Making cookies is a creative outlet for me, and this is the second time I've made these
chocolate/peppermint sandwich cookies. I got the recipe over at the
King Arthur Flour's Bakers Blog. Man, that site gets me going!
Anyway, they call these "faux-reos". They are in a different league from Oreos, but I still need to perfect this recipe a little. The cookies are bigger than I expected, even though I used the recommended cookie scoop and made sure that it was not rounded over the top or anything .
The recipe specifically calls for no leavening, but some folks over at the blog are using an old-fashioned leavening that uses ammonia somehow. I guess the good news/bad news about that is that the cookies have a more tender texture with the baker's ammonium, but the dough is not appealing to eat. Plus it smells funny when you bake. We don't need no stinkin' cookies smells around here.
The filling is made from finely crushed peppermints, powdered sugar and shortning. Not the healthiest, but honestly, real Oreos use high fructose corn syrup. Gimme a break, ok?
The resident "kids" love them. Me too.
Now, on to my back yard. Look what was hiding in the Mexican Bluebell! I am tickled whenever an amaryllis pops its pretty head up unexpectedly. It didn't bloom last year, but maybe it got beheaded by the guys trimming the other plants. Anyway, I just love it. Hello, flower! Now I need to go see if the one on the side of the house will bloom this year. Last year it popped out on Nina and Tristan's wedding day. Has it been a whole year already? Yes.
