Friday, July 25, 2008

Baking frenzy

Last night was a total baking extravaganza. My girlfriend came over right after work and we didn't stop until 10:30 pm. Being a total OCD freak about my kitchen space, I was a little nervous about having a baking buddy, but luckily Stace and I share some similar compulsions. Namely, cleaning up as you go and working quickly without being sloppy. The kitchen never turned into a disaster, but we managed to make several double batches of cookies (at one point, we both had our cookie guns out, pumping away and it was pretty priceless - I wish I had a picture of that).

I made a batch of caramel cream cookies, which I'm actually pretty blah about, but most people absolutely love them. I think it's the thick layer of buttercream in the middle. They're also pretty simple and they freeze really well if you need to make them ahead of time. I usually roll the dough out and then cut it into tiny circles, but I was short on time so I just jammed the dough into the cookie press and popped out some little clover shapes. They aren't quite as elegant, but it was a whole lot faster and they still look okay. I added some of my Mexican caramel to the buttercream, because the buttercream doesn't take on much caramel flavor on its own, despite browning the butter first.

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Here are the cookies getting ready to be sandwiched. Normally they would be round, but I think the cookie press clover shape isn't too bad. And yes, they are sitting on non-stick matting. Until I moved in with Dustin I didn't even know about non-stick matting, and now I'm OBSESSED. We lined all the kitchen drawers with it because it keeps the drawer inserts and the knives from sliding around. And then a little while ago I realized that putting it under cookies while you are piping on them is awesome, because the cookies don't slide around and make your life difficult.

I have approximately 12 million things to do today, including making a ton more cookies and designing fancy labels for all the food and packaging the favors (because I am crazy and I love cute labels even when they are totally unnecessary). I'm taking a short day at work to give myself a head start. I'll be back on Monday with a full shower re-cap and probably lots more cookie recipes. Don't worry - I swear I'll sometimes feature things other than cookies on here. I'm just stuck in a cookie place right now.

1 comment:

  1. Given that you were sandwiching these, I'm super impressed with your piping skills. I think I'm going to have to try these this weekend...although maybe with a chocolate filling.

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