Intense Chocolate Fudge Cookies

If a cookie is going to have a chocolate dough, it must have melted chocolate in the dough not cocoa powder! Well the chocolate marble chunk cookies I made with cocoa powder were good but maybe because the cookie was half chocolate dough, half regular cookie dough. I realized yesterday when I was reaching to use the cocoa powder, that I rarely ever use it. But now I'm also remembering the chocolate cake that I made that used only cocoa powder and how amazing that was.

I made these quite a while ago actually when I had this intense chocolate craving - and they definitely satisfy a chocolate craving and a half. I found them to be really sweet, with a fudgey middle and brownie-like edges. Tish Boyle (the author) suggests that you take the cookies out when the centers are not completely set, to get that fudgey middle - but personally I think I'd be happier cooking them a bit longer for a more brownie like texture. I substituted some of the bittersweet chocolate for semisweet which I'm sure accounted for the cookies being too sweet. You could probably even reduce the amount of sugar a bit.

I still really want to try out Martha's outrageous chocolate cookies. And I really want to try out this style of super chocolate cookie with espresso, like this one.

Other delicious chocolate things I've made:
Dulce de Leche Brownies
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Scones
Chocolate Orbit Cake
Chocolate Pots de Crème

Intense Chocolate Fudge Cookies (aka Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies*)
The Good Cookie

Makes about 36 cookies

1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
14 oz bittersweet chocolate
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder; set aside.

2. Chop 6 ounces of chocolate into pieces between 1/4 and 1/2 inch squares; set aside.

3. Coarsely chop the remaining 8 ounces chocolate and place in the top of a double boiler with the butter. Melt the chocolate and butter over barely simmering water, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat; separate the top of the pan from the bottom and let the chocolate mixture cool for 10 minutes.

4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment, beat the eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla extract at high speed until doubled in volume, about 3 minutes. At low sped, blend in the melted chocolate mixture. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the reserved chopped chocolate and the walnuts; the dough will be thin. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or up to 24 hours).

5. Position two oven racks near the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Prepare two baking sheets.

6. Drop the chilled dough by rounded tablespoons, 2 inches apart, onto the baking sheets. Moisten your palm to prevent sticking, and flatten each mound of dough slightly. Bake the cookies, two sheets at a time, for 9 to 11 minutes, until the cookie appear set; switch the position of the baking sheets halfway through baking. Do not overbake, or the cookies will be dry; the centers should not be completely set. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer them to wire racks to cool completely.

*I renamed these cookies to be more descriptive of what they actually are (the original name is chocolate chocolate chip cookies, if you're interested).

Banana Nut Shortbread

I love shortbread. Like really love shortbread. Maybe because I grew up with my mom and grandma making it, or maybe because yes it's just that delicious. My mom has always made it at Christmas, and my grandma's shortbread is one everyone fights over (I still need to try out her recipe). Their shortbreads are quite different though, with my mom's being light, extremely crumbly and topped with half of a maraschino cherry, and my grandma's being covered in sugar and more sturdy. Both are yummy.

I was really curious to try out this recipe, wondering if it would be anything like shortbread since there's half of a banana in it. Impressively it was quite like shortbread in texture, but it didn't have a strong banana taste. There was way too much nutmeg, so I recommend halving it which is reflected in the recipe below. And it was easy to roll out (a huge plus in my books).

I really loved trying this recipe out, but I doubt I'll make it again because the flavour just didn't do it for me (maybe it was the extreme nutmeg). So why am I posting it? Well it's worth trying if you're an adventurous shortbread lover, or just looking for something different. And if you're fancy, you can add dried banana chips, walnut halves and/or maple icing to these. The Better Homes & Gardens Christmas Cookies magazine has a few different shortbread recipes, and I can't wait to try out the other ones - carrot cake, peanut butter candy, and strawberry.

Other cookies I've made:
Earl Grey Tea or Matcha Shortbread
Chocolate Oatmeal Coconut Cookies
Russian Tea Cakes (Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies)
Strawberry Shortbread Cookie Bark

Banana Nut Shortbread
Better Homes & Gardens Christmas Cookies 2007

Makes 32 (If you can roll the dough out properly, which apparently I can't so it made 36 for me)

1 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup mashed ripe banana (1/2 medium banana)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg*
2/3 cup finely chopped toasted walnuts

Beat butter, banana, and vanilla in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours or freeze about 20 minutes until firm.

Preheat the oven to 300F. Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg ni a large bowl. Cut in butter mixture using a pastry blender until mixture resembles fine crumbs and starts to cling together. Add chopped nuts. Knead dough until smooth; form dough into a ball. Divide dough in half.

Roll each dough portion into an 8 inch x 6 inch (20cmx15cm) rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Cut each rectangle into sixteen 2 x 1 1/2-inch rectangles. Place rectangles 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake in preheated oven about 30 minutes or just until bottoms begin to brown. Transfer cookies to wire racks and let cool.

*The original recipe calls for 1/2 tsp, which I used but I thought it was too much so next time I'd recommend 1/4 tsp or even 1/8 tsp unless you are a huge nutmeg lover.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies & Toblerone Cookies

These cookies may just take the chocolate chip cookie champion title from the Neiman Marcus cookies. I was really happy with how soft they were, and how they were a bit chewy with slightly crispy edges. The taste of the actual dough was good but I'll try adding a bit more vanilla next time to see if that can make the cookies even better.

I made the white chocolate macadamia nut cookies as a request from my mom, and decided to do half of the batch as Toblerone cookies. The Toblerone cookies were definitely more addictive than I could've expected. Unfortunately I didn't add enough Toblerone, and the Toblerone I used was a limited time one (milk chocolate with white chocolate caps). I also learned that raw macadamia nuts do not taste good! At least not the ones I had. And that they really must be toasted before being used in these cookies.

9 days and 5 exams until I'm free to go on a baking spree!

Other chocolate cookies I've made:
Chocolate Oatmeal Coconut Cookies
Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies
Chocolate Marble Chunk Cookies

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies & Toblerone Cookies*
Adapted from Tyler Florence (from Bon Appetit Dec 2006)

3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract**
1 1/2 cups white chocolate, chopped (about 8 1/2 ounces)
1 cup coarsely chopped roasted macadamia nuts (about 4 1/2 ounces)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift first 3 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add both sugars and beat until blended. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla. Add dry ingredients and beat just until blended. Using spatula, stir in white chocolate chips, and nuts.

For large cookies, drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets, spacing 21/2 inches apart. For small cookies, drop dough by level tablespoonfuls onto sheets, spacing 11/2 inches apart.

Bake cookies until just golden, about 18 minutes for large cookies and about 15 minutes for small cookies***. Cool on sheets.

*Note: To make Toblerone cookies, replace white chocolate and macadamia nuts with chopped Toblerone bars.

**I'm going to try 2 tbsp next time.
***I underbaked them a bit, baking large size cookies for 13 to 14 minutes.

Chocolate Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

There's this place that sells cookies at a university here (Blue Chip Cookies for those of you in the Vancouver area) that are so insanely delicious. Since I didn't go to that university (my university didn't offer anything so tasty) I've only had these cookies a few times, but my two favourite kinds are the "marbelous" (chocolate dough with chocolate and white chocolate chunks) and coconut oat. The coconut oat is this thin buttery super coconuty delicious creation that's somewhere between soft/chewy and maybe a little bit crispy.

A month or so ago I came across these chocolate oatmeal coconut cookies on Deborah's blog who found them on This Week for Dinner. Once I saw them and read the combination of coconut and oats, I hoped hoped hoped that these might just be similar to the wondrous Blue Chip coconut oat cookies. I made them shortly after finding the recipe (which is actually kind of rare, as I'm sure many of you can relate to - saving recipes that you find on blogs that you want to make soon but then not getting around to it until much later if at all).

Well I am extremely happy to say that these cookies did not disappoint! I was ecstatic about how well they turned out. Especially fresh from the oven, all warm and soft with a bit of a crispy edge. These were it! Cookie bliss. The only problem was that I thought I'd prefer them crispy so I started to bake them a bit longer, but the next day they became really quite hard and only a bit chewy. So next time I won't bake them as long. And while the chocolate chips in them were good, I'll make them without next time so I can enjoy my perfect buttery coconut oat cookie. The photos really don't do them justice! And the chocolate chips look really weird.

If this sounds good, you might like:
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Carrot Coconut Cake
Chocolate Marble Chunk Cookies
Coconut Cream Pie

Chocolate Oatmeal Coconut Cookies
Barbara Boczany & This Week for Dinner

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
6 tbsp sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup flour
2 1/4 cups oats
1 1/2 cups dried unsweetened shredded coconut
12 oz (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Beat butter and sugars at high speed until fluffy. Add eggs and beat till blended. Beat in vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Add flour and mix at low speed until blended. Stir in oats, coconut and chocolate.

Arrange 1/4 cup mounds about 3 inches apart on large buttered baking sheets. Pat down to 1/2 inch. Bake in upper oven, rotating occasionally, 15-18 minutes. Cool one minute. Transfer to cooling rack.

Lime Sugar Cookies

I first saw these lime sugar cookies through Patricia of Technicolor Kitchen who changed the recipe from Pinch My Salt to lime instead of lemon sugar cookies. And what a delicious recipe it is. These cookies were very soft, with slightly crispy edges. I'm used to hard sugar cookies, but I must say that while hard ones can be delicious, these ones are a welcome addition to my cookie repertoire. I'm not sure what happened to mine around the edges as they looked kind of cracked - and the middles of my cookies look deflated. Maybe I beat too much air into the batter? Anyway, I'd like more lime flavour so next time I'll add more (and maybe white chocolate? mmm). I'm not sure what happened with my photos of these cookies as most of them are kind of pink so unfortunately this is the only photo I've got!

Giant Lime (or Lemon) Sugar Cookies
Pinch My Salt

Yield: 24 giant cookies

1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp lime zest (from 2 limes)

Remaining lime zest from the 2 limes
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 3/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda

Prepare lemon sugar: In a mini food processor, blend 1/2 cup sugar with 1 tsp lemon zest*. Pulse several times until the lemon zest is incorporated into the sugar. Put sugar mixture in a shallow bowl and stir lightly with a fork to break up any clumps. Set aside.

Prepare cookie dough: In a medium bowl, stir together flour, salt, cream of tartar and baking soda. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and remaining 1 1/2 cup sugar. Blend in eggs, one at a time then add vanilla, lemon juice, and remaining lemon zest. Add flour mixture, one cup at a time, blending well after each addition, until all flour is incorporated.

Refrigerate dough for one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Shape the cookies: Using a jumbo cookie scoop or your hands, shape two tablespoonfuls of dough into a ball and roll in lemon sugar. Place ball of dough on cookie sheet and press down lightly with the bottom of a glass until cookie is about 1/2 inch thick. Repeat. Six cookies will fit on one 18" x 13" baking sheet.

Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.

*I ground the sugar too fine so don't be overzealous like me. Or if you can't stop yourself from being overzealous, use coarse sugar.

Caramel Almond Tiger Cookies

Here's my second cookie that I made out of Tish Boyle's The Good Cookie. I made this before going back to school, and chose it partly because I knew it might be finicky and would require a lot of time. On a morning that I had all to myself, I put these cookies together.

For me these weren't as tasty as the chocolate marble chunk cookies that I made from the same cookbook, but I think that's more my fault than anything. I don't have a lot of experience making caramel, and I let it go for just a few seconds too long. The colour turned dark so quickly! And my caramel tasted kind of burnt, or you could say it tasted like "creme brulee" to put a positive spin on it. I think I put too much caramel in between the cookies because the tops kept slowly sliding off. I, of course, kept trying to push them back into place - a futile effort. These were seriously gooey cookies!

The cookie is like an almond shortbread, and I thought it tasted okay but not awesome. Actually I thought it had kind of a weird taste, maybe due to the ground up almonds, or maybe it was just in my head. I found the dough difficult to roll out, but then I need a lot more practice rolling out all kinds of dough so maybe it's just me. Rolling out shortbread-like dough just seems like you're asking for stress and crumbles! I was happy that I challenged myself to make a different and more complicated cookie, but if I were to make it again I would use a different shortbread recipe, and definitely watch my caramel very closely!

Other cookies I've made:
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (the ones that convinced me to like oatmeal cookies)
Snickerdoodles
Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies
Earl Grey Tea Shortbread

Caramel Almond Tiger Cookies
The Good Cookie

Makes about 44 sandwich cookies.*

Almond Cookies
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 all cups all-purpose flour, divided into 1/4 cup + 1 1/4 cups
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract**

Caramel Filling
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons water
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter

1. Place the almonds and 1/4 cup of the flour in the bowl of a food processor and process until the almonds are finely ground, about 45 seconds. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and stir in the remaining 1 1/4 cups flour, the cornstarch, and salt. Set aside.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars at medium-high speed until light in texture, about 2 minutes. Beat in the almond extract. At low speed, gradually add the flour mixture, mixing just until combined. Scrape the dough onto a work surface and shape it into a disk. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until firm enough to handle (or up to 2 days).***

3. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F.

4. On a lightly floured work surface, using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/8 inch, sprinkling it lightly with flour as needed to prevent sticking. Using a 1 1/2 inch fluted round cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as possible from the dough. Using a 3/4 inch round cookie cutter, or the tip of a 3/4 inch plain pastry tip, cut out the center of half of the cookies (these cookies will be the tops). Reroll the scraps, chilling the dough for 10 minutes if necessary, and cut out more cookies. Cut out the centers of half of these. Transfer the cookies to ungreased baking sheets, spacing them 1/2 inch apart. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time, for 10 to 12 minutes, or until just barely beginning to color at the edges. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.

5. In a small heavy saucepan, combine the sugar and water and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to high and cook, without stirring and occasionally brushing down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush, until the syrup caramelizes and turns a golden amber color, about 4 minutes.**** Remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the heavy cream (the mixture will bubble up), stirring until smooth. Stir in the butter and salt until the butter is melted. Let the caramel filling cool for 20 minutes, or until it has thickened enough to spread.

6. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil or waxed paper. Spread a scant teaspoon of the caramel filling over the bottom of each whole cookie. Top each with a cut-out cookie, and place the filled cookies on the lined sheet. Place the saucepan of caramel over low heat and heat, stirring constantly, until it is thin enough to drizzle. Using a spoon, lightly drizzle the tops of the cookies with parallel lines of caramel.

*For me it made 19 5.5cm diameter cookies.
**I used vanilla.
***I found it easier to let the dough warm a bit before I started to roll it. But then I'm not really awesome at rolling out dough so maybe you shouldn't listen to me!
****Watch very closely! You don't want burnt caramel.

Chocolate Marble Chunk Cookies

One of the yummy cookbooks I got for Christmas was Tish Boyle's The Good Cookie. Over 250 cookie recipes, how could I resist? I went through and picked 3 cookies to start with but only ended up making 2, this being one of them, the other being caramel-almond tiger cookies that I'll be posting about soon and you can see in the blurry background.

Usually I'm not really a fan of chocolate dough cookies, except I've really fallen for the Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies (which use actual chocolate in the dough instead of cocoa powder). And I also usually don't like nuts in my cookies, so I'm not sure what drew me to this recipe that uses cocoa powder and pecans. I was really happy with how they turned out though. Very chocolatey. This cookie seems to benefit from using chocolate chunks instead of chocolate chips, and was the perfect excuse for me to use up the last of my Callebaut chocolate (which was quite possibly one of the reasons I loved these cookies.) And the pecans added the perfect bit of crunch and something special.

I love how cute these cookies are (not traditionally cute no but to me they are!) and I loved how they were soft throughout and stayed soft for days. They also freeze really well. And I have now begun my love affair with pecans. Okay so I've only made 2 baked goods with pecans so far (I added them to a muffin) but I predict good things in our future. Butter pecan biscuits from Dorie's book for one, and also pecan pie cookies.

Chocolate Marble Chunk Cookies
Adapted from The Good Cookie

Makes about 34 3-inch cookies or 55-60 small cookies.

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/4 cup dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted*
12 ounces bittersweet or semisweet bar chocolate, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup pecan pieces

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375F.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars at medium-high speed until light, about 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla extract and eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of th ebowl as necessary. At low speed, add the flour mixture, mixing just until blended.

4. Transfer 1 3/4 cups** of the dough to another bowl and set aside. Add the cocoa powder to the dough remaining in the mixer bowl and mix on low speed until blended. Add half of the chocolate and half of the pecans and mix unitl well blended. Stir the remaining chocolate and pecans into the light coloured dough.

5. Fill one side of a measuring spoon*** with the light dough, making it well rounded, not level. Fill the remaining half with chocolate dough. Roll the dough into a bowl and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Moisten your palm to prevent sticking, and flatten the dough into a 1 1/2 inch disk. Repeat the remaining dough, spacing the cookies 2 inches apart. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the lighter dough just begins to color. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

*I used regular cocoa.
**Don't be like me and put less than 1 3/4 cups because it looks like too much. You'll end up with more chocolate dough, which was actually quite tasty on its own.
***I used a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop but the recipe recommends a 1 tablespoon scoop.

Gingerbread Cookies

There are two main purposes of this post, though one of the intended ones is not to give you a delicious gingerbread cookie recipe. I'd love it if someone did like the recipe. And I promise this is the last Christmas cookie post!

1. To make you feel good about your cookie decorating skills. I used the "Scribblers" icing pen things and they were not so easy to work with but still.

2. To give you a very molasses-y gingerbread recipe to compare against other gingerbread recipes before deciding whether it's one you want to make or not. If it has as much molasses as this one and you're not a molasses fan, then you'll know to look elsewhere.

I went to an old Betty Crocker cookbook thinking that I might find the perfect gingerbread recipe but no. I tried to cut the molasses flavour by dipping the top part of the cookie in white chocolate. It definitely helped but wasn't quite enough. For the past couple of years I've given out gingerbread cookies as part of the cookie package, but this will definitely be the last year. Gingerbread is one of those unloved cookies but I vow to find a delicious recipe! I know it's out there.

I love the soft chewy ginger molasses cookies (especially the Starbucks ones). I love storebought gingersnaps. But I just need to find good ginger cookie recipes to make at home. I'd like to find one good soft chewy ginger cookie (this one at Baking Bites being a possible contender) and a nice crisp but kind of mild cookie that's gingerbread-meets-sugar-cookie.

Since I don't think that this gingerbread recipe is awesome (but I think you molasses lovers will!), here are some links to delicious treats I've seen at other blogs recently and want to make!
-Cinnamon Apple Scones at Bake or Break
-Peppermint Cookies n' Cream Brownies at Baking Bites
-Lemony Meyer Lemon Curd at Figs with Bri
-Gooey Caramel Bars at Taste and Tell
-Half Whole Wheat Baked Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts at Gigi Cakes (originally from 101 Cookbooks)

Gingerbread Cookies
Betty Crocker's Cookbook (1976)
slightly modified (to replace shortening for butter)

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice

Cream butter and sugar. Blend in molasses, water, flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. Cover; chill 2 to 3 hours.

Heat oven to 375F. Roll dough 1/4 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut with cookie cutter; place on ungreased baking sheet.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Immediately remove from baking sheet. Cool.

Chocolate Candy Cane Bark Cookies

These were my favourite goodie I baked this Christmas. Inspired by Heidi at 101 Cookbooks, I took the most delicious Neiman Marcus cookie recipe, made my own candy cane bark, broke it up and added that to the dough instead of chocolate chips. (And on a sidenote, I really want to try out Heidi's chocolate chip cookie recipe that uses only whole wheat pastry flour - same link!) I was really paranoid about giving out this cookie to friends because I knew it wasn't the kind of cookie that was made to last for a week before eating. I couldn't hold back from telling some of my friends to make sure they ate that one first!

When I first tried the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe, I wasn't sure if it was everything I was looking for in a chocolate chip cookie. But I keep going back to it and trying different add ins, and I love the cookies every time so something must be good! One of the friends I gave this cookie to said she really liked it, partly because the candy cane pieces on the bottom of the cookie caramelized. I wasn't sure how I would like candy pieces in a cookie (I thought they'd annoyingly get stuck in my teeth while I was enjoying the cookie) but I crushed the candy cane up fairly fine and there were on mishaps.

The bark was really easy to make and addictive, especially since I used Callebaut chocolate. Yum yum. This is a very loose and easy to modify recipe for chocolate candy cane bark. Just do equal amounts of milk chocolate and white chocolate, and sprinkle however many candy cane pieces that you think looks good on top.

I think that actually sums up my Christmas baking posts. I made eggnog bars and strawberry shortbread cookie bark for just general eating at home. To give away, I made these chocolate candy cane bark cookies, peanut butter fudge, earl grey shortbread, snickerdoodles (which held up surprisingly well and didn't dry out too much), and gingerbread. I was really happy with how everything turned out, except for the gingerbread. Why I keep inflicting super molasses-y gingerbread on people at Christmas, I don't know. I'll probably be posting about that cookie soon.

Candy Cane Bark

Makes about 2 cups of candy cane bark pieces, or just a bunch of bark to eat.

1/2 lb milk chocolate
1/2 lb white chocolate
10 mini candy canes, crushed

Melt milk chocolate in a double boiler. Spread evenly on a parchment paper lined baking sheet (about 0.5 cm thick - you could make it thinner or thicker based on your preference though.) Allow to cool completely. Melt white chocolate in a double boiler. Spread evenly on the milk chocolate layer (try to work quickly as the hot white chocolate will start to melt the milk chocolate - this could probably be minimized by freezing the milk chocolate first?) Immediately after you finish the white chocolate layer, evenly sprinkle on the candy cane pieces. Put the baking sheet in the freezer until very firm. Break into whatever size pieces you want, or chop it up.

Strawberry Shortbread Cookie Bark

Alright I'm finally starting the Christmas cookie posts! Yes unfortunately they're a bit late but delicious cookies are always wanted right?

These cookies were made specifically for my boyfriend. I, for some reason, have been anti-jam in or on things (except peanut butter & jam sandwiches) for quite a while. Jam on cookies or in baked goods was an especially atrocious act. Thumbprint cookies were the epitome of baked goods I did not want to eat or make. Last year I made thumbprint cookies with my friend but we didn't put any jam. But I thought they'd be something my boyfriend would really enjoy so I told him I'd make them for him this Christmas. (This story ends with me accepting jam in and on baked goods and enjoying the jam on this cookie.)

I used the same recipe that I used the first time from a Martha Stewart cookie magazine, omitting the nuts. But for some reason, this time the dough was really crumbly. There was no way I'd be able to roll it into a ball and not have it fall apart when I made a thumbprint in it. I have no idea what went wrong since they were so easy to make the last time. I thought I might have measured the flour with the wrong measuring cup but I don't think I did. Anyway, I decided to make it easy on myself and just press the dough into a pan and bake it, then spread it with strawberry jam and make a mess of white chocolate on top of that. The white chocolate didn't drizzle as I'd wanted it to (I added a bit of butter) but ah well.

It actually turned out quite tasty! And I was happy that I was able do something creative about my mistake. My mom was really addicted to it and told me I wasn't allowed to give any of it away. I was really happy with how the cookie turned out. Kind of shortbread-y. And I even liked the jam on it. I initially tried to cut the giant cookie into pieces but realized that wasn't going to work. My boyfriend then came up with the name cookie bark for it, so we broke it into pieces and that was that.

I really want to try making jam thumbprint cookies again, hopefully successfuly! I've also seen a pistachio thumbprint recipe that has white chocolate ganache instead of jam that I want to make (The Good Cookie) and chocolate strawberry thumbprints. Try making these thumbprint cookies, either the original way or as a bar (much easier but not as cute)!

Thumbprint Cookies
adpated from Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies 2005

Note: This dough has to be refrigerated for 2 hours.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg, separated, each part lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup toasted skinned hazelnuts, ground*
strawberry (or whatever kind you like) jam, for filling

Preheat the oven to 325F. Put butter and 1/2 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment: mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg yolk and vanilla, and mix well. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and salt, and mix until just combined. Refrigerate dough for 2 hours.

Stir together toasted hazelnuts and remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar in a small bowl. Roll dough into 1 inch balls: dip balls in egg white, then in hazelnut-sugar mixture. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Press down center of each ball with your thumb. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven: press down centers again with the end fo a wooden spoon. Return to oven. bake cookies until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes mroe. Let cool slightly on sheets on wire racks. Fill each center with jam. Cookeis can be stored in a single layer in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 days.

*You could easily use any nut you like here I think. Grind the hazelnuts with the 2 tablespoons of sugar to avoid the hazelnut turning into a paste/hazelnut butter. Or just finely chop the nuts.

To make cookie bark: Omit the hazelnuts and 2 tablespoons sugar. Press the dough into a parchment paper lined 9x13 dish. Bake for about 15-18 minutes or until firm enough. (Sorry I can't remember exactly how long I baked it for and I think I did it for too long.) Once cool, spread a thin layer of jam over the entire cookie. If you want, drizzle chocolate on top as well, then break into pieces.

Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies

I've noticed that all of my posts recently have been about baked goods. Must be because when I'm in school I don't want to take the time to follow a recipe or think too much about what I eat for dinner. But there's always time for baking! Anyway, last summer I saw these Andes chocolate mint cookies on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. I was dying to make them but where could I find Andes mints?! I knew I'd seen them before but no idea where I could find them. It turns out they're only available around Christmas. Now I'm stocked up with Andes mints for whenever I want to make these again.

Everybody really loved these cookies. They're brownie-like, and even though the mint part only comes from the Andes chocolate on top, it makes the cookie very minty. I thought the cookie could have been more chocolate-y but this recipe is quite delicious as it is. And I was happy to find out that these cookies freeze really well.

Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies
Recipezaar

Makes 50-60 small-ish cookies, or 30-40 large-ish cookies.

3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 large eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
Andes mint candies, broken in half (about 1 package)

Heat oven to 350°F.

Over low heat, combine butter, sugar and water. Heat until melted and add chocolate chips until partly melted. Remove from heat and stir. Pour into large mixing bowl. Let stand 10 minutes to cool slightly.

Beat in eggs one at a time on high speed. Reduce mixer to low speed and add flour, salt and baking soda. Beat until well-blended. Chill 1-2 hours (dough is almost liquid before chilling but hardens and is easy to shape after chilling).*

Roll into balls, place two inches apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes. Place an Andes Mint half on top. Allow to melt slightly and spread with a spoon.

*Mine wasn't almost liquid before chilling so don't worry if yours isn't.

Cookie Love (I've Discovered the Neiman Marcus Recipe)

A couple of random things first. One is have you heard about the new vegan baking book My Sweet Vegan by the lovely Hannah? I haven't had a chance to look through it yet but I'm sure it's great - just look at her site! And two, I need to learn the lesson of being careful how much citrus I add to things. I made orange carrot soup a month or more ago which turned out tasting like orange soup (which I do not recommend). I forgot that I halved the recipe, and to measure the orange juice before adding it to the soup. It was pretty inedible. Then a couple of nights ago I made the lemon caper sauce I had previously made to go over tofu, but I put it with whole wheat spaghettini. I doubled the recipe and discovered that no amount of white wine or vegetable stock (okay maybe massive amounts) was going to tame the lemon flavour. Hopefully in the future I will be more careful with citrus fruits!

Moving on, I found possibly the ultimate chocolate chip cookie recipe. I'm not sure I can commit to that statement yet but they're as close as I've found so far. They're the perfect texture (though of course that statement is relative because we all like different kinds of cookies), or rather the texture I've been searching for in a chocolate chip cookie recipe. The texture is the same throughout - just a nice, soft, chewy but not buttery and flat cookie. A cookie that holds its shape well and is a little bit crispy on the outside. Unfortunately they seem to go dry within a few days though. I'm not sure that I love the taste of the dough on its own (I think the Magnolia Bakery's or Didi Emmons' chocolate chip cookie doughs taste delicious), but I didn't add the espresso powder so I should try that next time. I'll also try adding extra vanilla (after all I have two 1 liter bottles to use up).

I'm really looking forward to trying these cookies with white chocolate peppermint bark, as discovered by Heidi. I've also tried making them with M&Ms, yum yum.

Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies
Neiman Marcus

Makes 2 dozen.

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

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

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

3. 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.

4. 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.

Getting Closer to Finding the Best Peanut Butter Cookies

As some of you may recall, the perfect peanut butter cookies are one of the things I am searching for. Shortly after I posted about the peanut butter cookies I made for my brother, I was reading Kristen's blog Dine and Dish, and came across a post entitled Peanut Butter Perfection. I immediately saved this recipe and knew it would be the next peanut butter cookie I'd make. Unfortunately it was a while before I made them, but a recent trip from my aunt and uncle was the incentive I needed!

My mom mentioned to me that my aunt was a cookie lover, so when I found out she was coming to visit, I emailed her and asked what kind of cookies she'd like me to make for her. Her response was kind of odd to me - peanut butter and raisin cookies. And RAISIN? Weird. But who was I to argue. So the day before they were going to leave to go back home, I used the recipe from Kristen to make her peanut butter and raisin cookies. I did make a few without raisins too though.

I kind of wish that I had taken a closer look at the recipe before starting (I know you're always supposed to read through recipes before starting, but I'm not so good at doing this). Which reminds me of something else I don't do that I should start doing - cracking eggs into a separate bowl before adding them to something. I never even thought about eggs being rotten (with a blue-brown liquid inside!) since I've never come across one, but after reading a post on delicious:days about it, I really must remember to crack my eggs separately. Anyway, no more thinking about rotten eggs and back to yummy cookies.

The cookie recipe uses 4 1/2 cups of flour! That is an obscene amount of flour. I don't think I've made a cookie recipe that uses more than 2 1/2 cups. But then I doubt I've made such an extremely large batch of cookies as this recipe produced. Of course there's also a lot of butter, vanilla and other cookie things in there too. I was scared that the dough wouldn't be able to fit in my mixer, but thankfully it did. And wow it made a lot of cookies. A lot of cookies. Good thing my aunt has kids and grandkids to share them with when she went back home!

Now the real question is - did my search for the perfect peanut butter cookie recipe end here? This peanut butter cookie recipe is very very good, and I will be keeping it to make it again. However, I found that it wasn't peanut butter-y enough for me. It was more of a vanilla peanut butter cookie. (Which I didn't think would taste good, given my last let's-add extra-vanilla-to-peanut-butter-cookies experiment. But it was actually quite delicious.) That being said, I really liked the texture of the cookies, and a super added bonus is that they stay soft for at least a week (I didn't try them after that) which I find is not too common in soft cookies. I'd like to play around with this recipe a bit, add less vanilla, add more peanut butter, maybe some chopped peanuts, and see if I can find my ultimate peanut butter cookie recipe. There are a couple other peanut butter cookie recipes out there that I want to try too though.

Britta's Peanut Butter Cookies
Gourmet, July 2007 Adapted from The Willows
Found at Dine & Dish

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 sticks (3/4 pound) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups creamy peanut butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs plus 2 large yolks
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350°F with racks in upper and lower thirds.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

Beat together butter, peanut butter, sugars, and oil with an electric mixer at high speed just until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes in a stand mixer or longer with a handheld. Add whole eggs, yolks, and vanilla and beat until just incorporated. Reduce speed to low, then add flour mixture in 3 batches, mixing until well incorporated.

Scoop scant 1/4 cups of dough about 2 inches apart onto 2 ungreased large baking sheets.* Flatten mounds with floured tines of a fork, making a crosshatch pattern, into 2 1/2-inch cookies (about 1/2 inch thick).

Bake, switching position of sheets halfway thorough baking, until slightly puffed and golden around edges, about 30 minutes total. Transfer cookies to racks to cool.

Switch an oven rack to middle position and make more cookies with remaining dough on a cooled baking sheet.

*I did one sheet at a time because I'm always scared that putting in two cookie sheets will mess up the airflow.

Snickerdoodles

First off, last week I started my food technology program. Sadly, this means I won't have a lot of time to update my food blog, and to read other people's blogs. I really love having a food blog though so I'm going to try to keep all this up. Unfortunately my posts will be more infrequent and probably shorter. And most likely I'll be posting about baked goods or quick, healthy and easy to make vegetarian meals. Anyway, on to the food!

I made snickerdoodles not too long ago, and discovered that they are the most delicious cookies ever in existence. Ever ever ever. Okay after writing that I had to go through the list of all the cookies I've had that have stood out (and for those of you that don't know, I am an extreme cookie lover). There are some other cookies that have been extremely delicious, but these snickerdoodles kind of blew me away with how addictively tasty they were, and are now definitely in the top rankings for cookies.

I've always wanted to make snickerdoodles, but for various reasons never did. One day I felt like making cookies, looked through my trusty Martha Stewart cookie magazine, saw these, and knew they were it. They're simple cookies so it's very likely that you have all of the ingredients in your house already (butter, sugar, cinnamon). I think it's probably key to use butter and not margarine in these cookies, to get the delicious soft butter cookie. You roll them into little balls and then coat them in cinnamon sugar before baking them. When I make cookies I always end up with less than what the recipe says I will, but with these cookies, possibly for the first time ever or at least one of the very rare times, I got more cookies. I made the first 20 or so pretty small, but then got tired of rolling balls near the end so made them a bit bigger.

When they first came out of the oven, they had slightly crispy outsides and perfectly soft cookie insides. I thought after cooling, they would become completely soft as a lot of cookies seem to, but they retained some of their outer crispiness. It was incredibly difficult to stop myself from eating all of them. I know I'll be making these again. I want them to be one of the cookies I make this Christmas for sure.

Snickerdoodles
(from Martha's Holiday Cookies 2005)

makes about 20 (or 40, if you make the balls very small)

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs

2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. Put butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture.

2. Stir together cinnamon and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl. Shape dough into 20 (1 3/4-inch) balls; roll in cinnamon sugar. Space 3 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

3. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes.

Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies

Every Christmas there are a few types of goodies that my mom makes. One of them is what she calls "snowballs", but most of you will know them as Mexican wedding cake cookies, or Russian tea cakes. Whatever you want to call them, I've never really liked them. Other people seem to though, including a friend whose bridal shower I was going to, so I said I would bring them. I was feeling really conflicted about bringing these cookies since I knew that I didn't like them and so I guess I worried that no one else would? Though I know everyone has different taste. Anyway, I used the same recipe that my mom always uses (where she crossed out the name "Russian tea cakes" and wrote snowballs, which I thought was funny). Also, to me snowballs are these chocolate coconut balls that my grandma makes, so it's just not right in my head for my mom to call these snowballs. Though I guess it's weird to call the brown chocolate coconut balls snowballs too.

The recipe for these "snowballs" is from an old worn copy of Betty Crocker's cookbook. This is one of two cookbooks that my mom and I made cookies out of when I was growing up. The tabs for the cookie sections have long been broken off in both cookbooks but I always knew what area of the book they were in. Now the incredibly good news is that I was really happy with how they turned out (despite some fears after rolling them in icing sugar and seeing how they became gummy/gluey on the outside while warm - though I later found out that it hardens up and is just fine and delicious). I'm not sure what it was that made them taste better this time to me. Most likely it was the vanilla I used, which my mom brought back for me (two 1 liter bottles!) from Mexico. Or perhaps she uses margarine instead of butter when she makes them, I'll have to ask her. Or maybe it was the expertly finely chopped walnuts that my boyfriend patiently and diligently prepared. As is my usual tendency, I made the snowballs way too big. I think that's a result of my impatience to get through the batter, and my love for big cookies.

When making the dough I was scared that it was too crumbly, but it turned out to be just fine. At the bottom of the recipe it suggests a variation called "ambrosia balls" that sound good, so I'll add that to the recipe below.

Russian Tea Cakes (aka Mexican wedding cakes, aka "snowballs")
(from Betty Crocker's cookbook)

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 400F. Mix thoroughly butter, sugar and vanilla. Work in flour, salt and nuts until dough holds together. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place on ungreased baking sheet.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set but not brown. While warm, roll in confectioners' sugar. Cool. Roll in sugar again.

Variation (Ambrosia Balls): Omit nuts; add 1 cup finely cut coconut and 1 tablespoon grated orange peel with the flour.

Earl Grey Tea Shortbread

Shortbread has always been one of my favourite kind of cookies. My grandma's shortbread that we all fight over, to be specific. I think I was probably initimidated by making shortbread for this reason. How could I possibly make shortbread good enough to compare?

A couple of Christmases ago, I tried this earl grey cookie recipe for the first time, not realizing it was basically a shortbread cookie (good thing!) It was such a perfect little cookie that I knew I'd be making it again, though it did take me a year and a half. My coworker was leaving, and I had always talked about these earl grey cookies, so I had to make her some before she was gone. I decided to split the batter in two and do half a batch of earl grey orange cookies and the other half matcha. Not too long ago I attempted another matcha shortbread recipe but wasn't happy with the results, so I was hoping to have more luck here. They did taste okay but weren't as good as the earl grey cookies, and the matcha dough was extremely crumbly. So crumbly that I had trouble cutting off pieces from the log to bake them (and I didn't have this problem with the earl grey portion). You can see on the matcha cookies the pieces that broke off as I was slicing the dough. It's possible I just don't like matcha shortbread, but I don't want to believe that so I'll keep trying!

Anyway, the earl grey cookies were just as good as I had remembered. Strong earl grey (bergamot) flavour, hint of orange (using orange zest), and a wonderfully delicate shortbread texture. The only problem I have with these cookies is rolling the dough into two logs. I seem to find it impossible to make the roll cylindrical and instead it's some lopsided mishapen thing that resembles something between a circle and a square. But that gives the cookies more character, right?

Earl Grey Tea Cookies
(from the special issue Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies 2005)

makes about 8 dozen

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons finely ground Earl Grey tea leaves (from about 4 bags)*
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest

1. Whisk flour, tea, and salt in a small bowl; set aside.

2. Put butter, sugar, and orange zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture until just combined.

3. Divide dough in half. Transfer each half to a piece of parchment paper; shape into logs. Roll in parchment to 1 1/4 inches in diameter, prsesing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow the log and force out air. Transfer in parchment to paper towl tubes**; freeze until firm, 1 hour.

4. Preheat oven to 350F. Cut logs into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment.

5. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through,until edges are golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 5 days.

*You can grind the tea leaves in a small food processor, spice grinder, blender, or do as I did and use a magic bullet!
**Or just lay them carefully in your freezer on something long and flat.

Note: To make matcha shortbread, substitute matcha powder for Earl Grey tea and omit orange zest.

The Ultimate Oatmeal Cookies

These are the ultimate oatmeal cookies, I kid you not. And I'm happy that I've found at least one ultimate cookie recipe. (Now I need to find the ultimate chocolate chip, ultimate ginger molasses, and ultimate peanut butter ones. There are a few contenders for chocolate chip so far.) I didn't even used to like oatmeal cookies before I tried this recipe. I found it in an online vegan cooking community, and the person touted them as the best ever, and said that she was famous for them. After making them a few times I can definitely understand why. They're slightly crispy on the outside, soft on the inside - just perfect. They even taste good with raisins in them! I'd like to try making them with butter instead of margarine, though I imagine this would change the texture of the cookie. The recipe that was originally posted is vegan, but I used one egg instead of the Ener-G egg replacer.

I was discussing oats the other day with my friend. Rolled oats versus quick oats? I never thought too much about the kind I was buying for cookies, but then I don't know that much about oatmeal since I don't like it. I just went and checked and the kind I've always used have been quick cooking oats and I've never had any problems. I found this post about the difference that the type of oats makes in baking.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
(from a post in the vegan cooking community by superlemon)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 to 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon (depending on how much you love it, I put about 2)
1 cup (2 sticks) softened margarine or butter-flavored shortening
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg OR about 2 1/2 tsp. Ener-G egg replacer mixed with 3 Tbsp. warm water*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix together flour, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl.

Beat together margarine/shortening, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in a second bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in egg replacer and vanilla.

Beat flour mixture into margarine/shortening mixture until blended. Fold in oats and chocolate chips, then stick into the fridge to chill for a bit while the oven heats up. Put the bowl back into the fridge while each batch of cookies bakes, to keep the dough chilled.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 2 baking sheets.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place cookies 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, flattening each cookie slightly.

Bake until lightly browned around the edges, about 10 to 12 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheets for a minute or two before transfer to racks to cool completely.

Makes 2 to 3 dozen, depending on size.

My Brother's Peanut Butter Cookies

My brother is the most impossible person to find gifts for, so last Christmas I gave him a cookie tin and some coupons, each good for one batch of peanut butter cookies (his favourite). Since our kitchen was under renovation for the first few months of the year, I only recently had the chance to make him his first batch. I love how they look very homemade with ragged edges, instead of being perfect little circles - so much cuter that way!

I want to find the ultimate peanut butter cookie recipe, and I guess selfishly I'm using his present as a means to do that. But really it's not that selfish considering that I'm just trying to make the best peanut butter cookies possible for him, right? Anyway, the cookie has to be really peanut butter-y, maybe a bit crumbly, and chewy or soft. The recipe I used for this batch I found on epicurious and had high hopes for since it got an 87% make again rating.

The texture of the cookie was pretty awesome - kind of soft and chewy but not that really buttery chewy, almost like a super dense cake chewy. These cookies were different than other peanut butter ones I've made before - still undecided on whether this is a good or bad thing. Also, the recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of vanilla but being me, I think 2 teaspoons - why not 3 teaspoons?! Vanilla is so delicious and makes everything better! Well I have now learned that extra vanilla in a peanut butter cookie recipe makes for a weird and off taste. It's possible that this is close to the ultimate recipe, but I won't know for sure until I make them again and stick to the recommended amount of vanilla (and maybe add some chopped up peanuts?). I also wonder what difference it would make if I used all natural peanut butter instead of Kraft, since it specifically says to not use those kinds.

Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies
(from Bon Appétit, January 1998)

3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter (do not use old-fashioned style or freshly ground)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter, peanut butter and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Beat in both sugars. Scrape down sides of bowl. Stir half of dry ingredients into mixture. Add eggs 1 at a time, stirring well after each addition. Mix in remaining dry ingredients.

For each cookie, roll 1 heaping tablespoonful of dough into 1 3/4-inch-diameter ball. Arrange dough balls 2 1/2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Using back of fork, flatten dough balls and form crosshatch design on tops. Bake cookies until dry on top and golden brown on bottom, about 14 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes. Using metal spatula, transfer cookies to racks and cool completely. (Can be prepared up to 3 days ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature.)

Makes about 4 dozen. (My note: I think it made about 2-3 dozen for me, but then when I make cookies it's always less than what it says it will make.)