Monday, September 8, 2008

Tuesdays with Dorie-Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops

Another first: my first week participating in the Tuesdays with Dorie baking extravaganza. And what a recipe to start of with. It's got chocolate; its got malt; its got Whoppers...what more could a girl ask for??

Actually I was quite relieved that my first recipe would be a fairly straight forward cookie assignment. I've looked through Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours and there are some intimidating feats of baking prowess in there! The Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops were just the thing to get me started: kept me on my toes, but didn't terrify me entirely.

Note: You will notice that link to the book takes you to Amazon. I actually bought my book from the used selections there on Amazon. I paid $4.72 plus $3.99 shipping. My book was described as "like new", and I can find absolutely nothing wrong with it. This is the fourth book I've gotten at a shockingly low price through Amazon's used book offerings, and I highly recommend considering this option when buying your books in the future.

After procuring my ingredients (complete with chocolate malt powder as my local grocery store didn't have the regular) I got down to business Sunday afternoon. I actually did my best to achieve a semblance of mise en place (I am always getting to some critical point and then reading, "Cut 10 apples into star shapes" or some such nonsense that pretty much ruins the recipe I've impatiently started. Not this time!).


See that tiny little glimpse of my hand in the corner? Look how fast I'm moving! Chopping whoppers like the wind! Took me like 10 minutes to halve these suckers. Chopping eventually gets faster, right?


Look at that mish mash of chocolate...I'm not sure Dorie would approve...or maybe she'd just be happy that the masses are baking and wouldn't worry so much that their chocolate didn't all come from the same family. I used 2 ounces of Dagoba's 74% New Moon bar (organic chocolate, YUM), 3.5 ounces of Ghirardelli's 72% Midnight Bar (also YUM) and 1/2 ounce of regular old Semi-sweet Bakers chocolate (nothing wrong with it from what I can tell!). I am somewhat of a candy collector, so its a very good thing for me to dispose of a bar or two every now and then to help whittle down my stash...and in some other way than me just sitting down and eating it. Sigh, good times...

Here we have the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla all mixed together. At this point Dorie says not to worry if the batter looks curdled. Thankfully mine never really looked curdled which is good because I would have worried.



Let's get us some dry ingredients in there. Dorie says it "will look more like fudge frosting than cookie dough--and that's fine". I'll say its fine...actually, ladies and gentlemen, cookies will not be necessary today...me and Mr. Fudgie Frosting Batter have a little date with a spatula...sigh, ok, ok, I can't fail this mission...must actually bake some of this dough.

But first let's say hi to Abby and Andy the wonder turtles. Look at Abby there with dreams of flying high...using poor Andy as a launching point. Abby, you'll never get far if you push others down in your climb to the top.


Now for the whoppers and chunks of that mish mash chocolate. Do I seriously have to stick this in the oven? We could have such fun together, just me and this luscious batter...no one would have to know.


Will power out the whazoo, people, that's all I'm sayin. Here you see a portion of the finished product. I baked some of the cookies on regular sheet pans and some on an airbake pan, and I did notice quite a difference after they cooled and today when I took them to work. Those baked on the regular pan were puffier (examples seen in this picture), a bit crispy around the edges and cake-y in the middle, and I thought they tasted better than the very soft, flat, slightly fudge-y specimens from the airbake pan. However today, the crispy/cake-y lot had lost a lot of their flavor, were boring even, while the soft/fudge-y ones had gotten even better with a deeper, richer flavor. I wasn't complaining about having to eat either kind either day, mind you, but I did enjoy comparing the results from each pan. I should also say that due to a scheduling issue the airbake batch did have to sit out for about an hour before actually being baked, so I'm sure that had something to do with the texture difference, too.
These were not difficult to make, and the result was different than any cookie I'd had before because of the malt powder and whoppers. Definitely give these a try! (Or at least whip yourself up a batch of the batter and grab a spatula...)

What a delightful experience! I can't wait to for my next Tuesday with Dorie assignment!

24 comments:

Spike said...

Your cookies look great! Welcome to TWD

Maci said...

Your blog and cookies look great! Welcome to TWD!

Anonymous said...

Your cookies look delicious! Welcome to TWD!

Cathy said...

Welcome to TWD!! I started TWD with a cookie too, and in fact, have made mostly cookies since! We're on a bit of a cookie streak here. Your cookies look fabulous!! Cute turtles, by the way!

Macaroon said...

Your cookies look great! And the turtles are cute!!

Welcome to TWD! Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Rebecca of "Ezra Pound Cake" said...

Welcome to TWD! Nice to start with something chocolatey.

Nancy/n.o.e said...

I say treat a candy bar addiction by adding lots more sugar and butter and MORE chocolate. And then baking. Perfect cure!

Great job on the cookie sheet comparison. Very interesting results. I never use my cushion-aire except for under other baking dishes, but now I might try it for cookies.

I started TWD earlier this summer with a cobbler and it was fruit desserts for several weeks thereafter, well, until the cookies, basically.
Nancy

Prudy said...

Welcome to you and Abby and Andy. Nice work on those cookies.

La Bella Cooks said...

Welcome to TWD! Wonderful turtles and delicious cookies. Now that makes for a very fun blog!

Melissa said...

Welcome!!!

Chef Jeena said...

Wow this is one delicious chocolate treat yummy!

Emily D. Crews said...

Delicious...the turtles, I mean. I'm not really that into chocolate. :)

Cindy said...

I came by to say thanks for the very nice comment you left but now I'm craving chocolate so I'm not sure if I should be thanking you...just kidding! I also love to buy used books from amazon!

Eleganza Strings/ The DeLadurantey Family said...

Welcome to the TWD Group! I really like your photos!

Teanna DiMicco said...

I like the comparisons of two types of cookies and I love your wonder turtles! Welcome to TWD!

Pamela said...

Great post and WELCOME to TWD! Please tell me you're kidding when you say you didn't have any batter? My God...it was amazing!

Anonymous said...

Test

The Little Miss said...

oh my gosh those cookies look so good! I just found your blog and its so cute!

27Susans said...

Welcome to TWD. I'm new to the group & already need two airline seats from eating cookies.

Anonymous said...

Your cookies look so good! I saw your comment that you're from Abbeville! It's nice to see someone from this part of the country! I grew up in Aiken but live in Clemson now and we go through Abbeville all the time. It looks like such a nice little town.

Nancy/n.o.e said...

I was in Abbeville on business about 25 years ago! I still remember a fantastic meal we ate at a restaurant called Yoders (I think that was the name). The Opera House was really cool.
Nancy

betty geek said...

Good job on the cookies! Looking good!

Bungalow Barbara said...

Great cookies! Your turtles are really cute, too.

I like my air-bake pan, too, it's great for cookies that are supposed to be a bit underbaked or soft. My cookies were all soft and they did improve on standing.

adozeneggs said...

The first time I made these, they were too cakey. I'm sure it was me and the mixing. The second time though, they were super delicious and I sold out in the bake shoppe.