First Post! Lemon White Chocolate Cookies.

Hi! So I'm starting a blog because I like eating and trying different kinds of food here in Korea, as well as experimenting with baking in a country where it's a bit tricky. So I thought I'd start a blog. Thus, here goes it!

Today I was going to dive into working on some lesson planning but then decided to bake some cookies for the first time here in Korea. I have a lot of lemons since they've been really cheap, as well as some white chocolate chunks I bought in Seoul in case I needed them for cooking, so I decided to combine the two, and sure enough, there was a recipe online for 'em! You really can find recipe's for anything (Except for how to cook with cough drops which I feel like doing since I think they taste good. No one else has tried it! I smell a challenge!), so I, having all the ingredients, except for vanilla (Good luck finding that in Korea outside Seoul!, decided to give it a whirl. Ingredients Assemble!
So as I usually did, I went to Food.com, and found a recipe (275538 if you're interested!) and I had everything they required, so here's what you need:

1/2 Cup of Butter
1 Cup of White Sugar
1 Egg
A Tablespoon of Milk
Juice of One Lemon(They say one teaspoon but I squeezed a whole lemon and just threw that in there to make up for lost liquids from the vanilla
1 and 3/4ths Cups of Flour
1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
A pinch of salt
As many piece of white chocolate as you can cut up into small pieces and try to fill up a cup (I bought two bars of Japanese import DARS Chocolate at a 7/11 and ALMOST filled up a cup)
Lemon Zest of One Lemon!


First you do something called "Cream the Butter". This is when you take the butter, and the sugar, and you stir it in a circular motion really quickly with a fork. I've always done it with a pair of beaters, but as I don't have these I did a fork. It turned out okay! You mix it until it looks like a snow cone. Then I peeled the lemon using a carrot peeler, and put the little bits in a bowl. Then I microwaved the lemons to make them softer, and then squeezed them into a bowl and threw away the seeds. Then I threw all the ingredients, save the chocolate chunks, in a bowl.



Then came the mind-numbingly dull task of taking the chocolate and cutting into eighths.
Then you throw it all together, stir it with a whisk in my case (It was so thick it bent the whisk! Didn't know that was possible. O_o)
Then you throw it in the oven, and if you live in the US it needs to be at 350, but if you live in a topsy-turvy country that uses Celsius, then you do it at 175 degrees Celsius. They say you need to put them in for 12 to 15 minutes but mine baked in less then ten.
This is the end result. This is the first batch and they were a bit brown on the edges since I left them in for 12 minutes or so, but they were prettier then the second batch which I placed too closely together in the pan.

As far as taste goes, I think they were average, because they were a bit crumbly, but I gave them a few people who live on my floor and also our buildings janitor, and they liked them, and the janitor ended up taking 3, so I'm going to declare it a success! I also have enough to take to school tomorrow, so we shall see how they like 'em. I just started in a new office with new teachers and I've found that when in doubt and wanting to get along with the teachers in your office and make friends, bring food! Everyone likes food, and if you make it yourself, it really shows you care. Unless the food tastes bad. I think. Anyways, I'll see how they go over.

Also, I'm gonna try and close every entry with a useful Korean (at least since I'm learning it now) phrase. The best one that works for me and is always very useful when going to a restaurant is,

"Chal Mok Gae sum ni da." (잘 먹게습니다). Whenever I'm about to eat a meal someone gives me, I say that. We don't really have an equivalent in English, but it means, "I will eat this deliciously." It's nice and polite, and I always say it to the waitresses or cafeteria ladies I work with since I figure it could make their day.

Stay tuned for how to make a Slightly Burnt Cheesy Tuna Casserole! :)