TWD : The Tart Is Too Picky And Made Cookies Instead

There’s no getting around it, I wussed out this week. Ain’t really a picky eater, but there are some combinations that make my taste buds start threatening guerrilla warfare and screaming cliche revolution slogans. Nobody wants that. Add to that a budget that was giving me dirty looks at the mere mention of buying ingredients we don’t usually use, and it wasn’t happening this week.

Dorie has got me addicted to her though, and I needed to bake something by her! A quick chat with Laurie (ok, so none of my chats are ever quick) and Chocolate Chip Cookies were on the table! Y’all, let me be the first to say that I’m stubborn when it comes to recipes I love. The chocolate chip cookie recipe I’e used for years was my fav and nothing could compete… Oh Dorie, how you’ve humbled me!

They’re everything a chocolate chip cookie should be. A little crunchy, a little chewy and soft. Buttery and easy to work with, they didn’t spread too much on the pan and they turned the right colour. Easy means easy, I made the dough before the oven could even preheat while fighting a fever and playing a video game with D! They weren’t greasy in the slightest, they formed into little scoops and snuggled on to the parchment paper with a cheerfullness you don’t usually find in a baked good.

Ain’t it sad that I couldn’t get through taking a pic without biting one?

Y’all should follow the recipe to be sure, but let me tell you how easy these handled. The things I didn’t do were : Mix the dry ingrediants together first, beat for 1 minute between eggs, add the dry ingrediants together in thirds, cool the sheet between batches, rotate the baking sheets midway, bake them to brown (they were golden on the edges and paler in the middle because I prefer them softer), or let them get to room temperature before eating one. To be honest, I dumped the eggs in all at once and did the same with the dry ingrediants. The cookies were very happy to be treated so callously. They like it rough cutie.

“My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies”

2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. (packed) light brown sugar
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
12 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or 2 c. store-bought chocolate chips or chunks (I used dark chocolate chips)
1 c. finely chopped walnuts or pecans (I didn’t use them)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed for about 1 minute, until smooth. Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well blended. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each eggs oes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingrediants in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated. On low speed, or by hand with a rubber spatula, mix in the chocolate and the nuts. (The dough can be covered and refridgerated for up to 3 days or frozen. If you’d like, you can freeze rounded tablespoons of cough, ready for baking. Freeze the mounds on a lined baking sheet, then bag them when theyre solid. There’s no need to defrost the dough before baking - just add another minute or two to the baking time.)

Spoon the dough by slightly rounded tablespoonfulls onto the baking sheets leaving about two inches between spoonfulls.

Bake the cookies - one sheet at a time and rotating the sheet at the midway point - for 10 - 12 minutes or until they are brown at the edges and golden in the center; they may still be a little soft in the middle and that’s just fine. Pull the sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for 1 minute then carefully, usuaing a wide metal spatula, transfer them to racks to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remainder of the dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

 

What Happened To The TWD Carrot Cake?

Since the TWD Tuesday was one of the days we were on vacation (I was on vacation, D was attending a conference and lovingly took me along with him) I made sure to bake the carrot cake before we went out of town. Let it cool, and put it in a bag to take with us so I could frost it there! It was the night before, so I put it in the fridge to stay fresh.

This is where we went, ain’t it pretty?

        

It was for most of a week, so I packed everything as if we were heading out for a year. Clothing and things to make me pretty and computers and his work clothing and suntan lotion and a violin (you read that right) Even packed this because I didn’t want to try to make it in the hotel room.

There was only one thing I forgot. At the house, in the fridge by itself.

Spent most all of my time here!

There were these…

And this…

 

None of this…

 A lot of this, and even more of this! 

There was even one of these (no comments about the goospimples on my thigh, the breeze was not particularly warm at that minute) although it tasted really vile.

Here comes the knight in Dodge armour to whisk me back to our house, and not a moment too soon. You know, if you really hate eating tasty steaks and seafood and laying around by the pool and not even having to make your bed.

Ain’t they cute? They didn’t taste bad either, really soggy though which sucked. This would be a very nice cake if it hadn’t been in the bag for several days before it was frosted. Pi licked one.

        

She Pwned Me

Today the realization that Lauriehas taken over my life smacked me in the face. All of my baking projects this week lead back to her in one way or another. Gah!

Worrying

Every now and then I get worried about blogging. It’s a little niggling worry that y’all might feel intimidated by my sophistication and refined palette. Don’t worry, I understand.

TWD : No Marshmallows

Sorry y’all, the marshmallows didn’t happen. No problems, just a budget that wouldn’t comfortably allow me to buy a candy thermometer and corn syrup this week. Those are two things I don’t use regularly at all, and although the marshmallows sound good because of the egg they wouldn’t keep long enough to be a frugal choice for us. Come back next time for the carrot cake!

Brand New Blog

The tart is a slacker. It took me a while to get this going, but my little self sustainability blog is up! Y’all can find out about my gardening adevntures, and all the mistakes I’ll make trying to learn all this at http://countrycupcake.wordpress.com/ ! Should be good for a giggle, and you can find out how i grew what we’ll be eating.

                 

 

TWD : The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart

It ain’t a surprise that I was looking forward to this one, it’s my name! Y’all are free to throw in the extraordinary part when talking to me all ya want. There was even prancing as I went to get the lemons and grate the zest from them like I’ve gotten good at!

 Y’all quit staring at the lemons, they’re nekkid!

The recipe was easy, lemons and sugar and eggs and all I had to do was stir!

And stir…

 and stir…

and stir…

Ok, this is downright silly. For all the sweating (standing over a steaming pot and hot cream in Florida when it’s humid and sticky allready ain’t fun) and effort, it never got up to 180 F. Mind you, I ended up getting up to 100.2 F, but that’s a different story and why I’m writing this from on the couch grumbling.

 Y’all don’t even want to know what kind of contortions I had to go through to get pics of the stirring while at the same times never stopping the motion. The cat now thinks I’m weird, which is saying something.

 Yeah. here they are, little lemon cream tarts. Everybody who reads my blog knows I ain’t never one to not speak my mind when it comes to my opinion on desserts, and this is no different. The results were silky and creamy and smooth… and boring. Utterly boring. While there ain’t a doubt in my mind that the chef who created this is a genuis, it was like licking a lemon flavoured butter stick to me. Loved the lemon mixture before the butter went it, afterwards it tasted like nothing but lemon flavoured butter to me and that’s with leaving out the 5 tbls. past the two sticks! The tart dough was bland, like a piece of kind cheap shortbread without any oomph.

The whole thing reminded me of something that might get served to a very unadventerous bridge club after a nice day of getting their hair tinged blue and powdering the poodle. Love the pic of the side I took though, it looks like it’s a golden tart!

Yay For B-Days!

Ain’t never been much for big events, a little celebration at home with the people I love has alwacy been the best sounding thing I can think of. It should come as no surprise that’s how my 34th B-Day was, and I loved it (the firt part, the second part is next weekend when mom and me celebrate the halfway point between her b-day and mine together)!

The day began with D running out to get us breakfast from Perkins. Y’all, ain’t anything but the eggs on this plate that I would usually allow in the house. What hick chick could say no to a smoked ham steak and fried potatoes and eggs over easy? The muffin that came with the breakfast was the biggest muffin I’ve ever seen, raspberry cream and topped with sugar. The pics of the muffin ain’t posted because it seems Pi managed to get a few cat hairs on it. Y’all with pets know that you end up eating fur, but there ain’t no reason to go showing it up close.

Supper was slap your g-ma good (sorry g-ma). The soup is by Peabody and the recipe is here, try it. It was some of the best soup I’ve ever had, and D and his mom loved it! Ain’t neither of them like bleu cheee at all, so I changed the cheese to Havarti and it worked perfectly.

The salad won’t nothing to brag about, some greens and red onions and walnuts. There ain’t no lying about it, I was in a hurry and the salad suffered from neglect. There were radishes, but I forgot the tomatoes.

The steak and shrimp were both marinated, the steak in olive oil and liquid smoke and garlic and brown sugar and the shrimp in lime juice and garlic and basil and water. They were both perfect, and the shrimp had a butter sauce with basil and parsley brushed on it before it was put on the plates (the basil and parsley was from my garden). Dorie’s brioche dough made little rich rolls!

Yes, the name on the cake is right. D likes to run my first and middles names together to call me Shalei (shay-LEE) because he thinks it’s cute, and I can’t help but agree. When the cake was chosen, I wanted the pig cake I found in the Baskin Robbins book. D found out that the pig was an ice cream coop on a cookie, so he had tem put the pig on top of a Neopolitan ice cream and chocolate cake ice cream cake! Before y’all ask, no I didn’t share the pig. Oink.

There were pig calls practiced.

After supper, D’s mom gave me a few presents from her and they’re so nice! A family of primitive art sheep, and a cake tand with a cover that reverses to make a dip tray and a punch bowl. Y’all will have to see pics, it’s so neat!

D and me played WoW all night, and stayed up way too late and ate ice cream like little kids. He’s the perfect man for me, and it was the best B-Day ever!

True fact : this post took a while to write because I’m watching a rodeo. Love them!

Bwahahahaha!

http://lythosants.wordpress.com/2008/04/04/m-i-c-k-e-y/

She Really Does

Chelle is totally hiding baked goods. That is all.