Cookies

Cookie Week Comes to The Fashionable Plate

May 10, 2013 By Sara Cornell Leave a Comment

images What could possibly be more fundamental to any housewife worth her fashionable apron than a good chocolate chip cookie? While I am probably quite a few years away from any kind of housewife status, every time I make cookies I like to imagine myself serving warm chocolate chip cookies to beaming children and friends as I smile coyly and say, “oh no, they were no trouble at all. So easy.” That, in my mind, is a true picture of domestic bliss.

I have a small obsession chocolate chip cookies, but honestly, I doubt that I am alone. There’s something about the combination of butter, sugar, and chocolate that just turns magical when mixed up and baked into an amazing cookie creation. It’s true, I’ve met a few versions that put a bad name on chocolate chip cookies, but I still believe that they are the pinnacle of dessert confections. And yet, everywhere I turn there are different recipes promising “the best chocolate chip cookie.” Apparently there are endless ways to make amazing cookies even more amazing.

Monday marks the beginning of a 5-day-long quest to develop the best chocolate chip cookies. All week long we’ll be testing recipes and posting about them on The Fashionable Plate. And because everyone has a different ideal for cookies, I’ll be trying recipes to fit every crunchy, chewy, soft, and unique cookie lover’s dream. I will be baking a new recipe every day and posting the results here, so get ready to pull out your mixer and try some new takes on an old classic!

And if anyone has a nagging issue with their cookies that they want help with, or a great idea for their favorite version of chocolate chip cookies, leave us a comment and let us know!

The lineup is…

Monday: chewy cookies
Tuesday: crunchy cookies
Wednesday: soft cookies
Thursday: lace-chocolate cookies
Friday: cool cookie flavor variations

This post, and the Cookie Week posts, are written by Nell Birch, a high school senior in Boston, who is spending her final month of school in an independent learning project related to cooking and the fine art of food blogging! Many thanks to Nell and The Winsor School for her contributions to this blog and especially to our kitchen!

Cookie Lover’s Cookbook – Hermits Recipe Review

December 29, 2012 By The Fashionable Housewife

The Good Housekeeping Cookie Lover’s Cookbook
Gooey, Chewy, Sweet & Luscious Treats

Yummy cookies and brownies! This superlative collection straight from the magazine’s famed Test Kitchens features 250 of the most luscious recipes ever created, along with irresistible photos, a handy ringbinder format, and links to 20 cookie-making videos. The book features:

-Triple-tested and tasted recipes guaranteed to work in any conventional oven with any brand of ingredients, no matter what
-Chapters on cookie-jar favorites, easy-to-shape cookies, brownies, blondies and bars, health-conscious cookies, and holiday cookies
-Baking advice, tips, and essential techniques from the Test Kitchen pros
-More than 200 color photographs show step-by-step baking and decorating techniques, as well as the finished cookies
-Links to 20 cookie-making how-to videos, watchable on a smart phone, e-reader, or computer
-and more

I flipped through the book until I saw a recipe for hermit cookies and I immediately started getting out all the ingredients to make them! Hermits are my favorite cookies in the whole world and I had never made them before, so this seemed as good of a time as ever to try it out!

They came out SO YUMMY! (as you can see from the picture above) Moist, chewy, spicy and the house really smelled like “Christmas” when I was done. These went perfectly with a cup of espresso. YUM! They were definitely the best hermit cookies I’ve ever had! I can’t wait to try making another recipe out of this book.

You can get The Good Housekeeping Cookie Lover’s Cookbook: Gooey, Chewy, Sweet & Luscious Treats on Amazon.com or in your local Barnes & Nobles. I think they would make great gifts as well!

* The book for this review was provided to us free of charge for the purpose of product testing. This does not effect our opinion of the products in any way. We only write about products we personally like and use, regardless of how they were acquired.

Filed Under: Books, Food & Snacks, Gift Ideas, Holiday Features Tagged With: books, cookbook, cookie lover's cookbook, cookie recipe, Cookies, good housekeeping, hermits recipe, home-baked christmas, Recipe

Delish “A Home-Baked Christmas” Recipe Book

December 26, 2012 By The Fashionable Housewife

Delish A Home-Baked Christmas: 56 Delicious Cookies, Cakes & Gifts From Your Kitchen

From a magnificent Gingerbread House and Mini Christmas Puddings to beautiful centerpieces and edible gifts, this luscious collection from Delish.com has recipes for everybody’s favorite holiday treats! Christmas will be especially merry with these thoughtful, beautiful, and tasty treasures, all presented in lavish and whimsical illustrations. With everything triple-tested for assured success, this will become an indispensable source of cherished family memories.

I was pretty excited to get this book to review! As soon as I got it, I flipped through and bookmarked 4 recipes I wanted to try. I ended up trying one of them and gave them away as Christmas presents!

It’s called White Christmas Candy. Soooo yummy! White chocolate, cherries, apricots, raisins and coconut.

You can get Delish A Home-Baked Christmas: 56 Delicious Cookies, Cakes & Gifts From Your Kitchen on Amazon.com or in bookstores.

Filed Under: Books, Food & Snacks, Gift Ideas, Holiday Features, Home Life, Recipes Tagged With: Christmas, christmas recipes, Cookies, Delish, Recipe, recipe book, white christmas candy

Moms Moves: 5 Ways I Impress My Family

May 16, 2011 By The Fashionable Housewife

I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother’s Day last weekend! I could sit here and write a story about how I had a lovely day, but that would be so cliche… No, instead I’ll tell you what REALLY happened!

I didn’t awake to breakfast in bed. Nobody gave me any flowers. Hell, I didn’t even get a card! Did I get five minutes to myself? No way. I spent the day working on my kitchen renovation after only 4 hours of sleep. Mudding, sanding, scraping, painting, with my mom at my side helping me.

Not a picture perfect Mother’s Day, but I did get to spend it with my mom, which I should be thankful for. And I am. Sometimes I do get jealous when I hear about all the other moms that get showered with gifts. Or just get to take a shower by themselves that is more than 213 seconds long…

Even though I don’t get treated like a queen at home, I still try to impress my family.

5 Ways I Impress My Family

1. I make dinner. Yup, that’s pretty impressive. I could call in takeout or delivery… Just sayin’.

2. I keep the house clean… for the most part. You probably can’t eat off my floors or lick my counter tops at any given moment, but I do my best to chase my two kids and clean up behind them while attempting to catch up on regular household chores.

3. I work from home. It’s an amazing feat to be able to run a business as big as mine AND keep the house clean AND raise two children under four years old AND be married to someone who travels for work all the time AND not completely and totally lose my mind. Yeah, that’s pretty freaking impressive.

4. Taking care of a TWO very high needs, high maintenance, high energy, in-need-of-constant-stimulation-and-attention kids. I know most moms think they have it rough and are probably overwhelmed from time to time, but my kids are INSANE!

5. Being married to someone with Aspergers. (High Functioning Autism) It’s a rough job but somebody’s gotta do it…

And once in a while, when I am not totally crazy and completely worn out, I manage to bake something special for my family. And when I don’t, we have cookies. Everyone always loves them so it’s a win win!

I just found out about Oreo Fudge Cremes and I’m looking forward to picking up a box the next time I’m at the grocery store… They sound yummy!

There’s Oreo creme under that fudge! Oreo Fudge Cremes are a thin, fudge covered cookie with an Oreo creme twist. Try them in Original, Mint and now Peanut Butter Creme and Golden! Visit http://bit.ly/iSrZvp for more info.

So how do you impress your family with all your supermom moves?

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Oreo Fudge Cremes via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Oreo Fudge Cremes.

Filed Under: Food & Snacks, Home Life Tagged With: Cookies, Food, moms, Mother's Day, Oreo, Oreo Fudge Cremes, Snacks

Really Easy Candy Cane Cookies

December 21, 2010 By Sara Cornell

I love buying baking magazines with recipes for exotic and beautiful cookies and baked goods. It always seems like a great idea to make batches of holiday cookies to give as hostess gifts or share with my friends (or just eat by myself), but when it comes time to actually deliver the goods and make these complicated confections my mind kind of shuts down and I end up making brownies from a mix or just going to Starbucks and getting a latte instead. If you are determined to whip up a batch of festive cookies but feel intimidated by the process, here is a super easy recipe for cookies that LOOK and TASTE delicious:

Candy Cane Cookies

1 large roll of slice and bake sugar cookie dough

Red food coloring

Coarse granulated sugar

Cut the roll of cookie dough in half and let it warm to room temperature. Put a few drops of red food coloring in half the dough and blend well, so you have a white ball and a red ball of dough. Chill both balls for about an hour so it is easy to work with. Using your hands pinch off a few tablespoons worth of white dough and roll between your hands to form a stick shape, about 1/2″ thick and 5″ long. Do the same with the red dough, wrapping each around the other to form a braid. Bend into the shape of a candy cane, and place on a greased cookie pan. Repeat until all the dough is finished. Sprinkle with coarse sugar and bake according to the wrapper directions, usually 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

These cookies are so easy to make that they are a fun activity for little hands. There is a minimal amount of mess and the end result will leave you feeling like a kitchen diva! Enjoy…

Filed Under: Holiday Features, Recipes Tagged With: baking, Candy Cane Cookies, Cookies, Kids in the Kitchen