Cookie 365

A little lemony love - Cookie #94

2011-01-19T18:14:00.000-08:00

While I was recently browsing the internet for cookie inspiration, I came across this fantastic idea of imprinting a sugar cookie with a cookie cutter before baking. The resulting cookie would have the imprint of the shape of the cutter and give you a nice, neat little template to ice/decorate.

Unfortunately, I don't remember where I saw this idea.

Normally, I'm pretty good about saving ideas to my favorites, but for some reason I didn't. Boo.

As one who shares some original ideas via a blog, I understand how important it is to give credit where credit is due. I spent quite a length of time searching pages upon pages of images on Google, with no luck.

So, to that fellow blogger, I want to give you credit for the idea - really I do - I just can't remember who you are. If anyone has seen this idea on another blog, please shoot me an email or comment. I'll gladly add the link to the post, ASAP. :)

Now, onto the idea. If I remember correctly, the original recipe used a plain sugar cookie. I decided to jazz things up a bit. I had some Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix in my pantry that needed to be used. I also had a lemon in my fridge that was just about beyond it's time - that had to go, too.

Perfect pairing.

My original idea was to roll the cookie into a log, freeze, then slice into 1/4" rounds before baking. Instead, I dropped rounded tablespoons full on the cookie sheet and smooshed them with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. The sugar added some much needed sweetness to the cookie. I think without it, it would've been a bit too tart. Both my Trusty Taste Testers loved them as well as my Junior Taste Testers.

I then pressed a small (1.5"ish) heart cookie cutter into the dough, being careful not to cut all the way through.

Don't they look all pretty and sugary?

In the spirit of "workin' with what I got," I used some canned (gasp!) frosting I had left over from some cupcakes I baked last week. Since I didn't have very much, I only outlined the hearts, rather than filling them in. Please note the missing cookie....one of my Trusty Taste Testers just couldn't wait...

Lemony Sugar Cookies

1 package Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix (prepared as directed on package)

1 lemon, zested and juiced

1/2 cup sugar

Icing for decorating, if desired

Prepare sugar cookie mix as directed on the package, adding in the zest and juice of the lemon. Drop by rounded tablespoons full onto parchment lined baking sheets. Dip a glass with a smooth bottom into sugar (wet it first to help the sugar stick the first time) and then flatten the cookie to about 1/4" thick. Press a small cookie cutter into the surface of teh cookie, being careful not to cut all the way through (though I don't think that would be that big a deal if you did).

Make as directed. Mine took about 9 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Decroate with icing of choice if desired.

Yumanomanomanom....

Enjoy!

An angelic bonus recipe.

2011-01-12T19:47:00.000-08:00

I was introduced to a recipe recently that can only be described as divine.

Divine.

Deee-viiiiiiine.

Angel Lush Cake.

Have you heard of it? It's apparently a pretty popular recipe, which makes me wonder: "Where the h-e-double hockey sticks have I been?"

After I was served a slice of this heavenly creation, I asked for the recipe and couldn't wait to get home and recreate it. It's so simple and I think that contributes to it's divinity. Angel food cake topped and filled with a mixture of pineapple, vanilla pudding mix and Cool Whip and garnished with fresh raspberries.

Of course, I couldn't just go home and make it as originally described. I had to make it MY way. Rather than initially tamper with the ingredients (if it ain't broke, right?), I decided to alter the form. Rather than choosing a traditional angel food cake pan i went with everybody's favorite: cupcakes!

Unfortunately, fresh raspberries in northeastern Pennsylvania can set you back a small fortune this time of year, so I opted to leave them out. I couldn't bring myself to spend the same amount on the garnish as I did for all the ingredients combined. Plus, I already had all the other ingredients on hand.

Here's the scoop:

Angel Lush Cupcakes

1 package angel food cake mix (prepared according to package directions)
1 package (3 oz-ish) instant vanilla pudding mix
2 8-oz cans crushed pineapple in juice
1 cup Cool Whip

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Prepare angel food cake according to package directions. Fill 24 paper lined muffin cups about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the top is golden and appears dry. Cool for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Meanwhile, prepare the topping. Mix together the pineapple and pudding mix. Fold in Cool Whip until well combined. Frost the cupcakes with the mixture (if you don't eat the entire bowl first). Garnish with fresh raspberries (if you're not too cheap).

Some notes:

1. Keep these puppies in the fridge. Not only for the topping, but to keep the cake from drying out.

2. These really are better the next day. At first, I was quite disappointed with how the cake stuck to the cupcake wrappers. I vowed the next time I make them I'd use foil wrappers or no wrappers at all. When I noshed on one the next day, the wrapper slipped off the cool cupcake easily - no problemo! I was also impressed by how the pineapple flavor was even more pronounce and seemed to almost seep into the nooks and crannies of the cake...

3. Some changes I've been toying with: using pineapple juice in place of the water (or some of the water) in the cake mix, adding a raspberry filling, adding Chambord to the cake. Maybe I'll try these ideas. Maybe not. These cakes are really so good the way they are, I don't want to mess with greatness, kwim?

4. One word: trifle. I definitely plan on this one this summer. Picture it: layers of angel food cake, the luscious topping, raspberries and Cool Whip. I'm excited. (squee!)

ENJOY!

When hoarding can be a GOOD thing - Cookie #93: PB&J Bars

2011-01-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

In a past life I was a coupon-er. I loved the thrill of clipping dozens of coupons from two different Sunday papers and matching them up with local grocery ads. It was such a rush watching the total on my bill drop as the cashier scanned coupon after coupon after coupon. Even the impatient stares of the customers behind me in line couldn't take away the euphoric feeling of saving almost 75%.

This brings me to the story of the peanut butter. Peanut butter went on sale. There was a coupon. A really good coupon. Actually several really good coupons which I hoarded in my pink coupon pouch. I think I ended up getting the peanut butter for around 25 cents a jar.

The problem? I ended up with SEVEN jars of peanut butter. At the time it was just my husband, myself and a non-peanut butter eating newborn in our home. What on EARTH could we do with seven jars of peanut butter? I immediately started trying out recipes.

Peanut butter cake.
Peanut butter frosting.
Peanut butter fudge.
Peanut sauce for chicken satay.
Peanut butter cookies.

I remembered having this awesome peanut butter bar cookie at a craft fair earlier that year and I decided I'd try to recreate it. The cookie itself was vegan, but since at the time I knew little of vegan cooking, I chose to make them the "regular" way (regular to me that is). The bar cookie I remember consisted of this creamy peanut butter base. The sweetness stuck to the roof of your mouth. It was topped with a strawberry jam - and a good, homemade strawberry jam, at that. I could taste the chunks of fruit. The whole thing was topped with an oatmeal crumble that was divine.

So, armed with my seven jars of peanut butter, I got to baking.

I was quite pleased with the results. I opted to use plain old Welch's grape jelly instead of making my own strawberry jam. Partly because I love grape jelly with peanut butter (currant jelly, too!) but, mostly because I was too lazy. I had a newborn, remember?

So, here they are in all they're glory - rich, peanut buttery and oh so delicious.
Enjoy!

Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups oats
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut up into chunks
1/2 cup peanut butter
3/4 - 1 cup grape jelly (or your jelly of choice)
1/4 cup chopped, roasted/salted peanuts

Combine all ingredients, except jelly, in a large bowl until well incorporated.
Press half the mixture into a buttered 13x9" pan.
Spread jelly over the top until even.
Sprinkle with remaining dough mixture & chopped peanuts.
Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes or until golden.
Let cool before slicing into bars.

PS - I have a picture of these scrumptious treats but realized it's saved on my office computer - not my laptop. I'll update with a yummy photo tomorrow.

Do blondes really have more fun? - Cookie #92

2011-01-03T20:19:00.000-08:00

I've lived my life as a brunette. The closest I've ever come to blond was when I had highlights done about 5 years ago. After seeing pictures of myself, I realized blond was NOT for me. I quickly went back to my "natural" brown.
I don't really think blondies classify as a cookie. Snickerdoodles do, though. Enter: Snickerdoodle Blondies.
Part cookie.
Part blondie.
All awesome.

These are by far the BEST blondies I've ever eaten. They get this most fabulous crunchy coating on the top from the cinnamon sugar. The middle is soft and squishy. I could seriously sit down and eat an entire pan if it wouldn't make me deathly ill.

I adapted this recipe from several I've found in my travels. I hope you enjoy.

Snickerdoodle Blondies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 cups flour

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugars together until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla until well combined.

Sift flour, cinnamon, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl.

Gradually add flour mixture to butter/egg mixture and mix until just combined.

Spread batter into a lightly greased 13x9" pan.

Combine 2 tablespoons sugar with 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Sprinkle mixture evenly over batter.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until edges are lightly brown and blondies are set.

Cool completely in the pan before slicing into bars.

Where I've been (and a recipe, too!)

2010-12-28T20:02:00.000-08:00

When I began this blog, I fully expected to make it the full 365 days.
I imagined my notebook full of 365 cookie recipes.
I imagined people everywhere trying my recipes for their families and sharing them with friends.
My back, however, had other plans.
The day after I posted my last cookie, I became incapacitated.
You see, I have this nasty thing called Psoriatic Arthritis. It's similar to rheumatoid arthritis in that my immune system is attacking my joints. My PsA attacks my spine, hands, knees and shoulders.
The morning after I posted the raisin biscuits, I couldn't move. Usually, the pain and stiffness lessens as the day goes on.
This time it didn't.
I couldn't stand. I couldn't sit. I couldn't bend. I couldn't walk.
The only comfort I could find was lying on my living room floor with my legs propped up on my coffee table and a heating pad or ice pack on my back. Certainly not a position conducive to cookie baking.
Much to my dismay, I knew I needed to abandon the cookie 365 experiment - at least for a while. I was ashamed, which is why I disappeared into the blogosphere.
I'm sorry.
I've received several e-mails from readers inquiring about my whereabouts.
I assure you - I'm here and I fully intend on sharing more delicious cookies with you!
Enough about my woes...let's give the people what they want: COOKIES!

I came upon this recipe while browsing a lovely little blog named The Picky Palate.

I was mesmerized by the thought of it. BROWNIE COVERED OREOS.

Seriously?

How on Earth could you make milk's favorite cookie any better?

You dip it in brownie batter and bake them.

It was roughly 9:30pm when I came across the recipe and by 9:45 I had the first batch in the oven.

Holy schmoly. These suckers are sinful. Just look at the little devils:

Told you.

Stop it. Just stop it.

Here's how I made this little devils...

Ingredients:

1 box brownie mix of choice, prepared according to package directions
1 box Oreos
Cooking spray
White chocolate
Sprinkles, crushed candy canes, etc. to decorate the tops

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Generously spray 2 muffin tins with cooking spray.
Dip each Oreo into the brownie batter until well coated. Place one Oreo in the bottom of each muffin cup.
Bake for 12-15 minutes until the brownies are done.
Immediately upon removing them from the oven, run a thin bladed knife around each brownie. This will ensure the brownies don't stick.
Cool for about 5 minutes or so before removing from the muffin tins.
Decorate with melted white chocolate and your decorations of choice.
I decorated mine with some crushed candy canes, red sprinkles (or jimmies) and some sugar crystals.

The possibilities are endless with these! I can't wait to try them with mint Oreos and peanut butter Oreos! Yum!

Enjoy and I promise - I'll see you real soon....

Cookie #90 - Raisin Biscuits

2010-09-30T19:46:00.000-07:00

Number 90. Woot, woot! I'm about 25% of the way there.

These cookies were inspired by a cookie I used to eat at my best childhood friend's house growing up. Michelle's mom always had these Golden Fruit biscuits on hand. They weren't super sweet. Just a soft, flaky biscuit with sweet, chewy raisins in the middle.
Years later, my mom found a similar cookie in a catalog and ordered some for me. They were indeed delicious, but like I've mentioned before, often times the memory is greater than the taste.
These cookies were delicious. Very scone or tea-biscuit like.
They were very much loved by my trusty taste tester #2 (my mom) and my mother-in-law (who was visiting this week).
These cookies are also super easy to make and I can see making them over and over again. Yum!

A few notes about the recipe:

1. Next time I'd chop the raisins a bit before adding them. The raisins were a bit big and I think needed to be pared down a bit. The inspiration biscuits had more of a chopped raisin filling - I don't know why I didn't stick with that.

2. While I like the technique I used for these (based on a currant cookie I've made before), I think next time I'll do more of a biscuit with a top and bottom crust. I think it'll work rolling out the one portion of the dough into a large rectangle, cover the raisins and then covering with the other rolled out portion.

3. Though the recipe I list below states milk, I used heavy cream. Totally not necessary, but I had it on hand and wanted to use it before it spoiled.

4. The turbinado sugar. Please don't use regular granulated white sugar. I know often times you can get away with using just regular granulated sugar for sprinkling on top, but in this case the coarse sugar really adds a nice crunch to a really soft and chewy biscuit. Regular granulated sugar, while adding the necessary sweetness, would just be lost.

Raisin Biscuits

1 cup flour
2 tbsp confectioner's sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut in to cubes and cold
2 tbsp milk
1 egg, beaten with 2 tsp cold water
1 cup raisins
2 tbsp turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw)

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, confectioner's sugar, baking powder and salt. Pulse a few times to combine. Add butter and pulse until crumbly and the texture of coarse sand.
Add vanilla and milk and pulse until the mixture forms a ball.
Divide dough in half, wrap with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
On a well floured work surface, roll one portion of dough into a rectangle about 12" long and 1/8" thick. Brush surface of dough with egg wash and sprinkle half the dough evenly with half of the raisins. Fold the dough onto itself, sandwiching the raisins inside. Lightly roll the dough again until about 6" wide and 12" long. Fold the dough in half lengthwise again and transfer the entire piece to a parchment lined cookie sheet.
Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with 1 tbsp turbinado sugar. Cut the length of biscuits into 2-3" pieces using a pizza cutter (no need to separate them at this point, just cut them).
Repeat the process with the other portion of the dough.
Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown.

Cookie #89 - Mini Jam Pie Cookies

2010-09-29T20:44:00.000-07:00

In pastry, there are four classic doughs that are used:

Pate Brisee, traditional pie dough.

Pate Sablee, a crumbly dough commonly used in tarts.

Pate a choux, which is a light airy dough used for cream puffs, eclairs, etc.

Pate sucree, a sweet pastry dough.

These cookies use pate sucree. If you've never made a pie dough, or are intimidated by it, this is a fantastic way to start. I find a pate sucree much easier to work than a traditional pie crust. Maybe it's the addition of the sugar and the egg yolks. Maybe it's the fact that when I make a pate sucree I tend to be a little less stressed than when I make a pie crust. Coming from a long line of pie-making women, I've got a lot to live up to. That puts a lot of stress on a girl.

The inspiration for these cookies came after I spent a weekend testing some apple pie recipes for an upcoming contest at my local farmer's market. I had a little pie crust left over and decided to bake off some little mini turnover like bits. I filled them with some strawberry preserves I had on hand.

I was disappointed.

I knew there had to be a better way. After realizing that the dough itself wasn't sweet enough for this application, I chose to use the pate sucree. Have I mentioned how much I love this dough? Now I had to decide the filling. As I reached for my jar of store-brand raspberry preserves, I remembered I had a jar of the most awesome berry preserves in my pantry.

Dutch Hill Preserves is a vendor at my local farmers' market. 95% of the fruit they use is local (75% they grow themselves). The other 5% is citrus and we all know you can't grow good citrus in Pennsylvania. I've hand quite a few of their jams & jellies, but their Triple Berry Jam is by far my favorite. There is no denying this is a real berry jam. As you spoon out the jam you will find whole strawberries, blueberries and blackberries.

I've never had jam so good. It is better than anything you can ever buy off the shelf at your grocery store. You can taste the freshness of the berries - they taste like the breezy Pocono mountains and the warm summer sun. Perfect to compliment my sweet pastry.

After baking off a batch, I couldn't wait to dig in. I had to execute some serious willpower - but hot jam burns and I wanted to really be able to enjoy these. The pastry was sweet and tender and the jam oozed just a little on first bite. The sweet and tart berries tingled my tongue. The raw sugar sprinkled on top added a little bit of a crunchy texture - I love that.

Don't they just look delicious? (ignore the one in the center on the bottom....I got a little over zealous with the jam).

I am so excited with the way these cookies came out. I have a few set aside and I can't wait to share them this weekend with the folks at Dutch Hill Preserves. I hope they agree that my pastry showcases their delicious jam just perfectly.

Now, onto the recipe:

Mini Jam Pie Cookies

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup ice water
1 cup preserves of your choosing
1 egg beaten with 1 tsp cold water
a few tablespoons turbinado sugar (aka, Sugar in the Raw)

In the bowl of a food processor, add flour and sugar. Pulse a few times to combine. Add cold butter and pulse until crumbly and the texture of sand. Add egg yolks and pulse to combine. With the processor running, drizzle in the water until the mixture forms a ball. Wrap the ball in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
On a well floured work surface, roll out portions of the dough until very thin - less than 1/4". Cut the dough using a 3" round cookie cutter. In the center of each circle, place about 1/2 - 1 tsp of jam. Don't over fill or this will happen:

Wet the edges of the circle with water and fold over. Press closed with your fingers and the crimp the edges using a fork. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet about 1" apart (they don't spread or puff too much so you can place them pretty close together).
Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden colored.

Cookie #88 - Marzipan Cookies

2010-09-27T20:20:00.000-07:00

Favorite Taste Tester #1, aka my husband Corey, LOVES marzipan.
When I bought the tube of almond sugar love home from the grocery store, I had to hide it.
Usually, I can just safely write on the package of something with black marker:
"FOR A RECIPE! DO NOT EAT!"
I didn't trust my Sharpie warning to ward off a hungry, scavenging Corey.

This inspiration for this cookie comes from a blog I found, Jeena's Kitchen. After adapting the recipe for my kitchen, I think they came out pretty good. I did cover my marzipan balls with a little more batter than shown with the original recipe. The result was a larger cookie with a little nugget of marzipan inside.

I made these cookies in my food processor fitted with a steel blade. I was inspired by an episode of Nigella Feasts. I watched as she made cupcakes in a food processor and basically just dumped all the ingredients in and gave it a whirl. While I wouldn't recommend it for all cookie recipes, it worked pretty well for these.

The flavor of the cookie was quite nice. Sweet and spicy - much like an oatmeal cookie without the oatmeal texture. I may try working with this batter in different ways. I have a few ideas I'm anxious to try.

For now, we have marzipan goodness for you...

Marzipan Cookies

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp milk or heavy cream (I had heavy cream on hand so used that)

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 egg whites

1 whole egg

1 tsp vanilla

7 oz package of marzipan

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Roll marzipan into balls about 1/2" and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.

In the bowl of a food processor, cream butter and sugar together.

Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pulse to combine.

Add milk (or cream), egg whites, egg and vanilla. Mix until well combined.

Drop teaspoons full of batter over each ball of marzipan. To prevent the balls from rolling away, slightly flatten them. I didn't do this and ended up with some sloppy looking cookies since I had to chase them around the sheet pan a little.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

ENJOY!!

Cookie #87 - Raspberry Jam Strips

2010-09-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

One of the nicest comments I've received about my blog was from a reader who said it was so "real."
That is my goal.
It was never my intent to only show you the good that comes out of my kitchen. If I'm to grow as a baker, I don't feel the need to hide my mistakes. By putting my errors out there, I hope for the constructive criticism from other bakers and food lovers alike.
I'm also not afraid to tell you when I don't like something. For example, describing the scent of my Wisconsin Cheddar Cookies as nauseating. Who does that? This girl.
By the way, those cookies were a huge hit with my favorite taste tester, Corey. He still talks about them.
Now I bring you Raspberry Jam Strips.
After some of the more daring and different cookies I've made, these were rather plain. My mom loved them. She normally tries to stear clear of eating many of my cookies (I admire her willpower) but she just couldn't stay away from these. I think they remind her of the linzer tarts my father used to buy her. Deep down, it makes me so happy that I was able to recreate a flavor that brings back such happy memories for her.
The inspiration for this cookie came after I watched an old episode of Food Network Challange.
Theresa Cannavo, who gets mad props for her gingerbread bird houses, make Papa's Boysenberry Ropes.
Did I just write 'mad props?' Remind me never to do that again.
I really liked the idea of making long ropes of cookies and then cutting after baking - much like the way biscotti is made.
Since I had some raspberry preserves in the fridge, I chose to use it up for this cookie. I made a basic butter cookie base and after forming into logs, I created a trough in the center. After baking, I filled the center with the raspberry jam and cut into 1" wide pieces. Actually, Corey cut them because I was called upstairs to fight a monster in Sydney's closet. Damn monsters. Though I know I'll miss them when they're gone.
The flavors of this cookie were very simple and very straightforward. Butter cookie. Raspberry. Nothing develops late on your palate. Nothing tickles your nose after a few bites. Simple - and sometimes simplicity can be beautiful.
If you like jam thumbprints, these cookies are a good substitute. They're easier to make, since you don't have to roll individual cookies. I suppose if you wanted, you could sprinkle some chopped nuts on top of the raspberry preserves to really get that thumbprint flavor. Also, since the dough itself is rather nondescript (aside from being buttery) you could replace the raspberry jam with whatever flavor floats your boat. They'd be scrumptious with fig filling and a little cinnamon & nutmeg added to the cookie dough.
I'm positive I'll be making these cookies again. They disappeared from my kitchen lickety split and I've already had requests for another batch.

Raspberry Jam Strips

1 1/4 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Cream butter and sugar. Mix in flour until a dough forms.
Divide the dough in half. Shape each half of the dough on a parchment lined baking sheet into a log about 9" long. Using the handle of a wooden spoon (or your fingers) make an indentation down the length of the dough.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.
Immediately after removing from the oven, spoon raspberry jam into the indentation. Cut the strips into 1" pieces. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cookie #86 - Lemon Cookies

2010-09-23T19:34:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned before, my favorite Girl Scout cookie of all time was the Lemon Pastry Cremes. They were this wonderfully delicious lemon sandwich cookie.
I know what you're thinking: But the Girl Scouts sell a lemon cookie!
No.
The Lemon Chalet Cremes are NOT the same.
Let me 'splain..
Lemon Pastry Cremes was made up of these two really delicate, subtly flavored lemon cookies. They were flaky and lightly coated with a sweet glaze. Inside was the most wonderful, creamy, lemony filling. The lemon flavor wasn't too overpowering, but rather just enough.
I've been dying to recreate this cookie for some time now. To be honest, I know I'll never be able get an exact replica of my beloved cookie. I think I'm romanticizing the flavor - even if I tasted one of those cookies now, it wouldn't be as good as I remember.
These cookies, however, were quite delicious.
They were very lemony. In fact, I think maybe a bit too lemony. The cookie was very flavorful with the addition of the lemon zest, I don't really think the lemon juice was needed for the glaze. They were still mouth-puckering good. Because of the lemon flavor, I chose not to sandwich these cookies. I had the feeling that sandwiching these cookies with even more lemon goodness would just kill it. Sometimes you just have to know when to stop.

Lemon Cookies

3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 baking soda
1/4 cup salt
1/2 cup butter
1 tbsp lemon zest
3/4 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla

Sift together flours, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Add egg yolks and lemon zest until well combined.
Mix in lemon juice and vanilla.
Mix in flour mixture slowly until just combined.
Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Roll tablespoons full of dough into balls, place balls 2" apart onto parchment lined cookie sheets.
Using slightly moistened fingers, flatten each ball into a 2" disk.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, rotating baking sheets halfway through.

If desired, pour lemon glaze over cookies while still warm.

Lemon Glaze

1 cup sifted confectioners sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp light corn syrup

Whisk ingredients together and pour over warm cookies.

Cookie #85 - Peanut Butter Chocolate Marble

2010-09-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

Oh. My.
These have to be the best cookies I've made thus far. Peanut butter and chocolate is one of my best friend's favorite flavor combinations. I knew I wanted to make her a peanut butter cookie, only better. I must say, I succeeded.
Now, before I throw my shoulder out patting myself on the back, let me give you the recipe...

Peanut Butter Chocolate Marble

1 cup butter

1 cup creamy peanut butter

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

12 oz milk chocolate

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

Melt milk chocolate, either in a double boiler or the microwave, and set aside to cool.

Cream butter and peanut butter together until well combined and smooth. Add sugars and mix until well incorporated. Mix in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla.

Sift together dry ingredients and add slowly to the butter mixture mixing until just combined.

Drizzle the melted chocolate all over the dough. Drag a large spoon through the dough. Do not fully mix the chocolate into the dough - you want to create a marble effect with streaks of chocolate.

Drop 1/4 cups full of dough, 3" apart onto parchment lined baking sheets.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until edges are golden.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Cookie #84 - Amish Drop Sugar Cookies

2010-09-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

Um, hello? Where the heck did I go? It's like I disappeared into cyber-cookie-space. Did you miss me?

In truth, I have been an emotional wreck for the past 4 days. It just seemed like one thing after another was going wrong and I was just fed up. All I wanted to do was hide, so hide I did....but, I also baked. Baking helps me unwind. It helps me escape from my crazy daily life and forget my problems

Now, before you get too worried, it was nothing serious. In fact, now that I look back on it, it was all quite petty and I feel almost silly for the way I reacted to the situation. I had some issues with my 1960's era Singer sewing machine. When I inquired about getting the part to repair it, I was told it could take up to 6 weeks for the part to come in IF they could get the part at all. I was mad. How am I supposed to sew Halloween costumes now? I overreacted. More things were broken. Tears were shed. I acted like a three-year-old and pouted for the next two days. Finally, after a visit to another sewing machine repair shop, a $1.50 spool pin and a little help from a drill, my husband (who is a saint for putting up with me) fixed the machine.

Enough about that - let's talk cookies. First up - Amish Drop Sugar Cookies.

As I was making them, my husband asked me: "What makes them Amish?"

Why sour cream, of course! The sour cream makes these cookies soft and moist.

The recipe, which was given to me by a PA native, didn't call for a frosting or glaze for the cookie.
I'm going to be honest - they need one. The cookies themselves were quite sweet, but rather bland. I was really craving a sweet, creamy, sugary topping. I toyed with the idea of different flavors of frosting - vanilla, chocolate, lemon. Unfortunately, the batch of cookies didn't last long enough for me to frost them. Next time...

Amish Drop Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
3 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Mix in eggs, beat well. Add sour cream and vanilla, beat well. Sift together dry ingredients and add to the butter mixture, mixing until well incorporated. Drop rounded tablespoons full onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges just start to turn color.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Cookie #83 - Fortune Cookies

2010-09-15T19:57:00.000-07:00

It took me four tries to finally get these cookies to work and even now, I'm not 100% happy with the way they came out. I didn't get that snappy crisp throughout the whole cookie. I finally got the dough right, I just really need to work on the baking time, I think. I'm not quite sure what went wrong. I tried variations and combinations of 3 different recipes. This is the recipe that gave me the easiest batter to work with and the one that I feel had the most realistic fortune cookie flavor. Most of the recipes I viewed cooked the cookies at a high temperature for a long time. I think the next time I try these, it'll be at a lower temperature for a lower time. Perhaps that's the key for getting that golden color and crispy texture. Either way, they were quite yummy and I enjoyed the ones that came out prettiest (and those that didn't). The recipe below gives the measurements and baking times I used.

Fortune Cookies

1 egg white

1/8 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 pinch salt

1 tbsp melted butter

1/4 cup flour

1 tbsp water

2 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Whisk egg white until foamy. Whisk in vanilla, almond extract, and melted butter.

Sift in flour, salt, and sugar.. Whisk until smooth. If the batter is too thick, add the water. You want the batter to be the texture of pancake batter.

Drop teaspoons full of the batter onto a greased cookie sheet (I actually used a Silpat) about 4" apart. Rotate the cookie sheet around to spread the batter into even circles, about 3-4" across.

Bake for 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven and begin working immediately and quickly. Remove cookies from the cookie sheet one at a time. Fold in half and press lightly on just the edges (place your paper fortunes inside at this point if you wish). Fold the two corners towards each other to create the classic fortune cookie shape.

Place each cookie into the cup of a muffin tin to retain shape while the cookies set.

At this point, once I had all the cookies folded and in the muffin tin, I returned them to the oven, lowered the temperature to 350 degrees F and baked for an additional 10 minutes to achieve a golden color.

I'd like to add that I read several recipes where people mentioned that they made hundreds of these for weddings and showers and various parties. After my fortune cookie experience, I can never imagine doing that! I'll stick to getting mine from my local Chinese restaurant.

Cookie #82 - Biscotte d'Vino

2010-09-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

Whenever I'm sitting by a crystal blue Italian stream kissing Valentino, I like to enjoy a nice glass of red wine (bonus points if you get the music reference). In between being fed grapes by some Italian stallion, I enjoy dipping one of these cookies into the wine.
Okay, not really, but I do love these cookies with my morning beverage of choice, Diet Coke - yes I'm one of those. Don't judge.
They're not very sweet and have just a hint of anise flavor. They have an interesting crumbly texture, yet they aren't dry. The recipe below makes enough biscotte to feed a small Italian village. I usually halve the recipe and it yields over 2 dozen cookies.

Biscotte d'Vino

6 eggs + 1 for egg wash

1/2 cup oil (I used canola oil, but I'm curious what olive oil would do to the final product)
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp anise extract (I'm sure almond would be good, too)

4 tbsp (yes, tablespoons) baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 cups + 1/4 cup flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Beat 6 eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla & anise extract together until well mixed and light yellow.
Sift 4 cups flour, baking powder and salt. Add to egg mixture in batches, until just combined.
Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup flour over the dough and knead it in gently with your hands.
Roll tablespoons of dough into logs about 3" long. Shape into an "S" shape. Place on parchment lined baking sheets about 2" apart.
Beat remaining egg with 1 tsp cool water. Brush cookies with egg wash.
Bake for 10-15 minutes until puffed and golden brown.

Cookie #81 - Mallomars

2010-09-13T19:57:00.000-07:00

While grocery shopping the other day, I was super excited to see the first batch of Mallomars out this season. The delicate chocolate coating melts easily in the heat of the summer months. Because of this, Nabisco limits their production to September through April. I have heard of the extreme Mallomar connoisseur stockpiling Mallomars in their freezers to last them the summer.

Why not make your own instead?

I found the slightly under baked graham crackers to be the perfect base for these cookies. The soft, honey flavor and grainy texture reminded me of the Mallomar cookie.

Now what about the marshmallow?
I toyed with the idea of using half of a jumbo marshmallow on top of the cookie, but the texture wasn't right. The marshmallow needed to be softer. Marshmallow fluff wouldn't work because it's TOO soft.
Finally, I resorted to making my own marshmallow.

The task of making marshmallows from scratch sounds a little daunting. I was actually surprised how easily it came together. The hardest part was getting the mixture into the piping bags before it started to set. You have to work quickly. It's important to have everything you need set out, waiting for you so you're not scrambling. Also, prepare to get messy. This is sticky, runny stuff.

I was quite pleased with the way these came out. The chocolate snapped just right. The marshmallow was nice and fluffy and the cookie was soft. Just right to get you through the Mallomar-less summer months!

Homemade Mallomars

Cookie Base

2 1/2 cups + 2 tbsp flour

1 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
7 tbsp butter, cold and cut into cubes
1/3 cup honey (I used local honey)
5 tbsp whole milk
2 tbsp (yes, tablespoons) vanilla

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt, pulsing 5-6 times to combine. Add chilled butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
In a small bowl, mix together honey, milk, and vanilla. With the food processor running, drizzle in the milk mixture until the dough just comes together.
Divide the dough in half and form into a ball, dust lightly with flour and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface about-1/4" thick.
Cut dough out with a 2" circle cookie cutter and place parchment lined baking sheets. Chill at least 30 minutes before baking.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 10 minutes or until they just start to turn golden at the edges.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
While the cookies cool, make the marshmallow.

Marshmallow

1 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 cup cold water, divided
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
2 egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla

1 lb dark chocolate for coating

In a large bowl, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water, let stand to soften.

In a medium sauce pan, combine granulated sugar, corn syrup, salt and 1/2 cup cold water. Place over low heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a boil. Continue boiling, without stirring, until mixture reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer, about 10 minutes. Poor mixture over the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is dissolved.

Beat the mixture on high speed until thickened and white and nearly tripled in volume. This will take about 5-10 minutes depending on whether you use a hand or stand mixer.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff. Beat whites and vanilla into the sugar/gelatin mixture until just combined.

Working quickly, transfer the mixture into piping bags or zip top freezer bags (it filled 3 for me). Immediately pipe globs of marshmallow onto the cookie bases. Transfer the marshmallow topped cookies to the fridge to harden, at least 3 hours. Place an additional empty cookie sheet in the freezer.

Once the marshmallows are firm, melt chocolate in a double boiler until smooth. Dip the marshmallow topped cookies in the melted chocolate, shaking off any excess, until evenly coated. Place coated cookies onto the frozen cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Once all the cookies are dipped, put them back in the fridge until the chocolate is set.

Enjoy!!

Cookie #80 - Graham Crackers

2010-09-12T19:21:00.000-07:00

When I was a little girl, I thought graham crackers were actually called "Gram crackers" for my grandmother. When I was in elementary school, I remember coming home and she having graham crackers and grape jelly ready for me.
These cookies were not difficult to make. The dough was fragrant and very easy to work with. I baked the for two different cooking times and achieved two seemingly different cookies. One very soft with a subtle honey flavor and one much crispier with a stronger, darker flavor (the ones pictured are the longer baked variety). Both cookies were delish and I encourage you to try both baking times to find the way you like your homemade graham crackers.

Homemade Graham Crackers

2 1/2 cups + 2 tbsp flour
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
7 tbsp butter, cold and cut into cubes
1/3 cup honey (I used local honey)
5 tbsp whole milk
2 tbsp (yes, tablespoons) vanilla
Cinnamon sugar topping (1/4 cup sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon)

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt, pulsing 5-6 times to combine. Add chilled butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
In a small bowl, mix together honey, milk, and vanilla. With the food processor running, drizzle in the milk mixture until the dough just comes together.
Divide the dough in half and form into a ball, dust lightly with flour and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface until between 1/8-1/4" thick.
To cut them, use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into rectangles about 3" wide by 6" long. Place the rectangles onto parchment lined baking sheets. Using a fork, create perforations that divided each cracker into 4 equal pieces - be sure to pierce all the way through the dough. Then lightly prick the dough all over using the fork, this time being careful not to pierce all the way through.
Chill the cut out squares for at least 30 minutes before baking.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle the cookies with the cinnamon sugar topping. Bake the cookies depending on the type of cookie you want to achieve:
For the softer, more mild cookie, bake for about 10 minutes until they just start to turn golden.
For the crispier, stronger flavored cookie, bake for 15 minutes until they are dark and firm.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Cookie #79 - Frosted Animal Cookies

2010-09-11T21:45:00.000-07:00

I have this very vivid memory from my childhood of grocery shopping with my mom at our local Grand Union. There was an area in the front of the store where the carts were kept that was cordoned off with shiny, metal railings. I would sit on the railing with my stuffed horse (and very best friend) Pineapple and a box of animal crackers while my mom shopped. Can you imagine doing that nowadays?
Animal crackers/cookies are such a kid favorite. The ones in the little red box with the string are probably the most popular, but frosted animal cookies are pretty awesome, too.
These cookies are essentially just a really delicious sugar cookie, rolled thin and frosted with some sweet icing on top. I added just a tiny bit of cinnamon to the dough and I was quite happy with the slightest bit of warmth it added.
These cookies don't have to be frosted. I think they'd be quite delicious simply dusted with some cinnamon sugar.
I cut my cookies out with two vintage cookie cutters I bought a few years ago at a garage sale. The horse shape reminds me of the Ikea horse. As I was testing out this recipe, I really wished I had the Williams-Sonoma Circus Animal Cracker Cookie Cutters, but they had been discontinued. They would have been perfect. They had all the famous shapes: a lion, giraffe, tiger, elephant and even the seal balancing a ball on it's nose. I found a few sets on eBay, but I just couldn't justify over $30 for a set of cookie cutters.
No matter how you choose to cut them, it's still a pretty darned good cookie.

Frosted Animal Cookies

Cookies:

2 cups flour

2/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla

Icing:

2 egg whites

2 tsp lemon juice

3 cups sifted confectioners sugar

Nonpareils for decoration

Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Mix in egg, then vanilla until well incorporated.

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add slowly to butter mixture until just combined.

Divide dough in half. Form each half into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Working with one half of the dough at a time, roll out on a lightly floured work surface to about 1/4" thick. Cut into desired shapes, reworking scraps of dough as needed. Place cut cookies onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake until the edges are just golden, about 15-20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To make icing:

Whisk egg whites just until stiff. Whisk in lemon juice and powdered sugar until well combined. If too thick, thin with a little bit of water until the desired consistency. Frost each cookie and top with nonpareils. Allow the frosting to dry before storing.

Enjoy!!

Cookie #78 - Fig Newtons

2010-09-10T22:15:00.000-07:00

I am currently working on creating a recipe to mimic the discontinued Girl Scout Lemon Pastry Cremes. I've almost got it, but in the mean time, I bring you another favorite of mine: The Fig Newton.

I L-O-V-E figs.

I have such an appreciation for the fruit. They are like little gems.

There is a restaurant here in town that has a fig appetizer that is to die for. It's fresh black mission figs stuffed with goat cheese , lightly broiled, and served with an arugula salad with Parmesan and a lemon vinaigrette.

It is one of the best things I have ever eaten.

As much as I love figs, I've never actually cooked with them. This was a first for me.

So, I headed out to the grocery store and bought 6 of the most beautiful figs.

They're lucky they made it home from the store. I could hear them calling to me from the produce bag. After I made the filling for these, I decided that next year I'm going to try my hand at canning. This filling is just too darn good to just use for these cookies. I can only imagine how good it is on an English muffin or even just a plain piece of toasted homemade white bread.

My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

As for this recipe, I used a combination of several recipes I had come across. I can't say they tasted just like a Fig Newton, but they were very good. I had some difficulty getting the same filling to cookie ration as the originals. I think the filling needs to be chilled just a bit more to help hold it's shape as you from the biscuits. I will also double the amount of filling I make. As you can see the cookies don't have that much filling in them. They really needed more. They also needed me to stop eating the filling as I went along.

Fig Newtons

Dough:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup cake flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cups butter

3 eggs

Filling:

2 cups chopped figs*

1 orange

1 cup apple juice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

4 tbsp sugar

1 additional egg whisked with 1 tsp cool water

First, make the dough so it has time to chill.

Cream butter and sugar together until creamy. Mix in three eggs and vanilla until well combined.

Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. Add slowly to butter mixture until dough is formed. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, make filling.

Zest the orange, set aside. Juice the orange and add water until it measures 1 cup.

Combine zest, orange juice and all remaining ingredients in a sauce pan and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until mixture has thickened - about 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Refrigerate until fully cooled.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Divide dough into three parts. Keep remaining dough refrigerated as you make the cookies.
Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 1/8" thick. Cut dough lengthwise into 3" strips.

Spoon filling down the middle of each strip. Brush edges lightly with egg wash and fold over the dough to seal in the filling. Place each strip seam side down onto parchment lined baking sheets. Brush with egg wash. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.

Bake cookies for 15-18 minutes until lightly golden brown. Allow them to cool about 10 minutes on the sheet pans before transferring to a wire rack to fully cool. Slice into 1 1/2" pieces.

*I used fresh figs. If you choose to use fresh, make sure they are nice and firm, not soft and squishy. I've seen recipes that used dried figs when making the filling or even substituted premade fig preserves.

Enjoy!

Cookie #77 - Shortbread

2010-09-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

Since I used a shortbread base for the Samoas and Peanut Butter Patties, I thought I'd share with you how I bake just plain shortbread. There's something so comforting about these cookies. They're sweet and flaky and buttery rich. Eating a homemade shortbread cookie reminds me of snow days and Christmas Eve.

The best part is how super easy they are to make!

I promise.

If you've never made a cookie before, these are the perfect starter cookie. I can't wait until my girls are old enough so I can teach them how to make these.

I hope you love them as much as I do.

Shortbread Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups flour

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg whisked with 1 tsp cool water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt.

Cream butter until smooth. Add flour mixture until just combined.

You can bake this one of two ways:

Version #1: Press dough into an 8x8" pan. Using a fork, pierce the dough all over. Brush with egg wash. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes. While still warm, cut dough into squares. Allow to cool for about 10-15 minutes in the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Version #2: After the dough is formed, knead it lightly and form into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface until 1/4" thick. Cut out cookies in desired shapes and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush with egg wash. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Rotate the cookie sheets halfway through baking time. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!

Me vs. a hot cookie sheet

2010-09-08T20:39:00.000-07:00

Guess who won?

Cookie #76 - Thin Mints

2010-09-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

The first time I heard about this knock-off Thin Mint recipe, I didn't believe it was actually good. I must say, this version does come very close to the original. The crisp cracker center mimics the chocolate cookie almost perfectly. I didn't find them nearly as minty as I would have liked them, but that could easily be fixed with the addition of some more peppermint extract.
Again, I made the mistake of using semisweet chocolate chips melted with shortening to coat these. They didn't harden well, much like the Peanut Butter Patties (note the finger prints on the picture below). I plan on making these again for Christmas and when I do, I'll use candy coating. Wilton even makes a chocolate mint flavored coating eliminating the need for the peppermint extract.
I've written the recipe out below using the measurements that I've found to be the same throughout the many different versions I've found across the net. I used the same amount of peppermint listed below for 12-oz of semisweet chocolate and I didn't find it minty enough. Most likely, it'll depend on your palate. My suggestion is to add the 1/2 tsp then taste the chocolate before dipping.

Thin Mints

1 lb bittersweet chocolate (or dark chocolate candy coating)

80 Ritz crackers

1/2 tsp peppermint extract*

Before starting, place a cookie sheet in the freezer. Like I've mentioned before, putting the sheet in the freezer will help you achieve a nice smooth bottom. You may also choose to put the Ritz crackers in the freezer as well to assist the chocolate setting smoothly.

In a double boiler, melt chocolate gently until smooth. Watch the chocolate carefully so it doesn't scorch. I cannot stress the importance of this enough. Here are a few tips to ensure that doesn't happen:

If the water under your double boiler is boiling, you obviously increase the chance of your chocolate scorching. Keep the water simmering, not boiling.

As you stir the chocolate be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as you stir. If you just lightly stir you can burn the chocolate on the bottom of the bowl and that will ruin the whole lot.

Once the chocolate is melted, dip the crackers one by one using a fork. Tap the fork lightly on the side of the bowl to ensure the chocolate coating is even over the cracker. Place on the cold cookie sheet. Once all the crackers are dipped, transfer to the fridge to set.

Enjoy!!

Cookie #75 - Peanut Butter Patties/Tagalongs

2010-09-07T18:42:00.000-07:00

Since the Girl Scouts discontinued the Lemon Pastry Cremes, I had to find a new favorite Girl Scout cookie. The Lemon Chalet Creams don't come anywhere near the LPCs. The cookies were lightly glazed and the filling was sweet and tart. Oh, how I loved them and could eat an entire box in one sitting.

Now that I think about it, it's probably a good thing they stopped making them.

Then I discovered the Peanut Butter Patty. Bad news, I tell you. Bad, bad news.

Once I buy a box (or three) they instantly go into the freezer to "ripen." Once frozen, I eat the chocolate & cookie around the edges leaving a perfect mini tower of cookie and peanut butter topped with just enough chocolate.

Just like the Samoas, I used a shortbread base for these. Again, I didn't want to use a sugar cookie because I was afraid of the overwhelming sugar. The texture just wouldn't be right, either. The Peanut Butter Patty cookie is crunchy and buttery, but not at all sweet. The shortbread I used was good, but I think I really needed a crispier cookie for this. Even so, they were yummy!

The other problem I had with these cookies was the chocolate coating. It wasn't really a problem, more of an annoyance. I used chocolate chips for the coating. I melted it with a little shortening to aid in keeping the chocolate smooth and easy to work with.

The problem?

The chocolate didn't set as well as I would have liked. These cookies had to be kept in the refrigerator with a piece of parchment between the layers. The chocolate started to melt the second it was left at room temperature. The next time I do this, I'll use candy coating, not chocolate chips, and I think I'll have better success.

For the filling of these cookies, I made half using the same filling I used for the DoSiDos and half using just plain peanut butter. They were good either way. I didn't have a preference for either one. It really depends on how much time you want to invest in these already time intensive cookies.

They really are worth it though...

Peanut Butter Patties

Cookie Base:

1 cup butter
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Filling*:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp milk
2-2 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar

OR

About 3/4 cup peanut butter

Coating**:

1 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoons vegetable shortening.

First, make the cookies:
Beat butter and sugar together until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Sift together flour and salt. Add slowly to butter mixture until well combined. Flatten dough into a disc, wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll chilled dough out on a well floured surface to about 1/4" thick. Cut out dough with a 2" circle cookie cutter. Transfer circles to parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes until edges are just lightly golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling.

Cream butter and peanut butter together until smooth and well combined. Mix in vanilla and milk.
With the mixer on low, gradually add powdered sugar until creme reaches desired consistency. If the mixture gets too firm, add a little milk. Too thin, add more powdered sugar.

Place a teaspoon or so of the peanut butter filling on each cookie. Place cookies on a cookie sheet and transfer to the freezer for 15-20 minutes, or until the peanut butter is firm.

Place chocolate chips and shortening in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on half power at 30 second intervals until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Be sure to stir well in between so as not to scorch the chocolate.

Remove cookies from the freezer and dip each cookie into the chocolate until well coated. I used a fork to dip them. Gently tap the fork on the edge of the bowl to shake off the excess chocolate. Place the dipped cookie on the cold cookie sheet. Once all the cookies are dipped, put them back in the freezer to harden.

Enjoy!

*this recipe makes MORE than enough to fill the cookies, I kept the excess and used it as a dip for chocolate.....okay, I ate it with a spoon, but you catch my drift.

**this is the chocolate I used for these cookies. If you choose to use the chocolate coating, simply melt according to the package directions. If you choose the chocolate chip route, you may need more than 1 cup, depending on the amount of cookies you've made. 1 cup was enough for me to dip around 15 cookies.

Cookie #74 - Samoas

2010-09-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

19% of all Girl Scout cookies sold are Samoas/Caramel deLites making it one of the top selling GS cookies, just behind Thin Mints.

What is it about these cookies?

The sweet, toasty coconut bathed in caramel.

The soft, buttery cookie.

The smooth dark chocolate.

Whatever it is, they sure are scrumptious.

When I set out to make both this and the Tagalong/Peanut Butter Patties, I chose to use the same cookie base - a thinly rolled shortbread. My original thought was to use a sugar cookie, but that would bring too much sweetness to the party. The topping for both cookies is already sugar-laden, I didn't want the cookie to be overwhelmingly sweet.

For this post, I'll concentrate on how I did the Samoas:

Samoas/Caramel deLites

Cookie Base:

1 cup butter
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Topping:

1 1/2 cups sweetened flake coconut
1-14 oz bag caramels
1 tbsp milk

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp shortening

Beat butter and sugar together until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Sift together flour and salt. Add slowly to butter mixture until well combined. Flatten dough into a disc, wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll chilled dough out on a well floured surface to about 1/4" thick. Cut out dough with a 2" circle cookie cutter. Transfer circles to parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes until edges are just lightly golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the topping.

Place coconut in a large frying pan and place over low heat. Keep stirring the coconut - DON'T WALK AWAY!! Don't think: "Hey - lemme pour myself a glass of Pinot while this coconut is toasting." Don't do it! It will burn and then you will have to make your poor husband/wife/significant other, who isn't 2 glasses into a bottle,run to the grocery store to get another bag of coconut because you burned this one. Don't ask me how I know...just don't do it.
So, keep stirring the coconut until it is fragrant and toasted. Immediately remove from the pan to a bowl. Don't leave it in the hot pan or it will burn and burnt coconut is stinky.
Place unwrapped caramels in a microwave safe bowl with the milk. Microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring well in between, until caramels are fully melted and smooth. Stir coconut into the caramel until well combined.

Drop one tablespoon full of the coconut caramel mixture onto each cookie. With moistened fingers, flatten the caramel mixture onto each cookie until the mixture covers the cookie. Don't flatten it too much, you want it to still look a little fluffy. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, place an empty cookie sheet in the freezer.

Place chocolate chips and shortening in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on half power at 30 second intervals until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Be sure to stir well in between so as not to scorch the chocolate.

Remove cookie sheet from the freezer. One at a time, dip the bottom of each cookie into the chocolate and place on cold cookie sheet. This will help you achieve nice, smooth bottoms and half the chocolate set so they don't slide all over. Once all the cookies are dipped, place the remaining melted chocolate in a zip top bag. Snip the corner of the bag, just a bit, and drizzle the chocolate over the cookies. Put the cookies into the fridge to fully set.

Enjoy! With or without the Pinot.

Bonus Recipe - Homemade Applesauce

2010-09-05T21:03:00.000-07:00

Cookies aren't the only thing I like to bake/cook. Occasionally, I hope to bring you other recipes I come across or ones my family loves.

This weekend was the first weekend of pick-your-own apples at a local orchard. After an awesome lunch at Hot Dog Johnny's, we headed over to the orchards to take Sydney and Violet on their very first apple picking excursion.

We picked about 10 pounds of beautiful Gala apples. The girls couldn't wait to get into them and ate two on the car ride home. Once home, I was left with the predicament of finding something to do with all those apples. I decided to make one of the girls' favorite things - applesauce.

After peeling and slicing the ten pounds of apples, I threw them in a pot with a little water and a few pieces of lemon peel and brought the mixture to a boil.

Once the apples were tender, I pureed them in a blender with just a little of the cooking liquid. I returned the pureed apples to the pot and added sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and the juice of half a lemon. I allowed the mixture to simmer for about 15 minutes and let it cool. Sydney at a bowl warm with a pat of butter. It was delicious and so fresh tasting. I think she really liked seeing the whole process - picking the apples, cooking them and then eating the final product. I could see a sense of pride in her as she ate the applesauce and talked about how she picked them herself (with a little help from Violet, of course).

Homemade Applesauce

10 lbs apples, peeled, cored and sliced

1/2 - 1 cup sugar

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 lemon

Place apples in a large pot and add enough water to just come up to the top of the apples - do not cover. Using a vegetable peeler, peel four pieces of lemon rind and place in the pot with the apples. Bring to a boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the apples are tender. About 15 minutes.

Working in batches, transfer the cooked apples to a blender and puree until smooth (be sure to remove the lemon peel). I used a slotted spoon to transfer the apples and added just a small amount of the cooking liquid to puree. Transfer the puree to a bowl. Once all the apples are pureed, discard the remaining cooking liquid and return the applesauce to the pot. Return the pot to the heat and stir in sugar, to taste (I only needed about 3/4 cup sugar for my apples), cinnamon and nutmeg. Juice half the lemon and add that to the pot as well. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Serve warm with a pat of butter or some cream or refrigerate.

The next time I make this, I think I will cook the apples with a stick or two of cinnamon to really impart the cinnamon flavor.

Cookie #73 - Do-Si-Dos (Peanut butter oatmeal sandwiches)

2010-09-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

One of Corey's favorite Girl Scout cookies is the Do-Si-Do. He likes to put them in a bowl with milk and eat them like cereal.
(Sound familiar?)
I love it, too.
It's one of those cookies that I convince myself is a breakfast food because it contains oatmeal and peanut butter.
The GS variety consists of a creamy, light peanut butter creme sandwiched between two thin, yet soft, peanut butter oatmeal cookies.
The ones I've made are a little more substantial. The cookies are thick and soft. The creme center is soft and light and just sweet enough.
I was so happy with the way these came out.
While they do have the same flavors as the Do-Si-Do they are (dare I say?) better.
Then again, isn't almost anything homemade better?

Do-Si-Dos (Peanut butter oatmeal sandwiches)

Cookie:

1/2 cup butter + just a little extra for smooshing (techinical term) the cookies
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar + extra for smooshing the cookies
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
3/4 cup finely ground oats*

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream butter, peanut butter and sugars together until smooth.
Add in egg and vanilla, mix well.
Sift together salt, baking soda and flour. Add slowly to butter mixture until just combined.
Stir in oats.
Roll tablespoons full of dough into balls and place 2" apart on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Lightly butter the flat bottom of a glass and dip in sugar. Smoosh each cookie to about 1/8 - 1/4" thick (depending on how thick you like your cookies - remember, you'll be eating two at a time. I flattened them to 1/8")
Bake for 10-12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Meanwhile, make creme center.

Filling:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp milk
2-2 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar

Cream butter and peanut butter together until smooth and well combined. Mix in vanilla and milk.
With the mixer on low, gradually add powdered sugar until creme reaches desired consistency. If the mixture gets too firm, add a little milk. Too thin, add more powdered sugar.

Once cookies are cool, sandwich a teaspoon or so of filling between two cookies. Enjoy!

*You don't have to grind your oats. I did this because I like the texture better. If you like or don't mind the texture of the whole oat, use them as is. I found that grinding them also made the cookie less chewy.

Cookie #72 - Oreos

2010-09-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

Unlike my daughters, I'm not a fan of drinking milk. I never have been. There's just something about the way that it coats the inside of your mouth that doesn't appeal to me.
However, give me a bag of Oreos and a tall glass of cold milk and I'm in heaven.
I love the way the cookie tastes after dipping into the cold moo-juice. The cookie gets soggy and the cream gets cold and firm.
I came across this recipe from cupcake project and I just had to try it out.
After mixing up the dough, my official dough taste-tester, Corey, tried it out.

"It's a bit bland." was his assessment.

I assured him that it was probably supposed to be a bit bland. If you think about the actual cookie portion of oreo, they don't have very much flavor to them, other than the overwhelming chocolate taste. The sweetness comes from the cream in the center.
I baked off the cookies and made the cream.

The cream was PERFECT. It tasted just like the store-bought Oreo center, only better.

After the cookies were cooled, I sandwiched them with the cream and took a big bite.

Oh my.

They were AWFUL.

I mean, spit-them-out-and-rinse-your-mouth-awful.

I didn't understand. How could this recipe get such rave reviews and be so bad?

Then, I consulted the recipe.

I FORGOT THE SUGAR.

How could I do this? Let me tell you how: two curly-topped girls running underfoot, dinner in the oven, and a recipe that is just a *little* different than what I'm used to (you don't cream the sugar and butter first).

They sure look yummy, though, don't they?

I plan on trying this recipe again, tweaking the directions slightly. I think they really have the potential to be an amazing cookie.

Homemade Oreos
recipe from CupcakeProject.com

1 1/4 C all-purpose flour

1/2 C unsweetened cocoa
1 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 C sugar (DON'T FORGET THIS)
1/2 C plus 2 T butter, room temperature
1 large egg

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar.
Beat in the butter and the egg. Continue mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. (I found that while the dough wasn't sticky enough to roll, I could press it flat with my hands like the recipe said and then use cookie cutters to cut perfect circles. If you just care about the taste, then there is no need for the cookie cutters. Also, remember this is a chance to get creative and use all kinds of cookie cutters.)
Bake for 9 minutes at 375 F. Set on a rack to cool.

Filling:

1/4 cup room-temperature, unsalted butter

1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste instead.)

Place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla.
Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2-3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

To make a cookie, pipe teaspoon-sized blobs of cream into the center of a cookie using a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch round tip. (If you don't have a pastry bag, you could easily just spread the filling with a knife or use a Ziplock with the corner cut off as a pastry bag. I had a pastry bag, but I only had a star tip. The tip doesn't matter much.)
Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

I'd like to add that this batch of cookies did not go to waste. My official taste-tester, Corey, ate them in a bowl with milk like cereal. He tells me they weren't so bad once mixed up with the milk and cream. His complaints of a belly-ache 30 minutes later tell me otherwise.

Cookie #71 - The Infamous Nieman Marcus Cookie

2010-09-03T18:53:00.000-07:00

Back when I got my very first email address, I received the following email from a friend:

This is a true story... Please forward it to everyone that you can.... You will have to read it to believe it....

My daughter and I had just finished a salad at Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas & decided to have a small dessert. Because both of us are such cookie lovers, we decided to try the "Neiman-Marcus Cookie". It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe and the waitress said with a small frown "I'm afraid not." Well" I said, "would you let me buy the recipe?"

With a cute smile, she said YES". I asked how much and she responded, "Only two fifty, it's a great deal!" I said with approval, "just add it to my tab".. Thirty days later, I received my VISA statement from Neiman-Marcus and it was $285.00. I looked again and remembered I had only spent $9.95 for two salads and about $20.00 for a scarf. As I glanced at the bottom of the statement, it said, "Cookie Recipe - $250.00". That's outrageous!!!

I called Neiman's Accounting Dept. and told them that the waitress said it was "two-fifty," which clearly does not mean "two hundred and fifty dollars" by any POSSIBLE interpretation of the phrase. Neiman-Marcus refused to budge.. They would not refund my money, because according to them, "What the waitress told you is not our problem. You have already seen the recipe - we absolutely will not refund your money at this point." I explained to her the criminal statutes which govern fraud in Texas. I threatened to refer them to the Better Business Bureau and the State's Attorney General for engaging in fraud. I was basically told, "Do what you want, we dont give a damn, and we're not refunding your money." I waited a moment, thinking of how I could get even,or even try to get any of my money back. I just said, "Okay, you folks got my $250.00, and now I'm going to have $250.00 worth of fun."

I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the United States with an e-mail account has a $250.00 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus... for free..She replied, "I wish you wouldn't do this" I said, "Well you should have thought of that before you ripped me off", and slammed down the phone on her.. So, here it is!!! Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of. I paid $250.00 dollars for this... I don't want Neiman-Marcus to ever get another penny off of this recipe....

I was appauled!

How could Neiman's do that to someone!

Of course, I forwarded the email to everyone I know.

I come to find out (a lot later than I like to admit) this story is untrue.

Still, the squash any remaining rumors, Neiman Marcus posted the cookie recipe on their website.

This was the first time I made these cookies.

I only have one question: What was I waiting for?

Upon first reading the recipe, I thought it was just another chocolate chip cookie. I was wrong. The flavors are so much more pronouced and deep.

The addition of the espresso powder really brings out the chocolate.

The ratio of the brown sugar to white sugar results in a much softer cookie, as well.

The cookies smell fantastic baking. It's hard to not grab one right off the cookie sheet and eat it.

Don't do it.

Melted chocolate burns.

Don't ask me how I know.

Just trust me.

The Neiman Marcus Cookie

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder

1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream the butter with the sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy (approximately 30 seconds)

Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract for another 30 seconds.

In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture at low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir in the espresso coffee powder and chocolate chips.

Using a 1 ounce scoop or a 2 tablespoon measure, drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into a 2 inch circle. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned around the edges. Bake a little longer for a crispier cookie.

I have a favor to ask...

2010-09-02T06:47:00.000-07:00

I feel so accomplished that I finished all fifty states.

I really learned a lot while doing it, too. Bonus!

So now what?

Where do I go from here?

I still have 295 cookies to go.

TWO HUNDRED NINETY FIVE

It's a little daunting when I see it written out like that. Then I look at the pages of my planning notebook and I see about 250 spots empty. Then I have to remind myself, "Hey, you've already made SEVENTY. Two hundred and ninety five should be a piece of cake (or cookie)!"

I do have some exciting things planned for the upcoming weeks. I have some original recipes I can't wait to share with you all, as well as some more traditional recipes from friends and family.

Then there's Halloween.

And Christmas.

Oh, just wait until Christmas.

Now, about this favor I ask. I would love, love, LOVE if you all could share with me some cookies that you have a fondness for.

Maybe it's a cookie you're great-aunt Flo made and eating it reminds you of sunny days sitting on a porch drinking lemonade.

Maybe it's a cookie that you had once at a party or a bakery and you'd love to be able to recreate it. Maybe it's a recipe that's been handed down, generation after generation in your family (I love those!). Either way, I want your cookie ideas!

It doesn't have to be a recipe. It can be a cookie idea. All I need is a basic descriptive of the cookie and I'll do my best to deliver and I'll be sure to give credit where credit is due.

Cookie #70 - Wyoming FAIL.

2010-09-01T03:00:00.000-07:00

It figures.
The last cookie in the state portion of the project ends up being a tremendous FAIL.

Not just any fail, but the world's most epic cookie fail my kitchen has ever seen.

Not really, I just like to be dramatic.

So, this is how things went down in my kitchen:

I decided that since sugar beets (Wyoming's state veg) were rather difficult to come by around here I would use Wyoming's second most abundant crop for this cookie: Barley.
I'm kind of glad I couldn't find a sugar beet because I'm not exactly sure how it would've been in cookie form. I had some ideas of recipes, but I just don't know. Barley would be much easier....or so I thought.
So, I bought myself a big ol' bag of barley flour.
The idea was to make a simple chocolate chip cookie using barley flour instead of all-purpose. I was curious to see how the nutty flavor and texture of the barley would change a simple CCC.
Chocolate chip is good, but DOUBLE chocolate chip is even better, right? In went the cocoa powder.

Then things got crazy...

Some more chocolate chips, a little agave nectar and a cup or so of oats later, the cookies made it into the oven.
After 10 minutes of baking, I set them on a wire rack to cool.

Now things get even crazier...

As I went to transfer them from the baking sheet, the cookies started to crumble. Now, when I say crumble, I mean practically disintegrate under the touch of my spatula.
There was just nothing holding this cookie together.

Nothing.

They were flattened blobs of dark brown with little chocolate chips poking out.
At this point, it's after midnight and I'd been baking since my girls went to bed at 8. I was exhausted.
So exhausted that i just sat down on my kitchen floor and cried.
In all honesty, it wasn't the cookies that made me cry. It was the long week at work I'd had. The stress of balancing my imperfect life and just plain old everyday stuff. The massive fail of the barley cookies was the proverbial straw on that stupid camel's back.
After a good cry, I found my sassiest pair of big girl panties and put them suckers on.
I threw the barley mess away and added another learning experience notch to my apron belt.

So, no recipe for Wyoming. Perhaps I need sometime to reevaluate the barley situation. I need to step back, take a good long look at what I did wrong and reassess the formula. I fully intend on revisiting it because, well, I still have a 5 lb bag of barley flour.

Cookie #69 - Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese with Hot Pepper Jelly

2010-08-31T18:43:00.000-07:00

I was so excited about this cookie!

Maybe not as excited as that guy, but still pretty excited.

I was excited to make my first real savory cookie of this experiment.

Yes, I've used savory ingredients before, but those cookies still had a sweetness to them.

This cookie uses NO sugar. I took a basic cookie recipe and subtracted all that was sweet.

No sugar, no vanilla.

I then started to stack savory flavors that I thought blended well together. My thought was to mimic the flavors of a cheeseball (awesome recipe, by the way), so I used similar ingredients. Knowing that green peppers and pimentos probably wouldnt' translated well into a cookie, I left them out.

I also used almonds instead of pecans, but that's personal preference.

Knowing that a plain cheese cookie might be just that, I remembered a recipe I had seen quite a while back that paired a cheese base with some hot pepper jelly.

Totally not my thing, but I knew my husband would love it so I bought a jar.

Now, I'm going to share something with you all and I don't want it to discourage you from making these cookies. My husband LOVED them, I on the other hand didn't taste them and here's why:

The night I made these I was in the middle of making a few other cookies - all of them sweet. My kitchen was filled with the delicious aroma of sugar and cinnamon, chocolate and vanilla. It was heavenly.

Then I put these puppies in the oven.

BAM!

Suddenly the wonderful sweet smells I was enjoying her taken over by the smell of cheese and pepper. It was an assault on my nose and my nose didn't like it. My husband, on the other hand, thought they smelled delicious. I took the offending cookies out of the oven and moved them immediately out of my kitchen to the dining room where the smell couldn't reach me anymore. After they had cooled and I went to sandwich the hot pepper jelly between, I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't bring myself to eat one.

The sense of smell is a very powerful thing - much more so than we give it credit for.

I can promise you this - these cookies did get the Corey seal of approval.

Then again, he's like Mikey - he'll eat anything.

Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese Cookies

with Hot Pepper Jelly

2 cups sharp cheddar cheese (for authenticity us Wisconsin cheddar)

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (hey - use the real stuff, not the stuff in the green can, kay?)

1/2 cup butter (make sure it's softened, but not melted)

1 egg yolk

1/4 teaspoon white pepper (you can use black pepper, I chose white so you don't see the flecks in the dough)

1/8 tsp cayenne, if desired (kind of defeats the purpose of using white pepper, doesn't it?)

1 cup finely chopped nuts (I used almonds, but you can use pecans, walnuts, or whatever you like)

1/2 cup hot pepper jelly (room temperature, please. These cookies are soft, so don't try spreading cold jelly on them or they'll break)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix cheeses, nuts, butter and egg yolk together until well combined. You really want an even mixture here, so please make sure your butter is softened. If you forgot to soften it, just put it in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it up. Usually, I cut it into cubes, place on a microwave safe plate and nuke for about 10 seconds. Cutting it into cubes is essential. If you leave the stick whole, the outside will melt before the inside gets soft.

Next, sift together the flour and peppers. Add to butter & cheese mixture until well combined. Roll teaspoons full of dough into small balls and place 2" apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Press the balls flat using your fingers or the well floured bottom of a glass.

Bake for about 13-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Right before serving, sandwich a teaspoon of hot pepper jelly between two cookies.

Cookie #68 - West Virginia Apple Butter Rolls

2010-08-30T19:33:00.000-07:00

My very first trip to West Virginia was 5 years ago, when my husband (then boyfriend) took me to Canaan Valley to ski and meet his father. I was so nervous, I remember begging him to take me back home, promising him Thai food and nudity (a line from one of my favorite chick flicks, Bed of Roses).

My nerves only escalated as I put on skis for the first time in fifteen years. He and his sister tried their hardest to get me to go down the bunny slope, but I just couldn't do it. I signed up for professional one-on-one lessons, but chickened out last minute. I rested my skis outside the lodge and went into the ladies room and cried. I cried because I couldn't put aside the fear and just do it. I cried because I was afraid my boyfriend wouldn't want to date me anymore because I couldn't ski. It was something that he loved to do and I couldn't be an active part of it. I dried my tears and spent the remainder of the day drinking Bud Light and listening to Bon Jovi in the ski lodge. Needless to say, my lack of ski skills didn't matter after all.

West Virginia's state fruit is the golden delicious apple. Rather than just use apples in the recipe, I chose to use apple butter. According to my mother-in-law and other West Virginians apple butter is commonly found at many WV fairs. For this recipe, I utilized my mother's recipe for rugulah. I added some apple pie spices to the dough and rolled it up apple butter and walnuts inside. The result - delish! Dare I say, better than my mom's rugulah!

West Virginia Apple Butter Rugulah

1/2 cup butter

4 ounces cream cheese

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 1/4 cups flour

1/4 cup apple butter

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water

2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

Cream butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla together until smooth. Sift together flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Add to butter mixture all at once and beat until smooth. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead gently until smooth. Divide dough in half and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.

After dough is chilled, remove one piece of dough and roll out between two pieces of well floured wax paper into a rectangle roughly 12 x 7", or about 1/8" thick. Remove the top piece of wax paper and spread half the apple butter over the dough, leaving a 1/2" border along the edges. Sprinkle half the walnuts over the dough and press lightly.

Starting with the long edge of the rectangle closest to you, roll the dough away from you to form a roll. Press the seam lightly. Wrap the roll in the waxed paper and transfer to the fridge, seam side down. Repeat process with remaining dough. Chill for 30 minutes

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove chilled rolls from the fridge brush each roll with egg wash and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Slice each roll into 1" pieces. Place each slice onto parchment lined baking sheets about 1" apart. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Cookie #67 - Virginia Salted Peanut Cookies

2010-08-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

Virginia has always had a special place in my heart, as a child and now as an adult. My father was born and raised in the Richmond area. When I was younger, my older brother enlisted in the Navy and was stationed in Norfolk. Now, as an adult, I'm married to a Virginia Tech alum. As a season ticket holder, he makes a few trips back every fall to see the Hokies play football in Lane Stadium.
Most of my Virginia family worked for Phillip Morris. Since I wasn't about to try a tobacco cookie (see it here in a cupcake), I opted for Virginia peanuts instead.
I found this recipe clipping in one of my mom's many recipe books. I'm not sure where or when it's from - I'm guess sometime in the late 60's early 70's. The recipe was cut off, so I didn't have the exact baking time. I watched them closely and found that 8 minutes in my oven was perfect.
The cookies are crisp, rather than soft like a traditional peanut butter cookie. They're very sweet, being rolled in sugar, and very crunchy, having corn flakes, oats and salted peanuts mixed it. I guess if you want them softer, you need to bake them a little less. I used real Virginia peanuts that I was lucky enough to have found at Wegmans. I decorated the cookies with a little colored sugar, trying to mimic Virginia Tech's colors. The cookies kind of reminded me of Planter's Peanut Bars, one of my father's favorite candies. I'm sure he would've loved this cookie.

Virginia Salted Peanut Cookies
source unknown

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup vegetable shortening

2 eggs

1 cup corn flakes

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup salted peanuts

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups flour

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream shortening and sugars. Mix in vanilla and eggs.

Sift flour and baking soda, add to shortening mixture. Stir in oats, corn flakes and peanuts. (I ran the mixer a little longer at this point, hoping to break up the cornflakes and nuts a bit)

Roll tablespoons full of dough in sugar and place 2" apart on parchment lined baking sheets. Flatten each cookie slightly with the bottom of a glass. Decorate with colored sugar, if desired.

Bake for 8 minutes or until the edges just start to change color.

Cookie #66 - Vermont Ben & Jerry's Everything But The... Cookies

2010-08-27T21:14:00.000-07:00

When I looked at my recipe list for the state cookies, I had jotted down maple next to Vermont.

Ugh.

I'm sorry Vermont, but I really don't like maple flavored anything.
Don't get me wrong, I love maple syrup on pancakes, but that's where my maple love stops.
I just couldn't bring myself to do a maple cookie. I wrote a few recipes using maple, but I just wasn't feeling it.
So I consulted my good friends, Ben & Jerry.
I immediately went to the Vermont based creamery's website to find a flavor that would translate well into a cookie. One of my favorites is Everything But The....
This ice cream really has everything. Chocolate and vanilla ice cream with toffee bits, white chocolate and chocolate covered almonds. I've drowned many a sorrow in a pint (or two).
This cookie starts with a simple chocolate base and then then has white chocolate, semisweet chocolate, chopped almonds and toffee bits mixed in. It really is a super delicious, chunky, chocolatey cookie. If they had lasted, I think they would be even more fabulous with some vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two.

Vermont Ben & Jerry's Everything But The... Cookies

1 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped almonds

1 cup toffee bits

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream shortening and sugars together. Mix in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add gradually to shortening/egg mixture until just combined. Mix in white and semisweet chips, almonds and toffee bits.

Drop by rounded tablespoons full onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for 12 minutes.

Allow to cool for a few minutes onto the baking sheets and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cookie #65 - Washington Chocolate Espresso Bean

2010-08-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

After only four days of dreary, rainy weather her in northeastern Pennsylvania, I can't imagine living in the Pacific northwest.

Every part of my body hurts.

I've had a headache since Sunday.

To quote Milli Vanilla, "blame it on the rain."

Aside from grunge music and vampires, Washington State is also known for another pop

culture icon that has rocked the world:

Starbucks.

The largest coffeehouse company in the world with over 17,000 stores in close to 50 countries.

Knowing immediately that my Washington cookie would incorporate coffee,

I decided to try chocolate covered espresso beans.

Side note: when I was in college, I took an evening biology class. A classmate friend of mine discovered the cafeteria sold bags of chocolate covered espresso beans and would sometimes eat an entire bag during class. One day, she complained to me that she was having trouble sleeping. I asked her if she thought it had anything to do with the fact that she was eating handfuls of coffee beans during class. She never put two and two together.

Back to the cookies.

Since I used actual chocolate covered coffee beans in this recipe, I didn't want to do a dark chocolate cookie. I was afraid that the bitterness of the chocolate would compete with the bitterness of the coffee beans. \I also didn't use any brown sugar in this cookie as I initially planned. I wanted the cookie to be soft and chewy, so I planned on using half white sugar and half brown. Instead, I used all white sugar and the cookie, once cooled, was crisp and almost melted in your mouth. I was quite happy with the overall texture. I think that if it was a softer cookie, the sudden crunch of the espresso beans would give the cookie and odd feel.

Washington Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp espresso powder

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chocolate covered espresso beans (I used Gertrude Hawk)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugar together. Add in vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in espresso powder. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add slowly to butter and egg mixture, stirring until just combined. Mix in chocolate chips and espresso beans.

Drop by rounded tablespoons full onto parchment lined baking sheets about 2" apart.

Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool on sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

A very fashionable cookie...

2010-08-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

On our way home from vacation, my husband surprised me with a stop at Tyson's Corner in McLean, Virginia so I could visit the Vera Bradley store. .

By surprised, I mean I begged and pleaded and played the "but, it's my birthday week" card.

C'mon ladies...you know what I mean.

You see, besides cookies, I have a deep rooted love for the quilted fabric handbags that come in a wide variety of bright colors.

When we arrived at the store, I was in heaven. I've never seen so much paisley in one place.

The store was having some Seventeen Magazine event with some stylist giving fashion tips, make-overs, give-aways, and, most important, cookies.

Vera Bradley cookies.

I snatched one up and gave it to my husband with strict instructions NOT to eat it.

It was just too beautiful.

This was over a week ago and the cookie is still sitting on my kitchen counter.

I just can't bring myself to take a bite.

Cookie #64 - Utah Salted Caramel

2010-08-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that Utah's state snack is Jell-O,

I knew I wanted to do a salted caramel cookie to represent the state.

The result is an ooey-gooey, sticky, sweet cookie with just a hint of salt.

There were a few things I'd do differently with this cookie.

First of all, I'd cut back the amount of sugar I used in the crust.

The caramel and chocolate topping are enough sweet.

Second, I wouldn't use so much milk to thin down the caramel. It was a bit runny.

Third, I would make a ganache as the chocolate topping rather than just melted chocolate. The chocolate was too hard causing it to shatter when cutting. A ganache would solve this problem and probably be a better texture to complement the caramel.

Below is the recipe as I made it without the adjustments mentioned above.

Utah Salted Caramel Squares

Cookie base:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Caramel layer:

2 cups caramels*

4 tablespoons of milk

Chocolate layer:

2 cups chocolate chips

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

1 tablespoon coarse sea salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugar together. Mix in vanilla and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add in small batches to butter & egg mixture.

Press the dough evenly into an ungreased 13x9" pan.

Dock the dough by pricking with a fork all over the dough.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden.

Melt caramels and milk in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring well in between. It will seem like the caramels and milk will never come together, but just keep stirring - they'll cooperate. Once melted and smooth, pour over the cookie crust and transfer to the fridge to cool completely, about 1 hour.

Melt chocolate and shortening in the microwave on half-power at 30 second intervals, stirring well in between. Be careful not to scorch the chocolate. You can also do this in a double boiler if you'd like, but if you're careful, you can do it in the microwave.

Pour melted chocolate over the caramel and spread evenly.

Sprinkle with sea salt and refrigerate. Once chocolate has hardened, cut carefully into squares.

*I used Kraft Caramel Bits. They're little chips of caramel and you don't have the hassle of unwrapping all those caramels.

Cookie #63 - Texas Chocolate Cowboy Cookies

2010-08-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

Yee haw!

When I floated my first Texas cookie idea to a few Texans I know, I got the big thumbs down. You see, my original idea was to make a sweet onion cookie.

Something savory, of course.

So, I reluctantly abandoned the idea and moved on.

Most Texans said: "You have to use pecans!"

"You have to make Cowboy Cookies!"

Cowboy cookies?

Never heard of 'em.

So I researched them and discovered they're basically a chocolate chip cookie with pecans and a myriad of other things thrown in. Some have oats, some have coconut.

These have cocoa powder, pecans, chocolate chips and toffee bits.

After baking my version of the Cowboy Cookie, my husband declared they were the best chocolate cookie he's ever tasted.

Now, I know he's biased.

I did make one sans pecans so I could taste it and it was a pretty darn good cookie.

Texas Chocolate Cowboy Cookies

1 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup toffee bits

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream shortening and sugars together. Mix in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla.

In a small bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and baking powder.

Add flour mixture to shortening mixture 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Stir in pecans, chocolate chips and toffee bits until well encorporated.

Drop by rounded tablespoons full 2" apart on parchment line baking sheets.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Cookie #62 - Tennessee Whiskey Cookies

2010-08-21T18:40:00.000-07:00

When I first think of Tennessee, I'm not reminded of

Nashville, the Grand Old Opry or Dolly Parton.

I'm reminded of the number 7.

My old friend Jack Daniels.

We have a love-hate relationship.

One of my favorite ways to used alcohol in cookies is Italian Anisette Cookies.

They're soft and cakey with a strong anise flavor.

They immediately came to mind when I was on the search for a whiskey cookie. Then, I came across this recipe for Orange-Whiskey cookies.

Perfect!

After some slight tweaking, I'm super happy with the way these cookies came out. They have the same texture of the anisette cookies I love, but with a subtle orange flavor, rather than anise.

The whiskey does get lost after baking, but the overall flavor is divine.

If you really want that whiskey flavor, you could glaze the cookies with a simple glaze of powdered sugar, corn syrup and whiskey.

Tennessee Whiskey Cookies

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup shortening

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 medium orange

2 tablespoons Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup salt

3 cups flour

1 egg, lightly beaten with 2 tablespoons cool water

Nonpareils for decoration

Cream butter, shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Zest the orange and then juice to yield about 1/4 cup. Combine juice, zest, whiskey. Add to butter mixture and mix well.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Add to butter mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, until well mixed. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Roll tablespoons of dough into balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush each cookie with egg wash and sprinkle with nonpareils. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges are golden.

Let sit on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Cookie #61 - South Carolina Puffed Rice Shortbread with Peach Filling

2010-08-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

While vacationing in South Carolina, I had some of the best peaches I've ever tasted.

I've always associated peaches with Georgia, but the peach is also

the state fruit of South Carolina.

Rice is also one of the major agricultural outputs of the state.

When I first set out to make this cookie, I intended on just making a shortbread.

Then I got the idea to integrate peaches in the filling.

I pressed the shortbread rather thin, making a crispy wafer, and added some peach preserves in between.

My husband loved them, declaring them one of the "top five" cookies I've made.

The puffed rice in the cookie adds to the crispness of the wafer and the peach preserves bring the necessary sweetness to the party.

South Carolina Puffed Rice Shortbread Cookies with Peach Filling

1 cup butter

2/3 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 cup puffed rice cereal
Peach preserves

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla. Stir in flour until just combined. Stir in rice cereal. Don't worry about crushing the cereal too much.
Roll heaping teaspoons of dough into balls and place 2" apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Press each cookie flat using either the bottom of a glass or the heal of your hand.*

Bake for 9 minutes. Don't over bake.
Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Once cool, top half of the cookies with about a teaspoon of peach preserves (or less if your cookies are small). Top with remaining cookies.

*This dough is thick enough if you want to roll it out and cut with cookie cutters. Just don't work the dough too much or you risk it getting tough.

Cookie #60 - South Dakota Flax Seed Cookies

2010-08-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

South Dakota gave me some trouble.

I had a difficult time finding something that South Dakota is known for that would translate well into a cookie. Then, a native South Dakotan (is that a word?) told me that the state grows and abundance of

soy beans and flax seeds.

I immediately started researching the use of the Omega-3 fatty acid rich flax seed and it's usage in baking. It's very commonly used in breads - both sweet and savory.

The ground seed can also be mixed with water and used as a replacement for eggs.

I also read that using flax seeds tend to draw the moisture out of whatever you're baking and the wet ingredients need to adjusted accordingly.

I, personally, think flax seeds look like bugs. I just can't get past that.

I knew I wanted to try to bake a healthier cookie - one you could eat for breakfast.

I love cookies for breakfast.

Right away I thought of oatmeal. I then started to craft a simple oatmeal cookie with the addition of nutrient rich ground flax seeds. The seeds need to be ground to fully release those Omega-3 fatty acids.

Then I fell victim to the desiccant powers of the flax seed.

After mixing the dough, it was far too dry and crumbly. I clumsily formed it into balls and put it in the oven. I was so disappointed with the dough,

I only baked half and threw the rest in the garbage.

These cookies were such a waste of good ingredients.

Or so I thought.

Immediately upon taking them from the oven, my husband was chomping at the bit to try one.

The cookie was surprisingly moist and chewy. Slightly sweet and a little crunchy.

He loved them.

I think his heart sank a little when I told him I discarded the rest of the dough.

I still wasn't convinced. The texture was fabulous, but I wasn't impressed with the flavor. I think the next time I make these I may up the sugar and add in some spices, like cinnamon and nutmeg, to the the mix.

South Dakota Flax Seed Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups ground flax seed*

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking soda

3 cups oats

2 cups chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Cream butter and sugars together. Mix in ground flax.

Add in eggs and vanilla, mix well to combine.

Sift together flour and baking soda. Add gradually to butter and egg mixture, stirring well after each addition.

Add in oats and chocolate chips, mix well.

Roll tablespoons of dough into balls and place 2" apart on parchment lined cookie sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are lightly golden.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

*I ground my whole flax seeds in my coffee grinder.

Cookie #59 - Rhode Island Cinnamon Snails

2010-08-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

No cookies yesterday.

Sorry.

It was my four year wedding anniversary and I was ~~busy~~ out to dinner.

My wonderful husband took me to a local restaurant called The Marblehead Chowderhouse.

It was delicious and so refreshing to have a nice, quiet dinner with adult conversation.

Back to cookies....

The "Ocean State," Rhode Island, has many foods that are rarely found outside the state. Their foods have a strong Portuguese influence and utilize a lot of seafood.

Fitting, since 30% of the state's total area is made up of bays and inlets.

One of the dishes that is found at many restaurants across the state - snail salad.

The second I read that, I immediately thought of a recipe I had tucked away for cinnamon snail cookies.

Fear not, no snails were harmed

in the making of these cookies.

This is a soft, cinnamon dough that is rolled into long ropes and then formed into little snail shapes. They're then brushed with an egg wash and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

At least they're supposed to be.

(I seemed to have forgotten that part with this batch.)

I was interrupted by my very sweet one-year old daughter several times during the making of these cookies and I guess my mind was elsewhere. That is one of the reasons I don't normally bake when my girls are awake. I save my baking for during naps or after 8 pm. I guess tonight I felt like breaking my own rule.

I didn't realize this until I tasted the cookie and thought:

"They're not very sweet, are they?"

My darling husband said they'd be perfect with a cup of coffee, which they would.

They just left me wanting something more.

I also tweaked the recipe slightly. I didn't feel the original recipe had enough flavor, so I increased a few of the ingredients. I was happy with the overall cookie flavor, but they really need that cinnamon sugar.

They are awfully cute, though, aren't they?

Rhode Island Cinnamon Snails

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon granulated sugar*

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 egg white, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Cream butter and brown sugar. Mix in cinnamon and baking powder. Add egg and vanilla extract, mix until well combined.
Add flour slowly, mixing until just combined.
Roll heaping tablespoons of dough into approximately 6" ropes 1/2" thick. Coil each rope into a snail shape with one small coil on one end for the head and a larger coil at the other end forming the body. Place 2" apart on parchment lined baking sheets.
Combine 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar together in a small bowl.
Brush each snail with the lightly beaten egg white and then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Bake for 8 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

*If I had remembered this part, I probably would've used turbinado sugar for some added crunch.

Cookie #58 - Pennsylvania Hershey's Special Dark Double Chocolate Cookies

2010-08-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

In 1903, Milton Hershey began construction of a chocolate plant in his hometown of Derry Church, Pennsylvania - now Hershey, Pennsylvania,

"The Sweetest Place on Earth."

While on vacation last week, my family and I stopped in Hershey to visit Hershey's Chocolate World. I was excited. I hadn't been there since I was a little girl and my family vacationed in Pennsylvania Dutch Country one summer. In the shadows of the roller coasters of Hershey Park, my husband, two daughters and I learned all about the Hershey Process.

Well, my husband and I did.

My girls cared more about the singing animatronic cows.

The whole thing is quite neat.

As you walk through the halls to get to the tour, the smell of chocolate is rich in the air.

My mouth was watering.

Upon exiting, each of us was given a small Hershey bar. Sydney, my three-year-old, devoured hers. After the tour, you enter the Hershey shop where you can buy anything and EVERYTHING Hershey - including bulk packages of Hershey products.

If it wasn't 95 degrees out that day, I can almost guarantee I would've left there with a lot of chocolate.

When it came to my home state of Pennsylvania, I originally thought about doing a regional cookie called a Kiffle. I then learned that most of PA doesn't actually eat Kiffles.

They are regional to the Allentown area. I wanted to do something that was a little more recognizable for Penna, so I moved on to Hershey.

For these cookies, I used Hershey's Cocoa and Hershey's Chocolate Chips.

When I went to the grocery store to buy some ingredients, I discovered they have a Special Dark version of both. I've never tried them before and was excited to try them in this cookie.

The result is a deep, dark, almost black cookie.

They are very rich and chocolaty, but not bitter, like some dark chocolates can be.

Not nearly as dark and bitter as the Ghirardelli cookies.

These cookies also held their shape surprisingly well. I was expecting them to spread like a traditional chocolate chip cookie, but they didn't. They stayed quite puffy and thick. Because of that, they stay quite soft and don't get thin and crunchy - I like them that way.

Pennsylvania Hershey's Special Dark Double Chocolate Cookies

1 1/4 cups butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 cup Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add gradually to butter mixture, beating well after each addition. Stir in chocolate chips. Dough will be very stiff.

Drop tablespoons full of dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets about 2" apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Cookie #57 - Oregon Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies

2010-08-17T19:58:00.000-07:00

Oregon is one of the four major hazelnut growing regions in the world.

Oregon produces 95% of the domestic hazelnuts in the United States.

I came across quite a few hazelnut cookie recipes, but when I went shopping to buy ingredients I couldn't find hazelnuts.

No hazelnuts?

What's up Oregon?

After trips to three different grocery stores (this happened once before with key limes) I decided I'd have to resort to using something hazelnut based.

Of course!

Nutella!

Rich, chocolaty, velvety, nutty Nutella.

So, I crafted a delicious, sugary butter cookie and sandwiched the Nutella in between. Scrumptious!

I've eaten three already.

My hips are gonna hate this project....

Oregon Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies

2 3/4 cups flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup toasted & chopped hazelnuts*
Extra sugar for coating cookies

Nutella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla until well mixed.

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating well after each addition. Roll teaspoons full of dough into small balls and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet, about 2" apart. Dip the wet bottom of a glass into sugar and then press each cookie until about 1/4" thick. Top half the cookies with the hazelnuts.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Don't let the cookies brown too much on the edges. You want them to be soft and delicate, yet firm enough to handle the Nutella.

Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cooled, spread a small amount of Nutella on the cookies that don't have the nuts. Top with the nut topped cookie.

*Though I didn't use hazelnuts in this batch, I included them in the ingredients. Since I don't know exactly how many chopped hazelnuts the recipe will use, I used the typical measurement for a bag of hazelnuts for baking.

Cookie #56 - Cleo's Oklahoma Buffalo Chip Cookies

2010-08-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited about these cookies!

Why you ask?

Because they come with a story!

I LOVE stories!!

This recipe was sent to me by a member of the NSBR message board at Two Peas in a Bucket. I've been a member of this community for over 7 years. It's an interesting mix to women (and some men) . They've offered me some great, and not so great, advice over the years. They were there with words of encouragement when I was first dealing with my daughters developmental delay. They make me laugh, they make me cry. It's a great place and I'm happy to be part of it.

When I first started this blog, I asked my friends, the "Peas" as they're called, for help coming up with the recipes for the states. I was so excited when one member sent me this lovely story about her grandmother, Cleo Holloman, who made these cookies for Oklahoma State 75th Anniversary Celebration. She writes:

"This was my grandmother's recipe that she made for the Oklahoma state 75th anniversary celebration. From what I understand each county extension homemakers group did a special tribute at their county fair booth and she made these cookies. That's one reason the recipe makes so darn many cookies. She sent these to church camp and 4-H camp with the kids from my hometown as snacks for years as well."

Cleo passed away last September at almost 93-years old.

When I read this recipe and the story that accompanied it, I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that THIS was my Oklahoma cookie. I can tell you, Cleo's recipe doesn't disappoint.

These are FANTASTIC cookies. I made them tonight and the smell of them is still fresh in the air. I'm fighting the urge to get up and get another one.

They're sweet and soft in the middle with crunchy edges and, oh yeah,

THEY ARE HUGE!

They only advice I received when making these cookies was to make them BIG. So I did.

The cookies spread to a whopping 5 or 6"!!

Cleo's Oklahoma Buffalo Chip Cookies

2 Sticks margarine (I used butter because I had it on hand)

1 cup shortening

2 cups sugar

2 cups brown sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

4 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

2 cups oats

1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup pecans

2 cup cornflakes

1 cup coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt together butter and shortening. Cream in brown sugar, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Sift together flour, soda & baking powder. Mix in oats, cornflakes, coconut, chocolate chips and pecans. Mix all together until well combined.

Drop by 1/4 cups full onto a parchment lined baking sheet. You will only be able to fit 6 cookies per sheet (I used full sized sheet pans). Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges are golden.

Cookie #55 - Ohio Buckeyes

2010-08-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

"In old Columbus there's a team

That's known throughout the land

Eleven warriors brave and bold

Whose fame will ever stand

And when the ball goes over,

Our cheers will reach the sky

Ohio Field will hear again

The Buckeye Battle Cry! "

Never heard of a buckeye? It's a type of chestnut:

It's also the Ohio State mascot, Brutus:

It's also a delcious type of peanut butter candy:

Those peanut butter candies were also my inspiration for these cookies. Rather than a mixture of peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar, I made a peanut butter cookie. After dipping them in chocolate, they look just like a buckeye nut:

Their rich and peanut buttery, yet crumbly like a good buttery cookie. I do think they next time I made them, I'll add some crushed peanuts to the mix just to change up the texture.

Ohio Buckeye Cookies

2 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter, peanut butter and sugar together until smooth. Mix in vanilla.

Sift together flour and salt and add to butter mixture until just combined.

Roll dough into 1" balls and place on a parchment lined cookie sheets. These cookies don't spread, so you can place them about an inch or so apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, melt semisweet chocolate and shortening together in a double boiler until smooth. Dip cookies about 3/4 of the way and place on either parchment or a wire rack. Transfer to the fridge to set the chocolate.

Cookie #54 - North Dakota Scandinavian Almond Cookies

2010-08-15T19:42:00.000-07:00

North Dakota is rich in Scandinavian heritage. Minot, North Dakota hosts Norsk Høstfest - the Norwegian Autumn Festival - every October. I chose a recipe I came across that brings Scandinavian flavors to a pre-made cookie mix.

This recipe comes from Betty Crocker. You add almond extract & sliced almonds to their sugar cookie mix, form it into rectangles and bake. After baking, the still softened cookies are cut on a diagonal then drizzled with an almond scented icing and more sliced almonds.

These cookies were so good, in fact, that they didn't last in my house more than a day. After the cookies had cooled, I kept them on the cooling racks so I could drizzle them with the icing. I then kept them out to allow the icing to harden. The smell of fresh cookies and almonds was so overpowering, about half the batch was gone before the icing dried. Every time you walked by them, you couldn't help but just break off a piece of one. I quickly packaged two up in a baggie to take to work the next day. It wasn't until I was sitting at my desk chomping on the last one that I realized I never photographed them. I rushed home from work and it was too late. They were gone. So, while there is no photo of my batch of these delicious cookies, there is one on the Betty Crocker website. I can promise, mine were no where near as pretty, but they were delicious!

North Dakota Scandinavian Almond Cookies
from Betty Crocker

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 egg
2 tablespoons Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 teaspoons milk
1 cup sliced almonds

Almond Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
5 to 6 teaspoons milk
2 tablespoons sliced almonds

Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, egg, flour and 1 teaspoon almond extract until dough forms. Divide dough into 3 equal parts; place on ungreased cookie sheets. Press each into 12x3-inch rectangle.

Brush each rectangle with 1 teaspoon milk; sprinkle with 1/3 cup almonds. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; cut into 1-inch diagonal slices (I used a pizza cutter). Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

In small bowl, stir powdered sugar, 1/4 teaspoon almond extract and 5 to 6 teaspoons milk until desired consistency. Drizzle over cookies; sprinkle with 2 tablespoons almonds

Cookie #53 - North Carolina Moravian Spice Cookies

2010-08-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that just 48 hours ago I was walking on the beach in South Carolina, breathing the salty air with the foamy surf at my feet. Now, I'm back home in Pennsylvania. Back to laundry and housework. Most important: back to cookies.

For the next week, I will be posting two cookies a day to catch up on my week away. We start with North Carolina:

Moravian Spice Cookies are a traditional recipe of the Moravian Churches in Colonial America. It's a molasses based cookie spiced with just about every spice in your spice cabinet. It's traditionally rolled out very thin to produce a crispy wafer. They are particularly delicious with a little vanilla ice cream.

North Carolina Moravian Spice Cookies

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour

In a small saucepan, melt butter over low heat until the butter turns light brown. Add molasses, brown sugar and oil, stirring until sugar is melted and mixture is well combined. Transfer to a mixing bowl and let cool for 5 minutes.

Sift together flour, baking soda and spices. Add to butter/molasses mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, and beat until just blended.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Let dough rest at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours before rolling.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Divide dough in half and rewrap the unused portion. Roll out the dough on a floured surface as thin as possible, less than 1/16 inch. Cut out cookies with a small 2-inch cutter and place them about 1/4 inch apart on parchment lined baking sheets.

Bake one sheet at a time for 8 to 10 minutes or until the cookies are crisp and just beginning to brown on the edges. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Wish you were here...

2010-08-06T08:28:00.000-07:00

The bags are packed.
The car is loaded.
The kids are excited.
For the next nine days I will be taking a short break from cookies as we take a family vacation to South Carolina.
I will return to blogging on August 16th with two cookies a day to get me caught up.
See you then!

Cookie #52 - New York Black & Whites

2010-08-04T19:15:00.000-07:00

Growing up in the suburbs of NYC, black & white cookies were one of my favorites. There was a local bakery that made the best B&W's. The cookie was thick and cakey. The chocolate frosting was smooth and soft and the white frosting was sweet and crispy.

Many people have their own methods for eating a B&W. Some eat right down the middle to get both the chocolate and vanilla in every bite. Some eat one side first, and then the other. I fell into the latter category. Since the white was my favorite, I'd often eat the chocolate first, so I could savor the white.

Since moving to PA, I've found it difficult to find a really good B&W. This recipe comes pretty darned close to that cookie from my childhood. The recipe is from Epicurious. I have to be honest. When I first tried this recipe some time ago, it didn't quite work out. I'm not sure if maybe I was stressed or having a bad day, but they just didn't turn out. This time they were close to perfect. I toyed with the idea of frosting the entire cookie with just the vanilla. How awesome would that be? However, I stayed true to the recipe and made true B&Ws.

New York Black & Whites
from Epicurious

For cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup (5 1/3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg

For icings
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 to 2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

Make cookies:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Stir together buttermilk and vanilla in a cup.
Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes, then add egg, beating until combined well. Mix in flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately in batches at low speed (scraping down side of bowl occasionally), beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix until smooth.
Spoon 1/4 cups of batter about 2 inches apart onto a buttered large baking sheet. Bake in middle of oven until tops are puffed and pale golden, and cookies spring back when touched, 15 to 17 minutes. Transfer with a metal spatula to a rack and chill (to cool quickly), about 5 minutes.

Make icings while cookies chill:
Stir together confectioners sugar, corn syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl until smooth. Transfer half of icing to another bowl and stir in cocoa, adding more water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, to thin to same consistency as white icing.

Ice cookies:
Turn cookies flat sides up, then spread white icing over half of each and chocolate over other half.

*Note: my camera battery is dead again this evening. It is 100% my fault, as I didn't turn the camera off after I took my last set of pics. Sigh... I will charge the battery overnight and post pictures of my black & whites tomorrow.

Cookie #51 - New Mexico Bizcochito

2010-08-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

Yet another cookie that I may add to my Christmas cookie repertoire!

The first time I ever heard of bizcochito was in a Food Network special that featured Santa Fe Biscochitos, a small company that sells the traditional cookie. Bizcochito is a thin, crisp cookie flavored with anise and cinnamon. Traditionally, they're served at special occasions, like weddings and christenings, or at religious holidays, like Christmas. They're very seldom known outside of New Mexico and it's a damn shame because these are some good cookies.

This was the first time I had worked with anise seed. I have used star anise in the past to flavor things like mulled wine, but never the actual seeds. I must say the seeds themselves are quite deceptive. You must grind the seeds first and then sift them to remove the hulls. For every tablespoon of anise seed you probably get about a teaspoon of actual ground anise. Allow me to give you a visual:

This is what you get:

And this is what you waste:

I was able to find anise seed relatively inexpensively at my grocery store - about $3 for a package. The flavor the ground anise brings to the cookie is so worth it.

Then there's the cinnamon sugar topping. The recipe says to wet the cookie dough before sprinkling on the cinnamon sugar. With my first batch, I used a pastry brush and brushed each individual cookie and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top. When I finished the first sheet of cookies, I looked at the huge ball of dough I still had to roll and cut and knew that wasn't the way to go. So, I got out my squirt bottle I use to moisten the oven when making pastry and filled it with water. Then I got out my small sieve I use for powdered sugar dusting. I misted the cookies and went over them with the sieve full of cinnamon sugar. Easy peasy!

I cut my cookies into star shapes because that was the first cookie cutter I grabbed. Traditionally, the cookies are cut into a fleur-de-lis. I didn't have such a cutter and my search of local retailers came up empty handed. I didn't have time to order one online, but if you desire, you can do so from Sur La Table.

When rolling out the cookies, the recipe I used called for the dough to be rolled out to 1/2" thick. I initially thought that was a bit thick for a cookie that is described as "thin and crispy." I rolled the next batch slightly thinner at 1/4" and they were perfect.

New Mexico Bizcochito

6 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons ground anise seeds (grind whole seeds in a spice mill and sift)

2 2/3 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Cinnamon topping:

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Cream butter, shortening and sugar together until light. Add egg, egg yolk and anise seed; mix until well combined.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Gently fold the flour into the butter mixture until just combined. Do not over mix and do not beat the dough. Divide the dough into four portions and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Flatten into disks and place in refrigerator for at least 45 minutes.

While the dough is chilling, stir together the cinnamon and 1/2 cup sugar. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Roll out dough in small portions on a lightly floured work surface. Be sure to keep unused portions of dough chilled until you're ready to roll them. Cut out cookies with your cutter of choice and place on parchment lined baking sheets about 1" apart. (If your kitchen is particularly warm, you may want to chill the dough for a few minutes before placing in the oven.)

Using a spray bottle, moisten the cookies with water and top them with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until they are lightly golden. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Apparently these cookies will keep very well if tightly covered - several weeks even. However, once you taste them, I can assure you they won't last that long!

Cookie #50 - New Jersey Cranberry Pinwheels

2010-08-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

New Jersey isn't all about the shore, big hair and "the situation." Not everyone GTL's. New Jersey is a beautiful state. When my husband and I were dating, we'd take long Sunday drives through Warren, Morris and Hunterdon counties taking in the beautiful scenery. They don't call it the "Garden State" for nothing.
Then there's beautiful Cape May with it's beautiful beach and historic Victorian homes.
Then there's Atlantic City and of course the rest of the Jersey Shore. When I was growing up, my family, like many other families in our area, always vacationed on the Jersey shore every summer. Our destination was always Wildwood, but there's Ocean City, Long Beach Island, Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights. I have many memories of the boardwalk and the beach. The pizza and the saltwater taffy. The ring of the bells in the arcade and the rapid "tick-tick-tick" of the prize wheels. Oh, how I miss those summers.
New Jersey is also known for it's cranberries, ranking third among all the states in cranberry production. My favorite cranberry preparation, I'm sorry to say, is cranberry sauce. In a can. With the ridges from the can still on the cylinder sitting on a plate. I love it. I could eat it by the can. My husband, not such a fan. In fact, he never really had it growing up. My mother-in-law now buys it special, just for me, at Thanksgiving and I think I'm the only one who actually eats it.
These cookies use dried cranberries. They're tart and sweet and chewy - such a different flavor from the loaf of cranberry gelatin. The dried cranberries are mixed with some finely chopped almonds and a little orange zest and then rolled up in a rich butter cookie, sliced and baked until golden. I just think these cookies are so pretty - before and after baking. I could easily see these being added to my ever growing Christmas Cookie arsenal.

New Jersey Cranberry Pinwheels

Cookie:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Filling:

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 tbsp milk

1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries*

1/2 cup finely chopped almonds

1 tbsp finely grated orange zest

Cream butter and sugar. Mix in egg and vanilla until well combined. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to butter/egg mixture and stir until just combined. Form into a flattened disc and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 45 minutes (or freeze for 15).

In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and milk.

In another small bowl, combine cranberries, almonds and orange zest.*

Remove dough from the fridge and sandwich the disc between two pieces of waxed paper. Roll out into a rectangle, about 12" by 6" and 1/4" thick (the size of the rectangle isn't that important, but the thickness of the dough is). Remove top piece of waxed paper and discard. Spread brown sugar and milk mixture all over the dough, leaving a 1/4" border around all edges. Spread cranberry nut mixture on top of the brown sugar and disperse across the dough evenly.

Starting at one long side of the rectangle, roll the dough up, using the waxed paper to help you. Once the roll is complete, use your finger to press the seam closed and wrap the log in the waxed paper. Seal the ends tightly and transfer to the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove roll from fridge and cut into 1/4" thick slices using a serrated knife. If the cookies are crumbling under your knife, allow the roll to sit out for a few minutes before slicing. The the roll is flattening under your knife, return the the fridge for a few more minutes to allow it to set a bit more.

Place the slices about 1" apart on parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 10-14 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Allow to set for a few minutes on the sheet pan then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

*I initially tried adding the whole dried cranberries and nuts to the food processor to chop them. The cranberries clumped around the blade and didn't get a good dice. Instead, I chopped them by hand and pounded the nuts in a freezer bag until finely ground.

Working it out....

2010-08-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I watched several episodes of the show "Rachel Allen - Bake!" on Cooking Channel. Rachel Allen is an Irish celebrity chef. Her show has three segments - one where she teaches you a recipe, one where she teaches her cooking students and one where she goes out and learns about a certain type of baked good, ingredient or cooking method.
There was one thing I noted as I was watching her show - she didn't use an electric mixer. Instead, she creamed the butter and sugar by hand. The sound of the spoon hitting the bowl and the softened butter mixing with the sugar and then the egg and the flour - it was captivating for some reason.
I decided at that point that I would try to use my mixer as little as possible. The cookies I've made for this week were all made not using my beloved KitchenAide. I was amazed at how in touch you get with your ingredients when you cook this way. You get an entirely different feel for the batter. I think it really helped me not over mix the batters and cream the ingredients just right. The result: some of the best cookies I've ever baked.
So, I encourage you to get in touch with your inner baker. Unplug that mixer and grab a wooden spoon. You won't be sorry - just make sure your butter's softened!

Cookie #49 - New Hampshire Pumpkin Cookies

2010-08-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

New Hampshire's state fruit is the pumpkin. New Hampshire loves their pumpkins so much that the town of Keene holds a Pumpkin Festival every October. In 1992, the festival set the world record for the most jack o'lanterns lit at one time - 1,628! That's a lot of pumpkins! But, wait! The festival topped their own record 7 more times. The current record holds at 29,762 pumpkins! Here's a photo from the Pumpkin Festival - check out the wall of lit pumpkins!!

Photo from http://www.pumpkinfestival.org/

Pumpkin is one of my favorite things to bake with. When fall comes, I can't wait to buy my local grocery out of canned pumpkin (I've yet to try to roast and puree my own). The smell of pumpkin bread, cake, cookies, muffins and pie fill my kitchen every weekend. Last year, at our town's farmer's market, I won the Scarecrow Festival Pumpkin Bake-Off with my Gingerbread Pumpkin Mousse Trifle. I was so stinkin' proud of myself, I think I walked on air for the remainder of the day.

Enough with the pumpkin love fest - onto the cookies.

These cookies encompass all I love about pumpkin baking. The moisture the pumpkin adds, the warmth of the spices and the sweetness of the sugar. I think these cookies would be pretty darned awesome with a cream cheese frosting....a caramel cream cheese frosting....a cinnamon caramel creem cheese frosting! Yum!! Alas, I didn't have cream cheese in the fridge, so I left my cookies naked. To be honest, they don't need a frosting - they're quite yummy the way they are.

Pumpkin Cookies

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground clove*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Add egg and mix well. Mix in vanilla and pumpkin until well combined.

In a medium bowl, sift together the remaining dry ingredients*. Add the flour to the butter pumpkin mixture and stir until just combined.

Drop by tablespoons full onto parchment lined baking lined baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes until set. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

*a word about the cloves. I always freshly grind my cloves. The problem with this is my spice grinder doesn't really get a nice find grind and I end up with slightly larger pieces of clove. When I first started doing this, I thought it was going to be a reall problem, so I'd sift them out. Then, one day I just said "screw it!" and I threw a half teaspoon of my roughly ground cloves into a pumpkin mousse. What a difference! The clove flavor was fantastic and you didn't get any grit or chomp down on a piece of clove. So, when I make these cookies, I do NOT sift the cloves with the rest of the dry indredients. Of course, this whole issue could be resolved by buying pre-ground cloves, but what fun is that?

Cookie #48 - Nevada Sand Tarts

2010-07-31T19:38:00.000-07:00

Nevada is such a fascinating state to me. Over 85% of the state's 2.8 million residents live in Las Vegas and Reno. Not hard to believe when you learn that 86% of the state's land is owned by the US Federal Government.
Since most of Nevada is desert, I chose a cookie to mimic the texture of sand. This cookie is crumbly and sort of dry, but the flavor is fantastic and the nuts make them nice and crunchy.

Nevada Sand Tarts

1 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 confectioner's sugar

1 3/4 cup flour

1 cup finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

Cream butter, vanilla and sugar until smooth. Gradually add flour and mix until just combined. Stir in chopped pecans.

Shape dough into crescents about 2" wide and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until just golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

If desired, sprinkle with more confectioner's sugar.

Cookie #47 - Nebraska Haystacks

2010-07-31T19:22:00.000-07:00

I first made these cookies about 10 years ago for Christmas. I love the combination of the butterscotch, chocolate and peanut butter that coats the crispy noodles and peanuts. The original recipe I used called for Spanish peanuts, but I'm not such a fan of them. I chose to use plain old dry roasted, salted peanuts instead. They salt the bring to the party really accentuates the chocolate.

Nebraska Haystacks

1 cup butterscotch chips

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup peanuts

1 small can of LaChoy Chow Mein noodles

In a double boiler, melt the butterscotch, chocolate and peanut butter until melted and well combined. Be patient as the butterscotch doesn't melt as quickly as the chocolate and the peanut butter. Just keep stirring and don't allow the mixture to scorch.

In a large bowl, combine chow mein noodles and peanuts. Pour melted chocolate over the noodles & nuts and mix until well coated.

On a parchment (not waxed paper) lined baking sheet, drop tablespoons full of the mixture into little piles. Try to make the piles tall and not wide. Put the baking sheet into the fridge to set.

Cookie #46 - Montana MONSTER Cookies

2010-07-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

I was first heard of these cookies it was from my husband's college buddy Jim and his wife Tricia. They talked up these cookies so much that I had to try them myself.

Imagine my excitement when I was searching for Montana cookies and this recipe came up in several results. Initially, I was going to save them for October and Halloween week. Since I love these cookies so much, the second the name graced my laptop screen I got a craving. Montana Monster Cookies it is!

These are some serious monster cookies. From the size of the measurements to the size of the cookies. Each cookie is about 4". What's funny is, they're not overly sweet. The peanut butter and oats really balance out the sugar. You can add whatever you want to these cookies, too. I've seen different recipes that use different dried fruits like cranberries and blueberries, Reese's Pieces, white chocolate chips, toffee chips, peanuts, walnuts - anything you'd like mixed into a cookie. I kept mine simple - semisweet chocolate chips, raisins and M&Ms.

What's also great is that this recipe contains NO flour. Now, I don't know much about gluten-allergies, but I assume the lack of flour would make these cookies gluten-free. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Now, obviously, this makes a TON of cookies. Feel free to halve the recipe - I've done it before and it works better. I halved it the first time I made them because the initial ingredient measurements wouldn't fit in my KitchenAid. When I mentioned this to Tricia, she said she actually mixes the dough by hand. Her reasoning is that if she does the actualy physical labor, she can eat more cookies. I like that thinking.

I also have this philosophy that if a cookie contains good for you stuff like oatmeal, peanut butter and raisins, you can totally eat them for breakfast. Let's just say I ate Monster cookies for breakfast for about a week.

If you're going to mix these by hand, be very certain that your butter and peanut butter are room temperature before starting. It will make mixing the dough much easier.

Montana MONSTER Cookies

1 cup softened butter

2 cups sugar

2 cups packed brown sugar

3 cups chunky peanut butter (you can use smooth if that's your preference)

6 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

9 cups quick cooking oats

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups M&M's

3/4 cups raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, cream butter, peanut butter and sugars together until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla extract, baking soda and salt. Stir in oats until well combined. Fold in chocolate chips, M&Ms and raisins.

Drop by 1/4 cups full onto parchment line baking sheets, about 3" apart. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the edges just start to turn golden. Cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes to allow the cookies to set before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Keep the cookies tightly covered to ensure they don't dry out.

Cookie #45 - Missouri Gooey Butter Cookies

2010-07-29T18:14:00.000-07:00

St. Louis is famous for thier gooey butter cake. It's traditionally served as a coffee cake and not as a dessert. Sort of like a cheese danish, but better. Traditionally, it was made with a sweet yeast dough as the bottom and the gooey butter portion on top. Today, it's most often made with a yellow cake on the bottom.

For the gooey butter cookies, I took the basic ingredients for a gooey butter cake and mixed them all together and baked them as cookies. Sort of a variation of the cake mix cookies I made for the Smith Island cookies.

These cookies are soft and rich. The tang of the cream cheese doesn't really come through, but rather seems to amplify the yellow cake flavor. When Trusty Tastetester #2 (aka, my mom) initially tasted the cookie, she hated it. Then, the flavors settled in her mouth and she was in love. Two more cookies later, she finally decided that they were delicious.

I mean, seriously look how soft and gooey they are inside. Who can resist that?

One note about this recipe: One of my tricks when I make recipes is I add certain things to compliment the flavors in the recipe. For example, I'll add a little espresso powder to my chocolate recipes, a little extra salt to recipes with nuts, and I'll double the vanilla in recipes that call for vanilla. DON'T DO THAT HERE. The recipe calls for 1/2 tsp vanilla - trust me, it's ENOUGH. I had to remind myself that I was already using a premade cake mix and the vanilla was included in the mix. I think If I used a full teaspoon of vanilla it would have empowered the whole cookie and that's all you'd taste. So don't do it. No matter how much that full teaspoon calls to you....don't do it.

Missouri Gooey Butter Cookies

1 box yellow cake mix (I prefer Duncan Hines)

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and cream cheese together. Mix in egg until well incorporated. Add cake mix and vanilla an mix until well combined.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto parchment lined cookie sheets about 2" apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are slightly browned. Cook for a couple minutes on the cookie sheets to allow them to set a bit. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

If desired, dust with powdered sugar.

Cookie #44 - Mississippi Mud Cookies

2010-07-27T19:46:00.000-07:00

I found this cookie to be quite interesting. When I first set out to making this, I was expecting a deep, chocolatey cookie. Something crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. Something like a chocolate lava cake in a cookie or something like my mom's brownie drops (look for that recipe in December).
This is not that cookie.
While crispy on the outside and crispy on the inside, it lacked that deep, dark chocolate I was craving. Yet, it's quite yummy. It tastes almost EXACTLY like a cup of hot cocoa. I think they'd be far better with a bittersweet chocolate, though.
Now, a word about the marshmallows. Please, please, please do yourself a favor and buy good marshmallows. I made the awful mistake of buying a store-brand marshmallow for this cookie. The marshmallows were almost crunchy. They were super sticky and just plain strange. Definitely not a sweet, fluffy marshmallow you'd like to skewer and roast over an open flame.
After I discovered my marshmallow flub, I chose to bake half the batch without the marshmallows. They were still yummy, but really needed that toasty marshmallow on top.
Since I've never actually had a Mississippi Mud Pie, I cannot say if these cookies perfectly mimic the flavor of one. I always imagined a MMP to be far more chocolatey than these cookies.

Mississippi Mud Cookies

2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Miniature marshmallows (you need 3 per cookie, I didn't measure how much I used, but I didn't even make a dent in the bag I bought)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt 1 cup chocolate chips in a double boiler and set aside to cool.

Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla.

In a seperate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to egg/butter mixture slowly until just combined. Don't overmix. Stir in remaining chocolate chips.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto parchment lined baking sheets. Nestle three mini marshmallows into the top of each cookie.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set.

Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to completely cool.

Cookie #43 - Minnesota Munchers

2010-07-26T20:12:00.000-07:00

Dear Minnesota: Why can't you have a nice easy state food that lends itself well to cookies? I searched and searched for something that represented Minnesota. I thought about perhaps doing a dual flavored cookie to play on the "Twin Cities," but I just couldn't find what I was looking for.
Then, I came across this recipe. They're called Minnesota Munchers and won Taste of Home's Country's Best Cookies contest.
These cookies are really yummy and I can see why they won. Two types of chocolate chips, toffee chips and pecans (which I left out due to my allergy).
Unfortunately, this batch of cookies is how I discovered where my oven's hot spot is. Out of the 3 dozen cookies I made, only about 12 didn't come out with this lovely burnt bottom:

Boo to my Caloric. Boo.

I chose to make these cookies slightly larger than the tablespoon recommended by the recipe. The result was a wonderfully fat, soft, squishy, crunchy cookie that I just adored. Yum! You can see all the deliciousness that awaits you inside:

Minnesota Munchers

1 cup butter, softened

1-1/2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

2/3 cup toffee baking bits
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Stir in the milk chocolate and semisweet chips, toffee bits, and pecans. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Cookie #42 - Michigan Buried Cherry Cookies

2010-07-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

Every Independence Day weekend, Traverse City, Michigan holds the National Cherry Festival. With over 500,000 attendees, the festival holds events like cherry pit spitting contests, cherry pie eating contests as well as a parade and the crowing of a Cherry Queen.
In 1987, the festival was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for baking the largest cherry pie weighing in at over 28,000 lbs and over 17' in diameter. That's a lot of cherries!! Just look at the pan:

*photo courtesy of Waymarking.com

For this cookie, I decided to try something a little different. I found this cookie through Better Homes & Gardens Magazine. My initial thought was to do a dried cherry, white chocolate chip cookie but that is so plain. I wanted something with a different technique - something I've never done before. This cookie fit the profile.
A juicy maraschino cherry is placed in the center of a scrumptious almond scented butter cookie and topped with a chocolate topping before being baked. The smell while baking was unreal. The chocolate and almond fragrance filled my entire house and had some serious staying power. I can still smell them and they've been out of the oven at least an hour. My husband's favorite candy is those Queen Anne Cherry Cordials and he loved these.
I was really happy with how juicy the cherry stayed after baking. You can see the juice on the cutting board in the picture below. I hope they stay that way after sitting awhile.
The original recipe calls for a half cherry in the center of each cookie, but I chose to use a whole one. I'm glad I did, because it really added a nice body to the cookie. If you choose to use a whole cherry, you'll need to double the amount of cherries listed below. I'm sure a half is just as good, but I had an abundance of cherries in my fridge begging to be used for something other than Rob Roys.
The other change I made was I used semisweet chocolate for the topping because that was what I had on hand. This was pure accidental as I couldn't sworn I had a bar of bittersweet chocolate on hand. Perhaps it disappeared during one of my sleep-walking/sleep-eating episodes. That's another story....

BHG's Buried Cherry Cookies

1 10-ounce jar maraschino cherries (2 jars if you're going to use a whole cherry per cookie)

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, *chopped (I used semisweet and the flavor was good, but bittersweet I'm sure is better)

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Drain cherries, reserving juice. Halve enough large cherries to make 42 to 46 pieces. In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and almond extract until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place balls about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press your thumb into the center of each ball. Place a cherry in each center.

For frosting, in a small saucepan combine chocolate pieces and sweetened condensed milk. Cook and stir over low heat until chocolate melts. Stir in 4 teaspoons reserved cherry juice (I had to use more). Spoon 1 slightly rounded teaspoon of the frosting over each cherry piece, spreading to cover cherry.** (Frosting will be baked on the cookies, so it should be thick. If it is too thick, thin it with additional cherry juice.)

Bake in preheated oven for 12 to 14 minutes or until edges are firm and just start to brown. Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool. Makes: 42 to 46 cookies

Cookie #41 - Massachusetts Tea & Honey Cookies

2010-07-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

"On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of American history, and other political protests often refer to it." - Wikipedia

My first thought for Massachusetts was to do a Boston Creme Pie cookie. Then I started to think about it: I had yet to see a tea flavored cookie, so I was anxious to try my hand at it. After a bit of searching, I came across a few recipes for all sorts of tea flavored shortbreads, cookies and cakes. Black tea, green tea, white tea - and this really awesome looking stuff called matcha (which will have to make it into a cookie later). I chose to do a shortbread type cookie and sweetened it with honey. The resulting cookie was dry like a shortbread and the flavor was very subtle. I was pleased with how these turned out and think that after some further tweaking, they could really be an excellent cookie.

Massachusetts Tea & Honey Cookies

2 cups flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp tea (I used Earl Gray tea right from the tea bag)

6 tbsp butter

2 tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and honey together until smooth. Sift flour, salt and baking soda together in a small bowl and add slowly to butter and honey. Stir in tea.

Roll into 1" balls and place 2" apart on parchment lined baking sheets. Flatten each ball with the bottom of a glass dipped in flour to prevent sticking.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the bottoms are just golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Cookie #40 - Maryland's Smith Island Cookies

2010-07-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

Smith Island is located off the coast of Maryland in the Chesapeake. It's Maryland's only off-inhabited off-shore island in the Chesapeake with a population of about 375.

In April 2008, the state of Maryland declared the Smith Island Cake to be it's official dessert. The cake consists of 8-15 thin layers of cake with chocolate frosting and crushed candy bars in between. The traditional flavor is yellow cake with chocolate frosting and it is often made with boxed cake mix. During my research, I did find a few "scratch" recipes, but most that I came across used a mix. What I thought was funny was that even though a cake mix was used, a canned frosting was not. Most recipes I came across used a cooked chocolate icing. When you see the cake, you'll know why. The layer of icing is thin - both between the layers and on top. To achieve this look, a thinner icing, like a cooked icing, is ideal.

When I started to think about how to translate a Smith Island Cake into a cookie, my original thought was to do a layered cookie. Plan A consisted of baking thin vanilla wafer type cookies and layering them with chocolate icing. After some consideration, I felt that type of cookie would be quite cumbersome and difficult to eat. Plus, the thin, crispy vanilla wafer wouldn't really mimic the soft cake. As the day for the Maryland cookie drew near, I started to panic a little. I still had no idea what I was going to do. I thought of abandoning the idea and just do an Old Bay savory cookie. I couldn't. This was a challenge and I had to see it through.

Then, I had a brainstorm.

What if I made the cookie from yellow cake mix? It would be the perfect flavor and consistency - just like the cake. Then, rather than layering them, I'd just ice each one with cooked chocolate icing and top with crushed candy bars. I focused on capturing the flavor and texture of the cake, rather than the appearance.

Smith Island Cookies

Cookie:

1 box yellow cake mix

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

Icing:

2 sticks butter

2-12 oz. cans evaporated milk

8 heaping Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

2 lbs. confectioners Sugar

3/4 cups toffee chips for decoration (or crushed candy bar of choice)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix cake mix, butter and eggs until well combined.

Roll into 1" balls and place 2" apart on parchment lined baking sheets.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just turn golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To make icing:

In a medium saucepan, melt butter. Remove from heat and stir in evaporated milk. Whisk in cocoa until smooth and return to heat.

Cook for 10 minutes - but DO NOT BOIL.

Remove from heat and whisk in confectioners sugar slowly.

Return to heat and slowly cook, stirring frequently, until thickened. Icing will coat the back of spoon. Set aside to cool.

After cookies are cooled, pour about a tablespoon of icing over each cookie and top with toffee chips or crushed candy bars. Allow icing to dry before transferring to a resealable container to store.

**Photo from The Cheesemonger's Wife