Knitter in the Kitchen

I love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, but I have yet to find the perfect cookie recipe that incorporates both ingredients. Awhile back I tried the one from Smitten Kitchen (found here), but sadly they didn’t work out for me. They came out extremely flat and were way too sweet for my taste.

A couple of weeks ago, I baked a batch of Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies using an Everyday Food recipe. I thought they turned out pretty decent. I used 8 oz of chocolate chips (about 1 1/3 cups) because that was all I had on hand. I also used a mixture of reduced fat creamy and reduced fat super chunky peanut butter. The peanut butter flavor came out quite good — I could taste it, but it wasn’t overwhelming. The only thing I didn’t like? The cookies became very hard and crispy after they cooled. I prefer a much softer cookie, so I ended up microwaving my cookies before I ate them.

I’m planning to try this recipe again, with the following mods in the hopes that I will achieve the texture I am striving for:
(1) use a cookie scoop to get more of a “mound” shape
(2) mix full fat with reduced fat peanut butter
(3) reduce baking time from 14 minutes to 13 minutes

Do any of you have suggestions that might work or a favorite PB chocolate chip recipe to share?

I like the “friend activity” page on Ravelry because it exposes me to patterns that I might not otherwise see. That was where I came across the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret pattern.

This pattern only uses one skein of Malabrigo, which is a big plus.

Sadly, though, I don’t think this beret works well on me. It isn’t slouchy enough and generally looks too small. I should have done at least another half of the pattern repeat before the decreases. I’m still debating whether to frog it and re-knit it, or to donate the hat to charity.

Pattern: Star Crossed Slouchy Beret (Rav link)
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted, Polar Morn, less than 1 skein
Needles: US #9, #10, #11
Mods: I used US #9/16″ needles for the ribbing based on project notes I found Ravelry. I think this worked well. The US #11s/16″ were for the main body. For the decreases I used US#10 DPNs. I’m not sure why the pattern calls for 24″ needles — I tried them and didn’t like how the stitches were overly stretched out. The 16″ needles worked just fine.

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.

When I am at work, I park my car underground. This works out really great during the summer months when the temperatures are in the high 90s or 100s, but in the winter my car gets chilly. Since November, I’ve been telling myself that I need to knit up some fingerless mitts because my steering wheel is cold at the end of the day. I had a pair of Fetching mitts from 2006, but I only wore them for one season because the fit wasn’t right (too big) and the yarn (Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran) pilled like crazy. I can’t even remember what I did with them.

I saw the Evangeline pattern a long time ago and printed it. If my memory is correct, I believe it used to be a free pattern on MagKnits. Well, when I reorganized my craft room over the summer, I sorted through the many knitting patterns I printed over the years and tossed the ones I didn’t think I would use. Guess which pattern ended up in the recyle pile? Yup — Evangeline. So in order to knit these mitts, I actually paid for a pattern that I used to have for free. You can bet I was kicking myself for being overzealous in my cleaning!

But the pattern was worth it. I really like these mitts. They are easy to knit but not super boring. The fit is perfect, and I am hoping (fingers crossed) that the yarn will hold up well. This was my second time using Dream in Color Classy, and I liked it a lot better than I thought I would. I don’t particularly like the feel of DIC when I’m knitting with it — it seems kind of rough — but it was a good match for this pattern and the mitts don’t feel rough or itchy at all on my hands. Verdict: I would definitely knit this pattern again with the same yarn.

Pattern: Evangeline (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy, Grey Tabby, less than 1 skein
Needles: US #7 / 32″ for Magic Loop

Thanks to everyone who chimed in on my last post about blogging. I think generally the feeling is that blogging is a more personal way of communicating about our crafts with those who share our interests, and that we like the stories that go along with the projects. I agree — to me, writing blog posts is certainly more fun than simply entering information on Ravelry!

Back to my knitting FOs…the socks shown in my last post were done in September and were only my second finished project of 2009. And it took me seven months to knit them. Which means I really lost my knitting mojo last year. But I managed to pick up the pace a bit and knit three simple cowls between October and November.

Gloria Cowl for me

Yarn: Sundara Sock Yarn, Graphite, 1 skein
Pattern: Gloria Cowl
Needles: US #8 / 16″
Mods: Cast on 81 stitches (instead of 99). Knit 5 rows of seed stitch (instead of 3). Knit until about 10.5 inches, and then back to 5 rows of seed stitch.
Thoughts: I had been hoarding this colorway of Sundara yarn in my stash for at least a year, and when I decided I wanted a gray cowl I thought this would be the perfect yarn. It knit up beautifully, but I hadn’t anticipated that the gray would look purple-ish in certain lighting. It’s hard to find a true gray yarn! Other than that, I like it a lot. The 81 stitches around provides a snug fit (i.e., it doesn’t flop around) and the simple style of the Gloria Cowl goes with any top.

Gloria Cowl for my friend Ruth C. for Christmas:

Yarn: Sundara Sock Yarn, Pure Indulgence, 1 skein
Pattern: Gloria Cowl
Needles: US #8 / 16″
Mods: Cast on 85 stitches for a slighter looser fit than the one above. Other than that, same specs as above.
Thoughts: Not much else to add about this one.

Cowl of Kindness for my mom for Christmas

Back in August, I showed my mom my Cowl of Kindness and she liked it. I told her I would knit her one and she picked the yarn from my stash. When she opened the package at Christmas, she was surprised because she had forgotten about it completely!

Yarn: Madelinetosh Sock Yarn, Ginger, 1 skein
Pattern: Cowl of Kindness (Ravelry link)
Needles: US #8 / 16″
Thoughts: It was hard to part with this one, because this yarn showcased the pattern beautifully and orange is one of my favorite colors! I think I need to go pick up some more Madtosh sock yarn soon…