Tag: cookies

Baking

Cream Cheese Peanut Butter Cookies

Emerald Thunder

You want a cookie whose aroma will waft throughout your apartment building? This is your cookie! These Cream Cheese Peanut Butter Cookies came together super quickly, and I eventually got the hang of baking them.

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At first, I didn’t roll the dough into balls before baking, which caused some frustration in not being able to get a decent cross-hatch on top. But by the last four, I rolled the dough into balls and got a lovely little design on each. These last ones also cooked and browned more evenly. So, note to self, don’t just plop the peanut butter cookie dough onto the sheet. Take another minute to get a smooth, evenly browned, cross-hatch-having cookie!

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I didn’t have any sanding sugar like the recipe called for, but I did sprinkle some raw/Turbinado sugar over top each cookie before baking.

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Baking

Black and White Cookies

Emerald Thunder

Everyone has that special thing they do when life gets hard or overwhelming or sad. In my case, I bake. And this week I needed to bake more than ever before. I received some tragic news on Monday, and I couldn’t even make it through the afternoon before making these cookies. Even now I’m still trying to process what happened, but taking the time to keep my hands busy and to concentrate my mind on something else helped me immensely.

I have a confession: I’ve been in New York for nearly four years, but I have yet to try an authentic Black and White cookie. I know, bad me. However, after making this recipe from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures, I will make a concerted effort to find and sample a real one. I thought these were pretty good, even though I didn’t have any lemon extract, so I can only imagine how tasty the genuine article must be.

The cookie component came together easily, and I’m impressed with how long they have remained fresh. I heard that black and white cookies dry out quickly, but that’s not the case for mine. The last one is still going strong three days later, but I can safely say it’s not going to have the opportunity to become stale.

As for the icings, I prefer the plain over the chocolate. The chocolate is wanting for something, perhaps some salt to round out the flavors? I liked to combine the two sides when I ate the cookies, though, saving for last a big bite in the middle with both icings. It took me a couple of cookies to work out this strategy, but it’s a keeper, just like this recipe.

Baking

Brown Butter Oatmeal Chip Cookies

Emerald Thunder

Brown butter. Oh my goodness, why didn’t I make or use this delicious thing before? I’ve been reading about brown butter everywhere, but I never took the time to actual make any of the recipes I saw. Until now. And oh boy do I wish I had done it sooner!

I’ve been craving chocolate chip cookies for a few days now, and if not for my lack of vegetable oil I would have made a batch of my regular cookies. But now I’m glad for my kitchen not being fully stocked. How Sweet It Is posted these Brown Butter Oatmeal Chunk Cookies, and wow are they good!

They’re more than just a regular chocolate chip cookie. The cinnamon and oatmeal create a banana bread-y flavor, and there’s also an extra bit of a spicy kick in your throat. So not only are they like a hybrid cookie, they are exciting cookies!

These cookies are also super soft, but ever so slightly crumbly.

I rolled the first batch into balls like the recipe said, and they didn’t spread out much at all. I pressed down the second batch a bit and they spread out more, but still stayed nice and thick. Of the two, I’m more a fan of how the second batch turned out.

The brown butter was much more evident in the cookie dough than in the final product, which is slightly unfortunate. There are hints of it working with the cinnamon and the banana bread-y flavor, but it’s definitely not as prevalent once baked.

All in all, this was a delicious little foray into the world of brown butter and alternate types of chocolate chip cookies. Delicious results overall!

Baking

Happy Pi Day!

Emerald Thunder

I have to admit, I completely forgot about Pi Day this year. But for a very good reason. My mind has been in such a St. Patrick’s Day mood that I’ve only been thinking about baked goods for that holiday. You would think that if there is a fun occasion for baking I would be on top of all of them, but I guess not. At least not when they’re close to March 17th. 🙂

Even though it’s spring break I have a ton of work to do, but this gorgeous weather is teasing me and I can’t help but stare longingly out my windows at the beautiful clear blue sky. Who could blame me?

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Spring is certainly on its way. I feel like we almost don’t deserve it because of the extremely mild winter we’ve had. It sort of feels like cheating. Oh well, who am I to turn my nose up at what we’ve been given.

Okay, back to celebrating Pi Day!

As soon as I saw what day it was, I scrambled to find something to bake. A fruit pie wasn’t an option because I don’t have enough fruit for one, nor did I want to consume an entire pie myself. Pizza pie, shepherd’s pie, all savory pies were out because the weather right now just doesn’t warrant comfort foods. Ah ha! I can cheat the system! I don’t have to make a pie at all.

And thus my purple Pi-shaped sugar cookies were born!

I’m not even close to the first person to make these, so cheating doesn’t actually seem so bad. It’s in the shape of Pi, so it totally counts!

This is the first time I’ve ever really tried to make sugar cookies with the intention of flooding them. I’m not usually one to even make sugar cookies in the first place, because I can never find a recipe I really like. I’m super picky about them. In this case, I used The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies from Allrecipes.com.  I approve of these ones. Wholeheartedly.

These Pi cookies gave me a chance to break out the tiny piping tips and the couplers I bought back in January and haven’t used yet. I’m a big fan of couplers now, just gonna put that out there.

Not too bad a job, right? I was actually GIDDY when I took these pictures. I am so easily amused by success with baked goods.

This was also the first time I’ve made my own royal icing. I’ve done the gingerbread house thing before, so handling it isn’t new to me, but I’ve never made it from scratch. I used the recipe with egg whites on Joyofbaking.com.

I also got to use the Wilton gel food coloring I got at the same time as the tips. I’m amazed at how little I used and how VIOLET they turned out. The tiny pot is certainly going to last a LONG time. Yay for my wallet!

The only complaint I had about these cookies was that they took FOR. EV. ER. to make. It might have sped the process along if I didn’t have to cut out the cookies with a template, but I can’t complain too much because I love the final product. I ended up cutting/freezing/baking three at a time because that’s how little time it took the dough to come to room temperature and get super sticky.

It was a long process, but I got to learn new things and hone some skills I didn’t know I possessed. In the end it was totally worth it.

Happy Pi Day! I promise I won’t forget next year!

Baking

I’m In Love With My Muffin Top Pan

Emerald Thunder

Along with my doughnut pan, I also recently got a muffin top pan. I’ve been seeing these two specialty pans everywhere online, and I really wanted to jump on the bandwagon. How can you not want to when you see so many delicious things that you can’t replicate without specific types of bakeware? I have to say that baked doughnuts and “muffin tops” are two trends that I am more than happy to follow.

I have to admit that I did not use my muffin top pan for muffin tops. . . . Instead I made DEEP DISH COOKIES! I have also been seeing these everywhere, and, while I know they can be semi-replicated with a regular baking pan, I wanted the full effect, and boy did I get it.

I used Picky Palate’s XXL M&M Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I had made a conscious effort to save my Christmas candy for baking purposes, and I’m glad I did. The cookies had a bit of a late Christmas theme because my M&M’s were from the Christmas candy cane containers. I didn’t have quite as many as I wanted, but I made up the difference by adding some extra chocolate chips.

Overall the recipe was good, but definitely NOT like my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe. I hate to say that, while these cookies certainly made a statement with their sheer size and appearance, they were lacking in the taste department. I think they could have used a little bit more sugar, and certainly some more salt.

I still thoroughly enjoyed them, though. This pan makes for the perfect size “giant cookies.” They are not so overwhelmingly large that they can’t be consumed by one person.

I think my next venture with the pan will be with my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe. My mouth is watering already, and I’m just thinking about it.