Super Bowl Coffee Whoopie Pies

For last year's Super Bowl, I may have gone slightly overboard by making a dish for each team (see Denver's Double Cheddar Beer Bread and Seattle's White Mocha Caramel Frappuccino Cupcakes), so this year I decided to consolidate my baking into one mega-cookie encompassing both teams with the New England staple whoopie pie featuring a coffee cream cheese filling in honor of the land of Starbucks.

Coffee Whoopie Pies
Adapted from this post, Mrs. Fields, and Food Network
Time: 60 minutes (plus cooling)
Servings: 6 giant whoopie pies

Properly mixed batter

Cookies
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground espresso
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup salted butter, softened
3 large eggs, room temp
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Sugar and butter made better with caffeine!

Filling
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
2 cups powdered sugar
3-5 tbsp freshly brewed espresso (I used Cafe Bustelo)

1. Preheat the oven to 300 F.
2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, ground espresso, and cocoa powder together in a large bowl. Set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugars together in a stand mixer until they form a grainy paste.
4. Mix in the vanilla and one egg at a time until fully incorporated. 
5. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture in several batches. Be careful not to overmix.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips.
7. Scoop ~ an ice cream scoop's worth of batter onto a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking sheet. This is key to get the right cookie height and texture.
8. Bake for 18-22 minutes, rotating once halfway through. When the edges start to firm up, they are done.
9. Let cool on the baking sheets for an additional 3 minutes. Then transfer to wire racks to finish.
10. Make the filling by creaming the butter, salt and cream cheese together until smooth using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment. Make sure the cream cheese and butter are near room temp or you'll get nasty lumps.
11. Mix in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. 2 cups gives a good level of sweetness that isn't overwhelming, but feel free to adjust.
12. Add in the brewed espresso 1 tbsp at a time until you reach the desired level of amazing coffee flavor. 
13. Once the cookies have cooled, assemble the whoopie pies by scooping frosting in between two giant cookies.
14. Let cool in the fridge until ready to serve (at least 1 hour).

They already look so perfect and they're not even sandwiched around frosting yet!

Whoopie pies may just be my favorite dessert, and this was the closest I have come to recreating the SusieCakes awesomeness that introduced me to them. Using a silicone baking sheet produced the best cookie quality yet, as the cookies spread less and maintained their jaw-unhinging height better than ever before (it's also important not to overmix or you'll get a batter that's far too thin). The coffee flavor did not really come through in the cookie (thanks to all the awesome chocolate), but the frosting more than made up for it, as the coffee alterations led to the best whoopie pie filling I have made yet.

This juggernaut of a cookie sandwich casts a large shadow over all other baked goods

Now enjoy a special addendum on an alternate version of the cookie that I made during one of my Robin Night Shift care packages.

The Radioactive Cherry Almond Cookie Option

I was worried they were going to jump up and attack me.

Additional Ingredients (cookie only)

Maraschino cherries, drained and cut in half

Almond slivers

Switch in dark chocolate cocoa powder 

This cookie previously appeared in the toxic waste scene at the end of Robocop.

1. Go to the store hoping to get fresh cherries for some amazing cookies. Realize it's winter, and there are no fresh cherries available, so settle for super sweet, bright red maraschino cherries.
2. Follow the above recipe for making the cookies but substitute in the dark chocolate cocoa powder, and stir in the cherries and almonds at the end.
3. Be amazed that something that looks like a melting alien can taste so good!

Success! One of them looked normal and edible!

Despite their odd, radioactive appearance, these cookies were actually pretty tasty. I was hoping to recreate the amazingness of these Dark Chocolate Cherry Almond Muffins in unhealthier seeming cookie form, and for the most part I succeeded. This definitely will require some revisiting with fresh cherries at a later day to achieve maximum cookie excellence.

Arroz con Pollo

Growing up in a New Orleans/Cuban household had its food related perks. While a good home-cooked meal tended to skew toward the Cajun side of our heritage, there were two mouthwatering Cuban dishes that my mom specialized in- the cardiologist's worst nightmare fried steak known as milanesa and the simple yet oh so soul enrichingly delightful arroz con pollo. Now that I had wet my toes in the Cuban cooking water, it was time to tackle one of my mom's heavy hitters.

Would my arroz con pollo make my ancestors proud, or would I be cut out from my future inheritance?

Arroz con Pollo
Adapted from discussions with my Mom and The Cuban Table by A. Pelaez and E. Silverman
Servings: 8-10
Time: 2 hours

3 lbs chicken (I used breasts and thighs)
Lime juice
Salt 

Pretty much the base for all Cuban dishes and for good reason

Pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped and drained pimentos + more for garnish
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp saffron
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Red chilli flakes to taste
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup white wine
6 oz beer
1/2 lb asparagus, chopped
3 cups water
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 16 oz package short grain Spanish Saffron Rice
1 cup sweet peas

1. Miss your Cuban mom's home-cooking.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large oven-safe pot until hot but not smoking.
3. Brown the chicken in the oil for ~6-8 minutes per side. Set aside on a plate lined with paper towels.
4. Sauté the onion, bell pepper, and garlic in the oil until the onion becomes soft and translucent (~ 6 minutes).
5. Stir in the crushed tomato, pimentos, cumin, oregano, nutmeg, cayenne, saffron, red chilli flakes, and bay leaves. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
6. Return the chicken to the pot along with the wine and beer. Let simmer for 5 more minutes.
7. Add the asparagus, water, and bouillon cubes. Adjust seasonings (it's okay to be a little salty now because the rice will help). Bring to a boil.
8. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
9. Add the Spanish Saffron Rice and let boil over high heat uncovered for 20-25 minutes until the rice has absorbed a good amount of the liquid.
10. Mix in the peas, cover, and let cook in the oven for an additional 20 minutes.
11. Serve with additional pimentos for garnish.
12. Take in all the love.

I would like to thank my stomach for being too small to physically allow me to eat the entire pot in one sitting.

Each bite transported me back to my mom's table, and would have made her even more gushingly proud than she usually is. Sure the dish sounds simple (it's chicken and rice after all), but the flavors are anything but. The result was essentially a risotto/stew hybrid combining both juiciness and heartiness, while the chicken was perfectly moist and fall-apart tender. The rice and chicken absorbed all the wine, beer, saffron, and broth goodness to hammer home that Cuban soul, while the cayenne instilled some Cajun spirit and spice. There isn't a single thing about this dish that I would have changed because it hit each and every note (and heart string) exactly as I had hoped.

Sriracha Cookies aka The Hot Robin

Sometimes you get an idea that's just crazy enough to work. Fortunately, I had plenty of crazy to turn into culinary thoughts thanks to spending far too much time surrounded by only animals during the current job hunt. I had previously made the already insane Robin cookies (they're curry, cardamom, and cinnamon based, how does that even work as a dessert?) once back in Houston, but their inspiration was not able to enjoy them. As a result, it only seemed right to finally make some for her in her night shift care package (see Chicken Fideo Soup). But I would not be satisfied with simply repeating myself. No, I would make them even more ridiculous than ever by adding the next most ludicrous cookie component I could think of, the spice of the gods known as Sriracha, to complete my Frankensteinian quest and breathe life into THE HOT ROBIN!

The Hot Robin
Modified from The Spice House and My Original Robin Cookie the Triple C
Servings: 36-48 cookies
Time: 30 minutes (+ 4 hours resting)

The batter should provide a nice tingle when tried

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2-1 tsp ground cardamom
1/2-1 tsp cinnamon
Sriracha to taste
1 cup salted, roasted pecans, chopped

1. Get really bored during your search for a job while waiting for your significant other to return home and allow your Netflix binging to continue.
2. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.
3. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until thoroughly incorporated.
4. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl then add in multiple increments until smooth. 
5. Stir in the pecans.
6. Get brave and decide to put sriracha in a batch because surely this can't be the craziest thing you've ever done. This makes 4 batches of cookies, so I'd suggest reserving at least half to give you the full experience of sriracha vs. sriracha-free. You want to add enough to give a light red tint to the dough. Fortunately, cookie dough is fun to eat and delicious, so do a taste test before proceeding.
7. Wrap each batch in saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
8. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
9. Slice the dough into the desired size cookies (around 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick) and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
10. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden.
11. Let cool on the baking sheets for 2 minutes then transfer to wire racks to finish.
12. Enjoy comparing both equally delicious versions of The Robin.

You can practically see the spice waiting to be devoured

Sure there may have been 3 batches of standard Robin cookies to ensure our sweet-tooths would not be disappointed, but I was, nevertheless, still worried about the outcome. I needed this win, and I got it. The Hot Robin was a tremendous success! Just like it would have in an actual meal, the sriracha worked beautiful magic with the curry and cardamom to enhance the already unique experience. Reminiscent of my Fiery Red Hot Red Velvet Cupcakes, the cookies featured a fantastic tingly hit of spice on the backend without being overwhelmed by it yielding a cookie worthy of its namesake. For best results, pair with tea and a good book.

Or if you're not quite adventurous enough, you could try the standard, less colorful but equally delightful Robin cookie.