Category: Cookies

Banana Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

 

 

 

 

Bananas fare poorly in our kitchen.  Perhaps we have improper air flow, or really need one of those banana hanger gadgets.  Either way, before I know it even the greenest of bananas turn spotted and brown on our counter top.  When I pass them, I swear they whisper that I’m a bad hostess.

I once asked Mike if a particularly leopard-looking bunch was a nonverbal request for banana bread, to which he replied, “no, but if you wanted to make some that would be nice.”  I thought about making banana bread with our uber-ripe bananas tonight, but then I flipped through a cookie book and found a sticky note, left by Mike, on the page with this recipe.  I suspect that adding a bit of peanut butter to the batter would make them even more enticing, so stay tuned for Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies in another post.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 12 tablespoons butter, slightly softened
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup thoroughly mashed very ripe banana (2 small bananas or 1 medium banana)
  • 1 cup old-fashioned oats
  • 1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Line several baking sheets with foil and spray with cooking spray.

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

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugars.

Add egg and vanilla and beat well.

Add flour mixture and banana and beat until combined.

Stir in oats and chocolate chips until well combined.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, drop cookies onto prepared baking sheets about two inches apart; you should have six cookies per sheet.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, until light golden brown all over and centers are almost firm when pressed.

Transfer baking sheet to a wire rack and allow to stand for 2-3 minutes to firm up slightly.

Transfer cookies from the baking sheet to another wire rack to cool completely.

Steamed Crab Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs with Vanilla Icing

 

 

 

 

 

The Great State of Maryland has played a huge role in my life.  My mom was born and raised there, and I chose Frostburg State University for college, married a Maryland boy, and lived there for a while before moving to DC.

Marylanders are proud of the Chesapeake Bay, its history, and its industry.  Mike can tell you, in great detail, about the pollution that led to a serious reduction in the crab and oyster populations in the 1980s, precipitating the “Save the Bay” initiative. Fortunately, Marylanders are environmentally-minded, and the bay is now a healthy source of tasty seafood, the most famous of which is the blue crab.

Crab feasts are social events, involving iced tea, beer, Old Bay, newspaper-covered picnic tables, and epic storytelling.   They last for hours and hours.  I had never eaten a crab until I met Mike, and his dad taught me how to whack the shell open with a mallet and extract the meat with a knife.  I admit that I had the patience for one crab-whacking only; to this day, I prefer my crab in cake form.

These crab cookies are dedicated to all of my favorite Marylanders.

You will need:

  • A crab-shaped cookie cutter
  • One double batch of Sugar Cut-Outs
  • One batch vanilla icing (see below)
  • Red and brown gel paste food coloring

Vanilla Icing

Ingredients

  • 6 tablespoons shortening
  • 2 egg whites
  • Pinch of salt
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1-2 teaspoons water

Preparation

Combine shortening, egg whites, salt, and 1 cup powdered sugar in a mixing bowl.  Beat well on medium speed for about one minute.

Add one cup of powdered sugar at a time, beating well on medium, then high speed for about one minute after each.

Add vanilla extract and beat well; if you want a thinner consistency, add one to two teaspoons of water and beat very well.

To create cookies:

Reserve a small portion of the icing to tint brown for eyes; tint remaining icing red.

Frost crab bodies red, then pipe on eyes.

Let icing harden for a few hours before storing; store between sheets of waxed paper in an airtight container.

Almond Clouds (gluten-free)

 

 

 

 

 

This weekend Mike and I are off to the Clarksville Picnic in my mom’s hometown of Clarksville, Maryland.  The picnic is one of the highlights of my year; it features the white elephant rummage sale, bingo, pony rides, games for kids, a bake sale, a quilt raffle (which my mom won three years ago, and that quilt is now on my bed) and a family-style fried chicken and baked ham dinner.

I love the picnic because it gives me a chance to hang out with my Maryland family, the descendants of the Feaga-O’Donnell clan.  The lynchpin is Aunt Liz, my mom’s twin sister. Yes, my mom has a twin.  And no, you cannot get a word in edgewise when they’re together.

Anyway…Aunt Liz is the youngest of the six O’Donnell kids, and her home, Glyndon, is the center of my Maryland universe.  Tucked into a corner of Montgomery County that hasn’t been developed to death, Glyndon is a classic white colonial with black shutters, a wood stove, and a dog pen that’s been home to many faithful mutts over the years.

Aunt Liz puts on meals like nobody’s business.  Her Thanksgiving dinners are legendary, her breakfasts the stuff of myths.  She’s an excellent cook and baker, but she was diagnosed with Celiac Disease a few years ago.  After mentioning some almond cookies she liked that she’d gotten at an allergy-free store, I decided to go on the hunt for a gluten-free almond cookie that I could make on my own, and I found this one.

Aunt Liz proclaimed it the best cookie she’d ever eaten in her life.  The highest of praise, indeed.

Ingredients

  • 10 ounces almond paste
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • Powdered sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325.

Line three baking sheets with parchment paper.

Break up almond paste into pieces.

In a mixing bowl, combine almond paste, sugar, and salt until uniformly crumbly.

Gradually add egg whites until dough is smooth and paste-like.

Add almond extract and beat well.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto prepared sheets, leaving ample room in between; I bake six cookies per sheet.

Using a small sieve, generously dust each cookie with powdered sugar.

Bake for 20-22 minutes, until edges are light golden brown.

Cool for several minutes on baking sheets, then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

Dust with more powdered sugar if desired.

Peanut Butter Cookies

My mom Genny will be the first to admit that she’s not Betty Crocker.  She certainly bakes with Betty’s help though, employing boxed mixes or pouches that require only an addition of eggs and water to produce whatever cookie, cake, or treat she wishes to make.

Genny’s recipe for peanut butter cookies involves a box of yellow cake mix, peanut butter, a few eggs, and probably some oil.  I’m not sure where she got this recipe, or why cake mix is involved, but it turns out a pretty tasty cookie.  Especially when a Hershey’s Kiss is plopped in the middle.

The recipe below yields a classic homemade peanut butter cookie and isn’t meant for the Hershey’s Kiss; that recipe requires a slightly sturdier dough made with shortening and a different quantity of flour.  If you want to get creative with this recipe, try pressing some milk chocolate chips into the tops of these cookies when they are right out of the oven.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter, slightly softened
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/4 cups flour
  • Granulated sugar, for rolling

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine butter and peanut butter; beat on medium speed for 30 seconds.

Add sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and baking powder; beat until combined.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the egg and vanilla; beat until combined.

Add flour and beat until combined.

Using a one-inch cookie scoop, scoop out dough and roll into balls, then roll in granulated sugar.

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart, then press a crisscross pattern into the top of each cookie with a fork.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until just golden brown. The centers of the cookies should still be puffy and look somewhat raw; that’s okay, as they’ll continue to bake as they cool on the baking sheets.

Cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Pecan Rugelach

 

 

 

 

 

I think Millie, our dog, is Jewish.   She enjoys challah, the Shabbat bread, and rugelach, a traditional Ashkenazic Jewish pastry.  I discovered her fondness for rugelach after I’d baked a batch for my dear friend Carrie, to celebrate her son’s baptism.  Carrie and I are both Catholic with non-Catholic husbands, and we have interesting conversations about faith.

The day before the baptism the best-looking cookies sat on a platter, wrapped in plastic, on our dining room table.  Not giving the table-to-dog height ratio a second thought, Mike and I went out to dinner.  When we returned, the plastic wrap had been peeled off, about four cookies remained, and Millie stood in the hallway guiltily licking crumbs from her nose.  Fortunately, the other half of the batch had been packed safely in a tin, so those were the cookies that made it to the baptism.

Rugelach are not for the faint of heart, or those who cannot abide a chaotic kitchen.  They require a serious commitment of time, employ various baking techniques and appliances, and will create a gigantic mess on your counter tops. In the end, though, they are worth it.  This batch is intended for Carrie and her family, who I hope can make it to Pittsburgh tomorrow for Memorial Day.

Ingredients

For the dough:

  • 2 1/3 cups flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup butter, cut into chunks and slightly softened
  • 8 oz. cream cheese, cut into chunks and slightly softened
  •  zest of 1 small lemon
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the filling:

  • 2 1/4 cups pecans, toasted and cooled
  • 3/4 cup apricot preserves
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

You will also need powdered sugar for rolling and sprinkling on the cookies.

Preparation

Begin with the dough, as follows:

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

In a mixing bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, lemon zest, and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.

Add flour mixture and beat until well combined.  You may need to knead your dough very slightly to get all of the bits of flour at the bottom of your mixing bowl to incorporate it fully.

Divide dough in half, shape into balls, then flatten into discs.  Wrap in plastic and chill for 1 1/2 hours, until firm but not hard.

When the dough is ready to work with, begin to make the filling, as follows:

In a food processor, combine preserves, honey, and cinnamon and pulse a few times until smooth.

Add pecans and process until coarsely ground.

Transfer filling to a large, four-cup glass measuring cup so you’re able to divide it evenly among the dough.  You should have about two cups of filling.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

To assemble the cookies:

Sprinkle a clean counter top heavily with powdered sugar.

Roll one disc of dough into a 12-inch circle – don’t worry if it’s not completely round.  Dust with more powdered sugar and turn frequently to ensure the dough doesn’t stick to the counter.

Spread half of the filling over the circle to within one-quarter inch of the edge.

Using a pizza cutter, cut dough into quarters, then cut each quarter into five or six wedges, depending on the size of the quarter.  Your wedges do not have to be perfectly uniform in size; if I have some that are larger than others, I bake the larger ones toward the back of the oven, because my oven is hotter in the back.

Beginning with the outer edge, firmly roll up each wedge and place on a prepared baking sheet, then dust generously with powdered sugar.

Bake for 18-21 minutes, until lightly golden brown on the top.

Cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Vanilla Cream Filling

 

 

 

 

 

As far as store-bought cookies go, I’m pretty loyal to the Nutter Butter and the Double Stuf Oreo. Regular Oreos don’t have quite enough filling for my preference, though I’ll certainly eat them.  This cookie is like a homemade Oreo on steroids; you can certainly make them smaller, using a one-inch cookie scoop if you prefer.  Someday soon, I’ll devise a recipe for a homemade Nutter Butter.

Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups flour
  • 3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar, plus more for flattening cookies
  • 10 tablespoons of butter, softened
  • 1 large egg, room temperature
  • Vanilla Cream Filling (see below)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar.

Add egg and beat well.

Slowly add the flour mixture, beating until combined.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets.

Pour about 1/4 cup of sugar in a small bowl.  Butter the bottom of a glass and dip it in the sugar, then press each ball of dough to flatten.  You will need to re-butter the glass several times; if the glass sticks to the dough after flattening, gently peel the dough away with a knife.

Bake for 10 minutes, rotating baking sheets halfway through.

Cool completely before filling and sandwiching.

Vanilla Cream Filling

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup shortening
  • 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat together butter and shortening.

Add powdered sugar in small batches, beating until combined.  Once all sugar is incorporated, beat on medium speed for two minutes

Add vanilla and beat to combine.

Using a one-inch cookie scoop, drop scoops of filling onto half of the cookies.  Spread filling to the edges, then top with another cookie.

 

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

 

 

 

 

 

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania boasts a proud history.  America’s Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence here.  President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address here.  Steelworkers forged the materials that built much of America here.  And in 1923, H.B. Reese invented a most outstanding confection, the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, right here in Hershey, PA.

Similar to the peanut butter blossom, that Christmastime favorite peanut butter cookie topped with a Hershey’s Kiss, the peanut butter cup cookie is a peanut butter dough baked in a mini muffin tin, then pressed with a miniature peanut butter cup.  I first heard of this cookie a while back, but only started baking them in the past few years.  They are highly popular – a favorite among family and friends – so make sure you save a few for yourself.

Ingredients

  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • ½ cup peanut butter
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ½ cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 ¼ cups flour
  • ¾ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 large bag Reese’s Miniature Peanut Butter Cups

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line two 24- cup mini muffin tins with paper liners.

Unwrap 48 peanut butter cups and place in a bowl in the refrigerator, to keep cool while dough is baking.

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

In another small bowl, combine sugars; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and peanut butter together until combined.

Add sugars and cream until combined.

Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined.

Add flour mixture and beat until combined; your dough should be soft, but easy to roll into balls.

Roll dough into small balls, less than one inch in size, and place in lined muffin tins.

Bake 10-12 minutes, until puffy and light golden brown.

Remove from oven and immediately press one peanut butter cup in the center of each cookie.

Cool completely in tins, away from the oven so the chocolate can set.

Oatmeal Cookies

 

 

 

 

 

In the history of the world, there have been many important questions.  Should we declare our independence?  Should we invade Normandy?  Should we put raisins in the oatmeal cookies?

To this critical question, I answer emphatically, no.  Most definitely not.  Why ruin a perfectly good cookie with shriveled fruit?  If you must put something in your oatmeal cookie, put chocolate chips, for goodness sake.  Even butterscotch chips.  But not raisins, please.  Many times, I’ve come upon what I thought was a chocolate chip cookie that turned out to be oatmeal raisin.  This is one of life’s great disappointments.

My friend Alex requested that I make oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies once, and I complied.  And someday, if I own my own bakery, they’ll be on the menu as “the Alex.”  You can be sure, though, that I’ll never eat one.

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 14 tablespoons butter, softened
  • ¾ cup packed brown sugar
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups old-fashioned oats

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugars.

Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.

Add flour mixture and beat until combined.

Stir in oats, one cup at a time.

Drop by rounded tablespoons (or using a 2-inch cookie scoop) about two inches apart.

Bake 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.

Cool for 1-2 minutes on cookie sheets, then cool completely on wire racks.

Sugar Cut-Outs: Rabbits

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Easter!  For this cookie recipe, please see sugar cut-outs.

Decoration

  • Single recipe Zella’s icing
  • Brown gel food coloring
  • Blue liquid or gel food coloring
  • Pink flower-shaped sprinkles

Prepare icing and reserve about 1/4 cup for white and blue details.

In your mixing bowl, tint icing brown using gel food coloring.

Frost rabbit bodies brown, leaving the tails bare.

Fit a pastry bag (or sandwich-sized plastic bag) with a large star tip; fill with small portion of white icing and pipe on tails.

Replace the star tip with a plain round tip and pipe a small circle for the eye.

Tint remaining icing blue; fit a pastry bag or sandwich-sized plastic bag with a small round tip and pipe on eye detail.

Press one pink flower-shaped sprinkle on each rabbit for the nose.

Allow icing to harden before storing.

 

 

Raspberry Almond Shortbread

 

 

 

 

 

Shortbread is a great cookie, and this thumbprint version is very easy to make, despite its somewhat fancy appearance.  The dough is basic; you could probably use any flavor jam or preserves for the thumbprint, and the almond glaze is optional.

Shortbread

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • ½ teaspoon almond extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup seedless raspberry jam
  • Almond glaze (see recipe below)

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat butter on medium speed for 30 seconds.

Add granulated sugar and ½ teaspoon almond extract and beat until combined.

Beat in flour.

Cover and chill dough for about one-half hour, until easy to handle.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place raspberry jam in a small bowl and stir it slightly to make it easier to spoon.

Shape dough into one-inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet about two inches apart.

Use your thumb to make an indentation in the center of each cookie.

Spoon about one-half teaspoon of jam into each indentation, filling it completely.

Bake 10-14 minutes, until edges are light golden brown.

When completely cool, drizzle with almond glaze.

Almond Glaze

Ingredients

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2-3 teaspoons water
  • 1 ½ teaspoons almond extract

Preparation

In a medium bowl, combine powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon water, and almond extract.

Add enough of the remaining water to make a drizzly consistency.

Drizzle over cookies and allow glaze to harden before serving.