Forming the Challenge

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Why cookies? Because they are small, easily given to others and are a lot of fun to make. I will be making 210 recipes in 42 weeks. In other words, I will be finished with the book just before Thanksgiving. I figured out that I have to bake 5 recipes a week. A majority of the cookies are sweet but there are a few savory "cookies" in the book and I am looking forward to creating them as well.

So I've begun. The first 2 cookies I made where macaroons, French macaroons, to be exact. What is a macaroon? It is a cookie with nuts and egg whites, no flour. They are a fussy cookie because they are similar to meringues because the dough needs to dry out in the baking process. Why start with macaroons? Well I had egg whites sitting in the refrigerator so I said to myself what can I do with these and so the macaroons popped up. I went to church and brought some of the cookies.. I didn't follow the directions exactly with the French macaroons and they turned out fine. I followed the directions exactly with the French coffee macaroons and they didn't turn out well. What do you think of that? But time is a wonderful thing. I revisited the cookies the next day and they were fine, still a little sticky but I think that again is a function of the cook not the recipe. As I read the recipe one more time, Nick says to cool the cookies on the cookie sheet, not to transfer the cookies to the cooling rack. Anyway they have further solidified with time and I have filled them with the chocolate ganache. I took them to our church coffee hour and got pretty good reviews. Of course I don't know if all are being kind, but the cookies disappeared. And that's good.

Now it is Monday and I've got my plan in place. 5 recipes this week:

My next cookies have buttermilk as an ingredient. I made a bar cookie called Mother B's. This is a blondie-like cookie with buttermilk and nutmeg for the seasoning. Simple enough to make. I also made Buttermilk Fudge Gems. These are described as molded cookies. A molded cookie, whatever does that mean. Well it means that it is baked in a pan (envision a muffin tin or tartlet) or formed into a ball. Who knew? Anyway this recipe produced more than the recipe indicated.