TWD/BWJ: Mocha Chocolate Chips

A miracle has occurred! I'm posting on the right day. And to honor the miracle, I ate one of these cookies even though I gave up carbs for Lent. It was a small cookie and it was fabulous. What can I say? I'm definitely a grace-dependent person.

A couple of notes to my future self:
1) Use at least 2 T. of espresso powder - only used 1 1/2 this time, needed more.
2) A combo of dark and white chocolate is good, but more dark next time.
3) Don't be afraid of the apricots. And add lots of chopped walnuts for Michael.
4) Refrigerate the dough overnight and use the small scoop.
5) Use the airbake cookie sheets and parchment.

Here are some pictures:

Ghirardelli chips are fine.
Don't worry about all that chopping.

Small is good. They don't spread so much
and you can eat more!

Caught her stealing the dough.
There's less mocha flavor after baking.

The recipe for these wonderful cookies can be found here and the other bloggers are here.

And now for a shoe. This past weekend was the Greater Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop. I put some miles on the car visiting the 10 quilt shops in the Atlanta area. The GPS took me astray while looking for one of them, and instead I came across the most amazing group of shoes in the road! Sometimes those who think they are lost are actually in exactly the right place. Here's a picture of one of those shoes.

TWD/BWJ: Croissants

I *only* used 3 1/2 sticks of butter.
The recipe called for 4 1/2 but several
people mentioned that they were greasy.

I don't even know how far behind I am at this point. But I don't care. I made croissants. That's all that matters. And I took a little road trip with my boy, which required that the dough go into hibernation for a few days. The finished product disappeared right quick, so they must have been good. Here are a few pictures:

That's the butter layered on the dough.

pounded it out with my new french rolling pin

The infamous "double fold". 

Had to wait for me in the freezer. Half of it is still there.

used the scraper to cut. Have I mentioned
that this one little tool has changed my life?

let 'em rise outside in the sun.  

The croissant recipe can be found here and the TWD bloggers are here. But if you want to make these you simply must watch this. 

Here we are at the Space Center in Huntsville. The scale of those things is hard to capture in a picture. 

 

Saw a couple of shoes in the road on this trip, but didn't get a picture. So here's one from another time and place. It was last year in York, SC.