OK, so I need to be honest here, this is the first recipe I ever developed myself. It’s based off of Ruhlman’s Cookie Ratio plus some necessary adjustments for it to be Red Velvet Cookie. These cookies have to travel to my husband’s office, so I opted for a White Chocolate Drizzle that will travel better than Cream Cheese Glaze.

If you make this yourself let me know how it goes and if you tweaked anything, while these are delicious maybe next time I’ll add more sugar.

Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

• 6 oz Sugar
• 14 oz Butter (Room Temperature)
• 18 oz Flour
• 1 Tablespoon Cocoa
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• dash of Salt
• dash of Citric Acid (This replaces the vinegar usually used in the Cake Batter)
• Red Food Coloring

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream the Butter and Sugar until light and Fluffy. Add the Cocoa, Vanilla, Salt and Citric Acid. Add the Flour slowly until the dough is cohesive and forms a ball, lastly add Red Food Coloring until desired color is achieved. (Don’t go to crazy, a cookie will never be as Red as the Cake)

Shape Dough into a log, wrap, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, slice cookies to desired thickness.

Bake until set, check them every 10 minutes.

The finishing touch is your call, kid! Enjoy!

Brigadeiros are little truffle like sweets every Brazilian knows how to make by heart, they are ubiquitous to any party, specially a kids parties! You can only eat them after they cut the cake, but I always steal a few from the table, before we sing Happy Birthday.

I humbly theorize that cupcake bakeries inspired the many stores now available in Brazil (at least in the state of São Paulo) that only sell Brigadeiros! Brigadeiros of every variation possible, and I had the opportunity to sit at a Brigaderia, drink really good Espresso and share five of these variations with my very awesome Mom.

Being extremely biased towards Dark Chocolate I will tell that of course, it was my favorite, the White Chocolate Passion fruit coming in close second. We also had a Brazil Nut one that was divine (my Mom’s fave), and traditional one and a Capuccino one that was only ok.  The store’s look and packaging is also really killer, it’s Paisley heaven and our table was was delightfully orange as you can see!

America’s test Kitchen posted a great recipe for them here.
…And if you understand Portuguese and can withstand a very messy flash website this is the Brigaderia website.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day a recipe to be eaten with a loved one, or many loved ones, for that matter! Sarah Copeland’s “The Newlywed Cookbook” is full of recipes for us crazy peeps that love hanging out in the kitchen, and you have a chance to win one! (Details below)

While I’m not really a newlywed (7 years anniversary this year!), husband and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen baking and cooking together, he is a Mise en Place wizard, he makes killer Gnocchi and he’s cute too!

We made this Bread Pudding on a cold Sunday afternoon, you however, should make it any day of the week and not only will you get to enjoy this delicious, comforting dessert, your house will smell delightful as it bakes away in your oven.

Sarah suggest you to:

Eat this warm or at room temperature, when the chocolate chunks are still warm enough to melt away the biggest worries of your week.

I agree with her!

Chocolate Bread-&-Butter Pudding
From The Newlywed Cookbook
Reprinted with permission from Sarah Copeland and Chronicle Books

Serves 4 to 6

6 oz/170 g bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
4 tbsp/44 g unsalted butter {at room temperature}, plus more for brushing
7 oz/200 g pugliese or rustic white bread {about 1/2 loaf}, cut in 1/4-in/6-mm-thick slices
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup/50 g packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling
Pinch of fine sea salt
2 3/4 cups/ 660 ml half-and-half/half cream
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tbsp turbinado or coarse sugar

Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚C/gas 4.

Sprinkle 3/4 cup/90 g of the chocolate all over the bottom of a 7- by-11-in/ 17–by-28-cm baking dish.

Spread the butter on one side of the bread slices. Place the buttered bread on top of the chocolate, overlapping at the edges in a single layer like shingles.

Whisk together the eggs, yolks, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the half-and-half/half cream and vanilla and whisk to combine well. Pour the custard over the bread, and press any floating bread slices down into the custard to ensure the custard will soak all of the bread. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate pieces over the top, tucking them into the custard slightly to fill in the gaps where the bread meets. Set aside for 20 minutes to soak. Sprinkle coarse sugar over the top and dust very lightly with cinnamon.

Place the pan inside a roasting pan filled with 1 in/2.5 cm or so of warm water (the water should come about halfway up the sides of the baking dish. Bake until the custard is just set but a touch wobbly in the center and the pudding puffs slightly, about 55 minutes.

Let the pudding cool for about 15 minutes. Serve warm.

Enjoy!!

Giveaway Rules (Now Closed!)

Chronicle Books is providing one copy of The Newlywed Cookbook, by Sarah Copeland to be given to the winner.

Who can Enter

Open only to residents of the USA 18 and older.

Until When Can You Enter

Until Thursday, February 16th, 3:30 pm EST.

How to Enter:

Leave a comment below — one entry per email address please.

How Winner Will Be Chosen:

The winner will be chosen at Random.org and will be notified via email, he will have 48 hours to respond to me, or a new winner will be chosen any duplicate comments will be deleted. (My comments are moderated, so please be patient if they don’t show up immediately.)

Good Luck!

Edit 02/09: Number 10 won!!! Congratulations Adele!!

Edit 02/23: Unfortunately Adele never got in touch with me, the new winner is Marcia! Congrats!!

Yea, it took me this long to go to a Sprinkles, and turns out one just opened in New York, none the less while still in LA, I checked out the flagship store and it was very cool. The thing that really got me was the attention to detail, everything is coordinated, you can see the table below matches the stickers, our cupcakes were boxed with so much care.

My better half and I tried the Cinnamon Sugar, Chocolate Marshmallow and the Salty Caramel (Only available in November).

The Cinnamon Sugar cupcake is a delicious spicy Buttermilk cake, with no frosting just a Cinnamon Sugar Coating, exactly the kind of thing husband likes.

The Chocolate Marshmallow was my favorite, Dark Chocolate Cake, Dark Chocolate Ganache and a Marshmallow filling!

Last but not least the seasonal Salty Caramel, I am a sucker for Salty Caramel and this cupcake did not let me down, the cake and the frosting were Caramel,very nicely done, not overly sweet and the Frosting was perfectly sprinkled Fleur de Sel.

This the last LA post for now, you can see them all right here, we went to all those places the same day, not shown was our stop at Birrieria Jalisco (warning: website has music!) for some delicious Goat Stew for lunch!

To the right of Bennet’s Ice Cream is an LA Institution named Bob’s Coffee and Donuts, a constant in all the Best LA Donut lists, I have to say the Chocolate Glazed Donut was undeniably awesome, it was soooooo fresh, soft and light, and delicious!

Oh Man, I might have to go back to LA this very moment,or I could just have some diet soda, stupid New Years Resolutions…

I also had an Apple Fritter, that giant one you see above, Apples are one of my favorite fruits and Fritters, come on, any fritter is good! Sadly this baby was a really heavy and too greasy (even for me!) maybe it was an off day for Fritters… Have you had one? Have you been to Bob’s? They also have cool shaped Donuts for kids, so definitely check them out.