My Baking Adventures

I found this recipe for chocolate chip cookies on a blog (sorry, can’t remember which one!) and I was intrigued because they contain powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar. Hmmm. Can’t say I’ve ever had them like that before!

In fact, the blog author remarked that these were similar to a cookie that was sold in an amusement park. The author got the recipe from Cookie Madness, and I searched her website but was unable to find it. The original recipe contained all kinds of additions, including white chocolate chips, broken up oreos, and candies. I conducted an informal poll with the 15 kids that were running through my house that day, and by unanimous decision - chocolate chips only. So here’s my adapted version:

Chocolate Chunk Cookies - adapted from Cookie Madness

4 tbs. hot melted butter
½ cup powdered sugar
¼ lightly packed brown sugar
2 tbs. beaten egg
¼ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup flour
¾ cup bittersweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl, stir together butter, powdered sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in egg, then stir in vanilla, baking soda and salt. Add flour and stir just until mixed. Mix in chocolate chips. Chill dough for one hour.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Drop dough by tablespoons onto parchment lined sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.

The verdict? Good, but not thrilling. They were crispy and light, which is great for some things, but not for chocolate chip cookies. I could taste the powdered sugar and it was different………….not bad, just different.

Writer’s block - help!!!

Here’s how it all started: I made yellow whoopie pies from a recipe I got from Amber’s Delectable Delights, which she in turn got from Sugar and Spice. I didn’t want to use vanilla filling, the consensus (my 3 voters) wanted chocolate. But to just do chocolate seemed a little boring, so I rummaged around in the pantry and found marshmallows. Ooohh, toasted marshmallows inside, along with the chocolate filling and yellow cake. And I can break out the kitchen torch!

Ok, bad idea. Here’s what happened when the marshmallows met the torch:

Uh, it looks like it has a disease! Scratch the torch. Used the gas burner instead. So now, we have cute little yellow cakes - which I dusted with powdered sugar and cocoa powder:

Then the chocolate filling, which really was more like chocolate icing - butter, Hershey’s cocoa, powdered sugar:

Now, the toasted marshmallow - not pretty, I know, it collapsed as I took it off the skewer:

Put it all together and what do you have?

The kids said it looks like a Krabby Patty from Spongebob Squarepants!!

The cookies were delicious - soft and nicely flavored. Here’s the recipe for them:

Yellow Whoopie Pies - adapted from Amber’s Delectable Delights / Sugar & Spice

½ cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks
2 ¼ cups + 1 tbs. all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¾ tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar and egg yolks. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Add dry ingredient alternately with the milk, mixing well after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto lined baking sheets. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until cookies spring back in center when touched. Remove from the oven and place on wire rack to cool completely.

But what do I call these? Yellow cookie + chocolate + marshmallow?

David has dropped several hints about peanut butter cookies lately, and since Sabrina has been out of the house this week in art class, I seized the moment yesterday and tried a new recipe. I don’t remember whose I blog I saw these on, but they were adapted from Magnolia Bakery. I usually do the peanut butter, sugar, and egg cookies, but these looked rich, peanut buttery and delicious.

When I took them out of the oven, David was standing right there, waiting for them to come off the tray. I thought I might have underbaked them just a little, but I didn’t hear any complaints!

Well, actually, after David ate 2 of them with his afternoon espresso, he had a tummyache (no surprise). I ate half of one, and they are amazing. Peanut butter, chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. What’s not to like? Oh yeah! Bring it on!!

After they were finished baking, I opened the windows, cranked the ceiling fans to high, and by the time Sabrina got home, there was no trace of pb in the air. Sneaky mom strikes again!! Oh, and in case you think she was shortchanged, I made something special just for her - but you’ll have to come back later to see it. I haven’t figured out what to call it yet!

Peanut Butter Cookies - adapted from Magnolia Bakery

1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter - smooth or chunky
¾ cup granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for rolling
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tbs. milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup peanut butter chips
½ cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat butter and peanut butter together until fluffy. Add sugars and beat until smooth. Add egg, milk and vanilla and beat well. Stir in the flour mixture, followed by the chips and blend thoroughly, but don’t over-mix.

Form into balls ( I use a #30 cookie scoop), roll in 1 tablespoon sugar, and place on baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cookies will appear underdone, but do not overbake! (And this is true, I thought they were waaayyyy underdone, but were just perfect!)

Whew! That was a mouthful. I saw this recipe on Culinary Concoctions By Peabody, and I thought it would be a nice afternoon sweet to take to the vet’s office, since I always want to stay in their good graces. With three dogs, last minute incidents are common, so it never hurts to have the receptionists eager and willing to see you!

Back to the shortbread. I wasn’t overly thrilled with it - the recipe calls for dark unsweetened cocoa, but I think it was too strong. It had a good coffee flavor, but overall, I wouldn’t make it again. The original recipe is from the Food Network, and for Peabody’s version, click on the link above.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Espresso Shortbread

1 ½ sticks butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. instant coffee powder
1 ½ tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9” square baking pan

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour, coffee powder and cocoa powder and mix until the dough is smooth, about 1 minute. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Press the dough into the prepared pan. Place the pan in the oven and bake until the shortbread is set, about 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool 15 minutes. Invert onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Contrary to what you might think, I don’t stalk Anna’s website all day - however, I do check it frequently since she is always posting something new and exciting. And I have learned a lot from her notes, comments and expertise.

The other day she posted a half batch recipe for a new chocolate chip cookie - and her review was quite inspiring to those of us that like our cookies thick and chewy. So armed with that knowledge, I baked up a batch and I am thrilled to report that they are every bit as good as she said they were.

The Mercedes service rep is going to be a very happy man today!

I made the following changes: used only light brown sugar (that’s all I had), decreased the vanilla to 1/2 tsp. and omitted the nuts.

Lee’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1 stick
1/2 c. light brown sugar
1/4 c. dark brown sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped chocolate or chocolate chips
Handful of toasted walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

Melt the butter and pour into a large bowl. When the butter cools to slightly warm, add all three sugars (light brown, dark brown and granulated). Mix well. Beat in the egg and yolk. Mix together the flour, salt and baking soda, then add flour mixture to butter mixture and stir until blended. Stir in the vanilla and chopped chocolate or chips.

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto prepared cookie sheets and bake until nicely browned, about 7 or 8 minutes. Lee notes that it’s always best to slightly underbake cookies so when they cool they remain chewy.

I can only imagine the look on Kate’s face when she gets my post each month. She probably rolls her eyes and says, “What has that girl done this time?”. And, once again, she’s right. I never used to be like this - changing recipes, mixing things up - but I suppose it comes with *yikes* age. Ok, I’m not that old, but I’ve become a much more confident baker over the past year and I guess it’s because having something go wrong isn’t such a big deal anymore. I can say that now, because these turned out great!

So when Kate announced this month’s cookie (which we voted on, by the way), I couldn’t help myself. A little voice came on in my head (can anyone else can hear it?) and commanded me to do something different.

I’ve only made snickerdoodles once, and while they were really good, I wouldn’t go out of my way to make them again.

So as I stood there staring into the bowl of dough, I wondered………what goes with cinnamon and sugar? And at that exact moment, I turned and saw the container of instant coffee. Bingo! I added about 2 tablespoons of coffee powder to the batter. I rolled them in the cinnamon/sugar mixture, and baked them up.

Cowabunga! Chewy - coffee - cinnamon - sugar cookie! Yaaahooooo! The coffee powder didn’t melt into the batter, so with each bite you can distinctly taste it.

Bonus! They were even better the next day!

In case you are wondering about the odd measurements, I have taken a tip (once again!) from Anna and downsized the recipe. It’s also to prove to my 11 year old that I can do *ahem* fractions .

Snickerdoodles - adapted from Martha Stewart

¾ c. all purpose flour
½ tsp cream of tartar
¼ tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
¼ c. butter
¼ + 1/8 c. sugar
1 egg
2 tbs. instant coffee powder

¼ c. sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.

In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and coffee powder and beat to combine. Turn mixer to low, and add flour mixture. Roll dough into small balls (I used my #30 ice cream scoop and got 10 cookies), then roll in cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake for 10 minutes, until center is just set.

Cool completely on wire rack. Store in an airtight container for up to a week, or freeze (which is what I do) for longer storage.

It was the weekend for pool parties! We went to another one last night and this time I had no trouble deciding what to bring.

Black and white cookies are always a hit - and I hear alot of people say how hard it is to get a good one. Now I’ve made these before, but this time I stayed with the icing given with the recipe. They are absolutely delicious, with the perfect cakey cookie and smooth chocolate/vanilla icing.

The only problem I ran into? I took all of the iced cookies to the party, and Alexander was upset that we didn’t have any at home! Fortunately, I made a double batch - they are in the freezer and all I have to do is make the icing. Actually, maybe I’ll have him do it!!

Black and Whites - Gourmet Magazine

For cookies
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup (5 1/3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg

For icings
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 to 2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

Make cookies:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Stir together buttermilk and vanilla in a cup.
Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes, then add egg, beating until combined well. Mix in flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately in batches at low speed (scraping down side of bowl occasionally), beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix until smooth.
Spoon 1/4 cups of batter about 2 inches apart onto a buttered large baking sheet. Bake in middle of oven until tops are puffed and pale golden, and cookies spring back when touched, 15 to 17 minutes. Transfer with a metal spatula to a rack and chill (to cool quickly), about 5 minutes.

Make icings while cookies chill:
Stir together confectioners sugar, corn syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl until smooth. Transfer half of icing to another bowl and stir in cocoa, adding more water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, to thin to same consistency as white icing.

Ice cookies:
Turn cookies flat sides up, then spread white icing over half of each and chocolate over other half.

Ha, ha. I just loved saying that. Faux-reo’s. We went to a pool party today and I really agonized over what to take. What to make that will please the children and the adults? I found a spankin-cool recipe for s’more’s cupcakes. But Sabrina protested because she wanted them for us, Alexander said his friend doesn’t like chocolate, and David suggested a whole cake.

I don’t like bringing a whole cake because it’s too difficult to serve. I know, someone else has to do the cutting but I wanted something that is portable and grab-able. Is that a word? But I’m sure you know what I mean.

Well, I found this recipe on Made By Melis’ blog, and I really wanted to try them. So with a few alterations, I was on my way - I also used a lemon flavored filling just to shake things up a bit.

Update: the cookies were a huge hit. Not only did I make the chocolate version, I also made these cookies again, using the same lemon filling. The kids ignored the monster cupcakes from Costco and demolished both boxes of cookies that I brought. Now that’s flattering!! I will definitely make these again and again, playing around with different fillings.

I forgot to take a picture of the little herd of cookies I prepared, so when we came home, I assembled these and quickly took a picture before the kids ate them.

Homemade Oreos - adapted from Retro Desserts

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ cup Hershey’s Special Dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room- temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg
½ tsp vanilla

Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 350 degrees.

Mix softened butter and sugar together and add in the egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl sift flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, and salt. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet until dough comes together in a mass.
Take rounded teaspoons of batter ( I used my smallest cookie scoop) and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart. Using the back of a spoon, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Remove to a rack to cool completely. When cool, spread icing onto one cookie and top with another un-iced cookie. Makes approximately 2 1/2 dozen filled cookies.

Lemon Icing

4 oz butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tbs. lemon juice

Beat butter until soft and creamy. Add sugar, one cup at a time, alternately with lemon juice. Continue beating at medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.

ver since I saw the episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay and the Levain Bakery in NYC, I have been thinking about the chocolate chip cookies from Levain. Of course, if you read Cookie Madness (and really, who doesn’t?), Anna has been relentless in her quest to recreate the chocolate chip cookies from that bakery.

It’s quiet here for a few moments so I decided to mix up the batter. Of course, like every normal cookie lover on the planet, I had to try the raw dough. I was instantly struck by the consistency - it was so soft, and the flavor was so different. The only change I made to the recipe was to omit the vanilla. The girls from Levain don’t put it in their dough so I thought I’d leave it out too.

The dough is chilling right now, so when I get back from taking Sabrina for a haircut, I’ll bake it up and give a full, detailed report.

Update #1: Cookies are baked - but have to hold off posting results. Sabrina spiked a fever during a birthday party so my attention will be to her for awhile.

Update #2: I must preface my verdict with a disclaimer - I think I overcooked the dough because they are ddddrrryyyy. I rushed when I baked them because I was running late to deliver the cake to the party yesterday and blah, blah, blah. No excuse. I messed up.

But the cookie flavor is great - you can tell something is different and if no one told you what was missing you probably couldn’t point it out. Vanilla lends a sweetness to cookie dough - and that’s probably why I didn’t like Radical Rob’s chocolate chip cookies. He had 3 tablespoons of vanilla in the batter and to me, it was overwhelming. But I liked this recipe enough to try again. Just not when I am pressed for time. Against my better judgement, I am posting the picture:

Well, this definitely was not a regular Friday pizza and movie night.

First of all, the kids wanted to watch the new National Treasure 2 movie, which we actually watched on Tuesday (!), right when the movie was released. They hadn’t seen it in the theater, because Sabrina has issues with movie theaters - she doesn’t like the dark and the loudness of the surround sound. Bummer for me, because at home there are too many distractions - i.e. the dogs, phones, and Alexander talking.

Second, in our quest for the most perfect pizza, we determined that our pizza oven just wasn’t cooking the crust the way we like it. And in all the research we have done, the only way to achieve that crispy crust is with an oven temp of 650 degrees and above. Well, we don’t own an oven that goes that high - are there any out there that do?

Enter the barbecue. Last time we checked, that baby goes up to 750 degrees. Woohoo!! I’ll spare you the details, but suffice to say thanks to amazon.com, we bought a Villaware barbecue pizza stone for $63.00, with super saver shipping. The regular price for the stone is, wait for it……..$100.00 from Williams Sonoma. Bonus!!

So tonight, we put the stone on the cue, fired it up and made our pizzas. Here’s the first picture of the stone on the grill. Now remember, this is after we’ve used it….that’s why it looks all splotchy….

This next picture is to show you how nice the stone looks on the grill. This is David’s domain. No one is allowed to touch it. He loves his barbecue! It’s okay, because I don’t let him touch my Cuisinart Mixer. My dad gave him this barbecue on the condition that David cook a steak for him (my dad) at least once a month. David upped the deal and told my dad that he would cook anything, anytime my dad wanted. Sausages, chicken, steak, shrimp, vegetables - you name it, it’s been cooked out here. Now we can add pizza to the ever expanding list.

So the finale to the pizza story here here is that the pizzas were soooo good, and soooo crispy, they never made it to the dinner table. We ate them, running back and forth to the grill as we cooked the rest of them. The last time I had pizza this good was in a restaurant. Actually, I take that back. This was better. And here is the last pizza we made, the only one left (I made four!).

So how did I top off this amazing dinner? Glad you asked. Because I went on a biscotti baking blitz today. The weather has been so strange. On Monday, the temperature was 106. Today, rainy and 57. Oookkkaaayyyy. So it was perfect weather to bake biscotti. I had a Lemon Semolina Cookie recipe from Gina DePalma (the Babbo pastry chef) that I wanted to try, plus I made Orange Biscotti and Chocolate Espresso Bean Biscotti from Dorie Greenspans book. Yes, I know, I feel like I’m cheating on the group but there was a shortage of biscotti around here so it was necessary to replenish the supplies in order to avoid a mutiny.

The Lemon Semolina tasted just like a soft biscotti. The lemon flavor didn’t stand out enough so I think next time I’ll use more lemon zest, and double the amount of limoncello. The orange biscotti were really good. They had a good, strong orange flavor. And for the chocolate biscotti, I used chocolate-covered espresso beans instead of plain chocolate chips.

So as you can tell, I had a really successful day. Tomorrow, the kids are cooking, so I may not be as productive. But I’ll let you know so you can check out what they’ve done!!