All I want for Christmas is…
It’s available at Neiman Marcus and it only costs $15K…
… Please?
Thanks very much,
Lauren E.
Tag Archives: Cookies
Dear Santa
Filed under Miscellaneous
The Martha Stewart Show
The studio
Yesterday was such an amazing experience. Not only did I get to fully participate in a taping of The Martha Stewart Show, but I met some amazing food bloggers and got to see the inner workings of a talk show that focuses on food. If you didn’t follow the live Twitter feed yesterday (you can still read the Tweets here) this is a brief recap.
After waiting in the freezing November cold at 8:30 AM, the audience was ushered in, given name tags, and then the Twitterers were herded into a separate green room to get the low down on what would happen during the show. After the intro, we got a quick tour of the studio and then we sat down. I was front row. Because that’s where they put the prettiest people, in case you are not television-savvy.
There were two rows of Twitterers, all posting to #MarthaTweets and we even caused a trending topic! Word.
Now on to the important stuff. The cookies. Oh, the cookies. Did you know they bake all of the cookies on The Martha Stewart Show right there in their very own test kitchen? So when they hand out these cookies to the audience members, you’re eating something that was baked that day right in the same room.
A sugar cookie with organic milk from Manhattan Milk (click the pic for a link!)
The sugar cookie was followed up by a Mexican hot chocolate cookie, an almond mouse cookie, and a coconut sandwich cookie. We also got to taste a cranberry coin cookie. I knew I skipped breakfast for a reason.
The Martha Stewart Show also premiered the brand new Martha Cookie app for the iPad, which made me sad that I am poor, and lustful for that beautiful piece of technology. A girl can dream…
The Tweeters with Martha Stewart
Filed under Miscellaneous
Hey Punkin!
Even though the temperatures in New York feel more like June than October, I can not help but crave everything pumpkin. I suddenly remembered a point last year when I went to the grocery store to get a can of pumpkin and they were sold out. I would not let that happen again. Thankfully, they were fully stocked and I am now the proud owner of six cans of pure, delicious pumpkin. Don’t judge.
On the menu:
Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies
Adapted from this recipe at AllRecipes.com
1 cup pure canned pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp milk
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups milk chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, soft together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk. Add to the flour mixture. Add flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture until completely blended. Add vanilla and chocolate chips.
Drop cookies by spoonful onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, or until the edges are brown*. Let cool for at least ten minutes, or until you literally can not take it anymore. Pour a glass of milk. Eat your cares away.
*Note: these cookies are like little pillows of heaven, soft and cakey and essentially perfection. They will still be soft when you pull them out of the oven. Also, they do not spread so you can put them close together on the tray.
Mmm salty
You know how sometimes you just need something chocolatey? You crave it? It consumes every thought in your head until you race home from work and scrape together the ingredients from your kitchen to produce something to satisfy that itch? No? Just me? Here’s the recipe, friends.
On the menu:
Chocolate pretzel cookies
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
2/3 cup cocoa powder
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup crushed pretzels
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, blend together flour and baking powder. In a large bowl, blend together oil, sugar, and cocoa powder. Add eggs, blending one at a time. Add apple sauce and vanilla. Add flour mixture. Fold in pretzel pieces.
Roll dough into walnut-sized rounds and place on a non-stick baking sheet. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until firm to touch.
Classy Ladies
That is one giant shaker of Old Bay, but we're not complaining
In addition to my incredible birthday lunch, I was treated to an equally delicious birthday dinner. I got an e-mail a few weeks ago about a special deal at Choptank in Manhattan from Tasting Table (on a side note, if you live in New York and you don’t get these e-mails, you are SERIOUSLY missing out). For $36 you get half a dozen crabs and a growler of beer. I said, a GROWLER of beer. That’s a half gallon, people. One half gallon of beer.
Please don’t judge me.
Anyway, I knew this was what I wanted for my birthday. When the waitress laid out the newspaper, handed us little wooden hammers, and set down a roll of paper towels, I knew I made the right choice.
They pour those crabs out on the table in front of you from a paper bag! Love it.
Choptank 308 Bleecker Street between Grove Street and Barrow Street, New York, NY. Choptank is named after the Choptank River in the heart of the Chesapeake Bay. The food is mid-Atlantic inspired and seafood-centric, and just down-home enough to make me want to go back again and again.
On the menu:
Homemade potato chips with Old Bay, served with crab dip (a free starter!)
Middleneck Clams with garlic Butter, herbs, and country toast
Tasting Table special: 6 crabs plus a growler of Lionshead Deluxe Pilsner, served with red potatoes and fresh corn
Thousand layer cake with fudge frosting
Hamburger cookies with frosting and vanilla ice cream
Thousand layer cake
Verdict: The clams! The clams! Oh lord, the clams! The crabs were a lot of work (a LOT of work) and not really worth the effort, but oh man, the clams. I could’ve eaten three dozen. They were served in a steam pot full of melted butter with just a pinch of red pepper flakes and a hint of garlic. Becca and I both agreed we’d like to pour that sauce on everything from steak to cardboard. It was that good. Choptank gets its seafood from a New York fish market, but their baked goods are imported: the cake from a local bakery, and the cookies are delivered straight from Maryland where hamburger cookies are a local specialty.
Hamburger cookies - essentially black and white cookies but amaaaaazing
Filed under New York Restaurants
“Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart.” -Erma Bombeck
Just a quick post to shout out a delightful little bakery in Williamsburg that could easily be transplanted to the English countryside or a quaint little town in Northern California. Not only was the ambience perfect for a sunny Saturday, but the flavor combinations of the baked goods were mind/tastebud blowing.
Action shot!
Bakeri 150 Wythe Avenue, btwn 7th St and 8th St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY. The assortment of baked goods is incredible, and they also serve sandwiches, coffee, and other assorted drinks.
On the menu:
Hazelnut rosemary chocolate chip cookie
Pistachio raspberry muffin
Verdict: Sweet, cakey, salty, post-brunch heaven. I mentioned in a previous post that I am not opposed to dessert after brunch because it is technically a midday meal and technically I’m an adult and I can do whatever I want so THERE. Ahem. You might not think rosemary in a cookie would be so tasty, but the consistency was spongy but dense enough to hold up the flavor, and the chocolate was a nice balance to the salt. The muffin was sublime: the pistachio flavor pervaded and the raspberries were a nice sweet aftertaste.
Filed under New York Restaurants
America’s Favorite
I don’t have any solid research to back this claim up, but I’m pretty sure chocolate chip cookies are, across the board, America’s favorite. Everyone has their own preference, but being a cake girl myself I like a big, soft cookie with a crispy edge and without nuts. I do enjoy the recipe on the Nestle chocolate chip bag, but they’re just a little too flat and crispy for my taste.
Truth be told, I’ve tried at least a dozen chocolate chip cookie recipes, hoping to be able to post one to the blog. This is the first one I’ve fallen in love with enough to post. So enjoy! My blood, sweat, and tears went into this one. But not really. That would be gross.
On the menu:
Chocolate chip cookies
Makes 24 cookies
Recipe adapted from
this recipe
on Allrecipes.com
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp hot water
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter with white sugar and brown sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla extract. Dissolve baking soda in the hot water and add along with the salt and cream of tartar to the butter/sugar batter. Mix well. Add flour and chocolate chips, mix well by hand. Drop dough onto cookie sheets in 2 Tbsp size drops and bake for 12 minutes.
Lauren E. is a food writer and recipe tester living in New York City. She is a regular contributor to Yumm.com and has been featured on The Martha Stewart Show.