Oh, God.

I love cookies, almost all of them. (Well, not those ones with candied fruit in the middle.) But I’ve never liked peanut butter cookies — they’re always dry and kind of pointless, in my experience.

But these are fantastic. (Thank you once again, Dorie.)

I made two batches, one straight and one with the chocolate variant. The only thing I changed is that I didn’t add chopped peanuts to either batch, although I did use chunky peanut butter.

I figured I’d like the chocolate ones, but not the regular. Boy, was I wrong. I ate the batter, like I always do — even when I don’t like a particular cookie recipe, I nearly always like the batter. And this batter is great: soft and light and very flavorful.

But then the first batch came out of the oven, and I tried one, just because.

It was a revelation: by far the best peanut butter cookie I’ve ever had. I ate several. And then several more.

And then I made a second batch, adding cocoa and chopped dark chocolate.

Perfect. Sublime. Stupendous.

The two kinds are great individually, and even better together:

And then, last night, I made an ice cream sandwich with two of the chocolate cookies and vanilla ice cream. Seriously, try this. There was coffee ice cream too, but I was a good girl. Next time, though …

So there you have it. I have nothing else to say. Both of these have skyrocketed up the list of my favorite cookies, debuting somewhere in the top ten.

Thank you, Dorie. Thank you for giving me back peanut butter cookies.

And thank you Jasmine of Jasmine Cuisine for choosing these for us to make this week; I’d never have tried them on my own.

Check out the other Tuesdays With Dorie bakers to see what they did with these cookies, and then buy the book (Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan) or visit Jasmine Cuisine for the recipe and make them yourself.

You won’t be sorry.

I don’t know why I wasn’t terribly fond of these: I love coffee, chocolate, and shortbread. The combination should have been fantastic.

To be fair, I made them for my older son’s going-away party, and they had some competition. I also made Dorie’s World Peace cookies (with a combo of chocolate chips and mint chips — they were beyond delicious), Ben made some of Emeril’s amazing Hazelnutty Nuggets, and we had a pound cake from Stock’s (which I have been assured by someone who ought to know is the best in Philadelphia) with homemade chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

But still, the shortbread just didn’t do it for me. I was very careful not to overbeat, but they were still a bit grainy, and the coffee flavor overpowered the chocolate and butter.

But hey, other TWD bakers may have had more luck with these than I did. Thanks to Donna of Life’s Too Short Not to Eat Dessert First for choosing these cookies, and I’ll see you next week!

Homemade ice cream equals happiness, pure and simple.

It’s like anything else, I guess — making something at home that most people think can come only from a store is incredibly satisfying. But ice cream is so simple, and so quick to transform itself into heaven, that it has a special place in my heart.

So when I saw a few weeks ago that Katrina of Baking and Boys had chosen this recipe, I put it on my must-make list, which is considerably shorter now than it used to be.

And then I forgot about it.

So when I remembered at 3:30 on Friday afternoon — knowing that we’d be out Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and therefore not be able to have the ice cream then — I sprang into action. No cream; very little half-and-half. Too damned lazy to go to the store.

Wait! What’s this? Coconut milk!

Who says I’m not brilliant?

So, I made the chocolate ganache ice cream with 14 ounces of coconut milk — light coconut milk, even, because Trader Joe’s doesn’t sell the regular stuff — and 6 ounces of half-and-half. I used TJ’s dark chocolate despite my usual inclination to substitute milk, because Dorie said I should. (She was right. She’s almost always right.)

Generally when I make ice cream (which used to be a lot more frequently, of course), I make Philadelphia style: cream, sugar, something yummy; no eggs. But occasionally I’ll make a David Lebovitz blow-out; if you want to make ice cream at home, you must get his Perfect Scoop.

This recipe calls for egg yolks, but only four. Using yolks certainly makes for a creamier custard, but we’re generally happy without them. They sure were good this time, though.

Just like the last time Tuesdays With Dorie made ice cream, this stuff is marvelous. Dorie sure knows her way around an ice cream maker. What took this ice cream (can I call it ice cream if I used mostly coconut milk?) over the top is the ganache: The chocolate is chopped and melted in hot cream, and then the custard is added. Oh, yes.

Because I used coconut milk, the obvious topping was toasted coconut. Alex added cinnamon and peanuts too, and I think next time I’ll chop some macadamias and toss them in while it’s churning. Yum.

I don’t like chocolate ice cream as a rule. I don’t like chocolate cake, either; I prefer my chocolate straight. But I loved this ice cream: It’s dark and rich and creamy and amazing. Trust me. And trust my family:

Tim [the guy who gave up carbs]: I have not enjoyed ice cream this much in seven months. It was like letting a chocolate half-and-half cloud melt on my tongue.

Alex [the guy who cut way down on carbs]: I don’t like chocolate and I don’t like ice cream, but this is really good. It’s especially good with cinnamon and peanuts.

Ben [the guy who eats anything and everything]: It was good with the mix-ins, but plain I think the coconut milk overpowered the chocolate.

So give it a shot — it’s totally worth your time. You can find the recipe in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or at Baking and Boys. And a plain-jane recipe like this will inspire all kinds of variations from the other Tuesdays With Dorie bakers, so check them out too.

Oh, yum.

That’s pretty much my post for this week’s installment of Tuesdays With Dorie. It really encapsulates my feelings about these little nuggets of joy, and the feelings of everyone I shared them with.

So thanks for stopping by.

Oh, OK — I’ll be more specific. I made these a couple of summers ago, shortly after I got Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours. I took them to an outdoor concert (the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Music Center; coincidentally enough, I was just there again last night, which is why this post is late), where they provided a marvelous dessert for our al fresco dinner.

And then I never made them again for some inexplicable reason.

So when I saw them in the rotation for July (thanks to Nicole of Cookies on Friday for choosing them!), I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, despite the fact that we just don’t eat things like this (marvelous, delicious, life-affirming things) anymore.

For those who don’t know, my husband has pretty much dumped carbs. This has made my life (at least the baking/eating part of it) sad and empty, although that’s balanced by the fact that he has lost a ton of weight, has way more energy, and feels great. But cookies!

But a bunch of people from my high school class were getting together in a park for a picnic, and the timing was just superb. I made a double batch of Chewy, Chunky Blondies.

I used chocolate chips and toffee chips and toasted pecans and coconut. Oh.

And for some reason, they didn’t all get eaten. And so I brought them home. And so we ate them. And they were good. (I had intended to save the leftovers for Alex’s going-away party next month, but, um, no.)

Tim fell off of his otherwise-rigorous eating regimen (he really is good; I have no idea how he manages to be as disciplined as he is). He popped about eight of them over two sessions (the day I made them and the day of the picnic). I ate way, way more than I had intended to. Ben — well, Ben would have eaten hundreds of them whether they were good or not. And Alex, finding fault as always, prefers his blondies without chocolate.

I’m sure there will be many awesome variations among the TWD bakers; go check them out. And if you want to try them yourself (and you really, really should), Nicole has the recipe for you.

Enjoy!

This week, Karen of Welcome to Our Crazy Blessed Life did so. Thank you, Karen.

(I went with Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars. They were delicious.)

So even though I almost never bake anymore, and 75 percent of my family is trying to lose weight, I had to make these brownies. And I’m glad I did.

I love York Peppermint Patties. I love brownies. Really, how can you go wrong combining them?

So my plan was to serve one of these per person as dessert, wrap up a few for a friend whose birthday is Wednesday, and freeze the rest for a picnic I’m going to on Saturday.

Um, no.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The batter came together easily; I really prefer recipes that involve melting the butter and chocolate together, rather than ones that require me to remember to take the butter out hours ahead of time to soften. Score 1 for Dorie.

I managed to chop the Peppermint Patties up into varying sizes without eating any. Yay me.

I baked them; I cooled them; I peeled off the foil. All uneventful.

And then I trimmed a tiny bit off the edge, just to taste.

By the time I was finished trimming more tiny bits off the edge, the brownies were a third gone. By the time my family got through with them, I managed to salvage four for my friend and wrapped the remaining two — two! — up for the boys to eat today.

My God, these were marvelous. Make them now.

If you want to read what the other TWD bakers did with these, check out the blogroll. And right now, go visit Welcome to Our Crazy Blessed Life, where Karen will provide you with the recipe.

And then I forgot.

But I made it on Tuesday, and it’s Tuesdays With Dorie, right? It’s still Tuesday. (Even if just barely.)

Because I forgot, I didn’t have any whole milk. Or cream. So I made this with one cup of half-and-half and two cups of skim milk. (I know, I know — all of you ice cream purists are screaming. I’m sorry.)

Even with so little fat, the mix was good. Really good. I could pretty happily have drunk it all.

And then I froze it, and it got better. Wow. If you haven’t made this ice cream, do it now, with whatever combination of dairy products you can come up with. We actually think we like it better with the lower fat content: It was lighter and more appropriate for a hot day like today.

The lower fat content made it softer than it might otherwise have been, and it melted fast. But we didn’t care. It was good.

And back by popular demand, family opinions!

Tim: I really liked the subtle caramel flavor, and it was perfect eating texture right out of the freezer — semisoft rather than hard. Overall, though, I thought it was a little too sweet.

Alex: I thought it was overly sweet, but enjoyed the delicate flavor. I’d eat it again if the sugar was cut somehow.

Ben: At first I thought it was too sweet. Then I decided it was really good.

And Ben, my brilliant second-born, fixed the too-sweet problem: pretzels! He suggested breaking up some pretzel rods and mixing them in, and that indeed made this absolutely perfect — one of the best ice creams I’ve ever had. Yay Ben!

Thanks to Becky of Project Domestication for choosing this recipe for us this week. Go there; get the recipe; make the ice cream. Thank you, Becky. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

And now, a very special guest blogger!

Hi, I’m Ben. This week, I made the Chockablock Cookies, and everyone who tried them (except my mom) liked them. I didn’t have many takers because a lot of people don’t like molasses, but those who do liked them. We didn’t have any coconut or regular molasses, so I left the coconut out, and I used 1/4 cup light corn syrup and 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses.

Comments on the dough:

Alex: It was good, more molasses-y than the baked cookies.
Mom: Too molasses-y.

Comments on the cookies:

Alex: They were good but essentially identical to the other four or five cookies full of nuts and dried fruit that are in the book.
Mom: I was really surprised to like them as much as I did, because I don’t like raisins  and molasses.

Me again. Ben made the cookies to take to his first ever gathering of local homeschooled teens. Today is his birthday — my baby is 13 today.

Lots of other bloggers made these too, and you can no doubt find much more detailed descriptions and tons of creative variations at their blogs, so check them out. Bye!

I’m back to Tuesdays With Dorie. I can’t live without some carbs in my life (although I’ll have to pass on next week’s delicious-sounding choice, because this week is Passover and it didn’t occur to me to bake ahead), and I really miss being forced to write every week.

But we didn’t need a whole bundt cake.

So, herewith, my coconut tea muffins!

I cut the recipe in half, which yielded 24 mini muffins. I left the amount of coconut the same, though, because I love coconut. I really, really love coconut.

I toasted the first three-quarters of a cup of sweetened shredded coconut, because toasted coconut is one of the joys of my life. But when it came time to add the coconut to the cake batter, I decided I didn’t want the crunchy texture in the muffins, so I went with the stuff straight from the bag. (Which, tragically, left me with three-quarters of a cup of toasted coconut. Woe is me!)

Everything else was pretty straightforward: no difficult techniques or unusual ingredients. I baked the muffins for about 25 minutes, but my oven temperature is completely random, so your mileage may vary.

And the adorable little muffins were delicious: moist, not too sweet, and perfect with coffee. I put one chocolate-covered espresso bean each in the bottom of four of them, and in retrospect I wish I’d added the beans to more. I wasn’t sure how’d they’d take the heat, but they were magnificent. Highly recommended.

Oh, and you know what else is good? These muffins, drenched in still-warm homemade chocolate syrup. Life is very, very good sometimes.

I even got artistic for a change:

As I said, this was meant to be a bundt cake. Check out the pretty ones to be found on the other TWD bakers‘ websites, and if you want to give it a shot yourself, buy Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or visit Carmen Cooks, where Carmen will helpfully provide the recipe for you. See you next week, with my special Passover not-cake recipe!

I know, I know. And I’m sorry. There’s been no baking here for weeks. Heck, there’s been almost no eating here for weeks. It’s tragic. And yet, I have lost 12 pounds since the beginning of the year, and Tim has lost 40. It’s hard to argue with results like that.

But I made these cookies a couple of months ago, and they conveniently showed up in the rotation this week. (Thank you, Jodie, of Beansy Loves Cake!) They are yummy: soft and chewy, and oh so sweet. (Maybe a little too sweet, but who’s counting?)

I must confess: I used dulce de leche out of a can. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done it. I’ve made it before, and it’s easy enough. But I decided to make these cookies on the spur of the moment, and I had dulce de leche; more important, I didn’t have condensed milk. So there you are.

Everyone liked these, even Tim, who was officially off carbs at the time. He did suggest just now that they’d be amazing dipped in coffee, and I believe he is correct. I am fighting the urge to make more to test that theory.

I don’t have much else to say: delicious, sweet, soft sandwich cookies. Give them a shot. (Jodie will have the recipe at Beansy Loves Cake.) And read about other bakers’ more recent experiences with them by visiting the other Tuesdays With Dorie blogs. Enjoy!

I was pretty excited about this bread: Chocolate is almost always good (as long as it’s not cheesecake!), and I can live with bananas in bread. I actually have a pretty amazing banana bread/cake recipe from the inestimable David Lebovitz, which is healthy enough when made with whole-wheat flour and walnuts that I don’t feel guilty serving it for breakfast. But I tried Dorie’s Classic Banana Bundt Cake last summer, because I try to be open-minded (especially when it comes to baking). And I tried this.

The batter was good, really good. I ate a lot of it.

But I wound up baking this for 90 minutes before the center was even vaguely done, and that dried out the edges too much. I don’t know if it’s my oven or just me, but sometimes the suggested baking times are spot on, and sometimes they’re mere fantasy.

I made this bread to take along on our annual New’s Year’s visit to friends in Virginia. We had it for breakfast on New Year’s Day, and the three-year-old daughter of the house, who had been champing at the bit to get a piece, pronounced it “not very tasty.”

Other people liked it a little more, but no one was really impressed with it. The edges were dry and the interior was very moist, even dense. The cocoa flavor was very strong, and even the dark chocolate lovers thought it was too much. At the same time, there wasn’t a whole lot of flavor, odd as that seems.

Go see if the other TWD bakers had more luck with this, and if you want to try it yourself, buy the book (Baking: From My Home to Yours) or visit Steph of Obsessed with Baking.