Someone's in the kitchen with Mama

Q: What kind of person decides to bake scones upon arriving home from the hospital after having a c-section several days earlier?

(Ellen looks around the room and slowly raises her hand)

A: Me.

I know, I'm crazy. But I was so BORED in the hospital, I wanted to take something over to our neighbors to thank them for taking care of the dogs, and I thought baking might take the edge of the searing pain in my abdomen. And the scones were delicious.

This isn't actually about the scones though (Whole Grain Maple Oatmeal, if you were wondering, and I found the recipe here).

It's about the treats I baked 2 days later, Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours and Blondies adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Now, if you're wondering what the heck I'm doing spending so much time in the kitchen when I should be recuperating on the couch with my sweet little baby and a pint of Haagen Dazs, well there are a few answers (see above excuses for scone making), but the most important one is Operation Baking Gals.

A few weeks ago, while perusing Dorie Greenspan's website, I learned of a fantastic group of food bloggers who were joining together to bake for the troops. Basically, once a month all these wonderful people were going to bake treats and send them to a designated service member. Okay, so cookies? I love cookies! Supporting the troops? I love the troops! How could I not be a part of this? So I signed up and this week was my first round as part of Operation Baking Gals, and I figured what better time to introduce Wesley to the joys of baking? It's never too early, you know!


I had been wanting to make the Whopper Drops since forever, but I'd had to wait because it's darn near impossible to find certain ingredients around here, like malted milk powder. The Dutch just don't have it, and the commissary, well, I think I've voiced my displeasure with the selection of food at our commissary before. So I had to wait until Ben's recent trip to Chicago when he brought back all sort of goodies and hard to find items like tahini, turkey jerky, and malted milk powder. Mmm... but I digresss.

I had been dying to make these because:

Exhibit A


and

Exhibit B


How do you go wrong there?

And the finished product turned out very nicely.

I found myself wishing that the cookie itself was just a little more chocolately, but too much chocolate is never enough for me. I think for a person of normal tastes these would be lovely.

Wes agrees.

No, no, no feeding the baby cookies. I'm only teaching him to bake, not to eat. More treats for me that way.

Up next was the blondies, which I added a little espresso powder to and stirred in chopped white and milk chocolate as well as Kraft caramel bits (which I was VERY excited to find at the commissary this week. They stocked something I've been wanting! Hallelujah! I bought 6 bags because I know they'll probably be gone soon and then I'll never see them again).

Wesley was a super helper.



And the finished product was awfully good.


Ben was my taste tester and insisted that supporting the troops includes feeding him, too, so that batch may have been short a few blondies by the time I shipped it. Hopefully the soldier I sent it to enjoys them as much as mine did.

So, you may think I'm crazy with this baking thing, but as least I'm crazy for a good cause, right?