emmalish

So are you supplying treats for both the meeting and band practice regularly now? Fun! Are you getting any feedback about which ones are most popular? (I'm sure they're ALL popular)

Whaaaaaaat?

I was just looking at that recipe the other day too. I'm definitely going to have to give it a try.

Thanks for the link, Franci! I've pinned that to try one day.

I don't know what that is, but it looks delicious!

Thank you for that!

YUM. How are these texture-wise? I have a recipe for apple cheddar muffins that taste fantastic, but every time I make them the texture is tough and bready. It doesn't matter how careful I am not to over mix. I keep meaning to experiment to get that flavour combination in a better muffin. Maybe I could modify these...?

I've soaked dried cherries in orange juice before for cookies. They tasted amazing.

Well, thanks to you two, I had to swing by the store and pick some up tonight! Not sure what I'm gonna do with them yet...

Really great point.

Well for a non-baker (which you're NOT, how can you say that when you're a bread baker??), I'd say bars might be the easiest to make. But many of them tend to be gooey or crumbly by nature (especially the layered ones). Brownies and blondies are dead simple to make and you can play around with plain ones or add different inclusions (chocolate chips, coconut, etc). I think cookies will be the most forgiving. If you over- or under-bake them, they'll still be edible (just crunchier or chewier). They're individually portioned already. And there's a never-ending variety to choose from. The more you bake, the fancier you can get – with sandwich cookies and decorated roll-out cookies (if you want to spend the time).

Thanks Kim!

Kim, I'm so glad to hear they were a success! Did you slice them about 1/4" to get them snappy? I'm going to have to try them again one day. As for that chocolate-coconut pound cake – any chance you can share that recipe?

Me too. I love my stand mixer – I don't know how I functioned without one. However, I DID function without one for several years. I've made all manner of cakes, cookies and breads using nothing but my own arm strength. It's all do-able. And as others have pointed out, it was all do-able long before the stand mixer was even invented.

Is that recipe for a standard dozen muffins? That's a LOT of cinnamon!

Kim, I generally don't have that issue with slice and bake cookies. When it's just a single dough, I use the same method as Mjx posted. BUT when I did the cinnamon bun cookies a few weeks ago, I started with a flat sheet and rolled it up, and I did get a couple air pockets inside. What I'd read to do (and I think helped minimize the problem) is that after I made the dough log, I went back over it from end-to-end and squeezed it together a bit, and then rolled it back and forth on the counter to round it back out again. This essentially made the log a little longer, but I think got rid of most of the "fissures" inside.

That's only your THIRD?? Wow. It's gorgeous!

I was thinking of those too. But wouldn't it be tricky to stuff the cookie dough down into the mould? Keeping in mind the silicone is flexible? You'd have to start with a much softer cookie dough. Certainly worth checking out if anyone has one of the moulds!

I'm sure they'd bake up fine in a silicone mould, but it might be a bit tricky to press the pieces of dough together in a flexible mould. Worth a shot!

Mmmm, chocolate cookie shot glass, lined with dark chocolate, filled with Irish Cream.

Milk, of course! (shoulda been Baileys)

Okay, this week a friend of mine asked me (twisted my arm / insisted / bullied me) to make some of those cookie shot glasses that have been making the news in the past couple weeks. It never would have even occurred to me to try them otherwise. But I love a challenge... (link) I also made these roll-out chocolate chip cookies using the same recipe...

Thanks Kim! I'm sure they'd freeze fine, but you could also freeze the dough and then bake them up later.

As someone who doesn't temper chocolate often, I'm just going to chime in to say that the more you do it, the easier it will get. I started off the same as you – learning from a book, raising-lowering-raising the temperature. But the more you do it, the more you'll get a feel for how the chocolate should behave at certain temperatures and how it will feel when it's in temper. Now I don't even need to bother with a thermometer if I'm just doing a small amount. Read the info at the links suggested above, and keep practicing!

Apparently Kim and I are on the same wavelength. Last week I made these orange butter cookies topped with coconut.