I am suffering from cookie guilt – that feeling that I’m just not doing enough. On Thursday evening, I went to what I thought was going to be Recall Walker training, but turned out to be phone banking. Although not an unpleasant experience, for two reasons: 1) the technology has improved dramatically since the last time I did any political phone calling; and 2) everytime I got an actual person, instead of an answering machine, they were sooo nice – “Oh, I can’t help this time, but keep on the list for later” – maybe this recall thing’s actually going to work.
But it did take away from baking time – when I got home I made the pignoli cookies – at least a gluten free batch. The recipe only has about 3 TBLS of flour, so I thought it’d be a good candidate for gluten free, and just I just subbed in gluten free baking mix for the flour. There didn’t seem to be enough, though, so I made a second, with-gluten batch the next day. I also made the Moravian ginger thin dough, but never got around to rolling it out till Sunday.
Also Thursday, I made the spoon cookie dough, which means browning like 8 sticks of butter in a big pot, nerve wracking because you don’t want to either under do it, nor burn it. I baked and assembled the spoon cookies on Friday, and actually everything about them is nerve wracking – not just the butter. They’re spoon cookies, afterall, so obviously, you form them with a spoon, not as precise as scoops or cookie cutters, so you’re never sure you’re making each one the right size; it’s hard to tell when they’re done enough; they’re really fragile – you can knock an edge off one in less than a heartbeat; and then when you stick them together, you’re never sure if your putting in enough jam or too much jam, and will you run out of the special strained cherry-strawberry blend that you made? Should you just chuck in some seedless raspberry now, and risk upsetting the cherry-strawberry flavor balance? Not to mention that the black cat loves the spoon cookies, because they’re so buttery, so one must be ever vigilant for her raiding missions.
So Friday was spoon cookies and not much else. But I made a lot of them, as you’ll see from my proud parent pictures. Some of the mass shots look like the ceiling at Heathrow airport where we waited – queued – to go through customs.
On Saturday, I never did any actual baking until late afternoon. I made all the kinds with chocolate stuck on top – almond with Hershey kisses, and peanut butter with chocolate stars. The almond cookies took over the world – three of the 5 qt. buckets. I baked the peanut butter ones without parchment, so I got some of the bottoms a little too brown – but Al was around to eat most of the seconds. I also made some lemon crumbles – a buttery crunch cookie with lots of lemon rind – that I’m kinda “meh” about – haven’t made them since like 1997 or so. But I just bet they’ll be someone’s fave. And in my eternal quest for a good anise cookie I made traditional springerle – which tasted pretty good after they’d dried and baked on Sunday a.m. – but if I’m going to keep doing them, I need a much better springerle mold. Or rolling pin.
Sunday I had high hopes for – but somehow got embroiled in other domestic tasks: making veggie broth, cooking brunch, cleaning up, toasting almonds and hazelnuts and rubbing the skins off the hazelnuts. And exercise – I went for a long walk and coffee with Rach in the a.m. and restorative yoga in the p.m. And dropping my car at the shop for an oil change. I finally rolled out the ginger thins, and decided that my new snowflake cutter will be better for regular ginger bread. I made the last bit of that dough into gingersnaps and drizzled on a lemon glaze to give to my house call vet – my kitties are due for their yearly check up – and she has three daughters, I think all still at home, so I want to give her a nice box. I managed to make the doughs for three of the four slice & bakes I intended: the ginger cookies (my mother’s favorite, brown sugar shortbread with candied ginger), pistachio-cranberry (here are 2010 ones, better pix soon, I hope), and the candied fruit slices. But I didn’t make the 2 biscotti kinds I want to do this year – cornmeal anise and my tried and true hazelnut-almond. And even though I made some vanilla pudding for Mark & I to eat with Boardwalk Empire and the last of the Thanksgiving cookies (and the ginger thins seconds) the timing wasn’t right for that, either.
I was sure the vet was coming this morning – Monday – so I got up at 6:30, and made the cornmeal biscotti. Only to check my calendar and realize she’s not coming till Tuesday. Which is good, because I was feeling guilty about how few cookie kinds I have to put in her box – remember, she has three kids – by tomorrow, there’ll be at least a few more.
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