Challenge #5: Fortune Cookies

I've been struggling trying to figure out what my next cooking challenge would be, and I still had no real thought about it until tonight.  We're lucky to have a good Chinese restaurant locally, and at the end of the meal, everyone looks forward to the fortune cookie.

They're really not that tasty, and truth be told, it's rather like eating crunchy cardboard with a slightly sweet overtone.  Other than tradition, a bit of curiosity about our "fortune", and a little bit of punishment, we eat the less than tasty cookie.

Many times I've thought about how simple and tasty this remake could be, and if Fred and I didn't have dinner out tonight, I'd still be struggling to come up with one.

The next week's going to be loaded with things to do, so we'll see when I can get this one done; it might have to wait until next weekend. 

Challenge #3: Homemade Graham Crackers

I've been wanting to make s'mores, but before I decided to do this, I wanted to make homemade graham crackers.  I started with Smitten Kitchen's recipe and although it started off OK, I found that the time and temperature promptly burned my cookies, but more on that later.

They're not hard to make - just time consuming as the dough needs to be chilled, and then you can only roll out so much dough at any given point because it warms up and becomes very sticky to work with.

Most bakers have a variety of tools hanging around the kitchen.  As you can tell, the round spatula has seen a lot of work.  It was actually my Mom's spatula that she gave me a few years ago, and since it's one of my fatter ones, I thought it'd work much better for this particular task.  One day I'll buy marble and French style rolling pins to add to my toolbox, but for now the old wooden one does the job.  I'm not sold on the plastic ones because they usually have molding seams that imprint your dough.  The cookie plunger I found on Amazon.com came in handy for making these cookies.

This is probably a better shot to show you what I'm talking about.  You get a nice uniform cookie shape with the holes to make it look cute.

Here's the first wet dough cookie tossed onto the cookie sheet, covered with cinnamon and nutmeg.  I opted not to add sugar as there's quite a bit already in the dough.

Here's where the time and temperature on Smitten Kitchen's recipe doesn't work - or at least, didn't work for me.  The cookies on the right were cooked at 17 minutes (her range was 15-20 minutes), and the cookies on the left were cooked at 13 minutes.  In the end, I found 12 minutes at 340 degrees worked better for me.  Yes, they weren't really crunchy, but they also weren't burnt (I lost around 30 cookies on the first batch).

I ended my baking experience with 107 edible cookies, and that doesn't include 30+ burnt cookies from the first batch.

Overall, it's rather fun to make these cookies, but since you can only roll out so much dough at a time, it's also time consuming.  Would I make these again?  Maybe.  If this were for a holiday cookie swap or for gifting perhaps.  If it were for everyday eats...no, I'd probably by store bought even though the homemade has much better flavor and don't have the consistency of cardboard.

Happy Eats!   :)

Challenge #2: Cowboy Cookies

Cowboy cookies aren't hard to make, but they're something I've wanted to make for awhile.  The recipe always seemed to fall in between the cracks for no particular reason.  I wanted to make this for my upcoming show, so I decided it was time to whip it up!

I started with this recipe I found on JoyofCooking.com and added some toasted coconut as well as chocolate chips. 

The batter really came out nice and smooth, not a heavy chunky one despite all the additions.  I think of this as an oatmeal raisin cookie with chocolate chips, pecans, and coconut thrown in.  When it was done mixing, I threw it in the fridge and let it cool off while I worked on something else.

I made a double batch, so I wound up with close to 90 cookies.  I say "close" because I ate a few, and dropped one on the floor.

I didn't put much in terms of chocolate chips; instead I sandwiched two cookies together with melted chocolate.

 

All that's left to do is to label these beauties...and sell, sell, sell them!  They weren't hard to make, but I didn't think they would be.  You should give these a try and see what your tastebuds think.

Happy Eats!    :)

Recipe Challenge #2: Meringue Cookies

When I started to seriously dabble with cooking back in 2008, one of the first desserts I tried to make was meringue cookies.  I was still fairly thin and routinely exercising, but I wanted something sweet.  I've never had a meringue cookie before, so I thought I'd try my hand at them because I'd read on the internet how easy they were to make.

My first batch didn't go well as I made a stupid mistake.  You can't beat egg whites in a plastic bowl to save your life.  After trying over and over again, I gave up and poured the mix down the drain and pondered what I'd done wrong.  No sooner did it hit me what I'd done, and I promptly started smacking my head on the kitchen counter.

My second batch...the meringue puffed up nicely and I'd done all the right things.  I put them in the oven, and then they fell flatter than a pancake.  Some recipes tell you to cook on super low heat, others tell you to put the cookie sheets in a preheated oven and then shut it off as the residual heat is enough to cook/dry them out.  It was also raining that day, and any amount of humidity does not bode well for meringues because they won't dry out. 

I was as deflated as my second batch, and I never tried again.  Until now.  I'm bound and determined to make a successful batch or two this time around.  Right now, I have two egg whites in the fridge from the custard experiment, so it's a good time to use them up!