Chocolate Chip Cookies Revisited

Last March, I posted a delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe.  And while it is delicious, we've been able to improve upon it just a little bit based on some recommendations by one of Sumiko's friends from church, along with some of our own experience.  The recipe is almost exactly the same, but the technique has changed a bit.

Chocolate Chip Cookies 2
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter (real butter), softened
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl (I use my KitchenAid mixer, but you can also use a hand mixer), cream butter until pale yellow and shiny.  Add shortening and beat until combined.

Add sugar; mix until well-combined.  Add brown sugar and mix well.

The brown sugar should be packed tight enough that it
holds its shape once you take it out of the measuring cup.

After the sugars have been mixed into the butter.

Add vanilla and egg; mix well.  Add the flour mixture all at once, mixing until almost (but not completely) combined.  Add chocolate chips; mix just until they're evenly distributed and the flour has been incorporated.  Do not overmix.  I like cookies to be thick, so I've found that in order to get thick, chewy cookies, you first of all, need to make sure the butter isn't too soft.  The second thing is to scoop the cookie dough balls and then freeze or refrigerate them for at least several hours (see tips for freezing below).  I usually make the dough at least a day ahead.  Bake straight out of the refrigerator or freezer for 10-12 minutes, or until cookies are light brown.  Cool 1 to 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

This is when you want to add the chocolate chips.

In this batch, I used half chocolate chips and half M&Ms.

Tips for freezing:

• Scoop the dough into balls.  Place dough balls on a cookie sheet and freeze for 15-20 minutes or until dough balls begin to harden.  Place dough balls in a zip-top bag and freeze.  When you're ready for some fresh cookies, simply pull the desired amount of dough balls out of the freezer and place them on your cookie sheet.  You can bake them frozen, but add a little time to the bake time. 
• You can also freeze baked cookies.  Simply bake as instructed, wrap cookies or place in zip-top bag and freeze.

Snickerdoodles

I have to apologize for the lack of healthy recipes (or even recipes that can be served for dinner, for that matter) from me recently.  I seem to be going through a lull in inspiration, but I always have plenty of dessert ideas, so here you go!  And since it's Christmas, which is cookie baking time, I think I can get away with this one.  :)  These Snickerdoodles are so yummy!  They stay nice and soft and chewy!  The funny thing about Snickerdoodles is that the cookies themselves really aren't that good.  But then you roll them in cinnamon sugar, and they transform into addictive little morsels!

Snickerdoodles
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sugar plus 1 Tbsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.

Cream butter in a large mixing bowl; add sugar and beat well.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined.  Gradually add dry ingredients and mix until a dough is formed.  Roll the dough into 1-inch balls then roll in cinnamon sugar.

Place the balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 8-10 minutes until cookies are crinkly, but soft.  Remove to racks to cool.  Sorry that I don't have a picture of the finished product!  Next time I make these, I'll be sure to post a picture!

The dough can be frozen for later use.  Once they're rolled in the cinnamon sugar, place them on a cookie sheet in the freezer until they're firm, then place in a zip top bag and freeze.

Gluten-free Peanut Butter Cookies

These are some of the easiest cookies you'll ever make (and probably one of the easiest recipes to memorize, too!)!  The reason: there are only THREE ingredients in them.  Take a minute.  I'll let you try to guess what they are.  Got it?  When I told my husband there were only three ingredients in them, he couldn't figure out what the three ingredients were, and once I told him what the three were, he didn't believe me....until I made another batch so he could see (hmmm...was this just a clever ploy on his part to get an extra batch of cookies????).  From the title of this post, you can probably guess one typical cookie ingredient that ISN'T in these cookies.  My parents were visiting last week and I had a batch of these cookies.  We used to make them as kids, but had totally forgotten about the recipe so my mom asked for it.  Here you go, mom!

Three-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, combine the peanut butter, sugar, and egg; mix well.  Roll dough into approximately 1-inch balls.  Place on cookie sheet and flatten each ball with the prongs of a fork.

Bake for 8-10 minutes.  They took a few minutes longer in my oven, so just keep an eye on them.  Allow to cool a couple minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Sorry, I would have a picture of them plated nicely, but they didn't last long enough!!!  I would also like to have a picture of a baked one broken, so you can see that, yes, these actually do have the texture and consistency of a normal cookie!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies

Last week, I was sorting some old recipes I had and came across a cookie recipe that looked interesting.  It called for a tube of cookie dough with other ingredients added so that it's no longer a sugar cookie.  I decided to try it out and was very pleased with the outcome!  I used this recipe for the dough, but didn't refrigerate it, since I needed it to be soft.  I have to apologize because I neglected to take a picture of the finished product, but next time I make these, I'll be sure to take a picture and add it.  I will tell you, though, that the cookies don't really spread out much as they bake, so they end up being almost the same shape when they come out of the oven as when they went in.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies
2 cups sugar cookie dough (or an 18 oz tube sugar cookie dough), unbaked and softened
1/3 cup peanut butter (I used creamy, but chunky would be fine, too)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup M&M's
1/2 cup quick oats

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine sugar cookie dough, peanut butter, chocolate chips, M&M's, and oats in a large bowl. 

My 2-year-old was excited that she could help me make these cookies!

Scoop rounded tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. 

Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until cookies are a light golden brown.  Remove from oven and cool on cooling racks.

As I've mentioned before, to keep the cost down, wait for M&M's to go on clearance (i.e. after Halloween, Christmas, or Easter) and stock up.  Additionally, if you make your own sugar cookie dough, as opposed to buying pre-made dough, you'll also save money.  The sugar cookie recipe listed on this site makes enough for two batches of these cookies.  Each batch may not have 2 cups of dough exactly, but if you cut the dough in half, it will be close enough.

Tagalongs and Teasers

It's that time of year.  You cookie lovers know what I'm talking about.  The time of year when the Girl Scouts are out selling those yummy cookies.  I do enjoy Girl Scout cookies, but there's really no room in our budget for them.  My favorites are the thin mints and tagalongs, so I was super excited when I came across a recipe to make Tagalongs at home!  These are a bit time-consuming, but to me it's worth it for a special treat (especially since I find baking to be really relaxing and fun).

Just as a disclaimer, I'm not in any way posting this recipe to discourage people from buying Girl Scout cookies.  I'm just posting it because it's a delicious recipe and not all of us can afford to buy boxes of cookies....and Girl Scout cookies are only available once a year, so these can help get you through from one year to the next!

Tagalongs
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Scant 1/2 tsp salt (that means slightly less than 1/2 tsp)
3 cups flour
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
4 cups chocolate chips
1/2 - 1 Tbsp shortening

In the bowl of a mixer, cream butter until smooth; add sugar and cream well.  Add vanilla and egg; mix until smooth.  With the mixer on low, add the flour and salt, mixing until all the flour is incorporated and the dough is uniform.

Shape the dough into a long roll, about 2-3 inches in diameter and wrap in wax paper.  Freeze for 30 minutes or refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

I put it in the wax paper and just worked it until I got a long cylinder (see below).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Remove dough from freezer or refrigerator.  Slice the dough into 1/8-inch-thick discs.

Place about 1/2-inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8 to 12 minutes, or until cookies are baked through.  Place on a cooling rack until completely cool.

Mix peanut butter and powdered sugar.

I found that the best way to mix it was to use my hands.  I started out with a spoon, then used my hands once it wasn't so sticky.

Press a small amount of the peanut butter mixture onto each baked and cooled cookie.  I found that the easiest way to do this was to roll the peanut butter mixture into a ball, place it on the cookie, and carefully work it out to the edges with my fingers.

Melt chocolate and shortening; adjusting shortening to reach desired consistency (more shortening=thin chocolate; less shortening=thick chocolate).  Carefully dip each cookie into the chocolate.  Allow excess chocolate to drip off, then place on wax paper to harden.  You can speed up this process by putting them in the refrigerator or freezer.

That takes care of the Tagalongs part.  Now for the teaser.  Come back tomorrow for a special Thursday post regarding some exciting news!!!  You won't want to miss it!

Basic, But Oh-So-Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's been a while since we've posted any dessert recipes, so I decided it was time to add some more sweetness into our blog (plus I had a craving for cookies).  I love them, but only make them if I have someone to whom I can give them.  You see, self-control is a struggle for me, especially when sugar and chocolate are involved.  Thankfully my husband's coworkers are big fans of baked goods and I can bake, save one or two cookies for me (not including the dough I eat while baking - but, shhhhhh, don't tell anyone), then send them to work with him! 

I have tried so many different recipes for chocolate chip cookies, but was often disappointed.  I found one that I liked, but decided to continue my quest for the perfect recipe.  Again, nothing but a lot of disappointment, so I returned to my old recipe and I'm glad I did.  Lots of compliments from the hubby's coworkers!  So, here's my favorite recipe (for now) for the classic chocolate chip cookie.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened (has to be real butter!)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl (I use my KitchenAid mixer, but you can also use a hand mixer), cream butter until pale yellow and shiny.

Add sugar; mix until well-combined.  Add brown sugar and mix well.

The brown sugar should be packed tight enough that it holds its shape once you take it out of the measuring cup.

After the sugars have been mixed into the butter.

Add vanilla* and egg; mix well.  Add the flour mixture in 2 to 3 increments, mixing until almost combined after each addition.  Once all the flour mixture has been added, make sure dough is well mixed.  Add chocolate chips; mix until evenly distributed.

Drop dough onto ungreased cookie sheet by rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart.  You can use a cookie scoop or just a regular spoon (cookie scoops are convenient, but mine's broken, so I just used a regular spoon).

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are light brown.  Allow to cool 1 to 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely (if they last that long!).

These actually weren't quite done, but I didn't get any other pictures.  You'll want to bake them until they're a little darker than this, but not much darker.

Cookies are easy to make ahead of time and freeze.  There are two ways to freeze cookies.

1. Bake cookies; place in zip top bag and freeze.
2. Scoop the dough into balls.  Place dough balls on a cookie sheet and freeze for 10-15 minutes or until dough balls begin to harden.  Place dough balls in a zip top bag and freeze.  When you're ready for some fresh cookies, simply pull the desired amount of dough balls out of the freezer and place them on your cookie sheet.  You can bake them frozen, but add a little time to the bake time. 

*I usually measure the vanilla over my mixing bowl (a baking no-no) and "accidentally" spill the vanilla when I'm measuring, so I actually end up with a little more than 1 teaspoon.

Cookie Decorating

A few months back, I mentioned I would write about cookie decorating.  Since Christmas is this week, I decided it would be appropriate to do it now.  I tried a few methods of cookie decorating - some successful, some not.  Making, cutting, baking, and decorating sugar cookies is a rather time-consuming endeavor, but if you have someone to do it with, it can be a lot of fun!  Thanks to my friend, Jenny, who helped me decorate some of these!!!

Let's start with two methods of decorating the cookies before they're baked.



Colored Sugar Crystals: This is the easiest and quickest method of cookie decorating, as it doesn't involve cutting out cookies.  Instead, you simply scoop the cookies (like you would chocolate chip cookies) or roll the dough into balls, then roll the top of the cookies in colored sugar.  Bake as directed.

To get a multi-colored cookie, simply mix your colors in a bowl before you dip the cookie.

Painting: Before making my cookies, I did a bit of research online to look for different decorating methods.  One that stood out to me was painting the cookies before they were baked.  To do this, simply mix an egg yolk with some food coloring (I used food dye).  Instead of using a whole yolk for each color, I used half a yolk for each color.  I painted a few cookies, then stuck them in the oven.  Some turned out ok, but the painting on many of them ended up cracking when the cookies spread and rose in the oven.

My "paints" - egg yolk and food dye.

For this one, I used straight dye (no egg yolk) and just painted it right on.

The cookies painted and ready to be baked.

I used a fan brush for this one.

The fan brush ended up working out well as the "paint" split when the cookie rose and spread in the oven.  It gives it a nice texture for a tree.

The cracking doesn't work so well for this one.  Oh well, I tried!

Since this one didn't have "paint" covering the whole thing, it worked well.

The candy cane also came out ok.

Now on to the most common form of sugar cookie decorating: royal icing after baking.

Royal Icing: The cookies I decorated for my daughter's birthday party were decorated with royal icing which dries hard.  At that time, I didn't have a "go-to" recipe, so I just pulled one of the internet from a pretty reputable site.  However, I was very unhappy with the results and had to tweak it quite a bit to get it just the way I wanted it.  So after seeing The Pioneer Woman's post on cookie decorating, I decided to try Bake at 350's royal icing recipe.  I'm glad I did, because it worked beautifully!  A note on the icing recipe.  It calls for meringue powder, which is a substitute for raw egg whites.  I would recommend using meringue powder instead of raw egg whites especially if you'll be giving these to other people just to be safe!  Meringue powder can be purchased online or at craft stores such as Michaels.

• Spreading: You can spread icing or frosting on cookies with a knife.  
• Piping: You can do specific details by piping the icing onto your cookies.  We outlined our cookies with piping then flooded the inside.  You'll want the icing to be thick when you're piping it.  The nice this about this method is that even if your cookies lose their shape while baking, you can redefine the shape with piped icing.

• Flooding: Flooding is a method that allows you to fill in the cookie, giving the icing a smooth appearance.  You use the same icing as you do for piping, but you add water to it to thin it out.  Put a little on the cookie (inside the piped "frame") and spread using a toothpick, until the whole cookie (or the part you want iced) is covered.

• Embellisments: You can easily embellish your cookies by adding designs, writing, dots, stripes, sprinkles, edible glitter, or any other cookie decorations that you desire. 

Immediately after I flooded this cookie with white, I took some watered down black icing and added the face and buttons.  The result is icing that is flat all of the way across the cookie (i.e. the black dots are not raised).  You can also wait until your flooded icing dries, then pipe thick icing on top of it.

These bottles are great tools for adding embellishments (lines, dots, etc.) to the cookies.  You don't need these, but they make precise embellishments much easier.

To make the swirl effect, I put strips of red and green in the white, then ran a toothpick through them.

The internet is a great place to find cookie ideas and designs. I found so many cute cookie decorating ideas online and if I had planned ahead and given myself enough time, I would have done some more interesting cookies.  For example, I've been seeing these adorable melting snowman cookies all over the web!  These reindeer are also adorable!  As you can see, your possibilities are endless!  Your cookie is a blank canvass on which you can portray your creativity!