Meeting-friendly snacks to bake

[Anna N]

8 minutes ago, kayb said:

Crumble them up and use them as a topping for a fruit crisp.

 

 Nice thought but nothing would crumble. It was very much like trying to pick up soft caramel  with inclusions. 

[Anna N]

10 minutes ago, JohnT said:

Anna, you appear to have the same problem as your previous batch of cookies you made that flattened out on you! I would be beating myself over the head with a frying pan if this happened to me a few times. Tell me, what brand of butter are you using? I ask this as in our part of the world there is a butter shortage. Our butter is the same as standard French butter - comes in a 500g brick and is hard out of the fridge. The other day I found a new batch at my supplier and bought a few bricks as it was in a different packaging - one I had not seen before. Fortunately I read the fine print when I arrived home and found that although it was packaged as "butter", it was actually a mixture of vegetable oil and butter "to increase the spreadability", as the fine print said. Totally useless for baking! I was wondering if your butter may not be pure and is softened somehow with an addition of vegetable oil or something else to make it run as soon as it is subject to heat. I returned mine to the supplier.

 Yes it is exactly the same problem I think. I even questioned the butter myself. It is not my usual butter, however,  it is a very reputable American butter (Wegman's)  and all the recipes are from American sources.  So I don't see that being the reason. 

[Anna N]

 So apparently I am a very slow learner.  I no longer believe there is a problem with the recipe or with my ability to follow one. It's my memory that's failing!   Didn't I explain earlier about my oven which was not behaving very well?   Certainly it does not work on convection mode. But I was preheating it on on non-convection mode and when the beeper went off to say it had reached the temperature of 350°F I went to put my trays in there.   But one extra neuron kicked in and I told myself to throw a thermometer into that oven and make sure that it was accurate.  It read 200°F despite the signal that it had preheated to 350. Therein lies my problem with spreading cookies I do believe.  So long as I remember never to trust that beep but to check the temperature with a separate thermometer I think I should be good. 

 

 

 These are not the ones that went so badly wrong the other day but I doubt that it makes any difference as the recipes for oatmeal cookies are very close no matter which one you consult. 

 

 Thanks for everyone who tried to help. 

Edited September 21, 2017 by Anna N (log)

[kayb]

Well, I'm glad that mystery is cleared up!

 

[Anna N]

Just now, kayb said:

Well, I'm glad that mystery is cleared up!

 

 Me too. But I hope your memory is better than mine and that if this happens again you will shake me and ask me if I checked the temperature in my oven!  Bet I forget again. 

[kayb]

Perhaps between us we can generate enough brain cells to remember. If not, we will call on the others to help.

 

[lindag]

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

 So apparently I am a very slow learner.  I no longer believe there is a problem with the recipe or with my ability to follow one. It's my memory that's failing!   Didn't I explain earlier about my oven which was not behaving very well?   Certainly it does not work on convection mode. But I was preheating it on on non-convection mode and when the beeper went off to say it had reached the temperature of 350°F I went to put my trays in there.   But one extra neuron kicked in and I told myself to throw a thermometer into that oven and make sure that it was accurate.  It read 200°F despite the signal that it had preheated to 350. Therein lies my problem with spreading cookies I do believe.  So long as I remember never to trust that beep but to check the temperature with a separate thermometer I think I should be good. 

 

 

 

 These are not the ones that went so badly wrong the other day but I doubt that it makes any difference as the recipes for oatmeal cookies are very close no matter which one you consult. 

 

 Thanks for everyone who tried to help. 

 

I'm glad you were able to solve that puzzle, it was clear that it had really gotten under your skin.

[Anna N]

 

@Kerry Beal  sent me the recipe for this.  I am a little worried about how it will slice.  

[Tri2Cook]

4 hours ago, Anna N said:

 

@Kerry Beal  sent me the recipe for this.  I am a little worried about how it will slice.  

I'm a little curious about what it is! 

[Anna N]

6 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

I'm a little curious about what it is! 

Duh. It's a  chocolate banana bread.   I thought you could read my mind.  

[caroled]

I'm kinda guessing the recipients are not going to care how well it slices, only how fast they can get it in their mouth with as few crumbs lost as possible 

[Tri2Cook]

13 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Duh. It's a  chocolate banana bread.   I thought you could read my mind.  

I'm kinda glad it wasn't a recipe you could link to. That sounds amazing and I don't need it. 

[Anna N]

4 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

I'm kinda glad it wasn't a recipe you could link to. That sounds amazing and I don't need it. 

Oh I bet I could.  I just don't always think that anyone wants the recipe.  You don't need to click if you don't want to. 

Here.

[Tri2Cook]

3 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Oh I bet I could.  I just don't always think that anyone wants the recipe.  You don't need to click if you don't want to. 

Here.

  I think we all know how this one's going to end...

[Anna N]

31 minutes ago, caroled said:

I'm kinda guessing the recipients are not going to care how well it slices, only how fast they can get it in their mouth with as few crumbs lost as possible 

 The problem is I have to package it and send it off.  And it's going into an office environment so I kind of like it to look reasonable. But I may have done a lovely CYA act.  The only suitable container I could find is so difficult to open that they will blame themselves for any disaster than ensues!  

[Thanks for the Crepes]

13 hours ago, Anna N said:

 

@Kerry Beal  sent me the recipe for this.  I am a little worried about how it will slice.  

 

Anna,

 

I bet this tastes amazing! I can almost smell the fragrance in your kitchen.

 

I am curious about the large, lighter disks on your chocolate banana bread. I thought they were less intense chocolate dough cutouts

placed on top and seem to be cracking on top like the darker chocolate base. Your link shows a loaf topped with chocolate chips. So, if you don't mind, what are round disks?

[Anna N]

4 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

I am curious about the large, lighter disks on your chocolate banana bread.

[Anna N]

 

 Sent off all but two before I took a photograph.  Snickerdoodles. 

[quiet1]

I need to find myself some happy baked goods recipients. Everyone in my house is too health conscious.

[Anna N]

 

 Today gingersnaps. I had packaged most of them before I remembered to take a photo. 

[suzilightning]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

 

 Today gingersnaps. I had packaged most of them before I remembered to take a photo. 

freaking send them to me!!!!!!

I just bought 3 bags of gingersnaps......

one for me for making sauerbrauten

one for Johnnybird

and one for the Smudge since he has fallen down the basement steps with his head in a bag of them......

Edited October 12, 2017 by suzilightning (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

10 hours ago, suzilightning said:

and one for the Smudge since he has fallen down the basement steps with his head in a bag of them......

 

Is Smudge okay?

 

I love gingersnaps too, but I would not want to take a fall down the stairs over them.

[suzilightning]

12 minutes ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

 

Is Smudge okay?

 

I love gingersnaps too, but I would not want to take a fall down the stairs over them.

He's fine...it was only 3 steps but just NEVER would have thought a cat would take so strongly to a gingersnap!

Maybe I should go check my great-grandmother's cookbook and see if she has a recipe.  

[Anna N]

 

 Just a selection of the batch of cookies I made today. Thank heaven I opted to make only half the recipe.

 

I don’t expect these will get kudos from my usual audience.  They are a little too plain and probably not nearly sweet enough.

 

They came about because @Kerry Beal returned from her trip to Belgium with a jar of speculaas spice for me.  I knew I needed to put it to good use. 

 

Googling suggested that I really needed a special mold (springerle) to make these cookies but that was not going to happen. And having had a look at these molds online I don’t think this dough would have worked very well with them.   There was too much spreading and expansion that would obliterate any fine lines.   Still I wish I had at least had a windmill cutter. 

 

 These are really my kind of cookies to enjoy with a cup of coffee. 

 

 

 

[suzilightning]

On ‎10‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 9:20 AM, Anna N said:

 

 Just a selection of the batch of cookies I made today. Thank heaven I opted to make only half the recipe.

 

I don’t expect these will get kudos from my usual audience.  They are a little too plain and probably not nearly sweet enough.

 

They came about because @Kerry Beal returned from her trip to Belgium with a jar of speculaas spice for me.  I knew I needed to put it to good use. 

 

Googling suggested that I really needed a special mold (springerle) to make these cookies but that was not going to happen. And having had a look at these molds online I don’t think this dough would have worked very well with them.   There was too much spreading and expansion that would obliterate any fine lines.   Still I wish I had at least had a windmill cutter. 

 

 These are really my kind of cookies to enjoy with a cup of coffee. 

 

 

 

Now if you had put a very,very thin slice of aged cheddar on those while still hot...........

reminds me of my great grandmother's spicy molasses cookies