Recipes and tips

FOr those of you who have been patiently waiting-starting wednesday I will be going recipe by recipe with tips, pictures, etc., so your holiday baking does not have any diva disasters. :)

Soon you'll be able to post

HI,
I am going to load in everyone's email that has gotten cookies or is following so you can post to the blog as well now that i have completed the process.

I am in need of a cocktail this evening so won't be doingit straight away-but tomorrow....

So what's so tough about shipping right?

When I tell people it takes about six hours to physically ship the boxes they think I am nuts. but trust me. this year it was 4 1/2 because I was really organized and have been doing this for so long I went in there ready to roll with everyone in there helping (I gave the FedEx folks some cookies as enticement).

So one of the joys of this is writing your name, account number, address, phone number etc., over and over and over again. And then to really annoy me-everyone has decided that my cookies MAY be a threat to their countries security , so I have to fill out yet another form.

Of course if you really wanted to send something you shouldn't you would be well aware of the rules and not write something like:
bombs or drugs or whatever it is they are trying to keep out-right on the slip. Yes, I guess they think those terrorists are that stupid. anyway-it means I have to write everything TWICE! so on it goes for 30 or so packages.

Here is a photo of the forms I fill out.

Why do I do this?

The next question is: "Why would you do this???"

Well-that's simple. Cooking or baking - and doing it well- brings joy to people. Each of those little morsels I send give people a little moment in their day to savor something a little special. You pop a little bite size flavor cube in your mouth and think its going to be something ordinary and what you experience is maybe "oh-that's rosemary with the chocolate" or "wow-there's pepper in there" or "I thought this was a wedding cookie-but it has coconut and lime". the list goes on-they surprise and hopefully delight.

To not do them would mean that I would have missed an opportunity to spread some happiness. They are my way of sending a smile and a sense of caring. IF you received my cookies-I am hoping you will experience, smile through and enjoy each little one.

And that is yet another reason I make them small. You should be left wanting another one-not feeling burdened by the cookie sitting in front of you that is giant size.

If you have a talent-it is wise to exploit-particularly if it makes people happy!

And that is the point of my diva classes. I try to impart on every person that comes a sense of food and making food for others that will bring joy to the recipient as well as the giver. for ultimately-it is a selfish thing that I do-because it makes me happy too!

My mother was going to name me Joy-but my grandmother stepped in and asked her to name me Judy-I would have liked to have been named Joy. However the cat got that name instead. :>.

So just where do these cookies go?

Many ask-where on earth are these cookies going??!! Well, quite literally-all over the world.

This year I am proud t0 say they will be going to:
Hong Kong
Scotland
England (Sheffield, London and south Yorkshire)
Vancouver
Geneva
Paris
Chicago
NY
NJ
NC
GA
CA
VA

They are well traveled yes?!
My little cookies all over the world-very exciting.

THE END

Well, 13 1/2 hours after starting-taking only a 30 minute break for dinner-I finished the final preparing of the boxes and then putting them in shipping boxes.

I can say without any hesitation that I am totally exhausted. Tomorrow I mail them all. I already mailed about 10 boxes at staples tonight. Here are pictures of what remains to be shipped tomorrow: 21 boxes.

SO after tomorrow-the great cookie caper will be completed for yet another year.

Approximate total woman hours (which equals AT least twice as many man hours) :).
from List making to final shipping:
about 110 hours.
4400 cookies / 12 = 366 doz.
366 x $12/doz (average price on Williams and sonoma for something like this)=
$4392.00. Guess I should sell them huh? :).
Never gonna happen...
OK, here's a shot of about 2/3 of the shipping boxes ready to go out (I sent 10 boxes this evening all ready)
and here is a shot of what the final box looks like with its label-I think if you click on the picture it gets larger-but the label has a saucepan with steam coming out of it and the words "from the kitchen of Judy Bucklen" inscribed on it. Seals the box so you know no one's been in them before you! :).

Boxing Phase 2

Time to clean, label and put the boxes in ziploc bags.

Cookie Origami

I get two question a lot: Why is boxing so difficult and why I make my cookies so small. Well they are related. Let's start with the size.

If you have been getting them for more than a year-you know that you want to taste ALL of them-and they are very rich. so I do it for three reasons:
1) you get to taste them all and not feel too guilty
2) If for some reason you don't like it-you haven't made a huge calorie investment or thrown away a cookie.
3) they fit well in the box.

which brings us to cookie origami.

The process of cookie box making is really an art. There is cookie fitting, cookie surgery and cookie eyeballing.

so in cookie fitting you have to make sure every cookie fits tightly in the row-like a crossword puzzle- up and down and across. The way to do that is to eyeball all the cookies that you have to choose from and pick the ones that are the right size for the row.

Sometimes when cookie gets cut initially it has little bits of crust or topping that make it "not square" this means you have to carefully give the cookie a nip and tuck procedure as you box.

You also have to be concerned about the height of a cookie. As you go from row to row-if the cookies are not of uniform size underneath you will have cookies from the upper layer falling on the lower layer. This can work to your advantage in the last row where you may have a tall cookie that you want to put on top of a short cookie underneath-but then you have to worry about how wide it is and make sure the width matches or the upper row will be lopsided.

Eventually you get to the point where you are cutting cookies to fit. It is an art to make the boxes snug, with some of each cookie, and beautiful. And THAT is why cookie boxing is so complicated and time consuming. (so yes Dennis-your four degrees from MIT do NOT qualify you for box making! However any RISD graduates that would like to help next year-give me a call!)

Here are some pictures of some "rows" of boxed cookies. The last one is the last box I made-still perfect. THese are bottom and top rows. The bars go on the bottom, the others go on the top. Tthis provides a solid basis for the second or third row.

The yummy mistake

So remember that dough I used the whisk for instead of the dough hook when I was making the nut roll? I let it rise (sort of-it was a little heavy) and I baked in the my Lecruset 8 qt. casserole pan and I got luscious, thick, sweet eggy breakfast bread.

Here is my breakfast this morning. Toasted nut roll "mistake" bread with butter. Yummy!

BOXES ARE DONE!!!!

Yes, they are completely done-whether I forgot someone or not-because I am out of cookies! Below are pictures of completed boxes and cookies remaining. I had a box made to be filled-but didn't have enough cookies. That is a first for me. Usually I have about 10 dozen cookies left over. But this year with my conservative attitude towards baking only 13 types, I just made it.

32 mediums
43 smalls
1 large

32 x 75
43 x 26
1 x 250
= 3850 cookies.
10% broken/unusable rate 400
cookies left: about 60
munch rate
(tasting "assistants")about 50 cookies
______
cookies baked final tally 4360

VERY close to the estimated 4500 needed and baked.

Here are the boxes and the left over cookies (sad as they are...)

Growing weary...

Ok-it's week 2 day 2 and I must say-at 52 years old, I'm tired. But ready to go for what will be the second to the last day of cookie week.

Have to make the remaining nine small boxes (and of course since I am setting up I will make a few mediums and a couple extra smalls for the "oops I forgot that person" boxes.)

Then I will clean them with the gloves, put them in the ziploc's and gather boxes for shipping.

Then they go in to shipping boxes based on where they are going.

then I go to UPS today and mail out all the domestic boxes.

Tomorrow I go to Fed Ex and mail out all the international boxes.
The good news is, UPS has this computer that you can type your addresses into. At fed ex I have to hand write each one-and it also requires a commercial shipping declaration form. So two forms for each one. But I will only be sending 7 of them via FedEx.

Pictures later! My roommate may take one of me passed out on the boxes...:).

UGH!

So I thought I was done boxing. I pushed myself to go till 10:30pm tonight to get them all done so that tomorrow I could put them in the shipping boxes and get to UPS to mail a lot of them.

Also, if I finished them I wouldn't have to put all the cookies away and then bring them all back out again.

So I pushed and pushed and "finished". After everything was away and I was thoroughly exhausted, I spotted 9 more boxes in the dining room. AHHHHHH!!!!

I feel like someone has placed me in hell and it has red and green boxes lining the walls!

Oh well-tomorrow. I really can't even think straight right now-have to get to bed and sleep. Need more than 6 hours sleep tonight.

Here's the boxes that I have left to do, the ones that are finished so-and what is left of the cookies. Good night.

Oh-so far I have boxed approximately 3400 cookies.

Small Boxes that need to be shipped are complete

33 small boxes are finished. Right hand side is very tight-need to take a break. Going to run errnads to relax. HAHA. Maybe I can get another ticket for going through a red light.

I took a break for 10 minutes to eat left over thanksgiving food:
Turkey and swiss chard bread pudding. Yummy little break.

"how does it do that?"

Jeremy the contractor (you remember him from the burnt cookie episode) was here again today (yes-he's like Elgin) and I gave him a melting moment. I watched his face go from "OK-this is a cookie" to "oh this is good" to "wow its gone!". And he says after he swallows _ "how dies it do that? just go away in your mouth like that?" Hence the name "melting moment". and of course the secret is: BUTTER! anyone who has come to my Diva classes knows that butter and garlic are the secrets to life.

The Italians believe Garlic makes everything taste better and the french believe butter makes everything taste better. I agree with BOTH of them! no need to start an international war over this one! :)

Size Matters!

Yes, even in cookie cutting - size matters. And since Paula had packed before, she understood the importance of size :). So she made a good substitute for Joanne-who is hard to beat-but I think she's got some competition with Paula.

I must say, packing the boxes is so much easier this year because of the reduced types of cookies. I feel like someone could help me do this now. Before, it was really difficult to get the hang of it and do it right. Now it's pretty easy.

I am currently doing the small boxes. It is taking me 5 minutes a box. So it will probably take 8 minutes a box for the mediums. that means about 500 minutes of packing so about 9 hours if you count redo's, surprise boxes that need to be done that aren't in the original count and the label addition.

Also, each box needs to be wiped down while you are wearing gloves because even one finger print looks tacky. so after labeling each box is wiped down and then - also with gloves-placed in a ziploc bag for shipping.

here is the process that I have documented so far.
the lower layer is all bar cookies
the upper layer is all rolled or formed cookies
there is a layer of tissue between them and surrounding them
After placement you fold the tissue around then wrap the saran wrap around tightly
then you close the box and it is ready for its label.

COokie Week (2) : day 1 THE BOXES!

OK-here it is-box day. One of the unexpected benefits of only making 13 kinds of cookies is the reduced confusion at box time. Above is a picture of the set up for the boxes.

This is very simple with 13 types. With 26 types its a whole different story. As Paula, who is the only person who has ever been allowed to help me box said last night- "you get dizzy going around the island picking out cookies to put in the box".

Then you get confused and can't remember which ones you put in. This happens because you have multiple layers and you may have put in let's say- the lime buttons on the bottom-but you can't remember. Was it this box or the last box you put them in?? So then you have to peek-which disrupts the whole set up. And on it goes. But with 13-it should be WAY easier.

I'll find out-just getting ready to start.
Wish me luck.

Tomorrow: Box making

I'll be very candid here-I Hate making the boxes. Have all day Saturday and Sunday to make the boxes and try to get them out on Monday-still nice and fresh.

Since there are about 5000 cookies that get loaded into the boxes (that includes a 10% redo rate-which is low) that means my arm will move back and forth into a box or a bag 5000 times over the next 2 days. that is why I hate making the boxes.

but box making is one of the most difficult parts of this process-tomorrow with pictures you will learn why!

stay tuned.

Diva Disasters

So what disasters and mishaps did I have over the last five days?
Well, lets go over that. :).
Day 2-went grocery shopping. on the way to the store-five feet from my house I get stopped for going through a red light (did not see it turn red-cop acted like I was a leper-love Boston city cops...) $150.
Day 3: first day of baking, first batch of cookies in the oven. Orange almond slices. 100 cookies per sheet in the oven. Get distracted and burn them. Try to think they aren't that bad. Ask Jeremy (the distracting contractor) to taste them. he spits them out. OK, all in the trash.

Day 5 (day three of baking:
have a couple of the diva ladies over-totally distracted. First I mess up the melting moments-somehow the doubling of the recipe created a problem with the cornstarch-will never do that again. then I use the wrong pan for the Caramel on the rosemary/caramel bars and it looks like wax-start over

Day 7: perhaps the funniest. On very little sleep I attempt to start baking without even having a cup of tea first. Why you ask-well because I am obsessive. But nonetheless-the result is pretty funny.

First, I get two bowls out to separate four eggs and end up carefully cracking them all into one bowl. Ok-put the eggs aside to use later. Do over

About 10 minutes later I decide a cup of tea is probably best-so I get the tea pot
AND POUR THE TEA IN THE EGGS! yes, a new recipe is born-egg and tea all in one-why wait to make the eggs and drink the tea? just put them together and down the hatch!

Then, I am happily making the dough for the nut roll and Donna and Paula and Sydney are yakking away. SO absentmindedly, I use the whisk attachment on the mixer instead of the bread dough hook and realize my error when I am staring at the whisk and thinking-"why isn't this climbing the bread hook?" Oh yeah-didn't use the bread hook.

Start over making the dough (although I did a new thing with the "bad" dough. I cooked it in my lecruset. We'll see what it tastes like. It looks gorgeous. But it took a while to rise and it was very thick. not light and beautiful like the other dough.

SO those were the major disasters. Funny & time consuming-but just like going to the airport and counting on traffic-you have to assume there are going to be disasters along the way when you are making close to 5000 cookies and 26 nut rolls.

All in all - every thing turned out very well. But thought you might like to know-disasters happen to all of us. And don't think everything goes well on the food network either. I love to watch and see the edit point at exactly where they went off camera with something! I always know where to look. and then you wonder why yours doesn't come out right....

finished nut rolls

Guess I can only post so many pictures on one post...
Here are the finished nut rolls.
I even made some to look like little brioche and some like rolls. very cute.

Luscious Nut Rolls

These babies smell intoxicating. The sweet bread dough, the nuts and sweet milk-Um Um UM. Liz just came home from the grocery store and said as she pulled in to the garage she was overcome by this incredibly delicious smell - the nut rolls. And she was still in her car!

Maybe I don't really have to send these to anyone. I mean I could just say the didn't turn out...it was horrible-the neighbors dog ate all of them, I dropped all of them on the garage floor, I don't know - anything! Then I could keep them all and slowly fade into a nut roll haze.

Here they are in process and above- completed. Luscious.

"Carrnival of Flavors"

That was a direct quote from Donna as she was "sampling" from the cookie cutting process this morning. She had to fuel her body as she busily cleaned the kitchen-can't let her get weary with so much work to do!

every one's unanaimous favorite is always: The Melting Moments>

why does that not surprise me. More on them later in the week.

My favorites are:
the melting moments
Orange Bittersweet chocolate Rugalech
Honey and spice orange cookies
Hazelnut Rochers

The smell of the nut roll is so enticing right now. Want ot just rip into them. But NOOOOO they are not for me. :(.

All baking is complete!

Cookie week (2) day 1
All Baking has been accomplished as of 6pm on Friday-one week after i started the process and five days after I started baking. This is the normal amount of time that I bake-however I did not bake for 18 hours a day as I usually do. The reduction in the types of cookies I make from 26 to 13 made it possible for me to only bake 8-10 hours a day (although yesterday was a 15 hour day).

Paula cut for four hours and sydney loaded boxes for four hours. It was an amazing collaboration and they both did an AMAZING job!! thank you!!! I took pictures of them loading and cutting.

Here are pictures of the cookie cutting process and what it produces:

here are the picutres for the previous post. Must be late...:)

4500 cookies are baked

(apologies for the wierd text-something happened when I moved the photos-too late to deal with it).

I'm done baking cookies except for one batch of honey spice. I ran out of frosting and had no confectioner's sugar to make more. so tomorrow that will be a good job for Sydney and Donna. Sydney was an excellent froster and Donna will be good at artfully arranging the lumps of dough. While I make nut roll and paula cuts, and cuts, and cuts.....

Paula will be doing the big job tomorrow-cutting. What a job that is. We hope to have some male muscle come in to help out in the afternoon-SO Dennis-if you're reading this-we need your help!
Usually Joanne does an absolutely amazing job of cutting-but she is in Atlanta for thanksgiving this year-So no Banzai cutter for me this year. I can't cut due to a physical problem so I always have to have someone else do this part. Tomorrow we will encourage Paula with maybe wine? or better yet-Melting Moments!

OK-what did I accomplish today? ALOT! worked straight through from 9 am to just about midnight.

30 doz melting moments (redo)
40 doz ginger lemon
20 doz honey and spice
20 dozen Hazelnut Rocher's
Raspberry Marzipan bars (quadruple recipe)
Here are some pictures. Notice the silpat under the hazel nut cookies, best way to bake is with silpat or parchment paper.
The three icings are for the three different cookies. One has fresh orange zest, the other has fresh lemon zest and the otter has fresh squeezed lemon and orange juice.
Tips an techniques all all these cookies after I get them out the door. Need to get to bed to start work tomorrow. Girls are showing up at 9 and i need to have the nut roll started by then. And Paula is always early. :).BlogThis!

Stillllll baking...

9:00pm-haven't taken a break all day except to go get confectioner's sugar. Have one more type of cookie to bake. will post pictures during that baking process-takes a while.

"Hey Lady"

SO I go to the white hen and they have everything else you could imagine-cornstarch, baking soda, coconut-everything but confectioner's sugar. Oh-and here comes one of my pet peeves with ALL supermarkets. They had 47 boxes of regular sugar and a couple of 5 lb bags for good measure. Why is it that all supermarkets carry huge amounts of one thing-but not a variety of things??? Our roche bros grocery store has 4 types of ground black pepper with at least 4 x 20 rows of each one. so that is about 320 cans of black pepper. I am not exaggerating. But yet, can you find chipotle pepper-Of course not! And who is eating all that black pepper??!!

So I am leaving and the guy at the counter says "hey Lady-you lookin for somethin?" Why I don't know-but I said "yes, confectioner's sugar". Blank stare. I leave.

But- all is not lost-after a futile stop at CVS and Tedesci's I remembered the middle eastern market. BINGO! open AND confectioner's sugar. Buy a box, come home. Walk in the door and say "what was I thinking??!! I need a box just for ONE of the cookies-I have four more to go for icing's today!" SO back in the car-race there before they closed in under four minutes. Race in the door and grab three more boxes. Home Safely.
ready to start again...1:45pm
chat later.

cookie week (1): day 7

Thanksgiving:
Happy thanksgiving to everyone. I am saving THOUSANDS of calories today by baking instead of eating thanksgiving dinner! but thank you to everyone who took pity on me and tried to pry me from my baking hovel.

Today is a good day. I have made good progress. Got back from taking Joanne to the airport at 8:30. Set up and started baking at 9:00am.

Made the strawberry (well in my case raspberry) marzipan cookies (quadruple recipe) while I was also making the dough for the Melting moments. Just had to remake them. And these are perfect. :) :) :).

Baked and Iced 240 melting moments (see picture above). Have another 10 doz to go but ran out of icing and need to go get confectioner's sugar. (again). However not sure the White Hen pantry will carry it. Would call-but quite certain whoever is working today does not speak English well enough to distinguish between sugar and confectioner's sugar. So might as well just go see.

With a break in the action I'll put some pictures of melting moments. If you are waiting for the recipe-you'll have to wait till next week. These cookies appear so simple. Yet let me tell you there are a dozen things that can go wrong.

I have taken pictures of the process and will post at the end of the week with explanations. If I gave you the recipe now and you attempted to make them-they would not turn out -of that I am quite certain. But here are some pictures of them in various stages.

They get rolled, pressed, ,baked and iced..

.








After a trip to the white hen it will be back to the kitchen for me! On tap for this afternoon:
Italian chews
roll and back lemon ginger gookies
roll and bake honey spice.

that's another 50 dozen cookies for today....
stay tuned. Who knows what disaster awaits me! :).