Catch A Star As It Falls

Saturday I'll be attending Phoenix Comicon and doing the whole fangirl thing. I'll be wearing a Rambo Brite shirt (yes, that's Rainbow Brite crossed with Rambo), either a slime hat or a Jayne hat depending on my mood, and trolling around author and steampunk panels and possibly melting into a pile of goo when I meet my teenage crush Jason Carter, aka Marcus Cole on Babylon 5. (Come on, who else out there crushed on him? I can't be the only one with such good taste.)

Events like this are always taxing for me, as a super-introvert, but I'm still really excited. The line-up of guests is great this year, and I'm at a point where I'm going to start piecing together two steampunk costumes; I hope to make some local connections to help me with that.

Next year I hope to be at the point where I actually participate on some panels. We shall see!

SCIENCE!

I have a guest blog up at the Arizona SciTech Festival about the Science of Hockey event we attended this past March.

It's rather nifty how this whole guest post came about. See, I have a weird thing for surveys. I do them quite often after going to restaurants or shops. I did a survey about the Science of Hockey, and lo and behold, I was recently contacted with the news I'd won a laptop in their random drawing! It's a brand new touch-screen Netbook from the Microsoft Store. Along with that, I was invited to write about my experience at the event.

The Arizona SciTech Festival really does good work. It's not just a single festival. They promote science-related gatherings all across Arizona, and it's stuff that kids and adults can enjoy. If you're in the state, check it out!

This whole month has been about ways to use Biscoff spread, that magical cookie butter in a jar. However, the source of that magic is the Biscoff cookie. It's a basic shortbread cookie that is most famous for being available on airplane flights. I actually didn't try a Biscoff cookie until recently--Wal-mart sells them now! It's a very mild spice-shortbread cookie. Now, if I'm going to eat store-bought shortbread, I think I prefer the buttery style, like Walker's, but this Biscoff stuff isn't bad.

And you know what? Being a home baker, I can make it better.



"Gentlebakers, we can rebuild this cookie. We have the technology..."

I love good shortbread. So does my husband. The very first day I met him, I made him shortbread, and I think that kinda sealed the deal. Speaking of my husband, our 13th wedding anniversary is tomorrow. That shortbread was worth it, I think.

This recipe probably would have won him over, too--he loved it, and mightily praised how well it worked with coffee. His co-workers scarfed it up, and one was surprised at how it tasted like snickerdoodles, though it looks nothing like a snickerdoodle. Nope, this is a brown sugar and cinnamon shortbread. I think the heaping amount of cinnamon here is what makes these superior to the store-bought Biscoff; those might be just too mild.

The texture of these is ideal, too. They are crispy enough to stay intact for travel, but tender and chewy to bite.



One extra note here. I live in Arizona. It's dry. This means that when I chill roll-out dough, I almost always have to add water or it becomes a crumbly mess when I try to roll it out. That happened with this recipe, too. If the dough is too wet, add flour; if it's dry, add water by the tablespoon until it's a good texture. I don't find it necessary to chill it again after. You can cut the cookies into shapes or do the lazy thing like me and use a pizza cutter.



Homemade Biscoff Cookies
modified slightly from Blue Bonnets and Brownies

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
In a medium bowl add the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and baking soda together. Whisk together thoroughly to combine. Set aside.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter together with the sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and mix again.

With the mixer on slow, add the flour mixture a little bit at a time until the dough is fully combined. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl often.

Refrigerate the dough for at least half an hour. When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 350F.

Lightly flour a large surface and roll out the dough to 1/4″ thick as best you can. *Note that if you're in a dry climate, you may need to add water to make the dough cohesive; if it's too wet, add flour. Using a cookie cutter or pizza slicer, cut as many cookies as you can out of the rolled-out dough.

Combine the leftover dough into a ball again, and roll out again. Only do this once, as reworking the dough too many times will result in tough cookies.

Bake cookies for roughly 9-10 minutes. Watch the oven very closely after the 7 minute mark. Because of the thinness and high sugar content, the cookies are a lot like caramel and can go from perfect to burnt in a flash. It can also be hard to see if they are browning because they are already brown.

Eat as a snack, as a breakfast with coffee, with ice cream, dipped in milk... the possibilities are endless.

OM NOM NOM.

"The mind can be trained to relieve itself on paper." ~Billy Collins (b. March 22, 1941)

Let them eat cake! For breakfast! Dessert! Snack! Whenever you want! Heck, eat this in the middle of the night if you're hungry and need to stay awake. That's because there's coffee baked right into this cake. Caffeine, chocolate and carbs, united!



This Biscoff and Coffee Bundt Cake is rather like a pound cake as far as texture and taste. It's not that sweet. The texture is cakey and dense, with the kind of chewiness that begs for a glass of milk or a hot cup of coffee. The strongest flavor comes from the coffee within the cake itself, and then the chocolate; the Biscoff is subtle here, and its most obvious attribute is the lovely caramel color.

The original version of this recipe used a whole jar of Biscoff to make a frosting. I didn't want to top it with anything that sweet or calorie laden (kinda scary when a combo of melted chocolate and butter is the healthier option), and I'm also cheap. Biscoff ranges from $3-5 a jar, and I just don't want to spend that much for topping alone. Instead, I used a chocolate glaze I've made for other bundt cakes, but you could also sprinkle powdered sugar, pair it with fruit, or eat it plain with a drink.

Because it's not heavy on sugar or sweetness, this is a really good breakfast cake. Plus, this would work well sliced up, frozen, and then thawed in the microwave. That way you can wake up and eat your coffee while on the go.

Biscoff and Coffee Bundt Cake
modified from The No Sherry

Cake:
6 Tbs butter
1/2 cup Biscoff spread
2/3 cup sugar
3 Tbs dry milk
3 eggs, room temperature
4 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups strongly-brewed coffee, cooled
1 cup semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips

Chocolate glaze:
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

[Instead of doing the glaze, you can also top with sifted powdered sugar, or fruit, or eat plain.]

1) Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

2) Sift together baking powder and flour in a small bowl. Set aside.

3) Combine butter, Biscoff, sugar and dry milk in mixer bowl. Using a paddle attachment, cream the ingredients until well combined and light. Add eggs one at a time. Add coffee and vanilla, and make sure everything is well combined.

4) Add the dry ingredients a bit at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally for even mixing. Fold in chocolate chips.

5) Spread batter evenly into greased and floured bundt pan. Bake for 30 minutes, tent with aluminum foil, and bake another 10 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Invert onto a cooling rack.



6) Make the glaze after the cake is completely cool. Place the 3/4 cup of chocolate chips and butter in a microwave safe bowl, and heat in short increments to melt. Add the corn syrup and vanilla extract, and stir until everything is combined. The mix should be somewhat thick. Drizzle it over the cake so it looks like one big honkin' donut.



OM NOM NOM.

"Cartographer's Ink has managed to stay alive in the Daily Science Fiction showdown. It's now in the Elite 8 and is up for voting today only.

"Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter." ~Neil Gaiman

I'm blitzing through a first round of revisions on Breath of Earth with a goal of 25 pages a day. If I come across significant issues, I'm flagging them for the next round. So far, those have included the world-building on Chinese alternate history, and one particular scene that just starts in a way that bugs the heck out of me. I am still reading more research material, too, and now I know I need to read more on China and Hawaii. I search for Chinese earth dragon info on Google and I get video game references; search for figures like Pelee, and I get biographies on the soccer star.

Google and Wikipedia are not an absolutes. Sometimes, books are most definitely the way to go.

In any case, I'm hoping to fix the worst of the known issues by the end of the month (or at least note them as issues and ask for more input). Then I can send the book to some folks so they can tear it apart some more. I'm already stockpiling bandages for my ego.

Note the name of these cookies contains the word "chewy." That's part of the magic of cookie butter. It creates a wonderful caramel tint, and creates a soft, chewy texture. Here, that flavor is especially rich.



There are a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes out there. I've posted more than one. This--this is a favorite because I'm a total cookie dough junkie, and these keep that amazing flavor even after baking.

Because of the richness, these cookies are amazing when paired with ice cream. I imagine they would be amazing as sandwich cookies, too--with a middle of ice cream, Nutella, or if you want to really go meta, use Biscoff.

The stuff is just that good.



Chewy Biscoff Chocolate Chip Cookies
modified from Kirbie's Cravings

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup Biscoff spread
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350F.

2) Cream butter with both sugars until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and Biscoff.

3) In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt. Then add into the wet mixture until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

4) Chill in fridge for two hours or overnight.

5) Drop the dough by large tablespoons onto baking sheet. Pat them down slightly. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

OM NOM NOM.

My story "Cartographer's Ink" is up again in Daily's Science Fiction's poll for today only!

I was also interviewed by Gary B. Phillips over at his blog.

Meanwhile, I have a kid covered with a mysterious rash that is keeping him out of school and making sleep difficult, but why do I feel like I'm the one who is going to go crazy? I guess I'm working to earn my Mother's Day rewards this week.