200 Cookies

My friends River Rising are playing at Quenchers Saloon tonight. For the show, the bands that are playing wanted a Texas theme, since the show is meant to be a SXSW send-off show for the headlining band. I was asked to help make the show more "Austin-y" and since it falls, coincidentally, on Texas Independence Day, I couldn't say no. One of the things I was asked to do for the show was to make cookies. 100 Pecan Sandies (pecans are the state nut) and 100 Texas shaped sugar cookies. For the sugar cookies, I purchased these cookie cutters on Amazon. They are too adorable for words!

Because this week was super busy at work, I only had about 24 hours to make all 200 cookies. (Good one, Pari!) Much of the battle was won before a single cookie was baked. I figured it was all about planning ahead. I mean, how long could baking ~17 dozen cookies take?

I started by narrowing down my cookie recipes. Baking on such a large scale, I decided simple, tried and true recipes were the way to go. For the Pecan Sandies, I went with this Martha Stewart recipe, and for the sugar cookies I used a recipe that my friend gave me. For the Sandies, I substituted Earth Balance for butter to make them vegan.

Once I had my recipes it was time to calculate how much of each ingredient I would need to make 4x the recipe. From there it was off to the trusty Trader Joe's! What a great place to shop on the cheap!

My strategy was this: Since the Sandies could be baked after the dough was mixed, I decided to make the Sugar Cookie dough first, which had to be refrigerated before rolling. I've been told that you should never more than double a recipe. If you need more than twice the dough, make it in several batches. That's what I did. I estimated I would need 4x the dough, so I did two batches of double. Each batch was wrapped in Saran wrap and put in the fridge to chill.

Next it was Sandies time. I doubled the recipe and made a batch of dough. Then into the oven with the cookies. While those were baking, I made two more batches of dough and wrapped them in Saran wrap - into the fridge with those, too! The idea was to have plenty of dough that was made to bake, so that my oven did not have any empty time. 12 dozen cookies takes a long time to bake, as you can imagine. Can't waste any time! When reusing cookie sheets, it's important to use parchment paper to line them and to have an extra set to rotate in when one batch is done. Lucky for me, Shelly loaned me some cookie sheets!

Once all the Pecan Sandies dough was made, it was about time to start rolling sugar cookies. I really wanted to get these baked the night before, because it was important to me that they were cool to be Iced Saturday. I rolled out about two dozen cookies and prepared them to go into the oven when the Sandies were done.

 

The Icing was done by eye, mixing powdered sugar with almond milk until the right consistency was reached. For the coloring, I again did it by eye, but you could use this handy frosting guide. For the Burnt Orange color, I just made a plain old orange color and then added one drop of blue and one drop of green. If your resulting Burnt Orange is too brown, add more yellow and red to get it more vibrant.
So there you have it, 200 cookies. Hopefully everyone enjoys them at the show tonight!

w/ <3
Pari

Paczki Day

Chicago has a unique tradition for Fat Tuesday - everyone goes crazy for Paczkis.

Paczkis (pronounced pewnch-KEYZ) are essentially jelly donuts. This isn't a tradition I grew up with. Even though I'm from the Chicago area, my Dad was born in New Orleans, so we celebrated Fat Tuesday with King Cake and Jambalaya. Once I was older, I became hooked on these delicious fried treats. It's one of the only things I haven't found a good vegan substitute for (Hey Chicago bakeries, vegans want Paczkis too). Until Now.

Yesterday, I made homemade vegan paczkis using this recipe and they were uh-mazing. I did make two small changes: I added 1/4 tsp of nutmeg to the apple mixture and 1/4 tsp of almond extract to the custard. I find both of those ingredients add a little extra punch to recipes.

Here are pictures of my Paczkis frying, cooling off and then the final product:

Do you have any Fat Tuesday traditions?
-Shelly

Peer Pressure

About a week ago, a friend of mine posted a picture of a giant stuffed baked potato from Jason's Deli on Facebook. It was the largest potato I had ever seen. Seriously, Google "Jason's Deli Baked Potato". There are all sorts of images of the potatoes with dollar bills, iPhones and other items so you can tell how big it is.

Ever since then, several more friends have enjoyed potatoes from Jason's Deli and posted the pictures on Facebook. According to the Jason's Deli website, their potato is it topped with "Natural buttery blend, cheddar, sour cream, bacon, green onions". It has 2320 calories and 150 grams of fat (WHOA!).

I've had this potato on my mind for a week now. I'm vegan and "natural buttery blend" scares me. So, I decided to make my own (healthier) version for dinner last night. I used a diet app (Lose It!) and information on the Daiya Foods website to determine the nutritional information for my potato: 463 calories and 21g of fat (darn avocado).

Here's how I made mine:

1 medium russet potato
1/2 red onion

1/2 cup coarsely chopped mushrooms (I had chanterelles from the farmers' market, but any will do)
about 1TBSP chopped jalapeno (optional)
about 1TBSP roasted red peppers
1 TBSP olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste (about 1 tsp each)
1 TBSP Earth Balance buttery spread (optional)
1/4 cup Daiya cheese (I had mozzarella shreds, but any will do)
1/2 avocado, sliced
1 TBSP hot sauce (optional)

• preheat oven to 450
• wash and wrap potato in aluminum foil
• bake potato for about an hour (or until easily cut with a butter knife)
• While potato is cooking, put oil in a skillet and heat. 
• Add onions and cook until translucent (about 5 minutes)
• Add jalapenos, salt and peper and cook for another minute or so
• Add mushrooms and cook until they are done (about 8 minutes)
• Mix in red pepper and set aside until potato is done.
• When potato is done, remove from oven and cut in half. For a true "Jason's" taste add 1 TBSP Earth Balance (I skipped this). 
• Top with Daiya, vegetable mixture, sliced avocado and sriracha or other hot sauce, if desired. I used Cherry Bomb Sauce from River Valley Kitchens. I absolutely love its great roasted tomato flavor.

Tell me in the comments what "junk food" you like to make at home?

- Shelly