Blogs about baking from Pew Pew Laser Blog

Snickerdoodles.

While these aren't my personal favorite cookie, they are my most requested cookie. The husband and many co-workers agree that these are the best snickerdoodles in the world. I keep the cinnamon and sugar mixture on-hand in a small jar; I re-use it for the next batch of snickerdoodles, or on buttered toast. Here's the recipe.

Ye-ouch!

I was washing dishes, when my timer went off to pull some cookies out of the oven. I slapped on my oven mitt, pulled out the cookie sheet, and got one heck of a burn on the tip of my thumb. The water from my fingers had absorbed into the cloth of the mitt, and created a lovely new path for heat to escape from the hot baking tray right into my thumb. From now on, I'm resolved to thoroughly dry my hands before putting on the oven mitts.

Thanksgiving II.

This year's Turkey day was as much of a success as last year. The in-laws made for delightful and very helpful company this year. It is always good to have a chance to show off in the kitchen.

Here, for posterity, was our menu:

• Alton Brown's (Brined and) Roasted Turkey: This is our go-to recipe every year, and is reliably delicious. Note that you want the full-sodium stock in this recipe; remember that you're brining the turkey.
• Beard / Brown Rolls: I rewrote the recipe for Parker House Rolls from Beard on Bread to be more specific, and to take advantage of modern conveniences such as instant yeast and stand mixers. These should be prepared the night before serving, and baked in the morning.
• Mushroom Gravy: The husband prepared just the "Gravy" part of this recipe. Last year he made it with vegetable stock instead of turkey stock for the vegetarians. We always forget to add the parsley and mint, so they're optional.
• Sourdough Stuffing: This is a great stuffing, and easily adapted to be vegetarian. This year we added some carrots to fill out the flavor a bit.
• Endive Salad: This salad is very pretty, but the flavors only come together when you cut everything up together. You could probably could go with hearts of Romain instead of the endives.
• Mashed potatoes: We used a simple mashed potato recipe from a book, so no recipe here.
• "The Cock and Jack Apple Pie": This is a mash-up of the husband's devising, and is widely hailed as the best apple pie in the world. He uses Caprial's Apple Pie filling from Caprial's Desserts, Alton Brown's recipe for crust, and Alton's pie construction methods: drain the apples and use a pie bird to prevent a collapsing crust.
• Green beans w/ bacon and shallots: I'm a little unsure of the ingredients, and don't have the recipe, because our guests brought this dish.
• Fresh Cranberry Relish: This will make a huge amount of relish, but we quickly use it all up. It works well inside dinner rolls or scones, for instance.

I was very pleased that I managed to make rolls this year. I did forget the salt, but I rewrote the recipe to (hopefully) avoid that next time. Also, the chicken stock that I made a couple of months ago was used as an ingredient in many of our Thanksgiving dishes, so that's another feather in my cap. The husband should be very proud of all he made. In fact, now that I think about it, it's time for some left-over apple pie.

Halloween 2009.

I made these ghost cupcakes for Halloween this year. I swiped the idea from a picture I saw online, though I can't remember where. These ghostly goodies are constructed from this chocolate cake recipe (bake regular sized cupcakes for 17 minutes), the "Love Buns" topping, and some eyeball sprinkles that I found at Cookies in Ballard. I've very pleased with how cute they looked, but the frosting did fall a little overnight. I think next time I'll try a full on seven minute frosting recipe.

We had just a few folks over for Halloween this year. I thought more people would be coming, but it turns out that we had just the right number for some focused game-playing. We started on the Wii with Boom Blox Blast Party, which is always fun. (We'll be keeping this copy from Gamefly). A bit later in the evening, we played an epic 6 player game of Munchkins (which the husband got for my birthday). The game was just complicated enough to keep everybody interested without being confusing. Munchkins is also, as I mentioned before, hilarious. Remember:

No one can help you! You must face the Gazebo alone.

Love Buns.

Last month, I made Nigella Lawson's "Love Buns". Note that I used butterfly sprinkles with Halloween paper wrappers. I need to get a larger variety of cupcake papers.

The cake was a bit dense and tasted a little boring. But it would definitely make a good sturdy base for strong flavors; perhaps orange with a fudge frosting and candied orange peel for sprinkles.

The frosting took a lot of whipping; I was glad for my hand mixer. It came out with a consistency near that of marshmallows, but it was very good at holding on to those sprinkles.