Category: Cookies

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Shortbread

How does one improve upon chocolate shortbread? One adds miniature chocolate chips, that’s how.

These treats are also bound for my dear friend Amanda out in California. In a recent Facebook exchange about my intent to bake for her, her husband Yannick requested chocolate. And so, along with Amanda’s Lemon Shortbread, the Lizé family will also receive Yannick’s Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Shortbread. I hope they enjoy the treats!

Ingredients

  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons Dutch process cocoa
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons flour
  • 1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Lightly grease an 8-inch round baking pan.

In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, salt, sugar, and vanilla, then add cocoa, baking powder, and flour and beat until well-combined. The dough will pull away from the sides of the pan when it’s ready; once it does, stir in the chocolate chips.

Press dough into the bottom of the baking pan, using the palm of your hand to flatten the dough as much as possible, then prick the dough all over with a fork.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the top appears set. Remove from oven and loosen the sides with a knife, then cool in pans for 5 minutes.

Carefully turn one shortbread round out onto a cutting board and cut into 16 wedges; place wedges on a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Amanda’s Lemon Shortbread

These lemon shortbread cookies are a new creation, made especially for my very dear friend Amanda out in California. You may remember Amanda from my post on Lady Liberty Cookies – we’ve been friends forever, and I hope these treats brighten her day. Her birthday is this month, and she’s having surgery soon – she has rheumatoid arthritis, a condition that’s way more complex than most people might imagine.

To create Amanda’s Lemon Shortbread, I took a basic shortbread recipe and added lemon in every way possible; zest and extract get mixed into the batter, then you roll the dough in lemon sugar (which is just sugar mixed with lemon zest). I hope she loves them!

Ingredients

  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons sugar, divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
  • zest of 1 medium lemon, divided
  • 5 ounces flour (1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup sugar and half the lemon zest. Stir with a fork to combine very well.

In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, 6 tablespoons sugar, salt, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and the remaining half of the lemon zest. Add flour and beat to combine; the dough will pull away from the sides of the bowl when it’s ready.

Using a one-inch cookie scoop, scoop generous portions and roll into balls, then dip in the lemon sugar. Place on baking sheets about 2 inches apart and flatten with the bottom of a drinking glass to about 1/4 inch thickness.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until edges and bottoms are golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for about 10 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days, or mail them to one of your very best friends in the whole world.

 

Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies

Look in almost any cookie book, and you’ll find a recipe for chocolate pinwheels. Until today, I’d never made them, but I’ve decided that I need to work my way through some classic recipes and see how they turn out. These smelled absolutely delicious while they baked and I’m pleased to say that they turned out very well.

The recipe below is very slightly adapted from one I found through Taste of Home, in their delightful book Cookies, Cakes, & Pies. I cut the original recipe, which yields six dozen cookies, in half for a smaller batch, and also added a bit of water to the recipe to help the dough come together.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups plus 6 tablespoons flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • Dash of salt
  • 8 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tablespoon water
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Preparation

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well to combine, then add vanilla and beat well.

Gradually add flour mixture, beating well to combine; dough will be slightly crumbly. Add water and continue beating until dough becomes smooth and easy to handle.

Divide dough into two portions; beat cocoa powder into one half and leave the other half plain.

Roll out each portion of dough between two sheets of waxed paper, making rectangles that are roughly 10 inches by 12 inches. If you have trouble getting your dough into a rectangle, simply fold the edges of the dough in to create the shape, then roll it out to smooth it.

Place each sheet of dough on a cookie sheet and chill for 30 minutes.

Place chocolate dough on your counter top and remove the top sheet of waxed paper. Remove waxed paper from plain dough and place it on top of the chocolate dough. Sprinkle very lightly with flour, then roll just a few times to help press the two dough sheets together.

Tightly roll up the dough on the long side, using the bottom sheet of waxed paper to help if necessary; this can help you move the dough without having it crack as you roll it.

Wrap dough in waxed paper or plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours, until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line three baking sheets with foil.

Slice dough into 1/4 inch slices and place about 2 inches part on the baking sheets. If the ends of your dough aren’t perfect spirals and have gaps between the layers (you’ll know what I mean when you see it), simply press those slices together to make a marbled log of dough, then slice that as well.

Bake for 10 minutes, until tops are set. Remove from oven and cool on the baking sheets for about 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Makes 30.

Caramel Apple Hamantaschen

This past weekend was the Jewish festival of Purim, and hamantaschen are the traditional Purim treat. I’ve made them before, in poppy seed, raspberry, and apricot varieties, but never really found a recipe that I loved.

Last week at work, my friend Inbal mentioned a recipe she’d seen for hamantaschen with apple filling, kind of like little cookie-sized apple pies. This sounded delicious to me, so I went in search of a recipe and found this one from Tori Avey. I adapted it slightly to use my own recipe for buttery hamantaschen dough, and Mike proclaimed these cookies the best hamantaschen I’ve ever made. While this filling isn’t like pie filling, it is absolutely delicious. Thank you, Inbal, for this great idea!

Ingredients

For the filling

  • 5 Granny Smith apples
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1/3 cup dulce de leche

For the dough

Note: Depending on the size of your food processor, you’ll need to make two separate batches of dough because all of the ingredients won’t fit (especially in a standard, 7-cup food processor like mine). 

Preparation

To make the filling:

Peel and core apples, then shred them into fine shreds using a hand grater or your food processor fitted with a shredding blade.

In a medium saucepan, combine water and sugar. Bring to a boil, then add apple shreds and cook on medium heat for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. The mixture will thicken and start to look like thick applesauce and will clump together when you stir it.

Remove from heat and stir in dulce de leche. Allow the mixture to cool, then chill for at least 1 hour before using. I chilled mine for a few days because I didn’t get a chance to make the dough until last night.

To make the cookies:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

Roll out dough to about 1/8 inch thickness and cut into 3-inch circles using a cookie cutter or drinking glass.

Place circles on your cookie sheet, and using the tip of your finger, lightly brush the edge of each circle with water; this will help the dough stick when you form the triangle.

Place about 1 teaspoon of filling in the center of each circle. Fold the bottom up, then fold in the two sides to make the triangle, gently pressing the corners of the triangle to close them and leaving just a bit of filling exposed.

Bake for 15-17  minutes, until cookies are a light golden brown.

Remove from oven and cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Makes about 48.

 

Buttery Hamantaschen Dough

Last night I tried a new recipe for hamantaschen dough, and it just didn’t work out. Fortunately I’d made a decent dough once before, and I realized that all it needed was a bit of orange juice to make it less crumbly and easier to handle. Since I’d already zested my orange, I just cut it in half, juiced it, and used the freshly squeezed juice in the dough as well.

The recipe below would make enough for about 24 cookies, cut with a 3-inch cookie cutter or drinking glass.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, cut into small pieces, softened
  • 2 egg yolks*
  • Zest of 1 large orange
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 ¼ cups flour, plus a few more tablespoons for kneading
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • About 1 1/2 tablespoons orange juice

*Not sure what to do with your leftover egg whites? Make almond clouds or cocoa meringues. 

Preparation

Combine butter, egg yolks, orange zest, flour, and salt in a food processor.

Pulse until dough comes together; it will be crumbly.

Add orange juice, about 1/2 tablespoon at a time, and pulse as best you can until the dough becomes smoother – at this point it will probably become difficult to pulse because it will have bunched up on one side of your food processor. That’s okay.

Scrape out the dough from your food processor bowl and turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Knead very gently, adding a few more tablespoons of flour, just until the dough comes together and is no longer sticky.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the freezer for 15 minutes before using.

Gold Coin Cookies

Basic cookie dough recipes, like the one below, offer great flexibility. You can tint the dough whatever color you like, add other flavors of extracts, roll it into a log for slicing and baking or roll it out for cutting, and decorate the finished product however you like.

I honestly can’t remember where I got this original recipe, but it’s incredibly easy to make and bake and came in very handy for my St. Patrick’s Day-themed gold coin cookies, which are destined for my goddaughter Maureen and her family along with some other loot. Be sure to chill your dough for at least two hours so it’s easy to slice.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Wilton Golden Yellow food coloring
  • Gold or yellow sugar sprinkles, for rolling (I used both)

Preparation

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until well-combined, scraping the sides of your bowl frequently.

Add flour in three batches, mixing well after each until a soft dough forms.

Add food coloring and tint to your desired shade.

Turn dough onto a very lightly floured surface and knead it slightly to make sure all of the food coloring is well-distributed and the dough is smooth. Roll into a 12-inch log.

Place sugar sprinkles on a rimmed baking sheet and carefully transfer the log onto the sprinkles, rolling it back and forth to coat.

Wrap log in plastic wrap, slide it onto a baking sheet, and chill for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with foil or parchment.

Remove log from fridge and discard plastic wrap. Slice into 1/4 inch slices and place on baking sheets about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until tops are set. Remove from oven and cool on baking sheet for about 4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Makes about 40 cookies.

Reese’s Pieces Cookies

reeses-pieces-cookiesReese’s Pieces, being made of peanut butter and a crunchy, non-chocolate candy shell, are among the few commercial candies that I can still eat on my migraine diet. This is excellent news, because I’ve always loved them.

What makes Reese’s Pieces even more delicious? When they’re miniature, and mixed into peanut butter cookie dough. While this original recipe from Hershey’s Kitchens used full-sized candies, I chose to go with miniatures because, well, I wanted there to be more of them in each cookie. The end result is delicious, though next time I’ll bake these cookies for a few minutes less than I did yesterday so they can stay a bit softer. Peanut butter cookies get dry when they’re baked even just a minute too long, and the cookies are a bit harder today than I’d like them to be…although this hasn’t stopped me from eating them, of course.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 8 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup miniature Reese’s Pieces candies (available in the baking asile)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter, egg, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy.

Add flour mixture and beat until a soft dough forms. Stir in candies.

Using a 1-inch cookie scoop, drop scoops of dough onto prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until cookies are set at the edges but still appear puffy in the middle. Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheets for about 3 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Makes 3 dozen cookies.

 

Chocolate Hearts

chocolate-heart-cookieI inherited some vintage cookie cutters from my grandma Zella, among them a scallop-edged heart with a red wooden peg handle. With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, it seemed appropriate to make chocolate hearts to send to my nephew Roman, who now lives in North Carolina.

Cookie cutters come in nearly every shape and size, for every occasion and holiday. My cookie cutters, of which there are dozens, live in a wonderful set of stackable drawer containers in one of my kitchen cabinets. I have all the basics, plus cutters for nearly every holiday, with some animals, dinosaurs, and other fun shapes like an umbrella and a teapot mixed in. Zella’s vintage heart is among my favorites, though.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 3/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 12 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 1 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation 

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract, beating until well-combined.

Slowly add flour mixture, scraping the sides of the bowl often and beating until a very well-combined, soft dough forms.

Gently knead the dough a few times to make sure it comes together; roll dough into a ball and flatten into a disc. Wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees; line three baking sheets with parchment or foil.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with a heart-shaped cookie cutter; if using different sizes of hearts, be sure to bake all of the same size on one cookie sheet. Baking different-sized or differently-shaped cookies on the same sheet can lead to uneven results; some of your cookies might be underdone while others will be overdone.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until edges are set. Remove from oven and cool on cookie sheets for 1-2 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 3 dozen, depending on the size of your cookie cutter.

Valentine Cookies

valentine-cookiesLooking for fun Valentine’s Day cookies for the kids in your life? Look no further. These slice-and-bake treats are a cross between shortbread and a sugar cookie, and can be tinted whatever color you wish. My goddaughter Maureen loves pink, and these are for her and her family.

If you don’t usually do slice-and-bake cookies, I have some suggestions to help with the process. Wrap your dough in plastic wrap, then slide it onto a baking sheet to chill. This will help the log from breaking or getting misshapen as you transfer it in and out of the fridge. Make sure your dough chills for at least two hours so it’s easy to slice; you can let it chill overnight if you like. As you slice, turn the log after every few slices. This keeps a flat edge from developing on one side. And, if you’re coating the cookies in sprinkles or nuts, remember that small sprinkles and finely-chopped nuts will coat the log better and be easier to slice through.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Pink (or red) food coloring
  • About half a 3-ounce bottle Wilton Micro Hearts sprinkles

Preparation

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until well-combined, scraping the sides of your bowl frequently.

Add flour in three batches, mixing well after each until a soft dough forms.

Add food coloring and tint to your desired shade.

Turn dough onto a very lightly floured surface and knead it slightly to make sure all of the food coloring is well-distributed and the dough is smooth. Roll into a 12-inch log.

Place sprinkles on a rimmed baking sheet and carefully transfer the log onto the sprinkles, rolling it back and forth to coat.

Wrap log in plastic wrap, slide it onto a baking sheet, and chill for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with foil or parchment.

Remove log from fridge and discard plastic wrap. Slice into 1/2 inch slices and place on baking sheets about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until tops are set. Remove from oven and cool on baking sheet for about 4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Makes 28

Lady Liberty Cookies

lady-liberty-cookiesMy friend Amanda and I have known each other for 25 years. We met freshman year of high school, and our mutual love of hockey bloomed into one of the most important friendships of my life. The hours we spent on the phone in high school probably funded AT&T throughout the 90s, and not a day goes by that I don’t wish we lived on the same side of the country (I’m in Pennsylvania, while she’s in California) so that we could actually see each other in person. Fortunately, Facebook and texting keep us closely connected, but sometimes I just wish I could sit in her living room with her, drinking tea, talking about everything and nothing.

Amanda is a remarkable woman, raising her son and daughter to be strong, independent thinkers just like she is. She’s also a fierce feminist just like me, so these cookies – named “Lady Liberty Cookies” by my equally feminist husband – are for her. I baked them in solidarity with her and with the millions of other women around the world who are fighting for equal rights, adapting them from The Essential Chewy Sugar Cookie from King Arthur Flour in honor of today’s Women’s March in Washington and various sister marches around the world.

I love you, Amanda! I could not be prouder to have such a strong and fantastic woman as my friend.

Ingredients

  • 12 tablespoons butter, slightly softened
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 2.25-ounce bottle pink sugar crystals

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

Place pink sugar crystals in a small bowl; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter on medium speed for about 1 minute; add sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and egg and beat until well-combined.

Add flour and beat to combine.

Using a 2-inch cookie scoop, scoop dough, roll into balls, and dip in sugar to coat completely.

Place cookies at least 2 inches apart on baking sheets; they will spread some when baking. I put 6 cookies per sheet, and that worked well.

Bake for 10 minutes, until edges are barely beginning to brown and centers still look puffy. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature (or pack them and mail them to one of your best friends ever).

Makes 22.