Brown Eyed Susan Cookies/ Chocolate Thumbprints (Eggless)

  I am back to blogging after almost a month!  Has been a crazy moth with a lot of baking and cooking. To top it off, with Christmas and the New Year peeking from the corner, I have lots more baking left to do... Not that I am complaining!
  I made these Brown Eyed Susan cookies last year when I went to meet my best-est friend after 2 years and I made it now for a "Cookie Exchange" event in my husband's office. The only difference is that I made them look neater this year. These cookies had a buttery melt-in-your-mouth texture and the dark chocolate in the middle was absolutely wicked! These were a big hit at the Cookie Exchange and I am happy!

Recipe source: BrowneyedBaker
Ingredients:
For the Cookies : Makes 2 dozen
8 Tbsp Butter ,(unsalted) room temperature
1/2 Cup Confectioners Sugar (Sifted)
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 1/4  Cup All Purpose Flour (Sifted)
1-2 Tbsp Milk (Only if neccesary)

For the Center
2 oz Chocolate, Chopped (any variety you like, I used bittersweet)
2 tbsp Butter, Unsalted
3/4th Tsp Corn Syrup ( I forgot to add this!!!)

• Preheat your oven to 350 F. Grease your cookie sheet and set aside. You can use parchment paper or a baking mat too.
• In the bowl of your mixer fitted with paddle attachment, Beat the butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt until fluffy. you can do this with your hand or with a powerful hand mixer if you don't have a stand mixer.
• Add the flour gradually, in small portions.
• Add the milk only if you feel the dough is really dry. The dough will look crumbly but when you make a ball it will hold together well.
• Scoop out heaping teaspoons of dough to form a dough ball and place on the baking sheet. I placed them about 1 inch away from each other.
• This step was not there in the original recipe- I very lightly flattened the cookie dough  before putting it into the oven. Bake in the middle rack for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and make an indentation with your finger (Ouch!) or the back of a small spoon or something (I used the nicely rounded bottom of my icecream scoop). This might lightly crack the sides of the cookie, but that is totally OK. Also the cookies will be very soft at this stage so be careful not to disfigure them like I did the first time!
• Put the cookies back into the oven and bake for another 8 minutes. Once baked, place on a cooling rack to cool.
• Melt the chocolate, butter and corn syrup over a double boiler or microwave (at 50% power at 30 seconds interval), until smooth and shiny. You can spoon the melted chocolate into the indentations or you can pipe it in. I used a squeezy bottle it made my life much easier and I got neater cookies. Allow the chocolate to set a bit before you can eat  it all up! While you wait for the chocolate to set on the cookie, you can eat up the leftover melted chocolate (unless you already did that)!

Compliments to the photographer - My Husband, who has clicked these pictures and some others in previous posts. He took such wonderful pictures that I did not even  have to edit them! So much time saved, and reminded me of how crappy my pictures turn out on first take! :-/. I have a loooooooong way to go *sigh*

Double Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies!

I love almonds!. I love almonds so much that I have a 3 lbs bag of almonds, 1 lb of almond meal (skinned), 1 lb of almond meal (un-skinned), a big jar of almond butter in my pantry, a big bottle of almond oil and I just emptied a carton of almond milk!!!! . I guess that is just obsession.... well, Almonds are pretty healthy too. They are very rich in Vitamin E, B vitamins, fiber and  contain bad cholesterol lowering "good" fats. So next time you are looking for a snack when your bored think almonds!. Almond flour is gluten free and low in carbs, so those of you with gluten allergies, or looking for a low carb diet, can replace regular flour with almond flour. Similarly almond milk can be used in place of regular milk if you have lactose intolerance. Even if you are not lactose intolerant it is a healthy option as it is cholesterol free. Let me not bore you all with an even lengthier session of  "Why almonds are good" stealing info from Wikipedia.

About the recipe: As I mentioned earlier I had a big jar of almond butter sitting in my fridge. There is only so much of that one could eat with toast and taking a spoon full of while noticing it every time in the fridge, so I have been on the quest for a good recipe that uses almond butter. After a few weeks of looking at recipes out there I found some I liked. I had been warned by my husband to find excuses to distribute all the yummy goodness rather than leaving them at home for him to hunt down and add to his belly, so I decided to bake up a batch of these cookies to take with us to give out to family and friends we visited this past weekend. 

Ingredients
recipe adapted from here & here 
2 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
3/4 tsp. Salt
1 Cup Unsalted Butter ( 2 sticks), Room Temperature
1 Cup Dark Brown Sugar, Packed
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Creamy Almond Butter, Stirred
2 Eggs
1 tbsp. Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Chopped Almonds
3/4th - 1 Cup Chocolate Chip

Procedure: 

• Preheat oven to 350 F / 180 C. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Beat the butter and sugars till mixed.

• Add the almond butter and beat it till its nice and fluffy. The smell of almond butter is so good. You smell the nutty flavors already!
• Add the eggs, one at a time. Also add the vanilla extract and beat them together till combined.

• Add the flour mixture little by little until incorporated.
• Add the almonds and chocolate chips and fold them gently into the batter.

• You can place the dough in the fridge for a while before baking. It is an optional step, though. I happened to forget to preheat the oven. With the extra time I had, I decided to put my dough in the fridge as I do for other cookies.
• Roll the dough into 2 tablespoon sized balls, and lay them on parchment paper-lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart.
• Press the tops of the dough balls with the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in flour or sugar. You can sprinkle the tops with a little sea salt. (I skipped adding the sea salt)

• Bake for 13-15 mins. Allow the cookies to cool on the tray before moving it to a cooling rack.

• Once the cookie cools down fully..... Attack!

This cookie was very tasty. I loved it. This cookie is not entirely crisp. As brown sugar is hydroscopic (It absorbs the moisture around), it makes the cookie soft and chewy. This recipe makes about 3 -3 1/2 dozen cookies.