As the resident stay at home parent, I am now in charge of many house duties. Fixing the bed? Me. Cleaning? Always has been me. Animal caretaker? Me. Cooking? Me. (I'm so gonna get hell for that second one.) I don't mind these responsibilities, as a matter of fact, I enjoy most of them. Especially cooking. I'm not sure what it is, probably something to do with my geekyness, but I have so much fun creating meals from ingredients.
][1]I do have to admit that cooking over a stove is an animal, but baking is a true beast! Some would say the stove is a bit more difficult, but I say the oven is unforgiving.
I am starting with easy recipes. A couple of weeks ago I tried some cookies by using a cake mix. The recipe was on the box and I kick myself for not copying it down. The cookies turned out great, a little overcooked - which is why I said "unforgiving" - but still yummy. I could have used the recipe today, but since I didn't keep it, I had to result to the internet.
I found a recipe that sounded about right and went to work. First I made a batch without mushrooms marshmallows since Ciri doesn't care for them. Side note: I must have some sort of dyslexia because everytime I want to say marshmallows, I say mushrooms instead. It also seems to extend into my typing. Not good.
Anyway, so the first batch came out a bit cakey; very soft. I followed the recipe, but for some reason the cookies came out like cookie-shaped cake. Although, after they had time to cool down, they did harden a bit.
My second batch included the marshmallows. This is where I say the oven is unforgiving. The mallows overcooked, lost too much moisture and became rock hard. I tried to cook them longer so that they would come out like cookies and not cake.
Afterward, I met with my personal chef trainer - the wife. She advised me that I should try heavy cream instead of milk and maybe use two eggs instead of one. I made them for her so we could have a pizookie for desert tonight and I am just glad they were edible.
My next baking attempt will be homemade granola. Stay tuned for that disaster. *snicker* I need to give myself more credit. Oy.
Here's the recipe, be warned: they may come out like cake-ookies. I got it from Cooks dot com.
1 pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 c. walnuts or pecans
1/2 c. oatmeal
1 egg
1/3 c. milk
1 (2 layer size) cake mix, white for reg. cookies or chocolate for chocolate chocolate chip.
Get the rest of it at cooks dot com.
UPDATE: I had some cookies yesterday from this batch and they were exceptional. I take everything bad back about this recipe- it doesn't need to be changed. I do remember having to cook them a little longer though. Marshmallows are still a No-go.