so. many. cookies.

the bean got to participate in the junior high science fair this year, which was at once really cool and slightly stressful.  the students are allowed to choose their own topic, and the bean wanted to do something food-related to make it more interesting.  after scouring the google for ideas, she finally came up with an idea she liked - "how does the type of flour used in chocolate chip cookies affect their size, shape, texture and taste?"  after a little more research, she decided to use five different types of flour: all purpose, cake, almond, whole wheat and bread.  she'd actually wanted to add a sixth type - coconut - but we learned that you can't substitute it 1 for 1 in recipes.  something about the composition of it, i think.

she originally had in mind to have us do the taste testing and judging, but then the hub came up with a better idea.  it turned her science project into a community service of sorts - by asking a local firehouse to help her with determining the results of the experiment and also donating all of the cookies to the firefighters.  sweeeeet.

and so one evening she gathered up all of her ingredients to start baking.  she had to do the experiment twice, which meant two batches from each type of flour.  that's a LOT of cookies.  i suggested that she cut the recipe in half for each batch, in an effort to minimize the output as much as possible.

it was a fun learning experience for her, as she used the classic nestlé toll house cookie recipe but had to convert the measurements into grams to make it easier to cut in half.  i literally had to sit on my hands to keep from jumping up to help her so that it would go faster.  

eventually she had all of the different kinds of dough mixed up and portioned out into perfect little scoops on sheets of parchment.  she was really careful to make sure that the measurements for everything was exactly the same, and enlisted my help in marking the parchment sheets to keep track of which flour was used.

i helped her bag up the cookies so that they would stay as fresh as possible till the next afternoon, when we'd head to the firehouse for judgment day.

it was a loooooong night, people.  i think it was past 1:00 by the time we finally went to bed.  and then when she got up she got to work on creating the bags that each judge would receive.  inside the brown bag she put a sample of each kind of cookie, and then we headed to the nearby baking supply shop to find some sort of packaging for the rest of the cookies that we were donating to the firefighters.

i did take a good number of photos of the shenanigans at the firehouse, where we met six very friendly and funny firefighters who cracked jokes and happily gobbled down the cookies we brought for them to sample.  this is the only one i'm able to share though, because for privacy purposes they asked us not to post their photos anywhere.

because of that pesky virus, instead of laying out all of the details of her experiment on a posterboard to be displayed at a science fair on campus the students were required to create a website that was reviewed by the science teacher and other faculty members.  the hub had helped her make up a scoring sheet that the firefighters used to rate the different types of cookies, and just to add to her data the four of us also did a taste test and scoresheet.

her final results?  well, the overall winner ended up being the cookies made with cake flour.  the least favorites were the ones using almond flour.  they had a very different appearance, although they did have a fun chewy texture that the old lady ended up really liking.  

so the next time you decide to make a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies, you might want to try subbing in cake flour for the all purpose if you have some in the house.  and if you do, let me know what you think.  just for funsies, of course.

baking for fun. WUT

funny, when i look at posts from a few years ago, i notice that i used to do a lot more in the kitchen than i do now.  i mean, i still try to cook often, but i don't really venture out with new recipes as much as i used to.  i really need to get back into that.

i also realized that i hadn't done any baking just for fun in ages.  so when i saw bakerella tweet about red velvet whoopie pies, i decided it was time to turn on the oven for something other than sugar cookies for once.  i've made these before, but it's been a really long time.

mixing up the batter and getting them in the oven was easy.  although when i pulled the pans of cakey cookies out, it was obvious that i'm a bit rusty in the non-sugar cookie department.  i remembered too late that i used to pour the batter into a bag and pipe it out onto the cookie sheets to make them rounder and more uniform-y.  i mean, look at these sad, misshapen blobs!

and those were the "good" ones.  heh.

you know what makes everything better, though?  cream cheese filling.

voila:

i ended up with a crazy number of these things.  like, the recipe said it yielded 16 pies, but i ended up with closer to 20.  not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you.  and i realized that i had the perfect solution for excess baked goods - a cigar lounge packed with dudes on a saturday night.  so i wrapped up about a dozen of them and sent them off with the hub when he left for his closing shift and that was that.  he reported later that they disappeared in about two seconds.  vultures.  ha!

and then a couple of days ago, i got hit with a mad craving for those black and white cookies i used to make so long ago.  remember, i even made pink and white versions that we gave away as favors for the bean's SECOND birthday party?  cah-ray-zee.

although these, too, were nowhere near as pretty as i used to make them.  i've totally lost my touch here.

except that what they lacked in prettiness and presentation, they definitely made up for in taste.  these things are just as yummy as i remember, and the cigar lounge boys aren't getting their paws on these babies.  sorry, guys.

i should go through my old posts and find new (old) dinner ideas!  especially now that it's starting to get super hot 'round these parts again, i'm thinking chicken and gravy and salisbury steak dinners are going to be too heavy anyway.

ugh, summer cooking.  blech.

caramel + chocolate = awesome

a couple of weeks ago, i found this delicious-looking recipe via pinterest (of course).  and then my dear friend lilcee's birthday was last weekend, and so i decided it was the perfect time to give it a shot.

first, i made some salted caramel sauce using this recipe.  i typically avoid recipes that require melting dry sugar in a saucepan, because - well, issues.  it's a total pain in the ass.  but i figured i'd give it a shot, because the rest of the process looked really easy.  plus, it gave me a chance to use some of this precious stuff:

here's the rest of the ingredients.  simple ingredients, but super rich, yes?  look at all that butter!  and full-fat cream!  yowza.

so i dumped a couple of cups of sugar into my saucepan and turned into the whisking nazi - i didn't leave that shit alone for a second.  it took a couple of minutes before it finally warmed up and started to clump.

more whisking led to this.

to pass the time (whisking is boring, yo), i watched a movie.  yup, that's definitely "pitch perfect" on my ipad.  don't judge me.

and then, finally - this:

after stirring in the butter and cream, i was a little concerned that it was so runny and not the lovely thick caramel sauce i'd been expecting.  but i set it aside and let it cool while i worked on the cookies.  i'd splurged and bought some ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips to make sure they turned out just right.

into the bowl with more butter they went.

it only took a couple of 30-second intervals in the microwave to get it all melty.

more ingredients into the mixer.

the batter thickened up after a 10-minute rest in the bowl, and it scooped out nicely.

nine minutes in the oven and they came out puffy and pretty, making the house smell really good.

as i'd predicted, the caramel sauce had thickened up considerably as it cooled.  and there's a lot of it.  i have two jars full of the stuff even after using some for the cookie filling - a simple buttercream with a generous dollop of salted caramel sauce stirred in.

i love making stuff like this.  it was like the old days of making whoopie pies.

look at how pretty they came out!

the recipe warned me that these things were rich.  it didn't lie.

i made up a plate of them to take to lilcee's, and although i haven't heard as to how she liked them, i've at least talked to her.  so i know she hasn't gone into anaphylactic shock from the sugar rush or anything.

that's a good thing, right?

(root) beer me.

i've been looking for a good reason to bust this out:

so when i found this recipe for root beer float cookies that i'd saved on one of my pinterest boards ages ago, i figured i'd give it a shot.  since the recipe yielded a silly amount of cookies - we're talking 3-4 dozen here, with only four of us in the house - i decided to make half a batch.  the dough came together pretty easily, and was really goopy.  just a little thicker than cake batter, but a lot less firm than regular cookie dough.

they baked up nicely in about ten minutes, and they were nice and puffy.  smelled good, too.

after letting them cool for a few (and swatting the bean's not-so-sneaky paw away more than once), i mixed up the root beer-flavored buttercream frosting and started smearing it on top.

but they looked so...plain.  blah.  luckily, my well-stocked baking pantry yielded the perfect decorating touch:

a little sprinkle was all i needed to jazz these babies up just a bit.  looks a little more interesting, right?

although she had yet to have dinner, i relented and let the bean act as my little taste-tester.  she was only too happy to oblige.

i got a "mmmm!  these are really yummy, mommy!  you're the best cookie maker in the whole world."  this kid is slightly biased, though, and besides - if i make it, it contains sugar, doesn't have any visible fruit or anything green...she always thinks it's delicious.  don't get me wrong, i'm definitely not complaining, but her feedback doesn't always provide a clear picture, knowwhatimean?  so i picked one up and popped it in my mouth.

final verdict?  well, although the texture is lovely - really soft and cakelike (reminds me of those soft frosted sugar cookies at the grocery store that are so good...and so bad), i couldn't really taste the root beer flavor.  i'd even doubled the amount of extract in both the batter and frosting.

but the hub liked them, as did the teen.  i guess they're not a complete fail.

pinktastic cookies

what do you get when you mix a box of cake mix, cool whip and an egg?

cookies!

i found this really, really odd.  and because of that, you know i had to give it a shot.  i was looking for something easy to make, and pinterest almost never lets me down.  i'd pinned this recipe not too long ago, and after picking up a box of pink lemonade-flavored cake mix, i got to work.

although everyone else seemed to like them, i'm not 100% satisfied.  they have a fun, light, fluffy flavor that i did like, but i think i may have pulled them out of the oven a little too soon.  so i'll file the recipe away and pull it out again when i need something quick to satisfy a sweet tooth.

besides, i'm thinking it would be pretty delicious with different cake mix flavors - chocolate, red velvet, strawberry.  the possibilities are endless!

sweet tooth satisfaction

whenever i order a milkshake, i always ask for a malted version.  so yummy.  and so when i saw picky palate's recipe for loaded malted chocolate chip cookie bars, i knew i had to give it a shot.  plus, it gave me the chance to use up some ingredients that have been sitting in my pantry for a while.

i first discovered these delicious little crunchy chocolate balls at dots cupcakes.  they used them to top their chocolate cheesecake flavor (which they sadly discontinued not long afterwards), and they're so yummy.  my boss over there told me that she ordered them in bulk - like 5-lb bags at $75 a pop - but then i found them in the bulk section at whole foods.  they're still not particularly cheap, but much more affordable.  the last time i stocked up, i spotted them in white chocolate and scooped some of those up, too.

i'd picked this up at target a little while ago, and the bean loves to sprinkle them on top of her hot chocolate.

and the magic ingredient:

the batter for these cookie bars was really thick, and even more so after i mixed in all of the goodies.  think there's enough stuff in there?  we're talking mini marshmallow bits, dark and white chocolate balls, plus chopped-up malt balls.  my sweet tooth was practically singing in anticipation.

as if that weren't enough, after pressing the dough into my pan, i topped it with even more malt balls and white chocolate balls.  craziness.

and then here's where it went horribly wrong.  being a fairly warm day, i'd decided to skip heating up the big oven and instead baked it in my mini convection oven.  remember how i used to rely on that thing for all of my baking back in the days of apartment living?  well, this time it failed me:

is that the saddest sight you ever saw, or what?  and with all of my pricey ingredients mixed in!  ugh.  i was so bitter as i flipped the whole damn thing right out into the trash can.  but not bitter enough to skip a round two.  although i did wait a day before trying again - i'd already had a baking fail earlier in the day when i attempted some red velvet muffins without a recipe.  now that was sad.  oh, well.

i thought that maybe the fancy chocolate balls might have been a bad call - see how they turned black as coal on top there?  perhaps they were okay mixed in the middle of the batter, but i decided not to chance it this time and used basic chocolate and white chips instead.

success!  after it cooled completely, i cut it into bars.

and let me tell you - these are SWEET.  i loved 'em, but both the teen and the hub winced a little at the level of sugar in them.  it's a good thing the pan doesn't yield a ton of them - a little goes a long way.

but still...give 'em a try if you like sweets.  and malt.  and white chocolate.  and crunchy little mini marshmallows like the kind you find in prepackaged cocoa mix.  ohhhhh, so good.