I’m hosting a square dance on Saturday, and expect perhaps a dozen people. I’d like to bake something for them. What should it be?
Blueberry scones: it’s blueberry season, and i have a super recipe. But they are best fresh, and that makes the timing tight. Also, the recipe makes way too many. But they freeze fairly well.
Brownies: easy, and i could make them tonight. But i like my brownies cakey and fully cooked, i really dislike gooey brownies. So maybe my brownies won’t be popular, since i know a lot of people like them gooey.
Chocolate chip cookies: boring, but reliable
Lemon polenta cookies (the flour bakery recipe): i need to buy lemons, but i could make this in advance, and it’s tasty and a little unusual.
Shortbread cookies: a guy who isn’t coming often makes these, so maybe it’s his recipe. But they are pretty easy and very tasty. I’m not great at tempering chocolate (they should be partially dipped) so maybe that’s a reason not to.
I voted for Blueberry scones. I’m sure that your friends know you too well to have expected you to ever bring “store bought” goodies, but (with the exception of the Lemon Polenta) the rest of the options all fall under the same “boring, but reliable” category.
Going with something in season is always a good choice, and it’s more unusual. Otherwise, my second choice is the Lemon polenta cookies for the reasons in the first paragraph.
Even though I luuuuuurv me some brownies, normally going with Alton Brown’s option.
Huh, i don’t think of shortbread as “boring but reliable”. Other than the friend i got the recipe from, i don’t think I’ve ever seen it made. And homemade is quite different from the tinned cookies.
But i just bought some lemons. The logistics of making scones just aren’t going to work. And it’s too big a recipe, I’d have 8 times as many as would be eaten.
I like fudge. But fudge isn’t what i want in a brownie. I like crispy edges and rich chocolate goodness inside, but other than the embedded chocolate chips, i want it to be a slightly crispy sponge, not an amorphous mass. So that’s what i make. And i think they are awesome. But i wonder if other people find them disappointing.
Anyway, the lemon polenta cookies were logistically an excellent choice. I made the dough, and it says, “press into a load pan and chill at least 2 hours. Dough will keep a week in the fridge or two months in the freezer, well wrapped.” So maybe I’ll wait and cook them Saturday morning, since it’s just slice & bake at this point.
I (rather, my wife) has made shortbread from scratch, and of course, it’s far far better than most American store-bought shortbread, and still better than Walker’s for example, but it’s still (in a debased form) far too common in holiday sampler packs, and not unknown to show up in those previously mentioned store-brand “shortbreads”.
For the record, I also love shortbreads made with almond flour, but dear god do the calories add up fast.
I think they would, I had them as a rare treat option when I was low-carbing. But they’re more than good enough to have anytime. But using King Arthur’s as a representative example:
A single 11g cookie is 60 kcal. And no one eats a single cookie at that size. Or if you do, you have nigh-superhuman willpower.
Of course, and I trust @puzzlegal would know this, but anyone following along - if someone has issues with celiac disease, don’t assume you’re in the safe zone just because you’re not using wheat flour, always check ingredients in everything else. Admittedly, the version I just linked was super simple, but it pays to check the fine print on all such things.
Absolutely! The first time i invited my celiac friend over for supper, i got a long and concerned email from her husband about what to check and how important this was. I read it carefully, and wrote back, “don’t worry, i do this every year for passover”. The restrictions aren’t exactly the same (kosher matzo bring the must obvious example of something that’s okay for passover but not for celiac disease, and specially cleared oatmeal being the most prominent example in the other direction) but the rules are really really similar. And wheat lurks in all sorts of unexpected places. Always read the ingredients critically.
I also wash my mixer before making anything that’s meant to be gluten-free.
It’s an odd recipe, calling for a quarter cup of fresh lemon zest, two sticks of butter, 120 grams powdered sugar, plus flour, cornmeal, and salt. Zesting the lemons is a nuisance, but otherwise it’s pretty easy. The dough tastes MUCH better after it’s been cooked, which isn’t always true for cookies.
You end up with a cookie that’s similar to shortbread, but very lemony, and with both flavor and texture from the corn meal. I like them a lot.