My Thoughts on Eggs

OK, before this food blog thing gets too far in, any readers might as well know that I really have a thing about eggs.  They are gross.  Here’s why:

1)  They are slimy
2)  They crack
3)  They can be rotten
4)  They can carry disease
5)  THEY CAN BLEED

Did you know that?  Eggs can bleed.  And apparently that can only happen if the egg has been fertilized.  So basically, some horny rooster ruined my cupcakes.

Eww eww eww eww eww.

One batch of batter down the drain.  Cupcake fail.

I hate eggs.

Icebox Cake

Happy 4^th of July!

Since it’s a holiday weekend and, in my house, a belated Father’s Day celebration, I decided it was a perfect time to make a cake.  I found this recipe for a Chocolate Chip Cookie Icebox Cake that seemed perfect – yummy, festive, and just a little retro.  

Finished Cake

It’s originally from the July 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine.  I scaled down the original recipe because 1) I didn’t have enough people around to eat an entire icebox cake and 2) there is no way in the world I was making 8 dozen cookies from scratch (really…just…no).  

For the cookies, I used the infamous Neiman Marcus recipe.  I made two batches and stretched them just a little to get 49 cookies - everyone knows square numbers are cooler. 

Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes 2 dozen)

1 stick butter (softened)

1 C brown sugar

3 tbsp granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 ¾ C all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp instant espresso or coffee (optional)

1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 300 F.  Cream the butter with the sugars until fluffy using an electric mixer on medium speed (about 30 seconds).  Beat in egg and the vanilla extract for another 30 seconds.  In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture at low speed for about 15 seconds.  Stir in the espresso/coffee powder and chocolate chips.  Using a 2 tbsp measure, drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart.  Gently press dough with the back of the spoon to spread out into a 2 inch circle.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned along the edges. 

For this recipe I baked them a little longer so they came out crispier.

Using those cookies, I made mascarpone cream and assembled the cake.  This part turned out to be surprisingly easy.  After the cookies cooled, whipping up the cream, piling everything up, and cleaning up took less than half an hour.  

Chocolate Chip Cookie Icebox Cake

2 C cold heavy cream

4 oz mascarpone cheese

1 tbsp sugar

½ tbsp whiskey (optional)

4 dozen chocolate chip cookies

Whisk 1 ½ C cream and the mascarpone in a chilled bowl until soft peaks form.  Add sugar and whiskey.  Whisk until medium soft peaks form.  Refrigerate until ready to use (or up to 3 hours).

Arrange 6 cookies in a circle (with cookies touching) on a cake stand or plate.  Place 1 cookie in the center.  Carefully spread about ½ C of the cream mixture evenly over cookies, leaving a slight border.  Repeat to form 6 more layers, ending with cookies.  Refrigerate, lightly draped with plastic wrap, overnight. Whisk remaining cup cream until soft peaks form.  Spread over top of cake just before serving.  Garnish with chocolate chips.

Verdict:  Breakfast of Champions

Breakfast Slice

That’s right, I tried a slice first
thing this morning.
It was really good (really rich) and had softened just like the recipe said it would (I had some doubts in the beginning).  The bottom cookies were a little harder because I had abandoned the measuring cup when doing the frosting, so the frosting got more generous as I went along.  If I do it again, I’ll probably skip the whipped cream for the top and use all of the cream to make the mascarpone frosting.  I’ll also put some frosting on the top layer of cookies before it goes in the fridge so those come out a little softer too. 

The Beginning...

I have a confession to make:  I have become completely addicted to food blogs.  I don’t really care to admit just how much time I spend surfing around the interwebs looking at pretty pictures of yummy sounding recipes.  Oh the things you can do with sugar and chocolate and flour – the possibilities are endless and my baking to-do list has grown to a totally irrational size.  I figure it’s high time I did something about it.  So here goes – I’m starting my own blog.  I want to start moving on that crazy to-do list, and I want to try actually contributing something instead of just enjoying what everyone else puts out there.   

I’ll start with one of my favorites:  Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies.  These are my favorite cookies, which is seriously surprising given that there is no chocolate in them.  I had them for the first time sophomore year of college when my RA brought them around as she was meeting people.  I took one just to be polite.  I really didn’t plan to like them. I mean, they were cookies with no chocolate and who in their right mind makes cookies with no chocolate?  I really didn’t see the point.  That said, my RA stuck around to chat and politeness required me to try one.  Roughly 4 minutes later, I had emailed her to ask for the recipe.  Conveniently, it’s the recipe on the back of a bag of Nestle butterscotch bits.

Oatmeal Scotchies

1 ¼ C all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp salt

1 C (2 sticks) butter, softened

¾ C granulated sugar

¾ C packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 C oats

1 2/3 C (11-oz pkg) butterscotch chips

Preheat the oven to 375 F.  Combine flour, baking, soda, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl.  Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract in a large bowl.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Stir in oats and butterscotch chips.  Drop by rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets.  Bake for 7-8 minutes for chewy cookies or 9-10 minutes for crisp cookies.  Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

It’s easiest to remove the cookies when they are warm.  They are pretty fragile to begin with, but they hold together OK when they’ve cooled.  Besides, broken cookies just give an excuse to eat a couple right out of the oven…