Drumroll please. Here I am with the last cookie recipe in the cookbook. Okay so maybe it was a small chapter anyway. But I do feel a certain sense of accomplishment knowing that I am closing out an entire chapter in the cookbook already. Is this how it is going to feel when I finish the other chapters?
Sometimes I look at the sheer number of recipes that are left and it feels a little overwhelming. But I have to look back at what I've completed this year so far, over 40 recipes now or roughly a third of the book, and it further motivates me to continue on with this fun project.
I like how there's a little something for everyone with this cookbook. If you're looking for a light and quick meal or appetizer for dinner during the week, it's in there. If you're looking for a challenge or to learn something entirely new, it's in there. If you're looking to bring a touch of elegance to an upcoming dinner party and you need ideas, it's in there. There is even challenges for industry professionals such as myself with a culinary school background and professional cooking experience.
I really do revere this cookbook and Mario Batali's teaching style, even if there are a few mistakes or misprints along the way. It's not the only cookbook of his that I own nor will it be the last. Cooking from it has so far been more of a joy than I initially ever expected it to be.
So let's start this recipe already. Once again I preheat the oven to 325°, and I use my KitchenAid mixer to cream some butter and sugar.
Next is to add an egg, vanilla extract, and mascarpone cheese. I make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl while mixing.
I'm now ready to add the dry ingredients to the bowl. I add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Once it is mixed and forms a dough,I wrap it in plastic and refrigerate it for about 30 minutes.
The dough is then divided into four equal portions. Keeping each portion wrapped up until ready to use, I start working with one section at a time. I break off pieces of the dough and roll them into about a half inch ball. Okay I may have made mine a little bit larger than that, but I like a big cookie. Each ball is placed on a lightly greased baking sheet an inch apart. I use the end of a wooden spoon to make a deep hole into each of the balls using a circular motion to widen the opening at the top.
The cookies get baked for 12 to 15 minutes or until they just begin to turn a pale golden at the edge.
I set my timer, I patiently wait, I take my cookies out of the oven, and this is what I find:
These cookies look like a hot mess! They are not even close to the picture in the cookbook! I'm not really sure what went wrong here, but I'm going to officially put these on the bonk list. To finish these off I'm supposed to heat up a little bit of raspberry jam so that it spoons easily into the little pocket on the top of the cookie to finish it off. But as you can see there was no pocket left that was available to me so I skipped it. It's kind of a shame that this didn't work out, because after tasting the final product I did like the taste of the cookie.
So far this makes the third recipe that hasn't worked out for me. I am going to officially move on the next one, however I may revisit some of the bonk list entries in a post towards the end of this blog project to see if maybe giving them a second try and perhaps a little tweak or two might do the trick.
It's getting really close to Christmas time and I still have some last-minute shopping and giftwrapping to finish, but I'm hoping to make at least another blog post entry before the end of the month. Until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment