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Friday, June 19, 2020

Brown Sugar Short Bread

Most of my recipes I find by randomly flipping through my cookbooks. Sometimes I have a craving or an idea but most of the time I pick something that I have all the ingredients for. Or sounds really weird. Several of the recipes in The Cookie Jar, 1951, sound really good but call for tons of ingredients. I am not giving cookies to the entire neighborhood. I am not making 8 dozen cookies. This is one of the few that was small and simple. 
Who doesn't love short bread?! You don't need a fancy cookie everyday. This recipe is typical and modern. Okay, looks super easy. Doesn't call for a lot.
Everything I always have on hand! Sometimes the brown sugar is light...sometimes it is dark. I just happened to have both today!
Mixing everything together. Kinda crumbly...
Kneading dough on my awesome marble slab. (Ignore my nails...I haven't painted them in a while and not just because I couldn't decide on what color. The red vs. coral debate is difficult)
Looking good! If you do not have one, I highly recommend getting a marble slab for cookies. It is amazing! My wonderful boyfriend got me one for the holidays and it makes a world of difference. It keeps the dough cool when you roll it out and so you don't have to worry about melty cookies. You know what I'm talking about. It is also great for pie crusts!
My marble was just a little small for the dough. I could have just rolled out half but where is the fun in that? Time to cut out cute little squares.
Did you know flour makes your hand slippery and can cause your phone to go flying out of it?
Looking back, I probably should have measured the cookies and made then a little more uniform in size.
There was no time listed so I tried to keep an eye on them. Naturally the smaller ones browned far quicker than the larger ones. Even with the larger ones, I think I left them in for too long. Short bread is never browned.
These turned out quite pretty! And a perfect amount.
I kinda wish that I used a fancy cookie cutter for them. Not too fancy. Just a little scalloped edge.
These were not bad. They didn't have a lot of flavor. I felt like something was missing. It could be because of me. I definitely made them too thin and too small and over-baked them. I think a nice dusting of raw sugar before baking would add to them.

My Rating: Kinda bland but a nice starter recipe. I want to try it again.

Dylan's Rating: "Good! but some are nice and soft and then the next one is like eating a rock."

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Oatmeal Molasses Cookies

Is it a guy thing to not ask for something directly and just hint at it? My dad does it. Dylan does it. Here's the conversation that lead to me baking these. 
We were in the baking section of the supermarket.

Dylan: Are oatmeal raisin cookies hard to make?
Me: No, why?
Dylan: They are my favorite cookie. 
...silence...
Dylan: Do we have everything to make them?
Me: We just need raisins.
...silence...
Me: Do you want me to make oatmeal raisin cookies?
Dylan: If you want to. (while holding raisins)
Me: Put the raisins in the basket.

And so, I made oatmeal raisin cookies. They are not my favorite cookie. I don't hate them and I'll eat them if they are free. I found this recipe in the 1951 edition of Cooking for Two revised by Sally Larkin. I have a ton of molasses, don't know why, that needs to be used. I didn't know if Dylan liked the taste of molasses but we will see.
Lots of sugar!
It doesn't call for creaming the shortening which is interesting. Everything just goes in together!
Everything except for the oatmeal...
...and raisins. This is thick dough. Mix thoroughly to make sure the raisins don't stick together.
These are drop cookies but I really wanted to shape them. 
These baked up perfectly in 12 minutes. I was concerned since it calls for a lower temp than I am used to. My kitchen smells amazing! This is why I don't allow scented candles in my kitchen. It covers the smell of deliciousness.
These were so easy to put together and bake! They taste heavily of molasses so if you don't like that you will not like these. I enjoyed them, as much as I can enjoy oatmeal raisin cookies. They have a nice amount of raisins. Not too much. Not too little. It also was not too oatmeal-ly. It did not taste like a dense, bland, breakfast bar. Yeah! Dylan loved them. 

The title of the book was correct. I had a couple and he ate the rest so...yep. Cooking for Two.

My Rating: Not bad for a cookie.

Dylan's Rating: "These are the best oatmeal raisin cookies I've ever had. Can we make them again? Can you teach me how to make them?"

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Baked Pears with Marshmallows

Warm summer evenings are starting to arrive! Despite the ongoing craziness I am trying to stay positive. Cooking and baking help me keep my sanity although I wish I could share them more. I miss bringing in cookies each week to work. (Even if my co-workers didn't provide me feedback even though I asked many times) Right now, I still don't feel like doing any actual baking but I wanted to get something in. Something a little bit different but not too weird. I still had to get Dylan to eat it. For whatever reason this recipe called out to me. It looked easy and bright and summery! It is from the 1953 edition of The Modern Family Cook Book by Meta Given.
Not a lot to this. Just had to get a large can of pears and a lemon.
I love pears. They smell amazing and taste even better! I didn't have regular-sized marshmallows but I figured that mini-marshmallows would work just as well. The lemons were as thin as I could get them without pulling out the mandolin. I like my mandolin but it always takes me half a fruit or veg to get the hang of it.
All the pears didn't fit quite fit into my lovely oval vintage baking dish but that's okay. I ate the extras. Luckily there was more cinnamon sugar mix than I thought. Probably for those pears I ate. No regrets!
Some of the lemon slices had to be doubled up since my paper thin slicing stinks. I probably should have brought out the mandolin...
According to my math: 1 regular marshmallow = 4 mini-marshmallows. It looks really pretty all put together! 
After 5 minutes, the marshmallows were not even close to being browned. I ended up leaving them in for over 10 minutes to get this delicate browning. I should confess that the marshmallows were a bit old but still tasted good. I don't know if that affected their toasting.
My kitchen smells like baked apples! So yummy!!
It was such a nice afternoon that we had decided to have snacks on the front porch. The lemons added a light flavor to the pears, not enough to overwhelm but every now and then you get a burst of citrus. The marshmallows has a nice little crunch to them that I enjoyed a lot. I found the lemon rind too thick to eat but Dylan powered through one. I would probably use Meyer lemons next time so you can just eat everything. It was a bit of a pain to take the lemon off and make sure you kept the marshmallows on but maybe leave a little bit of the flesh of the lemon. Such problems! These tasted amazing good. Almost like baked apples but the lemon added a touch of tang to it. Light enough for the summer. Even Dylan enjoyed them. They looked very pretty on a plate. I think they would look even prettier with the large marshmallows that are in different shapes.

My Rating: Delicious and unique looking. I would make again for a summer dinner party.

Dylan's Rating: "Nice. Tastes almost like baked apples. I like them."