Marble Cookies

Here's the dough!

All ready to bake!

These are actually burned, but they looked prettier than the other ones! Again, my oven made them crunchier than I wanted. They are supposed to be cake-y. And they still were in the very center, but the outsides were crunchy. STUPID OVEN! Update: Luckily, Tupperware comes to the rescue yet again! After a day in the Tupperware, even the burned ones were pretty chewy and lost all their crunch! YAY!

Mrs. Field's Marble Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
½ cup sugar
½ cup butter, softened
1 large egg
½ cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 300*F. In medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt with wire whisk. Set aside. Combine sugars in a large bowl using and electric mixer set at medium speed. Add butter and beat until batter is grainy. Add egg, sour cream and vanilla, and beat at medium speed until light and flufffy. Scrape bowl. Add the flour mixture, and blend at low speed until just combined. Place chocolate chips in double boiler over hot but not boiling water. Stir constantly until melted. Or, place chips in a microwave proof bowl and zap on high, stirring every 20 seconds until melted. Cool chocolate for a few minutes and pour over cookie batter. Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, lightly fold melted chocolate int the dough. Do not mix chocolate completely into dough. Drop by rounded tablespoons, 2 inches apart, onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 23-25 minutes. Do not brown. Quickly transfer cookies to a cool surface.

Quiet cookies

So these are my cookies thanks to my SATANIC oven! I had even lowered the temp. by 25 degrees (like I always have to) and baked them for 4 min. instead of 8. And this is still what I got! Oh well, that's why I do a test batch because I don't trust my oven. ;)

That's better!

Finished product, after dipping

Meh... They were alright. Nothing special. I honestly didn't even WANT to make these, but I was dying to make some cookies. Of course my daughter was napping and if I make even a peep (and I guarantee my KitchenAid is more than a peep) she'd wake up. So I made something that required no mixing. Glad I did, so I can check it of my 'to make' list, but honestly wouldn't ever make them again.

Oh, and yesterday I wanted some bon-bons and so I dunked some balls of Breyers into Almond Bark. Man, I love Almond Bark. I cannot seem to get enough of the stuff!

Ready... Set... BAKE!!!

I have decided to join a blogging group. Of bakers!!! It's called "Daring Bakers" and once a month we receive a challenge. The challenge is to be completed in that month's time and everyone blogs their pictures and experience on the same day. I will be receiving my first challenge the beginning of January. I am soooooooo excited! And terrified. Yeah, that too! These are not 'oatmeal cookie' challenges. One member shared her experience with her first challenge of Daring Bakers. The recipe was 9 PAGES LONG! This is so thrilling to me: to challenge myself. To see just how good I can become. Each time I try, I learn. Each time I fail, I learn. Each time I succeed, I learn. Thanks to Melanie, I have more confidence based on success! I will be posting all of my daring baker challenges on this site (since it has to be on a public blog). But I will also be including other pictures and recipes, too. I might be lazy and just link the recipe instead of typing out each one. BUT I want somewhere I can just post the pictures of my food if I feel like it. Anyways, here's the pictures!



So these are my second attempt at home-made rolls. Not bad, not bad. Still lumpier looking that I'd like!









This was our Christmas Eve dinner with Tyler's parents and his brother (and kids). Looking at the pictures, it looks like such a small meal. But it took a lot of work!
(Potatoes courtesy of ForTheLoveofCooking)

(with the desserts too)








Here is dessert #1. A chocolate/caramel cheesecake from MyKitchenCafe. My very first cheesecake! I am hooked... I was sooooooo pleased with the presentation of this cheesecake. It was extremely rich with a wonderful texture. It was a bit bitter for my taste (because of the bittersweet chocolate, of course!). But I think it tasted 'off' because I had it in my head that it would taste differently. Make sense? Still....











Look how pretty!!!!!!!










Christmas day apple pie!
Don't know why it looks so Nasty! It wasn't bad.(except for our stupid microwave... I cooked the apples for almost HALF the time it said, and they were still over-cooked.. Well, according to me! My MIL like it!)





My. Very. First. Loaf. Of bread! EVER (besides banana bread, zucchini bread, you know...) And I got to use my new, shiny, red (SEXY) KitchenAid! The dough stuck to the towel while rising (despite the fact that the towel was wet) and the top kind of collapsed in on itself. Oh well!






Second loaf. A little better. Still pretty crunchy on the outside. And this time I even used a bowl of water in the oven with it. It helped with the browning of the top, but not really with the 'moist-ness' of the bread. I might have over-floured my dough.








Christmas morning cinnamon rolls! (recipe courtesy of MyKitchenCafe
This was my prettiest one: I HAD to get a 'before icing' picture!












I couldn't believe I didn't screw them up!!!!

Here we go!

Testing Testing