It's official, after 45 months and 25 days, I made it 1/3 of the way through the book, plus 1 extra. So I'm on track to finish this project in 12 years, which was my original arbitrary deadline for myself. I'm actually 2 months ahead of schedule.
So, a reflection of the last four years:
- still no regrets
- there have been some surprisingly great cookies - the whole reason I do this project (check out 209 in this blog)
- I've only sat down on the floor and cried once because of the self-imposed stress I put on myself (I was also 8 months pregnant, so there may have been some pregnancy hormones involved).
- bring on the next eight years
#205 Vanilla Chip Cherry Cookie
This is a chocolate chip cookie, but replace the chocolate chips with vanilla chips and add some chopped maraschino cherries.
Cooking tip: -if a cookie spreads too thin (like this one did), replace part of the butter with shortening. This tip comes straight from this book (it gives all sorts of troubleshooting advice).
#206 Peanut Chocolate Whirls
Beach day with old Daycare. Generally I am not a beach person, I think they're kind of gross - as evidenced by the fact that we had to relocate the beach party because the original beach we were going to go to was closed due to high levels of e-coli. So yeah, I stayed out of the water, but Joey had a blast.
These cookies were amazing. Mike says they get a first round by in the end of cookie cookbook tournament.
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup creamy pb
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips
In a large bowl, cream the first 3 ingredients. Beat in the egg, milk and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.
Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle. Turn onto a lightly floured surface, roll into a 16 in. X 12 in rectangle.
In a microwave, melt chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Spread over dough to within 1/2 in of edges. Tightly roll up jelly-roll style, starting with a short side. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for up to 30 min.
Unwrap and cut into 1/4 in slices with a serrated knife. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool.
#207 Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
We have spent a lot of time at the cabin this summer. I love getting to enjoy summer with the kids. And to be frank, summer is a lot more enjoyable when I don't have to deal with them : ). The cabin gives me that opportunity - Joey spends the entire day outside playing in the sand - and if he has some accidents - not as big of a deal when it's done in a swimsuit. And Jessie, she likes to be outside - so just put her in her swing - out on the deck. And this picture perfect image is achieved by the 3rd day at the cabin - the day it's usually time to go home. The first two days, Jessie expresses her unhappiness in changing her schedule and routine. Joey completely forgets where he is and what he's doing and has accident after accident. And it takes me three days to actually de-stress. So this time, we went up for five days - and it was really nice. It's great having older nephews who like to play with my kids and occupy them.
This cookie was another fiver - vanilla pudding mix added to the recipe. Although, the baker suggests trying it with chocolate pudding some time. I'll do that - probably in 8-10 years.
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 pkg (3.4 oz) instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup finely chopped walnuts (now I did 1/2 without walnuts because I'm sick of all the cookies having nuts in them, but I feel I need to remain true to the recipe) I liked it without walnuts, but others loved the ones with walnuts in them.
In a large bowl, cream butter, sugars and pudding. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls (seriously, they're supposed to be small), 2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Remove to wire racks.
#208 Crunchy Macaroons
So my friend is getting married and I'm a bridesmaid. I asked her if she wanted me to throw her a shower, or if the other shower encompasses all the people she would invite to a shower. My shower turned out to kind of be a back-up shower for the people who couldn't make the first shower (I know). So I had a nice kitchen-themed shower for my friend. It almost turned into a bit like the shower Phoebe and Rachel threw for Monica on the show Friends; you know, the one where they forgot to invite Monica. The day before the shower, I texted my friend and said, you know the party is at 1, right? She did fortunately, the maid of honor told her. Whoops.
So these cookies - Mike and I gave them a 2, but others just love them. The maid of honor's mom seriously ate like 1/2 of them. They're made with rice krispies. So there may be a flaw in our system of just Mike and me as official raters - because there's been a few cookies that we don't rate very high that others love. But we say; it's because we've tasted them all and can compare them against each other, so we know what the truly great ones are.
#209 Apricot Coconut Treasures
This was another cookie for the shower. The two cookies I made I purposefully chose because they looked fancier and to me fancy cookies are what's needed for showers. This is another one of those cookies I would never have made, but have turned out to be a five (by both of us). Who would've thought, apricot preserves with coconut wrapped in a pastry puff-like shell would be so good. I would like to post a pic, but as I said, it was for the shower and I was running around up to fifteen minutes before the start of the shower wrapping gifts, putting together favors, assembling the games, decorating the table, pulling out dishes and putting out food (all the while not ready myself), so no pictures were taken.
Again, I hate the long post and most probably don't read this far and I'll really try to do a better job of posting only about one or two cookies at a time.
