more recipe reviews

Last Saturday I had the privilege of helping one of my friends with a little retreat focusing on relationship with God and personal purity for girls in our community. The last item on the agenda was a fancy tea party, and that's where my help came in. I got to bake some goodies for the girls to enjoy as well as helping decorate and set the tables and serve the treats. I very much enjoyed being able to help.

The tea party gave me the opportunity to try a couple of new recipes. Here are the recipes I tried, the adjustments I made to them, and my impressions of the finished results.

The first recipe I made was Coffee Toffee Bars. This recipe is most definitely a keeper! It is quick and easy to make, and I loved the way the finished cookies tasted. Almost everyone who tried them who expressed an opinion to me also loved them. Benjamin was the only one who didn't really care for them. He likes neither bar cookies nor cookies with chocolate chips in them in general, though. As far as changes to the recipe, I used the optional two tablespoons of instant coffee and one-and-a-half cups of chocolate chips for the top. Also, I used vanilla extract instead of almond extract because I don't like almond extract. I will certainly be making these again; however, I'll make sure that I'm making them at a time when I can share because the combination of my love for them and Benjamin's disinterest in them could be bad. : )

Since the friend planning the tea party requested scones to go with the tea, the second recipe I tried was Petite Vanilla Bean Scones. I changed this recipe around quite a bit, though. I didn't have vanilla beans, so instead I flavored the scones with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg. I left the vanilla completely out of the glaze. I also substituted milk for the cream in the scones. The finished results, while delicious, didn't resemble the picture on the original recipe. The scones were not exactly petite and seemed to have a much looser crumb. They were, in short, more like lightly sweet, delightfully puffy biscuits. I'm certainly not disappointed with how they turned out and might even plan to make the recipe the altered way again.