culinary creativity

So I am not one to brag, but I am getting seriously good at this cooking thing. Well, on occasion.


I still have my fair share of mishaps and mangled recipes - say the first time I tried to bake a potato. in the microwave. without forking holes in it. or the curdled alfredo. or any number of honest mistakes.

but now it's ten years on (really, I didn't cook anything but ramen noodles and the occasional frozen dinner until my sopohmore year of college, and even then it mostly pasta bake and toast piles until I moved to Eden-burgh).

Now, at last, I feel confident in the kitchen. I know my spice rack. I can feel combinations in my throat and nose before anything hits the pan, and I've had some corking successes. Turns out, once you've got the basics in you brain, and the more I let myself invent and ad lib, the better things are turning out.

So first: my weekend decadence: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies.

I won't put it in the Gastronomic hall of fame, as I didn't really do anything more than find something outstanding - but I certainly count good research and experimentation as a skill.

So Joy the Baker posted Alton Brown's best batch ages ago. While I didn't bother to melt the butter, using bread flour was inspired (but non-essential) and Joy's great cookie debate got me thinking about cookie chemistry - namely, why didn't I beat and fluff my dough in a mixer they way I would cake batter for light, fluffy perfection?

Also, her pointer on chilling the dough first was very clever. I always do for cut-outs so it's roll- able, but for drop cookies, the chilling helps them stay in shape and stand tall in that first blast of oven heat.

So anyway, essentially, I took this recipe - creamed soften butter with sugar to start, followed the directions (and used a mixer) until the flour - which eventually got too stiff for my shitty $10 bought-it-on-amazon handheld and most importantly, WAY undercooked them.

The best bit though, was adding 1/4c Hershey's cocoa powder, an extra dash of milk to cover the extra dry, and added peanut butter chips instead of chocolate.

My they were heavenly. Seriously. Like amazing.

Especially if you only bake them for ten minutes, and then bring the hot tray to sit in front of the tv (on an ovenmit) so they can finish baking gently, stay gooey and be the perfect mix of mushy melty love while you watch crappy documentaries about China.

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I won't go into such a narrative about my lunch today, but it was stellar. Turning that weird midday "oh what shall I eat" cupboard rummage into something majestic yet simple. Perfect for one.

I will put it here for your delectation.