3 hour baking hell

I thought this recipe would go off without a hitch.
Chocolate Chip Overload Cookies from Evil Shenanigans
The recipe I'm sure is fine... MORE than fine... I mean it's a SUPER CHOCOLATE CHIP cookie! I, on the other hand, am a massive failure.

I think it began with me forgetting 1 entire cup of flour. Also, I was a smidgen short on baking soda. (I guess that's what happens when you pilfer scant amounts from home in ziplock baggies.)

SO! I had issues. MAJOR issues.

I didn't realize I was missing a cup of flour (in fact, I'm not 100% sure - it just makes sense.) until everything was mixed together... and the dough seemed less dough-like and more melting-ice-cream-like.

That's when I started to back track... and even for a million bucks, I could not remember exactly how much flour I had measured out.

So, I did a few trial runs... just in case I wasn't insane. I was proven wrong.
The first testers baked out to be a lot like the potato chip cookies. Too much butter over flour.

Then I added in just shy of 1 cup of flour. Did another test run... a little better. Not quite what the original pictures showed. (Which made me think... what is wrong NOW?)


So little by little I added in a few tablespoons of flour and just continued to bake. I must have added in at least 6 tbsps to get the the "final" dough.

These cookies are definitely super chocolatey! The dough part is good... much as expected for a chocolate chip cookie.

The dough was distinctly DARKER than any other cookie dough I've made.


Notes:

Instead of 3 bags of the same chocolate chip, I used a mish mash of "leftover" chocolate chips I've had laying around. I did use a whole new bag of Nestle Tollhouse semi-sweet. Then I used some minis. Then some 60% cacao bittersweet Ghirardelli chips. And to finish it off, some white chocolate chips.

Baked at a lower temp of 325 for 15-ish minutes. Until golden brown of course.

The color was off too... not as warm and golden as you would want them to be, obviously a correlation to the darker dough. It was like it was "infused" with chocolate.


At least there was a nice breeze coming in through the window...

Boysenberry Cream Cookies

FINALLY... my take on the Strawberry Cream Cookies I had mentioned making a while back...

I used Boysenberry Jam instead.

The dough was pretty easy and simple to make.

I baked it longer than the recipe said... about 15 minutes, until the edges turned a light golden brown.

They jam didn't turn out like the original picture looks... but oh well..

And again, baking in the evening sucks for taking nice pictures.

Dinner and a Cookie

Ever impatient, I couldn't wait the 30 min to reheat the full round pan of leftovers from Two Guys from Italy, so I scooped a hunk into a ramekin and nuked my Baked Gnocchi with Tomato Cream Sauce and Ricotta and Mozzarella.

I added some red pepper flakes and fresh basil from by own little basil plant.

And since I beat traffic, and had some time... I baked! again! In like 3 days! OMG WOW!

Potato Chip Cookies from justJENN recipes

I only had 1 bag of chips, so I halved the recipe.
1 Stick Butter
1/4 C Packed Brown Sugar
1/4 C Sugar
1/2 an egg (this was a toughie)
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 C Flour
1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1/16 salt (another toughie... I "pinched" this one)
3/4C crushed potato chips (1 snack sized bag - I used Lay's)

Cream butter and sugars. Add egg and vanilla.
Combine dry ingredients. Add to butter mixture.
Mix in by hand crushed potato chips.
Drop teaspoon dollops onto parchment lined baking sheets.
Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

Notes: The cookies are SUPER buttery. They melt down quickly and bubble a lot. Once removed from the oven, they're still soft. Let stand to firm up a bit before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

I planned to drizzle with chocolate. But they weren't as salty as I thought (wanted) them to come out to be. I should have used a different kind of chip - maybe kettlecooked, or just a thicker chip.

Homemade Samoas

One of my many favorite girl scout cookies... Samoas!

Recipe from Baking Bites: Homemade Samoas

THIS IS AN AWESOME RECIPE!! Everything went off without a hitch.

Notes:
Instead of using the microwave I used stove top for the caramel and the chocolate.
When warming the caramel-coconut mixture on the stove top, the longer it sits the darker and tougher the caramel will get.
I should have made larger center holes... or omitted them completely since I ended up covering it with the topping.
I should have piped thicker drizzles of chocolate.
My minor personal issues were with melting chocolate (of course), and dumping in all 3 cups of coconut into the caramel at once (which probably led to the not quite so spreadable topping). Next time, mix caramel & toasted coconut until just coated and spreadable on cookies.

And to finish the "egg" project:
ta-da! After an overnight stay in the slow cooker, these tea eggs are ready to be consumed!

After Christmas baking

Got this awesome new book for Xmas right as I was flying home...

... so I got the chance to go through each page on the flight. And I decided to try:

Absolute Best Brownies with Dried Cherries

... except it was a failure. (damn brownies from scratch!!!!)
So, once I re-try this recipe, I'll be sure to post!

And since a "from scratch" recipe failed, I of course defaulted to a box mix to bake.
Thus, I baked up some sugar cookies and decorated them. Here's to after Christmas baking!

I got the icing recipe from Baking Bites. Since I didn't want/need a massive amount of icing, I quartered the recipe - the proportion I used is shown here:

Simple Colored Icing from Baking Bites
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
food coloring

Mix all sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth and to desired consistency. Add more milk/sugar as desired for the right consistency to ice cookies. I used plain white on some cookies, then added a drop of blue, then when I was ready to do some green, added in a couple drops of yellow. I mixed all colors in one bowl since I'm too unwilling to use excess dishes.

Baking Bites also had an awesome recipe for Homemade Samoas Cookies that I will be baking in the next day or so! YAY! and YUMMM!!

Also, I had the chance to "make" Chinese Tea Eggs!

Simply boil eggs with the flavor and tea packets. Crack the shells after 20 min (or so). Then continue to let simmer for flavor to penetrate through. I've transferred my eggs to a slow cooker and am letting them stew overnight. Stay tuned for the final product!

Holiday Treats!

Delish assortments of yummy treats from a friend... I don't know what they're called... so pictures are here to tell the tale!

Kisses Peanut Butter Blossoms

From an ad spot in Everyday Food magazine, but can also be found on the back of a Hershey's Kisses bag:

Hershey's Kisses Chocolates, unwrapped
1/2 C Shortening
3/4 C Creamy Peanut Butter
1/3 Granulated Sugar
1/3 C Packed Light Brown Sugar
1 Egg
2 Tbsp Milk
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1-1/2 C AP Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Salt
Granulated Sugar for rolling dough in

375 Degree Oven 8-10min. Yields 36 Cookies

Beat shortening and PB until well blended. Add sugars and beat until fluffy.
Add egg, milk and vanilla. Beat well.
In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually beat into PB mixture.

Shape dough into 1 in. balls (1 Tbsp. of dough). Roll in granulated sugar and place on ungreased/parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes (I went 10) or until lightly browned. Immediately press an UNWRAPPED kiss into the center of each cookie. Cookie will crack around the edges (but also does in the oven). Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack and allow to cool completely.



Since I only baked 9 cookies at a time... this took a while, so I was hungry by the time I was done. So I made: Soy Sauce Eggs!

Simply fry up eggs in any style, and splash on a bit of soy sauce towards the end of cooking; allow the soy sauce to "burn" a little in the pan as you finish cooking your eggs.

cookies galore

Sooooo I baked off the remaining half of the m&m cookie batch, and the ENTIRE batch of chocolate chip. HOLY MOLEY... that's A LOT OF COOKIES. Friends beware... cookies coming at 'cha!

Cookies on the pan...
Cookies on the rack...
Cookies on the stand...
Cookies in the oven...
(these were all at the same time too!)


FINALLY! The last of it!