Betty Crocker Cooky Book - How to make the perfect refrigerator cookies

For my fourth post I make chocolate peppermint cookies. The cook book said to make the dough as recipe suggest, which I did. It also says to roll the dough into a cylinder with the diameter that the recipe suggests (Crocker pg 15).  I had trouble rolling the dough because neither the instructions or the tips told me how to roll it correctly. I ended up taking wax paper and putting the dough in it and rolling it out almost like a rolling pin.

I then chilled the dough in the fridge overnight. The tips on page 15 said to cut desired thickness but the cookies i made required the dough to be cut 1/8th of an inch to cook correctly. It was very difficult to cut the cookies the correct thickness because of how thin they needed to be. The tips on page 15 also say to use a very thin sharp knife. I had a thin knife but it wasn't very sharp which might be why I struggled with the thickness

After I baked them I made a mint frosting to put in between the cookies. I ended up burning a significant amount of the cookies so I had a lot of extra frosting.

Ingredients

Mixing the dough

After chilling in the fridge overnight

After i cut some of them

The frosting

The really burnt cookies

Finished product

If  I make these again I would watch them more carefully when they are in the oven and use a sharper knife.

If you made these would you cut them the right thickness or cut them thicker?
Would you try the flavors i tried or would you make different flavors?

Rocky Road Cookies

For my final blog, I'm attempting to bake Rocky Road Cookies. I've never had these before, so this will not only be a new baking experience, but a new tasting experience. I really hope this turns out better than the last few.

Directions

• 1 package (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup margarine or butter
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• About 4 dozen miniature marshmallows

"Heat 1/2 cup of  the chocolate chips and the margarine over low heat until melted; cool. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix remaining chocolate chips, the chocolate mixture, and remaining ingredients except marshmallows. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Press a marshmallow in center of each. bake until almost no indentation when touched, about 8 minutes. Immediately remove from cookie sheet" (Crocker 47). 

I didn't add the nuts because of my allergies, but if you do, tell me how you like them!

When I first attempted to melt the chocolate chips and the butter, I ended up burning the chocolate. I left it alone for too long, so the chocolate on the bottom, burned and stuck to the pot. My second attempt was a success. It came out silky and smooth.

When adding the marshmallows, I dug a tiny whole in the middle to stick them in. Once they were in, I made sure they were completely covered by the dough all around

These cookies came out surprisingly well. They were cooked very well and they tasted good. I have learned that baking takes a lot of time, patience, and effort. You have to be precise in everything that you do, or something could go wrong. I have realized that baking is absolutely not for me. While this experience was challenging, I have also enjoyed it.

Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

For my fourth blog post, I decided to create double chocolate oatmeal cookies. The recipe seemed easy enough, so I decided to try out the recipe.

Directions

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup margarine or butter, softened
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 package (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

"Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix sugar margarine, water, vanilla, and egg in 2 1/2 quart bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until almost no indentation remains when touched, 10 to 12 minutes. Immediately remove from cookie sheet" (Crocker 47).

When I was mixing in the ingredients, the mixture seemed to be very dry and hard to move around. So I decided to try using an electric mixer, which helped greatly. The dough became smoother and easier to stir.

I also substituted the quick cooking oats to a one minute oats for oatmeal. I wasn't sure if it would turn out all right, but I couldn't find the quick cooking oats.

Does anyone know what isle they are in at the grocery store or where I could find them?

As the cookies were baking in the oven, I realized that by the time the timer was over, the cookies were still raw in certain areas. For some reason, when I put the cookies in for 10 to 12 minutes, the cookies would either be raw or over baked. I tried putting less and more cookie dough with both the same and different time frames, just by adding a couple of minutes. I couldn't get the cookies to come out perfectly. They were mostly a little overbaked. My cookies were also kind of dry. I think it has to do with the fact that I substituted the quick cooking oats for the one minute oats for oatmeal.

Overall, despite the recipe looking simple, it turned out to be very complex for me. The cookies were dry and overbaked.

Does anyone know how I could improve the cookies to make sure that they aren't over or under baked and not dry? 

White Chocolate Macadamias

Vicki Nguyen
Period 4

White Chocolate Macadamias

I forgot to take a picture before I used the ingredients

but here are the left over ingredients I had left.

For my final blog post I decided to pick something different than what I normal make. In the book I found a recipes for white chocolate macadamias cookies. The macadamias will bring a crunch and textural to the already soft cookies, "The cookies was kind of chewy, which we liked, but I thought they needed more spice and more crunch" (Kit Forcey 3).

Ingredients

• 1 cup of soften butter
• 3/4 light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoons of almond extract
• 2 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/3 teaspoons of salt
• 1 cup of macadamias nut
• 1 cup of white chocolate chips     (Forcey 3)

Direction

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in vanilla and almond extracts.
4. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
5. Mix in the macadamia nuts and white chocolates.
6. You will want to bake the cookies for 10 minutes.

Overall, I really like these cookies! Kit Forcey the creator of these cookies is right about the extra crunch you get when taking a bit of the cookie. The macadamias nuts does add extra to the cookies. Also adding the white chocolate chip did help the favoring of the cookies.

Do you guys prefer soft or chewy or crunchy cookies?

Sterling, N/A. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., The Barnes & Noble Cookie Bake-Off: Top 75 Recipes from Around the Country New York 2015,

1 minute mug cake

Vicki Nguyen
Period 4

Hot Cocoa Cake in a Mug

For my fourth blog post I will be make a simple cake. My last blog post was about hot chocolate cookies. I still have some left over hot chocolate powder, so I found a recipe that also includes hot cocoa. The best part of this recipes is that all you need is a microwave! If you're a chocolate lover than this is just for you, "...used better-quality chocolate for all of my chocolate lover" (Jennifer Adams 104).

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp of all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa power or hot chocolate packages
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp of granulated sugar
• pinch of salt
• 5 tbsp of milk
• 2 tbsp of vegetable oils (Adams 104).

Direction 

1. Mix the dry ingredients first. Mix the flour, cocoa or hot chocolate powder, baking powder, sugar, and salt all together.
2. Add the milk and oil in the same bowl and mix well.
3. Place the batter into your mug.
4. Microwave for 60 or more seconds at 1200 watts, adjust time according to the power of your microwave.
5. After taking the mug cake out let it cool down and enjoy. (Adams 104).

My thoughts on the cake mug is that it is super easy to do and is really good. Also, when you are making this with the measurement it only filled half of my mug. At first I thought it wasn't going to be good because the cake is made from a microwave and not an oven. . But I was wrong this is probably my favorite desserts I made so far on this blog. 

Do you guys prefer cakes or cookies?

Sterling, N/A. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., The Barnes & Noble Cookie Bake-Off: Top 75 Recipes from Around the Country New York 2015,

Mrs. Braun's Oateal Cookies - Real Sweet

Mrs. Braun's Oatmeal Cookies                                                                               ~ Neetu Buttar

I am going to be going through the process of some delicious homemade oatmeal cookies that you are absolutely going to love. "If you're looking for a homemade treat that will make you the queen of the playground set or something wholesome to stash in your bag for those midday slumps, look no further" (Sever 63). I chose to continue making cookies in my blog because they are something that everyone would love, as there are endless combinations to what you can make your cookie look like and or taste like.

Starting off, you are going to need some ingredients to make these oatmeal cookies:

• old-fashioned rolled oats; 1 & 1/2c.
• raisins; 1/2c.
• whole wheat pastry flour; 2/3 c.
• baking soda; 1/2 tsp.
• fine sea salt; 1/2 tsp.
• ground cinnamon; 1/2 tsp.
• unsalted butter; 1/2 c.
• sugar; 3/4 c.
• large egg yolks; 2
• large whole egg; 1
• pure vanilla extract; 1 tsp.               (Sever 63).

Now I am going to go over the steps to create these magnificent cookies. " Use the volume of raisins as your guide for swapping in amount of other, similar ingredients" (Sever 63). So if you aren't a big fan of raisins like me, just swap the raisins for chocolate chips, or you could do a little bit of both.

1. Whisk the oats, flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together in a medium sized bowl.
2. Beat together the butter, sugar, egg yolks, egg and vanilla extract until fluffy in an electric mixer and stir in raisins (or chocolate chips).
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
4. Scoop the cookies with a small ice cream scoop onto the baking sheets.
5. Bake until deeply golden but still soft in the centers (15 minutes).

End Result:

Overall, I think that these oatmeal cookies turned out wonderful and delicious. They were indeed very soft but I think that the one thing I would've changed would be to make the cookie a little bit  sweeter, so maybe adding a bit more sugar in the recipe, but that's just my opinion. I also think that I would've baked it on a lower temperature so everything would be even through out the cookie.

Question: What would you switch out for the raisins and or what would you change about the cookie?

• Sever, Shauna, and Leigh Beisch. Real Sweet: More than 80 Crave-   worthy Treats Made with Natural Sugars. New York: William Morrow, 2015. Print. 

STEP-BY-STEP Cake Decorating Pt.4 -- Ritu Buttar

Cake Decorating

I decorated cupcakes for my fourth blog post, using the star tips. I think it turned out okay, but I would definitely stick to regular cakes since you can just do much more on a bigger surface.

"We are no longer afraid to bake, and our creations are becoming more sophisticated and adventurous as time goes on" (Sullivan). As time goes on people are learning how to add their own unique touch on things, exploring what they can do in the world of cake decorating. For this attempt at cake decorating I used Italian meringue buttercream frosting and chocolate ganache.

Ingredients: Italian meringue buttercream

• 5 large free-range pasteurized egg whites
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 1/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
• flavoring, optional

(Sullivan 26)

Ingredients: Chocolate ganache

• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 7 0z (200g) good-quality dark, milk, or white chocolate, broken into pieces

(Sullivan 38)

Directions:

• Put the broken chocolate and heavy cream into a pot.
• Put the pot on the stove and stir over low heat
• Let cool for 1-2 hours before spreading

(Sullivan 38)

First I spread the ganache on the cupcakes and then started piping stars on the cupcake - "Create Individual stars (below) or link them together as a border, using a medium open-star tip" (Sullivan 76). It was really easy to get the hang of piping stars, since the tip is so easy to use.

I also attempted to do the Rosette technique - "Use a medium open star tip to swirl tiny rosettes that can be linked or used individually. I tried to do a really big Rosette in the middle of my cupcake, and it didn't really turn out well. Instead it turned out looking like a swirl.

All in all I think that I'm going to stick to decorating cakes because they are easier to decorate since they have bigger area for decorating.

What are some themes that I could base my decorating on?

Sullivan, Karen. Step-by-step Cake Decorating: Hundreds of Ideas, Techniques, and Projects for Creative Cake Designers. London: DK, 2013. Print.   



Next Level Chocolate Chip Cookies - Real Sweet

Next Level Chocolate Chip Cookies                                                                         ~Neetu Buttar

In this blog I am going to be going through the process of how to make delicious homemade chocolate cookies. Lots of people usually make chocolate chip cookies with the Pillsbury cookie dough they buy at the store, and while those cookies taste good, these chocolate chip cookies will really bring your taste buds to the next level. I chose to do this chocolate chip cookie as many people can relate as they love to eat cookies, especially the classic of chocolate chip, but also to show how you can add a spin on every day recipes.

First I am going to start off by showing the simple ingredients that will be needed to make these next level chocolate chip cookies:

• whole wheat pastry flour; 5/3 c.
• fine seal salt; 1/2 tsp.
• baking soda; 1/2 tsp.
• baking powder; 1/4 tsp.
• unsalted butter; 1/2 c.
• sugar (turbinado or muscovado); 1&1/3 c.
• pure vanilla extract; 2 tsp.
• chocolate chips; 1 c.                                                      (Sever 64).

Now, I will explain how to put all these ingredients together to make the nice fluffy and soft chocolate chip cookies. A tip from the book from the author: "I use whole wheat pastry flour because I find its nuttiness is a perfect fit here, but you could also use all-purpose or a half-and-half mix of both" (Sever 64). This tip can be very helpful depending upon which taste you are going towards or the ingredients that you are limited to.

1. In a medium sized bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together excluding the sugar and chocolate chips.
2. In an electric mixer, with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract together, and then add the dry ingredients when the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract are mixed.
3. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the dough anywhere from 1 hour to 24 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and roll the dough into balls from 2 tablespoons on a tinfoil covered baking sheet, while the oven is getting ready.
5. Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until golden brown.                                         (Sever 64).

End Result:

I think that the next level chocolate chip cookies turned out great, as the texture was soft and fluffy and the cookies were nicely balanced with sweetness and chewiness. The one thing that I think I could improve on was maybe flipping the two trays in-between baking. Overall I think these chocolate chip cookies were absolutely astonishing and you should definitely try them.

Question: Do you have any tips on what to add to make this cookie even more delicious?

• Sever, Shauna, and Leigh Beisch. Real Sweet: More than 80 Crave-   worthy Treats Made with Natural Sugars. New York: William Morrow, 2015. Print. 

Fudgy Brownies

For my third attempt at baking, I decided to stray away from cookies and go with brownies.

Directions

• 1/2 cup margarine or butter
• 1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup chopped nuts, if desired

"Heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat margarine and chocolate chips in 3-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until melted. Beat in remaining ingredients except nut until smooth; stir in nuts. Spread in greased rectangular pan, 13x9x2 inches. Bake until center is set, about 30 minutes; cool completely" (Crocker 49)

The brownies came out very well. I actually enjoyed making them. The first attempt for the brownies was a lot better than the cookies.

I think I will continue to experiment with the cookies more because I'm used to it more.

What's your favorite chocolate dessert?

  

Baking - Real Sweet

Brigadeiro Chocolate Fudge Truffle

In this blog I am going to be showing you how to make a Brazilian chocolate fudge truffle that is called a Brigadeiro.  "Traditionally, brigadeiros are found with a coating of thin, crunchy chocolate sprinkles, but you can go crazy with fun coatings here" (Sever 149). Baking is such an interesting thing because you can have fun with so many different elements with baking, whether it is the design, the taste, or the texture. This is why I wanted to do baking, because there are hardly any limits to what you can do. In baking, creativity and imagination are shown and represented.


First off to make this candy, you will need a few items, and you will probably have some of these already, if you have baked before.

Materials:

• 14 oz. Sweetened condensed milk
• 1/3 c. cocoa powder; unsweetened
• 2 tbs. butter; unsalted
• 1/8 t. sea salt; fine
• 1/4 t. vanilla extract; pure
• Toppings; chocolate sprinkles, cocoa powder, etc.
• baking pan; 8 x 8 inch  
• nonstick cooking spray                       (Sever 149)

After you have gathered all your materials you can start making your brigadeiros. "If you use canned milk, the candy is likely to thicken and cook faster, so keep an eye out for visual clues described below to avoid overcooking it" (Sever 149). This tip actually helped a lot with making these, because I didn't need to spend all the time to make my own condensed milk and even longer waiting for it to cook and not burn.

How to make the Brigadeiros:

• Put a saucepan over medium heat.
• Mix in the butter, condensed milk, cocoa powder, and salt and keep mixing with a whisk so the ingredients can come together.
• You will know the candy is done when it has a thick consistency almost like brownie batter, and this process can take 15 to 25 minutes to finish.
• Take the candy off the heat, stir in vanilla extract, and pour into a greased baking pan.
• Cool the chocolate truffle candy for about an hour in the refrigerator until it is firm.
• Then roll the candies into 1 inch balls and coat them in your desired toppings.      (Sever 149)

End Result:

I think the Brigadeiros turned out pretty well for a first try but the thing I probably would have changed about the process, is to keep the saucepan with the mixture on a lower heat so there would be a lower risk of the candy getting burned. But overall they tasted really good especially if you add chocolate sprinkles as your topping.

Questions: What kind of toppings would you put on a brigadeiro and what tips do you have for making candy?

• Sever, Shauna, and Leigh Beisch. Real Sweet: More than 80 Crave-   worthy Treats Made with Natural Sugars. New York: William Morrow, 2015. Print.                         

Chocolate Drop Cookies - Ashley Uyeta

Baking has never come easy to me. There have been multiple attempts over the years that have turned into failures. Being in the kitchen is one of the most undesirable places for me. Seeing as this quarter's independent reading project is about honing in on new or old skills, I thought, why not try baking again? It can't be any worse than before.

In Betty Crocker's Chocolate Cookbook, it shows me step by step, that maybe baking isn't as hard as I think it is. I started out with something somewhat easy and simple, her chocolate drop cookies.

       Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
• 1/3 cup buttermilk or water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 e
• 2 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 chopped nuts, if desired
• Add Chocolate Frosting or Browned Butter Frosting (Below)

For these cookies, I didn't add the chopped nuts due to my allergies to tree nuts, but if you were to add them, I feel, they would add great texture.

Directions

"Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix sugar, margarine, buttermilk, vanilla, egg and chocolate in 2 1/2 quart bowl. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in nuts. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonful about 2 inches apart from onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until almost no indentation remains when touched, 8 to 10 minutes. Immediately remove from cookie sheet; cool. Frost with Chocolate or Brown Butter Frosting" (Crocker 45)

Chocolate Frosting

"Heat 2 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened chocolate and 2 tablespoons margarine or butter over low heat until melted. Remove from heat; stir in 3 tablespoons water and about 2 cups powdered sugar until smooth and of spreading consistency" (Crocker 45)

Brown Butter Frosting

"Heat 1/4 cup margarine or butter over low heat until golden brown. Remove from heat; stir in 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and about 2 tablespoons half-and-half until smooth and of spreading consistency" (Crocker 45)

I ended up not doing any of the frosting options. If you did, tell me how it goes!

For my first baking attempt in a long time.  The cookies weren't super great, which is what I expected, but the overall experience was better than previous years. The cookies were soft and warm, but they were kind of bland. Next time, I can work more on making it taste a lot better!  It wasn't so bad and I'm actually looking forward to baking for my next blog post. Hopefully, I am more successful!

Do you think my cookies would've turned out better if I frosted them? What should I have done to get a sweeter cookie?

Chef Pres IRP - Baking Cookies Part 4

Preston Viltz

Meara

Honors English P4

Blog

January 23 2015

So its my fourth time baking cookies for y'all. And I am starting to believe that I have really improved my baking skills. I also really enjoy baking at this point. For my fourth cookie I decided to make the Salted Chocolate-Caramel Rounds. I chose this dessert because it really tested my skills and made me a better baker because it infused candy with baking, along with drizzling of caramel sauce. During my baking experience, some things went wrong and I just had to improvise and make the treat as best as possible. The Salted Chocolate-Caramel Round is a cookie that is mostly chocolate with a Rolo (chocolate covered caramel candy) put directly in the center, and caramel sauce drizzled over the top of the cookie. There was many steps in making this snack so here are a few pictures of my experience:

"Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 36 milk chocolate-covered round caramels
• 12 vanilla caramels
• 1 tablespoon whipping cream"

First I found all my ingredients, then in a mixing bowl I used an electric mixer to beat the butter. Next I "add granulated and brown sugars. Beat until combined" with an electric mixer. Pic below:

In another mixing bowl I "stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt". Then I stirred both my mixtures together. Pic below:

I then roll the dough into balls and "press a chocolate-covered caramel into each ball and shape dough around caramel to enclose." I put each cookie on a baking sheet and baked them at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Pic below:

I made the caramel sauce and "drizzle melted caramel mixture over cookies". My cookies were now finished. Pic below:

Looking back on my experience I don't know if I was ready to take on this hard of a cookie. But to be honest I think for just being a beginner they turned out alright. I had a good batch and a poor batch because they were kind of burnt. My goal going into these blogs was to do something that I could improve on and that is what I have done over these past months. I hope to create something great next time. And I do not plan on making a cookie.

Should I make something extraordinary for my next baked good?

Chapman, Natalie. Baking. Des Moines: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013