Week four of Top Cook was a spin off of classic carrot cake. These cookies make a very satisfying dessert and really what could be better then cake in a cookie form. This sweet treat can be easily converted to a different flavor by substituting zucchini, sweet potato, or even pumpkin. A little trivia about carrots is that they have been used in sweet cakes since the medieval period, during which time sweeteners were scarce and expensive. Carrots, which contain more sugar than any other vegetable besides the sugar beet, were much easier to come by and were used to make desserts. Carrots give any dessert wonderful color and a sweet crisp flavor. Enjoy!

Read on for Recipe

Try This Baking Tip At Home: When using a baking recipe you have never used before at altitude, be sure to cut down your leavener by about ¼. (i.e. if a recipe calls for a 1 tsp of baking soda, use ¾ of a tsp to start.) Always do a test batch first, and make any other adjustments from there!

Inside-Out Carrot Cake Cookies

Makes about 1 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

For Cookies:
1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 large egg
½ tsp vanilla
1 cup coarsely grated carrots (2 medium)
1 scant cup walnuts (3 oz), chopped
½ cup raisins (2½ oz)

For Filling:
8 oz cream cheese
¼ cup honey

Method:

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease 2 baking sheets and set aside.
Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.
Cream together butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed with paddle attachment until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Mix carrots, nuts, and raisins into electric mixer at low speed and then slowly add flour mixture and continue to mix until just combined.
Drop 1½ tablespoons batter per cookie 2 inches apart on baking sheets and bake until cookies are lightly browned and springy to the touch, about 12 to 16 minutes.
Cool cookies 1 minute, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.
While cookies are cooling, blend cream cheese and honey in a mixer until smooth and creamy.
When cookies are cool, sandwich flat sides of cookies together with a generous tablespoon of cream cheese filling in between.

The snow last week didn’t stop people from stopping by CSR and tasting the top cookie of the week – the Oh Henry Holiday Cookie. Oh Henry bars are a takeoff of the Oh Henry Candy bar. Made with chocolate, oats and peanut butter these treats will please the smallest children to the pickiest adults. Serve them at your next holiday party and they will be one the easiest delights you’ve ever prepared and a real crowd-pleaser. Our entire Home Cook office staff (Sarah, Carrie & Sharon) love these treats. They are not only peanut buttery and delicious, but wheat-free as well!

Read on for recipe

Oh Henry! is best known as a candy bar containing peanuts, caramel and fudge, coated in chocolate. It was first introduced in 1920, by the Curtiss Candy Company of Chicago, Illinois. According to legend, Oh Henry! was originally named after a boy who frequented the Williamson company, flirting with the girls who made the candy.

Try This Baking Tip At Home: Store leftover cookie dough in logs in the freezer. If guest come over unexpectedly, cut dough into slices and bake for super-quick of holiday cookies.

Oh Henry Holiday Cookie Recipe
Makes about a dozen

Ingredients:

For Bars:
2/3 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
4 cups rolled oats
½ cup corn syrup
2 tsp vanilla

For Topping:
1 cup chocolate bits
2/3 cup chunky peanut butter

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar in electric mixer until mixture is light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add oats, corn syrup and vanilla just to combine to make batter.
Press batter firmly into ungreased 9×13 inch pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Let dough cool in pan.
Mix chocolate bits and peanut butter in electric mixer to combine for topping and spread over cool dough. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
Cut into squares before serving.

We hope that you are enjoying our top cookie count down as much us! The Whoopie Pie’s flew off the platters and we are very excited about week two of Top Cookie. Our Office Manager, Sarah, has been working hard to make and create our Top Cookies and is excited to share them with you. This Vanilla Bean Shortbread recipe, a delicious dough you can keep in your freezer for instant, freshly-baked cookies, is one of her personal favorites. Prepare your taste buds for this week’s top cookie – Oh Henry’s Holiday Cookie. Taste just like the candy bar!

Read on for Vanilla Bean Shortbread Cookies

Recipe: Vanilla Bean Shortbread Cookies

Makes 2 Dozen

Ingredients:

1½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
Interior scrapings of ½ split vanilla bean, preferably Tahitian
3¾ cups all-purpose flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In the bowl of a mixer, combine butter, sugar and salt and cream on medium speed until blended, about 2 minutes. One by one, add the egg yolks, mixing until incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and the scrapings of the vanilla bean. Scrape down the bowl.
3. Turn the mixer off and add the flour. Turn the machine to low and mix until the flour is completely incorporated. Remove the dough from the bowl. Working on parchment or wax paper, form dough into 4 logs 10 inches long and 1¼ inches in diameter; wrap and chill. Cut log into ½ inch thick slices and place on greased sheetpan. Bake cookies until they are just barely golden, and are able to slide away from sheetpan. Let the cookies cool on the sheet pan and transfer to serving dish when you are ready to eat!

Our Office Manager, Sarah, is very excited about our inaugural Top Cookie of the Week. To make preparation of whoopie pies a little less stressful during the holidays, Sarah makes the cakes ahead of time and freezes them. When she wants to make them for guests, she pulls them out to defrost and makes the marshmallow filling — and voila, ready to serve! Read on for recipe.

Native to New England, Whoopie pies are made traditionally with marshmallow fluff sandwiched by two cake like chocolate cookies. Whoopie pies were originated by the Amish and are called whoopie pies because when children used to get them in their lunches they would all scream, “Whoopie!”

Makes 8

Ingredients:

For cakes
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1&¼; teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg

For filling
1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened
1¼ cups confectioners sugar
2 cups marshmallow cream such as Marshmallow Fluff
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:

Make cakes:

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl until combined. Stir together buttermilk and vanilla in a small bowl.
Beat together butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a handheld, then add egg, beating until combined well. Reduce speed to low and alternately mix in flour mixture and buttermilk in batches, beginning and ending with flour, scraping down side of bowl occasionally, and mixing until smooth.
Spoon ¼-cup mounds of batter about 2 inches apart onto 2 buttered large baking sheets. Bake in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until tops are puffed and cakes spring back when touched, 11 to 13 minutes. Transfer with a metal spatula to a rack to cool completely.

Make filling:

Beat together butter, confectioners sugar, marshmallow, and vanilla in a bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Assemble pies:

Spread a rounded tablespoon filling on flat sides of half of cakes and top with remaining cakes.

Stop by our office on Thursdays & Fridays (9 am - 5 pm) to grab recipes and taste samples of our Top Cookie of the Week.

It’s been a couple of months now and the gluten-free lifestyle has almost sunk in. It is hard, and a struggle sometimes but I am learning how to “just say no” to the wheat. Whenever I say no to something delicious, whether it be a slice of pizza, a sandwich, or my weakness, bagels, I have go home right away and try and make a version of them I can eat. This week my mouth watered as I looked through my recipe box for a good brownie recipe. I promised my brother I would make him a batch and send them to him at college. Instead of making just one batch for him, I made another batch gluten-free for me! Last night, for one of the first times ever my first attempt at the gluten-free brownie came out needing no tweaks. It was perfect just the way it was, what a surprise! Since it was so yummy, extra fudgy, moist and buttery, I would like to share it with you:

Gluten-Free Ooey Gooey Fudge Brownies
2 eggs
¾ cup sugar
½ cup butter (I stick), melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ extra-dark sweetened cocoa powder, plus one ½ tsp Black Onyx Cocoa powder if you have it
2/3 cup gluten-free flour blend, I used equal parts Sorghum flour, brown rice flour and white rice flour
¼ tsp plus one dash baking powder
½ cup walnut nuts, not toasted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9×9 baking dish and set aside.

By hand, mix the eggs and sugar with a fork in large bowl. Melt the butter and add it to the eggs and sugar slowly, being careful not to scramble the eggs with the warm butter. Add in the vanilla.

In another medium sized bowl, blend cocoa powders, flour blend and baking powder. Do not sift! Fold the dry ingredients into the wet in 2-3 passes. Fold in nuts and scrape batter out into greased baking dish.

Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean in center of brownies. Let cool and enjoy. They are the best when they are still warm.

By Sarah Blecher

I love to bake. I am a pastry chef. I should love to bake. I love gluten. It makes everything so beautiful and tasty and doughy and crunchy… One problem, I can’t eat the gluten anymore! I was recently diagnosed with Celiac’s Disease and in major need of some baking help. After a few weeks of wallowing in post-traumatic gluten sadness, I decided I could make some yummy food that I could eat. I was asked to cater a party and while I was making all of the food for the next day, I though to myself, “Hey, Sarah, you can do this…you can make it taste good!” So in the midst of baking quiche and calzones for the party, I took a break and tried to make myself some muffins. I started out by studying my ultimate favorite muffin recipe. I studied it in a way I never have before, rather than just reading it and following it, I thought about all the proportions I learned in culinary school, how they relate to each other, and how this muffin would be able to stay together without the gluten. After a few hours and a few failed attempts at a simple muffin recipe, I resorted to something I almost never do. I used a bag of premade gluten-free bread mix I picked up at the store while I was having a meltdown about thinking I may never be able to eat sandwiches again. The mix is a blend of lots of different non-glutenous flours. It’s called Pamela’s Bread Mix and you can buy it Whole Foods. Anyway, I changed my recipe to include a bit more butter, an extra egg, some extra spices, and substituted this magical flour mix, almost at equal parts for regular All Purpose flour. Being the neurotic pastry chef that I am, I was a little skeptical about these muffins tasting good. I started to scoop the batter out of my kitchen aid into my muffin tin when some of the batter dripped onto my hand. I thought, “Maybe I should give this a taste…you never know;” I licked the brown batter off of my fingers like a little kid and was pleasantly surprised. The batter was really delicious! I put the muffins into the oven and could not be patient enough for them to finish baking. As soon as I pulled them out I ripped a hunk of muffin out of the tin and nearly burned my mouth off, but realized being gluten-free is not the end of the world! Food can taste good! These muffins were the best I’ve tried of any gluten-free product so far. For the first time in a while I was really proud of myself. For anyone that has allergies out there, don’t give up, you can make anything!

By Sarah Blecher

This month’s issue of Women’s Magazine features an article about Joan Brett, owner and director of CSR. The article, Success is When Reality Meets Vision, is by Christine Kortals, was posted Friday, September 26, 2008.

Christine interviewed Joan, and highlights how Joan defines success. “Thousands have been transformed by their increased cooking knowledge,” Joan says about CSR. Speaking personally, as both a Pastry Arts Program graduate and a staff member at Culinary School of the Rockies, I am pleased that the school has lead me to so much success in my own life. I will always have so much respect and fondness for Joan because of what this school has given me. CSR is truly a vision of success, and a wonderful school that motivates people to do what they love. Read full article.

There are a few spaces left for CSR’s first-ever Harvest Dinner – where our Culinary Arts Students will be serving up a feast made entirely of local food paired with local wines. Sit outdoors amidst the beautiful Pastures of Plenty Farm while enjoying cuisine prepared by the Culinary Arts students while celebrating the culmination of their Farm-to-Table Externship.

Meet local farmers and chefs and take pleasure in enjoying all local fare and wine. Save the date on your calendar, Thursday, October, 9th. Come for cocktails at 4pm. Dinner will be served at 6pm. Seats are limited, so reserve your spot today! Only $75 per person. Register Today!

Get them while they’re fresh – our new locally purchased and printed t-shirts (thanks Onno and Swan Ink). CSR is committed to supporting local producers and farmers. At the school we are dedicated to purchasing 20% of our products from local sources. With that in mind we’ve created a new, cool shirt created through collaboration with local companies. There’s nothing else we’d rather wear while showing our support for all things ‘local’. You can purchase these fresh, 100% organic cotton t-shirts from the Culinary School of the Rockies for only $24. Show your pride for local Boulder products by being a part of the new CSR generation. Buy a shirt and wear it often!