claire797

Hooray! Glad the cookies worked out and that the owner was pleased. Good for you! Thanks for starting this thread. I've collected a few new giant cookie recipes, so thanks to everyone for posting recipes.

Glad you enjoyed your birthday cake, LonghornGal. Here are my thoughts. It was an impressive cake -- very tall! Imagine 3 full-size 9 inch cakes stacked on top of each other. I knew by the volume of the batter it would be tall, but the picture in the book didn't quite convey the height. The texture was very firm. It wasn't dry, but it was more solid than some of my more tender, fudgy chocolate cakes. Again, fine. But frosting 3 tall, stacked, firm-textured slippery cakes with whipped cream is not so easy. To get them to stand straight while I was frosting, I stuck a metal skewer down the center to hold them in place. The whipped cream frosting is simple sweetened whipped cream, but for some reason RR left out the vanilla. Maybe she' doesn't like vanilla in her whipped cream. I like it, so I just threw some in and wouldn't have it any other way. Now the bugaboo was the ganache. It never set. She says let it rest 10 minutes, no longer or it will get too thick. Ha Ha Ha. Not even close. I had to refrigerate mine and in the end, had to add more chocolate just to get it close to a workable consistency. Next time, I'll start with 6 or 7 ounces of chocolate and maybe 3 tablespoons of Lyle's. In the end, it made a spectacular presentation. Next time I make it I plan to use a different cake recipe for the cake part, maybe add a little gelatin to the whipped cream to stabilize it, and take special care to use more chocolate and less syrup in the ganache.

Wow! You've got a great variety. Good luck!

Here's a picture of mine. I laid it against the prune juice can to scale....

Mine look very similar, but are lighter (probably because I don't use blackstrap) and a little bit thicker.....not much thicker than yours, but a little bit. How long did you chill the dough? The key (at least I think -- I'm not an expert) is to form the dough mounds ahead of time and then chill the heck out of them. I'll try to find a picture.

Well, I'm just very happy that you tried them and liked them :). I've given the recipe out to a few people, but you are the first person to actually make and review it.

Thanks for posting the picture? Did Sandra give you a ginger cookie too? I'm curious, because yours look just like mine :). Glad you were okay with the shortening. I'm not a huge fan of it, but I found it works extremely well for big, huge, gigantic cookies.

Hey, those sound great!! The Soho Charcuterie is the source of my favorite brownie recipe and this cookie recipe looks similar to those brownies but in cookie form. Thanks again!

Hmmmmmm. I'm looking through my files and all my really big, fat, jumbo cookies use shortening or a combo. I'll keep looking for some all-butter alternatives. I love gigantic cookies!

I think the recipe would taste great with butter, but the cookies would be flatter. As written, they're fat and puffy -- chewy on the outside and soft on the inside. I think with butter they'd be big and chewy.....which might be a good thing. If you use all butter and chill the already-scooped dough mounds thoroughly, the cookies will probably stay pretty high.

Here's a recipe I love. You'll have to double or quadruple it because it only yields about 9 big cookies.....but they're huge and really good. Let me know what you think if you make them. It's a recipe I've been playing with -- a combination of a few others I like. Super Gigantic Ginger Cookies 1 cup granulated sugar 1 large egg 3/4 cup shortening -- butter flavored, melted and cooled 1/4 cup molasses 2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon cocoa 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon cloves, ground 1/2 teaspoon ginger 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 tablespoon finely chopped crystallized ginger Crystal sugar (optional) In a large bowl, beat sugar and egg on high speed of electric mixer until light. Reduce mixer speed to low and mix in melted shortening and molasses. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking soda, cocoa, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pepper and crystallized ginger. By hand, stir flour mixture into sugar mixture until thoroughly combined. Using a 1/3 cup measure, scoop dough onto a dish. Place dish with dough scoops in refrigerator and chill thoroughly for at least 3 hours. To hasten the process, you may chill dough in freezer for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Dip dough balls in crystal sugar (if using) and place sugar side up on parchment. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Let cool for 2-3 minutes on cookie sheet.

You might want to check out Cooking.com. They actually sell a 13x9 inch springform pan. As for recipes, there are a few 13x9 inch recipes over on the Kraft (Philadelphia Cream Cheese) web site. One in particular is their Oreo cheesecake. I think the formula is 5 (8 oz) packs cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, 4 eggs, vanilla, 1 cup sour cream baked at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. They recommend lining a 13x9 inch pan with foil and simply lifting it out.

I was with someone who knew the owner, so we didn't have trouble getting in or getting a booth. I can see how someone might have a different perspective after having to stand in line for awhile and then get treated badly. That's too bad. And I admit, if you don't like a club scene or enjoy that kind of atmosphere every once in awhile, you might not be into it either. It's not a cozy little dessert spot, but a hip and trendy type place with cool desserts. I wish Austin had a Sugar bar. Don't know if it would work in this town, though.

I went with a few friends when I was in Chicago and we loved it. It wasn't cheap, but it was something worth shelling out $$$$ to experience at least once, which is not to say I won't go back, because I will. The desserts were good and each creation on the menu had a rather poetic description. There was also a lengthy list of drinks. In terms of atmosphere and people watching, I'd give it an A+.

Nice cake, Fifi! ....not on to a Rebecca Rather cake perhaps?

You took it to heart, I didn't. I love raisins and wanted use even MORE raisins. In the end, we used Craisins, but sprinkled a few raisins on top. And I agree, the leftovers were a bit dry. Rice just soaks up dressing, I guess. I think we should switch gears and start in on some more of her cakes. I'm thinking either the carrot cake or the Tuxedo Cake, which I know will be amazing. Does anyone else want to take the lead on this? Has anyone made the carrot or Tuxedo cake?

Okay, here's a picture of the Wild Rice Chickpea Salad. It was REALLY good, but it did have a pretty strong curry flavor. Luckily, we love curry. Longhorngal and I made a few changes. We used prosciutto instead of smoked ham, white wine vinegar instead of red, and we cut the olive oil down to 1 tablespoon.

Thanks! Isn't Rezipezaar a ton of fun? ;) That cake definitely looks moist. I'm going to try it next time I need a cake for an orange lover. As for sticking, I've mentioned it so many times you'd think I got paid by Pam, but the Pam for Baking (the flour added kind) is awesome.

The Pastry Queen took a back seat this week, but I'm going to try to catch up this evening with her Wild Rice and Chickpea Salad. Pictures are forthcoming...

Glad yours turned out great! BTW. When you get a chance, could you point me toward a link or post your Southern Lady Cake recipe? That sounds good.

Dana, to answer your first question re: my flour. I store it in a tighly sealed, opaque tin on the counter, so I don't think it's absorbing moisture. I also use different brands of flour all the time, so I can't pin the problem on a particular brand. Strange problem. My batch made about 16 big rolls (counting the ones I froze). And yes, these would be great with brisket.

[Moderator's Note: Post edited at member's request.] The rolls are done! This recipe has ended my bad luck with yeast. :) After the dough had risen (and boy, did it rise), it was sticky, but easy to work with so long as I kept my hands thoroughly buttered. I didn't put any flour on my hands and didn't need to. I went ahead and did the tennis ball size blobs of dough so that I could have sandwich size rolls. These rolls would be great for a Cuban sandwich. They have almost the sweetness level of that Hawaiian bread that comes in the orange wrapper, but not quite. The most similar bread I could compare them to would be the dinner rolls you get at Luby's Cafeteria. They taste like giant Luby's dinner rolls......at least mine do. I totally forgot I added (as suggested in the book) the pinch of cinnamon and had I not known I put it in, would never have even guessed it was there. It adds a subtle nuance. BTW. I put some of the dough blobs on a lined tray in the freezers. I'm thinking maybe tonight, I'll take some out about 2 hours before dinner, let them thaw and rise, and bake them up fresh. Here's a picture of the roll.

Great news! I'm making Rocket Rolls this morning. Wish me luck, as I haven't made a decent yeast bread in years. I use to be successful with yeast doughs, but have had a string of failures lately. Every time I started kneading with the dough hook of my KA, the dough gets too sticky and I end up adding more flour -- usually way more than the recipe calls for. The end result has been heavy bread. This happened again with the Rocket Roll dough. I used the 6 1/2 cups bread flour called for, but the dough was too wet. I put aside the dough hook and kneaded more flour into the dough by hand, so it's now sticky, but not completely unmanageable. I'm scared of how it's going to be after the rising period. Eek.

Thanks for the review! We love orange muffins, but for some reason, I must have skipped over this recipe. I don't even remember seeing it. I'll definitely give these a try. BTW. I recently bought a silicone muffin tins (the kind with the rack) and love it! It's supposed to be non-stick, but I spray it with cooking spray anyway. It works extremely well and I don't have to worry about it getting rusty or old.

Chana Masala Serves 4. This dish is not incredibly spicy as is. Adjust cayenne for more fire. 1 T peanut oil 1/2 c chopped onion 1/2 c chopped green bell pepper 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 1/4 tsp turmeric 1/4 tsp garam masala 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1/4 tsp ground coriander 1/2 tsp salt 2 cloves garlic -- crushed 1 T grated ginger 15 oz chickpeas -- drained and rinsed 7 oz tomato sauce 2 T chopped fresh cilantro Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and bell pepper and saute until soft. Add spices and saute 30 seconds. Add chickpeas and tomato sauce. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 5 minutes. Serve 2 two (Serve over basmati rice) ( RG1245 )