freshly grated nutmeg | smilingfrog.ca

Okay so lots to catch up on!  Last week at baking class, we made these globs of oatmeal chewy goodness…

We split the class up into 3 groups…my group baked oatmeal raisin cookies, group 2 baked chocolate chip, group 3 did peanut butter. I lucked out….oatmeal raisin is my fave! However, I did have to practice a great deal of restraint to avoid eating the dough. Mmmmm oatmeal cookie dough….nomnomnomnom…I’m glad I have this recipe cuz its definitely one of the best oatmeal raisin cookies I’ve had! I’ll try it again at home but scale it down a bit because this made a BOAT LOAD of cookies!!

We also made these shortbread icebox cookies. We actually mixed them the week prior and then sliced and baked them this week.

How pretty!!

 So this week we made these…..

 Brownies, which I never actually tried, but apparently tasted good. I just wasn’t a huge fan of the recipe….I don’t like using shortening in my baking and would prefer to use vegetable oil or butter. These had a ton of shortening and liquid glucose which was a huge pain to work with. ICK!  Josh said that they tasted “generic” compared to my usual baking…which is good because I try to put a personal touch on my own work.

I did learn however, that the trick to baking the brownies for the exact amount of  time is to roll a sheet of parchment on top of the tray of batter prior to baking. It is easy to tell when they are done when the parchment peels easily off the top! 

We also made these sugar cookies which made me think of Christmas….Sorry about the bad lighting….I always forget to take pictures up until the point when everything is packaged up in boxes, then I whip out my camera and end up with box lighting.

 Last night we made these almond macaroons as well as some coconut macaroons. The Chef was impressed with my piping skillz and presentation! (Yay me!) The goal is”uniformity and consistency”.

I liked how cute and little these ones were. Perfect bite size!

I’m going to New York for the long weekend! Just a quick trip, leaving Friday after work, coming home Monday night. So excited! I’ve never been before!

I had some spare time on the weekend so I did some experiementing in the kitchen with something I’ve never tried before. Layered pastry. I was a bit nervous about how this would turn out, but I have to say, I was quite pleased!

 The only thing I would change next time is the filling. The recipe for the filling that I used called for almond paste. Well, I bought “almond paste” and it was tasty, but not exactly what the recipe intended. It gave the pastry a nice almond flavor and texture, but didn’t hold together as well as I would have liked.

Although time consuming with all of the steps of folding, chilling and proofing, this was a great challenge with an impressive result. Definitely worth the patience and effort.

Before Christmas, I bought the December issue of Bon Appetite and wanted the try the recipe for Chocolate Almond Tassies. Baked goods with Amaretto? Yes please! So, I finally got around to trying out this recipe. 

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Almond-Tassies-350833

And here are some pics!

Pictured on the plates that I painted at Fire Escape in Calgary