Cookie Taster of the Week: Beezer & Dusty

beezer schnitzel is my younger sister and newly engaged to dusty. she is working on her bs in mechanical engineering and eventually wants to go biomedical (yes, she's smart and helps me with ochem). beezer and dusty have signed up to be cookie tasters of the week on different weeks and i have decided to let it slide because they're college kids and it's fun to get stuff in the mail when you're in school (well, it's always fun to get stuff in the mail anytime when it's not a bill).
modeling the cookies, their kitty, phyllis
M&M Cookies: 2.8
They were very soft in the middle, which was great. M&M's are always delicious, but I think that chocolate chips might have been just as good if not a little better in them (I can't believe I just said that). I agree with you about Martha's love of coarse salt. I don't see why she thinks it is so amazing. It definitely made the cookies taste salty. If I wanted salty, Martha, I would eat potato chips and not cookies. It was a good try, but your angel cookies, Mom's top secret recipe, and Chelsie's chocolate chip cookie recipe beat Martha hands down.

Peanut Butter Cookies: 3.2
These cookies did not travel very well. They were a little dry and very crumbled when they got here. Other than that, they tasted pretty good. I haven't had a peanut butter cookie in quite a while, and I forgot how delicious they are. Maybe I should have drizzled some chocolate on them too...

Cakey Chocolate Chip

when you crave that
"cake batter"
from cold stone,
try this instead.

overall rating 2.6
ease to make: 5
clean up: 5

another failure. i have a million better chocolate chip cookie recipes, and i'm sure your grandma's, or mom's, or someone's is more fool-proof than this one. i even used m&m's to make them extra pretty (and they were), and the batter really did look like a cake. unfortunately they came out awful.... martha suggests course salt in these and i couldn't disagree with her more. furthermore, these actually stuck to my little mat things i cook on (ya know, to avoid greasing the pan)....

the end. i 'm too frustrated to talk about them anymore

Peanut Butter Cookies

with an added crunch
these cookies
are appreciated
by everyone
(even the dog)

overall rating: 4.0

ease to make: 4
clean up: 5
frustration with martha: 5

i can't figure out what happened to these. i have secret words for martha in my head when i do everything exactly as she says and my results look like pathetic ufo's that have skylights in them. this was an awful week for cookie making. aside from being sick and not even wanting to look at even the inkling of the kitchen..... 2 crappy cookies. ok so these pb cookies should be at the bottom of your pb cookie making list. this dough requires only 1 1/4 c of flour..... but it looks like it could use 2 more cups. so its really thin.... and then you add in some peanuts and are supposed to flatten them out and put your little fork marks in them . this doesn't happen either because the dough is so thin yo'ure basically pressing your fork into this hard chunk of peanut. oooh, and they don't ship.....just fyi.
grrrrrrrr

ok, so that was a bit harsh for a cookie review blog. seriously am frustrated

Lemon-Poppy Seed Crisps

like a hard lemon poppy seed muffin,
still, probably not
the cookie to eat
if you have a drug test at work
the very next day

overall rating: 4.2
ease to make: 4
clean-up: 3.6

actually, i think at work we figured out that you'd have to eat 2 T of poppy seed to be positive for your drug test. these cookies only have 1 T, so you could technically eat the entire batch at one time and be just fine.
first, let me start off by saying that i've never been a lemon fan, so i'm very biased against these. after gathering all the lemon zest (you'll need 2 large lemons), and squeezing them to make 1/4c juice to make the lemon butter, walking into my house smelled like i was being engulfed in lemon scented cleaning agents. never the less, people loved these little things. they are easy to make and are rather pungent. you make the batter, roll it in sugar and excess lemon zest and sprinkle with additional poppy seeds. a few did complain of the salt in them, but martha uses course salt people! i'm sorry! they're gourmet! and then people did like the salt in them. i can't win with everyone. enjoy!

Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti

traditionally a hard twice baked cookie,
this delicious gem
not necessarily to be dunked in coffee
because of its chewy center
(maybe its just the way i made them?)

overall rating: 4.62

ease to make: 3.8
clean up: 5

ok folks. if you are looking for a gorgeous cookie to make this is it! no joke. beautiful. and if dallas hadn't stole my camera for a week i would have taken pics of every single step because the whole process was simply beautiful. the pistachios together....gorgeous. the pistachios wrapped up in a chocolate blanket, breathtaking beauty. maybe i just love the way pistachios look..... but only for so long. shelling an entire cup of them was painfully slow and you can't eat but maybe 2 of them because it takes almost the entire bag to make a cup.

also, i'm wondering how martha did hers. of course, her picture shows perfectly cut biscotti but when i cut mine the pistachios wouldn't cut and it ended up looking more like a jigsaw puzzle than a cookie by the end. if i were to make these again i think i would turn off the oven after the first baking, let them cool entirely, THEN cut and bake again.

and if you are beezer (my sister who i gave the cookbook to for Christmas) and don't like pistachios, leave them out and just put more chocolate chips in! i think you'd like them a lot!

Cookie Taster of the Week: Doug!

doug is one of dallas' older brothers who shares the same passions as dallas. activities they both enjoy: talking about nerd things, riding bikes, jeeping, camping, being outside preferably in the mountains....etc.

we are currently waiting for cookie reviews to come back from doug!........
waiting...... waiting......