Spicy Molasses Chocolate Spritz Cookies

One of my first big girl memories in the kitchen was baking cookies for the holiday season when I was about 8. I am sure that I started baking late November as I still do to this day. This happened all the time since our school year vacations go from Mid October to Mid January, so it kept me busy and out of trouble. This first recipe that opens our Christmas Cookies series is a Foodies’ Original: A mashup of several spritz cookie recipes that I’ve made throughout the years and some inspiration from a Martha Stewart recipe. This Spicy Molasses Chocolate Spritz Cookies recipe is rich both chocolate and spices. I love to add cayenne to everything chocolate, as it brings out it’s flavor, but if you don’t want to get that extra kick, hold the cayenne.

When I was about 8 or 9, I was (still) not allowed to use the big girl mixer or oven on my own, so I mixed the cookies by hand with a wooden spoon. With the oven, well, I had help from my mom or grandma Lucy (who lived across the driveway).

A few nights ago I was looking for my mom’s cookie press. She has a Mirro Aluminum Cookie Pastry Press, and from what I could find online it was made between 1950-1955. The prices that I’ve found online for this vintage cookie press goes between $35 to $85. That’s crazy! This is a high quality cookie press that I suspect my grandmother gave to my mom and hopefully I can keep the tradition going.

Unlike the newer cookie press models, this one doesn’t have a rubber coated press inside, so, some of the cookie dough goes above the press and the outcome is that by the end, you get a little bit of dough that’s just not enough to get it through the press. Over the years, I learned that with that little dough, you can do a test batch and adjust your baking times! Since this is a original recipe, I baked the test batch of cookies (just round patties with sugar on top) and saw that I needed to adjust the baking time by adding a minute. I highly recommend that with that little extra dough you test your baking times.

Spicy Molasses Chocolate Spritz Cookies

A Foodies’ Kitchen Original Recipe
Yield: 50-60 spritz cookies

Ingredients

½ cup of butter, room temperature
½ cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 egg
¼ cup of molasses
1 tablespoon of milk
2 cups of all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon of cinnamon
¼ teaspoon of ginger
¼ teaspoon of all-spice
¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon of cloves
¼ teaspoon of nutmeg
¼ teaspoon of salt
¼ teaspoon of baking soda

Directions

Preheat the oven at 375ºF and prepare your cookie press.
Sift all-purpose flour, ginger, all-spice, cloves, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar until combined. Bean in one at the time and scraping the sides of your mixer’s bowl the egg, molasses and milk.
Add by tablespoons the sifted ingredients to the mix, scraping the sides.
Fill in your cookie press and form your cookies on ungreased cookie sheets. Sprinkle them with sugar.
Bake the cookies for 7-8 minutes.
Remove from cookie sheets and cool completely on cooling racks.

03:57 PM
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- Chocolate, Cookie Press, Foodies Original, molasses, spices, Spritz Cookies
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Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

I got the idea from this recipe after watching a Nigella show. She’s always so colorful when she’s cooking that invites me to make every single one of her recipes… But there are more Nigella recipes than I have time! So, I picked another chocolate one (first one was the Triple Threat Chocolate Cookies) and the cake did not disappoint. In fact, it didn’t last a week!

For serving this Chocolate Olive Oil Cake, I’d recommend a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream. The cake is light and fluffy, not too sweet or too chocolatey. If you want it more Chocolate dense, increase the chocolate to 1/2 cup of cocoa powder.

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Recipe By: Nigella Lawson

Ingredients:

2/3 up olive oil
1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 cup boiling water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 325ºF. Grease your springform tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.
Measure and sift the cocoa powder into a bowl or jug and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.
In another smallish bowl, combine the all-purpose flour with the bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt.
Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment (or other bowl and whisk arrangement of your choice) and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale-primrose, aerated and thickened cream.
Turn the speed down a little and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in you can slowly tip in the all-purpose flour mixture. Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour this dark, liquid batter into the prepared tin.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very centre, on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come up mainly clean but with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.
Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin, and then ease the sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and spring it out of the tin. Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm with some ice cream, as a pudding.

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips

One of the things we love about fall are pumpkins. When I saw this recipe over at FOODILY by Candice Kumai (also known as The Stilleto Chef), I knew I had to make it right away. Usually when making Pumpkin Bread, you can get a very dry, heavy and tough bread as the result. The secret here is don’t over mix!

I read the recipe a couple of times, so I decided that I would mix the butter and sugar with a hand mixer, until they were a uniformly mix. That’s when I switched to a rubber spatula. I added the eggs one at the time and then the pumpkin puree. After that, I just folded the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips. That’s all! It is an incredibly easy recipe to make, and with the addition of the Nutella swirl on top, you get an extra nutty and chocolate flavor that will make you crave for seconds (or thirds)!

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips

Recipe By: Candice Kumai
Yield: 2 small loaves

Ingredients:
1¾ cup pureed pumpkin, one 15 oz. can
⅓ cup butter, softened
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar
3 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ cup chocolate chips
2 to 4 tablespoons Nutella, depending on how much you want to add!

Directions:

Lightly grease two small 8½” x 4½” x 2″ loaf pans, with non-stick baking spray and lightly four with a dash of cinnamon and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift in the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg. Set aside.
With the help of a hand mixer, mix the soft butter with the brown sugar. Make sure the butter mix is uniform and soft.
Now, with the help of a rubber spatula, add the eggs one at the time, and finish with the pumpkin puree. Don’t over mix!
Fold in the dry ingredients, incorporate all the wet and dry ingredients, gently fold in the chocolate chips to make a dough, but careful not over mix! (over mixing will make the bread tough).
Transfer the batter to the loaf pans and add a tablespoon (or two) of Nutella on top.
Bake on the middle rack for about 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the loaf is a bit firm to the touch. The Nutella will look shiny and still very spreadable, it’s ok!
Remove from heat, allow the loaf to cool before handling.