Groundhog Day Party

Our friends John and Laura had a Groundhog Day party on Saturday. I volunteered to bring a dessert. I opted to make something easy to eat and that I hoped kids would like: a batch of Banana Granola Cookies (from Jill Snider's Cookies) and a batch of Butterscotch Bars from Cook's Country.

I'd made the Banana Granola Cookies once before. This batch turned out a little flatter. I also added some chocolate chips to the batter, a nice touch. I also frosted them with cream-cheese icing. The Butterscotch Bars were new. I found them to be extremely sweet; I ended up feeling glad I'd cut them into small squares.

A Trip to Houston

A couple of weeks ago, I traveled to Texas for the Houston Marathon. Because the holidays had put me in a cookie-baking frame of mind, I baked a lot of cookies to bring along and share with the friends who were also going to be at the race. I relied on recipes from three books.

From Mom’s Big Book of Cookies by Lauren Chattman, I made:
Benne Wafers: excellent cookie, with an unusual flavor from the sesame seeds.
Sour Cream Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies: soft, cakey. I didn’t love these cookies, truth be told.
Snickerdoodles: a thinner, crisper version than the ones Ryan usually makes on Cookie Day (from a recipe in The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle).
Mexican Chocolate Chip Cookies: pretty good, a chocolate chocolate-chip cookie with cinnamon in the dough.

From A Baker’s Field Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies by Dede Wilson, I made:
Double Chip Browned-Butter Oat Scotchies: excellent. Oaty, butterscotchy.
Coffee-Toffee-Chocolate Chunk Cookies: a classic.

From Cookies by Jill Snider, I made:
Lemon-Poppy Seed Balls: nice and tender, but in need of a bit more lemon flavor.
Key Lime-Coconut Macaroons: didn’t like them at all; they had a rubbery texture. I made the dough in advance and refrigerated it for a day before baking it. I wonder if that contributed to the unfortunate texture.

Also, to fulfill a promise, I brought along a Sweet Potato Pound Cake, from a recipe in Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott. I’ve made this one before, and absolutely love it.

Finally, I made a couple of flourless treats for my good friend Enid, who can’t consume wheat-based baked goods. Although I really like baking for friends in general, I get a special bit of joy in baking for Enid because I know that homemade baked goods can be harder to come by for those who can’t eat wheat. So for Enid, it was a batch of Cliff's Brownies (from Gluten-Free Baking by Rebecca Reilly) and a batch of Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies from Lauren Chattman’s book. It’s a brilliantly simple four-ingredient recipe (peanut butter, egg, vanilla, sugar) that I augmented with some Ghirardelli dark-chocolate chips.

More Cookies

After the rigors of Cookie Day, I still had more cookies to make. For years, I'd wanted to try Benne Wafers. On Cookie Day, I actually made the dough for these cookies, then didn't bake it off til a few days later. I used a recipe from Lauren Chattman's Mom's Big Book of Cookies. I love these cookies. The toasted sesame seeds give them an exotic flavor and nutty crunch; they're so good that I almost don't care when the sesame seeds get stuck in my teeth.

I also made Banana Granola Cookies from Jill Snider's Cookies. These cookies were not too bad, soft and cakey. They're yet another recipe I'll add to the pile I turn to when confronted with overripe bananas.

Then I made a batch of Mexican-wedding-cake-type cookies, with ground walnuts and "holiday" swirled white chips from Nestle. Pretty straightforward. I made these last year, too, and everyone liked them. I have to stop buying goofy "holiday" baking products, though.

Finally, on Christmas Day, I made a batch of Boston Cream Pies, from the Rosie's Bakery Chocolate-Packed, Jam-Filled, Butter-Rich Cookie Book (pause for a breath here) by Judy Rosenberg. It's one of two books written by the owner of this Boston-area bakery chain. Loved the idea, but the reality was troublesome. First, the pastry-cream filling set up into a solid, immovable mass. With the quick work of some extra cream and my immersion blender, I managed to save the pastry cream. The yellow cakes for these small sandwich cookies mostly baked up OK. But the chocolate glaze for the tops was a nightmare, far too thin and runny to adhere to the cakes, even when it was cool. I ended up adding enough powdered sugar to make a frosting instead of a glaze. Then, after all the bonus effort, the Boston Cream Pies were good to go. (I'm tempted to roll my eyes at this point.)