Earlier this week my husband asked me to make him some cookies as a study treat. Normally he’s more specific as he has a deep love of chocolate chip cookies. However, this week he left it up to me to “surprise” him with something delicious. We didn’t have much butter on hand though so I was forced to take a trip through the interwebs and my cookbooks to find a butter-free cookie recipe for which I already had all of the ingredients on hand. Oh, it also needed to not call for too many eggs cause we were running low on those as well. Can we say – it’s grocery shopping week?
Also, how weird a week of baking was this for me? First a vegan bake and now this? I’m so used to using tons of butter, since I’m usually hanging out in the kitchen making full-puff pastry from scratch. No butter??! Who am I right now? And what strange Twilight Zone universe have I entered? I don’t remember looking through the Black Mirror!
I’m usually quite seasonal with most things I do, from wines I drink, to candles and fragrances used in the home. However, when your assortment of ingredients in the pantry are made up of a hodge podge of things from either previous bakes or picking up an ingredient here and another ingredient there in preparation for a particular recipe (why can I never get all of my ingredients from the same place?), you’re forced to work with what you have, and are forced to find the recipe that fits your ingredients rather than the other way around.
Initially when going through my books I was tempted to make almond meringues, but… that’s not a cookie. So I kept looking. Eventually I came across a crinkle cookie recipe with a few variations on it by Miriam Pascal over at www.overtimecook.com. I saw that I had ingredients to make a few of these and decided on two, the Coffee Crinkle Cookies and the Pumpkin Spice Crinkle Cookies . {Pumpkin Cookies pictured above}
Apparently my husband loves a soft cookie so this worked out perfectly. I was hesitant because I’m not a big sweets eater and whenever I see desserts that are coated in powdered sugar or other forms of sugar for that matter – I always cringe just a little because it seems excessive to me. But, I don’t like sweets like that. So in my mind I’m always going “Why would you ruin a perfectly good cookie!!??! Nooooo!!!!” All that being said – I know that’s how you get the crinkle effect on crinkle cookies, so it’s kind of a necessary evil, and it doesn’t have to be excessive.
The coffee cookies turned out pretty good, if not a little chewy for my taste. I personally felt that they could use a little more flavor and I have some ideas, so there may be variations from me coming out later on this after some experimenting — most likely a boozy take?!! The pumpkin ones were my favorite though, even though it felt like I was cheating on winter with fall (which is my favorite season). I don’t usually think pumpkins the week of Valentine’s Day. I am however kind of in love with these at the moment. The only thing I did different from the recipe was that I put the dough in the fridge for about 6 hours before baking. I originally did a small 6 cookie test batch in the morning before having to go about my day, just to see how they would come out and test the taste to see if I wanted to adjust anything. That refrigeration made a big difference! The dough was so much easier to work with and the cookies came out fluffier and softer, not chewy. They were almost cake like in their texture which was lovely. I will definitely be making these again – with some small flavor adjustments.
No matter what you’re doing this weekend, whether it’s over-indulging in tons of chocolate, having a romantic dinner out, or in, or kicking it with your besties – remember that a calendar shouldn’t dictate when you show the people you love that you care for and appreciate them. So maybe bake someone a surprise tin of cookies next week- to encourage them in their studies, to say thank you for being a part of my life, or even to say “hey, what about a Netflix and chill night?”. After all, you don’t have to be Santa to appreciate some great cookies. 😉
This is great! I really need to read you Blog posts more often.