School Daze

I haven't blogged in almost three weeks.

How can that be? Could I have a touch of "blogger's block"?...Oh wait, I remember now. My life got in the way. Lot's and lots of life. All good stuff. Some great stuff, but "stuff" none the less. But I have been baking. Lots and lots of baking, so I have a lot to get caught up on, or "blogged up" as the case may be. So here goes....

You would think that the first day of school would be just a bit more traumatic for my sister Kathy's kids.

For example, my third grader nephew Cody, nearly jogged all the way to the bus stop. He was so excited for his first day!

While Brenna, just entering first grade, was more intent on making a fashion statement.

Which she did.

Cam was the only one not deliriously happy. But then again, he's in eighth grade.

Is anyone ever really happy in eighth grade?

Anyway, to celebrate the first day of school and wind up another fabulous summer, I decided to make the kids a batch of S'more Cupcakes. Which I thought would be brilliantly received until Cody wrinkled up his nose and said, "Ewwwww, I don't like marshmallow".

*Sigh*. Sweet Maria, give me strength.

Anyway, I've found that most of the world are total suckers for a S'More, everyone except Cody of course, but I'm going to share the steps with you anyway. I found these fabulous nutcups that I'm using for cupcakes. They are freestanding so you can put about 35 on a cookie sheet. Talk about crankin' out cupcakes!

I mixed 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs with 1/4 cup melted butter.

Okay, let me explain about the mini Bailey's bottle. I want it made crystal clear that I am not a booze bag. (Okay, okay......a jigger mixed into a cup of coffee is a slice of heaven )It's best to use something about the size of a shot glass to press the graham cracker mixture into the bottom of each cupcake cup.

But I don't own a shot glass. I do however own a couple of little little mini's, purchased on my annual Girl's Weekend to North Conway, N.H. Wahoo!!! (Oh, sorry about that) Anyway, this mini bottle was the perfect size to pound down those crumbs. Once all the crumbs are packed down, pop the pan into the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. This will set the graham cracker "crust".

Then, I filled the cups about halfway with chocolate cupcake batter.

Bake 'em at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.

Now, the fun truly begins. Using a double boiler (or a bowl suspended over another bowl of boiling water), add 1 3/4 cups of granulated sugar, 1/4 cup water, 3 large egg whites and 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar. Mix together, then using a hand mixer on the high setting, whip the ingredients for 12 minutes over the pan of slow boiling water. Yes you heard me. Don't stop for a minute! I know twelve minutes is a long time. An eternity. I usually sing or dance in place while I'm doing this. It helps to break the monotony.

Just don't let the neighbors see you.

After twelve minutes, the mixture should make a stiff peak when you remove the mixer. Then add 1 teaspoon of vanilla and continue mixing for another 2 minutes.

Voila! Marshmallow!

Next, I fitted my largest pastry bag with a star tip, waited until the marshmallow cooled a bit then piped it onto each cupcake. Once all the cupcakes were covered with marshmallow, I popped them into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes or so to give them a chance to cool down and let the marshmallow set.

Now comes the fun part. Working with a kitchen torch has to be one of my favorite parts of baking. I fired up my little friend, and carefully directed the flame onto each cupcake. I have to tell you that it's so easy to completely torch and blacken the marshmallow. You'll be tempted......but don't you do it. You'll be shunned from the cupcake world. Your friends and family will blackball you from all social events and you'll be talked about over the backyard fence.

So much fuss! Trust me, it's easier to just be really careful with the blowtorch.

So remember.... when there's spring in your step, a song in your heart, enough fluid in your torch and the planets are all aligned.....

........you too can make the world your perfect little cupcake.

OMG. I'm a Cupcake Contest Winner!

I have been selected as a winner in the Martha Stewart Cutest Cupcakes Contest for 2009!

The email is dated August 25, 2009 and states that I have been selected as one of the second place winners for the 2009 Martha Stewart Cutest Cupcake Contest. In June of this year, I uploaded three of my cupcake designs to the Martha Stewart website where apparently, one of the designs has won me a free copy of the latest book, Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.....I just don't know which of my cupcake designs won. Could it be the Cupcake Girls?? They would be so excited to win.

In the 2008 Cupcake Contest, there were 2002 entries and Martha announced the names of the ten (10) Grand Prize winners on her show. Of course, I have no chance of that because I am only a second place winner (among others), but I know that there were about 1400 entries for this year's contest.

I won't know anymore details until I complete the Prize Verification Form that was emailed to me and send it back to the folks at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Kind of exciting, isn't it?

Hmmm...I wonder what am I going to do with two copies of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes?

My Apologies to Ruth Wakefield.

I grew up loving the classic Toll House Cookie.

You know....from the back of the Nestle's Chocolate Chip bag? Because she anticipated the almost frenzied response she would get from us, my mother always tried to bake them in complete secrecy. But we always knew. Always.

We could smell them baking....but she was always quick enough to conceal them. I am firmly convinced that it was just because she didn't like to share. Seriously, I remember coming home from the movies one night and instantly smelling their familiar aroma. When I stepped into the family room where my parents were watching late night T.V., they both sat there straight faced and told me that the aroma was a freshly baked Prune Danish. But I knew better. After they were cooled, she always stored them high on top of the refrigerator in an old black tin that had red and blue flowers all over it. We always found them. She always lined the tin with wax paper (she thought plastic wrap was too expensive) and besides, she always said that the tin kept the cookies a little crispy whereas the plastic wrap would produce a softer texture. Soft, hard, crunchy, chewy, who cared what the texture was as long as there were chocolate chips involved.

Now, when it comes to Toll House Cookies, my sister Kathy is a chip off the old block. No pun intended. She has been baking classic Toll House Cookies since she was old enough to hold a measuring spoon (well, almost) and I'm here to tell you that they are as good as (but most likely better than) my mother's. I just know I'm going to burn for that one. Kathy can bake them with her eyes closed, standing on one foot and with her hands behind her back.

Over the years, she has played around with butter vs. margarine, flour measurements, oven temperature, baking time, portioning batter etc. She takes note of the little differences with each change, but seriously the cookies aren't around her house long enough to really research any findings. For this posting, I wanted to challenge her to a massive Chocolate Chip Cookie "Throwdown"............until I realized that no one is actually physically thrown down.......drat it. Because if that were the case I would definitely win.

Definitely.

"Ruth Wakefield invented the Toll House brand of chocolate chip cookies. Ruth Graves Wakefield graduated from the Framingham State School, Department of Household Arts in 1924. (I think that's the same as Home Economics) She worked as a dietitian and lectured on food, until, together with her husband she bought a tourist lodge named the Toll House Inn.

(People were a little blurry back in the 20's)

Ruth Wakefield prepared the recipes for the meals served to the guests at the Inn and gained local notoriety for her desserts. One of her favorite recipes was for Butter Drop Dough cookies. The recipe called for the use of baker's chocolate and one day Ruth found herself without the needed ingredient. Instead of panicking, she substituted a semi-sweet chocolate bar cut up into bits. However, unlike the baker's chocolate the chopped up chocolate bar did not melt completely, the small pieces only softened. As it so happened the chocolate bar had been a gift from Andrew Nestle of the Nestle Chocolate Company. As the Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe became popular, sales of Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate bar increased. Andrew Nestle and Ruth Wakefield struck a deal. Nestle would print the Toll House Cookie recipe on its packaging and Ruth Wakefield would have a lifetime supply of Nestle chocolate."

Or so the story goes. Betcha didn't know all of that, did you??? Hopefully this topic will come up while you're playing Trivial Pursuit and you will blow everyone away with your extraordinary facts about Ruth Wakefield and the Toll House Cookie.

I love them, really I do. But one day I found this recipe and ever since that time I've wanted to test its claim that it is the best chocolate chip cookie. Ever. Jacques Torres developed this recipe and published it in the New York Times. Among other things, he is a pastry genius. The key to this recipe is to refrigerate the cookie dough for a minimum of 24 hours before baking the cookies. The article suggests that allowing the dough to "rest" make the cookies more moist, therefore more flavorful. This is Jacques.

Wow.

Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds (2 1/2 cups) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
Sea Salt

Sift cake flour, bread flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt (not the sea salt) in a large bowl and set aside.

Using a mixer, cream together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar about 5 minutes on medium speed.

Don't forget to add the eggs. The eggs always get the "bums rush" in cookie recipes. Speaking of "bums", I'll have to remember this particular photo as I'm taste-testing these cookies. Would it be counter-productive to eat these cookies while using the Elliptical? Just asking.

Okay, now add the eggs, one at a time (no shells please) mixing well after each one, then stir in the vanilla. Reduce mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture. Mix until just combined...only about 10 seconds, then turn off the machine.

Add the chocolate pieces and incorporate them into the batter with a large spatula making sure not to break up the larger pieces.

Press plastic wrap into the dough and refrigerate for about 24 hours. When ready to bake, turn oven to 350 degrees. Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper and use a small scoop (about the size of a golf ball or just a little smaller).

Sweet Moses, someone is always taking my tools. I'm always missing spatula's, slotted spoons, bowls, now I'm missing my small-sized scoop. Here it is.........

No, that's the large one. I can't understand where this stuff goes. I put it somewhere, and then it goes missing again. Wait.......never mind, I found it.

Stuck in the back of the drawer underneath the potato peeler. So that's where that went. I stopped eating potatoes years ago when I just got tired of looking for the peeler. I think I just need to bring in the backhoe, bulldoze my kitchen and start from scratch. The house was built in the 60's when apparently there was no need for storage or organization. Personally, I think the designer for the kitchen in this house was a little too high on life, if you get my drift. Sigh. I think it's just going to be easier to buy another house.

Where was I? Ah yes. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown. About 15-20 minutes depending on your oven. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool and repeat with remaining dough.

I placed a dozen per baking sheet and found that by using the scoop, I got a consistent result every time.

This recipe will make approximately 5 dozen (60) cookies.

I just love it when a cookie smiles back at me.

Jacques Torres's Chocolate Chip Cookies are really delicious and well worth the few extra steps. However, the 24 hour "hold" kind of threw me. I kept throwing glances at the refrigerator all day as if waiting for it to explode. That was one of the toughest 24 hours of my life. The anticipation was excruciating. But are they the "best chocolate chip cookie. Ever?"

I really had to think about it. And taste test. With milk. Cold milk. It was a roller coaster ride of emotion until I finally reached my decision.

Mr. Torres, you bake a mean cookie, sir. My hat is off to you. Your talents are unsurpassed, your ingredients are sublime.

Your technique is flawless AND you are very handsome I might add..........but I think I'm hopelessly stuck on Ruthie's cookies. ("That's what he said") And just to make sure I wasn't having some type of chocolate-chip psychotic episode, I made up a quick batch of Toll House Cookies......just to compare them. I mean, it was the only fair thing to do, right?

What it comes down to for me is just this: The differences between these two cookies are unremarkable yet immeasurable. They are so similar yet they are still worlds apart.

So my apologies to Ruth Wakefield. I had a chocolate "chip" on my shoulder and I was definitely out to challenge her. I thought I was on to something. I was going to raise the bar, reach for the stars, shoot for the moon, take a ride around the sun and while I was at it.......change the earth's rotation. I was wrong.

I don't know about you, but I think it's the overall texture and chocolate chip-per-bite ratio that's important to me. Will they survive a dunk in an ice cold glass of milk?

How long do they keep fresh? I realize that I can just adjust any recipe to my particular specifications........but what would be the point? Why waste time trying to improve on perfection? Try them. Both cookie recipes are divine, but only one of them will have my heart forever.

Nice job Ruthie.