Thursday, December 23, 2010

The goody list

Usually my blogs are about happy things, and this one isn't entirely unhappy..... This week has been a bit challenging in the kitchen for me - at least on the first two days. After Tuesday, I wanted to pack up my apron, oven mits and spatula and figure out how to get delivery in my little mountain town. Here's why:

Monday: Fudge... enough said. Normally that is. Unfortunately, this year, despite following the same recipe I've used for 20 years (from the back of the Marshmallow Creme jar), the fudge turned out hard, crumbly and extremely grainy. While the taste is still what it should be, the texture is NOT good. I even made two batches just to be sure.. Don't get me wrong, we'll still eat the heck out of it. I'm just really sad that it didn't turn out the way it always has in the past. I do have some consolation - I've heard from MULTIPLE people that their fudge didn't turn out right this year either. Maybe it was because of the eclipse?

Monday's fudged fudge made me really unhappy. Bring on the grouch!!!

Tuesday: Melting Moments - if you've never had these, the recipe is usually on the back of the corn starch box. I used the one found here.  They are really good. Just be careful not to inhale as you put one in your mouth - the powdered sugar that they're coated in can choke you! These are also an excellent cookie to make ahead - if stored in an airtight container they keep well for two weeks with NO problems! I like to put the powdered sugar in a bag, and gently roll the cookies in it. Once all the cookies are coated, transfer the remaining sugar to a sifter and liberally sift over the tops of the cookies until all the sugar is gone. You really want to drown the cookies in the sugar as much of it will seemingly soak into the cookie while it cools.

Now, normally, cookies are a no brainer for me, particularly if I've made them previously. But like the fudge I did something wrong and they didn't quite turn out right. I think I overcooked them - my recommendation is to stick to the lower end of the cooking time spectrum and not worry about the edges browning at all. Mine ended up tasting perfect, but as soon as you bite into them they crumble into dust... VERY odd to say the least!!

At least these looked halfway like they're supposed to - ok, they look EXACTLY like they're supposed to. Unfortunately, there's ZERO melting going on, except the melt-down I had from two days in a row of botched baking.

Wednesday: Chocolate Chip cookies - but not what you're thinking. These are a chocolate cookie with different flavored chips. I divided the dough in half and made half with white chocolate chips and half with butterscotch chips, recipe found here. And here are the little beauties.

I'm happy to report that with these cookies my culinary dry spell appears to have come to an end. They turned out perfect, both in taste and texture. Now I'm just "mildly" obsessing about making them with different chips - mint, peanut butter, even chocolate (oooohhh a chocolate chocolate chip, or even a triple chocolate chocolate chip cookie??) etc....Luckily for my closet, there is not a store around here that carries this variety of baking chips, if there was I'd need a new wardrobe in a month.


Thursday: Lemon Bars. We also made LD's birthday Texas Sheet Cake for Friday night.

I'll have two pieces of each thank you, one for me and one for you.... :-)

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