Midnight Madness

A couple items *just* came out fresh from the oven! It's a two-fer late-nighter tonight! Why? I'm not too sure. I do know it became a midnight cooking session because I became preoccupied with a computer problem as I waited for the butter to soften to room temperature. As for why both tonight...quite frankly it just came down to the fact that I'd been wanting to try both recipes out and their oven temperatures were quite close. Also, I had the OJ in the fridge (nearly gone!) so that had priority, and I wanted to double check that the cake flour hadnt' gone bad. I couldn't smell a problem but sometimes, you just gotta take the plunge and EAT it. Ew! ;)

First up to bat:

Chelsea Clinton's Chocolate Chip Cookies
I made these waaaay too big so 24 cookies became 12. Obviously, I don't know how to eyeball 2 tablespoon's worth of dough. =P As a result, I had to bake them a bit longer than 8-10 minutes which translated into crunchy cookies. The first batch I definitely overbaked as they were very well done (not burnt) and crunchy-crisp with a bit of stick-to-your-teeth chew. The second batch I caught on that the cookies were continuing to bake as they cooled off so I took them out at just a touch golden brown. Still crunchy but with a more delicate flavour. Overall, pretty good. I could recognize that these cookies were the type that would sprawl out in the oven but they didn't taste exactly like the previous types I've made. Could the cake flour make such a big difference in flavour? I liked it. It didn't taste as sweet and heavy too which is always a plus in my book.


Next up:

Nigella Lawson's Orange Breakfast Muffins
Self-rising flour is a pain to piece together especially when it's a fraction of a cup. Aside from that though, this is pretty easy to whip up. I left out the ground almonds (none on hand) and the orange zest (same issue) but they certainly smelled good going into the oven. Coming out, they smell like Japanese-style pancakes with maple syrup already doused on top. I was fearful that the copious amounts of baking powder and baking soda would be apparent in the taste, but the OJ seemed to cover it up. If I had the missing ingredients, I probably wouldn't have even noticed it one bit. These muffins are very very airy inside. Fascinatingly airy...like eating muffin clouds. So tender too! Oh my! These MUST be eaten fresh. Orange zest really would have added a nice oomph of orangey flavor. Perhaps next time, I will add a touch of orange extract if I don't have the zest on hand. Surprisingly, the top has a bit of crunch to it as if it had cornmeal in the batter, but I believe this is due to the airiness which allowed the high oven temps to crisp it up really quickly. I'm quite impressed by how different they are to the average denser muffin. Forget about muffin tops. I'll take these! Though they don't look particularly tasty, I find them quite delicious!

I'm going to get fat. Though I only nibbled on the cookies, I just devoured an entire muffin. Oops!

Multinational Cookies

Ahh...these cookies sound like me. They've got two different citizenships. ;D

"American" Style choc chip cookies. AB's thin chip recipe, but with a touch of Brit but according to Brits, a touch of USA. =P If you've never been to UK, their version of milk chocolate is different from ours. Just eat a Hershey's milk choc, then a Cadbury's milk choc. Their's taste milky. I guess there's a reason Cadbury label's it as dairy milk with a pitcher of milk flowing in. ;) While at the Morrison's supermarket chain in London, I came across baggies of cookies. Never shop when you're hungry. Well, I was hungry. I checked out what sweet delights I could nosh on and I spied a bag labelled American Style Chocolate Chip Cookies. Well, I gotta see what that's considered! In the end, I'm not too sure what they meant because I never got around to getting the "normal" chocolate chip cookies to compare. But the immediate impression I got when I ate them was that it doesn't taste like cookies from home at all! Rather, Britified with the use of their version of milky chocolate chips. Hahaha!!! It's like...Americanized Chinese food or Britified Indian food. So I had Britified American cookies. They were enjoyable regardless. Something different.

Anyhow, I've been wanting to recreate these funny cookies (well, I did get a laugh from it) upon returning to the states but never got around to it. Also, not having Brit version of choc chips sorta makes it harder to do. ;P So I came up with the bright idea of using Cadbury bars in place of the chips. At least one year passed after I had that eureka moment. Finally one day, I wanted to make a dessert for my friend's birthday. She too stayed in London for an extended period of time so I decided to try these out on her!! Besides, I couldn't think of a good birthday cake to whip up for her. And so 2 bars of Cadbury went into AB's thin chips. The verdict? Not quite what I had. The milkyness gets lost either in the cookie dough or from the oven heat. It's there, but really subtle whereas the Morrison's cookies really whacked my tongue with dairy. She enjoyed the cookies though for their rich flavor (all the butter that got crammed in). Hooray! Plus, it brought back childhood memories of the type of cookies she used to love, but only had on special occassions. I understood where she was coming from. I always thought of these types of cookies as the ones you must wash your hands after consuming. She understood where I was coming from. Hahaha!! Thus, she has chosen to restrict her intake of these cookies as it seems this concoction is out to give her a coronary in celebration of her life. Go figure. =P

Spiced Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie

Flipping through an "ad-azine" from the local hospital, I spotted this tasty looking recipe. Considering we always seem to have more walnuts than we know what to do with, I cut it out to try. Unfortunately, I forgot about the recipe for about a year. By then, the walnuts were rancid so I actually *bought* walnuts to try these cookies. Turns out to have been a good gamble as these cookies are quite tasty! Being drop cookies, they're very easy to make too. I forgot to toast the walnuts before throwing them in which turned out to be a good idea since I don't much like the taste of walnuts. Toasting brings out the flavor of walnuts so I couldn't taste them in the cookies. =D The next batch I made, I did toast them for the sake of others who do like walnuts. Of course, I wasn't so found of the 2nd round.

I now have leftover walnuts though, but at least I know what a potential outlet is. Plus, I could really use them up making 2 batches of this stuff. One for me (untoasted walnuts) and one for everyone else (toasted walnuts). More for me! But how can I polish off an entire batch?!? Well, the good thing is that these cookies are so tasty, walnut lovers don't complain if given the "irregular" batch.

Filipino Cookies!

Ah, the season for sweetened fat and flour has arrived! Yes, that's right! The end of the year rush to bake and devour delectable indulgences called Christmas cookies is a must! This year, we received something unusual. Within the typical white bakery shop box were individually wrapped shapes in a spectrum chosen from the nightmare of color blind person. So what were they? Something intriguing from Christine's Bake Shop in Bergenfield, NJ. They certainly look like fun. They certainly smell like potential fun. If it smells buttery, how can you go wrong? Yet, I still had no idea what was in store for my tastebuds. Here's a sample of some of the box contents:


Let's eat the white wrapper one first! On the inside, it's a slightly yellow block that doesn't taste like what it smells. It's almost like eating those chewy White Rabbit candies except with a bit of salt. I can only presume they used salted butter? Texture-wise, it's like a dry paste...not powdery nor hard as it's semi-soft...almost like paste but not so wet. It has a buttery-milky and white rabbit candy flavor. Very interesting. It also appears to have a white powdery substance all over. Flour? Nope! Sugar! Just a hint of sugary sweetness as you pop it in your mouth. I'd love to get my hands on the ingredients list. Does anyone know what i'm eating?


On to the next item! Actually, it's the next two items. Not surprisingly, these two only differ in their wrapper's color. These "tartlets" had a buttery crust while the filling was surprisingly chewy with a taste of fruit...what sort of fruit, I can not put my finger on it. It has a foreign flavor in that it reminds me of a tropical fruit, but not the fragrant type such as mangoes or passionfruit. Rather, I want to say tamarind as it is in that class of tropical fruits. It would also lend that slightly chewy texture. Overall, it's an interesting cookie. Thus far, I like that these cookies are not too sweet.




This next item appears to be just like the above except with a "whipped" topping. Again, I was pleasantly surprised though the crust appears to be the same. This one was even more chewy and more of that fruity flavor, thus similar yet different. As these flavors are quite foreign to me, I'm finding it most difficult to describe these flavors. The topping was a meringue-like concoction as it was light and airy with a bit of sweetness.


After having such interesting flavors, the next one was mundane in comparison. The butter theme continued though. I would describe this round cookie to be an extravagent butter cookie. It crumbled easily upon nibbling, and felt dense in the mouth as it took on saliva. The buttery flavor that these cookies share was quite pronounced in this one. Most likely due to the lack of other flavors to interfere. This would make a delightful cookie for tea time.


And finally, the last cookie! Also a round one but in a red wrapper. What better way to end this entry than with Christmas colors. ;) So, is it the same as the green wrappered one? Not quite, but almost. It's got the same buttery cookie base but the little black speckles throughout adds a slightly different flavor (but not texture). I'm going to guess it's based on black sesame seeds. It's not actual ground sesame seeds as I tried to dissect it but more like the same buttery cookie base made with sesame seeds and then mixed into the regular cookie base to create this speckle effect. Very interesting! Overall, these were an enjoyable snack that goes well with tea. Yum!