Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Do you love Chocolate and Peppermint together as much as I do?  I feel like it's one of those things that just tastes like Christmas...  Anyway these are a pretty standard Chocolate Chip Cookie with a little less sugar since we have more sugary add-ins than normal.  And they are just enough pepperminty to be Christmasy but not over the top at all! :)  (So, I guess what I'm saying is that you could get away with them year round! :)

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies:
1 c. Shortening
1-1/3 c. Sugar (I used all white but I suppose you could still do half white and half brown here)
1/2 t. Salt
1 t. Vanilla
1 t. Baking Soda
2 Eggs
3 c. Flour (all-purpose)
1 c. Chocolate Chips (I prefer semi-sweet in my cookies, but you could use your preference!)
1/2 c. Peppermint Candy Canes, crushed (or peppermint candies)

Instructions:
Cream shortening and sugar until well blended.  Mix in salt, vanilla, baking soda and eggs until combined.  Add flour 1 cup at a time until just combined.  Then stir in chocolate chips and crushed peppermint candy canes.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Then using a cookie scoop (or whatever you like to use) place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet about 3" apart.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until golden.

Makes 4+ dozen cookies.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Macadamia Cookies

I don't know about you but two of my very favorite things year round are macadamia nuts and chocolate.  They can be together or separate.  They are just pretty amazing, so when I thought of trying out some more cookies with browned butter....I said, why not add two of my favorite things in it?!  And well, you can see how they turned out!  These are another perfect fall cookie too!  They are slightly salty, slightly chewy, slightly crunchy and a whole lot of delicious!

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Macadamia Cookies
1-3/4 sticks of unsalted butter
1 T. vanilla
2 large eggs

2-1/3 cup flour

1/2 cup white sugar (or pure cane sugar)
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup coarsely chopped (salted) macadamia nuts
1-1/2 (or 2) cups chocolate chips (I highly recommend semi-sweet chips but I suppose you could use milk or white chocolate....)

Important Note:  These instructions are a little out of order for a regular cookie but this is what I found works best with the browned butter types.  So I highly recommend doing it in this order AND having the dough chill in the fridge for at least an hour before baking.

1.  Place the butter (just two tablespoons less than two whole sticks) in a stainless steel saucepan.  It's best not to use a nonstick or dark pan because you need to be able to see when it changes color.  Melt the butter on high for about 2 minutes.  Turn it down to medium high (7-8) and while stirring or swirling watch it change to a dark caramel color.  It takes about 3-5 additional minutes after it has melted.  Once it is browned, pour it into a large heat safe glass or other mixing bowl.  Set aside.
2.  In a separate large mixing bowl combine flour, sugars, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.
3.  Stir the butter and mix in vanilla and eggs until well combined.
4.  Add the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Then add the macadamias and chocolate chips and again just stir until combined.  It will be a dry or tough dough.  It will bake up fine, so don't add anything more! :)
5.  Now I found it really easy to just go ahead and make into the balls for baking at this point and then chill it and be able to just plop on the baking sheets easily.  You could chill it and then form the balls too.  Because the dough is tougher/drier it is likely MUCH easier to do it before it is chilled though and you'll have to get your hands dirty.  Just a warning.  But it's totally worth it.

So I called them dough balls but I made more like discs...They are about 1.5" x .5"
and that worked well for my oven.  So you can do whatever may work for yours. 

6.  Chill, from 1-24 hours.
7.  Preheat oven to 350degrees.
8.  Once the oven is preheated, place chilled cookie balls on a cookie sheet (preferably not an insulated one) and bake for 9 minutes.  Take the cookie sheet out of the oven and let cookies cool on pan for 5 minutes before removing to cooling rack.  This extra time on the sheet will ensure they finish cooking and make them to die for. ;)  (If you bake them like this, they should be slightly chewy and very delicious with a slight crunch.  Every oven is different so you may need to adjust accordingly!)

This is about what color they will be once you remove them from the cookie sheet.

9. Repeat step 8 until the dough is gone, or you could freeze remaining dough balls until you want to bake more.

Makes about 3.5 dozen (or 40) cookies.

These are the perfect mix of savory and sweet just in time for November!

Healthier Cookies (that actually taste good!)

Cookies, redefined.  :)  Yum!

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Healthier Cookies--yes, that actually taste good! :)
1 over ripe banana
1 Egg
1/4 c. Cane sugar (I use Domino Organic Cane Sugar)

1/4 c. Peanut butter

1 t. Vanilla
1/4 t. Salt
1/2 t. Baking Powder
2 T. Flour
1-1/2 c. Quick Oats (or steel cut)
1/3 c. Coconut
1/4 c. to 1/2 c. Semi-Sweet Chocolate chips

In a mixer combine banana, egg and sugar until smooth.  Add peanut butter, vanilla, salt, baking powder and flour and mix thoroughly.  Then mix in oats and coconut until well combined.  Then stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop by spoonfuls and flatten to about 3/8" thick on lined baking sheet.  Bake in 375 degree oven for 7-10 minutes.  Enjoy!  :)

Yield: ~20 cookies

Valentine's Cookies

As you may remember, my hubby's birthday is the day after Valentine's Day.  So, when I went to make treats for him to take to his group meeting at work...I decided to do Valentine's themed ones.  It's been one rough week here...but I wanted to do something special for him and his staff.  So this is what I came up with.  I also found the cutest most gigantic heart sprinkles (edible confetti actually) ever!  :)

What you'll need:
Cookies:
1/2 c. shortening
1 c. Sugar
1/2 t. Salt
1 Egg
1/4 c. Water
1 c. Cocoa, (I did half black onyx and half Hershey)
1 t. Vanilla
1.5 c. Flour
Quick frosting:
1/4 c. Half and Half
2 T. Shortening
2 c. Powdered Sugar
1/2 t. Vanilla
Heart Sprinkles.  The bigger the better!  :)

 For the cookies, just mix together everything and roll out like sugar cookies.  I used a biscuit cutter to cut mine out.  Then bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes each.  Let cool.

 For the frosting whip it all up together until creamy.  If you want it thicker add more sugar, if you want it thinner add more half n half. :)

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Then just frost each cookie and spread the love on top of them with sprinkles!  Simple.  Cute and yummy!

4 ingredient cookies

In the mood for some yummy, yet quick and easy cookies?!?  Look no further!  You only 4 different ingredients and you're on your way to eating these goodies...

1 Betty Crocker Devil's Food Cake Mix (you could use other brand but the proportions would be different...)
3 Eggs
1/4 c. Butter or Crisco, softened in microwave
1 c. Mini marshmallows

Mix ingredients together until well combined.  I recommend blending cake mix, eggs and butter/crisco before adding the marshmallows.  Drop by the spoonful and slightly flatten on baking sheet.  Bake for about 15minutes at 350degrees.  Then enjoy these light fluffy somewhat chewy cookies!  :)

Homemade Oreos

Oreos.  You know, I never really liked store-bought oreos that well.  The "chocolate" cookies never really even tasted like chocolate to me, and the only ones I would eat were double filled. (Which are somehow addictive though....)  Anyway, I had wanted to try my hand at making them at home but couldn't ever get my hands on the special cocoa (Black Onyx) that makes them so super dark!

That is, until I discovered that there is a Savory Spice Shop in Raleigh, NC!  I fell in love with Savory Spice back in CO (where there are a few on the front range) but had NO idea, until this week, that there were any in other states!!!  So, on Wednesday I ventured over to their store and bought some (actually 8 oz.) of Black Onyx Cocoa Powder as well as some other spices and seasoning.  If you haven't ever heard of, or been to a Savory Spice, I highly recommend them!  :)  It's more than just a spice shop, it's a whole experience!  On to the recipe, so you, too can make these delicious sandwich cookies at home! :)

Cookies:
1/2 c. Butter, softened (1 stick)
1 c. Sugar
1/2 t. Salt
1 Egg
1/4 c. Water
1/2 c. Black Onyx Cocoa
1/4 c. Your Favorite Cocoa
1 t. Vanilla
2 c. Flour

Cream Filling:
1/2 c. Shortening
1 T. Cold Water
2 c. Confectioners Sugar
1 T. Vanilla

1.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

2.  Cream together the butter and sugar.

 

 3.  Mix in salt and the egg until well combined.

 4.  Add the cocoas (see the difference in color to regular cocoa and the black onyx?) and mix well.

 5.  Add water and vanilla mixing.

 6.  Add flour and mix until well combined.  It will be pretty dark still.  Yummy. :)

 7.  Place balls (either from a scoop or just make them in your hands) on a lined baking sheet.

 8.  Flatten with something like this above, until they are your desired thickness or about 1/8" thick.  (See pics below for alternate way of making thin cookies. :)

 9.  Bake for about 8-10 minutes.  Check every few minutes to make sure they don't burn.  :)  Cool on cooling rack.

10.  While the cookies are baking you can start on the filling.  First combine shortening and water in your mixer until somewhat fluffy. (like pic below)

 11.  Mix in vanilla and confectioners sugar until creamy and well combined.

 12.  Once cookies are cooled you can start filling them.  Yum.  You should probably taste one just to make sure they are alright at this point.  Or two, or three.   I'm just saying you might want need to.  ;)

 I made some regular (small) ones, medium ones and bigger ones.  Although the bigger ones remind me more of a whoopie pie even though they are crispy....

Remember you can fill them with as much or as little filling as you want too!  :)  Just the way you like 'em! :)  Joys of baking them yourself!  Enjoy!  I found these to be much better than the original.  They taste like chocolate, look super cute and the filling is fantastic!  :)

Here's another (and probably easier/better) way to get thin perfectly matching cookies to sandwich together!  :)

Once the dough is all mixed together, roll it out on a floured surface.

 Then use a small glass (or circular cookie cutter) to cut out perfect little circles.

 Dust off excess flour and peel away the scraps of dough (to roll out later) and place the cookies on a baking sheet.

 Bake as directed above (325 for 8-10 minutes) and let them cool before filling.

Yum!  :)  Even more like the original--but better because they are homemade!  :)

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My Favorite Sugar Cookies

I've never been too big of a fan of sugar cookies to be completely honest.  I've always been a HUGE fan of sugar cookie dough, but just not the baked version.  My Mom makes the best of, well, everything!  So of course I would eat some of hers whenever I had the chance.  But I've never been too big of a fan of any sugar cookies I've made.  I'm not sure if I didn't read the instructions carefully enough, or if I ended up either not baking them enough or over baking them...but they just never have tasted that good to me when I make them.  Until now.  So I will share my findings with you and you can check out my summery, and themed cookies I made today!  :)

I'm still not quite sure what convinced me to bake today though...  Maybe it's partially the fact that I could have just gone outside and cooked anything, probably ever cookies, on the sidewalk.  I don't know about you, but it's been super duper hot here this week!  We've had heat advisories (and I know much of the country has too!) and today alone it had a heat index of 105!  So, yeah...don't really know why I wanted to bake, but we do have AC so I guess that's part of the reason.  I can't really tell the heat unless I'm out in it...so I bake.  :)  And apparently ramble on...  :)  On to the cookies...


Sugar Cookie  (Originally Better Homes and Gardens, tweeked by A Delicious Melody:)
ingredients

• 2/3
  cup butter, softened
• 3/4
  cup sugar
• 1
  teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4
  teaspoon salt
• 2
  egg whites 
• 1
  tablespoon milk
• 1-1/2
  teaspoons lemon extract
• 2
  cups all-purpose flour
  
  
  
  
  1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2.  Beat butter and sugar until well combined.
  3.  Beat in baking powder, salt, egg whites, milk and lemon extract until smooth.
  4.  Carefully add about 1/2 c. of flour at a time mixing in each one, until all the flour has been added.
  5.  Refrigerate to cut out later, or scoop and flatten right away and bake for about 7 minutes each batch.
  Yields about 36 cookies.
  
  
  Cool completely before frosting.
  
  
  Here are the designs I came up with today when frosting them.  :)  I used Royal Icing (actually from a mix...I know that's lazy...but it was convenient...)  and made it regular royal icing for the white parts and then diluted it a tad to be able to mix the colors into as well as just smoothly cover the cookies.  I really like (for the most part) the way they turned out too!!!  :)

  

  What says summer more than little smiling cookie suns?  :)

  
  

  

  I think these would be super cute for a baby shower.
  (And no, that's not a hint here.)

  
  

  

  I can't wait for football season, so even when I iced them pink and lavender they still looked like footballs to me!  :)

  
  

  

  Duke!!!

  
  

  

  UNC Chapel Hill  (Their logo is really hard to do....)

  
  

  

  The faceoff...  Who.  Will.  Win?  ;)

  Hope this gives you some inspiration!  And I really hope you enjoy these cookies as much as we do!  :)

Peanut Cookies

Here's a cookie that's made from peanuts, flour and some other stuff that combines into a great little cookie! 

Peanut Cookies
8 oz. or 1 c. Peanuts (shelled, and preferably roasted)
2 c. Flour
1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Powdered Sugar
1/4 c. Oil
2 Eggs
1/2 t. Baking Soda
Additional sugar

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Place the peanuts into a blender or food processor.  Process until they start looking like peanut butter.

3.  Add baking soda, eggs, oil and sugars and process until combined.

4.  Add flour and process until well combined.

5.  Scoop out by the tablespoonful and place about 2" apart on a cookie sheet.

6.  Sprinkle with sugar and do the criss-cross fork imprint, if desired.  :)

7.  Bake for 7-9 minutes.

Enjoy!  :)