Bake or Break

Pecan Shortbread Brownies

My baking habits and tastes have changed over the years, but longtime favorites still endure. Chocolate, pecans, and shortbread are always winners for me. When I find a recipe that combines all three, how can I not make it? I happened upon the recipe for these brownies when browsing through Fat Witch Brownies. Fat Witch is a delicious little brownie shop in New York's Chelsea Market. When we lived in Manhattan, we lived just a few blocks away and visited the market frequently. We often ate dinner at one of the restaurants there, did a little shopping, and then hit up Fat Witch for our brownie fix. Now that we live in Brooklyn, I don't get to visit Fat Witch as often. But, with their cookbook, I can recreate some of that deliciousness at home. I can't remember seeing these brownies in the shop, but I couldn't resist baking them.

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Mocha Muffins

Quinn has been after me for ages to bake more with chocolate and coffee. The problem, you see, is that I don't like coffee. Love to smell it, don't love to drink it. Does anyone else have this problem? It's no secret that chocolate and coffee are a brilliant pairing. They just seem to enhance each other naturally. Even I have a hard time arguing with that.

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Cream Cheese Brownies with Toffee and Pecans

These days, my brownie love runs the gamut from the all-chocolate varieties to the kitchen-sink varieties. Essentially, I haven't met many brownies I haven't liked. These flavor-packed brownies are no exception. The first question usually asked about brownies is whether they are cakey or fudgy. The original recipe describes them as not too much of either one. To me, they're cakey. That works very well with the cream cheese topping to make them not seem so heavy.

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Weekly Mix: Chocolate Cookies

I bake so many cookies that I like to categorize them further in my head. Chocolate chip, oatmeal, sandwich, peanut butter.... You get the idea. Some of them overlap, and that's just fine. In fact, my favorite chocolate chip cookies have lots of oats in them. But, I digress. Recently, I shared some of my favorite oatmeal cookies with you. Next up is a collection of favorite chocolate cookies. If you're a fan of chocolate in a big way, these are for you.

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Cranberry-Coconut Chocolate Cookies

Baking ideas mostly come from all the places you'd think - a dessert in a restaurant or bakery, an idea about a unique ingredient, a desire to reproduce a favorite childhood flavor. Sometimes, though, I get baking inspiration from some less than obvious places. In the case of these cookies, I was inspired by a snack I had the other day. The snack in question was a lovely combination of chocolate chips, coconut, and dried cranberries. It was surprisingly good. I immediately started thinking about using those flavors to bake something equally as delicious. It was a toss-up between cookies and brownies, but the thought of a dark chocolate cookie swung the vote in the cookie direction.

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Peanut Butter Fudge Tartlets

Because of how much I love the glorious combination of chocolate and peanut butter, I'm always looking for new ways to use them. I've covered cookies, brownies, cheesecakes, and more. But, these little tartlets are pretty special. It all starts with the crust, which is essentially a peanut butter cookie. If you're like me, you're already sold. Then, a fudgy chocolate filling goes into the crust for a magical chocolate-peanut butter experience.

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