Until we meet again (soon!)

I posted at the end of last week that I've been blogging for four years now.  I wasn't entirely sure how to begin.  I started by just posting some of our favorites, and assorted things that I decided to make.  So not that much different from what I do now. =)  That got me through the first month or so.  Then I decided to be brave.  After reading this post from Peabody, I decided to join a fairly new baking group called Tuesdays with Dorie.  At the time I thought I was crazy, but it's one of the best things I ever did. I've learned to bake lots of amazing things, and made some fantastic friends.  

In the beginning, I participated almost every week.  Over time, other things (work & family being two of the biggest) claimed more of my time than they used to, though I still tried to keep up.  For the past couple months, I've still been baking a lot of the time, but haven't always had the time or felt the inspiration to write.  And now, after four years, we've come to the end of the book.  Don't worry, you'll continue to see Dorie recipes here on my blog, since there are some that I haven't posted that I want to.  Not to mention the fact that Dorie has written other books.  But more about that in a bit.  

  

I was looking through some of my earliest blog posts and was amazed to see how much my girls have grown.  When I started all this, Brianna was about the age that Gillian is now.  Wow.  After getting a new baking book for Christmas, Brianna made us breakfast (mini corn muffins) on Monday pretty much all by herself.  I have to say, it's quite a change to be just a coach when you're used to being the baker.  I promised Gillian that she could help me with the TWD recipe, fittingly the Kids' Thumbprints.  She helped me measure things on the scale and add them to the mixing bowl.  When the dough was done, she helped me shape it into balls and did most of the thumbprints.  Her only complaint was that she doesn't really like peanut butter. =)

We mostly followed the recipe as written.  I did chill the dough for a bit after it was made, since it seemed kind of soft.  To make sure the dough balls were all the same size, I used my #70 disher to portion the dough, which we then rolled between our hands to form smooth balls.  We filled most of the cookies with a couple big chocolate chips, but left a few empty to be filled with raspberry jam after baking.  A handful of cookies ended up with both when I discovered that I had a little jam left over.  The size of cookies we made took 14 minutes to bake.  We did skip the chopped nuts on the outside of the cookies; I knew there was no way the girls would even consider eating them that way.

The verdict?  Well like I said, G doesn't like peanut butter, so she isn't a huge fan of the cookies.  B thought that they were okay, but nothing great.  Fortunately, Jamie liked them a lot.  And I'm sure I'll be able to find a home for any extra cookies.  I was surprised to find that I preferred the jam ones.  I think it's because the chips didn't melt to fill the thumbprints (which makes sense, in retrospect).  If I make these again, I'll used chopped chocolate instead of chips, or just fill the holes with ganache after baking.

If you'd like to try the recipe, you can find it in Baking From My Home to Yours, of course.  For this final week of this incarnation of TWD, Dorie herself is our host and will have the recipe up as well.  If you're not currently a member of Tuesdays with Dorie, membership in the group will be opening up again very soon.  The next book will be Baking with Julia.  I've had a copy of the book for a long time, but haven't really baked from it.  I'm hoping that this will be the push I need to pull it off the shelf.  

I'm sure there will be lots of participants this week, so be sure to check out all the Links!

Tea and memories

It's a little hard to know where to start, coming back after a two-week blogging hiatus.  Some of you already know that the reason for my absence is that my grandmother died (on February 23rd).  Gillian and I made a trip to upstate New York for the funeral.  We almost didn't make it, due to a huge snowstorm that hit the area on the 25th as we were trying to fly into Syracuse (the closest major airport; we were headed for the Utica area).  The trip would have been the first time that 3-year-old Gillian had seen snow, except that we had a bit of snow here in the Austin area that Tuesday.  We actually got a couple inches here in Georgetown, and some of it didn't melt until the next day.  To be honest, though, this:

doesn't look nearly so impressive when compared to this:

It's still really hard to believe that my grandmother is gone.  She was my mom's mom, and definitely the grandparent that I was closest to growing up.  (And the last one I had left.)  Many of my memories of her (and the rest of my mom's family) involve food.  We'd hang out in the kitchen, helping with cooking, or just talking.  Then we'd sit around the dining room table, eating and talking some more.  We did lots of that over the weekend that I was there.  It was really nice to spend time with all of my family, both in and out of the kitchen.  My grandmother taught all of her kids to cook (including my two uncles) and all still cook a lot.  And bake.  I know that many of the recipes I learned from my mom, she learned from hers.  It's neat to see how we've all put our individual spin on things, but it all started from the same place.  It was nice to compare notes a bit.  For instance, I found out that my uncle Donald has also has some of Peter Reinhart's books and has been trying out some of the recipes.

I'm lucky that I had my grandparents for as long as I did.  My parents were pretty young when they had me, so I had relatively young grandparents on both sides.  As a result, I was able to spend time with my grandmother as an adult as well as a child.  She even came with my mom to visit me here in Texas after Brianna was born.  I got to cook for them for a change, and we got to sit around my kitchen table late at night and talk or read while drinking tea before bedtime.  A week or two after that visit, I came home to find a package on my doorstep.  It was a tea kettle.  I didn't have one, and while Gramma and my mom were visiting, we kept having to boil water in the microwave.  I still use the kettle on a daily basis.  It's a twin to the one that was sitting on the stove in my grandmother's kitchen.  I used hers quite a bit while I was in New York.  And I got to use some of her tea cups as well.  Well, mugs, actually.  My aunt Maureen got her some pretty butterfly ones.  And she had the great idea to get saucers for them as well.  I love using a cup and saucer, but I often want more tea that will fit in some of the teacups.  I came home and went shopping and now have a couple of my own to enjoy.  I'll think of family every time I use them.

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is perfect with tea.  Mike of Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude picked Thumbprints for Us Big Guys.  I guess everything is relative, because these still came across as pretty dainty cookies to me. =)  Just the right size for the side of a saucer.  I'm thinking the combination of hazelnuts and raspberry jam is what is supposed to make them "adult" cookies.  They were pretty simple to make, especially since I can buy hazelnut meal in bulk. =)  The only change I made to the recipe was to add a pinch of salt to the dry ingredients.  Oh, and I only made a half batch.  The cookies remind me of the nut balls that we always make at Christmas (aka Mexican wedding cookies or Russian teacakes).  I used my #100 disher to portion the dough, which gave me just the right yield.  I used the handle of a wooden spoon to poke the holes, and baked my cookies for 14 minutes.  They were starting to get golden brown on the bottom, but not really browned on top.  I heated raspberry preserves in the microwave until bubbling, and used a small spoon to fill the cookies.

The verdict?  I really love these cookies.  Hazelnuts aren't my favorite, but they worked well in these cookies.  I had toyed with the idea of filling the cookies with ganache instead of jam, but I'm glad I didn't.  The fruitiness of the raspberry was perfect.  I think it's important not to overbake these so they don't end up dry.  Mine had good texture, and I thought they were even better the second day.  I took some to work, and got several enthusiastic positive comments.  I'll definitely be making them again.

If you'd like to give them a try for yourself, head over to Mike's blog for the recipe.  And be sure to head over to the TWD blogroll to see how everyone else did this week.