I’m in week 2 of my spring break and I’m leaning into it a bit. It’s a bit of a weird break but it’s good.
I’m enjoying the downtime and getting a bit done too. The best thing about having time off is Monday morning pole classes. I’m feeling really fit, healthy, and a bit sore but it’s great starting my week with 2 hours of exercise that doesn’t feel like exercise.
The only downside, they don’t get cookies. I’ve thought about it but I haven’t brought them into the cookie circle. Is that bad? Monday nights and Wednesday nights get cookies, but I’m just not sure I have it in me. Luckily, very few Monday morning people also do Monday or Wednesday nights so maybe ignorance is bliss for them?
Not sure. I do feel slightly guilty though about not including them in the cookie fold.
This week’s cookies are amazing – Gochujang Chocolate Chip Cookies and Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Sarah Keiffer’s 100 Cookies. Both are incredible but the Gochujangs are next level. They’re not spicy but they have a tinge of heat to them which makes them really nice. They’re less spicy than some of the other chilli chocolate ones I’ve made, but they have a lovely warmth to them. Big Fan! I am secretly paranoid that one of the cookies will be a full on spice bomb with ALL the chilli heat in one cookie, but it hasn’t happened yet!
And the brown butter chocolate chip ones are really good too. I’ve finally learned to brown butter without fear. I mean, there’s the constant fear of going too far and the butter burning, but also the fear of not going far enough and just having butter. But this brown butter was perfect. And the cookies were delicious!
So that’s a good metaphor for life right now, kind of being in limbo but being good-ish. The cookies, like life, are just spicy enough to be interesting but not blowing me away. There’s lots of exciting things are the horizon over the next few weeks, but for now, we’re just mellowing and waiting!
Oh…. and I got Crocs. Only 4 years late to the Croc party, but I’m in the Croc gang.
I can’t believe it’s nearly the end of October- this year is flying by and we’re already in the midst of the -Ber months!
The last month has been AMAZING. I finished my role and delivered a great strategy, went to an amazing leadership conference, had the best time in Dublin, and had Thomas’s first Communion- and once again I have a bit of free time which means, more COOKIES!
First of all, Dublin.
I’m super lucky that I feel absolutely at home in three places around the world- Washington, Sydney, and Dublin. Despite never actually living there, it’s a place that feels so familiar and so easy for me. I have best friends there and really close friends, and it’s a place that always fills my cup. So much so, that I would love to move there one day. I don’t know if it will ever happen, but when I make a list of pros and cons, the list of pros is VERY long and the list of cons is VERY short. (The weather and actually moving anywhere is stressful!) But it was a fabulous trip, with fabulous people and I loved every moment of it! I know Ireland isn’t known for it’s food but honestly, the butter, bread and the seafood chowder are all next level! Irish butter- so good! I could go on about it for hours!
Secondly, Cookies.
Now that my contract has finished and my next one is TBC – I should find out this week! I have time on my hands which is both weird and familiar. Weird because I feel like the last 8 months have been go go go, and familiar because, well it’s like last year but without the mental anguish of being made redundant. Plus, I’m far more into cookies than I was last year. I can’t believe it’s been over a year that I’ve been baking every week. Part of me wants to branch out and do something new, the other part of me has really painted myself into the cookie corner. It’s expected now and it’s hard to disappoint people. Plus, I’m not taking requests…. Which is really where I’m coming unstuck!
So this week, because I supposedly have “time” on my hands- even though I feel super busy! I”ve baked nearly every day.
Monday was Brown Butter Nilla Wafers from Christina Tosi’s All About Cookies Book.
Tuesday was Potato Chip Sandies- also from Christina Tosi and I also had to start on my request for the week- Apple Crumble Cookies from Andy Cooks. These are A LOT of work but I’m looking forward to them! Yesterday I made the dough and apple topping, tomorrow I need to make the crumble and bake them. A lot of work but I think they will be yummy!
Next week I’ll likely do brown butter chocolate chip cookies– stay tuned!!!
I would say that I can’t believe it’s already September but in truth, I can’t believe it’s already 2025. Granted, this is not the 2025 that I would have ordered. It feels more like the 2025 that Marty McFly went back to in Back to the Future 2 after Biff stole the Sports Almanac than reality, but yet, here we are September 2025.
And things are…well, to be honest the vibes are off. I mean on a global, universal level, the vibes aren’t great but even on a micro level, things are a bit funky. Not in a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad way, but just in a meh way.
I mean, I feel like September vibes are always weird anyway- it’s one of those odd months with a lot of birthdays (not mine) but also no other holidays. It’s too warm to be winter, but too cold for summer. It’s getting close to holidays but too early to decorate for anything, it’s too far into the year for a new start (except for school if you’re up north), but too early in the year to switch off.
But here we are….on Earth, Wind and Fire Day (the 21st of September). And because there are so many birthdays this month, I made Birthday Cookies from Christina Tosi’s Kids Only Cookbook. I want to try to make a cookie cake for Thomas’ birthday in December, but that might be another week!
So here’s to better vibes for the rest of the month and to birthdays and cookies of course!
Happy Aussie Father’s Day to all the Dads out there. It’s been an action packed Father’s Day but also quite a normal Sunday. It’s funny, the longer you spend as a parent, the less significant Mother’s Day and Father’s Day become. It was still gorgeous to see how excited Thomas was to give his Dad the gifts he had picked out at the Father’s Day stall at school… and to hear why he picked them. It’s amazing to watch him become a fully formed person. I couldn’t be prouder of the person he’s becoming.
We only have so many Father’s Days when he’s an actual kid. He’s nearly 9- closer to being a moody teenager that we have to convince to eat with us than the cranky toddler in a high chair that we’re trying to distract long enough for us to enjoy a meal in public. We saw both ends of the spectrum at lunch today– and it was a reminder to me to enjoy every stage and age.
Not just as a Mom but as a person. Nothing lasts forever. It’s nearly been a year since I was made redundant and who knows what the next year will bring.
For now, I’m enjoying the cookie phase. Even on busy Sundays when it seems like there is so much to do, I love this phase of my life. It feels good to do something for other people not because I have to, but because I want to. It feels good to be appreciated. It feels good to spark a moment of joy for someone else. And it feels good to do something so totally frivolous as baking cookies. The world is full of so much awfulness, that doing something to brighten other people’s day feels nice. I’m not sure if I’ll do this forever but for now, it’s nice.
This week, I baked a request and an anti-request (is that even a thing?). Dylan, my gym’s manager, requested Dark Dark Chocolate Cookies with sea salt. And Stella, from pole, requested Peanut Butter Cookies- because she’s training for a pole comp and hates peanut butter cookies and doesn’t want to be tempted to eat them!
Both cookies have come from my 100 Cookies Cookbook. I tweaked her Triple Chocolate Pan Banging Chocolate Cookies by adding sea salt flakes. I also made the Peanut Butter Cookies. I’m not a huge fan of peanut butter cookies myself but these are ok. I don’t mind them but they’re not my favorite. Hopefully they’re peanut buttery enough to turn Stella off and hopefully Dylan likes the dark dark chocolate.
So this week, we go back to the beginning- Von Stapele Cookies aka The Amsterdam Cookies aka THE cookies that started the baking journey. It’s been almost a year (I think) that I’ve been baking cookies every week. And it’s been a crazy year. One major down (and some not so major ones) and lots of big ups too. So, it’s just been life. We skate along every day until we come to a big bump in the road, we fall down, we get back up and keep skating until the next big bump. I can’t really complain. This is what being alive is.
I lost my job and gained a job, I lost a lot of confidence and gained a lot of resilience. I got to spend time not working and realised how much I was missing by constantly running from one thing to the next. I lost someone who I loved and loved me, and I gained a new appreciation of the tiny person I made. I grew. I still miss what I lost, and I still grieve and wonder, “what if?” But I’m happy. I mean I still complain about lots of First World Problems, and still hassle the humans in my house over a range of things. But overall, at at the risk of jinxing myself. Things are ok.
Looking back, I had NO idea what was ahead of me. But none of us ever do really. A year ago, I couldn’t imagine anything changing- everything was great. A year from now, I know things could look totally different and that’s ok. It could be better, or it could be worse. But it will be different. That’s the only thing I know for sure. Will I still be baking every week?? Who knows??
And in the spirit of Change. I’ve tried something new-ish. I made friends with AI- well ChatGPT and for one of the first times used ChatGPT to create a new recipe. Well, multiple new recipes.
Bonkers. Game changing. Bizarre.
So, why now?? What happened this week?
Full disclosure, I was inspired by the Cabaret show I went to last week hosted by Dame Chilli Rox. Chilli or Dame Chilli happens to be the only person I’ve seen consistently every week for the past 18 years, and someone who I treasure dearly. She’s my Pole Dancing Teacher and an absolute icon, and the person who I’ve seen once or twice a week almost every week since 2007(ish). I’ve known her longer than my husband and seen her more regularly than almost anyone else I know. I’ve been through relationship changes, career changes, house changes, every type of change- but I’ve taken Pole Dancing Classes with Chilli on Wednesdays at 830 for most of my adult life.
Anyway, Chilli, who is also the Most Influential Pole Dancer in Australia and an amazing MC, hosted a show last week and in the show, she had ChatGPT come up with cocktails for people she knew in the audience. (Mine was a Half-Assed Spritz- because I’m very bubbly, loyal, but I don’t try very hard in class.)
Anyhoo, I was inspired to use ChatGPT to come up with cookie recipes– what a brilliant idea! Last week’s Dulce de Leche Cookies were a huge hit– and someone said, “ooh, Banoffee pie cookies would be really good.” I searched for recipes online but then, inspired by Chilli’s AI cocktail creations, I thought what if I asked ChatGPT for a Banoffee Cookie recipe. AND it delivered!!!
So then, I asked Chat GPT for a recipe inspired by Dame Chilli Rox- and it delivered on that too!
The description was amazing–
“Let’s create something as fiery, fierce, and unforgettable as Dame Chilli Rox herself — a cookie that’s spicy, sultry, and unapologetically fabulous.
Vibe:
Think: dark chocolate for drama, chilli for her name and boldness, cinnamon for heat, and raw sugar sparkle for the glittering glam she brings to the pole.”
And it is!!!! Spicy chocolate chocolate chip with glitter sprinkles!!! Throw in a jade split and it’s Chilli in a Cookie!
ChatGPT also suggested adding Fireball Whiskey or Chilli Liqueur for an extra kick. I might try them again and call them Chilli Rox on the Rocks.
I also asked for a recipe for Von Stapele copycat cookies… and 3 or 4 other cookies that I was inspired to create… (they may make an appearance next week!)
I”m VERY pleased with how they’ve turned out (they look and smell very credible!) and it was super fun creating a recipe of my own(-ish). Who knows, this could be the next evolution of my baking. Creating recipes not just baking from recipes… I mean, I don’t know if I trust AI for everything all the time but it’s fun to try!
I’ll start with the bad news. I had my first (or maybe second) cookie fail this week. I tried to re-make the Cornflake-Marshmallow-Chocolate Chip cookies from a few weeks ago and they did not turn out- at all. They were too crunchy, too dry, too ick. Wrong wrong wrong. I should have known better.
I really should have known better. These were not bueno. Muy bad. A cookie disaster.
I decided to make them again because I had leftover cornflake crunch. What I didn’t realise is that I didn’t actually have enough leftover to make a whole second batch of cookies. Also, I tried to make them smaller– but didn’t adjust the cooking time. So, wound up with dry, hard and pretty below average cookies.
People still ate them, people still complimented them, but in my heart of hearts, I know they’re a fail. And I know it’s me, not the recipe. But oh well, they can’t all be winners! And sometimes the fails make you appreciate the wins!
And now for the HIGHS!
We’ve reached a new highpoint in our Cookie journey…
Y’all Jesse Szewczyak has entered the chat. I will admit to not knowing who he was 6 weeks ago, but I stumbled on one of his cookie recipes a few weeks ago and almost immediately I ordered his cookbook.
He has not disappointed. Last week I made his Bananas Foster Cookies and they were *chef’s kiss*. So Good! I know I say this every week, but they were seriously “the best cookies yet”. They’re at least top 5. And they’re straight out of his cookbook!
One Excellent Cookie!
So based on that, I decided to try two more cookies from his cookbook this week.
Initial opinions (mine especially!), I’ve picked two winners. Or at least one winner and one “pretty close to a winner.” We’ll see what the public says.
So the “pretty close to a winner” are Buttered Rum Sugar Cookies- very good, very solid. Very much aligned to my previous Boozy Cookie theme. Jesse actually has a whole chapter on Boozy Cookies in his book… no, I won’t be doing the Absinthe cookies.
The winning cookie though is – wait for it- Oatmeal Chocolate Covered Raisin Cookies. These are the PERFECT cookie, Oatmeal raisin isn’t my favourite HOWEVER these are basically Oatmeal Raisinet cookies. And Raisinets are my favourite all time candy. Like bring it back from the US with me but love it too much to eat it favourite candy. Raisinets are the best. Raisinets+cookies= perfection. I was super excited as soon as I saw the recipe. My only dilemna was whether to use my precious precious American raisinets or to buy subpar Aussie chocolate covered sultanas (not as good!) Of course, being slightly selfish I bought subpar Aussie ones– and then had to top them up with some American Raisinets. It was worth it! The cookies are amazing! 10/10- no notes!
A big shout to Jesse Szewczyak- his cookbook is 3 from 3 so far!
Well, I’m officially a working girl again– and yet, I’m still a baking girl! Life has gotten super busy- being back to work and back to the office has been FULL ON! But we’re doing it. We’re juggling, balancing, tightrope walking, and doing it all backwards and in high heels. But we’re ok!
I’ve once again dipped into Christina Tosi’s All About Cookies Cookbook. Honestly, I LOVE IT! Once again, she has not disappointed. This week I baked Potato Chip Shorties which were unexpectedly AND unbelievably yum. I mean, they have potato chips in them, and they have sugar. They are the perfect balance of salty and sweet. I was sceptical about them – until someone suggested that they weren’t potato chippy- enough…. She even suggested using Salt and Vinegar Chips instead of plain. It’s a no from me but mainly because I don’t like Salt and Vinegar Chips…. I might try the Chocolate version– but NEVER with salt and vinegar… I also made Crunchy Confetti Cookies which were both crunchy and colourful!
I’ve promised that this week’s cookies will be more normal. Thomas specifically requested chocolate chip so chocolate chip it will be!!!
I can’t believe it’s February already- January flew by in a flurry of fun- and a lot of tennis! The United Cup in Sydney, AO in Melbourne, and the quickest trip to the US ever (that also included two tennis lessons). It was the best way to cap off my months of Funemployment. And unbelievably- and quite sadly, I go back to work TOMORROW!
It’s been over 4 months of fun, and it ends tomorrow. Not only am I back at work, but I’m back into an actual office 2-3 days a week for the first time in 5 years. Needless to say, I am NOT ok.
I’ve learned so much over these past few months and above all, I’ve developed a LOVE of baking cookies. No matter how busy the work-life juggle gets, I hope I will continue to bake now that I’m back at work. We’ll see but I’m hopeful!
Last week, I baked two versions of Christina Tosi’s Chipless Chocolate Chip Cookies- Chipless and Chipful. She calls them her Chipless Wonders and they were excellent both with Chips (Chipful) and without (Chipless).
And yes, I am obsessed with Christina Tosi and her All About Cookies Cookbook after receiving it as a gift for Christmas. Full disclosure: It was a gift to me, from me. Her cookies and recipes are amazing. She is a next level genius, I’m only sad that some/many of her quirky ingredients are based on US ingredients but I LOVE everything I’ve made from her so far. These cookies are no exception. On paper, they’re bonkers, but so so so delicious when you taste them!
I also love Mexican Hot Chocolate cookies. I made some with marshmallows ages ago that The Runner loves. He was quite disappointed that these are not those, but they’re still pretty good!
So that’s it for this week- wish me luck for my first day!!
I can’t believe it’s nearly the end of the year. Christmas carols are playing, the tree is decorated, the turkey and ham are ordered and I’ve been reading Christmas Cookie recipes.
My experience with Christmas cookies has been mixed at best. There was one time when I baked them as a child- but forgot the sugar in the sugar cookie recipe, and wound up with cut out Christmas trees and stars that tasted like cardboard. As an adult, I find that cut out cookies are a lot of effort for very little reward. Sugar cookies aren’t amazing. Sugar cookies that a toddler or 5 year old has decorated are– worse. So when I think about baking cookies this Christmas, I can’t say that Sugar cookies are high on my agenda.
What is on the menu? Spicy cookies. Flavourful cookies. Cookies that make your mouth happy. Cookies like these Dirty Chai Earthquake Cookies. They have coffee and all the spices and flavours of a dirty chai latte- but rolled in two types of sugar and baked in the oven. AND they’re pretty good. What makes them Christmassy- the spices. They taste like a chai tea- and they have that gingery, cinnamony, clovey goodness that feels like Christmas.
I also made Soft Chocolate Chip cookies– just in case the Dirty Chai vibes were divisive. Chocolate chip cookies are always a crowd pleaser and these are are more soft and pillowy than crunchy. They weren’t quite what I was after… I was hoping they’d be closer to the OG Keebler Elf Soft Batch cookies that I used to eat bags of as a kid. I used to bring them back to Australia, and then suddenly they were gone. Discontinued in a cruel twist of fate. Their familiar and comforting red bag no longer on the supermarket shelves in the US, or anywhere on the internet. And the internet wasn’t happy. I wasn’t the only one that missed Soft Batch cookies. Articles were written. Blogs were posted. Apparently, Keebler has brought them back in a yellow package- but I’m sceptical. I will try this recipe for Mock Batch Cookies in the next few weeks just to see how close it is to my memories!
I also had the absolute pleasure of having my friend, Feliken, over today to make macarons. Ok, full disclosure. She made them and I watched. Macarons are not for the faint hearted. They’re not for the type of baker that forgets to put sugar in sugar cookies. In short, kids- do not try macarons at home. Or do, but it’s hard work. Feliken made it look super easy and they turned out really well. But they are a lot of work, a lot of steps, and they’re pretty fickle little things.
In short, I was in awe of her. The patience, the consistency, the level of detail, so many steps.
Ah-mazing. And they tasted soooooo good too. Am I inspired to try them on my own??? No. I’m a bigger fan of cookies that are simple and hard to get wrong. I mean any recipe with more than 4 steps, or more than 4 different action verbs and I’m lost. Dump everything in a bowl. Yes. Separate eggs, mix, add, whip, pipe, pop, wait, bake, cool, scrape, pipe, smush. I’m lost. Those poor little macarons wouldn’t stand a chance with me. But Feliken is a master at them! And it was great to see a master at work!
Last week I made Chocolate Chip Cookies. You know the ones. The boring, old favorites that have the recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips. Tollhouse chocolate chips if you grew up in the US, no idea what recipe is on the back of the Australian chocolate chip packages because I didn’t make those.
I made Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies (minus the nuts of course!) and they were lovely. Easy to make, and just like Mom used to make. Well, not my mother per se, but you know what I mean…
This week’s are called Cowboy Cookies. I wanted to make Halloween Cookies but 1, it’s next week, and 2, I don’t have Halloween Cookie Cutters– and even if I do happy to buy them, I’m not sure I’m going to spend the time actually decorate the cookies to make them look like pumpkins or ghosts or witches. Even though I techincally have the time, I’m not sure that I actually HAVE THE TIME to decorate cookies.
So, instead of Halloween, I’m going to focus on something FAR scarrier than Halloween for the next three weeks- the US Election.
Namely, the First Lady Bake Off or Presidential Cookie Poll. It took place from 1992-2016- after Hillary Clinton’s famous “I could have stayed home and baked cookies” comment and continued until Family Circle magazine went out of business in 2019.
So, I’m going to try a few recipes out–starting with Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies. There are a few others that might pop up in the next three weeks before Election Day so watch this space!
He Runs, I Cook 