Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

These cookies were pretty much some of the best cookies I've ever made. I made them for the family Christmas party and then for a New Year's Eve party. Delicious, all the way around. And the great thing is it's a basic chocolate cookie recipe that I just modified by adding peppermint chips, so you could just make chocolate cookies or modify them again by adding something else. I've been thinking of trying coconut, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, etc. I made them the first time using white flour, and the second time using whole wheat flour, and I'm told you can't tell the difference at all.

Recipe adapted from Dine & Dish
1 1/4 cups butter softened
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup Andes red peppermint chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, then add the vanilla.
In a separate bowl stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Gradually mix into the creamed mixture.
Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheets.
Bake 9 minutes in the preheated oven. Cookies will be soft and still look slightly doughy.
Let set and cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes then remove from sheet onto wire rack to cool completely.

Holiday Coconut M&M Cookie Bars

This is a picture of the awkwardly cut Coconut M&M Cookie Bars I made for Thanksgiving. Very simple, and the red and green M&Ms make it kind of festive. This is a very coconutty recipe, so you should definitely enjoy coconut if you're going to make this. The recipe comes from Satisfy My Sweet Tooth. I love making cookie bars, because they're so easy.

Coconut M&M Cookie Bars (adapted from Satisfy My Sweet Tooth)

Ingredients
10 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups M&Ms (red and green for a holiday feel)
Note: I didn't measure the coconut and M&Ms, and just added them by sight.

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Butter a 9x13 glass pan.
Melt butter in medium saucepan, remove from heat and let cool slightly.
In a large bowl and using an electric mixer, cream together melted butter and sugars. Add eggs, vanilla, and salt and beat until combined. Blend in flours. Finally, mix in coconut and M&Ms.
Pour into prepared pan and bake 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.
Cool completely before cutting and serving.

No BS Cookie Dough

Some friends of B and I's hosted a dinner last night, and while I was in the kitchen watching the wife through together an impromptu tziki sauce (yum), I noticed a funny little note taped to the inside of her cupboard. For her (now) husband's birthday she had given him a batch of homemade cookies every month for a year, with little month pull tabs to count off every time the batch was made.

And that made me think... I love cookies and wish that I had a good go to recipe that was simple and didn't require a lot of ingredients, so that whenever the mood struck me I could just whip up a batch.

This morning I set off to my local coffee shop, which has the best vegan cookies I've ever had (ok, the only vegan cookies I've ever had), and while I didn't get one (they also have the best breakfast burritos I've ever had, and those always win out) it got me to thinking what I would want my go to cookie dough to taste like. And then I remembered a time that I made honey based cookies instead of brown sugar based cookies. And then I was sold on my go to cookie dough.

I'm not a big fan of brown sugar. I think that it is a really over powering flavor, and also I hate that it dries out so fast and makes it had for me to keep a stock pile for on the fly cooking. So here's a new recipe for cookie dough for you all to try.

Please note that when your reading the recipe I've included measurements of everything because... we'll baking is a science... but I didn't exactly follow all of them. As our cooking together experience goes on you'll learn a few things about my measuring techniques, especially that I don't like to measure some ingredients (like extracts, spices, anything especially tasty, ect). So I'll include all measurements for those of you that like to stick by the rules, but will also indicate when I think you should just pour till it feels good, for those of you that like to blaze your own path.

No BS Cookie Dough

2 1/2 c. Flour

2 Eggs

1 tsp or till it feels good Vanilla Extract

1 c. White Sugar

2 tbs Honey ( I used clover, but bet any would be good)

1 1/4 c. Butter (I used salted, as this is what I had. But if I had used unsalted I may have added 3/4 tsp Salt)

6 0z or till it feels good Your choice of Mix Ins ( I used M&Ms to beat a craving, but you could use just about anything, as the cookies have a very soft taste and wouldn't overpower nuts, fruit, chips, ect)

Preheat oven to 380. Cream together butter, sugar and honey. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Add the flour and baking soda. Mix in your mix ins.

Place teaspoon sized balls of dough about 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart (these cookies don't spread much, so don't be too worried about it). Bake for 10 minutes, rotating 1/2 way through.

Yields about 50 small cookies.

Lemon Cookies

Last year, I found this lemon cookie recipe on a Livejournal community, and loved it. I've got a big lemon tree in my backyard that blooms like mad, and so this recipe turned out to be a great way to use some of my lemons. The cookies always turn out unbelievably soft, and I like them because they're not too sweet. (Have I mentioned I don't have a sweet tooth?) And, according to my youngest sister, they're "awesome." Sisters, they won't lie to you.

Recipe (from somewhere on the Internet)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
15-oz container whole milk ricotta cheese (fairly certain I used part skim)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Lemon Glaze
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the large bowl, combine the butter and the sugar. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated. Add the ricotta cheese, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Beat to combine. Stir in the dry ingredients.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon the dough (2 Tbsp for each cookie) onto the baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, until slightly golden at the edges. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for about 20 minutes.

Glaze:
Combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Spoon about 1/2 tsp onto each cookie and use the back of the spoon to gently spread. Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours.

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have leftover cranberries that I had to find a way to use so I settled on more baking. The holidays just put me in a baking mood, I think. I'm going to have a baking frenzy on Saturday. I love cookies. I don't eat a lot of them, but one good cookie is so satisfying. I picked this recipe from Just Another Foodie and modified it just slightly by using fresh cranberries instead of dried. I didn't know how that would turn out, but I think it turned into a fantastic success. I'll be making some more this weekend.

White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies (recipe from Just Another Foodie)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda, then stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in the white chocolate chips and cranberries. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets. (I very carefully made sure there was only one cranberry in each cookie so as not to overwhelm the cookie with any tartness.) Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Becky: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Cranberries

Coconut and Cranberry Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
scant 3/4 cup superfine sugar
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup dried cranberries
salt

1. Preheat the oven to 375F/190C. Line 2 cookie sheets with baking parchment.

2. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon, then beat in the egg yolk and vanilla extract. Sift together the flour and a pinch of salt into the mixture, add the coconut and cranberries, and stir until thoroughly combined. Scoop up tablespoons of the dough and place in mounds on the prepared cookie sheets spaced well apart.

3. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool on the cookie sheets for 5-10 minutes, then using a metal spatula, carefully transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

I got this recipe from my sister-in-laws cookie cookbook, 1 Dough, 100 Cookies by Linda Doeser. Originally I was going to make cranberry and orange muffins, but after taking off to my in-laws house for Thanksgiving in a hurry, I realized halfway up that I forgot to take the orange peel that I bought with me, along with my recipe. Rather than turn around, my sister-in-law let me use her cookbook and I thought that these cranberry coconut cookies looked delicious so I decided to give them a try.
The only thing I changed about this recipe was the coconut. Instead of the unsweetened coconut I used sweetened because that was all I could find. I'm sure the cookies tasted a little more sweet than they were supposed to, but the cookies still came out absolutely delicious. Even my husband, who does not like cranberries, liked the cookies, along with the rest of his family. They were absolutely addicting too. You definitely could not eat just one. Let me tell you though, after eating these cookies, I will definitely be working out tonight! Definitely not the healthiest cookie seeing as though they required 2 whole sticks of butter!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 lb butter, soft
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 1/2 cups rolled whole oats

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg (its not in the recipe, but I add about 1/8-1/4 tsp of ground cloves, too) into a mixing bowl.

3. Beat butter, brown sugar, sugar, eggs, and vanilla with a hand mixer at medium speed.

4. Sift flour mixture into butter mixture and mix well.

5. Fold in chocolate chips and oats.

6. Spoon 1.5 inch balls onto non-stick cookie sheet.

7. Bake at 350°F for 6-9 minutes, rotating half way through baking. (Should be lightly firm in the center when done) Be careful -- oatmeal cookies don't look done when they are, so they are very easy to over cook.

---Review---

Sorry for the real weird formatting up there. I copied and pasted from the recipe website and it seems to have made the text go all weird.

Anyway, these cookies were really good. They are B's favorite type, and so when I saw them featured on a blog that I frequent quite often I knew I had to make them THAT DAY.

I took the cookies out as soon as thy started to look even a little brown on the edges to avoid burning. This made them super soft, and they stayed that way.

I will not go on and on about how B took these to school, left my Pyrex container there and I haven't seen it since. Not going to talk about it. Not even a word... now I know how my mother feels.

Makes about 3 thousand cookies.

Spooky Brownie Cookies

1 package your favorite brownie mix

1 stick of butter

1 egg

1 bag Halloween M&Ms

Marshmallow cream for decorating

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Combine brownie mix, butter, egg and M&Ms ( I didn't use the whole bag, but most of it).

3. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Set about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes.

4. Let cookies cool. Decorate with marshmallow cream.

---Review---

I made these for a pumpkin carving party B and I hosted, and while I don't really love brownies, the cookies were pretty alright. I served some with the marshmallow cream and some without, but most people preferred with.

My marshmallow cream was actually marshmallow ice cream topping, which is a bit thinner than the regular cream. I had meant to make spiderweb designs, but the topping was harder to draw with than I had anticipated.

Makes a ton of cookies.

Snickerdoodles!

The first time I had ever a snickerdoodle was when a good friend of mine came to Tucson for a visit and brought cookies from her mom. Don't be shocked when I tell you that I was about 19 at the time. Apparently, snickerdoodles just weren't to be found in my childhood and that is a shame because they are delicious. And I don't even really care for cinnamon! I have got to stop baking cookies with ingredients I think I don't like. But here is a snickerdoodle recipe from my handy-dandy Better Homes & Gardens, 14th edition cookbook. Also, best cookie name. Ever.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (lacking this ingredient, a quick google search told me I could sub in three times the called for amount with lemon juice; that would be 3/4 teaspoons lemon juice)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

In a medium mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Add the 1 cup sugar, baking soda, and cream of tartar (lemon juice). Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Cover and chill dough about 1 hour or until easy to handle.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in sugar mixture to coat. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 11 minutes or until edges are golden. Transfer to a wire rack and cool.

Peanut Butter Cookies

While this might be blasphemy to some, I don't actually care for peanut butter. I don't dislike it so much that I refuse to eat it, but it's also not a staple for me. In fact, I pretty much never buy peanut butter. But I've got a friend who loves peanut butter cookies, and as a thank you for a favor, I made him some. And oh my, they were so delicious. I'm not a peanut butter convert, but I think I could definitely enjoy a good peanut butter cookie every once in awhile now.

Recipe from Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook, 14th edition:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

Beat butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and baking powder. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl. Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in remaining flour. If necessary, cover and chill dough until easy to handle. (I don't find it necessary to chill the dough).

Preheat over to 375 degrees. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten by making crisscross marks with the tines of a fork. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes (I bake for about 7 1/2 minutes) or until bottoms are light brown. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.