A Smorgasbord of Treats

For those of you alarmed by the different nature of my last post, this post should make up for it.

Last night I made brownies, but I didn't stop there. While the brownies were in the oven, I made mints too! Then I went to bed and woke up this morning and made peanut butter cookies! Lots of baking going on when I really should be doing anything but. I have a lot going on since it is my last semester of college, which I have mentioned, but it is getting a little hectic to say the least with under a month to go.

Lets start with brownies. I wanted to experiment with some kind of add-in that I hadn't tried before. I had some cream cheese in the fridge and some blackberries so I made a blackberry cream cheese to swirl in. Since I wasn't sure how berry cream cheese would compliment the brownies, I only added it to half of the brownies. Both sides turned out wonderfully. I have been craving brownies for a long time and these hit the spot. The berry cream cheese totally worked with the brownies, and the blackberry taste wasn't too strong (which I was worried about). My favorite part of the berry cream cheese brownies was how the seeds from the berries mixed in so every couple of bites I'd get a seed. Those of you who aren't a fan of crunchy seeds probably wouldn't enjoy these brownies as much.

Mixing up the brownie batter.

My very elementary attempt at blackberry cream cheese, with a touch of honey

Since brownies take forever to bake, I decided to occupy my time with another recipe. I actually found the brownie recipe in the little recipe book that came with my stand mixer (which I've used many other times). This same recipe book has a recipe for no-bake mints that I have always been curious about. The mints were very simple to make, just a few ingredients; all I had to do was mix it together, shape the mints, and then store them in the fridge! I was done in 20 minutes. The mints are pretty good, but I think that tonight I may try dipping some in chocolate for a peppermint patty effect.

Mints!

Half and half brownies... just ignore the fact that I poked them a billion times...

Today also happens to be the birthday of one of my awesome friends, Holley, so I wanted to make some cookies for her. Since Holley is the birthday girl, I asked what she had in mind and she requested peanut butter cookies. I've been wanting to make peanut butter cookies forever and had them in mind as well; apparently these cookies were meant to be! In case the coincidence wasn't enough, I recently purchased a giant tub (see photo below) of peanut butter from Costco, so I definitely had the means (and then some) to make peanut butter cookies.

In case you didn't believe me; this thing is enormous! Also, that is a full-sized mixing spoon.. mixing this jar of peanut butter up for the first time was extremely difficult as evidenced in the mess that I was making when I took this photo.

The peanut butter cookies turned out a little crunchier than I would have liked, but they still have an addictive property about them... I ate three right away. I also dipped some of the cookies in chocolate to mix it up, but I was operating under a time crunch so I wasn't able to share any because the chocolate hadn't hardened enough by the time I needed to leave. The chocolate had set by the time I got home and is a nice compliment, but I think next time I'll mix peanut butter in with the chocolate to give it more flavor.

Peanut butter cookies ready for the oven.

Chocolate-dipped! Holley, if you read this... I'm sorry these weren't ready in time to bring to class!

Snickerdoodles

An easy classic that most everyone enjoys

It's Thursday, which means.... baseball night! Wooooo! Since none of you understand what "baseball night" is, allow me to explain. You see, my boyfriend has this hobby called "baseball." This particular hobby requires an entire night each week (and then some) to be dedicated to it, and Thursday happens to be the night. Being the needy girlfriend that I am, I now have no idea what to do with myself on Thursday nights. Typically, I lounge around feeling sorry for myself while being horribly unproductive. Tonight I decided to break the cycle (which really started just last week when the first official "baseball night" occurred, so I suppose I shouldn't really call it a cycle...) and bake some cookies. I honestly haven't had much motivation to bake anything this week because I'm still trying to cleanse my body of all the sugar I consumed over Halloween weekend. However, staying true to my promise of a weekly post, I decided to bite the bullet and bake something. So I hope everyone appreciates this post!

Since I lack motivation, I decided to keep it simple and go with snickerdoodles. Like the Mexican wedding cookies I made last week, snickerdoodles are delicious but I've only baked them a few other times. The first batch was pulled from the oven about ten minutes ago, and they look good! That's right, ten minutes ago. This is the timeliest blog post I've written; it's just about as close to live blogging as I'll ever get.

Since my phone proved easier to use than my real camera (and thanks to MobileMe I can almost instantly get the photos from my phone to my blog without the involvement of any cords), I stuck with the same system as last week as far as photos are concerned. In all honesty, taking pictures is probably one of my least favorite things to do when I'm baking. That's not to say that I don't enjoy photography, because I do (I even took a photography class during my sophomore year of college!); it's just that I find the combination of photography and baking to be much too arduous.

Not as messy as the Mexican wedding cake cookies! Also, you can check the accuracy of my recipe.

These cookies turned out really well and I am definitely satisfied with the recipe. My recipe card says that I obtained this recipe on food.com, but that was a while ago so I no longer have the direct link.

Snickerdoodles:

For the dough:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 3/4 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the cinnamon sugar:

• 3 tablespoons sugar*
• 3 tablespoons cinnamon* 

*This is what the recipe says, but I used less cinnamon and more sugar, because I didn't fancy this exact combination. I ended up with something that was more like two parts sugar to one part cinnamon.

Directions: Cream butter and sugar, add remaining ingredients. Chill dough for 5-10 minutes while preparing cinnamon sugar. Roll balls of dough in cinnamon sugar, bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.
 

Ready to go!

Mexican Wedding Cookies!

With Halloween just around the corner, the majority of food bloggers are sharing their favorite Halloween treats, but here I am making these cookies that are typically eaten around Christmastime. Oops. But hey, it's my blog and I can bake what I want to, right?! I obtained the recipe for these fabulous little cookies several months ago when I went on a spree of going to bookstores and picking out recipes from various cookbooks. This actually turned out to be a pretty good method for finding new and interesting recipes, although this is only the second time I've used one of them (I assure you I have quite a few saved for later use). I have made these cookies before but it was a looooong time ago, back in the days of endless Toll House chocolate chip cookie baking that I mentioned in my last post. So, when I just happened to come across the recipe in one of the many cookbooks I thumbed through, I thought that it was a perfect opportunity to make them once again.

The best thing about these cookies is that they are ridiculously easy to make. They have only five ingredients and the longest part of the whole process is the baking itself, since they cook about twice as long as most cookies. Another great thing about these cookies is that they can be made with ingredients that I usually have already at home so I don't have to make a special trip to prepare for them.

The other day when I was slightly pressed for time but wanted to make something, I went for these. The recipe made about 20 cookies (even though it claims to actually make 48, I am notorious for making my cookies larger than your standard homemade cookie), which were gone the following evening. I had to make a second batch already because Tom and I have been eating these things nonstop. Luckily they're smaller than the cookies I usually make so we can feel less guilty about eating so many. Also, they're great with a cup of coffee in the morning. In fact, I totally skipped breakfast this morning and replaced it with a couple of these (super healthy, I know).

Anyway, here you have the Mexican wedding cookies! So delicious and so easy, I don't see why we only eat these at Christmastime. Also, since I was pressed for time and my camera had died, I took all of these photos on my phone. However, I don't think they turned out half bad and I might just use my phone from now on since it's way easier.

The second most time consuming part of the process is chopping up the pecans

Almost ready for the oven...

Mexican Wedding Cookies:

For the dough:

• 1 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour

For the coating:

•  1 to 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Combine pecans and 1/4 cup powdered sugar and mix until both are evenly distributed. Cube butter and soften then add to nut and sugar mix along with the vanilla. Lastly, add the flour and mix until dough holds together well. Roll into small 1-2'' balls on baking sheet and bake for 20-22 minutes at 325. While cookies are baking, pour remaining 1+ cup of powdered sugar into a bowl (I just eyeballed it). Once cookies are out of the oven and cool enough to pick up but still hot, roll in powdered sugar and place on cooling rack. Once completely cooled, roll through powdered sugar a second time (I have trouble being patient enough for this last step). Enjoy!

Mmm, after their first coating of powdered sugar

It's a Miracle!

I actually baked something! Thanks to Zach and Nina for your suggestions, I really appreciate it. Since Zach came up with a suggestion so quickly I went with his ideas and actually ended up (coincidentally) satisfying both of your requests. Zach suggested that I make some peanut butter brownies, but instead of making brownies I decided to make brownie cookies! The idea has crossed my mind before, but I never followed through until now. I decided to go with a little improvisation from a few recipes I found online and came up with the following:

Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies:

For the chocolate brownie batter:

• 12 ounces  bittersweet chocolate
• 1 stick butter (melted together with the bittersweet chocolate, either double broiler style or carefully in the microwave)
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• pinch salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips

For the peanut butter filling/topping:

• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

For the peanut butter, I basically did the same thing that I did for peanut butter cups except that I didn't really measure anything so these measurements are estimates. I tried a few different methods for combining the peanut butter mixture with the brownie batter. I tried spooning a little on top of a few cookies as well as putting some in the middle of the cookies (kind of like a cookie version of a peanut butter cup) and left two cookies without peanut butter (just to get the full effect of plain brownie cookies in case the peanut butter concoction baked funny).

Peanut butter dollops on top

The alternative - peanut butter innards

I had some batter and lots of peanut butter leftover, so a few days later I mixed the two together and baked the rest, which turned out a little dry but pretty good. Ultimately, I think that I prefer the cookies with the peanut butter on top.  My boyfriend prefers the cookies with the peanut butter inside, so I suppose it's up to the eater to decide. Not sure which method I would go with if I make these again.

This isn't a very good photo, but it is the only evidence I have of the peanut butter/brownie mix

What's next?
I might experiment with some whoopie pies (even though the name and concept has always freaked me out a little bit... I'm willing to bite the bullet so that I can become a real baker one day!) or chocolate/vanilla sandwich cookies (you might know them as Oreo cookies, but I'm trying not to sell out to a brand name here... especially because Oreos have hydrogenated oils in them, boo Nabisco!). Got an idea? Share it.

I Suck at Blogging...

... this is the sad realization I came to today. However, it all ends now. While I am lacking photographic evidence of anything I have baked recently, I promise that I have been baking, at least a little. And by a little I mean about once a month. I am setting a goal of one post per week for the rest of the year and to get the ball rolling I am reaching out to the four people who actually read my blog for help. Since I am not feeling particularly creative, I thought it would be fun to ask you awesome people what I should bake next. Cookies are preferable, but I am open to various suggestions (with only a few readers I can't be too picky). In case you're wondering what the heck I've been doing for the past few months that didn't involve blogging, I'll fill you in: I spent the entire summer taking classes and then spent a couple of weeks on vacation. Since I've been back in Anchorage, my boyfriend and I have developed an addiction to frozen yogurt and have been going to this place almost every day. If you're in Anchorage, or any other place with a self-serve frozen yogurt business, I highly recommend it! In a nutshell, frozen yogurt has satisfied my sweet tooth for some time now and I haven't been compelled to bake as much. I have also come to the realization that I do significantly less baking during the summer because it is warm outside and I'm constantly doing something. In the wintertime I am constantly trying to avoid going outside because it is miserable and cold and dark (the fact that I don't enjoy skiing as much as running may also have something to do with it).  However, temperatures have begun to drop below freezing at night which inevitably means more baking! So, there you have it. Suggest away!

Oh and P.S. - Thanks to Amanda for letting me know that you missed my posts. It's good to know that somebody out there enjoys and misses Beluga Bakery!

P.P.S. - this post looked naked without a photo, so here is a lovely picture of a beluga whale for you to enjoy:  

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!

Monster Cookies

Many of you will be disappointed by this post because I am going to omit the recipe. The reason for this is that I believe the monster cookie may be my secret weapon, or perhaps even my trademark cookie, someday in the future at Beluga Bakery...

For my paternal family members, this is a familiar treat. I remember visiting my grandparents in Montana when I was little, hoping that someone would make these cookies because they were so, so amazing. My father has nine siblings, so when the family gets together we spend a lot of time in the kitchen preparing large meals. The same goes for baking; every time the family got together it was guaranteed that someone would spend a good chunk of time baking up enough cookies to serve the Tranel clan. These cookies were always a go-to not only because they were delicious, but also because they yielded four dozen (!) aka enough to serve a giant family like ours. I have many memories of sitting in the back of the family van while taking a break from ice skating on some remote frozen lake, monster cookie in hand. These cookies defined my childhood experiences in Montana.
As I became more interested in baking I finally asked my grandmother for the recipe. From that moment on I've made these irresistible "garbage can" cookies. When I say "garbage can" I don't mean it in a disgusting sense, but it in the same sense that you'd refer to something like hornblende. For those of you who haven't been spending four hours every Friday in a geology lab, it's a lot of things mixed in together (peanut butter, m&ms, chocolate chips, oatmeal, and more). I'm not entirely sure of the origin of this recipe. All I know is that I copied it down when I was about 14 years old from a recipe card my grandmother had, which looked well-loved and fairly dated. To this day, this is the one of the few recipes I use that has not been modified or copied from a cookbook or the internet. These are undoubtedly my favorite cookies of all time.

I halve the recipe when I make it at home, since there are only two mouths to feed (dog not included) and the full deal is so hefty that it sends my trusty stand mixer into overdrive.

I love being able to reminisce with a plate of cookies...

Challenging Superlative Recipes

Many bakers claim to have superlative recipes. I found two recipes claiming excellence and set forth to see if their claims were true...

The first recipe was found here, which claimed to be the best ever chocolate chip cookie recipe. I've stuck with a couple of staple chocolate chip recipes over the years, but have recently decided to experiment a bit more in search of that perfect recipe. I've been pretty content with the recipes I use, but there's no harm in trying to find something better! After all, these cookies were going to be the best ever. I was excited to get baking, believing that my search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie was about to end. Well, I was let down. This particular recipe left something to be desired and had me longing for my staple recipes. I gave them a second chance after the first attempt yielded disappointment because I was feeling so optimistic. However, the second attempt changed nothing. Perhaps the third time's a charm, but I've been so let down by this recipe I'm not sure if I want to give it a third shot.

I was still feeling optimistic at this point.

The result: a cookie that is a flatter than I'd like, decent when fresh out of the oven (a little crunch on the edge and a soft center), but after about two hours these cookies lose their flavor and texture. Overall, I'd rate this a superlative fail.


The second recipe I tried was not a cookie recipe, but satisfied an ongoing craving I'd been having. I been having random urges to make blueberry muffins, but never had blueberries at hand. I settled for making chocolate chocolate chip muffins for a couple weeks until a trip to Costco led to the discovery and purchase of an inordinate amount of blueberries (enough for two batches of muffins and even pancakes, too!).  I found this recipe via a simple Google search, another claiming to yield a most tasty result: to die for blueberry muffins. I came close to omitting the crumble topping, but it proved to be the element that set these muffins apart from the rest.

Considering the amount of blueberries I had available, I added extra.

 Crumble-topped and ready to go!

Blueberries oozing out of freshly baked muffins.

These to die for muffins did not disappoint, I highly recommend!