2011 Wrap-up! My year in baking...(part 2)

And thus we come to the latter half of the year in my annual baking review. July 

As posted I proclaimed July Gluten-Free baking month! And as noted flour substitutions for gluten-free items from the book Gluten-Free Cookies by Luane Kohnke got kind of pricey. In particular xantham gum ($13 at Whole Foods! Aye!).

First up was jam thumbprints.

These were tasty! Nice butter cookies with a granular texture. Many enjoyed them and I'd make these again. Thing with gluten-free dough from this book was that all doughs needed to be refrigerated for at least an hour. So no baking and then going on the run. You had to let things sit for a bit. And also the mixing of flours and thickeners gets kinda messy. Just sayin'.

Next up was macadamia white chocolate blondies. These were super sweet even for me. Because of the lack of thickener from regular all-purpose flour and the fact that the measurements didn't provide for a lot of substitutes of gluten-free items it was quite dense, more so than you may want in a blondie with a kind of doughy, undercooked texture to it which increases the sweetness of it. My co-workers enjoyed it though.

Follow up to that was sweet cinnamon snickerdoodles. These were good and very much like what you'd expect a snickerdoodle to taste though add the granular texture and them being a bit lighter as well. Whereas the Sweet Melissa snickerdoodles I made had more bite to them these didn't leave you feeling as heavy. I made them for a friend who is a snickerdoodle addict and loves it in all forms. Something else to note with these gluten-free cookies is that they are precious cargo. So make sure to pack them tightly and carry carefully. I gave a couple to a friend who then stuffed them into her purse and then had crumbs within the hour.

After that was flourless peanut butter cookies. I added chocolate chips just 'cause. These were interesting to do as there are a handful of flourless recipes in Gluten-Free Cookies. And it introduced me to the fact that you can make items without flour that aren't meringue. You have to watch these cookies while they bake because they will burn in seconds if you do not take care. Also the peanut butter flavor was booming! With nothing to combat it (even the chocolate chip cookies were dormant) it was all peanut butter in every bite. Again, delicate to transport but good to eat!

And the last item for gluten-free baking month was chocolate peanut butter cups. A chocolate cookie with peanut butter filling inside. Any leftover peanut butter filling can be used to make flourless peanut butter cookies, but these were lighter because the peanut butter filling had egg whites in it.

I liked these. The cookie isn't overly sweet due to the unsweetened cocoa powder so you kind of rely on the peanut butter to give you a kick on the sweet side. Good and not chewy really, a disappointment for me, but somewhat crispy cookie. Better to transport because it's packed more but a big hit with my co-workers at the time.

And although this item was not gluten free I did owe two of my buds (shot out to ALev & Dessert Landscape) for their impending nuptials and so made them one of my fave recipes: dulce de leche & chocolate chunk bread pudding courtesy of Bon Appetit Magazine (March 2008 issue).

This is all kinds of perfection. The perfect solid yet chewy texture that makes a great bread pudding. The mixture is made of a crapload of caramel with cream and you use challah bread to soak up the mixture which is sweet and buttery in itself. Add in chocolate chunks and then sprinkle powdered sugar when done and you have yourself the perfect bread pudding in my opinion. In all honesty I have yet to try one that even compares to the one I've made from this recipe three times. I certainly need to make it more often. But it's hard to part with. Every time I make it I have to give the bulk of it away and only get a taste. Perhaps it's for the best...

August

I improvised a recipe from the basic chocolate chip one and made white chocolate macadamia nut cookies since I had items left over from the blondies I made in July.

These were okay. I found that with using only white sugar instead of brown sugar it took away some of the flavor you get from the cookie so I'll have to work out the recipe again since I am a fan of the combination. Plus I had less macadamia nuts than I'd like.

Another item was double chocolate muffins from one of my go to books Cakes and Bakes. I had to stay up to make these and I have to say I was none too happy with the results. Even for a muffin they weren't very sweet. The double chocolate comes in because the muffin itself has chocolate and you top it with a white chocolate frosting that's really melted down white chocolate via a double broiler (or in my case a makeshift double broiler).

The unsweetened cocoa powder was something you tasted more than anything and could've used more sugar or chips or something inside to pump up the chocolate flavor. Also the white chocolate did not melt as easily as bittersweet or milk chocolate has for me which made the smearing on top quite difficult and irritating late at night. My new co-workers enjoyed them enough as I had made them for my boss before he "retired" but I felt as though I could do better. And I will. This...I vow.

September

This month brought birthdays and fall! So you know that meant some pumpkin cookie action. All good things to those who wait...

Before pumpkin there were Chocolate (chocolate) chip cookies. I added nuts inside to add some crunch and because I just like nuts. This was a recipe from Cakes and Bakes and inside the cookie you had the addition of almond extract instead of vanilla. This made these cookies a hit!  I made these for a friend's birthday and she and her fiance enjoyed them thoroughly. I was informed in many Jewish treats almond extract is a key ingredient. The cookie itself was chewy but firm and the nuts and chocolate chips inside made these a nice treat when biting into it. Add in the almond extract and you get a new flavor that you weren't expecting and all of them work together yet don't overpower one another. Very nice.

Next up is another Cakes & Bakes recipe which was cinnamon seed bars (sans seeds). I'm not a fan of seeds in my goods so I don't really use them even if called for. Perhaps one day I will. This was more cake than bar I have to say and that may be because of the fact that sour cream is involved which automatically enhances moisture. These were very light so I just started calling them cinnamon cake after awhile. And while there is a boat load of cinnamon (a few tablespoons) it has a great taste and cinnamon doesn't seem like the only thing you savor. You get moist cake and cinnamon and it's great with tea/coffee/hot chocolate. And they keep well. I sent them to a friend in Australia (yes, another continent) and her and her husband enjoyed them a couple weeks down the line. Of course I saran-wrapped the hell out of the tupperware holding said cake. Nothing was getting in that box.

And to end September with an Original Creation! As blogged about previously I made a couple cookies based on books I enjoyed this year. The Cold Kiss coconut cookie is something that I have to give credit to the author of Cold Kiss Amy Garvey for creating such a lovely book and for letting me know she's a huge fan of coconut.

This is a soft cookie (you know I love those!) with a nice balance of coconut and vanilla. I wanted to make sure not to overdo the coconut so used coconut and vanilla extract but for the glaze atop it used vanilla only and sprinkled with coconut flakes. It worked perfectly and I wouldn't change a thing about this cookie. You can read Amy's responses in my blog post on these. She's a fan. Again, just sayin'.

October 

October was a heavy baking month for me.

As with the Cold Kiss cookie, I made a book based on another fave young adult novel that released this year. This one by Laini Taylor entitled Daughter of Smoke and Bone called the Blue Karou chocolate hazelnut cookie.

Again, rather than repeat myself from my earlier post in October I am going to provide you the link here. As mentioned I was somewhat disappointed with this cookie as all the flavors I had hoped would come through didn't. But I was quite happy with the picture. Did you see it?

Next up was my latest attempt on the banoffee pie.  I love banana and toffee and all things sugary sweet. So this is a fun pie to make. It came out better than the one I made via the Claire Robinson recipe last year. This time I went with the tride and true Paula Deen. And yup, this recipe had a boatload of butter. Seriously, it was oozing out of the graham cracker crust. As mentioned I made this pie for the Pie Party Live event that Jackie (aka The Diva that Ate New York) started with Ken (HungryRabbitNYC). It was super fun and I met super great people. It was a great and fun-filled as well as food filled time. Really great.

The problem with banoffee pie is that it is meant to be eaten immediately and needs to stay chilled. Since this was a pie party there was a lot to choose from and while it tasted fine after a couple hours it became a soggy mess. Lesson learned. I really need to make banoffee pie that will be eaten soon after I make it rather than piecemeal or at a large convention o' pies. Still sweet and good and everything you'd expect from Paula Deen in the dessert category.

Last but not least was one of my first new pumpkin recipes of the year: pumpkin snickerdoodles. My best friend sent me this recipe via recipegirl.com knowing my love of all things pumpkin.

These were interesting to try. They aren't overly orange and the pumpkin taste is light but there even though you have the standard pumpkin powders. Not only do you put them in the cookie dough but you roll the cookie in sugar, ginger, cinnamon, and allspice.

And going back to the FoodNetwork I plucked a nice banana bread recipe (I replaced pecans with the ever indelible chocolate chips) from The Neely's. I had a bunch of bananas left and didn't want them to go to waste and made some scrumptious banana bread that also called for sour cream in the recipe. These became a fast fave and I ate half a loaf for dinner with milk. So good. The chocolate added to it. If you like bananas and chocolate this is the perfect recipe because the moisture is there. It's very much a bread and not a cake but is so delicious and sweet (in a subtle not overt way) that you cannot help but continue to gorge on it. I can't wait to make this again.

November and December were months I baked but nothing new. I baked a couple days of lemon ricotta cookies for friends and as christmas gifts. You can see from last year that these are a fast fave of mine and anyone who tries them. Thanks Giada! I also made some stuff from boxes. I had intended to bake something new this past weekend but a sudden hospital emergency threw that off. I doubt I'll do any new baking this year and will make sure to get right back to it in January. I mean I have to make up for lost time after all.

While I may be done with baking there are plenty going strong. Particularly one of  the new baking blogs I enjoy Mercedes' Satisfy My Sweet. She has a bunch of pumpkin recipes. Hoorah!

I leave you with a lovely and wonderfully good linzer sandwich cookie my aunt made that I thoroughly enjoyed when she had us over for lunch one day. I have to credit my aunt with my interest and perhaps borderline (read: full on) obsession with baking. My earliest memory is of her helping me bake brownies using an EasyBake oven. Man those were tasty. She got the recipe for this cookie from The Barefoot Contessa. Another one who could do no wrong.

Peace and love and lots of baking to you and yours!

Cookies Inspired by Books! (Newest Creations)

As mentioned in my September 30th post, a new project I created for myself this year was to create cookies based on books. Which I have done! Ta da! In the story collection I am writing baking/cooking plays a strong role in some family dynamics and in a YA book I've outlined, centering around one of the characters in my anthology, the main character is a teen preparing to go to culinary school and uses cooking/baking as an outlet for her feelings. So if my writing was inspired by cooking why couldn't it also be the other way around?

As mentioned in my earlier post the two books I created cookies for were Amy Garvey's Cold Kiss and Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Both books were published in late September and I had the chance to snag ARCs for both at Book Expo this past May.

Via Twitter and her blog I found out that Amy is an avid baked goody lover! That endeared her to me as much as her lovely book did. Cold Kiss is the story of a teenage girl named Wren who has special powers, of the Wiccan persuasion, and uses them to resurrect her first love and recently deceased boyfriend Danny. The results are not what she expects and it's a tale of a lot of internal conflict in dealing with the decisions she's made and the growing selfishness she feels for what she's done. What's beautiful about Cold Kiss is the way that Amy toggles with Wren wanting to consume herself with memories of Danny while also wanting to move on. It's a tough thing to do but she makes Wren both sympathetic and relatable. I mean, if any of us were in the same situation and had the capabilities would we not think about doing the same thing? Also stay tuned for a sequel to Cold Kiss that I believe is due out next year from HarperTeen.

My first thought for the Cold Kiss cookie was lemon (because I love it). I had suggested lemon or coconut to Amy and she said she had a preference for coconut. This worked because coconut could also represent snow hence cold. 

My goal was to create a cakey-type cookie that had a coconut flavor but not too heavy since I am not a huge fan of the stuff. I also knew I wanted to use sour cream because it helps to retain moisture in the cookie and give it that fluffed up texture I like. Ricotta has a similar effect in cookie dough, but is also quite thick (see my fave Lemon Ricotta Cookies a la Giada DeLaurentiis).

Here's the result and the recipe:

Ingredients

Cookie

¼ cup butter (softened)

¾ white sugar (superfine)

1 egg (can use 2 egg yolks for a lighter consistency)

½ cup sour cream

½ tsp coconut extract

1 1/3 cup flour

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1/3-1/2 cup of shredded coconut (dependant on your enjoyment of coconut or you could eyeball it)

Glaze

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 tbs milk (or coconut milk for extra coconut flavor)

1 tsp vanilla extract (or coconut extract for, again, extra coconut flavor)

Shredded coconut (optional for ‘snow’ effect)

Cream together softened butter, egg, and sugar. Once mixed add sour cream and extract.

Then combine dry ingredients (flour, baking soda & powder and salt, suggest mixing these together beforehand).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees or higher (dependent on oven as mine is SUPER hot).

As dough will be kind of liquidy you should refrigerate for an hour or longer. Could even do overnight.

Drop 1 tablespoon or smaller bits of dough on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (a fave of mine). Cookie cookies for 10-15 minutes or until edges are light brown. Try to make sure the tops are a bit firm.

Cool completely on a rack before making glaze. After drizzling glaze atop cookie sprinkle shredded coconut.

The simple glaze can be made with coconut extract but I think vanilla extract adds a nice complement since you have coconut extract and flakes within the cookie and the glaze adds a nice stickiness to have coconut flakes (representing snow) on top which gives it a nice balance. Putting vanilla extract inside the cookie probably would overwhelm any coconut flavor you have so it's best to use coconut extract but not be too heavy handed.

I sent the cookies to Amy and was glad they got to her in two days time. I saran wrapped the heck out of that Tupperware to make sure to retain moisture.

She said and I quote: "They came! And oh my GOD, are they delicious. Like a tiny coconut cake in my mouth! Thank you so much!" And quote: "And Sara, seven and very picky, calls them the 'best cookies ever.' SCORE!" Score indeed. :-)

The next cookie was one I got a quick idea for which was the Karou Chocolate Hazelnut Cookie in honor of the protagonist of Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I knew I wanted to do chocolate because Karou and her best friend Zuzana are fans of the stuff and pastries galore as they study in Prague when the story begins. Hazelnut seemed perfect because this is a huge flavor for coffee and with the story taking place in the colder months and winter approaching here in NYC it seemed like it'd be a perfect pairing. And then I thought cinnamon! So that's a bounty of flavors right there.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is most often referenced as the story of an angel who fell in love with a devil and it not ending well. Which is true. To say too much more would give away the crux of the story of Karou and her mission for the next two books as Smoke and Bone is the first in a trilogy. Karou has a nice life living with said devils who are very humane and kind in raising her like a daughter. But mayhem happens and Karou learns more about her origins realizing she was right in feeling something was missing. Laini is a master of words. Her writing is fluid and engaging and fun and I am in awe. She's also quite sweet and has an awesome artist husband in Jim who's a major talent himself and the most adorable little girl!

So in creating this cooking I knew I didn't necessarily want it to be cakey per se, just chewy.

Here's the result and the recipe:

Ingredients

1/2 cup of butter (softened or near melting)

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp of baking soda

1/2 tsp of salt

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup nutella

blue sugar for sprinkling

Mix dry ingredients together and set aside (may want to sift if you have clumps in cocoa powder). Cream together butter and dark brown sugar then add egg then nutella. Mix together well but make sure not to overmix. Fold in dry ingredients in two portions until mixed well. 

Scoop out 1 inch balls with your hands or spoons onto a cookie sheet with parchment paper. (I'm all about parchment! Less cleaning!) Sprinkle blue sugar atop dough. 

Depending on your oven these can bake pretty quickly. At least 10 minutes or at most 15. For my oven at 350 degrees these were done within 10 minutes. You can tell they're done by how brown they get around the edges and if they are somewhat firm to be scooped up with a spatula. Try not to overbake as they will get hard on the exterior. 

Cool on a rack and enjoy. And watch out for the sugar! I suggest putting a towel or paper towels under cooling rack to catch rogue blue sugar bits.

(Also depending on how big or small your scoops are these can make a little less than two dozen cookies or a little more. Size will also affect baking time.)

As you can see I added blue sugar on top in honor of Karou's blue hair which is a signature physical trait in this book. I was thinking of adding a blue colored frosting or glaze but the blue sugar seems to work well and adds a nice boost of sweetness. Also, the beads in the picture are meant to poke fun at the small trinkets she makes wishes on from her adopted father of sorts, Brimstone.

This is a work in progress for me. My landlord and her husband enjoyed it. I like the cookie but feel like I may have overdone it. I was struggling with whether to use hazelnut spread (nutella) or crushed hazelnuts. In the end I used hazelnut spread and I like the flavor but feel the cinnamon got a bit lost in the mix and that perhaps it should come out more with the chocolate. I could also add chocolate chips because the unsweetened cocoa powder doesn't necessarily give you a high octane chocolate flavor if you're a chocoholic. Again, a good cookie, but I aim for greatness, people.

I brought these to work and got overly positive results. Mainly because people are nutella lovers and since the flavor is there it became a fast fave. But I'll see, since baking/cooking is all about experimentation right?

So those are my two cookie/book creations so far. Any further suggestions? Should I make one based around Libba Bray's Beauty Queens or my fave YA series The Hunger Games? Maybe Eugenides' new title The Marriage Plot or Bonnie Jo Campbell's latest? We'll see.

[Recipes © Jennifer Baker-Henry, 2011]