Overstuffed on candy and cookies.

I know you think my rustic, old, crappy, photogenically retarded baking sheet is sexy. Don’t lie. You wish yours was this old.

…Seriously, though. I need a new set of baking sheets. These things have obviously been through one two many trips to the oven. Or dish washer. I really don’t know which anymore. Either way, despite their stained texture it hardly effects the outcome of the cookies whatsoever since most of the time I use parchment paper. Except today, because I have none, obviously. 😛

Also as you can notice, my photos may look a little different. Grainier, lack of quality, etc. Sorry about that. My regular camera had some kind of weird seizure and committed suicide when I was taking pictures earlier last week. Not too much of a loss except I did lose pictures of my milkyway cupcakes that I was going to post today along with these scrumptious delights. Talk about a bummer, eh?

So for now I’ll be having to use this crappier camera. I still haven’t gotten used to the lighting options on it or anything like that so all of my pictures look really weird and for some reason really grainy which, according to the manual and the sample pictures, shouldn’t be happening. Maybe I’ll actually take some time out this week to look over it. But I wouldn’t hold your breath on that one.

On a lighter note, the elections are finally over. In celebration, I baked these beasts. Actually, that’s a lie. 😛 I made them for my brothers awana, or church as it might turn out to be, for tonight. Unfortunately, like I usually do with chocolate chip cookies — I ended up burning the bottoms. Ughughsugshusgdgh. It’s not that bad, but the cookie itself is way, way too chewy because of it. I hate it when I overbake stuff, but what can I do about it? Still, they look delicious and they do taste decent. I had some left over snickers bars and peanut butter M&M’s from our candy overhaul on halloween, so I decided to use them instead of letting them sit in the bowl, untouched and unloved, while the butterfingers, recee’s pieces and twix took center stage in my househld. I personally love snickers, and M&M’s, but seeing as having more than one piece of chocolate usually makes me sick to my stomach now, I had to do something to use them up.

So I used a simple chocolate chip recipe. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips and half a bag of crushed up peanut butter M&M’s for the insides. I have to admit, putting peanut butter M&M’s in a ziplock bag, zipping it up, and using a rolling pin to smash them into tiny pieces was a lot more fun than it should have been. Or maybe I’m just violent. o_o;

Before I put them in the oven I decorated them with chopped up snickers bars (which exploded when baked, by the way. I recommend NOT topping them and just stirring them into the mix) and the rest of the peanut butter M&M’s I had mashed up.

Surprisingly enough they taste quite good together. Sucks that the texture came out much less than perfect. I have horrible luck with chocolate chip cookies.

Unfortunately, another bad thing about these were that they didn’t make nearly as much as I needed.

18 cookies is definitely not going to feed 20+ sugar hungry fiends. So I needed a back-up plan. And fast.

Therefore I found a recipe on land’o’lakes for butter cookies using browned butter. Let me be the first to tell you that I love browned butter. I love the smell of it, I love the look of it, and I love the taste of it. This time around I didn’t let the butter get too brown because I didn’t want the butter cookies to have some kind of weird amber tint to them — but they still taste amazing.

My favorite part is decorating, obviously. I haven’t baked butter cookies in awhile. Notice, that there is a different between sugar cookies and butter cookies. Trust me on this one. Even when you sprinkle butter cookies with sugar, they are still butter cookies.

Although my favorite kind of butter cookies are the kind that are plain and very crunchy; these were good too. And surprisingly quick to make. I only had to chill the brown butter for 30 mins before using it, which was fine with me since I had been awake since 6 AM and had plenty of time to spare. They have a very crisp outside texture but a very fluffy and moist inside. The batter made a nice amount of cookies, too, and handled very easily when rolled into balls. Definitely going to look into using this recipe again in the future.

Overall, a good day. I’m finally getting my little snacking attacks under control when baking. Yay! Now if I could only control that with other things… 😛

Snickers Monster Cookies

Ingredients:

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 9 cut up snickers mini’s (or whatever you have)
• 1 cup peanut chocolate M&M’s  (or whatever you have)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add the vanilla and egg; beat well. Beat in baking soda and salt until well incorporated. Add flour 1 cup at a time and stir until theres no traces of flour left.
3. Stir in chocolate chips and a few chopped up pieces of snickers/M&M’s/whatever is lying around.
4. Scoop 1/4 cups of dough onto cookie sheet and flatten slightly with the back of a spoon or spatula into mounds. Leave about 2-3 inches between each cookie (depending on mound size) because they will spread. Press remaining candies into mounds for decoration.
5. Bake 14-16 minutes or until cookies are ‘almost’ set. Centers should still be soft when touched. Watch these carefully because they will overbake quickly and trust me — overbaking = no. Cool on baking sheet for no longer than 7 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack.
6. Makes 12 big cookies or 18 regular sized (if you want regular sized, cut off a quarter from the 1/4 cup of dough)

Brown-Butter Cookies

(From Land’o’lakes website)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• decorative sugars, if desired

Directions:

1. Melt 1 cup butter over medium-high heat in heavy 2-quart saucepan. Continue cooking, watching closely, until butter foams and just turns a delicate golden color (3 to 5 minutes). IMMEDIATELY REMOVE FROM HEAT. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Combine browned butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in large mixer bowl. Beat at medium speed until well mixed (1-2 mins.) Reduce speed to low; add flour. Beat on low (I had to beat it on medium with my hand-mixer) until well mixed. (Stirring works, too.)
4. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. If using decorative sprinkles/sugar, dip the tops of the balls into the sprinkles/sugars and then place on ungreased cookie sheets decorated side up. Flatten balls with the back of a spoon. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes (mine took around 13) or until edges are lightly golden brown. Let stand for 1 minute on pan before transferring to wire wrack to cool completely.
   

7 AM Sunday Morning Coffee Cake

Let me just say that I haven’t been up this early (of my own accord) in ages. And at first, I wanted to roll back into my snug bed and sleep for another 3-4 hours or so. Especially being up so late last night baking snickerdoodles for the kids. Which, by the way, came out puffy and delicious.

Motion blur snickerdoodles! Aaaaah. Actually, that’s not photoshop. That’s my camera with a smudge on the lens that refused to come off. Still, decent picture and was the best I could do at 1 AM in the morning 😛 I was terrified that these were going to come out flat, as everyone who reviewed Mrs. Sigg’s Snickerdoodles from allrecipes.com were saying that their batch came out that way. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Some people like their snickerdoodles like that. Me? I like mine soft, chewy, and puffy. So, with a few alterations to the recipe, I was relieved when they came out exactly how I wanted them. The melt-in-your-mouth interior of this cookie made me actually want to have more than one, which is rare for me to say. I didn’t change a lot, except I took them straight out of the oven and off the pan to cool at 8 minutes and I used a cup full of butter, no shortening. Also substituted the baking soda and cream of tartar for 4 tsp. of baking powder. Results? Yum. I think that’s all that needs to be said in that respect. Although, I did make one tiny mistake when making these. I used 3 teaspoons of white sugar and 3 tablespoons of ground cinnamon. I mixed the two up when writing them down and ended up with a more browner look to them than a lighter one. Oh, and it was a lot more cinnamon-y. Oh well. They still came out fantastic and I’m not sure anyone really minded.

My brother did find it very odd however that when baking these, I did not use an electric mixer. Everything was combined by hand. He, of course, would have none of this. You’d think for a kid who doesn’t care about wearing week old dirty clothing wouldn’t mind getting his hands a little messy. When I told him that the cookies will come out better if I mix it by hand, his response was:

“…Ewww. That doesn’t even make sense… Gross. You’re touching eggs.”

I admit, I laughed. 😛

Really though, they did come out better without the use of an electric mixer. I never realized how much of a science baking was until I started reading more about it. I’m still learning.

Well, after the snickerdoodles came what my post will actually touch more on. Quite possibly one of the best coffeecakes I have ever tasted, but one of the more hateful experiences baking.  Overnight coffeecake. Yes, you heard me right. Overnight. As in, refrigerated. Now before you get all, “what!? it’s not a cookie! you’re not supposed to refrigerate cake batter!” There is no way that refrigerating the batter made the coffee cake taste strange, weird, stale or “off” in any sense. I was originally going to make Cinnamon Streusal Coffeecake in a nice, large 10in. cake tube, but both the cake and the streusal needed a whopping 2 cups+ of all-purpose flour, which I would be needing for my chocolate chip cookies this Wednesday. Oh, and that’s 2 cups flour for each individual one. Not both put together. So you can imagine that I had to scrap that little recipe out the window. Instead, I did some emergency searching, and came upon this little beauty of a recipe…

At first, I thought I was in the clear. It seemed easy to make. Nothing complicated. And I got half-way through making the batter, when suddenly the recipe called for a cup of sour cream. So, remembering that we had some in the refrigerator at one point this week, I go into the fridge looking for some.

Nothing. At all. If it’s there, it’s hidden well within the bowels of week old forgotten food that has been left to die a miserably, lonely death. I panicked slightly… but of course, the joy of baking is that there is substitutes for nearly everything. So I took advantage of my good friend google, and found on Yahoo! Answers a nice substitute. 1/4 cup of softened butter and 7/8 cups of buttermilk. To my surprise, I had both on hand. With a sigh of relief, I returned back into my kitchen cave and proceeded with the recipe.

Then I got to the streusal. Now, I made a different streusal then it said on the site to make. This is mostly because I wanted that crumb-cake/coffee-cake like appearance and because I wanted it to have a light cinnamon taste on top. Plus I had a crapload of pecans in my cabinet that needed to be used. So I went ahead and put them to work. Except that I had to roast them. Yes, roast them. Why, you ask? Well, because I wanted it to be extra crunchy and toasted. I’ve never roasted pecans though. I have, however, roasted almonds. So of course I thought to myself, it couldn’t be that much different than roasting pecans, surely!
Wrong. I stove-top roasted those almonds, and it worked out nicely. But with pecans? I was getting more and more frustrated when I saw them not toasting at all, or the shells peeling off. That was not supposed to happen. Once again, I retreated to google, and once again, found an answer. I had to put them in the oven. Duh! I thought to myself. Except that would take a whole ‘nother 10 minutes of my time, and it was already 2:30 AM. I considered scrapping the pecans all together at this point, but I trucked on. These things happen in baking. Expect the unexpected, right? Well, I put them in a small baking dish ontop of some foil, covered them in a bit of vegetable oil and let them sit in there for 10 minutes at 350 degrees (stirring them at 5 mins.) They came out nicely and blended well with the streusal, which was a lot more stickier than I expected. I ended up having to double the streusal ingredients (another crack in the sidewalk…) to be able to cover the whole batter. Even though at the time I was getting more and more frustrated as things kept going wrong (I even chipped the side of one of my glass bowls! 😦 ) I am glad that I persevered through it, because it was worth it.

Unfortunately another part of this recipe was the fact that I had to refridgerate overnight, and then let it sit out at room temperature for a nice 30 minutes before putting it in the oven… which it had to be in for ANOTHER additional 30-35 minutes. Great. I was going to bed at 3AM and had to get up even earlier than normal. This is why I did not update my blog until today. I was way too tired, too exhausted, and just wanted to rest.

I woke up of my own choice around 7/7:30. I originally set my alarm for 8, but apparently my brain decided it wanted to be awake an hour earlier. And I couldn’t have agreed more.

It was absolutely gorgeous outside. Cloudy, stormy, and dewy, but chilly and not humid whatsoever. I haven’t been up this early in so long that I was even more appreciative of the early morning skylines. I did not mind at all the wet grass beneath my bare feet as my over-large pajama pants swept across the ground when I went to go take pictures. I took a lot more than this, obviously, but this one and the one at the beginning of my post came out the best, I think. It was a nice experience. I’ve always loved early morning weather during the fall. Even though in Florida, it hardly gets cold; it can get chilly at times and most of that chilliness comes from the early morning fog. Not to mention, I love that clearing, after-rain smell that always fills the air. So refreshing, and so nice. Sitting outside with a hot cup of green tea and an apple while my coffee cake sat on the counter warming was a great way to start the day, especially with everyone around sleeping soundlessly all tucked in their beds still. There is a certain calming feeling that comes with knowing you’re the only one in the house whose awake in the morning. Though I was tired, it was so beautiful and majestic out, I just couldn’t help but feel so small compared to the broad skies above me. Truly, it seemed like God himself had finely crafted each nimbus with his fingertips. And after such a stressful night (for more than reasons pertaining to baking) it was a very nice moment to spend.

But. This is not a personal-life blog. It’s a food blog. So let’s get back on track, shall we?

Once the coffee cake sat out for 30 mins, I put it inside the oven and set the timer to 35 minutes. It looked weird, and still felt cold, but I trusted the recipes instruction and prayed to God that it would come out as good as I was hoping. Meanwhile, one by one everyone in the house was just starting to wake up. So, trying to speed up time, I decided to make whole wheat banana buttermilk pancakes. I’d give you the recipe, but honestly, I lost it, and I was busy hurrying around getting ready for church and cooking that I did not take any pictures. I do assure you though, they were very tasty, and if given another chance to make them I will provide the recipe and pictures. 🙂

When the coffee cake was ready to be pulled out, I was delightfully surprised. Not only did it make my whole house smell like a bakery, but it just looked scrumptious. To make it look, and taste even better, I sprinkled the streusal with powdered sugar which, I think, made it that much better. I tried a little bit of it and it tasted so moist and warm and crunchy and cinnamon-y all at once. I knew these would be a hit at church, so I cut them into bars, packed them up along with my container of snickerdoodles for the kids and headed on to church.

Everyone loved it. Suffice to say, there was no left-overs, and I got a lot of compliments. Oh, and yes, the kids did love the cookies as well. I had two cookies left over which Michael quickly devoured as soon as we got home. My dad complained about me not saving him any coffee cake, but a nice little reminder of how I made him pancakes this morning, still had muffins in a container at home, and that he had the opportunity to take some at church was warning enough not to say another word about it. Though, I think for his birthday, I’m going to make it for him because I have a feeling he would’ve loved it anyways. Plus, they photographed extremely well. If I wasn’t so scared of my waist line becoming larger than I already feel its become, I would’ve probably ate the whole cake myself.

Overall, great outcome with the cookies and the cake. No complaints, although a friend did joke about how it tasted like sand just to tick me off. I answered him back with a swift punch in the arm. Ah, never joke negatively about a bakers goodies. Especially when the she herself knows it came out good.

(P.S: I am highly amused at the fact that it is called “coffee cake” yet has no coffee ingredients whatsoever in it. Yes, I know, it’s because it’s cake that you eat with coffee. Still though. I just can’t help but find that a little funny.)

Mrs. Sigg’s Snickerdoodles

(Adapted from original recipe found at allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
• 1 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons white sugar (for rolling dough balls in)
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon (for rolling dough balls in)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Cream together butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar, eggs and vanilla with bare hands. If you’re worried about the eggs not being combined enough in the mixture, stir them in instead of using your hands.
3. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl with a spoon or some kind of clean utensil. Then, with your hands, blend in the dry ingredients with the mixture.
4. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls. If dough is too sticky/runny, flour your hands before shaping each ball.
5. Mix the tablespoons sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Roll the balls of dough in it until well coated. Try your best to have it retain its shape while doing so. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
6. For chewier, puffier cookies, bake for exactly 8 minutes. They will not look done, but trust me, they are. Remove immediately from the pan and transfer to wire wrack to cool. For crisper cookies, leave in for an addition 1-2 minutes before taking out. Let sit on pan for a minute before moving it to the wire wrack. Cookies will also become flatter if you do this.

Overnight Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Pecan Streusal

(Original recipe for coffee cake from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients for Coffee Cake:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour cream (or 7/8 cup of cold buttermilk with 1/4 cup softened, warm butter)

Ingredients for Cinnamon Pecan Streusal:

(Note: You may have to double these ingredients to coat the whole batter)

• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped and roasted
• Powdered sugar, to decorate (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt together; add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream. Pour into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2 in. baking dish. Spread until whole pan is evenly filled.
2. In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, butter, and cinnamon. When streusal starts to come together, stir in pecans. Sprinkle little bits over the coffee cake until mostly covered. Cover with foil, and refrigerate overnight.
3. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking and let sit on counter at room temperature with the foil removed. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick can come out clean when inserted near the center. Take out of oven and cool in pan for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Leave in baking dish and serve immediately, or cut into desired sized bars and transfer to wire wrack for an additional 3-5 minutes before storing into an air-tight container.

That’s all from me for today 🙂

Next stop: Chocolate chip cookies! Woohoo. The boyfriend will be excited.

-Alexandra

Sugar cookies: Major Success?!

I need to get a new camera. Honestly haha. The only good lighting I get with the one I use right now is outside and I can’t possible take all my food outside and take pictures of it. However, this came out very nicely:

The sugar cookies I made on Wednesday morning apparently blew everyones mind. I got an offer to make cookies for my brothers awana friends every Wednesday, and even my Dad, who is the pickiest person ever, loved them. I made 53 of those cookies. There’s only 4 left after two days of being out on the table on a nice little platter. I suspect my Grandma and my little brother are the main culprits. xD

I’m excited about the proposal to bake for Awana… It would be a great opportunity to get more known for my baking. And I’ll take any excuse to make some scrumptious cookies. I’ve already began preparing for Halloween, or, as we like to call it in my family, “fall fun night” (We don’t celebrate Halloween.) I’ve got some great ideas to put to use and I’m excited to put them in practice.

And I can’t wait for tomorrow. I’ll be (hopefully) baking Snickerdoodles and trying my hand at Coffee Cake. I’m itching to get back in the kitchen, and going shopping tonight to get some ingredients I’m low on.

Can’t. Wait.

-Alexandra

Sugar Cookie Palooza!

Let’s forget for a moment that I have no idea what the word “palooza” means and just assume that it correctly describes what I have just spent all morning doing.

Yesterday night, I found out my nephew was sleeping over our house. So, being the nice Aunt I am, I decided to go ahead and make some sugar cookie dough yesterday and chill it overnight so I can cut out some cookies and decorate them in the morning. Yeah, well…

Turned out to be more than I expected. Oh, and that’s not all of them, by the way. I have another plateful on the kitchen counter right now. I literally spent all morning from 9:30 AM to 12ish decorating these cookies. Thankfully, my little brother and officially baking helper gave me a hand decorating them. At first, I wanted to give them a really professional look. Get some royal icing, maybe a nice glaze, whip out the piping bag and go to town on decorating these cookies. But when he wanted to help, I knew that idea had to be thrown out the window. Thankfully, it was fun. He did really good although I tried my best to keep him away from the frosting. I used a sugar cookie recipe from allrecipes.com because I wanted to make soft, gourmet like sugar cookies. You know, like the kind you buy from the stores that practically melt in your mouth. Well, the recipe I used, called Michelle’s Soft Sugar Cookies, did not disappoint… at all. Combine that with a nice soft sugar cookie icing, and some sprinkles, and you have cookies that may not look completely professional but sure tastes like it. I didn’t change the recipe at all, but I did use my own sugar cookie icing recipe because it seems to work, and taste best.

Soft Sugar Cookies

(Thanks to Michelle from allrecipes.com for a perfect recipe!)

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Cream the butter and add the sugar gradually while creaming. Beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition.
2. Stir in the vanilla. Add the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt gradually to the creamed mixture, stirring in by hand. Cover and chill dough overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
4. Roll dough out on a floured surface to 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick and cut into your favorite shapes. Place cookies onto the prepared baking sheets.
5. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for exactly 8 minutes or until edges are slightly golden brown.

Sugar Cookie Icing

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (vanilla works too, but messes with the food coloring)
• food coloring of choice

1. Stir together powdered sugar and milk until smooth, making sure there are no powdered chunks. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing has a nice glossy tone and is creamy. If it’s too thick, add either more milk or more corn syrup.
2. Seperate into different bowls for different food colorings, spread onto cooled cookies. Takes about 2-3 minutes of being put on cookie to harden enough to put cookies ontop of eachother.

And that’s it! Sure was a job, but I got it done. I don’t want to look at another sugar cookie for a good couple of weeks. Or months.

I’m thinking of making some chewy, gooey chocolate chip cookies sometime next week after church for the boyfriend. He’s a big fan of CC’s, as he likes to call them. 😛

Catch ya later.

-Alexandra

Honey Cookies

Now I’m not too big of a fan of honey. But when it comes to baking for little children, I can already tell that the savory, gooey, rich flavor is an automatic kid-pleaser. I mean, honestly. What kid do you know that doesn’t like honey? Of course, not on it’s own. You gotta add it to something. In this case, I decided to go ahead and add it to cookies.

I bake every saturday night for the children’s ministry at my church. It’s a good excuse to get baking in and it’s a wonderful treat for the kids who love the excitement of trying some new baked good every sunday after sunday school class. One thing I love about kids is their honesty. At least I know if my cookies suck, they’ll tell me flat out that they do. With adults, they try to sugar-coat everything. Like… “Well, they could use more sugar…” or, “they aren’t that bad.” Kids? Forget it. If they don’t like it, they’ll let you know. Which is why they are my most beloved critics. Plus, you can’t get mad at them! Unless they are you’re kids doing the critiquing, of course.

So this week I had been contemplating what to make, and I decided to make these cute little cookies. I found the recipe for them on Dianasdesserts.com, and they came out pretty nicely, except for the 2 hours that I had to let the dough chill. If there’s one thing I hate about baking, it’s the patience needed to come with it. This hobby has definitely taught me dicipline in that area, that’s for sure! This time around, my younger brother, Michael, decided he’d help me make the dough. While he claimed it was because he was bored/not tired/had nothing better to do, I think we all know the real reason he wanted to help…

LOL.

Anywho, moving on. About the cookies. They came out alright, but the flavor is a little bland. When the recipe called for 3 whole whopping cups of flour, I thought, “that can’t be right… there’s no way this needs that much flour.” Truth is, I ended up using even more than the 3 1/2 cups recommended to get the dough the way I wanted it. Regardless, the cookies came out alright. I’d give them a 4/5. It was extremely easy to make, besides the 2 hours waiting time I had to chill it for. Though I don’t regret it. They rolled quite easily into little balls and taste like small honey cakes. The best part about it that I liked was that, while it had a slightly crispy exterior, the insides are majorly melt-in-your-mouth soft. I had to take them out about 2 minutes earlier than the time given to bake them because I wanted to make sure they didn’t burn, and it ended up giving me nice little puffy cookies.

Don’t they look cute? I decorated them with powdered sugar instead of confectioner’s sugar, since I didn’t have any. The balls I made were actually bigger than 1 inch, but whatever. I was so tired by the time I was baking them I hardly cared if they were a bit bigger than needed to be. What I love about these cookies, though, was that they are easily placed together in a little container. No gooeyness or stickyness whatsoever. Perfect treat for the kids! I can only hope that they will like them. If they don’t, I’m sure I’ll hear about it one way or another. 😛

Honey Cookies

(Slightly adapted from original recipe from DianasDesserts.com)

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup (2 sticks) butter
• 1 Cup light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 6 tablespoons of honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• Confectioner’s sugar/powdered sugar for decoration

Instructions:

1. Cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer, then add in 2 eggs. Mix until well incorporated. Add honey and vanilla; blend until smooth.
2. Add flour and baking soda. Scrape the sides of the bowl down during mixing until you get a thick dough.
3. Chill dough in freezer for about 2 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) before you take dough out.
5. Take dough out and let sit for about 10 minutes. Then, using the palms of your hand, roll into 1 inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.
6. Cool cookies on wire rack and then dust with confectioner’s sugar/powdered sugar if desired.

Hope you enjoy this weeks cookie update. Next week, I’m thinkin’ oatmeal. Gotta put that big bag of whole wheat flour sitting in my cabinet unopened to good use sometime. 😛

Time for bed!

-Alexandra

Chocolate Drizzled Orange Biscotti

I have a confession.

I have never in my life before tried to make biscotti. Why, you ask? The whole idea of it simply scared me. Twice baking? Cutting diagonally? Flattening logs into specific inches? I’m picky enough when it comes to baking cookies! How more so would I be baking something a little more complicated like biscotti? But, tonight, I finally gave in.

The results?
Holy crap, I will never make biscotti ever again… Because it’s so gosh darn delicious! Honestly, when I bake, I hardly ever eat what I make. Most of that is because I’m on a strict diet and another part of it is because I clean my cookie doughed hands with my tongue instead of my sink. But these… these came out so good that I’m dying to make different variations. The funny part is, I usually hate baking crispy cookies. Mostly because I’m cursed with having them always come out extremely flat or extremely overbaked. But these were so easy, and I only had to make a few alterations.

Orange Chocolate Biscotti

(Excuse the crappy camera pictures :P)

I originally found the recipe for this on allrecipes.com. I had to choose between this, and a simple almond and chocolate chip biscotti recipe from one of my cookie cook books. While the original recipe called for the biscotti to be half-dipped in bittersweet chocolate, I couldn’t imagine being able to taste the orange zest with all that chocolate on it. I turned out to be right. For the most part, the recipe was correct, but I did have to change a lot of things. One, I used 2 cups of flour instead of 1. How in the world the maker of this recipe thought one cup of flour would suffice is beyond me. It was much too sticky to even form any shape at all. My choice of 2 cups wasn’t exactly the best, either, though. If I had to re-write this recipe, I’d put 1 1/2 cups of flour. 2 cups ended up being too much, making the dough way too crumbly, while 1 cup made it too sticky. I ended up having to add an extra egg into the mixture which scared me at first but didn’t create too much of a difference.

Another big alteration that needs to be made is the orange zest. I recommend putting in a teaspoon of orange extract or another tablespoon of orange zest to the mixture. The orange flavor is so undertoned that, while you can tell it’s there, it certainly doesn’t burst into your mouth as I thought it would.

And, obviously, I did not dip them into bittersweet chocolate. Instead, I used a gentle chocolate drizzle using about 1/2 cup of melted semi-sweet chocolate chips with an added 3/4 cup of whole milk and tablespoon of butter. It came out perfectly and creates quite a nice balance with the orange flavor.

Chocolate Drizzled Orange Biscotti

(Adapted version from the original at allrecipes.com)

Biscotti Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg (Add another if dough continues to be too runny/sticky)
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup chopped almonds
• 2 tablespoons orange zest (add an additional tablespoon for stronger orange flavor, or a teaspoon of orange extract.)

Chocolate Drizzle Ingredients:

(Feel free to make this whatever way you want)

• 1/2 cup melted semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1 tbsp. salted butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat in the eggs and egg white, then mix in the almonds and orange zest. If dough is too sticky, add more flour until you get the consistency you want. Knead dough by hand until the mixture can form the smooth shape of a ball.
3. Roll the dough into a log about 9-10 in. long; place on the prepared cookie sheet. Press down with the palm of your hand, or roll with a rolling pin covered in flour, until the log is about 5-6 in. wide.
4. Bake for 25 minutes. Bottom should be a light golden brown. After baking, transfer onto a cooling rack or a clean surface. With a serrated knife, cut into 1 inch slices. Place slices, cut side down, back onto the baking sheet.
5. Place them back into the oven for about 10 minutes. Turn them over after the 10 minutes is up onto their other sides, and then continue to bake for another 10 minutes.  When they are finished, place cookies onto wax paper to decorate with chocolate drizzle(*) or leave on wire racks until cooled completely.

(*) Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, or in the microwave oven. If microwaving, melt butter and chocolate first before slowly adding milk until you get the consistency that you want. When you’re happy with the consistency, place into ziplock bag and cut the tip of it off. Squeeze to drizzle onto biscotti. Or use a pipe, if you wish.

Seriously, these came out really good. Needs more orange flavor, but overall I liked them. Dipped some in my green tea and nearly died. Definitely going to make biscotti more often now. The only downfall seems to be that it doesn’t make a lot of servings… but unless you’re baking for a crowd, I really don’t think it’ll matter that much. Well, either way, we’ll see what kind of reviews they get at church tomorrow. Hopefully we won’t have any left-overs, or else I might have to set in an extra 20 minutes to my work-out regime. 😛

–Alexandra