Black & White Cookies

Week 26

This week's host was Janet she choose Black and White Cookies. Recipe on page 202.

My family and I always love cookies so we were excited to try a different recipe this week. 

Looks pretty good eh!

Do you like how I tired to imitate the picture in the book?

Not as good as the picture in the book, but I am still happy with how they turned out. This cookie was a real art to try and get it looking perfect. The black and white colors are a stunning contrast. They would make an impressive show for serving, maybe with a few strawberries or raspberries scattered in-between the cookies.

Whipping up the cookie dough was simple. The recipe called for cake flour which gave the cookies a moist soft texture. This was really nice. As you can see above the dough looks more like cake dough then cookie dough but it stilled turned out as cookies.

When it was time to bake the cookies I put them in for the allotted time, 15 minutes. Unfortunately that was a bit to long. The perfect time in my oven was 13 minutes.

I had to taste one before icing was smeared all over them. Really good cookie, not a strong flavor but I enjoyed then just the same.

The icing was made of confectioner's sugar. Typical icing but they added corn syrup. Correct me if I am wrong but that is what made my icing so hard. It wasn't spreadable. I had to ice my cookies on the stove with the icing on the burner to keep it spreadable. That was really annoying.

Wow! That is a lot of cookies and I even ran out of white icing at the end. (notice picture on left) There was only a couple tablespoons of chocolate icing left, not enough to ice the rest of the cookies, if it were still white. I ended up laying the icing on pretty think to get it smooth. Not a fan of a lot of icing but at the time I was going for looks. Maybe if it was a thinner layer there would of been enough icing for all the cookies. When I was finished I had a lot of cookies! The recipe said it made 24 large cookies. In the end I came out with over three dozen. I wonder how big their cookies are.

They turned out really good. I was happy with the result. The cookies themselves were the best part. The icing was way to sweet. I wished I would of left half with no icing. My goal is to make these cookies again and come up with my own frosting. (Less frosting) Plus maybe then you won't notice how imperfect they look.

But the best part was. . .

I got to use my supper cute cookie jar. (Thanks to my Mom)

A Tip & A Question:

1.   Always do a few minutes less in the oven then what's directed. This will ensure no burning.
2. What is the best was to get a really smooth iced cookies? Is it a special tool or a creative tip?

Southern-Style Skillet Cornbread

Week 25

This week's host was Jen she choose Southern-Style Skillet Cornbread. Recipe on page 55 of our book.

I was looking forward to baking cornbread this week because I am in search of a cornbread as yummy as " Lehi Roller Mills" cornbread.

I am a little embarrassed this week because there are no pictures of my cornbread. If you can picture it in your mind it was a beautiful round yellowish bread, browned on top, and a little cracked when it came out of the oven. It really looked nice.

Unfortunately I didn't have a cast iron skillet. This is what the recipe called for. I used my spring formed pan that I bought for our cheese cake. It seemed to work great and I could serve it right from the pan.

The recipe had a few instructions that were very different from the usually cornbread recipe. It wanted us to heat the pan before hand and then add the oil and heat it in the oven until smoking. I just put the oil in and heated the whole thing. Plus I dropped the temperature down to 400 degrees from 450. I've had some burning issues in this baking club. (LOL, 450 degrees seemed to hot.)

   

This is the only picture I remembered to take. They had us toast the cornmeal before-hand. Good idea because toasted stuff is always better.

The cornbread was very different from what we expect cornbread to taste like. My family and I are big fans of sweeter corn bread. This recipe might of won our tastes buds over if it had some sugar in it. My daughter was the only won who ate it, but she had butter and honey all over it. If you want a non-sweet cornbread this might be the recipe for you.

Again I apologize for lack of pictures. We didn't keep the cornbread because it wasn't going to get eaten at our home. I remembered to take pictures after it was gone. Danget!

A Tip & A Question:

1. Ingredients can give you a good idea of what the recipe will taste like before you make it.
2. Would adding a cup of sugar to the recipe ruin it or just make it sweet?

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Week 24

This week's host was Rebekah she choose Cinnamon Swirl Bread. Recipe on page 107 of our book.

When I saw the recipe choose for this week there was no complaints from me or anyone in my home. Cinnamon Bread is an all time favorite for me. While growing up my Mom used to make it every year for Christmas. She would make it a couple days early and hide it. We weren't allowed to have any until Christmas morning. This made it taste even better. After Christmas morning you can only guess how long it lasted. There is just something about Cinnamon bread that is comforting and super yummy!

It was so fun to try a new recipe. I have my favorite. Link posted on the left hand side of my blog. This one sounded just as good so I decided to make the double. One loaf of Cinnamon bread is just not enough.

What a beautiful sight dough is, all risen! One difference this recipe had was mixing some of the cinnamon mixture in with dough. I really liked that idea because it gave more cinnamon flavor to the bread.

Another difference about this recipe that I enjoyed was using water instead of butter to make the cinnamon mixture stick. Just use a spray bottle before and after you sprinkle your cinnamon mixture on. Easy enough and less fattening. One last thing that was great was sprinkling the cinnamon mixture on top of the loaf as well. The cinnamon mixture is incorporated anywhere it fits. Great, I say!

P.S. You can also drizzle icing on top of your loaf.

Sounds like this one might be a winner!

 It was so tasty. We ate it for breakfast. My kids loved it! The only thing I will say was the other recipe I use was a little more moist. Next time I might try incorporating the two recipes. Great pick! I will take the second loaf to my cousin who just had her baby. Congrats to her!

A Tip & A Question:

1. Use your bread pan as a guide line for how wide to make your dough rectangle.
2. In this recipe they had you mold the dough with your hands into a rectangle. Why not use a rolling pin?

Coconut Macaroons

Week 23

This week's host was Emily she choose Coconut Macaroons. Recipe on page 191 of our book.

MACAROONS AGAIN! YES! I was really excited that Emily picked this recipe. Now I have the opportunity to redeem "the Macaroon". The French Macaroon Sandwich was not a hit in our home. This brought me to the conclusion that Macaroons were just not for me. A couple of weeks ago, at a party,I was explaining to my friend about my experience with the Macaroon Sandwich. She said to try the Coconut Macaroon which so happened to be served that day. Yummy! It was so good. That is why I was so excited when I saw what Emily choose to bake this week.

As you can see they look great and taste just that good as well. I couldn't believe how easy they were to make. Coconut, egg whites, sugar, and almond extract. That's it. There was a variation to add chocolate to the bottom. A variation for chocolate? That seems like a no brainier to me. Any desert is better with chocolate! Since the chocolate was a variation I didn't buy baking chocolate because it wasn't in the recipe list. Back to the store to by the bars of baking chocolate for $6.00. Better be worth it for that price.

Here is the melted Ghirardelli chocolate. It worked beautifully. The recipe called for 6 ounces of chocolate for 24 cookies. The recipe made 32 cookies for me and I used 8 ounces of chocolate. (2 baking bars) Just a side note since I will be making these again.

When they came out of the oven the cookies looked so white I thought they weren't baked through, but with the toasted top it didn't stay in the oven any longer. I think they look really pretty. Next time I might try drizzling the chocolate on top.

We couldn't wait to try them so some disappeared for the chocolate was set fully. Everyone loved them. Like you couldn't guess. Just in case I didn't mention before they will be made again. :)

A Tip & A Question:

1. A great cookie to make ahead because the dough can sit in the refrigerator for a couple days.
2. How many different Macaroons are there?