You put the lime in the coconut... cookies

These cookies. THESE COOKIES. I brought them to work (secretly to fatten up my coworkers because they're all looking a bit peaky), and they were DEVOURED. And I even got a few people dancing, because I renamed these cookies "Lime in the Coconut" cookies. Not sure why the previous blogger/inventor of this recipe didn't do this. Every now and then I have a stroke of genius... I think this was one of those moments.

This recipe: Chewy Key Lime Coconut Cookies by Will Cook For Smiles
What I changed: The name! These shall now be called "Lime in the Coconut" cookies. People will dance and be merry. Additionally, I used unsweetened shredded coconut, because this recipe already has a lot of sugar. Also, I didn't use key limes, because I didn't have any. Regular limes are approved for this recipe! Finally, there's a lot of "room temperature" this and "warm" that in the original recipe. We're going to ignore most of that, it makes the dough realllly wet and hard to work with.

Ingredients:
- 2.25 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup shredded coconut (I used unsweetened)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3 oz cream cheese at room temperature
- Zest of 1 lime
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tbsp milk
- 1 Tbsp lime juice
- 1/2 cup powder sugar (for rolling cookies)

STEP 1:
Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and shredded coconut together in a medium bowl, set aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream together the sugar, cream cheese, lime zest, and butter until light and fluffy. "Creaming" together something is basically when you mix together sugars and butter. Vocab lesson! (Ok, enough of that)

STEP 2:
Add the egg, milk, and lime juice until just mixed in.

Add in the flour/coconut mixture 1/3 at a time until just mixed in.

STEP 3: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees at this point.

If the dough is too wet for you to work with, pop it in the fridge for 30 min.

Form 1 inch balls, lightly coating them with sugar as you put them onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Note: This is only half of the recipe! I got maybe 25-30 cookies out of this recipe.

STEP 4: 

Bake for 11 to 12 minutes, let them cool for a couple minutes, then try one. And yes, you can thank me (and the originally blogger if you want, I guess) by leaving a comment of joy. Or post lyrics from "Put the Lime in the Coconut" by the Baha Men. Either would make me happy. 

Sneaky sweet potato pie

So you're all like, "What? Sweet potato pie? That's ludicrous." And I'm all like, "No, it tastes like a heartier pumpkin pie! Really!" So now you have to make it just to see if I'm right. Right? (Just go with me on this one) But really, if you want to change up the Thanksgiving dinner a little without your family noticing because they'll get mad (**cough cough MY FAMILY cough cough**), then this is your way!

This recipe: Sweet Potato Pie by Gina at Skinnytaste

What I changed: Nothing! Except using my own homemade pie dough instead of store bought (but no shame in using store bought!)

Ingredients: 

- 2 sweet potatoes, roughly 1.5 lbs (the orange ones! Technically these are yams. Deep breaths! I know, the commercial vegetable and fruit industry frustrates me too)

- 2 Tbs unsalted butter, softened

- 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

- 1/2 cup milk

- 2 large eggs

- 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 1 pie crust: 9 inch if you're buying it from a store, or one single crust pie dough recipe (I use pretty much any pie crust recipe you find on Smitten Kitchen)

STEP 1:

Cut your sweet potatoes into biiiig discs (see photo). Boil these suckers for about 30 min, until the skin looks like it's coming off and you can easy pierce the potato with a fork. Drain out the water in a colander and run cold water over the potatoes. Take the skin off.

STEP 2: 

Throw the meat of the potato into a food processor, blend it for a minute or so, until all the fibers of the potato are gone.

STEP 3:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. 

Roll out your pie dough and place it into your pie tin, leaving 1 inch of the dough hanging over the edge.

STEP 4:

Put your sweet potato puree into a medium sized bowl. Add the butter - your puree will probably be warm, so your butter should melt. If it doesn't, just mix it well enough that the pieces of butter are well distrubed in the mix. You can use an electric mixer or just a whisk for this next part: add the sugar, milk, eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla. Mix until smooth.

STEP 5:

Pour the mixture into your pie tin, smooth it out with a rubber spatula, fold the extra pie crust that was hanging over the side to make your pie crust edge.

Pop this sucker into the oven for 55-60 minutes, or until the middle of the pie has set. Let cool for 10 minutes. Cut and serve with cool whip or whipped cream or whatever makes your heart happy.

Yes, that is ANOTHER gallette in the background. Yes, I took photos. Yes, I will make a blog post about it.
No, I am NOT sorry.

 And there you have it! You have snuck something new into your family's Thanksgiving and they will have NO idea until they are complimenting you. Then you can let the bomb drop. BOOOOOOM!

Bestie bombs and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

BFF and I bestie bomb each other from time to time. A bestie bomb occurs when one half of the bestie couple is having a really bad day or week, and the other half of the bestie couple decides they could do with some cheering up. So, BOOM - they get bombed by love. This works best if you have a key to your friend's place and can sneak surprises into their house while they're gone at work or on an errand.

It works out really nicely because the sad bestie feels better, and the bestie-that-was-sad-because-their-bestie-was-sad also feels better. It's a great circle of love. I was most recently bestie bombed on my birthday in July, and I bestie bombed BFF a few months ago or so when she was having a particularly bad week.

So spread the love! Go bestie bomb your BFF!

And in the bestie bomb basket, you can provide them with this: Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies by Two Peas & Their Pod
What I changed: Nothing! You don't mess with this perfection!

Ingredients:
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1 cup butter at room temperature
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 2 cups chocolate chips

STEP 1: 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl combine all your dry ingredients (the first 8 ingredients).

STEP 2: 

In another mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together the sugars (both brown and white) and butter for about 3-4 minutes until it's light and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, and pumpkin and mix until it's a homogenous mixture. Add in the dry ingredients from Step 1 1/3 at a time, until it's all just combined. This will be a very thick mixture, so be careful it doesn't creep up the shaft of your mixing paddles!

STEP 3:

Fold in the chocolate chips. YUMMMMM.

STEP 4: 

Drop the batter onto a parchment covered baking sheet, a heaping tablespoon or so. Pop these bad boys into the oven and bake for 10 minutes, where the cookies are juuuust beginning to brown around the edges. After the cookies have cooled for a minute or two you can transfer them to a wire rack.

AND THEN EAT THEM ALLLLLLL (with your BFF).

Savory pumpkin gallette

Why why did I decide to call this blog the Cooking Lair?

First off, I love the word lair. It is definitely not used enough. My favorite is when Eddie Izzard makes fun of people for thinking transvesties are evil, and mentions inviting women back to his lair. He says it so great. Now I have to listen to his stand up! I tried to find a youtube clip for you, but apparently no one else likes that bit as much as I do.

Since I started cooking and baking pretty much every day, the number of cuts I have received on my left pointer finger have increased exponentially. I thank my nails EVERYDAY for saving the tip of my thumb at least twice now. When I chop and mince, I do it with FEELING. And passion! And pain, apparently. Don't worry, anyone that has had my cooking, I have never given you something with my blood, skin, or nails in it. Here are some safe techniques for cutting things with big knives: Basic Knife Skills (don't ask me how I feel about allrecipes.com, because I'm not a fan of the recipes. But this video was decent!) - I obviously need to memorize the part of the video about curling your fingers so the pesky buggers don't get in the way.

Now that we're all feeling safe (I hope! haha), on to today's post (which involves cutting raw pumpkin into 1/4" slices, SO BE CAREFUL).

What recipe: Savory Pumpkin Gallette by Oh My Veggies
What I changed: So, I tried to change nothing. But as you'll soon see, I was not successful at cutting my pumpkin thin enough, mine end up being almost 1/2" thick pumpkin slices. But try for the thinner pieces, it'll turn out stupendous!

So, remember my obsession with gallettes? It hasn't dissipiated. Especially since I wanted to try making a savory gallette. Well, as we all know...  IT'S PUMPKIN SEASON. I know perhaps many people are sick of pumpkin, but I just can't get sick of it yet. I'm still very excited.

This savory gallette has a walnut parmesan sage base and it's SPECTACULAR. Here we go!

Ingredients:
- 1/2 sugar pie pumpkin, cleaned of innards and cut into 1/4" slices
- olive oil spray
- salt and pepper to taste
- store bought pie crust, or home made (See the pie crust I made for the sweet gallette, or any of them at smittenkitchen.com)
- 1 egg yolk + 1 tsp water for a glaze
Base:
- 1/2 cup walnuts, roasted (you can roast these in the oven with the pumpkin slices for 5-10 minutes or so)
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 T chopped sage

STEP 1:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Carefully cut your pumpkin into 1/4" slices. Place them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spray with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Pop it into the oven for 20-30 min. They should be softened so you can pierce them with a fork, but not browned. While they cool, proceed to the next steps.

Pumpkin slices ready for the oven!

STEP 2:
Roll out pie dough - I rolled mine out to 12". Transfer the dough onto a baking sheet covered with a piece of parchment paper. A good way to do this is to fold your dough into quarters - this way your dough won't tear!

STEP 3:
Combine all the ingredients for the base in a food processor (and roast your walnuts if they aren't roasted - 350 oven, roast for 10 minutes or so). Process until the mixture appears coarsely chopped. Spread the mixture onto your rolled out pie dough, leaving a 1 - 1.5" edge free of the mixture.

STEP 4: 

Arrange the pumpkin slices in a gorgeous spiral that all your friends will be jealous of.

STEP 5:

Fold over that extra inch or so of dough so it covers the start of the pumpkin. Make your glaze and brush it over the exposed pie dough (as I have clumsily done here).

STEP 6: 

Throw this lovely creature into the oven! At 350 degrees F for 40-50 minutes (until the crust has browned).

And finally... shove it in your face after it has cooled enough to do so safely. 

I bought cardamom! What should I do with it??

Oh cardamom. You are weird and unique and not used often enough. And I have such fond memories of you. One of my college roommates used my coffee grinder to grind his cardamom pods - my coffee tasted like it for a while after. To be fair, he did ask me if it was OK. :) But I remember he made cardamom rolls - like cinnamon rolls, just replacing the cinnamon with cardamom. It was a very unique flavor. So when I was in Port Townsend at the beginning of September, I stopped by a spice shop there and saw they were selling cardamom! So I got some. Now, of course, I had to figure out what the heck I was going to make. Looking to rekindle some memories of my undergraduate career, I went looking for some cardamom roll recipes. And I was successful!

What recipe: Cardamom buns
What I changed: If you look at the link above, it looks like these buns have sesame seeds sprinkled on top. But it's pearl sugar! I don't have pearl sugar, so I just didn't include it. Turbinado sugar could be substituted too, though, if you have that.

*Let's talk about cardamom really fast. If you can find it pre-ground in the store, go for it! Otherwise, you'll want to find cardamom seeds (which are black and the size of a peppercorn). If you don't mind using your coffee grinder, put the seeds in there and grind the suckers up! If this isn't fine enough for you (and it wasn't for me), you can use a mortar and pestle to grind the seeds even finer. Here's a video of how to properly use a mortar and pestle.

I have a marble mortar and pestle, but there's many kinds out there. I've learned that you want a mortar that is deep enough for you to grind properly without seeds and whatnot flying everywhere, but also one that has texture on the inside of the bowl, which helps the grinding process. Here's an article if you want to read more on best materials for mortar and pestles.

Ingredients:
Dough:
- 2 tsp instant yeast
- 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 150 ml scalded and cooled low-fat milk (this is roughly 3/5 of a cup)
- 1 egg, whisked and divided in half (one half is for the dough, the other half is for a simple egg wash glaze).
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 1/3 cups all purpose flour (11.5 oz)

Filling:
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
- 2 tsp ground cardamom

STEP 1:
wtf is scalded milk? Well, it's milk you heat up to JUST below its boiling point. Here are three ways to scald milk - I did it on my stove. After you've scalded it, let it cool down to room temp (unless you're making the dough by hand, then you'll want the milk a bit on the warmer side, see below).

I am lucky and have a bread maker. So I just shove all this stuff in my bread maker and hit the dough cycle, which is incredibly convenient.

If you don't have one, which I know many don't, here's the skinny:

• combine the flour and butter into a bowl until the butter is incorporated into the flour. This is best done by rubbing the flour and butter mixture with your fingers. 
• Fold in the salt, sugar, and nutmeg.
• Ideally with your scalded milk mixture still on the warm side, add the yeast and let it sit for 5 minutes. This helps wake up the yeast.
• Add the milk and yeast mixture, plus HALF of the egg to the dry ingredients above.
• Stir until the dough starts to come together. Then knead the dough until it is smooth and stretchy, about 5-7 minutes.

Let your dough rise for at least 1 hour, until it has doubled in size. If your house is a bit cold, heat your oven on 150 degrees F (or as low as your oven will go) for JUST a couple minutes. Pop your covered bowl of dough in there, it'll act as a proofing cabinet (which is a warm area bakeries have to help their dough rise quickly). 

While your dough is rising, cut a total of 12 squares (4" by 4") of parchment paper - these will act as liners for the buns, and it's gives these a really really pretty effect! 

STEP 2: 

Once the dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto a surface greased with canola or vegetable oil. Either use a rolling pin or flatten it out with your hands until it is in the shape of a large rectangle until the dough is about 1/4" thick. 

STEP 3:

Mix together your filling - you'll want the butter more on the softened side, almost melted (ALMOST).

Spread this on your rectangle of dough, leaving a 1/2" border around the edges.

Roll your dough up (I would suggest rolling it along it's longer end, because this will make 12 buns).

STEP 4:
Cut this roll up into 12 pieces. I usually cut it in half, then cut a half in half, then cut each of those quarters into three pieces. If that made any sense.

Get our your muffin tray! And grab those pieces of parchment paper you cut earlier (remember those?). I squished the parchment paper into the muffin depression first, then put the cut piece of rolled dough into the depression.

Pretty tulips! Most delicious tulips I've ever seen.

After these have risen, they will fill out all that extra space we see nicely.

STEP 5: 
Cover this tray with a towel and let it rise for another hour (until the rolls are doubled in size).

Even though my house isn't particularly cold yet, I still let my yeast doughs rise in my slightly heated oven.

STEP 6: 
10 minutes before this rise is done, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Remember that half of whisked egg we didn't use? Add 1 Tablespoon of water and use this egg wash mixture to coat the tops of all the rolls. This make the tops of the buns shiny and brown nicely.

Once the oven is properly preheated, pop the muffin tray of cardamom buns into the oven for 10-12 minutes.

After the second rise and a nice egg wash

Time to pop these in the oven!

STEP 7: 
Take this delicious suckers out of the oven, and cover them with a towel while they cool so they remain soft.

Don't worry, I ate this one after I took this photo.

Oh hey girl...

NOW EAT THESE. SHOVE THEM IN YOUR FRIEND'S AND FAMILY'S FACES.

The flavor of these are subtle, but totally delicious. Enjoy!

IT'S FALL Part 2

IT'S FALL, EVERYONE! Not today, because it's going to get up to 87 degrees F, but this weekend it was storming and almost chilly, so I had to feverishly make two pumpkin cookie recipes that had been haunting my dreams.

Pumpkin Cookie Weekend Part 2:

What recipe: Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
What I changed: Nothing, however the blogger I got this recipe from added 1/4 cup of pumpkin to the original recipe. Don't do this! It makes the dough a bit too wet, and it doesn't increase the pumpkin taste factor, unfortunately. I also only put a LITTLE ground ginger in the sugar coating - ground ginger can be overpowering, which terrifies me.
     Future things to try: BFF and I were wondering if we added in some pumpkin syrup (i.e. the stuff they put in your pumpkin spice lattes) would work to make these cookies more pumpkin-y. Also, I'm wondering since we're adding pumpkin if we need quite so much butter... but that's for the next evolution of these cookies. Feel free to experiment, and let me know what you find out!

Ingredients:
Cookies:
- 3.75 cups all-purpose flour
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or homemade)
- 1 large egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract

Sugary coating (what makes snickerdoodles snickerdoodles):
- 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Dash of ground ginger
Dash of all spice

STEP 1: 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk together all the dry cookie ingredients and set them aside.

I measure my flour - all-purpose flour is 4.75 oz per cup.

STEP 2: 
In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugars until they look marvelously creamy and fluffy. Add in the pumpkin puree. Once that's mixed in, add in the egg and vanilla.

STEP 3:
Add in the dry ingredients to your butter/pumpkin mixture. I would highly recommend using a hand mixer for this, as the batter can get pretty thick. Again, as in our other cookie recipes, add in the dry ingredients 1/3 at a time until completely mixed in.

STEP 4:
Cover the dough with plastic wrap, foil, whatever and refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour. UGHHHH. Waiting. I know. But you gotta do this otherwise the snickerdoodles won't be as snickerdoodle-y (this means dense, haha).

STEP 5: 
10 minutes before your hour of refrigerating the dough is done, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line your baking sheet(s) with parchment paper.

In a small bowl mix your sugar coating ingredients together.

STEP 6:
Here's the fun part! Especially if you have someone you can do this with: best friend, significant other, bratty child, irritating parent, etc. One of you rolls the snickerdoodles into 1-2 Tablespoon sized balls, then you pass them to your partner in crime and then coat them with the sugary mixture. After your PIC does that, they will flatten the balls with the underside of a glass (which has been dipped in sugar).

Covering the snickerdoodle dough balls in sugar mixture.

Flattening the snickerdoodle dough with the bottom of a sugar covered glass (get the sugar to stick by dipping the bottom of the glass in water)

Once flattened, sprinkle more of the sugar mixture on top.

STEP 7:
After you and your PIC have rocketed through Step 6, sprinkle the tops of all your snickerdoodles with a bit more of the sugar mixture, and pop them in the oven for 12-15 minutes!

Great! Snickerdoodles done! However, they aren't very pumpkin-y, as I said above. Kind of disappointing, but still good in their own right. 

Bake on!

IT'S FALL Part 1

IT'S FALL, EVERYONE! Not today, because it's going to get up to 87 degrees F, but last weekend it was storming and almost chilly, so I had to feverishly make two pumpkin cookie recipes that had been haunting my dreams.

Pumpkin Cookie Weekend Part 1:

This recipe: Soft Frosted Pumpkin Spice Cookies by The Baker Chic
What I changed: I substituted 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar with brown sugar. Why? Because yum - brown sugar gives a deeper more maple-y flavor in my opinion. I also halved the frosting and BFF put it on in swirls. I halved the frosting recipe because I didn't want the delicious frosting disguising the delicious pumpkin and spices in the cookie.

Ingredients:
Cookie:
- 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or homemade)
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting:
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1/4 cup softened cream cheese
- 1-2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

STEP 1:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together all the dry cookie ingredients in a medium sized bowl.

That is a lot of spices. But don't worry, it's totally delicious and worth it.

 STEP 2:
In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugars (both white and brown). After they are combined and looking creamy and fluffy and delicious, add the pumpkin, egg, and vanilla to this mixture. Mix in 1/3 of the dry ingredients in steps until the dry ingredients are completely mixed in. Don't overmix! These cookies are cake-like and will stay that way as long as you don't mix too much beyond the point where everything is just mixed together.

STEP 3:
Drop the cookies onto a sheet covered with parchment paper (this works better than straight on the sheet or on foil, I tested it for you guys!). You'll want to flatten them slightly, as the cookies won't spread out much during the baking.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

STEP 4:
Time for the frosting! This stuff is amazing. AMAAAAZING.

Cream the butter and cream cheese together until combined - I used my hand mixer. Slowly add the powdered sugar until the mixture becomes thick and creamy. This is, of course, subjective and totally up to you, which is nice. :)

STEP 5:
Add the vanilla and cinnamon to the frosting mixture. Try not to eat all of the frosting before you can put it on the cooled cookies.

STEP 6: 
Once the cookies have cooled (and pleeeease wait, otherwise the frosting will melt off), put the frosting on however you would like. BFF put it on in spirals because with halving the frosting recipe there wouldn't have been enough to spread on thickly.

As a special note, I brought these to a potluck at someone's house where I only knew the person I came with. The hostess' daughter cornered me and asked me for the recipe, and friended me on Facebook to make sure she would get it. THAT'S HOW GOOD THESE ARE. And the pumpkin flavor is wonderful!