oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies

I wanted to start this post off by proclaiming that I’m not one to follow the food fads, to make the latest trendy internet find. But, really, that’s not at all true. In fact, those are precisely the things that drive me to bake and to write.

So, without further ado, I present the oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookie. Recipe via Picky Palate.

I won’t post the full recipe here, but my modifications were to use dark brown sugar and only about 2/3 of a package of mini chocolate chips. I didn’t have a 1 1/2 tbsp cookie scoop – mine was 2 tsp, so I used 4 scoops for each cookie (which should have been less than 2 scoops of 1 1/2 tbsp, but I only ended up with 20 cookies and they needed a full 15 minutes to bake). I actually think you could sub rolls of pre-packaged cookie dough – they tend to be cakier cookies that I think would work well here.

An observation – these were a hit with the men. I posted a pic on facebook and got comments from my guy friends and even the husbands of my girl friends. The guys at work tackled these with the most vigor – the women opting for halves or even quarters of the monstrosities.

pop!

For a while I’ve had this obsession with popovers… They have their own special, odd pan and such a fun name. I was drawn in by stories of their simplicity and easy perfection, and then scared off again by stories of sunken, unpopped blobs of dough.

 

fat tuesday

Happy Mardi Gras! Merry Mardi Gras? Is there a traditional Mardi Gras greeting?

This year I finally got around to making a King Cake. Mostly because I happened to stop in at Target last week, and they had all the colored sugars I needed in one package (along with pink, which I’m sure will get used sooner rather than later).

I spent 5 minutes taking pictures of my breakfast

but now I’m eating it. Homemade bread and grape jelly. And coffee, obv. Hoping to perfect the recipe/technique (still a little dense) before I post, but I’ve been eating homemade toast for breakfast all week and loving it!

this weekend – September 25 & 26

This weekend…

I baked – another batch of peach shortbread, and two loaves of rosemary bread. I gave away most of the shortbread and one of the breads. ETA – and keeping with the original theme of the blog, around 9pm on Sunday I decided it was a good idea to bake chocolate-chip peanut-butter oatmeal cookies for a meeting at work on Monday!

I set up my desk – with my old desktop monitor and mouse connected to my laptop. Made working from home tonight easier, and will hopefully make blogging easier.

I finally made it out to my friend’s new house – it’s a row house in a really neat co-housing community. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and apparently they’re not all that common in urban environments. There are common areas that the community shares (a garden, a big kitchen and meeting room, a workshop with tools and space for projects) and the community has a great small-town neighborhood feel.

I synced my ipod, iphone and computer so everything is finally all in one place. And I went through my LastFM “loves” to update my itunes wishlist. Top on the list: Harlem Shakes, Broken Bells, and Florence + The Machine.

I watched most of what built up on my DVR this week. I need to edit down my selections, I think. I don’t like feeling attached to so many shows… so far Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, Glee and Chuck have made the cut.

perfect pita bread

*pictures coming once I find the right cord…*

Pita bread seemed so intimidating… bread that miraculously comes out of the oven with its very own pocket? That has to be complicated, right?!?

But it’s not… it’s really not. I promise! It’s so easy. I’ve made it both with and without the mixer (though I have to say – the mixer makes it a no-brainer).

I used the recipe from the Bread Bible, and hints from Smitten Kitchen. And it came out beautiful. Puffed, golden. I will say I preferred my version w/ 1/3 whole wheat white flour. The all white flour version seemed… bland. Maybe more salt, or better olive oil would have helped. But added a bit of whole wheat flour seemed to add just the right nuttiness that it needed. This recipe halves and doubles as desired! 

Pita Bread
adapted from the Bread Bible

• 2 cups AP white flour
• 1 cup + scant 1/4 cup whole wheat white flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/4 cup room temp water

1. Combine the yeast and water until dissolved
2. Whisk the salt into the yeast
3. Combine the flour mixture, yeast mixture and oil – stirring until just combined
4. (mixer method) mix with dough hook at medium speed (#4 KitchenAid) for 10 minutes. Dough will cleanly pull away from the sides of the bowl and the hook. Add more water or flour if necessary (I didn’t need any).
5. Let the dough rise, covered, until doubled (at least an hour) At this point you can refrigerate the dough for up to 3 days, allowing to come to room temp for an hour before moving on.
6. Preheat the oven to 475. Have a baking sheet or pizza stone preheating on the lowest shelf. Start the preheat as early as possible – an hour is ideal.
7. Cut the dough into 8 (for sandwich size pitas) or 12 (for cutting into snacking wedges) pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and flatten lightly into a disc. Cover with a dish cloth or plastic wrap and allow to rest for 20 minutes.
8. Roll each piece to a round about 1/4 inch thick. Cover and allow to rest again, uncovered, for 10 minutes.
9. About 3-4 minutes before baking sprinkle a few drops of water on top of each round (spray with a squirt bottle or flick with a pastry brush).
10. Bake, in batches of 2-3 rounds, for three minutes each. Allow the oven to reheat for a few minutes between batches.

I’m not really hungry, so let’s make a complicated dinner! (or – omgbestpastaever)

I’ve had no appetite the last couple of days. But I have a link of chicken-petso-something-else sausage and a bag of nearly wilted spinach sitting in the fridge that probably won’t last another day and still be edible. And no plans tonight.

I mean, I guess new recipes are best made when you’re not really dying to eat it – who knows how it’ll turn out, right? But really, this wasn’t all that , just different. I’ve seen it called Absorption Pasta or Risotto-style Pasta.