A challenge!

Can you really compete with Girl Scouts?
As of now, not really. But one day I will. And I'll win.

A week ago (two weeks ago? I can't keep track of time!), I tried my hand at some homemade thin mints in our crowded kitchen. Look at that! People just don't clean up in communal kitchens and it's so annoying. Okay, so maybe some of that stuff is mine (the blue bowl, measuring cups, chocolate chips, and tin foil, but otherwise the dirty dishes in the background are NOT mine!) but it was so crowded in there. Anyways.

I had time to bake and this cookie recipe took a lot of time. You need to make the dough, roll them into logs and freeze them for an hour or so, and then slice and bake. Pretty simple, but time consuming. I started baking with Danielle and we embarked on the task together.


The batter is interesting. There's no egg and it's very, very dry, but you just have to keep mixing it until it becomes dough. Towards the end, I just ended up sticking my hands in the chocolate mix and kneading it by hand. Worked just as well but it definitely didn't feel like cookie dough. But it tasted alright! Chocolate and peppermint extract...can't go wrong. After the dough was finished, I rolled them into the logs and, well, let's just say Danielle and I couldn't help but laugh.

Seriously. I mean, come on. It's funny looking! You know what we were thinking.

Actually, I could have made them thinner, definitely, since Thin Mints are, well, thin. And they're not soft cookies so biting into a thick homemade thin mint might hurt. After freezing them for an hour, I sliced them and placed them on baking sheets and waited. They're funny little biscuit-cookies. They don't expand and take shape like normal cookies. These guys, they just get a little harder, but not much. After the baking time, we took them out of the oven and let them cool. they looked like little hockey pucks, but luckily were much softer than one.



Of course, Thin Mints have a chocolate coating on top. Before we began dipping the biscuit-cookies in melted chocolate and butter, Danielle and I tried a plain one. Not bad. Although next time, maybe I'd up the peppermint extract and chocolate because I think some of the peppermint was lost in the baking process. After the cookies were cooled, we began dipping, which was probably the most fun. Who doesn't like melted chocolate? We set them on tin foil and carried them to the freezer to set (that required so much teamwork it was crazy). And that was my first foray into thin mints.

You might be wondering how the held up? Well...the feedback I got was basically all the same: good, strange, hard cookies but ultimately, like a thin mint. As for me, I'm not too sure. All that effort for an alright cookie? One day I'll try 'em again and slice the cookies thinner, but they did taste good, especially with a generous chocolate coating over them. People did eat them (although not as much as muffins or other cookies I've baked), so I'm happy. A good experiment and challenge overall.

The recipe was found here, and her thin mints look so much more authentic than mine. Definitely the slicing.

Oh, and look! It's almost Thanksgiving! Can't wait to get home and see friends and family and bake in a real kitchen.

<3

Speed Baking

A few weeks ago I was sent Pumpkin Spice Quick Bread Mix from William-Sonoma in a package of Halloween candy from my mama! And so tonight I finally baked them since I'm running low on granola bars for breakfast and muffins are always great. And I have free time tonight while so of course I'm gonna bake.

I used the recipe they had on the side of the packaging for muffins, a slightly different procedure, and they baked for exactly twenty minutes. And they were good. Really good. Moist and pumpkiny with bits of pecan. Shared some with Casey, Claire, Danielle, Zoe, Josh, and good conversation ensued. That's the thing about baking, especially in dorms: people come together.

And now, mornings are going to be that much nicer with a muffin before class.
Also: floor birthdays mean more treats. Casey and I just got chocolate cupcakes made from the Bon. Oh, the Bon...eh. But it's a cupcake and sweet and tasty nonetheless.

So, what we have here are pumpkin muffins for the beginning of November. It's been sunny here and gorgeous with leaves swirling everywhere. It's felt a little like home, but wetter. And it's really nice.

<3

update: vegan banana muffins

Baked those guys again yesterday afternoon. Used a bit less batter in the muffin tins and got a full dozen this time. They tasted just as fantastic as they did the first time! So it wasn't a fluke :) Had twelve yesterday at 3:00ish, and now there are only four left.

<3

Mission: Vegan

I know if done right, vegan baked goods can taste incredible. Back home, at my favorite vegetarian/vegan restaurant, they make a really good chocolate cake and vanilla frosting. I have no idea how they do it without milk, eggs, and butter, but they do. And sure, there are hundreds of bakeries with vegan goodies that even a carnivore would eat. However, after eating the vegan baked goods at my school's cafeteria, my faith in vegan baking was waning.

Seriously. The vegan muffins that appear on weekend brunches taste as sickly as they look. (maybe that's an over exaggeration, but they don't taste nearly as good as a normal muffin)

So, after a promise to a vegan friend that one day I would bake treats he could eat, I found a vegan banana muffin recipe and a daunting task: make it edible.

The first time I ever baked something vegan was at Jenny's house way back in high school. She didn't have some non-vegan ingredient in her house, probably eggs, so a bunch of us decided instead of going out to get the ingredient, we would just make a vegan dessert and settled on peanut butter bars. They turned out flaky (in a bad way) and tasteless.



These muffins worried me at first. The batter looked watery and tasted too floury but I followed the recipe so there wasn't much else to do. I popped them in the oven and as they were baking, they rose to HUGE heights! Totally thought I filled the muffin tins too high with batter but after they were finished baking and had cooled, they were perfect. And a little funny looking. I did happen to run out of cupcake liners but the muffins came out of the tin without struggle and with a tan. The tops of the muffins were a pale cream and the sides were a golden brown. Silly looking, but the taste? You wouldn't even know it was vegan. They were moist and banana-y and delicious! It's a recipe I would use over and over again.

And my vegan friend approved. Those muffins barely lasted 48 hours.
Yo, cafeteria. You better step up your game because vegan muffins can taste pretty damn good.

oh so hipster martha stewart.
<3

And they come with wheels!

I think this article speaks for itself.

Who could resist a cupcake on wheels?!
Insane.

<3

Cookins!

Oh, look! Cookins!

So, yes, after making delicious Silver Palate cookie dough (it's my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe) and then placing it in muffin tins, all was not lost. Honestly, there's something awfully disappointing about a bad batch of baked goods, but luckily, cookies baked in muffin tins was a success. Like the brownies, you end up getting a denser, bigger portion of the original baked good. They turned out great and tasted just as they should, although a few of the cookins (cookie+muffin = cookin) had tops that were sunken in. But that just got me thinking that they need either a scoop of ice cream on top or some frosting to patch the hole. Or, you know, those are always good test trys. You know: the cookie that doesn't look as nice and neat as the others so it becomes the first one you eat, just to make sure it tastes alright.

A success. Which is good since I'm still too lazy to buy cookie sheets. In time, in time but until then, I will probably continue to bake in that tin.
I also don't have a mixing bowl. That's why the cookie dough was prepared in a pot. A very handy, trusty pot. We filled the tins about halfway full of dough and they baked a bit longer than the normal 8-10 minutes, but not much.
Totally recommend this recipe.

cookie muffins?!

Can you bake cookies in cupcake tins?
Possibly yes.
The answer...in a few moments.

edit: Yes you can! More soon. <3