Grammy's Chocolate Cookies

My son has an affinity for the old-timey soft chocolate cookies made by Archway that I find in the grocery store. They are pretty delish. 

But, I thought I could do better with a homemade variety. And I was totally correct. Grammy's Chocolate Cookies by Martha Stewart are soft, intense and chocolatey good. The flavor is so much deeper than those I buy at the grocery store.

These use a lot of sanding sugar. Definitely plan for a cup, but I probably used even more. The recipe doesn't have a measurement for the sanding sugar. I would have a few bottles on standby. I made mine blue and red. I thought they were fun colors to celebrate the Phillies returning to play! 

Be sure to chill the dough, but expect it to be very soft. Rolling is a messy process but just go with it. I used a small cookie scoop so that my balls of dough were consistent in size. 

I only baked 8 at a time on each baking sheet. I thought they needed a lot of space to spread out.

I brought these cookies to a pool party, and they were definitely a hit. I feel like they would be amazing with a scoop of ice cream.

Grammy's Chocolate Cookies

Makes about 3 1/2 dozen

From "Martha Stewart's Cookies"

By Martha Stewart

2 cups plus 2 Tbsp. all purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Sanding sugar, for rolling

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat to combine. Reduce speed to low, and gradually add flour mixture; beat to combine. Form dough into a flattened disk, wrap with plastic wrap, and chill until firm, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Roll each ball into sanding sugar. Place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until set, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating halfway through. Transfer to a rack to cool for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies from baking sheet to wire rack. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

A Pop of Color

Oh my God, yous guys.

Time keeps on slippin', slippin' into my future. And well, I never blog. For reals, the blog is always on my brain but there just are not enough hours in my day. I know, I know. One doesn't REALLY need to be up watching Downton Abbey in marathon form until 1:30 a.m. But at least it's intellectual and British and historical and....

Right. The weather here in Jersey SUCKS. I mean, could it BE more dreary? - said in my best Chandler Bing voice I could possibly muster at this hour all alone on my couch while the Jersey Girl fellas are sleeping soundly - that is snoringly - in their comfy cozy cribs. So in honor of all things springy, summery and just all around more joyful than the dreariness that is February, I bring to you some Key Lime Bar action. Because a burst of vivacious green is what the world needs right now, no?

In a funny twist, one of the most popular posts on my groundbreaking, revolutionary, awe-inspiring blog is my Nigella Lawson Key Lime Pie write-up. Seriously. This gem is blowing up the culinary blogosphere with millions of hits. It's like so totally viral...Not really. But when I scour my blog posts to see if anyone actually stops by here, I am quite struck by how many people really do discover moi by searching Nigella and key and lime and pie.

This Key Lime Bar recipe comes to you thanks to another culinary goddess, Martha Stewart. While lovely Martha doesn't make me all warm and fuzzy inside like my idol Nigella (who I know I will run into when The Husband takes me on our next getaway to London.  A girl can dream, right?), I must say the gal does know a thing or two about making a fab dessert.

I'm sharing  a link to the recipe here, but for all y'all who rock recipes the old school way - like in a cookbook - I highly recommend "Martha Stewart's Cookies" cookbook. It is awesome on many levels, including sharing with a snuggly toddler who wants to point out cookie shapes before saying night nights.

Some deets about the recipe: The bars are super duper low-maintenance. I always find citrusy desserts require mucho prep time due to zesting and squeezing and all that. With the Nigella key lime pie recipe, there's the whole matter of beating up egg whites until your arms fall off. So, comparatively speaking, I think Martha makes an easier go of the key lime variety dessert. And of course, if size matters to you, the bars can feed more peeps simply because there are more portions - 18 vs. 8.

And on to the matter of key limes. The Jersey Girl used your average lime, because key limes were not to be found in my market that day. Curses. I used about 5 limes, but limes are tricky suckers. Sometimes they yield only a teeny tiny bit of juice, so buy at least 8.

The recipe calls for 1 cup plus 2 1/2 tablespoons of graham cracker crumbs, but it gave no indication as to how many crackers I would need to grind up in the handy dandy food processor. I'm not gonna lie: This kind of annoyed me. Come on, Martha. Help a sista out. Anyway, according to Betty Crocker 21 graham cracker squares yield 1 1/2 cups of crumbs. You're welcome.

These bars are fabulous. You are viewing mine ungarnished. But you must, and I mean MUST, make the whipped cream for them. It balances the sugary sweetness of it all. I always chill a glass bowl and some beaters for a few hours before rocking out my whipped cream.

Key Lime Bars
Makes about 1 1/2 dozen

For the crust:
1 cup plus 2 1/2 tablespoons finely ground graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:
3 large egg yolks
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lime zest
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup fresh Key lime juice (about 23 key limes total)

For the garnish:
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 Key limes, thinly sliced into half-moons

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Make crust: Stir together graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter in a small bowl. Press evenly onto bottom of an 8-inch square glass baking dish. Bake until dry and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Make filling: Put egg yolks and lime zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix on high speed until very thick, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Add condensed milk in a slow, steady stream, mixing constantly. Raise speed to high; mix until thick, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add lime juice; mix until just combined.

Spread filling evenly over crust using a spatula. Bake, rotating halfway through, until filling is just set, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

Make garnish: Cut into 2-inch squares. Put cream in the clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the clean whisk attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Garnish bars with whipped cream and a slice of lime. Ungarnished bars can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 3 days.

Cookie Time

A cookie makes the moment so much better.

And if you make these Chocolate Thumbprints, you will have many happy times.

The recipe comes from “Martha Stewart’s Cookies” Cookbook.

In theory, Martha Stewart scares me. Her prim and proper way. Her perfect enunciation. Her navy blue wardrobe. She’s not exactly warm and cuddly.

But, I’ve grown to appreciate her fabulousness. My Dad always sweated Martha. Back when she had her first program on PBS, he would watch her religiously and compare all of my Mom’s cooking techniques to those of Martha.

“Martha would do it this way,” he would say, while carving my Mom’s roast.

I remember Dad marveling over an episode during which Martha was out back in her vast New England garden collecting leaves and greenery for Thanksgiving dinner. My unimpressed full-time working mother of three with no staff exclaimed, “Give me a break,” while shaking her head. There were probably some explicative peppering this outburst.

Although dried leafery did not make it onto our holiday table, the meal of course rocked.

I totally get my Mom’s point regarding Martha. Who can really live up to that level of perfection? It seems so daunting. Perhaps this is why my cooking idols, I mean the ones who are close to my soul, are more along the lines of Nigella Lawson and Lydia Bastianich and my Mommom Sacco, who has never had her own TV program, but probably should.

Anyways, I’ve made a few recipes from Martha’s cookbook. And they’ve all been stellar. My father-in-law raved about the Chocolate Thumbprints while eating a bundle. The cookie merges simple shortbread with a dark chocolate filling. The rich chocolate melts into the tender shortbread. It’s a glorious thing.

They go perfectly with a tall glass of milk.

And they surely will impress those with whom you are sharing.

Chocolate Thumbprints
From “Martha Stewart’s Cookies”
By Martha Stewart
Makes 4 1/2 dozen
1 cup (2 sticks) plus 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
¼ tsp. salt
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
3 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 tsp. corn syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, the confectioners’ sugar, salt and vanilla on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Beat in flour, beginning on low speed and increasing to medium until combined.

Form balls using 2 tsp. of dough for each; place balls 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake 10 minutes, remove from oven, and press thumb into cookies to make deep, wide indentations. Rotate pan, and return to oven; bake until light brown on the edges, 7 to 9 minutes more. (If the indentations begin to lose definition, remove cookies from oven and press again.) Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Combine chocolate, the remaining 3 Tbsp. butter, and the corn syrup in a small heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water; stir occasionally until melted and smooth. Allow to cool a bit until slightly thickened. Fill thumbprints with the chocolate mixture, and set aside to firm up. Cookies can be stored in single layers in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

Please note: It is recommended to have a bowl of ice water ready to cool off your thumb while pressing into the hot dough to make thumbprints.