New Years resolution anyone???

Before I can have a resolution for the new year, I have to ask myself, "Where did Twenty Fourteen Go??"  I'm looking at my blog, finally, and asking myself this question.  Holy Toledo the year is just about up and I am just realizing that I don't have one entry this year.  I'm not happy about that, but it is what it is.  (Although I don't like that saying, I must say that I do use it more times than I wish.)

So what happened this year that I couldn't make one entry.  I certainly did some baking but I just didn't write about it.  Point blank.  That's it.  January started off a little rough as I had been having a swollen eye lid since April of 2013.  Every morning my eyelid would be swollen to some degree or another.  No issues with that.  As in no headaches, no pain, no blurred vision so I ignored my one and only symptom.  But come January of 2014 I decided to head to my opthomolgist.  She happened to notice during the exam that my left eye was bulging forward of my right.  Ever so slightly but nonetheless this was a sign of 'something'.  Long story short, after an MRI and CT scan, the results were numbing.  I had a mass behind my left eye that was pressing on my optic nerve, pushing my eyeball forward.  A meningioma tumor to be exact.

So after my own research on surgeons, I found a wonderful neurosurgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital.  Part of the Columbia University Medical Center.  Dr. Michael Sisti.  After his review of my scans he assured me that I would be okay. Plain and simple he said he sees about 150 of these types of tumors a year and he looked at me very sincerely and told me that he understands that this is nerve racking for me, but for him "its a piece of cake".  And so on April 30th, 2014 I had surgery to remove the tumor.  Dr. Sisti had Dr. Michael Kasim assist him, as Dr. Kasim is a specialist in orbital tumors.  (Did you know the eyeball is considered an orbit in the medical word of terminology?)  Since part of the tumor was resting on the optic nerve, Dr. Kasim's role was to remove that section and Dr. Sisti took care of the rest.

I did come out of surgery feeling pretty good and I only stayed in the hospital for a day and a half after surgery.  Go figure.  They open the side of my skull, seek out the tumor, replace the 'hole' in the side of my head with a titanium mesh screen, close me up on a Wednesday and by Friday morning at 10am I'm recuperating on my couch at home.  Wow!  That's all I can say.

My recovery time went well.  Mostly getting through the ugly black eye and the bruising (which was the hard part as it was hard to look in the mirror for a few weeks) and then getting my energy level back up.  Jim was wonderful and took great care of me!  As well as my friends and family visiting!  I'm blessed.

So summer came and went, then the leaves started turning and autumn arrived with a new challenge for our family.   October brought some new issues in life as my father-in-law's health started to decline.  Our families time has been taken up with making sure he is comfortable and in his home, which is a good thing.  But he's 87 and his body is starting to give up on him.  Watching him over these past three months has been a life lesson for sure.  But it is life and life is a cycle that we all go through.  There's no stopping time.

My volunteer work at the Women's Center of Greater Danbury kept me busy too, and will continue to keep me busy into Twenty Fifteen as well.  As some of you may or may not know, I'm a trained counselor for the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault hotlines as well as a co-faciliator of a self-esteem workshop and an anxiety workshop through the Center.  My volunteer work with them has been very challenging at times, but more so very rewarding.  Something I'm very proud of.

And yes, I did manage to bake a little.  Thanksgiving and Christmas brought my craft to the fore front.  Baking for my friends and family is always a pleasure.  And I did have some orders as well.  One huge order for Western CT Home Care, the agency here in Danbury that I contracted with to work the State of Connecticut flu clinics this fall.  (A little part time job that I enjoyed.)  They asked for cookie platters for their clients.  I was happy to oblige and so I provided 16 cookie trays, with my beautiful Pecan Bites, Pisatchio Lime Thins, Cocoa Cuts, Russian Tea Cakes and my Pine Nut Macaroons all wrapped beautifully in cellophane and tied with a festive ribbon!  I was very proud, I won't lie.

The easy part of the large order was preparing the batter and baking the cookies.  The more tedious and time consuming part was packaging them up for delivery.  But needless to say I kept my nose to the grindstone and managed it all in just one week.  My contact at Western CT Home Care was apologetic on getting to me last minute, but I told her that I would do it and by golly I did do it!  800 cookies total. Give or take 20 or so cookies.  It was a challenge but a challenge that I cherished, managed and completed with pride.

I do love baking cookies for my friends and family.  There's no doubt about that.  And sharing my cookies as often as I can is what I do.  Every time I bake up a batch of cookies from my Gourmet line, I say, "This is my favorite', but then I make another cookie and say "no, this is my favorite".  And it goes on and on.  I really don't have ONE favorite cookie that I bake, ALL of them are my favorite.

In Twenty Fifteen, I vow to take more time to share with you my favorite cookies.  I suppose that is my New Years resolution.  And that's a good goal for me.  I'm always excited to start a new year as I feel like its a do over, or a feeling that we all have a clean slate as to start our new year anew.  And so as I reflect back on Twenty Fourteen, and look forward to Twenty Fifteen I will share with you that I feel blessed to have my family, my friends and my new and old acquaintances in my life.  As many of you may know, I love making connections with people and finding out their stories.  I hope to do more of that.  I would like to find YOUR story and possibly share it with others.  Making that connection in hopes of realizing that we are all connected in this world.  The more we can get along and understand that its okay that we do have differences, the more this world will be a better place.

Here's to Twenty Fifteen and the New Year!

Sharon

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies!

Take one look outside your window and you'll know its pumpkin season.  Well, if you live in New England you'll notice, that's for sure.  The trees are all but stripped of their beautiful color.  But for me, a new beauty comes out this time of year.  The trees stand tall and strong, ready for whatever mother nature will throw at them.  The air is clear and crisp and this helps to breath new life into a new season.    Here in New England, we all brace for this change in the season as the weather turns brisk, and the scarves and mittens and heavy sweaters warm our bodies.  The hot cider and hot chocolate have started to warm our insides too.  And with that comes Pumpkin!

I've been wanting to try my hand at Pumpkin Whoopie Pies for several years now.  I've made the traditional Chocolate Whoopie Pies, but I'm discovering there are so many variations.  So I pulled out my "King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion Book" and found a Pumpkin Whoopie Pie version that I knew would be fool proof.  I did adjust the butter and cream cheese upward in the filling and I must say I was skeptical of the crystallized ginger in the filling, but I found that it adds the perfect sweetness and just a little bit of a crunch to every bite AND I doubled the quantity suggested.  The remaining ingredients in the cookie and the filling worked perfectly!

King Arthur's suggestion of scooping these whoopie pies using a 1/4 cup cookie scoop seemed like they would make for a gargantuan whoopie pie.  So I scaled back on that suggestion just a bit and baked off 4 cookies using a slightly smaller scoop, but found those 4 to still be just a little TOO big for my liking.  So I opted for a smaller version as these 'cookies' do spread.  Spread is always a consideration when making cookies so its always good to test out a few before baking off a whole tray and realizing that the size is not to your liking.

The recipe as stated in the book notes that it will make one dozen sandwiched whoopie pies.  With using the smaller scoop, I was able to get 2 1/2 dozen sandwiched pies.  Perfect!

Here's the recipe.  Have fun and enjoy!

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies!

                     Pumpkin Whoopie Pies                        

Cookies:                                                                                   
   1 1/2 cups (15oz) pumpkin puree
   2 large eggs
   2 cups brown sugar
   1 cup vegetable oil
   2 Tblsp molasses
   1 tsp salt
   1 tsp ground cloves
   1 tsp ground ginger
   1 tsp cinnamon
   1 tsp baking powder
   1 tsp baking soda
   3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Filling:

  1 Tblsp unflavored gelatin
  2 Tbslp cool water
  6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) room temp butter
  6 oz room temp cream cheese
  2 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar
  4 Tblsp crystallized ginger, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.

For the cookie:  Combine the salt and spices and set aside.  In a large mixing bowl, beat together the pumpkin puree, eggs, brown sugar, oil and molasses.   Add the salt and spices to combine.  Then add the flour and beat until just combined.  Scraping down the bowl as needed.

Scoop onto the sheet trays using the desired scoop you like.  Please note, these cookies will spread somewhat.  Bake off a few to test the desired size outcome. 

Baking for approximately 10 to 12 minutes.   Let cool completely before filling.

For the filling:  Dissolve the gelatin in the cool water and set aside.  Cream the butter and cream cheese together.  Soften the gelatin over a hot water bath stirring to gently dissolve the gelatin.  Add this to the butter and cream cheese and beat in the confectioner’s sugar.  Add the crystallized ginger and beat to combine.  Dollop or pipe an ample amount of filling onto the flat side of one cookie.  Sandwich the second cookie atop the filling.  Wrap each whoopie pie in plastic wrap and store in the fridge.  Enjoy!

Lemon Cream Cookies

Lemon Cream Cookies!

As the summer winds down and the nights are cooler I thought I’d share my greatest find from my summer recipes.  Lemon Cream Cookies!  I don’t know about you, but I love a sandwiched cookie.  For some reason it brings me back to my childhood.  I feel like a kid, remembering those vanilla and chocolate cream cookies we used to eat like there was no tomorrow.  What I found this summer was a recipe for a cookie with a lemon cream filling.  It was a no brainer to try these and I’m so excited that I did.  The cookies are perfect.  Crunchy and sturdy enough to be sandwiched together between a simple lemon buttercream filling. 

I found this particular recipe in Nick Malgieri’s book, “Cookies Unlimited”.  He has these listed as YoYo’s.  A simple vanilla cookie with a lemon cream filling.  I added lemon zest and lemon oil to the cookie batter, as I wanted my cookie to burst with a bold lemon flavor.

As with all my new recipe finds, I always bake my first batch as the recipe reads and then tweak it to my liking if necessary.  If you don’t have any lemon oil, lemon juice works as a decent substitute.

These cookies, before being baked, have to be flattened slightly as there’s not much spread to them as they bake.  That is one thing that I did not realize, so my first batch of cookies came out a little thick.  And then of course making a sandwich cookie made for a pretty hardy bite of a cookie.  So the second time around I flatten them a bit more but used a scoop that was just a bit too large, so the cookies were thin enough, but quite large.  Not a great presentation. 

The third try was the charm.  Perfect!  Mind you, nothing goes to waste with me.  All three batches of cookies were either packaged and mailed to friends with hopes of some honest feedback, or of course eaten by husband, who is a trooper, and will eat just about anything I make.

Give them a try.  And with any baking, time and patience is your friend.  You can make the cream filling first and hold it aside as you prepare and bake the cookies.  Let them cool completely before filling them.  Do not overfill the cookies or they will ooze with the first bite.  I find it easiest to put the filling in a pastry bag and pipe a dollop of cream filling onto the center of the cookie.  Then carefully placing the top cookie on, gently pressing down for the desired effect.  They package well and make for a great gift.  Enjoy!

                                          Lemon Cream Cookies

1 and 1/3 cups AP flour         6 oz butter, room temp           Lemon Filling:

1/3 cup cornstarch                2/3 cups 10x sugar                   3 oz. butter

½ tsp baking powder            1 Tblsp lemon zest                   1 cup 10x sugar

¼ tsp salt                            ½ tsp lemon oil                        1 Tblsp lemon juice

                                           ½ tsp vanilla extract

Make the lemon filling and set aside.  Combine the dry ingredients and set aside.  Beat butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy.  Mix in the zest, oil and extract.  Mix in the dry ingredients until combined.   

Using a small scoop, scoop about 1" balls of dough onto a parchment line sheet tray.  Place about 2" apart.  Press the cookie slightly with the palm of your hand and then press with a floured fork to make cross marks on the cookie.  Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges are light golden brown.  Cool completely and fill with the Lemon Filling.  (Dollop the cream from a pastry bag.)

Nobody's Perfect, Me Included - But My Butter Spritz Cookies Are

Butter Spritz Cookies!

Two weeks ago I made a beautiful batch of Butter Spritz Cookies.  Topping each 'star' dollop of dough with a tiny pastel mint.  They were adorable little bites of yummie-ness.  The whole batch came out perfect.  My timing was impeccable with regards to the oven and I was one proud baker-lady.  One batch yielded me about 72 cookies.  The problem with having cute little bites of yumminess in a cookie,  they just don't last long.  After packaging some of them for friends, I munched down one too many.  But such is life.  They WERE good.  So today I decided to make another batch.  Maybe sending some out to my Mom and my Dad for Easter.

So here comes the not so perfect part.  Just when I think I have it down.  Just when I think my confidence is strong.  I then let my guard down just a bit and 'brown' a batch of cookies.  Not the whole batch, but it might as well have been.  The first tray, 24 beautiful looking Butter Spritz cookies came out perfect!  The second tray, again, 24 dainty little bites, in the oven and I forget to set the timer.  Guessing that 2 of the first 5 minutes went by, I sent the timer for 3 minutes.  After the 3 minutes I rotated the pan and set the timer for the remaining 4 minutes.  Well, nope, this wasn't a good strategy.  My gut told me to cut it by one minute, just in case.  But I didn't listen to my gut and of course over baked this tray by at least 2 minutes easy.  Mind you they don't taste 'bad', but they don't taste 'great' either, and to me that matters a lot.  Such is life I guess, lesson learned and life goes on.

These little Butter Spritz cookies are just adorable and scrumptious all in one bite!  Although, I did have one challenge.  The dough was quite stiff and I have to pipe these cookies through a piping bag with an open star tip.  As I filled my pastry bag and had my sheet trays ready and waiting, I realized that it was going to take all my might to push the dough through the piping bag.  This was actually quite excruciating and almost painful.  Frustrating to say the least.  So I decided to put my pastry bag full of cookie dough in the microwave to soften up the dough a bit.  It worked fine, although I'm not proud that I had to do this, but it did the trick and softened up the dough just enough to allow me to pipe my starlets with much more ease.

Since I basically lost 24 cookies from my batch today, I foresee another batch in the works for tomorrow.  Never give up is my motto!  And I never will.  Happy Baking!

Chewy vs. Crunchy Round 2

The conversation continues regarding a 'chewy' chocolate chip cookie and a 'crunchy' chocolate chip cookie.  The following question was posed by my cousin Mike.  My response follows.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve always been under the impression that if you fill a pan with water (doesn't get any moister than that, lol) and you put it in an oven, no matter what temperature you heat it at the water will evaporate and the only thing that determines how much moisture is left in the pan is how long you leave it in the oven.


Of course different ingredients release their moisture at different rates depending on the temperature and time spent baking.


Texture, like smooth or grainy, and flavor are about the ingredients. Using nuts will make the texture crunchier, while raisins would make the same cookie chewier, but the moistness of the cookie dough still depends on how long you bake it. . . am i wrong?  Mike

**********

You're not wrong Mike. In theory yes, the less you bake a cookie the chewier/softer it will be. And you are on the right track about different ingredients releasing their moisture at different points in the baking process. But the quantity of different ingredients matters as well.

For instance, in my 'chewy' chocolate chip cookie, I had more eggs and butter than my 'crunchy' chocolate chip cookie AND in the 'chewy' I used all brown sugar, (as opposed to half and half - brown to white, in my crunchy cookie). Brown sugar has more moisture in it because of the molasses in that product.  Eggs, butter and sugar are all considered the 'wet' ingredients. So by adding more of these ingredients into a cookie dough, they will be more moist and create a chewier cookie.  (The more eggs will make the cookies more cake like as well.)

I hope this helps.  Below are my two recipes I use for my chewy and crunchy chocolate chip cookies.   Try them for yourself or maybe just compare them to the recipes you use.

Talk to you soon and thanks for the chat. It’s been fun!

Sharon

The Ultimate "Crunchy" Chocolate Chip Cookie

6 oz butter at room temp, 1 ½  sticks 2/3 cups granulated sugar 2/3 cups brown sugar 1 ½  vanilla extract 1 eggs

2 cups all purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda ¼  tsp salt 12 oz semi-sweet chips 1 cups chopped nuts if desired

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Yield:  approximately 2 ½ dozen cookies

Beat the butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl on medium speed.  Mix in the flour, soda and salt.  Add the chocolate chips and if using, the nuts. 

Using a 1 ½ inch ice cream scoop, drop scoops on a parchment lined sheet pan.  With your finger tips, gently press the tops of the cookies….but do not flatten. 

Bake approximately 12 minutes.  Rotate the sheet pan after 8 minutes.  Cool 1 to 2 minutes then remove the cookies to a cooling rack.

The Ultimate "Chewy" Chocolate Chip Cookie

8 oz room temp butter (1/2 lb.) 1 ½ cups brown sugar 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 12 oz chocolate 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Yields:  approximately 30 to 35 cookies

Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside.  Cream the butter and brown sugar until fluffy and soft.  Add the eggs and the vanilla and beat well.  Add the dry ingredients and incorporate fully. 

Using a 1 ½ inch ice cream scoop, drop scoops on a parchment lined sheet pan.  With your finger tips, gently press the tops of the cookies….but do not flatten.  Bake on a parchment lined sheet tray at 400 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.  Rotate as needed.

Cool completely.  Store in an air tight container.