nutella chocolate chip cookies

I was going to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, when I realized I didn't really have enough peanut butter. So I made these, kind of making it up as I went along.

1.5 sticks butter (12 tbsps)

1 c brown sugar

1 c white sugar

1 tsp (approx) vanilla

1/2 c (approx) nutella

2 eggs

2 c flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

12 oz chocolate chips

cream first five ingredients until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. Mix flour and baking powder, add to sugar/butter/egg mixture and blend. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop by rounded teaspoon onto a cookie tray. Bake at 350F for approx 12 minutes. Cool on tray for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Love.

note: next time, I might cut down the sugar slightly. 2 c of sugar is a LOT of sugar. On the other hand, they spread nicely and were chewy but crunchy all at once...

knitting

I just fell in love with knitting again today.

Sunshine, in the book "The Shipping News", tells her dad, "It's kind of a trick, Dad, because it's just a long, long, fat string and it turns into a scarf."

It's like magic. I love it. It's just a long, long string, and you take two sticks and move it around, and voila! Scarves, lace, sweaters, socks, hats, gloves, mittens. And all from two simple stitches: knit and purl. Everything else is really just variations on a theme.

I like crocheting too, but I can do so much more with knitting (perhaps only because I've spent so much more time knitting).

Today, I started a toe-up sock. I may never knit a sock from the leg down again, mostly because I hate the kitchner stitch. (I don't actually know anyone who likes the kitchner stitch, most people I know just kind of put up with it because sometimes you just don't have a choice. Like at the end of a sock knitted from the leg down.) But knitty has a lovely tutorial on starting toe-up socks, and I really felt like the figure 8 method was magic. No slipknots even!

Anyway. My personal "use up my stash" project has commenced, and I'm starting with socks. I have no idea what to do with the odds and ends of worsted weight yarn. Especially because it's a mix of acrylic, wool, and wool blends. And an odd cotton blend thrown in there. Plus some baby-weight yarn. The hoarder in me won't let me throw anything away, even the scraps I only have a few yards of (you never know when you'll need it! and a few yards of yarn hardly takes up any space at all). Maybe I'll make a totally mis-matched blanket. Somehow, when you throw enough stuff that doesn't match together, it kind of works.

colorwork and entrelac

I haven't posted about any knitting in a while. I should be getting ready for bed, but sleep has been a bit elusive and my dreams have been a bit restless (but that's another story for another day).

I made these fingerless gloves for my friend Katy's birthday (which was in February):

It was my first real attempt at colorwork knitting. Next on my list to tackle is a fair isle pattern, but I have another project to finish first. I could maybe claim that I designed the pattern myself, because I took my basic 4-needle mitten pattern and some graph paper to chart out this basic diamond colorwork pattern that I put together after staring at pictures on the internets. What would I do without the internets? I was at one point going to write up the pattern and post it, but I never got around to it. If anyone really wanted it, I might post it eventually.

Then, I made this entrelac baby blanket for one of the ladies in my small group:

It turned out much bigger than I had expected. Turns out 17 blocks of entrelac in each row is a lot. But it was still reasonable baby-sized, I suppose. My baby blankets keep getting bigger. I think the one I made for Kristina's baby was about 20x20 inches, the one for Keith and Heather's little one was maybe 30x20 inches, and this one was closer to 48x36 inches. Approximately. I didn't actually measure, since I finished edging and weaving in loose ends rather late the night before the baby shower. Actually, I never measured any of the baby blankets I've made. I don't quite see the point of measuring blankets- it's not like it has to fit anything. If it looks big enough, it must be big enough. And if it doesn't look big enough- well, hopefully they're like Kristina, who used it as a car seat blanket. :)

This project was my first real project with entrelac. I started then unraveled an entrelac scarf, mostly because with worsted weight wool yarn in dark purple and off white, it just looked... dowdy. (I actually used that yarn to make Katy's mittens- much better use of the yarn, I think). But I'll have to do better with the bind-off. Or just cast-on more loosely. Because (though the pictures hide this nicely) the bind-off edge was much looser than the cast-on edge, so the blanket isn't exactly rectangular. Que sera, sera. I just did a simple double crochet edging, one round in each color. I find I much prefer crochet for edging blankets, just because it's much easier to handle. And possibly faster, though I can't say for sure. But I'll have to do entrelac again. I think in the right colors and the right weight of yarn it would make a really lovely shawl.

But, for anyone who's interested, that blanket was an 8 stitch entrelac pattern, with 136 stitches cast on, worked for 23 tiers (including the bottom and top triangles). Baby weight acrylic yarn in pink and cream, size 6 needles. I can write out a more detailed pattern but it'll take up space. Again, if anyone wanted it I can pass it on. (It hardly counts as a pattern in some sense- just keep doing the entrelac until it's done.)

I really want to make a nice lace shawl. Only (1) I can't quite pick a color, (2) I have to either buy the right yarn online or go to the local yarn store (not Micheal's or JoAnn's) and the only time I can make it to the yarn store is on Saturdays, and (3) I have another project I must finish in the next month or so. I'm really a one-at-a-time kind of knitter. Maybe two, and that's only if I have a "stay at home because it's big and cumbersome" project and a "take it on the train" project. But I'm rambling.

And finally, not knitting but not really baking either: lemon curd vol au vents. I had the shells in the freezer from... umm... September? Baked puff pastry doesn't keep well, but it's ok.

Lemon curd recipe was from the joy of baking. I liked this recipe (though it's the first lemon curd recipe I've tried) because it only used whole eggs. I get tired of using only egg whites or only egg yolks. I like to be efficient with my baking, and I like to not have leftover pieces. At any rate, lemon curd is marvelous. And easy. It does hit the spot, but it's a different kind of spot than my typical chocolate craving. This would make a lovely tart filling, or even cake filling. With fresh berries, and whipped cream! I have a "strawberry shortcake" recipe that involves lemon curd folded into the whipped cream that sounds fantastic. The downside is that I don't think the assembled desserts would keep very long, and I'm all for the dessert I can make and keep in the fridge for two weeks without being left with a stale, soggy mess. This is part of the reason I love tiramisu- it gets better the longer it sits.

happy birthday daddy!

Today is my dad's birthday. So I made him a cake. This time the frosting turned out much better than my last sad attempt at a birthday cake.

Vanilla cake, vanilla frosting. I used whipped cream flavored with a bit of green tea powder in the layers, but I still didn't have enough frosting to really cover the outside of the cake.

And that frosting worked better than my attempt in February, but it's so ridiculously sweet it's like a diabetes attack. I used this recipe from Gale Gand at the Food Network. I'm still searching for a good frosting recipe that's smooth and creamy without being uber-sweet. I think I might go for a cream cheese frosting, but replace the cream cheese with marscapone. I would do whipped cream, only whipped cream doesn't stay set long enough for my liking. I don't really want to use gelatin (and I've tried in the past- I must be doing something wrong because it never seemed to work quite right).

The cake was good, and has a very tight crumb, but I kind of prefer a more spongy cake, personally. I used this recipe from an old Daring Baker's challenge, but I replaced the lemon zest/lemon extract with vanilla and it was just fine.

Things to work on include my piping skills and my lettering skills. But my cakes are getting better! I even had enough energy to glaze the fruit on top so it didn't dry out. :)

pick me up

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

Mmm. Tiramisu. I've been making tiramisu for a long time now. Ever since my sister hunted up this recipe to make at home, after my brother spent most of his time at the sushi buffet eating the little tiramisu squares at the dessert bar. At least, I think that's approximately when it started. Everyone thinks tiramisu is difficult and impressive- let me tell you, it's really not. It does take a little patience, and the knowledge of how to use a double broiler (or a pot of hot water with a heat-proof pan on top), but seriously, not difficult. A little time consuming, because it's the kind of dessert that gets better as it sits. But anyway, I digress. I love tiramisu, and I made it twice in the span of two weeks.

Anyway. This time, the challenge included making the marscapone cheese and making the lady fingers. So this one was a little more time-consuming, requiring some planning ahead.

I've tried this marscapone cheese recipe several times (who knew marscapone cheese was just heated cream? Why does heating the cream and adding some acid- lemon juice- then separating out a little bit of water turn it into cheese? It's like magic!) but it never seems to work quite right. I think I need more space between my sieve and the bottom of the bowl I let it sit in, because it took way longer than overnight for it to set, and that was after dumping out the residual water (whey?) twice. I had to use a smaller bowl in order to fit it in the fridge. And I gave up on trying to use cheesecloth- after I poured the curdled cheese into the cheesecloth, nearly all of it filtered through into the bowl, which didn't seem right at all to me. I used two coffee filters instead- maybe that's why it took so long to set, but at any rate, it worked.

I also don't think my ladyfingers rose quite as much as they were supposed to- not sure if the temperature was off in the oven, or what. But they still tasted good. I should have dipped them fully in the coffee mixture the first time, I was a little worried about them crumbling after reading other DB's comments in the forums, so I only dipped them halfway, but then the tiramisu was a little too cakey for my liking.

I've never made it with a pastry cream, so that was fun. And I don't usually put lemon zest in my zabaglione, so that was interesting. (I really need a zester.) But I really liked the slight lemon kick to it.

Assembled tiramisu

Mini tiramisu

Tiramisu take 2: this one I should have put in a 8x8 pan instead of a 9x13, and made 3-4 layers instead of just 2. I also left out the pastry cream and used the amount of zabaglione that I normally use, and it was lovely.

I am not very creative. I thought about doing a green tea version, with a dusting of green tea powder on top, but I wasn't sure that the tea would be enough oomph to dip the cookies into. And I'd love to try passionfruit, but nowhere seems to sell it. I'm also a stickler for following directions. ;)

Anyway. I could get into the habit of making my own marscapone cheese (so much cheaper than buying it), but I dunno if I want to take the effort to make my own lady fingers unless I have something special in mind. Different shaped tiramisu would definitely benefit from homemade ladyfingers.