Monday, April 25, 2011
Easter Surprise
On Saturday I made a cake for our Easter dinner. I had planned to frost it Sunday morning. Before I crashed in bed I went around the house turning off lights and noticed a crinkled paper towel on top of the cake. Apparently somebody couldn't wait and thought a paper towel would either: a) hide the evidence, or b) seem silly enough to make me laugh. (Which worked. But still...) :-)
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Too Much of a Good Thing?
I was recently blessed (cursed?) with a blinding flash of inspiration regarding cookie dough. Now, if you're not a cookie dough lover, you may as well skip this post, but for the rest of us...prepare to be enlightened.
A few months ago Robb and I bought a quart of cookie dough ice cream and discovered it didn't have NEARLY enough doughy goodness. So I whipped up a half batch of cookie dough to balance the all-important ice cream: dough chunks ratio. Ever since then I've been trying to figure out how to make very small amounts of cookie dough for snacking (as opposed to actually baking.) After several months of messing around with sixteenths of a teaspoon and flaxmeal + water as an egg substitute suddenly the light went on.
It's all about proportions.
Meaning, use a tablespoon (or a teaspoon, if you're really aiming small) as your cup, and go from there. Here's an example using my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe (from Cuisine magazine, in case anyone cares), to illustrate:
2/3 c. butter
2/3 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 c. semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. milk chocolate chips
Using my magic idea of proportions, for small-serving snacking purposes this would be translated to:
1 heaping teaspoon softened butter and/or shortening
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon brown sugar
skip the egg
a dash of vanilla
3 teaspoons flour
skip the baking soda
a pinch of salt (if you really want - I usually leave it out)
and a small handful of chocolate chips
(If you want a bit more, use a tablespoon as your base unit instead of a teaspoon.)
This works with PB and oatmeal recipes as well, and makes the dough equivalent of one big or two small cookies. Shaine can testify - it tastes great! Now, let the sane (?) snacking begin! ;-)
A few months ago Robb and I bought a quart of cookie dough ice cream and discovered it didn't have NEARLY enough doughy goodness. So I whipped up a half batch of cookie dough to balance the all-important ice cream: dough chunks ratio. Ever since then I've been trying to figure out how to make very small amounts of cookie dough for snacking (as opposed to actually baking.) After several months of messing around with sixteenths of a teaspoon and flaxmeal + water as an egg substitute suddenly the light went on.
It's all about proportions.
Meaning, use a tablespoon (or a teaspoon, if you're really aiming small) as your cup, and go from there. Here's an example using my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe (from Cuisine magazine, in case anyone cares), to illustrate:
2/3 c. butter
2/3 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 c. semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. milk chocolate chips
Using my magic idea of proportions, for small-serving snacking purposes this would be translated to:
1 heaping teaspoon softened butter and/or shortening
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon brown sugar
skip the egg
a dash of vanilla
3 teaspoons flour
skip the baking soda
a pinch of salt (if you really want - I usually leave it out)
and a small handful of chocolate chips
(If you want a bit more, use a tablespoon as your base unit instead of a teaspoon.)
This works with PB and oatmeal recipes as well, and makes the dough equivalent of one big or two small cookies. Shaine can testify - it tastes great! Now, let the sane (?) snacking begin! ;-)
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We live in an old house that has settled unevenly over the years. As a result, some windows and doors stick while others are difficult to ke...
