New Year, New Recipes

My friend Carey recently wrote a blog post celebrating New Year's Resolutions, cooking more, and the inspiration of beautiful serving pieces. I could not agree more!

Jude made me this marvelous cake plate for Christmas, and I was so excited to use it. For my first baking endeavor of the new year, I made a batch of Double Chocolate Cookies (which use milk chocolate chips, a new love for me), and they looked so inviting arranged on this elegant plate. People love them, and what they really respond to is the coarse salt that you get with almost every bite, which is why I sometimes call them Salted Chocolate Cookies.

Cake plates made from vintage plates involve finding the right plate and marrying it with the right candlestick or other similar vase. This one works perfectly.

I am hoping to try this myself as a craft project this year, after a trip to the Sunday Flea Market and the hardware store!

Like Carey, I am determined to cook more this year. I tend to go in streaks, trying new things, getting into it...and then I stop and a lot of take-out comes through the front door. Baking is another story - I bake at least twice a week, more when there are a lot of events to attend. I want cooking to be like that, something I do all the time, without thinking much about it. And I am a better baker, so cooking is more of a challenge - all the more reason to practice, practice, practice.

It's Cookie Thyme!

Here's what happens to me all the time - I buy an ingredient for a recipe, use a fraction of it, and then end up throwing it in the compost when it finally spoils (read: turns to unidentifiable sludge).

Today's ingredient was fresh thyme, which I used for my Bacon and Caramelized Onion Tart.

I decided to face this problem head-on by making a batch of Martha Stewart's Cornmeal Thyme Cookies. They use quite a bit of thyme, and they are a nice blend of savory and sweet. I have a friend who doesn't really like cookies or cake, and since it was her birthday, I thought these would be a nice gift since they aren't too sweet.

I used raisins because that was what I had, but they're even better with currants, as the original recipe calls for. Currants are smaller so they get distributed in the dough better, and you get that sweet/savory taste with every bite.

For me, these are the perfect tea cookies. The biscuits that they serve in England are not too sweet, and I find that is best with tea. I love the texture of the cornmeal and the bites of coarse salt that surprise you every now and then.

For gift giving, use a cookie scoop to ensure that each one is relatively the same size. That and parchment paper are a cookie cook's best friends.

My Husband Went to Buenos Aires and All I Got Were These Lousy Alfajores

Well, to be fair, they are very nice alfajores. Alfajores are cookies that are found all over South America - usually a soft cookie sandwich filled with dulce de leche (milk caramel) or fruit jam, and coated with sugar.

The first kind I received were very fancy, with a uniform sugar coating and a big walnut on top. Amazingly, they looked exactly like the picture on the box.

The taste was ok - the cookie part is dry, and the dulce de leche part kind of gets lost in there. As with most alfajores, they're too sweet for me. But I liked the taste and texture of the walnut.

The second kind included a mix of dulce de leche and jam varieties.

They weren't as pretty to look at, but I liked the taste a lot better. This is one with quince jam, which added a much-needed tartness.

The perfect alfajore for me would have a little bit of something salty or savory to contrast with the overwhelmingly sweet taste of the dulce de leche. I have only had those here in the states, where our sweet tooth likes to be shocked a little. Even better, I just love a big jar of dulce de leche to do with what I please - spread it on a cookie, a piece of cake, or over ice cream. There's this one chocolate shop in Palermo Soho in Buenos Aires that gets jars of the stuff made freshly every day. I'll have to get my order in early next time!

Meanwhile, I guess I will just have to *suffer* through these cookies. :)

Chocolate and Bacon

It may seem like a weird combination...until you try it. I first experienced this lovely union a few years ago in Vosges Chocolate's Mo's Bacon Bar. If you have never tried one, go out and get one immediately! It comes in milk chocolate, and dark chocolate - you simply can't go wrong. They sell them at fine chocolate shops, Whole Foods, or online on their website. The sweet/savory combination is irresistible:

So you can probably imagine how excited I was when my sister-in-law sent me her recipe for Chocolate Chocolate Chip with Bacon cookies. I finally made them for the first time last week. Wowza, yum. I changed a couple of things from the original recipe after making them a few times and getting some feedback - increased the amount of bacon from 6 slices to 10 slices, left the bacon in chunks rather than crumbling it, and changed the regular salt to coarse salt (thank you, Martha Stewart, for introducing me to this practice). Also, the original recipe calls for chocolate chunks, which I can never find, so I used Guittard chocolate chips which worked really well.

Overall, most people loved them, even those who were a little bit skeptical about the combination! It's a great recipe and destined to be a new classic. In case you are wondering, they taste mostly sweet with just a hint of saltiness from time to time.

Finally, may I just say how wonderful it is to have another baker in the family!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies

Ingredients:

• 10-12 slices of maple cured bacon
• 1 1/2 C white sugar
• 1 C unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 2/3 C cocoa powder
• 3/4 t baking soda
• 1/4 t coarse salt
• 2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cook bacon in a large skillet over med-high heat, turning occasionally until evenly browned. Drain the bacon slices on a paper-towel lined plate. When cool, tear into small pieces (see above photo for approximate size).
3. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Add the vanilla and beat until well blended.
5. Add the flour & cocoa mixture and stir until just blended. Mix in the chocolate chips and bacon.
6. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
7. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes on cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes approximately 32 cookies.

Christmas Cookies

This is my new favorite cookie. Yet another gem from Martha Stewart, called "Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies", they have all of the flavors of the season mixed into a wonderfully chewy/crunchy cookie. (Thank you to my friend Joanna for sending me the recipe). The recipe is not difficult, but it does involve a few steps which require time in between, so it's something best made the night before you need them - plus, they get better after one day in an airtight container.

The dough gets patted into a round and refrigerated for a few hours, and then rolled into balls and refrigerated again, before rolling the balls in sugar and baking. Again, easy enough method, just allow for ample time.

They are soooo good and look great, with a lovely cracking at the top. I was out of baking chocolate, so I just used semi-sweet chocolate chips, which worked fine. Perfect for gifting.

I had a bunch of walnuts, so I also made the Walnut Cream Cheese Cookies from my Martha Stewart Cookies book.

These are also very pretty and the recipe makes a ton, which is convenient because you can keep the logs of dough in the freezer for weeks. Then if someone pops by for coffee - you can have home baked cookies in minutes!

I had bought these inexpensive brown bags at the Container Store, which are great both for their size and the fact that they are coated on the inside to keep food from soiling the bag. What I did was stamp the bags with my red mitten rubber stamp, and wrap 3 of each cookie in parchment paper, and seal it up for gifts. You can't imagine how nice it feels to give someone homemade cookies in a festive bag, just because.

Cookie Monster

Chocolate Chip Cookies are sacred to me. I absolutely love them, and have sampled all different kinds, over and over. But truth be told, I have never found the right recipe to make them just the way I like them. Which is to say, flat and crisp, with a slightly chewy center. Sounds easy, right? Not so much, not for me anyway. I can't tell you how many batches of cookies I have made that are thick, cake-y and just not right. In fact, it's always been so disappointing to me that I pretty much stopped making them all together. Also, I do not like too many things in my chocolate chip cookies - nuts are fine sometimes, but I feel that with many of the bakery ones, there is way too much "stuff" crowded in there, and you can never taste the cookie.

Well, I was having a real craving for them the other night, so I pulled out my trusty Martha Stewart's Cookies book, and decided to try her recipe for "Thin and Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies". They looked and sounded right, and I had this nice bag of Guittard chocolate chips just begging to be used, so once the butter softened, it was cookie time.

I am pleased to report that they were perfect! And now I know why - there is more butter and sugar and less flour than in a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe, so it changes the consistency. Such a simple thing, but I am so glad to finally have a good recipe in my repertoire, that I just had to share.

One thing, if you make cookies, even just occasionally, it is well worth it to invest in a cookie scoop. Makes the cookies uniform size and with that nice professional looking roundness, and it's a lot less messy than using a spoon. This is my 1 T. size - I also have a 2 T. size that works for big cookies and cupcake batter. Those tools, a KitchenAid stand mixer, and parchment paper (or Silpat sheets), are a baker's best friends.

Thin & Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 1/4 C. all purpose flour
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1 1/4 C. (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 C. granulated sugar
• 3/4 C. packed light brown sugar
• 1 t. coarse salt
• 2 t. pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 C. water
• 2 C. semisweet chocolate chips (about 12 oz.)

Preheat the oven to 350

Whisk flour and baking soda in a bowl

Put butter and both sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment; mix on medium until pale and fluffy, about 3 min

Reduce speed to low. Add salt, vanilla, eggs, and water; mix until combined, about 1 min

Add flour mixture; mix until just combined

Stir in chocolate chips

Drop heaping tablespoon size balls of dough about 2 in apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper

Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden brown, about 20-25 min

Let cool on baking sheets on wire racks 1-2 min

Transfer cookies to racks to cool completely

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and ...

Last month, I participated in the Slow Food Eat-In event on Labor Day, to support the Time for Lunch Campaign with a huge potluck lunch at the Civic Center.

On each table were some fresh potted herbs, to be taken home afterwards by the participants. I took home French Thyme, which is one of my favorites.

One day I noticed that the plant was getting very full, so I decided use some of the leaves to make cookies. This recipe is from Martha Stewart's book called Cookies, which always delights and never disappoints. These are the right combination of chewy/crunchy with great texture from the cornmeal and a savory/sweet, unusual flavor combination of thyme and currants.

I always have cellophane bags and ribbon handy to pack up cookies for friends - after all, the best part about making them (besides eating them), is sharing them.

Cornmeal Thyme Cookies

• 1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
• 1 C. yellow cornmeal
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. coarse salt
• 1 C. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 C. sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 C. dried currants
• 1 T. plus 1/2 t. finely chopped fresh thyme

Preheat the oven to 350.

Whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Mix in the eggs one at a time.

Reduce speed to low, mix in flour mixture until just combined

Mix in currants and thyme.

Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake until pale golden, 10 to 12 minutes.

Transfer cookies on parchment to wire racks, let cool.

Nibble Nibble Like a Mouse

Here is my tribute to Robert Steinberg and the wonderful chocolate that he brought to the world. The recipe, and others, was right inside my trusty can of cacao nibs.


From the Scharffen Berger website:
Cacao Nibs are perfectly roasted cocoa beans separated from their husks and broken into small bits. They are the essence of chocolate. Nibs add crunchiness and subtle chocolate flavor to baked goods and savory dishes. They make a great substitute for roasted nuts or chocolate chips, without added sweetness. Packaged with suggestions for use in a 6-ounce nitrogen flushed mylar bag, they are a unique gift for the home baker.


Scharffen Berger Nibby Cookies

• 1 c. dark brown sugar
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 lb. (1 c., or 2 sticks) butter - NOT softened
• 1 t. vanilla
• 3 c. flour
• 1/4 t. salt
• 3/4 t. baking soda
• 1/2 c. Scharffen Berger Cacao Nibs

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Measure sugars into food processor and blend
- Cut up butter into chunks and drop into the feeding tube until blended.
- Stop processor, add 2 egss, followed by vanilla. Process for 15 sec, scrape down sides, process for an additional 10 sec.
- Remove cover, pour in flour. Add salt & soda and mix it into flour. Cover and process for 30 sec. Scrape down sides and process for an additional 10 sec.
- Remove cover, add nibs, and process for 15 sec.
- Drop onto cookie sheets, adding a sprinkle of nibs on top of each cookie, and pressing down.
- Bake for 8-12 min (until edges are brown, may take longer).
- Cool on cookie sheet 5 min before removing.

Strawberry Oatmeal Muffins

After making Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes for Jen's birthday party on Sunday, I found myself with a lot of leftover strawberries. I decided to make these Strawberry Oatmeal muffins from a recipe that I found online, with a few modifications. They turned out very well - moist, not too sweet, and full of berries. This was great way to use extra stawberries, and buttermilk, too. I like my oatmeal very thick and rough, so I used Bob's Red Mill Thick Rolled Oats, which added nice texture and flavor. I doubled the recipe and it made close to 36 muffins.

Strawberry Oat Muffins

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1 t. salt
• dash of cinnamon, dash of nutmeg
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c. vegetable oil
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1 cup chopped fresh strawberries
• zest and juice from 1/2 lemon

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
- In a small bowl, combine oats and buttermilk. Let stand for 5 min.
- In another small bowl, combine the chopped strawberries with the lemon zest and juice.
- In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg). Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat together the egg, oil, brown sugar, and vanilla.
- Blend in the oat mixture
- Stir in to flour mixture, just until moistened.
- Fold in the strawberries/lemon mixture.
- Fill muffin cups 2/3 to 3/4 full.
- Bake for 15-20 min, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cookie Monster

I've been busy in the kitchen since I came home my trip. I decided to take a break from cupcakes, and try out my new book "Martha Stewart's Cookies". I had been wanting it ever since I made her recipe for financiers from the February issue of MS Living, and one day Charles picked it up for me as a very thoughtful (and somewhat self-serving?) gift.

Here are the financiers, which I made for an Oscar's Party, as a loose interpretation of "La Vie en Rose". They were very pretty, although the shape of the raspberry part was supposed to be a heart, which you make by dragging a chopstick through batter - not easy. They were a lot of work (you have to grind up the almonds that make the base of the batter, and make the raspberry puree from scratch), but worth it.


For my first recipe out of the book, I decided to try something totally homey and unfussy: Peanut Butter & Jelly bars. Both of us love PBJ, so it was a natural, and bars are so much more forgiving than cookies - plus I had most of the ingredients already. When they first came out of the oven, I thought that they were just ok, but after sitting for a day the flavors really developed and they turned out to be very good. I meant to give more of them away, but we found ourselves eating more than we planned! I used a nice Danish strawberry jam and regular Jif peanut butter - I have the all-natural kind in my pantry, but I don't think it would work well in this recipe.


Tonight, I made another recipe which was a little more difficult - Earl Grey Tea cookies. After mixing the dough (which included 9 bags of Earl Grey tea, a lot of butter, and orange zest), you are supposed to shape it into logs, wrap them in parchment paper, and stick each of them into a paper towel roll to freeze before cutting. I ended up with 2 totally different sized logs which wouldn't really form right, and then would not slice without crumbling when I took them out of the freezer. But the dough was so good that I just figured it out and made it work, sometimes having to spackle them together like slightly dried-out Play Doh. They're not uniform like the picture in the book, but they sure are tasty - like a shortbread cookie with a strong bergamot flavor. They would make a nice gift, wrapped in a cellophane bag and tied with a ribbon.


I'll share a cookie-making hint with you - most recipes call for unsalted butter in the batter, which is a given. However, I always use salted butter to grease the pan, especially for bar cookies or cakes, which gives the outside a little bit of extra flavor.

Next, I am ready to try something chocolate - stay tuned!

Lovin' My New Oven!

Cranberry-Orange Bread, from "The Silver Palate Cookbook"


Food-Processor Cookies, from "Donna Hay: Off the Shelf"


Blueberry Muffins, from "Nigella Lawson: How to Be a Domestic Goddess"


Want a bite? :)

Hello, Lover!

Merry Christmas to me! That's right, I got a new oven. Before you go thinking that I am the luckiest girl in the world, let me tell you about my old oven. It had a few...problems.

- Missing front piece of glass covering the door and door handle. This is because it spontaneously combusted one day, in a flurry of glass shards, all over the kitchen. When the oven was ice-cold. I am still finding fragments of glass to this day.
- Missing plastic piece which covered the handle, and the spring for the door. This meant that the handle would get just as hot as the oven, and because it was missing the spring, the door would not stay open. I had to hold the handle with a pot holder, open the oven, balance the piping hot handle against my hip, and get whatever it was I was baking into the oven before getting a first degree burn on my hip. I was sometimes successful.
- Temperature gauge had Alzheimer's. It would take about an hour to head up, and then when the beeper went off to tell me it was at 350, I would tweak it slightly and it would say the actual temperature, usually around 125. Then we would go back and forth with this up and down temperature throughout the entire cooking time. I used to get furious, then I realized that it was just old and forgetful. "Hello...where was I? How did I get here? What is your name? Oh, all right...hello?"
- Cooked unevenly. In order not to have things turn out half-raw and half-burned, I constantly had to rotate the pan to ensure even cooking.

In short, totally fucked up.

So off we went to Home Depot, and ordered our new oven. We have a very old kitchen, circa 1960, so appliances have to be in the Betty Crocker Easy-Bake oven size. Charles did the research, and found the one you see above, ready for delivery. It came yesterday, and he and one of his employees had it installed by the end of the day. The old oven is next to the garbage, in peace at last.

I started re-reading all of my cookbooks, from Julia Child to Charlie Trotter to Gale Gand, to my newest one by Nigella Lawson (thanks Kristina!). I bought ingredients to make a blueberry pie from scratch. I clipped out a recipe for Jacques Pepin's favorite pound cake.

And the food item that took the maiden voyage in our new oven? Heat and eat Nestle's Toll House Cookies! Hahahahaha. Well, I can't think of anything better to accompany the Laguna Beach Marathon. God bless America, and God bless my new oven!