CHOCOLATE THUMBPRINT COOKIES

Maybe it’s Christmas getting closer, or maybe it’s just  the explosion of cookies pictures I see everyday on beautiful blogs, or maybe it’s just that we’re all addicted at a certain extent to butter and chocolate. Especially when they show up together. Ok, me, I am addicted to it.

In any case, you can deny it, but I know I’m not alone.

Anyway, whatever the reason, I’ve been in a thumbprint mood for days. I’ve seen pictures of these decadent cookies in perfectly circular shapes, decorated with pecans and overflowing with chocolate and caramel, looking so wow that my mouth gets watery just at the thought of them.

So of course I couldn’t try those as a first attempt at thumbprint cookies.

So, mine have no pecans, and no caramel. But they do have chocolate. And almonds. Oh-yes-they-do. And they taste awesome.

INGREDIENTS (makes 14 big cookies): 

150 gr unsalted butter
½ cup confectioners sugar
¼ teaspoon salt

1 ¼ (well, more or less. As we know) flour

1 cup sliced almonds

100 gr dark chocolate

50 additional gr butter (I misinterpreted the original recipe so, this massive amount of butter got even bigger. Sorry Martha. Well, not really.)

(By the way, this is really all you need. Once you’ll be having your cookie bite melting in your mouth, come back, re-think about how fast and easy was to make them. Now you can be even happier.)

DIRECTIONS:

In a bowl mix together butter, sugar and salt, and mix them with an electric mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes. Well, in any case, until smooth.

Add the flour and beat again. Don’t worry if everything looks like a big bowl of crumbles. It’s fine.

Add also the almonds and knead everything with your hands. (Isn’t it just great to squeeze all that butter in your hands?)

2Now preheat oven at 350°F/180°C. In the meanwhile, form little balls with your crumble-dough and set them nicely onto the oven plate.

3-  When the oven will be perfectly warm, put your amazing-cookies-to-be in, and leave them for about 10 minutes. Then take them out and press your thumb on top of the cookies (no, use a spoon, or a cork, or whatever you want but, seriously, they’re gonna be hot. I know they’re called thumbprints. You’re safe, I’ll tell no one.) to create a nice and cozy hollow for your chocolate. Put back in the oven and leave them until they’ll be golden-brown on top, say… 7 more minutes? 8?

In the meanwhile, set two pots, one over the other, on the fire, filling the one under with water. Let’s say enough to reach the bottom of the one on top. In this one, mix together the chocolate and the 50 gr of butter, stirring from time time until you get a superinviting cream. Please don’t eat it. you will need it for the cookies.

When your cookies will be ready, take them off the oven, fill the hollows with chocolate, decorate the tops with some almonds and let cool down… and then eat loads!

(Don’t forget to finger-clean the chocolate pot.)

CHOCOLATE CHIPS AND BANANA CUPCAKES

Here I had quite a problem.

Not about making the dough, not about baking it, for sure not about eating it. The real problem was actually to call it. Arrived at the crucial moment, I didn’t really know if what I had just baked was a bunch of cupcakes, or muffins. Well, at the end of the day –one might say- you ate them all and they were crazy good, so.

But it becomes a problem when you have to title a recipe. Eh.

So I gathered some information and I found out there are three ways to distinguish a muffin from a cupcake:

-          Muffins are usually eaten for breakfast, therefore they’re bigger then cupcakes, that are normally eaten in the afternoon, say tea-time. –Mine were the size of muffin, but got eaten at cupcakes time. Uhm-

-          Cupcakes, besides being smaller, are usually frosted, while muffins are not, and the’re likely to contain pieces of fruit. – Ok, it seems mine are muffins then. My bad to eat them at the wrong hour-

-          It is also said, though, that muffins are usually prepared using oil, while cupcakes are made with butter. –Oh, so mine seem to finally be cupcakes. As much as they are muffins, at least-

Well, I can’t really tell what I baked.

What I can tell you, though, is that it was really good.

CHOCOLATE CHIPS AND BANANA CUPCAKES

Makes about 12 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS:

-          2 cups all-purpose flour

-          1 cup white granular sugar

-          1cup brown sugar

-          1 tea-spoon baking powder

-          ½ tea-spoon salt

-          1 cup (2 sticks) butter

-          4 eggs

-          1 cup milk

-          1 banana

-          Dark chocolate

DIRECTIONS:

1-      Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2-      In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter. Hand mix until everything’s combined.

3-      In a second bowl, whisk together eggs and milk.

4-      Start adding wet ingredients to dry ones, beating until ingredients are incorporated.

5-      Chop the banana and the dark chocolate, and add to the batter.

6-      Divide batter evenly, filling the cupcake forms about 2/3.

7-      Bake for about 15 – 20 minutes: you’ll know they’re ready when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

8-      Once baked, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

9-      Enjoy!

MUFFIN ALLA BANANA CON GOCCE DI CIOCCOLATO

Dosi per circa 12 muffins

INGREDIENTI:

-          2 tazze di farina

-          1 tazza di zucchero granulare bianco

-          1 tazza di zucchero di canna

-          1 cucchiaino di lievito in polvere

-          ½ cucchiaino di sale

-          200 gr di burro

-          4 uova

-          1 tazza di latte

-          1 banana

-          Cioccolato fondente per dolci

PREPARAZIONE:

1-      Preriscaldare il forno a 180°.

2-      In una ciotola abbastanza larga, mattete la farina, lo zucchero, il lievito, il sale e il burro. Mescolate con le mani fino a che il burro avrà creato un impasto. Non preoccupatevi, non importa che sia omogeneo.

3-      In una seconda ciotola, sbattete insieme il latte e le uova.

4-      Iniziate a versare la parte liquida nella ciotola degli ingredienti asciutti, mescolando fino a che tutti gli ingredienti non saranno ben amalgamati.

5-      Tagliate la banana e il cioccolato a pezzetti, dopodichè aggiungeteli all’impasto.

6-      Dividete l’impasto ottenuto in parti uguali riempiendo gli stampi dei vostri muffin fino a circa 2/3.

7-       Infornate e lasciate cuocere per circa 15 – 20 minuti. Saprete che sono pronti quando un coltello infilato al centro ne uscirà pulito.

8-      Una volta cotti, lasciateli raffreddare sopra ad una griglia.

9-      Godeteveli!