So thaaaat's how it's done.... who knew?
So I'm pretty sure that I have mentioned before how terrible I am at baking. It's been kind of hit and miss for years but I think I've finally figured out the secret. YOU FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS. Hahahaha! Ok, so it takes a little more skill than that. There are a few additional things I've discovered:
1) A watched cookie is a perfect cookie. Yeah you have to watch those babies like a hawk. They can overbake in like 5 seconds. Never take a recipe's directions on how long to bake because 99% of the time it is wrong. I figure that's mostly due to a difference in ovens and how much cookie dough you consider "a mounded teaspoon" or "walnut size" and whatever. You have to watch them so you can catch them at that perfect interval between undercooked and done. You want to pull them out just before done.
2) Not only is a gas oven the ideal environment for a baking cookie, the the top rack is a MUST. Never ever ever ever ever ever ever EVER bake a cookie on a lower rack. Don't even try.
No really, don't.
I warned you!
3)The magic of toffee pieces. Seriously toffee pieces are fabulous to add to just about any cookie, especially peanut butter. It's magic. You should try it.
So how did I discover all of these fabulous tricks? Cookie making of course. Baking is always something I do when life is stressful and stressful is probably an understatement for what the last few weeks have been like. Nail-biting, sleepless, and emotionally exhausting is more like it. Why, you ask? I'll give you one guess.
If you like... EVER read the news then you know about the whole national debt situation and also the crazy capital markets that have gone along with the dysfunctionality of our government. A roller coaster of a market means a roller coaster in our income sooooo well you can see why I was stressed I'm sure.
That's not really what this post was about though....
Cookies.... mmmmmmm.
I've made all kinds of cookies: sugar cut-out cookies (thanks to a fail-safe recipe I got from my friend Maria a couple years ago), peanut-butter cookies several times (courtesy of my cookie-baking diva friend Kiersten), These yummy oatmeal cookies I made today:
And last but not least, THESE. It's for a chocolate chip cookie but I nixed the choco chips and used white choco chips, chopped walnuts, and toffee pieces. I am so not exaggerating when I say these things are like the cheesecake of the cookie world. You eat one and you want to but you can't eat any more because they're so rich. They are "the bomb" as my friend Emily says.
So I was feeling pretty confident in my baking ability that I decided to tackle my baking fear: bread making
So I took my friend Kim's advice and got some SAF yeast from ChefSmart because I have serious yeast issues, and not the kind that can be cured with an over-the-counter drug. I can never get dough to rise properly. It just sits there, mocking me. I bake it and it comes out as hard as a rock. Anyway, I used this recipe and that dough rose like a hot air balloon. Doubled in size? No I would say that stuff tripled. And the rolls were FAAAABULOUS. I made 36 of them and all but 9 got eaten that night. OK, so I didn't mention that we had Elder Foster (a former missionary in our area a few years ago) and his wife to dinner that night as well. Oh, and Elder Foster is like 7 foot 2 inches, so he eats a lot. But they were still Yum-OH! Novan kept saying how good they were as he stuffed his face, "Mom you are the best cooker ever!" Makes a mom want to shed a tear, ya know? Especially from someone like Novan who tells me he doesn't like what I'm cooking practically every day. All in all a terrific self-imposed lesson in baking.
Here are the other things that help with alleviating stress:
My girls, all ready for church. My sweet Beya and my yummy 11 pound baby Keshet.
My loving husband who works harder and cares more than anyone I know. My little hammy man Iyov who in this picture has come into our room after his brother and sister are asleep at night thinking he's so cute, Mom and Dad can't POSSIBLY send him back to bed.... He was right.
I love how kids are so naturally loving. Keshet is ADORED, even by Novan who says multiple times a day "Mom, see how cute she is?"
Oh Iyov. How I love you. How you drive me crazy with your screaming. How you smile just so and manage to melt my heart. What would I do without your infectious smile in my life?
And there you have it. Cookies and family and a little faith are fortunately all you really need when the stock market makes you nauseous. OK, so cookies aren't really necessities but they sure can work wonders!
1) A watched cookie is a perfect cookie. Yeah you have to watch those babies like a hawk. They can overbake in like 5 seconds. Never take a recipe's directions on how long to bake because 99% of the time it is wrong. I figure that's mostly due to a difference in ovens and how much cookie dough you consider "a mounded teaspoon" or "walnut size" and whatever. You have to watch them so you can catch them at that perfect interval between undercooked and done. You want to pull them out just before done.
2) Not only is a gas oven the ideal environment for a baking cookie, the the top rack is a MUST. Never ever ever ever ever ever ever EVER bake a cookie on a lower rack. Don't even try.
No really, don't.
I warned you!
3)The magic of toffee pieces. Seriously toffee pieces are fabulous to add to just about any cookie, especially peanut butter. It's magic. You should try it.
So how did I discover all of these fabulous tricks? Cookie making of course. Baking is always something I do when life is stressful and stressful is probably an understatement for what the last few weeks have been like. Nail-biting, sleepless, and emotionally exhausting is more like it. Why, you ask? I'll give you one guess.
If you like... EVER read the news then you know about the whole national debt situation and also the crazy capital markets that have gone along with the dysfunctionality of our government. A roller coaster of a market means a roller coaster in our income sooooo well you can see why I was stressed I'm sure.
That's not really what this post was about though....
Cookies.... mmmmmmm.
I've made all kinds of cookies: sugar cut-out cookies (thanks to a fail-safe recipe I got from my friend Maria a couple years ago), peanut-butter cookies several times (courtesy of my cookie-baking diva friend Kiersten), These yummy oatmeal cookies I made today:
And last but not least, THESE. It's for a chocolate chip cookie but I nixed the choco chips and used white choco chips, chopped walnuts, and toffee pieces. I am so not exaggerating when I say these things are like the cheesecake of the cookie world. You eat one and you want to but you can't eat any more because they're so rich. They are "the bomb" as my friend Emily says.
So I was feeling pretty confident in my baking ability that I decided to tackle my baking fear: bread making
So I took my friend Kim's advice and got some SAF yeast from ChefSmart because I have serious yeast issues, and not the kind that can be cured with an over-the-counter drug. I can never get dough to rise properly. It just sits there, mocking me. I bake it and it comes out as hard as a rock. Anyway, I used this recipe and that dough rose like a hot air balloon. Doubled in size? No I would say that stuff tripled. And the rolls were FAAAABULOUS. I made 36 of them and all but 9 got eaten that night. OK, so I didn't mention that we had Elder Foster (a former missionary in our area a few years ago) and his wife to dinner that night as well. Oh, and Elder Foster is like 7 foot 2 inches, so he eats a lot. But they were still Yum-OH! Novan kept saying how good they were as he stuffed his face, "Mom you are the best cooker ever!" Makes a mom want to shed a tear, ya know? Especially from someone like Novan who tells me he doesn't like what I'm cooking practically every day. All in all a terrific self-imposed lesson in baking.
Here are the other things that help with alleviating stress:
My girls, all ready for church. My sweet Beya and my yummy 11 pound baby Keshet.
My loving husband who works harder and cares more than anyone I know. My little hammy man Iyov who in this picture has come into our room after his brother and sister are asleep at night thinking he's so cute, Mom and Dad can't POSSIBLY send him back to bed.... He was right.
And there you have it. Cookies and family and a little faith are fortunately all you really need when the stock market makes you nauseous. OK, so cookies aren't really necessities but they sure can work wonders!
I know what you mean. I wish I was a better baker. I love the pictures of your family and I agree that a cookie can make things feel just a little bit better.
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