Blondies are supposedly the non-chocolate alternative to brownies, but let’s face it: they’re basically a chocolate chip cookie in bar form, and you get to cut them into bars without having to portion individual balls of cookie dough. I’ve been using a lightly adapted version […]
At long last, here are the preliminary cookie survey results in poster format! Take a look at them here. More detailed results to follow next week.
When I was in college, I used to open my door during final exams and find a box of cookies underfoot. This meant that Jessica had been hard at work, somehow baking off hundreds of cookies in between studying for and taking exams. For the record, getting a surprise box of cookies delivered to your door is kind of like getting asked to prom, or winning the lottery – I never knew why I made the list, or what made me a good enough friend to deserve cookies. I was just happy to find them – there’s nothing quite like starting your day with cookies that someone else made for you. Jessica’s cookies were all handed down from her German grandmother, and were so good that I would begrudgingly share them with my family, lest they miss out on truly excellent cookies. This brings me to the truism of cookies: they’re meant for sharing. (more…)
I’ve been thinking about what I want to put into my xmas cookie boxes this year. Certain cookies are standards – the gingersnaps, the cocoa nib shortbread – but everything else is up in the air. I’m definitely going to swap out the world peace […]
ok, nothing fancy here – just wanted to share a few recipes with you. the first is a chocolate cake, like the one i use for everything (the stout cake), but for when you don’t have beer on hand. it’s much the same in consistency, […]
those of you who know me well, know that i am not the biggest fan of nuts. i hate the way they get stuck in your teeth: not only little bits of the meat of the nut, but also flakes of skin that stick to your teeth. then you’re struggling not to look weird while trying to get stuff off your teeth, because you’re ocd and you can’t stand when there’s stuff on your teeth. suffice it to say that i do not have the best relationship with nuts.
suffice it to say that these cookies are one of the few items for which i will bear nut skins stuck to my teeth. these are deeply chocolaty from the unsweetened chocolate, with a slightly “wet” crunch from the toasted nuts (do not skip the toasting step!!!). they stay soft but are best the first two days after you make them – although magically, the nuts retain their crunch. make these: you won’t regret it! then give most of them away so you don’t eat them for breakfast and inadvertently kill your heart. (more…)
this post is really about homemade samoas, a recipe that i noticed popping up on the blogs a few weeks ago. but first (first?!), a digression about that label on so many blog recipes: “recipe adapted from.” for the samoas, i used graham crackers as […]
i don’t usually take photographs at an angle – that “artistic angle” so favored by food bloggers – but for some reason, the dead-on photos just don’t look as good. something about the straight shooting suppresses the cragginess of these cookies. so, caramel melts. this […]
these cookies look pretty good, right? unfortunately, they’re not. well, they’re ok, but they were enough of a disappointment that you won’t find the recipe here. i saw a post on photograzing for “peppermint meltaways” and was intrigued. i’ve always been intrigued by things that claim to “melt in your mouth,” be it chocolate, meat, or cookie. for example, how does meat melt in your mouth, exactly? surely a bit of steak isn’t going to melt in your mouth the same way that, say, butter will? and even if it did, would you really want meat to melt in your mouth? i know that meat wouldn’t “melt” the same way butter would, yet i expect it to because of the connotations i attach to the word “melt” (probably, in no small part due to the ubiquity of those m+m commercials during childhood). (more…)
so i found these cookies on photograzing: apple-cider cookies with caramel inside. the photo looks amazing – a ribbon of caramel stretching lusciously between two halves of a cookie – and i’m thinking to myself, a stuffed cookie like a caramel-filled truffle? no awkward compression […]