Marbled Chocolate Raspberry Cookies

Today's post is a little about being direct. Through the years, I have interfaced with a lot of people in business as well as social settings. After all this time, I can still say that I favor strong and direct people. They will tell you exactly what is on their mind, instead of reserving or keeping thoughts to themselves. While directness may not be pleasant at times, but at least you are not left wondering.

So if someone tells me "make it happen, no excuses" my reaction is more driven than someone that says "just try to see what you can do". Which leads me to this recipe in which one of the flavors was described as subtle. Along with directness, I feel that if you are going to include a flavor, it should be dominant as a single flavor or balanced if used in combination with other flavors. Which is why I took some liberties with this recipe to create a balance between the raspberry and the chocolate. The original recipe is below and the tips and notes include my additional ingredient tweaks and helpful hints- so read prior to making this recipe if you want a stronger flavor of raspberries in the cookie. This recipe does make a lot, about 5 dozen.

Now, let's move on to the description of these cookies. They are moist and soft cookie, swirled with two cookie doughs that include cream cheese. One batch of dough is chocolate and one is raspberry flavored. The blend of doughs come together to create a delicious cookie that makes for a lovely presentation- which is the best of both worlds. This recipe comes from a fellow blogger, Irvin Lin, who is very talented when it comes to creating baked goods and inspiring others. I have provided the link below.

Marbled Chocolate Raspberry Cookies
adapted from Eat the Love  

Ingredients/Raspberry Dough
6 tbs or 3/4 stick butter (room temp)
1/4 cup or 2 oz cream cheese (room temp)
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cup raspberries (6 oz)
zest of one lemon
2 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt 
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tbs sugar

Ingredients/Chocolate Dough
1 1/2 sticks or 12 tbs of butter (room temp)
1/2 cup or 4 oz cream cheese (room temp)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 tbs vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 cup cocoa powder (natural not Dutch processed)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

1 cup white sugar to roll cookies in (regular,sanding or sparkling type)

For the raspberry dough:
Start by making the raspberry jam. Place the raspberries in a bowl and mash with a potato masher, just until all raspberries have been flattened. Empty into a saucepan and add 2 tbs of sugar. Place over medium high heat and stir constantly. As the mixture heats up, it will become thicker. Cook the mixture until a wooden spoon can clear a path in the raspberry blend that remains. Since it is now a jam texture, remove from heat and let cool.

Measure out the dry ingredients (flour/salt/baking soda/baking powder) and sift together. Set bowl aside.

Add the cream cheese, butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat ingredients together on medium speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl at intervals, until smooth and fluffy. This should take about 3 minutes. In a small bowl, whisk the egg with the lemon zest. Then pour into the batter. Run the mixer to distribute into the batter. Add the remaining egg yolk and blend again. Remove the bowl of the stand mixer and stir in the cooled raspberry jam. Then fold in the sifted ingredients and transfer the batter to an empty bowl. Set aside. Clean your batter blade and the mixer bowl in order to proceed to creating the chocolate dough.

For the Chocolate Dough:
Take out a medium bowl and sift together the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Place the butter, cream cheese and both types of sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Cream the ingredients together by beating on medium speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl at intervals. It should take about 3 minutes to form a fluffy batter. Add the egg and beat until incorporated and then add the yolk and the vanilla extract. Blend with mixer on medium speed.

Remove bowl and fold in dry ingredients until no streaks of flour remain. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Dust a flat surface lightly with flour and fill a bowl with the sugar for rolling the dough

The cookies will need to be formed in stages of 1 dozen. Take one teaspoon of the chocolate batter and,using lightly floured hands, form into a small ball. Continue with this process, making 4 rows of 6 balls of dough spaced 2 inches apart side by side as well as up and down. Then take one teaspoon of the raspberry batter and form into a small ball. Continue with this process, but place each ball in a row, right under each row of chocolate dough balls. The end result is a total of 8 rows of 6 dough balls starting with a row of chocolate and alternating, ending with a row of raspberry. Pick up the chocolate dough ball at the top left and stack with the raspberry ball below it. Then add the chocolate ball below it and then the raspberry dough ball. Flatten the balls together and then roll into one big ball. Roll in sugar and place on prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart.

Continue forming the cookies until there is a dozen on the baking sheet. Place in oven and bake for about 13-15 minutes. The cookies should be a light golden color on the bottom and edges when done.
Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to rack to finish cooling.

Repeat the forming and baking process until no dough remains.

Tips and Notes:
1. In order to increase the raspberry flavor, I used Belgian raspberry beer (Framboise Lambic) and 1 1/2 tsp of natural raspberry flavor. I filled a saucepan with 1 cup of the beer and boiled it until reduced down to 1/4 cup. Then I added the raspberries and the sugar. The natural raspberry flavoring (baktoflavors.com) was stirred into the raspberry mixture after it was completely cool.

2. Do not use thawed frozen raspberries, only fresh. Even though thawed, the fruit still has too much water content.

3. The chocolate dough is more dense than the raspberry. Once the dry ingredients are added to the raspberry batter the baking soda/powder mixture makes it rise. You may want to make both wet batters and then add the dry to both as a last step. Especially considering the time in forming the cookies.

4. Dough is less sticky and easier to work with when cold.

5. Another method for forming the dough is to divide each type of dough in half. Then roll out each half on a floured piece of parchment, forming a 12 by 5 inch rectangle. Stack the rectangles on top of each other, alternating types. Then cut dough into 1 inch squares and roll each square into a ball. Then roll in sugar and place on baking sheet. I did not try this, but the method would be a good time saver.
                              **LAST YEAR:Danish Butter Cookies**

Maple Pecan Pinwheel Cookies

I have a hard time trying to remember when someone actually said that a cookie tasted awful. Most cookies have a flavor appreciation, so the next factor when evaluating them is the texture. Hard cookies for dunking in milk, soft cookies for those that like a cookie on the light side and chewy for those people leaning towards the more candy-like cookies. The candy-like cookies are the typical slice and bake dough found at the grocers for you to bake or already baked up in the small display bins in fast food restaurant chains.

This particular cookie has some chewiness that comes from the filling.  However, the rest of the cookie mimics the buttery flakiness that you will find in pastries. If I had to name these, I would call them mini tart swirl pastries - not cookies.

That covers the texture evaluation. The flavor of the filling reminds me of those cinnamon praline pecans that are an addiction of mine. Also,the filing and the glaze have maple syrup as an ingredient. Sadly, maple syrup could be used in a number of ways yet most people never reach for it unless waffles or pancakes are around. Overall, the taste and texture of these gems does make them pretty amazing.

The preparation of the cookies incorporates the slice and bake method, which makes it easy to prepare in advance and bake some up on short notice. That is always a plus in my book! The recipe makes about 7 dozen cookies.

Maple Pecan Pinwheel Cookies
adapted from the Journal Sentinel

Ingredients/Dough
4 cups flour
6 tbs sugar
2 cups or 4 sticks of butter (room temp)
2-8oz packages of cream cheese (room temp)

Ingredients/Filling
1 1/2 cups or 3 sticks of cold butter (cubed)
3 tbs maple syrup
3/4 tsp maple flavoring
2 1/4 cups flour
2 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tbs cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
12 oz or 3 cups chopped pecans

Ingredients/Glaze
pinch of ground cinnamon
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup maple syrup


For the dough, fill a large bowl of a stand mixer with the butter and cream cheese. Beat for about 3 minutes on medium speed, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl. Sprinkle in sugar and beat for another minute.  Remove bowl from stand mixer and fold flour into batter in 1/2 cup increments. Form dough into a rectangle and cover with plastic wrap. Chill dough for 2 hours.

Start on the filling by beating together the butter cubes and brown sugar. Stir in the maple extract and maple syrup. Using another bowl, sift flour, salt and cinnamon together. Add the sifted ingredients to the sugar batter and mix until there are no more dry streaks. Lastly, stir in the pecan pieces until evenly distributed.

Remove dough from refrigerator and cut into 3 equal but smaller rectangles. Let all rectangles sit for 20 minutes. Dust a flat surface lightly with flour and do the same with a rolling pin. Take 1 rectangle and roll out, forming a rectangle measuring 12x18.

Take 1/3 of the filling mixture and scoop out spoonfuls and drop onto dough. Fill a small bowl with hot water. Take a knife, dip in the hot water and use to smooth the filling evenly over the dough. Filling will be thick, but be gentle as the dough is very thin.

After the filling is smoothed over the dough, start rolling dough up from one of the longest edges. This is much like a jelly roll, only smaller. After the last part is rolled up, pinch end and press down to seal bottom seam also cut of any ends that are uneven.

Take the roll and cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Repeat the same process on the other two pieces of dough, dividing filling in half. The cut ends can be used to patch or to seal hole in the dough. Do not cut the ends of the last roll, just push in to flatten, so the edges are not jagged.

After all rolls have been in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Also line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove 1 roll and cut into about 28 slices. Lay each slice onto prepared baking sheets, filling each sheet with about 1 dz cookies. Cover the 2 slices and place in refrigerator. Put cookies on baking sheets in oven and bake until golden on edges. Cookies will take about 22 minutes to bake and pans will need to be rotated at the halfway point.

Place a sheet of wax paper under cooling rack. Remove cookies and let set for 2 minutes then transfer to cooling rack. Glaze cookies once completely cool.

For glaze, sift powdered sugar into a bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until smooth. Drizzle over cooled cookies.  Let glaze set before storing or serving.

Tips and Notes:
1. Be gentle with the dough but make sure it is tightly rolled and seam sealed. Filling expands as it cooks.
2. As an option, you can sprinkle more pecan pieces on top.
3. The smaller the pecans are in the filling, the easier it will be to smooth out over the dough.
4. Dough is not real sticky, so it does not need much dusting of flour.
5.There were places in my roll that were thin and some nuts were poking through but it did not cause a problem. 
                                    **LAST YEAR: Pineapple Cottage Cheese Pufflets**

Gooey Butter Cookies

This cookie recipe is one that has evolved through the years.  The recipe started out with the use of a boxed cake mix and then there was one created from scratch. That recipe used 1 cup of butter and three cups of sugar. Since then, there has been some variations on those two ingredient amounts and additional flavors incorporated such as Nutella and Red Velvet. However, I landed on the recipe created by by Mathew Rice and Gerard Craft of Pastaria Restaurant.  The recipe does cut back on the amount of butter and also incorporates glucose as an ingredient.

Since I have never ate or baked these cookies, the thing I wondered about was the name.  Would they be liquid and creamy inside or is gooey a misnomer?  After making them, I would say a misnomer. The texture of these cookies are right on the border between being doughy and being crisp. Not really "gooey" as the name states. They are fluffy and light, unlike standard sugar or butter cookies.

Even though there are lots of variations on the net, I thinks that the simple butter/cream cheese flavor is perfect when paried with any of the wintery beverages such as hot chocolate, flavored teas and coffees. This recipe makes about 3 dz. cookies.

All of the variations can be found on the net under different blogs and websites, such as Lottie and Doof, Eating up, Tasting Table, Delightfully Dowling.

Gooey Butter Cookies
adapted from Gerard Craft and Mathew Rice of Pastaria

Ingredients
1/4 cup glucose (substitution ingredient is light corn syrup)
2 1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 lb cream cheese (room temp)
1/2 cup or 1 stick butter (room temp)
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
4 1/2 cups of flour
1 tbs and 1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 vanilla bean
2 cups powdered sugar and more for final dusting

Prepare 2 baking sheets by lining with parchment paper and have a few extra squares of parchment on hand to fit the sheets.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Also, fill a shallow bowl with the powdered sugar and put aside for later use.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium size bowl and set aside.  Fill the bowl of a stand mixer with cream cheese, butter, sugar and glucose.  Then split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the bowl as well.  Cream ingredients together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl at 1 minute intervals.  Add the vanilla extract and one of the eggs and beat until blended.  Beat in the second egg.

Remove batter blade and bowl from mixer.  Fold the sifted ingredients into the butter/cream cheese mixture until a dough is formed and there are no more dry streaks.  Shape pieces of the dough into balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.  Roll balls into powdered sugar and place on prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies about 12-15 minutes.  The cookies should be firm on the edges and soft in the middle and have cracks.  They should not brown on the edges.  Remove the cookies and let rest on baking sheets about 5 minutes.  Slide the parchment paper with the cookies off the sheet onto a cooling rack.  I was able to lightly transfer them off the parchment paper to a cooling rack by hand, but they are very delicate. A light touch is important if you want to do the hand method as opposed to sliding the parchment.

These cookies are best kept in the refrigerator and served cold. Before serving, as an option, you can dust again with powdered sugar. Store cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.
                                    **LAST YEAR: Chocolate Tres Leche Cake**

White Velvet Cut Outs

After the recent extravagant dessert, I decided to go back to something simple like cut out sugar cookies.  These type of cookies are dad's favorite and make me think of Christmas because this is the only time we had these around the house when I was young.  My mom would always make these type of cookies in the shape of Christmas trees and decorate them with green icing.  My dad, as well as us kids would gobble these up in no time.

These type of cookies can be time consuming, but if you are not into cutting out the dough for these,  you can always shape into a log and slice them. This recipe makes about 7 dozen cookies.

White Velvet Cut Outs
adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients/Cookies
4 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 cups butter
8 oz cream cheese
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract

Ingredients/Frosting
3 tbs butter
1 tbs shortening
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 tbs milk
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
food coloring-optional

Using a stand mixer, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Then add the sugar and beat again until mixture becomes fluffy and light.  Add one egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix on medium speed for 30 seconds and then add the additional egg yolk and mix again for 30 seconds.  Use a wooden spoon to fold in the flour, working in 1/2 cup increments.  Once all is blended, transfer dough to a smaller bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator to chill for a minimum of 2 hours.

Once chilling time is over, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare cookie sheets by lining with parchment paper.  Also set out a cooling rack for the cookies.

Take dough out of fridge and remove about 1/3 of dough from bowl to work with and place the remainder back in the fridge.  Lightly dust a flat surface with flour and roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut into desired shape (number of cookies are based on using a 3 inch cutter) and place each on prepared cookie sheet about 1 inch apart.  Bake cookies for about 10-12 minutes, rotating sheets at halfway point.  The cookies are done when the dough is set, not when browned.  I removed the cookies when they just started to get golden on the edges.

Let cookies rest on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to completely cool. Continue with the rolling baking and cooling process for the remainder of the dough.

To make the frosting, cream together butter, shortening, 3 tbs milk and vanilla extract.  Then place a sifter over the batter and sift 1 cup of powdered sugar into the bowl.  Beat batter until smooth.  Continue to sift in and beat remaining powdered sugar in increments.  The end result should be a light fluffy frosting.  Beat in the optional food coloring until completely distributed for even color.  For a lighter frosting, mix in some additional milk for desired consistency.

Frost cooled cookies and let frosting set before storing.
                                 **LAST YEAR: Almond Breakfast Scones**