2009 Was Mighty Fine

Dear readers,

I'm sorry it's been so long since I posted. The last month has been extremely busy for me. I'd like to give you a brief end of the year recap. You may remember that I started this blog in September of 2009 with several goals for the school year. The school year ain't over yet, but the calendar year is, so let's recap some of the high-highs of 2009:

1. I set a goal to win a local cookie baking contest. My efforts at perfecting cookie recipes were chronicled in my "Great Cookie Competition" posts. Well, readers, with a lot of help from my friends, I WON! The winning recipe was the "Chocolate Crackle Cookies" featured on this blog. I will provide a more detailed post with photos when I can.

2. The boyfriend and I dressed as Doug Funnie and Patti Mayonnaise for Halloween this year. We thought that the law school's annual costume contest might be a teensy bit rigged in our favor because 3Ls usually win -- and we did -- but rumor has it we won without any judicial bias.

3. I did not fail federal income tax. I worked very hard and got a solid, but not spectacular grade. Oh well, I'll never have to worry about tax again -- except that I signed up for international tax this semester. Because, by the end, to quote my good friend Miss A in London, "I just -- I just really love tax!!"

4. The Boyfriend became the Fiance!

Great Cookie Competition: Chocolate Peppermint Slices

This recipe came from a British dessert cookbook, "Cakes and Bakes" from Parragon Publishing, 2007. The flavors were delicious, but the execution left something to be desired. My modifications to the recipe and my questions about what went wrong appear in brackets.

Here is the recipe:

4 tbsp. butter, plus extra for greasing
1/4 superfine sugar
3/4 all purpose flour
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
6 oz semisweet chocolate
1-2 tbsp warm water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line an 8 x 12 inch jelly roll pan with parchment paper. [I didn't have an 8 x 12 inch pan, so I used an 8 x 8. The base was still much too small to cover the surface area of the pan. Hmm. Suspicious]. Whisk the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. [Could it really mean whisk? I used a mixer]. Stir in the flour until the mixture binds together. [The mixture would not bind together, so I heated up the butter and used a little water].

Knead the the mixture to form a smooth dough, then press into the prepared pan. [Knead? Not so much. I did my best to squash the mixture together, relying mostly on the heat from my hands, then squashed it into the pan. Squashed. That's an industry term]. Prick the surface all over with a fork. Bake the base in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, until lightly browned and just firm to the touch. Let cool in the pan.

Stir the confectioners' sugar into a bowl. Gradually add the water, then add the peppermint extract. [I added a few drops of green food coloring and some vanilla extract. You can never have too much vanilla!] Spread the frosting over the base, then let set.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over gently simmering water, then spread over the peppermint frosting. Let set, then cut into slices.


The recipe turned out delicious, but the base was more like a cracker than a cookie and there wasn't enough of it to fill the pan. Any thoughts on what I could do differently?


(Image of what I WISH my cookies looked like reproduced without permission from Auntyyochana.blogspot.com).

Great Cookie Competition: Chocolate Crackle Cookies

Here is the recipe for the delicious cookies from Roomie's mom. As Roomie rightly pointed out, these cookies are half-cookie, half-brownie.


Chocolate Crackle Cookies


Ingredients:

4 1-oz blocks unsweetened chocolate

½ cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tsp double-acting baking powder

½ tsp salt

Powdered sugar

Preparation:

1. Heat oven to 350° F. Melt chocolate. In a large bowl, combine melted chocolate, oil, sugar, and eggs; mix well. Add vanilla; mix well. Add flour, double-acting baking powder, and salt; mix well.



2. Chill dough for several hours (overnight is best).



3. Shape dough into small balls and roll in powdered sugar. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350° F for 12 minutes.

Article of the Day: September 13, 2009

I like to buy shoes from Zappos. Or, at least, I like the idea of it. I didn't know that anyone thought Zappos was a cult.

Very busy weekend. But since no one wants to read about how much writing, editing, and reading I've done this weekend, instead I will tell you:

I am back in the game!! This weekend I made a delicious "Chocolate Crackle Cookie" recipe provided by the Roomie's mom. Also, the Boyfriend revised the lemon meringue recipe from last week. This time we used a glass bowl instead of plastic, added cream of tartar to the recipe, adjusted the oven temperature and cooking time, and let the cookies sit in the oven overnight. Success!

The cookies are so good that now we are out of milk.

The Great Cookie Competition: Peanut Butter Cup Bars

I’m writing this entry in the midst of the carnival-like atmosphere that accompanies game days at Notre Dame. The Roomie is rushing around and yelling into her phone (“a gas grill will NOT fit in my car!”).

“Are you blogging about me?” she yells. She is pivoting in front of the mirror.
“I’m blogging about the bars!” I yell back.
“The bars?” Her face appears around the corner. A freshly-applied ND logo glistens on her cheek.
There is a shrill whistle from the kitchen.
“That’s the water for my coffee,” says the Roomie, startled.
I am trapped under my laptop. The Roomie moves her hands as though she is being attacked by a bee. The Boyfriend gets up. He will make the coffee. Magically the French press will be cleaned.
The Roomie turns back to me. “I went to Finnegan’s last night.”
I blink.
“It was really lame, though,” she concludes.
I stare at her for awhile. She stares at me. Realization dawns.
“Different kind of bars.”

Anyway.

The cookie baking contest happens every December. Two years ago, my white chocolate almond cookies didn’t place at all. Last year my lemon cookies came in second. This is my year!

Despite my momentum, I am taking nothing for granted. I am going to test out many new cookie recipes and perfect some old favorites. I will try to do one batch every weekend, until my school work gets in the way.

Yesterday I made Peanut Butter Cup Bars from the “College Cookbook” given to me by my mom. This book yielded the award-winning lemon cookie recipe. The commentary accompanying the recipe glibly announced, “They are super-easy to make.”

Super-easy.

I must have done something wrong. Incorporating all of the ingredients was a workout. Having achieved my target heart rate just mixing everything together, I wasn’t going to let my fickle, apartment oven ruin my hard work, so my Roomie and I stood guard over the bars, checking them often.

Reader, I burned them.

I won’t blame the deluge of girl talk going on as Roomie and I gossiped in the heat seeping from the oven, because we are proficient in both girl talk and baking. So I blame the oven, the heat-seeping, eavesdropping oven.

I may try this recipe again. The bars taste pretty good, as the Boyfriend kindly pointed out, if you scrape the burned bottom layer off.

It's still my year.



(Photo reproduced without permission from stylishcusine.com).