Mocha Thumbprint Cookie Recipe

Baby Aria is very similar to my husband Lulu when it comes to her favorite foods. She loves vegetables and she adores sweets. Today I experimented with a batch of cookies I usually make when we have guests over for tea: thumbprint cookies. They're so pretty, especially with the crackle effect on the shortbread cookie dough and the whimsical design in the center indentation that almost resembles a crazy eye.

I flavored the cookie dough with cocoa powder and mocha paste. I filled them with vanilla chips and a drizzle of bittersweet chocolate, which came out just as great. Have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to sharing recipes next week in anticipation of Cinco de Mayo!

Sweet Treats for Valentine's Day: Chocolate Puffs

Just like last year, this year my Valentine is out of town for work. I dropped him at the airport on Monday morning, and even though we'll have to wait until the weekend to celebrate, I prepared a special sweet treat  for my husband Lulu that he can enjoy during his business trip. I packed a bag of these chocolate puffs in his suitcase, and once he landed, I sent him a message to tell him his favorite chocolate treats were waiting for him.

The secret to making these soft, fluffy French cookies is to use finely ground steel cut oats, which was provided by Bob's Red Mill. I met their reps during the Fancy Food Show at their booth in San Francisco. The dough is flavored with cocoa powder and I added chocolate chips to reinforce the chocolate flavor.

Give this sweet treat to your sweetheart; I guarantee it will be a hit!

Chocolate Bat Cookies (Halloween Breakfast Recipe)

Halloween is a few days away and I've been preparing little sweet treats in anticipation of the event. For breakfast, I baked bat-shaped chocolate wafers that I paired with sweetened yogurt and fresh figs from our garden. The result is divine; the crunch from the cookies balances out the smooth texture of the yogurt, and chocolate and figs work beautifully together.

I'm going to be baking a lot more scary-looking pastries until Halloween, including my witch's fingers, funny-looking sunny side up eggs and ghost-shaped pancakes. If you have other suggestions, feel free to send me a message!

Double Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

If you love chocolate and hazelnuts, you're going to love these cookies I just created. Sunny, my husband's oldest sister (she's 16 now), promised her girlfriends she would bring some sweet treats to share with them at school, so I helped her out by making these decadent French-inspired cookies. 

Nutella serves as the base of the cookies, to which I added a layer of homemade hazelnut cream (frangipane-style) and a smattering of mini-chocolate chips. 

The cookies come out of the oven chewy, soft and sweet. And of course, irresistible! 

Our friends over at Nuts About Granola are featuring my Hawaiian-inspired granola bars on the new packaging of their Granola Basics and at the same time are giving away 3 copies of my upcoming book, Haute Potato, to their readers. Leave a comment at the bottom of Nuts About Granola Blog post and you might be one of the lucky winners!

Chocolate Raspberry Cookie Recipe (Heart-Shaped Cookies)

Yesterday, my husband's sister Lya (she's a high-schooler now) told me she was secretly in love with a boy when she was in fifth grade. For Valentine's Day, she was too shy to say anything so she gave him heart-shaped chocolate cookies and a sock monkey anonymously. The guy never knew it was from her. Now that she goes to an all-girl school, I told her we should find the boy and give him the same Valentine presents. She said: "No way!", plus she's totally moved on from her first school crush. Ahh kids!

Of course, we still baked the cookies. I made a few changes by flavoring the chocolate cookie dough with raspberry extract and covered the top with raspberry chocolate. I used Hershey's raspberry kisses, which are available in stores this Valentine season.