cate bakes, and other information.
Girlcate doesn’t remember her first experience with baking, but it probably involved standing in the kitchen with her mom, cutting apples and rolling out pie dough in preparation for one of the near-constant stream of family events that were a formative part of Cate’s girlhood. She has, however, been baking almost all her life, from batches of cookies in her family’s kitchen, to monumental pans of brownies for her coop at Oberlin, to pain perdu and tarts and crepes in a small town in France, to cakes and rugelach in her tiny Brooklyn kitchen.
Kenan made the site, takes the pictures, and tries, with limited success, to keep Cate from injuring herself. When he isn’t playing with his food, he can usually be found scribbling and scrawling under the haystack. He occasionally loses himself in wistful memories of the slender, healthy body he inhabited before the inauguration of this ‘blog, but is invariably distracted by the smell of melting butter.
Cate welcomes any and all comments, criticisms or questions about her recipes, ideas, style, and foibles. You can leave a note or request a recipe below, or e-mail cate [at] girlcate [dot] com. Complaints about blurry photographs and illegible fonts should be directed to kenan [at] girlcate [dot] com, as should advice for coming to terms with one’s imminent obesity.
you totally rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is sooo great!! now all that’s left to do is eat cake :))
xoxooxx
Dear Cate,
I have a bit of a problem. An intolerable craving for oatmeal chocolate cookies led me to throw some together a week ago using an old standby recipe from an old standby book. They were terribly disappointing. All flat and incoherent. Granted, the day was humid as hell underwater, but I still fear there’s something inadequate about the recipe itself. Help? Help!!
Yours,
Crumbling in Connecticut
Dear Crumbling,
I find that flat, baking soda-flavored cookies are quite a common problem for many home bakers (myself included). While there may be numerous reasons why your batch fell so short of the mark (and humidity can definitely be a factor), I find that oatmeal cookies in particular often suffer from dough that is so gooey that it spreads all over the pan and never gets a chance to puff up properly. But fear not: I made two (two!!) batches of those suckers this weekend, and in a couple days there will be a post detailing my travails and triumphs, and offering some advice I cobbled together from a combination of what I found on the interweb and my own experience. So keep your eyes peeled and your oven at the ready.
Love,
girlcate
just throwing this out there, as I commonly have the choc-oatmeal cookie cravings- I have made this recipe so many times and it is so delicious and the texture is great, because it uses a bit of rice flour: http://dcist.com/2005/07/27/baking_in_teais.php
i make them like normal cookies, even though the instructions instruct slightly otherwise, and I switch out raisins for choc chips. dont forget the sprinkle of salt- it makes the cookie.
This is SO FAB!!!!!! But much more constrained than our friend Amy Sedaris’. You know, the Sociology Dept. REALLY MISSES your baked goods (and you, of course).
Thanks, Daphne!! I figured I couldn’t really compete with Amy for the crazy, but maybe I’ll try to replicate some of the wacky stuff she does with presentation.
I miss you all, too, and PERHAPS I might consider sending a care package in the form of baked goods your way. Favorite type of cookie?
as you remember, sociologist will scarf anything up that is left by the mailboxes–just no nuts! And again– you will do superbly on the LSAT.
I’m glad we both neglected our long-standing Modern Lovers cake-bake-off. I had no idea you were such a baked good wizardess!
Those scones you used to make for the Tanklets stand out in my memory as the finest baked goods to pass through that kitchen (& my digestive tract).
You are pretty and your blog is too. Is that sortof the point? I hope so.
rk
Loved the butter reference–I am totally partial but agree that high quality butter, especially the organic pasture and European varieties–make or break it. I’d seriously take butter over chocolate any day.
Glad you liked it!
I just realized I hadn’t linked to the Organic Valley site in the post, so I fixed that. Seriously, that cultured butter is the best.
Thanks for stopping by!
girlcate
Cate, would be happy to send you some Organic Valley Pasture butter for your culinary adventures and also our new pourable/blendable yogurt. The plain and vanilla are especially good for blending and cooking with. Certified organic, probiotic, and sweetened with only pure agave nectar. Would love to hear what you think. Let me know and we’ll gladly send along some product. Macaroons: to die for, no thank you very much! Can’t think of anything else today! Yum!
ooh, does this mean we’re doing yogurt muffins? yes, please?
[…] our goodbyes before she flitted off to South Africa for a few months. As I’d just received a request for advice** on oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, I thought I’d prepare a batch to take with me to the […]