Spice cookies- three recipes in review

Spice cookies.  Who doesn't like a good pumpkin spice cookie when the leaves turn or a ginger bread cookie come Christmas?  Unfortunately I've had only bad experiences with this class of cookie in the past- whether the molasses is too strong, spices aren't right, or the texture is off, something has always seemed to go wrong.  I tried again this fall with a variety of recipes with mixed results, but here they are:

Pumpkin molasses cookies
When I first started Pinterest I had no idea that there were galleries of "Pinterest Fails" and in my naive state was willing to try any recipe I came across.  Some were wonderful (like the caramel apple sugar cookies) and some were not.  Such as this one.

When I first saw this recipe, the weather was changing and anything pumpkin sounded fantastic.  A quick glance at the recipe and looked like a pretty standard recipe.   I followed the directions as written and I was even patient and let the dough chill longer than the required time.

The resulting cookie was extremely flat and floppy.  It never set the way the recipe suggested it would, and they were extremely difficult to get off the pan.  They tasted fine, but who wants to eat a cookie that looks more like a pancake?  I'm not sure if it was me or the recipe, but I won't be trying this one again any time soon.




Pumpkin Spice Cookies
This is another Pinterest recipe, but it went over much better than the last one.  The cookie itself still wasn't what I wanted though.  For one thing, they were way too soft- still almost cake-like. They also turned out really domed, which made them difficult to frost.  Other than that they were great.  The maple icing turned out well too.  I'm not sure how to fix the doming issue, but I would probably try these again.




Break Your Water Cookies
As you can probably guess by the title, I was a little desperate and very done being pregnant when I made these (did I mention Elaine was a week over-due?) .  Don't let it throw you off though- these are actually the dark horse winners of this spice cookie show-down.

 These cookies had it all- flavor, texture, looks.  They were just barely crunchy on the outside with the soft center associated with spice cookies.  They stayed that way too, which is always nice.  They were definitely spicy, but not in an over-whelming way, and it all worked well with the molasses flavor.

I did eat about a dozen of these a few days before going into labor, and regardless of whether they helped or not, it was a pleasant way to try to move things along.  I brought these to work and a family gathering and everyone agreed they were great.

Carmel Apple Sugar Cookies (could it get any better?)

The next few posts are going to be very cookie-heavy.  To start, I tried a Pinterest recipe and this one was a total success (unlike a few others I've tried... but that's for another time).

Basically, you use powdered apple cider mix to flavor a sugar cookie recipe, wrap it around a soft caramel candy, and bake.  The only thing I changed from the original recipe, was to cut the caramels in half.  Using the whole ones got really messy and resulted in enormous cookies.  And just a note- the part about allowing them to cool upside down should not be ignored.  I tried it with a few just to see and the cookie ends up looking very sunken.

I also highly recommend warming them over a hot drink as the author suggests.  Unless you eat them all warm off the baking sheet- I wouldn't judge if it happened!

Reese's Cupcakes

A loooong time ago I saw a package of the new "minis" Reese's peanut butter cups on sale.  I immediately thought of their uses in baking and bought a few packages with no particular plan in mind.

About two months later I came across a recipe for peanut butter buttercream (scroll to the bottom), along with a chocolate cake recipe, and thought this would be an opportunity to use them.  After scanning the cake recipe I decided it looked like too much work, so I used my old stand by recipe instead. 

 I used foil cupcake cases for these since they seemed more candy-bar-ish than regular paper ones and I topped them off with the minis Reese's.  After doing a few, I decided it looked better to cut the Reese's in half, so the rest of them followed suite.  No matter how cute the minis Reese's are, the real star of this show was the peanut butter buttercream. It was so light and creamy and full-flavored, without being overwhelming.  I received many compliments on these from everyone who tried them and almost everyone commented on the icing.  Definitely a fun recipe to keep on hand!

Apple Pie

I'm pretty sure the phrase "as easy as pie" doesn't apply to many pies other than apple.  It's just such an easy process, especially in comparison to other pies.  I've posted on apple pies before, but I had added a bunch of new things.  This was just straight-up apple pie and it was so pretty I had to post a picture.  Gala apples were on sale this time and I got to practice my new lattice crust technique.

I also used wheat flour for the crust and it tasted great!

Georgia Peach Pound Cake

I made this pound cake with the same batch of peaches that I bought for the peach cobblers that I made.  They were a bigger success than the cobbler was a flop!  I couldn't believe how well they turned out in every way.

It was super dense and sweet, cut like a dream, and kept for almost a week.  The outside was coated in sugar and it added a great little crunch to it.

The only thing I would give caution about is greasing the pans before coating them in sugar.  I did a moderate coat of baking spray, but since the sugar partially melts while baking, it got very stuck in some places.  I will definitely be using shortening next time to get a good all-over coat.

Chris and I ate the loaves ourselves, so I can't give any objective positive testimonial, but we loved them!

Peach Cobbler

 This post really is about peach cobbler, but first let me introduce you to the reason for my 3 month absence from blogging!  My daughter Elaine Elizabeth was born 12-12-12 at 4:44am.  She weighed 9 lbs 2.5 oz and measured 21 inches long.  She is now almost two months old and changing each day! Although there may still be a delay in updates (and I have a TON of catching up to do), I hope to get posts out more regularly now that life has settled into a new routine.

Now, onto that peach cobbler!

First off, let me say this was a multi-step process with lots of opportunity for errors.  I used a dessert recipe book, otherwise I would post a link so you could follow along.

It starts with blanching peaches in order to peel them.  It's an easy enough concept- cook the fruit just long enough to soften the layer just under the skin- not a very easy task.  It's supposed to work best with ripe peaches, but the peaches I bought ripened at different paces, so some were really ripe and some where just barely there.  That being said, determining how long to boil the peaches was a lot of guess work.  Some were really easy to peel, some were too mushy in the end, and others were still hard.  In the end, it all worked out and I ended up with enough peaches for two pies.

The next step was the crust, which turned out well.  It's the same crust I use for everything, so no worries there.

The filling was an egg and cream custard that you had to scald.  I'm not sure I've ever purposely scalded anything before this, and I'm quite certain now that I need practice.  Regardless, I did what I thought I was supposed to do.

Putting it all together was simple, but baking was not.  The filling was supposed to set after 40 min.  After 60 min it was still liquid, but I took the pies out hoping they would set up as they cooled.  That was not the case at all. 

These pies looked and smelled amazing.  They even tasted pretty good.  If you don't mind slurping your pie with a soup spoon.  This was a very disappointing mis-adventure and I'm not sure what went wrong.  Next summer, when peaches are in season again, I'll be trying this recipe once more, as well as another version.  Better luck next time I guess.

-Beth