Knitter in the Kitchen

I first encountered the Andes Crème De Menthe Cookies at a party about a year ago. I asked the hostess for the recipe, but the problem was that I could not locate the requisite Andes Mint baking chips. Fast forward to last week, when a colleague of mine — the same one who gave me the the recipe for these other Andes Mint cookies — mentioned that he found the baking chips at the new Target in town.

The recipe was a bit interesting to me. I’m certainly not an expert baker, but most recipes I’ve used seem to call for the baking soda and baking powder to go in with the dry ingredients. This recipe (which is essentially the same as the one on the back of the package) has the baking soda+powder mixed in at the same time as the sugars, butter, and eggs. Second, most recipes call for brown sugar to be packed when measured. This one didn’t say either way, so I opted for somewhere in between packed and loose. Third, the recipe gave a weight measurement for the size of the dough balls instead of a volume or diameter measurement. Yes, I did bust out the scale.

While these cookies tasted perfectly fine to me, I can’t say I particularly lliked them. It felt like I was eating one large Andes Mint without really tasting any cookie. I guess my memory of them was better than the actual thing.

This recipe is from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours. I made it for the first time two summers ago, using an angel food cake pan because I didn’t even own a bundt pan. I remember two distinct things from that experience:
(1) The cake looked really, really ugly (probably because I used the incorrect pan). So I didn’t blog about it because it was extremely un-photogenic.
(2) My colleagues at work raved about it.

A couple of weeks ago I finally bought a bundt pan so I decided to try this cake again. It was good, but I think my favorite is still the recipe from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook. But I am sure I will find some other goodie for this pan!

A couple of months ago I made chili for the first time, and I wanted to find an accompanying cornbread recipe. Beth suggested Grandmother’s Buttermilk Cornbread from allrecipes.com, and Hubby said it was a winner!

A very delicious blueberry crumb cake from Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Last month I made cinnamon rolls for the very first time and discovered that I absolutely loved them. So much, in fact, that I actually made them twice in as many weeks. But the process was a bit time consuming because of waiting for the yeast to rise and refrigerating the unbaked rolls overnight. So I was intrigued when I came across a post by The Kitchn about Fine Cooking’s Fastest Cinnamon Buns recipe.

The dough portion of this recipe is made in the food processor and includes baking soda + powder, buttermilk, and cottage cheese. I didn’t use the filling and frosting instructions at all. Instead, I stuck with my previous version so that I could compare differences in the dough only. Hubby and I both thought that these turned out really well. The texture is definitely different — perhaps a tad chewier but still very light. I can certainly see myself making this recipe more frequently because it tastes great and is much quicker.

Now I just need to work on my dough-rolling skills. I am terrible at it, but I am determined to improve!