Undergoing Renovations & The “Baked” Chocolate Chip Cookie Disaster

I’ve decided that this site needs a little refreshing and a few renovations.  I’m currently at home with my 3 1/2 week old daughter and as tired as I am, I also need something to keep me busy for a little while. So I’ve decided to get back on the blogging horse.    I’ve definitely had a few things I’d like to share, as well as questions I’d like to ask. 

For example, I just received the Baked cookbook for Mother’s Day.  Of course the first things I want to try are the basics – chocolate chip cookies and brownies.  I tested the chocolate chip cookie recipe first.  They were a disaster.  I’ve never had such problems with a cookie recipe before.  The baking time suggestion was way off.  By the time the middle was cooked, the edges were dark brown.  The flavor itself was fine, but my cookie didn’t look anything like the picture in the cookbook.  I even let the dough sit in the fridge for 6 hours, just like the recipe said.  I’m wondering if anyone else out there has had success with this recipe, or if your results were the same. 

Anyway, I doubt anyone’s even reading this blog anymore.  But if you are, let me know if you’ve tried these cookies.  Please. 

Sugar, Sugar and More Sugar

So…I had my glucose tolerance test today.  Let’s just say, I did not pass with flying colors.  Which means I have to go back next week and take a 3 hour test (they take my blood, give me the nasty orange drink, take my blood an hour later, another hour later then another hour later).  I went through this with my first pregnancy and it turned out fine.  However, I don’t remember what my level was the first time around.  This time it was 50 points higher than the cutoff.  I wonder if eating ice cream around 9pm last night had something to do with it.  I was supposed to fast – no food after 8 and no liquid after midnight.  Oops.  They forgot to mention that when I made the appointment and how’s a person supposed to remember something like that from 3 years ago?    Anyway, I’m trying not to worry about it, but I think I’ll lay off the sweet stuff for the week, just to help my chances.  My motto has always been “everything in moderation”, so having to be on a restricted diet for the rest of the pregnancy (3 more months!) would kill me.  Haha, ok, I’d do anything to keep myself and BG healthy, but UGH.  No thank you.

Let me just leave you with this sweetness.  This picture was taken a few weeks ago at my in-laws.  I had my nephew on my lap and MC decided he wanted to hold him on his lap. This gives me hope that he will get along just fine with BG. 
 
(photo taken with my iphone)

Just Some Randomness

My local Kroger had blueberries and strawberries on sale this week, so of course I had to get some.  I ended up making some blueberry scones, but I’m going to have to work on the recipe a bit more before I post it.  I’m still trying to figure out what to do with my strawberries.  I already have some sliced up to put on top of my ice cream this evening (no, I don’t eat ice cream everything night!), but I still have some left to tinker with.  Any suggestions?  I may have to peruse foodgawker to get some ideas. 

I’m sure I’ve mentioned the blog Simmer Till Done on here before. If you haven’t checked it out, you should.  I came across Marilyn’s “Two-Bite Jam Tarts” post the other day and I knew I had to try it out.  I loved the cream cheese dough! It came out soft and moist, yet crispy all at the same time.  I think they need to be re-named to “Bite-size”, but then again, I do have a big mouth.    I even tried making a larger version with blackberry jam.  Oh so good!

Last Tuesday was the second day of my Fundamentals of Baking class.  We were supposed to have a lecture and discuss the chapter we read (ok, I read it before I went to class), but ended up baking for a charity luncheon instead.  The instructor prefaced it with the fact that he normally wouldn’t let us into the kitchen for a few weeks, but because the luncheon was tomorrow, blah blah, yadda yadda, it would make the school and the department some money, so we could have more supplies, yadda yadda.  Um, I pay extra every semester for “Culinary Arts” supplies.  Where’s that money going exactly?  I mean, I know they’re trying to fix the restaurant/kitchen up for the CA program, but he needs to stop making these events priority over our education.  I can’t make something nice, if I don’t understand how to do it.  You know?  So, we’ll see how tomorrow goes. 

One interesting thing I learned through reading my book, shortening is called shortening because it shortens the gluten strands.  Isn’t that neat?    It was something new to me and something I don’t think I actually really ever though about before.  Cool. 

I’m off to relax for a few…

No, I Haven’t Fallen Off The Face Of The Earth

I think I’ve started and re-started this post a bajillion times now. I’ve also been thinking alot about what type of blog I want to maintain. I don’t want separate ones for “me” and for food, especially now that they are more intertwined than before. I think my main problem is actually keeping up with it. I was doing well when I had a desk job. I could spend my “break time” online and working on posts. Now my break time consists of scarfing down some lunch and heading back into the kitchen. Which, I don’t mind, it just forces me to use some of my at home time on the computer.

I’ve actually been doing something these past few months, I promise. Let’s see…since the last post Thanksgiving came and went. We visited my family in Kansas and I found out two of my girlfriends from back home, who are sisters, are both pregnant. We’re all about 4 weeks apart from each other! My mom told my sister not to drink the water. Haha!

Christmas came and went. I made a pumpkin cheesecake with an awesome graham cracker and pecan crust that I took to the in-laws. MC’s teachers received a tray full of goodies this year: red & green sprinkled sugar cookies, dark chocolate covered pretzels, chewy cocoa brownies, ginger molasses cookies and chocolate peanut butter squares. Man, when I was making those pb squares I just about licked the bowl clean they were so good!

There’s a lot that has happened in the past few months that I wanted to blog about, but never got around to. I quit my job at the “mass production” bakery and now work at a much smaller local bakery/cafe and I love it. I started working there about a week or so before Thanksgiving and I’m so glad I did. One day here is different than the next. I’m not baking up sheets and sheets and layers and layers of cakes every day. Some days I’m making pies, other days brownies, most days some sort of soup (for their lunch business), sometimes bundt cakes or muffins. Although, when Christmas rolled around, it was brownie central in there. They do a huge mail order business around Christmas. Everyone wants brownies shipped to friends, family and co-workers. I’m actually not a huge fan of their brownies. But I must say, the best way to eat these are frozen with ice cream. OMG! Baby Girl (BG) loves it too.

Speaking of BG…this girl moves around in utero way more than her brother did. At least from what I can remember. I’ve slept alot since then. But seriously. At 9pm all I want to do is sit on the couch and relax for a little bit. But, noooo…she wants to have a dance party in my belly!

And then there’s school. I completed my Basic Food Prep class with an A, but that was to be expected. We had an open book final, which I finished in 30 minutes, because I actually studied the guides, that the questions came directly from. So…yeah. Anyway. I’m hoping my Fundamentals of Baking class (5:30pm-10:00pm on Tuesday nights) is structured better and I that I learn more. Otherwise, I’m going to wait until they get their act together a little better. I’ve already talked to the instructor about possibly having to take the final early or late due to extenuating circumstances AKA giving birth. Heehee.

I don’t know if anyone is even still reading this blog, but if you are, thanks for sticking around. I promise to work on more content and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to at least do 1 or 2 posts a week. There are currently a couple rattling around in this noggin of mine. Be on the look out for some Buttermilk Waffles and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies.

Where Do I Start?

So much has happened in the last, um…when was my last post?  Dang, over a month ago?  Ok, let me start over.  So much has happened in the last few months really.  I started a new job, I’m taking a class on Thursday nights, I’m preggo with baby #2 due in April…what?  I didn’t mention that?  Oops.  I’ve just been so caught up in everything in else.    Not totally true, but I have been so tired that I haven’t had the energy to do much but go to work, scrounge up some dinner and sit my arse on the couch.  Hopefully I’m getting over that hump and things’ll be smooth sailing from here on out.  Hahaha!  I crack myself up.  But, I am hoping to get over this extreme tiredness and nausea soon.  I’ve been fortunate enough through both pregnancies to not have major morning sickness – and why the heck do they call it morning sickness when it’s really all freaking day?  But seriously though, we’re so excited!

our little gummy bear

I wanted to post something today that relates to autumn.  Something that let’s me know it’s that time of year again.  Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  For me, that’s pumpkin.  What’s strange is, I say I love pumpkin.  But what I really mean is sweet pumpkin.  I don’t think I’ve actually had anything savory with pumpkin.  I’ve seen recipes for pumpkin lasagna, pumpkin soups, even pepitos (the seeds), but I’ve never tried them.  To me pumpkin is always associated to sweet fall treats.  I’m not sure why that is.  Something to think about…

well hello there mr spider

Work has been busy, but apparently not as busy as it’ll be the few days before Thanksgiving, and Christmas for that matter.  I’m not looking forward to that at all.  Plus the fact that I won’t be able to visit my family in Kansas until after Christmas.    But, on the bright side, they may be coming down here to see us.    Anyway, back to work…We’ve been making pumpkin pies (from a bottled mix) lately, just a few to get everyone interested.  I asked about the cheesecakes.  We already make and decorate plain, strawberry, cherry, rainbow (different fruits), chocolate, turtle fudge and white chocolate cheesecakes.  I wondered if we were going to do pumpkin.  Not to give myself something more to do, because believe me, I don’t need that, but more out of curiosity and wanting to contribute something.  Someone mentioned purchasing frozen product and re-selling it.  I’m thinking to myself, why do that when we’re already making about a dozen cheesecakes a day.  Why not just turn a few of those into pumpkin cheesecakes?  We could use the mix we already have and we wouldn’t have to worry about spice ratios or getting pumpkin shipments.  So, I made one up, had the general manager taste it and ta-da, it’s on the list…for $26.95 a pop!  Sheesh.  I shoulda just kept my mouth shut, made them at home and sold them for like $19.99.  I coulda made a killing!   

Let’s move on to something more fun than work.    When I saw that this month’s Cookie Carnival recipe was Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies I was thrilled.  I’d made some Pumpkin Whoopie Pies last year and they came out great.  But, as I was reading through the recipe I realized that the cookies themselves were made from cocoa and that the filling was pumpkin flavored.  I figured I’d give it a go…something a little different.

I pretty much stuck to the recipe – I’ll indicate where I made changes – and they turned out pretty good.  I think if I had to do it again and I wanted more pumpkin flavor, I’d put it in the cookies and not just the filling.  The filling gives you just a hint.  It still tastes mostly of cream cheese, which is fine, but I wanted something more.

Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Yield: 18
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
Cookies
1¾ cups all purpose flour (used ½ cup whole wheat and 1 ¼ cups all purpose)
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
1½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup vegetable shortening (used butter flavor)
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed dark brown sugar (used light brown)
1 large egg
1 cup whole milk (used 2%)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Filling
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
¼ cup canned solid pack pumpkin
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
(replaced cinnamon & nutmeg with pumpkin pie spice)

Directions:
Cookies
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.

Place butter, shortening, and sugars into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add egg; mix until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in half the flour mixture, then the milk and vanilla. Mix in remaining flour mixture.

Drop about 2 teaspoons dough (I used a small cookie scoop) onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake until cookies spring back when lightly touched, 12 to 14 minutes (only took about 10 minutes for me).

Transfer baking sheets to wire racks and let cool 10 minutes. Remove cookies from baking sheets and transfer to wire racks using a spatula; let cool completely.

Filling
In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip together cream cheese, butter and confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Add pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg; whip until smooth, scraping down the bowl as necessary.

Pipe or spoon about 2 teaspoons filling on the flat sides of half the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, keeping the flat sides down.

Ok, so, for those of you who are even still reading this blog and want to know what the picture in the last post was, Grace, who commented on the post was correct.  It’s mochi.  It’s made from rice flour, sugar and water.  Very easy recipe, but it can be difficult to work with.  You have to work fast, not only because it’s hot, but because it’s sticky.  And if you let it sit too long, it firms up on you and then you can’t shape it very well.