Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I get started blogging consistently and then I fail at life. All the Titanic stuff on this last week distracted me, sorry. To the post!

My signature cookie was Oatmeal M&M for a while, primarily because it was my favorite to eat. Since I have been avoiding baking things I love eating, I haven't made them for two and a half years. I was asked to bake some oatmeal raisin cookies for someone, which broke my streak. As you can see, I made these jumbo sized. They took about 1/3 cup of dough to make them that large, but it was nice because it took significantly less time to get into the oven. They tasted amazing. I can never bake these again (unless they're for somebody else).

Martha Stewart Challenge: Chocolate Mint Wafers

These cookies are very similar to Thin Mints (my favorite Girl Scout cookies ever), but the recipe was not very good. Even though making the dough was pretty easy, once I got past the chilling stage the recipe became fairly misleading. The suggested amount of dough did not flatten out to the size the recipe claimed and they took several minutes longer to bake than stated. I won't get started on the dipping process. They tasted great, yet I'm not sure they're worth the effort.

Grade: C+ (A- for taste, D for the recipe), not sure if I'll bake again.

Carrot Spice Muffins

Happy Easter, or, if you don't celebrate, Happy April 8th! Today seemed like a good day to make some carrot spice muffins. I've had carrot cake twice, but I've never had carrot muffins. They were pretty delicious. The shredded carrot and chopped pecans add a little crunch, which I like, but I think they need a little more spice. I think I need to experiment with these a little more before they're ready.

King Rolls

I made the king cake into roll form because I had the ingredients and felt like it. They were incredibly delicious.

Martha Stewart Challenge: Pillowy Meringues

I am a terrible blogger, but I have a semi-legitimate excuse this time! I was helping my dad pick out a new car/baking things I've previously posted. I'm baking a lot of new things these next few weeks so hopefully I will be getting back into a regular posting schedule. I will also be starting up my training blog (that I've neglected since January...) within the next few days as well. Hooray!

These cookies were a disastuh. They were initially supposed to be shaped into hearts (I was going to do shamrocks since I was making them a month late) using a cookie cutter. That did not work; we piped them instead. The recipe said to bake them for a 2/12 to 3 hours, but it took nearly 4 hours. All of the difficulties making these cookies would be worth it if the cookies were delicious. Naturally they sucked. 

Grade: F-, never making again.

Mad Men and Archer-Inspired Poundcake With Butterscotch

I like to make baked goods inspired by my favorite movies and TV shows. Conveniently the Archer finale airs tonight and Mad Men premieres on Sunday, so I made this a two-for-one special. On the surface these two shows have nothing in common (one is an acclaimed drama and the other is a hilarious, very adult* cartoon), but Don Draper and Sterling Archer both drink a lot of scotch.

This cake is a brown sugar poundcake with chopped pecans inside of it to add a little crunch. I sliced the cake into cubes and topped it with a butterscotch sauce actually made with scotch. The end result is incredibly delicious, and incredibly sweet. I had to follow it up with something salty. I'll definitely make both cake and sauce again though.

*Seriously, don't let kids watch it. It's rated MA for a reason.

Martha Stewart Challenge: Glitter Ball Cookies

I am starting something I like to call the Martha Stewart Challenge. I got the Martha Stewart Cookies 2012 Calendar and it came with recipes for each month's cookies, so I will be making each cookie monthly (even though I am two months behind).

January's cookie is called a Glitter Ball. They are two little butter cookies rolled in sanding sugar and pressed together with a ginger honey frosting. There are no words for how amazing these cookies are. The butter cookies remind me of the free cookies I would get every time we went to Vons when I was little, so I am thrilled to finally have a recipe for them. I was concerned the ginger would be too overwhelming, but the cookies keep the frosting from being too strong. I definitely would not use the frosting on a cupcake though. That would be too much. 

Grade: A+, will (and have) make again.