Sugar and spice, and everything nice.

So, I've been bedridden with the bug for the past few days. Not so sugary and nice. Fever and stuffy nose and dry coughs are the least of what one wants in this dreadful weather anyway, but there certainly are things that can make the dreariest winter skies a little brighter. Let's take spicy molasses ginger cookies, for example. Chewy, soft, with a slight kick. What cold? What cloudy day?



Okay maybe these cookies don't actually make your cold and clouds go away, but all I am saying is that we've got to enjoy the little good things in our lives. We all know what's best about being sick though. Sleeping all day, guilt-free tv, and being taken care of. :) And as I was chugging down ginger ale and ginger cookies, I thought I was feeling much better.



I baked these cookies a few days back for my mom to take to her friends' gathering. She took quite a few but came back with nothing but a big smile. They were a big hit! Some of her friends confessed that they couldn't stop eating them. Originally, she requested a less sweet cookie, and so I thought I'd try a new recipe, instead of the chocolate and butter laden cookies (which are perfectly fine, of course). I always wanted to try ginger molasses cookies after eating the ones from starbucks. Those are DELISH! So after a long search for the right recipe, I decided to settle on the one I saw on the pioneer woman instead of using the somewhat unpredictable recipe called "starbucks" version i found on a random site. It does use shortening instead of butter, but she explains that it can't be helped. Unfortunately, I didn't have all the spices that the recipes calls for, so the spiciness might have been quite different if I followed the original recipe. I ended up just throwing in some allspice and other stuff. But it tasted just fine and dandy. :) These weren't exactly "less sweet", however. The sweetness is a bit overwhelming at times, but the texture and spice balances it out. This is truly a chewy and soft cookie that we sometimes crave ever so badly. :)

Spicy Ginger Molasses Cookies

about 2.5 dozen

ingredients

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup Crisco (vegetable shortening)
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

directions

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix sugar, shortening, molasses, and egg together until well combined. Dump in dry ingredients, stirring dry ingredients together lightly. Mix together until dough is combined.
3. Roll dough into walnut-sized balls, then generously coat each ball with sugar.
Place balls on a baking sheet and bake for 9 to 11 minutes, allowing to bake for about a minute after cookies begin to crack.
Remove cookies from baking sheet and allow to cool.

Speaking of looking at the bright things in dreary situations.. guess what I found on my backyard deck? The FUNNIEST thing I've ever seen! There was a pile of snow on the table and recently it warmed up a bit, so the big pile slowly slipped away, but it got cold all of a sudden, so it decided to just freeze up again! And so that pile of snow has been staying like that for days and days! No joke. It's so hilarious. It sorta looks like a big fluffly marshmallow or rice cake. My grandma and I sat there laughing our bellies out in the kitchen. We couldn't help but wonder how nature could have such a sense of humour! Oh life is good! :) Enjoy!

Captain Underbake!

Okay.. really sorry for the cheesy title, but I was so excited to write it when it popped up in my head while baking these cookies. I will explain soon. Anyways, you know what's a good feeling? When you have a well-stocked pantry. I looove it. I love it when I can say, "Hmmm what can I bake today?" and graze through my pantry and find lots and lots of ingredients I have bought at the store ahead of time. It's such a great feeling when you can just whip up something without having to grudgingly drive to the closest supermarket for ONE missing ingredient.



So today was that kind of day, but mainly because I was supposed to bake these a while ago. Still. Great feeling. I baked triple chocolate chip cookies, because my boyfriend's got an exam today and I thought it would be nice to bake some fresh cookies while he studies for it. I found a recipe online on thestar.com(toronto's newspaper). I felt a bit hesitant to use the recipe, or any random recipe online, for that matter, but after much research, these seem to be closest to what I was looking for.



The result? Well.. a little disappointed I guess. The half cup of cocoa powder it asked for didn't really seem like enough. I'm more of a chewy-gooey cookie girl, but it turned out a bit cakey. And I'm scared it'll turn rock hard after a day. I thought two cups of chocolate sounded like a lot, but even that seemed a little scant. Hmm. Not the fudgy decadent cookie I was looking for. But nonetheless, it was still a yummy cookie. Any cookies is a yummy cookie...unless it's overbaked/burnt! Here comes my captain underbake! I think I'm going to call myself that because I am a big advocate of slight underbakeage of our cookies.



Obviously, not too the point where the cookies aren't done. But I think the secret to a delicate and chewy cookie is not to overbake them. I like to take them out of the oven when they are still cooking and let them cool and calm down on the sheet afterwards. I think the dangerously delicious cookies they sell at some stores and bakeries are soft because they underbake it. And maybe it's because I use a convection oven, but most recipes ask for baking times that are way too long, so I usually have to shorten it a few minutes. These cookies were way too overbaked when I shortened two minutes off the original recipe, so I ended up halving the bake time. And they turned out much more delicious and softer.



Do you see the difference? Same batter, just cut down a bit of time and see all the difference it makes! Heehee. And these are actually QUITE delicious the day after. I think it's one of those cookies where when the chocolate sets in a bit, it gets nice and soft and chewy. I recommend you eat them a day after....although, who in the world has the self-control not to devour cookies right out of the oven??

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

about 4 dozen

ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate or milk chocolate chips (i actually used half cup of BOTH)

directions

1. Line baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a medium bowl, sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars with electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla.
3. Add flour mixture to butter mixture in two batches, mixing thoroughly after each. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Use measuring spoon or mini ice cream scoop to drop one heaping tablespoonful on baking sheets, two inches apart. Bake in 350F oven 12 to 15 minutes (I cut this down to 7-8 minutes), until cookies lose their gloss and firm up, rotating pans halfway through cooking time. Cool on trays.

Be Mine

What a long overdue post! I'm sorry I haven't put up anything in a while, but it's mainly because of how much baking I was doing, actually. I had an exciting (and a tad bit lucrative) baking event for Valentine's Day! I offered freshly baked and valentine-ly decorated cupcakes for this special holiday. And I must say it was quite a success! I don't think I would be able to do it all the time with my busy schedule, but it was a great learning experience!




I had quite a few orders and it was really exciting to bake for lots of people. It was a lot of pressure too, I guess, because it was a special gift to their special someone. I think it went well though-- I got many raves of how much they loved it, so phew! Thanks!! I don't think I need to explain much about the cupcakes other than that I offered two kinds of cupcakes: luscious red velvet with cream cheese frosting, and cutesy vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. Red velvet was definitely a hit: it was everyone's favorite. It might be the popping colour, but I'm sure it's mostly because of the cream cheese frosting. You can never go wrong with cream cheese frosting, never.




I also gave people three options for the decoration: homemade brownie hearts, chocolate truffles (I ending up buying fererro rocher) and sprinkles. People mostly ordered the brownie hearts, which I think was an obvious choice -- they were simply adorable on top of the cupcakes!




Alritey, so here's my share of the romance: this was a very special Valentine's Day for me, other than the baking job! You see, I had a Valentine of my very own this year! :D I must say, it was definitely a fine pay off from all the hard work all weekend, only to be wooed by a wonderful boy afterwards. Heehee. (Sorry for the mushiness, but hey, tis the season to by cheesy!) Guess what I got while I was baking ferociously and with much stress in the morning? I was delightfully surprised with beauuuutiful long stem roses delivered to my door! And that was VERY nice, to say the least.



Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. I know we all know that it's probably just some day made up for businesses to make some money and to break the pockets of the male gender, but I must say.. it is quite nice to celebrate having someone be mine. :)

Not so rainy day

In korea, there is a saying, "On a rainy day like this, let's just flip some flapjacks!" Well we might not call them flapjacks, but it's basically the same thing. Korean pancakes are called Buchimgae-- "buchim" which is from "to fry" a kind of food that involves flipping: to cook both sides, that is. Anyways, this delicious version of a pancake is quite popular among koreans and non-koreans alike, including me! I loove buchimgaes because they are so easy to make and soo yummy.



All it really involves is some flour, water, and well, any "topping" you'd like. Really, it's like one of those creative foods (like pizza!) that you can basically put in anything you want. It ranges from different meats, seafood, and vegetables. More typical ones are like zucchini, kimchi, green onions and chives.



Althought today wasn't such a rainy day, I was craving some soft and chewy buchimgae anyway. We had some chives that we bought from a Chinese market (they were humongous -- more like green onions, I'd say!) It takes less than 5 minutes to prepare and just around 2-3 minutes to cook each one. How easy is that! For those who can't get their hands on Korean pancake mixes, it's totally fine to just use all purpose flour. The pancake mixes are basically just flour, a bit of gluttonous rice flour (to give some added chewiness) and some maybe a bit of salt. When we run out of that, we substitute it for All purpose flour, no problem. I know some people like to ground some POTATOES in their buchimgae, which gives it a little more starch, making it a little more chewy, but there's always a danger that it'll get too stiff. If you want to add that in, make sure you don't put too much.



Koreans often each buchimgae with some dipping sauce because they are oftened not salted. A soysauce sauce is delicious for buchimgaes, I guess it's like a pancake's syrup! Haha! (But substantially less drenched, of course!) You can eat the soy sauce straight out of the bottle, or for more flavor, add some sesame oil, korean style finely ground red pepper, and sesame seeds. Yum!

Buchimgae with Chives, Red Peppers, and Mushrooms

about 4 large pancakes

ingredients

2 cup korean pancake flour (you can get this at any korean supermarket and most asian groceries)
1 1/2 cup water
1/3 cup chives, cut into 1" long
1/3 cup red peppers, cut into 1" long thin strips
1/3 cup oyster mushrooms, cut into thin strips

1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp toasted sesame seeds
1/4 tsp korean style finely ground red pepper (optional)

directions

1. Mix the pancake flour and water until there are no lumps. Add in the washed and cut vegetables into the batter and mix well.
2. Heat oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Ladle batter on pan until it covers the pan and flatten out pieces that are sticking out. Flip over after around one minute, or until golden underneath. Heat the other side for another one to two minutes. If the pancake is starting to brown too much, reduce the heat to low.
3. Combine the soy sauce with sesame oil, seeds and red pepper, if desired. Dip Buchimgae with soy sauce for better flavour.