Hopefully your personal year has treated you a little better than it did the planet and at least now you can watch Conan to cheer you up. After a rousing success at my 2010 new year’s resolutions I’m finding it difficult to decide on my 2011 goals. I mean, how can I beat “Eat more Chinese food?” That was one awesome resolution. If you are thinking about your goals for the New Year, try to think more liberally. Goals like “Lose 50 pounds” only set us up for a lot of stress. More fun goals like “eat more strawberries” are much easier to meet. So, here we go, my 2011 goals and resolutions!!!
1. Find a really good pair of jeans. I had an amazing pair, but then I wore them too much and they fell apart. I had a little funeral for them. I’ve mourned them and now it’s time to replace them.
2. Convince Wegmans to install a store in the first floor of my apartment building. It would make my life so much more easy, and awesome. This one might be a difficult one…
3. Use more bacon in my cooking. A coworker of mine has been touting the many merits of bacon, he carries a bag of bacon around with him at all times. Or at least, this is what I think he does.
4. Determine the perfect cupcake to frosting ratio. Many cupcakes will need to be consumed in accomplishing this goal, but I feel as though I am up to it.
There we are, my 2011 goals. Here’s hoping that I can accomplish at least half of them! I’m thinking that number two will be exceptionally difficult, but the benefits would be exponentially greater than the amount of work I have to put into it. I feel as though it would benefit mankind as a whole.
To celebrate the last day of the year, enjoy some cookies. A simple a delicious recipe, reminiscent of an
Oreo cookie. One last cookie recipe before our January health-fest. Remember, we’re spending the month of January eating healthy! Don’t think that means we’ll be without cookies and desserts, there will be dessert.
Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
Adapted from Martha Stewart Cookies
This recipe only turns out 12 cookies (once you sandwich them together). I might recommend rolling the dough out a little thinner than 1/4-inch. These cookies maintain their crunchy texture for several days, no need to worry about them softening if you keep them in the fridge.
1 ¼ cups flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
5 tbsp butter, melted
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, mix together melted butter, brown sugar and egg. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir with a spatula until it forms a hard dough.
Split the dough into two balls and roll out between two pieces are parchment paper. The dough should be less than ¼-inch thick. Place the dough pieces on a baking sheet and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Stamp out cookies with a 2-inch cookie cutter and place on parchment-lined baking sheets about an inch apart. Chill for another 15 minutes. Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes (rotate halfway through). Remove to a wire rack and allow the cookies to cool completely before forming into sandwiches.
Use 1 tbsp of filling to create the sandwich cookies. I used a 1 tbsp ice cream scoop and pressed the cookies together with a twist. Store the cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. Enjoy with a glass of milk.
Cream Filling
The use of the granulated sugar adds the right texture to the filling. It really imitates the mouth feel of the Oreo cookies filling, sweet and a little grainy. Color the filling to celebrate your desired holiday!
2 tbsp butter, at room temperature
2 tbsp shortening
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
¼ up granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
Food coloring
Beat butter and shortening together until creamy. Slowly add powdered sugar (it will fluff up at you and you will breathe it in). Add granulated sugar and mix in. Finally add vanilla and powdered sugar, mixing until the filling is homogenous.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Leave them here!