Mexican Chocolate Wedding Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

Mexican chocolate has cinnamon in it and so do these cookies, hence the name. Traditional Mexican wedding cookies don’t have either, but that doesn’t stop these from being light and delicious, if not authentic.

I adapted this chocolate version from the traditional recipe at Mexico in My Kitchen.

The month our Creative Cookie Exchange group is planning ahead for Cinco de Mayo, a holiday that celebrates Mexican heritage and culture with food, drink and dancing, in short, with fiestas. I decided to take a favorite cookie for weddings in Mexico and mix it up a bit, adding chocolate and tossing it in powdered sugar and cocoa. Turns out chocolate wedding cookies weren’t my idea first but that’s okay. I felt creative for a little while till I found out.

Note to future self: When big, bright idea strikes, stop researching. 

Ingredients for 2-3 dozen cookies, depending on how big you roll them
For the cookie dough:
3/4 cup or 170g butter, softened
1/3 cup or 40g powdered or confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups or 220g all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup 225g ground pecans
1/2 cup or 100g semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch salt

For the coating:
1/2 cup or 65g powdered or confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup or 20g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method
Blitz your chocolate chips in a food processor until they are ground into little bits.

With electric beaters or in a stand mixer, cream the butter and the powdered sugar together until the butter turns pale and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and add in the vanilla and then beat again.

In another bowl, mix together the other (dry) dough ingredients.

Add the dry mixture to the fluffy butter one cup at a time, beating well in between, until it’s all mixed in and you have a nice stiff dough.

Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for an hour in the refrigerator or 30 minutes in the freezer.

It's lovely and speckled!

Meanwhile, combine your coating ingredients in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

I gave them a solid whisking to mix them together and break up any lumps. 

When you are ready to start baking, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Cut off small pieces of the dough and roll them into balls about an inch or 2 1/2cm wide.

Put them on a ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 15-18 minutes.

Cool for a couple of minutes and then, very carefully, transfer the cookies to a wire rack. If you squeeze too hard, the cookies might crumble, as you can see.

While the cookies are still warm, roll them in the coating.

Enjoy!

 

If you would like to join the fun and bake with the Creative Cookie Exchange, just contact Laura at thespicedlife AT gmail DOT com and she will get you added to our Facebook group, where we discuss our cookies and share links.

You can also just use us as a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Facebook page, our Pinterest Board, and our monthly posts which are published the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month! 

If you are looking for Cinco de Mayo inspiration to get in the kitchen and start baking, check out what all of the hosting bloggers have made this month:

• Mexican Chocolate Wedding Cookies from Stacy at Food Lust People Love
• Polvorones con Chocolate from Laura The Spiced Life
• Mexican Hot Cocoa Thumbprint Cookies from Sophie at Sweet Cinnamon & Honey
• Feast Day Cookies from Felice at All That’s Left Are The Crumbs
• Margarita Cookies from Tara at Noshing With The Nolands
• Cinnamon Coffee Meringue Cookies from Kim at NinjaBaking.com
• Cinnamon and Piloncillo Cookies from Renee at Magnolia Days
• Chocolate Chilli Roll Out Cookies from Jill at Made with Love
• Dulce de Leche Alfajores from Holly at A Baker’s House
• Triple Orange Mexican Cookies from Karen at Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Dulce de Leche Cookie Bars from Kathya at Basic N Delicious

Browned Butter Pecan Muffins #MuffinMonday

One whole cup of chopped pecans in the batter makes sure that each bite of these browned butter muffins is a delicious mouthful of nuts. Are there extra pecans in the brown sugar topping?  But, of course!

I was reading recipes the other day, as you do, and the words “butter pecan” were mentioned. As in ice cream. Well, I don’t make ice cream since I don’t have an ice cream machine, but I do make muffins. Doesn’t butter pecan sound like a great idea? Sometime last fall, I discovered browned butter and I went a little crazy putting it in no less than three different muffin recipes. Because it SO GOOD. And some of those even had pecans too.  But I have yet to make a simple browned butter pecan muffin. Isn’t it time to rectify that?

Ingredients
For the muffins:
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 cup or 100g dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup or 120g chopped pecans
1 egg
1/4 cup or 60g browned butter, cooled – use these directions here.  (Let me encourage you to make extra and keep it indefinitely in a clean jar in your refrigerator. It's soooo good.)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup or 180ml milk

For the topping:
1/4 cup or 30g chopped pecans
1/4 cup or 50g brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your large 12-cup muffin pan by greasing lightly or lining with muffin papers.

Make your topping by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl and using a fork to mix lightly so you have large crumble. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and chopped pecans.

In a smaller mixing bowl, whisk the egg, cooled browned butter, vanilla and milk. The butter may try to harden up on you if your milk is cold, but just keep whisking. Even if it separates out a little bit, it will be mixed enough to allow you to pour the mixture into the dry ingredients.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ones and stir till just combined.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups.

Top with a generous share of the topping.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes in the pan then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Apricot Blue Cheese Pecan Bites

The mix of salty blue cheese and sweet apricots topped with toasted pecans makes the perfect bite for happy hour.  Enjoy these with a glass of crisp dry white wine or an ice cold beer. 


Here’s the thing.  I love salty stuff.  I’d choose a piece of bacon over a slice of chocolate cake any day.  But if you add salty to sweet, I’m still in.  The idea for these apricot blue cheese bites came to me in a flash of inspiration when I was using canned apricots in muffins.  They are the perfect little vessel for melted cheese!  I used blue but if that’s not your favorite, try Brie or Camembert or even a goat cheese.  Don’t have pecans?  Top them with toasted walnuts.   No matter how you make them, I’d like to come over for the party!

Ingredients
1 can (14 1/2 oz or 410g, net weight) apricot halves
3 1/2 oz or 100g blue cheese
1 oz or 30g whole pecan halves – one per apricot half so your weight may vary slightly.
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

Method
Drain the juice or syrup out of your can of apricot halves and put them on bed of paper towels to absorb any moisture.   Count how many there are and count out that many pecans plus a few spares.  My can had 17 apricot halves.

Toast your pecans in a non-stick skillet over a medium flame.  Toss or stir them frequently to avoid scorching.  When they are browning nicely, remove the hot pan from the stove and sprinkle in the sugar.

Toss the pecans around quickly to coat them with the sugar which will begin to caramelize immediately as it hits the hot pan.  There may be smoke.  Just keep tossing.  Set aside to cool.

Wipe out the non-stick skillet and pop in the apricots.  On high heat, cook them quickly until they are browned or a little charred on both sides.

Put the apricot halves in a baking pan, hole side up.

Cut your blue cheese into small pieces and put some in each apricot.

Put the pan under the broiler or grill in your oven and cook for just a few minutes or until the blue cheese is melted and bubbly.  Some of the cheese may melt out onto the pan but as it cools, you can scoop it up and put it back in the apricot.

Top each with a toasted pecan.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy!

Sharing with your helper is optional.  But, frankly, not really recommended.

Pecan Bundt Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Icing for #BundtBakers

This beautiful pecan Bundt cake is made with very little flour since the coarsely ground pecans bind with the sugar and eggs to create a rich batter.   It bakes up light and is perfectly complemented by the rich orange cream cheese icing. 

I know your mother told you differently growing up but sometimes having a reputation is a good thing.  When people know you love to cook and bake, for instance, they buy you cookbooks and magazines.  They send you interesting links to deliciousness and sometimes they even cut recipes out of newspapers for you.  When we were in Rhode Island over Christmas, my mother-in-law handed me a bit of the Houston Chronicle “Flavor” section.  She had pulled out the pages, folded them up and brought them with her from home because she knew I would like to read them.  Because: Pecans!  They were FULL of pecan recipes.  Little did she know, but I was especially pleased because our new Bundt Bakers group theme for January was going to be NUTS and pecans are my go-to nut of choice.  In fact, I’m the host for this inaugural event so I chose the theme!

The only major tree nut that exists naturally in North America, the pecan grows wild in groves as well as in cultivated orchards.  The name pecan comes from the Algonquin word meaning “needs a rock to crack.”   I find a nutcracker much more useful.  Pecans were a major source of nutrition for Native Americans and became a staple for cooking and baking for the settlers as well.  Of course, they are crunchy and wonderful but, according to the appositely named website for the National Pecan Shellers Association, I love Pecans, they are also very heart healthy!  Thanks to well-sealed Ziploc bags and a big deep freezer, pecans feature heavily in my kitchen all year long.

Adapted from a recipe printed in the Houston Chronicle contributed by Carol Aimone from Tomball, Texas.

Ingredients
For cake:
2  1/2 cups or 315g chopped pecans, toasted, plus another generous handful for decorating, if desired.
3 tablespoons flour plus more for coating your Bundt pan
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 eggs
1 cup or 225g sugar
Butter or non-stick spray for coating your Bundt pan

For the icing:
8 oz or 225g cream cheese
1 oz or 30g butter
16 oz or 450g confectioners’ or icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or essence
Zest 1 navel orange
2-3 tablespoons fresh orange juice

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your Bundt pan by slathering it liberally with butter, spraying it generously with non-stick spray and then coating with flour.  Do this and do this well.  You will thank me later.  Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine the three tablespoons of flour, the baking powder and the salt.

Put half of your pecans in the food processor and process until they are coarsely ground.   Add them to the flour bowl.  Repeat with the remaining pecans.

Put your sugar and eggs in the processor and process until completely smooth.

This will be very liquid.  Add the pecan mixture and process again, scraping down the sides, if necessary.   The mixture make get a little foamy.

Pour into your prepared Bundt pan and bake in your preheated oven for about 50-55 minutes or until a tester (I use a wooden satay stick.) comes out clean.

Meanwhile, you can be making the icing.

Put all the ingredients into your mixing bowl, starting with only two tablespoons of orange juice.

Beat until thoroughly mixed and creamy.  If it seems a bit too thick to spread, add the extra orange juice a little at a time, beating well in between, until the icing is of good spreadable consistency.

When the cake is baked, remove the pan from the oven and allow it to cool for about 10 minutes on a wire rack before inverting and removing the cake from the pan.

We are all friends here so I am going to share the photo that never usually gets seen.

When the cake sticks in the Bundt pan.

Never mind though.  Just pry the pieces out and set them back where they belong.  The icing will cover everything and no one will be the wiser.  And next time you will vow to butter and flour that pan more generously!

Allow the cake to cool completely.

Cover with your orange cream cheese icing.   Because of the delicate state of my cake, I decided to put the icing in a decorating bag and pipe it on instead of trying to spread it with a spatula.  Sprinkle with the handful of extra pecans, if desired.

I think it turned out rather pretty.

And even when it was cut, you would never know what near tragedy had been averted.

Enjoy!

I am delighted to be hosting this inaugural edition of Bundt Bakers.  I chose NUTS as the theme since we are all nuts about Bundts and couldn’t imagine not baking at least one a month when the BundtaMonth group disbanded.

Have a look at all the wonderful nutty Bundts we’ve baked for you!  For information about how you can join us in the coming months, scroll on down.

• Banana Nut Bread from Veronica at My Catholic Kitchen
• Chocolate Covered Almond Cake from Anne at From My Sweet Heart
• Chubby Hubby Mini Bundts from Kelly at Passion Kneaded
• Glazed Citrus Pistachio Bundt Cake from Laura at The Spiced Life
• Mocha Hazelnut Marble Bundt Cake from Felice at All That's Left Are the Crumbs
• Orange Cinnamon Pecan Cake from Renee at Magnolia Days
• Pecan Bundt Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Icing from Stacy at Food Lust People Love
• Pistachio Coffee Cardamom Cake from Deepti at Baking Yummies
• Powdered Sugar Pound Cake with Pecans from Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious
• Rum Pecan Bundt from Tara at Noshing with the Nolands

We are a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme.  Follow our Pinterest board right here.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send me an email at foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com or ask to join our private Facebook group.