Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I think that just about everyone I know is constantly on a search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. Most (myself included) have been let down by the recipe on the back of the Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip bag, and there are many recipes floating around the Internet that seem to gain popularity and become fads before dying off when people move on to the latest and greatest. I was really please with the cookie I created last fall, as it resulted in the chewy texture I was looking for. But these Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, they really take the cake. Big, beautiful, bakery-quality chocolate chip cookies. It’s official – my love affair with America’s Test Kitchens and the Baking Illustrated cookbook continues!

More on the cookies, another PSA for weighing dry ingredients, and the recipe after the break…

Wilton Course III, Class 4

My final cake, a 2-tier wedding-style cake. This cake consists of 10-inch and 6-inch cakes, covered in fondant with fondant roses and leaves, and buttercream borders. I actually completed this cake on my own at home because I came down with a little bug and couldn’t make it to my final class. I am pretty proud of completing this with only the instruction of the book and not a teacher!

These roses were definitely time-intensive, as it probably took about 5-6 hours total to construct the 38 roses that went on this cake. Other than that, it was a pretty typical decorating job. I am having a great time doing cake decorating and will move on to the Wilton Fondant & Gum Paste class in July.

More pictures after the break (I went a little crazy with the camera)…

Eclairs and Cream Puffs

You may notice that my post does not have a “TWD” header on it as you have come to find on most Tuesdays here at Sugar & Spice. Sadly, I have taken a break from Tuesdays With Dorie, as I have found recently that the commitment was getting to be a lot given some other things I have going on, and I wanted to free up some of my time and grocery budget (not to mention my waist line!) to ensure I had the opportunity to begin tackling things that have been on my “to make” list for quite some time. I still may bake along unofficially some weeks as well as use the recipes as inspiration to tackle those things that I’ve been dying to make.

That is exactly what I did this week – I have wanted to make éclairs and cream puffs for ages, but never made the time. After seeing that this week’s TWD pick was the Peppermint Cream Puff, I decided to roll up my sleeves and finally conquer a pastry!

Continue reading to find out how the pâte à choux went, the secret ingredient to the richest pastry cream ever, pictures of the cream puffs, and recipes of course!

Product Rave: Microplane Ultimate Citrus Tool

This special-series Microplane is absolutely fabulous for zesting lemons and oranges. Look at how perfectly it zested this orange, not touching an iota of the bitter white pith:

More about this tool and where to get it after the break…

Wilton Course III, Class 3

This class was supposed to be solely focused on making flowers using royal icing, but we ran out of time in my last class and had to squeeze in fondant roses as well. I LOVED the fondant roses! It was so nice to be able to shape them and mold them exactly how I wanted versus being at the mercy of buttercream and the flower nail. I think it’s official – I’m totally smitten with fondant!

After having some fun with the roses I moved on to making lilies, poinsettias, and petunias with royal icing. I have a feeling that my icing was a bit too stiff because I wasn’t getting nice points at the end, so I will need to experiment with my icing consistencies a bit. Some of them also didn’t fare so well on the car ride home 😉

Next week is my final class for this course – I will be making a 2-tier wedding-style cake covered in fondant and roses. I can’t wait!

Barefoot Bloggers: Pesto Pasta & Chicken

What a fabulous meal! This was my first time making homemade pesto and the smell of it brought me back to my childhood and images of my grandfather tending to his garden. This was a great break from our usual dinners and something that I will definitely make more often. Thank you to Barefoot Blogger Elizabeth of Ugg Smell Food for choosing this recipe!

I adapted this recipe a bit to suit what I could find in the store, my allergies, and the inability for us to eat a meatless meal. First things first, my allergies. I am allergic to all nuts, so I had to venture out and make my own pesto sans the nuts. Quite easy, actually, and Nick said that it tasted no different than the traditional pesto he has eaten. Next, I couldn’t find much basil at our store and knew I wouldn’t have enough, so I supplemented what I had with baby spinach. I thought it added a great dimension of flavor! However, since I did this I eliminated the frozen chopped spinach (as well as the mayo and lemon juice). And since we like to incorporate protein in the form of meat in most of our dinners, I added some sauteed chicken breast to the dish. So in the end you get a bow tie pasta dish with chicken and a spinach-basil pesto. Honestly, it was fabulous and I really enjoyed it!

See how the other Barefoot Bloggers liked this dish here.

The original recipe as well as my spinach-basil (no nut!) pesto after the break…

Wilton Course III: Class 2

My very first fondant cake! I was excited about working with fondant, and it turned out to be really easy once I got the hang of it. Kneading it may give me carpal tunnel, but I was beyond pleased with the final product. All said and done, the decorating ended up taking me close to 2.5 hours to complete, but a lot of that was instruction time in learning how to knead the fondant, roll it out, cut it, etc. I think I might be addicted to fondant now – making the decorations was so much fun!

Next class – doing a rose in fondant and learning some additional flowers with royal icing. And then the finale – a two-tier cake!

TWD: La Palette’s Strawberry Tart

This week’s selection came from Marie at A Year in Oak Cottage, and it was a perfect pick to top off four days of 90-degree plus weather. Nothing screams summer quite like strawberries! This recipe was described by Dorie as a rustic type of tart, with strawberry jam spread on the tart and each person piling on as many strawberries as desired from a big bowl served in the middle of the table.

More about the tart after the break…

New York-Style Crumb Cake

Entenmann’s has nothing on Cook’s Illustrated! I was watching some recorded episodes of America’s Test Kitchen and saw this incredible crumb cake being made. Crumb cake has been on my “to make” list for some time now, as I just can’t resist the light, fluffy cake topping with that sweet crumb topping. It was perfect timing because I was looking for something to make for our monthly neighborhood “Girls Night”. Although the recipe states that it serves 8-10, since I was bringing it for a crowd, I cut the cake into 16 pieces and placed each of them in a cupcake liner for easy consumption. I thought the presentation was so cute, and the cake was definitely a hit. My mom had a piece the next day and said that these rank in the Top 3 things I have ever made. Now that’s a compliment! I stowed away a couple of pieces for myself before I left, but in all honesty, I probably could have eaten this whole cake myself.

Wilton Course III: Fondant and Tiered Cakes

After a little hiatus for our vacation, I am back in the Wilton saddle! You may have noticed that I have gone from Course I to Course III – I missed Course II while on vacation, and I wanted to learn fondant before doing a wedding shower cake for one of my sister’s best friends at the end of June. I will pick up Course II in July before moving on to the final course – Gum Paste and Fondant.

I am the only person in my class this time around, and it was really nice to have one-on-one instruction with my teacher, I love it! This first class was mostly learning some additional border and decorative techniques using buttercream icing. I learned the bead border, cornelli, garland, and ruffle borders. I also got to start playing with fondant, how fun! I made some buds for what will become fondant roses in my next class. Here’s a sneak peek: