Woman discovers that Martha Stewart can bake

My latest discovery-hot off the press in 2005

Yes, I know, next I’ll be gushing about a great new dish called “Miso Black Cod” or enthusing about that new gadget called the “electric mixer”.  After many years of having Martha’s Stewart’s Baking Handbook in my amazon.ca cart I finally pressed “check out” and bought it.  My amazon purchases are strange in that things like this cookbook which I could have been referencing for years I feel guilty about “splurging” on but The Wild Sweets dessert book (as awesome as it is) I order without second thought though I have yet to make an Ice Wine Foam.

But-in case it’s been around so long you’ve forgotten about it–let me reintroduce you.  It’s got General Baking Tips (read a recipe all the way through–how guilty am I off not doing that–oops- I need lavender petals?), explains general baking techniques  such as how to add a drop of lemon to your caramel instead of wiping down the sides of your pot to prevent sugar crystallizing or shows pictures of the stages of whipping egg whites (there should be a wallet size pull-out of that.)

Chewy Crispy Cookie-ness.

It just has a whole whack of amazing recipes that are well-written, well explained and look gorgeous (as you would expect).  But doable.  Devil’s Food Chocolate Cake with Mint Chocolate Ganache, Potato and Onion Tarte Tatin and a zillion amazing cookies that would make most mom’s hate you at the Bake Sale.

The package arrived on a Friday.  Saturday morning at 7am Felix and I were ready to bake.  (Well, we were up so why not–plus I love baking in the early morning).  We went with the “yep, I have the ingredients” recipe.  Chewy, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.

7:30 am. My work is done.

We ate a bunch of dough raw, we had a few incidences of small hands near a whirling mixer and much impatience as we watched them flatten in the hot oven, and a toasty sweet cookie aroma filled the kitchen.

Get thee to a cookie jarrery.

Now imagine these with an Ice Wine Foam.