red velvet crinkle cookies

I tried a new recipe a few weeks ago and made red velvet crinkle cookies for a friend's birthday.  I took the extras to a friend's apartment for ladies night, and they were a huge hit.

I have listed them in my etsy shop.  Take a look!

shortbread buttons

I've been trying out some new recipes on my coworkers and last week's big hit was shortbread buttons!  You can check out the listing in the Etsy shop.

I learned a lot by making these; namely, do not touch food coloring with your bare hands or you will look like you have some bizarre mottled blue and red skin disease.  Also, if you handle shortbread dough for too long and don't refridgerate it for long enough, it will be melty and pretty much impossible to cut into shapes and get on the cookie sheet/off the spatula.  I was forced to eat many deformed red buttons, as I did not want to give a bad impression at work.  Shucks.

I adopted an abandoned standmixer from my parents' house when I was visiting during the holidays.  The mixer had been banished to the basement after being upgraded to a Kitchen-Aid mixer.  I gave 'er a good wipe down and transported it back to my apartment.  Up until now, I have been using an ancient hand mixer that would get very warm during prolonged usage and smelled suspiciously like burning rubber after you turned it off.  The stand mixer has pretty much changed my baking life.  No longer am I (or my walls) covered in flying bits of butter, my hand doesn't get tired, and I'm not fighting with my vintage Pyrex bowls with the too-shallow sides.  It's really a miracle how much has changed in my process.  Definitely upgrade; thanks, Mom.

peppermint sugar cookies

I am alive and full of cookies.  I started right away on my cookie baking once I returned to my apartment after Thanksgiving.  This was the first round.

Ingredients:

• 1 c. butter, softened
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 c. all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. crushed candy canes or peppermint candies
• 5 tsp. warm water
• 3/4 c. confectioners' sugar

Directions:
Heat oven to 350°F. In medium bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add egg and beat until blended. Stir in flour and salt, then the crushed candy.  Roll 1 tablespoon of dough into ball. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake cookies 8 to 10 minutes until firm. Cool on sheet for 1 minute. Transfer to wire rack to finish cooling. 

Picture from We Are Not Martha

 

vanilla cinnamon circles

I have started using baked goods as a way to bribe people at work into getting things done.  I promised that I would bring in something today if all requirements were met by the end of the day on Friday.  The promise of food seems to kick people into action, and I poked through my cookbooks to find something to bring in.  I found a recipe in one of my cookbooks that had minimal ingredients, most of which I had already.  Vanilla cinnamon circles seemed simple and tasty.  All I needed to buy was unsalted butter.

Sometimes things do not go as planned.  I had a feeling that something would go wrong with these cookies.  The recipe just seemed too simple.  Too easy.  I purchased a 79cent bag of brownie mix as a backup just in case something happened.

I doubled the recipe because the dough only made 25 cookies.  Maybe that was my mistake?  Once I mixed up the dough, I could tell right away that something was going to be wrong about these cookies.  I continued to follow the directions to the best of my abilities, with the dough crumbling apart as I was trying to roll it into a ball.  I shoved it in the oven and hoped for the best.

I ended up not with 25 cookies, but with a cookie sheet sized crunchy mess.  My apartment smelled delicious, though.

And delicious brownies were had by all at work.

Vanilla Cinnamon Circles
adapted from: Indulgence: Cookies

• 3 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 1/3 c superfine sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 c flour
• 1 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp sugar (extra)
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar in a medium-sized bowl using electric beaters until pale and fluffy, then stir in vanilla.  Sift in the flour and add the milk.  Stir with a wooden spoon to form a soft dough, gather into a ball and place on a sheet of parchment paper.
3. Press the dough out into a log shape, 10 inches long and 1 1/4 inches thick.  Roll in the paper and twist the ends to seal.  Refrigerate for 20 minutes or until firm.
4. Cut the log into rounds 1/2 inch thick.  Sift the extra sugar and cinnamon onto a plate and roll each cookie in the sugar mixture, coating well.  Lay well apart on the sheets and bake for 20 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned.  Allow to cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

Let's pretend they looked like this:

toffee cakes

With my extra day off this weekend, I decided to do some baking.  As I've already starting checking out Christmas craft/cookbooks from the library to find tasty recipes, I'm starting to amass more than I will realistically be able to bake between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  To avoid the Christmas cookie sweatshop that was my last Christmas season, I've started my baking now.  I've been bringing the extras to work with me to share with my coworkers (yes, I could eat 45 cookies but I probably shouldn't).  These didn't get me any rave email replies, but I thought they were pretty tasty.

Toffee Cakes
from: Better Homes & Gardens Christmas Comfort & Joy






Ingredients

•3/4 c butter

•1/3 c sugar

•1 tbsp milk

•2 tsp vanilla

•2 3/4 c flour

•1/2 c chocolate covered toffee pieces

For Chocolate Drizzle:

•  1/2 c chocolate chips

•  2 tsp butter

Directions

1. Beat butter and sugar together.  Add milk & vanilla, continue to beat.  Add flour slowly.  Stir in toffee pieces and mi dough with hands until flour blends.

2. Cover and chill for 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 325.  Shape dough into 1” balls.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until slightly browned.

4. Combine chocolate & butter in a saucepan to melt.  Drizzle over cookies.

I attempted to drizzle chocolate over mine, but I ended up wasting almost an entire bag of chocolate chips on the endeavor.  Apparently if there is any moisture in your saucepan, your chocolate will seize up and turn into chocolate frosting.  Make sure you don't do that. 

road cookies

It has only been relatively recently that I have realized that I have had a latent interest in using cooking to show affection.  I have never really had much interest in cooking or baking up until this past year (and even now I'm not entirely sure how much of this "interest" I have is based on anything other than having something to do), but being able to have some sort of tangible evidence of my affection and effort I have put into making something for someone else is satisfying.  Sharing my baking with others also has some other nice selfish benefits: I don't have to eat 72 cookies myself (and gain 400 pounds), I get to try new recipes I wouldn't otherwise make, and it gives me something to spend my ample free time on.

I wanted to make cookies that could be given as a gift and transported across many state lines.  The plan was to use my stand-by recipe for chocolate chip cookies adopted from my mother (using vanilla pudding mix in the dough to make them extra moist).  However, scheduling issues arose and it turned out that the cookies needed to be baked much sooner than I thought.  I came home on Thursday with the realization that I both did not have vanilla pudding and that my brown sugar was in the form of a brick and still I had not found out how to soften it without turning it into mush or bought new sugar.  I considered giving up and just buying cookies at the store.  The sentiment would still be the same, but it always feels cheap to me to cop out and not put forth the effort to actually make something for someone.

Google to the rescue.  I figured that it would be a lost cause, but I did a quick search for "chocolate chip cookies without brown sugar."  I wasn't expecting any results.  As far as I was concerned, brown sugar and butter were pretty much the foundation for chocolate chip cookies and anything else would be a poor substitute.  I warily printed out a recipe that called for honey instead of brown sugar and decided it wouldn't hurt to give it a try.

So I did.  The dough formed and everything seemed to go fine, but the cookies spread out like crazy during baking.  I'm sure some more experienced baker would be able to point out something I could have added to make them more firm, but alas.  I used my spatula to break them into smaller cookies, all the while assuming I would have to throw away the entire batch.

Like most things I make, these things look pretty questionable but they taste fine.  The honey adds an interesting extra layer of flavor, and while I don't think that I'd make these every time, they are an excellent substitute for the more traditional brown sugar based cookies.

No Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies
recipe from Spark Recipes

Ingredients
•    2 1/2 cups all-purose flour

•    2 eggs

•    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

•    3/4 teaspoon salt

•    1 teaspoon baking soda

•    6 ounces chocolate chips (I used a combination of milk & semisweet)
•    1 cup white sugar

•    2 tablespoons honey

•    1 1/4 cups butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.


Cream the butter with the sugar and the honey.
Stir in the eggs and vanilla.
Add the flour and baking soda.
Stir in chocolate chips.


Place teaspoon sized dough about 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.


Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

white chocolate chip chocolate cookies

Image from VeryBestBaking

These are another cookie that I grew up eating every year for Christmas.  They are essentially a reverse chocolate chip cookie, with the chips being white chocolate and the cookie being chocolate flavored.  I made these when the Chocolate Crinkles had to be put in the fridge over night. Aside from that, these cookies were baked without incident, which means I have nothing amusing to tell you.  Just bake the cookies, they are delicious.




White Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cookies
Recipe from AllRecipes

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 2/3 cups white chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Fold in the white chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are set. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

chocolate crinkle cookies

I felt that for the next recipe made in my Christmas cookie sweatshop, it would behoove me to try something new.  My boyfriend had expressed an interest in "chocolate crinkle cookies" and having never made nor eaten one before, I thought that it would be interesting to give it a go.  I find the powdered sugar tops to be charmingly festive and perhaps it would have added a bit of visual interest to a bag of misshapen lumps.

I started the recipe after dinner one night, having psyched myself up for making cookies.  I picked this recipe out of my pile of Potential Cookie Print-Outs and started making the dough.  I should let it be known that I do not read recipes in their entirety before I start making them.  I do a little skim to make sure I have all the necessary ingredients and cookware, but I don't go much deeper than that.  Imagine my disappointment after mixing together the dough when I realize that it must be refrigerated overnight.  I angrily put the bowl in the fridge and started on another cookie. (recipe forthcoming)

Fast forward to the next day.  I pull the dough out of the fridge and find that it has formed into a fudge-like consistency.  I dig my spoon into the mix and it bends under the pressure of my attempted scooping.  I give up after a few balls are made, choosing instead to dig my nails into the fudge and claw wildly until I have enough to form a tiny cookie.  Then the rolling.  I have to roll the dough between my hands to form a ball, the fudge melting slightly and leaving my hands a dark brown color.  It's a mess.

The balls go into a bowl of powdered sugar, where you roll them around.  At this point, there is powdered sugar everywhere in my apartment, being stuck to the trail of melted chocolate fudge from when I inevitably have to touch things.  It's a mess.  It's a mess, and I didn't even care for these cookies.

As a side note, please notice that this recipe makes FIVE DOZEN COOKIES.

Chocolate Crinkles
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

• 1 1/3 cups (8 ounces) chopped bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips (I used a mix of bittersweet & semisweet)
• 1/2 cup (4 ounces, 1 stick) unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup (4 3/4 ounces) sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 2/3 cups (7 ounces) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• confectioners' sugar* (for coating)

Dough: Place the chocolate and butter in a small saucepan or microwave-safe bowl, and heat or microwave till the butter melts. Remove it from the heat, and stir until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth.

In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar, eggs, vanilla and espresso powder. Stir in the chocolate mixture, baking powder and salt, then the flour. Chill the dough for 2 to 3 hours, or overnight; it'll firm up considerably.

Shaping: Put about a cup of confectioners' sugar into a shallow bowl. Using a teaspoon-sized cookie scoop, a spoon, or your fingers, scoop out heaping teaspoon-sized portions of the dough; they should be roughly 1 1/4 inches in diameter. Drop the dough balls into the confectioners' sugar as you go. Once about five or six are in the bowl, shake and toss the bowl to coat the balls with the sugar. (If you try to do this with too many balls at a time, they'll just stick together.)

Baking: Place the coated dough balls on a lightly greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between them. Bake the cookies in a preheated 325°F oven for 10 to 12 minutes, switching the position of the pans (top to bottom, and front to back) midway through the baking time. As the cookies bake, they'll flatten out and acquire their distinctive "streaked" appearance. Remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool on a wire rack. Yield: about 5 dozen 2 1/2-inch cookies.

peanut butter blossoms

My miniature Christmas tree has finally been decorated (as of 2am).  The presents are wrapped and underneath the tree.  I participated in my first non-denominational office holiday party/Yankee gift swap.  I've walked arm-in-arm in the flurries to catch the train.  And so begins the Christmas cookie season.

Because I now have coworkers that I can stand to be around for 7 hours a day, I thought I would make everyone little bags of cookies for the holidays.  This satisfies my desire to give people presents, bake, "taste test" cookies, and make everyone around me fatter so that I look skinnier by comparison.  With the holidays rapidly approaching and only one recipe completed out of a planned five or six, my apartment promises to be a little Christmas cookie sweatshop these next few days.

The first/only cookies I've made so far are peanut butter blossoms.  I have had these every year for Christmas for as long as I can remember, but this is only my second year doing more than just pressing the Kisses into the hot cookies.  This recipe is fairy simple, which I appreciate.  No Kellys were burned, cut, or maimed in the making of these cookies (for once).



Peanut Butter Blossoms
Recipe from AllRecipes

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 18 milk chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine sugar, peanut butter, and egg.
3. Shape into 1 inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. NOTE: If dough is too sticky, refrigerate 1/2 hour or until easy to handle.
4. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove cookies from oven. Press a chocolate kiss into the center of each warm cookie.

caramel bars

I have spent the last week and a half* rationing out these caramel bars, and we are down to the final four.  Last night, I sadly wrapped the remainders in tin foil for delivery and spent the rest of the evening going back and forth to the plate with crumbs on it, popping them into my mouth and shamefully ambling back to my bed.  Thank goodness I don't have roommates anymore.

My mother makes these every year for Christmas, and for some reason during the holidays it seems perfectly reasonable to shove handfuls into my mouth.  And one of every other cookie offered.  I think this year I might just cut to the chase and start eating sticks of butter rolled in brown sugar.

*  I know that I'm supposed to do one new recipe every week and I know this is only my second week and I have already failed.  In my defense, I haven't been feeling well and I made three new recipes last week.  If you're interested, I can certainly post the recipe for "half-eaten bowl of cereal" and "cold pitas with hummus."

Caramel Shortbread Squares

• 2/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C).2. In a medium bowl, mix together 2/3 cup butter, white sugar, and flour until evenly crumbly. Press into a 9 inch square baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes.
2. After baking, I placed the shortbread into the freezer for about 10-20 minutes to cool.  If you do not do this, the caramel will separate from the shortbread later on.
3. In a 2 quart saucepan, combine 1/2 cup butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and sweetened condensed milk. Bring to a boil. Continue to boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon for about 3 minutes. Pour over baked crust. Cool until it begins to firm.
4. Place chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 1 minute, then stir and continue to heat and stir at 20 second intervals until chocolate is melted and smooth. Pour chocolate over the caramel layer and spread evenly to cover completely. Chill. Cut into 1 inch squares. These need to be small because they are so rich.