Angry Birds Pig Cookies

If you are a human living on this earth, you have heard of Angry Birds. And if you have downloaded it, you know that the pigs’ stupid-yet-cute faces are the best part.

This is not the first time I have expressed my love of pop culture in baking. For the Lost season six premiere last year, I made cookies in the shape of Dharma fish biscuits. So it was really only a matter of time before I decided to do another food-based art project. A visit to my boyfriend’s family in Houston (his mom loves the game) seemed like the perfect opportunity.
These are actually much easier to make than they may seem. The cookie recipe takes no time at all and requires no special ingredients, but you will have to go out for the detailed decorations. I got the sugar eyes at the most dangerous store in the city, New York Cake & Baking Supply on 22nd Street for $2.99, but you can definitely get them on Amazon. For the snouts and other details I used a small tube of black gel icing, which you could also use for the eyes with a tube of white.
This recipe makes twelve cookies, but since I halved the recipe I adapted it from, it can be easily doubled if you’re making them for a party. You can use all all-purpose flour instead of using some whole wheat, but it won’t affect the taste and the whole wheat gives the cookies a nice golden color. I strongly suggest rolling out the dough and cutting circles with a cookie cutter–I was in a rush for time and just rolled the dough into balls which I then flattened, which made for messy edges. You’ll still need to form the snouts by hand, unless you have a very tiny cookie cutter. Note that these pig bases do not have ears because they will burn before the cookies are baked through. They just won’t hear you squeal with delight. Heh heh heh.

For the Dough (recipe adapted from Bon Appetit Desserts)
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
6 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole-wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

For the Glaze
1 to 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
green food coloring

Decorations
candy eyes
small tube black gel food coloring (also white if not using candy eyes)

To Bake:
Beat butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer at medium speed until fluffy, about four minutes. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined (batter will look curdled). Add flour mixture and mix on stir until just combined. If making the quick, ball-and-smash way, form dough into a disc and chill until somewhat firm, one hour. If rolling cookies out, separate into two, form into discs, and chill until firm, at least two hours.

After chilling, line two baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350 degrees. If using quick method, grab large tablespoonfuls of dough and form twelve balls (you should have some dough left over). Space evenly apart on one cookie sheet and use the bottom of a glass to flatten to 1/4 an inch thickness. I highly recommend dipping the glass in flour before each flattening. Cookies might touch; this is okay. If rolling out, roll out dough to 1/4 an inch thick and cut twelve circles using a 3-inch cookie cutter and place on one cookie sheet. Using remaining dough or dough scraps, take a scant teaspoon at a time and form into ovals, also about 1/4 inch thick. You may have a few extra snouts, this is okay because you now have a snack. Place snouts on other cookie sheet.

Put sheets in oven and bake for six minutes, then remove snouts and bake bases for six more. Let snouts cool on sheet, but immediately move bases to cooling rack.

To Decorate:
In a medium bowl, stir together milk, vanilla and 1 cup sugar until smooth, adding more sugar if necessary to create a glaze that is thin enough to spread, but not too drippy. Add green food coloring until desired shade is achieved. If you use liquid food coloring (I used gel), you may need to add additional sugar to reach the right consistency. Working one or two cookies at a time, spread glaze on base, then a snout, and then gently press snout into base to adhere. If using candy eyes, gently press one next to each side of snout. Once all cookies are assembled, let glaze set for 20 minutes, then pipe on snout nostrils and little smiles. If using gel colors for eyes, let white set a few minutes before adding black. Store in a single layer, and try not to get blown up by birds.

One-Bowl Cakey Brownies Even Fudgy Fans Will Love

Like most people who consider baked goods to be a major food group, I keep basic baking ingredients on hand at all times. It keeps my shopping list small when I want to try something new and fancy, and means I don’t have to shop at all when I get in the mood to bake something.
I’m very into seizing the day when it comes to food, so when our muggy New York City summer took a holiday a few days ago and the temperature suddenly dropped to 70, I went on an oven-using spree. I’d been wanting to use the Bon Appetit desserts book I got for the holidays more often, and immediately hopped off my cookbook-covered bed and into my kitchen when I saw a really simple brownie recipe in the book. Anything that allows you to only have to wash one pot or bowl is a winner in my book.

Naturally, I didn’t realize until after I had already started melting the butter that the recipe called for unsweetened chocolate, while I only had semi-sweet, and not enough of it. This is why you should study both the recipe AND your pantry before you start cooking, folks. Obviously, this did not stop me, and I set about altering the recipe to keep it from being too sweet. I cut sugar, added cocoa powder and chocolate chips, baked it in a smaller pan than called for because that was what I had, and hoped for the best.
Here is a very important fact about me: I generally like my cookies and brownies underbaked. Real underbaked. Basically just warm dough or batter, really. Whenever I give you a baking time for these things, I’ve usually baked them for less. So you can imagine my disappointment when I cut into these brownies and discovered that they had a cakey texture. I resigned myself into just bringing them all to work…until I bit into one. Lo and behold, somehow these brownies were actually quite fudgy despite their appearance! They’re still not a true, goopy fudge brownie, but they ARE the perfect medium and a great bar to appeal to brownie fans across the spectrum. I suspect if you baked them a little less than I did they might even be a tad closer to my ideal, but either way, you should make them now. Unless you live in any state having a heat wave, which I think at this point is all of them, in which case I’d suggest waiting until the weekend if you don’t have central air (and if you do, I am oozing with chocolatey jealousy).

One-Pot Brownies
3 ounces semi- or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (if you have dark powder, I think it would work great)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
generous 1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8×8 baking dish with foil in one direction, then the other, leaving an overhang on both sides. Grease foil.

In a medium saucepan, melt butter and chopped chocolate over medium heat, stirring frequently just until almost melted. Turn off heat and stir until completely melted. Let cool slightly, at least 15 minutes.

Whisk sugar into cooled chocolate/butter mixture, then eggs and vanilla (hopefully you did not break your whisk, because if you use a scrambler thing like me it will take forever), whisking until eggs are well combined. Add cocoa powder, flours, and salt, and whisk until combined. Stir in 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

Pour batter into prepared pan and top with remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips. Bake until brownies look set and a toothpick inserted comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 30-35 minutes, but start checking around 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool until warm in pan, then use foil to remove from pan and let cool completely on wire rack. Slice into 16 squares and enjoy, especially if you’ve got whipped cream lying around.

Spinach Quesadilla With Sriracha Sour Cream

There are a lot of dangerous things you can do in life. Swim in shark-infested waters. Get in a cage with an angry lion. Lick a subway pole. But perhaps the most dangerous is drunk food shopping.

Have you ever stopped at the store for bread and eggs after happy hour? Don’t do it. Oh sure, you’ll get your bread and eggs. But you’ll also get all sorts of things you don’t need. Like a giant bottle of sriracha.

Don’t get me wrong. I love sriracha. I visit the Schnitzel Truck on a regular basis not so much for the schnitzel but for their sriracha mayo. But the supermarket sells smaller bottles of sriracha–drunk me just thought that the biggest bottle possible was the only acceptable option, so that I could make a gallon of sriracha mayo. Do you see what it says? I own more than one pound of sriracha.

Here’s the thing about the sriracha mayo though. I don’t like mayonnaise. I can tolerate it if someone else has smeared it on a BLT for me, and I can enjoy the sriracha mayo because I think of it as a sauce, but mayo and I, for the most part, do not get along. It’s just so…gloppy. In fact, I am morally opposed to buying it. When I was growing up and my mom bought mayo, my dad and I would throw out the bottles as soon as we found them. She had to resort to stealing little packets from delis and hiding them.

So when I sobered up came to my senses, I had to think of something else to mix my giant bottle of sriracha with. What’s close to mayo in consistency but far less gross? Sour cream. What’s sour cream best with? Quesadillas. Quesadillas with lots of cheese. And some spinach, because healthy vegetables cancel out cheese. Fact.

Another fact: you can use the leftover sriracha sour cream on everything. Dip chicken nuggets/cutlets in it. Put it on sandwiches. Have it with your eggs. Make more quesadillas. If you choose to just eat it with a spoon, I won’t tell anyone. I promise.

Spinach Quesadilla With Sriracha Sour Cream (serves one but can be easily doubled)
8 oz. container of sour cream
1/2 tablespoon sriracha
one large or two medium whole wheat tortillas
2 cups chopped frozen spinach (measured frozen)
3/4 to 1 cup shredded cheese of your choice (i use Trader Joe’s lite three-cheese mix)
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
small pinch red pepper flakes

To make the sauce:
Open container of sour cream and remove about a tablespoon. Add sriracha and mix until well combined. It will keep in the container (no extra dishes, yay!) for about as long as the date on the bottom of the container.

To make the quesadilla:
Defrost spinach according to package directions. Dump out into a clean, colored dish towel, roll up and wring out as much extra liquid as possible. Unroll. Spread two tablespoons sriracha sour cream on half of large tortilla (or on one medium one). Sprinkle half of cheese mixture over, followed by salt, pepper, garlic powder, and red pepper. Top with spinach, followed by the rest of the cheese.

Heat a grill pan or other non-stick pan over medium-high heat until hot. Spray with non-stick cooking spray or, if you’re me and keep forgetting to buy non-stick spray, pour a little vegetable oil into the pan and spread with a paper towel. Cook quesadilla for about four minutes until cheese starts to melt, then carefully flip and cook another three to four minutes until cheese is completely melted. Cut into wedges and serve with more sriracha sour cream if desired (and I think that you should).