Questions

I've been doing a lot of holiday baking lately. Cookies primarily. Actually, ONLY cookies. Treats and cookies. It's been a monotony of holiday proportions. Yep, I KNOW the bakery is really for treats anyhow and biscuits are cookies in disguise. But still...sometimes I long for cake when it's cold outside. Nobody ever buys birthday cake in the winter. I've NO idea why. It's just funny. Because I'm always baking cake in the Spring and Summer and Fall months and always baking cookies/biscuits/treats, whatever...in the Winter. Just an observation of sorts but I wonder what other barkeries do. 

So the real question is about baking soda and baking powder and what is the deal with cake flour that has it in there already? I guess this does not pertain to the treats themselves but to my cookies for people. I've been baking with bread flour, cake flour, whole wheat flour and AP flour and that cake flour with the baking powder and baking soda in it makes my cookies really round and perfectly shaped but it's a little bit odd how perfect they look. If you've ever seen Pleasantville, or The Stepford Wives, well, that's how perfect they are. I've never really seen such a perfect cookie. It bothered me. Not that I'm offended or appalled by perfection but these cookies were just way too perfect in an almost alien way. It made me a little turned off by it. Even though I used this really awesome stuff in them and expensive ingredients, I was excited to eat the cookie but when they came out of the oven, I kinda said, "Hunh." It made me raise an eyebrow and examine them. Like...I am not a machine and I use a scooper to make my cookies even sized but holy cow, these were exactly the same size, perfectly round and weirdly identical. It looked rather manufactured. I hate that. If you've seen my photos, of my cakes and treats, it's the very fact that they vary a little bit here and there and really look homemade and homebaked that makes me and I believe my customer base really just happy. It's the comfort of knowing that it's been made in a kind of homestyle way. Like a granny. 

Well, after eating one of those cookies, it was really really good and the recipe I will give credit to a famous pastry chef in NYC, that cookie rocks. I've shared this recipe with many bakers and it's available online. It is strictly for humans because of the chocolate content, but Katie still came sniffing around for one and managed to get me to give her a Nuts About Bananas treat. She's happy and on a snowy day like today, I am happy to be indoors and with nice warm cookies as well.

Happy baking makes for happy tummies. Did I say that? Really? You bet.