baking school: cookies.
Praise the Lord, the weekend exists! At around 1 AM on Friday I woke with a heart attack to a huge thud above me and little child screams that went on… and on… and on. At first I thought my clock said that it was 7, which made perfect sense because that’s when my rather unorthodox wake up system usually activates. (Have I mentioned the elephants? I’m not sure I have.)
But then my brain began to function at a bit higher level and my next logical thought was, “Oh crap. Did someone just have a coronary above me? Did the dad upstairs just die?” So I turned on some lights and tried to find the best spot in the basement to listen, but the dehumidifier sounds like a small monsoon… so I didn't really get anywhere with Plan A. By the time I had decided to put on shoes and go outside, I heard the familiar heavy footsteps again and knew that Dad was, in fact, still alive.
Watson’s conclusion: kid fell out of bed.
When 7 AM actually came, I was even more exhausted than I was when my head first hit the pillow. So even though today was cookie day and cookie day trumps cake day x3 by far, I still was happy to walk in the basement door when it was all over. During class, I cycled through moments of somber silence to saying the stupidest things ever. And gasping in awe at just about everything our instructor demonstrated. Quite audibly.
At one point, Amanda (our instructor) stopped amidst a spattering of suppressed chuckles and said, “I love all of your reactions.” Oh sweet heavens, I am an embarrassing human. I also started absentmindedly humming the theme song from Sleeping Beauty in the washroom… and out of the blue a girl who was joining us for a day gasped that she sings that song all the time.
I am such a child.
Because we've been getting out early every day, Amanda let us make an extra recipe that the course normally doesn't allow for. (We don't always prepare everything the instructor demonstrates.) That said, we started with chocolate chip cookies, then made lemon bars, shortbread cutouts, Linzer cookies, and pinwheel cookies.
I filled my Linzer cookies with strawberry raspberry currant jam… it’s amazing. I'm just hoping they hold up in the freezer until I get them home, because I really want my family to try something unique. Then again, I might make something even more exciting later and just offer them to the family upstairs like I did my last cake. (By the way, it’s a boy. I now know I was comparing my smaller self to a 1-year-old little tyke. Oh well.)
As I finished writing this, I realized that I hadn’t tasted all of my cookies. I’m holding off on the shortbread because I want to get good pictures (the dough was good, though!), but the pinwheel I just popped in my mouth was interesting. Surprisingly crispy, but not terrible. It’s definitely a “for looks” cookie as opposed to “for taste.” Except mine look terrible compared to everyone else’s. The chocolate chip cookies were pretty good right out of the oven, but by the time I had one for dessert after dinner, they'd lost their appeal. I stand by my go-to cookie recipe.
And just because I like this picture and don't feel like writing three more paragraphs to snuggle it nicely in-between (let's be real, I'm sure you're glad too), voila! Insert photo here.
Maple leaf-shaped shortbread cookies inspired by the great Canadaland itself. Because why not?
I'll be updating again soon, hopefully next time on schedule! Thanks for joining me in this adventure!
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