Experimenting with Snickerdoodles

I'm flying out tomorrow night on a red-eye to attend my five-year college reunion. Shocking, but true. Five years!

Anyway, I managed to finish all my homework and reading early (or at least all the reading I could motivate myself to read...), so after packing, cleaning, watching How to Steal a Million on Netflix, and running some errands, I decided to bake some cookies. There's no way I can eat two dozen cookies in 24 hours, so in retrospect, this wasn't the best idea... I guess I'll have to share with some of my pals at school!

I didn't feel like running out to the store (obviously), but I keep staples on hand for just this kind of cookie crisis. Enter the snickerdoodle!

I'm calling these "experimental" for two reasons... 

Diversion #1: For some reason, I thought snickerdoodles didn't have any special ingredients... Turns out that all the best-rated recipes call for cream of tartar, though. I, of course, do not stock cream of tartar. However, I read online that you can replace the combination of cream of tartar and baking soda with baking powder. Hurray for improvising!

Diversion #2: I try to use a scale whenever I bake, because I've read that baking by weight is more accurate. Unfortunately, my baking scale chose tonight to start going on the fritz, and it kept zero-ing out as I was measuring the flour. As a result, I'm pretty sure I over floured by about 1/2 a cup; the only thing I could think to do was to add an extra egg white I had in my fridge. More improv!

Thankfully, neither of these changes seemed to impact the end result. I guess these came out a little bit more "fluffy" than the traditional snickerdoodle, but how can you go wrong with sugar, butter, flour, and cinnamon?

Here is the recipe I tried to follow -- emphasis on the "tried"...

Snickerdoodles from Smitten Kitchen (I made a half-recipe, since I honestly would not know what to do with three to four dozen cookies)

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar*
1 teaspoon baking soda*
1/4 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 stick or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, plus more if needed
2 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 400°, with one rack in top third and one rack in bottom third of oven. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper; set aside.

Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs, and beat to combine. Add dry ingredients, and beat to combine. Chill the dough for an hour.

Once dough has chilled, in a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the ground cinnamon. Use a small ice-cream scoop* to form balls of the dough, and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place about two inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are set in center and begin to crack (they will not brown), about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after five minutes. Transfer the sheets to a wire rack to cool about five minutes before transferring the cookies to the rack.

* I substituted 1 tablespoon of baking powder for the baking soda and cream of tartar

Homemade Oreos... TKO-style

Mom rarely let J and me eat processed sweets as kids. She claims this is because she has a guilty conscience about working for a marketing firm that promoted sugary cereals that rot children's teeth, but I suspect it had more to do with not wanting to deal with rugrats on sugar-highs. However, yesterday it occurred to me that despite herself, my mom did allow one particularly delightful treat into our home: Oreos. There is only one explanation for this... Nabisco must be right when they claim that Oreos are America's favorite cookies. Even Mom couldn't resist.

Understandably, then, when I came across this recipe for Thomas Keller's TKOs (yes, this links to a recipe for the Oreo-style cookies he sells at the famed Bouchon Bakery), my heart nearly skipped a beat. My beloved childhood treat transformed by one of the world's master chefs? Done and done.

These were delicious. Obviously. Rich, buttery chocolate cookies filled with creamy white chocolate flavored cream? I don't even know where to begin (or end... I've had three just today), so here's the recipe. Bake and enjoy.

TKOs (from Gilt Taste)
Adapted from Thomas Keller and Lena Kwak

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

For the cookies:
1½ cups all-purpose plus 3 tablespoons flour
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
15 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

For the filling:
½ cup heavy cream
8 ounces white chocolate chips

1. Make the cookies: Preheat oven to 350°F with racks in upper and lower thirds.

2. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, salt and soda in a mixing bowl, then mix with a mixer on low speed. Add butter a few tablespoonfuls at a time and continue to mix, increasing speed until a dough forms. (It will look dry and sandy at first.)

3. Divide dough in 2 halves. Roll each half between 2 sheets of parchment paper to 1/8-inch thick, then chill on a baking sheet in the refrigerator, 25 minutes. Cut rounds from dough using a 2” to 2½” cutter, then transfer rounds to buttered baking sheets. Bake cookies, rotating sheets half way through, until centers are dry to the touch, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets, 10 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

4. Make the filling: Bring cream to a boil in a small sauce pan. Place chocolate in a heat-proof bowl, then pour boiling cream over chocolate, whisking to combine. Let cool to room temperature.

5. Assemble cookies: Spread 1 cookie with some of filling, then sandwich with another cookie. Serve with milk.

Yogurt and Blueberry Scones

I don't know if I have revealed this on my blog yet, but my all-time favorite fruit is the blueberry. I could eat them all day every day and never get sick of those delicious little morsels.

Perhaps it is odd, then, that I'm not a huge fan of baked goods with blueberries in them. Yes, given the choice between a muffin containing blueberries or any other fruit, I will likely choose the blueberry option, but I still much prefer the fruit so fresh and so clean. I will admit that blueberry baked goods LOOK amazing, though.

That's probably why I was so interested in trying these yogurt and blueberry scones from the King Arthur Flour blog. I had to make a couple tweaks, because I'm out of almond extract and  only had plain yogurt, but other than that, I followed the recipe pretty closely. The scones came out looking delicious, but I wish they had more of a crumbly texture.

Here's yet another reason we should have taste-o-vision!

Blueberry scones from the King Arthur Flour blog:

2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour*

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) cold butter, cut into pieces
1 cup (about 5 ounces, about half a pint) fresh blueberries
2 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup (2 ounces) vanilla yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (or 1/4 teaspoon lemon oil)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons coarse sugar, for sprinkling on top

*Substitute 1 cup King Arthur Organic White Whole Wheat Flour for 1 cup of the all-purpose flour, if desired.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet, or line with parchment.

Whisk the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the butter and work it into the dry ingredients till the mixture is unevenly crumbly; use your fingers, a pastry blender, or an electric mixer. Gently mix the blueberries with the dry ingredients.

Stir together the eggs, yogurt, vanilla extract, lemon zest or oil, and almond extract. Add to the dry ingredients and stir very gently, just until combined. The dough will be quite moist, like cookie dough.

Use a muffin scoop, jumbo cookie scoop, or 1/4-cup measure to scoop the dough onto the prepared sheet in scant 1/4-cupfuls, leaving about 2" between each. Brush each ball of dough with a bit of milk or cream, and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake the scones for 20 to 24 minutes, or until lightly browned and a cake tester inserted into a scone comes out dry. Remove from the oven, and serve warm. To reheat, wrap loosely in aluminum foil, and bake in a preheated 350°F oven for about 8 to 10 minutes.
Yield: 12 scones.

Chocolate-filled shortbread

Last Friday I had an insatiable cookie craving, but I didn't feel like going out to the grocery store or slaving away in the kitchen. I decided to make these chocolate-filled shortbread cookies because they're relatively simple and don't require any special ingredients -- I had everything in my pantry already, including four different kinds of chocolates to stuff inside the cookies.


I can't remember exactly, but I think I came across this recipe via the Kitchn blog, which is a fairly recent addition to my Google Reader. I've been an Apartment Therapy reader ever since I moved to LA and needed ideas to decorate and furnish my apartment, but their AT sister blog focused on cooking and kitchens is truly exceptional. Tons of great recipe ideas and clever kitchen design/appliance ideas. 


The actual recipe comes from Cooking Weekends, and I was intrigued by this recipe for two reasons: first, of course, I love all things chocolate, and second, it calls for corn starch, which I've never included in shortbread before. I adore the way shortbread cookies simultaneously crumble and melt in your mouth, and corn starch is supposed to enhance that characteristic -- winning on all fronts!


Now, back to those four different kinds of chocolates... I decided to play a taste test game (with myself, eek!), using different chocolate bars to figure out which ones work best in the shortbread. The four bars I used were a Trader Joe's 73% organic cacao, an 85% dark from Divine, at 70% dark chocolate orange from Theo, and 70% Madagascar dark from Rogue Chocolates called Sambirano. 

My favorite for eating is the Theo, but it turns out that the best one for these cookies was the $2 TJ's bar! I think the cocoa butter content in that bar is a little higher than the others, so it melted to a wonderful creamy consistency.

Go figure! Sometimes cost isn't everything, even when it comes to chocolate. Without further adieu, here is the recipe, courtesy of Cooking Weekends:


INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
3/4 cup unbleached flour
1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2sticks), cut up
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz baking chocolate bar, broken into 16 pieces



DIRECTIONS
Place the cornstarch, icing sugar, salt and flour into the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.  Add the butter and sprinkle the vanilla extract evenly over the top. Run the motor until a soft dough begins to form.


Preheat oven to 300°F.


Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces. Encase a piece of chocolate inside each piece of dough.


Place the cookies about an inch (or more) apart of an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 25-35  minutes or until the edges begin to brown.


Remove from oven and cool on baking sheet for a minute or two, then remove shortbread onto a wire rack.

Underwood Family Farms Tour

Remember my last post when I claimed to have a double-header post coming over the weekend? That did not happen. Sorry, but sometimes these things cannot be helped. I have a backlog of posts building up again, and I will try to work through those in the next few weeks, but Finals are coming up, so no guarantees.

Today's post is not actually about baking, but rather an excuse for me to post some fun, colorful pictures from my tour of the Underwood Family Farm in Moorpark, CA. I spent a day on the farm two Fridays ago through a trip organized by my school's Sustainability Club. Perks of this trip included a chance to get out of the city, learning about the farm, and picking my own veggies straight from the field.

After college, I started having much more control over what I ate on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong, I loved the fried delights of Thursday Pub Night and eating my way through Sunday brunch spreads, but those meals weren't doing much for my overall health.  When I came back to California and started working at Google, I started to eat much more healthfully, and also became very interested in the food supply chain. I've found that food tastes better and makes me feel happier when it is fresh, flavorful, and nutritious. 


Enough preaching. Here are some of my favorite pictures from my excursion:

This particular pig is a cool 750 lbs. Can you imagine?!


Finally, here are some pictures of the kale chips and roasted beets that I made from my farm bounty. I actually planned to make/roast these over the weekend and eat them during the week, but they tasted so good I ate everything in one day. At least I don't  have to feel guilty about eating delicious, nutritious vegetables!

Chocolate glazed chocolate donuts

I have another double-header post coming up this weekend (assuming I don't get bored, distracted or just plain lazy about blogging), so I'll try to keep this one short. (By the way, I have been playing around with the layout of this blog, and made it just a tad wider to accommodate larger pictures. I hope they make you drool just a little bit more!)


One of the reasons I haven't baked (and consequently, blogged) as much this quarter is that my learning team hasn't been meeting as frequently as we did during Fall Quarter. I try not to bake for myself, because then I end up eating the whole batch myself, which isn't very good for me. However, last weekend, my section had a BBQ on Saturday, so I decided it was time to make some donuts... Baked ones, of course.


I found a recipe by searching on Pinterest for the most delicious looking baked chocolate donuts I could find, and eventually settled on a recipe from a blog called The Milkman's Wife. 


As an aside, have I mentioned that Pinterest is my new favorite way to both discover new recipes and keep track of things I want to try making? I've tried various recipe organization tools over the years, from old-fashioned paper print outs, to Google Docs to Springpad, but none of them really stuck. These other options were either too time consuming, too difficult to organize, or too far outside my daily routine to be efficient or effective. By contrast, I'm really loving Pinterest, because I can browse the Food & Drink section to get new ideas, but I can also pin recipes from across the web (using my handy dandy Google Chrome extension!), all to one board.


Okay, enough geeking out. Let's get baking already!


I'm going to be honest -- these baked donuts are not as dense as real cake donuts (which I love). They're closer to a cupcake in the shape of a donut. But they're still tasty, and they look delectable with a coat of shiny, smooth chocolate glaze. At first, I was disappointed that I didn't have time to get colored sprinkles to make these a bit more festive, but after I started glazing them, I decided that they looked pretty just with the glaze. What do you think?

By the way, this recipe is SUPER fast and easy -- another plus in my book! Here's the recipe, which I found on The Milkman's Wife.


INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup flour 
1/4 cup dutch-process cocoa 
1/2 cup sugar 
1 tablespoon baking powder 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1 egg 
1/2 cup milk 
1 teaspoon vanilla 
4 tablespoons canola oil 
Colored or chocolate sprinkles (optional) 



1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips 
2 tablespoons butter 
1 tablespoon corn syrup 
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 



DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and coat a donut pan liberally with cooking spray. 
Stir together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Add the egg, vanilla, and milk and stir together for 1 minute. Add the oil and continue to whisk until just combined. 


Transfer the batter to a large measuring cup (or a bowl with a spout) for easy pouring. Fill each cavity in the pan 2/3 of the way full with batter. 


Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until the donuts spring back when lightly touched. Cool completely before icing. 


While the donuts are baking, prepare the chocolate glaze. Combine the chocolate chips, butter, corn syrup and vanilla extract in a double boiler (or in a stainless steel or glass bowl over some simmering water). Stir until the chocolate is melted and everything is incorporated. Use immediately.

Pie for procrastination

Ugh! I'm super behind on both baking and blogging, and unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to be able to whip anything up in my kitchen until at least Friday. Wah! :(  In fact, I should be studying for the midterm I have tomorrow, but I'm so sick of discount factors and yields to maturity that I had to take a break. What better break than to blog about pies gone by?


I joined a food-related social club at school this year, and although the club isn't super active, we do have pretty fun potluck board meetings! For our most recent meeting, I made a lattice top apple pie (swoon!). Why? Well, because...

As you can see, I'm still goofing off with my Wacom tablet as well. 

There wasn't anything terribly unusual about this particular pie... OH WAIT, except the fact that it was both DELICIOUS AND BEAUTIFUL!

I don't have time to type up the recipe, but of course, it was from the Flour cookbook. Speaking of which... According to her Twitter account, Joanne Chang is working on a savory cookbook, which is unbelievably fantastic. If it is everything I'm dreaming, it will be the best thing that happens to my life, and simultaneously the worst thing that happens to my waistline and my grades.

OKAY.

I should get back to studying, but before I do, here is how I made this pie, starting from when I baked the crust... Roll footage!

Okay, okay... Back to studying... Sorry today's post was so spazzy! I've got finance on the mind. :)