Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Martha's, not Grandma's, just to clarify.

Tomorrow is another birthday at work and the honoree is allergic to chocolate. That forced me to rethink my standard chocolate chip cookie choice. She had not selected anything from the Martha book, so I thought about what I had handy in the house. Vanilla sugar, waiting to be used and some leftover lemons from the lemon sorbet fiasco. And lo, the perfect fit - the old-fashioned sugar cookie.

While I waited for the butter to soften, I zested and juiced a lemon and prepared the rest of the dry ingredients. I sifted the vanilla sugar to make certain that none of the hull made into the mix.

Martha suggests using a 2 inch ice cream scoop, which I don't have. Mine is 2 1/2 inches and I've had some gigantic cookies when I use it. I did my best, leaving the scooper partially not filled. I thought I spaced the cookies well but the first round baked into each other. And since my oven runs hot, I adjusted the temperature and the baking time down a little. Sometimes it takes a little trial and error to get it right.

So I cookies on the next few sheets. I really like how the sanding sugar sparkles.


That second batch came out beautifully. I think even Martha would be impressed. The first batch were a little browner than I would like, so I dialed back the baking time by 2 minutes. For once, I even got the exact number of cookies as the recipes says it will make (18, but they are really big)! Only one or two of them are not presentable - those are for taste testing, and some of them look like they could be the photo in the book. I'm really proud of this batch and I'm sure it's a recipe that I'll add to my regular list.

Final picture here

Martha Stewarts's Cookies, AKA "The Cookie Book"

So I received Martha Stewart's Cookies for my birthday last year and decided I wanted to make an effort at branching out and trying new recipes. My coworkers have been kind enough to make selections and act as guinea pigs for my attempts. They really are a brave lot. :) If you enjoy making cookies and want a variety of recipes in one place, you can't go wrong with this book.

So far, I've attempted the following recipes with different levels of success: Chocolate Crackles, Milk-Chocolate Cookies, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies, Pumkin Cookies with Brown-butter Icing, Brown-butter Toffee Blondies, Thin and Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies, Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies, Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies and Mini Black-and-White Cookies. Unfortunately, I haven't taken pictures of all of these batches and it's a shame, too - some of them turned out rather awesomely. This is a mistake that I will remedy in the future since there are plenty of recipes in this book and I've just scratched the surface!

p.s. I've had some trouble adding photos tonight so you can follow this link to view the cookies mentioned above

More Cookies, Less Cream

Recently, I purchased the ice cream maker attachment for my kitchen aid mixer (side note, I think it needs a name since it's my partner crime). First, I tried the mix that came with and that was very tasty. Second, I made some lemon sorbet that was way too tart. I followed the recipe exactly but next time, I'm adding more syrup. Last night, I tried my hand at ice cream from scratch.

I attempted the basic vanilla (no egg yolk) recipe from the Joy of Cooking and even used real vanilla bean. After assembling the ingredients last night and letting them chill, I set up my mixer to churn the ice cream this morning before work. While it churned, I crunched up a handful of Newman-O cookies since I wanted to do more of a cookies and cream deal. Well, the ice cream maker started "clicking" less than halfway through the churn time and I realized that it was actually already done. But I still needed to add the cookies! Somehow, I managed to get the dasher to re-center, dumped the cookies and gave it a couple of spins. It still seemed very soft to me but I transferred it to a container and then to the freezer to set during the day.


It set beautifully and was easy to scoop this evening. I have two complaints - not enough cookies and using heavy cream made it have a strange mouth feel. I felt like I had some weird coating on the roof of my mouth after I finished. The taste was pretty good, maybe not vanilla-y enough but I've had worse!


And as a bonus, I was able to make vanilla sugar using the remainder of the vanilla bean husk. That will make for some seriously awesome sugar cookies!

Progress

I had some bananas that were quickly aging so I decided at the last minute to make some banana bread. The loaves turned out pretty good - it's hard to go wrong with Grandma's recipe - but they seem a little dry. I'll have to ask her what her secret is when I visit her next month. By the way, it's her 95th birthday today! :)

I've also made a little progress with the house work. I managed to clean my coat closet yesterday. I sorted all of my very-useful-living-in-Texas cold weather gear and hung up the purses I'd forgotten that owned. I think I might be culling that lot and making some donations to Goodwill.

Procrastination

I realize I’ve just started this project and I’m already neglecting it! I don’t mean to but I have had too much work around the house to have any time for baking.

And I don’t mean the usual housework that gets done regularly (or should be done regularly – let’s be realistic here), I’m talking major overhaul (Major Overhaul – salute!) of the clutter I’ve let pile up. There’s a certain level of clutter that I can tolerate and I usually don’t let it get to this point. I’ve been rather stressed with some personal issues and just letting things accumulate around the house rather than dealing with it right away. And I tend to procrastinate, and that just makes things worse.

Rather than trying to tackle the situation as a whole, I’ve broken it down into much smaller tasks. If I didn’t, I would be so overwhelmed it would never get done. The list is long and to anyone else, it would seem silly to have a separate item for “clean out kitchen junk drawer” but that’s how I’m approaching it. But at the same time, I won’t post the list here because some of it so minor it’s embarrassing.

I suppose I also made the list like that because I get a great deal of satisfaction from crossing things off lists. It really feels like I’ve gotten something done. And I’ve actually made some progress this week – I’ve taken all of my old magazines and junk mail for recycling – even though the house looks worse than when I started. I know what I’ve done so that’s all that matters, right?

As time allows, I will post photos and rundowns from previous baking projects and pick back up with the next project (although, it should be noted that I usually bake for work birthdays and other than my own, the next birthday isn’t until the end of May).

p.s. Just found an online coupon for the Container Store – woo hoo!

My Love of Baking

I've always loved cookies. Once I moved out on my own, I talked my grandmother into sharing some of her recipes with me so I could get a taste of her love whenever I wanted (and had the ingredients). I didn't use them for a while - some of the doughs are too messy or hard to handle with just a hand mixer. I bought my Kitchen Aid stand mixer a few years back and bake with more regularity now. I've even made some cakes but I always come back to cookies.

For my birthday last year, my mother gave me a copy of Martha Stewart's Cookies book. I decided to take it to the office and have my coworkers pick recipes for me to try for birthdays and other special occasions. I've made my way through most of their choices and began documenting the process and results. Why not share?

I will use this mainly as a forum to air my triumphs and share my failures in the kitchen, rather than including the rest of my life. Real life might pop in from time to time since I don't bake that often and have other interests. And to lay it on the table now, I'm a bit of geek, so don't be surprised if I talk about some gadget, software, movie, comic or TV show every now and then. I come in peace. :) I also have other crafty interests, so I'll mention those here as well.