Caramel S'Mores Cookie Cups

I made these yesterday for the youth group at my church. The youth help me serve every year at our annual church Thanksgiving dinner, and they are invaluable to me with their willing attitudes and sweet smiles. I was looking for a dessert that might appeal to them and happened across this recipe on the Betty Crocker website. I normally don't use packaged mixes for cookies, but they are so wonderfully convenient, so why not? I have recently begun to adopt less labor-intensive methods in my kitchen, and I am enjoying the benefits of non-scratch cooking.

Lesley's German Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found the recipe for these delicious German Chocolate Chip Cookies on the blog of Lesley's Eats. The story she wrote about having lunch with her Mom and sharing one of these cookies, then recreating the recipe with her made me lonesome for my daughter, who moved away to Dallas last summer, and my Mom, who shared many restaurant desserts with me.

I decided on the spot to make them, and needing a chocolate fix to cheer me up, off to the kitchen I went to soften the butter. About an hour later I was eating my first cookie.

Brown Sugar Pecan Cookies

Last week my son and DIL went out of town for a much-needed break, and while they were gone I was lucky enough to be invited to stay with my grand-kids, aged 12, 10, and 8. In between trips to Hobby Lobby and the grocery store, swimming, belly-laughing, and generally having a great time, I made them Brown Sugar Cookies from the blog of Baking Bites. These were a big hit - we all loved them! When my son and DIL came home starving after their 3-hour flight, they couldn't stop eating them.

Sweet Success

For years I have baked sugar cookies that tasted good but did have the visual effect I wanted to achieve: an even, consistent height and straight sides. I would like to thank Paula at Salad in a Jar for showing me the light. Her method is based on tips from Baking: From My Home to Yours. Although I have that cookbook, I had not tried the method prior to seeing Valentine's cookies on Paula's blog.

Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies

I like to think of these cookies as good for me because of the amount of carrots they contain. . They are delicious on their own with no filling, but these were going to church with me, so they got the whoopie pie treatment. They are crispy on the edges and soft and moist inside, and the flavor is certainly carrot cake-like.

Couples' Shower and A Dessert Bar

This week's events included goodies for a couples' shower and a catered church dinner with three "bars"--potato bar, salad bar, and a dessert bar.

The couples' shower hostess requested intertwined hearts made of Vanilla Bean Cream cake and Vanilla Bean Cream frosting.

A square Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake and a 6-inch Strawberry Bliss Cake along with Butter Crumb Lemon Bars completed the order, and I included complimentary Chocolate Guinness Sweet Bites adapted from the recipe by Nigella. I love Nigella's description of the cake:

This cake is magnificent in its damp blackness. I can’t say that you can absolutely taste the stout in it, but there is certainly a resonant, ferrous tang which I happen to love.

I topped them with a buttercream made from powdered sugar, salted butter, and Bailey's Irish Cream.

For the dessert bar at the church dinner, I baked jumbo Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, which are based on Alton Brown's recipe, Strawberry Bliss and Chocolate Guinness cupcakes, and Brown Sugar Peach Cobbler.

A Tale of Two Cookies

These cookies rounded out the menu for an Ice Cream Sundae Dessert Bar at a church dinner I catered. For variety, I decided to provide both sugar cookies and chocolate cookies, so I used a recipe for Favorite Drop Sugar Cookies by What A Dish! and Chocolate Mint Cookies from Allrecipes.com. Both recipes are spectacular, but the sugar cookies were the first to disappear!


For the sugar cookies, I added one tablespoon of milk and 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg, subbed unbleached flour for the whole wheat pastry flour (I did not have it or I would have used it!), and I sprinkled sugar on top before I baked them. I used a large ice cream scoop and made giant cookies, which were tender and chewy on the inside and slightly crisp on the outside. They lent a wonderfully fragrant, sugary smell to the kitchen while they were baking!



For the chocolate mint cookies, I added a teaspoon of vanilla to the batter, and I mixed in a package of Nestle's Dark Chocolate and Mint Morsels instead of placing a mint on top after they baked. These cookies are richly chocolate with the perfect touch of mint. My attempt to show the wonderfully fudgy, brownie-like interior is inadequate. For the dessert bar, I named them Brown Sugar Chocolate Mint cookies. ;)

Scouting Out the Competition - 1 Smart Cookie

One of the more pleasurable aspects of starting my own bakery is what I like to call "research". Here's how it works: I search online to find bakeries either locally or in the vicinity of my travel destination. I visit them to view their shops and equipment and to see how their products are displayed. And I taste-test by purchasing one of each item that is comparable to what I sell--cinnamon rolls, muffins, scones, brownies, cookies, etc.

It's one of America's dirtiest jobs, but I am compelled to do it.

Ever since I read this newspaper article about 1 Smart Cookie, a local bakery, I knew I had to go check it out. I went at absolutely the wrong time of the day, 4:30 p.m., not the prime hour for a bakery. But in spite of the sparse inventory, I found a good mix of baked goods to sample. The cookies were reasonably priced for a gourmet bakery, and the young man serving me was pleasant and helpful. I happily made my choices, waited as long as I could (till I got back in my car), then consumed an entire sugar cookie before I reached the end of the block.

This is one of 1 Smart Cookie's featured extra-thick sugar cookie cutouts. The star is one of hundreds of shapes available. I like the funkiness of the irregular shape.



The next photo shows the texture, which is slightly chewy, not crumbly like a shortbread; it is soft enough to bite into easily but still substantial--a surprising consistency for such a thick cookie; the taste is not overly sweet and no detectable spices; and it has none of the shortening aftertaste I associate with most commercial cookies. The icing is real icing--very tasty with a slight almond flavor. And the all-important sugar cookie aroma is present, not buttery but an indefinable sweet dough scent.



Below is the array of goodies I purchased--snickerdoodle, chocolate-chocolate chip, lemon sugar, oatmeal, and a lemon bar with a nice streusel-ish topping--all tasted just as good as they appear in the photo:



Based on previous samplings of local bakeries, 1 Smart Cookie wins hands-down. In spite of being purchased late in the day, the cookies still had a fresh taste. And they didn't have that chalky taste present in many bakery products. They tasted homemade, thereby achieving my golden rule of baking: bake for others as you would have them bake for you.

I appreciate good competition--it motivates me to stay on my toes (and to wear stretch pants.)