Cook. Craft. Enjoy.

New Cookies - Good but not Great

In my request last time for more cookie recipes, Amy suggested this M&M cookie recipe as one she loves. I'm happy to say  that it was a good recipe (stayed soft!  a little crisp on the outside!) but they spread way too much.  <sigh>  I think it has to be my oven that's doing it.

I did use milk chocolate chips instead of the M&Ms (didn't have any in the house) but otherwise, they were a little on the sweet side and did I mention soft?  :-)  So, thanks, Amy for the suggestion but I'll still go back to trying recipes (once these are gone).  Anyone else out there with a good recipe?

I want COOKIES!

The last couple of times I've made cookies I've been so disappointed.  I like my cookies soft and chewy and every recipe I've tried lately have hardened into the crispy, crunchy sort.  Bleh.

These are the latest Liam and I tried ... they came from a recipe in one of the cookbooks that he picked out at the library (no, I don't remember which, sorry!).  Travis told me he thought they were bought cookies and was surprised to learn that we baked them.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  Um, honestly I'm not sure at all.

I think we'll try another recipe today or tomorrow and hopefully come up with something good.  Anyone have a good soft cookie recipe they can share?  (By the way, I do have one that we like but you know I like to try different things all the time.)

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

For my last stamp camp I had Adrienne bake us up some cookies from Martha Stewart's website, Giant Chocolate Sugar Cookies.

Didn't they come out gorgeous?  Fresh hot out of the oven they were really good -- slightly soft and not too sweet.  Once they cooled?  Um, not so much.  They had the consistency of sand when you bit into them and if you broke one in half you'd have crumbs everywhere.  I'm thinking maybe I'll add cocoa powder to my regular sugar cookie recipe next time and see how that comes out.  (Link above will take you to the recipe .. I'm not going to bother to repost it.)

In other happenings, there are only 3 (yes, 3) more days of school and we're all looking forward to it.  I've got the kids trying to come up with some fun stuff for us to do this summer and hopefully whatever it is we end up doing I can share it with you.  :-) 

Cookies, Cookies

It was brought to my attention this weekend that I haven't made cookies in a while so I remedied that by making 2 different types.  The first (on the left) is a yummy maple cookie.  The original recipe uses a frosting and I've made that before but I felt they were as good without it so I opted to leave it off.  The second (on the right) is your typical Nestle chocolate chip cookie but using Nestle's new white chocolate/milk chocolate swirled chips and pecans (the recipe I used was on the bag).  Yum!

As for other things around here, we've been busy with the season.  I'm afraid I won't be posting much in the next 2 weeks (we'll be out of town for part of it) so don't give up on checking in ... I've got some plans for the new year to make things a little more interesting and I hope you'll stick around.

Peanut Butter Cookies

I find it much easier to cook things when it's earlier in the day (and cooler).  This morning I made another batch of pepperoni rolls and some peanut butter cookies.  The pepperoni rolls I made because that's what Liam wants to take for lunch, which means that Adrienne wants some (with cheese please) and of course Travis needs some too ...  Good thing they make a batch of 12 so this week will be covered.

I haven't made cookies in a long time (looking back it looks like my last batch was June 17th -- holy cow I didn't realize it had been that long) and thought that since I had extra cooking energy that would be a great use for it.  Why peanut butter?  Because they are one of my favorites.  I used the standard Jif cookie recipe and I always like how these come out good -- soft, chewy and peanut buttery -- just how I like them.

Reese's Cookies

Last night's stamp camp was so much fun.  The ladies had a good time making the projects though I think they're ready to go back to cards next time.  I think I'll try to include a 3-D type project in each of the upcoming camps -- it was fun to be a little different.

I couldn't decide what to make yesterday so I started with these cookies.  The baking pieces look like little miniature Reese's peanut butter cups but because it's so hot here they melted completely in the oven.  I think if I had thought it through I would have froze them before adding them to the batter and they would have retained more of their shape.

They were extremely flat so I expected them to be brittle.  Luckily they was enough chewiness to them that they didn't feel like you were eating a chip.  I do like my cookies slightly more dense, but these were good.

Reese's Premier Peanut Butter and Milk Chocolate Cookies
(courtesy of the back of the package of Reese's Premier Baking Pieces)

• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/3 cup butter-flavored shortening
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups (8 ounce package) Reese's Peanut Butter Creme Filled Baking Pieces

1. Heat oven to 350.
2. Beat butter and shortening in large bowl until well blended.  Add brown sugar and granulated sugar; beat thoroughly.  Add egg and vanilla, beating until well blended.  Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into butter mixture.  Stir in baking pieces.  Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.  Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.  Cool completely.

Cookies Make Everything Better

Everyone has days that they'd rather they stayed in bed ... and today was one of those for me.  Not that we had a bad day -- I took the kids to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- just that my mood was rotten.   And I hate being in a rotten mood which puts me in an even worse mood.

After Don got home and we had dinner, I went over to Target to get a small end table (ended up with a short stool for $15 - yeah!) thinking some quiet time might help my mood -- nope.  What to do, what to do ... make cookies!  I started digging through my "baking stash" and found a package of Hershey's Special Dark Chips with a recipe for chocolate chip cookies on the back.  About 5 minutes later the dough was ready and the cookies were in the oven.

This recipe doesn't make a whole lot of cookies (I made 30), but they have a great basic chocolate chip cookie flavor.  I love the dark chocolate chips in them and I added chopped pecans.  Yum.

Oh, and yes, I'm feeling better.  :-)

Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies
(recipe courtesy of Hershey's Kitchens)

• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/3 cup butter-flavored shortening (I used all butter-flavored shortening)
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups (12-oz pkg) Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chips
• 3/4 cup chopped nuts, optional

1. Heat oven to 350.
2. Beat butter and shortening in large bowl until well blended.  Add brown sugar and granulated sugar; beat thoroughly.  Add egg and vanilla beating until well blended.
3. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into butter mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if desired.
4. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.  Cool completely.

Cookies!

Yes, it's still cold here today.  I wish this cold front would sweep through faster than it is.  Today the high is supposed to be 37.  Tomorrow it'll get up into the 40s and then continue to warm up a bit.

Don took Adrienne to sign up for softball this morning so expect photos when the season starts.  I'm so excited for her -- she's never played before but is really interested in learning and playing.  I hope this will be a good experience for her and she'll want to continue it through for life.  Wednesday we sign Liam back up for soccer and he's ready for that to start up again too. 

Tonight is stamp camp so I'm making 3 new recipe -- the first is a chocolate chip cookie recipe -- very delicious.  It comes from Food Network's website and is by Giada De Laurentiis.  The original recipe is for ice cream sandwiches, but I just like the cookies.

Amaretto Chocolate Chip Cookies
(courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis)

• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
• 1 (12-ounce) bag semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup whole almonds, toasted and chopped

1. Line heavy large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Finely chop the oats in a food processor. Mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl until fluffy. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs and almond extract. Add the flour mixture in 3 parts and stir just until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips and chopped almonds.
4. For each cookie, drop 1 rounded tablespoonful of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing 1-inch apart (do not flatten dough). Bake until the cookies are golden (cookies will flatten slightly), about 13 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely.

Peppermint Crunch Chunkies

Adrienne has volunteered to bring cookies to her class on Friday and I decided to use up the Andes Peppermint Crunch baking chips I had in the pantry.  I just made the recipe on the back of the bag to make things simple.   Not sure about the taste - I didn't have one because I don't like crisp cookies -- I got a "don't like them" from Travis (who ate it anyway) and a "they're good" from Adrienne.  Guess Adrienne's the one that counts since it's her class that they're going to.

Andes Peppermint Crunch Chunkies

(courtesy of Andes Mints)

• 2 sticks (1/2 Lb.) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup sweetened grated coconut
• 1 1/4 cups coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
• 1 1/2 cups Andes® Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips

1. Preheat oven to 300° F.
2. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until fluffy (about 3 minutes).
3. Beat in egg and vanilla extract.
4. On low speed, add baking soda, salt and then flour. Mix completely.
5. Stir in oats, coconut, pecans, and Andes® Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips.
6. Measure out 2 Tbs. for large or 1 Tbs. for small cookies. Place round balls on lightly greased cookie sheets two inches apart. Press lightly.
7. Sprinkle some of the remaining chips on top of each cookie.
8. Bake for 20 minutes for large cookies or 12-15 mins. for small cookies Do not over bake.
9. They get crunchy on the outside but remain soft inside. Remove from cookie sheet and let cool.

Yield approx.: 30 - 3" or 60 - 1 1/2" cookies.

Pre Halloween Baking

Today was beyond busy ... having to bake both pumpkin bread and sugar cookies plus a regular volunteer session in kindergarten, an eye doctor appointment and subsequent glasses order for Adrienne, and then finishing up the Halloween presents for the teachers tomorrow (added a cute little notebook).   At least it's all done at this point.   :-)

I'll start with the sugar cookies ... it's a tried and true recipe I found on All Recipes several years ago.  Warning, though, they DO NOT MAKE GOOD CUT OUT COOKIES!  They are very gooey batterwise and work best to scoop with a cookie scoop.  Today I pressed a cookie cutter in the top of the ball of dough to give it it's shape - worked out really well.  My only complaint is that I used too large of a cookie scoop and the cookies are HUGE!  Oh well, easier for them to decorate tomorrow I suppose.  Here's my photo and recipe ... (pumpkin bread recipe and photo below this one)

Soft Sugar Cookies I
(courtesy of AllRecipes.com)

1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I leave this out)

Combine milk with vinegar to make sour milk. Let stand for 5 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine sugars, shortening, eggs, and vanilla. Add flour, soda, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.

Stir in sour milk and mix well. NOTE: Dough will be very sticky and hard to handle. You could refrigerate it for a few hours, or just use plenty of flour when rolling out.

Roll on well floured board to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters to desired shapes (large cutters work best).

Bake at 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly brown on bottom.

______

For the pumpkin bread I used a new recipe - also from All Recipes.  I made them into small loaves instead of larger ones and gave one a taste - they really have a nice flavor and I think Adrienne's class will enjoy them tomorrow.

Pumpkin Bread
(courtesy of Allrecipes.com)

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

3 cups sugar

3 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves                         (I ended up using about

1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg                       3 T pumpkin pie spice)

1 (16 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin

In a mixing bowl, dream butter and sugar. Add eggs; mix well. Combine dry ingredients; stir into creamed mixture just until moistened. Stir in pumpkin. Pour into two greased 9-in. x 5-in. x 3-in. loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour or until bread tests done.