The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

As I mentioned with the Garam Masala cookies, I have never been able to master the classic Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookie. They always come out thick and cakey. That might sound great to you, but for me, I want a thin, chewy, gooey chocolate chip cookie. So while I avoided yelling at my TV over the deficit negotiations, I took up the banner of creating the perfect chocolate chip cookie. I think I've succeeded. I started with the basic Toll House recipe and threw every trick I know at it to make it better. I increased the white sugar to brown sugar ratio; I added some water to the recipe; I not only melted the butter, I browned it; I mixed the dough using only a wooden spoon; and finally I shortened the baking time by two minutes. And voila! Perfection. The browned butter really adds a nutty-buttery flavor and the cinnamon gives the cookie a little more depth in flavor than just sugar and chocolate. I suggest you mix up a batch for yourself to store in your disaster shelter you're going to have to live in once we go into default. They'll sooth your nerves when the roving motorcycle gangs start taking control in the post-default distopia we'll soon be living in...

Olive Oil Bundt Cake

Doesn't "bundt" seem like it should always be followed by an exclamation point? Bundt! cake. It's cake; you should be excited. Anyway, here's another experiment with olive oil as the lipid. It's a pretty basic recipe I found at Food & Wine. A little too basic in my opinion. The flavor was a little flat with just the orange zest. It needed some spice or herb flavoring to it...

Garam Masala Cookies

Whoa....that's a spicy cookie (add generic Italian accent if you wish). I love masala, I even add it to my meatloaf, but I was intrigued when I saw it in cookies. Cumin and coriander aren't exactly baking spices, so I wanted to see how these would taste. I thought they might be similar to spicy Christmas cookies (not chili spicy, like ginger spicy)...

Elderflower-Lime Travel Cakes

I've made these before. They're delicious and incredibly easy. I don't make them more because I don't have a food processor, so I only make them when I go to my parents. And for those avoiding wheat, these are gluten free as they are made with almond paste rather than flour. My icing never turns out as nice as the ones in the professional picture, but they taste incredible.

Ginger Peach Bread

I've been trying to use up the things in my cabinet that have been sitting there for too long, and I discovered a can of peach halves. I don't like canned peaches, and I can't remember why I bought them...maybe another attempt to recreate a strawberry-peach pie? I don't know. I also have this giant jar of apple sauce that I was suppose to use as a vegetable oil substitute, but not having made anything which required vegetable oil lately, I still have a giant jar of apple sauce hogging a large section of my refrigerator. I figured the best thing to use the peaches and sauce was a quick bread. I started with this recipe for a basic peach bread and then added my own twist to it...

Chocolate Pie

This one's for you Em.  This recipe seemed so simple that I figured it had to be delicious, especially since it was touted as coming from a true Southern cook. Not so. It tastes like chocolate eggs and is by no means "fudgy" as the recipe intro describes it. I'm thinking my oven, which I suspect is on a slow, but accelerating, decline, overcooked this one. I pulled it out 10 min earlier than the recipe called for and it looked a little overdone already. I also replaced the sugar with Splenda, so maybe this Southern pie refused to be made healthier...

Bacon-Bourbon-Pecan Brownies

Because butter and chocolate apparently aren't enough in brownies, why not add bacon grease? I had to give these brownies a go as soon as I read the recipe in Food&Wine. I think this is about as manly as dessert is going to get, and it includes three of my favorite things. 

This has to be the messiest thing I've made in a while. I think half my kitchen is now spattered with bacon grease and brownie batter. I had to fry the bacon, melt the chocolate, and then mix it all together in several steps. It's a good thing they turned out alright...

My Perfect Manhattan

Some of you may know that my drink of choice is a Manhattan. I doubt any of you know that there once was actually a Manhattan glass, which looked like a narrow martini glass. After about a year of looking, I finally found something approximating a true Manhattan, and all for $14 for a set of 5. Hooray ebay! (and ignorant estate sale urchins!) (Tip: look for...

Key Lime Cheesecake

Happy birthday 'merica.  I had a great time on the 4th with some old friends from Abilene. We grilled out at Katherine (Cox) and Taylor Ansley's (of Dinner with Taylor and Katherine fame) and ate very well with grilled flank steak, brats, sliders, delicious potato salad and broccoli slaw, and watermelon, and then Katherine's homemade cookies and cream ice cream and my mini key lime cheesecakes for dessert...

Lemon-Thyme Olive Oil Cake with Balsamic Whipped Cream Frosting

About a month ago I ran into Kathleen at Target when we both happened to be visiting our families in Abilene. Having not seen each other in years and realizing we were both now in Dallas we planned to hang out. She's a busy lady though, so I promised her cake as a means of tempting her to venture downtown to see me. I ended up making several mini-cake (no, not cupcake) versions of this recipe for lemon-thyme cupcakes. After my defeat with the cornmeal and rosemary...