Website Launched!

Alright. So after watching numerous commercial's for Intuit's new website program I decided to embark. I have launched a website. It is glorious. well, I think it is. But that's a given. On it you can find some brief info, a link to http://www.cafepress.com/thecookiecoup/ where you can buy cookie coup stuff, online order form, contact info, and a lot of blah blah blah. Also, there is a link back to the blog. I will continue to write about my trials and tribulations in baking.

Here it is: http://www.thecookiecoup.com/

Monday Night = Bowling + Baking

Monday has turned into my baking day. It's my day off and I have a place to take the cookies I make. Perfect combination. I always need to have a place lined up to bring cookies if I am baking. What the heck am I going to do with a million cookies? Eat them. My poor waistline. So, as part of my epic diet plan (fatten everyone else up so I look thinner), I bring them to people. On Mondays I have my bowling league, so it works out great.

Here is what I made last night:

Cranberry Chunk Bars

Soft shortbread crust with a hint of ginger, topped with a filling of cranberry & pineapple. Lastly, a crumbly cookie top sprinkled over.

Did I mention a sprinkling of white chocolate chips too? These bars had a lot going on. They were a little bit difficult to eat due to how crumbly the crust was. Maybe next time a more solid cookie on the bottom (as was suggested by one of my bowling mates). But overall, I loved these. I could have eaten the filling by the tub. This is what I love in a fall bar. Although, I'm pretty sure I could eat these any time of the year.

Punkin' Dreams

I was trying to make a cookie that tasted like pumpkin pie but was not really cakey. I do not so much enjoy cakey cookies. So I started messing around with making a recipe. Every recipe I could find had white chocolate chips and looked more like a mondo hunk of assorted fall flavors. They just weren't what I was looking for. In the end, the cookies turned out a bit cakey and really fluffy. When they came out of the oven, I smushed them down with the spatula which ended up being just right. While good on their own, they did need some help. So I frosted them with a cinnamon brown sugar frosting. I really think these come close to heaven.

Site Change

So.. It has been weighing on my mind that the name "the Cookie Diva" is a little too Beyonce for me. Every time I think about it I get that "Diva is a female version of a hustla" song stuck in my head. Which is not exactly me. Yes, I may be a hustla.. but not in my baking! So I thought really long and hard about a good name.. The Rogue Baker? Good but everyone would expect me to be putting Rogue Ale in everything I make.. Then I came upon the idea of the Dissident Baker. Free thinking, off the beaten path and separate from the pack. I thought it was a pretty good description of my baking style. I put my ideas on facebook and my friend Joanna suggested "the Cookie Coup". Ahh.. another political reference. I love it. So that is it.. The Dissident Baker and the Cookie Coup. VIVA LA REVOLUCION! So, that's it. I have changed the web address to:

http://thecookiecoup.blogspot.com

Back from the tropics!

Wow.. It has been exactly 1 month since the wedding. Crazy.

So here is an update on my adventures in baking for the last month.

September 12... The wedding. FYI for those who weren't able to make it, the wedding featured a massive cookie extravaganza. Massive. I am estimating that I made about 400 or so cookies. I can't even really remember everything I made. By the time I got in to the reception area, the cookies had all disappeared. I guess they were popular.

September 13-31 Costa Rica. Adventures in Costa Rica were pretty adventurous. The highlights include a tour of a coffee plantation and a chocolate plantation. Yums. I felt very inspired to make cookies. And chocolate. Maybe it will be a

new adventure soon. We found great travel buddies in Costa Rica, Susan and Jay. While there I did a bit of baking, which was pretty fun. I honestly can't go 2 full weeks without making any cookies. They turned out.. well.. interesting to say the least. Creaming butter and sugar by hand is not recommended.

October 1-Now. We have been trying had to get everything put away from the wedding. It has been quite the chore. I've been doing some baking, some new flavors. I will continue in detail in another post.

BTW.. the pic is me hugging an organic shade grown Costa Rican coffee plant. The tree of life.

The Verdict For The Evening

So tonight I have produced 4 different types of cookie/dough. Let me introduce you to my new friends:

1. Sarah-n-Dippity: My Sarah Palin delight. Super nutty without tasting like a peanut butter cookie. Kinda a "grown up" version of a classic peanut butter cookie.
2. Triple Chocolate: My classic. Probably the first original cookie idea I have done. Dark chocolate with hints of espresso and cinnamon. Studded with white chocolate chunks.
3. The Pub Crawler: Finally got the "beer reduction" down pretty well. Beer dough base with peanut butter chips, peanuts, and pretzels. Rolled in pretzels.
4. Afternoon Delight: Honey Lemon sugar cookie with earl grey tea leaves and plump blueberries.

Review:

Pub crawler turned out amazing. Much better than before. The honey based cookies really flattened out when baking. In the future I might try to add more flour. I also will see if cooking the dough cold will make any difference. But, flavor was really tasty. I think next time I will add more tea to the Afternoon Delight.

Um.. and I was going to take pictures of the cookies when they came out, but.. yea.. I remembered that after we had already eaten them. :( Pictures will come. I promises.

The Sarah-n-Dippity

Watching "Countdown with Keith Olberman" is one of my nightly routines, washed down with the Rachel Maddow Show. It is a pretty typical occurance for Countdown to highlight some of the little "bits of genius" that come from the cereal box that is Sarah Palin's mind. Then suddenly it hit me. A Sarah Palin Cookie!! HOO RAY!

So I have it. The Sarah-n-Dippity cookie. Sweet and totally nuts. It is naturally sweetened with honey, with almond butter and toasted hazelnuts. Studded with bits of crushed Heath bar.

Wedding Cookies

Countdown.. t minus 4 days. Starting today to work on making the cookie dough which I will bake up on either thursday or friday for the wedding on Saturday. I haven't quite decided what types of cookies I will be making yet. I bought a bunch of ingredients at Winco, where the bulk section is my muse.

Here's my preliminary thinking on cookies I will be making:

• Triple Chocolate Chip
• Peanut Butter cookies (with Reeses centers)
• Lemon & Blueberry
• Lemon Lavendar
• Pub Crawlers
• Toffee Nut
• Cranberry Ginger Oatmeal
• Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk
• Molasses Orange
• S'mores

So far.. I think that's what I'm making. We'll see. I am so bad about cookies. If I have the ingredients.. I keep baking. I don't know how Tim isn't a chubby hubby yet.