Posts Tagged ‘baking’
cowboy cookies
Sometimes you just have to bake cookies at 11pm on a Saturday night. And sometimes they just have to be chocolate-oat-pretzel cookies.
I got the Baked Explorations book for Christmas and this is the first thing I made out of it. I love the writing style of the Baked duo and their absolutely meticulous borderline OCD/Rose Levy Beranbaum way of explaining how to bake something as simple as cookies. Use cool (but not cold) butter, use a scoop this exact size, press down on the cookies but don’t smush them, etc. As much as I love to cook on the fly, sometimes it’s more relaxing to just follow instructions to the T. And this T stands for Totally awesome cookies.
Everyone knows I’m a sucker for salty sweets and so the pretzels are of course a fabulous element I love in these. Still, I wish they were even more salty. So in the ingredients listed below I’ve added a bit more salt and say you should use bittersweet chocolate. I think the cookies would just really benefit from it. They would go from totally awesome to super totally awesome. If there is such a thing.
milanos
Time to take a stroll down memory lane.
It’s always fun to try and remember your earliest food memories. My third birthday cake is probably the earliest I have, but it’s more the candles and party than the eating of the actual cake. Eating Pepperidge Farm Milanos at around age 4 on the other hand – now that’s something I can picture with perfect clarity. The bag appearing in the pantry, the fancy fluted wrappers, the first taste of chocolate that wasn’t sweetened milk. I could easily eat the whole bag but knew they were expensive and special and had to make them last. My nostalgia still makes me feel that way anytime I buy them.
They are special cookies. Delicate and delicious with that perfect crunchy cookie and semi-sweet chocolate filling. I rarely buy Milanos these days since I usually have my own baked goods around 24/7, but I came across this recipe while hunting for new cookie ideas and stopped dead. Why hadn’t I ever made my own Milanos before? Upon seeing just how easy the recipe was, I knew I’d rectify that situation tout de suite.
I strayed from Gale Gand’s recipe to make the flavor more akin to how I think of milanos: vanilla cookie + semi-sweet filling. No citrus, no mint, nothing else. Just perfectly combined chocolate and vanilla. And that’s what these are. Perfect. Just how I remember them.
buttermilk cheddar biscuits
These are biscuits that will drag your tush out of bed on a Sunday morning.
Ok, maybe not on a Sunday morning (more like an afternoon for me), but still, they’re pretty damn tasty. Homemade biscuits are just one of those wonderful things that uses all cold ingredients (no waiting for butter to come to room temp) and comes together so quickly, you should always make them fresh. As much as I love plain buttermilk biscuits, throwing in a few handfuls of shredded sharp cheddar cheese only makes them better. So grab some buttermilk at the store in the next few days and whip these up on Sunday… whenever you manage to get out of bed.
double mint chip cookies
My favorite response to these cookies was definitely when a chef friend of mine tried them and simply said, “Your cookie kung-fu is strong.”
The awesomeness of being a baking ninja aside, this batch is definitely the favorite of the holiday cookie bake-a-thon so far.
Originally I wanted to make these cookies using Nestlé’s dark chocolate and mint morsels and of course had my hopes dashed when I learned they aren’t carried within 200 miles of where I live. So I went to the store determined to find suitable replacements and did. Sort of. I ended up combining two different kinds of baking chips to achieve what I imagined the Nestlé morsels would be like – strong semi-sweet chocolate and cooling mint with a fudgey, chewy texture.
These cookies not only taste fantastic, but get bonus points for coming together super easily and freezing incredibly well. I only needed about 2 dozen when I made these, so I froze half the batch on sheet trays and then transferred them to a freezer storage bag. That way whenever I want the second batch I’ll just pop them on a sheet tray and bake. Way better than that refrigerated dough you can buy in the store (if I do say so myself)!
cranberry honey cookies
Good news, folks! I have a whole new group of people to bake for!
Haha, that’s slightly snarky but still true. I got a 2nd job working part time retail to bring in enough extra income to afford a (very) soon-to-be needed car payment. My dear Volvo, as much as I love it, must be put to sleep soon, and my former “Ooh la la!” France savings has turned into the “Vroom Vroom” account. But a new job outside of the kitchen means new guinea pigs I can try my baking out on, which is great news for me!
I decided to greet my new coworkers during a Sunday evening floorset with these cookies which are deliciously spicy-sweet and perfectly chewy, plus dead easy to throw together. Rearranging everything in the store, dusting, putting up new displays… it’s not so bad when you can chat and chow down on cookies like these.
