De Baking Psychopath

Of all the things I have made, these are at the top of the list of treats that have elicited almost-violent adoration. In the course of people telling me how much they enjoyed them, there were a lot of rapturous eye-rolling, feet-stomping, and stories of mother-versus-daughter-fighting over these cookies. Maybe it's the pistachios. They're a pretty green-purple color. They have a distinctive taste. And they work REALLY well in a sweet-salty combo situation like this one. I found this fabulous recipe on the blog Honest Fare . They looked addictive, and oh boy, they are that and beyond. The only thing I did differently than the original recipe was to accidentally pour a little too many white chocolate chips into the bowl, and then try to compensate by sprinkling a bit of large-grain kosher salt on the top of each cookie. Maybe that's what made the cookie: a burst of salt and crunch on the first bite, and then the creamy sweet finish with the chewy center. In any case, these...

The big birthday bash has come and gone. It was a very busy weekend: shopping on Friday, baking all day Saturday, and then the festivities on Saturday evening. Here was our menu, with links to recipes used, if available: Savory An assortment of crackers, baked flour tortilla chips, and toasted baguette slices Crudite and Hummus (store-bought) Smoked Salmon Dip Warm Spinach and Artichoke Dip Pasta Salad (brought by friend) Homemade Roasted Sweet Potato Fries Assorted Puff Pastry Hor's Doeuvres (bought; Costco) Sweet Kid's Thumbprints with Orange Marmalade or Blackberry Jam ( Baking: From My home to yours, pg. 163) Chocolate Toffee Cookies Tate's Bake Shop Thin and Crispy Cookies Tiramisu (made by friend) Black and White Chocolate Cake ( Baking: From My home to yours, pgs. 258-260) Party Favors One big fat chocolate chip cookie ( the famed NYTimes recipe ) So I actually have a pitiful number of pictures of the party, and even more pitiful is that I forgot to take my usu...

These cookies have been a long time coming. I must have printed out the recipe months ago. They're a few of my favorite things wrapped up in one cookie: orange, pecans, oatmeal cookies...sounds great, right? I finally got a good opportunity to bake them for a school event last week, and they turned out delicious! Chewy oatmeal cookies with a good orange-flavor punch, crunchy and buttery pecans, and just a touch of creamy white chocolate with every bite. However, the process was less than delightful, and actually made for an interesting self-study in my character flaws. First, I wanted to use up these quick-cooking oats that my mom had left with me when she last visited, instead of the old-fashioned oats I usually use for baking. Despite Alton Brown's prattle about how the more quick-cooking and instant the oats are correlates to how much more broken down and pre-cooked they are echoing in my brain, I thought, ah, how much difference could it make? Despite my outward nonc...

One of my lab co-workers is leaving us soon (*sob*) to go to grad school. She's not leaving our institution, so we'll still get to see her, but it's still sad that she's leaving the lab. As a parting gift, I made a special batch of white chocolate macadamia nut cookie dough for her. I baked up a dozen or so, but left more than half of the dough raw for her and her boyfriend to enjoy. They love eating dough, especially him. Apparently in some areas of the country, this flavor combo is available in the refrigerated cookie dough selection in supermarkets, and it's sorely missed by my co-worker and her bf after moving here. I'm not much of a raw dough eater myself. Probably because I get my fill of raw ingredients along the way by licking stuff that gets smeared onto my hands during the process of making things. (Disclaimer: I do wash my licked fingers/hands before continuing the baking process!) I got this recipe from one of my favorite baking blogs, Cookie M...