It's all in the cocoa.

We ran out of cookies once again, so my family requested brownies. I usually use my go-to recipe where I mix premium cocoa with Ghiradelli unsweetened Cocoa, a little coffee, and some cayenne which turns out some pretty dirty (and by dirty I mean good) brownies. They're extremely fudgey, moist, and melt in your mouth and are even better if you nuke them in the microwave before you eat them.

This time around I ran out of both of my usual cocoas as I made a bunch of my infamous coal cookies for my family and sister's boss so instead I used the only stuff we had left-generic store brand cocoa powder. I'm not saying that all store brand or no name products are horrible as I do enjoy President's Choice products these days, but this time the crapy cocoa made a difference. I had a bit of the old cocoas left and even just looking at the two I had my "Really? I'm not impressed?" grossed out face on. I even mixed in some truffle-filled chocolate bar chunks my sister brought back from Europe, but you could see and taste the difference.

See how light it is? Normally it's the rich, deep, dark colour of fertile earth or a flourless cake whereas instead it's a chalky brown. They still tasted like a good brownie, but they didn't taste like my best brownies. I'm going grocery shopping today and will be getting some new cocoa. Anybody want some partially used cocoa powder?...

Spoon bakes somes spoons.

I haven't baked in a while at home as things have been a little hairy the past week and a bit. My Grandma died so I have been busy helping my family as well as juggling work. That being said we also got cookies and sqaures from sympathetic friends as well as I baked a big batch of muffins that I kept in the freezer so I had no reason to bake. Today after three hours of ridiculous shenans I made some mock sticky buns and cracker spoons.

The sticky bun recipe called Cream Cheese-Topped Mock Sticky Buns came from The New Best of BetterBaking.com again and really resembles the Sticky Chewy Cinnamon Sticks I made before non? These ones as the book describe though are more of a scone in texture and they're shaped like a muffin. After lifting one of them up to see if they filled the cups or not, I found that the bottoms were all sticky like a sticky bun (and thanks to crap muffin liners from the dollar store) and they had leaked/overflowed.

I put in some candied cherries for colour as well as the raisins and as we do not have cream cheese I will make a quick brown sugar glaze and call it a day. If they taste anything like they smell, I'll be in business. These have serious potential.

As my title states "Spoon bakes some spoons" you're probably wondering how can a spoon bake a spoon? I have some pretty quirky nicknames one from my father being Spoon which he commented on while I was rolling and cutting them out. Why am I making cracker spoons? Because for work my boss was wondering if we could make them for catering so I went lurking about and used the recipe Crisp Semolina Flatbread from Wild Yeast.

I made four different kinds: sesame, plain with seasalt and cracked pepper, roasted tomato and olive, and fig and almond. I rolled the dough then using a couple of different shape and size spoons (one being an Asian soup spoon) cut them out with a knife, put them on their respective spoons, brushed them with a little oil, a little salt, into the oven and out comes the spoons.

I have to admit, my first couple were so ugly that you can't help but love them and want to eat with them because you pity their apearance. The verdict-while they look cool and would be neat to use if you were having a party or something they're labour intensive. I need a pasta machine to roll them out even thinner and more quickly. Do they make spoon shaped cookie cutters because that would help me not wanting to cry.

Very Berry Muffin

Note to self-"I can't believe it's not butter" does not work like butter when you make it into a streusel even though you would love for it to because you ran out of butter. Trust me-I believe that it's not butter.

Todays muffin is a wholewheat buttermilk muffin with blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries based on BB's Lawsuit Buttermilk Muffins. It's a recipe I have used numerous times in the past with different fruit combinations and each time it has proven to be tasty. As you can see, the top isn't so struesel-y as the pseudo butter did not hold out. It just melted all over and made a crunchy layer of brown sugar goodness omg. The muffin is so moist you can't hold it too firmly as you dig into it with wanton pleasure.

I seriously need to get a better camera as this one does not like to focus, so my apologies for the continuous poor picture quality. It won't be horrible much longer.

Jane Austen's Scones

I have had my The New Best of Betterbaking.com for only a week now and already I have made about four things out of it and all of them have been a success. We seemed to have a plethora of whipping cream and buttermilk in the fridge, but no eggs, so muffins it wasn't and scones it was. I made a half batch of Jane Austen's Rolled Oat and Golden Raisin Scones, substituting buttermilk for the light cream. They came together quite quickly and puffed nicely in the oven. Although the only sugar in them is brushed on top at the end the result was a moist, tender, and wholesome treat that would be perfect with tea and some Sense and Sensibility. Now that we actually have eggs I will be baking some muffins and cookies next.

Sticky, chewy cinnamon "not quite a stick"

I recently received Betterbakings' The New Best of Betterbaking.com: 175 Classic Recipes from the Beloved Baker's Website from my wonderful bosses for my birthday so of course I had to try out some recipes. That night I tried her Sticky Chewy Cinnamon Sticks recipe, but while reading it I couldn't figure out how it would be a stick as the process seemed the same as when you make cinnamon buns. However, I went ahead and this is what I came up with-to me a somwhat cinnamon bun. The dough isn't quite as bread-like as your traditional bun, more dense almost like a cross between a cinnamon bun and a scone? For the filling I did a mix of raisins and candied cherries with white sugar, then brushed them all with whipping cream. A rather tasty piece of business, but you must eat them warm (or sliced in half and made into a sandwich with butter and honey if you're my father).

My mother ate one that night (it was 11 o'clock when I finished them) and said they were the best thing she has ever eaten in terms of the cinnamon buns I have made. Go figure. I'm going to try and change some things until I'm a little happier with the outcome. Bottom line: It's a good recipe-just not what I expected.