Tuesday, December 15, 2009

TWD: Cafe Volcano Cookies

Now doesn't that name just scare you a bit? There was no photo of this finished product. I had no idea what to expect. It was a pretty simple recipe with ingredients I had on hand, so it had that going for it. What the heck. I'll try it.

Luckily, we made sables last week, which called for egg yolks. This week's recipe needed egg whites. I love how that worked out!

This was a meringue-like cookie. Instead of beating the egg whites, however, we warmed them up with sugar and, in my case, cocoa. The original recipe called for espresso powder (hence the cafe part of the name). But the boy and girl are not fans of coffee things, so I went with cocoa.
I also used mostly toasted almonds and pistachios in place of the nuts Dorie called for. Since both my nut varieties were pre-toasted, I had even fewer steps to make these!

The whole recipe was made in one saucepan and then baked on a silicon mat. It was close to the easiest Dorie recipe yet. The resulting recipe was surprisingly good. The toasty flavor of the nuts went very well with the cocoa. And I loved the crunchy texture of the cookie. I made a half batch, and it disappeared within a day.

You can see how the cookies is reminiscent of a craggy lava field. But much tastier.


Since I used the girl's painted bowl last week, I had to use the boy's this week.

Thanks to MacDuff of The Lonely Sidecar for picking this one. I never would have tried it on my own. It's definitely an option for those extra egg whites left over from the sables that I have to make again.

10 comments:

Cakelaw said...

Love how ypur cookies turned out - and the boy's bowl.

Jennifer said...

The boy's bowl is precious!

Your cookies look delicious!!!!

Hindy said...

Lovely cookies! Mine, um, not so much.

Welcome to our crazy blessed life said...

You just used plain cocoa? What a great idea! I think I should try these with that! Yum. Love the bowl, so sweet!

Megan said...

I'm with Clivia on this one - mine didn't turn out so well, either.

Perhaps they would have looked better if I had displayed them in a hand-painted bowl. :)

Kayte said...

Oh, what a nice idea to use the cocoa instead, and they look great. My guys inhaled these. I only made a half batch as they can be "iffy" about nuts IN things but I figured I could eat a couple and my friends could all eat a couple and they would be gone in no time...the guys INHALED them and want more! Yours look great, as usual! Love EASY!

Paula said...

Love the cocoa idea. I bet cocoa AND espresso would be good too.

Your boy is quite creative. Hope he's feeling special this week.

Jessica said...

I used cocoa, too, and I loved the result. I'm glad that these were a hit at your house!
I love the bowl -- it makes me want to go paint some pottery.

Anonymous said...

The cookies coordinate well with the nice bowl! I like these with the coffee, but I want to try cocoa next time.

Unknown said...

I'm with you, Jules--would have never picked this one on my own! Love, love, love the bowl! Great job by the boys, but I am partial to the flower bowl from last week :) It's a girl thing :)