Meeting-friendly snacks to bake

[Anna N]

On 10/15/2019 at 7:08 PM, Anna N said:

I am sure you are right but my daughter described them as “just perfect”. 

After a few days I understand better what you were talking about. They were still tasty but they were now extremely crumbly probably the rice flour would have taking care of some of this “crumblingness”.  

[Anna N]

On 10/15/2019 at 12:48 PM, Anna N said:

Today I made these salty chocolate oatmeal cookies.

These got thumbs up all around. They would’ve been eaten the same day but as I have noted, after a few days they became very crumbly. 

[Anna N]

 

Deep, dark, and I hope, delicious brownies. I forgot the baking powder but since I was making Fudgy brownies I didn’t see what the point of the baking powder was anyway. Somebody will surely tell me but when I did some research I found every reason to believe that it was an unnecessary ingredient in this style of brownie. I will let you know how many of them are returned uneaten.  These are the gluten-free brownies from the King Arthur flour site but I used a different gluten-free flour mix. It was Bob’s Red Mill. I also included a very large amount of dark Costa Rican chocolate and some black cocoa powder. But at least I didn’t claim I followed the recipe exactly. 😂 

“Absolutely Delicious! I made these exactly like the recipe with a few changes, adding a fourth whole egg and 2 thirds of the baking cocoa called for in the recipe and .....“ — That was a comment from somewhere on the site. I’m not sure it was for this particular recipe.

 

[teonzo]

6 hours ago, Anna N said:

After a few days I understand better what you were talking about. They were still tasty but they were now extremely crumbly probably the rice flour would have taking care of some of this “crumblingness”.  

 

I was suggesting some rice flour mainly because you were complaining they tasted like chocolate and oatmeal, not like a cookie. You are right on everything, they are delicious without flour, but you need flour for longer storage. It just depends on what's the final result you are aiming for. If your daughter loved them without flour, then there's no reason to change them.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[teonzo]

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

I made these exactly like the recipe with a few changes

 

People who write stuff like this should be shot on spot.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[ElsieD]

Even worse are those who say that the recipe sucked either taste-wise or for some other reason and then list the changes they made.  I want to grab them and give them a good shake.

[teonzo]

Years ago I run a pastry blog, I really got sick of all those kind of messages.

 

A person contacted me regarding a pound cake, saying "I made it exactly like the recipe but it came really hard". I went through the usual questions regarding possible missteps during the execution with no avail. Finally I asked "are you sure you scaled all ingredients correctly?", the answer was "well, I kept out all the butter to make it lighter". No surprise that a pound cake without butter comes out like a brick.

 

Another one contacted me regarding an entremet (cake with mousse layers and mirror glaze) made with apricot, saffron and pistachio. Her mail was "I really really love this cake and would like to make it for my birthday, but I don't like saffron nor pistachio, I would like to use chocolate, but not as a mousse, more of a cake". My answer: "what you are looking for was invented years ago, it's called sacher torte".

 

I could go on till night.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Kim Shook]

3 minutes ago, teonzo said:

Years ago I run a pastry blog, I really got sick of all those kind of messages.

 

A person contacted me regarding a pound cake, saying "I made it exactly like the recipe but it came really hard". I went through the usual questions regarding possible missteps during the execution with no avail. Finally I asked "are you sure you scaled all ingredients correctly?", the answer was "well, I kept out all the butter to make it lighter". No surprise that a pound cake without butter comes out like a brick.

 

Another one contacted me regarding an entremet (cake with mousse layers and mirror glaze) made with apricot, saffron and pistachio. Her mail was "I really really love this cake and would like to make it for my birthday, but I don't like saffron nor pistachio, I would like to use chocolate, but not as a mousse, more of a cake". My answer: "what you are looking for was invented years ago, it's called sacher torte".

 

I could go on till night.

 

 

 

Teo

 

We need to be able to click onto multiple responses.  I honestly don't know whether to choose "laugh", "cry", or "confused"!  Wow.

[teonzo]

They deserve the firing squad, substituting the blindfold with 3D glasses.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Anna N]

23 hours ago, Anna N said:

Deep, dark, and I hope, delicious brownies.

Apparently none are being returned to sender. Word is “very yummy” and I don’t tell you that to brag but to tell you that none of them in this group knew that these were gluten-free brownies. I suspect that they are one of the few things that lose very little in translation. 

[Anna N]

 

Nothing too challenging today but I was happy with the way they turned out and this recipe made a lot of cookies. These are snickerdoodles from the book Flour by  Joanne Chang. 

[teonzo]

4 hours ago, Anna N said:

 

 

 

Before reading the text I thought you prepared æbleskivers for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[MelissaH]

23 hours ago, Anna N said:

Nothing too challenging today but I was happy with the way they turned out and this recipe made a lot of cookies. These are snickerdoodles from the book Flour by  Joanne Chang. 

That has become my go-to snickerdoodle recipe.

[Tri2Cook]

On 10/15/2019 at 11:48 AM, Anna N said:

I think they work just fine with the almond flour although I suppose one ought to always make the recipe as given first. But rules were made to be broken and I broke this one.

One only ought to always make the recipe as given first if one intends to criticize said recipe if the results aren't satisfactory. If one doesn't intend to do that or is willing to include the fact that they made changes in their review and not conclude that the original recipe sucks based on the results with their changes... like  you said, rules were made to be broken. There was a time when I was a firm believer in "do it as written first" but over the years I've shifted more towards "What's the fun in that?" 

[Anna N]

 

The best darn ginger snaps I have ever made. The recipe is from the King Arthur flour site and uses shortening instead of butter. You can stop shuddering now. I rarely use shortening but this time it was specified as essential to capture the texture I associate with gingersnaps. The only change I made to the recipe was to add 1/3 of a cup (give or take) Of finely chopped crystallized ginger. I have made a note on the recipe to up the spices somewhat next time. Perhaps mine are getting old and flavourless just like me. 

[ElsieD]

@Anna N  Those look great.  Are they really crunchy?

[Kerry Beal]

3 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 

The best darn ginger snaps I have ever made. The recipe is from the King Arthur flour site and uses shortening instead of butter. You can stop shuddering now. I rarely use shortening but this time it was specified as essential to capture the texture I associate with gingersnaps. The only change I made to the recipe was to add 1/3 of a cup (give or take) Of finely chopped crystallized ginger. I have made a note on the recipe to up the spices somewhat next time. Perhaps mine are getting old and flavourless just like me. 

Shortening is a necessary evil in some cookies!

[teonzo]

9 minutes ago, Anna N said:

add 1/3 of a cup (give or take) Of finely chopped crystallized ginger

 

That's a wise decision for almost everything (I'm addicted and have a problem).

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Anna N]

25 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

@Anna N  Those look great.  Are they really crunchy?

They are really crunchy. 

[Anna N]

18 minutes ago, teonzo said:

 

That's a wise decision for almost everything (I'm addicted and have a problem).

 

 

 

Teo

 

Me too. I think I ate 2/3 of a cup while I chopped up 1/3 of a cup. 

[teonzo]

5 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Me too. I think I ate 2/3 of a cup while I chopped up 1/3 of a cup. 

 

This is the scientific proof that eating crystallized ginger makes you good at math. So we need to eat more without regrets.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[demiglace]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

 

The best darn ginger snaps I have ever made. The recipe is from the King Arthur flour site and uses shortening instead of butter. You can stop shuddering now. I rarely use shortening but this time it was specified as essential to capture the texture I associate with gingersnaps. The only change I made to the recipe was to add 1/3 of a cup (give or take) Of finely chopped crystallized ginger. I have made a note on the recipe to up the spices somewhat next time. Perhaps mine are getting old and flavourless just like me. 

I just had to look, lol.

[MelissaH]

@Anna N, over on Serious Eats, Bravetart (Stella Parks) is an advocate of using coconut oil (either refined or virgin, depending on whether you want to taste coconut) 1:1 to replace shortening. It's always worked for me, and might be worth a gingersnap experiment.

[Anna N]

34 minutes ago, MelissaH said:

@Anna N, over on Serious Eats, Bravetart (Stella Parks) is an advocate of using coconut oil (either refined or virgin, depending on whether you want to taste coconut) 1:1 to replace shortening. It's always worked for me, and might be worth a gingersnap experiment.

Thanks. It’s probably not anything I would experiment with unless I was baking daily with shortening. But there are others on here who might find it an acceptable option if they feel as strongly as some do about shortening. So thank you. 

[Anna N]

 

More millionnaire hermits. Brazil nuts, almonds, raisins, currants and medjool dates.  The gap in the far back was a quality control cookie. The ones in the very front got left in a little too long because I was distracted. But they still taste good. All told this made 34 cookies some of which are still finishing up in the oven.