Googly Cookies

This week I found a big yellow notation upon logging in to DOA:

So, there have been some changes in cookies, particularly for my European readers (hai, if you're out there!)  Google seems to want me to do something too, but I haven't a clue.  Maybe this post serves the purpose.

On the plus side, it appears there is a SUPER SECRET SECURE https DOA so you can be assured you're reading in the utmost safety.  I think.

Picky Palate's XXL M and M Chocolate Chip Cookies

I thought I'd report on my monster cookies.  They turned out great and are perfect dunked in milk.  Nice soft cookies.  Very chocolaty.  I personally was mongo impressed by scooping up a quarter cup of dough for each cookie.  I managed to space them well so they didn't conjoin.

The link for the recipe is here.  I cooked them for 15 minutes at 350 and did give them the extra ten minutes on the pan. 

Just delightful.  I'm giving them away tomorrow never fear or I would have to roll everywhere I go.  It was important for me to taste one for scientific purposes.

I hate to say but I think mine look nicer than the originals.  No brag just fact (Walter Brennan?).

Before cooking on right, after cooking on left :)

What's Cooking? You Ask.

Well, since you ask, there is a nice stew in the crockpot simmering away on low.  It smells heavenly.

I have all these recipes I'm twitching to try, but there is just me and Mr. DOA so I can't fill the place with baked goods, can I?  Noooo.

I can find opportunities such as a family gathering this weekend to bring the expected cranberries and 7 Layer Salad, and more.

Trickily, I can try a few other recipes and slink in the door with them, letting my unsuspecting family test these things out.

First, a recipe I have used before for coleslaw that is very good but not necessarily just like KFC's slaw.   It makes way too much so I'm going to halve it this time:

http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/KFC-Cole-Slaw-Recipe.html

I confess when I made it last time I used Miracle Whip because I grew up with it and I love it to death.  I find regular mayo to be comparatively tasteless.   The new Uber Cook me is going to use Hellman's in the recipe to see what difference it makes, if any.

The butter is softening as we speak for Whipped Shortbread Cookies  from Taste of Home. The recipe seemed simple, looked pretty, and delicate.  3 cups of butter is putting a serious dent in my butter supply.

My cookies came out perfect.  I wanted something light like a Russian teacake but not a Russian teacake.  They seemed as if they might be soft given the texture of the dough, but they are not.  A burst of powdery cookie-ness explodes  in your mouth then it immediately melts away on your tongue in a lovely buttery bit of heaven.  I am a soft cookie person so I think these need milk or coffee to dunk them in.

These are mine:

I found Christmas colored M and Ms  for Picky Palate's http://picky-palate.com/2010/05/10/xxl-mm-chocolate-chip-cookies/

I did not find those pans she used that are like muffin pans but very shallow.  I looked at various advice for baking cookies in muffin tins.  There was such a wide variation in baking times and temperatures, I think trying this for the first time I will use her directions for baking on a regular cookie sheet.

From a site I increasingly love: Two Peas and Their Pod  we're making Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake.  I've never made a bundt cake before, and always think of them as being sort of dry and frosting-less.

This sweet recipe looks very moist and has a nice chocolate glaze.  http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/chocolate-sour-cream-bundt-cake/

Wish me luck!

In Search of a Soft Peanut Butter Cookie

I like the taste of the traditional peanut butter cookie, and I liked  making those cross hatches on top as a kid.  Now, as I become Ms DOA Cookiemeister, I want a nice soft cookie.  Those dry old cross hatched things...meh.

I have several recipes to try but started with http://www.everydayhomecook.com/2011/08/soft-chewy-peanut-butter-cookies/  this one from the Everyday Home Cook site.  It had more moist ingredients, I reasoned, so maybe it would be softest.

Mine don't look quite like hers perhaps because I used a small ice cream scoop, the kind that lets you scoop then launch your cookie out onto the pan or into a small bowl of sugar.

They were really nice and soft as I'd hoped.  Mr. DOA really liked them but couldn't quite pronounce them to be "peanut buttery."  There's a whole cup of peanut butter in there and I thought they were nicely peanut buttery. (New word?)

I have two more recipes lined up, and welcome any suggestions for a nice soft peanut butter cookie.

Just Books, No Cookies!

Libraries offer an incredible array of goods and services these days.

Yet almost daily someone will come in or call and ask for something we don't have, can't offer, wouldn't remotely be able to offer even with all the budget money in the world.

Customer response to their requests being unfullfilled is usually a very reasonable "Oh, okay, thanks."

Some days, the customer will get quite rowdy and upset that he/she can't have what they want. They don't want a referral to a place where they could get it. No explanation will satisy the fact that they just want it NOW. And the library is the one they want it from.

Tsk, rather like Cookie Monster in the clip below: