martha stewart's chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies!

in 2001 i bought a special magazine/booklet of martha stewart's that was nothing but holiday cookies. i leafed through the first few pages and spotted 'chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies,' and thought they looked fun. so, i made them.

and they were the best things ever. ever ever. and i've been making them ever since on the holidays. one day, i vow to make a second recipe out of that booklet. but it hasn't happened yet...

i pretty much follow all the directions exactly as described in the link. i think the important thing is to have fresh, grated ginger. enlist help for this, as its a big pain in the buttocks to grate fresh ginger. also, the molasses is a must. and, if you are lucky enough to have a kitchen aid in your midst, break it out mos def.

i love the kitchen aid, even if it isn't mine. it mixes everything, even flour.

although, for the record, i've never made just one batch of this recipe. this year i merely doubled it (since i was making a million of the cookies i posted about last time), but i have made up to four batches at a time, and you really can't put four batches in a kitchen aid - cause it just won't fit. alas. anyway - when all is mixed you wrap each batch in plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for a few hours - like this:

and then, you take each piece and tear off little pieces and roll them into balls with your hands. and, for the record, the chocolate chunk pieces might not do fun things to your hands as you're rolling little balls, but you must ignore the pain, because the chunks are essential. in case you were wondering.

and then, the balls go back into the freezer for 20 minutes, and when they come out, you roll them in granulated sugar before baking them. they are pretty like this - see:

here they are going into the oven...

and here they are on a drying rack. seas of cookies are fun.

mmmm. check out the sugar crystals. these are the best cookies that i make - eight years and counting. try them out and thank me later. you're welcome.

cookie craft!

i'd read about the wonderful book that is 'cookie craft' a while ago, and finally decided to break down and buy it, just in time for the holidays. i've been quite busy lately and stressed out over things not fun to mention on the food blog, and cookies are a great way to get unstressed, because its impossible to be sad when eating cookies. fancy sugar cookies with icing are something i've never really mastered but always wanted to, and this seemed like the perfect guide book. bonus points for amazon, where you can often buy books for reasonable prices.

this thing is quite exciting, and comes with a million tips and guides for doing things. i have learned that if you want professional-looking cookies, you must invest a lot of time and energy, and that it really helps to buy all the little tools they recommend. for example, i was reluctant to purchase a pastry bag and tips since i already have one (even if i stupidly packed it away into storage), and it is possibly the only kitchen item my dad doesn't own. while ziploc bags with the tips cut off worked just fine for my first try, the results would have been better if i had the real thing. and, i used cookie cutters that were on hand, but, next time, i think that larger sized ones would have helped matters. still, i was quite pleased with the whole endeavor.

even though there were no pastry bags, i did have access to something far more wonderful...a kitchen aid mixer with paddle attachment. one day, you will be mine. oh yes, you will be mine. sigh.

here we then skip ahead to rolled out dough, in between two sheets of parchment paper (sorry folks, i used their recipe for sugar cookies and i can't find it online): i doubled the recipe, and it told me to divide the dough into 2-3 balls of dough and roll out each separately, and that is what i did - five total.

these little circles were refridgerated until ready to use. what's really fun is that you just peel off the top sheet, cut shapes, and then remove the excess outline of dough so that all you have to do is slide the bottom parchment right onto the cookie sheet. genius!

here is a nice pile of completed, dried cookies, waiting for icing.

and here (assembled the following day), is my icing / decorating set-up. again, time + mess = no pictures of icing making and assembly, but let me say this kind of took forever - forever-ever. i learned that you need to make two types of icing - the 'piping' icing is harder and goes into the ziploc bags, and is used for piping outlines onto all the cookies. the icing in the squeeze bottles (aka leftover mustard bottles, and yes, they were washed really REALLY well), is more runny and called 'flood icing,' because you squeeze it within the outline and it 'floods' inside the shape. the magical toothpicks are then used to coax the icing into all corners of the cookie. note, too, that dying the icing is needed for various colors. for the record, dying icing can be pain, especially the red.

but...it is all worth it. for, behold, the almost-100 cookies that i have made (with a little help)! here is an aerial view of one of the drying racks:

and another!

and, just for show, a shot of the whole bunch. this may seem gratuitous - because it is - but i do not care. these took forever, and, because it was my first time, i am quite proud. if you are in the philadelphia area, i invite you to come on over and try some. and, with that, i bid you all happy christmas. after five posts, i am going home to finish my last batch of cookies - martha stewart's chewy chocolate gingerbread. unlike these babies, i have made them for eight years straight. think about it.

munn cookies!

munn cookies!

if you don't have a jewish background, chances are the word 'munn' means nothing to you, and just sounds like something aesthetically displeasing. i, however, come from a partially-jewish background, and so i am lucky enough to know better. munn is basically anything with poppy seeds. i know that they don't sound fun and dessert-like, but they are. and when i dream of lemon poppy seed cookies, jewish-style munn cookies are what comes to mind.

i found this recipe on the internet, and made them as a gift for my jewish aunt, because these are her very favorite cookies in the world. and, even though this was my first time baking these, i have to agree - thin, compact, laden with poppy seeds, more like shortbread then a cookie - these are what you want. i would make these again in a second. good job allrecipes.com!

here we have the dry ingredients, including flour and poppy seeds...

and here we have some wet ingredients mixing with egg. yellow!

and, a big ball of dough. this ball of dough was then rolled out, and circular cookies were cut from it using the open end of a glass. there were no pictures of this stage, because my hands were very dirty. the end.

here they are about to go into the oven...

and here they are coming out...

not much of a difference, except they are slightly browned from the egg white wash and sugar topping. these are very good, and should be in everyone's politically-correct holiday cookie repertoire. go make them now.

banana bread with chocolate chips!

i've been making banana bread for close to twenty years.

i feel the need to also say that, while i am proud of this fact, i've just had an existential moment going back and reading that last sentence and realizing that i am now old enough to be doing something like baking for close to TWENTY YEARS. while, yes, this does make me feel a bit old, i also know that i look pretty good for my age, and that, as the book says, its best not to sweat the small stuff. which is a gross and somewhat impossible saying.

anyway.

as always, my holiday banana bread adventures are motivated by my dear uncle, because this is his favorite recipe of mine to eat. so, i made a bunch so that i could give it away - mostly to him as a holiday present. i didn't have my typical recipe on hand, but i looked this one up on the internet, and its pretty close to what i always use, but, alas, have not memorized.

as always, i omitted the nuts, because i don't like them in banana bread - they're just wasting space that, in my mind, rightfully belongs to the chocolate. and, as always, i added way more bananas then the actual recipe calls for. at least 150%, maybe more. i was in a hurry and so there aren't many pictures here, but i did go for one good one: everyone loves chocolate...

and, although i made four loaves, three fit nicely into the camera frame, so here they are:

what's that you say? you want to compliment me on those sliced bananas on top? i don't mind.

they make for a nice effect coming out of the oven. don't try and tell me they aren't cute - because that would be a fallacy.

mmm. banana bread with chocolate chips.

chocolate fudgy oatmeal cookies!

next up in our dessert tour also comes from 'vegan cookies invade your cookie jar': chocolate fudgy oatmeal cookies. these were also made a few weeks ago, mainly because i wanted cookies, i wanted to try more recipes from this book, and, the big one....um....i had all the ingredients on hand.

as part of my ongoing quest to make dessert recipes pictorially interesting, i'm condensing - look at all the fun dry ingredients! flour, cocoa, salt, oh my! i forget what else - sorry, this one's not online and the books's not here.

here is the only one i'll highlight: flax seed meal. i don't know what it is, but i know its good for me and can also be sprinkled on hot cereals and in smoothies, according to the package. and it contains fiber. the end.

and here is an 'action shot' of pouring oil into sugar and stuff!

i have to admit, i like stirring shots. here's one of wet into dry (note the oatmeal - i didn't forget about it):

and, here the little guys are pre-baking. kindly refrain from telling me what they look like. we're all thinking it, but its best not to say such things aloud:

and, here they are, out of the oven. i realize the appearance (especially with the crappy camera - cc for short), hasn't improved much. but these are lovely, and perfect for an everyday, somewhat healthy cookie. i think this is my third recipe out of this book, and all get five TOP CHEF stars.

caramel pecan bars!

so, this second month of blogging has not been as frequent as the first month. the good news is that, contrary to the evidence here, i have actually been cooking a lot. or, baking a lot, if one wants to be technical. is cooking different from baking? i'm not sure, perhaps its a subset of some kind. but i digress.

part of the problem is that i've been quite busy with many things. the other problem is that i'm currently in a house without wireless internets, and all my pics are on my lovely mac laptop. but that is why, on this christmas eve, i'm holed up in the local cosi, getting my wireless fix. my goal is to knock out a few recipes, and see what happens. i do not care that, at the moment, sitting in a coffee shop with my back to the corner while typing on an apple device, i'm a snobby stereotype.

we'll start with caramel pecan bars, taken from the lovely 'vegan cookies invade your cookie jar.' i made these a few weeks ago for a holiday party, and they were fabulous. the only bad part is that the leftovers are impossible to resist, and they are not very good for you. sugar and fats. mmm.

you begin with the crust, interestingly enough. and, i can't remember what it consists of, but i think it involves sugar, flour, and butter. and i must hereby apologize to the makers of said vegan cookie recipe, because i used dairy butter. *hangs head in shame - i KNOW* but, i do feel the need to say it was fancy, organic, very expensive butter from cows that were treated well. anyway, here is the crumbly crust:

and here it is baked in a foal lined pan:

the topping, interestingly enough, did not involve a boiling of the sugar. its just a big mixture of sugar-like items - including actual brown sugar and brown rice syrup, which is not cheap. here is an 'action shot!'

and here is more brown goo:

and here we have the sophisticated method i used to chop nuts (again, organic, fair-trade, and expensive. i was trying to make up for the butter because i felt bad). it involved pounding this bag.

the nuts went into the brown goo, and then into the pan, and into the oven, until the whole thing 'bubbled.' here it is straight out of the oven. if you look closely, you can see a few of the afore-mentioned bubbles. its always satisfying when the directions describe something and then it happens, and it is scary and confidence-plummetting when it does not.

and here we have the bars after they have been chilled, peeled away from the foil, and cut into actual bars.

again, i'd like to point out that i'm not really a nutty treats kind of girl, but these were amazing. a word to the wise, though: think long and hard about how you pronounce the title of this dessert in mixed company. 'pe-can' as in 'pecan pie' as pronounced in the movie 'when harry met sally' will not cut it if in the presence of someone who went to school at LSU AKA the south. they will mock you until you say 'pe-cahn' as in 'wrath of khan.' as in - they will have great wrath that you have disrespected the place where pecans grow. but never fear - their wrath will dissipate while they are stuffing their face.

rustic white beans and tomato couscous!

a couple nights ago i made rustic white beans and tomato couscous for dinner, both from the beloved veganomicon. there's a lovely little section where you can mix and match different types of proteins and sides, and these two came beans and grains, respectively. they were recommended to go together, and they certainly do.

the couscous has more of a bite to it... you basically take the strained juice from a few cans of diced tomatoes, and add a bit of oil and spices, including cayenne pepper.

then, you cook the couscous with it (surprising, i know).

then add the reserved tomatoes and capers - genius!

and quick, too. the beans took much longer. the recipe said that i could absolutely not use canned beans, and so i didn't. this was my first time soaking dry beans, and it was pretty exciting. you put them in a bowl with cold water and let them sit for a really long time. and they sort of swell. the end. then they are rinsed and go into pot with new water to simmer:

they were cooked with carrots and thyme and fresh tarragon.

and leeks. this was my first time chopping leeks. rather pretty things, i think:

and this is what leeks look like while being sauteed. neat!

and while we're at it, here are some sauteed cremini mushrooms!

everything gets nicely cooked up with the beans, and everyone is happy.

and here is the finished plate. i think i'm starting to get the hang of this whole 'presentation' thing.