Baking Frenzy (337/366)

After getting up for our regularly scheduled Sunday morning rock climb, Andrew and I came home and had absolutely no plans. So what happens when you leave me with an entire half a day and nothing to do? Well, I either play Peggle for an inappropriate amount of time or this happens:

(338/366)

While Andrew watched football and napped, I went on and had myself a baking extravaganza in the kitchen (gheesh, how gender stereotypical of us). While the Patriots squeaked a win past the Dophins (sloppy game), I decided, oh hey, let’s make some rugelach. Seeing how I’ve never made it before, I decided that while making rugelach, it was probably a good idea to try those Andes Creme de Menthe cookies Jen showed me the other week. And while I was at it, Liz suggested I make Snickerdoodles yesterday, so might as well throw those in there. Finally, after making all these cookies I figured I needed something that resembled something marginally healthy, so I made a banana bread.

Turns out the Snickerdoodles, Andes cookies, and the banana bread were a cinch. I managed those quite fine if I do say so myself. But the rugelach! The rugelach became my afternoon into evening project. Can we say involved much? It ended up with me heating up and reheating jam three times, burning it once (but not setting any fires this time), and generally making an enormous mess. I started the rugelach first and ended up finishing them hours after finishing everything else. But you know what? They taste awesome. So maybe sometimes the extra time and effort isn’t so bad.

The rugelach are simply delightful. I used jam in some, none in the others (see the aforementioned incident of burning jam), but chocolate and pecans for the filling in all of them.

The Snickerdoodles were easy peasy. It’s a pretty basic cookie, but they came out quite tasty. I would guess they were a hit by the number of them I caught Andrew sneaking out of the kitchen between his naps.

I bought the Andes baking chips a couple of weeks ago with the intention of making these cookies, but apparently I didn’t get around to it until now. They’re similar to a chocolate chip cookies, except with a minty kick. My friend Jen was a huge fan of Andes mints when we were in high school so I always think of her when I see them. So, Jen, these cookies are for you!

Finally, I made this banana bread because it had millet in it and it intrigued me. I didn’t really know what millet tasted like but I figured it would give the bread a nice texture. I figured right. The millet gives each bite and extra pop. This banana bread is made with coconut oil and whole wheat flour, so there’s gotta be some health benefit in there somewhere.

I’m going to try to get recipes for these things posted soon, but for now, just picture me and Andrew lying around in a cookie stupor. It’s either an incredibly hilarious or incredibly sad sight.