mark_asphodel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mark_asphodel) wrote2013-01-27 08:36 pm
mark_asphodel) wrote2013-01-27 08:36 pm
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Mark's Internet Test Kitchen, Part I (Deep Dish Cookie For One)
You know those recipes you see circulating the Internets? Not ones recommended by friends, like the Aztec Gold brownies myaru has promoted (which are, by the way, excellent) but the ones that just come out of nowhere and everyone posts them but no one seems to actually try them?
Imma start trying them. Today.
First up, we have that Deep Dish Cookie For One recipe from tumblr.
So, while my kitchen is normally well-stocked, it's been a rough winter and I didn't get up to my normal holiday baking, so I had to make some substitutions. Not to mention the OTT "healthiness" of the recipe struck me as gimmicky and off-putting, so I didn't much care about substituting little mini Nestle chips for "grain-sweetened chocolate chips," whatever the hell those are. I did have some actual organic eggs, though, straight from a co-worker's farm. :P
Anyway, so the first substitution was dark brown sugar for the light brown sugar 'cause the light brown in my cupboard was hard as a rock. Oops. And I really like brown sugar so I substituted that for the white sugar too. Then I went looking for the vanilla. I have on hand Bourbon vanilla, Mexican vanilla, and Tahitian vanilla-- I told you I keep my kitchen well-stocked. I usually put Bourbon vanilla in baked goods but the Mexican was easier to reach so I put that in instead. I don't think that one really counts as an alteration.
The vanilla caused a ten-minute digression. See, many years ago when we were young, newly-married, and pretty broke (so, 2004?) my most excellent spouse bought me a vanilla-making kit as a gift. For some reason I never bothered to actually make it and it's been sitting in the kitchen of our new house for three years now. While I was trying to decide which country of vanilla to go for cookie-wise, I looked at that poor sealed bottle with the two lonely vanilla beans in it and figured I really ought to do something about it. So I opened the bottle and checked the beans, which were still moist, fragrant, and non-moldy after all these years. I split them as directed, retrieved an equally untouched bottle of Michigan-produced vodka from the basement, poured the vodka into the vanilla bottle, sealed it, and stowed the vanilla/vodka mix in the "glitter room" in the basement to sit for the next four to six months. I'll let y'all know how that one turns out.
OK, back to the cookie recipe. So I didn't have whole-wheat pastry flour either, but I did have some cake flour and I used that instead. I carefully measured out the baking soda, threw in a pinch of sea salt and the mini chips, mixed it all up and popped it in the microwave for forty seconds. I then let the resulting puffy dome of chip-laden stuff cool for ten more seconds before digging in.
So is it any good? Uh....
1) It was cooked in a microwave. That means it's not going to brown like a normal cookie. That made it reminiscent of the microwave mix cakes I remember being coerced to eat in the late 1980s when microwaves were still new and cool and people tried to use them for everything.
2) Despite the fact that I carefully measured out 1/8 of a teaspoon of baking soda, I could taste the baking soda. Not in pockets from undermixing (if anything, I overmixed) but throughout the "cookie."
3) Maybe it was the super-fresh egg, or the cake flour, or the double dose of brown sugar, but this thing wasn't a cookie. It was fluffy-light and strangely dry-- I'd compare it to a slightly flattened muffin, but muffins tend to be moist. It belonged somewhere in the cake/quickbread category, though. I'd have expected the double brown sugar to make it more heavy and sticky, so I don't think the sugar was to blame. I'm guessing it was the combination of egg and flour that leavened this thing to hell and back. Also, clearly 1/8 tsp baking soda was too much for this poor little wannabe cookie.
Would I make this again? Well, I have more beaten egg in my fridge, so I may have to, but seriously? You want insta-cookies, go buy a roll of Pillsbury dough or a package of Nestle dough and dole that out to yourself as you feel the urge. They'd be better than this.
Verdict: Make these to spec if you make them at all. And quite frankly the reliance of this upon specialty ingredients serves as a severe limitation for quickie cookie joy unless you just normally keep whole-wheat pastry flour and such on hand. I never have.
Next time I think I'll try that Nutella cake made with just eggs and Nutella. That should go down real well with the spouse. :)
ETA: added link to the Aztec Gold brownies so everyone can enjoy them.
myaru has promoted (which are, by the way, excellent) but the ones that just come out of nowhere and everyone posts them but no one seems to actually try them?Imma start trying them. Today.
First up, we have that Deep Dish Cookie For One recipe from tumblr.
So, while my kitchen is normally well-stocked, it's been a rough winter and I didn't get up to my normal holiday baking, so I had to make some substitutions. Not to mention the OTT "healthiness" of the recipe struck me as gimmicky and off-putting, so I didn't much care about substituting little mini Nestle chips for "grain-sweetened chocolate chips," whatever the hell those are. I did have some actual organic eggs, though, straight from a co-worker's farm. :P
Anyway, so the first substitution was dark brown sugar for the light brown sugar 'cause the light brown in my cupboard was hard as a rock. Oops. And I really like brown sugar so I substituted that for the white sugar too. Then I went looking for the vanilla. I have on hand Bourbon vanilla, Mexican vanilla, and Tahitian vanilla-- I told you I keep my kitchen well-stocked. I usually put Bourbon vanilla in baked goods but the Mexican was easier to reach so I put that in instead. I don't think that one really counts as an alteration.
The vanilla caused a ten-minute digression. See, many years ago when we were young, newly-married, and pretty broke (so, 2004?) my most excellent spouse bought me a vanilla-making kit as a gift. For some reason I never bothered to actually make it and it's been sitting in the kitchen of our new house for three years now. While I was trying to decide which country of vanilla to go for cookie-wise, I looked at that poor sealed bottle with the two lonely vanilla beans in it and figured I really ought to do something about it. So I opened the bottle and checked the beans, which were still moist, fragrant, and non-moldy after all these years. I split them as directed, retrieved an equally untouched bottle of Michigan-produced vodka from the basement, poured the vodka into the vanilla bottle, sealed it, and stowed the vanilla/vodka mix in the "glitter room" in the basement to sit for the next four to six months. I'll let y'all know how that one turns out.
OK, back to the cookie recipe. So I didn't have whole-wheat pastry flour either, but I did have some cake flour and I used that instead. I carefully measured out the baking soda, threw in a pinch of sea salt and the mini chips, mixed it all up and popped it in the microwave for forty seconds. I then let the resulting puffy dome of chip-laden stuff cool for ten more seconds before digging in.
So is it any good? Uh....
1) It was cooked in a microwave. That means it's not going to brown like a normal cookie. That made it reminiscent of the microwave mix cakes I remember being coerced to eat in the late 1980s when microwaves were still new and cool and people tried to use them for everything.
2) Despite the fact that I carefully measured out 1/8 of a teaspoon of baking soda, I could taste the baking soda. Not in pockets from undermixing (if anything, I overmixed) but throughout the "cookie."
3) Maybe it was the super-fresh egg, or the cake flour, or the double dose of brown sugar, but this thing wasn't a cookie. It was fluffy-light and strangely dry-- I'd compare it to a slightly flattened muffin, but muffins tend to be moist. It belonged somewhere in the cake/quickbread category, though. I'd have expected the double brown sugar to make it more heavy and sticky, so I don't think the sugar was to blame. I'm guessing it was the combination of egg and flour that leavened this thing to hell and back. Also, clearly 1/8 tsp baking soda was too much for this poor little wannabe cookie.
Would I make this again? Well, I have more beaten egg in my fridge, so I may have to, but seriously? You want insta-cookies, go buy a roll of Pillsbury dough or a package of Nestle dough and dole that out to yourself as you feel the urge. They'd be better than this.
Verdict: Make these to spec if you make them at all. And quite frankly the reliance of this upon specialty ingredients serves as a severe limitation for quickie cookie joy unless you just normally keep whole-wheat pastry flour and such on hand. I never have.
Next time I think I'll try that Nutella cake made with just eggs and Nutella. That should go down real well with the spouse. :)
ETA: added link to the Aztec Gold brownies so everyone can enjoy them.
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The one tweak it does not handle well is frosting. The sweetness of the cake is fine by itself, but once it has frosting for competition, it doesn't work.
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I just use regular unbleached flour and regular cane sugar too (I concur that stevia is gross). I usually use vegetable oil because it's so much cheaper than coconut oil (and I tend to use coconut oil so often that I can't keep it around enough), but if you have coconut oil it does give the cake a really nice texture (it's notably firmer that way than with the vegetable oil). I've used water instead of non-dairy milk quite a few times, and I haven't noticed a difference. Also, I think 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla is waaaay too much for such a small recipe, but I guess ymmv on that. I just add a few drops, when I make it.
I think it does work with some frostings, but not all. I like the chocolate cake with a peanut butter frosting, but it is very rich that way - maybe it's better for two people to share it that way, since I can never finish it.
I've tried several of the single serving cakes from that blog, and all but one have been shockingly good, given their origins. The only one I wouldn't recommend is the chocolate-peanut one, which is somewhere on the blog but doesn't seem to be on that list anyway (it was just weird). My favorite is the coffee cake one though, which is great topped with a simple powdered-sugar-and-(non-dairy)-milk glaze. :3
Cakes aside though, I've attempted regular cookies in the microwave a few times and I wasn't thrilled with the results. The ones that didn't get rock-hard were like you described - too cakey and mushy to be a cookie. Even cookies meant to be somewhat soft need a certain outer crispiness that the microwave just can't impart. I've found that things meant to be cakes are a lot more successful. Obviously even the cakes aren't going to be quite as stellar as a full oven-baked affair, but I think they're pretty damn tasty for something so convenient!
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i'll just make it the right way if I want cake.
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Hahah. I agree, mostly. But we do live in two-person household and sometimes Cake for One is the answer.
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