Sunday, May 22, 2011

Small Batch Baking

Sometimes, baking is not just to quench the craving of my sweet tooth. (Often, it is, but not always!). Truth be told, I just really enjoy the act of baking. Feeling the mixer buzz in my hand, or turning the bowl as I mix ingredients, is strangely soothing.

And, when it's not the sugar high that I seek, a cookie recipe that yields 4 dozen is just way to much! So, when I saw Debbie Maugan's two cookbooks centered around baking for two -- say, 6 cupcakes or a dozen cookies, I was game.

This weekend, I tried out two recipe from Debbie's Small Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers: Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, and Chocolate Chip Cookies.

The chocolate sandwich cookies were, of course, supposed to compete with those famously addictive Oreo cookies. This recipe will not replace the Oreos in my shopping cart, but the Artist and I both thought they were quite tasty. I tweaked the recipe to use chocolate that I had on hand, and used milk chocolate instead of the semi-sweet specified. I think the darker chocolate would calm the overly sweet taste of the filling. Will have to try these again...



Who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies? This recipe was great. They made a dozen little cookies full of chocolate and nuts that would give the $20/pound cookies from a local gourmet shop a run for their money! A plus was that using my cookie scoop, I got exactly one dozen cookies rather than the 8 predicted by the recipe. Too many chips? Chewy, crispy, chocolaty, nutty, with the addition of creme bouquet flavoring rather than regular old vanilla extract, these cookies were great!


This book and I will be getting to know each other very well. Debbie features cakes, pies, brownies, and more (even a chocolate cocktail or two). I'll probably eventually try them all!More to come....



Search This Blog