Cookies + Brownies = YUMMY

Sometimes I struggle to come up with creative blog entry titles. I admit, the above title is rather lame and/or cheesy, but it will have to do. C'est la vie. And now for the actual commentary.

The school semester is quickly coming to an end. Which is good and bad. It's fun to be able to bake and decorate at no cost to me (well except for tuition, but that's just a technicality) and I think my oven issues have been well documented. But I am ready for a break from studying and projects (oh yes, it is not all just fun and games). We have ended fundamentals with cookies and brownies.

In the past two weeks we have made: devil's food cake with chocolate buttercream, jam tarts, nut cookies, Texas Gold cookies, butter cookies, bicotti and brownies. The Texas Gold cookies were definitely one of my favorites and probably a cookie I will make again in the future. I promise that one day I will pass on that recipe. Here is a little looksy at the products.

Devil's Food Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

The jam tarts are a basic short dough cookie with a raspberry jam filling and then finished with powdered sugar. In my opinion, they are the perfect cookie for a Mr. S. Claus on Christmas eve.

Jam Tarts

Nut Cookies

The Texas Gold cookies were super soft, super chewy and super chocolate-y (and I think everyone knows by now how I heart chocolate). The cookie dough is made with unsweetened & bittersweet chocolate and has semi-sweet chocolate chips....that's three different types of chocolate if you weren't counting.

Texas Gold cookies

The butter cookies were made with a good amount of almond paste so they were more like almond butter cookies. After mixing the dough was placed in a pastry bag and piped onto a sheet pan. Don't they look pretty?

Butter cookie -- make-up

Unfortunately, the dough was too warm before going into the oven and then cookies spread and lost their form. But it didn't affect the flavor.

Butter cookie -- finished product

Biscotti

We had some leftover buttercream from the devil's food cake the week before, so we frosted our brownies with some of the delicious buttercream.

Brownie

Next week is practicals and I will get a second attempt at the almond butter cookies. I also have to bake the lemon buttermilk pound cake from a couple weeks ago. I'll let you know how it turns out. And maybe (if I get my act together) I can send some pound cake to North Carolina and Virgnia.