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Baking Day
Jan. 6th, 2008 08:38 pmI've seen people bake cookies with store bought cookie-dough, but it's never really registered as what it's called. Store-bought dough is for eating immediately, in my mind (although you shouldn't.) And store-bought cookies are filed away in my head under the 'cracker' label. They're just sweet crackers. "Cookies" require 'cooking,' and also a mess on a grand degree, music, a system of filling trays and whisking them into and out of the oven and the three-step cooling-storing system. There should be at least three recipes, but more are better. And there should always be some cutting back on sugar, adding more flour (because they always look so drippy), and generous over-dosings of cinnamon and allspice.
I love allspice. I don't know if I've told anybody. But sometimes if I'm going into the spice cabinet for something else, I'll pull out the allspice and take a whiff just because. It smells like love.
So today I pulled out the yellow apron and the blue headkerchief and baked my little heart out. Chocolate chip cookies first, because those are the only ones Keegan eats. The rest of the family has given up on tasting them any other time than the day of baking, the poor, ephemeral things. Then oatmeal cookies, because Dad eats them for breakfast, even though they're always the last ones left in their tupperware. Then there's some room for experimenting. Today I also made apple cookies with extra apple (and extra allspice, shh), which are delicious and fluffy and soft, because they are made with milk. Then I tried two new recipes.
The first was something called a Lemon Crack. Possibly named because Jean Pare was on crack, because there is no way that recipe made four dozen cookies. It was the only one I didn't double. It's something like a sugar cookie with lemon peel and lemon juice. Lemon zest is amazing to me, and if I could, I would put it in everything, so the recipe was automatically appealing. Unfortunately, my mom does not have a zester. Fine, whatever, I'll grate the lemon rind on the cheese grater. The result was... frustrating. I got maybe a teaspoon of zest, when I was aiming for two tablespoons. But I threw in some dried cranberries and extra lemon juice, and they were still lemony. Next time, though, I will have zestier cookies.
Then the last, Orange Bran cookies. Basic cookie dough, plus orange zest, orange juice, and 'bran flake' cereal. We didn't have that, but we did have a couple cups of stale raisin bran, which performed proudly in its stead. So the cookies also had a few raisins in them, because I was too lazy to pick them out. We also didn't have any oranges, but we did have a couple of tiny, soft tangerines in the bottom of the fridge. And this time, instead of grating them, I spent half an hour delicately peeling the zest off the fruit with a paring knife, and then chopping it up. Verdict? Dad came in from working outside, gave one a suspicious glare, stuffed it in his mouth, and asked, "What the hell is this?"
"A new cookie?"
Pause. "It's good."
And they are pretty, in my opinion. They're pale with dark brown bran flecks, which adds a different visual element to our cookie boxes. Which is important. All in all, I think I made about 30 dozen.
And that's all I have to say about cookies today.
I love allspice. I don't know if I've told anybody. But sometimes if I'm going into the spice cabinet for something else, I'll pull out the allspice and take a whiff just because. It smells like love.
So today I pulled out the yellow apron and the blue headkerchief and baked my little heart out. Chocolate chip cookies first, because those are the only ones Keegan eats. The rest of the family has given up on tasting them any other time than the day of baking, the poor, ephemeral things. Then oatmeal cookies, because Dad eats them for breakfast, even though they're always the last ones left in their tupperware. Then there's some room for experimenting. Today I also made apple cookies with extra apple (and extra allspice, shh), which are delicious and fluffy and soft, because they are made with milk. Then I tried two new recipes.
The first was something called a Lemon Crack. Possibly named because Jean Pare was on crack, because there is no way that recipe made four dozen cookies. It was the only one I didn't double. It's something like a sugar cookie with lemon peel and lemon juice. Lemon zest is amazing to me, and if I could, I would put it in everything, so the recipe was automatically appealing. Unfortunately, my mom does not have a zester. Fine, whatever, I'll grate the lemon rind on the cheese grater. The result was... frustrating. I got maybe a teaspoon of zest, when I was aiming for two tablespoons. But I threw in some dried cranberries and extra lemon juice, and they were still lemony. Next time, though, I will have zestier cookies.
Then the last, Orange Bran cookies. Basic cookie dough, plus orange zest, orange juice, and 'bran flake' cereal. We didn't have that, but we did have a couple cups of stale raisin bran, which performed proudly in its stead. So the cookies also had a few raisins in them, because I was too lazy to pick them out. We also didn't have any oranges, but we did have a couple of tiny, soft tangerines in the bottom of the fridge. And this time, instead of grating them, I spent half an hour delicately peeling the zest off the fruit with a paring knife, and then chopping it up. Verdict? Dad came in from working outside, gave one a suspicious glare, stuffed it in his mouth, and asked, "What the hell is this?"
"A new cookie?"
Pause. "It's good."
And they are pretty, in my opinion. They're pale with dark brown bran flecks, which adds a different visual element to our cookie boxes. Which is important. All in all, I think I made about 30 dozen.
And that's all I have to say about cookies today.