Chocolate-Espresso Snowcap Cookies

It has been so cold out these past few days.  We're talking finger-numbingly, nose-runningly cold, to the point where I have avoided leaving the house unless absolutely necessary.  To add insult to injury, it snowed today.  In situations like these, I find it very helpful to bake- I end up with something sweet to eat while loping around the house in about 3 sweatshirts, and I get warmth from the oven.  Win-win situation.

Taking inspiration from the snow, I made snowcap cookies.  These chocolately, melt-in-your-mouth cookies get their name from the fact they are rolled in powdered sugar and end up looking like they have snow on them after they are baked.  Luckily, unlike snow, they are warm and comforting, making them a fitting treat for a snowy day.  Plus it's Friday, and everyone should be able to have cookies on Friday.

Pre-baking.  It's like snow in your oven!

These cookies are pretty easy to make and end up looking cool without too much effort.  They aren't too sweet but have a deep chocolate flavor, thanks to the addition of the espresso.  By the way, I know it's pronounced eSSSpresso, but I still pronounce it eXpresso.  It sounds too pompous the other way- judge me as you will.  Speaking of judging me, the original recipe is from the Martha Stewart website- you can find it here.  That is all.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 teaspoons instant espresso
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or Smartbalance
2/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
4 ounces melted semi-sweet chocolate, or bittersweet chocolate if you're more into that kinda thing
1 tablespoon milk or soy milk
Confectioner's sugar, for coating

Directions:

1. Beat together the brown sugar and butter until light and fluffy.  Add in the egg.
2. Melt the chocolate.  Once it's melted, let it cool for a bit (not to the point of re-hardening, of course) before adding it to the mixture.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, espresso, baking powder, and salt.
4. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
5. Add in the milk until just combined.
6. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and pop it in the freezer for about 45 min.  Don't skip this step!  The dough is beautifully light and fluffy, but soft- it needs to be frozen to hold its shape later on.  Geez, just go play in the snow or drink some hot chocolate or something.
7. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  While the oven is pre-heating, put some powdered sugar in a bowl and line 2 baking pans with parchment paper.
8.  Take the dough out of the freezer.  Roll the dough into balls, coat them thoroughly with powdered sugar (roll them twice if necessary), and put them onto the baking sheet.  Make sure they have space to expand!  Take note: do this all quickly.  If the dough starts getting soft and impossible to roll, pop it back in the freezer for a bit.  Coating your hands in powdered sugar will also temporarily help the dough not stick to your hands.
9. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the cookies have spread and the sugar coating has cracked.  When you take them out of the oven they will still be very soft, but they'll harden up a bit when they cool.  This means you have to let them sit for a little before taking them off the pan or, if you have no self control like me, it just means you will be eating a fresh-out-of-the-oven but very broken cookie.

Post-baking, when they were still too hot and crumbly to move so I definitely didn't eat them yet.  On a completely unrelated note, please don't look at the piece of cookie in the upper left corner and wonder what happened to the other half.  Because I definitely didn't break off a piece and eat it, and then eat the other half as soon as I took the picture.  Nope, I wouldn't do that.

Two last mini-rants about these cookies.  First, I just realized that I forgot to add the baking powder.  Oops.  I thought they looked a little flat.  Don't be like me.  They still taste good, but they'll be a little puffier if you actually add in all the necessary ingredients.  Second, I made these cookies with a friend a while back, and added caramels to the center as we rolled the cookie dough balls.  The cookies ended up in various states of disarray, oozing caramel in sometimes appetizing and sometimes not-so-appetizing ways, but they did taste really good.  If you just want delicious cookies and you're not worried about aesthetics I would say try the caramel thing, but if you're bringing these cookies somewhere and want them to look nice, well, don't say I didn't warn you.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Tofu

I have a bad habit of neglecting blogs.  Deepest apologies.  This post is dedicated to a friend who was requesting all recipes having to do with tofu- and when it comes to cooking with tofu, how could I refuse anyone?  So, I present you with... (cue trumpet fanfare.  No fanfare? Way to ruin all my fun) peanut butter tofu! Ta da!

I got the recipe from this awesome new blog I've started reading called Quiche a Week.  It's all vegetarian and uses stuff like tofu and flax, my faves.  I simplified this recipe a bit when I made it, partially due to time, partially due to lack of a few ingredients, and partially due to, let's face it, laziness.  Anyway, if you want the original, complete with delicious pictures and witty foodie comments, check it out here.  If you want the abridged version with a possibility of some random tangents, then by all means keep reading.

I would like to point out that this high-quality picture was taken with my iPhone.  This obviously makes me cool and tech-savvy.  And not at all the kind of person who has to google how to get pictures onto her computer from her fancy new iPhone because she has no idea how technology works.  Not at all. 

In its original state on the blog where I found this, the tofu was paired with a balsamic reduction and thrown in a homemade wrap with tomato and lettuce.  In my version the tofu was put in a (not homemade, but I promise to do better in the future) wrap with tomato but no lettuce, because I didn't have any, with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar on top because I didn't feel like taking the time to make a reduction.  I was also warned that my whole house would smell of balsamic vinegar for days, which I'm guessing would not be appreciated by myself or the other inhabitants of the house.


Ingredients:
1 block of firm tofu
3 tablespoons peanut butter (creamy or chunky, whatever floats yer boat)
1 to 2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 clove of garlic, minced/crushed
Note: The original recipe also called for 1/2 tsp minced ginger and 1 tsp garlic chili sauce.  If you have those things in your house, go ahead and add them in.  I didn't.

Directions:
1. Drain your tofu and press it for about 20 minutes.  The drier it is, the firmer and more willing to take on other flavors it will be.  For those who don't know how to press tofu: Plunk the block of tofu on a plate.  Cover it with another plate.  Rest a decently heavy object, like a large cookbook, on top of the tofu.  Wait for the magic to happen.
2. After your tofu has been pressed and dried, cut it into bite sized chunks.  Toss the tofu with about 1 tablespoon of corn starch- this will help it get a little crust as it cooks.
3. Spray a pan with cooking oil and let it heat up over a medium heat.  Add the tofu and (thanks to the original blog post for this tofu-cooking-tip) don't touch it for about 5 minutes.  Not constantly stirring it around will help it get nice and brown and chewy, in a good way of course.  After the 5 minutes you can stir the pieces, but let it keep cooking until it's decently brown and delicious looking.  Oh wait.  Is plain tofu not supposed to look delicious?  I think I need to get out more.
4. While the tofu is cooking, whisk together all the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.  Realize you don't have ginger or chili sauce.  Take a moment to grieve.  Realize the sauce is delish anyway.  One note- the sauce seemed thick when I first whisked it together, but when I added in the hot tofu it melted the peanut butter a bit and made it more saucy.  Sigh. Oil-based sauces, what a devious companion you make.
5. Guess I already gave away the surprise ending, but once the tofu is delicious and brown, add it into the bowl with the sauce and mix it up! Make sure you really toss the tofu around so the sauce covers all of it.
6. Eat it right then and there, or pop it in the fridge for a bit to really let it marinate.
7. Put the tofu in a wrap with some lettuce and tomato and drizzle a bit of balsamic vinegar on top.  Or just eat it straight.  Or make it into lettuce wraps.  I won't judge.

  Oh peanut butter tofu, you saucy minx.