Frosted Lemon Cookies

Frosted Lemon Cookies - made August 19, 2016 from Chocolate Chocolate and More

My dwarf lemon tree forgot about the “dwarf” part of its name and shot up to over 12 feet. It’s my fault it got that high because I wasn’t paying attention and hadn’t realized it had grown so tall. I didn’t know it could get that tall. If that was the dwarf version, what’s the regular tree like? Fortunately, a sharp pair of pruning shears and my lemon tree is back to a modest 7-foot height. Okay, that’s still not very dwarfy but at least it doesn’t look in danger of toppling over into my neighbor’s yard anymore. Did I mention it’s growing crooked too? Yeah, my green thumb isn’t so green.

But my lemon tree is producing lemons. It’s more prolific in the winter time but it does ripen the occasional yellow lemon while there are a (frightening) number of green ones growing larger and larger with every passing day. Expect more lemon-based recipes in the future.

For now, I thought it was a good time to try this recipe for frosted lemon cookies since I had to use up lemons and buttermilk. Normally I don’t do rolled cookies because, let’s face it, they’re a pain. Make the dough, chill it, roll it out to even thickness, cut with cookie shapers, pry off the counter while still trying to keep its shape if you didn’t flour the counter enough, get on the cookie sheet, again without distorting the shape and bake.

I did a fairly decent job with most of that and even was able to remember to time the cookies and take them out at 8 minutes exactly. They even looked done at that point, which is not a long time to bake cookies. But these were thin enough that 8 minutes was sufficient. I let them cool then frosted them. The only thing I changed from both the cookie dough and the frosting is I didn’t use lemon extract. I don’t like the metallic tang of lemon extract so instead I used freshly squeezed lemon juice. It doesn’t impact as much lemon flavor in the cookie as it does in the frosting though.

Hmm, not sure what to say about these cookies. I tried the thickest one as the taste test cookie but maybe I should have tried a thinner cookie. It was a little cakey to me and that cakey texture made it seem dry. It wasn’t overbaked but I didn’t love the texture. The taste was fine and I liked the icing I ended up with but I’m not a fan of (most) cakey cookies. It might also have been a mistake not to use lemon extract in the cookie dough because it really wasn’t that lemony. If it wasn’t for the lemon icing, it wouldn’t have really been a lemon cookie. I think I’m just not a fan of cookies made with buttermilk because they will almost always be cakey cookies.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
dash of salt

Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
2-3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and lemon extract; beat until combined,
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk until combined. Dough will be soft.
3. Divide dough into two, wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Place chilled dough on well-floured surface. Using a flour-dusted rolling pin, roll out dough to 1/4" thickness. Cut into rounds with cookie cutter. Arrange evenly on baking sheets, Bake for 8 minutes, just until cookies are firm. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to racks to cool completely.
6. Make frosting: cream butter in a mixing bowl; slowly add sugar until combined. Add in lemon extract. Beat until combined. Add in cream, one tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency. Frost cooled cookies and let set.

Photos, Recipes and Credit

I had another cookie post ready to go up tonight on the blogging schedule but something happened today that made me decide to write a different post instead. Something in the nature of a PSA (public service announcement) and something partly as a catharsis to get off my mind what was bothering me.

If you've been following my blog or have even skimmed a few posts, you know how much I like showing pics of what I've made, especially of something I think turned out well. I'm no professional photographer, as I'm sure anyone can tell, and I don't have fancy equipment. Every picture you see on my blog is taken with my cell phone and/or my pocket digital camera. Every picture on a recipe post is also something I've personally made or, in the rare instances where it isn't, I make it clear where it is from, similar to all the recipes I try from other blogs, baking books and everywhere else. If it's from another blog, I always link back to the recipe on the original blog in the post title as well as the blog itself, also in the post title, where I give credit to where I found the recipe.

Because that's what I do in the name of proper etiquette and simple courtesy, I assume that's what everyone else does. So I was taken aback when a reader commented on my post for Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownies that someone had the picture of my brownies on their Facebook page and, without any reference as to coming from my blog, it looked like it was theirs. I looked into it and sure enough, although it had been cropped closely to leave out the easily identifiable dessert plate I used, it was the exact same brownie picture from my blog and, without any photo credit, it looked like it was the business owner's picture. Bummer.

On a good day, it may not seem like a big deal and I can take most things in stride. My blog is public, I share recipes and pictures freely and I don't mind when other people make what I post; that's the point of my blog, right? But today wasn't a good day. I don't mind my recipes, posts or pictures being shared. I don't mind if someone uses the pictures I post anymore than I mind if they make the recipes I post. But if it's going to be used, especially in the capacity or implication that it's something they made, I expect some kind of acknowledgment of where they got it from and not an implication, unintentional or otherwise, that what's pictured is what they made when it isn't. Especially when it looks like a business selling the brownie. So I would assume they've made it themselves already and have something to take a picture of so using my picture should be unnecessary. Once I found out today, two weeks after the picture looks like it was posted, I did ask the business owner to give my blog the proper credit and even linked my blog post to their picture to prove it came from my blog. Fortunately, she did as I requested.

Still a bummer that it happened and that I had to ask for the proper credit in the first place but I thank the person who let me know what they saw. I never thought I had to ask this and I don't want to be one of those people who superimpose their name over every picture so I'll just simply say: you're free to use the recipes I post, you're free to use my pictures but if you're going to re-post the recipes and pictures and/or sell the baked goods using my pictures, I do ask that you give proper credit as to where you got them from. Thank you.

Ooey Gooey Fudge Brownies - add the Nutella

Ooey Gooey Fudge Brownies - made August 13, 2016 from Brownie Bites

This was one of the things I baked for my Canadian relatives while I was in Winnipeg for my cousin’s wedding. My aunt and one of my cousins wanted brownies and that’s so easy to make on the fly. Although I did have to find one that uses only cocoa as I forgot to get unsweetened chocolate at the grocery store when we did our run for baking ingredients.

Normally I don’t like cocoa brownies. Why? Brownies made exclusively with cocoa, even without any leavening agents like baking soda or baking powder, tend to end up being more cakey even if the brownie is meant to be fudgy. They have a softer mouthfeel with soft being like a cake rather than dense and chewy like baked fudge. Cocoa does add a nice chocolate depth to brownies though so my favorite recipes tend to include both baking chocolate and a small amount of cocoa.

But cocoa was all I had so this is the recipe I went with. On the whole, it turned out fine. The chocolate was good, it was fudgy but yes, it was still a bit lighter in texture than a recipe using only baking chocolate. I upped the decadence factor by using the lazy baker’s frosting, i.e. Nutella spread over the hot brownie 5 minutes after coming out of the oven. I didn’t have any toffee or extra chocolate chips to sprinkle on top so I kept it plain. No one seemed to mind and the full 9 x 13 pan of brownies disappeared before a day went by (I doubled the recipe below). Clearly, I’m in the right family.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8 baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda; set aside.
3. In another bowl, combine melted butter, granulated sugar and vanilla extract until smooth and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, into the sugar-butter mixture until combined. Add vanilla extract.
4. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, mixing after each addition until just combined. Do not overmix.
5. Pour batter into pan and smooth top with small metal spatula. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs, not raw batter. Do not overbake,

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies - made August 12, 2016 from Liv for Cake

I was in Winnipeg last month for my cousin’s wedding. As always, when I visit that side of the family, I bring banana bread with me as it’s one of their favorites. While I was there, I also made apple cobbler as it’s my uncle’s favorite. My cousin, who was the one getting married, asked for oatmeal cookies, “the chewy kind”. At first I was puzzled by the request since, to me, all oatmeal cookies are chewy. Then I realized she was comparing it against the crisp oatmeal cookies you can buy in grocery stores. Yeah, I don’t do crisp.

I’m so used to baking in my own kitchen that it’s actually hard for me to bake anywhere else. For one thing, I take for granted that the staples in my pantry are staples in everyone else’s pantry. Which is not always the case. For this trip, I was staying in my other cousin’s house (the bride’s oldest sister) and I had to do an inventory of her kitchen to determine if she had what I needed to make cookies and I don’t just mean the ingredients: cookie sheets? Measuring cups and spoons? Mixing bowl? Mixer? Spatula, wooden spoon? My cousin was a cook rather than a baker. Thankfully she had most of the equipment so I mainly had to shop for ingredients. Another cousin of ours took me to the grocery store and some of the things I needed, she had in her pantry so between the two kitchens and a trip to the Real Canadian Superstore, I got what I needed to try out this oatmeal cookie recipe.

Normally, when I make cookies, I like to make them big. Partly because I like big, thick cookies and partly because they bake better when they’re bigger since you have time to bake them long enough for the edges to get crisp but the middles will still remain chewy. If you bake small cookies, they tend to not only bake faster but also more uniformly, meaning by the time the edges are baked, so is the rest of the cookie and there’s less underbaking in the middle in the cookie. Which is my favorite part.

In this instance, I did end up making the cookies small. I was only making one batch and there were going to be over a dozen people eating them so instead of getting 12 large cookies out of one batch, I made over 2 dozen small cookies. That did mean they ended up a little more baked than I would have liked. They weren’t dry but they weren’t as gooey-chewy as I normally make my cookies. The other challenge of not baking in my own kitchen is I had to learn my cousin’s oven. Some ovens run hotter than others. Her baking sheets were also a darker finish than mine and even lined with parchment paper, the bottoms baked more quickly than I would’ve liked. I know, a litany of first world problems, right?

In the end, the cookies turned out pretty well. I baked the first batch inadvertently to full bake instead of underbaking but I learned for the last 2 batches when to take them out so that even though they looked underdone, they were actually just right by the time they had cooled and set. I don’t know that I found these memorable compared to other oatmeal cookies that I’ve tried but it’s really hard for me to find THE oatmeal cookie recipe I would prize above all others. Then again, I also don’t know if that’s more because I didn’t bake these like I normally would from my own kitchen and had to adapt to a new place or if I’m just inordinately picky. My relatives loved them and were thrilled with fresh, homemade cookies so you have to take my picky spectrum with a grain of salt.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup butter

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups rolled oats

2 cups chocolate chips

1. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars on medium-high until pale and fluffy, approximately 3 minutes.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, incorporating after each addition, and beat on high for 1 minute. Add vanilla.
4. With mixer on low, add flour mixture; mix until combined.
5. Add oats and chocolate chips by hand, using a wooden spoon. Mix until just combined.
6. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill for several hours or overnight.
7. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
8. Bake for 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned but center is still soft and unset. Cool 5 minutes on baking sheet. Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

Big Bakery-Style Peanut Butter Chunk Cookies

Big Bakery-Style Peanut Butter Chunk Cookies - made dough August 4, 2016 from Sally's Baking Addiction

This may be the best peanut butter cookie recipe I’ve tried. Or at least the best I can remember in my recent baking past. Which really says something because you know I’m indifferent to peanut butter. But if a peanut butter lover asked me to bake them some cookies, I would go with this one, hands down.

I like it for a few different reasons. First, with 2 cups of peanut butter in it, it isn’t messing around. It’s peanut butter. Even though it has chocolate chips in it, first and foremost, it’s a peanut butter cookie.

Second, and you had to know this was coming, it baked into a thick, chubby cookie! Hardly any spread. In fact, you may want to shape this as thick discs instead of dough balls as it won’t spread out that much if you bake it from frozen dough, which is what I always do. Baking as thick discs will help give you a uniformly thick cookie instead of (very slightly) thinner edges with a domed middle.

Lastly, I loved the texture. I’m still somewhat indifferent to the taste of peanut butter itself but I liked the soft, chewy, moist texture of this cookie. A lot. I put these out at work before 8 am, had meetings most of the morning but the next time I went to our communal kitchen, even the plate was gone. Rumor has it they were gone by 9 am. There weren’t even any telltale crumbs on the counter. So that’s my gauge that other people less indifferent to peanut butter than I am also liked this cookie.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup granulated sugar for rolling, optional

1. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars together on medium speed until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Add the eggs and beat on high until combined, 1 minute. Add the peanut butter and vanilla and mix until combined.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips with a wooden spoon.
4. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, flatten into thick discs if desired (these don't spread much), cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Roll dough balls in granulated sugar and evenly space on cookie sheets. Bake each sheet for 14-15 minutes until lightly browned at the edges and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheets for several minutes before removing to wire cooling racks to cool completely.

Basic, Great Chocolate Chip Cookies from Seven Spoons

Basic, Great Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough July 23, 2016 from Seven Spoons

I’m not over chocolate chip cookies yet. I may never be. Even though I went through a marathon baking sessions of trying recipe after recipe for chocolate chip cookies, apparently I haven’t gotten them out of my system yet because I still like trying new recipes for chocolate chip cookies. That’s okay. No one I know is sick of eating them yet.

My deviation from my usual chocolate chip cookie making is I used extra dark chocolate chips this time around. I’m a milk chocolate chip person myself but there are a lot of dark chocolate fans out there. A friend gave me 2 bags of the extra dark chocolate chips so I decided to use them for this recipe.

Mine didn’t turn out like the picture in the original blog where I got the recipe from but I’m okay with that as I think mine turned out thicker. I deviated from the recipe’s advice to use chocolate chunks because that would defeat my purpose of using the bag(s) of dark chocolate chips. Otherwise, it had all the earmarks of my kind of cookie: didn’t spread much, stayed thick, was chewy and moist, had crisp edges and the texture was beautifully chocolate-chippy. (Yes, I made up that term.)

I never measure chocolate chips. I just add at will until I’m satisfied with how many chocolate chips are in each dough ball. I always reserve some to add when the dough is almost gone as that’s usually the scoop that has the least amount of chips and I also press chips on the outside of each dough ball to make sure there are enough in the cookie. 

In this case, I used a full bag plus about ¼ of the 2^nd bag. If the chips had been milk chocolate, I’d probably be all over this cookie. With the dark chocolate, I liked it but would’ve preferred milk chocolate. I suspect I’m in the minority about dark vs milk at work since these went faster than my previous batches of (milk) chocolate chip cookies.

1 cup unsalted butter, chopped, melted

3 1/4 cups (415 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons medium-grain kosher salt
1 1/2 cups (320 grams) packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2. Combine melted butter and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, whisking after each addition, until just combined. Stir in vanilla.
3. Mix in dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. Do not overmix.
4. Fold in chocolate chunks or chips. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 360 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden brown and middles are no longer raw. Do not overbake. Cool for 2 minutes on baking sheets then transfer cookies to wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Restaurant Review: Rose's Cafe & Donuts

Rose's Cafe & Donuts - brunch on August 6, 2016

Rose’s Café is the kind of place I like to go to for a casual meal: it’s a local small business, the prices are reasonable, you order your food at the counter and pay for it there, they bring it out to you and you eat. The selections aren’t fancy but straight up, good breakfast food. It’s larger inside than I expected from the outside and I’ve been told they had recently moved to their current location. It’s also nicely airy and bright, all the better to showcase their baked goods. They have a bakery display counter if part of your indulgence is bakery goods like croissants, cinnamon rolls, Danishes, apple fritters and doughnuts.

I met a friend there for brunch and, guided by the yelp reviews, ordered the breakfast burrito of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon and hash browns in a flour tortilla. Simple, straightforward goodness. And it was cheap. I also bought the apple fritter to split with my friend and the two items together were less than $10. There are other, more expensive items on the menu with “expensive” being relative but it was definitely good value for your money. The breakfast burrito was sizable enough that I could’ve just eaten half for brunch and half for a late lunch. I didn’t but I could have if I had any self control.

The apple fritter was okay but I wished it had more apples. Plenty of fritter, fewer apples. For that kind of raised dough though, I still defer to Stan’s Donuts, king of donuts and breakfast pastries. I didn’t try anything else but I definitely want to go back to Rose’s again and explore their other offerings.

French Toast Combo

Breakfast Burrito

My friend got the French toast combo and I have to say, the smell of the French toast was to die for. I don’t know why it smelled so good and normally I don’t order French toast since I could make it so easily at home but I might have to get it next time, if for no other reason than to inhale the scent and satisfy my olfactory senses.

Oh and one thing to know about Rose's Cafe: it's cash only. Fortunately, their prices are reasonable so you don't have to bring a lot of cash but enough to cover what strikes your fancy.

Apple Fritter