Peppermint Bark Cocoa Crinkles

I love a good bet.  I really don't like to gamble, but if I had to make a wager, I would bet that you will love these cookies. Last year I created the base of these cookies, a Peppermint Cocoa Crinkle, but this year they've been taken to a whole new level. Because if there's one thing better than a chocolate and peppermint cookie, it's a chocolate and peppermint cookie with peppermint bark inside. Obviously this is a delicious combination. Don't believe me? Try them! I dare you. 

1 cup shortening

1 & 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. peppermint extract

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

peppermint bark - homemade or store bought. I got mine from Trader Joe's. 

Candy canes - crushed

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream together shortening and sugar. Add eggs, peppermint and vanilla and beat until nice and fluffy. 

3. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add to wet mixture and mix in thoroughly. 

4. Chop peppermint bark into small pieces, about 1/2" by 1/2". Roll dough into 1-2" balls with a piece of peppermint bark inside.

5.  Bake on cookie sheet for 8-9 minutes. Let cool on the pan. While cookies are still hot, sprinkle with crushed candy canes.

Note: These are really good warm when the chocolate in the center is all nice and gooey, but they also can be enjoyed at room temperature. 

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Sugar Cookies

I have a confession to make. I love prepackaged cookie dough. I more than love it - I adore it. It's amazing! And it just comes in so handy! Baked, unbaked, any way you like it, always just waiting for you in the refrigerator in case you have a cookie craving and don't have the time or energy for baking. It's just such a wonderful invention. I really can't say enough good things about it. But as a self proclaimed cookie connoisseur, I feel a little guilty about this addiction. I feel like I should be a purist, someone who only accepts the homemade goodness of a made-from-scratch goody, with a palate too sensitive for something store bought. But alas. I am not. 

My favorite prepackaged cookie dough are the Pillsbury sugar cookies that come on a little tray and have seasonal pictures on them. You know, the kind marketed to children. Both times when I was pregnant my husband would always bring these home for me on at least a weekly basis for me and pop them in the oven around bedtime. I found that the ideal consumption is precisely six cookies in one sitting, complete with milk and probably a little TV. Now I'm not promoting this habit for all seasons of life. But sometimes you just gotta.

Well, I have finally found the homemade version of those delectable, six-at-a-time Pillsbury store bought sugar cookies from http://www.aprettylifeinthesuburbs.com. They are utterly delicious. And the thing is, no - they don't offer the ease of ready made cookies, but they do offer the goodness of home cookin' and ease my mind from store bought guilt. Because even if it's not actually healthy, everything's better for you if it's made from scratch, right? At least you know what's in it. AND you can make a big as batch as you want! Win win.

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup canola or vegetable oil

1 cup white sugar

1 cup powdered sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

4 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream together the butter, oil,  and sugars. Then add eggs and vanilla and beat well until light and fluffy.

3. In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Add to the butter mixture and combine until completely incorporated and smooth.

4. Chill the dough in the fridge until easier to work with, at least 30 minutes.

5. Drop the batter by the tablespoon onto a cookie sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes. Do not over bake!

Enjoy your homemade guilt-free-guilty-pleasure cookies!

Walnut Thumbprint Cookies

You know those days when you just feel far away from home? I grew up in Utah but have been living in California for the last seven years. California is fortunately a short two hour plane ride from Utah but sometimes I still feel far away from home. These cookies remind me of home. They are one of my mom's favorite cookies. I remember my dad making them for her. He's quite a cookie master. And these cookies are quite delicious. Most cookies use both brown and white sugars or just white sugar by itself, but these use only brown sugar. Brown sugar feels homey, don't you think? Warm and comforting. Top everything off with crunchy walnuts and fresh raspberry jam and home doesn't feel so far away.  

Walnut Thumbprint Cookies

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup shortening

1 egg, separated

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

Walnuts, chopped

Raspberry jam

1. Cream together butter, shortening, and brown sugar.

2. Add egg yolk and vanilla; mix well.

3. Mix in flour and salt.

4. Roll into 1" balls. Dip in slightly beaten egg white and then walnuts.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Remove cookies and press thumb into center of each cookie (careful! they will be HOT!) Bake an additional 8 minutes.

6. When cool, fill centers with raspberry jam.

Double Frosted PB Cookies

Pregnancy makes us do strange and delicious things. Like make PB cookies with not one, but two types of frosting. Why two you ask? Try them. You'll understand. Fortunately, out of my four sisters-in-law in my husband's family, three are pregnant and I am also pregnant. So I have plenty of people to try these out on. Pregnancy is really quite in right now, you see. We will go from two to seven grand babies by Christmas! If that math was tricky, I understand. One is having twins. Oh baby baby...baby baby baby.

Anyway, my pregnant self devoured these. They are a-mazing. And rather filling, if you ask me. I have been famished, I tell you, and these little/actually rather big treats took off the edge.

I know you probably shouldn't have double frosted peanut butter cookies every day. But if you are pregnant, today is that day. Or...if you may become pregnant, you were pregnant once, you know somebody who is pregnant, you are married to someone who is pregnant...or you like peanut butter...today is also that day.

Double Frosted Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

3 1/4 cups cake flour

1-12 oz. bag peanut butter chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream together butter and sugars. Blend in vanilla and eggs.

3. Add dry ingredients; mix well.

4. Fold in peanut butter chocolate chips.

5. Using ice cream scoop or 2 large spoons, scoop into 2 inch balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 11-12 minutes or until set.

6. Let cool, then frost with peanut butter frosting and chocolate frosting (recipes below).

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (not natural)

milk to thin to proper consistency (whole milk recommended)

1. Cream together butter and powdered sugar.

2. Add peanut butter and beat until smooth.

3. Add milk a tablespoon at a time, just until frosting is smooth and creamy. 

Chocolate Frosting

1 cup butter

5-6 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/4 - 1/3 cup milk

1. Cream together butter and 5 cups powdered sugar. 

2. Add cocoa and vanilla and beat until smooth.

3. Add milk a tablespoon at a time until frosting is smooth. If needed, add more powdered sugar. 

*I must confess; I did not actually make this frosting. I didn't have the energy to make two types of frosting (see above referenced medical condition) so I used chocolate frosting from a can. I can't say that I'm sorry. They were still delicious!

Bon appetite!

Recipe slightly adapted from A Bountiful Kitchen via Cutler's Cookies

p.s. The pictures on A Bountiful Kitchen's website of these cookies are amazing. I don't know how she made her cookies so perfectly round or got that frosting on there without making a huge mess, but she did. My pictures aren't so pretty, but I can't say that anyone minded when they tried them :)

Lemon Sugar Crinkles

These are total girl cookies. I mean, guys may like them (and this is totally acceptable), but for some reason I feel like anything lemony flavored instantly lends itself to being girly. Maybe I think this because whenever I make something with lemon flavoring my husband says, "This is girl food." Naturally. Other things that make the list of "girl food" include anything with basil (especially pesto) and cupcakes. What do you think? Are these actually girl foods? Or are they just delicious?

P.S. This is the second week in a row I have made a crinkle cookie. By way of information, crinkle means exactly what you think it means - small wrinkles or creases in the surface of something. I'm not sure why crinkles are on my mind/in my tummy so often lately. Maybe it is a subliminal attempt to transfer wrinkles to cookies instead of my almost-thirty-forehead.

Lemon Sugar Crinkles

1 cup shortening

1&1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. lemon extract

1 tsp. vanilla

2&1/2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Extra sugar for rolling - for variation, use colored sugar

Cream together shortening and sugar. Add eggs, lemon and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Mix dry ingredients separately and then add to creamed mixture, mixing again thoroughly. Roll into 1-2" balls. Roll in sugar. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees.

When the cookies are done baking, if they are still tall and look like little mounds (see below:), that is okay; they will still be delicious.

.

However, if you want a more flat, crinkle like cookie, gently press them with a spatula to get the following effect:

Enjoy!

Nutella-Stuffed Funfetti Cookies

Aaaaaaand, we're back!

The fam and I bought a house! So we've recently moved: packed, unpacked, vacuumed, un-vacuumed, found things, lost things, etc. and moved five minutes across town. It's a great little house with a great little yard. I have always wanted a lemon tree and now I have three lemon trees, which begs the question - what the heck do you need three lemon trees for? But I can't wait to find out.

So. Nutella-Stuffed Funfetti Cookies. The name says it all. I discovered them on http://notyourmommascookie.com/ (which is an amazing blog) and knew that I must partake. I got settled into my new kitchen, reacquainted with my Kitchen-Aid and got down to baking business. These are pretty simple cookies, though, so the baking was quick! Make them today. They are as good as they sound.

Nutella-Stuffed Funfetti Cookies

1 box Pillsbury Funfetti cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Approx. 1/2 cup Nutella

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Scoop teaspoon size balls of Nutella onto cookie sheet. Freeze for about 20 minutes or until firm.
3. In a mixing bowl, mix together the cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla extract until combined.
4. Take a heaping spoonful of dough and press a frozen Nutella ball into the center. Form the dough around the Nutella to form a ball and roll until it is smooth and no Nutella is exposed.
5. Bake for 9-10 minutes. Allow to cool on cookie sheet.

Delish!

Orange Stick Cookies

My Uncle Jim used to advise us to eat orange sticks when we had a cold. As a health professional and a human being, I fully supported this concept. I was recently saddened to find that orange sticks do not actually have an iota of Vitamin C. They do, however, have a thin dark chocolate coating, chocolate has been linked to increasing serotonin levels, serotonin is linked to happiness, happiness is scarce when you have a cold...Uncle Jim was onto something.

There is a very good chance you have boxes of orange sticks lying around from the holidays. Even if you don't have a cold, these little goodies shouldn't go to waste and, boy, do I have the solution for you. I have been dreaming up these cookies for some time now and am quite pleased with the results. Let's be frank: they taste like an orange stick in a cookie. Which is delicious. And necessary.

P.S. Even if you don't have leftover Orange Sticks, you can find them at Trader Joe's year round.

Orange Stick Cookies

6 TBLS. butter

12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips, divided

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate

2 eggs

2 tsp. orange extract

3/4 cup sugar

1 TBLS. orange zest

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

10-15 orange sticks, chopped into chunks

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper or baking mat. 

2. In a heat proof bowl over simmering water, melt the butter, 6 oz. chocolate chips and unsweetened chocolate, stirring occasionally until completely melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, use a stand or hand held mixer to beat eggs, orange extract and sugar on medium high for 2-3 minutes until batter thickens. 

4. With mixer on low, slowly add the cooled chocolate mixture to the egg mixture.

5. Mix orange zest, flour, baking powder and salt separately. With mixer on low, slowly add it to the batter. Do not over mix.

6. Fold in remaining chocolate chips and orange stick chunks.

7. Using two large spoons, drop onto cookie sheets. The batter will be wet, but should easily set into a mound.

8. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on sheets. Remember to allow cooling before eating because the gelatin will be piping hot!

9. Enjoy. And get over that cold. :)

Peppermint Cocoa Crinkles

Christmas is over, I know, I know. But these were maybe my favorite cookies of Christmas. Soft, chewy, minty, chocolaty - my, oh my. But ladies and gentlemen, do not be fooled. Just because they were taken in front of a Christmas themed background does not mean they can only be enjoyed during Yuletide; they can actually be made any time of year! Truth! And quite necessary. In fact, I might go make some right now. With milk. To aid in my New Year's Resolution to drink more milk. Oh, 2013 - you're lookin' bright!

Peppermint Cocoa Crinkles

1 cup shortening

1 & 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. peppermint extract

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Powdered sugar for dusting

1. Cream together shortening and sugar using hand held or stand mixer. Add eggs, peppermint extract and vanilla. Mix thoroughly.

2. Slowly add dry ingredients. A lot of recipes have you mix dry ingredients together separately and then add slowly to wet ingredients. I rarely do this. I just add the dry ingredients slowly, mixing between every cup of flour.

3. Roll into 1-1&1/2" balls. I prefer mine on the bigger side. This guarantees the center will be soft and gooey.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-9 minutes. 

5. Let cool on wire racks.

6. Dust with powder sugar. 

Delish!

Breakfast Cookies

Sweet breakfasts go down in history as one of my favorite things. Nutella French Toast, Strawberry Crepes - I don't know when somebody snagged these items from the dessert menu and placed them on the breakfast menu, but I salute that somebody.

Here is a breakfast that is not only a cookie, but a hearty and healthy one! It is loaded with oats, fruits and nuts, to create a homemade granola quality that is fresh and filling.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. coarse salt
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 TBSP vanilla extract
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup dried mango

Cream butter and sugar. And eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Slowly add flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in oats, pecans, coconut, cranberries and mango. Drop into heaping spoonfuls onto baking sheet and bake for 15-18 minutes at 350 degrees. Makes 16 cookies.

Now when I said "healthy" I used the term rather loosely. They are healthy in the sense that they have a good deal of nutrients, but they also have a good deal of butter. To create an even healthier version, I replaced half of the butter with applesauce and it wasn't half bad! Obviously not as buttery and crispy (it makes them a little more cake-like) but still tasty. And I did in fact eat one for breakfast with a glass of milk and felt quite good about it.

Recipe adapted from Red Barn Bakery

Week #2 - Snickers Cookies

These are tasty little cookies that can be whipped up in under 30 minutes. How do I know the exact time constraints? After prolific watching of timed food challenges on the Food Network Jeff and I were inspired to set a timer and create a dessert in under 30 minutes for imaginary judges. Easy. It took us, like, 24. Here they are:

Snicker's Cookies - from www.thesisterscafe.com

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 c. butter, room temperature

1/2 c. creamy peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1 1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

30 mini sized Snickers candy bars (we used fun size and just cut them in half)

In a large bowl, combine sugar, brown sugar, butter and peanut butter. Add vanilla and egg. Beat together. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to mixture. Shape dough smoothly around each candy bar (be generous), making sure the bar is completely covered, without having a lot of excess dough. Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes, (I found 10 minutes to be sufficient), and take out when they are slightly golden. Cool a minute or so and remove from cookie sheets. Delicious served warm. Or cold, actually. We liked them better cold with milk.

This was a tasty little treat. I might say it's more of a weekday cookie then a Sunday best, but since I like treats most days of the week and especially in 24 minutes or less - it's not too shabby!