Virgin baking

Let me begin by apologizing for this inexcusable extended lapse in posts. The truth is I recently re-located to a new living space leaving me with a smaller kitchen, fewer kitchen utensils and appliances, and a substantially diminished disposable income. Nonetheless, when my roomie so generously stayed home from work to wait for my mattress to be delivered, it was clear to me that her selflessness had to be rewarded with cookies.

I considered a few options, including peanut butter, chocolate chocolate chip, even ginger cookies. Eventually, though, the boss of all cookies won out - Anna's oatmeal chocolate chip magic cookies. One morning before work, I traipsed down the street to my new friendly neighborhood grocery store, purchased all the necessary ingredients, and lugged the pounds of baking products (and a broom. And a plunger) up the hill to the apartment. The cookie-making process had been set into motion.

During a spell of impatience-induced boredom, I ended up making the cookies at my parents' house. They were delicious and did not survive for long. Tonight after watching Glee and eating roasted carrots, I needed cookie dough. I was not paying the closest attention to the process (for a change) and ended up inventing a new cookie.

Extra floured chocolate chip mounds

* 1 stick (sketchy, possibly fake) butter
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* generous 1/4 cup sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 4 generous 1/2 cups of flour
* 3/4 cup choc chips

Preheat oven to 350˚ F.

Cream butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla. Pour in the flour, salt and baking soda. Mix well. Note: the dough will be very dry and require more aggressive mixing than usual in order to get the flour properly absorbed into the mix. Add the chocolate chips and mix well. (At this point, I consumed about 3 cookies in dough form. The dough was less sweet than what I am used to, but definitely hit the spot).

Bake whatever remains of the dough for 10-ish minutes. I took them out slightly early for fear of the cookies being too dry, but Abbie approved of the final result. I have not recovered enough from my cookie dough OD to taste one, but best believe that I will.

Lastly, I don't know where my camera is at this point in time, hence irrelevant photograph.

Aye

I have been dreaming and planning butterscotch brownies with cream cheese swirl for weeks. Possibly months. As I mentioned previously, I even purchased a bag of butterscotch chips (half of which I consumed as is) and cream cheese. There was no way that these would not be delicious. It was only a matter of when to make them and who to subsequently force them upon. Yesterday, the time finally came.

I was, indeed, short on the butterscotch chips, but I compensated by adjusting the recipe to include some chocolate chips, a few of which had survived a recent batch of corn nut cookies. Judging by the less-than-one-minute survival time once placed in front of my co-workers (not to mention the five that I demolished) these were pretty tasty.

Oh, and I'd like to say a special thanks to my dad, who inspires me always, even though he doesn't like butterscotch.

Sugar Non-brownies with cream cheese swirl (Nick made the astute observation that brownies are not golden brown, as these were, but dark and chocolatey. Fair enough)
adapted from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

Cream cheese part:
* 8 oz cream cheese
* 1 egg
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 2 tbsp flour

Non-brownie part:
* 2 cups flour
* 2 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips
* 1/4 cup chocolate chips
* 1 stick butter
* 2 cups packed brown sugar
* 4 eggs
* 1 tsp vanilla (or maybe 1 1/2..)

Preheat oven to 350˚ F.

Beat together the cream cheese and sugar. Add the egg and flour and beat until combined.













For the non-brownies: In a medium sized bowl, mix the flour, bp and salt. In a medium-large saucepan melt the chips and butter over low heat. Stir occasionally.













Remove the pot from the heat and mix in the brown sugar. Once mixture has cooled slightly, whisk in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Pour batter into greased 8x12 inch pan. Drop teaspoon sized scoops of the cream cheese mixture on top of the batter. Use a small knife to swirl the mixture into the batter (way easier than you might think to make it not look awful. Even I pulled it off!)

Put the pan in the oven. The recipe said to bake for 25-30 minutes. I ended up leaving it in for about 40 as it was still wobbly and the batter seemed raw when a toothpicked it. I think 35 minutes might have been the perfect time, but who's complaining about slightly caramelized brownies? Definitely not Dani.

Garbage cookies

In a final attempt to take advantage of an empty house, I decided to have a barbecue a few days before my housemates returned. I had been anticipating a BBQ with much excitement for many months, frequently planning one only to be foiled by rain, parents, or some combination of the two. This time would be different. The month-long downpour been fully replaced by sun; parental units were in Africa; 10 hot dogs cost a dollar at safeway. Nothing could stop me. Or so I thought...

During the winter months, my barbecue had been stashed away in the basement for safekeeping. Thirty minutes before my first guest was meant to arrive, I delved into the depths of the clutter and began yanking the big black UFO-like object from its hiding place. I got it past one doorway and was moving towards the second one when a heavy metal pole collided painfully with my bare foot. After screaming in pain for a few minutes, I turned my gaze downward to confront my attacker. It turned out to be none other than one of the legs of the barbecue. "Hmm," I thought, perplexed. "I didn't realize our barbecue was collapsible." I left the leg alone, as it was still attached (albeit loosely) to the bottom of the apparatus, and recommenced dragging. I had barely moved a foot before my shin became the victim of yet another brutal attack, this time by another barbecue leg. "What the hell!" I exclaimed at the rebellious contraption. "If I wanted to collapse you, I would!"

I continued to battle with the barbecue and was consistently met with wobbly resistance. I managed to get it onto the back deck, only to have the huge bulbous grill topple dangerously near my already fearful toes. At this point I concluded that the barbecue was not collapsible, but completely totaled. The thought of returning the busted device to the basement tripled my heart rate, compelling me to abandon it where it was and return inside to figure out plan B.

Fortunately, I had already made these:

Salted pudding cookies

* 1 stick butter
* 1 egg
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1 tbsp corn syrup
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 1/4 cup chocolate pudding mix
* scant 3/4 cup flour
* 1/2 tsp baking soda
* 3/4 tsp salt
* 1/2 cup chocolate chips
* 1 cup potato chips, crushed

Preheat oven to 350˚ F.

Cream butter and sugar. I added the pudding mix at this time too because I had turned my brain off at the time. It was not the best decision, as pudding mix definitely falls into the category of dry ingredient, but it worked out in the end and blended with the butter-sugar sufficiently.

Mix in the egg, vanilla and corn syrup. Add the dry ingredients (again, I'd recommend adding the pudding at this stage, rather than earlier) and stir until dough is formed. Mix in the chips x 2 and any other snacks you would like to encounter in the cookies.













Place on a baking sheet (greasing unnecessary, but un-harmful) and bake for 9-11 minutes. So good.