Part XII: Oatmeal Apple Cookies

I was excited about making these cookies, as I thought they might be reminiscent of tasty apple cinnamon oatmeal. The recipe did call for raisins and I substituted prunes (again!) because I still had some left over. I also subbed out walnuts in favor or pecans.

My soundtrack for these cookies was "Uncut Diamond" by the artist Warm Ghost. Alexis gave this disc to me, because she had a feeling I would like its 80's esque electronic ramblings. And she was right. In fact, Warm Ghost does a cover of The Cure's "All Cats Are Gray", which was damn good. I'm not usually a fan of covers, especially covers of my favorite bands, but this was an exception.

I perused the internet to find out a little more about Warm Ghost, and I came across the term "cold wave", which is described by Wikipedia as "the French variant of Dark Wave, gothic rock and post-punk music, primarily spread in France, South Belgium and Romandy". This made me laugh because it reminded me of another micro/sub genre called witch house, which the trusty Wikipedia describes as "a term used to describe a subgenre of industrial music, which features a prominent hip-hop influence, specifically the 1990s Houston chopped and screwed sound pioneered by DJ Screw." I guess I find it pretty amazing that people will spend a lot of time not only coming up with descriptions of genres within genres, but pigeonholing artists to fit into these neat little categories.

With that said, lets get back to cookie talk.

Verdict: I would not make these again. They aren't bad, but after making so many other cookies, featuring cinnamon and oats, these are inferior to last week's molasses oatmeal cookies.

Next week's selections are:

Coconut Cream Cheese Cookies. I have some mascarpone on hand that needs to be used, so I will be making these with half cream cheese and half mascarpone

Old Fashioned Harvest Cookies

Oatmeal Hermits

Part XI: Favorite Lemon Cookies with Lemon Frosting

Yes, another frosted lemon cookie recipe! I was looking forward to making these, as I do enjoy a good lemon cookie, and since the recipe had me using cookie cutters, I decided to use some I've had forever but hardly ever use.

If you said to yourself, are those Jewish themed cookie cutters, then by golly you'd be right! I got a set as a gift many years ago, and am glad to get the chance to not only use them but show them off.

I decided to go a little nuts with these cookies and dye the dough blue, with some food coloring I've had sitting in my cabinet for quite a few years. The last time I used it was to color cupcake frosting for my friends Jill and Jason's baby shower. That was almost three years ago now, so its about time I used it again.

When it was time to frost these Semitic bad boys I decided to use a cookie decorating kit my fabulous friend Beth had given me many years ago, which I had not yet found an occasion to use. Actually, I'll probably have lots of occasions to use it in the future as I plow my way through this cookbook.

Its super old school, and I think she found the complete set for me at a thrift shop, which just makes it that much more fun and cool to use.

Here are the final results. Let me point out two things first:

1-I have never used these cookie decorating implements before

2-Beth and I (and our significant others) had just gone to the Portland Art Museum, which you may see inspired my frosting results

I do like all types of art, from Renaissance to Contemporary. I tried to think about who my frosting squiggles could have been inspired by. I couldn't come up with anyone specific, unfortunately, except Jackson Pollock, which is kind of a cop out. Any suggestions from my faithful readers would be appreciated!

And on the art tip, I just read that the Portland Art Museum acquired the 159 piece Clement Greenberg Collection in 2000. Clement Greenberg was an influential art critic in the heyday of the Modern Art/Abstract Expressionism era. That is nothing to sneeze at. Portland Art Museum, color me impressed! And hats off to Beth for suggesting our outing there last night!

Verdict: I would not make these cookies again. They weren't bad, but the previous lemon cookies I made, Double Lemon Delights, where much better.

Next up: Oatmeal Apple Cookies

Part X: Honey Ginger Snaps

I made these cookies on Thursday evening so I could spread the love, so to speak. Making three different kinds of cookies in one day, and taking all the requisite photos is not only time consuming but exhausting.

I didn't take many photos but here they are:

Oh Metric Wonder Cup, how I love thee, let me count the ways! (but not in this blog right now. I will count them later, alone, in the dark.)

That's the honey I used in the recipe. A quarter cup of honey in a cookie recipe=delicious cookies

The final product

The recipe had me rolling the cookies in sugar before putting them in the oven, but my ingenious husband suggested rolling them in brown sugar instead. The cookies came out with a wonderful caramelized crunchy coating. Clearly, sometimes husbands are useful.

While I'm on the subject of brown sugar, I have found, while working my way through this book, that organic brown sugar actually does make a huge difference in the quality of the finished product. Not only does it look and smell better, it doesn't dry out as fast as regular brown sugar.

As I type this blog entry, I am listening to my new favorite radio show "The Magic Number", on Portland's 107.1, Saturday evenings from 6-8pm (And no, they did not ask me to plug their show!). Which reminds me that I just got The Cure's "Disintegration" box set.

Which then prompted me to remember how much I completely, unabashedly, and thoroughly loved Robert Smith and The Cure throughout most of my high school and college career.

Oh Robert Smith, how I loved thee! I won't count the ways because that's just another whole blog unto itself.

Okay, back to the cookies.

Verdict: Yes, I would most certainly make these cookies again. They were moist, from the honey, and had a wonderfully snappy ginger flavor, from the tablespoon of ground ginger called for in the recipe.

Next up: Favorite Lemon Cookies

Part IX: Basic Icebox Cookie Dough/Date Maraschino Pinwheels

First reaction to these cookies: GROSS. Maraschino cherries? In a cookie? I can just about stand them when they garnish a cocktail, but I would never willingly put them in a cookie. That seems wrong, so very wrong. But I didn't have much of a choice. The recipe was actually for Basic Icebox Cookie Dough, with three options at the bottom for making different types of cookies with maraschino cherries. Of the three, the most disgusting one was combining maraschino cherries and dates. Why would anyone think of doing this? So of course I had to make them. Who knows, maybe I would discover that maraschino cherries and dates are one of the great undiscovered taste sensations. I could rival peanut butter cups with my delicious maraschino date pinwheels! So like a power mad baker, a veritable Purple Pieman, I hatched my nefarious plot.

Dates!

Maraschino Cherries!

Dates and cherries heated up in a pan to make a thick (delicious?) paste

The foil: basic cookie dough

Dough rolled out with date cherry paste, ready to get rolled up and chilled overnight.

Chilled dough is sliced and ready to pop into the oven

Voila!

Verdict: If you've ever seen a Strawberry Shortcake cartoon you know the Purple Pieman's evil plans never work. So, it is with great sadness that I must inform my dear readers that the date & maraschino cherry combination will never replace chocolate and peanut butter in the hearts of the masses.

And no, I would never make these cookies again.


With that said, here are next week's contenders:

Honey Ginger Snaps

Favorite Lemon Cookies with Lemon Frosting

Oatmeal Apple Cookies

On the whole, next week's group sounds more promising then this week. Stay tuned!

Part VIII: Molasses Oatmeal Cookies

These cookies were more tasty and interesting to make then the Hermits, but only marginally so. Again, prunes were used instead of raisins. I am getting sick of prunes. But I really don't like raisins, especially in cookies, so prunes it is.

More brown cookie dough, with prunes(!), pecans, and oatmeal

Cookies: Pre-oven

That parchment paper has been used at least a dozen times. I think I mentioned in a previous post that my friend Molly gave me a tip to use parchment paper when a recipe called for greasing the cookie sheet. It works like a charm, as I can reuse the parchment paper multiple times, so its less messy then vegetable shortening and more eco friendly. Thanks Molly!


Cookies: Post-oven

Lots of brown cookies!

Verdict: I wouldn't rule out making these again. They were tasty but not outstanding.


I recently had a reader ask a few questions, which I shall answer in this post.

Q: What do you do with all of these cookies?
A: Give them away as fast as I can. When one is making 3 different cookie recipes a week, for approximately four months, with no end in sight, said cookies are no longer tempting. I've been bringing them to friend's houses and en masse to work. I suppose that's good advertising for my blog, now that I think about it.

Q: Have you gained any weight since this project began?
A: Why yes, I have, but it has nothing to do with the cookies. Thank you for asking!

Q: Would you consider doing a taste test in a future post?
A: That is actually a good idea. I think I'll give that a shot! I'll have some friends over for a blind taste test and get their reactions. Anyone want to volunteer?

Next: Basic Icebox Cookie Dough/Date Maraschino Pinwheels

Part VII: Hermits

Not much to say about these cookies. They are called Hermits. I used prunes instead of the raisins that the recipe called for, because suddenly I have lots of prunes lying around from past cookie recipes. This is the first recipe that called for nutmeg so far. Fascinating. Let's get to the pictures, shall we?

Here are the ingredients, artfully arranged. The idea for this came from my friend Rita. She suggested, instead of taking a picture of every ingredients in its entirety, that we display a small amount of all of them and photo accordingly. It was a good idea, but I don't think my husband and I pulled it off very well.

Here is a close up of a nutmeg, cut in half. I like using fresh grated nutmeg in a recipe. I don't know why, but I have about a dozen of these guys. I think they moved with me all the way from Boston, in fact.

Well hello again, chopped prunes!

Its nice to see you in some brown cookie dough

The finished product, dusted with powdered sugar

Verdict: I would not make these again. The tasted about how they look: Brown. The hint of nutmeg was nice, though.

Next up: Molasses Oatmeal Cookies