Double Chocolate Donuts

Baked Heart Shaped Chocolate Donuts with a Chocolate Glaze and a medley of Valentine’s Day Sprinkles.

I had so much fun making these baked double chocolate donuts. There were little heart sprinkles ALL over my kitchen… but what else is new? Ha. I bought my heart shaped donut pan a few years ago on sale after Valentine’s Day and then left it sitting in my basement for a few years and when I discovered it again earlier this year… thanks to Marie Kondo lol. I knew I that I had to finally use it this Valentine’s Day.

I decided to go with a double chocolate donut because who doesn’t love chocolate? The more chocolate the better in my opinion. As these are baked donuts the texture is more cake-y than your typically fried donut. I decided to keep my glaze thicker - more frosting like, but you can thin it out with extra heavy cream if you prefer a thinner glaze.

I can’t believe I waited so long to make heart shaped donuts. They are super cute and quick to make. I didn’t even have to pull out my KitchenAid Mixer. I mixed these bad boys by hand and piped them into the donut pan. They bake up quickly and look super cute topped with sprinkles!

Double Chocolate Donuts

Makes: 2 Dozen Donuts

Ingredients

For the Donuts

1 ¼  c flour

½ c sugar

¼ c cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

¼ c butter, melted

⅛ c canola oil

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

¾ c milk

For the Frosting

1 c powdered sugar

2+ tbsp heavy cream

2 oz semi sweet chocolate, chopped

2 tbsp butter

Sprinkles

Directions

For the Donuts: Pre-heat oven to 350F. Spray donut pan with cooking oil, set aside. In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, oil, egg, vanilla and milk. Slowly whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Whisk until combined. Transfer the donut batter to a pipping bag. Pipe batter into donut wells. Bake for 6-8 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 3-5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together icing sugar and two tablespoons of heavy cream. In a microwave bowl, in 20 second intervals, melt together chocolate and butter, stirring between each interval. Stir melted chocolate into icing sugar mixture. *For a thinner glaze add additional heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Using an off set spatula frost donuts. If using, add sprinkles immediately.

Red Velvet Cookie Sandwiches

These red velvet cookie sandwiches are soft and chewy and filled with everyone’s favourite cream cheese frosting! These heart shaped cookies are perfect to share - anytime!

I am so excited to share this recipe with you. When I started planning what I wanted to make for Valentine’s Day this year cookie sandwiches immediately came to mind. I knew I wanted my cookies to be heart shaped, so I needed a dough that would hold its shape and since everyone loves cream cheese frosting I knew it would be the perfect filling.

Red Velvet Cake has that hint of cocoa flavour and is incredibly moist. I wanted to make sure that my cookies shared the same characteristics while still holding their shape. The cookies have a true red velvet flavour. They have just enough cocoa powder and the addition of sour cream really helps to bring home that red velvet flavour and texture.

There are a few key things that you can do to keep the cookies from spreading while baking. It all comes down to properly chilling your cookies. Chilling them before you roll them out and before they go into the oven really helps them keep their shape.

The cookies are delicious straight from the oven but they taste even better the next day in my opinion. The cream cheese frosting keeps the cookies nice and soft, and that extra day gives all the flavours a chance to meld together.

Red Velvet Cookie Sandwiches

Makes: 2-3 dozen individual cookies or 1-1.5 dozen sandwich cookies

Ingredients

For the Cookies

1 c butter

1 c sugar

1 tsp vinegar

1 egg

Red Gel Food Colouring

2 c flour

¼ c cocoa powder

½ tsp baking soda

2 tbsp sour cream

For the Frosting

8oz cream cheese, at room temperature

½ c butter, at room temperature

3 c icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-3 tbsp heavy cream (optional)

Directions

For the Cookies: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, on medium speed, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, vinegar and food colouring  to butter mixture. Mix until combined. Sift together flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. On slow speed, add in flour mixture. Finally, mix in sour cream. Mix until just combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in fridge for minimum 1 hour

Preheat oven to 350F. On a lightly floured surface roll out dough to desired thickness. Cut out cookies using desired cookie cutters and transfer to parchment lined baking tray. Chill cut cookies in fridge for 15 minutes before baking. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until cookie edges are light golden brown.  Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

For the Frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer, over medium to high speed, beat together butter and cream cheese until light and creamy. On low speed, mix in icing sugar, one cup at a time, until incorporated. Mix in vanilla. Whip on medium to high speed for 1-2minutes or until light and fluffy. Add heavy cream until desired frosting consistency is reached.

To assemble: Pair up similar sized cookies. Pipe frosting onto cookies and sandwich together. Store cookies in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Breakup Brownies

These break up brownies are perfect for your Galentine's day celebration! A delicious combination of blondie and brownies topped with a eggless cookie dough make these bars hard to resist!

Okay! Let's talk about these breakup brownies!  These breakup brownies were inspired by half-baked ice cream. I was eating a pint of half baked a couple of weeks ago, and I thought how great would this be as baked dessert.  I knew I needed to include brownies and cookie dough into the final product -  I was like how do you make this up and keep the cookie dough unbaked? Obviously I was having a moment.

I wanted to make sure I also represented the vanilla ice cream - so that's where the blondie comes in! I decided to swirl blondie and brownie batters and top the finish product with an eggless cookie dough! Once the recipe was perfected, I was having some troubling coming up with a name. I mean half baked brownie bars just didn't seem to work - I thought it would be a bit confusing. As a joke I started calling them breakup brownies. I mean who doesn't want brownies and cookie dough when they are going through a breakup?

Breakup Brownies

Ingredients

For the blondie

⅓ c butter, melted

1 c sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

½ c flour

For the brownie

⅓ c butter, melted

½ c sugar

½ c brown sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

¼ c cocoa powder

¼ c flour

For the cookie dough

½ c butter, softened

½ c brown sugar

½ c sugar  

½  c flour

1 tbsp heavy cream

1/4c mini chocolate chips

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease a 8x8 inch baking tin with butter and dust with flour. Set aside.

For the blondies: In a large bowl, whisk together butter and sugar until combined. Whisk in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time whisking well after each addition. Add flour and salt to the wet ingredients. Whisk until just combined. Transfer batter to prepared pan, using an offset spatula evenly spread batter in pan.

For the brownies: In a large bowl, whisk together butter, sugar and brown sugar until combined. Whisk in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time whisking well after each addition. Add cocoa powder, flour and salt to the wet ingredients. Whisk until just combined. Transfer batter to prepared pan, using a butter knife marble brownie batter with the blondie batter.

Bake for 28-35 minutes. Top will be shiny and edges should be set. Allow brownies to cool in the pan.

For the cookie dough:
Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla extract and heavy cream. Beat in flour until just combined. Stir in mini chocolate chips.

Once the brownies have cooled completely, evenly spread the cookie dough on top. Cut brownies into squares. Enjoy!