Cookie week is here. And we inadvertently had two bakers today showing off their skills. One had signed up. The other, having been the beneficiary of a few Four Seasons favors, took the "suggestion" to contribute to cookie week very seriously and whipped up a batch or two. No bridges being burned here.
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| Our pretend baker! |
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| Two kinds of treats today! |
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| Standard Sugar Cookies with holiday sprinkles! |
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| Peanut Butter Cookies with a Kiss |
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| Classic Toll House Cookies! |
Our expected baker made some festive holiday sugar cookies and American classic peanut butter cookies - the ones with the Hershey's kiss in the center.
Our luxury loving co-baker opted for traditional Toll House chocolate chip cookies.
Digression - Let it be said here. The Toll House recipe never has to be modified. It is a classic and short of adding extra ingredients such as oatmeal or nuts or changing the chips to peanut butter or white chocolate, the basic recipe should be sacrosanct as no other one matches up. If you don't believe me you can look up the episode of Friends where Monica is trying to duplicate the recipe of Phoebe's deceased grandmother who supposedly took the recipe with her to the grave. In the end it turned out to be the Toll House recipe. So if you want to come at us with a new and improved recipe - don't bother - hear that Mrs. Fields?
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| Don't mess with this cookie! |
The sugar cookies were very good and baked to be surprisingly white. There were red, green and white holiday sprinkles in the shapes of Christmas trees. The cookies were good though some thought they were a little sweet including the baker. What would you expect from a sugar cookie? The sprinkles made the cookies extra fun as they were sort of a booby trap. They did not stick well and so anyone who went to eat one got showered with the sprinkles. Once we realized this we didn't say anything and just watched them fly all over everyone. Kudos to our one colleague who managed to consume the whole thing without losing the sprinkles.
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| Rather white - don't you think! |
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| Photographing the work! |
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| Might be a touch too sweet! |
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| Before! |
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| After a little shaking! |
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| The aftermath! |
The peanut butter cookies were great and went the quickest. The chocolate chip cookies were irresistible and we probably could have downed about 8 each but held back so as not to overdo it.
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| These didn't last long! |
It was a successful first day but not without controversy. We wonder what the Facebook post of the first baker meant when she showed a picture of the cookies with the comment "pretending to bake cookies." That that mean she didn't really bake them or is she dissing he own baking skills. Hmmm!
Furthermore, both bakers used a baking stone - say what? This is something used for pizzas and according to baker number one can be used for cookies to get a smooth surface on the bottom during baking. Baker number two, however, also tried a baking stone but only got the smooth bottom surface on the cookies she made on the usual cookie sheet. This situation is contradictory but the Toll House cookie evidence is compelling enough to make us not bother with a stone when baking cookies. Pizza might be a different story.
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| Left -cooked in the pan. Right on the stone - you be the judge! |
There was some minor opinion about whether cookies, especially the Toll House, should be crunchy or soft. When someone said they liked them soft that was dismissed as not appropriate with the comment "Cookies should not be flaccid!" And that is the quote of the day.
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| I like 'em soft but hard would be better than flaccid! |
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