Cooking Baking Extravaganza

Allow me to apologize for the length of time between this post and the last, but this week marks the last week of the semester, and we all know how that goes. In addition to wrapping up this semester, I'm training for numerous races, including a triathlon which is coming up in just a couple weeks and two races back-to-back this coming weekend. To further add to the list, I'm still working part time. Needless to say, things are hectic!

To combat the insanity of these past couple weeks, I decided to add even more activities to my schedule by baking not one, but three batches of cookies a couple of days ago. I know that more cookies have been baked by a single person in one day, but I felt pretty accomplished cranking out three batches in an eight hour span considering my to do list at the time (I spent the day alternating between making batches of cookies and completing homework assignments). I even tried a new recipe! Now, on to what you're waiting for: cookies!

The trio of doughs ready to be baked!

The first batch I made was found on the wonderful blog, How Sweet Treats. I am seriously impressed with what this woman creates (thanks to my cousin Lily for introducing me to this gem). Naturally, I had to try out one of her recipes. Since we just happen to have a large, seldom used bottle of Bailey's in the house, I decided to try her double fudge Irish cream cookies. I know Saint Patrick's Day is over, but who cares? Bailey's is undeniably delicious and it could only taste better in a cookie!

Getting the party started

Bailey's dough ready to go

Fresh out of the oven, yummmm!

For these cookies I used the recipe from the How Sweet Treats blog, which you can find here. I made a couple of my own modifications though:
1. I didn't add white chocolate chips because I have yet to find any that are free of hydrogenated oils, and half of my goal here is to produce treats without too many horribly unhealthy ingredients. I just substituted for the white chips with semi-sweet milk chocolate chips.
2. We do not have any instant coffee in the house and there is nothing I despise more than having to run to the store (I basically live on top of a mountain where what others know as a quick run to the store takes a minimum of 40 minutes because of driving time) for just one semi-crucial ingredient. So I just omitted the instant coffee. This probably would've given these cookies the extra kick that they needed...
3. We have chocolate-covered coffee beans, which I meant to stick on top of these, but I completely spaced. Just an idea for the future if any of you have chocolate-covered coffee beans and want to try it. I will remember to do this next time!


Overall, I'd say these cookies turned out well given the modifications that I made. At first I thought these cookies were kind of bland, then I loved them, and then I thought they were bland again. I couldn't make up my mind with these! You'll just have to try them for yourself.


The next cookie added to the trio was the obligatory monster cookie. I halved the recipe, which always leaves me a little dissatisfied because it is difficult to halve (the proportions are always a little off). These cookies are also temperature sensitive: if the dough is too warm before they go in the oven they spread like crazy, but if the dough is chilled for too long they don't spread enough and come out looking like muffins. The dough wasn't cold enough prior to baking so these spread a little more than I would have liked. Luckily spreading is mostly just an aesthetic issue; they still tasted amazing.

Stack of flattened monster cookies

Lastly, I decided on oatmeal raisin cookies. I could probably count all of the times that I've made oatmeal raisin cookies on one hand. I have no idea why I hardly ever make these cookies, because they aren't any less delicious than any other cookie out there. I guess that depends on who you ask, but personally, I have nothing against oatmeal raisin cookies. So I decided to make these cookies the last members of the cookie trio. They turned out quite well.

Oatmeal raisin cookies cooling off

Here's the recipe I used for these oatmeal raisin cookies:

• 1/2 cup plus 4 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 baking soda
• 1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups oats (I use Quaker old-fashioned, none of that instant stuff)
• 1 cup raisins (I would recommend adding a little more, I felt like these could have used a few more raisins) 

Bake 8 to 12 minutes at 350, until golden brown.

Cookie trio at the end of the day

Apple Raisin Scones

Scones are kind of like cookies, right? They can be round... soft... and... delicious? Either way, last week I had some kind of mini-epiphany. We sell scones where I work and I've indulged occasionally by having one, never once thinking (until now) that I could just make them myself. Why this hadn't occurred to me earlier is a really good question, but I made up for lost time by making this recipe twice in one week. Unfortunately, the second time around I was lazy and decided to skip the whole kneading the dough part. Turns out you can't really do that. Well, you can, it just doesn't produce as satisfying of a result. So heed my advice (which is probably common sense to most everyone else): KNEAD THE DOUGH!

After a bit of Google searching and perusing recipes, I came up with something. This turned out to be a little bit of a challenge since most of the recipes I came across called for sour cream. I don't have anything against sour cream, in fact I love it, we just didn't have any at the time. Sour cream is one of those things that we only have around if we've recently made some kind of Mexican dish, which isn't often, and then I would be the only one to use it since my boyfriend hates sour cream (amongst many other things that I enjoy, like pickles). Regardless, I wasn't going to drive all the way to the store for one missing ingredient that wouldn't receive much more use, so I came up with an alternative that worked. As far as deciding what to put in these bad boys, I had a giant container of rarely consumed raisins as well as some amazing McIntosh apples that I had just picked up from the store (which came as a very pleasant surprise since McIntosh apples are my favorite apples of all time and I didn't think they were in season yet) handy, and a combination of the two didn't sound bad so I went for it. The result was quite satisfying:

Beluga's Apple Raisin Scones:

For the scones:

• 2 cups flour (plus some extra for your kneading surface)
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup (or 1/2 stick) of butter, cubed
• 2 tablespoons shortening (I've found an awesome organic all vegetable non-hydrogenated kind, made by Spectrum at my local supermarket)
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 of a medium sized apple, chopped (I used McIntosh because they are nice and soft and also delicious, but I'm sure any apple of your choice would do. I also left the skin on, skin is good.)

For the glaze:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 to 3 tablespoons butter    

Directions:
Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add in cubed butter and shortening, mix well. Add milk and egg and mix until there are no visible chunks of butter left. Add in the raisins and apple pieces and mix until they are evenly distributed. Next (and as stated above, I don't recommend getting too excited and/or lazy and skipping this step), knead the dough onto a lightly floured surface for a couple of minutes, or until it is manageable. Take biscuit-sized pieces and place them onto your baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 375.
While the scones are baking, melt the butter for your glaze and mix it in with the sugar. When the scones are nearly done (about 2-3 minutes of baking time left), remove them from the oven and coat each one with a portion of the glaze and then return them for the remaining baking time. Enjoy!