Tag: cookies

Cookies · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Uncategorized

Sugar Cookies (taken from Martha Stewart Cookie Cookbook)

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These sugar cookies are so very good and so very easy. Because they have a little brown sugar in them, the flavor has a little different twist.

One of my dear friends tells me that these are now her very favorite cookie and to please keep them coming.

3 cups flour

1 teas baking soda

1/4 teas salt

1 3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 cup of softened butter, unsalted

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 teas vanilla or almond extract

Granulated sugar, or Colored sugar for coating

Preheat oven to 350. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.

Put the brown sugar and 1 3/4 of the granulated sugar in a bowl. Add the butter and mix until mixture is well combined and fluffy. Add the vanilla or almond extract and mix in well.  Add the eggs, one at a time and beat after each addition.

Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in gradually. When cookie dough is completely blended,, use a 1″ cookie scoop  and dip the top of each cookie into colored or granulated sugar and space about 2″ apart on parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake cookies until golden, about 10 minutes, or until they are done. Time depends on your oven. Transfer cookies to wire rack. Let cool completely. Can be stored in airtight container for about 3 days. I usually wrap some in wax paper, then put in freezer bag and freeze for later when we are needing something sweet, like every night.

Chocolate · Cookies · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Uncategorized

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

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Cookies · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Fruit · Uncategorized

Strawberry Bar Cookies

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This month is flying by. We have had friends from California visiting and so much going on that I have really been in a baking mood. There is a book series by Joanne Fluke called the Hannah Swenson Mysteries. They all have desserts in the title and each book centers around the Swenson sisters who run The Cookie Jar in a small town. These little mysteries are easy reading and have recipes at the end of most chapters. The current book I am reading is the Raspberry Danish Murder.

The recipes are absolutely great. Last night I made the recipe called Sweet & Salty Strawberry Bar Cookies. I substituted Apricot jam as I didn’t have any strawberry jam in the house and didn’t want to run to the store at 8 p.m. Trust me on this, they apricot was wonderful. Am going to make the Butterscotch Marshmallow Bar Cookies next. The ladies who had them this morning at our house loved the Apricot Bar Cookies. So if you are not in the mood for a murder mystery which centers around food, here is the recipe.

The Crust & Topping

2 cups salted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 teas vanilla
4 cups all purpose flour

(I actually halved this recipe for last night in case it wasn’t what I thought it would be and it turned out really good.) So will make the full version next time.

Strawberry or (Apricot) Filling

11.75 oz jar strawberry topping or preserves ( used an 11.5 oz jar of apricot preserves and it was fine)
1 cup white chocolate or vanilla chips
2 tables whipping cream
1 tesas vanilla 2 teas sea or other salt (the coast ground kind (I didn’t even use the salt)

Spray a 9×13 pan with Pam.
Using a hand electric mixer, combine the softened butter, granulated sugar and powdered sugar. Beat on medium until mixture is light and creamy. Add the vanilla. Mix it in until well combined. Add the flour inhale-cup increments, beating at Low speed after each addition. Beat until mixture is well combined.
The dough will appear soft, that is how it should be.

Remove a generous cup of this dough and wrap it in Saran Wrap and place in fridge for about 30 minutes to chill. You will use this chilled dough to crumble on top of the preserves.

Using remaining dough, place in greased baking pan and using your fingertips, evenly spread in the pan, pressing all the way to the edges. Bake this crust in preheated 325 oven for about 20 minutes.

While crust is baking, take your preserves and empty them out in a microwave safe bowl. Add the vanilla chips and whipping cream to the preserves and cook in microwave for about 30 seconds. Stir mixture and place back in microwave in 20 second intervals to melt chips. When crust comes out of oven, allow to cool about 15 minutes before pouring the preserves over it. When chips are melted, add the vanilla and stir.

Pour the preserve mixture over the crust. Next sprinkle the salt over the fruit then Crumble the chilled dough over the preserves and place back in 325 degree oven. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the filling is bubbly and crust is golden brown.

Remove from oven and place pan on wire rack to cool completely. Do not cut until they are cool as the filling will need to set. Cut in brownie size pieces.

Chocolate · Cookies · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Uncategorized

Rodelle Baking Cocoa

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Last year i discovered this wonderful cocoa, so rich and dark in flavor that it has replaced my regular cocoa in almost every recipe!

This year it was at Costco for $6.99 /25 oz bag so i bought enough bags to last me until i go to a nursing home or Jesus returns (personally i pray for that to happen first, maybe I’ll be raptured with a bag of Rodelle in my hand!)

Wanting to make cookies for a car trip to Sedona tomorrow with some friends, i looked up some recipes on my blog of which i hadnt made in a while and wa la….these popped up! So first batch is out and instead of the ganache filling the recipe calls for, i used Hershey kisses for the middle! Using the Thumbie, it is so easy to make perfect indentions for the kisses! Am also making some of these using raspberry jam in the middle! Love the flavor of raspberry and chocolate together! If you dont have Rodelle cocoa, you can use Hershey, they just wont be as chocolatey!

(Dont want go make Hershey people sad because I like Rodelle better, I want them to know NOTHING is better than a Hershey kiss, except a kiss from my hubbie)IMG_1642

Chocolate · Cookies · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Uncategorized

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle

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Something else to get addicted to, as if I didn’t have enough already. Thank you Patti for sharing with us and for introducing me to something else that I will now have to keep locked up, after making it. This will be so great to have on hand for all the company that will be coming during the Fall. (as if there will be any left when they get here)

Taken from Pinterest (Fivehearthome.com) after finding out that this is a recipe I can’t live without and Patti told me where to find it.

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teas baking powder
1/4 teas baking soda
1/4 teas salt
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, melted and slightly cooled
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 teas pure vanilla
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut, toasted

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a large jellyroll or cookie sheet with butter.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, mix melted butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until incorporated. Slowly stir in flour mixture until blended. Stir in chocolate chips, pecans and coconut. The dough will be crumbly.
Press dough onto prepared pan in an even layer, forming a rough rectangle approximately 10″ wide and 15″ long. Bake for 19 minutes or until the cookie is golden brown and seems crisp. Set pan on a wire rack and allow to cool completely before breaking slab into irregular pieces. Stop in an airtight container. Would show you a picture of it but I already ate all of what she brought over. You can see Pictures on Pinterest.

Chocolate · Desserts · Uncategorized

Cappuccino Crinkles

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img_3919Looking for a new cookie recipe, I came across this one in Better Homes & Gardens Bars & Cookies recipe book.  Since I didn’t have any yogurt, I substituted sour cream. What I can tell you is that Randy and I ate so many of them as they cane out of the oven that I am having to make another batch tomorrow for the event which I was suppose to take them to. They are a great cookie and you will not be disappointed in the coffee-chocolate flavor.

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tables instant coffee crystals

1 teas baking soda

1 teas ground cinnamon

2 egg whites

1/3 cup vanilla or plain yogurt (I used sour cream)

1 1/2 cup flour

1 teas vanilla extract

1/2 cup granulated sugar

In a large bowl, beat butter with mixer on medium for 30 seconds. Add the brown sugar, cocoa, coffee crystals baking soda and cinnamon. Beat until combined.

Beat in egg whites and yogurt and vanilla extract. Beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer. If it gets to thick, use wooden spoon to mix in any remaining flour.

Place the granulated sugar in a bowl. Drop dough by heaping teaspoons (I used the middle size cookie scoop)  into sugar and roll into balls. Roll again in sugar. Place balls 2″ apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are firm. Transfer to a wire rack and cool. Makes about32 cookies.

Desserts · Holiday Fare · Uncategorized

Peanut Butter Blondie

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IMG_3251.JPGIn Cooking With Paula Deen’s Thanksgiving magazine, I read over this recipe and just finished taking it out of the oven. Could not wait for it to cool to taste, so my mouth has a burn spot, but it was worth it.  So perfect for those Fallish nights when you are thinking to yourself, “what would taste good that is simple, easy and just perfect to scoop in a bowl with ice cream or whipped cream so I can watch a Hallmark movie while munching.?”

Well, here it is, the perfect Hallmark Movie Munchie….

Makes 4 servings, 3 for you and 1 for who you are watching the movie with…

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 large egg, room temp

2 teas vanilla

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teas kosher salt

1/2 cup peanut butter, melted

Ice cream or whipped cream and chopped peanuts if desired, but I used crunchy peanut butter since I didn’t have any extra peanuts laying around the house today.

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 4 (4″ cast-iron skillets with baking spray and flour. (I used the butter wrapper to grease the skillet and used one 6″ cast iron skillet instead of the 4)

In a medium size bowl, beat butter and brown sugar with a mixer on medium speed until fluffy, 2-3 minutes. (I didn’t use the mixer because my beaters were in the dish washer and I’m lazy and didn’t want to get them out and wash them) So I stirred until butter and sugar were very well mixed. Add the egg and vanilla and beat like crazy, or until they are well incorporated into the butter sugar mixture.

In a small bowl, whisk together the salt and flour (once again, I skipped this step and sprinkled salt over the butter mixture and then added the cup of flour and just stirred until there were no more lumps in the batter. (You would think that all this stirring would burn a calorie or two, and maybe it did, but since I will probably devour the entire skillet, the calorie I burned won’t take me down a size.

When you have poured the batter into the skillet or skillets, melt the peanut butter and spread it over the batter.

Bake on lowest oven rack until golden brown and set, about 25 minutes. Because I made mine in the one skillet, I had to bake mine about 33 minutes. I also added chocolate chips (about 1/4 cup) and then drizzled some chocolate frosting that I had left over from  a cake yesterday. So there it is, the best little skillet blondie and just in time for all the Christmas movies which I cannot wait for them to begin. Happy Fall Y’all!

Cookies · Desserts · Uncategorized

Gooey Monster Cookies

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img_2922Yesterday I went to a cooking class and learned such cute and delicious, but easy recipes to use for Halloween. I have made cookies from a cake mix before but really didn’t  like them too much, UNTIL NOW! The cream cheese does the trick. The instructor teaching us these cute little “tricks” used Candy eyeballs that she got on the baking isle at Walmart “witch” made them so cute.  Be sure to use  gel (instead of water based )food coloring to the dough, as the water base will change the consistency of the cookie dough.

Ingredients

1 box Duncan Hines Cake Mix

1/2 cup butter, softened

8 oz of cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1/2 (I used 1 teas) teas vanilla

Powdered sugar

Gell Food Coloring

Candy Eyeballs or other sprinkles that you like

 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350.

Beat the softened butter, cream cheese and egg until light and fluffy. Mix in the dry cake mix. Beat until well mixed. Divide batter between individual bowls for the different colors you want to make.  Add the food coloring to your desired shade of dough. Stir well to blend.

Chill dough for 30 min to 1 hour, covered. Roll into balls (about 1″ in size) and dip in the powdered sugar, being sure ball is pretty well covered in the powdered sugar. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet and pat down with the bottom of a glass to flatten it a bit.

Bake at 350 for about 9-10 minutes. Add candy eyeballs or sprinkle when cookies are still warm.

*I have found when cooling cookies, that they tend to not get as crisp if I cool them on paper towels instead of just cooling racks. We like soft cookies so I never use cooling racks.

 

Chocolate · Cookies · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Uncategorized

Brookies

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Yesterday I had a meeting to attend and it is one I go to once a month. For some reason I have decided this past year that I cannot go unless I have dessert in my hand to pass around. After asking the friend who leads the meeting what she would like to have me bring for our enjoyment, she told me she wanted brookies. Well, I had never made brookies. It is a brownie and chocolate chip cookie combined. I admit I was in my lazy mood, so I ran to the store, thinking I had seen box mixes of these delicious looking morsels and there on the shelp were two different brands of brookies. One was Betty Crocker and the other was Nestle. I got one of each wanting to do a comparison bake.

After baking both boxes, both Randy and I decided that the Nestle was definitely the winner. The chocolate chip cookie part of the brookie tasted exactly like a homemade chocolate chip cookie.  Of course both boxes used a stick of butter, which will always make baked goods taste more like homemade, but the Nestle brand truly was the better brand. I ended up making them in cupcake pans instead of a 8×8 and then topped each one with a dollop of chocolate frosting. The recipe for the frosting is already on the blog. They were devoured and I brought 4 home which I have hidden away. I did make myself share one of them with Randy since he was so sweet to drive me to the store to buy them in the first place. Since today is cold and wind chill is in the 20’s, I am so glad I still have 2 left as a treat to have with hot tea today.

Cookies · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Uncategorized

Little Debbie & Little Trudy

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2016 is starting off with a bang! We have discovered some very important facts:

  1. We are now the old people that we use to laugh at. This morning while making Randy some toast, my phone binged with a text. I went to respond and Randy ask me who was texting me so early in the morning. I told him that it was Mandy (our daughter-in-law) and she ask me to take her to Costco so she could get a few things. He looked at me kind of funny and I ask him why. He said (and I quote) “why are you taking Mandy to the hospital?” My response was, (and I quote, in a very loud voice) “you old geezer,  I’m not taking her to the hospital, I’m taking her to COSTCO!” We both just died laughing, realizing that we were now the people that we use to laugh about when we would see a cartoon about 2 old people who totally misunderstood the conversation. Hospital-Costco, not really seeing how those two words are even remotely mistaken for the other. His excuse was that he wasn’t able to fall asleep until about 4 a.m. and that he was not deaf, just tired. Yeah, sure….that’s why the TV volume is turned up to 45.
  2. Now to the second new years finding. I am hooked on Little Debbie anything. At 65 years of age, I had never tried any of the  Little Debbie cookies or baked items. I always just thought all those cookies, brownies and little miniature cakes were for folks who never baked or just had them around the house to throw in their kids lunch boxes. Well, during Christmas, Frosty went shopping and brought home a box of Little Debbie Gingerbread cookies. We went through about 5 boxes. Admitting that we even went as far as him dropping me off at a couple of stores for me to run in to see if they had any boxes of them left, we savored the few we had and hid them from the grandkids so they we wouldn’t have to share the few we had left. Are we just the best grandparents or what?
Well, today, we are out running from store to store to buy items for gift bags for a ladies tea on Sunday. We walked down the Little Debbie cookie aisle and Randy begins to tell me how good the oatmeal cream filled cookies are. He reminds me that our friend Gary (to keep your reputation safe, Gary I won’t say your last name as anyone who comes into your courtroom might make fun of you for being in love with Little Debbie Oatmeal Creams) was also talking at dinner the other night about how good those little gems were, so Randy isn’t the only one our age that was in love with Little Debbie. So we put 8 boxes in the basket (we only needed 7 for the gift baskets, but he wanted to be sure we had some for us as it makes watching re-runs on TV not so bad.)  When I told him I had homemade chocolate chip cookies and homemade ginger cookies in the freezer that we could take out, he replied, “oh let’s save those for company and just eat these tonight.” I’m keeping the other 7 boxes in the trunk to keep them safe from us.
So my new found fact is that it’s impossible to stay a little size and eat Little Debbie cookies. Just not possible! How can something that comes in a box with an expiration date of February 2016 wrapped in cellophane be so good?  My cookies taste stale after 3 days. I hope one day to meet Little Debbie and ask her how she does it.
Would people buy them if they were called, BIG FAT Debbie Oatmeal Creams? Maybe that’s why we only see Little Debbie’s face, who knows what the bottom half looks like?