Snickerdoodles ... Quelle coïncidence!

Well, last night I had a bit of a disaster in the kitchen. First, my French onion soup went wrong ... just bad, bad. As in "it's now pig food" bad. There was nothing burnt, nothing left out, no wrong ingredients, just somewhere along the way I did something wrong. Very wrong.

Then, my Snickerdoodles didn't come out right. I've made at least a thousand of them in my life, possibly more. I figure that's quite a few considering I'm not a professional (although, I might be here soon!). I've never had problems with Snickerdoodles before. A couple things went wrong.

Not to mention, last night my oven was haunted. It just won't heat past 300F, maybe 325F. I dreaded calling the repair man today. So, just out of curiosity, I tried setting the oven to "blast furnace" and it heated up nicely to 460F. Just like it always did.

Gott im Himmel! A batch of Snickerdoodles ruined due to a miserable oven. Then, I noticed something horrible. Something unimaginable. I'd left out the baking soda. In fact, I'd left it off the ingredient list in my first Snickerdoodle post (fixed now). I walked away from the cookies, which the Primary Test Team devoured anyway, and pretended they never happened. They don't exist to me.

I'm posting now, but after everyone else has posted about Snickerdoodles. I feel like a copycat.

Fortunately, a few folks have posted today ... including Katy at Sugarlaws. She suggested melting some of the butter. I'm going to try that.

And, regarding feeling bad about being a copycat ... oh well ... I'm taking a few over to a potential client for a taste. Can't be too sad about that!

Ingredients

• 84 grams (3/4 cup) butter
• 180 grams (1-1/2 cups) sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 385 grams (2-3/4) cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 28 grams (1/4 cup) melted butter
• 30 grams (1/4 cup) white sugar
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  

Procedure

I preheated my oven to 400F (200C). Nice and hot so the little guys will flatten nicely.

As usual, I creamed butter and sugars together brutally. I really notice a difference in the cookies when the cream step is taken seriously. Then, I added the eggs and vanilla ... mixing them in well.


While the eggs and vanilla were finding their new home, I put the dry ingredients into a separate bowl and whisked them together. Making sure to evenly distribute the
Whisk dry ingredients together in separate bowl. Incorporate completely, but not too much.


I added melted butter and stirred slowly to mix. Oh, this time the dough had the right consistency. It wasn't firm and hard. It is gooey and really needs a couple of hours in the chiller .. which is where it went.

8-10 minutes (most were at 8) in the oven at 400F (200C) and they came out delicious! Don't cook too long or you'll burn them. Don't cook too short or they'll fall. If they fall, they're still delicious, just not as visually appealing.


Let them sit on the sheet for about a minute before transferring them to wire racks for complete cooling.

Yields

30 cookies (using a 1-1/2 ounce ice cream scoop)

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Marasa! More daddy!

Random Test Group: Wow! These are amazing.

Potential Improvements

Katy at Sugarlaws put cinnamon in her cookies, too. I might try that. Boost the cinnamon flavor a bit.

Conclusions

Cookies are great. Plain and simple ...

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies ... Oatmeal Showdown!

The oats that I like to use here are the imported Quaker Oats. They are P111 per 510g package. This turns out to be about P1.58 per cookie. So, I wondered a bit about using them. Kind of expensive.

So, when I saw some oats imported from Australia here at just over half that price, I took interest.

I guess the overall question is: why am I using imported oats? Well, I wrote about it here. It's easy to see the difference in quality.

The Australian oats weren't quite as nice as the American oats. But, at a mere P60 per 500g package, I was willing to try them out.

So, we had a showdown! In the green, weighing in at 500g, oats from the Land of Oz! And, in the red, weighing slightly more at 510, old-fashioned Quaker export-only oats from the United States!


Ingredients

• 450 grams (4 cups) butter, softened
• 840 grams (4 cups) brown sugar
• 380 grams (2 cups) white sugar
• 8 eggs
• 2 tablespoon vanilla
• 840 grams (6 cups) all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 510 grams (about 6 cups) American Quaker oats
• 200 grams (2 cups) raisins
• 500 grams (about 6 cups) Australian oats
  

Procedure

I turned on my currently uncooperative oven (last night, it wouldn't go above 325F, now it will ... whoever heard of a fickle oven?) to 350F (175C).

Using Big Iron, I creamed the butter and sugars together. As usual, I creamed them well. Big Iron's #3 setting moves the mixer blade faster than the eye can focus. I know what you're thinking ... yeah, it is pretty cool!

Then, I mixed the vanilla and eggs in well.

While the eggs were mixing, in a separate bowl, I whisked together all the dry ingredients. This works so well. No more concentrated lumps of baking soda/powder on which to gag. I mixed in the dry ingredients and the raisins. Just enough to incorporate.

Now that I had the base mixture, I used my trusty kitchen scale to split the batch in two. In one half, I mixed in the American Quaker oats along with a half teaspoon of some red food coloring powder. In the other half, I mixed in the Australian oats with some green food coloring powder.


With each, I used my standard ice cream scoop, put 20 to a half-sized baking sheet ... and baked for 10-12 minutes at 350F (175C). About 6 minutes into each batch, I would swap (left-to-right) and rotate (front-to-back) the baking sheets to ensure even cooking.


Let cool completely on a rack ... and let the taste test begin!

Yield: 140 cookies.

Test Results

I tested based both on the looks of the cookies and on the taste. I setup nice plates that had bite-sized pieces to eat plus whole cookies to view.


From all test groups, the overwhelming favorite was "red" ... the imported from America Quaker Oats.

Conclusions

The smaller-sized Aussie flakes didn't hold the cookies together as well. The American cookies were taller and had better texture (to me).

Be willing to pay for good ingredients. They are worth the money.

White Chocolate Chip Cookies for a Friend

A few days ago I wrote about how a friend of mine gave me some goodies from Hawaii. I'm always so thankful when someone thinks about me when traveling that they bring some pasalubong.

I beat my brain against a proverbial brick wall trying to come up with something good to make from the macadamia nuts. I thought sugar cookies with macadamias. Nah. Didn't have enough of the nuts to make those worthwhile. I only had slightly more than a cup of nuts, so I had to augment them with something otherwise I'd make 4 or 5 cookies.

It hit me ... white chocolate chips. Those chips are mild, so they won't overpower the macadamias. I'd make the now-classic New York Times (Jacque Torres-created) chocolate chip recipe substituting white chocolate chips for the chocolate disks he wants. And, I'd add the whole can of macadamias (minus the two giant ones I couldn't resist eating).

Ingredients

• 315 grams butter
• 280 grams brown sugar
• 225 grams white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 240 grams all-purpose flour
• 240 grams cake flour
• 1-1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 565 grams chocolate chips
• 4.5 oz. macadamia nuts with sea salt

Procedure

I put the butter in my mixer until it was creamed a bit. Last time, I put the butter and sugars in. Oh, the mess. The sugars were ejected quite nicely from the mixer. So, cream the butter a bit first. Then, I put in the sugars and cream for a few minutes. It is so important to let this whip for a while!

While the sugars and butter were getting to know each other better, I measured out the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Using a whisk, I stirred them together. This works great. Never any worries about little pockets of some minor ingredient (ever gotten a big bite of baking powder in a cookie? YUK!).

Then, I mixed in the eggs until they were just incorporated. Once the eggs were in, I did the same with the dry mixture. Over-mixing here is bad. Don't do it! Flour likes to make gluten and we are not making bread!

Lastly, I dumped in the chips and macadamias. I folded them in before letting the mixer go to work for about 30 seconds. Folding them helps distribute them faster without the dreaded over-mixing.

Using an ice cream scoop (don't ask me the size, I don't know and I keep forgetting to find out), I put them onto a couple of half-sized parchment-covered baking sheets ... 20 to a sheet.

Into the oven for 12 minutes at 350F (175C). I rotated left-to-right, front-to-back at about 7 minutes to ensure even cooking. I never used to do this, now I'm fairly religious about it. Things come out better. I like that.

Let cool on racks and protect them from the ravaging hordes that will try pillage them.

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Very good! My son ate one (that's saying something, he's picky these days).

Potential Improvements

More macadamia nuts!

I'm tempted to cook them a little longer to give them more structure.

Also, next time, I'll chop the nuts to distribute them more through the cookies. Some cookies received a nut, some didn't. Oops!

Conclusions

Another definite winner. Guess one just can't go wrong with the basics when it comes to cookies.

My son took a couple to school for snacks. He's happy with them.

Hope my friend likes them ...

Healthy Adult Oatmeal Bars

Oh yes, healthy. That's what we all want to try to eat. We want our friends to eat healthy. We want ourselves to eat healthy. We, especially, want our kids to eat healthy.

My son loves chocolate. That, in itself, isn't so bad. Trouble is, he craves those really nasty chocolate goo-covered sponge cake industrial garbage wrapped in plastic. I'm currently on a quest to find something we can make, something easy hopefully (and this recipe is EASY!), that he won't trade away at snack time for some crunchy chocolate cookies with strawberry frosting and bits of concentrated sugar sprinkles.

I snagged this recipe from Katy at Sugarlaws. I was feeling a bit lazy tonight and the recipe was so easy to do. I liked the sound of it.

Ingredients

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons / 100g oats
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 4 tablespoons corn syrup
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup / 50g raisins
• 3 tablespoons / 20g pistachios, shelled and chopped
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon canola oil

Procedure

This one is so very easy. Just set your oven to 325F (163C).

Mix all the ingredients together well. They should all hold together, sort of, but there should be no excess liquid. If there's extra, add a little bit more oats and stir. Repeat until no liquid.

I poured my mixture into one of my silicone tart pans. These made perfect molds. The original recipe said it made eight small bars. I figured I'd just chop these in half to make reasonably sized servings. I am trying to make something healthy here. Excessive size is almost as bad as sugar death bomb cakes.

Into the oven for 35 minutes.

Done. Like I said, so easy!

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Only a partial group tonight. Various members are out and about. This is probably good because I cannot imagine the look of disdain on my son's face if I asked him to eat these.

Honestly, I like them. They remind me of Boy Scouts many, many years ago. It gives your mouth a workout much like raw celery does. You know you're eating something of substance and something that tastes good. There is something very satisfying about this.

The batch didn't make enough to have for other testers. Probably good, anyway. I'm not sure these would be to their liking, either.

Potential Improvements

Not sure were to go. I think a little sugar would go a long ways with these. The honey just didn't cut it. Brown sugar, of course.

Conclusions

I won't make these again. Since I'm the only one here who would eat them, not worth my time.

These are definitely for hard-core granola eaters. They're not sweet or gooey ... nor are there thick chunks of chocolate in them.

What they are is good, solid food that provides great nutrition.

Honestly, this kind of food is what we should be eating. Trouble is, it just doesn't taste good enough ...

And therein lies my problem. I need to find something nutritious that will also please the five year old palette. Unfortunately, this isn't it.

If it were just me, I'd play with these a little, but keep making them.

Chocolate Chip Wonders

I know I've been a bit quiet over the past week. Sorry about that. I managed to give myself a moderate concussion ... I've been cooking some, but just couldn't seem to write words. Very strange feeling.

Anyway, I'm feeling much better now. Time to start writing again!

First up is my attempt at the now-famous New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies. People have been raving about this recipe since it was published. Of course I had to try it! Chocolate chip cookies are one of my very favorite desserts.

Ingredients

• 240 grams cake flour
• 240 grams all-purpose flour
• 1-1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 310 grams butter
• 280 grams brown sugar
• 225 grams granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 565 grams chocolate chips

Procedure


Procedure-wise, these are fairly normal cookies. Use the cream method. In your mixer, cream the butter and sugars together until they are fluffy. Be sure to give them plenty of time in the mixer. This is important ... really! Once nicely fluffy, add the vanilla and eggs. Mix briefly to combine.

In a second bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Using a whisk, combine them. This helps ensure that the smaller ingredients are dispersed well throughout the flour.


Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Mix briefly to combine, maybe 15 seconds at the most.

Finally, add your chocolate chips. Again, mix briefly.

Now, here is the hard part: wrap your dough in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 36 hours. Yes, you must wait. Yes, it's hard. Oh ... so very, very hard. It's worth it!


Now, if you have the self-control and will power that I do, you'll go ahead and make one of the cookies now, just to taste. It's OK. You're human.

36 hours later ... preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Scoop out 100 gram balls of the dough. These will be large golf ball-sized. Put them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I cooked them on a half-sized baking sheet ... six fit comfortably.

Cook them for 17 to 20 minutes. You want them to change to a nice golden brown color on the top, but want to stop cooking before they get too dark on the bottom. This balance results in a nice crunchy outside ring and chewy inside.


Your patience will be rewarded with a dozen-and-a-half large, delicious chocolate chip cookies.

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Delicious, marasa, terrific! Giggles with glee when presented with more.

Test Group C: Very good. Bring more!

Test Group M: "Very good, now I'm spoiled!"

Potential Improvements

I always like it when there's a little cinnamon in chocolate chip cookies. I'm going to have to try some variations here.

The Recipe Girl suggested that lemon juice and pulverized oatmeal make for better cookies. Definitely going to have to try these, too.

Conclusions

I always like it when there's a little cinnamon in chocolate chip cookies. I'm going to have to try some variations here.

Burning Tuesdays with Dorie

I joined the Tuesdays with Dorie virtual baking group. This sounded like something fun. And, because they require that you own the book from which we're cooking, gave me an excuse to buy another cookbook. I love excuses to buy new toys.

This is my first official posting for the group ... very exciting!

As I write this, keep in mind that perhaps I'm a little annoyed than others might be because I had to first make the granola to use in this Science Fair Gone Wrong episode. Don't worry, everything turns out OK in the end. It's a happy story with a sad middle. I'm still thoroughly impressed with the quality of Dorie's book, Baking.

Ingredients & Procedure

Normally, I list exactly what I use. But, since this is from a book that is in-print, I'm going to respect Dorie's copyright and leave the ingredients to be a mystery to those who don't have the access to the book. Sorry.

I will, however, say what I did differently. Not a whole lot, really. First, I used cashews rather than peanuts. Why? Because there were no peanuts for sale here right now. Supplies of some kinds come in waves. Right now, it's ebb tide for peanuts. Next week we'll have tons.

I also substituted oatmeal for wheat germ. Why? Again, not available here. And, not just "now" ... more like "never". I put 1/2 cup into the food processor and gave it a few pulses ... the oatmeal quickly got the consistency of wheat germ. And, I had the 1/3 cup that I needed.

Besides those two substitutions, I followed the recipe precisely.


And, that's where things went wrong ...

See, the recipe calls for baking these delicious balls of yummy nutritional goodness at 375F (190C). Even in my addled state (I'm recovering from a moderate concussion sustained last week ... which just compounds my usual brand of stupidity), I thought "hey, isn't that a bit hot for these sugary, buttery, carb balls?" To top that off, the recipe said 10-12 minutes in the oven.

Let's pause for a minute here (mostly because I need to, the gerbil powering my brain is tired) ... I'm a BBQ fanatic. I'm in the camp that is nearly zealous about the difference between grilling and BBQing. Slapping a steak on the grill at 600F+ is NOT BBQing. It's GRILLING.

Why does that matter? Because I love a good glaze on ribs. And, a glaze is basically tasty sugars suspended in some kind of solution with a secret blend of herbs and spices. I know the dangers of getting sugars too hot. They burn. They burn fast. And your food is destroyed.

So, the Granola Grabbers ... what are they? Butter, nuts, granola (which is just nuts and sugars, mostly), flour, and a little extra. You know, your typical granola-filled mound of snack-food wonder.

What does that mean? High temperatures are the bane of their golden brown and delicious (thank you, Alton) existence. These cookies can be made at that temperature, and I'm sure many of the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers are doing so, but it makes the process risky. Home baking shouldn't be risky.

Anyway, even with some trepidation, I pushed forward. I made the recipe as it was written. Dorie is clearly someone who has forgotten more about this topic than I will ever know. I've been known to be wrong in the past (not that I'll admit to that in court).

I put a dozen heaping tablespoon-sized mounds of dough onto each of two baking sheets and pressed them down slightly as instructed. Then, into the 375F oven with them. Two thirds of my cookies were dead. Oh, the humanity! The tops looked so good. But, the bottoms, oh, the bottoms ... dark brown to black.

Maybe my oven was set wrong? No, oven thermometer read 375F on the nose. What about the time in the oven? Only 9 minutes. I check the start time and stop time on my cell phone (I have a second "hand"). So, they weren't even in the full 10 minutes.

By the looks of the results, some time about 6 or 7 minutes they would have been fine. Still, that's not what the recipe said.

I still had a third of my cookie dough left. I was not going to give up.

I fell back on my BBQ skills and decided to go lower and slower. 300F (150C) for 15-18 minutes. That seemed much more appropriate for these butter-sugar-carb balls.

The cookies turned out perfectly. Golden brown on the bottom, cooked on top and in the middle.

Why?

Why is important to me. It's why I love watching Alton Brown. It's more than just "hey, slap this and that into a pot and cook it" ... one walks away from his shows with a deeper understanding of the cooking process.

375F for 10-12 minutes is fine if you can watch the cookies like a hawk. If they cook a little faster for some reason in your oven, you're there and can take them out immediately upon completion. This is just fine for a professional kitchen. From what I saw, I think there's a 30 second window when the cookies are perfect with this technique.

However, this book is intended for the home audience. I don't know about you, the reader's home, but we have distractions here. Life happens daily. For this kind of environment, a 30 second window is just too narrow.

At 300F, the cookies stay in the "perfect" state for a lot longer as they aren't browning as quickly. This allows the distracted home cook to blink or, more likely, have to deal with one of their offspring and still produce the fabulous and delicious results that we all want.

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Delicious. Fantastic. Marasa. They even ate the burned ones!

Unfortunately, due to the burn damage, there weren't enough to pass out to the usual suspects for testing. I'm not going to hand out burned cookies to my friends ... I even told my family to toss the burned ones, but they refused and ate the blackened little guys.

Conclusions

This is a great recipe. It just needs a slight adjustment ... 300F (150C) for 15-18 minutes ... to make it appropriate for the home baker.

My entire family of highly picky eaters wants more ...

Snickerdoodles

Ah, Snickerdoodles. Such great cookies. They have a taste that reminds many of good pancakes. And yet, you can hold them in your hand, take them with you, eat them piles at a time next to the ocean.

OK, you can do that with any cookie. I guess I just love Snickerdoodles. So, when my mom asked me to make some, I obliged.

How could I say no? Not only did she ask, but she provided the recipe. It's nice when people make it so easy for you.

Cookie Dough

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix the butter, shortening, and sugar well. Make sure that they are thoroughly whipped together. Takes a few minutes in the mixer on medium.

Then, add the eggs and vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly again.

Finally, add the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Blend well, but not too long. Stop when the dough is smooth and appears that everything is well mixed in. Mixing too long will start to form gluten. That would be bad. These cookies have a somewhat cake-like texture that would be destroyed by gluten production. A crime in many countries!


Here's the hard part: chill the dough in your fridge for at least two hours. Yes, you have to wait. Go watch TV. Go sleep. Just put it in and walk away. Your patience will be rewarded.

The dough tends to be very sticky unless refrigerated. Very hard to work with. Here in the Philippines, the dough is nearly impossible to work with unless chilled well.

You can pass a little of the time while waiting for your cookie goodness by making the cinnamon coating.

Cinnamon Coating

• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Put both into a small bowl and mix thoroughly. You want to mix until it is the same color all through.


Putting It All Together

Hopefully, it's a couple of hours later and your dough is chilled by now. Preheat your oven to 400F (200C). Get out your dough.

In the picture, you can see some dough that had been allowed to get too warm. It was very difficult to work with. Very sticky and soft. So, be sure to chill the dough thoroughly! In a high heat environment like here in the Philippines, take out enough dough for each batch and leave the rest in your fridge.


For each cookie, scoop out a small piece of dough about 2 tablespoons in size. I measured each piece to be 50 grams on my kitchen scale (love that thing!). Roll it between your hands into a nice ball. Then completely cover the ball in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Place the cookies a couple of inches apart on a baking sheet. I use parchment paper. A silicone baking sheet will work great, too.


Bake for 8 minutes. Yes, that's not a range of time. Bake for 8 minutes. And longer and you end up with burnt nasty cookies. Eight, 8, ocho ... minutes.

When they come out of the oven, take them off the baking sheet immediately. You do not want the bottoms to continue to get all that heat. Remember, there's a cinnamon-sugar coating on it. That will burn and taste horrid.

You can see in the picture to the left that the cookies grew together. That's because the batch was with dough that was not chilled enough. The cookies spread out too much because the dough was soft to begin with. Still, they were delicious!


Here are the final products packaged and ready to go to the testers ...

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Consumed with zeal. Loved the cookies and demanded more.

Test Group C: Marasa (tastes good). Had the usual complaint that I did not deliver enough of the test food for them to enjoy. When asked how many I should bring next time, reply was "two dozen".

Test Group J: Very good first batch. Cookies were a bit too soft and crumbled. Still, delicious.

Test Group M: Very good. Enjoyed. Wanted more.

Potential Improvements

Chill the dough more. Only bring out enough dough for each batch while forming the cookies and baking.

Conclusions

Winner. As far as I could tell, everyone liked these.