After a few weeks of travel and stressful catch-up from vacation, I finally had the opportunity to bake something this morning. How refreshing! It really is stress relief, even if I did get up at 4:30 on a Saturday morning. These florentines are simply lovely: sweet and crisp and almost like a nut brittle. Not to be missed!
Somehow in this mess of a week, I never did get around to making anything that I wanted to show you. That is not to say that I didn’t make anything, but they are all in-progress recipe experiments, that still need some work. But thees cookies, these are the bomb. As you all know, I have a thing for cardamom, so I thought that I would try a new twist on the traditional chocolate chip cookie and ended up with these, with a slight Middle Eastern turn of all things: Cardamom Cherry White Chocolate Chip Cookies with Toasted Pine Nuts and Sea Salt. Turned out heavenly. Pillowy and sweet, with just the right ratio of sweet and savory.
Chocolate? Check. Bourbon? Yep. Nuts? Sure, why not. Mix ’em all together and you get these lovely dessert bars that will rival any pie, but is much easier to eat(read: handheld). You could also skip the bourbon (but why would you want to?) and substitute walnuts for pecans. Any way you cut it, they are pretty awesome though.
So what do you make when you can’t decide whether you are more in the mood for brownies or more in the mood for cookies? Well, Brookies of course. Brownies on the bottom, and in this case *coconut* cookie dough on top, and just for good measure, a sprinkling of mini-chocolate chips. That should sort both cravings, I assume!