Cookie Cuteness

When I got a cash reward at work last September, I decided to use some of the money to get something I really wanted, even if I really did not need it.  I had been looking at getting embossed rolling pin but could never really justify the acquisition.  However, the unexpected cash (plus the tax rebate), gave me the flexibility to splurge.

Etsy has a great selection of embossed rolling pins.  There were several stores with interesting designs.  I settled on the one from Funny-Baker that offered free delivery for a set of four.   It was hard to decide on the four designs because I was drawn to so many of the designs.   

4 Oct --  I identified the ones I wanted --  ladybugs, honeycomb, birds signing, and hearts

7 Oct -- MacGyver helped me with the order and the payment

16 Oct -- the Fedex delivery tracker showed that the rolling pins were already in Australia.  

17 Oct - I mixed up a batch of cookie dough in anticipation of the delivery.

18 Oct --  the rolling pins arrived at about noon 

It was an extra special day because aside from the rolling pins arriving at our doorstep, the lockdown restrictions eased and I was able to go to attend mass in the church that Monday morning,

Sugar cookies rolled out while watching Mother's speech therapy on Zoom today.

She managed to drink over 800ml this morning.

Eldest Sis, Sister Deer and I were cheered in the background.

First batch rolled out on the day the rolling pins arrived.

Cookies fresh out of the oven

Super cute cookies in the cookie jar (with matching allocation).

Madeleine

I remember eyeing a madeleine pan in the Gourdo's store in Glorietta when I was in Manila.  I imagined that the results would be so pretty.  I don't think I had even tasted a madeleine when wanting to buy the pans back then.  I was attracted to them because of the shape.

 

Fast forward to window shopping in Australia.  There was a Trade Secret (now TKMaxx since 2017) at the nearby mall.  They had items that would be available in store this week and gone the next.  I spotted a couple of madeleine pans for AUD 13.  I wanted them but I didn't buy them.  After a couple more visit, I saw they were priced down to AUD9.  Tempting, really tempting ... but I still didn't buy them.  However, when I saw them a month or so later with double red tags, I could not resist.  I picked up the last two at AUD6 a piece. 

 

I didn't know how to make madeleines when I bought the pans and they were in storage for quite a while.  Eventually I did muster up the courage to try a batch and they came out quite well.  This was probably a year or so ago.

 

In January this year, I borrowed a book on madeleines wanting to give the madeleine pans some action.  I flipped through the pages of that library book while on the train going home and took note of the ingredients I needed to get.  When I finally found the time to do some baking, I ditched the library book and settled on a recipe I found in the internet.

 

They turned out beautifully.  Apparently, the secret to madeleines with the signature "hump" is the step where one has to refrigerate the batter for at least an hour before baking.

  

 

Madeleines (makes 24)

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 2/3 c sugar
• 1 1/2  t orange zest
• 1 c flour
• 1 t baking powder
• ¼ t  salt
• 6 T  melted butter
• 1 T  powdered sugar

Instructions

1. In medium bowl, beat eggs with sugar until pale yellow then add orange zest.
2. In small bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.
3. Add dry ingredients to the egg mixture gently. Mix until just combined then add melted butter.
4. Refrigerate the batter at least 1 hour (even up to overnight).
5. Preheat oven to 350F 
6. Lightly grease madeleine pan with melted butter or baking spray.
7. Scoop 1 heaping teaspoon of batter into the center of the well.  (No need to spread it out. It will spread out on its own.)   
8. Bake 7-8 mins until slightly golden around edges and centers look set .  Allow to cool slightly before moving to cooling rack, 
9. Once cooled completely, dust with powdered sugar. Serve.

 

Cookie, Cookie, Cookie Starts with C

I usually pick up a bag or two of chocolate chips when they are on sale and keep them in the pantry or the freezer for those times that MyGirl or I decide to bake.  Lately, we've been using the Cadbury chocolate chip cookies recipe which calls for a low temperature and shorter baking time.  This results in soft and chewy cookies.

I don't know about you, but when I think of soft and chewy cookies, I think of Subway cookies.   And when I think of Subway cookies, I think of white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies.

So guess what... we were suddenly craving white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies the other week.

When we managed to gather up all the needed ingredients, we set out to satisfy our cravings.  MyGirl baked us a superbly yummy batch of cookies last Sunday.

White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Cookies

 Makes 20-22 big cookies 

1/2 c butter
1/2 c brown sugar
1/3 c caster sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 c self-raising flour
1/2 c roughly chopped macadamia nuts
1/2 c white chocolate chips 

Cream butter, brown sugar and caster sugar until light and fluffy
Whisk in egg and vanilla
Stir in flour
Fold in nuts and chips
Place golf ball sized ball on a greased or lined trays
Bake in pre-heated oven at 160 C (320 F) for 10-15 minutes
For soft, chewy cookies, pull out cookies from the oven while they are still soft. 

(For regular chocolate chip cookies, use 3/4 cups of chocolate chips instead of nuts and white chocolate chips.  For chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips, add 1/2 c of cocoa to the flour and replace the macadamia nuts with white chocolate chips for a total of 1 c white chocolate chips.)

Just a Fraction

We had a Christmas in July celebration at the office last Thursday.

People were asked to bring a plate to share.

I brought home two chocolate cookies which I placed on the table after dinner.

RD was ready for dessert but seeing only two cookies 

(and knowing that two is not a factor of five),

he asked. "How many pieces should divide the cookies into?"

We would typically divide goodies into five so that everyone can have a taste.

When MacGyver said he didn't want any, I asked RD to divide them into four.

RD got up to get a glass of milk, all set to have half a cookie.

Then MyGirl said she just wanted a fraction.

 And I changed my mind and announced that I also just wanted a fraction.

 RD joined in and declared, 

"One over one is also a fraction."

Smart cookie.  He got his fraction.

Cookie Corners

There were several FB posts which showed what other things could be done in a waffle iron.

I wasn't about to try any of the ones that involved making scrambled eggs in the waffle iron 

because of the hard clean up but making biscuits or cookies seemed promising.

I decided to try it on some cookie dough.

So this is what cookies look like when they have corners.

A Moment on the Lips, A Lifetime on the Hips

Beware : MyGirl has a cookie press and she knows how to use it!

We like to make cookies in different shapes ...

sizes,

... and shades (apparently).

We make them in a different flavour, too.

These were our chocolate mint cookies.

The other night, MyGirl used a cookie cutter

and made them nice and fancy.

There are times we do away with the flour and forget about making cookies.

One day we just stuck with butter, milk and sugar ...

and made some pastillas de leche.

Here she is ... my partner in crime.

ImPRESSive Cookies

We had an old cookie press at Cebu Avenue.

Did it belong to my mother or to her mother? I honestly don't know. All I know is that the thing fascinated me. (I'm sure I considered asking for it before we moved to Australia.)

I think we made cookies using that gadget a long, long time ago.

A few weeks before MyGirl's birthday, I saw a cookie press at Victoria's Basement while I was browsing. I wasn't sure she'd appreciate one so when we went out and chanced upon a similar one, I asked her in passing whether she was interested in the thing.

I should have known that her answer would be an enthusiastic YES.

First chance I got, I bought her the cookie press for her birthday.

It was almost the end of February and the cookie press was still idle in MyGirl's closet. I figured I owed it to her to note down a recipe we could try, so I noted one down in our "orange notebook." (The 'orange notebook' is yet another of my recipe notebooks. I started this one close to New Year with the intention of diligently trying the recipes I would write there, as well as placing comments so that I would remember if the recipe was worth repeating or not.)

Among the recipes currently found in the orange notebook are mamon and taisan. I had the urge to make these when I got one-fourth piece of a mamon last week. The parents of my boss (who decided to retire in Manila) had just arrived for a three week visit and brought a lot of goodie (Choc-Nut, Nagaraya, barquillos, peanut brittle, mamon, etc.) for their family which she was kind enough to share with us.

So last Sunday, when MyGirl asked if we could bake something, I asked her if she wanted to make mamon/taisan or the caramel spritz cookies using the cookie press.

I should have known that the answer would be cookies. (In all honesty, I am the one craving for mamon/taisan.)

So it was settled -- cookies then.

"Bring out the butter and the eggs, MyGirl."

MyGirl did most of the work. The cookies turned out perfectly. We managed to make about 75 cookies so we had a "budget" of 15 cookies each.

YUM!

I would have wanted them a tad sweeter, but that is just my sweet tooth talking.

They turned out beautifully. MyGirl brought some to school to share with her classmates. When they saw the cookies, they asked her if she BOUGHT them.

Isn't that just the best compliment? Ü

Where There's Smoke

Where there's smoke, there's fire, they say.

I say, where there's smoke, the smoke alarm goes off. And when the smoke alarm goes off, chances are, I am in the kitchen.

Embarrassing as it may be to admit, I have the unique distinction of testing the smoke alarm in two households.

When we were still at my brother-in-law’s place near Kings Road, I was heating up sausages for breakfast one morning. I had done sausages before, both cooking and reheating. The window was closed and the kitchen hood was on as usual. However, for some odd reason, the pan was particularly smoky that particular morning. It was so smoky that I tripped the smoke alarm.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP, the alarm went incessantly.

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law rushed to the kitchen. I turned the gas off and opened the window. Dadoffive opened the sliding door near the dining area leading to the garden while Mumoffive got a blanket and fanned the smoke away from the vicinity of the smoke alarm.

After a while … silence.

My kind sister-in-law was so nice about the whole thing. She calmly stated, “Oh, I’ve been wanting to test that smoke alarm. It’s nice to know that it works.”

Surprisingly, none of the children got out of bed to see what was happening. When they came down for breakfast, they did say that they all heard the alarm go off but nobody paid any attention to it. This reminded me of those fire drills at the office where everyone takes their sweet time getting their things and going down the stairs when the alarm rings during the scheduled drills. In this case, the children didn’t even bother to take their sweet time, they just went right back to Slumberland.

When we moved to Northern Views, one of the things in the checklist was the smoke alarm. I had indicated “NOT TESTED” on the Remarks column since I couldn’t tell if it was working or not and quite frankly, I had no intention of testing it. Little did I know that today was going to be the Smoke Alarm test date.

Smoke alarms are not a common household accessory in Manila. In fact, many of the usual appliances here such as the dishwasher and the kitchen hood are not always present in Philippine households. I was happy that when the smoke alarm in Northern Views went off, I knew what to do.

Some people know that there are days when I say to myself, ‘I want to bake something’ and other days when it would be ‘I need to bake something.’ Baking is therapeutic for me somehow. I like, no, I love to bake. It had been a long time since I have been able to bake anything so I knew that sooner or later, the latter would be coming up. The problem was I only had one cookie sheet that fit the oven in Northern Views. I had forgotten my smaller cookies sheets at Cebu Avenue and most of the ones I had with me were too big for the oven. So I finally decided to pick up the cheapest cookie sheets I could find. I got a couple at K-Mart yesterday so I was good to go.

Well, at least I THOUGHT I was.

I guess it was stupid of me to try out a new recipe when trying out different flour, different butter, different sugar, different vanilla, essentially different ingredients in addition to using a different oven, different pans, etc. I thought that if I followed a local recipe using ingredients purchased from local stores, I would be fine. I couldn’t have been more mistaken.

The cookies were a DISASTER! The minute I opened the oven to check on my first batch of cookies, the smoke alarm went off.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP, my alarm went.

(Yes, the smoke alarm at Northern Views works, too.)

It was doubly embarrassing because the only other person in the house at the time was the Croatian fixing the shower floor upstairs. Naturally, HE didn’t say anything but I’m sure there were thoughts going through his mind as the alarm beeped. Especially because the alarm went off about two or three times more as the other batches of cookies went into and out of the oven.

(So embarrassing!)

The cookies got burnt in spite my lowering the temperature and the baking time. I had to scrape off black bases to get them to look half decent and potentially edible.

Definitely the oven was too hot. Possibly the oven is too small to use both the middle and the lower racks. Perhaps the cookie sheets were too thin. Maybe the home brand ingredients aren’t the best for baking.

I honestly don’t know. All I know is that I am not giving up on baking just because I baked my worst ever batch of cookies and have become the official smoke alarm tester.

Until I am able to figure out what went wrong, I may be stuck with burnt cookies which will probably all end up in my hips. Perhaps this is the reason why Cookie Monster has no waist.