It was a lot of fun hanging out with the Swimmer because I hadn't seen her in a while! I don't think she had really ever baked before. For every gasp of horror that she emitted as I poured in the sugar and butter, there was a companion laugh that burst out of my mouth.
And so I present to you our culinary treats.
Twix Cookies (Recipe copied from Baking with Em and M)
Ingredients:
2 cups + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
12 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups coarsely chopped Twix (use mini Twix)
Recipe:
Preheat to 325°F
1/2 tsp baking soda
12 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups coarsely chopped Twix (use mini Twix)
Recipe:
Preheat to 325°F
Mix dry ingredients (flour and baking soda) together in one bowl.
Mix butter and sugars (brown and white) together.
Beat in egg first, then egg yolk and vanilla.
Add to dry ingredients.
Stir in Twix.
Bake 15-18 minutes (Check at 15 minutes just to be safe!)My findings:
The recipe called for 15-18 minutes, but I found them to be too crispy at this length. So, I baked them for about 11-12 minutes. They were still crispy, but less so (in a good way). I think I may have done something different than M, because hers appear less crispy and more chewy (also in a good way). Next time, I would probably refrigerate the dough to make a chewier cookie. Also, I ended up using about 1 bag of mini-Twixes (as M recommends), and I cut each candy into 6 pieces.Lemon-drenched Lemon Cake (Adapted from Joy the Baker's recipe)
Ingredients:
2 + 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 + 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
2 + 1/3 cups sugar
1 + 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
6 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
2/3 cups heavy cream
Zest of three lemons, finely grated
Juice of two lemons
1 stick, plus 7 Tablespoons (15 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
This recipe makes two loaves of lemon cake.
Recipe:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Mix together.
Combine the sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl. Mix it together until the lemon zest is evenly distributed amongst the salt.
Add the eggs (one at a time) to the sugar. Beat until the eggs are thoroughly incorporated. Add in the vanilla extract and cream. Mix together.
Slowly add in the dry ingredients in 3 or 4 additions.
Finally, add in the melted butter.
Butter and then flour a loaf pan (approximately 8.5 in by 0.5 in).
Add batter until the loaf pan is filled halfway.
Place loaf pan on top of two baking sheets stacked on top of each other.
Bake for 55-60 minutes. If the cake is done, when you insert a utensil (knife, chopstick...it's all the same!) into the cake, it should come out clean.
My findings:
If you've been following me, you know that I love me some lemon. So, I edited this recipe a little. Joy the Baker calls for the zest of two lemons and no juice in the cake, but that didn't seem right to me! I want my cake to be lemon-licious, so I adjusted the recipe. My cake had the zest of three lemons and the juice of two lemons, and it tasted pretty delicious. It is not as overwhelmingly lemony (Overwhelming in the good way. The way that Godiva chocolate is overwhelming.) as the cookies I baked earlier, but I think my adjustment made the cake slightly more worthy of the title 'lemon-drenched.'
Also, on my second cake, I accidentally overbaked by 10 minutes (don't use a microwave timer while you're hanging out with friends. It won't be heard above the laughter as you watch funny videos), and although the outside was a darker brown, it was fine on the inside! Anyway, when you slice the cake, about 1/30th of the pieces is the outer crust. I know that my friends didn't notice the difference.
