Recipe #22: Chocolate Butter Pecan Sandwich Cookies

Recipe #22: Chocolate Butter Pecan Sandwich Cookies

Posted by Unknown

Much like the peanut butter sandwich cookies these take some time to make. I made these in celebration of the 4th annual girls weekend with my longtime best girlfriends. We get together one time a year away from our kids and husbands and shop, get our nails done, do yoga, go to dinner, and eat sweets.

The filling was easy to make so I thought. I didn't pay enough attention to the consistency of the filling. Basically you are taking pecans, brown butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla and combining it all in a food processor until a thick paste forms. For some reason I decided that the filling still needed to be a bit crumbly and some of the pecans should still be in tact. This proved to be an epic fail when putting the cookies together.

I then moved onto the cookie dough and chilled for one hour as instructed. The reason you do this (as far as I can tell) is once you scoop the dough onto the cookie sheet you have to press it down and make a flat cookie - if the dough is too warm it sticks to your hard. They recommend pressing down with your fingers but I found that awkward so I used my palm.

Here comes the epic fail part: When I went to put the sandwiches together I pulled out the filling from the fridge and it did not spread on the cookie. It ended up being very crumbly and chunky and so when I would press the cookies together the cookies ended up falling apart because I had to press too hard to try and get the filling to stick to the cookies. What I will do differently next time is make sure to really process the filling so the nuts and the rest of the ingredients form a thick paste.

Although the sandwich cookies did not turn out as I had hoped it doesn't mean we didn't eat them. In fact, my girlfriends were more interested in the filling more so then the cookie so they would leave the poor cookie behind and just eat the inside.

For full recipe see page 127 in the Dahlia Bakery Cookbook

My girls...

Recipe #12: Grandma Douglas's Schnecken

Recipe #12: Grandma Douglas's Schnecken

Posted by Unknown

Every time I visit my grandparents they have something similar to this sticky bun out for breakfast. My grandma always kept a backup dish of them in the freezer to thaw out at a moment's notice. Whenever I would devour these at my grandma's house I always thought they must be very challenging to make - time consuming, etc. At Thanksgiving a couple years ago my grandma asked if I wanted to learn how to make them - and I thought OMG(!) she is going to share the magical recipe!! Turns out not so much magic was involved as she purchased ready made dough and just mixed up the topping in a saucepan, easy peasy.

I was a little intimated by this recipe at first glance as I haven't made sticky dough before  however I was pleasantly surprised how easy everything came together.  This recipe was so fun to make - especially the dough and something I can't wait to make with my son. If you have kids they would have a blast getting their hands all sticky from kneading the dough. I ended up adding 3 cups of dry ingredients (the recipe called for 3 to 3 1/2 cups). I kneaded the dough for exactly 5 minutes and it was nice and smooth. I wanted to keep going but I knew over-kneading would lead to tough dough so I stopped myself.

While the dough was resting I made the pecan brownies (see my previous post) and prepped the sugar-pecan topping. I took the dough out after about 2 1/2 hours in the fridge. I punched it down and rolled it out. I knew it would be important to have the measurements right once rolled out (15in x12in) and thank god I double checked as I was over a few inches. I brushed the butter on the dough and sprinkled the sugar and cinnamon; I did stray from the recipe a bit here and added a tad more cinnamon because I love it. I then rolled the dough up and cut the buns. A tip that I wish I had at this point was a recommendation on the best knife to cut the buns. My chef knife is not sharp right now and so I went with a steak night which ended up working fine.

I carefully placed the buns in the baking dish and let them sit 40 minutes and then into the oven they went.  Pulled them out and got impatient and flipped the baking dish onto the cookie sheet just a few minutes early. What happened when I did this is the topping oozed on over the edges of the buns so I quickly flipped them back into the baking dish and let them sit for another 5 minutes. Note to self: patience. Next time I make these (which will be very soon, possibly as soon as this weekend because they are so good!) I will let them sit in the baking dish at least 10 minutes before flipping. I will also chop up the pecans a bit more and sprinkle more generously in the center of the dish versus the edges. And finally when rolling up the dough I will roll it tighter - the sugar/cinnamon mixture was falling out when I transferred the buns from the table to the baking dish. To make sure the flavor was still there I just took that mix and sprinkled it on the buns once placed in the dish.

The result: AMAZEBALLS! This has been my favorite recipe to make and eat thus far. I know when something is good when my husband eats them for breakfast because he never eats breakfast nor does he really have a sweet tooth. They melted in my mouth and the ratio of dough to the rest of the ingredients was perfect. You will definitely want to eat these warm so the next day just toss one in the microwave for about 25 seconds and enjoy.

For full recipe: See page 103 in the Dahlia Bakery cookbook.

Recipe #11: Prizewinning Pecan Brownies

Recipe #11: Prizewinning Pecan Brownies

Posted by Unknown

Well it's been over a week since I have been able to bake something due to catching the worst flu that is spreading like wildfire over the nation. Now that I have fully recovered it is time to get my bake on! I am baking a couple recipes today and have chosen two that do not require a mixer since I am still bitter about my KitchenAid mixer getting stolen.

I had a run in with a Dahlia cookie yesterday when my husband and I attended the Book of Mormon at the Paramount. They were serving a couple of different cookies and the infamous coconut cream pie. I asked my husband to pick what we would share and he chose the chocolate chunk cookie. I secretly wanted him to go with the chocolate truffle cookie because I knew I was going to attempt that recipe soon but I respected his choice. I was happy to discover the flavor profile matched the cookies I made recently.  A couple of differences I noted which I will make sure to change next time is the size of the cookie and the size of the chocolate chunks (the difference being the size and chunks need to be bigger next time).

We have a great view of the water and ferry boats from our place in West Seattle and this morning is unusually foggy. Definitely a great day to bake up some goodies and turn on some Radiohead (The King of Limbs Album - so amazing). But first things first - I read over the recipe, cleaned the kitchen, and prepped my ingredients (including all cookware and utensils). I cannot stress the importance of doing this - it just makes everything so much easier along the way.

I put my new apron on that my husband bought me for Christmas from Anthropologie - they have the cutest aprons and he selected the exact one I wanted without even pointing it out. This one to be exact: http://anthrpl.ge/UIPbzh. Hilarious to discover it's supposedly a "kids" size.

The best part of making this recipe was stirring in the melted chocolate and butter. The mixture was so shiny and mouth watering - it reminded of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I just zoned out on the chocolate and imagined myself basically bathing in it.

The only snafu I had with this recipe was my oven.... yep, hate my old ass oven. I ended up baking the brownies about 20 minutes longer then the recipe called for but followed Tom's advice and was waiting for the top to appear dry. In the end I probably could have gone 5 minutes less.

The result: very rich and chocolatey (not sure if that's a word but I like to make up words sometimes so there it is).  And you better like pecans because there are a lot of them. Next time I make the recipe I think I will opt for topping the brownies with the pecans but not mixing them in. They were also so rich that they reminded me of fudge and the first or maybe second taste to hit my tongue was salt. All in all a success.


For full recipe: See page 141 in the Dahlia Bakery cookbook.