Baking: Glazed Chocolate Mint Cookies

This week clearly was a theme week for me (see three days worth of foreign film trailers), so let's revisit the gustatory theme of Peppermint. It may be one of my favorite flavors ever! I love Peppermint yogurt (thank you, Yogurtland!), Peppermint ice cream (more thanks to Coldstone!), Peppermint Mocha Lattes (Starbucks, or your very own kitchen), and now Mint Chocolate cookies.

What are the best parts of this recipe?

• Peppermint extract and chocolate make these cookies taste like thin mints. 
• Piping on the white chocolate designs is the funnest thing ever. Doing it made me feel like I was a guest on Ace of Cakes (I'm so sad that it was cancelled!)
• These things are delicious and addictive because...they kind of taste like Thin Mints! (To make them really taste like thin mints, I'd probably add maybe 1/2 a tsp more of peppermint extract)

What are some things I wish I knew before I made these cookies:

• Once the dough has been refrigerated and it's time to roll it out, you best roll it out into a large rectangular shape that can fit onto the baking pan. Transfering cookie cut outs from one piece of parchment paper to another on the baking sheet is difficult and time-consuming. And the success rates are not that impressive. Rather, you should simply roll out the dough on parchment paper, transfer this to the baking sheet, cut out the cookie shapes from the dough, and then simply remove the dough sitting around the cookies. 
• Cutting the tip off of your plastic bag filled with white chocolate frosting should be done with great care. A tinier cut is much better, and will allow you to make prettier more delicate designs on the cookies.
• Melt the white chocolate adequately otherwise clumps will plug the plastic bag white chocolate frosting decorator tool. 
• Do not pipe the white chocolate designs until all the cookies have been made. White chocolate can only be melted once; re-melting the re-soldified mixture fails pretty badly. And no, adding milk to this white sugary goop will not help given the mixture a smoother consistency. 
• Do not forget to set the timer after putting the cookies in the oven. Two minutes over the required 10 will give you burnt cookies.
• Even if you burn the cookies, nobody will be able to tell because of the adequate chocolate frosting you will provide them with.
• Being overenthusiastic with the frosting is not a good idea, because there will sad little cookies bereft of frosting. 
• These cookies take a lot of time to make-- it's a tricky combination of cooling the dough for 45 minutes beforehand, and then cutting the cookies out, baking them, letting them cool, frosting them, letting them cool again, and then finally decorating them. More hands makes lighter work! It's best to have friends over helping you. :)
• Have people over so they can wash the dishes for you. :)

Here's the chocolate mixture that is later added into the batter. 

Here's the batter right before the flour is added. 

And here it is after the batter is added!

The batter is then divided into three portions,
wrapped in saran wrap and ready to go into the fridge for 45 minutes.

Try to remember to roll out the dough into a shape that will fit on your baking sheet.
This will make your life easier. 

Transferring cookies from one parchment paper to another? Very difficult.
That's why it's best to roll it out and then plop it onto the baking sheet
before cutting.

The ingredients for the glaze and white chocolate piping.

Combining the butter and chocolate for the glaze.
My Pyrex bowl conveniently fit over my pot perfectly!

And here's the glaze all melted, with vanilla and corn syrup!

Letting the glazed cookies dry... Pretty! (Did you know
that it's the corn syrup that makes them shiny like that?)

Now it's time to melt down the chocolate. I used the double boiling method,
but microwaving is easier. 

Your plastic bag piping kit!

You can get creative and pipe on some messages! (I got the idea from Alice in Wonderland)

Or maybe you want to just say NOM.

Or maybe just get all illustrate-y! (See what I mean about thinner piping is better? I wish I had cut
my plastic bag smaller for these cookies)

Glazed Chocolate Mint Cookies 

Recipe adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Recipe makes approximately 3 dozen cookies 

Ingredients:

For the chocolate paste to be later added to the batter 

4 tbsp butter, melted

1/2 cup of cocoa powder

1 tsp ground coffee beans or espresso powder

For the batter

16 tbsp butter, at room temperature (cut into 2 tbsp pieces)

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 egg yolks

2 tsp peppermint extract

2 + 1/4 cup flour

For the chocolate glaze

1/2 cup of dark chocolate (I used 60% Cacao Ghiradelli Chocolate Chips)

4 tbsp unsalted butter

2 tbsp corn syrup

1 tsp vanilla

For the white piping

2 cups of white chocolate chips

Recipe:

For the cookies:

[0] Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

[1] In a glass bowl, melt 4 tbsp butter. Add cocoa powder and coffee/espresso powder. Mix until a uniform paste is formed. Let it cool for 15 minutes. 

[2] In a separate large bowl, mix the butter on low with an electric mixer until it becomes slightly softer. 

[3] Add in the salt, sugar to the butter mixture. Continue to mix on low until homogenous. 

[4] Add in the cooled chocolate paste. Mix a little bit with spatula, and then proceed with electric mixer. 

[5] Add the yolks and mint. Mix with electric mixer for approximately 30 seconds. 

[6] Add the flour slowly in 3 separate additions, ensuring complete integration of flour into batter before each subsequent addition. 

[7] Take dough out of bowl and separate into three portions. Wrap each portion in saran wrap, and place in refrigerator for 45-60 minutes until firm (like play dough). 

[8] After 60 minutes, roll out dough between two pieces of parchment paper. Try to roll it out into a shape that will fit on your baking sheet. The rolled-out dough should be about 3/16 inches thick. Transfer the parchment paper with flattened dough to a baking sheet. 

[9] Cut cookies using cookie cutter (I liked mine to be around 2.5 inches in diameter. I used a drinking glass with a somewhat sharper edge because I didn't have a real cookie cutter). Cut cookies so they are about 1 inch apart. 

[10] Remove the dough between the cookies and place aside. The baking sheet should now be covered with nice cookies. 

[11] Take the 'scraps' of dough and combine into another ball. Wrap in saran wrap and return to refrigerator. 

[12] Place cookies in oven for a total of 10 minutes. At the 5 minute point, rotate the pan. After baking, set cookies onto a cooling rack to cool. 

[13] Repeat the process with another refrigerated ball of dough for a cool (temperature wise), different baking sheet. 

[14] Continue doing this until all the dough has been used. You may combine the smaller balls of dough towards the end of the process to make things easier. 

For the chocolate glaze:

[1] Set a pot with water on the stovetop. Set to medium heat. 

[2] In a glass bowl that can fit nicely onto of this pot, whisk the glaze's chocolate and butter together. When completely melted, remove bowl from pot. Add in vanilla, corn syrup and mix until shiny. Set aside. (If this mixture does solidify, which it likely will not, you can easily reheat it over warm water). 

[3] Use about 1 tsp of glaze (maybe 1.5), and spread atop cooled cookies (for at least 20 mins). You want the glaze to go from edge to edge. 

[4] Set cookies aside to cool. 

For the white chocolate piping

[0] Do not start this step until all the glazed cookies have cooled. Unlike the chocolate glaze, the white chocolate can only be melted once. 

[1] In a microwavable bowl, melt the white chocolate. (You can use the stovetop method, but microwaving's easier). 

[2] Let it cool slightly. 

[3] Transfer white chocolate to a plastic bag (heavy dutier ones like Ziploc Freezer bags are a good choice, and make the process easier). Smoosh (yes, that's a real chef term) the white chocolate into one corner of the bag. 

[4] Cut a tiny little corner off of the bag. 

[5] Begin piping away! 

[6] Let piping set for about 20 minutes. 

[7] Serve cookies immediately or place in tupperware for 3 days maximum. 

Food: Banana Muffins with Crumble

Remember that banana party I was talking about earlier? Well, here's part deux!

Below I present the timeline for how this recipe came to be:
Hour 0: Those bananas are looking nasty.
Hour 0.5: Screw studying. I'm gonna look up banana bread recipes.
Hour 1: After much perusing on Cook's Illustrated, I decide upon their The Best Banana Bread recipe.
Hour 3: I invite some friends over for the bananas party. We plan on going bananas in two days.
Hour 4: To make this recipe more sharable, I decide to turn them into cupcakes!
Hour 12: The bananas begin to scare me. They're soft to the touch, and I'm pretty sure we're talking about rebounds-to-the-touch soft. Turns out you can keep your bananas longer if you refrigerate them (even though their skins will turn darker faster). I'm pretty sure this advice is meant for newly bought bananas, but the theory should still work with my close to death bananas, right?
Day 1: Banana cupcakes seem so plain. So unexciting. I remember reading this post from Baking with Em & M and thinking I would crumble everything. Crispier and crunchier is always better in my world. And so I looked for a crumble recipe on Cook's Illustrated--I borrowed one for an apple crisp recipe.
Day 2: It's banana time, baby. 


What's something I learned from this recipe? Even when bananas may be pretty revolting to look at, they may be used to make pretty fantastic banana bread.

Huge thanks to L for taking these with her fancy-pants camera!
(Maybe if I'm lucky and willing, one day I'll invest in one...) 

Banana bread muffins with crumble
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated "The Best Banana Bread" (March 1998) and "Apple Crumble" (January 2007)

Recipe makes approximately 21 muffins 

Ingredients:

For the banana bread batter: 

2 cups of flour

3/4 cup white granulated sugar

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt 

3-4 mushed bananas (approximately 1.5 cups)

1/4 cup plain yogurt

2 eggs, beaten lightly

6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

1 tsp vanilla 

For the crumble: 

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup white granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

A pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla 

3 tbsp butter, very soft and cut into three pieces

Recipe for the banana bread batter:

[1] In a large bowl, combinbatter flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix together well with a fork. 

[2] In a separate bowl, peel and mush the bananas until relatively smooth and even. Add the yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla to this banana bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon. 

[3] Gently fold in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. An overly smooth batter will result in a rubbery bread. To avoid this, do not over mix. Adequate mixing can be recognized by the complete disappearance of any dry, white elements. 

Recipe for the crumble: 

[4] In a large bowl, combine the flour, white and brown sugar, and salt. Add the vanilla. Mix with a fork. 

[5] Add in the soft pieces of butter. Using an electric mixer, mix until the butter has broken up into very small pieces. If necessary, use a fork to break up some of the more 'stubborn' pieces of butter, and then return to mixing with the electric mixer. 

To prepare the baking pan:

[6] Line the cupcake pan with cupcake liners. 

[7] Fill each cup approximately 3/4 of the way with banana bread dough. Pour a very generous portion of crumble onto each cupcake. 

[8] Bake cupcakes for 17-18 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Time may be modified in order to ensure that an inserted fork comes out dry upon insertion into the cupcake. 

[9] Let cupcakes cool and serve. Refrigerate for up to four days. 

Food: Banana Nutella Crepes

Sometimes, going bananas can be a good thing. Take for example, banana crepes! Banana bread! A few weeks ago (this post has been sitting on the backburner for a while...), I had a little banana party, where I served up some yumm-ay crepes and muffins.

Does this sound good to you? If yes, read on! If not, it doesn't have to sound good, it can just look good (clever, right? Maybe not.).

Open...

...sesame!
(God, I wish I had a fancier camera. Or maybe better lighting. )

Banana Nutella Crepes (Recipe adapted from Cook's Illustrated)

Ingredients:

1/2 tsp vegetable oil 

1 cup flour

1 tsp white granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 + 1/2 cup whole milk

3 large eggs

2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

Nutella

Semi-ripe bananas (personal preference will dictate if your crepe has firmer or softer banana slices).

Recipe:

[0] Wipe oil onto skillet using a paper towel. Set the skillet on low heat for 10 minutes. 

[1] Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. 

[2] Combine milk and eggs in a separate bowl. Whisk until evenly mixed. 

[3] Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients bowl. Whisk until even. 

[4] Add the butter, and the remaining dry ingredients to the bowl. Whisk until even. 

[5] Set the skillet onto medium heat. 

[6] There is a very specific technique to determine the optimal pan temperature for crepes. Place a tablespoonful of batter onto the skillet. After 20 seconds, the side facing the skillet should appear brown. If the crepe is too light or too dark, adjust heat accordingly until this 20 second rule has been met. 

[7] Pour 1/4 cup of batter onto the center of the pan. While counting to twenty, tilt and rotate the pan to create a larger thinner crepe. Using a wooden spatula, flip the crepe over for another twenty seconds. This side should appear with light brown freckles. 

[8] Set crepe onto a cooling rack or a porcelain plate. 

[9] Repeat for remaining batter. Stack crepes on top of each other to cool. 

[10] Spread a liberal amount of Nutella to the crepe's surface. Cover crepe with desired amount of sliced bananas. Micdesired decorated crepe for 15 seconds if so desired. Eat and enjoy! 

Food: Won Tons

This post's tag line: Making Won Tons! It's like origami but for food!

Many weeks ago, M and I worked on a little Won Ton making project! They were super easy to make (once we figured out how to fold them), and the monotony of doing 80 of these was pretty relaxing. I was doubtful at first as to whether or not we'd actually use all 80 wrappers for the Won Tons, but we did! Surprising, right? These can be eaten right after being made, or you can freeze them for the future.

Some lessons I learned throughout this:
[1] There are two types of won ton wrappers. One is yellower, and the other is whiter. I prefer the latter. The former is eggier, and I am less familiar with its use in cuisine.
[2] Before you begin the folding process, I recommend flouring the plates where you will place the finished Won Tons. I didn't do this step, and some of my won tons stuck to the plate. I discovered this as I was Ziploc bagging them into the freezer. Luckily, none of mine tore in the process! Next time I plan on flouring the plate a little bit.
[3] As my fellow blogger Jen likes to say, many hands makes for light work! (I really love this saying, by the way.)

Before we hit the recipe, let's look at some pretty pictures.

Your mise-en-place (post ingredient mixing). Wanna know a secret?

 There are frozen vegetables under the plates to keep the finished won tons cold

 while new ones are being made. 

Many won ton folds later...the final product!

After boiling, this is how they appear.

 I cut one in half so you could see the inside. 

Normally I choose to make soup.
This time though, I wanted to try a sauce. Turned out pretty well!

Pork Won Tons
Adapted from The Wei Chuan Cookbook: Chinese Rice and Noodles
Makes 80 Won Tons

Ingredients:

1 lb ground pork, lean

1 + 1.2 tsp salt

1 + 1/2 tsp soy sauce

1 + 1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tbsp cooking wine

1 tbsp to 1 + 1/2 tbsp  sesame oil (you add more oil for leaner pork)

2 eggs, beaten

80 won ton skins (Shanghai style)

Recipe: 

[1] Combine all ingredients and mix well.

[2] Place a small amount of meat mixture 

[3] Fold as indicated in the pictures below

For Won Ton Soup,

[4] Boil won tons in water. Stir lightly initially to prevent won tons from sticking to the bottom of the pot. 

[5] Set aside, and cool.

[6] Add to your favorite bowl of chicken soup and noodles! 

For Schezuan Won Tons,

[4] Boil won tons in water until they are floating. Stir lightly when won tons are first placed in the pot to prevent their sticking to the bottom of the bottom. 

[5] Remove won tons from pot and let cool/dry a little.

[6] Prepare the sauce using the following: 

6 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp vinegar

2 tbsp ground garlic

2 tbsp green onion, minced

[7] Add desired amount of sauce to won tons. Toss lightly. Serve.

Tips on folding Won Tons: 

[Figure 1] Place meat in the center of the won ton. Place water in the yellow shaded areas. Fold along green line. 

[Figure 2] Fold along green line towards you. 

[Figure 3] Fold the left and right edges away from you. Look to Figure 4 for reference on how it should appear afterwards. 

[Figure 4] Place water on the surfaces indicated in yellow. The solid yellow area indicates the side visible to you. The spotted yellow area indicates the side that is not directly visible in the picture. The pink lines represent what were the green lines in Figure 3. 

Figure 5. The final product. I have outlined the wonton's edges in blue to aid in your visualization . 

Food: Chewy Sugar Cookies

A week ago, I was sitting indoors on a cold and rainy night. I was up to my eyes in papers and Times New Roman type, and I decided to drop everything and bake not one...but two batches of cookies! For the dark skies and puddles lining the sidewalks, I baked Double Chocolate Chip Cookies from Baking with Em & M. For me, I baked these delicious sugar cookies. In all honestly, I am not that big of a chocolate fan. I like the stuff, but I prefer a simple chocolate chip recipe to other forms of chocolate decadence (fudgy chocolate brownies, red velvet cake, and...oh wait, are you drooling?). 

Chocolate cookies before cooking!

And after! (I think these pictures contain the sugar-lacking batch. That's why there's much taller than expected.)

The final product! (Yes, I played with Preview's color modification features...)

Funny thing, I also learned that sugar is kind of a necessary element in certain recipes. Okay, I'm not as foolish as I sound. In certain recipes, such as those for cakes or muffins or breads, I've been able to cut the sugar down by 1/4 at least with no real harm. But M's Double Chocolate Chip Cookies do not apply. Cutting down the sugar in these suckers leads to disastrous results--cookies that look normal on the outside but crumble to (delicious chocolate) sand upon first bite. However, for those who are interested, I managed to save the recipe. It turns out you can re-add more sugar with an electric mixer after everything's been said and done! The cookies were saved, and everything ended happily ever after.

For me though, the real highlight of the night were the sugar cookies. They are everything you could ask for in a sugar cookie. They were crispy on the outside, and chewy on the inside. And I mean chewy. 

Cook's Illustrated explains the science behind the cookie. To achieve a crackly top, baking soda reacts with the water in the dough, releasing carbon dioxide that rises to the cookie's top and leaves little cracks. But the baking soda's addition is more than just aesthetics; they balance out baking powder's rising power. Baking powder does most of its rising before the cookies go in the oven (to make a point, adding too much baking powder would cause mound shaped cookies). From what I understand, this rising action occurs better in more acidic environments; here's where baking soda comes in. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) makes the dough more basic, thus reducing the rising effect of the baking powder! And voila, this perfect pairing gives you nice flat cookies with crackly tops! 

Before squishing...

...and after squishing!

Here are the cookies at 7 minutes into the baking process.
Rotate them now. 

After another 4-5 minutes in the oven, they look like this!

Remember that baking soda-baking powder combination? Yeah, that's the magic riiiight there.

Mmm, chewy on the inside!

Chewy Sugar Cookies

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated Recipe for Chewy Sugar Cookies, Nov 2010

Recipe makes approximately 32 sugar cookies

Ingredients:

2 + 1/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt 

1 + 1/2 cup white granulated sugar for baking

1/3 cup white granulated sugar for rolling

2 oz cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces

6 tbsp butter, melted and still warm

1/3 cup of vegetable oil

1 large egg

1 tbsp milk

2 tsp vanilla 

Recipe 

[0] Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Set aside one bowl; fill it with 1/3 cup of sugar for rolling later.

[1] Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Mix with fork. Set aside.

[2] Cut the 2 oz of cream cheese into 8 uniform pieces. Combine with sugar in a medium bowl. Pour the warm, melted butter onto the sugar-cream cheese mixture. Combine using electric mixture on low. Add oil to mixture; use electric mixer. It's okay if there are some small cream cheese lumps. These will be resolved later. 

[3] Add egg, milk, and vanilla to the bowl with the sugar-cream cheese-butter mixture. Combine with electric mixer until smooth. 

[4] Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Mix using a rubber spatula until dry ingredients have completely been combined with the wet.

[5] Take a tablespoon of dough into your hand. Roll into ball. Coat it with sugar until a visible layer of granulation appears; be generous with your sugar coating! This will give the cookie some extra crunch and make it prettier after baking. 

[6] Place the sugar-coated dough ball onto a baking sheet coated with parchment paper. Repeat this process until the sheet is covered with dough balls, about 2.5 inches apart. Using the bottom of a drinking cup (or your measuring cup!) 

[7] Bake for 7 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees. Bake for another 4 minutes; the total baking time should be 11 minutes. The cookies' edges should be set and may just begin to brown. Any more than that, and you've over baked them. 

[8] Set cookies aside to cool, and then serve. Cookies are best eaten fresh, but you can keep them around for around 3 days before the chewiness disappears and the staleness kicks in. 

Baking: Frosted Lemon Cookies

This weekend, I found myself with more free time than I've had in a while! With a party or two on my schedule for this weekend, I decided to bake some goodies to share with the other guests. I was caught at a crossroads--lemon sables, lemon whoopie pies, or double chocolate chip cookies.

With summer coming to a close, I decided to give lemons a last hurrah in my kitchen. Double chocolate chip is delicious, but to me seems better on a cold winter night. Microwave one of those bad boys with a cool glass of milk--perfect. Chocolate ooey gooeyness on an uber humid and hot night? Less appealing (but perhaps not to you serious chocoholics out there).

And then lemon sables or lemon whoopie pies? Lemon sables are a favorite of my mom's, and that's most likely for their subtle lemon taste and buttery texture. Remember how I decided on giving lemon's a last hurrah? Well, if it's a hurrah that I want, I'm going to end my August with a lemony bang. I want lemon oozing out of these cookie's pores--and so it was decided, lemon whoopie pies!

Given all the time I spent deciding, it's funny that I made none of my three choices. As I was baking these cookies, I realized how gigantic they would be! Two cookies and frosting. I myself was wary about tackling one of these monstrous(ly good) cookies. So I figured my fellow guests would be too. And the project quickly became one for Frosted Lemon Cookies.

These cookies are delicious. The recipe is very loosely based off of Joy the Baker's Lemon Whoopie Pies, but I changed the sugar and lemon elements rather significantly. When I made her recipe in the Spring, I found the cookies to be very bland and not lemony at all. As a result, I made some increases in the recipe's lemon demands. Also, I decreased the sugar by 25% because I never really like too much sugar in my cookies anyway. I'm not brave enough to decrease it by 50% yet, but I may consider it in the near future. So far, I've worked on one project of Blueberry Muffin where the food turned out fine after I cut the sugar in half.

I was so happy to use the Offset Spatula that M got for me this summer! Let me tell you, frosting with this tool is way easier (last time I frosted Green Tea Cupcakes with a normal spatula and ended up with a very sore wrist).

I'd say Frosted Lemon Cookies is a pretty spectacular inauguration for my baby. 

The cookies are soft (almost cake like if you choose to make slightly bigger ones), and the frosting is delicious. The frosting has a cream cheese base, but the lemon juice really scream summer.  Actually, the lemon juice on my cookies screamed 'SUMMER, WHY MUST YOU LEAVE ME? WHY?! WHY?!?!?!'

...

The zest gives some nice color accents, no?

Looking at (and eating) these lemon cookies really kept my spirits up on this rainy day. 

These cookies are good freshly baked, but on a hot summer day I think they taste better refrigerated. It's something akin to the joy of drinking fresh iced lemonade when it's sweltering hot.


Frosted Lemon Cookies

Recipe makes approximately 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

For the cake

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

12 tbsp butter

1 + 1/2 cup sugar

The zest of 5 lemons -- minus the 1 tsp needed for the frosting

2 eggs

The juice of 5 lemons -- minus the 4 tbsp needed for the frosting

1 cup buttermilk 

For the frosting

12 tbsp butter

12 oz cream cheese

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon zest

4 tbsp lemon juice

5 + 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Note: This above frosting recipe made almost double the frosting of what I needed. One option is to keep the frosting for a lemon cake! I would highly recommend Baking With Em & M's Lemon Cake--use a cake pan and you can slather on the extra frosting onto it! Her recipe is for a bundt cake, but read her Red Velvet Cake post for information on how to prep the cake pan and for baking times. I think this cream cheese lemon frosting on a lemon cake would be divine (Perhaps I will try it one day...). You wouldn't have to bake the cake on the same day because you can refrigerate the frosting. If making a separate lemon cake is not to your liking, you can simply cut the amounts in half. 

If you do choose to make half the frosting, I've put the new values here:

6 tbsp butter

6 oz cream cheese

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp lemon zest 

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 + 3/4 cups powdered sugar 

Note that using these new values will also leave you with more lemon elements for the cookie batter! This is just fine, because the cookies are only moderately lemony. So adding extra would not cause some kind of lemon overdose (which I don't think is a problem anyway…).

Recipe:

For the lemons

[1] Wash the lemons with soap and water. Rinse and then dry. 

[2] Using a grater, zest the lemons. Try to restrict your zesting to the yellow outermost part of the lemon and to avoid the white layer underneath. The yellow layer gives it the lemony flavor; the white gives it bitterness. This piece of advice is not a hard and fast rule, but is a general guideline. 

[3] Cut the lemons in half and squeeze the juice into a bowl. 

[4] Pour the juice into another bowl slowly; if you do it right, the seeds will stay to the bottom of the other bowl. An easier way would be to pour the lemon juice (seeds and all) through a strainer. 

For the cookies

[0] Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

[1] In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. 

[2] In a large bowl, combine the butter (it's easiest to work with at room temperature), sugar, and lemon zest. Use an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth (about 3 minutes). 

[3] Add the eggs, lemon juice, and vanilla. Mix at medium for about 1 minute until even. 

[4] Add in half of the dry ingredient mixture you prepared earlier. (I recommend mixing it in lightly with a fork before turning on the electric mixer. That save your front side from getting sprayed with flour etc. 

[5] Add the buttermilk. Mix it in on low speed. 

[6] Add the rest of the dry ingredients. Mix on low until even. 

[7] Place about 1 tbsp of dough onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. If you want bigger, fatter cookies, I recommend getting a large tbsp of dough (these end up being thick and cake like.) If you you want thinner cookies, use slightly less than a tbsp of dough. I did some of each, so I could please the two different cookie populations. 

[8] Bake for around 12-14 minutes until there is a faint brown outline around the cookie's edge. Time may be modified--the key element is that if you insert a toothpick or fork into the cookie, it can be removed cleanly. Upon completion, the undersides should be have some general browning. While baking, around 6 minutes (the halfway point), rearrange the baking pans top-bottom and front-back. In other words, what was on the left, should now go to the right. What was deepest in the oven should now be closest to the oven's from door. 

[9] Let cookies cool for approximately 10 minutes before applying frosting. 

For the frosting

[1] Using an electric beater, mix and smush around (for lack of better descriptors) the butter. When it's reasonably mushed, add half the cream cheese. Mix it together. 

[2] Add the rest of the cream cheese, along with the vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Mix together until even on medium speed. 

[3] Add the powdered sugar in one cup at a time. After I added each cup, I recommend mixing it around with a fork prior to using the electric mixer. This prevents a mini sugar explosion in your face and on your clothes. 

[4] Add a dollop of frosting to each cookie and use spatula to smooth. 

[5] Serve at room temperature or refrigerate prior to serving. Cookies store for up to 4 days. 

Baking: Hua Jian

This was my second go at baking with yeast! My first was with M from Baking With Em and M, and it was moderately successful. I say moderately and not completely because halfway through baking...I sat on the towel-covered buns (It was a bad idea it was to put the baking pan on a chair with a pattern that perfectly matched the towel). It was a true buns sandwich. Sad. After recovering from a debilitating laugh attack, M helped me salvage these misshapen dough balls.

This time around, I wanted to make Hua Jian for my mom--I kind of saw it as a Medal of Honor for baking. For those who aren't familiar, Hua Jian is a plain steamed bun decorated with a delicate, stringy appearance. Making the Hua Jian takes a while and is some pretty sticky business, but it's a lot of fun if you have some help in the kitchen!

Hua Jian (Adapted from Baking with Em and M)
Recipe makes about 40 buns

Ingredients: 
1/2 a packet of yeast (approximately 1+1/2 tsp)
1+1/4 cup of warm water
1/2 tsp sugar
3 cups of flour
1/4 cup of sugar
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil

Recipe:
[1] Warm water over stove. You should be able to hold your finger in the water without getting burned.
[2] Mix the ingredients together in a large bowl. Place in an off microwave (or any other warm place, like your oven). After about 10 minutes, you should see foam.
[3] Add the flour and sugar to the large bowl.
[4] Mix and knead repeatedly until smooth and slightly airy.
[5] Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and return bowl to the off microwave for approximately 2 hours until the dough doubles in size.
[6] Divide the dough into three sections.
[7] Keep the unused dough in the covered bowl to prevent it from drying out.
[8] Flour the counter, your hands, and a rolling pin. Knead the dough 8-10 times over the floured countertop. Using the rolling pin, flatten the dough into a 12-15 inch circle (a square is okay too). What is more important here is that the dough be no more than 1 cm thick.
[9] Spread 1 tbsp olive oil over the dough.
[10] Roll up the dough into a log
[11] Cut the log into approximately 12-15 thin strips no more than 1/4 cm thick. Rotate the log as necessary to prevent the flap of dough appearing on the upper surface of the log.
[12] Take your 12-15 strip piece of dough and stretch it slightly. This will make it easier for the twisty-turny part.
[13] Take one end and twist it 360 degrees.
[14] Attach and pinch the ends together.
[15] Place on baking sheet and cover with a towel.
[6] Repeat for [A] as many buns as the remaining dough will allow [B] as many buns as you have the patience for [C] until you get the amount of pretty buns you want assuming your success rate is less than 100%
[17] Let the buns rise for another half an hour. (For me, it didn't feel like waiting because I was busy making the other buns for more than half an hour...)
[18] Steam buns for 15 minutes. Let cool and serve! If you want, you can freeze them for future consumption. All you'll have to do next time you crave Hua Jian is just steam and serve!

I made a schematic that hopefully you find helpful and instructive:

My schematic looks so much like the real thing, no? :)

And for those who prefer less theoretical pictures and more real ones:

Prepping the counter

The dough after doubling

Rolling it out! 

You add some olive oil to the surface.

Rolling it into a snake log.

Then you cut 12-15 little strips.

Follow the schematic shown a few panels up to transform the bottom left into the top right.

Let these rise for another half hour, and then steam for 15 minutes.