Peanut Butter Cookies

Baked on 12/17/10

Wow... I haven't updated this in forever. I have been baking, but I've just been using the same recipes I've posted about before...or I didn't have or make the time to blog about new recipes. Or the new recipes aren't good enough to post about. I did make chocolate chip pretzel cookies, but they were nothing great, so I probably won't post about them. The idea is interesting though. Here is the recipe if you want to try it. They weren't bad...they just weren't outstanding or flavorful enough for me. Maybe I should have done a second taste test later since baked goods taste different after they've been sitting around for awhile.

Anyway, for these peanut butter cookies, I used a recipe from 500 Cookies by Phillipa Vanstone, which my brother gave me awhile ago. I made chocolate shortbread with that book too. These were good if you love peanut butter. Also, I used unsalted peanut butter, so that might have affected the flavor of mine significantly. I made some with mini chocolate chips, and I liked those more than the plain peanut butter ones.

Strawberry Cornmeal Muffins

I've been craving lots of strawberry baked goods lately. I ended up using this recipe from Eating Out Loud because it seemed simple. The fifth grade teacher I helped this past year said that they were good, and my mom and I liked 'em too. They're not too sweet, by the way.


Strawberry cornmeal muffin recipe (rewritten from here):

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup oil
1 cup milk
1 cup chopped strawberries + 1/2 cup for garnish

1)In a large mixing bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, & salt
2) Add beaten egg, oil & milk, stirring until just combined
3) Fold in 1 cup chopped strawberries
4)Fill muffin cups 3/4 full & then garnish with a few chopped berries
5) Bake at 400F (200C) for 20-25 min. or until done
6) Allow muffins to cool before removing from the muffin tin

Makes...16-ish muffins? Judging by the picture. Forgot to count.

Easy, huh?

Strawberry Scones

Got this recipe from The Food Librarian, who found it at Confessions of a Tart (click this link for the recipe).
Sorry my pictures aren't as beautiful as theirs. I first made these with frozen strawberries that I had frozen for three of the best moms I know (mine and my co-workers, one of whom will be a brand new mother in a few weeks - she WILL be a fantastic mom without a doubt). Today I made them for a friend who's doing me a huge favor tomorrow. I should have made two batches because my mom LOVES these scones. I'll make more tomorrow for her. :D
Anyway, these are pretty easy (except for the kneading part...it gets kinda sticky and annoying) and SO good. Not too sweet. Make sure you use heavy whipping cream! Or at least half-and-half!

Copycat Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Baked 4.23.10 for the Berkeley trip that never happened.

I couldn't find dark cocoa powder anywhere, so I gave up and just used a dark chocolate cocoa mix and decreased the amount of sugar from the recipe. I think the only problem with this was that the mix had those added ingredients like milk powder, which probably all messed up the dough. They're supposed to be hard, dense, rock-like with little spread, and very dark chocolatey, but these spread a lot (as you can see), and they weren't dark enough to me. BUT if I just eat these without expecting them to taste like Levain Bakery's cookies, then these are pretty good. Got the copycat recipe from Lisa Michele, whose cookies look close to the real things! I WILL try again someday with the right ingredients. Now that I've tried these, I really love the idea of dark chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips. So good.

Nooooo to the picture below:



Here's how many I made: 21 huge cookies.

Levain Bakery Copycat Dark Chocolate Peanut butter Chip Cookies (1 dozen cookies when done right supposedly; 21 flatter ones when done my way - oops)

• 2 sticks cold & cubed unsalted butter *NO! Don't leave them cold!! They're impossible to make fluffy right away. Stupid, stupid idea. I waited until the butter got soft because I just couldn't stand it, and there's no chemical purpose for keeping it cold because it all gets mooshed together AND no other recipe I've ever read that wasn't for scones or pie crust said to leave the butter cold. OK. Rant over.
  
• 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup good quality dark cocoa powder
• 2 1/4 to 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1/4 tsp Kosher salt
• 3/4 to 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups peanut butter chips
  

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2) In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle (I did this by hand), cream together butter & sugar until well blended and fluffy
3) Add eggs & beat until well-incorporated, & then beat in cocoa powder
4) Mix in flour, salt & baking powder until just combined
5) Gently fold in remaining ingredients
6) Transfer dough to clean work surface and gently mix dough by hand to ensure even distribution of ingredients
7) Divide into 12 equal portions (I ended up making 21 mounds because I was so afraid the cookies would smoosh together, which they kinda did anyway), **~4 oz each, and place each on sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake in the oven 16-20 minutes depending on how gooey and raw-like you like the middles, taking care not to overbake.
8) Let cool on a rack & store what you don’t immediately eat in an airtight container

LISA MICHELE's NOTES:

Note – The Levain Bakery doesn’t use vanilla extract in their cookies, as they feel it’s unecessary. However, some feel you need it. You can add 1 tsp to 1 T to each recipe if desired. Just add it after each egg is incorporated.

** Note – The Levain Bakery uses 6 oz of cookie dough per cookie. As mentioned above, If you want 12 cookies out of the above recipes, a little over 4 oz per cookie (4.1 to 4.2 oz. Use a kitchen scale) will get you that. If you want to use 6 oz of cookie dough per cookie, you’ll probably get only 6-8 cookies. However, a little over 4 oz makes a cookie just as thick and huge, so you don’t even notice the difference.

*** Note – Regarding the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter cookies. I mostly use Dutch-process cocoa. If you use basic, natural unsweetened cocoa (you know, the Hershey’s in the brown can or whatever), add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp baking soda (I just use a heaping 1/4 tsp when using regular baking cocoa) to the dry ingredients. Also, if they’re too ‘chocolatey’ and rich for you, use only 1/4 cup cocoa powder, and add 1/4 cup extra flour.

Very Simple Slice & Bake Espresso Cookies

Original recipe here from Alpineberry (recipe with my format edits below), who said this about the cookie:

"This espresso cookie is my idea of cookie perfection. I love the sandy texture and the pure flavor of the espresso. It might be somewhat strong for the coffee shy and not sweet enough for those with a super sweet tooth, but those are major pluses in my opinion."

True. It's sandy, slightly sweet, and tastes like espresso without other distracting flavors, but it's not my favorite, and I'd personally prefer to try this cookie with mini chocolate chips. My dad and the school secretaries said they liked them though. One secretary said it tastes like those See's Candies lollipops. Maybe the butterscotch one? Or the vanilla one? I'm not sure. Is there a coffee one? That would make mores sense. haha!

I didn't cut them carefully, so they came out of the oven kinda...well, imperfect. If you care about presentation and want perfectly shaped cookies, be careful when you slice the dough because they don't change much in the oven.

Espresso Cookies recipe:
(adapted by Alpineberry from Fine Cooking)
makes 28 cookies

4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened at room temp
1/3 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp espresso powder dissolved in 2 tsp water
1 tsp finely ground espresso beans
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
pinch of salt

1) Cream the butter & sugar until well blended
2) Mix in the dissolved espresso powder
3) Add the ground espresso beans, flour & salt and mix until dough comes together (This is kinda tough because it's so dry)
4) Turn the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap
5) Form the dough into a log about 7-inches long
6) Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 6 hours (and up to 3 days).
7) Preheat oven to 350F
8) Cut the chilled dough into 1/4-inch slices & arrange on parchment lined sheet pans
9) Bake until the tops look dry & edges just start to brown (~12 min)
** I checked on them at around 8 minutes and kept checking until they were done.

Lemon Pie with Grandma

Baked on Saturday, 4/17/10.

Grandma M. gave us some of her lemons, and she mentioned missing making lemon pie, so my dad suggested we bake together. Needless to say, we did, and it was so much fun. She didn't have her recipe (it ended up being a recipe from a cornstarch box anyway), so I looked to The Daring Bakers since I knew I could see LOTS of bloggers' results from the same recipe and they seemed pretty successful (one failure here). You can find the recipe on a lot of their sites...like this one. We used a little whipped cream (the real heavy whipping cream whipped with sugar) instead of meringue, and since my dad doesn't like really tart lemon pies, we only put a tint bit of lemon zest. I was dumb and used a pie tin that was too small, so the crust ended up too thick, and we had a whole lotta extra filling, but it was still really good and not too tart at all! We used Joy the Baker's "easy no-roll pie crust" recipe. It is really easy. And good.


Raw:
Baked:I always get nervous when yolks can curdle.

Tate's Bakeshop Copycat Cookies - Cookie Madness

Over the past year, I've shifted my baking focus from muffins and brownies to mostly cookies. Maybe 'cause they're easier to transport...and...I don't know.

I tried another Cookie Madness recipe. Love that blog. And I love crispy cookies. If you try these, make sure you give them enough room so that you don't end up with mitotic cookies (in telophase) like I did.

Like the shamoji (Japanese rice paddle) below? haha..It makes a nice mixing tool sometimes (like for small amounts of dough).

Some had chunks, and some had chips. I added a tiny bit of used coffee grounds to the ones with the chunks. I'd add more next time. You could add espresso powder for more flavor; I was just experimenting with used grounds because of this compost cookie recipe (haven't tried it yet) that uses them. Great way to recycle, right?


Ever wondered what would happen if you made a cookie in the microwave? It's not so great. I need those browned edges!

Recipe (original here; I just reworded it and made it simpler to understand and follow):

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter - original recipe called for salted, but Cookie Madness used unsalted
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2) Line some cookie sheets w/ parchment
3) Mix together the flour, soda & salt; set aside
4) Cream the butter & both sugars w/ an electric mixer (I just used a hand mixer with a big bowl)
5) When creamy, beat in the water, vanilla & eggs
6) Beat eggs just until mixed – don’t over-beat
7) Add the flour mixture gradually & stir until almost combined, then add the chocolate chips & stir until all flour is incorporated
8) Scoop up tablespoons of dough (only slightly rounded--not heaped) & arrange 2 inches apart on cookie sheets
9) Bake for 12-14 min or until cookies have brown edges & look done
10) Let 'em rest on cookie sheets for about 2 minutes; then transfer to a wire rack to cool