Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

A few lessons learned

1. While it is a great idea to premix your dry ingredients and keep them in labeled bags, it is NOT a good idea to mix brown sugar with cookies. I needed to mix crushed Nillas with brown sugar and butter for the bottom of toffee bars. When I went to get the mix, the brown sugar had turned hard as a rock overnight. At least I hadn't yet blended it together so it was pretty easy to remove all the sugary boulders.

2. Just because a pan seems to be 9x13 doesn't mean it is. It is a good idea to measure your pans ahead of time. I put my cookie/brown sugar/butter crust in a pan I thought was the right size and it was too big. Probably 11 by 18? So I had these big gaps and not enough 'base' to hold the toffee layer. Therefore, my toffee did not break into nice chunks. In fact, it is very crumbly.

3. Crumbly toffee tastes really good.

Monday, December 6, 2010

More cookie dough

Today I mixed up dough for Butterscotch Eggnog stars. Actually, they won't be stars. The idea is to cut a smaller star out of a bigger one, then fill the opening with chopped up butterscotch candy. Then it melts and you get a stained glass effect. Very pretty, except I don't have two different star-shaped cookie cutters that fit together. And I really never have much luck with those 'stained glass' cookies, anyway. So I'm going to make any shape I want--maybe a bunch of angels--then I'm just going to sprinkle chopped up candy on top and press it in while it's still warm. I think that could work. I might also do regular colored sugar. The dough is really delicious, you can really taste the eggnog.

Now, did you ever have something to do that is so stuck in your head that later, after you've done a bunch of other things, you are convinced you did it already? I had Light Karo syrup on my shopping list and I would swear I bought it. So I went to make Salted Peanut Rolls this morning and couldn't find the stuff, anywhere. Now I'm not so sure I did get it--unless it rolled under the car seat. But then, I couldn't use it if it's been out in the cold anyway. So all I did this morning was make the base for the cookies--crushed up peanut butter sandwich cookies mixed with butter then pressed into a pan. Sort of like a graham-cracker crust.

Oh, well, at least I have all the ingredients ready to go when I do either find, or buy, that syrup!