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.

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.

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.