Challenge time!! Starting from today, I will be baking everyday until December 30th. Throughout this challenge, I’ll use my old recipes as well as some new ones. So, let’s get started. First day: the best chocolate-chip cookies!! (Standard recipe: here, healthier version: here)

As for chocolate-chips, I crushed a variety of chocolate bars, including this, this and a gianduja bar from Venchi. I wish I put some white chocolate too, but the taste was nevertheless amazing. The cookies were soft, moist and full of chocolate!

I served these in a round tin covered with parchment paper. So easy, let looks so elegant!

By the way, who needs a DSLR when there is Instagram, the lazy person’s best friend!

Every new year, I make the same old gingerbread cookies. This year has no difference too! The only little difference is the recipe I used. There was an old recipe I used to make every year, and I really don’t know where I found it. But this year, I decided to use the recipe from Joy of Baking and changed a bit, and the results were interesting. I got some very spicy and crispy cookies and everyone liked them!!

Since photos are enough to tell everything, I won’t talk too much this time. Enjoy!!

Gingerbread Cookies

adapted from Joy of Baking

makes “a lot” of cookies (I made 4  pans of thin cookies with this recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 3 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup molasses
• ½ cup butter
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ¾ teaspoon ground baking soda or baking powder
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• pinch of salt

For the frosting:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons milk

Directions:

Mix together sugar and butter. When you get a smooth cream, add the egg and molasses.

Add the dry ingredients to this mixture, knead the dough well and form a ball.

Let the dough rest for a couple of hours (I made this step faster by making 3 little patties and keeping them in the freezer for 30 minutes. But be careful not to forget the dough in the freezer!!!!)

Roll out the dough in preferred height. (Mines were ¼ inch-high). If the dough is too sticky, add more powdered sugar (a trick I got from Cafe Fernando)

Cut the dough with your favorite cookie cutters. By the way, heat your oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F).

Bake the ginger cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are brown.

For the frosting, beat the sugar and milk until it gets smooth. With a piping bag, decorate your cookies. I also used the leftover ready-to-use frosting from project proposal cookies I made (You know I don’t prefer ready-to-use stuff!!! I only used the leftovers to finish them!!!)

Being a senior year in college, I have to make my senior project (obviously). Our team is doing a “green” project for Unilever’s Heartbrand (ice-cream), and we have a project proposal meeting tomorrow. Since we are the host of this meeting, we thought it would be nice to serve some treats, other than the usual ones bought from a patisserie.

So, we decided to make some savory and sweet treats for the participants: the sweets are mini cupcakes and sugar cookies, and the savories are two types of cheesy canapés. We made all of them so improvisational that they don’t have any recipe. So, you have to enjoy the photos only..

Making Sinem’s cupcake base:

We filled the cupcakes with ready-to-use cake filling (Normally, I never use ready-to-use stuff, but we had no time!):

Decorating the cupcakes with an impromptu frosting (it has melted chocolate, whipping cream and some cake filling):

Sugar cookies from Joy of Baking:

Mozzarella, tomato and basil canapés on Wasabröd crispbread:

Herbed mild cream cheese canapés with olive & walnut topping:

And the leftovers: