Novel Eats

I have to tell you that I am a little surprised with myself that I have not shared a chocolate chip cookie recipe with you yet. It’s not like I never make them – I probably make these every few months. Plus it’s not like I don’t like them either, because if you put one [...]

Valentine’s Day is probably one of my favorite holidays. Maybe it’s because of all the girlie colors and hearts and flowers, or because of the shallow romance courtesy of department stores, but I just can’t help but like it. Of course, I’m sure that I resented the holiday when I was single or forlorn over someone that wouldn’t “Be Mine”. That’s probably a given. Now Valentine’s Day offers me an excuse to get into the kitchen and try to make something that has equal parts romance and flour and KitchenAid mixer.

Many of the challenges that we have had so far with The Daring Bakers have seemed to be more complicated both by number of ingredients and the feat pulling it all together. This month’s challenge seemed to focus less on ingredients and more on the method. It’s been a nice change of pace this time around, because I do feel like I have learned something new – although it’s clear I need a bit more practice before I perfect these cookies.

It’s that time again – when hundreds of Daring Bakers bloggers are challenged to create a recipe and hope that the results are somewhat different yet unique at the same time. For vegan and other dietary lifestyles that don’t include the standard ingredients that most of the bakers have no problem using, it’s that much more of a challenge. If only you could read some of the conversations going on behind the scenes during each month. People feverishly trying to figure out good replacements for eggs or flour, or lamenting about their second or third try in the month because the first miserably failed.

But I come to you here on my first try, and I lament that these chocolate eclairs are not really eclairs, but rather miniature cookies (I say this not because I tried to make them cookies, but more or less to comfort myself and live in denial.). In the words of my husband, who after his first bite made a face and exclaimed with irritation, “These aren’t eclairs!” (Yet he managed to eat at least half or two-thirds of them.)