Macaroons

This week, we made macaroons! For whatever reason, I've always thought that they were hard to make... like souffle or mole sauce. Wrong.
The ingredients couldn't be simpler. Eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, and lots and lots of coconut.

Mix them together until you get the consistency of wet sand and try not to eat it right out of the bowl...eggs and salmonella and such. (Not that salmonella has ever stopped me from eating cookie dough)
Martha says to form the cookies into 'haystacks'. I'm not really sure what constitutes a 'haystack' shape, so I formed mine into little pyramids. You could probably just make them into little blobs, and not deal with forming them. I won't judge. Martha might, but who's going to tell her?
Here they are right out of the oven, all hot and lovely. While they were still hot, they were a little bit shiny, and looked as if they might fall apart (but they didn't, so don't worry). As they cooled, the outside became harder and crunchy, and just a little bit chewy. The inside stayed soft and sticky. The verdict: these are awesome, aaand super-easy. Easier than chocolate chip cookies. So... they are definitely being made again. For sho.

Next week: Pear, Pistachio, and Ginger Blondies p.201

Chunky Peanut, Chocolate, and Cinnamon Cookies

These cookies are the product of an unholy union of chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, and snicker doodles... and they are delicious. Neither the peanut butter nor the cinnamon is overwhelming. If you didn't know what went into them, you might not be able to guess the ingredients. The texture is fluffy and buttery, while the peanuts are still nice and crunchy.
The recipe is really easy; if you can make drop cookies, you can make these. Cream the butters and sugars, add the flour, add the chips and peanuts. Simple!
We used whole peanuts, instead of chopped nuts (because we were feeling lazy), and used a 1 1/2 T disher to portion the dough, instead of rolling the dough into balls and flattening. Our cookies were a little taller than Martha's at first, but they fell a bit as they cooled, but are still delicious.
Next week: Coconut Macaroons (p.62)

Preheat Your Oven

I'm working my way through Martha Stewart's "Cookies: The very best treats to bake and share." I will be making one batch of cookies each week. Since there are 175 recipes in the book, I plan on making cookies for several years (3.3, if I stick to the plan).

If you want to play along, I'm starting with 'Chunky Peanut, Chocolate, and Cinnamon Cookies' on page 179.