1 inch apart. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overbake. Remove from oven and let rest 5 to 10 minutes before carefully moving to cooling racks using a spatula. Cool completely before storing.
Bittersweet brownie cookies may be made several days in advance. They may also be frozen up to 1 month.
Note: 1-1/2 cups of chopped pecans, walnuts, or peanuts may be substituted for 1 cup of the chocolate chips if desired.
Yield: about 4 dozen brownie cookies
Warning!
They are a dieter's worst nightmare!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 27 minutes
Ingredients:
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat baking liners.
In a double-boiler, melt 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chunks with the butter, stirring until smooth. Remove the top of the double-boiler to a heat-proof pad to cool to room temperature, but still liquid. (Stir occasionally as it cools.)
In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a separate large bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract using a mixer on high speed. Beat until well-combined, light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the cooled chocolate mixture to the egg mixture, mixing on low speed until combined. Add the flour mixture, stirring by hand just until combined but smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.
Using a small ice cream scoop, drop tablespoon-sized mounds onto prepared baking sheets, spacing them 1 inch apart. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overbake. Remove from oven and let rest 5 to 10 minutes before carefully moving to cooling racks using a spatula. Cool completely before storing.
Bittersweet brownie cookies may be made several days in advance. They may also be frozen up to 1 month.
Note: 1-1/2 cups of chopped pecans, walnuts, or peanuts may be substituted for 1 cup of the chocolate chips if desired.
Yield: about 4 dozen brownie cookies
HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE
Chocolate comprises a number of raw and processed foods produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America, with its earliest documented use around 1100 BC. The majority of the Mesoamerican peoples made chocolate beverages, including the Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl, a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor.
After fermentation, the beans are dried, cleaned, and roasted, and the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs. The nibs are then ground to cocoa mass, pure chocolate in rough form. Because this cocoa mass usually is liquefied then molded with or without other ingredients, it is called chocolate liquor. The liquor also may be processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Unsweetened baking chocolate (bitter chocolate) contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, combining cocoa solids, cocoa butter or other fat, and sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk but no cocoa solids.
Chocolate has become one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes have become traditional on certain holidays: chocolate bunnies and eggs are popular on Easter, chocolate coins on Hanukkah, Santa Claus and other holiday symbols on Christmas, and hearts on Valentine's Day. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages, to produce chocolate milk and hot chocolate. The world's top continental producer of cacao beans is Africa.
Chocolate comprises a number of raw and processed foods produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America, with its earliest documented use around 1100 BC. The majority of the Mesoamerican peoples made chocolate beverages, including the Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl, a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor.
After fermentation, the beans are dried, cleaned, and roasted, and the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs. The nibs are then ground to cocoa mass, pure chocolate in rough form. Because this cocoa mass usually is liquefied then molded with or without other ingredients, it is called chocolate liquor. The liquor also may be processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Unsweetened baking chocolate (bitter chocolate) contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, combining cocoa solids, cocoa butter or other fat, and sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk but no cocoa solids.
Chocolate has become one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes have become traditional on certain holidays: chocolate bunnies and eggs are popular on Easter, chocolate coins on Hanukkah, Santa Claus and other holiday symbols on Christmas, and hearts on Valentine's Day. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages, to produce chocolate milk and hot chocolate. The world's top continental producer of cacao beans is Africa.
