Guaranteed you know I’m already figuring out how to tweak these to make them better.
Tag Archive: cookies
I’m good at this!
In talking with someone I know, we kind of identified the fact that I like to do awesome stuff to somehow get the approval of other people. ”Oh, I’m good at this! People are going to think I’m awesome!” I know it’s sort of neurotic-sounding when I frame things that way, but it’s sort of true. It’s part of why I coach. It’s part of why I do improv. It’s part of why I bake. It wouldn’t be uncommon of me to really go out of my way to do something to help out even though it would be a big time sucker for me and my personal time.
Over at my not-so-local Running Room they’re having a bit of a Canada Day potluck event on Wednesday. I wanted to contribute! I was thinking about it on my way back home from coaching. I would probably make glazed shortbread cookies, but that would require blocks of butter, which would require me to head to the store. By the time I get back it’d be about 9-ish, which would mean I have a few hours to get it all together. While I’m working on that I could multitask and work on coding a website that I volunteered to do. I could do that all while catching up on PVR’d episodes of shows that I’ve been meaning to catch up on. If I’m lucky I could get to sleep by 1 or 2 a.m. Hurray! Yeah, after outlining things that way, I decided to just let go of baking for the event. There’s just no sense in trying to cram that in. There’s no time! As much as it would be appreciated, it’s not a matter of life or death if I participate. And in not doing so people are not going to judge and say “Oh, Jason is so damn lazy!” There’s no need to kill myself for a bit of approval. If I bake it should be because I genuinely want to do it.
More out of the oven
This is a bit of a follow up to the previous post about shortbread. Kind of old news if you’ve been keeping up with me on Twitter or Facebook, but I think it’s still worthwhile talking about it here. So, in the last post I was wondering whether to glaze the cookies or not. I ended up doing so. I did use Bailey’s. The past few times I’ve iced shortbread cookies I just did a simple glaze. It was basically a cup of icing sugar well blended with 2-3 tablespoons of some flavouring. Lemon was awesome. Coffee and pomegranate were mild. I did some more searching online for an icing recipe and found one that used light corn syrup. I made the assumption that using it probably made for a harder and shinier coating. I gave it a shot. In place of milk I used Bailey’s, and in place of almond extract I used vanilla. The result was rather good. The smell of Irish cream was pretty strong. I was actually afraid the alcohol might overpower the whole thing, but over time the smell got weaker. Being that the glaze was brown, it was a bit tough seeing which parts of the cookies weren’t coated. The end product had a few spots that were missed. I think next time I’ll probably throw in a few drops of colouring to make the coating stand out.
In the end, they looked awesome. They were well received. I think one guy marvelled at how the cookies seemed to melt in his mouth. I guess I owe it to a good recipe. Shortbread is pretty simple too. It’s a good recipe to keep on hand.
Still riding on the urge to bake, I decided to give Food Network’s cooking challenge a shot. This month it’s craggy chocolate cake. Four ingredients to a flourless chocolate cake. That’s crazy! Assembling was interesting. The tricky part for me was mixing the three other ingredients to the meringue. I wanted to make sure it was all mixed, but not to the point where I was killing all of the air I’d just beaten into the egg whites. The batter seemed to have chunks of meringue when I poured it out, but I hoped that they’d just get incorporated somehow. In the end, the results looked pretty cool. The cake cracked and sank just like the recipe said it would. Frankly, I think the cake looks awesome.
I made this cake for a get together tomorrow, so I haven’t yet cut into it. I’m a little bit nervous about bringing it. It doesn’t look like a standard chocolate cake, and the cracked and craggy look may be off-putting. Well, if no one eats it then it means more for me. I know that it’s going to taste bloody awesome. So there. I’ll let you all know what happened with this cake.
Bring snacks
Bring snacks
That was the directive given. I was invited to a small get together and I figured that it was a good excuse to bake. I took the same recipe that I’ve used in the past (like with the lemon shortbread) but instead of rolling it out and using a cutter I made many uniform balls of dough then flattened them out slightly. That resulted in cookies that were more mound-like than flat. They look rather great. I’m on the fence as to whether or not I’m going to glaze them, but if I do I’m going to go with a Bailey’s based frosting. Honestly, whether or not I go that extra step doesn’t matter. This will go better than the last time I tried to bring food to a get together. More than anything, I’m just happy to work my baking skills again. It just feels right.
Products of an idle mind
OK, yeah, I know I’ve posted these cookies on my social networks and all, but these look cool.
Beware a Jason that’s idle and looking to be productive. He ends up making baked goods.
V-Day cookie
I was walking around after work. Over at the corner of Queen and Spadina this really cheerful woman was handing out things from a basket. As I passed she gave me a cookie from that basket while exclaiming “Happy Valentine’s Day! Spread the love!” The cookie was thin and heart-shaped. The heart was dotted with sprinkles and had a little centre of some blue chewy thing. It was in a small plastic baggie and had a quoted line of prose written in Times New Roman on a little slip of paper inside. According to the slip, the line on mine was from The Secret Life of Bees. Anyway, I’m sure I smirked when i got it, but at the very least I gave her thanks. She was just so earnest. I stuffed the cookie in my pocket. Well, one obvious thought crossed my mind.
Yeah, what if the cookie was poisoned? Accepting food from a total stranger? Craziness. Well, hours later, I remembered how earnest and enthusiastic the youthful woman was. And upon looking at the cookie I figured that if there’s something wrong with it I probably wouldn’t be horribly poisoned from it. So…I did the unthinkable: I ate it.
And here I lie, writing about it. My faith in humanity is restored.
Cranberry chocolate chip cookie
At some point a long time ago I put out a cup of utter on the counter in a Ziploc bag just so that it could warn up to room temperature softness. I had plans to bake with it. I didn’t get around to it right away, unfortunately. A month went by where every day I’d look at the butter wondering whether I’d find some reason to use it. Yesterday I finally decided to get off my butt to do something about that. I decided to make a batch of cookies using my standard chocolate chip cookie recipe. No, I didn’t want to make shortbread because that required rolling. I wanted this to be a less fuss-worthy affair. I needed two ingredients, so I scanned my cupboard for options. In the end I decided to go with dried cranberries and semisweet chocolate chips. I took the standard chocolate chip cookie recipe and tossed in one cup of dried cranberries. Those cranberries had been sitting around since the new year. See, I originally wanted to use them in the new year to make holiday cookies. Unfortunately, I just never got around to it. Good thing is those dried cranberries held together really well. Well, holy shit, the combination of chocolate chips and cranberries just rocks. There’s a sweet, tart, melty, chewy quality to the resulting cookies that’s just ridiculously awesome.
So yeah, now I’m stuck with a ridiculously huge pile of cookies. I’ll find one way or another to get rid of them, besides consuming it all. I do want to make another batch soon. I’ve already decided that white chocolate cashew is next. However, I really need to work on finding a way to make it all fit into my healthy eating thing. I will make it fit, no doubt. Still.
Jason’s 2009
Just like I stated last year, at this time of year I have a tendency to avoid doing these run down type posts. I tend to do these on my birthday, and usually it’s enough. Thing is, I think for a year like this a little bit of navel-gazing is necessary. There’s a lot of talk about this year being a tough one. By and large, yes, it was tough. With all of the doom and gloom, it can be easy for me to sink into a dark place. There are, however, enough reasons for me to look up and forward. That’s why it’s important for me to see what I’ve gone through.
This is one heck of an entry, so I’m placing it after the jump.
Recent Comments