LES Girls Club Cookie Swap-The Results!

So, the cookie sale was yesterday and it was a great success!! Over $9,000 raised for the Lower Eastside Girls Club's culinary training program! And we seemed to have lots of satisfied customers (I had one adorable young boy who was a repeat customer), so hurrah! And to my great surprise, I won second place! But I'm kind of getting ahead of myself, so read on!


These are just some of the cookies I brought (I was up preeeeetty late the night before) These are a variation on the Rolo cookies, except they're stuffed with caramel, coconut, and pecans instead of Rolos. Anyway, I got to Le Vie with no mishaps, found my table, and said hi to my neighbors (Michele and Susan, both of who were great company!), and then immediately left to get (my second) coffee. Le Vie is a nice space, but it's a lounge and it was pretty dark in there! So, I did not get any great photos, and only got a couple of "okay" photos. But this year I had the foresight to go around and buy cookies before the doors opened...because once they did, we were all super busy selling! Okay, I'm going to stop talking so much and post some more photos:


Polka Dots, dairy free sesame cookies from Susan.


Chocolate Toffee Cranberry Deliciousness, from my other neighbor, Michele. Love the name of this cookie!


Gorgeous chocolate and candy cane cookies. Yeah, that's pretty much it for the photos that were actually taken AT the sale, but fortunately I did buy cookies and was able to take some better photos this morning:


Okay, now, I just have to say, this tin was for my brother, so I didn't get to taste everything. Well, hopefully he will report back!


Just some of the selection available. The brownie in the center of the top row was the 3rd place winner (I did not manage to get a cookie from the winner! Boo!)


A more detailed view. Aren't they all gorgeous? The judges walked around and sampled cookies and chatted with the bakers, which was great! I met Myriam Eberhardt (pastry chef at DBGB*, Sue Torres (chef/owner of Sueno), Nichelle Stephens of Cupcakes Take the Cake, Julie Christopher (from King Arthur Flour! Yay!), Jen Shelbo (pastry chef of Maialino), and Josh Ozersky, food writer/blogger/critic. At first I was deeply envious of their mission, but then I realized that they were going to be eating 25 cookies at one shot, and even if you only ate half of each cookie....that's still a WHOLE LOT OF SUGAR. Which might have done Josh in, because he mysteriously disappeared--I blame sugar crash.

Anyway, here's where I get self-indulgent--I don't think I've ever posted a photo of myself on this blog, but hey! I have to commemorate this somehow! So here's me with my gift basket prize!


There is so much stuff in it, but I am most excited about the King Arthur Flour cookie book (and the prosecco, heh!)--can't wait to start trying out recipes from it!!! So, thank you to the Lower Eastside Girls Club for putting on an awesome event, thank you to the sponsors (Fiji Water, King Arthur Flour, Mionetto Prosecco and Green & Black Chocolate), and thanks to the judges, and thanks to my friends who came out!! I am not responsible for any weight gain :) Can't wait for next year!!

*Afterwards, we went to DBGB to get some sausages and beer and Myriam came out to say hi! And then she sent us a whole bunch of desserts! Totally unexpected, but so nice. Here is a really terrible photo of us. Also, here is a better photo of me and Julie Christopher--okay, time to go start reading my new cookie books!

Cookie Test Run

I made a mini batch of the cookies I'm planning to bring to the LES Girls Club Cookie Bakeoff as a test run--what do you think? I'm pretty pleased with them! This is a variation on the ever-popular Rolo stuffed cookie, except instead of Rolos, it's stuffed with:


Toasted coconut and pecans! And a whole lotta caramel mixed in there too. Now I just have to make 6 dozen of these...:)

Don't forget to buy your tickets here!

Second Annual Lower Eastside Girls Club Holiday Cookie Bakeoff & Benefit!

So, I can hardly believe how fast a year has gone by! It's already time for what is one of my new favorite holiday events, the Lower Eastside Girls Club Cookie Bakeoff! Long time readers (heh, if you've stuck around for a year, I consider you a long time reader ;)) may remember my post about this fab event last year. Well, go take a look anyway, and get yourself in the mood! (And by the way, those are the monster cookies from Sarah over at Accoutrements Online--my favorite photo from last year's event. I hope this year I actually get to taste some of the cookies :))

Anyway, if you are in the NYC area, I highly recommend you come check this out. First, there are cookies (which will be priced between $0.50 and $2.00)! Lots of cookies, baked by 25 volunteers who obviously love cookies (including me!). Secondly, a $15 ticket gets you a cookie tin, a glass of prosecco, and the warm fuzzy feeling of helping out a great organization that provides important services in the community! I mean, how often can you say that about spending $15?

And if you need further motivation and are a baking nerd, you can meet some celebrities in the baking world! For more details and to purchase your ticket in advance (HIGHLY recommended, don't wait until you get to the door), click here.

Ahem, as for my cookie, I am still in the experimental phase. But rest assured, it will be over the top and be full of chocolate. Come on by, say hi :)

Details
Second Annual Lower Eastside Girls Club Holiday Cookie Bakeoff & Benefit
Saturday, December 18th
1:00pm-4:00pm
La Vie @ 64 East 1st Street (between 1/2nd aves) NYC
Tickets available here.

LES Girls Club Holiday Cookie Swap--the results!

Well this past weekend was very busy--as I mentioned before, I participated in the first Lower East Side Girls Club Holiday Cookie Swap and Bakeoff on Saturday and had a GREAT TIME. I did not win, but I didn't even care--it was a super fun time and I sold every single cookie I brought (about 120) and all in all, the event raised quite a bit of money for the Girls Club. Above is my display; I brought Totoro along to act as mascot (although no one recognized him!) and preside over my green tea shortbread and pineapple tarts. The judging was a bit disorganized and I wish I had had a chance to chat with them but it was so busy that I didn't chat much with anyone except for the lovely ladies on either side of me. I mostly got positive reactions to my cookies, except for the two girls who walked by and said "oh, these flavors are too...mature...for us". I'm still trying to figure out if I should be offended or not :) And, enough of my babbling, here are some photos of the other cookies on offer:


Candy cane meringues from the lady on my right! These were the only cookies I got to taste, and they were delicious.


Cherry Garcia cookies from the lady on my left! I really really wanted to try these, but she said they tasted just like the ice cream. Does that sound awesome or what?


Apparently I was having shaky hands (probably from lack of sugar) when I took this, but how cute is this display? Pecan tassies! They won third place or honorable mention, I can't remember which.


Multiple flavors of macarons. Yet another cookie I wanted to try. (Oh, let's face it--I wanted to try every single one.)


Gorgeous biscotti!


Monster cookies! The baker who made these also has a blog, complete with recipe, so at least I can make these myself and taste what I was missing out on. Cute name, cuter cookies!

I missed out on taking photos of the winning cookies, the ingenious Pie Pops made by Blondie and Brownie, but I have been assured by a friend who was lucky enough to score one that they were delicious. Besides, who DOESN'T want a pie on a stick? I hope someone was around to help them cart their enormous gift basket home--congratulations!!! :) The full set of photos from the event is here


Anyway, afterwards, we headed across the street to DBGB (and ran into several fellow bakers--great minds think alike!) and I had a Tunisienne. It was a fab day. Special thanks to my friends for coming out and supporting this event! Hope you had as much fun as I did. And here's hoping that they make this an annual event!