Sweet Safari

I have a confession: I miss Play-Doh. There are days when I wish I still had a couple of cans of that salty goodness (oh, come on, like you never tasted it) to roll into snakes and snowmen.
Somehow, though, this doesn't exactly fly as a "grown up" hobby like reading or jogging or gardening or whatever. And that makes me pretty sad. At least, it did until I discovered something:

Fondant.

It's ADULT PLAY-DOH! (And it's actually meant to be eaten, which is a bonus.)

I've used fondant before, but only for relatively easy things like bows and cutouts. I've never tried to free-style, so to speak. But when I found out I was doing a baby shower cake, and that the mom-to-be was decorating her nursery in a jungle theme, I figured I'd branch out a little.

Let me tell you, trying to hand-cut intricate little jungle animals out of fondant takes a lot of time and patience. (And that's after the time spent coloring the fondant.) Gluing the pieces together with royal frosting is a bit of a royal pain. But it's still so much fun.

I wasn't entirely happy with this cake (and would do several things differently in the future), but I did enjoy the Play-D...um, the fondant.

A Week in Photos

Me, not including at least four paragraphs in a post? It's shockingly non-standard, I know. But, well...they say a picture's worth...you know. And the fact is that I currently have limited time. So I'll just post a few pictures from the last week of baking and let 'em speak for themselves.

Neopolitan Cheesecake with chocolate-covered strawberries:

And a butterfly cake for Emily's graduation open house. (Congrats, Em!)

Disaster Relief

I'll tell you right up front that I didn't get pictures of it. I just couldn't bring myself to. It was that tragic.

What was "it"? The carrot cake cheesecake fiasco.

This had so much potential, and I'm not sure if the problem was recipe-related or baker-related (either is possible), but either way, instead of a Cheesecake Factory-esque carrot cake cheesecake, I wound up with...carrot mush. Yikes.

Anyway, this cheesecake was (supposed to be) for company we were having for dinner. When I discovered the mush factor, I promptly threw it out and called in a pinch hitter: the tried-and-true white chocolate raspberry cake recipe. 'Nuff said. Here are some pics:

Those Three Words

Ah, the magic of those three little words. No, not those three words...the other three: chocolate chip cookies. (Am I betraying my singleness on multiple levels right now? Ah, well.)

So, are you interested in this topic? Yeah, I thought so. (If not, we need to talk.)

I've tried a lot of recipes over the years--my guinea-pig roommates could attest to that--and here's a little not-so-secret secret I've picked up: pretty much every recipe has the same ingredients. So why in the world are there so many different recipes and different kinds of chocolate chip cookies?

Well, several factors effect what emerges from the oven after you've dumped all those ingredients together and baked them: ratios and amounts (how much brown sugar to white), methods (melted, creamed, or cold butter?), baking temperature/time, etc. This is how a cookie winds up thin and crispy or thick and chewy, more or less chocolaty, and so on.

But those are issues of preference, right? I mean, I like (and when I say "like," I mean "passionately adore") gooey, chewy, thick cookies that are slightly underbaked. (A couple of those plus vanilla ice cream = mmmm.) But that's just me.

So if you ask me, "What's THE best chocolate chip cookie recipe?" I can give you my favorite, but it might not be yours, too...which means you're just going to have to do what I did and try about 53 recipes to figure it out. (And yes, yes, it's worth it).

That said, though, I do have a few tips that apply to every chocolate chip cookie. These are just a few little things that, together, can take any cookie from "good" to "could eat 25 of them without blinking an eye."

And so, in no particular order and without further ado, I present to you "Amber's Chocolate Chip Cookie A-Team":

1. REAL vanilla extract. Not, not, not the "imitation" stuff. (Ew.) My favorite is Mexican vanilla, but anything real/"pure" is good.

2. Coarse-grained sea salt. The coarse grain makes it so that you actually can taste the salt, and that sweet/salty taste contrast in a cookie is mmm...

3. European butter. Now, let's talk about this for a minute. Margarine is cheap, yes, I know. Four sticks for a buck make it really appealing. But it is NOT butter. It is not butter's less glamorous younger brother. It is not even butter's third cousin twice removed. No, no, no. While margarine might be an acceptable substitute for smearing on a piece of toast, it makes cookies (and me) cringe. Really. Butter--real butter--is the only way to go. And European butter is like European chocolate--far better than American. You usually can't find it at the regular grocery store, and it's a little more expensive, but it's worth it.

4. Instant coffee. Yep, no kidding. Cake bakers know that adding brewed coffee to chocolate cake batter really adds a great level of flavor to the baked cake. Instant coffee granules do the same thing for chocolate chip cookies. Don't use too much, or you'll end up with a coffee flavor to your cookie; just a generous pinch or two is enough to enhance the chocolate without adding any coffee flavor to the final, baked product. Oh, and cheap coffee is fine for this.

Oh, and cute little heart-shaped measuring spoons are never a bad touch. (Thanks, Amy!) Because chocolate chip cookies always should be made with love. (Awwww...!)

And, just because, here's my latest favorite chocolate-chip recipe, with a fun twist.

Caramel Treasure Chocolate Chip Cookies

¾ cup + 2 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 generous pinch instant coffee granules
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons butter-flavor Crisco
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
1 small egg, room temperature
¼ cup mini chocolate chips
12 caramel-filled chocolates (I like Dove)

1. In small bowl, stir together dry ingredients; set aside.

2. In separate bowl, cream butter, Crisco, and sugars. Add vanilla and egg; beat well.

3. Stir in flour mixture until just incorporated. Stir in chocolate. Chill dough at least 1 hour.

4. Preheat oven to 350°.

5. Remove dough from fridge. Form into balls, flattening centers and pressing a chocolate into each; gently press dough up around to cover chocolate completely. Place 2 inches apart on parchment-lined sheets. Bake about 10 minutes.

6. Cool cookies on sheets a few minutes; then remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 1 dozen large cookies

Enjoy!

Cereal Number

Our pantry looks eerily like the cereal aisle at Wal-Mart. There are only four people in my family, yet somehow we've managed to accumulate no less than seven boxes of cereal in the pantry: Kix, Honey Nut Cheerios, Raisin Bran, Frosted Mini Wheats, All Bran, generic bran flakes, and some weird kind of granola made with hemp (um, yeah). That's in addition to the hot cereals: oatmeal, grits, and so on.

I find this intimidating.

And thus this morning I found myself standing in a cereal-haze for who knows how long, staring blankly into the open pantry and trying to decide what to eat for breakfast.

Thankfully, my college days (which included a LOT of cereal) taught me a life skill crucial for coping with this kind of quandry: when in doubt, choose 'em all. (You'd be surprised how many kinds of cereal you can dump in one bowl and still have it taste good.)

Unfortunately, it wasn't until after all this that I realized we’re out of milk.

The simplest solution to this probably would have been "make toast." But that's admittedly sort of boring, and, on consideration, I realized that the gray, nasty weather made it a perfect muffin-making/coffee-drinking morning. At the same time, by this point, I was sort of hung up on the idea of cereal. So I compromised and improvised: cereal muffins! Why not?

My tried-and-true Taste of Home Baking Book has a decent recipe for Three-Grain Muffins. I added some stuff, took out some stuff, made healthy modifications as per the usual, and came up with this, which I really liked. They’re hearty, full of fiber, not overly sweet, and great with coffee.

Cereal-Aisle Multigrain Muffins
½ cup crushed Mini Wheats cereal
¼ cup crushed bran flakes
¼ cup crushed All Bran
¼ cup quick-cooking oats
¼ cup wheat germ
¼ cup white cornmeal
¾ cup low-fat buttermilk
¼ cup very hot water
¼ cup fat-free sour cream
¼ cup applesauce
1 egg
½ cup packed brown sugar (I actually used brown-sugar Splenda)
1 cup whole-wheat flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1¼ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
(You could also add a mashed banana, raisins, nuts, and/or chopped apples or berries.)

1. Heat oven to 400°. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin; set aside.

2. In large bowl, stir together Mini Wheats, bran flakes, All Bran, oats, wheat germ, and cornmeal. Stir in buttermilk hot water, sour cream, and applesauce; let sit about 1 minute. Beat in egg (by hand). Stir in brown sugar.

3. In separate bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Add to wet mixture and stir just until moistened. (Batter will be lumpy.)

4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about ¾ full. Bake 15–18 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack 5 minutes.

Makes 1 dozen muffins

Ironically enough, that last picture is of what I found in the mailbox after the whole above-narrated episode: a cereal sample. Ha. Make that EIGHT boxes of cereal now in our pantry!