Ahhhh …. two of my favorite subjects. Something delicious to eat and something delicious to read. First, the cookies. As mentioned in an earlier post, my friend Laurie had her book launch at our little local Indie bookstore, The Book Garden. What I had not mentioned, was that Laurie and I had a cookie baking marathon the weekend before, whipping up sugar cookies for both this launch and her launch in NYC a few days earlier.
The sugar cookie recipe is a very basic and really good one – simple ingredients with predictably delicious results. As Hedy was an inventor, we made what are now Laurie’s signature gear cookies, but as Hedy was also a star, we made star-shaped cookies. To catch the glamour that was Hedy, I’d suggested using edible glitter, so Laurie and I made a trip out to a specialty baking shop where they must have had 100 possible color choices. We picked the gold and a light aqua. You can see the results – they came out really pretty. I’ve never worked with edible glitter in baking before, so this was quite fun.
Because I generally have a pretty full schedule, I tend not to bake much these days. When I do, I bake only from scratch, and I’ve gotten this idea in my head that it will take forever. I believe that’s called a distortion. After having those yummy from-scratch sugar cookies, I really wanted more homemade, so I searched my many saved recipes and found one for chocolate chip cookies with about 10 variations. Perfect!
I went shopping and bought the ingredients to make an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie with dark chocolate and dried cranberries. Yum, right? I got all my ingredients together and prepped my baking sheets. (Whatever did we do before parchment paper?) I was in such a good mood, and much to my surprise, it didn’t take that long at all! Another idea I can banish from my head!
And did they taste good? Absolutely fabulous (if I say so myself.) In fact I had to freeze half to insure that I would not eat them too fast! Stay tuned for Part II of Cookies and Books, the book reviews – Atonement and The Woman in the Window.
Your most recent blog got my mouth watering … especially the chunky chocolate variety. Given they tasted as good as they looked, you have an undisputed winner. Glad you debunked the notion that baking cookies from scratch need not take forever.
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Me, too! (debunking the “forever” myth). It’s an old idea stuck in my head, so now I do feel freed up to make some new baking and cooking decisions. 🙂
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They look very delicious Jeanne and I love the idea of the cookies based on the subject of the book.
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Thanks. Resurrecting my baking skills may be a dangerous thing. 🙂 I’m already thinking of cookie shapes for her current WIP!
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Books and cookies! Yum to both! The cookies look so delicious. Dried cranberries and dark chocolate, why didn’t I ever think of that!
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Well, I can’t take credit for the combination idea myself as it was a variation on a theme on the recipe page, but I thought it would be pretty tasty, too. They ARE really good, especially when re-warmed just slightly. 🙂 Books coming soon …
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Everything looks good, Jeanne!
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I’d say `come on over’ but they’re almost gone. 🙂
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