I must start with the truth. I baked and delivered yesterday. Thursdays in my house start with getting up at 6:30, kids up at 7:00, out the door for chess club at 7:30 where I am a parent volunteer, I leave school at 9:00 to get to work by 9:30 and usually work until 8:00 or 9:00. Today was different because I had to leave work by 6:00 to get the family and go to curriculum night at the junior high at 6:30. YIKES!! Yesterday when I realized all of this I was overwhelmed so I baked and delivered last night. I had no idea what it meant to roll in jelly roll fashion. Unfortunately you can not see my log on the right very well but let me tell you it was the first one and so not pretty. I finally realized by the third one what it meant ( for the record I did this on my own without an s.o.s call to my mom.) I have to say I was not looking forward to this cookie because I do not care for orange marmalade or raisins. Surprisingly with all of the cinnamon and sugar and the walnuts it was actually quite good. My family loved it, I thought it tasted like a cobbler and suggested we have it over vanilla ice cream. My end product on this plate looks great. My girlfriends can vouch for me that they did not look like that when I delivered them. (Except Phoebe's) They must not have been cooled enough and turned to a mushy mess. I suggested to them to try them over ice cream too. I am going to bake early again next time. I was going to have a guest baker because Kurt and I are going out of town, but then I realized it was my first recipe on Theresa's side of the book and decided I could not do that. My friend Angela and I are going to bake them together on Sunday and I will blog on Monday. This is a challenging cookie and I feel up to the task, because I am a baker now. The 1st half of the book will be done tomorrow. We will be celebrating tomorrow night at Angie's can't wait.
Mom I just want to tell you how much I appreciate you and Theresa doing all of this hard work. I am having a wonderful experience with my awesome friends and also getting to appreciate how much love actually goes into "cookie day". You guys are wonderful and thank you for all of the cookies.
Danielle G. "the baker"
Whoa, you brought me to tears. You’ve come a long way, baby! What a great baker you are, congrats!!! You always had it in you. Our venture, thanks to your mom & Theresa, just gave you reason to find it!
ReplyDeleteOh my, these are heavenly! If I wasn’t baking & blogging, I probably would have over looked this cookie, shying away from the orange marmalade, but I am so glad I had the opportunity to taste them. Marmalade is yum! This cookie has a wonderful combination of flavors, cinnamon being my favorite, and I will put this on my bake list.
Danielle, What a joy to see the progress in baking skills for all of you. I feel there is nothing you girls cannot conquer in the kitchen. I relive some of my own disasters and get a giggle when you guys overcome yours. Cookie Day has always been a favorite day and will always continue to be one of my favorite days of the year. Who would have guessed one day 30 years ago would have turned into this much fun now. I'll bet it's hard to believe tomorrow is the half way mark. It'll be fun to see what new conquests are in store for you and your dear friends. Thank you all for the joy of watching these recipes develop through your hearts and hands. Have a great celebration tomorrow nite. Love to all of you. Sharon
ReplyDeleteYou aren't the only one in tears, Phoebe! You are SO sweet Danielle to decide that you would not turn over your first recipe of mine to a guest baker but rather do it yourself with Angela's help. That really touched me.
ReplyDeleteI'm also not a big fan of marmalade, but the first time Sharon made these cookies I loved them! Never know which cookie will surprise you.
All of you girls have gained so much baking experience these last 6 weeks and have progressed by leaps and bounds. Sharon and I are so proud of all of you. Have a blast at your half-way-point celebration tomorrow!
Also, please feel free to contact me if you run into any difficulty or have questions with my recipes. I would welcome your call. If you need a pizzelle maker, madeleine pan or even a mixer, I will be happy to lend out my equipment. Theresa G. (By the way, Cookie Day is also one of my all-time favorite days of the year).
I can't believe you guys are already half way through the book! You guys deserve a TON of credit for sticking with it and getting thru it even when times were hectic or you didn't feel up to it. I made a simple batch of chocolate chip cookies (Alton Brown's recipe, sadly not one from the cookbook) and after the cookie dough was in the fridge for a while I started to form them into balls and baked them. Well, lets just say that I still have some dough in the fridge because I got tired of waiting for the cookies to come out of the oven and then making new batches. (I really only like baking on my stone and only have one right now,I think I really need to get a silpat). So one batch of cookie dough I couldn't even get thru and bake all of it because I got a little lazy and didn't want to wait.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how you guys do it every 4th day with kids, busy schedules and not feeling well at times, and then having to find the time to deliver the cookies and blog about it! Like I said, you all deserve a TON of credit for all you have done! I never would have been able to do what you guys are doing.
Cathy F.