Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies

Another weekend, another opportunity to bake! I’ve been on a Good Eat’s kick and I’ve been slowly re-watching all 14 of the original season before I start the newest one. I’ve only made it up to season 7 so far so it’s slow going but it’s worth it. Good Eats was one of my favorite shows growing up and it fostered this love of cooking and baking but also the science behind it. Not to mention Alton Brown’s mix of sarcastic and witty is just a great way to live life. So this week’s recipe is from season 7 and it’s the Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheel Cookie.

I’m not going to lie, these cookies were a bit of a challenge. The dough was a little dry for me which made it difficult to roll but I think that could be help by rolling it out in a warmer place (my kitchen is freezing) and monitoring the amount of time I refrigerate everything for. It got to be a little frustrating but I got it to work with a little effort and some patience.

These guys came out a little more peppermint-y than chocolate-y which I think is fine. I am still getting used to my oven and I will admit that I over-baked them slightly. The tops look perfect but the bottoms are quite crisp and while it’s not burnt, it’s a little tough. I did eat a slightly thinner end piece so I’m hoping the middle cuts are a little softer but with my oven, I’d opt for a 9-10 min bake instead of the instructed 12mins. I was just deceived by the light color tops and should’ve done a better job checking them.

So far I’ve gotten that they’re a good paring with coffee (to soften them) and with a little more baking they could hit biscotti hardness which also works. I guess I ended up in the middle being not quite too hard but also not soft either. Life’s a balance.

Overall, these aren’t bad and they’re a good doable challenge compared to other easy roll and cut recipes. They just take some patience and perseverance but they could probably also used a little more warmth and a little less time in the oven.

Orecchiette with Bacon, Black-Eyed Peas and Spinach

I have no idea what I’m doing but I’m doing it! I have these stacks of food magazines from years ago and before I moved this summer I sifted through all of them an make recipe cards with things I’d like to try to make. Now that I have a kitchen and have decided to learn to feed myself things are coming along. I should really be doing half portions of everything because that yields enough for me but the accidental meal prep is also fantastic because I always seem to forget about lunch.

This week I’ve shuffled through the stack of recipe cards and the the one on top is from Food & Wine. I’m a fan of theirs obviously and figured I’d give this a go. I substituted the black eye peas for just regular black beans and I actually wilted my spinach a little. I’m cutting it close with that golden hour light to finish the dish but it worked out.

I’ll top with bacon and cheese each day when I sit down for lunch. Pretty excited about how this one turned out.

Ratatouille

Ever since the pixar movie came out in 2007 I’ve wanted to make a ratatouille, of course. But while it’s been on my list, it’s never made it to my kitchen. Whenever I’m living with my parents, cooking doesn’t usually happen too much. My dad is a chef and neither of my parents really eat ‘American’ food so I’m left to eat anything I cook while also being served their food left and right. But I’ve finally done it. I’ve pushed myself to actually cook this now that I don’t have mountains of homework and an actual kitchen that’s all mine.

We also went to the farmers’ market on Saturday and I found amazing zucchini and yellow squash to use and I should’ve bought eggplant and tomatoes while I was at it but of course I didn’t plan ahead so I ended up with a trip to the grocery store for the rest of my ingredients.

I googled ratatouille and found a couple different recipes and pieced them together so I don’t have anything specific to share. I bought myself a cute overly-expensive mandolin/grater and sliced the eggplant and tomatoes by hand and lined them up in my square casserole dish and called it a day. It actually came out a lot nicer than I was expecting and I’m pretty proud of myself for finally making it. Of course one eggplant, one zucchini, one yellow squash, and a whole bunch of tomatoes means I’ll be eating ratatouille for the next two weeks but at least lunch is all set!

The Best Blueberry Muffins

I still have a whole container of gingerbread crinkle cookies sitting at Caleb’s house but they don’t make for my kind of breakfast so this week I decided I would make blueberry muffins so my stomach won’t grumble up a storm while I’m at work trying to keep my eyes open at 6:30am.

My friend Julia from high school gave me the recipe for her family’s blueberry muffins that I’m in love with. Back when we were in middle and high school her mom would bake these muffins with the perfectly crisp tops that popped right off full of huge blueberries melting inside. Of course the muffin tops are the best part so you save those for last and you eat the bottoms while the sugary crisp tops wait for you on your plate. Then when that’s done you get to take a bite of this amazing piece of pastry. It’s the best. These muffins are seriously my favorite, and I’m not a huge breakfast/sweets person. The cinnamon sugar balance is so good and makes me so happy. I’m eating one right now at my desk trying not to get crumbs all over the place.

Of course it’s not my recipe to give so it’ll have to be a secret that I keep. But rest assured, even if you have the recipe, these guys are hard to make so perfectly. Julia’s mom has obviously had years of experience but maybe if I’m making these every couple of weeks I’ll be able to nail them down. As it is right now I can’t get those perfect tops which is the reason to eat these things in the first place but I’ll get there. I just need to fill my tins with a little more batter so that they puff over the top and actually make a removable top that doesn’t get stuck to the paper liner. It’s a work in progress, a very delicious one. I also modified these this time with some raspberries so its a blueberry raspberry muffin which I think is a great combination. There just happened to be a sale at the grocery store for BOGO berries so I figured a little experimentation can’t hurt. It came out tasty and since the blueberries are going out of season with this wrap up of summer, they’re a little sour and the raspberries helped balance it out because for whatever reason, they’re still sweet. While this batch isn’t perfect yet, they’ll get there, I just need a few more tries.

Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies

I’ve caught up on all my past posts and found myself with very little to add to the blog and a handful of extra time just sitting around. Unfortunately, Cortland is a very small town with very few places to eat that make me excited to write about. Diners and chains are fun but not always noteworthy. So I’ve decided to bring back baking to fill my time and give me some fodder. Hope you guys are ready for it.

First up are some Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies. I’ve never made crinkle cookies before so this was a fun experiment and actually really simple. The dough is made and formed into balls and rolled in powdered sugar and when they bake, they crinkle open and flatten out to make these really cute cracks. Mine didn’t quite flatten out which seems to be a regular problem I’m having with cookies in general but they still taste good and crack open a little and with some help after they come out of the oven I can manually flatten slightly. They are pretty dense and flavorful with molasses, ginger, cinnamon, and clove all working together. I’m really glad I portioned them out into small cookies because they’re heavy but they’re still good.

The best part of these is they smell so good, making my apartment warm and ginger-y. They do require 2 hours to chill in the refrigerator before baking so that time needs to be accounted for but it’s a nice recipe that’s easy to follow and yields acceptable results and warm fall/winter smells.