My favorite recipes are always chocolate. And this week I planned to create another decadent, dark, rich chocolate creation. I’ve been thinking about cookie recipes for my cafe, too, and figured I’d have a crack at a decadent combination. Chocolate ganache cookies with a chewy brown butter and black cocoa base. Filled with dark chocolate ganache and a touch of sea salt.
Chocolate Ganache Cookies
We started the week with a huge snow storm. Thankfully we never lost power. But we had over 16” accumulate in our yard. So I spent over an hour Monday shoveling. It was pretty grueling on my body. I don’t typically do physical labor for over an hour in the freezing cold with wet feet and red ears. By the time I was done I felt like the survivor of an Olympic endurance challenge or some sick torture game from Saw. Exhausted, I changed out of my wet clothes, fixed myself some lunch, and fell into a nap in bed.
Later I felt accomplished and sore and rode a dopamine high after dinner. But when I went to bed my body quickly started to rebel. My neck began to throb with pain. My head felt like it was in a vice. And I made my way to the bathroom like I was on fire, pressing myself against the cold floor for relief. The room was spinning. It all sounds super hyperbolic, but I spent an hour or two miserably uncomfortable. A lesson to not push my body too far and to take better care of myself. 30 feels different already.
Recipe Testing + Carrot Muffins
I slept it off and had a nice, normal Tuesday. Cozied up in bed with TV to recuperate and good leftovers for lunch. I worked on some business stuff and started to recipe test more dishes for my cafe. The first thing was homemade hash browns which saw me grating, draining, and squeezing potatoes for over an hour. I let them chill for a day before cutting and frying them. I also managed to make a batch of carrot cake muffins. A recipe based on my delicious carrot cake cookies. I start with brown butter and add brown sugar, eggs, all the usual. Along with shredded carrots, coconut flakes, and pecans.
They baked up beautifully and stayed super tender from the oil and sour cream. I loved them! The crunch of sugar on the top paired beautifully with the nuts and the warm spices. So I’ve been eating them every day for breakfast. On Wednesday I fried my hash browns to go with homemade burgers for dinner and prepped for my mom’s birthday on Thursday. She was delighted to have the day off. We were to spend it relaxing and watching TV together. I wrapped her gift and went to bed early after a long day of cooking.
Mom’s Birthday + Tennis
The big day was fantastic. A very normal, nice day at home with napping, sandwiches from one of our favorite places, and a TV marathon. I made pizza for dinner. And, in the spirit of my mom’s amazing discipline to only eat sugar on Sundays, I agreed to wait and make her birthday dessert later. Obviously it had to be chocolate. If you’re new here, you don’t know that my mom is the world’s biggest chocolate lover. So, I floated a few ideas and settled on chocolate ganache cookies. A perfect mixture of a chewy, rich cookie base with a silky ganache topping.
My mom is a big frosting (and ganache) person. She keeps a tub of frosting in the kitchen to put on desserts that aren’t sweet enough. She’s very serious about her Sunday treat. So, I was excited to create these rich chocolate ganache cookies for her to enjoy. Frosting built in. I woke up early on Friday with a big day ahead – a meeting at the cafe to hang up my art on the walls and talk about next steps before our first brunch service. I was set to leave my house at 11, so I hurried to the kitchen after the final set of Sinner vs. Djokovic at the Australian Open.
Chocolate Cookie Dough
Baking my chocolate ganache cookies lifted my mood after Sinner’s loss. I started with brown butter, of course, like most of my recipes. I cooked 12 tbsp in a sauté pan until I nearly forgot about it. If it wasn’t for a violent sizzling and bubbling at the perfect time. I took it off the heat and cooled it down by adding a little cream and vanilla extract. Then I measured my other ingredients as it chilled. Homemade brown sugar. An egg and an egg yolk. I also added a touch of cinnamon to warm the flavor profile. I also made a dry ingredient mix with black cocoa, which is one of my favorite deep, dark flavors to use in baked goods.
It all whipped up into a thick black cookie dough. It didn’t look like a lot at first, but it made 8 big cookies. I rushed at this point to roll my cookie balls out and get them chilling. I used a melon baller to squish together two small scoops for each cookie. Then I rolled them in my hands and placed them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, dimpling the centers with a tablespoon. In order to make sure they didn’t spread, I placed them in the freezer for 10 minutes to firm up the butter. In the meantime I ate leftover pizza for a lunch and got dressed.
Dark Chocolate Ganache
It was a whirlwind of a morning. All of a sudden the oven was preheated and I ran down to the basement to take the cookies out. I baked them for about 16 minutes, breathing in an Oreo-like cocoa scent in the kitchen as I whipped up my ganache. A simple mixture of hot cream and chopped chocolate. I used the end of a chocolate bar and another 88% bar, chopping them on my cutting board with a serrated knife. Then, I placed them in a bowl and poured over hot cream. I also added vanilla, salt, and coffee extract. At first it looked split and grainy.
Panicked, I tried to heat it up again. Immediately I realized I needed to cool it down instead. So I added a splash of cold heavy cream, which did the trick. Thank goodness, because I was already running 5 minutes late. When the cookies came out I re-dimpled the insides with my tablespoon and spooned my ganache into each one. I loved the contrast of the reddish-brown ganache with the deep, dark cookie base. And to finish, I sprinkled a little bit of sea salt over the ganache before it set. I covered them with plastic wrap, placed a couple kitchen towels on top, and got in my car by 11:15.
Opening A Cafe
After an hour commute, I arrived at the cafe and had a great day of chatting, meeting new people, and installing my art. It made me feel so gratified to see my paintings in my own space. No more asking restaurant owners to give me a chance and to display my art with no feedback or clue of people’s reactions. I’m so excited to not only cook for people but to meet them, learn about them, and show them my art. The planning is going well. Our first brunch is next weekend. So exciting, nerve-wracking, and hopeful. I’m proud of myself.
When I came home after a long day I encountered a flaming box truck on the road that was near-exploding. I felt like I was in a TV show because it didn’t seem real at first. I saw the plume of smoke from a ways away and the car engulfed in flames quickly after I passed. Truly a weird, scary day under the full moon. I got home and felt grateful to be safe. I celebrated with a chocolate ganache cookie. Perfectly chilled and set after a few hours. I love black cocoa powder because it has an earthy, gritty quality. It reminds me of the homemade Oreos from my favorite bakery in Boston.
A Weird, Hard (Full Moon) Day
The ganache is super rich, dark, and complex. Smooth and fudgy. It was just set with freckles of sea salt on top for flavor. The combination of the chewy, earthy, rich cookie with the smooth, silky ganache was heavenly. Slightly warm from the cocoa, brown butter, and cinnamon. They would be amazing fresh out of the oven. Next time I want to heat them up a little and add rainbow sprinkles to the ganache. I’ve always loved the look of dark cookies with colorful sprinkles. I have chocolate pearls, too, and chocolate sprinkles.
When I was cooking dinner, we got a call that my mom hit a deer on her way home. For the second time in the past 2 years. It was horrifying, but thankfully less severe than before. I was in the car with her back in 2023 after my trip to Italy. I’m so proud of how far she’s come with her mental health – pushing herself to drive in the dark every day after the trauma of our accident. So to have it happen all over again was devastating. The day after her birthday, too. Hopefully my chocolate ganache cookies will comfort her. This week reminded me that life is full of ups and downs, but I’m so grateful for our safety and health.
Political Rant
I’ve also been ruminating on the events happening in Minnesota over the past week. Our government has become so dystopian and authoritarian that people are being murdered in the streets by idiots who were supposedly hired to protect us. Not only that, but people will go as far as to lie and justify murder to play political games. A man shot an innocent man several times in the street. And I hope he feels ashamed. I hope they all do. I know it’s confronting to see political conversations on food blogs when you’re just trying to escape, but compassion shouldn’t be political. I’m scared by the direction our country is heading in.
We can’t continue to watch complacently as our government descends into this awful madness. We have grown far too accustomed to hearing of children gunned down in schools. Civilians murdered by “law enforcement”. 5 year old children being kidnapped and threatened with deportation. The people lucky enough to survive this shit will need decades of therapy that many of them can’t afford. If you can, take the time to bake chocolate ganache cookies or do something creative this weekend if you need a distraction like me. Then, after we feel better, we will continue to fight. It will get better. But it will take time.
Thank you for reading, as always! Be sure to check out my Etsy shop for 100’s of art prints and recipe cards. Use code THEFORKEDRING for 25% off.
Chocolate Ganache Cookies
Ingredients
- 12 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/3 cups AP flour
- 1/3 cup black cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk
- 6 oz dark chocolate
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp coffee extract
Instructions
- Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat and add butter.
- Cook butter until it begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon.
- Let brown butter cool. In the meantime, sift together AP flour, black cocoa powder, 1 tsp kosher salt, baking powder, and baking soda into a large bowl.
- Once brown butter is warm, not hot, add brown sugar and white sugar and mix into a slurry. Then, add your egg and egg yolk and whisk to combine.
- Pour your dry ingredients into the brown butter mixture and fold until combined with a spatula.
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Scoop 8 equal balls onto the baking sheet (two scoops with a melon baller for each cookie).
- Press a tablespoon into the center of each cookie ball to create a well. Place pan in the freezer for 10-15 minutes until firm.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake cookies for 14-16 minutes until firm and re-dimple the centers with the tablespoon when they come out of the oven. Let cool.
- Chop dark chocolate and place in a large heat-proof bowl. Heat heavy cream with 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, and 1/2 tsp coffee extract in a sauce pan until scalding.
- Pour over the chopped chocolate and let stand for 30 seconds. Then, stir into a silky ganache.
- Spoon ganache into each cookie crevice, being careful not to overflow. Top with a touch of sea salt, sprinkles, or fruit zest and let stand until set (30 – 60 minutes).
Notes
- If your cream gets too hot, your chocolate ganache may split. To fix it, add a dash of cold heavy cream and whisk.
- Feel free to use whatever quality chocolate you’d like in your ganache. I recommend 72% dark chocolate.
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