Day 19: Fudge Fiasco into Fudge Fantastic

Soooooooo...yesterday I sang the praises of making Fantasy Fudge with Jumbo Marshmallows instead of marshmallow cream. Let me just tell you, there is a reason the recipe says to use the cream instead of the marshmallows. Yeah, my fudge did not set. It tastes really good, but it is not "fudge". Rather than cry over runny fudge, I decided to find a way to use it. and what goes better with chocolatey fudge than peanut butter. Lo and behold I think I have finally created my very own cookie recipe (that actually tastes good). This is the day I have been waiting and "practicing" for since I was 8 years old. And what is this cookie marvel you ask?******Drumroll******
Peanut Butter Shortbread Fudge Sandwich Cookies
Okay okay, I don't really have a great name for them yet but I will take suggestions.
The recipe:

• 1 8X8 pan of ruined fudge (just kidding-read yesterday's post to see how I made the fudge and let it sit overnight
• if you do not happen to have any ruined fudge on hand, I think a chocolate frosting might work very well
• 1/2 c peanut butter (chunky or smooth-which ever you prefer)
• 1/2 c butter
• 1 c superfine sugar
• 1-1/2 c flour
• 1 t baking soda

Beat peanut butter, butter  and sugar until light and fluffy; should resemble frosting. In smaller bowl combine flour and baking soda. Stir flour mixture into butter and sugar mixture. Dough will be crumbly. Chill dough covered for at least an hour. Preheat oven to 275.
With your hands press 1/4 of the dough into a ball then gently roll between wax paper to just less than 1/4 inch thick. Cut with a round cookie cutter - I found the little cocktail glasses we always bring home from Vegas to be the perfect size. Transfer to baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake about 12-15 minutes. Cool on pans for about 2 minutes then transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

hoping the next batch isn't so gooey

Spread fudge onto the bottom of cookie and top with another. Depending on how bad your fudge turned out you may not want to spread it to the edge of the cook as it will run down the sides after you place the top cookie over it.

Day 18: Fantasy Fudge and Gidget

Believe it or not, I am not a professional baker...I know, hard to grasp right? I actually have a job/career, I am a catering manager for a national BBQ chain, Famous Dave's BBQ to be exact. If there is anything to know about my profession it is that the busiest time of year for me is...you guessed it...The Holiday Season!!!! This is something I apparently did not consider when I had the bright idea to challenge myself to make a batch of cookies every day. But I am hanging in there.
Fudge is not a cookie. I know that. But yesterday my oldest decided to separate one of my side mirrors from my car, I had to meet with the dean at the high school my youngest attends, both boys had dentist appts and my cute little company issued Blackberry rang it's little heart out, all day. Needless to say I did not make it to the store and I am almost completley out of all ingredients. Oh, did I mention I am not only a catering manager but a multi-store catering manager. What does that mean? I am so glad you asked. It means in a few hours I will need to drive 2 hours to visit my other restaurant, spend the night, and do some marketing and sales calls there.
At 5am I stood in the kitchen and thought about everything I mentioned above and asked myself "WWGD"?-you know What Would Gidget Do?- Make fudge of course. Whenever Gidget was stressed or Moondoggie treated her like a kid, she would call up LaRue to come over, they would put their hair in rollers, slap on a homemade facial and in their house coats, they would make fudge.
No LaRue, house coat, facial or rollers for me, but I did have just what I needed to make fudge. Pink long johns, sweatshirt, hair almost standing on end and yesterdays marcara smeared on my face.(Sorry no picture to show right now, of me or the fudge, it's still setting in the fridge.)

I opted to make the Fantasy Fudge version, rather than the traditional, again...didn't make it to the store yesterday...it is 5am. I did not have any marshmallow cream (used it all yesterday on the whoopie pies) so I substituted jumbo marshmallows. Not sure how it will turn out but I did find using the jumbo marshmallows a little easier than the cream. They do not dissolve as quickly, giving you a little more time to stir everything together. I just hope it sets...guess I will find out tomorrow night, and so will you : ).

Day 17: Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Oh the guilt! Today I took the easy way out. I made these cookies from a box of red velvet cake mix (cue the Gasps!). And not very original either. Seems everywhere you look now days there is a red velvet something or other, and the whoopie pie has been making a bigger comeback than Cher did in the 90s.***note: I will take suggestions on a better to joke to insert here***
But hey! It is now Day 17...I have now made 16 different kind of cookies...e v e r y d a y. Besides, they are soooooo darn cute! I do wish, however I had made them a little smaller. The only dipper I have is a 2oz, and I just wasn't too excited about getting red sticky batter all over my hands.
The cookie part is so simple:

• any flavor cake mix
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 egg  

Mix well and drop onto cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for about 10-12 minutes.
Now for the best part...the filling!!! I think this is where the "whoopie" part of the name must have come from.

• 1/4 butter, softened
• 8oz cream cheese
• 7oz. jar of Marshmallow Cream

Beat until smooth.The recipe said to fold the marshmallow cream into the butter and cream cheese mixture, but that wasn't working out too well for me, so I just kept the beater going. I think over the next few weeks every single cookie I make will somehow feature this mixture. I think I will eat sandwiches filled with this or maybe stuff chicken breasts with it, I don't know...but I must find an excuse to make this everyday for the rest of my life.

Day 16: These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

I have been in love with butter since I can remember. I have been in love with Cayucos, Ca since I was 16. I have been in love with my husband since I was 18. I have been in love with Imbibe-Wine and Spirits since last year. All of these things came together a few weeks ago...sort of. While casually enjoying a glass of wine with the aforementioned husband at the aforementioned Imbibe, I discovered these amazing little cookies sitting right on the counter. The box was adorable (I am a sucker for packaging-a marketing professionals dream). The cookies were made by a little cookie company called The Brown Butter Cookie Company in Cayucos. SOLD! Not the kind of cookies you look at and drool, (maybe that's why the box is cute), just kind of average looking, certainly not average tasting.
 Let's recap: butter; cookies from Cayucos; wine at Imbibe; my husband. The only way that day could have been better... if we had been at Imbibe in Cayucos and I was 15 pounds thinner.

Knowing there was no chance the magical bakers who created this little cookie-wonder would be posting the recipe on the Internet, I did not get my hopes up too high. Then along came The Yummy Mummy, with a recipe right there for all to see. My plan was to get these made before the Chicago Bears play today and eat them all while I watched the game. Not Imbibe nor Cayucos, but Bears football-my husband-brown butter cookies, still three of my favorite things.
When I read the line in the recipe that says "be careful not to burn the butter or you will have to start over" I thought "oh crap, I better make sure I have lots of butter". This is one of those recipes you have to follow to the letter and pay attention to every single step...not usually my style.
Be really careful with the cooking time, 15 minutes proved to be a little too long. When baked too long they become very hard. Also, the salt was a little tricky. Just sprinkling the salt over the cookie didn't seem to be enough. I sprayed the bottom of a juice glass with a little Pam then dipped it in the salt then ever so lightly on to the good-this add too much salt.
If you have the means, I highly recommend driving to Cayucos and buying a gross of these.

*****BONUS*****

I created this variation my self:  Lemon-Sage Brown Butter Cookies

Add about 10 fresh sage leaves to the butter as it is browning. Remove leaves after the butter has browned.

Finish as recipe states then top with a glaze of butter, confectioners' sugar, milk and lemon emulsion.

Finally, if you are wondering what makes my husband so special, he went to Fresh and Easy at 9am to buy me sea salt!!

Day 15: Tic Tac Toe Cookies

I found the recipe for these Tic Tac Toe cookies right in my own refrigerator, staring me in the face for months. It comes from the back of a bottle of Heinz Ketchup, that's right...a cookie recipe from Heinz's ketchup. My son Steven eats everything with ketchup, my nephew Cameron had to have it at our Thanksgiving dinner...so for them, for my own curiosity, I had to give this recipe a try.
Basically this is a peanut butter cookie recipe. I imagined the good people in the marketing department at Heinz sat around one day and discussed ways to sell more ketchup. Someone mentions cookies as a joke, but then for lack of a better idea, they run with it. Since there is no way possible anyone can come up with a good cookie recipe with ketchup in it, the team, now weary and wanting to go home for the day, decides to just add ketchup to a peanut butter cookie recipe. Peanut Butter cookies: Good. Ketchup: Good. Peanut Butter cookies made with ketchup???
After mixing the dough, my husband and I both stared and sniffed at it, then nervously tasted it. He said, "Are we going to bake it or dip french fries in it?" I said, bake it. He said "oh, because it tastes like buffalo a@#". My oldest son Patrick wouldn't even taste the dough, he sniffed it and said it smelled "disgusting".
The dough also seemed way to wet and sticky to bake. the recipe says to press each cookie with the back of a fork in a cross pattern. I suggest spraying your fork with cooking spray, then dipping in flour before trying to press the fork onto the cookie. Better yet-don't make them at all.
If you have been following this blog, I hope you have found some cookies you would like to make, or have even already made. This time I took a bullet for you...do not make this cookie.


at least they look good

 My son, the ketchup lover, after tasting these said, "that was a mean trick by Heinz".

HOWEVER.....

I did make a back up cookie, well sort of. You know those outrageously delicious Magic Cookie Bars on the back of the condensed milk cans??? The ooey gooey chocolatey ones? Yeah those!! My grandma always called them "Hello Dollies", I'm calling these "How You Doin'?Dollies"! I took some of my chocolate chip cookie dough made with pecans and pressed it into a lightly greased 10X10 square cake pan. Top it with sweetened coconut, more pecans and then more chocolate chips. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over the pan and bake a t 350 for about 30 minutes. YUM!!!

Day 14: English Toffee Bars with Chocolate

You want to cut these before the chocolate sets but eat after the chocolate is firm

Did you know there is a website called Christmas-cookies.com?? Where I have been? They have 565 christmas cookie recipes!! To be fair, not all are cookies, some are candies and various treats. So that's where today's cookie comes from. I read this recipe four times before I decided to try it. And at first I think I only chose it out of spite. It is such a simple little recipe I could not fathom how this is supposed to be English Toffee. Then again, I'm not really sure what English Toffee is, so I decided to try them. The user comments all say the recipe is easy, however I didn't really like "Sweetshop" in New York who stated a "dodo couldn't mess these up". Really? Who is "Sweetshop in New York" to judge? Is that a challenge? And could "Sweetshop in New York" really be Martha Stewart?
Aaaaanway...I opted to not add the pecans and instead topped this with chocolate. In the last 5 minutes of baking just sprinkle a bag of chocolate chips over the top and return to the oven. When you remove the pan, spread the chips evenly over the pan with the back of a spoon. If you are adding the chocolate I think you can skip brushing the top with egg white. I didn't dare skip this step though as I did not want to be a "dodo". I also considered skipping the cinnamon and adding vanilla, but again, the damn dodo comment popped up and I thought best to stick to the original recipe as much as possible. In a moment of rebellion, I decided to bake these in an 11" tart pan instead of a 10"X15" pan! HA!

And on the 13th Day She Baked

About 5 days into this self imposed challenge I realized I started way too early. There is no way I am going to be able to make cookies every day. don't get me wrong, I am not quitting, just modifying my rules a little. Hey, it's my game, my rules...right? I decided that after every 12th day, I would bake what I have made so far and find homes for my cookies. Of course the 13th day would just have to fall on Thanksgiving when I have million other things to do, but I got up early, started a little last night and got it done. So here you have it: Days one through twelve. Ta Da!! These are going to my brother in laws house for Thanksgiving and I think one plate will go home with my Grandma. There is still more to bake, but I get a little bit stingy with my dough, saving it for I don't know what...just saving it. I will work through this issue by the end of the day I promise, finish baking the dough I have...except maybe the sugar cookies and the gingerbread...and the chocolate peppermint cookies...and just maybe the Russian Teacakes...

Thank you for indulging me and have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Day 12: FaLaLaLaLa-Meringues

Today's recipe is from Cooks.com. I looked up several recipes for meringues and they are all pretty much the same, so no rhyme or reason as to why I chose this one.
Here's one thing to know about meringues if you have never made them...they are deceptive little liars! You see them in bakeries, magazines, cookbooks and websites and they are so pretty, so simple, you just have to have them for your own. Then you read the recipe and think, "eggs, sugar, vanilla...I have that stuff, looks easy". Yeah, not so much. I have made them before and honestly they are not exactly difficult to make but there are some things to know. First make sure your egg whites are at room temperature; second, for the love of all that is holy, use a stand mixer; third, practice your piping skills before you start; and finally be patient.

the little peaks kept breaking off

I am pretty good a piping, not a professional, but not bad. At 5am, however, I could not find any of my large pastry tips. So I just cut the tip of the pasty bag and opted for the less inspiring "kiss" look. For the cherry-nut meringues though I did kind of want a rustic look, I swear I did not just get lazy. Which reminds of another tip: it's a good idea to draw, or better yet print, out small circles and lay or parchment maper over them while piping. This will give you more uniform shaped cookies. I did not...again, it was 5 am.
Martha Stewart has a recipe on her website for these adorable little peppermint meringues filled with chocolate ganache. If I can find the courage to trust her again I may give them a go.
Another thing about meringues: you always see them with their cute little bottoms dipped in chocolate and then maybe nuts or candies. This too, is not as easy at it may seem. After two I realized I was creating more mess than art and took the easy way out and just drizzled. Gotta love that drizzle!

Non Cookie Break- Jello Crap! Hooray

notice we have graduated to making extremeley large bowls of this

Okay so I know it's not really called Jello Crap, I'm sure it has a real name. Something like Jello Salad I' m sure. But to me Cool Whip+Jello+Cottage Cheese+Pineapple does not equal anything that should be called a salad. But we sooo love our Jello Crap. My Grandma Betty always made it when I was little and my slightly indulgent Grandpa would have let me eat the whole bowl if Grandma didn't step in and stop me. I started making it for holidays when my kids were little and was thrilled to find out my youngest son Steven loved Jello Crap as much as I did. He has been making it every Christmas and Thanksgiving since he was about 6 years old. Now at age 17, I think he finally has it down pat. Now I just have to make sure he doesn't eat it all before Thursday.

Day 11: Maple Cookies-Failure is not an Option

Fail

A little better

Yesterday afternoon I sat down at the computer to find a cookie to make. I had the maple on my mind and my mind on the maple. I found this little number at AllRecipes.com. It caught my eye immediatley when I read in the description "my husband loves these, he says they taste like maple bars" I was sold! See my own husband is not real big on sweets. I seriously have to ask him to please try a cookie! While I could eat nothing but dessert 24/7, he is one of those annoying people who can pass without a second thought. That being said...I happen to know he loves maple bars.
After reading the recipe I noticed there were some user comments below from what sounded like experienced bakers to me. All comments said they had trouble with the recipe and each modified it one way or another. I took this advice and, being an experienced baker myself (ahem) modified it further. Well it turns out I am not as experienced as I thought. The cookies spead into crispy buttery little maple crackers.
Determined to make my husband a maple cookie I could be proud of, I let the kids scrape what they could off of the parchment paper and I started again.
This time I used the recipe for chocolate chip  cookies and just decreased the vanilla and added 2 tsp of maple flavoring. For the icing I just kind of eyeballed it all until I got the consistency I wanted. I thought they were a little drab looking so I tossed some pecans in brown sugar and sprinkled it over the icing.



 Not one of my all time favorites but they taste really good. Although I do still have quite a bit of dough left in the freezer so I am hoping they will bake a little better after the dough has been frozen.

Day 10: Rachael Ray for the Win!!

I went into this recipe very skeptical considering yesterday's shortcoming with the Apricot Cheesecake Pockets. I didn't even unwrap all of the 24 peppermint patty's the recipe calls for...just in case. But this recipe for Double Chocolate Cookies with a Peppermint Patty Surprise does not dissapoint! This is another from the December 2011 issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray and it has restored my faith. Which is a really good thing since there are at least 2 more recipes I want to try from that issue.
Not only do these cookies taste delicious (think Thin Mints on steroids), but they just scream Christmas! Oh and as a bonus, pretty easy and fun to make, a great recipe to let the kids help with. The process reminded of one of my favorite activities as a kid...making mud pies.

Some pointers: freeze the peppermint patties, measure out each tablespoon of dough before pressing mints into dough, roll the dough in a ball then flatten in your hand before you wrap the dough around the mint, chill each pan of cookies about 20 minutes before putting in the oven. Enjoy!

Day 9: Apricot Cheesecake Pockets...Sabotage??

   After yesterday's Martha Stewart rant, I decided to give Rachael Ray a shot today. This recipe is from the December 2011 issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray. I do not have a link for the recipe and just didn't feel like typing the whole thing up, besides it's...you guessed it....wrong. I will give Rachael the benefit of the doubt and assume it was a typo. The recipe is supposed to yeild 2 dozen cookies. The dough is rolled to 1/4 inch thickness and cut with a 4" round cookie cutter. I carefully measure everything, I got 12 cookies. Also 1/4 inch is way to thick for a cookie that is folded in half. If I make these again I will roll them out to 1/8 inch thickness.

I think I am more proud of this picture

   I want to believe Rachael Ray is not out to sabotage all of us the way Martha is. I have 4 more cookies recipes from the magazine I want to try. And really other than the thickness issue, this recipe did work out really well and the cookies are delicious.
UPDATE: Here is the recipe. Again, I would not roll the dough as thick as the recipe states.

Day 8: Shortbread and Why Martha Stewart Cannot Be Trusted

 So today I was feeling a little unmotivated, maybe something to do with rockin' all night at the Pixies concert last night...maybe. So I searched the web for a cookie to make today and stumbled upon Martha Stewart's Holiday Cookies. I KNOW better than to trust Martha Stewart, but somehow she continues to suck me into her web. (Google "Martha Stewart recipes never work") Before I explain, stop reading here and visit this link. Got it? Okay, sounds simple enough, cookies look really good too. But here's the thing about Martha...she seems to leave out key elements of her recipe. Things you need to know or be shown in order to make the recipe work. I have made Martha's cakes, candies and cookies and each time I curse her name and swear "never again" This time she fails to mention there is no way possible to roll a shortbread dough into a log. (Okay, it is possilbe, but very difficult). So then you freeze the dough. And guess what is harder than molding shortbread dough into a log? that's right, slicing a log of frozen shortbread dough. And what kind of knife should I use? I somehow imagine it is some type of $500.00 special extra sharp knife made only for slicing frozen shortbread dough. In order to keep the shape and slice the dough I had to knead it several times to warm up and soften the butter which means this is no longer really a shortbread!!! In Martha's defense, she does give you the option of molding this dough into a square. If you decide to try this recipe, do the square, they will end up that way anyway. Better yet, press the dough into a tart pan, score wedges and poke holes with a fork. This will conclude the ranting portion of today's post.
 Today's cookie is actually a hybrid. The shortbread recipe above and a Spice Cookie I have been wanting to try. I took Martha's shortbread recipe and added 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. nutmeg and 1/2 tsp ground cloves. Then I added 1/2 c chopped walnuts and 1/2 chopped raisins. Not just any raisins though, Fresh and Easy's Jumbo Mixed Raisins. A mixture of golden raisins, regular and cinnamon raisins. YUM!

They didn't turn out too bad. Not really sweet and the spices are nice. They would go great with coffee as they are a little, make that alot, dry. If you decide to try this recipe, please let me know how it works out for you.
  

Day 7: Buttery Gingerbread Santas

Confession, I hate any kind of ginger based cookie! The only reason I ever even tried this recipe was because I wanted to make a gingerbread house, and I fell in love with them, must have been the butter!! It's always the butter. The recipe comes from a cookbook I bought when my kids were little and I still had Christmas visions of granduer. Those visions were met by reality, but still I dust it off every November and plan to make most of the recipes in it. This is typically the only one that gets done.

Today I will only be making the dough, I just do not have time to decorate them in the anal retentive, painstaking manor I enjoy. Once I do though, I will certainly post pictures of the decorated cookies. For now though, here is a picture of my boys when they were little and cute making their Christmas Cookies...enjoy and happy baking!!

Major Update/Relay for Life

So it's time to kick this little blog up a notch. If you notice my blog contains ads at the bottom. Every time my blog is view I earn money. 100% of everything earned from this blog from now until April will be donated to Relay for Life to help in the fight against cancer. You can also visit our team page directly if you would like to donate to our team. Thank you for your support and I promise I will try to keep this blog interesting and will add recipes!!!

Day 6: Russian Teacakes

   I have always loved to make cookies. When I was little I used every ingredient in the house to make some of the worst cookies (I'm not sure you could even call them that) ever tasted. As I got a little older I started to understand why you needed to follow recipes when baking. We never had a lot of food in the house so I would search my moms cookbooks for anything I could make with what we had. That's when the Russian Teacake came into my life. I found it in one of my Great Grandma's old cookbooks and make them over and over until the page fell out of the book. As an adult I searched to find the recipe again and finally found it a few years ago, only now I bake them about once a year instead of once a week. So simple, so good. They are often mistaken for Mexican Wedding Cakes but they taste and are made differently.

I like to coat them in powdered sugar while they are still warm, it makes almost a frosting around the cookie.

Day 5: Chocolate Chip

  When it comes to Chocolate Chip cookies I am the first to admit I am a total snob. I have never made or eaten a chocolate chip that I think is perfect. They have to be slightly crisp, but not crunchy. Soft, but not cakey. The chips should hold their shape but melt to the touch...or bite. I have tried so many recipes and even read about the science behind baking in every attempt to make a perfect chocolate chip cookie.
Then along came my neice and her husband...for my birthday last year they gave me a bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies he had made. NO LIE, THE BEST I HAVE EVER HAD!! It turns out it was her grandmother's  recipe and she was nice enough to share. Up until now I had completley given up on chocolate chip cookies, I will cherish this recipe for ever.

   On another note: if anyone is reading this, I realize the cookies have been pretty boring so far. I promise more exciting cookies are to come, just had to get the staples out of the way first.

Day 4: Fruited Oatmeal Walnut with White Chocolate Chips

 Oh Oatmeal Cookies, we have has such a love hate relationship over the years. Mostly because I have always thought of Oatmeal Cookies as kind of "recipe optional". We have seen some successes and many complete failures. My mother tells of pans ruined beyond repair.

  This started out like always, a  recipe that I didn't quite have all the ingredients for. So a few substitutions later this is the end result. Not real pretty, but yummy none the less.

Day 3: "Famous Bakery" Sugar Cookies

   Every holiday I LOVE decorating cookies! The problem is, while they look great, they usually taste kind of blah!! One day, someone at work brought in some decorated cookies his sister made, they were amazing!!  Turns out she once worked at a bakery and had their recipe. I begged him for months to give me the recipe, promising not to tell, and finally got it. This are the BEST Sugar Cookies I have ever tasted and I cannot wait to bake and decorate them.

Day 2: Snickerdoodles

   Along with the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies, these will probably get made more than once before Christmas. They should be called Potato Chip cookies because it is literally impossible to eat just one. Nothing fancy here, just a recipe from a can of Crisco.

Day One: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal

   This is my "go to" cookie. I try not to bake them very often. Which reminds me of an episode of Friends...Phoebe doesn't make her cookies very often because they are so good she doesn't think its fair to the other cookies. These cookies are that good, but the real reason I do not make them very often is that I usually end up eating more than half of the batch myself. That is of course if I do not eat all of the dough first.

Christmas Cookie Challenge

  Very simply, for no real reason, I have challenged myself to make a batch of homemade cookies every day from now, make that 4 days ago, until Christmas. A different type of cookie each day and the dough is being frozen to bake later, less a few to sample, of course.
   I started posting these on Facebook orginally but have decided a blog may be a better choice. This satisfies my need to post these cookies without forcing my friends and family to see it every single day for the next 45+ days. This is the first blog I have ever done, so bear with me here...