Snickerdoodle Cookies

I love my sister dearly, but she can not cook. Period. As in, she's set the oven on fire before. Generally she's not allowed near one. Somehow though, a couple of years ago, she managed to get a batch of snickerdoodle bars in the oven, and they came out HEAVENLY. My husband, who is lover of all things snickerdoodle, declared them the best he's had. Snickerdoodles have always been one of my weak spots. I have no idea why, I just can't get them right. Well. I have finally succeeded tonight (whether he concedes or not!)! These are light, fluffy, and literally melt in your mouth. Oh, these are dangerous cookies indeed. 

Ingredients: 
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp lemon extract
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
Additional sugar and cinnamon for rolling

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400º.

Cream butter and sugars. Add extracts and eggs, mix well. Add in remaining ingredients (except for sugar/cinnamon for rolling) and mix until everything is combined. Chill for 15 or so minutes. Once chilled, form 1-2tbsp balls (I use my 1.5 tbsp scoop for uniformity) and roll in cinnamon/sugar. I use 1/4 cup sugar + 1-2tsp cinnamon. You can most definitely change this to your preferences though! Sometimes I like to get festive and use colored sugar even. Place balls onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, until edges are just BARELY beginning to get golden. Remove to a cooling rack or piece of parchment/wax paper on your counter top. Enjoy! 

Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies

I have failed you all. Miserably. I've been baking like crazy over the last couple of months, but there hasn't been much posted. With little E here now, I just haven't had more than 5 minutes (which is about how long it takes to whip up a batch of dough!) to do anything when I'm at home. I've been making small batches of almost everything I make. Except gingerbread.. But that's another post. Don't worry. That will come. Anyway. I had a hankering for chocolate last night. Cookie form is the best way to get some down my throat usually, or brownies. Cookies won this battle though. And I happened to have to move some coconut to get to my chocolate chips. Why not? These are chocolatey and fudgey and delicious. Not that I'm saying I've done it or anything, but these just might make a mighty tasty (albeit not-so-healthy) breakfast.

Ingredients:
1/4c vegetable shortening (Crisco)
1/4c + 2tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2c flour
pinch of salt
1/4tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp corn starch
1/4c chocolate chips
2 tbsp shredded coconut

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º.

Cream shortening, sugar and vanilla together, add egg and whip until fluffy. Add remaining ingredients and mix until well combined. Drop by spoonfuls onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 10-13 minutes, until the top is barely wet still. Let cool on baking sheet, and transfer to a cooling rack or a piece of parchment on the counter. 

Cake Batter Cinnabon Cookies

Lord I love Cinnabon. I'm that "extra frosting" type of girl. There's just something about the zing of the cinnamon, the chewy/doughy roll and a giant smattering of tangy cream cheese frosting (which is the ONLY way I will eat cream cheese, I might add) that really gets me going. You know what else gets me going? EASY stuff. Something I can throw together quickly when one of us has a hankerin', and something that doesn't sacrifice taste for the ease. This most definitely qualifies. It starts with a Betty Crocker Decadence cake mix. Cinnamon Swirl, to be exact. You know, the kind with CINNABON cinnamon in it. 

The good stuff. Throw in some sour cream to give it that tang, and VOILA! Insta-happiness. Well. 15 minute happiness. Close enough.

Ingredients:
1 box Betty Crocker Decadence Cinnamon Swirl cake mix
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º. 

Combine cake mix pouch and baking powder. Stir in sour cream, eggs and vanilla until well combined (get most of the lumps out if you can!). Now comes the fun part. Take the cinnamon swirl topping pouch and dump it on top. Now swirl it into the cookie dough! Don't get all excited about it, just gently swirl it in. We want cinnamon ribbons, guys! 

Now. Drop 1-2 tbsp at a time onto a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet (I used my 1.5tbsp cookie scoop). You can put these fairly close together.. They'll spread, but it's fairly minimal. Leave maybe 2" between each for safety's sake. Bake for 9-10 minutes. Do NOT leave them until they start to brown! You don't want the top to brown at all, and they will appear slightly under baked at first. Let them sit on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack (or a piece of parchment on your counter if you're too lazy to dig out your cooling rack like I am). The bottoms will be lightly browned, and this is PERFECT. After they're able to sit for a few minutes, they turn perfectly chewy and tangy!

Butterscotch Latte Cookies

I love fall. So much. The pretty colors, the crisp, fresh air, the spices in the air.. And caramel EVERYTHING. Butterscotch is just a variation of caramel, essentially, and coffee is a MUST during the fall. Why not throw both into a cookie? 

I've fallen in love with flax recently, so I had to throw some of that in here.. I first really started using it when I had run out of eggs.. I didn't want to go to the store, and I happened to have some ground flax seed in my pantry that someone had given me awhile back.. While researching egg substitutes, I found that 1tbsp of ground flax + 3tbsp liquid is equal to 1 egg in baking. I've also fallen in love with french vanilla recently, so I just use 1 tbsp of flax + 3 tbsp french vanilla coffee creamer. The creamer just adds an extra level of decadence to these cookies, not to mention versatility! I'll put some ideas up for variations at the end of the post (please note though that I haven't actually TRIED any of these variations yet, but they are ones that will work with the chemistry of the cookies). 

Ingredients:
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp molasses
2-3 tbsp instant coffee (depending on your taste)
1 egg
1 tbsp ground flax seed
3 tbsp french vanilla coffee creamer
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
1 cup butterscotch chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375º. 

Cream shortening, butter and sugars together until fluffy. Add molasses, coffee, egg, flax and creamer. Mix until well combined. Add flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, corn starch, salt and cinnamon. Stir in butterscotch chips just before flour mixture is totally mixed in, and finish folding everything in. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet. Bake for 8-11 minutes until just golden brown.

Now comes the fun part! Variations! 
-Black and White Mocha (Zebra/Tuxedo mocha) - Remove molasses. Add 1/2 cup cocoa powder, use white chocolate coffee creamer and white chocolate chips.
-Irish cream - Double the flax/creamer, remove egg and molasses. Use irish cream creamer and chocolate chips (optional). Mix together irish cream creamer and powdered sugar until a nice drizzling consistency is achieved, and drizzle over the top and let dry.  
-Pumpkin spice - Double the flax/creamer, remove egg. Use pumpkin spice creamer and pumpkin spice chips. 
-Peppermint Mocha - Remove molasses. Add 1/2 cup cocoa powder, use peppermint mocha or York patty creamer and either chocolate chips, white chocolate chips or peppermint bits (Andes mints makes a peppermint bit for baking!).. or a combination thereof!

There are so many more variations you could do, but these are at least a few to get you started.. If you try one of these or a different variation, leave a comment and let me know what it was and how it turned out! 

Butterscotch cookies

Now that I'm back in the swing of baking things (and still have a bit of time on my hands before I go back to work), I've had a couple of requests for treats. The biggest one has been for my famous brownies. Those will come in a future post, don't worry! But today is all about BUTTERSCOTCH. Because really. Who doesn't love butterscotch? I know not a single person who has ever said they don't like it. And if you know someone who has said that, don't trust anything else they ever say because they're lying. Really. These cookies can make them finally admit it even! Browned butter, dark brown sugar.. it all lends to the delicious nutty, vanilla-y, caramel-y, butterscotch-y goodness! 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup browned butter, cooled (1 stick)
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

Combine butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs until well mixed. Add dry ingredients, mix until just combined. Fold in chips. Chill dough for at least 1 hour. 

Once dough has rested and chilled, drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 8-11 minutes, or until light golden brown. 

Java Chip Shortbread

Coffee is my main food group, so whenever I see a recipe involving the use of said "liquid life" I am immediately drawn to it. This one I had on the back burner for awhile though, because generally, I'm not a big fan of shortbread. It's always dry, crumbly, and usually tasteless. But this had COFFEE in it. It couldn't be THAT bad, right? Right. So I tweaked it a bit, just to make sure. And now I can't stop eating them. Not the greatest thing for my post-baby body, I'm sure. Oh well. 

Adapted from Wilton

Ingredients:

1tbsp instant coffee
1tbsp boiling water
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup + 2 tbsp flour
1/4 cup miniature chocolate chips

Directions:

Dissolve instant coffee in hot water, set aside. Mix together butter, sugar, and vanilla until well combined. Add coffee and flour, mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Between the heat of the melted butter and coffee mixture, your chips should start to "streak" a bit in the dough. This is good! Keep folding until the dough looks slightly marbled. Shape into a log (you can make it round or rectangular, I won't tell!), wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour. 

Once dough has chilled, preheat oven to 300º. Slice dough into pieces about 1/4" thick and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet. You can place them pretty close together since these will not spread. Bake for 8-11 minutes, until edges are just beginning to darken slightly. Let cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes, and then slide the parchment paper (cookies and all!) to a cooling rack. Or if you're lazy like me and don't want to fish one out of the depths of your cupboard, just slide it off onto your counter. Really. The cookies will still be alright. Promise. Unless your 4 year old finds them.. Then you're in trouble, but that's another story. Let the cookies cool on the counter at least 15 minutes before getting into them. The longer you let them cool, the closer to shortbread consistency they'll be, though they won't get to be rock hard and dry like the traditional stuff. Once they've cooled completely, store in an airtight container. If they make it that far. You know. Because you've eaten them. 

Makes about 30 cookies. 

BETTER Magic Cookie Bars

I think that at some point in our lives, we've all had the Eagle Brand Magic Cookie Bars. Graham cracker crust, magically gooey chocolate chips, and toasted coconut. DELICIOUS! I remember so many holiday seasons and potlucks that my mom and I would make a batch of these. Ours, however, was just a little different. Neither of us was a huge fan of nuts, so those were left out. We are also all big fans of butterscotch in my family.. Which means that instead of all chocolate chips, we used half chocolate and half butterscotch. We also re-arranged the order that the ingredients went in, which resulted in a smoother overall effect on the bars. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 sleeve of graham crackers, crushed finely

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

1 can sweetened condensed milk (14oz)

1 1/3 cups flaked coconut

Directions:

Place the stick of butter in a 13x9 pan and place in the oven while preheating to 350º. Remove the pan when butter is melted, pour crushed graham crackers over the butter, press into an even layer. Sprinkle the chips over the graham cracker layer, drizzle sweetened condensed milk over the chips evenly, then top with the coconut! Place into the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until coconut is lightly browned. Let cool slightly, and cut into bars.

VOILA! Ooey gooey EVEN BETTER Magic Cookie Bars! 

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

These have ALWAYS been my favorite type of cookie. Chewy, slightly nutty, just enough chocolate. YUM. I have been craving some milk chocolate chip cookies. And I have a REALLY hard time resisting the urge to put oatmeal in my cookies. So? Usually I don't bother resisting! At least not when it comes to the chocolate chip variety! I've also decided recently that lots of vanilla will never hurt anybody. Little fluffy/chewy rounds of deliciousness. Fetus approved! 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
1 cup brown sugar + 1 tbsp
1 tbsp vanilla (yes, a whole tablespoon!)
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt 
1 - 1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips (depending on how many you want in yours!)
1/2 cup old fashioned oats

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375º.
Combine butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs. Add in flour, soda, baking powder and salt until well combined. Fold in chocolate chips and oatmeal. Drop by 1-2 tablespoonfuls onto a lined baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden brown on top. 

Wasn't that easy? Yes? Well, go make some! And enjoy! 

Here's a variation you can try too (which is almost MORE awesome than the original!):
Substitute sweetened coconut for the oatmeal and butterscotch chips for half of the chocolate chips.

S'mores Cookies

Latest pregnancy craving? Chocolate chip cookies. With milk chocolate chips. None of that semi-sweet crap for this kid! How do you make a chocolate chip cookie even better? Add marshmallows! And maybe make it taste like a s'more. Which is (surprisingly) exactly what the oatmeal does. And channel your inner Paula Deen and add a little extra butter flavor. What does this all make? Deliciousness. Pregnant. Deliciousness. 

Ingredients:
1c margarine or butter (2 sticks)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp butter flavoring
2 eggs
2 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup mallow bits (or miniature marshmallows cut in quarters)
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup old-fashioned oats

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º.
Combine butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add flavorings and eggs, mix well. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until not quite combined. Fold in remaining ingredients until all is incorporated. Drop 1-2 tablespoons of dough onto a foil lined and greased baking sheet. YOU WILL THANK ME FOR THIS, DO NOT SKIP IT. If you do skip it, you will soon find the joys of trying to get baked marshmallow off of a baking sheet. It's not fun. Take it from someone who learned this the hard way. Bake cookies for 10-13 minutes, or until just golden brown. Let cool on baking sheet for 1-2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Pour yourself a glass of milk, prop your poor pregnant feet up in front of a fire, and enjoy a few! Propping pregnant feet up is optional, of course. 

I don't know what it is, but the butter and oatmeal lends just enough of a nutty flavor and texture to make you believe you've got graham crackers to go with your milk chocolate and toasted marshmallows! Delightful!! 

Nutella Cookies

Yes, you read that right. Nutella. Cookies. *SQUEE!* 

That's all the introduction these need. Really! 

Ingredients:

1 cup of nutella
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 egg
1/4-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp flour
coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375º.

Mix all ingredients except sea salt together in a bowl. Chill for.. well.. I don't know really.. We'll say 30 minutes in the fridge (covered tightly) for arguments sake. Mine lasted about 3 1/2 minutes in the freezer before I decided I was far too impatient for that nonsense. Still fantastically tasty, but if you want to do it "right," chill for 30 minutes. Roll into 1" balls, put onto an ungreased baking sheet. I use parchment paper for easy clean up later. Bake 9-11 minutes then let cool for a couple minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling set up of whatever sort you choose. People who do it "right" insert "cooling rack" here. People like me, insert "wax paper on the countertop" here. People like my sister insert "just kidding, eat it off the baking sheet and burn your face off" here. Please, don't be like my sister, and let them at least cool before stuffing your face. I will not be held liable for burns from these cookies. While they're cooling, sprinkle on the sea salt. YUM. Once you're not burned by them, EAT THEM. NOW. 

Oh, and you're welcome. For your new waistline. :)

Chocolate High Class Cookies

My High Class Cookies went over pretty well. I went to an event today that I was bringing "snacks" to.. Snacks meaning baked goods that are most likely terrible for you. I told everyone that I was open to requests, and I got a request for chocolate. The first thing that came to mind was the High Class Cookies I had made the other day, and how easy it would be to convert them to a chocolate deliciousness. I made quite a few changes from the original, the most obvious being the chocolate addition, but they turned out DELICIOUS. Because I doubled the other recipe and added an egg, they turned out to be a little less dense, but also a bit chewier. Did I mention that they're also very delicious? Oh, I did. Well, they're delicious. I only managed to snap one picture of these though before they disappeared:

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla 

3 tsp applesauce

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt, plus more for sprinkling

4 packets of instant cinnamon spice oatmeal (Can sub 1 cup regular oats and 1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon)

1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º.

Brown butter on the stove top. See the link above to High Class Cookies for more information on this if you don't already know how. Add sugars and combine well. Let cool to almost room temperature. Add remaining wet ingredients and mix. Stir in the rest of the ingredients until just combined. 

Drop by spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet, or a parchment lined cookie sheet (I have two cookie sheets, and one I have to line and one I don't. You know your bakeware better than anyone else). Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt over each cookie, and bake for 9-11 minutes.

So, there you have it. The best of EVERYTHING in a cookie! Delicious, nutty, chocolatey, and the sea salt and cinnamon work together in such a way that it leaves the consumer wondering what you've done to them and how it can be done again! 

High Class Cookies

I don't know a single person who doesn't like chocolate chip cookies. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but even vegans have found a way to make one for themselves. I happen to especially love chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. These put the "class" in "classic." 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup browned butter (1 stick) (See this site if you need instructions)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp applesauce

1/2 cup + 2tbsp flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt, plus more for sprinkling on top

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Dash nutmeg (scant 1/4 tsp)

Dash cloves (scant 1/4 tsp)

2 packets cinnamon spice instant oatmeal

1/2 to 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º.

Brown butter on the stove (see directions linked above if you have never done this before), let cool a bit once done. Add to a large mixing bowl with sugars and mix well. As long as butter is cooled to close to room temperature, add egg, vanilla and applesauce. Add remaining ingredients and mix until just combined. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a baking sheet (my measuring spoons are rounded, so I just used that and dropped half-spheres onto the baking sheet). There is no need to flatten the cookies, they'll spread to exactly the right level while baking. Sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 8-11 minutes. Enjoy one fresh out of the oven and be careful not to burn yourself. Do as I say, not as I do. This blister on the roof of my mouth will heal nicely.. Eventually.. It was SO worth it though. 

Try to resist the urge. I dare you. Let me know how that works out for you. Because it won't. I guarantee it. 

OMG SO GOOD Oatmeal Craisin cookies

So, I was browsing the interwebs today for a "small batch" cookie dough. I wanted to make cookies, but didn't want to be overrun by them. Plus I forgot the flour I bought the other day in the trunk of my car and was too lazy to go get it, so I wanted to keep it limited to the flour I had on hand in the house. Necessity and laziness are the mothers of all inventions. Hence, these cookies. I found a recipe that I loosely adapted for these cookies (I'm out of chocolate chips STILL). It wasn't exactly a small batch (this made about 2 1/2 dozen), but definitely yummy! Ready? GO!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp lemon extract
1 egg
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 packet instant maple brown sugar oatmeal
1 packet instant plain oatmeal

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375º.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add extracts and egg and mix. Add remaining ingredients and stir until just combined. Drop onto cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls, bake 8-11 minutes, or until cookies just BARELY begin to brown. Enjoy with a nice cold glass of milk!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

It's been over a week since I've posted something. I've been sorely neglecting my poor blog! In my defense, things have been crazy busy, and as a result of such, I'm crazy broke, as I'm sure anyone who has ever been in their mid 20's knows happens. Especially those that had kids at that point. Anyways, I'm sorry.


So, later this weekend, I'm braving another batch of Salted Caramel Cupcakes, but I needed to make something less stressful before I attempt that. Plus hubby and I both had a sweet tooth tonight. And I have fallen in love with Pinterest. Hence, these. 

I love LOVE cookie dough. I'm not a huge fan though of chocolate chip cookies. They're so PLAIN. Actually, I think it's more that I'm just sick of them. I thought about doing a different type of cookie dough, but decided I'd stick with traditional for these. At least mostly. I've discovered these Mallow Bits recently, and I'm obsessed.

They're just the marshmallows that come in the hot chocolate packets. You know, the ones that you tried to fish out as a kid. C'mon, I know I'm not the only one who did it! I'm just the bad one that left the package of hot chocolate WITHOUT marshmallows for someone else to discover after it was too late for them to realize that the marshmallow part was missing. I was terrible. Actually, until I found these, I still did it. Hubs was NOT happy the first time it happened. There was quite the string of expletives as he poured the mix into a mug of hot water only to find that there was no marshmallows. OOPS. 


Okay. Now. Onto the recipe. I didn't have mini chocolate chips as the original recipe called for, so I chopped up a Hershey's bar I had in my pantry to miniature chunks. And I'm obsessed with the Mallow Bits. Of course those are in there too. And it's hot today, so I didn't want to turn my oven on. PERFECT. The dough is a bit crumbly, but as long as you warm it slightly with your hand by pressing it together into a ball, they stay together pretty well after that. 


Ingredients:


1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped chocolate bar or mini chocolate chips
1/4 - 1/2 cup Mallow Bits


Directions:


In a large bowl, stir together butter, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. Gradually add flour. Stir in chocolate and marshmallows.


Roll into 1" balls and refrigerate or freeze until firm. Drizzle or dip in chocolate, or eat as is! 

Hot Buttered Rum Cookies

Well. I've ventured into the unknown (for me at least) of making cookies without a recipe. Again by necessity. I've run out of chocolate chips, and discovered this right AFTER I came back from a store run for dinner ingredients. OF COURSE. How do I keep running out of things without me realizing it? Especially things like this that I'm the only one in the house that uses them. *Sigh* Oh well. Life goes on. So, being the innovative (and slightly desperate) person that I am, I searched my cupboards and pantry for inspiration. And I found it. Hot buttered rum mix. I'm not a fan of hot buttered rum myself, the idea of rum in and of itself is slightly nauseating to me, but my husband likes it, so we happened to have a container. Having had the drink only once, I had NO idea what was actually in it, only that it smelled wonderful. If you choose to make your own instead of using a store-bought mix, it's super simple, just see the recipe I have posted for it. 


Okay. Onto the cookies. I made this recipe up, and I'm pretty darn proud of myself for it. Because I had to tweak it quite a bit as I went along, there are no in process shots. Sorry guys, I'll get some next time I make these. 


Ingredients:


1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup hot buttered rum mix
1 tbsp Kahlua (or other coffee-flavored liqueur)
2 eggs
2 2/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg


Directions:


Preheat oven to 325º. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.


Cream butter. Add sugar, vanilla, hot buttered rum mix, and kahlua, mix until well blended. Add eggs, and mix until just barely combined. If you're using a hand mixer, PUT IT DOWN NOW. Trust me. You'll thank me later. If you've got some fancy Kitchen-Aid with a super slow setting and/or a paddle attachment, please, feel free to continue. I've got a hand mixer with beater attachments only, and I've already ruined one batch of my molasses cookies by not putting it down before I put the dry ingredients in. Trust me. Do it.


Mix the remaining dry ingredients together and mix into the wet. Do not over mix. Again, learn from my mistakes! 


Roll into 1" balls, roll in sugar (or you can do a mixture of sugar, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg like I did! I kept about the same proportions of sugar and spices as in the cookies). Bake for 8-11 mins (mine were 10 on the dot). Let cool on the cookie sheet for a minute or two, then transfer to a cooling rack, or parchment paper over a kitchen towel on the counter. 




Okay. So, for whatever reason, these cookies have a slightly apple-y taste to them. I used Reser's Hot Buttered Rum mix for these, since I had it on hand already and it needed to be used. 

That may have been it? I'm open to interpretation though, and if anyone makes it with the homemade (which I'm going to next time around!), let me know if it makes a difference. After they were cooled off, they also tasted a bit like snickerdoodles! YUM! 


Here's the finished product:

DELICIOUS!

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

So, I discovered this afternoon as I was getting things ready for Molasses Cookies that.. I'M OUT OF MOLASSES! I'm not sure how that happened, but it did. *SIGH*. I'm really in a cookie-making mood tonight, and I had to figure something else out. Besides, I need to test my new mixer out on a stiffer dough! After browsing the interwebs, I came up with a chocolate-chocolate chip cookie recipe. I have some oats I needed to use before they went stale, so what better way? OH YES. Chocolate, chocolate chip, and oatmeal cookies. YYUUMM!! 

Since it's past my bedtime already, I'll get to the point.


Ingredients:


1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup oats (you can put more, by all means, this was just all that I had left)


Directions:


Preheat oven to 375º. Grease baking sheet(s). If you have a GOOD nonstick sheet, you may not need to. I have one good and one not so good, and the not-so-good sheet EVERYTHING stuck to, even with me greasing it after the first batch. The good sheet though, only one or two cookies stuck the entire time (and I made a double batch..). 


Mix the butter, sugars, vanilla, eggs and cocoa powder together until well blended. Dump the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt on top of the wet ingredients and gently blend with your fingers. Mix in the dry ingredients until well blended. Fold in the chocolate chips and oats.


Drop by tablespoonfuls onto the greased baking sheets. Bake for about 10 minutes. These are a bit tougher than regular chocolate chip cookies to determine if they're done since they don't "brown", but if you bake cookies at all, you'll know. 




The results? Nice chewy, gooey, chocolatey goodness. MMMM. These are sure to a be a hit with the coworkers tomorrow. Gee, they're so lucky to have someone who bakes for them all the time! 

Norwegian Butter Cookies

Once in awhile, someone finds a recipe, thinks it sounds delicious, and hands it to me. Talk about dropping hints. This one though, my grandmother handed me, so I can't really ignore it. Not because it was HER recipe, she doesn't cook, but she had gotten it off of the back of a bag of C&H sugar and decided it sounded good. And she doesn't cook. Who does? Oh, that's right. Her granddaughter. *sigh* She really had to twist my arm on this one. I mean, 3/4 of a pound of butter, sugar and flour? Yeah, that's essentially it. Yep. I don't make things that involve butter, do I? Just kidding. I was ecstatic when I saw these. Especially considering that in my family, Norwegian stuff is a big thing, considering we're Norwegian and all. Norwegian AND lots of butter.. Yep. Sounds good to me! 


So, to make these, the recipe says to use a cookie press or a pastry bag with a large star tip. Neither of which I have. Who's the queen of improvisational baking? ME! That being said, not all of my ideas are 100% genius, some are only 100% genius in thought.. For instance, if you want to roll these in powdered sugar before baking because you have nothing to sift powdered sugar over the top, make sure that you grease the baking sheet before baking. The powdered sugar WILL essentially glue the cookies to the baking sheet. Now. Onto the successes of this recipe!

Yes. They look plain, and they ARE kind of plain, but really, what's better than BUTTER AND SUGAR?! It's the Norwegian way to be simple. And it works! 


Ingredients:


3/4 lb butter (3 sticks)
1 1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
3 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)


Directions:


Preheat oven to 375º.


Cream butter in a bowl. If you find a hand mixer in a cupboard that you forgot you had, make sure it has a "low" setting before you attempt this. Because I didn't. These are probably the messiest cookies I have EVER made. Mostly because of my own lack of thinking. Don't be like me. Anyways, add in the sugar and combine. Add the eggs (beat them slightly before adding, it really will make things easier). 


The recipe says to mix the flour, cinnamon and salt in another bowl and add in batches. Or you can do like me and add it on top of the wet ingredients and mix with your fingers. Mix well. Add the vanilla. I'm sure you could probably add the vanilla before the flour, but I hadn't thought about that, and the recipe DOES say after the flour. 


This is where a cookie press or pastry bag with a large star tip comes in handy. If you have one. Which I don't. If you do have one of those things, by all means, pipe them onto the cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. If not, roll them into a ball and flatten slightly. 


Bake for 8-10 minutes, until edges start to turn golden brown. Let cool, then sprinkle with powdered sugar, or just leave plain!




These cookies are wonderfully chewy and simple. And buttery! When I opened up the oven, the only thing I could smell was BUTTER. Paula, you'd love these. 

These will need to be stored in an airtight container, unlike some other cookies. Now I will leave you to stare at the complexities of the above photo of Paula Deen. The cookies are so simple, I HAD to put a complex picture in here. I accept no responsibility for nightmares that the above picture will cause. 

Super Peanut Butter Cookies

These cookies are amazing. We're just going to start by saying that. I also don't think I've EVER made just a single batch of them. They go SO quick, that if you want any for the next day, you HAVE to make a double batch. When I used to do my Christmas baking with my mom, we'd make a quadruple batch, and usually wind up making another double batch at some point. These are so popular with everyone that has ever tasted them (with the exception of my grandmother, who doesn't like peanut butter. I mean really, who doesn't like peanut butter?!), that I've been asked for the recipe more times than I can count. The original recipe came from my great-grandmother's community cook book. My mom found the book, modified the recipe so that it had a little less sugar (believe me, you wouldn't have any idea), and now it's BEYOND perfect. 


Ingredients:


1 cup butter or margarine (2 sticks)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt (if using unsalted butter)
1 cup rolled oats (optional)


Directions:


Preheat oven to 350º. 


Cream butter and sugars. Add peanut butter, mix until well blended. Stir in eggs and vanilla. 


On top of the wet batter, dump 1 1/2 cups of the flour plus the baking soda, powder, cinnamon and salt. Stir gently on top of the wet ingredients with a spoon, spatula or your fingers. Once gently mixed, stir into wet ingredients. Once combined, add the remaining 1 cup of flour and rolled oats and mix until well combined. 


Let the batter rest for about 10 minutes before you try to roll it out. You can roll it out right away if you really want, but it will make it MUCH easier if you let it sit for a few. 


Roll the dough into 1 - 1 1/2 inch balls, place about 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Make criss-cross indentations on top of the cookies, but don't smush the cookies down too much or they won't be as fluffy. Bake for 12-15 minutes. 




Variations:

• Use fresh ground peanut butter in place of regular processed peanut butter, and substitute sugars for Splenda and Splenda brown sugar blend. This makes them a little less sweet, more peanut-y, and a lot healthier! I haven't found a substitute for the butter just yet, at least not one that works very well, but I'll let you all know if I ever do. 
• Dip half of the cookie in dipping chocolate and let dry on wax paper. I do this for my Christmas baking every year. You can even sprinkle some decorative sprinkles or colored sugar while it's wet to make it extra-festive. 
• You can roll the dough balls in sugar, like the Molasses Spice Cookies, if you're really dying for a sugar-fix. 

Almost every time I've made these and share, I get asked for the recipe. You can use crunchy peanut butter, smooth peanut butter, or as stated in one of the variations, fresh ground peanut butter (At my local grocery store, they have a grinder for both almond butter and peanut butter in the natural foods section). I suppose that that you could also make these with almond butter instead, I don't think I had even thought about it until now. I'm not a big almond fan though, so I suppose that's probably why. Anyways, that's an experiment for another day. 

One reason I love these cookies so much is because there is SO MUCH peanut butter in them compared to some of the other recipes I've seen. See?

Keep in mind that it sank down to the bottom of the bowl through the butter/sugar mixture. YUM. Have I mentioned yet that I LOVE peanut butter? Well, I do. A lot. 

Roll it.. and pat it.. 

And kill it with a fork! And then heat..

And then with your mouth! 

(Imagine picture of done cookies that my phone hasn't corrupted here..)

Word of caution with these cookies. They're crumbly. No if's, and's or but's about it. The upside? You can't give crumbly cookies away! You just have to eat them yourself! Oh, darn. What a tough thing, eh? 

Enjoy your broken cookies, and stay tuned for more great recipes!