Bakin-n-Bacon

Cookie Time!

This holiday season is the first for me at my new job, so I wanted to make a good impression with my cookie trays.

I didn't make as many varieties as I had hoped due to a weather-related delay. Spending 4 hours shoveling 20 inches of snow puts a dent in the baking activities! At least I'm getting exercise (and I only hurt my back a little...). It seems that this winter I will stay in shape. We've had, I believe, five major snows and today is only the first day of actual winter! When retirement time comes I'm ready for a warmer clime. Only about 18 more years LOL...actually not LOL, *sigh*...

Back to the cookies. I made a chewy ginger cookie (top left), Cook's Illustrated's peanut butter (left bottom), a super vanilla shortbread with the perfect texture (left middle ring of cookies), my latest recipe creation - chewy cranberry cookies (center of both trays), lavender lemon (center of left tray), Cook's Illustrated coconut macaroons (top center), Marilyn's Toffee (bottom center), monster cookies (right tray), and Swedish Brunli (stars in center of right tray). The Brunli are gluten free and consist mainly of almonds, egg whites, spices and some cocoa powder. I think the recipe came from Fine Cooking but I am not certain.

The monster cookies (with M&Ms) were the first to go, followed closely by the vanilla shortbread. I shaped the shortbread into balls and flattened them with a snowflake cookie stamp. You can't see the detail in this photo but there were adorable! The stamp was a real pain to use, though. I spent a lot of time with a toothpick unclogging it.

If anyone wants the shortbread, ginger, or cranberry cookie recipes, please post a comment below!

Coffee Scarves

I chance encounter on an elevator led me to dig out the old crochet needle and yarn and go to town on items destined to be stocking stuffers this Christmas.

No, this chance encounter wasn't a scene from a romantic comedy, but rather, wthile waiting for an elevator noticing that someone had placed a coffee sleeve on the ledge right outside the elevator door. It was a crocheted coffee sleeve, and I had one of those "I could totally do that" moments. Unlike most of those moments I followed through and even took it one step further a. I made the sleeve long enough for the ends to cross over like a scarf, hence Coffee Scarves (trademark pending...).

I have to admit I was so rusty with the crochet needle that I had to refer back to my instruction book because I kept screwing up. Luckily a quick reference got me back in the groove and I'm making these to give to several of my latte-swilling coworkers and friends. I'm keeping a couple for myself, of course - probably the prototype above.

For those who know how to crochet, it's dead easy - three rows of double crochet and one row of single crochet at the top. Sew on a button or other bling, and tie the scarf together in a few places with bits of the yarn.  

Baby, it's cold outside...turn on the oven!

When the view from the windows is like this, little is better than staying indoors, turning on the oven, and baking up your own storm.

I've begun making the dough for what could end up being a dozen types of cookies I plan to take to work on Monday. Double recipes of twelve different cookies in one weekend with only one oven is a bit ambitious, and the weather is sucking the ambition right out of me, but I'll still give it a shot. Right now I've just finished a double batch of Marilyn's Toffee (not counted in the dozen...making it a baker's dozen, I guess).

I also talked to the toffee's namesake this afternoon and she doesn't recommend doing a double batch, but since I rarely heed good advice I did it anyway. The pan did end up being terribly scorched and I had to employ three different cleaning methods to restore it to a workable state, so perhaps the time savings were not so great. The toffee turned out perfectly, however, and is now resting until tomorrow, except for the occasional edge piece that somehow falls off in my fingers and then into my mouth.

Here is the list of cookies that I'm planning (subject to change on a whim, of course):

1. Chewy cranberry cookies, drizzled with white chocolate (was going to dip the edges in white chocolate and pistachios, but I'm out of pistachios and ... see photo above...)
2. Cook's Illustrated's Best peanut butter cookies (subscription required for recipe).
3. English Ginger Cookies - a recipe from an elderly batchelor attorney in my hometown.
4. Sesame Cookies - I haven't decided on which recipe to use yet.
5. Coconut macaroons, also from Cook's Illustrated.
6. Monster cookies - my adapted Mrs. Field's cookies with M&Ms
7. Shortbread - plain, simple, and simply divine.
8. Chipotle Mexican chocolate sandwich cookies - from Better Homes & Gardens Christmas Cookie issue
9. Tuiles or pizzelle - I haven't decided yet
10. Swedish Brunli - chewy almond cookies. These are gluten free for a special friend.
11. Peppermint meringues
12. Some type of chocolate cookie or brownie. With bourbon (a little in the cookie and a lot in me).

Wish me luck!

(PS there aren't aliens in the tree - it's the reflection of our dining room lights in the window.)

Custard Pie, Just Because

So I have leftover pie crust in the freezer and I pull it out because we are having friends over for dinner, only I forget about it and make a different dessert instead. Oops. Now I have pie crust but no good plan to use it. What's a girl to do?

I thought about the kinds of pie I could make, what ingredients I had on hand, and how much effort I was willing to put in after working all day (the real wrench in the works). After discounting anything that involved more effort than cracking open an egg, I decided on a simple, classic custard pie. These are not popular anymore, but I don't know why. They are simple and delicious.

I opted to stir in jarred lemon curd in lieu of the traditional nutmeg seasoning. The spoon lickings were good.  Now the difficult part - waiting for the pie to cool. This will probably be my midnight snack.

Since I read Michael Ruhlman's book Ratio, I have thrown out all my pie crust recipes in favor of the simple ratio of 3 parts (by weight) flour to 2 parts butter to 1 part water. I can whip up the crust in no time flat using a food processor, and it's always flaky and tasty. Sometimes I use lard, but since I have to dig down in the chest freezer to get at it, I usually take the easy path and use butter.

This pie is made in a vintage Pyrex pie pan that is about 8 inches in diameter. I also have an old 7-inch pie. Since there are just the two of us here, I like to use these smaller pans so I don't have to make quite as much - not that I wouldn't eat it, but I probably shouldn't eat an entire pie by myself in two days. It has happened before!

I used the custard pie filling recipe from Cook's Illustrated, but if I had memorized the ratio from Ruhlman's book it would have been even easier. If I had an iPhone or iPad touch, I would download his app. But alas no such technology for me.