Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt

WARNING: These cookies are completely addictive.

I don't bake cookies all that often.  But a few months back, when I was working on a movie, my boss brought in a box of these amazing chocolate chip cookies topped with sea salt.  Made courtesy of his ridiculously talented baker of a mom.  Seriously, this woman is nuts I've been lucky enough to taste many of her treats and to bake with her and she is truly a wonderful baker.

Well these cookies were so good and completely the opposite of what I usually look for in a chocolate chip cookie that I had to ask her for the recipe.

Sour Cream Topped Brownies

Something on my Christmas list that most people would probably laugh at was Black Cocoa from King Arthur.  It may seem silly but living in Canada King Arthur products aren't easy to come by, actually they are impossible. I had seen different recipes in the blogosphere using this uber-dark cocoa and was intrigued.  Especially since I am a fan of all baked good chocolate, especially brownies.  I happily received this specific, albeit odd, request from my Christmas list and have pretty much been hoarding it until I knew what to do with it. I mean this cocoa is like gold to me and I just don't want to waste it on anything.

Yesterday a brownie craving struck and I recalled seeing a recipe for Black Cocoa Brownies, or Ebonies, on the King Arthur site. It was pretty straightforward recipe and I set about making it.  As I was mixing the batter I thought about cheesecake brownies, one of my favorite brownie varieties. Unfortunately I didn't have any cream cheese but I did have sour cream.  So I mixed up a cheese cake like filling with the sour cream and topped these dark chocolate beauties with the mixture.  I was excited at the prospect of how the tangy sour cream would work with the rich brownies and set about waiting for them to bake and cool.

German Chocolate Cake

As many of you know, this past weekend we had some house guests here in the T dot.  My sis surprised her boyfriend, DD, with a trip to Toronto for the weekend.  Now quite a few people I spoke with as the day approached asked, "does he WANT to come to Toronto?"  Because let's be honest Toronto in February is not the most appealing place, it's generally grey and cold and the snow is all dirty and gross.   Luckily though he had been wanting to come up here, nether he nor my sis have ever been to Toronto or Canada for that matter AND a good friend of DD's from New Zealand just moved up here.  Seeing a new place and old friends makes for a good surprise trip as far as I'm concerned and luckily DD agreed.  When she got home from work on Thursday night she handed him a card telling him to pack a bag and plan for cold weather.   Then at the airport she handed him his passport as they got into the Virgin America international line to check-in.  He was so confused and thrown by the surprise, but also excited.

So why am I telling you all of this?  What does any of this have to do with why you visit my little blog?  Well, my tag line is "food made with love for the people I love" and a birthday can't sneak by without me making a cake, cupcakes or pie. A few weeks ago as my sis was planning the trip I asked about Dave's favorite cake.  She insisted that I didn't need to do anything, but you can't stay at my house on your birthday and not get a homemade treat and I go out of my way to make sure it's your fave.  She told me that German Chocolate is his favorite.  German Chocolate Cake has never been my favorite, but I was pretty excited to make since I've never made it before and I figured that making it might change my thoughts on it. And once I found an amazing sounding recipe on David Lebovitz's site. I knew this was the one I had to make, so as last Thursday rolled around I set to work on all of the components.

Review: Laughing Moon Chocolates

October 28 is National Chocolate Day in the US.  It's pretty timely with one of the biggest holiday for chocolate just 3 days later.  Since I've been participating in Unprocessed October I've tried to stay away from the Halloween candy the boy purchased as it is about as far from unprocessed as you can get.  I did make an exception though for some of the delicious chocolates from Laughing Moon Chocolates. Back in August when the boy and I went to an Outstanding in the Field dinner at Pete's Greens in Craftsbury, VT we were fortunate to be sitting at a table with Leigh Williams of Laughing Moon Chocolate, an adorable artisinal chocolate shop in the heart of ski country, Stowe, VT.  We weren't able to visit the shop as we were only in town for the dinner (though we drove by early in the morning on our way out of town and I did peek in the window), but Leigh sent me some goodies to try*. 

I love chocolate, so that was my primary reason for wanting to try Laughin Moon's, but I was really struck by listening to Leigh talk about how she strives to use ingredients that can be locally sourced.  Obviously cacao doesn't grow in Vermont, but everything from the butter and milk  to the oreos she dips in fudge, which she contracted a local baker to make, is sourced locally.  Leigh goes above and beyond to support her community and buy local.  Her passion is for handmade chocolates which also makes them so special.  I mean how gorgeous are their signature chocolate bars?!

I was sent four Signature chocolate bars and a 1/2 pound box of Assorted Handmade Chocolates.  I opened the assorted box first on the off chance that there were some of the amazing sounding Bayley Hazen Blue truffles in it or maybe one of the boozy truffles.   If you don't know what Bayley Hazen Blue is, go to the Jasper Hill Farm website and see if you can buy it nearby.  If not, go to your local cheesemonger and tell them they have to bring it for you.  It is an amazingly special blue cheese, so special that they have to make it 7 days a week to keep up with demand!  But this post isn't about Jasper Hill, it's about Laughing Moon.  In Leigh's quest to use local ingredients she came up with a handmade chocolate truffle using the Bayley Hazen Blue.  I love chocolate and I love blue cheese and really how special and amazing does pairing them together sound?  But alas, there was no Bayley Hazen Truffle.  I'll just have to order some for myself.  The Assorted box is full of all kinds of delicious chocolates but my favorite was a deliciously perfect piece of toffee with milk chocolate.