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It’s cookie party day! So far I’ve made double chocolate cookies with a combination of Ghirardelli and Special Dark and Moravian ginger cookies. I’ve got the dough refrigerating for a variation on a Martha Stewart recipe for espresso-chocolate bites.
While I was making the first two, I took a lot of process photos. Here are those and the variations I made to the double chocolate recipe. (Not that it needed any–those are the best cookies in the world.) Read the rest of this entry »
I should preface this whole experiment by saying I am NOT a mathematician. Not by any stretch of the imagination. For amusement only. Not responsible for math errors. See your doctor before beginning any cookie program.
My mother-in-law mentioned over Thanksgiving that she’d like to go to the candle tea at Old Salem. It’s a really fun Christmas event, and they serve the delicious sweets the Moravians call “lovefeast.” Unfortunately, we have parties both weekends they’re doing it this year. And one of those parties is a cookie party. So of course I got it into my head that I should try making Moravian ginger cookies.
I’m hoping if I do this, it goes better than my attempt to make Moravian sugarcake. The conclusion of that experiment was that you have to actually be Moravian to do it right.
But of course, step 1 is to find a recipe. Lucky for me, that was easier than finding a recipe for the wonderful Moravian coffee. There are gobs of recipes for these cookies. The first I found said it was from a cooking class at Old Salem. Perfect! Yield: 700-800 cookies. Yikes! Next choice: Do the math or find another recipe. I kept looking. Then I decided to compare.
The first recipe here—the one that calls for 16 cups of flour—is that Old Salem version. The rest I found on other sites. One is from Gourmet magazine. Another is from a Catholic publication, which I found amusing. I multiplied and divided to get them all fairly close to 4 cups of flour as a method of comparison. The second line is the Old Salem recipe divided. The last line is the average amount for that ingredient of the recipes that called for it. Two notes:
- The really special math was comparing packed brown sugar to unpacked, so those comparisons aren’t perfect, although I tried to compensate for that difference using comparison tables I found online.
- The column “b” is to note whether the recipe called for margarine, butter, or either. I’m a big fan of butter, so I was a little surprised when the Old Salem recipe actually specified that you should use quality margarine.
See the table. (Sorry about the popup. It was a quick way to deal with a wide table.)
These were both holiday projects I never posted. I’ve hardly uploaded any pictures since October, so I’ll probably be backposting for a while!
The first picture is a geeky logo shirt I screenprinted for my brother. If you can name them all, try going out in the sun once in a while. The others are two of the gingerbread cookies I made New Year’s Eve. One is R2D2 (sort of), and the other lost his leg in an unfortunate baking accident, but that made him my favorite. I guess I uploaded the wrong picture. I’ll get him up tonight. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve been on a quest since mid-November. Longer, really, but that was about when I got seriously dedicated to The Quest for the Perfect Biscuit. It’s an art, and an art at which until now I was mostly failing to master. My mom occasionally comments on her own skills in the art, including the facts that her grandmother’s biscuits (and everybody knows grandmothers make the best biscuits) were made with lard, and the lard was cut in with her hands. None of this fancy Cuisinart shortcutting.
One day in Target, I saw lard. Now, I’ve seen plenty of lard for sale. But usually in buckets, measured in gallons. But Target sells it in a one-pound little box that looks just like a box of butter. Well, except for being green, saying LARD instead of BUTTER, and smelling like strange meat products. I will not tell you lies. This stuff does not smell good. But it makes some damn fine biscuits.
As a side note, I asked a nutritionist about the whole lard thing. I’ve always thought of lard as, “yikes! bad fats! stay away!” But once I bought the lard and read the package… really it’s no worse than butter. It’s even better, in some respects. So I said, “Hey, nutritionist lady. What’s up with all the anti-lard movement?” And she agreed with me that lard is no more bad for you than butter. So you heard it here. The nutritionist green-lighted my lardo biscuits. And I’m extending the green light to you.
Then I commenced reading everything the Internet could tell me about the art of biscuit making and applied said knowledge. I have not perfected the biscuit, but I’ve gotten pretty darn close. They are crunchy and flaky on the outside, smooth and fluffy on the inside. So I’m ready to share what I’ve learned. (The picture, by the way, is of tonight’s thawed and baked batch. More on that later.)
Here’s the how-to. Read the rest of this entry »
I had a turbocharged crafty night last night to get ready for the costume contest at work today. Here’s a picture of everything I had to do or finish up:
Clockwise from center/top:
- Screenprinted Blue Sun shirt from Firefly
- Sew pearls back on Amidala dress formerly known as the lavender nightgown
- Star Trek communicator made out of Sculpey
- Gryffindor scarf
- Finish Jayne hat (crocheted, cheating, I know)
I layered five costumes and played video clips from each show/movie:
- Harry Potter: Just a black robe and quick scarf I made
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The much-blogged-about Elizabeth Swann
- Firefly: The Blue Sun shirt and Jayne Hat
- Star Trek: TNG uniform
- Star Wars: The dress formerly known as the lavender nightgown
For Halloween, I wore Elizabeth Swann. All the time that went into that, I might as well wear it as much as possible! Husband decided to be fat Elvis (in his later years). The kidlet was going to be Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz until I discovered her little ruby slippers were a bit too big, and she couldn’t walk in them without looking like she’d had a pitcher of margaritas. So she became daddy’s biggest fan, which really, wasn’t much of a costume since she already is!
It turns out there used to be Elvis patterns in the usual pattern books, but there aren’t anymore. There isn’t even a basic jumpsuit pattern. If you find someone willing to sell you one of the old Elvis patterns, they’re going for about $60. So instead I used a basic pirate shirt pattern to get the collar I wanted and then attached it to pants at the waist. I split the shirt down the center front for the zipper. Then I lined the inside of the lower sleeves and put a gusset in the pants leg, both with the red crushed velvet from the inside of the cape.
Pictures behind the cut. Read the rest of this entry »
This is without a doubt my favorite of all the cakes I’ve done. What’s really crazy is that it actually turned out to look pretty much like the original idea in my head.
The depth of field threw the Snoopy moon and sign out of focus, but it’s Linus’ “WELCOME GREAT PUMPKIN” sign.
The characters and pumpkins are made from candy melts and stand up in the cake with toothpicks I set in them. It gives it a nice 3D look in person that doesn’t come through well in the picture, although you can see it a little better in the full size photo.
Amusingly enough, the first item in the list WordPress gives me of sites linking to this one is the headline, “That’s no moon…” referring to the Death Star. But this is a moon! Since moon pictures seem to be all the rage on the internets today, I decided to run outside for a few minutes and try it myself. I didn’t really think I could with what I have, but I noticed on that second link that a guy had listed the settings he had used with a camera and lens almost identical to mine, so I figured I’d give it a shot.
Of course I left my tripod mount on the video camera at work. So I laid the tripod sideways on the roof of my car and propped the camera up on that. Never let it be said that I have patience. Because you know, the moon might not be there tomorrow night. So here’s what I got!
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/13
Focal Length: 300 mm
Then there’s this one:
Exposure: 0.2 sec (1/5)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 300 mm
This was one of the first two pictures I took when I decided to try to get a moon picture. I was just rolling through settings, and here’s where I started.
What’s interesting is the double moon effect. The bright one on the right is the one I saw in the viewfinder. The shadowy double, if you zoom in on the original, actually contains the detail of moon surface. What’s further interesting about it is that I saved this shot because I saw the double on my D50’s screen, but when I downloaded it, I couldn’t see the "shadow" moon until I blew up the levels.
I posted the Death Star cake back in April, and I’m still getting about 100 hits/month on it, plus fairly regular emails asking for a “how to.” I really only spent about an hour on it just to do a quick and fun cake. One day maybe I’ll do Death Star 2.0. But here’s what I sent the most recent requester about how this one was made:
The Death Star cake is super easy if you have an airbrush. I used the Wilton ball pan, which you can get from Michael’s, AC Moore, Hobby Lobby, or anywhere you’d get the Wilton pans. I scooped out the dent in the side with a knife (I suspect a melon baller would be perfect, but I don’t have one of those) and frosted the whole thing with a gray buttercream. Then I used black airbrush color to spray on the pattern. I just googled up a picture of the Death Star and looked at it to freehand on the design. Nobody’s memorized exactly how many rows there are or things like that, so as long as it’s similar, you’re good. And that’s it!
If you don’t have an airbrush, my second plan had been to do the same thing but use black marshmallow fondant for the black parts. For marshmallow fondant, melt marshmallows with a little water on them and add powdered sugar until it’s stiff enough to work with. Here are very detailed instructions that make it sound harder than it is. If you have a KitchenAid, just let the dough hook do the work for you. After it’s made, you can roll it out and cut shapes. To get it black, the easiest thing might be to use the chocolate marshmallows if you can find them or to add cocoa powder before you use black dye. I haven’t actually tried either of those things yet, though.
Good luck! Send me a picture if you do it!
