Long title, huh?

It’s worth it.

Usually, when I go to pair chocolate with something in the realm of sweetness, I go with raspberry or cherry (as evidenced by the umpteen chocolate-raspberry or chocolate-cherry flavor combinations on this website).  But, recently at a “I really shouldn’t go because I’ll spend money I don’t have” trip to King Arthur Flour Company, I walked away with a set of flavoring citrus oils (lime, lemon, and orange) and absolutely no idea of what to do with them.

I’ve never really been a fan of the chocolate-orange combination, either.  Which is why it was a leap of faith when I decided to take a regular sour cream pound cake (oh, yeah!) and mix in a little orange oil and orange zest.  It’s citrus season, right?

The results? Well, the chocolate pound cake speaks for itself.  How can that not be good?  Dense, rich, chocolatey.  I added in chocolate chips, well, because, you know…..who in their right mind wouldn’t?   The powdered sugar glaze was almost like a thick, candy coating. And, as far as that orange flavoring?  Holy smokes.  I think I’m a convert.  I cut this loaf into little bite-sized pieces and brought them into work, for two different departments.  At the end of the day, every crumb was gone.  I assume this means that it was good.

How to find the flavoring oils?  Most bakery/specialty stores will have them.  You can find them online at King Arthur here.  I’m not sure what the equivalent would be if you tried to use zest in place of the oil (It would have to be a lot because these are pretty potent.)  But, they are worth the splurge.

Chocolate Orange Sour Cream Pound Cake

Servings: 1 loaf

Ingredients

2 and 1/4 cups cake flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar, divided

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 teaspoons orange oil

1 cup sour cream

6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup water

Zest from one orange

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

2.  Generously butter the bottom and sides of a loaf pan (I used a 9-inch) with butter, and place a pre-cut piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the loaf pan.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda; set aside.

4. In the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and 1 cup of the granulated sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

5. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

6. Add the vanilla and the orange oil.

7. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the sour cream and dry ingredients (alternating them) in 3 separate additions.

8. Add the chocolate chips and mix until completely combined.

9. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and gently smooth the top with a rubber spatula.

10.  Bake until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 1o minutes.

11. Remove the cake from the oven and let cool for at least 10 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack.  Let cool completely before glazing.

12. For the glaze:  In a small saucepan, combine the remaining 1 cup of granulated sugar and the water over medium-high heat.

13.  Bring the sugar water to a simmer and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved, about 5 minutes or so.

14. Brush the cake with the glaze and let sit for about 5 minutes (you should wait for the glaze to soak in and dry slightly.)

15. Repeat the glazing process two more times.  **The glaze should end up thick and shiny.  Sprinkle with orange zest.

Source: Adapted from Food and Wine.

It’s cookie time.  Awwww, yeah.

I haven’t posted all that many coconut recipes on here yet, which is ironic considering that I do love coconut.  Usually when I make cookies, I go for something with chocolate and/or peanut butter.  But, in a recent effort to clean out my baking shelf in the pantry, the half bag of sweetened coconut caught my eye.  And the leftover jar of raspberry preserves (from these cupcakes) also caught my eye when I attempted to clean out the fridge.  Cleaning out the kitchen is a bonus. Making cookies with these ingredients equals a win-win situation.

These cookies are great for a couple of reasons.  They are simple to throw together-one bowl, a little mixing, and a relatively short baking time.  Another good reason?  Just the idea of toasted coconut makes me think of tropical, sunny weather (a much needed respite from the gray un-wintery winter here in New England).  And one more reason?  While I used raspberry jam (and baked the jam into the cookies), you could probably put anything chocolate or nutty in there (Nutella, what?) after you bake them if you wanted to avoid the jam thing.  Who doesn’t love thumbprint-style cookies?  The possibilities are endless.

So what lesson did I learn here?  Breaking out of the usual cookie shell can be a totally good thing.

Coconut Jam Cookies

Servings: 12 cookies

Ingredients

1 large egg

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons lemon zest

2 and 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

3. In the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg on medium-high speed until light yellow and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.

4. Switch to the paddle attachment, and, on medium speed, add the sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest.  Beat for 5 minutes.

5. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the shredded coconut, mixing until thoroughly combined.

6. Drop the batter in 1-2 tablespoon mounds onto the parchment-lined baking sheets, about 2 inches apart from one another.

7. Using the back of a spoon or your fingers, gently make an indentation in the center of each cookie mound.

8.  Place about 1 teaspoon of the raspberry jam into the center of each cookie mound.

9. Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes, or until slightly golden brown.

10.  Immediately turn off the oven, crack the oven door open slightly, and let dry in the (still warm) oven for a few more minutes.  (The original recipe states another 15 minutes, but I had to rescue my cookies after about 7 minutes because they were still continuing to brown a lot.  Use your best judgement here-oven heats can vary significantly.)

Source: Slightly adapted from Williams-Sonoma.

The other day I was getting ready to head over to my friend Jill’s house to watch a movie.  She’s a huge fan of cookies and red velvet, so I figured I should whip something up before I headed over (to eat cookies).  Since Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, I wanted to try my hand at something a little festive and appropriate for the holiday.  These little guys fit the bill.  I took them over, still warm from the oven, and they were quickly and repeatedly snacked on.  Nothing beats good red velvet, right?

So, before you make this recipe, there are a few things you should know.  Some things that I may have had a few issues with.  But the end result turned out so good that I had to share them with you.

The cookie dough is VERY thick, so if you don’t happen to have an electric or (preferably) standing mixer, I would give these a pass.  The dough would probably be way too tough to combine by hand.  As far as the red food coloring goes, I used the standard Wilton red food coloring gel….but I had to use an awful lot of it (almost the entire larger vial) to get the cookies to turn a red shade.  Perhaps a liquid food coloring would work better with this recipe in the future (it might also help with the thickness of the cookie dough, too.)  When you are ready to bake them, flatten them down a little with your fingers or the back of a spoon-they are very cake-like and won’t flatten out like regular (less delicious) cookies.

The fact that Jill continues to talk about how delicious these cookies over a week later says a lot.  That’s music to my ears.

Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Servings: approximately 20 cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup cocoa powder

Red food coloring liquid or gel

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

2. In the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

3. Add the food coloring gel or liquid until you reach the desired color.

4. Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and add the egg and vanilla, mixing well until combined.

5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder, mixing until thoroughly combined.**I had to add  more food coloring gel at this point because the addition of the cocoa powder really changed the color.

6. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the white chocolate chips until incorporated.

7. Using a cookie dough scoop or a tablespoon, drop the dough into mounds about two inches apart from one another.  Lightly flatten each cookie dough mound with your fingers or the back of a spoon.

8. Bake until slightly golden and crisp around the edges, about 10-12 minutes.  Enjoy.

Source: Barely adapted from How Sweet It Is.