Flourless Chocolate Cookies à la Caramelized White Chocolate

I told you I would blog more about Caramelized White Chocolate! The day after I finished off my first batch of the ganache, well, I made another. I couldn't help it...and I have to say that I was quite satisfied with this use. Satisfied enough to post a photo of these silly things in the freezer bag that is supposed to protect them from me long enough to make it to my family's mouths this weekend...if I publish this online right now, I really do have to save them as promised...

This cookie recipe caught my eye last month on the Desserts Magazine site; I believe my cookies did not end up flat as theirs did because mine got overmixed. That's what happens when you follow time instructions rather than your gut. But these turned out well all the same, and perhaps chewier as a result of the mixing (although the photo on their website could be misleading, as the instructions say they should end up no more than half an inch thick, which is much thicker than the one in the photo, so maybe I just made mine too small). Super chocolatey, packed full of nuts, easy to make, and fabulously paired with caramelized white chocolate ganache and a touch of sea salt in the middle, yum! Glad I made the cookies smaller than directed since I made them into these rich sandwiches.

The white chocolate caramelizing went a bit different this time; the white chocolate chips did in fact liquify initially when roasted in the oven, but this did not affect the outcome. I just kept up the stirring, and it still turned nicely brown and crumbly, and worked equally well in the ganache. Which reminds me that it's a good idea to try a recipe more than once when posting it (as per these food blog ethics guidelines...), which I generally try to do - and I don't usually post something unless I'd make it again.

So here's one more thing I would definitely make again (maybe with almonds next time?):

Flourless Chocolate Cookies

1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons (68g) Dutch-processed cocoa powder (high quality for best chocolatiness!)
3 cups (350g) confectioners’ sugar
Pinch of Salt
2 3/4 C (272g) walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 Tablespoon (15g) pure vanilla extract

optional for more chocolatiness: 1 C bittersweet chocolate chunks

1. Place a rack each in the upper and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

2. Combine the cocoa powder, confectioners’ sugar, salt, and walnuts (and chocolate chunks, if using) in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed for 1 minute. With the mixer running, slowly add the egg whites and vanilla. Mix on medium speed mix for 3 minutes (or less!), until the mixture has slightly thickened. Do not overmix it, or the egg whites will thicken too much.

3. With a 2-ounce cookie or ice-cream scoop or a generous tablespoon, scoop the batter onto the prepared baking sheets, to make cookies that are 4 inches in diameter, Scoop 5 cookies on each pan, about 3 inches apart so that they don’t stick when they spread. If you have extra batter wait until the first batch of cookies is baked before scooping the next batch.

4. Put the cookies in the oven, and immediately lower the temperature to 320 degrees F. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, or until small thin cracks appear on the surface of the cookies. Switch the pans halfway through baking. Pull the parchment paper with the cookies onto a wire cooling rack, and let cool completely before removing the cookies from the paper. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

5. Sandwich the completely cooled cookies with the ganache of your choice and a light sprinkling of sea salt in the middle, and refrigerate to assist the bonding process. If the cookies are not completely cooled they will melt the ganache.

Really, don't forget to pair the caramelized white chocolate ganache with salt, no matter what you do with it!

Salted Lemon Butter cookies

I've found another sweet-salty dessert that I love! This is what the French call a sablé, a light, crisp butter cookie - just the right size to pop in your mouth. Not too sweet, tanged with lemon juice and zest, with little salt surprises throughout (trust me, you don't want to skip the salt in this recipe). And you get to rub the butter into the dough with your fingers! You need to freeze the dough before baking them, and the glaze takes a little time to set on the cooled cookies, so plan ahead. It's recipes like this that motivate me to keep lemon zest and juice in the freezer at all times...so glad I know people with Meyer lemon trees!

Salted Lemon Butter Cookies
Sablés au Citron, from the Chocolate and Zucchini Cookbook

1 lemon
1 C 2 T flour
1/3 C sugar
1 tsp fleur de sel or kosher salt (Coarse Sea Salt from Trader Joe's is great)
7 T (3 1/2 oz.) chilled unsalted butter, diced
1 large egg yolk
1/2 C powdered sugar

1. Grate the lemon to yield 1 T of finely chopped lemon zest. Reserve half of the lemon for the glaze.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, and lemon zest. Add the butter and rub it into the dry ingredients with the tips of your fingers or use a wire pastry blender. Add the egg yolk, stir with a fork until blended, and knead the dough until it comes together and forms a ball. If the dough is too dry, add a little ice-cold water, a teaspoon at a time, and knead again. If it is too sticky, add 1 T flour.

3. Divide the dough in two and roll each half into a log, about 1 inch in diameter. Wrap each log in plastic and put in the freezer for 30 minutes.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove one log of dough from the freezer, unwrap, and slice in 1/4 inch rounds with a sharp serrated knife, rotating the log by a quarter of a turn after each slice so it keeps a rounded shape. Transfer onto the baking sheet, leaving 1/2 inch margin between them. Repeat with the second log.

5. Bake for 12 minutes, until lightly golden at the edges. Transfer to a rack and let cool completely before glazing, about an hour.

6. Squeeze the half lemon to get 1 1/2 T lemon juice. Put the powdered sugar in a bowl, add the lemon juice, and whisk until smooth and syrupy. Use a pastry brush or the back of a teaspoon to glaze the cookies. Let stand until the glaze is set, about an hour. The cookies will keep for up to a week at room temperature in an airtight container. The dough can also be frozen for up to a month.

Caramels au Fleur de Sel

Introducing the recipe that caused me to finally buy a candy thermometer ($10 at Target!): Caramels au Fleur de Sel. I was watching the Barefoot Contessa's show, and I loved the idea of individually wrapped caramels served at a party. She made the recipe look easy, and I love fleur de sel, a French sea salt that I have been using in all my salted brown sugar caramel concoctions.

So I bought the thermometer and ingredients and went to it. The caramels turned out chewy and soft, with just the right amount of salt to compliment the sweetness.

Caramels au Fleur de Sel

1 1/2 C sugar
1/4 C corn syrup*
1/2 water
1 tsp fleur de sel (at Trader Joe's you can buy a similar Coarse Sea Salt for this)
1 C heavy cream
5 T butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

Prepare an 8x8 inch square pan by lining it with parchment paper on the bottom and sides and greasing the parchment paper (it will be sticky, so you won't be sorry you did this step).

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water. Stir until it is a warm brown caramel color as in the picture below. If you keep the stove burner at a low heat, this will take up to 30 minutes, but if you're willing to take a slight risk with your sugar syrup (which burns easily) you can speed up the process by turning the fire up to medium-high.

Once the caramel has reached the desired color, add the fleur de sel and the heavy cream. The cream will bubble violently when you add it, so be prepared to stir vigorously until it calms down. Stir in the butter and vanilla once the bubbling dies down.

Place the candy thermometer in the caramel according to the thermometer's instructions, and leave on the heat without stirring until it reaches 248 degrees. As soon as it gets to 248, turn off the heat, and pour the caramel into the prepared pan. Do not ever line the pan with foil as in the picture above - this caramel fought a fierce fight with the foil, and the caramel won!

Once the caramel has cooled, you can either cut it up into squares, or roll it into pieces by cutting the pan down the middle, and then rolling up the strip of caramel into a log. Sprinkle more fleur de sel lightly over the log or squares. If using the log roll method, cut the log into the size pieces you desire. Cut parchment paper into squares large enough to twist around each caramel piece, and serve!

By the way, this caramel went really well with my homemade marshmallows...


*I tried using agave syrup instead of the corn syrup once, and the caramel was slightly different in flavor (but still good), and much softer. That was great caramel to wrap around marshmallows!

Guimauve Flavoring: Orange, Vanilla, and Brown Sugar

I am learning that I should not ever announce that a particular food is my favorite, since it will invariably be unseated by the next fancy that captures me - hence the "FoodFancies of the Moment" sidebar of this blog!

While marshmallows have remained a consistent interest of mine this year, one of the reasons I find them so appealing is the fact that I can play with them. I can try out all manner of flavors with them, and can even shape and dip them as I please.

I have recently been enjoying orange, vanilla bean, and brown sugar flavored marshmallows, so I wanted to share these flavor possibilities with you. The orange is fresh and bright, the vanilla bean is sweetly vanilla with a hint of brandy, and the brown sugar is buttery with specks of fleur de sel.

Orange Guimauve Flavoring
Use 4 tsp. orange extract to flavor one half of the original recipe, colored by one drop of red food coloring and 2-3 drops of yellow food coloring. If you eat any of these marshmallows before coating them in sugar, they will taste bitter due to the amount of orange extract; the sugar coating will remove the bitter edge and make them pleasantly sweet.

To coat cut-up orange marshmallows, roll in granulated sugar mixed with the zest of one orange. The granulated sugar adds crunch and sparkle to the pieces, and the zest adds color, texture, and bright flavor.

Vanilla Bean Guimauve Flavoring
In a small bowl, combine 1 tsp. vanilla extract, 2 tsp. brandy, and the beans scraped from inside one vanilla pod. Let sit while you prepare the basic marshmallow recipe, and then add the flavoring to one half of the original recipe when called for.

To coat cut-up vanilla marshmallows, roll in powdered sugar (vanilla powdered sugar if you have it).

I have bought vanilla beans online from this website; it is my understanding that online purchase of vanilla beans is by far the cheapest way to obtain them.

Brown Sugar au Fleur de Sel Guimauve Flavoring
As with my cupcakes of the same flavor, make a caramel in a saucepan on the stovetop by heating 1/3 C brown sugar with 1 T water (do not stir, but swish pan around occasionally) until small bubbles appear on the surface. Pull the pan off the head before it burns, and stir in 1/4 tsp. fleur de sel and 3 T unsalted butter. Stir until thoroughly combined. Once cooled, mix 5 tsp. caramel into one half of the original recipe. After the marshmallow has settled into its pan, pour the remaining caramel over the marshmallow and allow to set with the marshmallow. It will run off the sides a little, but a thin layer should set on the surface.

Coat cut-out brown sugar au fleur de sel marshmallows with powdered sugar; additional fleur de sel may be added to the coating, but use sparingly as a small amount adds a lot of taste. Take care to coat the caramel side well, as the caramel tends to come off of the marshmallow surface easily, and the powdered sugar coating helps it to stick. The flavor is not strongly caramel, but a nice sweet/salty combination with buttery overtones.

Euro Pane: Mmmmacarons!

As a little girl I loved a book called Take Tarts as Tarts is Passing, in which two brothers are advised to live their lives according to the axiom "take tarts as tarts is passing"; one brother interprets the phrase literally and grabs tarts and eats them any time he sees them, while the second brother takes the advice metaphorically and tries to take every economic opportunity that comes his way and work it to his advantage. I feel like I have been living my life like the first brother recently; I have been taking macarons as macarons is passing, and they've passed by twice this week!



This time my path brought me to Euro Pane Bakery in Pasadena (okay, fine, I slightly detoured my path to bring me this way), a place I've heard much about and have been meaning to try for some time. I already knew that I was going to choose a macaron to try, and when I heard the flavors there, I knew I had to choose the caramel with fleur de sel. The other macarons included hazelnut, pistachio, and orange, of which the pistachio was most tempting, but my recent caramel au fleur de sel marshmallows have me on a salty-sweet bent. I had to ignore some hand-made marshmallows at EuroPane this time, but I shall return for them another day.



I really enjoyed the flavor of the caramel with the fleur de sel, the cream in the middle was lickalicious, and the cookie retained a lightness in the midst of its chewiness that reminded me that I was, indeed, eating a macaron.

At the end of Take Tarts as Tarts is Passing, it is the brother who interprets the advice literally and eats tarts as they pass who is the happy brother - he has chosen to live life to the fullest by taking joy in the things that cross his path, rather than trying to force life to serve his purposes. A simple lesson, perhaps, but one which has brought me joy this week!

Ready to take tarts as tarts is passing?

Euro Pane Bakery
950 E. Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91106
626.577.1828