Two Novice Chefs, One Tiny Kitchen

I saw this recipe on Cooking Light’s website the other day and decided to whip up a batch for my book club tonight. We read Eat, Pray, Love which got me craving some good Italian food and a yearlong trip around the world, but since I can’t really have either right now, these butterscotch bars will have to do I doubled the original recipe, figured I might as well if I was going to go ahead and make a mess in the kitchen! Oh, and I added chocolate chips, because I had a couple of almost empty bags of chips I needed to use up and who doesn’t love a bit of chocolate? These bars are VERY tasty, but it’s hard to eat just one

Butterscotch Bars (from Cooking Light)

Ingredients

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or stick margarine, softened
4 large egg whites
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
1/2 cup butterscotch morsels
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Funfetti cake is my favorite.  It just screams HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Sadly I only get it about once a year, unless somebody close to me requests Funfetti for their own birthday.  Even though my birthday is still 2 months away I was craving some colorful Funfetti goodness and remembered that the mix could easily be made into cookies.  So I picked up a box of Funfetti mix and my beloved Rainbow Chip Frosting (the most wonderful frosting in the entire world).  I am very passionate about this frosting.  It was hard to find in D.C., so glad we are back in the midwest where it is plentiful!

Funfetti Cookies (from Pillsbury, recipe is on the side of most Funfetti boxes)

Ingredients:

1 box Funfetti cake mix
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs
1/2 can of frosting

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a large bowl combine cake mix, oil, and eggs.  Stir until moistened.  Shape dough into 1 inch balls, place 2 inches apart on baking sheet.  Flatten cookies with a fork or the bottom of a glass.  Bake for 6-8 minutes or until edges are slightly brown.  Let cool for one minute and then remove from cookie sheets to cool completely.  Frost cookies and store in an airtight container.

While I was browsing my google reader this morning I saw these cookies and starred the recipe so I could make them at a later time.  Well that later time ended up coming tonight!  And wow they are just as good as I imagined they would be, actually better!  I had some pecans in the freezer from our trip to Arkansas at Thanksgiving.  Shelling all those pecans was worth it to come home with 5 lbs of free pecans!  They are almost gone now (after I accidentally burned some of them tonight in my first attempt to toast them, whoops!)

Blue Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies (As seen on Smitten Kitchen, originally from The Great Book of Chocolate)

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

Adjust the oven rack to the top third of the oven and preheat to 300F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Beat the sugars and butters together until smooth. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and baking soda.

Stir together the flour and salt, then mix them into the batter. Mix in the chocolate chips and nuts.

Scoop the cookie dough into 2-tablespoon balls and place 8 balls, spaced 4 inches apart, on the baking sheets.

Bake for 18 minutes, or until pale golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies.

Here is the most traditional Christmas cookie from my childhood: the chocolate macaroon.  I experimented a bit with this recipe because I did not want to have to rig up a double boiler to melt the ingredients as the family recipe requires.  I didn’t have the time or the patience.  So I went to the Eagle Brand Milk website and found a recipe very similar to the one we used growing up and took it out for a spin.  Not quite as chocolatey as the family recipe (I think this recipe called for much more coconut) but they taste about the same and I think the family liked them! Next time I will either cut back on the coconut or add more chocolate.

Chocolate Coconut Macaroons (from the Eagle Brand Milk website)

Ingredients:

14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 egg white
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 (1 oz) squares unsweetened chocolate, melted (I did this in the microwave but the bowl got really hot, ouch.  I spilled some and then was short on chocoalte, so I threw in some unsweetened cocoa powder which worked out okay.)
14 oz bag flaked coconut

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F, line cookie sheets with parchment paper
In large bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk, egg white, vanilla, and melted chocolate.  Stir in coconut, then dropped by rounded teaspoonfuls on the lined cookie sheets.
Bake for 15-17 minutes, remove from cookie sheets and cool on wire racks.  Store in air tight container at room temp.

Well we are gearing up to celebrate Christmas with my family this weekend, so I am back in the kitchen baking away! I bought a bucket of 30 Christmas cookie cutters at Bed, Bath, and Beyond awhile back and couldn’t wait to use them. Hopefully my 18 month old niece will get a kick out of these colorful cookies! My sister and I had lots of fun decorating them together, I’m sure I’ll be finding sprinkles in my kitchen for months. I was so happy with this recipe, it was a really easy dough to roll out. I spread some saran wrap on the counter, dusted it with flour, and had no problems with sticky dough! I rarely bake with margarine due to the trans fat, but I figure once a year is allowable, and I think it really makes the cookies soft and tasty! The cookies are mildly sweet and frosting adds just the right amount of sweetness. Plus the frosting dries after awhile so the cookies can be easily stacked without making a huge frosting mess!

Jon’s Super Sugar Cookies (from Joelen’s Cooking Adventures)

Ingredients:
2 eggs
3/4 cup margarine
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon real vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups AP flour
frosting - recipe follows
1. Cream margarine and sugar well.
2. Add vanilla and eggs; combine well.
3. In separate bowl, sift the baking powder, salt and flour.
4. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients slowly until thoroughly combined.
5. Cookie dough must be chilled until firm, or overnight.
6. Remove dough from fridge and roll out to a 1/4 inch thickness.
7. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
8. With cookie cutters or rim of drinking glass, cut out cookies.
9. Place cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, depending on oven. Check often to prevent over cooking or burning. Cool on baking rack when done.
10. Meanwhile, to prepare frosting - its a MUST for these cookies! (go all the way or not at all- lol)

Frosting:
1 teaspoon real vanilla
1 stick of real butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon cream or whole milk

11. Cream butter, milk and vanilla together.
12. Slowly add powdered sugar to butter until desired consistency. If you’d like, add liquid food coloring for festive cookies.
13. When cookies are cooled, slather this heavenly frosting. For more texture and color, press the top of the cookies in sprinkles, colored sugar or just eat plain!

Tyler loves these cookies and requests that his mom make them every year at Christmas. I attempted to make them our first Valentine’s Day together back in 2004. It was quite a challenge to gather all the tools necessary for this recipe and then bake the cookies in my small dorm kitchen. They did not turn out very well, but I mailed them off to Tyler anyway and he ate them, only complaining a little. I think they were rock hard and crumbly by the time they got to him! I have not attempted this recipe since then.

I have a real aversion to any recipe that calls for rolling out dough. I was ready to try again though, and I made sure to follow the directions closely and work quickly once I got the dough out of the fridge. As it warms up it becomes sticky, so you have to move fast to get it prepared and rolled up. Next time I will probably chop the cranberries, walnuts, and orange rind in the food processor so I can get the pieces more finely chopped. I will also try rolling the dough out on flour covered parchment paper, since the dough started to stick to the wood cutting board I put it on. Despite my fears and struggles, these cookies look and taste very good!  The combination of cranberry and orange just screams Christmas to me.

Cranberry Walnut Swirls (recipe given to me by Tyler’s mom, I believe it is originally from Southern Living)

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh cranberries
1/2 cup ground walnuts
1 tablespoon grated orange rind

Directions:

Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, beating until blended. Gradually add flour, baking powder, and salt, beating until blended. Cover and chill 1 hour.

Combine cranberries, walnuts, and orange rind.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and roll into a 10-inch square. Sprinkle with cranberry mixture, leaving a 1/2-inch border on 2 opposite sides.

Roll up dough, jellyroll fashion, beginning at a bordered side. Cover and freeze 8 hours.

Cut roll into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place slices on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes (mine took exactly 11 minutes) or until bottom of cookies starts to brown. Can be frozen up to 1 month.

Made 2 1/2 dozen cookies, but that just depends on how thick you cut the dough.

The urge to bake struck me on Sunday afternoon but I didn’t have any entire bag of anything sweet. I had partial bags of chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, coconut, and macadamia nuts. I remembered a yummy looking cookie recipe that called for coconut and with a bit of searching I found the original recipe I was looking for. Wow these cookies were delicious. One of my new favorites. I ate a few and took some to work and sent the rest to work with Tyler. That’s a first, he’s always resistant to take food to work, I think it’s because he’s shy and is worried the cookies will attract attention. I think he probably dropped the bag of cookies in the break room and ran, but there were none left at the end of the day so I presume they were a hit!

Coconut Nut Chipsters (original recipe from BakingBlonde’s blog)

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 egg
1 2/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup White Chocolate Chips
1 1/3 cup Coconut (lightly toasting is optional)
1 cup macadamia nut pieces (or other fave nut)

Preheat oven to 375.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk to combine. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugars and vanilla until light and creamy. Beat in egg. Slowly add flour mixture and mix just until combined. Gently fold in chips, coconut and nuts by hand just until combined.

Refrigerate dough for about 30 minutes to keep cookies from spreading. Form dough into balls using medium scoop and place on parchment lined baking sheets. Flatten dough balls with a fork.

Bake for 8-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on sheets for 2 minutes and transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

You can’t hide from it, Christmas will be here sooner than you think. I love the Christmas season, the baking, the buying, the family, the giving. It’s all great. I plan on giving cookies and other baked goods to friends and co-workers this holiday season. I haven’t figured out exactly what I’ll make yet but I’m trying out some new recipes. One idea I really like is the “cookie in the jar” mixes you can put together. I already knew that they looked great, but I wanted to make sure they actually tasted good before handing them out to everyone I know! I’m glad I gave them a try because there were some things that needed tweaking. Also, Tyler loved them and I think these will replace the other cranberry white-chocolate cookie recipe I have used in the past.

Cranberry Hootycreeks (from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 1 cup + 2 T all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Layer the ingredients in a 1 quart or 1 liter jar, in the order listed.
2. Attach a tag with the following instructions: Cranberry Hootycreeks
   1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.
   2. In a medium bowl, beat together 1/2 cup softened butter, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until fluffy (Thanks to the advice of an allrecipes.com reviewer, I found out it takes 5-7 minutes in the electric mixer to get the butter, eggs, and vanilla to become fluffy). Add the entire jar of ingredients, and mix together by hand until well blended (If dough is dry and crumbly, sprinkle with a bit of water so it sticks together better, I also refrigerated the dough about 30 minutes before baking). Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets.
   3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges start to brown. Cool on baking sheets, or remove to cool on wire racks.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies (depending on how much dough you eat!)

It’s strange to think that a year ago I could NOT make a batch of cookies from scratch without seriously screwing them up, getting frustrated, and pitching them into the trash can. I have learned several tricks of the trade and feel much more confident now. By the holidays I will have many cookie recipes under my belt (and uh..literally as well I suppose, heh). I’m working my way up to Tyler’s favorite cookie recipe, to be revealed at a later date (probably in December). These cookies don’t look like Amber’s, but they taste great. This was a “recipe of the week” ages ago, but I bookmarked them from Amber’s blog because I loved her presentation. A word to the wise, although the cookies taste great the dough basically just tastes like butter, not so good for snacking on!

Time for some updates! I have been cooking and baking the last week but just haven’t been updating much. I tried a couple of recipes from a fellow food blogger that I want to rave about! Amber has so many creative and “down-to-earth” recipes. I’m going to try her homemade pretzel recipe this week, can’t wait!

I was out of brown sugar but craving cookies with oatmeal in them and found this recipe for no-bake cookies on Amber’s blog. So easy to make but beware, they are SERIOUSLY addictive. We got about 3 dozen cookies out of this recipe and they were gone faster than any cookies I’ve ever made before. I’ve posted the recipe here with the changes I made, I used chunky peanut butter and added some coconut, delish! Check out Amber’s original recipe for other recommendations on add ins.

No Bake Cookies (from Amber’s Delectable Delights)

Ingredients:
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 cup crunchy peanut butter
3 cups quick cooking oats
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup flaked coconut

Directions:

1. Line 2 large baking sheets with wax paper, parchment paper, or alum. foil and set aside.
2. Combine sugar, butter, milk, and cocoa in large saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a rolling boil. Remove from heat and cool 1 minute.
3. Add peanut butter and stir until melted. Add oats, vanilla, peanuts and coconut (if desired) and mix well.
4. Quickly drop mixture by heaping tablespoons onto lined cookie sheets.
5. Place in refrigerator until set. Once set remove cookies from sheet and place in air tight container in a cool, dry place.