In the works....

Methodology is in the works for my Chocolate Chip Cookie study. I've run across a couple of more recipes which might yet make the cut; I've been too busy the last couple weeks to compare them to the recipes already on the list. In the past two weeks I've baked and decorated 2 cakes, helped a friend pack up her house for her move across the country, and baked a 3rd cake which hasn't been decorated yet, and that's just a few of the things I've accomplished this week. In a little bit I'm going to go visit my cousin and help her frost 322 cupcakes. It should be a real riot. Photos probably to come.

A neat salad and a revelation

I find lots of recipes that I would love to try, but am pretty sure I would hate by because I detest goat cheese. That's right, I've said it. That ultimate, creamy, tangy topping for soups, salads, crostini, you name it - I just can't stand it. I've tried, I really have. I really wish I could like fresh goat cheese; every six months or so I convince myself that its not that I dislike it, I've just never had it prepared this way, or with these ingredients, or this is a smoother, sweeter variety... only to rediscover miliseconds later that the tangy-ness that other people appreciate in goat cheese, to me tastes simply acrid and reminds me of things too gross for a food blog. To date, the only way I have had goat cheese and not wanted to immediate spit it out is on pizza and baked into a pasta dish.

Which is too bad, because I really, really want to like goats cheese so I can enjoy this salad by Joy of Joyliciousand guest posted to 6 Bittersweets.


It has all the components I love in a salad - fresh greens, sweet, juicy fruit, crunchy nuts.... but that darned goat cheese just has to ruin the party for me. Its okay, goat cheese, its not you its me. Its just a shame that I can't hang out at the awesome party you're throwing because we just don't get along. I guess I'll go hang out with some cupcakes instead...

NEW! Chocolate Chip Cookie Comparison Study

Hello readers whom I'm not sure exist. (If you do, please leave a comment!)

It recently occurred to me that there are a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes on the internet. It also recently occurred to me that while I have a favourite recipe, and it usually turns out quite well, there might be a better one out there somewhere. Combined with my compulsion to bake things, the ever-accumulating amount of recipes in my recipe box, and my love of science, I've decided to do a little investigation.

I looked through my Google Reader feed for all the Chocolate Chip Recipes on all of the blogs I follow. I came up with a total of 15. Four of those recipes were eliminated because they were duplicates (3) or near-duplicates (1). Once I move into my new place, I will bake one or two recipes a week, precisely as recorded, and feed them to a carefully selected panel (i.e. my friends and family) of cookie enthusiasts. Each participant will fill out a baseline survey indicating chocolate chip cookie preferences (i.e. chewy vs. crispy, soft vs. crunchy, large vs. small). After sampling each recipe, participants will then fill out a short questionnaire about that particular recipe.

Of course, being a scientist, I have to have some controls to help provide the best results. First, I will control for chocolate. This is the only alteration to the recipes I am making: I am going to use the same chocolate chips in all of the recipes. What I really want to test is the texture of the cookie, not the quality of the chocolate called for. I am also controlling for production variances: there is only one baker, ergo the techniques called for in each recipe should be performed consistently. I am controlling for environmental conditions (i.e. the oven) by using an oven thermometer to ensure the oven is at the correct temperature called for by the recipe, and I am using the same oven and cookie sheets for each recipe (which is why I can't start until I move into my new place in September; all my cookie sheets are currently packed away!). I will also be controlling for materials variance, because I will be using the same ingredients across all recipes where called for. E.g. I will use the same brand (and probably bag) of flour in all recipes that call for all-purpose flour.

Once all the data has been collected, it will be entered and analyzed by yours truly. I'm really interested in what kinds of features make a great cookie recipe. Will the recipes with melted butter score higher over the recipes with chilled or warm butter? Will recipes with white AND brown sugars score higher than recipes with either sugar by itself? With the famed NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe be rated the best like everyone claims?

The recipes I will be using have been linked to below. Please feel free to suggest any improvements to my methodology!

Chewy Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies from Joy the Baker

Ad Hoc Chocolate Chip Cookies from Baking Bites

Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies from Baking Bites

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies posted on My Baking Addiction

Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies is currently my default recipe, also posted on Best Friends for Frosting

Big Chocolate Chip Cookies from My Baking Addiction

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies from 6 Bittersweets

Chocolate Chunk and Vanilla Bean Cookies from Coconut & Lime

Chocolate Chip Cookies from Chocolate & Zucchini

Giant Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies also from Baking Bites

And lastly, Our Favourite Chocolate Chip Cookies from Smitten Kitchen

My first attempt at viennoiseries is not going well. The dough was too dry so I added extra cream and it may have been too much extra cream; the house was too warm when I was rolling out the dough and the butter smooshed everywhere; my make-shift proofing apparatus got too warm and the butter started to leak out of the pastries. This is really an all-day endeavor (I've been at it since 10:30 this morning; it is now 3:30 and I haven't even baked any off yet!) Next time I try it I will definitely: 1. Measure ingredients by weight, not volume, and 2. make the dough the evening/day before. 3. Make sure the house is cool BEFORE I start working with the dough.

I can't believe its been over a year since I've posted! I definitely still bake, and have definitely tried new things in the last year, which I will hopefully try again and then relate here. My resolution from now on: bake one new thing a week. Between my skating team, and the office, I should be able to keep my new pants a perfect fit.

Easy, Breezy Granola Bars

When I was in school, mom rarely ever bought granola bars. She maintained that they were too expensive, and so instead would sometimes make us homemade granola bars which were, of course WAY better than any storebought granola bar I've ever had. When I moved out to go to school, I didn't get these tasty treats anymore, so I asked mom for the recipe. I was surprised at how simple they were! Really, only two essential ingredients, and everything else is completely customizable. In the past, I've done rasin/peanut (which is what my mom always used), and cherry/cashew. Today, in a stroke of brilliance, I used ready-made trail mix, which is a lot cheaper than buying all of the ingredients seperately. Anyway, onwards!

• Easy Granola Bars (turns out its the same as this recipe!)
• Ingredients
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 cup flaked coconut
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease, or line with parchment paper a small cookie sheet (with sides) or jelly roll pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix everything togther. You can use your hands if you want, but its kind of sticky! I just use a rubber spatula.
3. Dump mixture into prepared pan and spread it out so its even. Grease the bottom of a pancake flipper and use it to smooth the mixture out, pressing it into the pan quite firmly. You really can't do any damage to it during this step, so press away!
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, depending on how crunchy you want them. Lightly browned just around the edges will give you moist, chewy bars. Easiest way to cut them is to turn them out onto a cutting board (run a knife down any edges not coverd by parchment paper first, or the ends will break), remove parchment paper (if applicable) and then cut into desired pieces. I usually get about 16. I haven't tried using cookie cutters yet, though I bet that would be fun!

The only two ingredients I haven't messed with are the oats and the condensed milk. You can substitute anything else for whatever seeds, nuts, dried fruit or chocolately pieces you'd like, and they should turn out, so you can make them healthier (or less so) to your tastes.

I was at the grocery store to pick up chicken thighs to make Sticky Lemon Chicken (which by the way was super delicious and so easy even I couldn't screw it up!) when I noticed that roasting chickens were on sale. What a delicious way to celebrate my sister/roommate leaving for four days (she is going to the Canadian Nationals of Synchronized Skating in Oshawa and won't be back until Sunday) leaving my boyfriend and I gloriously alone. It was also a good excuse to have leftovers for the rest of the week, and a chicken carcass to make soup with this weekend! So, I picked up a a chicken, some yukon gold potatoes, green beans, garlic, lemon, etc. and planned out a fabulous dinner, which would've been 10 times more fabulous had I two ovens, or more time (the boyfriend got last minute hockey tickets right behind the visitor's net, row 2!). Or at least one oven that was capable of retaining more than 70% of its heat. Anyway, it was tasty and I'll definitely be reusing all of the recipes I used, listed at the end of the post.

To top off the delightful home-cooked meal I was preparing, I thought, what better than fresh, homemade apple pie! Now, I know my crusts need work, but I have never had someone complain about my pie filling... so I decided to make a galette. Just like pie but half the work? I am SO there! Plus, I had just spent a good 20 minutes drooling over this recipe and accompanying photos at A Finger in Every Pie.

I used her pastry recipe, but substituted the shortening for butter. I also used all-purpose flour instead of pastry flour which I haven't done since my first pie. I'm attributing the attrociousness of this pastry crust to those to alterations, not the recipe itself. I may give it another try next time I make a galette... which, aside from the diasterous crust, was fantastically easy, and totally delicious topped with a scoop of Nesle's Real Dairy Natural Vanilla... though I would've loved to have had homemade ice cream, there was just no time. I had a lot of left over apples, but I also prepared 6 apples instead of 5. I froze the extras to use for apple crisp at a future date.

Pi Day Apple Galette
Pi Crust
1.5 c. flour
1 T. sugar
1/2 t. salt
8 T. unsalted butter
2 T. shortening (I replaced the shortening with more butter... bad idea).
2 T. vodka with 1 T. water and 3 ice cubes. (I didn't understand this bit... am I supposed to let the icecubes melt and then add them also? That's what I did...)

Process flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until cornmealy and there are still some small, pea-sized pieces of butter and shortening. Empty mixture into medium bowl. Sprinkle vodka/water over mixture. With rubber spatula or your hand, use folding motion to mix, pressing dough until it just clumps together. Flatten dough into a 4-inch disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refridgerate at least 45 minutes, up to 2 days.

Pi Apples
5 Granny Smith apples, peeled cored and sliced into 1/8 inch slices
1 t. grated lemon zest
3 T. sugar
1 T Calvados (Research led me to believe you can substitute with brandy if you have some... I didn't so I used Triple Sec, but I bet amaretto would go great)
1 t. cornstarch (I just realised I completely forgot the cornstarch.... Oops! It turned out anyway; the amaretti really do their job well!)
4 T. apricot jam/preserves
6 hard amaretti cookies, crushed into rubble
2 T. butter
Cream
Crystal sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350F. Toss apples with zest, sugar and Calvados. Roll out pie crust into a 15-16" circle on a piece of parchment paper. Slide paper and rolled out crust onto a rimless baking sheet. Spread apricot jam in a circle in the center, leaving a one-and-a-half to two-inch border for folding up over the apples. Sprinkle jam with crushed amaretti. Arrange the apples over amaretti in concentric circles. Add the cornstarch to the liquid left in the apple bowl and sitr until dissolved; drizzle this over the apples until it disappears. Dot the apples with bits of butter and fold up and pleat the crus to make a nice rim around the apples. Brush crust with cream and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 30 minutes in the bottom third of the oven. Rotate the tart and bake for another 30 minutes in the top third of the oven, until the pastry is golden brown, the apple juices are bubbling nicely and the apples yield tenderly to a knife point. Cool for a while, and serve while still warm.

Lemon Rosemary Roast Chicken:
I sliced up half lemon and cut 8 garlic cloves in half. I then slid these under the skin in various places. I squeezed the rest of the lemon juice onto the chicken, and shoved the remains into the chicken's cavity with some rosemary and some more garlic. Then I sprinkled the bird with rosemary, salt, and pepper. I let the chicken sit in the fridge (uncovered, despite my sister's misgivings) for an hour so the skin could dry so it would get nice and crispy in the oven. Next time I roast a chicken I'm going to use a larger roaster, and more garlic and rosemary. It was roasted at 350F for the first half, 450F for the second half (because of temperature differences between baking the galette and the potatoes. This is where the second oven would've come in REAL handy).

Tasty Green Beans

• 2 pounds fresh green beans, rinsed and trimmed
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons beef bouillon
  
• 1/4 cup water
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add green beans and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.
2. Melt margarine in a large saucepan over high heat. Mixing well, add green beans, onions and garlic. Stir in soy sauce. While stirring, add bouillon and water. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes (20 minutes was too long for mine - 15 would've been plenty). Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Oven Roasted Potatoes

• 1/8 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (I omitted these as I dislike them and don't have any)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
  

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine oil, garlic, basil, marjoram, dill weed, thyme, oregano, parsley, red pepper flakes, and salt. Stir in potatoes until evenly coated. Place potatoes in a single layer on a roasting pan or baking sheet.
   
3. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, turning occasionally to brown on all sides.

My potatoes were super crispy: I used a glass pan lined with parchment paper, and I tossed the potatoes with the olive oil 45 minutes before they went into the oven - I have no idea if either of these things contributed, and won't know until I try this recipe again!