Ingredient: egg white

Chocolate Hedgehog Cookies

Posted on by Mari Vasseur
Chocolate Hedgehog Cookies

Hedgehogs are such charming creatures that I just had to make a cookie in their honor. They come out of hibernation in early spring so it’s the perfect time to share these cookies as we anticipate spring’s arrival. These delightful cookies are made of a chocolate cookie dough which is similar in texture to shortbread. It makes a delicious base for the white chocolate filling. Chocolate sprinkles make perfect hedgehog “fur’ and dabs of white chocolate make cute snouts and paws. The finished cookies are 2 1/2 inches wide which makes them a bit easier to decorate, but you can make them smaller if you wish. Baking times will be shorter for smaller cookies.

Chocolate Hedgehog Cookies

Chocolate thumbprint-style hedgehog cookies with chocolate sprinkles and white chocolate filling by Brownie Mischief
Print Recipe
Course Dessert
Servings 16 cookies

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups (255g) all purpose flour, sifted
  • ½ cup (44g) unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
  • 1 ½ tablespoons (15g) cornstarch
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened
  • â…” cup (132g) packed brown sugar
  • ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg white
  • ¼ cup (48g) chocolate sprinkles
  • 6 ounces (170g) white chocolate, finely chopped or 1 cup (170g) white chocolate chips
  • Black gel food coloring

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  • In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch and salt until well combined.
  • In a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar together, with an electric mixer at medium speed, until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one at time until incorporated, followed by the vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the flour mixture just until the dough comes together. The dough will seem crumbly at first, but it will come together.
  • Divide the dough into 16 equal portions and roll them into balls. It's helpful to use a kitchen scale for accuracy. The balls should be about 1 1/2-inches (3.8cm) wide. Place the dough balls about 2 inches apart onto the cookie sheets. Using your thumb, press an oval indentation into the center of each dough ball. Brush the perimeter of the cookies with egg white.
  • Place the sprinkles in a small bowl. Dip the tops of the cookies into the sprinkles, pressing gently to adhere the sprinkles to the egg white. Bake until the cookies are set and slightly puffed, about 9-11 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack.
  • Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave for short bursts. Transfer the melted white chocolate to a piping bag. Pipe the white chocolate into the indentations of the cooled cookies. Swirl each cookie gently to settle and smooth out the melted white chocolate. When the white chocolate centers have set up, reheat the remaining white chocolate. For the hedgehog paws, pipe 4 small blobs on each cookie. For the snouts, pipe a blob on each one. Use a toothpick dipped in black food coloring for the eyes and noses.**

Notes

*To find chocolate sprinkles, click here.
**For the eyes and noses, it's helpful to snip the pointed tip off of the toothpick to create a blunt end.
For all baking recipes, I recommend using a kitchen scale for the best results. To find one, click here.    
Keyword chocolate, cookies

Strawberry Swirl Cake

Posted on by Mari Vasseur
Strawberry Swirl Cake

This soft, incredibly moist cake is a happy experiment that successfully combines my favorite strawberry cake with cinnamon roll cake. Instead of cinnamon sugar, it has a swirl of strawberry sugar. It’s bursting with fresh strawberry flavor and it’s so good it doesn’t even need frosting. But of course, I added strawberry cream cheese icing, in the tradition of cinnamon roll cake, which takes it over the top.

Strawberry Swirl Cake

Fresh strawberry cake with a strawberry sugar swirl and strawberry cream cheese icing
Print Recipe
Course Dessert
Servings 6 servings

Ingredients
  

Strawberry Swirl

  • â…“ cup (10g) freeze dried strawberries Not dried strawberries
  • â…“ cup (66g) granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons all purpose flour
  • 3 tablespoons (43g) unsalted butter, melted
  • Small dash fine sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon (15ml) lemon juice

Strawberry Cake

  • ¾ cup (170g) puréed strawberries
  • 1 cup (128g) all purpose flour, sifted
  • ¾ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup (55ml) vegetable oil or neutral oil of your choice
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg white
  • ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon pure strawberry extract
  • 1 drop pink gel food coloring Optional
  • â…“ cup (75g) sour cream

Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing

  • 2 tablespoons (28g) cream cheese, softened
  • 1 tablespoon (14g) unsalted butter, softened
  • ½ cup (60g) powdered sugar, sifted
  • 2 teaspoons strawberry reduction Reserved from cake recipe
  • 1 tablespoon (15ml) buttermilk or whole milk

Instructions
 

Strawberry Swirl

  • In a small food processor or a clean spice grinder, pulse the freeze dried strawberries to break them up a bit. Add the sugar and process to a fine consistency. Strain the sugar mixture through a sieve into a bowl. Mix in the flour, melted butter, salt and lemon juice until well combined.
  • Transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a medium round tip. I used an Ateco #12 tip.** Alternately, you can snip the corner off a disposable piping bag or food storage bag, creating a 3/8-inch wide opening.

Strawberry Cake

  • In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, simmer the puréed strawberries until reduced by half. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
  • Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line the bottom of an 8-inch round cake pan*** with parchment paper. Grease and flour the inside.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  • In a large bowl, beat the sugar, oil, egg, egg white, and extracts, with an electric mixer at medium speed, until smooth. Alternately, you can whisk the mixture together by hand until smooth. Stir in 1/3 cup of the cooled strawberry reduction and the food coloring. (Reserve the remaining strawberry reduction for the icing.)
  • Stir the flour mixture into the batter, in 2 additions, alternating with the sour cream. Mix just until combined. Transfer the batter to the cake pan.
  • Pipe the strawberry swirl mixture onto the batter in a spiral pattern. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.
  • Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a cooling rack.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing

  • In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and strawberry reduction and beat until smooth and well combined. Whisk in the buttermilk a little at a time until your desired consistency is reached. Drizzle over the cooled cake.

Notes

*To find the food coloring I used, click here.
**To find the piping tip I used, click here.
***To find the cake pan I used, click here.
Keyword cake, strawberry

Blueberry Lavender Cookies

Posted on by Mari Vasseur
Blueberry Lavender Cookies

Blueberry cookies remind me of a time when I was little. Every year my family would take a road trip up to Northern California. My parents loved stopping at roadside stands to buy fresh produce on the way back. One year my dad bought an enormous box of blueberries. When we got home, for the next couple of weeks, we ate far too many blueberry pancakes. My dad also used the blueberries in his famous cobbler, which was delightful. Then he made biscuits which turned out like rocks and we all laughed. My favorite blueberry creations that year were the blueberry shortcake and blueberry cookies. I’m sharing my version of the blueberry cookies, with the addition of lavender to make them a little more special.

My Blueberry Lavender Cookies start with butter and homemade lavender sugar. The original cookies had fresh blueberries plopped into the dough, which is perfectly fine if you’re making muffins. To reduce the soggy spots that form as the fruit releases its juices while baking, I typically macerate or cook fruit before it’s added to many of my recipes. The extra step makes a big difference. A quick, cooked blueberry compote is folded into the batter of these cookies, making pretty blueberry swirls. I finished these cookies with a sprinkle of sparkly sanding sugar in a lilac shade. This is optional, but very pretty. You can also make extra lavender sugar to use for sprinkling on your cookies. Sprinkle the sugar on before baking or after the cookies bake, while they’re still warm.

Blueberry Lavender Cookies

Chewy lavender scented sugar cookies with crisp exteriors and swirls of blueberry compote.
Print Recipe
Course Dessert
Servings 16 cookies

Ingredients
  

Blueberry Compote

  • ½ teaspoon corn starch
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • ¾ cup (4 oz or 113g) blueberries, fresh or frozen
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice

Lavender Sugar

  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (7 7/8 oz or 223g) sugar
  • 1 ¼ teaspoons dried culinary lavender*

Blueberry Lavender Cookies

  • 2 cups (9 oz or 255g) all purpose flour, sifted
  • 2 tablespoons corn starch
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 10 tablespoons (5 oz or 142g) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 large egg white
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • lilac, lavender or purple decorative sanding sugar optional

Instructions
 

Blueberry Compote

  • In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of water.
  • In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the blueberries, lemon juice and remaining 1 tablespoon of water, stirring until the blueberries soften and start to release their juices. Smash the blueberries slightly with the back of the spoon. Stir in cornstarch mixture. Turn the heat down to low. Simmer until thickened to a jam consistency, about 1-2 minutes.
  • Transfer the blueberry compote to a small bowl and set aside to cool to room temperature.

Lavender Sugar

  • In a small food processor or a clean spice grinder, combine 1/4 cup of the sugar with the lavender. Pulse a few times to chop the lavender into smaller bits. Add the remaining sugar and pulse a few more times to combine.

Blueberry Lavender Cookies

  • Preheat your oven to 350ºF (180ºC) Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.
  • In a large bowl, beat the butter and lavender sugar with an electric mixer, until light and fluffy.
  • Add the the egg white and vanilla and beat until well combined.
  • On low speed, add the flour mixture in two additions and mix just until combined.
  • Add dollops of the blueberry compote to the batter. Fold in gently, but don't completely combine it. You want to see swirls of blueberry.
  • Place 2-tablespoon size portions of dough about 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets. I used a #30 portion scoop.*** Sprinkle with decorative sugar if desired.
  • Bake until tops of cookies are set and bottom edges turn light golden brown, about 10-14 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Do not over bake. Test one cookie before baking the entire batch if you are unsure about how to determine the doneness of cookies.

Notes

*To find culinary lavender, click here.
**To find the decorative sanding sugar I used, click here.
***To find the scoop I used, click here.
Keyword blueberry lavender, cookies

The Nutcracker Land of Sweets Cupcakes

Posted on by Mari Vasseur
Nutcracker Land of Sweets Cupcakes

The tradition of enjoying the Nutcracker Ballet at Christmastime has been in my family for over 20 years. The Nutcracker Land of Sweets is a magical theme that has me mesmerized. Gingerbread, candy canes, gumdrops and billowy clouds of pink frosting are what dreams are made of. And that’s exactly what these dreamy cupcakes are made of. The cupcake flavor is a subtle spice cake. The recipe is adapted from a Martha Stewart cake recipe I made last summer. The original cake was paired with blackberry jam, but I knew plum jam would be perfect for these cupcakes. I topped them with a mildly sweet, fluffy Swiss meringue buttercream.

Part of the fun of making these cupcakes began at the store as I collected the sweets to decorate the cupcakes. Another perk of the job is taste testing the candy. I discovered that purple spice drops are licorice flavored and red spice drops are cinnamon. Who knew?

You might also like my Nutcracker Land of Sweets inspired candy bark. It’s a delightful holiday bark I designed that is often imitated. To view it, click here.

The Nutcracker Land of Sweets Cupcakes

Spice cupcakes filled with plum jam, topped with fluffy pink frosting, gingerbread men and Christmas candy, and dusted with sugar snow
Print Recipe
Course Dessert
Servings 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
  

Spice cupcakes

  • ¾ cups (3 1/4 ounces) all purpose flour, sifted
  • ¾ cups (3 ounces) cake flour, sifted
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • small pinch ground cloves
  • ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ½ cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
  • ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons (6 1/8 ounces) fine granulated sugar or regular granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg white
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract
  • â…” cup whole milk
  • ¾ cup plum jam I used red plum jam

Pink Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

  • 4 large egg whites
  • 1 â…“ cups (9 3/8 ounces) fine granulated sugar or regular granulated sugar
  • 1 ½ cups (12 ounces) softened, unsalted butter, cubed
  • 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract or pure vanilla etract
  • ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 2 drops pink gel food color I used Americolor deep pink

Decorations

  • small gingerbread cookies
  • mini candy canes
  • assorted candies such as spice drops, gumdrops, peppermints,
  • sprinkles or sugar pearls
  • powdered sugar

Instructions
 

Spice Cupcakes

  • Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a 12 serving muffin pan with disposable baking cups. (I used silver foil liners.)
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, spices and salt. Set aside.
  • In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
  • Add egg, egg white, and vanilla, one at a time, mixing until well combined.
  • Add flour mixture in two additions, alternating with milk. Mix until combined.
  • Divide batter evenly into wells of prepared muffin pan, filling about 2/3 full.
  • Bake until light golden and toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 16-18 minutes.
  • Let cool in muffin pan for 5 minutes. Gently transfer cupcakes to cooling rack to cool completely.
  • Core the center of each cupcake, removing a 3/4-inch deep circle. Fill with jam and replace the circle top.
  • Frost cupcakes with pink Swiss meringue buttercream. Decorate with cookies and candies. Lightly sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Pink Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercreamgue Buttercream

  • Combine egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl. Set over a pan of gently simmering water.
  • Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and temperature of 160ºF is reached.
  • Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixture with a whisk attachment. Whisk on low speed, gradually increasing to medium-high speed. Whisk until glossy, stiff peaks form and mixture reaches room temperature.
  • Turn mixer to medium-low speed. Add butter, a few pieces at a time, allowing the butter to fully incorporate each time before adding more.
  • Switch to paddle attachment. On low speed, mix in vanilla, salt and food color. Continue mixing on low speed for a few minutes until smooth.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart Spice Cake
Keyword cupcakes