Super Snickerdoodles

When I was a kid, my favorite kind of cookie was a snickerdoodle. It's a fun word to say, and the crispy outside belied a chewy middle with a great cinnamon flavor. I also loved Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. As my semester is winding up, I wanted to make something special for my field ed group. We've been together all school year and have gotten to know each other very well and have shared a lot of ourselves and our ministries with one another. Because I saw one guy in my group eating a snickerdoodle one day, I decided snickerdoodles would be the perfect treat.

Kelsey recommended a few recipes that she had made, even listing these Super Snickerdoodles as one of her top 10 recipes of 2009. The texture of these cookies was incredible, but I thought they tasted just a tad too strongly of butter. Not that having a cookie tasting of butter is a bad thing, but I just wanted a slightly more nuanced cookie with perhaps a stronger cinnamon taste. These were gobbled up though, so I don't think anyone else minded!

Super Snickerdoodles
source: Kelsey's Apple a Day

Ingredients
2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. coarse salt
1 c. unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 c. sugar, divided
2 large eggs
4-5 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

3. Put butter and 1 1/2 c. sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about three minutes. Mix in eggs.

4. Reduce speed to low and gradually incorporate flour mixture.

5. In a small bowl, stir together remaining 1/4 c. sugar and cinnamon to preferred ratio.

6. Shape dough into 1 3/4 in. balls (you should have about 20). Roll in cinnamon sugar and place three inches apart on baking sheets lines with Silpat or parchment paper.

7. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are golden, twelve to 15 minutes. Let cool on wire racks. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in an airtight container for up to three days.

Peanut Butter Cookies

On Wednesday, my friend L grabbed me after theology and asked me if I would be interested in baking for our field ed group the next day. Another friend and member of our group, J and his wife had just had their first baby, and we wanted to acknowledge and celebrate J's entry into fatherhood. I, of course, jumped at the chance.

Sometimes I over-think baking for people, especially in a group. Is anyone vegan or gluten-free or allergic to nuts? I decided to make these peanut butter cookies and prayed that no one was allergic to nuts and would feel left out. The first time I made these cookies was with my best friend Abby when I visited Bloomington last May. She rightly calls them crack cookies. They are seriously addictive, and I ate 5 (at least they're small) while they were cooling on the rack. Sure enough, the cookies that I brought were quickly devoured, and I was encouraged to bring more baked goods to field ed group should I feel the urge to bake again.

These cookies have a great peanut butter flavor, and I appreciate the addition of chocolate chips. I skipped rolling them in more sugar, since I didn't feel like they needed it. They can be easy to overbake, and I thought they weren't done enough, but when they cooled, they were perfect.

Peanut Butter Cookies
source: Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup chocolate chips

For sprinkling: 1 tablespoon sugar, regular or superfine

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, the baking soda, the baking powder, and the salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and the peanut butter together until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat until smooth. Add the egg and mix well. Add the milk and the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Stir in the peanut butter and chocolate chips. Place sprinkling sugar — the remaining tablespoon — on a plate. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls into the sugar, then onto ungreased cookie sheets, leaving several inches between for expansion. Using a fork, lightly indent with a crisss-cross pattern, but do not overly flatten cookies. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overbake. Cookies may appear to be underdone, but they are not.

Cool the cookies on the sheets for 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Chewy Chocolate-White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Apparently being in Bloomington got me on a baking kick, because one of the first things I did when I got home was bake some cookies. Joe had a rough time at work and stuff while I was gone, so these were like an I'm back! present for him as well as clearing out a few things in the pantry. I also wanted to use my pretty pink new cookie scoop.

For some reason, chocolate-white chocolate chip cookies remind of the box lunches from Jason's Deli that we would get for church meetings. While I like regular chocolate chip cookies, I always wanted to trade for a chocolate-white chocolate chip or a white chocolate-macadamia cookie. So this kind of cookie reminds me of delis and turkey sandwiches and church.

I particularly like the strong chocolate flavor set off by the sweetness of the white chocolate. The dense chocolatiness makes the cookies feel like such an indulgence, even though they aren't any moreso than any other cookie.

Chewy Chocolate-White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
source: Confections of a Foodie Bride via Dinner and Dessert

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup dutch-process cocoa*
1/2 cup butter, cubed and room temp
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups chopped white chocolate (I used white chocolate chips.)

*Don’t substitute with natural cocoa. The Oreo-like flavor comes from the richer dutch-processed cocoa.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325 and place oven racks in the upper and lower middle position.

Whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa, and set aside. Beat the butter on medium-high until light and add sugars, creaming well. Add the vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternately with the milk in one batch, mixing well. Chill dough for 15 minutes.

Scoop the dough onto a parchment- or silpat-lined cookie sheet (however you bake your cookies) and bake (see note below). Let the cookies cool completely on the cookie sheet and store in an air-tight container.

Here’s a tip from Shawnda:

Let’s talk about the size of of this cookie. I use a No 12 scoop to drop a well rounded scoop of chilled cookie dough (a little less than 1/2 cup of cookie dough) onto parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for 24 minutes. I get 8 or 9 cookies with a diameter of 6 inches using the No 12 scoop. Perfect if you’re going for the “real bakery” look, perhaps less-than-perfect if it’s just you and 8 of your new chocolatey friends over a weekend. If you scoop a more normal sized cookie, I’d estimate 12-16 minutes in the oven.

I used a normal cookie scoop, which yielded about 2 1/2 dozen cookies (counting the few I dropped on the floor). 16 minutes was about how long it took the cookies to bake.

Peanut Butter Cookies

When confronted by a request to bring something to a Memorial Day picnic-turned-cookout-turned party, Abby almost immediately suggested Smitten Kitchen's Peanut Butter Cookies. She had made them before and she and her friends referred to them as "crack" cookies because of their addictive properties. Peanut butter cookies aren't usually my absolute favorite but I definitely wanted to try them. So we headed off to Kroger for the third time in the three days that I had been there to obtain chunky peanut butter.

Abby was a total pro at forming the cookies and rolling them in sugar, though we skipped the criss-cross step. And they were just as addictive as promised. I loved the textural contrast of the chocolate and peanut butter chips with the smooth, buttery dough. We ate the ones that came out slightly burned on the bottom, and they all vanished by the end of a heated game of Taboo.

Peanut Butter Cookies
source: Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup chocolate chips

For sprinkling: 1 tablespoon sugar, regular or superfine

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, the baking soda, the baking powder, and the salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and the peanut butter together until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat until smooth. Add the egg and mix well. Add the milk and the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Stir in the peanut butter and chocolate chips. Place sprinkling sugar — the remaining tablespoon — on a plate. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls into the sugar, then onto ungreased cookie sheets, leaving several inches between for expansion. Using a fork, lightly indent with a crisss-cross pattern, but do not overly flatten cookies. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overbake. Cookies may appear to be underdone, but they are not.

Cool the cookies on the sheets for 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Thick Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

My standard breakfast has become oatmeal with raisins and sliced almonds, so I knew I would love these cookies that popped up on Smitten Kitchen in addition to having all the ingredients in my pantry. While my dad loves oatmeal chocolate chip pecan cookies, I'm a big fan of oatmeal raisin cookies. I was baking a cake for a bake sale benefiting Second Harvest Nashville, and when it didn't turn out well, I was a little distraught. I knew I barely had time to make something else, let alone run to the store, when I remembered these cookies.

Sure enough, they turned out wonderfully, and I even kept about a dozen for our own personal consumption. You may remember that I made oatmeal raisin cookies before. These are much better. They're crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. There are plenty of raisins too, and the chilling step makes a big difference. I only had them in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, but they turned out beautifully! This will be my go-to recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies from now on. You can also halve the recipe if you don't want so many cookies laying around.

Thick and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
source: Smitten Kitchen
Yields 4-5 dozen tsp sized cookies

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats, raisins and walnuts, if using them.

At this point you can either chill the dough for a bit in the fridge and then scoop it, or scoop the cookies onto a sheet and then chill the whole tray before baking them.

The cookies should be two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes (your baking time will vary, depending on your oven and how cold the cookies were going in), taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.

Chewy Coconut Cookies

Since I'm trying to use up some of the ingredients in my pantry, including a random bag of coconut, these coconut cookies were ideal. I'm a big fan of coconut in baked goods, and these cookies were the perfect balance of buttery, chewy, light, and crisp. I neglected to read how big they were supposed to be (1 tsp), so mine ended up quite a bit larger. Chances are that you also have most of these ingredients in your kitchen, so they're perfect for whipping up on a whim. I love how the coconut got a little brown and toasted on the top!

Chewy Coconut Cookies
source: Delicious Meliscious

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.) Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually blend in the flour mixture, then mix in the coconut. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly toasted. Cool on wire racks.

WC Recipe Exchange: Santa Surprise Cookies

These cookies are intense - basically mini-Snickers baked inside a peanut butter cookie. It's kind of like a deep-fried Oreo; you wonder whoever thought up such a thing, and it might strike you as somewhat disgusting and over-the-top and yet SO GOOD. I was a little worried about the logistics, so I detailed the wrapping of the dough around the Snickers photographically.

I've also added to the recipe to make it a little more clear. The original recipe says to bake them at 300-degrees, but that would've taken hours, so I baked them at 350-degrees, and they turned out perfectly. The dough gets really sticky if it gets warm, so just stick it back in the fridge for a few minutes if it starts to warm up.

Santa Surprise Cookies
source: WC Recipe Exchange

Ingredients

2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup light brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 pkg (13 oz) snickers minatures

Preparation

Combine butter, peanut butter and sugar using mixer on medium until light and fluffy.

Slowly add eggs and vanilla until totally combined. Then mix flour, salt and baking soda.

Cover and chill 2-3 hours

Unwrap snickers – and sneak one for a taste test. (Or not, because I used every single last Snickers!)

Take chilled dough and divide into 1 tbsp. pieces and flatten.

Place snickers in center of flattened dough and form dough into ball around the snickers.

Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. (May take up to 15 min.)

Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes and then remove to rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

You can also sprinkle with powdered sugar and/or drizzle with chocolate for an added treat.

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan Cookies

I don't normally take things like cookies and cakes and look for healthier recipes. If I'm going to indulge, I'm going to indulge. But when I was flipping through back issues of Cooking Light, I found these cookies and just so happened to have all the ingredients in my pantry. I made some slight changes, recorded below, based on suggestions from the reviews on the Cooking Light website.

As a warning, these are not really drop cookies as the recipe advertised. The dough is pretty dry and crumbly, but it isn't difficult to roll into balls. The cookies came out perfectly with crisp outsides and chewy insides. These would be great cookies to leave out for Santa and his reindeer, especially if Santa (*ahem* Dad) really likes pecans.

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan Cookies
adapted from Cooking Light, December 2007

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup regular oats
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt), stirring with a whisk; set aside.

Place sugars and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add vanilla and egg; beat until blended. Gradually add flour mixture, beating at low speed just until combined. Stir in pecans and minichips. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until edges of cookies are lightly browned. Cool on pans 2 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

Yield: 3 dozen cookies (My cookies were bigger and made about 2 dozen.)

Peanut Butter Blossoms

If you can possibly believe it, I did not like peanut butter as a child. It was too goopy and stuck to the roof of my mouth and got inbetween my teeth. It wasn't until I went to boarding school and started eating peanut butter on bananas to avoid the awful cafeteria food that I began to like peanut butter.

These are such a classic cookie that it's hard not to like them. I made them after taking half of my finals, and the act of rolling the dough into little balls was so calming and mindless after my brain had been fried. I served these on Saturday night when we had a few people over before going out to dinner.

The recipe states that it makes about 4 dozen cookies, but I only got 3 dozen out, most likely because I rolled them a little larger than recommended. I waited until I had a count to unwrap the Hershey's Kisses, saving me from having some unwrapped kisses with no cookies to go on.

Peanut Butter Blossoms
(source: Hershey's Kitchens)

Ingredients

48 Hershey's Kisses
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
granulated sugar

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates.
2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet. 4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

About 4 dozen cookies.

Chocolate-Glazed Pumpkin Cookies

When I saw the picture of these in Sherri's blog, they looked so fluffy and delicious that I knew I had to try them at some point. They are very cake-like, and the hardened chocolate really takes them over the edge. I'll admit I had a lot of fun swirling the chocolate over the cookies. The spice is very subtle, so you can taste the pumpkin nicely. These also look gorgeous. I currently have them stacked up on a covered cake stand, and they look like I bought them from a bakery!

I used a round tbsp to scoop them out, and the dough yielded 20 cookies.

(If you haven't noticed, I recently discovered the food setting on my point-and-shoot digital camera, so my pictures have gotten SO much better, in my opinion.)

Chocolate-Glazed Pumpkin Cookies
(source: yum.)

Ingredients

2 c. flour
1/2 t. soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 t. salt
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 c. pumpkin puree
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375.

Whisk dry ingredients together. Set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light. Add egg; beat, until smooth. With mixer on low alternately add flour in two parts and pumpkin in one. Beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Do not overmix.

Bake until puffed and golden- about 15 minutes.

When cookies have cooled, melt chocolate either in microwave at 30 second intervals or over double-boiler. Drizzle over cookies and cool in refrigerator until chocolate is set.

Reference: Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine.

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Yesterday morning I decided that I didn't want to go to the gym before work, but I needed something to occupy myself...like bake. I always bake with good intentions, that I'll send them to the hospital for the nurses with Joe or pass them out at work, but then I remember that I didn't like when food was forced upon me so I end up keeping them. At least I threw a few bags in the freezer so there's not so much pressure to Eat. Them. Now.

I'd never made oatmeal raisin cookies before, but they're one of my favorite kind of cookie. I mean, you get your whole grains and fruit in cookie form. Plus they're rarely heavy. I decided to go straight to the source, Quaker Oats, for a recipe, and they didn't disappoint.

Before they go into the hot fiery oven:

I've been accused of making my cookies a little on the large side, so I like to give them room to spread out.

Joe was very pleased to come home to some homebaked goodies, and I enjoyed licking the bowl while making these. They're very chewy, like injure-your-jaw-chewy, and the oatmeal features prominently. Next time I might look for a recipe with a higher flour to oat ratio and add in more raisins since the cookies are a little too oaty. I don't know if that would work though since I haven't quite mastered the chemistry of baking.

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (courtesy of Quaker Oats)

Ingredients
1/2 pound (2 sticks) margarine or butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup raisins

Directions
1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.
2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.