Cookbook Spotlight…Cookies from “Seasonal Fruit Desserts”
Hello everyone! Hope you’ve had a great weekend. I have! We’ve been golfing, and grilling, having movie night…and BAKING! In fact, I’ve been a baking fool for 3 full days. Today alone, thanks in part to a French Macaron Class here at my home, over 150 macarons have been baked and filled! (That’s a lot of macarons, kids. A LOT.)
But, I want to talk about how lucky I am. I was recently invited to join a group that will be baking monthly from the gorgeous cookbook by Deborah Madison entitled “Seasonal Fruit Desserts.” I was honored to be among the great group of bloggers selected to be in the group – and tickled when I opened the cover…it’s amazing! I must have flipped back and forth for days trying to determine my test recipe before finally deciding on page 172: Hazelnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies. There were so many great fruit pastries and tarts, but I really want to wait on my own garden to start producing, and it’s just too early in the season. You had better believe there will be raspberry, blueberry and blackberry recipes being used from this book in the next couple of months though!
Back to the cookies. Wow. I loved that this recipe called for part butter and part hazelnut oil. Deborah informs us that we can use all butter – which would still have been great, but the hazelnut oil really offers a nice twist on a classic chocolate chipper. I took her recipe a step further and browned my butter first, which added to the nutty flavor that makes these cookies so decadent.
The result of these cookies was a perfect texture, chewy and yet a tad bit crunchy, thanks to the nuts that are not only added with the chocolate, but also ground into the flour. There was also the perfect amount of chocolate in these cookies – plenty chocolaty but just enough not to overpower the rest of the cookie. Yum. Using the best chocolate in my cabinets didn’t hurt the flavor at all either – Scharffen Berger rocks my socks. What can I say? This recipe was so easy and so spot on…it will definitely be in my go-to cookie repertoire.
I’m excited every time I get to say that about a recipe!
While I would LOVE to post the recipe here for you, due to copyright laws I can’t do that. But – I can give you the link to buy the book for yourself! And why not? It’s a great addition to your cookbook library. Don’t we all need more? Plus folks, this one has beautiful photos throughout – and I for one LOVE that in a cookbook!
I’ve also included link for a Silpat – because a Silpat makes baking a WORLD easier – you really need one. Trust me. Skip the parchment from now on and buy one of these magic wonders. You won’t be sorry!
Until next time – have a great one!
