‘Recipes’ Category

  1. White Chocolate Christmas Cookies

    December 12, 2012 by Mike

    christmas_tin_cookies_title

    A week or so ago I participated in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. I first heard about this cookie swap early last year, before I had a blog of my own, and it seemed like a lot of fun. I think subconsciously one reason I was motivated to start blogging was just to get a chance to participate in this event.

    The basic setup is this: you receive names of three other food bloggers and ship them each one dozen cookies. In return, you get three different shipments of cookies for yourself. Who doesn’t like getting packages in the mail? AND to have them be cookies? Win-Win.

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    Category: Cookies, Holidays, Recipes
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    26 Comments

  2. Fall Housewarming Cookies

    October 21, 2012 by Mike

    housewarming_cookies_title

    My sister, Elenna, called me a few days ago asking for a favor. She’s a realtor in Florida and one of her clients was closing on a house soon. My sister was wondering if I could make them a batch of cookies as a housewarming gift.

    Coincidently, I also have two Seattle friends closing on homes in the coming weeks. Making a cookie batch big enough for everyone could kill two three birds with one stone. The timing was perfect and let my sister know I’d come up with something.

    Looking for inspiration for this batch I just had to walk outside. The trees are changing to fiery shades, the sidewalks are blanketed with leaves, and the front porches in my neighborhood are decorated with pumpkins and autumn flair. I decided to create a Fall-themed housewarming batch inspired by all these Fall elements.

    Fall housewarming cookies on a plate

    To add to the “Fall”ness of this batch, I tweaked my usual, go-to roll-out recipe a tiny bit. I just made two simple changes– substituted half the quantity of granulated sugar with dark brown sugar and added a teaspoon of pumpkin spice for taste and looks.

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    Category: Cookies, Recipes, Roll-out Dough
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    16 Comments

  3. Chocolate Roll-Out Cookie Recipe

    February 10, 2012 by Mike

    chocolate_cookie_stack

    I’ve been scouring the Internet for a chocolate version of a sugar cookie and I think I can call off the search. I found an AMAZING recipe from Lila Loa. The dough bakes beautifully and tastes great! Best of all, the cookies hold their shape with barely any spreading.

    Ingredients

    • 1 c. butter
    • 1/4 c. shortening
    • 1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
    • 2 eggs
    • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
    • 3/4 tsp. baking powder
    • 2/3 c. cocoa podwer
    • 3 c. all-purpose flour

    Instructions

    1. In a mixer, cream together butter, shortening and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, and baking powder. Mix until it is all well incorporated.
    2. Add the cocoa powder in small amounts at a time, to the butter/sugar mixture until fully incorporated.
    3. Add the flour one cupful at a time, to the mixture.
    4. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes.
    5. Roll to 1/4 inch thickness and chill again before cutting into shapes.
    6. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

    Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

    I know some people out there are shortening-phobic. The recipe says you can leave it out if you want. However, I left it in and the cookies were softer and spongier than my basic sugar cookies. I’ve dropped some of these cookies (on the counter, not on the floor) while handling them and they held together nicely. (these cookies sure can take a beating!) I like to believe the shortening had something to do with softening the blow.

    This dough was great to work with. The consistency was smooth, which made cutting out shapes really easy.

    The cookies really hold their shape when baking. They remained nice and flat and had a great texture to them once they cooled off. This recipe will definitely be my go-to recipe when I want a darker background for my designs. You can tell from the pics that I’m gearing up for a Valentine’s themed batch. I’ll post the finished cookie in the next few days.

    Category: Recipes, Roll-out Dough
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    7 Comments

  4. Chocolate Chip Cookie Roll-out Recipe

    January 16, 2012 by Mike

    choc_chip_dough

    Chocolate chip is, by far, my favorite kind of cookie and I was excited to find a recipe for a delicious, roll-out version.

    (By the way, for those new to cookie-baking, when I mention a “roll-out recipe” I’m talking about a cookie recipe that is great for decorating because it (a) easily rolls out flat when using a rolling pin and remains flat after baking, and (b) keeps its cutout shape well after baking, too. On contrary, a “drop cookie” recipe is what I would consider the opposite. That’s when you bake spoonful-sized balls of dough and the resulting cookie is kind of puffy and round after baking. Just FYI.)

    Ingredients

    • 1 c. unsalted butter
    • 1/3 c. granulated sugar
    • 1/2 c. packed light-brown sugar
    • 1 large egg yolk
    • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
    • 1/2 tsp. salt
    • 2 c. all-purpose flour
    • 1 c. mini chocolate chips

    Instructions

    1. Cream together butter, both sugars, and salt in a mixer.
    2. Add vanilla and egg yolk and beat until mixed well.
    3. Add flour one cup at a time until incorporated.
    4. By hand, fold in the mini chocolate chips.
    5. Roll to 1/4 inch thickness and chill before cutting into shapes.
    6. Bake at 350 for 7-10 minutes. Remove from the oven before the first indication of the edges turning brown.

    Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

    A few things to note.

    The original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips, which I followed, but I think that is 1/2 cup too many. You can see from the pictures that there are A LOT of chips in that dough. Now, I love chocolate but that many chips made the dough too fragile. I changed the written recipe to only add 1 cup of chips (it is my reminder for next time).

    Because this recipe has chocolate chips, I recommend a sturdy cookie cutter to cut through those tough chunks. For this batch, I also carved out custom cookie shapes with a parrying knife but I found it to be quite difficult. If you are thinking about using custom cookie shapes that involve cutting them out by hand I would not recommend this type of dough.

    This batch is for some upcoming cookies I’m making that I will be posting about next. I think you can probably guess what the theme might be based on the cookie cutter pictured above. Be sure to check back soon.

    Category: Recipes, Roll-out Dough

    10 Comments

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