Key Lime Bars (Pg 303)

What I'm really loving about doing this blog is that I'm ending up doing things I never really thought I'd do, and in the process learning that they are easy, fun, and I really enjoy them. The Key Lime Bar is an example. I was slightly dreading making these and I'm not really sure why, but fate had nother plans for me.

My sister happened upon some key limes at the store and thought I might need them for a recipe so she was nice enough to buy them for me. There are a couple of lime recipes in the book but this is the only key lime recipe, so then I needed other very specific ingredients like graham crackers for the crust and condensed milk for the filling. My sister was kind enough to buy all of the above for me, but as she just told me, she didn't think I was actually going to have the nerves to make these bars. Nice vote of confidence, eh? 

So apparently there is a difference between limes and key limes, and whoever invented key limes is crazy.They're just like regular limes, but even smaller. They're really small. So each one doesn't have very much juice in it and doesn't have very much zest on it.

This is where the right tools really come in handy. I had squeezed a couple limes with a little hand squeezer and it was taking forever, so I got one of these. It helped so much! I got lots of limes squeezed really quickly and I had enough juice in no time. Hooray. Especially because it was really the juicing of the limes that was the big challenge, the thing that made me not want to do this recipe and the thing that made my sister think I wouldn't be able to do it. If I hadn't had my special lime juicing tool, it probably would've taken me 10 hours to juice all those teeny tiny limes.

Once the limes were juiced the rest of it was actually a lot of fun and pretty easy. Graham cracker crust is pretty basic - just crumble the crackers, mix with sugar and melted butter and there ya go. Easy peasy.
Then the crust is baked and once the filling is added it's only baked again for another 10 minutes or so. So I was pleasantly surprised that this was actually pretty quick and easy, and the results were fantastically delicious. I'll have to keep this one in mind if I never need to bring a nice hostess gift to a party or something. (Hint hint, someone invite me to a party.)

19 recipes down, 156 to go.

Coconut-Cream Cheese Pinwheels (Pg 61)

Wow. What a process to make these cookies. Sarah was joining me again and we had already done 2 other batches during the day and this was our 3rd recipe.

Needless to say, we were a little tired and weren't quite feeling up to the 20 different steps in the process of baking these. Seriously. We made a couple batches and then refrigerated the rest of the dough for the next day. So this was a 2 day process.

The process is this: Make the dough and the filling. Refrigerate the dough. Roll out dough and cut into squares. This was my favorite part. I love rolling dough and I got this neat little ruffly edge cookie slicer which is like a pizza slicer. It was fun to make the little squares.

Then the squares of dough have to be refrigerated for 15 minutes. Then you put a dollop of the coconut-cream cheese filling in the middle of each square. Then you slice diagonal lines from the corners to the dollop of filling. Then you fold every other tip down to make a pinwheel and press the center pieces of dough together and make a well in the top.

Are you still with me?

Now you use a pastry brush to glaze the tops of the pinwheels with beaten egg and then sprinkle them with sanding sugar. Then you bake for 6 minutes. Then you take them out and put the strawberry jam in the well in the center. Then bake for another 6 minutes.

Seriously. I was getting a little bit annoyed, so it was good that I was baking with someone else. I don't think I'd have the patience to make these on my own. And I can't even eat these because I'm allergic to the cream cheese, so I don't even know if all the trouble was worth it. I have heard (from my Mom and from Sarah) that the cookies are really good. Maybe they're worth it.

When I was rolling out the squares I had one little bit of dough at the end that wasn't really enough to make the right size square, so I just left it in an un-shaped lump and baked it. Sarah decided to put a dollop of filling and strawberry jam in it as she was doing with the rest of the squares, but it came out just like a little cup instead of a pinwheel. We agreed that it's pretty cute - like a little flower. Our verdict is that if we make these again, we'll just make them look like this and not bother with the pinwheel thing because it was just too much. They will still taste just as good if they look like this.

Yield:
Recipe predicted: 2.5 dozen.
Actual: 2 dozen.

18 recipes down, 157 to go.

Rum Raisin Shortbread (Pg 134)

So this is the 17th recipe I've made and so far there have been a few recipes that I wasn't entirely pleased with, but none of the recipes have actually failed.

There's a first time for everything.

As we all know, I love baking with rum and I had really been looking forward to making these shortbread cookies. I just love rum soaked raisins. I have a really good recipe for Rum Raisin Cupcakes and I made them for Thanksgiving last year. I am somewhat ashamed and somewhat amused to say that my 90 year old Grandmother got a little bit drunk from them; the frosting was just buttercream with rum. Delicious.

Anyway, onto the shortbread. I have no idea what went wrong. My friend Sarah was baking me with again and we were going along smoothly as usual, and after we mixed up the dough we had to shape it into logs. We realized something was wrong at this point, we just weren't sure what was wrong or what to do about it, but the dough was obviously too wet. Something must have been mis-calculated, mis-communicated, mis-measured, something along the way. Sarah and I are both very precise in our measurements, but this was just off.

Knowing it was too wet, we shaped it into lumpy logs and shoved it into paper towel tubes and refrigerated it and hoped for the best. But when I tried to slice it it was still pretty mushy and the knife just kinda crushed it into lumpy...blobs. Mushy lumpy blobs. It's especially weird because it's supposed to be shortbread, which is typically very dry. Again, I just hoped for the best and threw them in the oven. You can see how they came out.

They were burnt around the edges and still kinda under-baked in the centers and when I tried to remove them from the cookie sheet they just crumbled. It was all very sad.

The really really really sad part is that they taste amazing. Did I mention that there are rum soaked raisins in them? And did I mention that there's shredded coconut? And did I mention that there's orange zest? And all these things combined are really yummy. It's just really too bad there's not much of an actual cookie here. But I couldn't possibly throw this away. I figured there are a few options for it:

1) Cereal. Here it is in a bowl. Just add milk.

2) Ice cream topping.

3) Yogurt topping.

4) Just eat the crumbly mess with a spoon. It's good.

I will try these again sometime because I'm sure something went wrong and I really want them to work out. They're so delicious.

Yield:
Recipe predicted: 4.5 dozen.
Actual: One giant, crumbly mess.

17 recipes down, 158 to go.

Sweet Cardamom Crackers (Pg 263)

I'm not entirely sure why these are called crackers. I guess mostly because of the way they look. But as we all know, looks can be deceiving, and this is a perfect example. Although they look savory, they are definitely sweet and definitely very much a cookie. A very tasty cookie.

I liked making these. The dough was simple to make and was refrigerated for a couple hours, although it seemed like it was firm enough even after one hour refrigeration. It was a pretty cooperative dough to work with in the rolling and cutting department. Instead of using a cookie cutter you just use a pizza slicer and slice squares. I was very particular about it and got out the ruler and measured the squares, but if you wanted to be lazy you could just eye it. Some of my squares got a little squashed into rectangles anyway.

The topping is sugar, shredded coconut, and chopped pistachios mixed together and sprinkled on top before baking. It's a really great combination of savory and sweet, and it plays into the idea of it being like a cracker, with the pistachios being a nice little touch of savory.

The texture of the cookie itself is very light and almost pastry-like. The problem with really light cookies is that I want to eat them all. I always want to eat all the cookies, but when they're light I feel like it's not as bad of an idea. But I held myself back, honestly.

Yield:
Recipe predicted: 2 dozen
Actual: A little over 2 dozen, 28 cookies to be exact.

16 recipes down, 159 to go.

Pfeffernussen (Pg 131)

So here it is a month after Christmas and I'm still making Christmas cookies. Well, for a cookie this delicious I don't think anyone would blame me. I'll probably make these in August just for the heck of it, because they're so good. And for some crazy reason, I just really love shaking cookies in a bag of powdered sugar. It's the simple things in life.

It's obvious how a cookie becomes such a classic. The dough is simple, the process is simple, you don't need any fancy equipment, and the results are amazing. Spicy and sweet, just like I like 'em.

In case you're wondering, Pfeffernussen translates to "pepper nuts" but don't be fooled, there are no nuts. Allegedly they were named after nuts because of their shape. Wikipedia begs to differ with Martha on this, saying that nuts are traditionally part of the recipe, but we all know that Wikipedia is not the most trustworthy source. I'm gonna stick with Martha on this. No nuts.

Yield:
Recipe predicted: 3 dozen
Actual: 3 dozen

15 recipes down, 160 to go.

Double Chocolate Brownies (Pg 287)

I had a guest baker today! My lovely friend, Sarah, joined me to help with the baking. We got a lot of baking done, and she even brought coffee for my Mom, so I think Sarah will be helping me a lot more in the future.

I was especially thankful for Sarah's help because I was making brownies. I don't have a good track record with brownies. The only ones I've ever made were back in December when I first started this blog and they weren't very successful. The Cream Cheese Swirl Blondies were definitely nothing to write home about, and I really didn't understand the instructions on preparing the baking pan and I made quite a mess.

Of course, since I was dreading preparing the baking pan, and I had someone to help me, I delegated that task to Sarah, and she did a great job. She's apparently made a lot of brownies before and she was very precise in cutting the parchment paper and fitting it neatly into the bottom and buttering everything. I learned from her that this 2 inch overhang of parchment paper isn't really necessary. I was very happy, because that was the part that had given me so much trouble and had made such a mess. I will never do it again. Future brownie pans will not have any such 2 inch overhang of parchment paper, I'm sorry. Look how much nicer it is this way:

The brownies came out really really delicious. I mean, I don't think double chocolate can ever go wrong, especially at a certain time of month for us ladies, right? But seriously, these are really great. I gave most of them away and I really regret it. I keep thinking about all their rich chocolatey goodness. I've been dreaming about them.

I guess I need to make more.

14 recipes down, 161 to go.

Cakey Chocolate Chip Cookes (Pg 198)

It had been a really long time since I'd made chocolate chip cookies. I was definitely due. This particular recipe was intriguing to me because I have a fondness for soft, chewy, cakey cookies. Unfortunately, I seem to mess them up a lot. I guess I'm a little paranoid about under-baking them so I bake them a little bit too much. Or I know I will bake them too long so I purposely take them out sooner than I want to, and then they are under baked. It is quite a delicate balance, and something I am still perfecting.

Unfortunately, I couldn't eat this cookie because I used milk chocolate chips in it. I have my weird food allergies, where apparently I can eat cookies loaded with butter but I can't have tiny chocolate chips that have the tiniest bit of milk. Go figure.

I did try some of the batter and a piece of the cookie that didn't have any chips in it. It really is quite cakey and delicious. On its own it wasn't that impressive, but of course, I couldn't tell you how the cookie is as a whole, chips and all. I've heard good reviews. They do look awfully nice, except I think I slightly overbaked them and they were a bit too dark. Like I said, a delicate balance.

Another mistake I made was apparently I made them too large. The recipe was supposed to make 3 dozen and I made only 16. Wow. I guess I misunderstood how large a "heaping tablespoon" of dough is. I guess I can't win them all.

Yield:
Recipe predicted: 3 dozen
Actual: 16 

13 recipes down, 162 to go.

Chocolate-Orange-Espresso Thins (Pg 220)

Is there a better way to spend a cold, grey, rainy Tuesday afternoon than studying for a Business Law exam and baking cookies? If there is, I have yet to discover it.

My normal Monday baking routine was interrupted by what felt like an oncoming cold. I felt slightly unwell, so I spent most of the day sleeping. Of course, come 7pm I felt like I had wasted the day and I needed to do some baking, so I found a recipe that called for refrigeration overnight.

Lo and behold, the question I posed after I made the Chocolate-Black Pepper cookies was answered in this recipe. The question was how do I make sure the dough log stays in a perfect round shape while being refrigerated? The answer is a paper towel tube. I kid you not. I'm not sure why it doesn't call for this for all of the recipes that require the log to be refrigerated - maybe it depends on the size of the finished cookie. Well I guess this cookie's diameter was small enough that the log would fit in a paper towel tube, and there you go. It did indeed help keep the roundness, but they still didn't come out perfect. I know there are at least 3 other recipes that call for making a log and slicing it....hopefully by the end I'll have a perfectly shaped round cookie. I am constantly seeking perfection.

These cookies were very similar to the Chocolate-Black Pepper cookies. One difference, and something which had me quite perplexed as I was mixing the dough, was that this dough used only confectioner's sugar and not regular granulated sugar. I thought this was so strange, but I figured, as with most strange things in baking, there was a reason and that once the cookie was finished I would understand the reason.

I was right. The reason for the confectioner's sugar is that this cookie has a light, flaky consistency, almost like a wafer. Confectioner's sugar is what gives it that light airiness. It is, in fact, almost like a shortbread, but not as dense.

Again, I am not too crazy about this cookie. The flavors are nice. The orange zest gives it a nice kick. But eh. Nothing too special. But maybe I just have to wait until tomorrow, when the flavors have mingled more. We shall see.

Yield:
Recipe predicted: About 4 dozen
Actual: 53 cookies (about 4.5 dozen)

12 recipes down, 163 to go.

Chocolate-Black Pepper Cookies (Pg 245)

Something weird happened when I tried this cookie. I wasn't too crazy about it. I'm not sure that's ever happened when I've eaten a cookie. I can't say that I disliked it, but I wasn't thorougly impressed.

As it happens, my judgement was a bit premature. It turns out some cookies get better with age. Well, they get better overnight, at least. I'm not suggesting aging them for years or anything crazy like that.

The day after I made them I just wanted to check in on them, see how they were doing. When I opened the tin I was overwhelmed by quite a gorgeous smell: deep, rich, intense chocolate. I figured I'd give the little guys another shot and sure enough, the flavor is so much better the next day. I guess the flavors had some time to mingle and get to know each other and settle in. In addition to the cocoa and spices there's espresso powder in these, and espresso (or just regular coffee) always gives chocolate that nice little extra richness.

These were fun to make because I got to shape the dough into a log and refrigerate it and slice it, like I had so much fun doing with the Buttered Rum Meltaways. Unlike the Buttered Rum Meltaways, however, this dough sliced very easily. It was a lot softer and smoother. Also the dough log is rolled in sanding sugar so you get a nice little sparkly rim on the cookie. Cute. However, there has to be some trick to keeping the dough log nice and round while it's in the fridge. It was very nice and round when I put it in the fridge, but obviously it has to sit flat on the shelf, and that makes the bottom flat and the rest of it kind of falls into a rectangular shape. It's weird. How do I get it to stay round?

So it's a good cookie. Not my favorite, but good. It's pretty simple to make, too, you just have to account for the 1 hour of refrigeration.

Yield:
Recipe predicts: About 4 dozen
Actual: 54 cookies (4.5 dozen)

11 recipes down, 164 to go.

Butter Twists (Pg 248)

I had been itching to make these. Look how cute they are! I'm also fascinated by cookies in interesting shapes. I'm excited, and scared, by the challenge of it. I was pleasantly surprised that these were pretty easy.

The dough couldn't be simpler. It is the most basic cookie you can imagine. Butter, sugar, egg white, flour. I was a little nervous that the dough was a bit dry, but I've realized that the dough always seems too dry at first and once it's mixed a little bit more it's fine.

One thing that definitely didn't work out was that it didn't make as many cookies as it was supposed to. The quantities are very small (1 1/2 cups flour, geez) and the recipe says it will make 3 dozen. As I was mixing the dough I was thinking to myself "There is no way this is turning into 3 dozen." Seriously. It made 2 dozen. It doesn't seem like a big difference, but it is. Most of the recipes I've made have actually made more than the recipe predicted, which is always exciting. It's possible that I just made these too big. To be perfectly honest I didn't get out my ruler and measure them to make sure I was rolling the ropes to the right specifications. I mean, I'm a perfectionist, but sometimes it's just a bit too much.

So these adorable little cookies also taste mighty good. As I said, it's the most basic cookie you can imagine, but sometimes that's all you want. The good old fashioned basics, but twisted into a cute little rope. I love them.

Yield:
Recipe predicts: About 3 dozen
Actual: 2 dozen :(

10 recipes down, 165 to go.

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies (Pg 87)

I love baking so much that I get really excited about things that most people couldn't care less about. Like new cookie sheets!

I ordered these from QVC last week and I tried them out for the first time today. Not to sound like a commercial, but I totally love them. They come in fun colors, they are non-stick, and I don't have to bother with parchment paper. Also, I have some issues with my oven because the heat is very uneven, and these baking sheets really helped distribute the heat evenly so all the cookies on the sheet came out the same! Seriously, this is so exciting for me.

For comparison's sake I made one batch on one of my regular old cookie sheets and it came out kind of crappy. The entire texture of the cookie was off, and it didn't look nearly as pretty.

I promise they didn't pay me to say all that, but now onto the cookie. This is one lovely cookie. The process is a bit much for what is at the end a pretty basic and simple cookie, but it's so worth it.

The most annoying part is zesting the lemon. Have you ever zested a lemon? Not so much fun. And I thought it a bit strange to have lemon zest and lemon juice in a sugar cookie. It seems counterintuitive. But who am I to question the recipe?

The other weird part was that after dropping the cookie (from an ice cream scoop) onto the cookie sheet and flattening it slightly, you sprinkle it with sanding sugar. And because, obviously, one coating of sanding sugar is not enough, you brush it with a wet pastry brush and sprinkle more sanding sugar.

I have to say this whole sanding sugar process is not entirely necessary. Again, for the sake of comparison, I made some where I only did one sprinkling of sanding sugar. There is a noticable difference in the way the cookie looks - it is a lot prettier with two sprinklings of sugar - but it doesn't really affect the flavor of the cookie at all. It's purely cosmetic.

Of course, we all know that we eat with our eyes first, so why not go all the way and make the cookies as pretty as possible? I say go for it. This is a beautiful cookie. I like that it's not all smooth and perfect looking; I guess that's why it's called "Old Fashioned." It has that sort of rustic, homemade old fashioned look. With sparkles, of course. Lovely. And it tastes fantastic. The lemon balances out the sweetness so nicely and gives that nice little zest. And thanks to my lovely new baking sheets distributing the heat so evenly and perfect, the texture comes out nice and chewy with a little bit of a crunch.

The best part is that after you've zested your lemon and squeezed it for the mere tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, you can juice the rest of the lemon and make some lemonade. Nevermind that it's the middle of January and most of the country is experiencing record breaking low temperatures, a snack of old fashioned sugar cookies and freshly squeezed lemonade will bring you back to the balmy days of summer. So lovely.

Yield:
Recipe predicts: 1.5 dozen
Actual: 28 cookies (more than 2 dozen, yay!)

9 recipes down, 166 to go.

Buttered Rum Meltaways (Pg 138)

I was excited to make this cookie. Mostly because it has rum in it. There's nothing better than baking with rum. The cookie dough gets some rum, the baker gets some rum.

I was also excited because I'd always wanted to make a cookie dough log. Strange thing to be excited about, I know. It just seemed like a cool way to deal with cookie dough - roll it into a log, freeze it, slice it into cookies. What I did not anticipate was how difficult it would be to slice the log. The cookie dough itself was pretty dense before being frozen, and then it was frozen for about 12 hours. Make sure you have a sharp knife.

Another word of caution is that you should clearly label your cookie dough log before you put it in the freezer. Once you wrap it in parchment and cinch the edges, it bears a strong resemblance to sausage. You can actually keep the dough in the freezer for up to a month before baking, and you never know when a member of your household might have a hankering for sausage for breakfast and throw your cookie dough into a hot frying pan.

I clearly labeled mine so as not to be confused with sausage. Better safe than sorry.

The fun just never ends with this cookie. After baking them and cooling them for a few minutes comes the coating of powdered sugar. It's a lot like that Shake 'N' Bake stuff except with the baking first. Put some powdered sugar in a ziploc bag and throw a couple cookies in and shake. Such fun.

All in all this is a really great cookie. A little bit challenging with the rolling of the log and the slicing of the frozen log, but there's fun along the way.

And oh yes, how can I forgot to mention how delicious they are. I actually tried one before coating them in the powdered sugar and they were alright but not quite sweet enough as there really isn't a lot of sugar in the dough itself. So once the sugar coating is in place it adds the perfect amount of sweetness to the rich flavor of the rum combined with the spices of clove, nutmeg and cinammon. Sweet, spicy, with a nice bite, and as the name suggests, it really melts in your mouth.

How I didn't find this recipe in time to make them for Christmas is beyond me, but they are definitely on the list for next Christmas.

Yield:
Recipe predicts: About 4 dozen

Actual: 3 dozen :(

8 recipes down, 167 to go.