This morning, I awoke to a rather timely tweet from @Real_Simple. “Today’s thought: ‘There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.’ — Charles Dickens.” Well, Mr. Dickens, today I come bearing chocolate. Today, I am a friend to all. There’s nothing better than a looker of a cookie, and…
Project NYT: Flat-and-chewy chocolate chip cookies
For most of my life, I’ve defined cookie perfection based on a few standard characteristics: taste (that’s a given), texture (which depends on the cookie kind) and overall fluffiness (fluffy = good; fluffier = better). Although I dabble in a lot of cookie making, I always come back to these traits as signatures of success,…
Project NYT: Brown sugar shortbread
I am a major coffee fan, but there are some foods that demand a right cup of tea rather than my usual cup of Joe. Shortbread is definitely one of those foods. It’s such a slightly sweet, slightly crisp, delicate as all get-out kind of cookie, it just seems wrong to overshadow its subtle flavor…
Sometimes love is sweet: Valentine linzer cookies
Valentine’s Day is Monday, and love is most certainly in the air. My good friends welcomed their new baby last night (love, love, love!) and Ella has met a new puppy friend that she seems quite smitten with. There’s all sorts of happy going on these days, and nothing says “I love life,” or “Love…
Project NYT: Spice krinkles
I’ve spent most of my adult life as a bake-by-photos kind of girl. No, I don’t mean that I ignore textual instructions and base my cooking exclusively on what I see (though that could be a mighty fun and/or terrible idea), but when it comes to wooing my culinary curiosity with winning recipes, delicious photos…
Project NYT: Baking from honey-dipped memories
Food is a funny thing. On the one hand, it comes equipped with so many quantifiable qualities: vitamins, nutrients, calories and ingredients. On the other hand, so much of what we eat and how we eat is tied to much less tangible traits: what we know, whom we know and what we remember. Food has…
Project NYT: Oatmeal, meet Cookie. Om, nom, nom.
Dried oats are pretty amazing when you think about it. With little more than a dot of water and sprinkle of brown sugar, they’re an automatic breakfast. Roast them with dried fruit and maple syrup or honey, and your granola wishes are fulfilled. Add some butter, sugar, flour, eggs and raisins, and you’ve brought them…
Another day, another cookie (salted double chocolate peanut butter)
I know, I know. Enough with the cookies already. It’s no secret to any of you that I’ve been a regular cookie-baking machine since Halloween rolled around (as evidenced here and here). But seriously, these are A-mazing (yes that capital A is intentional. Holla!) and so worth a trip to the store for a gallon…
Ode to a cookie: Recipe for a masterpiece
I love cookies (cue Cookie Monster: Om, nom, nom). Mixing, rolling, cutting, baking: I love every step of the process. Oh yes, and the eating. That’s good, too. During the past year especially, I’ve found that baking, particularly baking cookies, works wonders for my stress level (I realized while writing this that my go-to stress…
Forget long distance; I’m switching to spritz.
Remember a few days ago when I was writing to Martha with my list of all the kitchen-y, crafty gadgets that she insisted I get tout de suite? Well my Grandma Smith, who holds the cornucopia of cooking/baking gadgetry within the confines of her kitchen, heard of my yen for a cookie press and immediately…