Wandering Through...

TWD: Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies bring me back to a more innocent time.

Mid last week, my mum and I were held at knife point during a home invasion. It was, to date, the most terrifying point in my life and I am still working day to day trying to regain what I had a few days before that happened. I know it will be a slow process but I wish that there was some sort of mind wipe device that could just erase it. Living in fear of the dark is not how I would like to live.

I brought these cookies into work early last week after baking up a big batch. To me, they were a-ok (I preferred the ones that were a little more baked around the sides so as to give the crisp-ness before the chewiness. Also even though I used 2 tbsp of the coffee powder that flavour profile did not shine through owing to the predominance of the chocolate), but my co-workers lapped them up. There was even some hoarding going on!

…. these cookies will remind me of the time when life was a little simpler and less scary.

Please visit the host of the week for the recipe: Peggy at Galettista

TWD: Croissants

I had attempted making croissants a while back and had got only to the rolling of the dough stage at which everything broke down and collapsed into a heap of unusable mess of dough and a sense of hopelessness. So when this week’s baking task was croissants, I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to subject myself to misery once again.

So, I gritted my teeth and cleared out some place in the fridge. It started off well enough. The dough and butter oval were easy to put together. Then, the baking weekend arrived - and lord was it a humid one! Why oh why are the weather gods trying to thwart me!

Decided to make half a batch so that I would not have a whole lot of waste if it went wrong. I went off track at the first rolling out when I think I rolled it out a little too long (and hence too thin). Spent the rest of the turns trying to cover up for that one. In the end, I ended up with some sort of laminated dough (slightly too thick with butter in some places and with butter poking out of others). Cut out the triangles, which did not end up stretching much as the butter sometimes came out of the sides! Proofed them. Coated them with egg wash… and stuck them in the oven.

Butter bubbled out over my baking sheet (did anyone else have this problem) and when I pulled them out I got an assortment of croissants, and I think about 4 perfect looking ones. They definitely had a load of butter in them and were somewhat flaky.

Will I try these again? Not for a while. I am dreading when we need to make these again for danish pastries…

… but I did manage to make it further this time….

Do get the recipe at Amanda’s blog: Girl+Food=Love