To make a long story short, here's what I baked for Christmas:
1. Espresso Macarons (2 iterations and the second was the best)
2. Blueberry Cherry White Chocolate Spicy Oatmeal Cookies (say that 3 times fast)
3. Bailey's Truffles
4. Oreo Truffles
6. Double Chocolate Chip Cookies in Peppermint Bark
8. Chocolate Dipped pretzels with heath bars, nuts, or non-pareils
The macarons were my favorite the 2nd time I made them. They were easy, quick and unique. The first round I was still messing with proportions, so apologies to the Riley family who got the 1st version.
The oatmeal cookies were easy and painless.
Both truffles were easy, they were just never ever ending. I thought I'd be rolling truffles until I keeled over.
The blondies were an epic failure. I stupidly baked the crushed peppermint in the white chocolate blondie batter and it cause the blondies to implode and get stuck in the pan. I had to throw them all away, which made me quite sad.
The double chocolate chip cookies taught me how to do an all butter cookie that doesn't get too thin and crispy when it bakes. But more on that later.
The shortbread was too fragile for transit. I should have known when the cat killed half of the cooling cookies by knocking them off the table to move to a different kids gift, but I persevered until we got to Cincinnati. The were replaced with the chocolate dipped pretzels which were much easier to make and decorate.
I made 100 of each cookie, so as you can imagine, writing a blog post about each would have cut my sleeping time each night to 0 hours. That said, I learned a lot this Christmas.
1. Ghirardelli chocolate is far and above the BEST chocolate for baking. The flavor and consistency is just wonderful.
2. I've advertised a half butter half shortening cookie in the past to help prevent a thin, crunchy cookie and give you a nice chunky, chewy cookie with slight crisping on the edges. It's been a personal struggle to continue using shortening in my baking as I try to change my diet to include only unprocessed, whole foods, but it was hard to try and find a solution that gave me the texture I wanted and the natural food state as well.
This Christmas, I tried baking with lard. It sounds disgusting, but it is all natural. Lard gave me the consistency I sought, but it just lacked a depth of flavor that butter and butter flavor shortening give you. When I was making the double chocolate chip cookies, I was in a hurry. My blondies had just failed. I needed another cookie, and fast.
I found a recipe I liked that was all butter- and I didn't have the time or the energy to try figuring the right substitutions. So I made it as prescribed, but when the dough was completed, it was quite simply too warm to bake. It was gooey. So I rolled the dough into 4 logs, wrapped them in wax paper and refrigerated them overnight. I sliced them into cookies the next morning and when I baked them, I was shocked to see my cookies not overly thin and spread.
I've yet to try this on all my drop cookies, but I think I'm onto a secret many others have already found- the all butter cookie needs to be cold before baked.
Truly, it's not a secret, it's just food science. Butter has a lower melting temperature than margarine, shortening, lard, and other fats you might use in baking. When a cookie is all butter, it melts faster, spreads thinner and produces a thin, flat, crispy cookie. Cookies with the chewy texture, lumps, and rise often are not all butter. Can't wait to try my new theory on my other cookies!
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| Not all butter cookie |
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| All butter cookie |
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