Peace on earth, and in cookies

Happy blogiversary to me!  5 years and 485 posts later, I'm still here. =)  I'd hoped to be closer to 500, but it's been a busy month.  I've been on vacation for the past few days and have finally had time to do some holiday stuff.  We finally put up the Christmas tree last weekend, and finished putting ornaments on it today.  Yes, it's been that kind of week.  On Wednesday I baked lots of cookies to take to G's kindergarten holiday party.  The kids had fun decorating the cookies (and eating lots of the decorations straight up, since I brought stuff like chocolate chips and m&m's).  B's party was Thursday, and at her request I made brownies for her to take.  Then on Friday I made a batch of caramel snack mix to bag up for my employees.  Right now I'm working on chocolate sponge cake that will be one component of a chocolate mousse cake (G's request for a holiday dessert).  Tomorrow I should finally get to cookies for us--and Santa Claus--now that I've finally gotten my hands on Hershey's kisses after looking at three different stores.  

Along with all the other baking, I wanted to make something for teacher gifts.  The girls were in favor of something chocolate.  I wanted something without nuts, since there are allergy issues at the schools.  I also wanted a dough that was easy to make ahead if necessary and bake off as needed.  I've never been a big fan of slice & bake cookies, but I may have changed my mind this year, after settling on Dorie's World Peace Cookies as the recipe to make.  I've made them before, of course, but not in as large a quantity as I did this year.  To make them more festive, I substituted peppermint crunch baking bits for part of the chopped chocolate, and used mini chocolate chips for the rest.  

The verdict?  I've made three batches so far, and will make at least one more to ship, since these should be sturdy enough to travel.  I got a couple of notes from the teachers, saying that they really liked the chocolate & peppermint combo.  I've stashed away several bags of the mint baking bits so I'll be able to make a bunch more of these if we want.  I've also passed out the recipe to several people, and I hope they'll give them a try for themselves.  If you'd like to, you can find the recipe online at Bon Appetit.

I've really enjoyed sharing both my baked goods and my life with all of you over the past 5 years--I've made lots of great friends, which is without a doubt one of the best things about blogging.  Here's to many more wonderful years!

Fifteen?!

Something a little unexpected happened at work today.  This coming Monday will be my 15th anniversary of working for my company.  I knew that in the back of my head, but I wasn't expecting anything related to that today.  But since we have the day off on Monday, my boss brought it up this morning.  I got a nice certificate and a lovely paperweight-ish item to commemorate the occasion.  But much better was the gift from the people I work with, pictured above.  Do they know me, or what? =)  Okay, not well enough to know that I don't really like white chocolate, lol.  But the thought is definitely what counts, and it certainly won't go to waste, since everyone else here likes it, and I can find fun ways to use it for decorating stuff.  I love the cupcake stencils, mainly because they're something I wouldn't have thought to buy for myself.  I think I need to bake some cupcakes this weekend now...  Something that my coworkers were surely hoping for.  =)

Tradition

As I was making my 4th batch of fudge in about as many days, Brianna asked me why I only make fudge at Christmas.  She's right--I don't really make it any other time of year.  It's not a conscious decision to reserve it for the holidays; it just doesn't really occur to me to make it during the rest of the year.  I'm like that with certain cookies, too.  Chocolate chip cookies are not Christmas cookies (though my husband would probably disagree with me there, since his grandmother made them during the holidays).  Spritz cookies are Christmas cookies.  My cookie press came with about a dozen different plates for various shapes, but the only one I've ever used is the Christmas tree.  What sort of treats do you only make during the holidays?

I don't usually make four batches of fudge, though.  The first one I made didn't turn out.  It was a recipe I hadn't tried before.  It's frustrating when something doesn't work--I always want to know why.  In this case, I think I didn't cook it quite long enough; it never got all the way firm.  I didn't like the flavor very much, either.  The second batch was one I've made before, a great recipe from Fine Cooking.  The third was this interesting cookie dough fudge that my friend Tracey posted recently.  It doesn't have quite the usual fudge texture, but it definitely tastes like cookie dough.  Batch number four was a repeat of the Fine Cooking recipe--I gave away most of the first batch and needed more.  It was one of the key components in my treat bags this year.  

I first made this fudge a couple years ago, when it showed up in the magazine.  It was the first fudge that I'd made that didn't use marshmallow cream or other shortcuts.  It starts off as sugar, unsweetened chocolate, corn syrup (helps keep the sugar from crystallizing the wrong way), cream, and salt.  Everything gets brought to a boil, and cooked until it reaches about 238ºF.  Then you remove it from the heat, add some butter (without stirring it in any way), and let the mixture cool until it's 110ºF.  This takes a while, so it's a good thing to make when you have other things going on in the kitchen to keep you occupied for a while.  Once the mixture gets to the right temperature, you beat the heck out of it.  I did try once to do it by hand, but my arm got too tired before I could get it to the right texture.  What the recipe recommends is using a hand mixer, and that works quite well, though I do usually worry that I'm going to overheat my mixer.  Once the fudge starts loses its shine and starts to thicken, you put it in a pan and let it finish setting up overnight (or at least for a few hours).  

The verdict?  I just love this fudge, both the recipe and the final product.  I've made it several times, and it always turns out great.  The texture of the fudge is very smooth.  I think the bit of salt in the recipe makes all the difference in the flavor--the new recipe this year tasted flat and just sweet without the salt.  I shared this fudge with lots of people, and while I'm not sure yet how they all liked it, but my girls seem to be big fans.

If you'd like to try the recipe for yourself, you can find it over at Fine Cooking.  If you're looking for ideas for goodie bags, I found my supplies at a variety of places.  The treat bags are from Target, the snowflake stickers are address labels that I got at Office Depot, and I find that Michael's is a great place to buy ribbon.  The papers are just standard mini muffin cups.  

Wordless Wednesday - Anniversary gifts

Sharing the love

Happy Valentine's Day!  I wasn't actually sure we were going to survive the weekend leading up to it.  This isn't really a big holiday for me and my husband.  I like to get a card, at least.  But my birthday is in a week, and I'd much rather have J make a big deal about that. =)  For the kids, however, Valentine's Day is a much bigger event.  This is the first year that Gillian has really been old enough to address the cards herself.  It was an all-day ordeal.  Finally, she was done writing the names, and just had to fold them and put stickers on them.  She commented that she didn't have enough stickers for all of them.  I looked over and discovered that she was only about halfway through, and she'd put anywhere from two to five stickers on the ones she'd completed.  I had to walk away--at that particular moment, I'd had too much of the whole process to find it funny.  But J convinced me otherwise.  After all, she is only four. =)

I thought I was going to end up baking something for Brianna's class party.  But I didn't get the email asking for contributions until after work one day last week, and everyone else had already volunteered.  A couple weeks ago, though, I found some really cool foil heart cups at Target (above), and I really wanted to use them for something.  I decided some teacher gifts were in order, for B's classroom and afterschool teachers, as well as the teachers at the daycare.  The question was what to make.  The insert with the cups suggests that they're good for cupcakes, jello or brownies.  I decided that brownies would be the way to go, since they're my favorite, and are also the thing most likely to survive transport by my kids.  

I generally go for fudgy brownies, like the ones I made last week.  But a few weeks ago, I tried a Cook's Illustrated recipe that I'd been meaning to make for a while, their Chewy Brownies.  Unfortunately, for that batch, I didn't bake the brownies long enough, and they were a bit too soft in the middle.  They were decent when chilled, but I'd been meaning to try again to see if I could get the proper chewy texture.  

I love the fact that the recipe can be made in a single bowl, with a whisk and a spatula.  You start by whisking boiling water into cocoa powder and espresso powder.  The recipe calls for Dutch-processed cocoa, but I prefer the natural (non-alkalized) kind.  Since there isn't any leavening that would be affected, I went with the natural kind (just regular old Hershey's in this case).  Next, unsweetened chocolate is whisked in until melted.  Melted butter and oil are next--the oil helps with the chewy texture.    Also contributing to that are the 2 egg yolks that are added along with 2 eggs.  Vanilla and salt are added for flavor.  Finally, sugar and flour are mixed in.  To add additional chocolate flavor without affecting the texture, chopped chocolate is stirred into the batter at the end.  I used Ghirardelli 60% chocolate chips.  

I scooped the batter into 18 of the heart cups that I'd sprayed with cooking spray, filling them halfway.  I had a bit of batter left, so I put that into a 6" round cake pan that was lined with non-stick foil.  The cups were placed on a large baking sheet, and I ended up baking them for 23 minutes.  The round pan wasn't filled as deep, and only took 20 minutes.  I made sure to cool the brownies completely.  I cut the 6" round into quarters so we could all sample it for dessert (with some whipped cream and cocoa syrup).

The verdict?  I was very happy to achieve the proper chewy texture this time.  I really liked the flavor and texture of the brownie we ate.  The espresso taste seemed a bit strong to me.  I'm wondering if that's because I substituted the natural cocoa powder.  I may cut the espresso powder back to just a teaspoon next time.  There will definitely be an next time.  =)  I really hope the teachers enjoy these, too.  

If you'd like to make these brownies for yourself, you can find the recipe here, on the Cook's Illustrated site.  (You have to be a subscriber, which I find to be totally worth the cost.)  It was originally published in the March 2010 issue.  I also found it online at Brown Eyed Baker.