Tuesday, November 29, 2011
A Welcome for Wendy
I know you're all wondering why the most recent post showed such a marked improvement in quality over the posts from the past 7 months. Well, I can satisfy your curiosity by announcing an addition to the Dinner Adventure team: Wendy. Welcome, Wendy. I'm so glad you'll be blogging, because I'm much to lazy to post regularly.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Chewy Chocolate Meringue Cookies
So I tried making these cookies which claimed to be chewy meringue cookies on Sunday. While they didn't taste anything like a meringue cookie ought to they did taste pretty good. I got this recipe (with great pictures) from Bakerella's website. From what I understand meringue cookies are traditionally a dry and crunchy cookie but these were soft on the inside and almost melty (I did use a lot more chocolate than the recipe called for).
1 cup (8 fl oz / 250 ml) large egg whites – about 7
2 cups (1 lb / 500 g) sugar
5 tbsp (1 oz / 30 g) natural cocoa powder
4 oz (125 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used about 6oz)
Whisk the egg whites and sugar over a double boiler until the sugar it entirely dissolved. Next whip at high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold in cocoa and chopped chocolate. Scoop onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake in a preheated oven at 350° for about 15- 20 minutes. Rotate the pans once while baking.
This is what mine looked like about five minutes before coming out!
Annnnd up close
I didn't take a picture but mine were almost hollow on the inside with just a bit of melty chocolate.
If anyone else makes meringue cookies (This recipe of another) let me know what temp you cook them at because I'm suspicious of 350°.
**By the way I was told I'm supposed to introduce myself. So Hi! I'm Wendy Harvey. I'm Ben's sister. I like cooking. And cookies. And eating. And really food in general. So there's all that.
Bye!
1 cup (8 fl oz / 250 ml) large egg whites – about 7
2 cups (1 lb / 500 g) sugar
5 tbsp (1 oz / 30 g) natural cocoa powder
4 oz (125 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used about 6oz)
Whisk the egg whites and sugar over a double boiler until the sugar it entirely dissolved. Next whip at high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold in cocoa and chopped chocolate. Scoop onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake in a preheated oven at 350° for about 15- 20 minutes. Rotate the pans once while baking.
This is what mine looked like about five minutes before coming out!
Annnnd up close
I didn't take a picture but mine were almost hollow on the inside with just a bit of melty chocolate.
If anyone else makes meringue cookies (This recipe of another) let me know what temp you cook them at because I'm suspicious of 350°.
**By the way I was told I'm supposed to introduce myself. So Hi! I'm Wendy Harvey. I'm Ben's sister. I like cooking. And cookies. And eating. And really food in general. So there's all that.
Bye!
Friday, November 4, 2011
Chocolate chip pretzel cookies
This is a blog hosted by librarians. As such, it's amazing that we've gotten this far without a book recommendation.Well, we're going to keep that streak going because today I have a book anti-recommendation. Namely, the worst mystery series I've ever encountered: Murder She Baked. These books are bad in every way a book can be bad (and I should know, I've read about 10 so far). Their saving grace, however is the recipes. Yes, recipes. The detective in the mysteries owns a bakery, so almost every chapter there is a recipe.We tested out chocolate chip pretzel cookies from Plum Pudding Murder because: (1) Ben loves chocolate chip cookies and requests that I make them at least once a week; (2) I'm sick of making and eating plain old chocolate chip cookies (see #1); and (3) we happened to have pretzels on hand.
Chocolate chip pretzel cookies
1 cup butter, softened (that's two sticks)
2 cups white sugar
3 Tablespoons molasses*
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
2 cups crushed pretzels (measure after crushing; to crush, put in ziplock bag and roll with rolling pin)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (1/2 less than a whole bag)
*If you don't have molasses, you can substitute brown sugar for white. The math doesn't come out exactly right, but I'd assume that it would be fine. Actually, the math does work if you substitute half light brown sugar and half dark brown sugar, but if you're the type of person who has two kinds of brown sugar on hand you probably already own molasses.
Cream together butter, sugar, and molasses. Combine the rest of the ingredients. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Let your cookies rest on the pan for a couple minutes before moving to a cooling rack so they don't fall apart when you transfer. (I've tended to ignore that last step in the past, but I've discovered that it really does help.)
 |
| everybody likes these, even Fred |
Chocolate chip pretzel cookies
1 cup butter, softened (that's two sticks)
2 cups white sugar
3 Tablespoons molasses*
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
2 cups crushed pretzels (measure after crushing; to crush, put in ziplock bag and roll with rolling pin)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (1/2 less than a whole bag)
*If you don't have molasses, you can substitute brown sugar for white. The math doesn't come out exactly right, but I'd assume that it would be fine. Actually, the math does work if you substitute half light brown sugar and half dark brown sugar, but if you're the type of person who has two kinds of brown sugar on hand you probably already own molasses.
Cream together butter, sugar, and molasses. Combine the rest of the ingredients. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Let your cookies rest on the pan for a couple minutes before moving to a cooling rack so they don't fall apart when you transfer. (I've tended to ignore that last step in the past, but I've discovered that it really does help.)
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