Ducky?

The last few weeks have been a roller coaster.  More than anything at this moment, I am appreciating my awesome co-workers-- I'm going to savor the next few months with you.  As well as dedicate this post.

As I've said before, one of the really cool things about where I work is that I have easy access to some really fresh (and sometimes unusual) ingredients. You know I love to experiment with ingredients.  Whether it's farm-fresh goat cheese or pure maple syrup.

Or....duck eggs, courtesy of Andrea.

For your information, duck eggs are very similar to chicken eggs, except they have a bigger yolk.  If you have access to these big beauties, they're great to bake with because the extra yolk makes your goods extra moist.  However, you need to be an experienced baker in order to know how to adjust your recipe to account for this extra moisture (and I am not).  Sadly, I overcooked my cookies a bit.  But otherwise they came out pretty good.

Fresh from the duck.

Look at the size of that yolk!

Extra-moist chocolate chip blondie bars.  And a glass of milk.  In a pint glass.  Just like when we were kids.  (Just kidding, mom!)

Interestingly, duck eggs have a... ducky flavor.  This recipe for chocolate chip blondies only calls for one egg, so only the most perceptive eaters noticed a difference.  But Andrea did say that recipes that call for a lot of eggs don't work well because the duckiness gets overpowering.

Thanks, Andrea!  And bakers, keep your eyes peeled for duck eggs.  I'm not sure if you can buy them anywhere... I haven't seen them... but I bet you have friends with ducks.  Doesn't everyone?

"Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget."