Father's Day

So I wanted to make something for my dad for Father's Day, and since he loves cookies, I went ahead and made some. I thought that just getting one kind was kind of boring, and he would probably appreciate a variety. Then my my Sunday plans died, and I kind of went nuts. So yeah... I guess I can now answer "Yes" if anyone asks me if I have ever made an entire table's worth of cookies.

S'mores Cookies

I got this recipe from a blog called Baked Perfection and while it is one of my more labor intensive cookies, it is the favorite of everyone who has tried it.

Makes: Roughly 36 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 dash of cinnamon
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups miniature chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
• 2 King size Hershey bars, chopped into chunks (make 3 pieces out of each predefined piece for 2 chocolate pieces per cookie)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a bowl, sift together the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda, salt, and dash of cinnamon. 
3. In a second bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract until creamy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
5. Slowly beat in the flour mixture until smooth. 
6. Stir in the chocolate chips. 
7. Put in freezer for 20-30min to chill dough
8. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet.
9. Bake for 8 minutes, and remove from the oven. 
10. Quickly push 3 to 4 marshmallows and a few pieces of hershey bar into each cookies. 
11. Return to the oven and bake an additional 3-4 minutes until fully cooked. 
12. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

Thoughts: 
I like these cookies, they are currently my most labor intensive cookie, which is something I hope to change. My only "complaint" about them is that they get really flat when cooling. When you pull them out of the oven to put in the marshmallows and chocolate, they look great, but by the time all of that is on, and then they are back out of the oven again, they are very flat. Maybe some baking powder would help? Not sure

Next Time:

• Try putting in 1 teaspoon baking powder to see if the cookies stay a little fluffier.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Pudding Version

I think that while growing up, my favorite cookie has always been the chocolate chip variety. Recently I have expanded my horizons, but the classics are classics for a reason. I found this recipe online and was immediately intrigued, I had tried a few before that when I was first starting to bake more and had been disappointed, and was very pleased by these cookies.

Makes: Roughly 36 cookies

Ingredients

• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla (or whatever) pudding mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. 
4. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. 
5. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. 
6. Blend in the flour mixture. 
7. Stir in the chocolate chips.
8. Put dough the freezer for 20-30min
9. Drop by rounded 1/2 tablespoonfuls onto un-greased cookie sheets.
10. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown. 

Thoughts:
I like these cookies, but they aren't as good as some I have had. Maybe the pudding adds too much to the substance. Maybe the fact I used milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet plays a factor. Maybe it needs more salt? Overall, I've made these 3 times now and I definitely will again in the future, I think I'm going to try other recipes as well to find the truly best cookie.

Next Time:

• Try a different recipe to branch out. Perhaps Alton Brown's "The Chewy" recipe
• For this recipe, I want to try and add more salt, see if that helps.
• Try chocolate pudding, I used French Vanilla this time.

Spiced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I've made these cookies before and really enjoyed them, this time I tweaked the recipe based off of some suggestions I saw online. Overall, I like them much better this time. Plus, I didn't forget to add the vanilla, which I think helped. To add variety, I like to split the raisins with 1/2 normal and 1/2 white raisins to give the cookies some interesting visuals.

Makes: Roughly 36 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup raisins (soak in hot water for 10 or so minutes to plump up the raisins, then drain)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until creamy.
3. Add in the eggs, and vanilla until mix until smooth. 
4. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, and salt in a separate bowl.
5. Combine the wet and dry ingredients a bit at a time until just combined. 
6. Stir in the oats and raisins. 
7. Put into the freezer for roughly 20-30min to chill the dough.
8. Drop by rounded 1/2 tablespoonfuls onto un-greased cookie sheets covered in parchment paper.
9. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until light and golden. Do not overbake. Let them cool for 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheets to cool completely.

Thoughts:
The recipe originally called for 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup butter flavored shortening, but I like the version with all butter better. It was missing something last time. Also, I added 1/2 t more cinnamon than the recipe originally called for, along with adding in the ginger and nutmeg. I like them better this way, but we shall see what the public consensus is.

Next Time:

• I want to try adding more raisins, some of the cookies seem to have a deficit of them, which is definitely something to be rectified.
• I want to try adding a little more allspice. Or maybe the same level of allspice, but add in a little bit of cloves, like the original recipe calls for.

Snickerdoodles

So, tonight was my first attempt at Snickerdoodles. I had heard good things about them, but have never tried them.

Recipe:
I got this from the internet, but I altered the recipe somewhat from what I found based on previous baking endeavors.

Makes About: 4 dozenish

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar - I used White Vinegar instead

Coating:

• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 3.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar.
   
3. Add the eggs and the vanilla and mix together.
   
4. In a seperate bowl, sift together the flour, soda, and salt.
5. Add dry ingredients a little at a time to wet bowl and mix well.
6. Add vinegar and mix in, being careful not to over mix.
   
7. Shape dough by rounded half tablespoon scoops into balls.
   
8. Mix the 3 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon in a ziplock baggie. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets covered in parchment paper.
9. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

Additional notes for my kitchen: I have an airbake cookie sheet, which needs longer in the over, so the cookies went for 10:30 on it, and a non-airbake which only went in for 9. My oven is woefully imbalanced in terms of heating, so I let things go a little longer than most recipes call for.

Thoughts:
While they smell awesome while cooking, the flavor isn't as strong as I would have expected, they seem a little bland to me. Maybe that's a good thing? We shall see what the judges think.

Next time:

• Don't knock cooked cookies into the oven causing burning and a frantic attempt to pick out cookie bits of a 400 degree oven.
• Maybe a little more salt to add flavor?
• Maybe a touch more vanilla? The cookies don't have brown sugar like most others, which could be part of the deficit of flavor.
• Perhaps instead of 1/2 cup shortening, using butter flavored shortening? Or maybe just 1 whole cup of butter instead.
  

Beef Stew

So this is the Beef Stew that my mother always made when I was growing up. It's one of my favorite cold time foods, but since it makes a lot, it is great to make and then eat all week. The one thing I have not yet mastered is eating it without burning my tongue. You would think eventually I would learn. Mais non.

Serves: 5-6 people from one pot. Depends on how much you put in.

Ingredients

• 1-2 lbs of beef chunks (trim off fat and make them roughly the same size)
• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive oil
• 1-2 cloves of garlic (Or garlic powder for the lazy) - Mince
• 3 small onions (Or 2 larger ones) - Dice
• 2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 3 cups water
• 3-4 beef bouillon cubes
• Dash of allspice or cloves
• 1 large carrot - Peel and cube
• 1 small turnip - Peel and cube
• 2 small potatoes - Peel and cube
• Frozen peas

Directions

1. Put the flour, salt, and pepper onto a dinner sized plate
2. Roll the beef chunks into the flour mixture. Save the extra flour mix.
3. In a large pot, heat the oil on high heat and drop in the beef chunks and brown them on all sides. Add oil as needed.
4. After all the beef is in, put in the onions and garlic and the Worcestershire sauce. Make sure this stuff doesn't burn and stick to the pot.
5. When all the above is brown, add the water, bouillon cubes, and allspice/cloves.
6. Lower the heat to very low, leaving everything at a simmer, and cover. Let everything cook for an hour, stirring every 15-20 minutes.
7. After an hour, or when the meat starts to be tender, add the carrot, potatoes, and turnip cubes. If necessary, add a little water. Everything should be thin like soup.
8. Let the vegetables cook 25-30min, stirring once or twice.
9. Once everything is soft and cooked, add in some of the remaining flour a little bit at a time. Very small additions make everything MUCH easier to mix in. Keep adding flour until you get the desired thickness for the stew.
10. 5 minutes before everything is ready, throw in the frozen peas. They don't need long.

Best served with a hard bread, such as a Chicago hard roll (350 for 10minutes will put them at optimum crunchy outside and soft inside). Optional to wait for dish to cool before you consume, but not burning off your taste buds adds to the experience, so I've heard.

Overall, this whole process can take up to two hours, depending on how fast everything gets soft. Since this is a stew, you could add more or change the vegetables or add some new spices, and things won't really change. Everything should be just roughly the same size to aid cooking evenness.

Icebox Cake

So this is something I have wanted to try for a while, and kept putting off. I'm glad I made it, it was the most positively reviewed thing I have done yet. The great thing about it is that it is really easy to make and low stress and you can do so many changes to the recipe, but still come out with something delicious. The original recipe called for strawberries, but you could probably do this with any fruit, within reason.

Once everything congeals, it tastes amazing and moist, and it can last in the fridge for over two days (I've heard reports they last up to 5 days) without going bad as long as you keep it cold and don't leave it out for too long.

Edit: Made another one with bananas and it came out pretty nice. Added the photo.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds fresh strawberries, washed
• 3 + 1/4 cups whipping cream, divided
• 1/3 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon rosewater (optional) 
• 4 sleeves (about 19 ounces, or 24 to 28 whole crackers) graham crackers
• 2 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped

Directions

1. Take out a few of the best-looking strawberries and set them aside for the garnish. Hull the remainder of the strawberries and slice each berry into thin slices.
2. With a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer, whip 3 cups of cream until it just holds stiff peaks. A really good tip for whipping cream is to put the bowl (typically metal), the cream, and the mixers into the freezer for 20-30min to get them nice and cold before you start whipping. 
3. Add the confectioners sugar, vanilla, and rosewater (if using) and whip to combine.
4. Spread a thin layer of whipped cream on the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan. 
5. Lay down six graham crackers. Cover the top of the graham crackers with more whipped cream, and then a single layer of strawberries. 
6. Repeat three times, until you have four layers of graham crackers. 
7. Spread the last of the whipped cream over the top and add a few more strawberries.
8. To make the ganache, heat the cream until bubbles form around the edges, then pour the chocolate into the pan to melt.
9. Let it stand for a minute, then whisk until the mixture is thick and glossy. Drizzle this over the layered dessert with a spoon.
10. Refrigerate for at least four hours,  until the crackers have softened completely, or over night for best results. 

Thoughts: 
Overall everything came out great. I tried adding a little color with some graham cracker crumbs, but I don't think they were really necessary. Maybe to improve the aesthetics, the top layer of whip cream could be applied with a bag with a hole in it to make everything look fancier.

For Next Time:

• The recipe calls for 2 lbs of strawberries, but I used only about 1.5 lbs, and my strawberries were densely layered. I think to save time on hulling and slicing, far fewer berries could be used next time.
• I want to try this with bananas instead of strawberries and see how that turns out. Maybe a mix of both?
• Potentially any and all fruits could be used in any combination, as long as the fruit mass is essentially the same, consider adding blueberries to the mix.
• I've heard good things about Nilla wafers instead of graham crackers, and those could be interesting to try.
• The ganache originally called to sit for a few minutes before mixing. For me, this lead to the whole thing cooling down too much and not spreading smoothly and coming out in big clumps, which looked ugly. - Update: Put chocolate into the pan to melt, as opposed to the cream onto the chocolate in a bowl.