Posts Tagged ‘indulge’

Scones are tricky things. They’re one of those rare baked goods that should be dry, but not too dry. The texture should politely request to be dipped in tea, but not cry out for it.

I had to keep telling myself these things as I made these. I had a craving for oatmeal raisin cookies but wanted to try something new so I went with scones instead. King Arthur’s recipe is a great foundation to start from and I edited from there, and made myself resist adding more milk, more butter, etc. The first time around the texture was, ahem, less than ideal (and the taste of baking powder was unbelievably overwhelming), so this batch had a little more butter, little less baking powder, and brown sugar.

They’re super hearty and dense, but in that good scone way. Be sure to use sprinkling sugar (or some kind of sugar) on top – the texture really completes them. Served with a cup of good tea, they’re perfect.

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It’s time for… Oscar Oscar!

This year I’ve gone all out. I mulled over the idea of throwing an Oscar party and finally decided to go ahead and do it when I found this recipe for Popcorn-Raisinet Cookies I just about died over. Me being me, I had to embrace my old nickname of The Hostess with the Mostest and really have fun with the menu. The fact that the majority of my guests tonight will be my coworkers (aka great cooks but also junk food indulgers) made it extra fun. I wanted to theme everything served around a Best Picture nominee and here’s what I came up with:

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.

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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.

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Few things excite me more than my friends getting enthusiastic about cooking, so when my friend Sara mentioned she tried (and succeded!) making caramel for the first time recently, I definitely got candy making on the brain.

Naturally that led me to something salty-sweet and although salted caramels are featured in the latest Saveur, I’ve had this recipe bookmarked in Christie Matheson’s Salty Sweets for ages. I’ve loved every single thing I’ve made from her book so far and this is just another treat on the list of winners. I added a bit of salt at the end (sprinkled on top for visuals more than anything) but it turned out to be the best decision ever since the caramel itself is just barely salty. Those few extra grains on top make all the difference.

Making caramel can be pretty intimidating since it’s a temperature-sensitive thing, but my best piece of advice to beginners is this: go to your local kitchen store and drop $10 on a candy thermometer. It’s such a small investment for perfect peace of mind when you approach projects like this. You don’t have to guess if the color is right – the temperature will tell you if it’s time to move on to the next step. Plus you can use it for deep fat frying which I’m always going to encourage.

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