dark chocolate Archives - The Midnight Baker

Orange & Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Cookies

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 23:00:17 +0000

A secret ingredient makes these cookies special and as a result make a cookie chewy.

The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie

There’s not too many people who don’t love a delicious chocolate chip cookie.

And chocolate chip cookie lovers will flip over these because they are rich and chewy. They get additional great flavor from rich dark chocolate and citrusy orange. .

These cream cheese chocolate chip cookies are just full of surprises because you will never believe what they contain and by the same token, what they don’t.

Apart from the surprises, they’re ultra easy to make and do not require the dough to be chilled as many cookies containing cream cheese require.

Make A Cookie Chewy

Want to make a cookie chewy? Add a bit of cornstarch. Yes. Cornstarch.

You don’t add much. All it takes is one teaspoon per cup of flour to make a cookie chewy. It also seems to stop the cookies getting hard and brittle. Of course these cookies are so good, they won’t last long enough to get stale. So that’s something that requires little worry.

The orange zest may be left out if you like and make it a good old plain chocolate chip cookie and of course, you can use any variety of chocolate morsels you wish. I just have this “thing” about dark chocolate and orange.

Yes, It’s Eggless

Surprisingly, there isn’t a trace of any egg in these cookies. This make it a good choice if you have someone with an egg allergy.

I was dubious about the egg bit when I first tried the original recipe. I adapted Mary’s recipe because I like the fact that you don’t have to chill this cookie dough for hours. I want cookies when I want them and cooling (no pun) my heels for an hour or more doesn’t excite me.

The Recipe

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Chewy Orange & Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Cookies

An upscale chocolate chip cookie with a secret ingredient

Prep Time20

Cook Time12

Course: cookies, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cream cheese cookies, gourmet chocolate chip cookies, how to make cookies chewy

Servings: 12

Calories: 464kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter softened
8 oz cream cheese softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbs grated orange zest
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
12 oz dark chocolate chips 60% cacao

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven. To 350F/180C. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment
Beat cream cheese, butter and sugars until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla and orange zest, beat to combine.
Mix the flour, salt, soda and corn starch and add to the cream cheese mixture, mixing until just combined. Do not overtax.
Fold in the chocolate chips.
Drop by heaping tablespoonful onto prepared sheets, spacing about 1-in/2.5cm apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges just begin to become golden brown. Leave on the sheets for about a minute, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
Makes about 18-24 cookies.

Nutrition

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Linzer Tarts

Judith Hannemann — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The ultimate Christmas cookie. Leave some huge Linzer Tarts for Santa!

Linzer tarts are so traditional around the holidays! They’ve always been a part of my holiday baking.

These are quick and easy…very few ingredients. Mix, chill and roll and that’s it! It’s just a basic shortbread butter
cookie.

Linzer Tarts

I used regular seeded raspberry jam, but seedless works too.

What I did here to make them just a little bit more special was to drizzle some melted dark chocolate over the top. Nothing really beats a raspberry and chocolate combo. By all means leave off the drizzle if it’s too much of a good thing for you. And of course, they can be filled with ANY flavor jam you like.

Make sure to leave one for Santa! Yes, only one because they are huge. I used a 3-4 inch cutter, but you can make ’em smaller too.

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Linzer Tarts

Linzer tarts, also known as linzer cookies, are buttery shortbread with jam filling. A classic Christmas cookie recipe!

Prep Time25

Cook Time10

Total Time35

Course: desserts

Cuisine: Austrian

Keyword: Christmas cookies, linzer cookies, linzer tarts

Servings: 24

Calories: 169kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter* very soft
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 1/4 cups flour

Filling:

1/2 cup raspberry preserves

Topping:

1/2 cup chocolate chips high quality
1 tsp butter
powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and almond extract. Beat well.
Add the flour and beat at low speed until a dough forms.
Form dough into a ball and place in a plastic bag. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut circles with a 3-inch diameter cookie cutter (I used a glass). Cut smaller holes in the center of HALF the cookies (I used a large bottle cap from a 3-litre soda bottle).
Alternatively, you can use a linzer tart cutter--it will make smaller cookies though.
Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 7-10 minutes or until cookies are "set" and just are beginning to get light golden brown around the edges.
Cool for 1 minute on the sheet and then remove to a rack to cool completely.
When cookies are completely cool, spread about 1 tbs of the raspberry preserves on the circles without the additional holes--and spread the jam on the side that was sitting on the cookie sheet because that is completely flat.
Top with a cookie with the hole in the center, again placing the side that was on the cookie sheet on the jam, forming a sandwich.
Melt chocolate chips and butter in a microwave. Microwave in 30-second intervals and stir. It will probably need about 1 minute total to melt. Stir until there are no lumps. Drizzle over the cookies.
Dust with powdered (confectioner's) sugar.

Notes

*You may substitute regular salted butter in a pinch but do NOT substitute margarine or butter-flavored Crisco.

Nutrition

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Fudge Sauce

Judith Hannemann — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 23:00:00 +0000

Fudge Sauce

Make a batch then keep it in the fridge. Can be warmed when needed!

Fudge Sauce

2/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup dutch-process cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
6 oz dark/semisweet/bittersweet chocolate, chopped finely and divided
2 tbs unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Place cream, corn syrup, cocoa, sugar, salt and 3 oz of the chopped chocolate in a small (1-1.5 qt) saucepan.

Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and keep it on a slow boil for 5 minutes, stirring every now and then. Remove from heat.

Add the rest of the chocolate, the butter and the vanilla and stir until chocolate and butter are melted and sauce is smooth.

Cool to warm and serve over ice cream, cake, etc. May be stored in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator and warmed when needed.

Makes about 2 cups.

Fudge Sauce

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Black and White Pretzel Mix

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 23:00:00 +0000

Black and White Pretzel Mix

A bag of mini pretzels, some white chocolate, some dark chocolate and a microwave. What can be easier?

This is a KINDA healthy snack mix. It doesn’t overdo the chocolates, pretzels are really a better choice than chips and dark chocolate is pretty healthy so they say.

OK, I’m a nut for white chocolate, and I think this tastes better with it. But that’s just my opinion so try both flavors!!

For this you will need REAL white chocolate if that’s what you choose to use. It must contain cocoa butter to melt and drizzle correctly. White baking morsels don’t, and I don’t think those disks that Wilton puts out do either, but I did read the package and it says that it melts and drizzles nicely, but there will be a caveat here with it and I do recommend using the real deal.

Baker’s® Premium White contains the cocoa butter and so does the Ghiardelli® *BAR*.

Microwaving the white chocolate at 30 second intervals is the way to go. It will not look like it’s melting, so you do have to stir. I didn’t make too much mix, and used 2 squares. It melted nicely to the right consistency in a total of 1 minute, 10 seconds.

As to the regular semi-sweet chocolate, use the same microwave times and remember, do not get a speck of water in either, or the chocolate will seize. You can correct that somewhat by adding vegetable shortening (Crisco, for example) by the teaspoon until it’s smooth again, but it just won’t be the “same” so best advice I can give is, be patient, and do it slowly!!!

I used butter-flavored “waffle” pretzels and mini unsalted twists here. A new-wave flavor combo recently has been salt and dark chocolate, so by all means, use a salted variety if you like that.

FYI the little nonpareils are a pain YOU-KNOW-WHERE rolling around all over the place, but they do look pretty. But since they add no flavor and are only a decoration, leave them out if you’re making this as a snack for a family movie nite or something.

I used 1/2 a bag of each variety pretzel here, and use any amount you wish and as much chocolate as you wish. My instructions are a guide from what I did.

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Black and White Pretzel Mix

A bag of mini pretzels, some white chocolate, some dark chocolate and a microwave. What can be easier?

Prep Time10

Total Time10

Course: candy

Cuisine: American

Keyword: dark chocolate, Pretzel Mix, white chocollate

Servings: 8

Calories: 194kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

4 cups mini pretzels shape your choice
2 squares white chocolate see above regarding white chocolate
2 squares semi-sweet chocolate
colored decors optional

Instructions

Line a work surface with either baking parchment or wax paper.
Lay pretzels on parchment/wax paper with a small space between each pretzel.
Melt chocolates in separate microwave-proof bowls, according to melting directions on each package, usually this is 30 seconds for each square plus 10 seconds for each additional square.
Drizzle chocolate(s) over pretzels either with a spoon or a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip. You can also use a plastic sandwich bag in place of the pastry bag and just cut a teeny bit off one corner.
Sprinkle with decors if using. Let set. This will take about 2 hrs OR refrigerate for about 15 minutes.

Nutrition

Black and White Pretzel Mix

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