baking

It has been a slow work week. Normally this would cause me to freak out that I will never have enough work to keep me busy ever again, but the new, 2012 Meghan has embraced the quiet. I still have a terrible cough and have felt exhausted, plus I worked a ton of hours leading up to New Year’s weekend. I am thinking that if my business does move more toward food, wine, and hospitality, the holidays will always be a busy work time, and my quiet time will come after. I am okay with that. But if you know anyone looking for Marketing help, send ‘em my way.

Despite trying to be okay with a slower work schedule, I get bored very easily. I wanted to go to the MSPCA to walk dogs, but since I literally didn’t feel strong enough to go anywhere, I needed a home project. Somehow, even though our house is a mess, cleaning is never that project; it most always involves food. I decided to break out the Salty Sweets recipe book I received at the Boston Brunchers birthday brunch.

The recipe for the Nantucket cookies, with white chocolate chips and dried cranberries, topped with sea salt, seemed like a good option, and since I had most of the ingredients on hand, I went for it.

The recipe called for dried cranberries, but I split it in half an mixed in dried cherries because I am exciting like that.

The recipe also called for both brown and white sugar; I only had white so I just used half the sugar. I am not much of a baker, but I think doing this is okay, right? I am sure the brown sugar would have added lovely flavor, but I actually liked that the end result wasn’t very sweet.

The real problem with these cookies is that the dough was SO dry. I followed the rest of the recipe, and it just seemed like it needed a little liquid. It was impossible to get the dough into a cohesive ball that wasn’t crumbling all over, and when I went to make individual cookies, all of the berries and chocolate chips were falling out.

I had to push them back in. It was really frustrating to work with, very messy, and I almost called it quits. Who needs cookies, anyway?

I did the best I could, popped the cookies into the oven at 375 for eight minutes as the recipe said, and got started on cleanup. At 8 minutes, they were nowhere near done; they ended up taking about 15 minutes.

In the end, though a bit dry, these cookies were really good. Because of the fruit and white chocolate, they have little bursts of sweet and sour. I am certainly not a baker, so I am sure whatever went wrong with the dough was my fault. If you get your hands on the book Salty Sweets, give them a try, and let me know how it goes for you.

The funny thing was, with fresh-baked cookies in the house, I actually wanted a glass of fresh vegetable juice instead! I have been, in an attempt to rid myself of this everlasting illness, juicing up carrots, apples, and garlic daily and loving it. Garlic and apple taste surprisingly good together!

What’s your favorite cookie?