I Lovefilm

Cookie Mountain

Last night I was so bored I baked 96 cookies.

These cookies:

Chocolate Drop Cookies with Heath Bars, Vanilla Chips, and Pecans

and White Chocolate Coconut Macadamia Cookies

These recipes, with the ridiculous quantities (hidden away at the bottom of the ingredients list so keen cookie-makers like myself don't realise what they've embarked upon until it becomes apparent that two baking sheets will not suffice), are from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. This lovely book has a recipe for every classic layer-cake, cheesecake, muffin, bar and cookie you could desire. Along with its delicious sounding Hummingbird Cake, it belongs in the 1950's. I wouldn't say it's the most accessible recipe book I've opened, but it yields scrummy, spongey, more-ish results.

Right! Here we go...

Chocolate Drop Cookies with Heath Bars, Vanilla Chips, and Pecans

From The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook by Jennifer Appel and Allysa Torey

Warning: MAKES ABOUT 3 DOZEN COOKIES

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups plain flour

2/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups (approx. 300g) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

3 tablespoons milk (try to use whole if you can...I didn't)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

4 coarsely chopped Heath Bars or chocolate-covered toffee bars (about 1 cup) We don't have Heath Bars here - I used eclairs..they were too chewy and tough. Try Curly Wurlies?

1/2 cup vanilla chips a 100g bag of white chocolate chips by Super Cook works fine!

I had a lot of fun preparing and piling up (onto a Peter Rabbit plate of course) the embellishments...

Attacking a pile of pecans with a scary knife is more satisfying than you would think...

Tesco Value Eclairs, however, were quite resistant to their "rough chop". And, more to the point, a bit of a pain in the butt in general. My taste testers have said they enjoy the chewiness, but I am not the biggest fan after scraping the melted toffee off the baking trays and having cookies break apart in the process. Anyway - look at the shiny gold wrappers!

This is the plate on which I dipped toasted soldiers into eggy goodness as a wee chickadee (and occasionally as a grown-up chickadee...):

Reading the design these days I wonder why I wasn't more disturbed by it!

Ok, enough fooling around, let's get started properly this time! Preheat your oven to 176 C, 350 F, gas mark 4.

In your second largest bowl, combine the flour, the cocoa powder, the baking soda, and the salt. At this point I whisked them about in the bowl because I couldn't find the sieve. Martha Stewart

taught me that trick.

In your largest bowl, cream the butter and the sugars until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Add the eggs and mix well.

Add the milk and the vanilla extract.

Add the flour mixture and beat thoroughly.

Stir in the pecans, the Heath Bars/their substitutes, and the vanilla chips.

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased baking trays, leaving several inches between for expansion.

Bake for 10 minutes for a soft cookie, 13 for a crunchy cookie.

Cool the cookies on their trays for 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

White Chocolate Coconut Macadamia Cookies

From The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook by Jennifer Appel and Allysa Torrey

Warning: MAKES ABOUT 3 DOZEN COOKIES

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (approx. 226g) unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

2 tablespoons milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

6 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts

Preheat oven to 176 C, 350 F, gas mark 4.

In your second largest bowl, combine the flour, the baking soda, and the salt.

In your largest bowl, cream the butter and the sugars until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Add the egg, the milk, and the vanilla extract and mix well.

Add the dry ingredients and beat thoroughly.

Stir in the white chocolate, the coconut, and the nuts.

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased baking trays, leaving several inches between for expansion.

Bake until lightly golden - 10 minutes for a soft cookie, 13 for for more crunch.

Cool the cookies on their trays for 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

And then? Well, have a teaparty of course!

Picnic At Hanging Rock

These are from the 1975 Australian film Picnic At Hanging Rock. I took a few cheeky screen-captures because I find the dresses and general mystery-in-1900-atmosphere really beautiful. The film, based on the book of the same name, is set on Valentine's Day, 1900 in South Australia. Students from a prestigious, all-girls, boarding school make a trip to the "geological phenomenon" Hanging Rock. As the theatrical poster promises "some were never to return".

I swear I tried to be selective with these images! But seriously! I don't know how to resist such pretty details on the flowing white fabric...the boaters; parasols; dainty lace-up witchy booties with black tights..and all the nature!

In fact I think I have a few more on Flickr, but I'll restrain myself from completely overloading this post with pictures of the poor, doomed schoolgirls and their beautiful outfits.

James Jowers

I don't really know anything about this guy, but I came across a photostream of his on the Flickr commons and found his work quite intriguing. He seems to have spent the mid to late sixties documenting the streetscapes and inhabitants of New York.

Besides the strength of these photos by themselves, after some browsing I realised why I liked the theme so much - Jowers reminds me of Berenice Abbott, the photographer behind Changing New York, a collection of photos of 1930's New York architecture.

So, James Jowers!:

L. E. side, 1967

St. Mark's Place, 1968

Woman and Window Display, 1968

E. River, 1968

Coney Is., 1966

St. Marks Pl., 1968

Tompkins Sq. Park, 1967

P.S. Read these:

P.P.S. And then take a look at this!