Cookies

Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies with Raisins and Pecans

A dear friend gave me her copy of “Deceptively Delicious” , the cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld, when I complained about my kids not eating certain foods.  Vegetables being our main problem.  While perusing the cookbook I came across some really yummy looking recipes.  The great thing is that almost every one sneaks veggies into foods that kids love (macaroni and cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken nugget, etc .)  I came across a chocolate chip cookie recipe that has an entire can of chickpeas in it.  Well, we all know what I had to do that very day.

Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies | Hottie Biscotti

I changed a few things about the recipe, using butter instead of tub margarine, one egg and one egg white instead of two egg whites, and white whole wheat flour instead of all purpose.  I also mashed up the chickpeas instead of adding them whole, just to avoid biting into a big ol’ chickpea, which didn’t sound super appealing.

The results were not bad!  You can’t taste the chickpeas.  Ben actually took one off of the cooling rack when he got home, ate it and declared it good before I told him they were semi-healthy.  I didn’t even tell him about the chickpeas.  He’s finding out now via the blog…

Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies | Hottie Biscotti

The cookies are cakey and bake up in mounds with very little spreading.  I left some in mounds and flattened others.  You can flatten them with your hand, the bottom of a glass or the back of a fork.  Eaten the same day they’re baked they are really tasty.  After storing them in a container for a day they stick together a bit and are very soft.  BUT still quite delicious.

Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies | Hottie Biscotti

I used milk chocolate chips, but I think semi sweet or dark would be better.  The raisins are optional, but I really liked them in these cookies.  I used pecans, because that’s what I had.  But, and I know this is out of character, I think walnuts would be better.  I don’t think the white whole wheat flour made much of a difference in these since they’re already very hearty in texture, I used it because I had some and it made me feel like I was making these even healthier!  Healthier cookies means I can eat more of them!  And I feel better about giving them to the kids.  Both of the big kids, almost 4 and almost 2, really liked these.  So while I won’t be making these cookies every time I want chocolate chip cookies, I will be making these again.

Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies | Hottie Biscotti

Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies

From Deceptively Delicious

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients

  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup (1 and 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
  • 1 egg and 1 egg white
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 cups flour (all purpose or white whole wheat)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
  • heaping 1/2 cup pecans
  • heaping 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup oats

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Place chickpeas in a bowl and mash with a potato masher or a fork, until mixture is coarse, just a few larger pieces, but not perfectly smooth.
  3. Beat butter and brown sugar in a large bowl of a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer.  Beat for 2  minutes, then scrape the bowl.
  4. Add in egg and egg white and beat well, then ass in vanilla and scrape bowl.
  5. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt until just combined.  Then mix in oats.
  6. Mix in chickpeas, chocolate chips, pecans and raisins until evenly mixed.
  7. Scoop by rounded tablespoons onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, until tops are beginning to brown.  Let cool on the pan for a minutes, then move to a wire rack.

Easter Cookie Placecards & A Thick Cut-Out Sugar Cookie Recipe

What could be better than a lovely place card to designate your place at the table this Easter Sunday?  Why, a cute and sweet one that you can eat, of course!

Don’t worry, I’m not going to give Betsy her own china place setting.

I’ve made my fair share of sugar cookies but haven’t ever stuck with one recipe.  I almost always find myself trying a new one.  Not because the others have been bad, but I have an idea in my head of what I want a decorated sugar cookie to look and taste like, and I haven’t yet found it.  This one is much closer to what I’ve been looking for.  It’s sturdy and thick, it holds up well to rolling, transferring and baking and also has good flavor.  Part of that is due to cutting them thicker than I normally do, and part to a new method I tried this time around for cutting the shapes.  It’s genius and greatly decreases the floury mess my kitchen becomes when I make cut outs.

Whenever I decide to make these decorated cookies I have the tendency to make too many shapes which means lots more coloring of icing and piping different designs which translates into late nights, a messy kitchen, color dyed fingernails and sore hands.  It’s more work than you think on those muscles!  Making just a couple different shapes makes life easier and allows you to get really good at decorating that particular shape and design.

I chose eggs (no fancy edges) carrots and bunnies.  I kept everything simple since I’d be writing names on the cookies.  And I kept the colors muted to not distract from the table or stick out like a sore thumb.

The icing recipe here is the best I’ve tried for these cookies.  It takes a while to dry completely, but dries with a nice gloss and isn’t rock hard like royal icing.  You can add more powdered sugar to small amount of this icing to make it good for piping.

For rolling these out I used a new method.  Instead of chilling the dough and then rolling it out (which can often be difficult when the dough is cold from the fridge) I rolled it out right after mixing  in between two pieces of parchment.  Then I placed the sheets of dough in the freezer for 20-30 minutes.  Then I cut out the shapes, moved them to a parchment lined cookie sheet and baked them.  The dough never once touched the counter and I didn’t have to use any flour or get frustrated with a cookie falling apart or sticking to the counter top.  This is definitely the method I will be using from now on.  Thanks to The Kitchn for introducing me to it!

cookieplacecards2

I used the recipe from The Kitchn for these cookies, just left out the lemon zest and added an extra egg yolk for a sturdier cookie.  Since they’re made with all butter, the flavor is still there, but without the super crunchy texture some sugar cookies often have.  And to be honest, I prefer that texture if I’m eating the cookies plain or with just a sprinkling of sugar.  But when I’m going to be decorating them and giving them as favors or gifts, I want them thicker and therefore not as crunchy.  Since the cookies are so thick, I reduced the baking temp to 325 to prevent the bottoms of the cookies from getting too dark before the centers are set.  Then I increased the baking time.  The baking time with depend on what size and just how thick your cookies are.  Mine, which were just about 1/4 inch thick, cooked for almost 15 minutes.  They should be just beginning to brown on the edges  when you remove them from the oven.

You can find lots of good tips on decorating sugar cookies on the web.  But here are some of the cookies I’ve decorated, some with step by step instructions and some without.

And here are the tools I find to be very helpful when making these types of cookies.

  • Frosting tips (Wilton plain tips 2 and 3 are the ones I use most, I have a few of each)
  • Piping bags
  • White-white, it makes white icing solid white instead of semi-translucent and can tone down a color that is too dark
  • Gel colors for coloring the icing, it produces the best color
  • Toothpicks for coloring icing, pushing icing into small spaces and for popping bubbles that form in the icing as it settles and dries
  • Small bowls for coloring small amount of icing
  • Small spoons for filling the cookies
  • Space to work and a place for cookies to dry away from little hands

Thick Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

Adapted very slightly from TheKitchn

Makes 18-24 thick cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
  • 2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

  1. Beat butter, cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until light and fluffy.
  2. Add in the egg, egg yolk, and extracts and beat until well combined.
  3. Add in the flour, salt and baking powder and mix just until combined.
  4. Prepare 4 sheets of parchment, each about the size you’d use to line a cookie sheet.
  5. Lay a towel down on the counter, then place one piece of parchment on top.  Spoon half of the cookie dough onto the parchment and then lay another piece of parchment on top.  Use a rolling pin to roll the dough evenly to the thickness you desire.
  6. Set the sheet of dough onto a cookie sheet.
  7. Repeat with the rest of the dough, stacking them on top of each other.
  8. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer and let them chill for 20-30 minutes.  You want the dough to be firm but still be able to cut it with the cookies cutters.  If you leave it too long in the freezer, just let it sit for a few minutes before cutting your shapes.
  9. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
  10. Using your desired cookie cutters, cut your shapes from the dough and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet, leaving space between the cookies, 8-12 per sheet depending on the size
  11. Bake for 10-15 minutes, checking after 10 minutes, until the edges just begin to brown.  Let them sit on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
  12. Repeat with the remaining dough.  Any dough scraps can be combined and re-rolled, chilled, cut and baked.
  13. Let cool completely before decorating.

Chocolate & Pecan Brownie Cookies

I have loved (and hated) all of the chocolate goodies that have been at my house recently, but these might just be my favorite and a recipe I can see myself going back to the most often.  These would make a terrific Valentine’s treat, but really a wonderful cookie for anytime.

A new friend of mine made these as treats for after a morning TV segment that I was lucky to be a part of, and after practically inhaling my cookie I immediately asked her for the recipe.  Sometimes I forget how good a chocolate cookie can be and often opt for chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin when I’m going to make cookies.  But these cookies might become my new go-to. They are thick and brownie like in texture in the center, yet slightly crunchy on the top and edges.  The nuts add terrific flavor and using a mix of chocolate chips makes for a truly amazing cookie.

chocolatebrowniecookie2

I made a batch and boxed up a few for Carson’s teachers at school for Valentine’s Day.  When I went to pick him up his teacher said they were amazing and evil.  “Evil” is one of the best compliments when it comes to baked goods, at least in my opinion.

chocolatebrowniecookie3

The batter for these cookies is more involved than some, but is still not intense by any means.  After I scooped the first batch the batter began to really thicken up, which makes for a bit of a difficult and messy time getting it scooped out.  It was hard on my cookie scoop to the point that I worried it might break.  Thankfully it didn’t.  But even if it had it would’ve been a small price to pay!

chocolatebrowniecookie1

Chocolate and Pecan Brownie Cookies

From Natalie

Makes about 30 cookies

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
  • 4 ounces of chocolate (70% cacoa or unsweetened squares) chopped
  • 3 cups chocolate chips (semi sweet or a combination of semi sweet, dark and milk chocolate) divided
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 cups chopped pecans, toasted

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment and set aside.
  2. Melt butter, chopped chocolate and 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips in a heavy saucepan set over low heat.  Stir until everything has melted together, then let cool to room temperature.
  3. In a small bowl whisk together four, powder and salt.  Set aside.
  4. In a large bowl beat eggs, sugar and vanilla until well combined.  Add in dry ingredients until just combined, then beat in melted chocolate until well combined.
  5. Mix in the rest of the chocolate chips and the pecans.
  6. Drop by large spoonfuls (about 2 tablespoons) onto prepared baking sheets, 9 cookies per sheet.
  7. Bake for 10 minutes, until tops are set and cracking.  Cool for a minute or two before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Thin and Chewy Chocolate Chip and Toffee Cookies

 

chocchiptoffeecookie3

In general I prefer a thick, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie.  The flat crunchy kind aren’t what I typically make or choose to enjoy with a glass of milk.   I’ve made my fair share of chocolate chip cookies and have some favorite recipes.  These, these and these are probably the ones I’ve enjoyed the most.  Going back in the blog archives makes me nostalgic and a little embarrassed of my food photos and writing.  Yeesh.  But, this is why I blog!  Documenting the good and the not so good, and seeing how my cooking, blogging and photography has changed.  Anyway, back to the cookies.

chocchiptoffeecookie4

I made these cookies for a friend who recently moved into a new house.  I kept a few for myself.  They are thin, but still chewy, which I realize now is what I really crave in a cookie.  And they are buttery and sweet and delicious.  The small amount of toffee pieces adds something special to these.  The original recipe, from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook, calls for mini chocolate chips.  I used regular sized chips and think that it’s really a personal preference.  With mini chips you’ll get chocolate in each bite.  With the big chips you’ll end up with some bites with no chips, but the bites with chips are super yummy.  I love big hunks of chocolate in a cookie.  I guess a solution for that could be to use more big chips…  Other than the chips and the addition of the toffee pieces, I didn’t do anything differently.  This is a terrifically simple recipe.  Enjoy!

chocchiptoffeecookie2

Thin and Chewy Chocolate Chip and Toffee Cookies

From The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

Makes 24-36 cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 11 tablespoons unsalted butter,  softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup toffee pieces

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.
  3. Cream together butter and sugars until light in color, then beat in egg and and vanilla.
  4. Add the flour mixture and beat until combined.
  5. Mix in chocolate chips and toffee pieces.
  6. Use a cookie/ice cream scoop or tablespoon to drop scoops of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a nonstick liner.  Space them a couple inches apart since they’ll spread during baking.  8 cookies per sheet works well.
  7. Bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned on the edges.  Let cool for a minute before moving to a rack.

Salted Chocolate Chip Coconut Oil Cookies

coconutcookies2

Coconut Oil.  Apparently it can do almost anything.  It can make your hair long and luxurious, get rid of stretch marks, help nursing moms increase their milk supply and bring about world peace when applied daily.  I’ve been seeing it everywhere lately and thought I’d give it a try as a replacement for butter in cookies.

These were delicious and I would definitely make them again.  The coconut oil gives them a subtle coconut flavor without the texture and chew of coconut flakes and a richness that is different than that of butter.  Sprinkling a little flaked salt on top before and right after baking really makes these special.  Ben, who doesn’t always love sweets, enjoyed the combination of salty and sweet and I think he ate more than just the one obligatory cookie.  And that is saying something.

Guittard milk chocolate chips (the ones in the silver bag with blue label) are my favorite and using them in these cookies didn’t hurt in making them extra super tasty.  They’re a little larger than the typical chocolate chip and so delicious and creamy.  I’ve been known to sit with a bag of these and snack my way through half of it.  Which is why when I am going to buy a bag to make cookies I buy a second bag for snacking.  No lie.  It might be a problem?  If you’d rather, dark chocolate chips would also be wonderful I am sure.  Enjoy!

Salted Chocolate Chip Coconut Oil Cookies

Makes 18-24

Ingredients

  • 2 2/3 cup flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup coconut oil (softened if needed)
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
  • flaked salt

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
  2. Beat together coconut oil and sugars, then beat in eggs and vanilla until well mixed.
  3. Add in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix just to combine.
  4. Stir in the chocolate chips and coconut.
  5. Scoop by rounded tablespoons onto parchment lined cookie sheets and sprinkle each cookie with a bit of salt flakes.
  6. Bake for 10-15 minutes (depending on size) until edges are just browned.  Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle a bit more salt on each cookie.
  7. Let cool and enjoy!

Healthy Banana & Oat Breakfast Cookies with Cranberries and Nuts

bananaoatcookie2

I don’t really cook anything for Carson that has no added sugars or is made with only whole grains.  I don’t get locally grown organic fruits and vegetables at the farmers market.  I don’t say “no” to fast food.  I’m not anti health food and I don’t roll my eyes at people who do those things.  I make sure Carson gets fruits and veggies every day.  I don’t let the child skip dinner and then get cookies before bed.  I’m not unconcerned with healthy eating, I’m just not overly concerned with it.  But, if I see something that looks easy and healthy for my kids I will try it.  And that is what led me to try these cookies.

When I saw these cookies on Pinterest I thought, “What a simple recipe!  This person says they’re awesome!  So they must be!”  A couple of mashed bananas, oats and nuts.  No added sugar.  No butter or shortening.  I gave them a shot.  These are advertised as “cookies”.  Sorry.  They’re not cookies.  Not cookies as I know them.  I like sugar and butter, and I think they have their place.  And that place is in cookies.  So when I ate one of these after they came out of the oven I was really disappointed.  Not because they were bad, they just weren’t cookies.  I don’t know why I thought they’d taste like anything other than banana, oats and nuts.  Maybe because I fell victim to another Pinterest post and its false promises.  If there is one thing Pinterest has taught me it is to be skeptical.  And that the options for IKEA furniture are endless.  I gave one of the cookies to Carson.  He took one bite, took the bite out of his mouth and left it all on the table.  Fail.

I packed them in a tupperware after they had cooled and stashed them in the freezer because I cannot throw food away.  It almost physically hurts me to do it.  The next morning I saw them in the freezer and thought I’d try one again.  I took one out and microwaved it for 15 seconds.  It was surprisingly tasty, and a really perfect breakfast cookie.  Not too sweet.  Full of hearty oats.  Nuts for protein.  Cranberries for tartness.  A touch of cinnamon.  I ate these for breakfast the rest of the week.

So these didn’t turn out to be a great toddler cookies (not for my toddler anyway) but I enjoyed them after accepting that they were not sweet dessert cookies.  These are breakfast cookies, and a couple of them with a cup of coffee and some fruit made for a lovely start to the day.

Banana & Oat Breakfast Cookies

From Skinnytaste

Makes 12-18

Ingredients

  • 2 medium semi ripe bananas
  • 1 cup oats
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 to 1/3 cup roughly chopped nuts
  • 1/4 to 1/3 cup cranberries (or other dried fruit)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F
  2. Mash bananas until smooth.
  3. Mix in oats, cinnamon, nuts and fruit.
  4. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
  5. Bake for 15 minutes.

 

Revisiting Why I Blog and Browned Butter Oatmeal Cookies

With two kids to care for and a house to maintain, a lot of things in my life have become overlooked.  Showering, changing out of my pajamas before noon, exercising, reading, spending time with adults, feeding the dog and blogging.  I’ve been getting better with the kid blog after starting a photo a day project for 2013.  But Hottie Biscotti has been left in the dust.  Part of that is due to my time being dominated by being a mom.  How some women manage to run a business, look incredible, have immaculate homes, run marathons, home school their kids, make gourmet meals for their families and care for their children is beyond me.  But I’ve also been a little discouraged lately.  With so many beautiful food blogs out there I find myself feeling like there’s really no point in blogging everyday food from my suburban kitchen and posting iPhone photos.  I have a bad habit of comparing myself to others and really bumming myself out.  And that’s no way to live.

I am always amazed and flattered when someone I don’t know (or someone I DO know!) leaves a comment on the blog, but it’s not about that.  I do get excited when I have lots of hits or if someone has pinned something I made.  But it’s not about that either.  My recipes are rarely, if ever, original.  My pictures are mostly taken on automatic mode of my fancy camera or the iPhone.  I don’t have funny stories to tell or inspiring things to say.  So, why should I continue to blog?  When a friend or family member wants the recipe for something I can always point them in this direction.  It’s the best way for me to keep track of what I’ve made, if we liked it, if there were any changes I made or would make in the future.  It is my personal online cookbook.  And it’s a journal of my life.  I don’t keep a physical diary or journal, but when I include a little story with a recipe, like how I made something for some event when so and so was visiting I have memories attached to each post.   I can’t be concerned with how my writing, photos or food compare with other things out there.  If I base what I do on whether or not it’s popular or if people are impressed with it, I am putting myself up for serious disappointment.  So even though I’m never going to write a Hottie Biscotti cookbook or host a cooking weekend for 5 lucky winners, I am going to keep blogging.

Now.  On to the good stuff!

brownbutteroatmealcookies

Every night I need something sweet.  Need.  A little bowl of ice cream or a handful of chocolate chips is enough, but I would take a slice of cake or pie every night if I could.  Oh, and I’d eat that cake or pie with ice cream. And I might have seconds.  It’s a weakness.  A terribly delicious weakness.   I decided that I should take some time to do some therapeutic baking last week.  It had been a while.  It ended up being a little stressful.  At one point I was holding Betsy so that she wouldn’t cry while trying to stir my pot of browning butter so that it wouldn’t burn.  Holding Betsy on my left hip, as far away as possible from the stove, reaching out with my right arm to stir the butter.  After I finished the dough it sat on the counter for a good hour before I had a free moment to scoop it out onto a baking sheet.  Start to finish, I was working on these for a good 5 hours.  It won’t take you that long, unless you too have young children!

I found these to be really buttery and sweet.  Almost too buttery, almost too sweet.  But just almost.  These are good, rich and decadent for sure.  I would think you could scale back on the butter, 3 sticks seems like a lot to me, but browning it like this does make the butter have less mass/volume/some science term I should remember, so maybe you have to start with more in order to have enough in the final product?  I’m no food scientist.  I might mess around with that at some point.  In the original recipe (link below) he adds dried cherries and chocolate chips.  I threw a handful of cherries in when I had just a little dough left over, enough for about 5 cookies.  They were quite tasty, but the cherries are sweet.  Sweet cookie + sweet cherries = very sweet cookie.  Tart cranberries and bittersweet dark chocolate would be good, if you choose to mix in anything.  I liked them plain and simple.

Browned Butter Oatmeal Cookies

From macheesmo.com

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, browned
  • 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
  • 2/3 cups white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant kind)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

  1. Brown butter: In a medium sized saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat.  Once butter melts completely, keep an eye on it.  Do not leave the butter.  If it burns you’ll have to start over.  Stir gently and periodically as it goes through several stages, foaming up, then subsiding, then start to bubble.  You should begin to see little brown bits start to form.  Those are the tasty bits!  Stir to keep those bits from burning.  Things may start to happen quickly now and can go from perfectly brown to burnt in less than a minute.  So just keep stirring and swirling the pan until the butter is a rich amber color.  At this point, pour it into a heatproof bowl and let it cool to room temperature.  Then put it in the fridge until it is just firm.
  2. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  3. Transfer cooled butter to a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer.  Beat on high speed until creamy.
  4. Beat in the sugars and mix until fluffy.
  5. Add eggs one at a time and mix well, then mix in vanilla.
  6. Add in dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
  7. Scoop by rounded tablespoons onto parchment lined cookie sheets.
  8. Bake for 8-10 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks.

 

Honey Kissed Peanut Butter Cookies

When I go to bake a batch of cookies, I often find myself adding in other sweet things.  Instead of a basic chocolate chip cookie I make oatmeal, coconut, pecan, chocolate chip cookies.  Instead of simple shortbread I make these tasty treats.  But this time I decided to keep it truly simple.  Peanut butter cookies.  Just peanut butter.  Well, peanut butter cookies with a touch of honey.  I couldn’t help myself.

This recipe for Classic Peanut Butter Cookies is from the King Arthur Flour blog, Bakers Banter.  The cookie dough comes out dry and crumbly.  The recipe suggests adding the slightest bit of water at the end to make it more cohesive.  I added about a tablespoon of honey instead, which probably makes these cookies a little chewier than they would be otherwise.  The texture in the final product was really nice.  Crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy inside.

In hindsight, I am really glad I didn’t add chocolate chips or crushed pretzels to the dough.  It just isn’t up to the challenge of holding on to much more than itself.  I did try to stuff a few of these with a sweetened cream cheese (it worked wonders in these cookies) but it wasn’t very successful.  The crumbly dough didn’t hold together, and of the ones I did manage to form and bake, I wasn’t sure it was even worth the extra effort (or the extra calories).  So, stick to the basics here.  There’s a time and place for excess, and it is not here.

Butter is typically my fat of choice in cookies, but I did follow the recipe here and used shortening.  A note on the site says that you can substitute 1/2 cup of softened butter for the shortening, and that will produce a softer cookie.  The recipe does not call for rolling the cookies in sugar before baking, but I did it because I like the exterior to have that nice sugary coating that leaves a touch of crunchy, sweet sugar on your fingers.

Honey Kissed Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup vegetable shortening
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3/4 cup supermarket-style smooth peanut butter
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • extra granulated sugar for rolling (optional)

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.
  2.  Beat together the shortening, sugars, egg, vanilla, and peanut butter until smooth.
  3.  Add the flour, baking soda, and salt to the peanut-butter mixture, beating gently until everything is well combined. It may take awhile for this rather dry dough to come together; and when it does, it’ll be quite stiff. Drizzle in the honey and mix to combine.
  4. Drop the cookie dough by tablepoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets (a tablespoon cookie scoop works well here), leaving 2″ between them.
  5. If desired, roll into balls and then in granulated sugar and return to the baking sheet.
  6. Use a fork to flatten each cookie to about 1/2″ thick, making a cross-hatch design.
  7. Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, until they’re barely beginning to brown around the edges; the tops won’t have browned. Remove them from the oven, and cool on a rack.

 


Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is Jacques Torres’s secret recipe!  I found it on Martha Stewart, so it’s really no big secret.  In the summer of 2010 I went to visit my sister and her family in Brooklyn.  We stopped by the Jacques Torres shop in Dumbo and we got one of these cookies.  I think these have got to be among the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had.  The chocolate is in these thin layers thanks to chocolate pastilles, not chocolate chips.  You can find these online, at some grocery stores and baking shops.  This makes a huge difference. You get lots of chocolate in every single bite and it is melty, gooey and wonderful.  Pastilles are those big flat chocolate disks.  You’ve probably seen them.  They look like this.

Now, I will not claim to have duplicated the magic of Mr. Chocolate in my kitchen, but I did turn out some tasty cookies.  They would have been tastier if I’d gotten the chocolate I was supposed to get and hadn’t been distracted at HEB by Fabio.  That’s right.  Fabio from Top Chef, and me, and Carson.  We took a picture together.

I was almost done with my grocery list.  All I needed were a few more produce items and 1 pound block of the best chocolate HEB had to offer.  Then I found out Fabio was doing a cooking demo and in my haste to get everything I needed in time for Fabio, I forgot about it.  About 5 minutes after he started cooking Carson started getting pretty grumpy, so we had to check out and head home.  I had to go out later (in the pouring down rain, without an umbrella) to the store closer to us that didn’t have a great selection.  I wound up with some 60% cocoa chocolate bars, one bag of semi sweet and one of milk chocolate chips.

The recipe below is the full batch.  I made a half batch of the smaller sized cookies and wound up with somewhere around 50 larger than average size cookies.  I can’t imagine any occasion where you might possibly need to make a full batch, maybe a bake sale or if you’re making Christmas cookie plates for the neighborhood.  The half batch made a ton of cookies.

The recipe calls for pastry flour, but I used cake flour.  For the chocolate I used 8 ounces of chopped 60% cocoa chocolate, 4 ounces of semi sweet chips and 4 ounces of milk chocolate chips.  I let the dough sit overnight in the fridge.  I’ve heard that this lets the flour soak up more moisture and then there’s some scientific mumbo jumbo about letting the gluten strands relax which is said to create better texture.  Either way, these have wonderful chew, a terrific flavor and are dangerously addictive.  Be very careful if you make these and make sure to give lots of them away!

Jacques Torrres’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 pound unsalted butter
  • 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 3 cups plus 2 tablespoons pastry flour
  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 2 pounds Jacques Torres House (60 percent cocoa) Chocolate or other best-quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats; set aside.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Reduce speed to low and add both flours, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and chocolate; mix until well combined.
  3. Using a 4-ounce scoop for larger cookies or a 1-ounce scoop for smaller cookies, scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until lightly browned, but still soft, about 20 minutes for larger cookies and about 15 minutes for smaller cookies. Cool slightly on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Brown Butter Icebox Cookies

As often happens to me these days, I had the urge to bake, but not much to work with.  But if you have butter (and flour and sugar), you have everything you need!  I’ve expressed my love of brown butter before.  Brown butter has this nutty wonderful flavor and can transform a baked good or even a vegetable dish like these brussels sprouts.  Brown butter can turn something that is just so-so into something spectacular.

This shortbread-like cookie recipe comes from Gourmet.  Here is the link.  I didn’t change a thing about this recipe.  The resulting cookies were so deliciously buttery, crunchy, sweet and just the perfect touch salty.  I’m sad that they are almost gone.

The only tricky thing is browning the butter without burning it.  Just keep the heat moderate, stir consistently and take the pot off the heat when you start to get more and more browned bits.  Once the bits begin to brown the process speeds up, so watch it closely.  Just don’t let it burn or you’ll have to start over.  After you’ve browned the butter, let it cool in the fridge until it is solid, mine took about an hour and a half.  It doesn’t have to be hard like the stick of butter you took from the fridge, just not liquidy.  Does that make sense?

I liked the crunchy sugar on the edges of the cookies, but if you don’t have raw sugar on hand you can leave it out.  If you are going to use the sugar, cut about 1/3 of the log of raw dough, roll it in the sugar, pressing firmly.  Then slice into pieces for baking.  I found it was easier to roll parts of the log instead of the whole thing.  While a batch is baking, keep the rest of the dough refrigerated so it remains easy to slice.

Brown Butter Ice Box Cookies

From Gourmet.com

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/3 cup flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup raw sugar

Directions

  1. Cook butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it has a nutty fragrance and flecks on bottom of pan turn golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer butter to a bowl and chill until just firm, about an hour and a half.
  2. Beat together butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in vanilla, then mix in flour and salt at low speed until just combined. Transfer dough to a sheet of wax paper or parchment and form into a 12-inch log, 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Chill, wrapped in wax paper, until firm, at least 1 hour.
  3. Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Roll dough in raw sugar.  Slice dough into 1/4-inch-thick rounds, arranging 1 1/2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Bake until surface is dry and edges are slightly darker, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool.