acmespaceship

In which a dozen* discrete baking events are cataloged with observations and research findings, a new cookbook is briefly reviewed, and a recipe is supplied for an oatmeal-chocolate-ginger cake that you should MAKE RIGHT NOW.

* Ironically, not a baker's dozen.

Quickly, while it's still January, we begin with a quick catalog of Acmespaceship kitchen activity Nov-Dec/2013:

Warmup: Constant Complaints (see http://acmespaceship.livejournal.com/13311.html)
Latke Night: Key lime bar cookies **
Thanksgivikah: Pumpkin pies (2) and apple crisp
Probability Seminar: Constant Orangeless Complaints (see above)
Party Like It's Arlington Heights: Chocolate-chip Brick I ** and ginger brownies I
Godzilla Party: Brick II ** and ginger brownies II
Christmas: Oat-chocolate-ginger cake (see below)
Cousin's Party: ANZAC cookies **
Late Festivus: Brick III **
New Years's Eve: Ginger brownies III
New Year's Day: Hopping John (not strictly speaking "baking" so sue me)
Junior Blakefest: Eclair cake

Neither spaghetti carbonara, nor pot roast, nor beef stew (made from leftover pot roast) are included in this survey because, although they could be classified as major projects, they were deployed as regular family meals and thus considered background activity not worth recording. Although boy howdy, spaghetti carbonara.

Footnote: ** indicates a recipe from this book. More or less. Liberties were taken. This is a good book with tasty recipes but 1) the author has a much warmer kitchen than I do and so her methods for mixing butter and also her oven timings do not work for me. And 2) these recipes are awfully butter-heavy and use inconvenient measurements (11 tablespoons of butter?) Also 3) like all promises of this type, "one bowl" is a lie and does not include, for example, the bowls and tools you use to zest and juice a dozen limes. But I do not begrudge the purchase because of the Brick.

Analysis:
The "Brick" is a single giant square chocolate-chip cookie (aka blondie). Three variations were attempted:
I -- baked in 9x9 silicone pan with finely-chopped coconut (left over from the key lime bars)
II -- baked in 8x8 metal pan, no more leftover coconut
III -- baked in 9x9 metal pan, added cinnamon

Findings: The silicone pan is a pain as always. 8x8 makes a fine-looking blondie but until it softens after a few days it's too thick to cut or eat easily. 9x9 metal will be the preferred pan going forward. Cinnamon makes it more interesting. Additional research is required.

Ginger Brownies are brownies with ginger (whoa, cosmic) and other spices. Three major variations were attempted:
I -- Martha Stewart's recipe for "Ginger Brownies" but substituted cinnamon instead of nutmeg (out of nutmeg!?)
II -- Martha Stewart's standard "Brownies" recipe with the addition of the spices used in recipe I including nutmeg (found it)
III -- Alice Medrich's "Steve Ritual Brownies" with the weird ice-water bath, plus the spices from recipe I but no cloves and extra ginger

Findings: Trial III yielded marginally better results, but the general public does not seem to care and will eat any brownie they get.

This year's ANZAC Cookies were too crumbly. The two ANZAC recipes I used last year were both superior. Perhaps if I melt the butter...

OK, I lied. Not about the number of bowls, but about the cake recipe. This post is getting inconveniently long. I'll add the cake recipe in a separate post.