TWD: Translucent Maple Tuiles

This is going to be short and sweet because I'm in holiday overdrive mode/ I'm now 30weeks pregnant and always exhausted mode. These tuiles are absolutely beautiful and not nearly as fussy as I had anticipated them being! I might have over baked them just a smidge (7 minutes at 400 degrees) but I also had no problems with them being floppy or chewy so I'm not quite sure...


This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was chosen by Hindy of Bubie's Little Baker. Thank you Hindy and Dorie for a lovely addition to any holiday cookie tray!

TWD: Peanut Butter Crisscrosses

I was really excited that Jasmine of Jasmine Cuisine picked Peanut Butter Crisscrosses for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe! These are some of my favorite cookies, this is the recipe I usually use when I make them but I thought Dorie's recipe was just as good! Dorie calls for chopped peanuts which I think is a fabulous addition, but unfortunately since my girls are both under the age of four they can't eat big pieces of nuts yet so I decided to leave them out this time. I also found that the cookies reached a perfect soft, chewy consistency at about 10 minutes instead of the recommended 12 minutes. I loved these! Perfect classic cookie!

On another note, Helen has recently become obsessed with taking pictures with my camera. Since she's only 2 and 1/2 I've been a little hesitant to let her use the camera without extremely close supervision. Here's her best shot so far:
Yep, a picture of Eloise's chubby legs hanging out of her highchair. This is her best shot because there is actually recognizable subject matter unlike the majority of her other pictures which ended more like this:I can't really say much about this though because let's face it, these days my pictures don't look much better! I'm usually so impressed with myself for baking and posting on time that I haven't really been able to take much time to make things look as appealing as they actually taste!

TWD: Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

You know it has been a very, very long time since I've had to say this but I didn't really like this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. Now I'm going to take some credit for it because I was out of confectioner's sugar so I used regular sugar and I'm sure that really changed the consistency. Also, my espresso powder is about 2 years old and I can't help but wonder if maybe the flavor was a little off. So I should probably try these again at some point because every other shortbread/sable recipe in Baking From My Home to Yours are delicious and have an amazing crumbly consistency. Thanks Donna of Life's Too Short Not to Eat Dessert First for choosing this week's recipe!

TWD: Chockablock Cookies

Honestly, these cookies were OK but not my favorite. I was surprised that I didn't like these because I have really loved all of the cookies Tuesdays With Dorie has baked from Baking From my Home to Yours. There was something about the molasses, oats, chocolate, nuts, dried fruit, coconut combination that just seemed a bit overwhelming. I love all of the components of these cookies but together it was just too many flavors and textures. I can't complain because this was really the first TWD recipe that I haven't loved in a good long while! Thanks Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet for choosing this recipe because I have been eying it for a long time!


In other news, Helen has moved from her crib to a toddler bed and Eloise is now in Helen's old crib! I cannot believe how amazing it feels to put both girls to bed in their own bedroom and actually have a few minutes to actually get things done at night. I have been either pregnant and/or breastfeeding a (co-sleeping) baby for almost three years- Eloise is still breastfeeding during the day but I've finally eliminated all night feedings and it is SO liberating. Now if I can get their nap schedules synchronized, I guess we'll move on to potty training!

TWD: Dulce de Leche Duos

Dulce de Leche is one of those things like soba noodles or cocoa nibs that I feel like I know about but then when I step back and actually think about (or have to use it in a recipe) I can't actually pinpoint a time that I've eaten it. But the funny thing is, that I have eaten dulce de leche multiple times- I just didn't know it. You see when this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe for Dulce de Leche Duos was selected by Jodie of Beansy Loves Cake the P&Q quickly filled with links to recipes to make your own dulce de leche (even though Dorie says to use store bought). When I clicked on the recipe from David Lebovitz I realized that pouring a can of sweetened condensed milk in a covered pie plate in water bath and baking it for two hours constitutes dulce de leche. Wait a minute, that's what my Aunt Dottie has been doing for years! She pours the cooked condensed milk in a pre-baked tart crust and tops it with unsweetened, freshly whipped cream and calls it Caramel Pie. It's an old family favorite. We're a really chic family, we're up on the new food trends. So, hey, I love dulce de leche! and even though it sounds fancy and gourmet it's really easy and cheap to make at home!


I was worried that the cookies would be cakey and soft (not my favorite cookie texture) but they were crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. The cookies themselves have dulce de leche in them and then are sandwiched between another thin layer of dulce de leche- who could ask for anything more? The one complaint I had was that they keep well before being sandwiched together but once the dulce de leche is in between them the cookies soften a bit so it's best to leave them apart until you are ready to serve or eat them.

TWD: Thumbprints for Us Big Guys

So I finished Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. It actually took me longer than 30 days because around day 10 I started having excruciating spasms in my calves after each workout- think labor pains in your legs. Anyway, I started doing it every other day and that seemed to solve the problem. As far as results go, I think I look a little tiny bit trimmer but honestly I don't know. I definitely, beyond any doubt, am much stronger and have way better endurance now! I was struggling to get through level 1 when I started but ended up barreling through most of level 3 unmodified by the end. I am going to try to keep it up by doing level 1, 2, and 3 in rotation.


The biggest reason that I saw few physical results is probably sweets like this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection! These cookies were so delicious! A simple butter cookie dough with roasted, ground hazelnuts is shaped into a ball with an indentation meant to hold jam- I couldn't resist the hazelnut chocolate combination and filled mine with chocolate kisses. The chocolate melted down into the hot cookies and paired perfectly with the crumbly, buttery cookie. Dorie says that you can substitute other nuts for hazelnuts but I wasn't about to substitute another nut because my mom has been hoarding hazelnuts for about 4 months. "What?" you ask. You see 1) my mom never wastes food 2) my mom loves mixed nuts 3) but not hazelnuts 4) or Brazil nuts. So she buys the industrial sized cans of mixed nuts at Sam's Club and then when she gets to the bottom and the only thing left in the can are the hazelnuts and Brazil nuts she divides them up and puts them in ziploc bags in the freezer in the hopes that I will come across a recipe that requires one or the other. And the day finally came! They roasted up nicely in the oven and I had no trouble rubbing the skins off. Thank you to Mike of Ugly Food Dude for selecting this delicious cookie (and to my mom for making them possible).

TWD: Honey-Wheat Cookies

I'm a very healthy cook- I try to feed my family meals that are rich in nutrients, low in fat, and full of fresh ingredients. However, when it comes to baking I feel like sugar free cupcakes or fat free brownies are not worth making. These cookies are not fat free or sugar free, but they do have a wholesome quality. They are sweetened with honey, flavored with lemon zest, and contain a good amount of wheat germ (an ingredient I had never used before). But wholesome does not equal bland! These cookies were seriously amazing! Quite honestly, these took me by surprise. I was not expecting to love these- but I really did and so did Helen!


The combination of lemon and honey is so fresh and perfect and the texture is chewy and soft- what more can I say?! I cannot wait to make these again, but I will wait because Helen and I ate the whole batch ourselves and like I said, these are wholesome but I not really "healthy"! Thank you Michelle of Flourchild for choosing this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe!


Oh and P.S. I made the Chocolate Chip Cookies (last week's Tuesdays with Dorie). I thought they were ok, but a little crispy. I did like the chopped chocolate- I will definitely chop my chocolate next time I make chocolate chip cookies. They were a huge hit at the Mardi Gras party I brought them to- I took this picture when I realized that there was literally one left on the plate! Thanks to Kait of Kait's Place for choosing the recipe.


I didn't post last Tuesday because it was Mardi Gras and I was busy hitting the parades with Little Bo Peep and her Sheep:

TWD: Cafe Volcano Cookies (and chocolate dipped orange pecan sables)

Do you ever think about what things were like when you were little? I don't mean when you were seven or eight, I mean back as far as you can think. Do you remember what it was like to see things that were different from the way you were used to them being for the first time? Boy that's vague. Let me see... Ok, I remember sleeping over at my cousin's house for the first time and I was shocked at how different the night time routine was at my aunt's house! Everything was so strange. When we took a bath, she used what she called a "washrag" instead of a "washcloth"- never mind that it was identical to the "washcloth" my mom used at home- she called it something odd and that made it odd. It's very funny when I think back on how freaked out I was about little stuff like that. I see it a little in Helen. When someone reads her a book that I've read to her a thousand times and they don't do the same silly little voices or sound effects etc. that I always add in she looks at them suspiciously. I started thinking about that when these two Tuesdays with Dorie cookie recipes popped up for December.


You see, sables are a lot like shortbread cookies- in fact they look almost exactly the same and they taste pretty darn similar too. The big difference is that the sables have egg yolk in them. Egg yolk? That's the big difference? Not such a big difference, but honestly I was hesitant to try these because I always, always make my great-grandmother's shortbread and they are really perfect. Then I said to myself, come on! Live a little! Besides, Dorie included a bunch of variatons so I decided to make some orange pecan sables and then went all the way and dipped them in dark chocolate. These are really great cookies! Extremely versatile and easy to make- you could also roll them in red or green sugar for Christmas. These were selected (last week-I'm late!) by Barbara of Bungalow Barbara.


Now the Cafe Volcano cookies are another story. Why was I hesitant to make these? Well these were SO different sounding- such an unusual method that I was positive they would not work. Yeah, I'm really thinking outside of the box these days- I blame it on sleep deprivation. Anyway, they did work and although they were not my favorite, I knew immediately when I tasted them that my dad would LOVE them. Boy was I right- he ate the whole batch! These are so easy to make- you stir the egg whites, sugar, espresso powder and nuts together on the stove until the sugar melts into the mixture and then place spoonfulls on the cookie sheet and bake them up. You could use any nut combination- I did pecan and almond. These cookies were selected by Macduff of The Lonely Sidecar

TWD: Molasses Spice Cookies

When I was about nine years old I remember helping my mom clean the kitchen after dinner. I was clearing the table while she swept the floor. At this point, my brother was seven and my sister was three so you can imagine what kind of a mess ended up under the table. Once she had swept the debris into a little neat pile my mom gathered it up into the dustpan and said to me, "you know there are people in the world who will never even see the crumbs that fell off the table during a meal and there are many others who have to eat these crumbs". I don't know why that stuck with me the way it did but I have never forgotten what she said and I almost always think about it when I sweep my own kitchen. It helps me to pause and put things in perspective. Yes, we have to plan carefully so that we can pay all of our bills every month and it will be quite some time before we can purchase a second car but we always have plenty of food and even if for some reason we could not purchase food we have wonderful family who would never ever hesitate to help us in any way we asked. With Thanksgiving around the corner I can't help but be overwhelmingly thankful for how lucky I am for all of the blessings in my life.


I love Thanksgiving because it really does allow for us to remember everything we are thankful for and to celebrate it with all the people we love. Breaking bread is one of the most universal and yet special things a group of people can do together. The Thanksgiving meal is especially wonderful because so much time and love goes into preparing it. This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe was selected by Pamela of Cookies with Boys and it would be a fabulous addition to the dessert table for Thanksgiving Day! I don't know if I can easily explain how much I love these spicy, crunchy on the edges and chewy in the middle cookies. Well yes I can: I made a batch of these about a month ago and we ate every last one before I took one solitary picture. I made a half batch again last night so that I could snap a few shots and they have already disappeared again! They are so wonderful and so easy to make. Oh and they are really very pretty too thanks to the sparkly sugar crust. Make these, enjoy them, and be thankful!

TWD: Chipster Topped Brownies and Mango Bread

In the words of Britney Spears: oops... I did it again- two weeks have gone by and although I have been baking right along with Tuesdays with Dorie, I have yet to post about the recipes! The good news is that we are now fully moved into our apartment. Whew, hopefully things will be more regular here at Sandmuffin now that everything is more settled (at least until the baby comes!).

Ok, so this week's TWD recipe was Chipster Topped Brownies chosen by Beth of Supplicious. Basically these are fudgy brownies topped with a layer of chocolate chip cookies... pure genius!! The only problem was that I underbaked mine quite a bit. You see the top layer bakes and browns faster than the brownie layer can firm up so I misjudged when to pull them out. So, I tried to salvage them by putting them back in the oven after they had sat and cooled for well over an hour on the counter. It sort of worked, as in, pretty much the whole giant pan got eaten, but honestly I want to try this one again because I can tell that it is a really decadent, wonderful recipe if baked properly!!
Ok and last week's recipe was Fresh Mango Bread chosen by Kelly of Baking with the Boys. I was really excited about this recipe because it sounded so tropical: fresh mango, lime zest, lots of ginger, raisins, and cinnamon and it did not disapoint! In fact, the bread turned out very differently from how I had imagined it would- it was very moist and the flavor was complex and the outside had a wonderful chewy crust. The thing that struck me as odd about this recipe was the baking time of one and a half hours! That seemed so long- but I went ahead and stuck with it (I tented with foil after one hour) and the bread really needed all of that time to bake properly.

Here is Helen Mae after eating her first ever New Orleans style snowball- obviously she had a lime flavored one:

TWD: Coconut and Lime Butter Thins

Unlike last week's Tuesdays With Dorie selection, the Blueberry Crumb Cake, these delectable cookies were rather unassuming in Dorie Greenspan's cookbook Baking From My Home to Yours. You see, the crumb cake enticed me immediately with its beautiful color pictures and the two pages of instructions- but the cookies took up one page and had no picture at all. This is why I feel so indebted to Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch for selecting this wonderful recipe! These are really delicious cookies. They are simple to mix together and very easy to roll out (thanks to Dorie's method of rolling the dough out in a ziploc bag and refrigerating it in said ziploc) and easy to cut.

The cookie is very buttery and crisp but not quite as crumbly as a shortbread or as chewy as a lace cookie- it falls somewhere in between the two. It is flavored with lime zest, shredded coconut, and a pinch of coriander. The recipe calls for chopped macadamia nuts too, but alas, I have to cut back on costs somewhere and those fancy little nuts were just not in my budget! I bet they would have been delicious!


There was some debate about how the cookies were supposed to look after being baked. You see, they seem like they will hold their perfect little square shape but they really spread quite a bit and get kind of lacy around the edges. I had to laugh because my husband, Derrick, looked at the recipe that was working with and asked, "how do you know what they're supposed to look like if there isn't a picture?", Ok, so obviously he doesn't look through the book very much because only about 1/2 of the recipes include pictures...but I do have to agree with him that a picture would have been helpful since this not a standard chocolate chip cookie or a blueberry muffin- you don't know what its going to look like in the end! Although I will say that I was a little upset that the cookie didn't hold its shape at first, I pretty much forgot about the shape when I bit into one! The flavors intensify if the cookies are left in an air tight container overnight making the lime zest an even more unexpected and wonderful treat!

TWD: World Peace Cookies

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Jessica of Cookbookhabit (you can find the recipe for World Peace Cookies on her blog and in Dorie Greenspan's wonderful book, Baking From My Home to Yours). Dorie praises these cookies as some of the best ever- she ranks the recipe to the Toll House Chocolate Chip recipe in importance. So of course I was a little skeptical. I mean Chocolate Chip Cookies are pretty darn important in the world of baked goods. Well, I have to hand it to her- these are really, really exceptional cookies. They are so chocolatey- containing both cocoa and chocolate pieces- and the consistency is truly wonderful. They are similar in some ways to a shortbread or a sandy but they are just a bit chewier and the chunks of chocolate break the texture up wondefully!


Like most of the TWD bakers, I was surprised at the crumbly nature of the dough- but with the use of waxed paper the logs came together easily. I chilled my logs for about eight hours and when I took them out I found them easy to slice. Oh and just as a side note- the dough on it's own is fabulous!! And no eggs- so no need to worry about salmonella so taste away!


The cookies spread more than I thought they would- but I kind of like the little rustic rounds. Anyway, I'm definitely going to be adding this recipe to my Christmas cookie repetoire- they are easy to make, delicious, and really quite different from most chocolate cookies that I've tried!

TWD: Grandma's All Occasion Sugar Cookies

Sorry the posts have been few and far between- I hope I'll be able to pick up speed soon!

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Ulrike of Kuchenlatein. I almost didn't get around to baking these, but my sister, Madeline, had to bring a baked good to a party at school today so she gave me the inspiration to press forward with Tuesdays with Dorie. I'm glad I decided to go ahead with these because it is a really good and simple recipe. There are not any real surprises in the ingredients and the method is also very straight forward. In short, they turned out exactly like a good sugar cookie ought to turn out- crispy on the edges and chewy in the middle with a subtle, sweet flavor.

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Since we made these for a Christmas party we rolled them out and did them as cut-out cookies, but I also like Dorie's suggestion of rolling the dough into a log and making slice and bake cookies. After much deliberation we decided not to frost the cookies and instead sprinkled them with colored sugar before putting them in the oven. Madeline wanted the cookies to be softer so we ended up baking them about 8 minutes instead of 9-11. All in all a great simple bake.

TWD: Linzer Sablés

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was Linzer Sablés selected by Noskos of Living the Life! I was so excited to see that someone finally picked this recipe because it is one that I have been dying to make since I bought Baking From my Home to Yours. I love Linzer cookies- but the ones that I'm familiar with are more of a tender butter cookie with raspberry jam sandwiched between them- these cookies are different from the delicate little tea cookie that were always such a special treat. Dorie uses a spicey, nutty, and very sturdy cookie to sandwich together the jam. The dough is comprised of ground almonds, flour, sugar, butter, an egg, and the surprise guests: cinnamon and cloves.


Now, this isn't the first time that the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers have encountered Dorie's masterful approach to combining spices with sweet fruit spreads (and even chocolate)- but again, I was a little ambivilant about whether or not the strong aromas of cinnamon and more particularly cloves would overpower the sweet and tart jam. And...again I worried for nought. This is a wonderful cookie for Christmas and it's even fancy enough to present as dessert alongside vanilla ice cream at a dinner party (like I did last night- nothing like combining TWD with real life!). Raspberry jam is my favorite, but sadly my local grocery was out of it so I used a tart blackberry jam and I was very pleased with the results.


I was also really happy with the process of rolling the freshly mixed dough out between two pieces of waxed paper and then chilling the dough. In the past I have always chilled dough as a little disk and then rolled it out once it was cold enough- but I can assure you that I won't do that again! This way, you simply pop the rolled dough out of the fridge and cookie-cut away! As always with Tuesdays with Dorie, you can find this recipe on the blog of th person who selected it and in Dorie's wonderful book!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is going to be a short post because we're heading out to Sewanee, TN in the morning to spend Thanksgiving week with the in-laws! I can't wait for them to see how much our little Helen Mae has grown up. I have been seeing a lot of posts about pumpkin cookies on the blogs lately- and I had never tried them before- so since I'm such a big pumpkin fan I decided to make the most popular recipe listed on All Recipes for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.


These cookies are made with oil instead of butter and the consisentency is much more cake-like than cookie-like. The flavor is very good- the spices and chocolate go well together- but I've never been a huge fan of cakey cookies. So, the veredict: I doubt I'd make these again, but I can't pretend that they weren't all eaten up! So have a happy Thanksgiving everyone- I'm going to have a few posts go up while I'm gone but I won't have any internet access in good ole' rocky top so I'll have to catch up with everyone when I return!

Peanut Butter Criss-Cross Cookies

These are such a perfect lunchbox cookie- or a good cookie for an after school snack- something about them just begs to be served to children. The funny thing is that I don't remember my mom ever really making peanut butter cookies when I was little. Don't get me wrong, my mom is a fantastic baker and she always taught us that baking from scratch was the way to go- I never encountered slice and bake cookies until I had them at a friend's house in high school! She just didn't really make peanut butter cookies. I don't know why. She likes them. I like them.


Anyway, I digress. I ate peanut butter pretty much every single solitary day of my pregnancy. Fo' real. I ate it on bagels, on crackers, on apples, straight out of the jar sprinkled with a few chocolate chips (yeah it got that bad). This may have had something to do with a ten-pound-in-one-month-weight-gain that I had in my second trimester. I'm not kidding- ten pounds- one month- not even the last part of the pregnancy: I cried as I waited with Derrick for my OB to arrive after the nurse scolded me. I convinced myself that it was going to be straight up health food and prenatal workout dvds for the next 19 or so weeks- and I really stuck to it- except for the peanut butter. But I convinced myself that peanut butter was just a fattening health food, after all it's packed with protien right? A pregnant woman can convince herself that any craving is related to something the baby needs.


So, after Helen Mae was "from my womb untimely ripped", I decided it was buh-bye to peanut butter for some time- at least until I could squeeze back into my non-elastic maternity waistband jeans. Well, I'm sad to report that that day has not yet come exactly- I mean they fit, errr... button, but they sure look different now. And guess what?! I bought peanut butter anyway! And I made these phenomenal peanut butter criss-cross cookies from Cookie Madness! They were great- and I feel newly liberated about my muffin top! Ok, the last part is not true- but whatever- the cookies were perfect- and who wants to look like a thin young beauty once she reaches the ripe old age of twenty-three anyway?!


In closing, this makes me laugh out loud everytime I hear the phrase muffin top.