Valentine's Day Cookie Box

 

In December I always make holiday cookie boxes to gift to friends and family, but this year I decided to adapt it for Valentine's Day.  What better way to show your loved one how much you care than a box of homemade treats?

 

My Valentine's Day Cookie Box included three types of cookies: Heart Linzer Cookies, Glossy Fudge Brownies and Valentine's Sprinkles Cookies.  Chocolate candy hearts are also a must.

 

I used these kraft boxes to package the cookies and lined the boxes with the cutest heart-printed wax paper sheets.

 

The Folding Lady's One Pan Brownies

 

If you're not already following The Folding Lady on Instagram, you need to!  Sophie Liard gained a huge following during the early days of the pandemic when she posted videos of herself folding clothes.  The videos went viral and many social media posts later she's got hundreds of thousands of followers and recently published her first book.  Call me strange, or a Virgo!, but I find it so therapeutic and satisfying to watch her expert folding.

In addition to the folding, Sophie has also posted several food recipes on her account.  In particular, this one for One Pan Brownies immediately caught my eye.  I love a recipe that is simple as can be,  made in one pan and delivers.  I embellished the recipe by adding streaks of dulce de leche to the top of the brownie batter before baking.   They tasted amazing, but next time I think I'll also add a layer of the milk caramel in the middle!

2021 Holiday Cookies

 

Here's a roundup of the holiday cookies I made this year and gifted to friends and family.  Every year I tell myself, "don't go overboard, two to three different cookies will suffice," and every year I ignore that advice.  I can't help it!  When the holidays come around I'm constantly inspired by all the baking I see and inevitably I end up finding something new or different that I want to make.  

Clockwise from top right:

Iced Chocolate Stars

Walnut Snowballs

Ginger Molasses

Sugar Cookies

Ricciarelli

Millionaire's Shortbread

Bravetart Brownies

Raspberry-Filled Viennois

 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

Salted Caramel-Filled Brownies

I never would have thought to bake brownies in the form of a cupcake but I was easily convinced to give it a try when I saw these Salted Caramel-Filled Brownies featured on the cover of Cook's Country's Feb/Mar 2021 issue.  The combination of sweet caramel and sea salt is always a winner in my book.  The recipe features variations of the filling, like chocolate ganache and peanut butter ganache, which sounded delicious too. 

The trick with this recipe is to make sure you use parchment paper cupcake liners which are different from the paper liners you'd find at the supermarket.  I bought these ones from Amazon and I heard some Target stores also carry it.  If you don't use the parchment liners you run the risk of the brownies sticking to the liner.  Not pretty!

2019 Holiday Cookie Box

I don't know about you, but I am utterly exhausted from all the holiday candy making and baking.  I blame this year's shortened time frame between Thanksgiving and Christmas.   For four weeks straight I was either making pounds and pounds of cashew toffee or various holiday cookies.  It was a frenzy of activity so you can't blame me for relishing some down time until 2020.

Here's what I gifted to my friends:

Chocolate Crinkle (America's Test Kitchen) - a classic that is always a crowd pleaser

Zimtsterne (The Daring Gourmet) - gluten free and dairy free

Ginger Molasses (Amanda Frederickson) - mine came out flatter than hers, but they still taste great!

Walnut Snowballs (America's Test Kitchen) - my all-time favorite Christmas cookie

Brownies (Bravetart) - the BEST recipe hands down and a guarantee of the shiny top crust

Pinwheel Icebox (America's Test Kitchen) - slice and bake are super easy and convenient

Clotted Cream Shortbread (Rodda's) - the best shortbread that holds it's shape beautifully

Paper Mart boxes.

Season's Treatings to All!!!

Biscoff Brownies

You probably already know that I'm a huge fan of The Great British Bake-Off as I've mentioned it enough times on this blog.  One of my favorite contestants from Season 3 was Holly Bell because her bakes consistently looked so delicious and more importantly, down to earth and real.  I follow Holly on Instagram and whenever she posts pics of her baked goods I'm so envious! 

Holly is about to launch a brownie business so I figured she knows her stuff when it comes to these bar cookies.  One version she makes quite often that really got my attention were made with Lotus biscuits or Biscoff cookies as they're more commonly known here in America.  Who doesn't love those spiced speculoos cookies and to marry them with fudgy brownies was true genius!

I have to say these Biscoff Brownies are a real winner.  Just the right amount of fudgy-ness, a delicious cookie butter center and the crunch of the cookie crumbles on top.   I think they'd taste even more amazing straight out of the fridge or freezer.  They're quite rich so for some much needed portion control I cut the sixteen brownie squares in half to make 32 triangles.  But for those of you who want to indulge you can skip that last step!

TWD Chocolate Truffle Tartlets

For any chocoholics in your life this week's TWD recipe, Chocolate Truffle Tartlets, would be right up their alley.   How could anyone resist what is essentially a dense brownie, chock full of milk and white chocolate chunks and crunchy amaretti cookies, baked in a chocolate tart shell?  I say proceed with caution - it may be death by chocolate to the extreme!

This week's hosts are A Whisk and a Spoon, Spike Bakes, Good Eats N' Sweet Treats and Cookbook Habit.  You can find the recipe on any of their blogs.

[Note: I used a food processor to make the chocolate dough and had to add an additional tablespoon of water so that it would come together.  Also, the recipe yields more than the stated six 4-inch tartlets - probably more like eight or nine.]

Dulce de Leche Triple Chocolate Brownies

After making the dulce de leche ice cream I became a bit obsessed.   I couldn't get enough of the stuff, as evidenced by several cartons of homemade ice cream currently  chilling in my freezer.  

This time I even managed to get my hands on a jar of La Salamandra  from Sur La Table and swirled it in with the ice cream.   Eat your heart out Haagen-Dazs! 

After making the ice cream I had some caramel leftover and couldn't possibly let it go to waste.  What to make, what to make?  Brownies!!  

These brownies are rich, chewy and fudgy with an intense chocolate flavor.   Perfect for any chocoholic in your life.