UNfreezing Cookie Dough

Believe it or not, I wasn't planning on baking today. However, the surprise arrival of the Silpats today left me with absolutely no choice! The frozen snickerdoodle dough from last weekend was pretty ideal for testing. (Icy!)

Not bad! And not even a little bit of sticking. Non-stick and reusable? Better than parchment!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Well, it's mid-week, so by this afternoon I had gone about as long as I could without clocking some more kitchen time. It's fall, and there's no debating--it's time for pumpkins and spice. So, add some chocolate to those things, and you've got a pretty phenomenal cookie. I first tried these a few years ago, when Jaime brought some to the lab--fell in love, found a recipe, and the rest was history.

First of all, I need to introduce the newest addition to my kitchen--the "Hand-Stand Mixer". A smaller (less expensive!) version of a stand mixer that packs a lot of punch, and that can be used as a hand mixer too. Bonus! This came to live with me earlier this month, and we have quickly bonded. Here it is, all shiny, and in action...

And the final product... I have every intention of sharing these with classmates tomorrow, but by morning I may have changed my mind?

Former Favorites: Vegetable Garden Cupcakes

Having had a few baking successes within the last several months, I decided to go ahead and document them here. (In other words, if I can't be in the kitchen tonight, I can at least take a little time off from homework to add a post or two... right?)

First up are the vegetable garden cupcakes. These were my project for my mom's birthday this summer, and I couldn't imagine a better way to make chocolate cake and chocolate frosting more "healthy". Inspiration goes back more than a decade to a vegetable garden cake that Martha Stewart featured on her show--as I recall, it was the cake that mom and I made for my 9th (or 10th?) birthday. The original recipe called for marzipan vegetables--our attempts with that failed, so we used frosting (meticulously piped by mom). For the cupcakes all these years later, I decided to play around with fondant. Decidedly fun!

Freezing Cookie Dough

Lately, I've been getting the urge to bake something at least once a week. That many baked goods--while wonderful to have on hand--cannot possibly be part of a balanced diet, so I decided it was time to find some way for baking and nutrition to compromise. Freezing cookie dough seems to be the solution.

I've made large batches of gingerbread in the past, freezing big blocks of dough for later use, but I have never tried to freeze cookies in their pre-baked form. A strong and inexplicable craving for Snickerdoodles on Thursday prompted this:


Here are three dozen cookies, frozen, ready to bake at any time within the next three months. Saves me from eating them all immediately, and saves time in future--homemade deliciousness during midterms? Now a very real possibility. Assuming I don't bake them all before midterms.

Roasted Applesauce

An art perfected during 2007's "Autumn of Unemployment."

After a trip to the orchard when visiting home last weekend, I returned to Providence with enough Cortlands to try this once again. The gas oven and I are still getting acquainted, but I think we got along pretty well today.

A few photos of the process, from tree to table:

(Why yes, that *is* a Honeycrisp and not a Cortland. Keen eye!)

Roasted Applesauce

-3 to 4 lbs. apples
-1/4 c. water
-1 t. lemon juice
-2/3 c. packed brown sugar
-1/8 t. course salt
-2 T. unsalted butter
-ground cinnamon
-ground nutmeg
-ground cloves

1. Wash, core, and slice apples. Put in a 9x13” baking dish.
2. Mix water, lemon juice, sugar and salt. Pour over apples.
3. Cube butter. Place on top of apples.
4. Roast at 425° F for 30-40 minutes, until apples are soft. Cool.
5. Pass mixture through food mill.*
6. Stir in spices to taste

*If apples are peeled prior to roasting, they can be sauced using a food processor or an immersion blender.

Variations:
-Substitute apple cider or other fruit juices for the water for a richer flavor.
-Add fresh whole cranberries to the apple mixture prior to roasting.
-Add cinnamon sticks or whole cloves prior to roasting (remove before saucing).