Stained Glass Cutouts

I have wanted to make these cookies for a while and I’m so happy I finally got to do them. I think the idea of putting hard candy into the cookies is so cool and unique. I also love the way it looks! This recipe only took about an hour and makes about one or two dozen. The cookie part came out very good and soft, but I did have a little trouble when making them. First I ran out of all-purpose flour and had to use flour that was better for bread. Although it didn’t really make a difference, it was still frustrating. Then, the dough came out a little too sticky so I had to add extra flour, that wasn’t too big of a deal, but still, it was frustrating and took some time until I got the right texture.

Ingredients:
½ cup butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup clear red hard candy (I used jolly ranchers so I could have different colors)
1 cup vanilla frosting, optional

Directions:
•In bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time; beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
•Combine flour and baking powder. Gradually add to creamed mixture.
•Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or until easy to handle.
•On lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8 in. thickness. Cut with cookie cutter and then with smaller cookie cutter cut out centers and place aside to reroll. Place cookies 1in. apart on baking sheets. Fill centers with crushed candy.
•Bake at 375 degrees for 7-9 minutes or until candy is melted and edges of cookies begin to brown. Cool completely on baking sheets. Carefully peel off foil. If desired, decorate with frosting.

Chocolate pretzels…sort of

Well you’ve probably noticed that the picture above does not match with the title for these cookies. Well, usually any problems that I encounter while baking cookies are missing a certain ingredient, forgetting an ingredient in the recipe, or trying to figure out a good way to put frosting or other toppings on the cookies. But I have never had a whole recipe go completely wrong and have no idea what happened. I have gone over this recipe like a million times, trying to figure out what I did wrong, but I can’t find anything. First, the texture of the dough came out all wrong. Every time I tried to roll out the dough to make the pretzels, it would just fall apart. So after about ten minutes of retrying, I gave up and just decided to make cut out cookies instead. And there was my second problem. I was able to roll out the dough with no problem and place the cookie cutters down, but when I went to take the shaped dough off and put it on the baking sheet, they would just fall apart. I made about twenty or thirty shaped pieces of dough and got only eight cookies on the baking tray in one piece. The rest would just fall apart when I tried to pick them up, so I had to finally give up on this recipe. I still can’t figure out what went so wrong in this recipe, but because it’s bothering me so much that I can’t figure out why I can’t make these pretzels I’ll probably retry this recipe again one day, or until I can get it right.

Mocha Crackle Cookies

This recipe took about one hour and makes around five dozen cookies. Now the recipe had a picture along with it, and my cookies, unfortunately looked nothing like it. The picture showed the cookie to be a darker shade of brown, whereas my cookies came out a lot lighter. But it was probably because I didn’t have chocolate squares, only chocolate chips, so I had to guess at how much I needed. The picture also showed the cookies not expanding as much as mine did, but I’m still not sure why. But besides all the differences with the picture and actual cookies, they came out pretty good.

Ingredients:
½ cup butter (no substitutes)
5 squares (1 oz. each) unsweetened chocolate
1 Tbsp instant coffee granules
4 eggs
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups plus 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour2 tsp baking powder
1/3 confectioner’s sugar

Directions:
•In microwave or saucepan, heat butter, chocolate, and coffee until chocolate is melted; cool slightly.
•In mixing bowl, combine eggs and salt. Add sugars.
•Stir in chocolate mixture; mix well.
•Combine flour and baking powder; gradually add to egg mixture to form a soft dough.
•Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until easy to handle.
•Roll dough into ¾ in. balls. Roll in confectioner’s sugar; place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets.
•Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Festive Shortbread logs

I really liked how these cookies came out. They were and stayed moist. The chocolate and nuts added to them tasted very good, it was a perfect topping to a shortbread cookie. I had no problems at all while making them. They took around thirty to forty five minutes to make and made about four dozen. I love how these cookies stay moist. I keep forgetting to put them in a container, but I’m starting to think that I don’t need to because they aren’t getting dry.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 tsp shortening
¾ cup ground walnuts (or pecans)

Directions:
•In a mixing bowl, cream butter and confectioner’s sugar. Add vanilla.
•Gradually add flour; mix well.
•With lightly floured hands, shape tablespoonfuls into 2 in. logs.
•Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes or until edges and bottom are lightly browned. Cool for 2-3 minutes before removing to wire racks.
•Melt chocolate chips and shortening; stir until smooth. Drizzle chocolate over half of the cookies. Dip one end of remaining chocolate, then sprinkle with walnuts.

Fudge-filled Dessert strips

These cookies are very tasty! The mix of chocolate, nuts, and cookie dough is perfect. The recipe took about one hour to make and made three dozen cookies. I did have a few problems while making these little strips. First, I had two different brands of cream cheese, each having a different type of texture to it and both of them were half empty. So I had to use both of these types of cream cheese in the recipe. I also had had a problem when folding the dough; some parts were too thin and broke when I folded the sides. Then, while I was trying to cut the dough into strips, because of the texture of the dough after baking was so fragile, many of the strips would brake in half. But other than those minor dilemmas, these cookies were pretty simple and not too messy.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
2 cups chopped walnuts
Confectioner’s sugar, optional

Directions:
• Cream butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually add flour
• Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth. Divide into fourths; cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until easy to handle.
• In saucepan, melt chocolate chips in condensed milk. Stir in walnuts. Cool to room temperature.
• On an ungreased baking sheet roll out each portion of dough to 11in. by 6-1/2-in. rectangle.
• Spread ¾ cup chocolate filling down center of each rectangle. Fold long sides to the center, press to seal all edges. Turn over so the seams are down.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 27-32 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Cut into ½ in. slices. Dust with confectioner’s sugar if desired.

Pecan Goody Cups

This recipe takes about forty five minutes to make and it makes about 4 dozen cookies. The only problems I had was forgetting to put the butter into the filling, but I don’t think it would have made a big difference since it was a small amount of butter. Because I had never made this recipe before I wasn’t sure how thin the cookies should have been. So the first batch of cookies came out a little thick and some were still a little bit raw inside, but luckily I was able to fix the second batch before I put the filling on and stuck them in the oven. I also didn’t have any miniature muffin cups, so I just shaped them by hand.

Ingredients:
¾ cup butter, softened
2 packages (3 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour

Filling:
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp butter, melted
48 pecan halves

Directions:
•Cream butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Gradually add flour, beating until mixture forms a ball.
•Cover and refrigerate for fifteen minutes.
•For filling: combine the brown sugar, eggs, and butter; set aside.
•Roll dough into forty eight balls. Press onto the bottom and up the sides of greased miniature muffin cups.
•Spoon a scant teaspoon of filling into each cup. Top each with a pecan half.
•Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for two to three minutes before removing to wire racks.

Fat-Free Chewy Chocolate Cookies

I have had a few people comment my postings asking for a fat free recipe, so I thought I would make one. The recipe I found sounded so good! I actually thought that because it was fat free the cookies would be made with ingredients that I wouldn’t like or come out tasting bland. But they came out pretty good…although they could maybe use some dark chocolate chips. This recipe took about thirty minutes to make and made about two dozen cookies...and by the way, these cookies taste better than they look!


Ingredients
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. Karo, light or dark (corn syrup)
3 egg whites

Directions
•Spray cookie sheets with cooking spray.
•In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
• Stir in corn syrup and egg white until blended (dough will be thick and slightly sticky).
•Drop by rounded teaspoon onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 7 to 9 minutes or just until set (cookies will be soft when pressed). Do not over bake. Cool on rack.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Grahams

So I thought I would try making a no bake recipe. These cookies are very fast and easy to make. They took about twenty minutes and made about five dozen cookies. The only problem I had while making them was covering them with chocolate. It took me a while to figure out a way to get them fully covered with chocolate without getting too messy, but I finally found a way. I figured out that it’s best to dip one side of the cookie into the chocolate and then placing then on the cookie tray and using a knife to spread chocolate on the rest of the cookie.

Ingredients
1 jar (18 oz.) peanut butter
1 package (16oz.) graham crackers, broken into rectangles
1 ½ pounds milk chocolate candy coating

Directions
•Spread a rounded teaspoonful of peanut butter on one side of half of the graham crackers. Top with remaining crackers.
•In a large heavy saucepan over low heat (or just use a microwave), melt candy coating; stir until smooth.
•Dip cookies in coating to completely cover, allow excess to drip off.
•Place on waxed paper-lined baking sheets; let stand until firm. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place.

Decorating cookies

There are many decorating techniques that I have wanted to do, but have not yet done because they take too much time. And I don’t want my cookies coming out looking like a mess. Some of the different techniques I have wanted to do with the cookies I’ve made are piping, dragging, and flooding the cookie dough, drizzling frosting or chocolate on the cookies, adding color to the dough, and using different types of frosting to put on the cookies. But the decorating technique that I want to do the most because I love they way cookies look with it is using stencils. I think this technique looks so cool on cookies, but I would have to have a lot of patience to do it because it can get mess and frustrating. Here are some websites that will go into more detail about the different techniques you can use to decorate any cookies you make.

http://www.bakedecoratecelebrate.com/techniques.cfm?cat=6
http://www.wilton.com/decorating/

Coffee Shortbread

I thought I would make another type of cookie that involved coffee. So I decided to make coffee shortbread. This recipe makes about 5 dozen cookies and takes about forty five minutes to make. Unfortunately these cookies didn’t stay soft after they cooled, but they didn’t get too hard either. The brown sugar and butter helped keep them a little soft. I was glad I made this recipe because I was able to use some of my cookie cutters that I haven’t used yet and I’ve been waiting to get a chance to use them.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
2 Tbsp instant coffee granules
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
½ cup semisweet chocolate chip, melted
½ cup vanilla or white chips, melted

Directions
•In a mixing bowl, cream sugars and coffee granules.
•Gradually beat in flour and salt.
•On a lightly floured surface, roll out to ¼ in. thickness. Cut with floured 2 in. to 3 in. cookie cutters.
•Place cookies 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets.
•Bake at 300 degrees for 20 – 22 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool.
•Drizzle melted chips.

Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies

These cookies took about thirty to forty five minutes to make and came out really nice. They also stayed soft after they cooled because of the applesauce in it. This time I did make a few changes to the recipe. I decided not to add raisins because I’m not a big fan of them, and I didn’t put any frosting on the cookies because I like them better without it, though I did make some of the frosting just to test it out. Also, I didn’t have any chunky-style applesauce so I just used regular and that made no difference to the recipe. For the frosting my dad got regular pancake syrup instead of pure maple syrup, so I had to use that instead, but the frosting still came out tasting good.

Ingredients:
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
½ cup chunky - style applesauce
1 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp coarse salt
1 cup golden raisins

1 ¾ cups confectioner’s sugar
3 Tbsp pure maple syrup

Directions:
•Make cookies: Preheat oven to 350. Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until combined.
•Add egg and applesauce, mix until well blended, 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix in raisins.
•Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart.
•Bake cookies until golden and just set, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack set over parchment paper; let cool completely.
•Make icing: Whisk confectioners' sugar, syrup, and 3 tablespoons water until smooth. Drizzle over cookies, let set.

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

I loved how these cookies came out! They stayed really soft, only took about forty five minutes to make, and made about three dozen cookies. Three dozen cookies in forty five minutes, I think that’s pretty good! Now if you want to, when it’s time to put the frosting, you can either put the frosting on the cookies the way it is or you can do what I did, which was putting it in the microwave for a few seconds so that the frosting will get a little thinner. I also think the cookies taste better with the warm frosting on it.

Ingredients
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, slightly softened
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Brown Sugar and Butter Filling
6 tablespoons softened butter, (slice 2 Tablespoons 3 times totaling 6 tablespoons)
3/4 Cup packed light brown sugar, (divided into 1/4 Cups)
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon, divided (1/4 teaspoon for each batch)

Frosting
8 oz softened cream cheese
1/2 Cup powdered sugar
2-4 Tablespoons milk, to thin icing

Directions:
•In a mixer, cream the sugar and butter. Add eggs, vanilla and sour cream until well combined. Slowly add in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt until well combined.
•Place in plastic wrap in a disc shape and chill for at least 2 hours for best results.
•Once chilled, cut disc into thirds and roll into a 1/8 inch thick oval, about 12 inches by 5 inches.
•Spread each rolled pieces of dough with 2 Tablespoons softened butter, 1/4 Cup packed brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Start rolling from the long end closest to you, rolling into a log shape. If your dough is too soft at this point put it back in the fridge to get harder. Using a sharp knife, cut 1/2 inch pieces of dough then placing onto a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet.
•Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. You are going to want to try to cook them longer. DON'T! Remove and let cool for 5 minutes before removing from baking sheet.
•To prepare frosting, beat the cream cheese until softened and smooth, slowly add powdered sugar and milk until desired consistency.

Chocolate Chip Cookies Using a Substitution

Since my last post was on different substitutions for ingredients in recipes I thought I would use one of them in a recipe. So I decided to use a recipe that I have already done and liked the way it came out. That way if the cookies came out bad I would know it was because of the substitution I used and not because of the recipe.

I think these cookies came out good! For these cookies I decided to use bananas to substitute the eggs. I was scared that you would be able to taste the banana used in the recipe, but luckily you don’t taste it at all. I also liked how the texture of the cookies came out. Last time I made this recipe the cookies came out crunchy once they cooled and they came out smooth looking on the top. But this time the cookies came out looking like they were made by Chips Ahoy or something (well that may be exaggerating a little). They were also still soft once they cooled and I love when cookies come out like that!


Ingredients:
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/4 t. Kosher salt
3/4 t. baking soda
2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. light brown sugar, packed
2 t. vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature
12 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt and soda. Give it a stir with a whisk and set aside.
3. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter for 1 minute. Then, add both the sugars and beat for at least 2 more minutes, until mixture is completely smooth. Beat in vanilla extract, and then scrape down sides. Next, add eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition.
4. With mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing well after each addition. Once the final portion is incorporated turn off mixer. Stir in the chocolate chips with a wooden spoon.
(At this point dough can be wrapped in plastic and set in the fridge for up to 48 hours. Or, wrap the dough in plastic and an outer layer of aluminum foil and freeze for up to 2 months.)
5. Drop cookie dough by the teaspoonful on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silpat, bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Cool on wire rack and eat while still warm!

Substitutions

Let’s say you are craving your favorite cookies and pull out the recipe to begin making them. So you’ve already begun putting the ingredients together, when all of a sudden you realize that you don’t have all the ingredients. Well, I have found a few substitutions that you can use if you ever get stuck in this situation. You won’t have to stop everything you’re doing to go to your grocery store because the ingredients you can use to substitute the missing ones in your recipe will most likely be found in your kitchen. If you want to know about more substitutions and about other substitutions for the ones I have already listed you can find them Here!


Substitutions
•Baking mix - 1 cup - 1 cup pancake mix
•Baking powder - 1tsp - ¼ tsp baking soda plus 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
•Brown sugar - 1 cup, packed - 1 cup white sugar or 1 ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar
•Butter (salted) - 1 cup - 1 cup shortening plus ½ tsp salt
•Buttermilk - 1 cup - 1 cup yogurt
•Corn syrup - 1 cup - 1 cup honey
•Egg - 1 whole - Half a banana mashed with ½ tsp baking powder
•Vegetable oil - 1 cup - 1 cup applesauce

Chocolate-Drizzled Shortbread

I loved decorating these cookies. I thought they came out so pretty, and I was able to use a frosting tool that my mom found in a cabinet a few weeks ago while cleaning them. They were fast to make, it only took about thirty minutes plus maybe ten or fifteen minutes to decorate. The recipe made about 1-1/2 dozen…but the cookies are made to be pretty small and thin, that’s the only thing I didn’t like, I would have wanted to make the cookies a little bigger and still be able to have 1-1/2 dozen. Also, because these cookies are shortbread cookies and are suppose to be very soft, when the dough was still raw, it wouldn’t stay stuck together and was hard to handle. But luckily when the cookies came out of the oven they were very good and stayed soft.


Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 tsp. shortening

Directions:
•In mixing bowl, cream butter and confectioners’ sugar. Then, beat in vanilla and mix well.
•Combine flour and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.
•Shape into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets; flatten slightly with a glass dipped in sugar.
•Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Immediately remove to wire racks to cool.
•For drizzle, melt chocolate and shortening; stir until smooth. Drizzle over cookies.

Chocolate Macadamia Macaroons

Surprisingly, these cookies were very fast and easy to make. When I first read the recipe and saw the picture I thought these were going to take a while to bake, but I was completely wrong, it only took about thirty minutes, and that’s counting the time they are in the oven! I made about 1 and 1/2 dozen cookies, but depending on the size you make them you will either have about 2 dozen or just 1 dozen. If you love coconut, then these will be perfect for you. The cookies have a strong flavor of coconut but are perfectly balanced out with the chocolate.


Ingredients:
2 cups flaked coconut
1/2 finely chopped macadamia nuts
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. baking cocoa
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
2 egg whites, beaten
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 squares (1 ounce each) semisweet chocolate

Directions:
•Combine coconut, macadamia nuts, sugar, cocoa, flour and salt.
•Add egg whites, corn syrup, and vanilla; mix well.
•Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets.
•Bake at 325 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until set and dry to touch. Cool for 5minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
•In small bowl, melt chocolate, stir until smooth.
•Dip bottom of each cookie in chocolate. Place on waxed paper, let stand until set.

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies

This is the perfect cookies for when you are in the mood for something sweet. The recipe took about 45 minutes and makes around two dozen cookies depending on size; I was able to make three dozen. What I liked about this recipe was that the middle of the cookies actually stayed soft. Usually cookies will be soft when you first take them out of the oven and as they cool they become harder, but because this recipe instructed to take cookies out of oven when the middle out the cookie isn’t fully cooked it allowed the cookies to stay soft. As I said in my previous post, if you refrigerate the cookie dough for a while to let it harden a little, you will be able to handle it better and could use cookie cutters on it.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup butter, melted
1 cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1½ cups chopped macadamia nuts
2 cups white chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease baking sheets or line with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
3. Beat together the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the egg, then beat in the egg yolk, then beat in the vanilla.
4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture until just moistened. Stir in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips by hand with a rubber spatula.
5. Roll into balls or drop by heaping tablespoons onto baking sheets, and press down on the cookies with your palm a bit to flatten (not too much!).
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges look golden brown and the middles don’t look quite set. Allow to finish cooling on the baking sheet.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies came out really good; I got many compliments from people saying that they really liked them. They took about an hour to make and made about 4 dozen cookies. I thought that was pretty fast for making 4 dozen! The only thing I changed in this recipe was adding less chocolate chips because I like the cookie dough better that the chocolate chips. To put the cookies on the baking sheet I took a spoonful of cookie dough and used the back of another spoon to push the dough onto the baking sheet. I had to use this method because the dough was sticky and not hard enough to handle with your hands, but if you refrigerate the dough for a while it will be easier to work with.


Ingredients:
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/4 t. Kosher salt
3/4 t. baking soda
2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. light brown sugar, packed
2 t. vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature
12 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt and soda. Give it a stir with a whisk and set aside.
3. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter for 1 minute. Then, add both the sugars and beat for at least 2 more minutes, until mixture is completely smooth. Beat in vanilla extract, and then scrape down sides. Next, add eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition.
4. With mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing well after each addition. Once the final portion is incorporated turn off mixer. Stir in the chocolate chips with a wooden spoon.
(At this point dough can be wrapped in plastic and set in the fridge for up to 48 hours. Or, wrap the dough in plastic and an outer layer of aluminum foil and freeze for up to 2 months.)
5. Drop cookie dough by the teaspoonful on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silpat, bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Cool on wire rack and eat while still warm!

Giant Red Velvet Cupcake

Now I know this isn’t a cookie, but I did have to bake it just like I would bake cookies, so in a way it’s kind of similar and goes with my blog. Red velvet is my sister’s favorite kind of cake and since a few days ago she came home with a box of red velvet cake mix for me to make for her, I decided I would put it in my blog. I didn’t use a regular pan to make this cake, instead I used a silicone, cupcake shaped mold set. I’ve been wanting to try this out for so long and I finally got to use it. The bakeware was easy to use, it wasn’t too floppy like most silicone bakeware and the cake was easy to remove from it.

I really liked how the box gave you a little booklet of ideas for different ways to decorate your giant cupcake and ideas for fillings that you could put inside it, such as ice cream, pudding, fruit, fudge, whipped cream, and more. Since my sister doesn’t really like frosting I decided not to put any on it and let her enjoy it the way she likes it.

Cream Cheese Cutouts

I know I made sugar cookies for my last blog, but I really wanted to try out this recipe. I thought it was different that it used cream cheese, it’s not something I would think to find in a sugar cookie recipe. So I wanted to see if the cream cheese would make a difference, and it did. I liked this cookie a lot better than the sugar cookies from my last blog. These cookies made about 7 dozen, took about 50 minutes (not counting time placed in refrigerator) and were simple to make. I was also happy that I got to use my different cookie cutter shapes since the last cookies were meant to be in a circle shape.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 package cream cheese (3 oz.), softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Frosting:
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons milk
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* food coloring and sprinkles optional

Directions:
•In mixing bowl, cream butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla.
•Combine flour and salt, gradually add to creamed mixture until blended.
•Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until easy to handle.
•On lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters dipped in flour and place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheet.
•Bake at 375 degrees for 7-8 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Then, let cool for 1 minute and remove to wire racks.

•In mixing bowl, beat frosting ingredients until smooth. Add food coloring if desired.
•Frost cookies and decorate with sprinkles.

Sugar Cookies

This week I decided to make classic sugar cookies; they took about 30 – 40 minutes to make and made about 2 dozen cookies. Sugar cookies are my second favorite kind of cookie behind oatmeal cookies. I really liked this recipe, the cookies came out very sweet and soft. They are the perfect kind of cookies to go along with a glass of milk. The only changes I made to this recipe was adding less salt because I only had salted butter and not unsalted as should be used in any recipe.

Ingredients:
2 cups granulated sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
14 Tbsp (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Directions:
•Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350°F. Spread 1/2 cup of the sugar in a shallow dish for coating and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside.
•Beat the butter and remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar together in a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3-6 minutes. Beat in the vanilla, then the eggs, one at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl & beaters as needed.
•Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly mix in the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Give the dough a final stir with a rubber spatula to make sure dough is combined.
•Line large baking sheets with parchment paper. Using wet palms, roll 2 Tablespoons of dough at a time into balls, then roll in sugar to coat. Place balls on parchment-lined baking sheets, spaced 2 inches apart. Flatten cookies with the buttered bottom of a drinking glass, then sprinkle and remaining sugar over flattened tops.
•Bake cookies, one sheet at a time, until the edges are set and just beginning to brown but the centers are still soft and puffy, 10-12 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking. Allow cookies to cook on baking sheet for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Fancy Peanut Butter Cookies

This recipe makes about 7 -1/2 dozen cookies and because it made so many cookies it took about 2 hours. Besides the recipe taking a little long everything else went great. I got many good reviews from my friends and family about these cookies. The only thing the recipe suggests is not to use reduced fat or generic brands of peanut butter because the cookies will not come out as good. A tip I’d like to give you is when decorating the cookies with the chocolate is, in case you don’t have any pastry bags you can put the melted chocolate into a Ziploc bag and cut a small hole in the corner to allow the chocolate to come out.

Ingredients:
1 cup shortening
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
¼ cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Frosting:
¼ cup butter, softened
¼ cup shortening
¼ cup peanut butter
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
dash salt

Icing:
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted
2 tablespoons milk

Directions:
• In mixing bowl, cream shortening, peanut butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
• Add eggs beating well after each addition. Then beat in milk and vanilla.
• Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well.
• Roll into 1inch balls and place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks.
• For frosting, in mixing bowl cream butter, shortening, peanut butter, and confectioners’ sugar until light and fluffy. Then, beat in milk, vanilla, salt until smooth, and frost cookies.
• Combine melted chips and milk; drizzle over frosting.

Walnut Chocolate Hearts

Since Valentines Day is coming up soon I thought I would make some Valentines Day cookies. When I read the recipe to these it sounded so good and I thought they looked really pretty too. This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies, takes about 2 hours, and wasn’t too hard to make. I did have a few problems with the recipe. First, I didn’t have chopped walnuts so I had to chop them myself, and then, I didn’t have a rolling pin so I had to improvise. In case you don’t have a rolling pin you could do what I did. I took an empty wine bottle from my dad, cleaned it and used it as a rolling pin, and it worked perfect. I also put some wax paper on top of the cookie dough when I rolled it out because when I didn’t have it on, the dough would break apart and wouldn’t roll out as smooth.



Ingredients
1 cup butter, cubed
2/3 cup packed brown sugar:
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, lightly beaten
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup baking cocoa
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cups finely chopped walnuts

Topping:
1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons shortening
½ cup ground walnuts

Directions:
• Combine butter and brown sugar in saucepan. Cook and stir over medium low heat until butter is melted. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool for 15 minutes and stir in egg.
• Combine flour, cocoa and salt, and add to butter mixture. Then, fold in walnuts
• Cover and chill for 30 minutes or until easy to handle.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with floured 3 inch heart shaped cookie cutter. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 9-10 minutes or until edges are firm. Remove to wire racks to cool.

• For topping, in microwave melt Chocolate chips and shortening on low heat, and stir until smooth.
• Dip half of each heart into chocolate mixture. Allow excess to drip off.
• Dip edges of dipped side into ground walnuts. Place on wax paper, let stand until set.

Loaded Oatmeal Cookies

This recipe makes around 12 cookies and takes about 40 or 50 minutes to make. It’s a pretty easy recipe; the only trouble I had was that all I could find at the grocery store were full pecans. Since the recipe asked for chopped pecans I had to chop them myself.
There were a few changes I did to the recipe. Because I don’t really like coconut, I didn’t put as much coconut flakes as it asked for, and I put in less chocolate chips.
A tip for when putting cookies on the baking sheet is to use a spoon to scoop as much cookie dough as you need and then use the back of another spoon to remove dough from the spoon and put on the baking sheet. It will help you to get the dough on baking sheet faster and in a less messy way.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup each, sugar and packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup flaked coconuts
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions:
•In a small mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Beat in egg and vanilla.
•Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; gradually stir in creamed mixture. Stir in oats, chocolate chips, coconut, and pecans.
•Drop in rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately remove to wire rack or just make sure it’s not stuck to the baking sheet.

Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies

I thought these cookies came out pretty good. They take about 30-40 minutes to make and are only in the oven for 10-12 minutes. The only problems that I had while making them were that I forgot to buy the unsweetened chocolate that the recipe asked for, but it really didn’t make a big difference. Instead, I added some more semisweet chocolate chips and that worked out fine for me, since I don’t really like unsweetened chocolate. I also didn’t place the cookies far enough on the baking tray so a few cookies turned into one giant cookie, but I did know that was going to happen when I put the dough on the trays. I just couldn’t find my other cookie trays.
The only thing I suggest is to have all of your cooking utensils ready before you start to bake. It will prevent you from walking in circles all around your kitchen, like I had to do because I forgot to take out the spatula, baking spray, and other stuff. I also suggest making sure you have all the right ingredients and that you check to see what you already have in your house before you go to the grocery store. At the grocery store I asked my mom if we had baking powder at home and she said that we had plenty, but when we got home I found that we had plenty of baking soda, not powder but soda, and although they do create the same effect, they could ruin a recipe if switched.


Ingredients:
3 squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped (1oz. each)
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (12oz.)
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1 tbsp instant coffee granules
1 cup 2tbsp sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Directions: (preheat oven to 350 degrees)
• In small saucepan, melt unsweetened chocolate, chocolate chips, butter, and coffee granules, stir until smooth. Set aside to cool.
• In mixing bowl, beat sugar and eggs for three minutes. Beat in chocolate mixture. Combine flour, baking powder and salt, and add into chocolate mixture. Stir in extra chocolate chips(optional)
• Drop rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes.

Why cookies?

Baking is one of my hobbies I enjoy most. It is a way for me to calm down and relax. I love being able to grab ingredients, mix them together, and end up with something tasty, well, hopefully.
The reason I chose my theme as cookies instead of just baking in general is because I usually don't make cookies. I always have cookie recipes that I really want to make, but because, to me, it's easier and faster to bake cakes and brownies I usually just make those and save the cookie recipes for another day when I'll have more time. So, to finally stop myself from procrastinating, I'm challenging myself to pull out all those cookie recipes that I've marked down or saved and finally get to baking them. While I'm doing this I'll also be giving you guys the recipes, some helpful tips, and what my thoughts were about trying out these recipes. I hope you'll enjoy!