The Food That Made Me

6/18/2025

Kids, daddy made his first cookies. This is by a Bay Area recipe developer, and I’m definitely going to try more of her recipes in the future. There are a couple that are on my recipe list already.

Ingredients (This is Amy’s recipe. I’m just putting my own annotations. Please don’t sue me. )

We are weighing the ingredients today because it is generally better to be more precise for baking. Also, for new baking recipes, I try my best to follow. I don’t do so hot on other types of recipes, though.

1. 225g of unsalted butter. Look at the package, it is generally one stick or two smaller sticks. This has to be at room temperature, so mommy said to put it on the counter for a few hours.
2. 250g of granulated sugar.
3. a couple of tablespoons of sugar in a small bowl for rolling the dough balls later.
4. 1 large egg at room temperature. Mommy also said to put this on the counter. So far, we haven’t died yet.
5. 2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
6. 270g of all purpose flour.
7. 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder.
8. 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
9. 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
10. 2 tablespoons of ube powder
11. 1 tablespoon of ube extract

Here is how you make the cookies:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Amy said to use one sheet, but I couldn’t fit it.
2. If the egg and butter aren’t out yet, take them out. Microwave the block of butter 10 seconds at a time to try to soften it. Don’t melt it, but also don’t put it in as a solid block. I’m not sure what genius figured this out, but the softened butter’s chemistry, or state, is needed to mix everything well and evenly.
3. Take out a 1/4 teaspoon, a tablespoon, a teaspoon, a digital scale, a medium bowl, and a stand mixer with a bowl and paddle attachment. Oh! I learned that a paddle attachment looks like this.
4. In the stand mixer, add the butter and sugar. Mix them using medium speed until smooth.
5. Add the vanilla and egg into the stand mixer bowl. Using low speed, mix again until smooth.
6. Measure out the flour using the medium bowl and scale. Using the 1/4 teaspoon, add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well.
7. Add the flour mix to the butter mix. Then, mix it on low until you can’t see any white flour. If it isn’t mixing, turn off the machine, use the silicon spatula, and scrape the sides into the center. Continue mixing until the flour is mixed in completely.
8. Divide the dough into two pieces by hand. Just eyeball it. You can use a scale if you like. But, I was stressed and tired. Baking is still new to me. Put one of the pieces in the medium bowl – this is the vanilla dough.
9. Place the other half of the dough back into the stand mixer. Pour the ube extract and ube powder into the stand mixer and mix it on slow until it has a light purple color throughout.
10. Shape both of the dough halves into a ball to make sure that everything is consistent.
11. Take a tablespoon and scoop a spoonful of each of the colors. Put the colors together and gently shape into a cookie ball. This is where cool patterns can happen. So, you can go wild if you want.
12. Place your cookie ball into the bowl of sugar and roll until coated.
13. Place the finished cookie balls onto the tray about 4 inches apart.
14. Bake them in the oven for about 11 minutes. But, for me it baked more like 16 minutes. I had to check every minute or two after the 11 minutes to see if they were lightly golden browning. Only ever so slightly. But, Amy said not to over bake them. So, mommy made an executive decision to pull them out. Which is good because I would have overbaked them. Also, I still can’t really figure out why super soft cookies will harden when cooled.

Results:

I accidentally added eggs to the sugar and butter. Thankfully that the cookies still turned out. At first, it was a little concerning before they cooled down. I was afraid that they would be too soft. But, I just need to trust the process and Amy’s instructions. It was also wonderful that all three of my nieces took turns to roll up some purple and some white dough and squished it together into cookie balls with your mommy. I wonder how many moments like these are left.

TO DO:

Honestly, there isn’t much. They turned out pretty well. Maybe I can add even more ube next time because I just love a strong flavor, but don’t want to be too greedy.

It was for your Cousin #1’s double-digit birthday. We had steak and mac and cheese, and a peach salad. Oh, it was so filling. I understand how her tummy wasn’t feeling great after. And, there was a mango mousse cake that was delicious.

After that, we gave her presents: dog stickers and a wizard themed escape room pack. She adored the stickers because they were so realistic and cute. She is back from her trip, we can now have an escape room day at our house. Can’t wait.