Daring Baker's Challenge for January 2009 - Fortune Cookies! (aka: Tuiles) with Bonus Video

The red cutout is by No Thank You Boy. It's the Chinese symbol for spring (or so he's told) and they did it in school.

This month's Daring Baker's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

The Challenge was not a recipe per se, but more of a technique used to make tuiles. "Traditionally, tuiles are thin, crisp almond cookies that are gently molded over a rolling pin or arched form while they are still warm. Once set, their shape resembles the curved French roofing tiles for which they're named."

Okaaaaaay. So, I went a-searching for what the heck to make since the butterfly example and the use of a template didn't really float my boat, when I realized... EGAD! These are fortune cookies! AND Chinese New Year was Monday, January 26! Happy Year of the Ox! (So tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999 4707).

You so know I would have inserted a link to an appropriate music video here, but His Royal Purple Badness has threatened to sue YouTube if they put any up, and goodness knows we don't want to get Himself's knickers in a twist, not that he probably wears any. But again, as usual, I digress.

Here's the "how-to" on the fortune cookies. Recipe and tweaks to follow.

Part I : Baking Prep

Part II : Cookie Formation

My modified fortune cookie/tuiles recipe is below or you can find the original one at Bake My Day here. Additional equipment needed to make fortune cookies: muffin tins, cotton gloves, coffee mug, spatula and fortunes printed on little paper slips. You can see how I used the equipment in the above video. For fortune cookies, the batter is best if it's a little runny, but I did chill it for about an hour (30 minutes is fine, I just got busy doing other stuff) to let the flour integrate and then pulled it out of the fridge and let it re-soften for about 30 minutes. You need the thin cotton gloves to safely handle the hot cookies without burning your fingers and the mufin tin is so that they hold their shape; they will unbend if you don't put them in there. Store in an air tight container.

Confucious say:

Try make cookies. Much fun and you can do with ease.
Man who run in front of car get tired.
Man who run behind car get exhausted.
Man with one chopstick go hungry.

Celebration of Lisa's 100th post with giveaway coming soon.

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
(Confucious really say this last one)

yes, I did wrap the tripod (Joby's Gorillapod) around the cabinet frame to shoot the video :D

Thanks to Karen and Zorra for selecting this month’s Daring Bakers Challenge. You can find the complete recipe on their sites.

To see what all the other DBer’s did, you can find the blogroll here and if you’d like to join the monthly party, info about that can be found on that page as well.

Fortune Cookies

Following is a recipe adapted from a book called “The Chocolate Book”, written by female Dutch Master chef Angélique Schmeinck.

Preparation time: batter 10 minutes, waiting time: 60 minutes, baking time:10-12 minutes per batch. I made a double batch and got about 28 cookies.

Ingredients:

¼ cup softened butter (not melted but soft)

½ cup sifted confectioner’s sugar

1 dash of vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)

½ cup sifted all purpose flour

Butter/spray to grease baking sheet or use silicone baking mat or parchment paper

Unique Equipment:

muffin tin(s)

thin cotton gloves

spatula

coffee mug

fortunes printed on slips of paper

tablespoon measuring spoon

Using a handheld mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed), mix/cream butter, sugar and vanilla and almond extract to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to an hour to allow the flour to incorporate. Take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a tablespoon measure, spoon out tablespoonfuls of the batter onto the baking sheet. I did 6 at a time. Swirl the batter into a fairly uniform circle about 3 ½ inches in diameter. Don’t worry if the batter seems a little see-through in places; it will even out in the oven. Bake for about 10 – 12 minutes, checking at the 9 or 10 minute mark. You want to see that the edges are turning golden brown.

Before you're ready to pull them out, have your cotton gloves, muffin tins, fortunes, mug and spatula at the ready. Pull the pan out of the oven. Working quickly, use the spatula to lift one of the circles off the sheet and lay it in your gloved hand. Take a slip of fortune paper and lay it on one half of the circle. Fold the cookie in half, gently holding the outside edges. Move to the coffee mug and bend it in half over the edge. Voila! Fortune cookie!

Place the newly bent cookie in the muffin tin so that it will hold its shape and not unbend. You may have to put some of the remaining cookies back into the over for a few minutes to re-soften so that they bend nicely.

TWD: Buttery Jam Cookies

For your consideration: Buttery Jam Cookies from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 80 featured this week on Tuesdays with Dorie.

Short and sweet today, my dearest sweeties! I have a BOATLOAD of things to do tonight to get ready for the morrow. It's Winter Party for the Little One and I am the Room Mom who needs to help, bring some supplies, teacher gifts and flowers for one of the teacher's half birthday AND some paying work as well, woo hoo! It's a whirlwind I tell you! A whirl wind!

Thank Heavens I made these cookies three weeks ago. I would have been really crazy otherwise ;) (You can see one of the Linzer Sables hanging out in the background.)

These were easy peasy to make - I used peach preserves and while this combo was good and buttery, they didn't taste very peachy. Maybe something stronger like apricot would have been better. Hmm. I might make these again, because they were good and if I do, I'll be trying apricot jam.

Thanks to Heather of Randomosity and the Girl for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with it, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making Dorie’s version of Buttery Jam Cookies for yourself, you can find the recipe on our hostess’s blog, or in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Salud! The story of our visit with Shirley Corriher

Messy One wants to be a scientist and a chef. He also wants to be an architect / archaeologist / astronaut (architectolonaut) when he grows up. For Christmas, I asked him what he wanted and he came up with "Something with cooking. And books". Okey-dokey. Sure thing kid. That about narrows it down.

A few weeks ago I went to a book signing and lecture at the Margaret Mitchell House for Shirley Corriher's highly anticipated new book Bakewise. She and Alton Brown were at the event; Alton was acting as master of ceremonies, asking Shirley questions and keeping her on task. (That woman could EASILY talk about salt for 2 hours, and you would be FASCINATED and want to hear more.) I had a great time (sorry, no photos. DH lent me his camera... without a memory card in it and my phone takes suckky pictures) and I left with a copy of Bakewise and visions of the Tunnel of Fudge cake flitting about in my head. (You should get her book Cookwise too. Amazing!!!)

One of the women I went with tipped me off that Shirley would be giving a demo at Harry's / Whole Foods "Salud!" cooking school. Bing! Lightbulb! I reserved 2 tickets. One for me and one for the Messy One. Of course we were late getting there, but not tooo late. It hadn't started yet, but we were the last ones into the classroom which holds only about 24 people. As expected, Messy One was the youngest one there and we got the hairy eyeball from everyone when we walked in. Some credit here people! I KNOW better than to take No Thank You Boy. That would never have worked. Messy One? No problem. He was an angel: he listened politely, didn't fidget, paid attention and even took some notes! I was so proud, even when he wiped his runny nose on his shirt sleeve. (Completely understandable. We're still working on nasal manners and hygiene around here.)

The demos Shirley did were corn bread, chocolate crinkle cookies, deep dark chocolate cake, rustic pear fruit tart, chocolate ruffles (the woman is simply BRILLIANT!!!! BRILLIANT I tell you!) and a decadent chocolate ganache. Everything was amazingly good and we got to taste it all. Of course Messy One was covered in chocolate from ear to ear, but then again, most of us were and with him, food head to toe is to be expected.

The corn bread was basted with butter on the top AND bottom ("wretched excess", she called it) and served "wedding cake style". This is another BRILLIANT idea when you have to serve a round cake thing to a bunch of people and don't want to get all skimpy on the slices or wedges. How to: Cut an inner circle inside the cake about half waybetween the edge and the middle. Slice the outer ring into wedges and the inner into slices - everybody's happy, they get a nice chunk of cake and your creation isn't carved into crumbs.

We had a great time. Shirley signed our recipe packets and complimented him on his manners and his love for food and science. All in all, a great time.

Merry Christmas, Messy One.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Linkage:
Chocolate Crinkle Cookie Recipe
AJC Article about Book Event
AJC Article
Tunnel of Fudge Recipe
Margaret Mitchell House

TWD: Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

For your consideration: Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 146-147 featured this week on Tuesdays with Dorie.

And there was much rejoicing. Yum yum yum yum yum! FINALLY! A TWD recipe that was easy to make, with no exotic or expensive ingredients (like nuts) AND it actually tasted great, which is always a plus in my book. I was feeling more than a little discouraged over the last few TWD recipes and was dreading making any more "eh, metza metz" things that didn’t put my ingredients to their best use. Q'est que c'est metza metz? It's Italian slang for so-so (which you say while rotating your hand back and forth).

These cookies were such a refreshing change! I made the dough last weekend when I made the Linzer Sables - I also completely trashed the kitchen in the process. I made all three TWD cookies simultaneously; the sables, these sugar cookies and the buttery jam cookies that are next week’s offering and just got them all knocked out at once. I also made the dough for Shirley Corriher’s Chocolate Crinkle Cookies from Bakewise which we've just dished out, sugared up and popped in the oven as we speak.

I grated the rind of an orange into these cookies and decided to do the slice and bake method since I did the cookie cutter thing with the sables and was over that action. I shaped them into a square shape and threw them in the freezer (for 5 days) wrapped in waxed paper until I could get to them (in other words, as today's deadline approached.)

Yesterday I pulled them out and sliced them into ¼” disks and topped them off with Turbinado (raw) sugar. They smelled heavenly and as the scent wafted through the house, the kids were chomping at the bit waiting to tear into them. After they ate their Lentil Soup (coming soon) they were allowed to get at the cookies. They LOVED them! Not too sweet and a very interesting flavor.

Many thanks to Ulrike of Küchenlatein for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with it, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making Dorie’s version of Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies for yourself, you can find the recipe on our hostess’s blog, or in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

TWD: Linzer Sables

For your consideration: Linzer Sables from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 134-135 featured this week on Tuesdays with Dorie which is actually Wednesday With Dorie this week.

Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t. More nuts this week with Dorie. I scanned thru the upcoming recipes and there are no nuts coming up next week or the week after. Phew. I was worried. I really didn’t want to make this recipe because of all the pricey nuts involved. Maybe I’m hoarding for the winter, but I didn’t want to spend any more of my frozen cache on a recipe that may or may not turn out. I did hear on NPR the other day that there’s a nut shortage in some parts of the country. Ok people, it was squirrels and acorns, but I’m trying to make a point here! What if people nuts are next?! Oh stop! Nutty people will always be in plentiful supply, but I'm talking about the actual nuts themselves! I’m driving myself nuts crazy thinking about it.

I keep all my nuts in the basement freezer and in surveying my loot I have 8 jars of macadamias (on super sale at CVS last week - score!), 5 cans of salted peanuts, 4 cans of honey roasted peanuts (Kroger on sale and BOGO), 1 ½ bags of pine nuts, 2 cans of cashews, a small bag of pre-shelled pistachios, smallish boxes of walnuts, almonds (whole and sliced) and a plethora of pecans. I have a huge bag and a half that I bought from Sam’s for last week’s Twofer Pie. Like I said, I was having nut-spending phobia BUT the Ghost of Linzers kept showing up. Everywhere I kept running into these Linzer Sables. Everywhere! Then to top it off, sitting in my inbox was yesterday’s "Day 2" Food Network 12 Days of Cookies recipe. Yes, it was… Pistachio Linzertorte Cookies from Paula Deen. AAAAAH! Guilt, guilt, guilt, it’s written all over your face. I knew I must make these or I would be haunted forever.

I used the pecans, I figured that I could sacrifice those to the Linzer Sable gods and ground them up in my Magic Bullet and turned them into dust. The cookies went together fairly straightforward – no major surprises, although the dough does need to be really cold/almost frozen in order to get the cutouts out of the dough. It is somewhat labor intensive, but not hard so this is something that needs to be preplanned or split into two sessions, the dough half and the cookie making half.


Contemplating the jam. Alas, I think I have a problem here as well.

I’ve discovered that I have a jam, jelly, preserve fetish, but I can create a diversion proudly say that Nancy at The Dogs Eat the Crumbs has a bigger and more impressive stockpile, and I won’t even go into the Pam cooking spray collection that Cathy of The Tortefeasor has. We can go for intervention together. Nuts, jam and Pam. I’ll find a recipe for those three and get back to you.

Anyway, I chose the traditional seedless raspberry jam for the pretty cutout cookies, and filled the leftover thumbprint cookies with some of that as well as Peach preserves and Sweet Potato Butter. I had the Nutella out, but there again, I have a spending problem. I didn’t want to cash it in on these cookies. I swear, it’s a nut thing. Plus, I easily justified it by the fact that the Nutella flavor overrode the pecan flavor and that would have cancelled it out. (Hmm. I need to buy some hazelnuts.) Recipe made, conscience cleared.

The verdict? These were surprisingly good – I haven’t tasted the pretty ones yet since I’m taking them to a friend’s house tonight for her birthday, but the baker’s sample was really good.

Thanks to Dennis of Living the Life for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with it, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making Dorie’s Linzer Sables for yourself, you can find the recipe on our host’s blog, or in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

TWD: Rugelach

For your consideration: Rugelach from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 150-151 featured this week on Tuesdays with Dorrie.

For my rugelach, I used Sweet Potato Butter (with Honey) that I picked up during last week’s apple orchard/farm stand trek to the North Georgia Mountains (post to follow – yes I’m behind… again). Since I’m not a big fan of cooked raisins, I simply left those out.

I followed the recipe and did the radial/pizza wedge method described in Dorie’s book first. Disaster. If you want to try this particular method, use LOTS of flour to dust the counter, don’t roll the dough too thin and work very quickly so that your dough doesn’t warm up too much. I had to use my handy dandy offset spatula once again (it’s quickly becoming one of my top 5 favorite utensils, previously relegated to the bottom strata of one of my drawers) to scrape them each off the counter, jimmying them up with an edge of flour. My chunkies were too chunky and didn’t cut well with the pizza cutter and the dough tore up a little.

For the second half of the dough I decided to actually go look at the TWD P&Q area for this recipe. (No, I have no idea – maybe Posts and Questions? Mind your P's & Q's?) EVERYONE had a grand time with these and nobody’s fused to the counter like mine did. I did check out one of the links posted there that sent me to Martha’s website where she had a video of 2 gals making these for their bakery. They did the jellyroll pinwheel thing. Hey, if it works for Martha, it works for me. Well, sort of. My dough didn’t stick to the counter this time, having learned that lesson, and I also made them on my non-stick silicone baking mat. They were sort of crumbly anyway, but they did look reasonably better than the pseudo-crescents however. I dusted them with Turbinado sugar, maybe too much sugar though because it got runny and caramelized all over the baking sheet.

I liked this recipe and these tasted amazingly good. I'm sharing my cook's notes/trial and errors with you so you can learn from my experiences. I’m just frustrated with myself for not fully mastering the execution of it. If attempted it a few more times, I might get the technique right. These tasted great but looked less than beautiful. I took them to school and once I talked everyone past their homeliness, they got rave reviews.

Thanks to Piggy of Piggy’s Cooking Journal for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with this recipe, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making Dorie’s Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes for yourself, you can find the recipe on our hostesses blog, or in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

POSTSCRIPT:
Do not wait until the last minute to make next week's TWD.

It takes HOURS / DAYS. Please read the recipe completely, and a Bundt pan works fine.

The Bake Sale

Wow. I am so behind in my postings. Here are the recipes I made for our school bake sale back in mid-September. I wanted to make some things that appealed more to the teachers than the kids, because, let’s face it, kids will eat anything. Teachers, not so much.

I went trolling around the internet and my google reader to see what I could find that would be good for a bake sale. Here were my criteria:
1. Easy to make
2. Reasonably inexpensive ingredients
3. Easily packaged
4. Not too messy to eat
5. Something worth .25 to .50 cents
6. Something different than the ubiquitous oatmeal or chocolate chip cookies.

After a lot of searching, I came up with 3 recipes.

Here’s the first:
Butterscotch Coconut Drop Cookies
from Recipezaar

These turned out well, but came out much thinner than I anticipated. The cookie was very chewy and even somewhat “flexible” for lack of a better term.







Number 2: Rocky Road Smores/Brownie Muffins

These came from Anna of Cookie Madness. Very nice and a big seller. I toasted the finished product under the broiler for a few minutes to toast up the marshmallows and melt the chocolate a little bit so everything would stay put.

Third: (ready for a mouthful?)

Jumbo Chipotle Chocolate Brownie Muffins with Praline Topping.

I also found this basic recipe and idea on Recipezaar, but I morphed it into a brownie served in individual jumbo sized muffin cups. I added about 1 tsp. of ground chipotle pepper to the batter. I had read in the comments about doubling the topping. I did this and it was way too much for this serving method.

These didn’t photograph well, but they were so good. Just the right amount of pepper to give a teeny bit of heat and interest.

I was exhausted after cooking all day, and my kitchen looked like it had imploded. I had to leave to run hither thither and yon taking kids to activities, so I put up the perishables and left the rest for later. To my amazement, DH beat me home (this in itself is remarkable in that he was home while the sun was still out) AND he cleaned up the mess! Shocked, amazed and oh so grateful. Thanks honey.

I’m not sure how we did at the sale, but my kids were very happy gorging themselves on sweets. The Big Ones even bought some wee gifties for their teachers. Those are two smart cookies, if I do say so myself.

TWD: Granola Grabbers rewind

I’m doing a rewind as I don’t have THAT much chocolate (or cash!) in the house at the moment to make the $$ Chocolate Chunkers, page 70, that the rest of the TWDers are making this week.

For your consideration: Granola Grabbers from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 82, featured back on August 19, 2008 on Tuesdays with Dorie.

I’m generally not really crazy about raisins in cookies, therefore I swapped out just a sprinkling of chocolate chips for the raisins in this recipe. I also only made a half batch since I am a little cookied out as of late and can easily dispose of 2 ½ dozen in places other than my thighs or butt.

Surprisingly, these came together pretty easily as I was wondering while reading the recipe – what holds these things together? (there’s almost no flour.) Yup, butter and sugar. And an egg.Yes I did it again. Stupid stupid stupid.

I scooped out 2 trays and popped them in the oven. To the remaining dough I added some cinnamon to change it up a little. Both ways are good. Like the other TWD cookies I’ve made thus far, these are not so wonderful straight out of the oven. They need to rest a little and are best warm or cool. I was expecting a holy moly granola-y wheat germy flavor, but that’s not the case. They taste like regular cookies and are pretty good at the right temperature. I liked these but they aren’t anything that I absolutely NEED to make ever again, unless it’s to use up the monster jar of wheat germ I bought to make this recipe. Any thoughts on what to do with that???

Thanks to Michelle of Bad Girl Baking for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with these Granola Grabbers OR this week’s selection, Chocolate Chunkers, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making either one of these recipes for yourself, you can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

TWD: A Whopper of a Cookie

For your consideration: Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 85, featured this week on Tuesdays with Dorrie.

These were interesting cookies. I had several “Aha!” moments while making them

1. Aha! Ovaltine original is not the same as malted milk powder – it has “sugar” listed as the first of many ingredients. Nestle/Carnation’s Malted Milk has “wheat flour and malted barley extracts” as the first ingredient(s).

2. Aha! My countertops are not level.

3. Cool... Mt. Malted Milk.

4. Aha! I adore my sideswipe paddle more and more every time I use it.

5. must. use. up. these. stupid. chips. (no, I just can’t just throw them away, that would be wasteful.)

6. dough! (DOH!) or is it batter?

7. yee ha! scooper’s back in the saddle again.

8. I’m ready for my close-up now, Mr. DeMille.

9. A Whopper of a Whopper Cookie boomerang. Aha! Shoulda used wax paper in between for storing.

Despite the big hunk o’ cookie later, these were good. I did peel the pretty ones off the top and share them with school. Remember – they love treats!

Thanks to Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with these whopper drops, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making the Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops for yourself, you can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

These ARE Amazing Cookies....

Oh My. Yes. These are everything promised and more. When I saw these on Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy’s blog I knew I needed to make these. and soon.

They totally deserve the name she gave them “holycraptheseareamazing cookies”. My chocolate didn't drizzle as nicely as hers did, but I had a 5 year old helping me.

I’m taking these to a meeting tonight – I’ll let you know what sort of reactions these elicit. I loved them, the kids love them, my neighbor loved them. Love, love, love them.
,

Holycraptheseareamazing Cookies

from stickygooeycreamychewey

(my cooks notes in parentheses)

Ingredients:
(Makes about 3 dozen cookies)
...
1 cup sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 jar (18 oz ounce) peanut butter, crunchy or smooth (I like crunchy)
6 cups corn flakes
3 oz good quality chocolate of your choice

...
Preparation:
...Combine sugar and corn syrup in a medium saucepan. Place over medium-high heat and stir until the mixture comes to a full boil.
...
Remove from heat and stir in the whole jar of peanut butter. Mix well.

...
Add corn flakes to a large bowl. Pour peanut butter mixture over corn flakes and mix well, taking care to coat all of the corn flakes. (I added this in small batches and mixed used the "salad tongs" method - it seemed to work really well to mix everything up without smashing the flakes to smithereeniees)
...
With a tablespoon or cookie scoop, scoop out and form into 1-2 inch balls, depending on your preference, and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper.
...
Put the chocolate in a small bowl and melt in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Stir until smooth.
...
Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookies.

TWD: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters (say that 3 times fast)

For your consideration: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 73, featured this week on Tuesdays with Dorrie.

Hmm. Oatmeal. Cookies. Like oatmeal. Like cookies. No like oatmeal cookies. (Won't touch or even think about oatmeal raisin cookies). Gotta take one for the team though, so off we go. I have my fingers crossed that maybe my tastebuds have changed or maybe this is one great cookie that will turn the beat around.

Mise en place

Gotta love the sideswipe blade!

Alrighty then. All is beaten, combined and blended. Raw batter is pretty good. Things are looking up. I decided to let the batter sit and (wooooh) meld/become one with the universe per the optional instruction from Dorrie and as I had read about recently regarding one of the “secrets” of the NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies. I let the batter sit for almost 24 hours. Off came the plastic wrap, in went my scooper and crrrrrunch went the scooper. The dough was so solid and so concrete-like that it caused the little gears on my scoop go out of line and the blade thingy to stay poked out. I hope DH can fix it. (footnote: DH came thru and got it popped back in. Thanks, honey).

I forged ahead. Using the remains of the scoop, I doled out the dough, rolling and pressing as prescribed. I am not having very benevolent feelings toward these cookies so far.

After the bake cycle, out they came. They looked pretty good, but man these suckers don't spead at all. In fact they looked exactly the same as when I put them in. Taste-test when they came out of the oven: (drum roll please) .... eh. Dry, somewhat crumbly, overwhelming oatmeal taste. Others felt the cinnamon or the peanut butter; all I tasted was oatmeal slivers. Sorry, I'm just not an oatmeal cookie fan. I did have somewhere to take these to though as I personally wouldn't be eating my weight in these. The next day there was a function at school – they love treats at school – and I brought them in, even though I hate to bring in stuff I don't like because I'm afraid everyone will think they suck too. They were a huge hit! (Really??) I had to double check for myself, and surprisingly, they tasted much better the day after. Although these definitely haven’t converted me, I might make them again (without resting the dough just to see if that was it) for a bake sale or other event that demanded an oatmealy submission.

Thanks to Stefany of Proceed with Caution for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with these chipsters, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making the Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters for yourself, you can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.