'Tis the Season...

...to bake as if you suffered from a life-threatening nutritional deficiency of butter, sugar and vanilla.

The top goodies were made for a friend from Ohio (Buckeyes, get it?) and the bottom goodies were made for my son's holiday celebration at school.

Frankly, I thought six year olds would get more of a kick out of dark chocolate and mint chip cookies, but I think they were pretty overwhelmed with holiday cheer  by the time parents showed up with treats at 2:00. I dutifully plated them out and an hour later put 90% of them back into their air-tight portable home and handed that to the room mom with my holiday blessings. She really wanted them, but I felt a little cheap. She's been an awesome room mom and deserves more. I'll try to make it up to her by the end of the year.

Last weekend the son was in a holiday performance and the parents were asked to provide cookies for the reception afterward. If I'd known how many people were involved in the performance and reception, I would have gone down to Costco and bought 5,000 commercial somethings. Instead, I baked my heart out and made over 10 dozen Chocolate Chip Oatmeal and Old Fashioned Christmas Butter Cookies:

I don't regret it, of course, but I like a more intimate setting when I and my cookies meet new people. We just want to build a relationship, you know?

I have high hopes for finishing the 1940s in the Gourmet Cookie Book tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes!

June 1948: Jelly Centers

These are a keeper, if you ask my son. I'm not a fan of jam except in the close company of peanut butter, but these were a huge hit with everyone else.

The cookies are buttery rich with a hint of lemon, and I substituted toasted coconut for chopped blanched almonds on top. No reason for that really, except I had some toasted coconut sitting around and wanted to use it up.

You could mix up the flavors in any combination, really. Raspberry jam tasted delicious with the lemon/coconut cookie, but lemon curd might have been fun to try also. I have apricot/pineapple jam in the fridge that probably needs a simple vanilla cookie underneath. Almonds optional on that one.

They are really pretty and once again my photos don't do them justice. I'd happily and proudly serve these to guests, they look and taste great.

The Universe Wants Me to Exercise

From my horoscope today: "Physically, continue to do sport, given that regularity is much more important than intensity."

Thank you Master Rao for that sage advice. If you give me a housekeeper, a cook, a second car, AND a chauffeur I might have the time, energy, and inclination to "continue to do sport."

OK. Thanks. Bye Bye.

Sunday Weigh In - First Things First

Two week net: -2.2
Total: -12

You may have noticed I skipped a week for weigh-ins. I was in Chicago on Sunday and my tall and naturally thin sister doesn't own a scale. In typical weight-denial fashion, I decided to give myself a break and skip the weigh-in. That, coupled with the cookies, bread, and homemade ravioli in Chicago, resulted unsurprisingly in a net gain that, quite frankly, I didn't want to write down.  

That's a long way of saying that you can ignore the man behind the curtain and just go along with me here. Since I last weighed in here, I have lost 2.2 pounds (moderately sarcastic YAHOO!) and since I began tracking I have lost 12 pounds (bigger, more realistic YAHOO!). 

The funny things about all these numbers is that you can only go so far with them. I want to calculate my per week average loss (ok, I DID calculate that and it's about 1.3 pounds per week) but that doesn't tell me anything helpful because the goal is the bottom line (12 pounds of approximately 60). Looking at it per week treats all weeks equal, and that's just not real. Some weeks are up and some are down, and sometimes I have control over that (points baby, points) and sometimes I don't (hormones, namely). 

Bottom line: It's all about the bottom line, and the ends DO justify the means. I have a net loss of 12 pounds so far and that's 12 pounds more than if I'd done nothing at all. I'm eating better and exercising more and those are accomplishments worth celebrating. So YAHOO for me and for all of us working hard on personal goals, whatever they may be.  

Baking in Chicago with my Sister

I took a long weekend and went to Chicago to visit my sister and her growing family. Her second child, a boy, is 6 weeks old and was as amazing as newborns are supposed to be.

To welcome this beautiful boy to the world, I baked the boots off his momma's kitchen. We made three, yes THREE, batches of my "signature" chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and one HUGE  batch of the Old Fashioned Christmas Butter Cookies. 

This was a small, staged sampling. Rest assured there were about a million more cookies than I've shown you. There are also small containers of chocolate chip oatmeal cookie dough stashed in her freezer for future use: 

Then we made artisan bread, which didn't look exactly like this but will when my sister figures out the optimal setting for her oven: 

She has a baking-with-yeast phobia, so I walked her through the basics of making the simple dough, letting it rise, then letting it rise/rest/relax again, then baking it in a hot oven with steam. That's all that stands between you and delicious homemade bread, BTW. We opened early Christmas presents the night before I left, and not surprisingly I gave her her own copy of the book -- now we both have copies since she gave me mine for Christmas last year. 

The chocolate chip oatmeal cookies served a very noble purpose on Monday afternoon. Shortly after I left for the airport, her heat quit working on a day that was predicted to peak at 18 degrees. She called her heating guy and told him he'd get cookies if he bumped her to the top of his list. He arrived within the hour and fixed her right up!  Not only are these cookies tasty, they make great currency too!  

Sunday Weigh-In... on Sunday, how novel

This week: +1.7
Total: -9.8

Meh. Whatever. It was Thanksgiving. It was a fantastic meal. I have a TON of leftovers. And it was a wild ride, emotionally speaking, so I'm ok with the numbers this week. Today I walked for 40 minutes and that felt great.

You may have noticed there weren't any cookie updates. I've been doing more run-of-the mill baking. I made a batch of the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for friends who came over to visit after dinner last night. Then I sent all the rest of the batch home with them as an early Christmas present. So I'm still mindful of The Cookie and The Challenge, but I'm not blogging as much about it and I'm not making any progress in The Book.

There's a lot going on. It's Holiday Season. I'm going to Chicago this weekend to see my sister, brother in law, niece, and brand-spanking-new nephew. I'm nearly done with the Christmas shopping. And there's a fair amount of Family Drama (extended, not immediate) going on in the background. This is all just a way of saying that I'm making progress in some ways and I'm treading water in others, but I'm mostly ok and I don't have a lot of baking or weight loss topics to blog about. Sorry to disappoint.

Weigh-in (success) and an update, but no cookies

This week: -0.9
Total: -11.5

Not bad. Really, not bad at all. I'm not going to make my Thanksgiving challenge, but I'm still losing and that's the point. No Gourmet Cookies this week or last, it's all about Thanksgiving. Frankly, that has me pretty stressed out so I'm not holding myself to extra high expectations regarding weight.

I could go on at length here about the family stress that is Thanksgiving, but I'm just not going to blog that much about my personal life. At least not the seriously neurotic parts of my personal life. If I write THOSE stories I'm going to publish a book and make a gazillion dollars and sell the movie rights to Matt Damon who can play my ex-husband. But I digress...

I will say that I've finished some cool Christmas knitting and craft projects, but I can't post pictures because the gift recipients' mother reads this blog and I don't want to ruin the surprise. I'm also getting close to finishing a pair of socks for my son. They are special toe-socks that can be worn with flip-flops, the footwear of choice around these parts. I'm nearly done with my Christmas shopping, and that brings me great pride and even more relief.

I've been reading like a fiend lately. I'm working my way through The World is Flat which is highly readable since Friedman is a journalist, but also very meaty (to me) so must be taken in small bites. This book is referenced in so many other books and articles that I decided I need to know what it says to understand the context of discussions about The World We Live In. It's very interesting and I highly recommend it.

I'm also working my way through The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--and What We Can Do About It. Not because I'm unhappy with my child's education this year, but because I want to understand the educational paradigms that influence my child's education over the next 12 years. Next up on this topic is 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times. My kiddo's (expensive private) school is all about 21st Century Skills and I really don't know what those are.

I flew through The Cardturner by Louis Sachar this weekend, mostly to see if I wanted to give it to someone as a gift for Christmas. I do and I will, and it was a great read if you're even remotely interested in young adult literature (Sachar is an amazing storyteller) or the game of bridge. This book tells a wonderful story in its own right, but it's also a loving ode to the game of bridge.

Lastly, I finished The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie just last night. It's also shelved in young adult literature, but Alexie is such a great writer that this story can be enjoyed by anyone. It's narrated by Junior, a 14 year old Spokane Indian, and illustrated with Junior's cartoons about life and the people around him.

So my dear friends, I wanted to give you the weigh-in stats and a little update about what I'm doing besides baking cookies. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Sunday Weigh In

This week: -0.2
Total: -10.6

Sound familiar? I know. 

Last week was just too much. Too much Old Fashioned Christmas Butter Cookie. They were awesome, but there were far too many of them. I took them to my work, I sent them to work with the husband, and I took them to a BBQ.  And there were still too many around for me to exist safely in my own home. 

I did manage to exercise three times for 30 minutes, and that's better than zero times, right? I'm tracking points this week and exercising too (rode my bike today) and remain optimistic that I'll have a bigger loss to report next week.  

But man, oh man, did those cookies try my will. In fact I think they temporarily broke my will. I let a cookie rule my life. I turned it all over to a cookie. Humbling. 

But it was one seriously good cookie. More later. 

Happily ever after

Made more cookies today with my best small helper. 

We made sunshine stamps,

and we made pink bunnies, 

and we made moon and stars.

And we all lived happily ever after.

Until 8 PM tonight when "we" went out to the garage 

and pumped away on the elliptical machine for 30 minutes. 

Ugh. 

But the cookies made it worth my while.

Oh! My! Good! Ness!

I am swooning - absolutely SWOONING - over the Old-Fashioned Christmas Butter Cookies. 

From start to finish these are a hoot. The recipe calls for 3 hard-cooked egg yolks. In a cookie. Who's ever heard of such a thing? 

You press the yolks through a fine sieve and get the strangest velvety stuff that evidently works magic in cookie dough. You also add three raw yolks. That's a lot of egg yolks by any measure. 

The recipe gives you a choice of adding the zest of half a lemon or 2 teaspoons brandy. I opted for lemon zest but will try the grown-up version next time. And believe you me, there will be many, many next times for these goodies. 

The dough chills pretty firm but rolls out without too much work or crumbly mess. Even at 1/16" (yes, I measured) the dough holds its shape well enough to transfer easily to a cookie sheet. 

On baking, these cookies hold their cut shape beautifully. The cookies pictured above were made with William Sonoma's Circus Cookie Cutters which are not, contrary to their advertised promise, kid-friendly and easy to use. 

I've tried these crazy cutters on several cookie doughs and failed every single time. The dough sticks in the delicate animal limbs of the cutters. The decorative impressions are too shallow or deep. The cookies inflate on baking and you lose the animal detail. But they worked on this dough like a charm. A charm from Tiffany's. Did I say swooning already?

On to taste. And texture. Deliciously buttery. And deliciously flaky. And 100% awesomely yummy. They taste old-fashioned by today's standards, but they earned that title in December 1947!  These taste like love coming out of a warm oven with a tall glass of milk chaser. 

If I weren't professionally committed to copyright law I would type out the entire recipe right here right, now because you have got to make these yourself and share the love. 

Here's the final kicker, and if you've read old posts you know how I love this detail. The last sentence of the instructions read "...bake in a moderate oven... removing each cooky as it is ready." I love, love, LOVE cooky instead of cookie. I might start using it myself. 

Sunday Weigh In

This week: -0.2
Total: -10.4

Weight Watchers says: "You lost again this week! Congratulations, and keep doing exactly what you’re doing! See you next week."

I'm totally over exaggerated (exasperated?) enthusiasm and really need a kick in the pants. Sure, I'm happier having lost 0.2 lbs than gaining 0.2 lbs, but c'mon, it's not awesome. Who are we kidding. 

So. I've set a mini-goal to lose 6 pounds by Thanksgiving. Mini-goals are meant to inspire you to break routines and push yourself beyond whatever has you stuck. Six pounds is reasonable but will require a little extra OOMPH on my part. 

I'm doing ok with eating, mostly, but I'm still not exercising. So in preparation for Thanksgiving I will do *better* with eating, mostly, and I will exercise. I can't commit to being *excellent* with eating since I'm also committed to the cookies. Such is life. I'm willing to live with that eensy-weensy self-imposed handicap. 

And I'm proud to report - drumroll please - that I did exercise tonight. I used the elliptical machine that's otherwise gathering dust in my garage and I listed to half of a This American Life podcast (Superpowers, if you follow TAL). Elliptical machines are deadly dull, but it's dark so early now and I'm not likely to exercise during the day because I'm schedule challenged. Anyhow, I think it's good for the other members of the home team to have time together  without me, so after dinner works ok for now. 

And I also packed a lunch today, which helps a ton with the eating. I get too hungry at work if I don't go prepared. And then I eat too much unhealthy stuff. Today I had a delightful sandwich with leftover roasted chicken, cucumber, and Laughing Cow cheese on a toasted English muffin. We have a toaster in the lunch room, I love sandwiches on toasted English muffins. 

On the cookie front, I was tragically disappointed by the macaroons I prepared for First Friday. Instead of improving with age as they had done last time, this batch hardened to the point of being embarrassing and I had to substitute The Pioneer Woman's Sugar Cookies at the last minute. They really are the world's best sugar cookies, but still. I wanted macaroons. 

I made date bars and they were wonderful. They looked wonderful too but I forgot to take a picture. Darn. 

So I'm a little torn on moving forward in the Cookie Book - December 1947 is Old Fashioned Christmas Butter Cookies - veresus obsessing over macaroons and making all the recipes I linked to in my last post. 

In the spirit of the mini-challenge, however, I think I should leave the macaroons behind and move forward. I'm a little stuck on macaroons and need to break through that routine. OFCBC, here I come!  

Cajun Macaroon for First Friday

We have a small gathering at my house on the First Friday of most months, so I made Cajun Macaroons today (Wednesday) so they will be at their prime on Friday night. I blogged about these gems here and here, and after tonight it's safe to say I'm a little obsessed.

Here are the cookies on their way into the oven:

And here they are after cooling:

The Gourmet Cookie Book has the 1941 recipe, and Gourmet continued to publish variations on the original in 1997, 2001, and 2007 (yummy photo here).  I really LOVE the flavor of these macaroons, but I'm not wild about the texture. As discussed earlier, I beat the egg whites harder this time, and I think that was an improvement. But they're still so flat, and that takes some of the yummy out of eating them. I'm happy enough to serve them to friends, but I'm going to keep trying for the perfect recipe.

In other news, I ate so much of my little man-child's Halloween stash yesterday that I wanted to puke most of the night. I had a tummy ache all day and have a headache still tonight. I'm cured of the urge to sugar binge and want to eat nothing but lean protein and vegetables for a few days. But he had a great Halloween and will  happily eat and effortlessly metabolize all that candy by the weekend. If he doesn't finish off his stash, I might try to talk him into this to get it out of the house. (Thanks to Jennifer for turning me on to the Picky Palate blog. I don't have picky eaters but the site has lots of great recipes!)

P.S. I'm thinking about making date bars for First Friday too, those have quickly become a new house favorite!

Sunday Weigh In

This week: -0.6
Total: -10.2

Exaggerated optimism first. WOW! I lost weight yet again! I've lost over 10 pounds! And I've lost 5% of my starting weight! 

But I'm not thrilled. I'd like to be losing more and faster - about 2 pounds a week. I've kept within my point limits, and that's good. But I haven't been exercising, so I've got to work that in. And I didn't eat really well this week, I had a lot of empty calories and too much impulse eating. Not enough nutrient-rich food. 

Eat less. Eat better. More move. That's all there is to it. 

I'm actually liking the eat less part. When I eat too much I REALLY feel awful with a full, bloated tummy. My tummy is troublesome on a good day, and it's generally been a lot healthier. 

When I plan ahead, I eat better. But that's hard for me to do consistently. There's a lot I could say about that, but I'll save it until I have a message and not a rant. 

Moving more? We went for a family walk at the beach today, and that was awesome. Gorgeous weather, good beach combing finds, and the father/son team played football the whole way out and back on the sand. Now if only we could do that every night. We live in paradise, we sure ought to do it more!  

Enough for Sunday. Enough for October. I'm ready to move ahead and do better in November. 

Moravian Cookies are a Keeper

The picture doesn't capture how amazingly thin I managed to roll these. The Cookie Book recommends 1/16" and I was nearly there. 

I got out a ruler and measured. I'm like that. 

They are indeed yummy and hard to describe. The flavors just aren't what we're used to in Betty Crocker Cookieland. 

Sherry is super sweet, but also has a sort of sassy kick. It's not sweet like whiskey or amaretto, it has a little more depth of flavor. The cinnamon/nutmeg combo just makes you think "apple pie", but these taste nothing like apple pie. So the cookie tastes interesting and unpredictable, and that makes you want to eat a few more while your mouth  figures out the flavors. 

In the oven they behaved like a two year old - they required constant attention. I kid you not, they could go from looking slightly undercooked to completely brown in 30 seconds. I overcooked two baking trays of cookies before I got the hang of it, but I saved those because they're still good with a cup of coffee. 

The original recipe left the cookies unfrosted, and I understand why the 2010 editors added frosting. They're really plain looking unfrosted. I still have some dough in the fridge and am thinking a simple powdered sugar glaze with colored sugar might be enough to dress the up. Or maybe even a simple egg wash before they go in the oven. The cookies can stand on their own taste wise - and they might even be better without the complication of icing - but they could stand a little spit and polish before serving. 

All in all, a keeper of a cookie. I'll make these again gladly. 

Moravia, whisks, and website design

I'm working on the Moravian White Christmas Cookies (December 1946). The dough is chillin' and I'm feeling good. I wish I'd taken pictures, because this was really pretty dough. There's a lot of beating that needs to happen, so today I'm very grateful for the Kitchen Aid stand mixer. 


The butter and sugar gets creamed until it is light (paddle attachment, 5 minutes) then four well beaten eggs (hand whisk, 2 minutes) get mixed in (whisk attachment, 5 minutes). The result is fluffy and light and really beautiful. Then flour, cinnamon, nutmeg alternating with sherry (wow!) are added (paddle attachment, 5 minutes) and that brings us to the Now. 


I should have taken pictures. It would save me a thousand words. Maybe I'll make these again over the weekend if the taste lives up to my hopes. 


While we're waiting for the chilling to occur, I want to share two things. Neither is trivial. 


First, my whisk.  

I bought this silly looking thing from the William Sonoma catalog over ten years ago. It was sort of a gag gift for someone else because it was so silly looking. Later, I was at the recipient's house and the power went out before she'd whipped the cream to go with dessert. I was handed the silly whisk and a bowl of cream and told to Whip It. Much to my amazement, I had whipped cream in no time. I went out and bought one for myself and have never regretted it. Turns out, you can't judge a whip by its cover. 

Secondly, Moravia. 

If you're smarter than me and know where Moravia is already, you can skip this part. But I'm a fairly well-educated person and I finally admitted to myself and my stand mixer that I didn't know where it was. 

According to Wikipedia, Moravia was a historical region of Central Europe in the the eastern part of what is now the Czech Republic. At times the Moravian Empire also included area that is now part of Poland and Slovakia. It's name comes from the Morava River. Today, Moravia is part of the Czech Republic. 

The Moravia Tourism website tell us that there are 8 sites in Moravia on the UNESCO World Heritage List. That's really something. 

If you're interested, the Discover CZ website has details on each site, but it's kind of hard to navigate that site. I took a class in library school on cultural differences related to  website design and information management, and the Discover CZ site would be an interesting case study of culture influencing design (she says having spent exactly 45 seconds on the site...). The layout is hard for me to navigate, but there's clearly an architecture to the information that makes sense. 

Gotta run now to a Halloween party at the wee man's school. I'll update later on the cookies - with pictures! 

Sunday (on Monday) Weigh In

This week: -0.2
Total: -9.6

First impressions: good enough 

I wasn't hugely diligent with point tracking this week and just tried to eat well once I had an appetite. On Saturday I baked cookies for my uncle - about 4 dozen each of peanut butter and chocolate chip oatmeal. He loved them, ate them, shared them, and is raving about them to everyone, so it was worth every BLT point. And that night I went to a wedding with yummy food and yummy wine and yummy cake. It was bound to be an uninspiring week for weight loss.

Which is where the Untiring Optimism of WW comes it. I'm back on the wagon, tracking points and making good choices. I ordered the "fresco" tacos for lunch today at Taco Bell (I will not be made to feel guilty about The Bell, don't even try), and I had an apple for snack this afternoon. I ate a reasonable but small amount of dinner. And I even walked after lunch today.

I'm finally on the mend health-wise and I feel SO MUCH better than I have these past few weeks. I'm still only about 90% but I don't feel infirmed any longer.

So. That's that. More tomorrow :-)

Baking Detour - Breads

I've been channeling my creative energies this week into (1) knitting in front of the TV while my family watches baseball and (2) baking bread. 

If you own one book about bread, it should be this one. Yes, I want you to click the link and visit their site. Buy the book. Read the book. Love the book. Bake the bread. You won't regret it. 

Here is the challah: 

And here is the buttermilk bread: 

Tomorrow is cookie day, and probably more bread. I'm visiting my uncle on Sunday and want to take a lot of goodies. He loves peanut butter, so I have Betty Crocker's version of PB cookies chilling in the fridge. He also loves oatmeal, so I will make the classic Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookies. I'll make some bread, not sure which loaf. Maybe both. He's ill and not eating a lot at the moment. I know these aren't spectacular choices nutrition-wise, but I'm going for high-calorie at this point. Eating anything is better than eating nothing. At least for now. 

I'll pick up with the Gourmet Cookie Book next week. My son is excited about the Moravian Christmas Cookies (1946) because they involve cookie cutters and icing. He's an easy man to please.

Date Bars YUM!

These were surprisingly FANTASTIC! I made these only because they came next in the book (1945), and I can honestly say that very little else would have motivated me to ever bake a date bar. 

But I will make these again and again (the home team testers loved them), and I will take them proudly into work. Or I will next time I make them, because they are all gone at home.And honestly, I'm thinking about entering them in the fair next year. They're THAT good!

I fed one today to a little boy who didn't much care for dates and didn't like walnuts in his food... and he came back for seconds and then thirds. That's how surprisingly good they are.

I had a Super Helper with this one. First we turned the graham crackers into crumbs:

 

Then we poured them into the pan and gloated over our success: 

And then we took bad pictures fast because we all wanted to eat them! 

They were so easy to make, and I would say they are nearly impossible to mess up. I made one lazy mistake that I will correct next time. The recipe calls for a 9x9 pan, and I used an 8x8 pan instead. I don't own a 9x9 pan and didn't think hard enough about the math.

9x9 = 81. The cookie batter needs to spread over 81 square inches to bake well. But like I said, I don't own one of these.

I have these:
8x8 = 64 (-17)
7x11 = 77 (-4)
9x12 = 108 (+27)

I also have these in round, remember Area = pi * (Radius squared):

9" = 63.5 (-17.5)

10" = 78.5 (-2.5)

The 10" round is closest, but I'd have to cut the date squares into date wedges, and that's just not cool. So next time I will use the 7x11... or I'll use this as an excuse to buy a 9x9 pan. 

Because I need another baking pan in my kitchen like a hole in the head. Yeah. Right.

Sunday Weigh-In

This week (week 5): -3.4 pounds
Total: -9.4 pounds

First impressions: YAHOO! 

While this looks pretty darn good, I've been living on toast and tea the last two days because I'm sick and have no appetite. So I must remain vigilant as I get healthier this week (knock on wood) and start eating normal food again. 

By vigilant, I mean mindful of the point/nutrition value of the foods I eat. I learned the hard way this afternoon that 2 Tablespoons of my peanut butter is 5 points, that's almost a one-fourth of all the points I get to eat today. And while I love, love, LOVE my PB, I don't know that I love it THAT much. There are healthier PBs out there, so I'll look into that when I'm at the store next. 

I know that WW isn't for everyone, but what you're seeing here is that it makes me think about every single thing I put in my mouth (except fingernails and other non-nutritional items that will go unnamed here). I need more awareness in that regard, and WW gives me the structure to develop that. 

Eat less. Eat better. Move more. (And then it's ok to bake the cookies.)

Old friends are best, sometimes

I went back to an old standby today, the original and award-winning Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie. I've been making this cookie since college, and I won the People's Choice award at the Monterey County Fair with this delight.

My motives were many. 

I'm still sick and wanted some comfort food. More importantly, a friend went into the hospital early this morning (more like late last night) to deliver her baby. By mid-afternoon she was still laboring. I figured her family and friends would welcome the sustenance. I don't know if she'll want to or be allowed to eat during labor. But if she does/is, then this will be a mighty treat for her too. 

I managed to bake these without a single BLT (Bite, Lick or Taste in WW jargon) because I wore a medical mask. I didn't want to contaminate the cookies with any of my germs. I felt incredibly virtuous afater accomplishing that task, but I ate far too many of them once they cooled. Darn. 

I am still under my points limit thanks to the weekly allowance and activity points, so I'm hopeful for my weigh-in tomorrow. Eating a lot of sugar the nght before a weigh-in is never smart. But I really love these cookies (yes, LOVE) so it was worth it. This time.

Challenge** check-in

As much as I love the Cookie* part of this project, I'm trying to love the Challenge** part of the project too. Dinner is still a challenge, but I've made good progress on breakfast and lunch. Lunch today was yummy and only 5 points. (I get 24 points per day, plus earned exercise points and all or some of the weekly allowance points. It's not as complicated as I just made it sound.)

Light salami (1) sandwich on English muffin (2) with Laughing Cow (1) cheese. Tomatoes (0) and snap peas (1) on the side.

Incidentally, I went to the doctor today and got on the scale with NO FEAR. They never let patients skip this step (I've asked) and the last time I was there I closed my eyes so I wouldn't see the display. That's the good news. 

The bad news is that I now have two antibiotics and an inhaler for double ear infections, a sinus infection, and congested lungs. Sigh. I'm going to lay off the cookies for a day or two and get some rest. 

Or maybe not. Because I've been thinking...

I'd like to try the macaroons again with the beaten eggs. And I still have half a batch of Scotch Oat Crunchies in the fridge I could bake up. And I want to try the cinnamon sugar crisps with less molasses and more cinnamon. And I have some new ideas about the Wookie (bake in Springform pan, pour fudge/hot frosting on cake while still in pan, stack and cover with cream cheese frosting).

So much baking, so little time!

There's no such thing as too much flour

The Cinnamon Sugar Crisp dough is approximately 55% butter, 44% molasses, and 1% flour, so this is another dough that must be refrigerated before (and sometimes during) handling. Really, it works better if you just slip it into the freezer and bypass the fridge altogether. The book won't tell you that though. I'm your baking BFF.

I learned tonight, while rolling out this fragile and incredibly sticky dough, that There is No Such Thing As Too Much Flour: 

I also realized that I don't make a lot of cookies that need to be rolled and handled delicately. This is a stretch for me, and it's probably a good one to make since my son LOVES cookie cutters and all the shenanigans that go along with them. I cringe every Christmas when we pull the cutters out, but with all this practice I'll have a whole new bag 'o tricks next time.

I made three sizes of cookies: medium hearts, small hearts and in-betweenish circles. I think the smaller shapes do the cookie right. The larger shapes will get too crisp by the time they're cooked through and through.

Small hearts ready to go in the oven

Medium hearts around a small circle

Yet again, The Editors warned me that these improve with age, and man-oh-man can I already taste that happening. The flavor changes dramatically as they cool, and then again as they lay around on the kitchen counter before you get your lazy act together and put them in something airtight for the evening.

Saving cookies for later is an entirely new and not altogether unpleasant experience for me.

Cookie Challenge Detour: The Wookie

Wookie = Wedding + Cookie

My colleague is getting married in January (1/1/11, how cool is that?) and she doesn't like cake. She doesn't want wedding cake, she wants wedding cookie. And thus the Wookie was invented. 

There are several enticing examples online of cookie cakes, and all seem to be variations of the original Martha Stewart example. The bride-to-be (B2B, henceforth) wants something more traditional looking, so we began brainstorming. 

Below you will see Wookie #2 (W2, henceforth, because I'm in the mood). This is the second prototype in the Wookie Experiment. W2 has Blondie's for the chocolate chip cookie layers. (W1 had traditional cookie dough.) W2 also has an experimental frosting between layers and on the surface. (W1 had fudge between the layers and was naked outside. It was the first prototype. I was going for proof-of-concept, not pretty.)

The consensus was that the Blondie layers are a go for the final product. Between layers we will go with fudge rather than frosting. And the frosting tasted OK. The B2B doesn't like frosting too very much. But she wants a traditional-looking thing to slice on The Big Day, so we're experimenting with frosting. This one was made with butter, sweetened condensed milk, and powdered sugar. It tasted OK (per the B2B), but it was pretty dense. I might try whipping powdered egg whites into it next time to fluff it up a bit. Thank goodness the B2B is an egg-OK vegetarian and not a full blown vegan. 

Again, let me stress that this is a prototype. I was experimenting with taste and flavor, not appearance. I will beautify the Wookie between now and January. The photos are goofy, and by goofy I mean kind of ugly. But there is serious deliciousness in the Wookie. I hope you love it as much as we do. 

Yes, that's a vintage Albertson's plastic cake knife. I swiped that collectors item from the staff lounge. The money shot is below. The Wookie looks downright sexy:

And yes, I did run out of frosting. Thanks for noticing.

Honey Refrigerator Cookies

I'm going to think of these as a period piece. A genre representing their time: 1942. Sugar was being rationed, pennies were being pinched, belts were being tightened, and there wasn't a lot of risk-taking going on in the kitchen. 

Granted, I let my dough "ripen" for an extra day (three instead of the recommended two), but my honey cookies didn't look anything like the photo in the book. Theirs retained the rectangular shape from the fridge. Mine went in rectangular and came out circular. Theirs look dense, compact even. Mine were airy and chewy and expanded to almost 1 1/2 times the original size. 

The book says these also improve "immeasurably" with age, so I'll have to lock them up in the Tupperware and hide them. It also says they go well with cheese, which I do not find an admirable trait in a cookie, so I'm left wondering a lot about this recipe. To each her own.

But I haven't lost one bit of enthusiasm for The Gourmet Cookie Book because coming up next are Cinnamon Sugar Crisps, and I love, LOVE, love cinnamon. 

Sunday Weigh-In

This week (week 4): 1 pound
Total: 6 pounds

First impressions: not impressed

One of the WW "secrets" is cheerleader-like enthusiasm for every single victory, no matter how big or small. 

Here goes. 

Losing 1 pound beats the heck out of gaining 1 pound. I made a commitment to lose, and I'm losing. Good work, I'm headed in the right direction. I was great with my points, and I exercised more this week than last week. Hormones probably played a role this week. Being a little sick still played a role too, since I'm wheezing still and not getting properly oxygenated. Six pounds is 10% of my total weight loss goal. All I need to do is repeat what I've done 9 more times. That sounds totally do-able to me, it really truly does.

Still, this is humbling news in light of the cookie-fest. I need to focus on the Challenge as much as the Cookies. To that end, I've planned healthy dinner menus this week, and I'll shop later today to stock up on healthy lunch food. However good they taste, I'm going to send the majority of the Honey Cookies to work tomorrow. And I've got to exercise more, even if it's just walking after dinner for 30 minutes. 

Eat better. Eat less. Move more. I've just given away the secrets to weight loss. I hope the WW attorneys will forgive me :-)






 

Updates: Three at a time

The 1941 Cajun Macaroons really DO taste better on day three. The 1942 Honey Refrigerator Cookies are "ripening" in the fridge for another day. The 1943 Scotch Oat Crunchies were as delightful to eat as they were frustrating to make.

I thought I was imagining things when I had one of the precious few remaining macaroons after lunch today, but all the home team testers agreed with me - They DO get better with age. Unfortunately they're all gone so we'll never know how good they might have been on day four.  

Having learned the virtue of patience, I left the Honey Cookies in the fridge for a second day and will slice and bake those tomorrow. 

I turned instead to the Scotch Oat Crunchies (1943) and nearly met my match. The ingredients were simple enough:

 

But then I had to decide how to refrigerate the dough. The only wet ingredients are butter and water so this is some really slippery stuff. It needs to be rolled out to 1/8" after chilling, so it needs to solidify through and through. I divided it into fourths, scooped that onto waxed paper, and flattened each disk. 

 

Rolling these babies out was really maddening. The dough sticks to everything, and too much flour will toughen up the final cookies too much. Rolling out between two pieces of waxed paper worked well, but getting the cut round pieces onto a baking sheet was nearly impossible. 

All that said, they were truly delightful to eat. I dressed up the first batch with jam filling and the home team testers gave them two thumbs up.  The second batch were served to a visiting team of testers with three jam jars and spoons. The kids and adults all enjoyed spooning their own filling and there's not a single crumb left.

Tomorrow is a Weight Watchers weigh-in day. Remember that I'm trying to lose those 60 pounds, right? I'm skeptical that I'll be really proud of my results this week, but I had a healthy lunch and dinner and am below my point allowances for the week. WW talks about BLTs: bites, licks, and tastes. I had a lot of BLTs today while working with the Scotch Oat Crunchies. Butter + Sugar + Flour = Yummy Goodness Stuck to Your Fingers. 

I must exercise tomorrow. And then bake those Honey Cookies.

Simplicity

One last note from 1941's Cookie of the Year: here are all the ingredients required for Cajun Macaroons. Five simple items. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy, as my son says.

I've started the second recipe, Honey Refrigerator Cookies from June 1942, but the author instructs me to "allow the dough to ripen for a day or two in the refrigerator." 

While we wait, I'll collect the ingredients for number three, Scotch Oat Crunchies from January 1943. They, too, need to chill in the fridge for a while, at least overnight.

I can't believe how much time is required to make and sufficiently enjoy these treats. There's a Weight Watchers lesson in here somewhere for me. Can you say delayed gratification?  Scotch Oat Crunchies will "last indefinitely in a cool, dry place" according to the original baker. Seriously? In whose house do cookies sit around uneaten? Certainly not mine.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I got into this mess in the first place.

Cajun Macaroons, some thoughts

The recipe calls for 3 slightly beaten egg whites. Without thinking, I grabbed a fork and ran it through the egg whites until there were bubbles floating on the surface. Only after I baked the macaroons and thought a while about the delicious but dense consistency inside the crusty surface did I rethink what "slightly beaten" might mean for egg whites as opposed to full eggs.

Beating egg whites takes them through stages from foamy, to soft peaks, to stiff peaks, and finally to the unfortunate state of overbeaten. But what does "slightly beaten" mean in 1941 parlance? There's a big difference between my very wet and bubbly egg white (liquid) and a not quite frothy egg white (half solid, half liquid). If/When I make these again - is tomorrow too soon? - I will try beating the egg whites harder, stopping short of full froth. I think this might introduce more air into the cookie insides, and I think that would be an improvement over what I made today.

The instructions say the "cooky mixture" can be "dropped from the tip of a teaspoon" and baked "in a slow oven," all of which I find completely charming.

I baked mine slightly longer than I was supposed to if color is any indication, but this resulted in a beautifully textured top surface that looks, IMHO, more attractive than Gourmet's cookie centerfolds.

As for taste, the recipe say "these should be baked a few days in advance," so I really tried not to eat them today. I failed. They were delicious, and my home team testers asked for more. I will sample the batch again tomorrow and hopefully the day after that. I'll post updates if taste changes significantly over time, and certainly if I make them again.

In other news, soccer practice takes place at the middle school next to a gorgeous running track. I walked around the track for 45 minutes and even worked up a sweat. Yeah for me!

Would you like cafe au lait with that Cajun Macaroon?

This is the cooky that started it all. Cajun Macaroons are the first recipe in The Gourmet Cookie Book. The recipe was first published in February 1941, and yes, it's called a "cooky." The thing it's sitting on, that's a "cooky sheet."  

I love the quaintness of this spelling. I love that the recipe calls them "cakes" once they come out of the oven and are ready to be "removed from the paper by means of a spatula."  I love that the recipe says "they will keep several months when kept in a closed tin in a cool, dry place." People had A LOT more self-restraint in 1941 than they do in 2010.

But now... 

The home team is calling for a time out. I'll post again with thoughts about these little gems. Mom duty calls, it's time for soccer practice

Introduction, or How This All Came To Pass

Two days ago my favorite local bakery, Pastries and Petals, posted on Facebook that they had The Gourmet Cookie Book in stock, featuring the single best recipe from each year 1941 - 2009. Yesterday, I went down and bought a copy. Let me repeat that. I bought a cookbook in a bakery. That's how much I love (1) cookies and (2) this bakery. I also bought 3 cupcakes, but that's not entirely the point here. I leafed through it while waiting to pay, I leafed through it at every red light on the way home, and I read it at the dinner table instead of talking to my family.

I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I would bake every single recipe in the book and I would love every minute of it. I would tell everyone I knew about it. I would share the cookies at work. I would analyze the recipes and ponder how ingredients, baking, and preferences have changed between 1941 and 2009. I would make notes in the margins. In short, I was bat-shit crazy about this cookbook.  

And then I remembered that I am on Weight Watchers trying to lose approximately 60 pounds. 

Major. Buzzkill.

So the COOKIE part of this obsession project is obvious: I will bake, photograph and discuss all the cookies in the book. That's not the challenge, that's pure passion. 

The CHALLENGE will be to continue losing my weight and holding myself accountable to that goal in this (rather public) forum.

I've told exactly one two three people that I'm doing WW, though people at work looking over my shoulder might have figured it out by now. I've lost my first 5 pounds which is a big deal in the WW community, and I feel good enough about my chances of success that I'm willing to go public. I'm not ready to tell you what I weigh right now. Take what you think I should weigh and add 60 pounds to that number, you'll be close enough for government work.