Now, why do I love to bake? Because it is something I know I am good at. I refuse to bake anything out of the box and/or use a premade crust. Everything I bake is 100% baked by Meli. Maybe except for the chocolate chips. Baking is easy because it's mindless work for me... I don't need to think too hard about what I am making. Just watch the ingredients and the amounts of each, and you're golden. And the chocolate chip cookies are golden too, ha. I bake when I'm feeling frustrated, anxious, nervous, bored, restless, ambitious, giving... the list goes on. We are having a housewarming bbq/party on Saturday, the 27th, and I will be baking for that, too! I'll be doing an easy recipe, because we are expecting a lot of people.
I haven't been adventurous with my baking in a while now... mostly sticking to recipes I am familiar with and tweaking them slightly. My most ambitious attempt within the past year were my Butterfinger Cheesecake Bites. They were divine. Who describes food as divine? If you tasted these, you can't help but say they're divine. Unfortunately, no one reading this or anyone else can attest to how amazing those bites were... I baked them for my EYA group, the Manitous, back almost a year ago, either September or early October. I need to recreate these scrumptious desserts soon.
I especially love this one recipe, Happy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies, taken/adapted from VegWeb.com. It is an easy recipe to follow, with not that many ingredients, and it is easy to change it and add/remove some things. I have made everything from cookies, to brownies, to muffins with this one recipe. Right now, I am tweaking the Happy Vegan cookies, turning them from cookies into mini muffin-like cookies. Baking in a muffin pan makes them fluffier and softer, instead of crunchy. My first time using this oven at my new place. We'll see how it ends up! I am using Jessica's birthday gift as well (well one of them, anyway). She bought me a cooling rack, and only a baker would get excited about a gift like that, because I haven't had one in the past year since I moved away from California. This recipe is also easy because there are no ingredients in it that really require cooking. You could eat this batter raw and not have to worry about the eggs. It's dairy-free! Well mine sometimes don't end up dairy-free because of the chocolate chips I use. A few times, I have covered a few rolled up balls of batter with powdered sugar, and thrown them in the freezer. My sister particularly loved them this way, it was a delicious frozen dessert, great with ice cream.
Well. First time using this oven for my baking. Success! Hope the roomies and coworkers enjoy my cookies. I had to try one for myself, hence the half eaten one in the picture. Also, to show how the inside looks. Scrumptious.
Ciao, friends. =)
8/22/11 Meli, come home and bake for us. I miss the smell of cookies baking and they taste better when somebody else makes them. Your mommy
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