Memorial Day M&M's Cookies

 

The other day at work I was hankering for a dessert and ended up buying an overpriced M&M's cookie.  It was alright but I knew I could make a better one myself.  So in honor of Memorial Day weekend I made some Memorial Day M&M's Cookies using the red, white and blue colored chocolate candies that I already had on hand.  The recipe comes from Cook's Illustrated and is very similar to your typical chocolate chip cookie dough - simply replace the chips with M&M's.

 

I love that the dough comes together quite easily and requires no mixer, handheld or stand, so it's the perfect recipe to make with little ones in your life.  In less than thirty minutes you have delicious cookies that will delight the child in any of us.  All that's missing is a cold glass of milk.

Mackles'mores

 

It's rare for me to stray from my go-to chocolate chip cookie (Jacques Torres's recipe published in the New York Times), but I recently discovered a new take on the all-American classic that had me wondering if it was time to reconsider.  Over the years I've visited the Pacific Northwest many times but never had I been to Hello Robin Cookies.  

 

 

Until a few months ago I'd never even heard of the cookie shop until I was FaceTiming with my friend Evelyn who lives in Seattle.  While we were chatting her family just so happened to come home with a dozen cookies from the aforementioned bakery.  They're favorite cookie being Mackles'mores, chocolate chip dough studded with marshmallows, baked on a graham cracker and finally topped with a chocolate square.  Intrigued, I immediately went online to find out more. 

 

Luckily there were plenty of websites that not only published the Hello Robin recipe but also videos showing how it was made.  The only adjustment I made to the recipe was omitting the cinnamon.  I scooped out the dough into 2 tablespoon size balls and froze them to bake off later.  This method worked liked a dream because I found the frozen dough baked beautifully. 

 

 

After the baked cookies came out of the oven I topped them with a square of Dandelion Chocolate's Gola Rainforest chocolate.  With its hints of brownie, marshmallow and roasted almonds I thought the chocolate would pair beautifully with the Mackles'mores.   The chocolate chip cookie on its own is fantastic, nice and chewy with caramel hints, but the addition of the graham cracker really takes it over the top.  So good! It wants for nothing, except maybe a cold glass of milk.

Chocolate Chip Cake

 

This Chocolate Chip Cake came about because of a recent baking failure.  But I've learned that out of defeat one can find victory.  I had seen a post on Instagram for a chocolate chip cake that looked so delicious and was super easy to make, i.e., no appliance needed, so I gave it a go. Sadly I was disappointed with the results.  Instead of chocolate chips that were evenly distributed among the cake I got chips that sunk to the bottom of the cake like an anchor.  On top of that, the cake part was nothing to write home about.  

 

Never one to give up I persevered and decided to apply the chocolate chip concept to a tried and true cake recipe that I've made before.  The three layer cake you see in this blog post is the end result of that adaption and it tastes amazing!   

 

 

The recipe for the white cake and American style vanilla buttercream comes from Cake by Courtney.    If you've never heard of Courtney before I highly recommend you follow her.  Her cakes not only look beautiful, but they also taste incredible.  I think her white cake is the best "from scratch" one out there with an amazingly tender and tight crumb.  My only update to her recipe was the addition of chocolate chips to the cake batter. 

 

While I normally frost my cakes with Swiss meringue buttercream, for this cake I went with Courtney's American-style whipped vanilla buttercream.  American-style buttercream contains no eggs and is made with butter, powdered sugar, heavy cream, vanilla and salt.  Due to good amount of beating using a stand mixer the texture of the frosting is light and fluffy, similar to SMB. Be forewarned though it is a lot sweeter than European buttercreams.  Moderate application of this buttercream was key to avoid a sickeningly sweet cake.

Levain Style Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

In all the times that I've traveled to New York City I never managed to make it to Levain Bakery.  If you ask my why I couldn't tell you, I guess it just never crossed my mind.  There was always someplace else that took priority.  But recently I'd been seeing their famous chocolate chip walnut cookies featured countless times on social media.  The clincher was when Stella Parks posted on her Instagram Stories that she was working on a Levain style cookie recipe for Serious Eats.  That was it, I had to try these cookies for myself.  Immediately I emailed Stella asking if she might perhaps share her recipe with me and she was kind enough to send a preview.  [Look for the actual recipe to be posted soon on SeriousEats.com]

The one thing I noticed immediately about her recipe was the high ratio of chocolate chips and walnuts compared to other chocolate chip cookies.   These ones are not for the faint of heart...they are stuffed to the max!   Another thing is that they are H-U-G-E, each one weighing about six ounces.  The recipe yields eight gigantic cookies, each one could easily be split with two or three people if you're so inclined to share.

Now I must admit that chocolate chips are not my favorite kind of cookie but these were pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.  I broke in to one while it was still warm and the bittersweet chocolate was just slightly melted and oozing with the crunchy walnuts serving as a really lovely complement.  On my next trip to NYC I'll be sure to stop by the bakery that started it all!

M&M's Cookies

What to do with a huge bag of plain M&M's that were leftover from the office ice cream sundae party?  Such was the predicament I found myself in recently.  Most people would just eat them, but that thought wasn't the most appealing to me since I've got more of a salty tooth than a sweet one.

Then I remembered those huge M&M cookies that you can find in almost every bakery and supermarket in America and I knew that was what I was going to make.  No mystery to them people.  They're basically chocolate chip cookies with the candies replacing the chips.  I under bake them just slightly so that they maintain a moist and chewy texture.   Give them a try!

Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Here's a scrumptious banana bread that tastes even better the next day.  The recipe originated from one of my sister's co-workers, but was adjusted and tweaked to it's current deliciousness.  Buttermilk makes the bread really moist and I added mini chocolate chips to gild the lily even further.   (Never a bad thing in my opinion.)  Be sure to use REALLY ripe bananas, we're talking super dark, to get the maximum fruit flavor.