14 Tuesday Feb 2017
I originally saw these cookies in a Christmas issue of Southern Living but instantly wanted to make them with heart cutouts for Valentine’s Day. Our homemade strawberry jam is the perfect shade of red for a Vday Heart. And of course, nothing says “I Love You” like PB&J (unless you are allergic to peanut butter. Then don’t make these). Continue reading
14 Saturday Jan 2017
Posted in Baking, Cookies, Desserts, Easy, Entertaining
I am very thankful that I married someone who has family in the south. There are certain things I would have no idea about, such as boiled peanuts, sweet tea, Alabama white sauce, and Chess Squares. Good gracious, Chess Squares. Quite possibly one of the easiest and most decadent recipes I’ve ever made. Continue reading
28 Saturday May 2016
Posted in Baking, Cookies, Desserts, Entertaining
This is one of those desserts that you see on a lot of restaurant menus, because who doesn’t love a giant chocolate chip cookie? When I found Ned Ludd’s beloved skillet cookie recipe, I knew this was the one I wanted to try at home. The cookie gets nice and browned on the top, and you’ll think maybe it’s overbaked, but the crust crackles and below the chocolate chunks almost melt into the entire cookie making for a gooey, decadent dessert. Ice cream on top to contribute to the melty-gooey factor is a must.
Recipe
The Skillet Cookie
Adapted from Ned Ludd
Makes one 10-inch cookie, serves 4-6 as a shareable dessert
Ingredients
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup white sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chunks (can use dark, semi-sweet, milk, or a combo)
Flake salt for finishing (optional)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until well combined, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg, salt, and vanilla extract, and continue beating until combined. Add the flour and the baking soda and mix until just incorporated. Using a spatula, fold in chocolate chunks.
Flatten the dough inside a 10-inch skillet. It may seem like all of the dough won’t fit, but press it down until it’s nice and spread out, it will bake up nice! Bake for 27 – 30 minutes, or until the center is just set. Remove from oven and sprinkle with flake salt, if desired. Serve with a few scoops of vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce. Enjoy!
18 Wednesday May 2016
Last year was the year of the sugar cookie for me. I managed to make a new sugar cookie recipe every month, and man, it was fun. One of the best experiments was making a giant fruit pizza. It received a lot of rave reviews. When it was requested again, I thought maybe I could improve on it by making individual cookies. Any fruit can be used, but Strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries make for a great Memorial Day or 4th of July treat. The updated ginger-mascarpone frosting doesn’t hurt either.
Recipe
Mini Fruit Pizza’s
By Baked Northwest
Makes about 4 dozen round 3-inch cookies
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
½ cup sour cream
4 cups flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp nutmeg
For the Mascarpone Cream Cheese Frosting:
12 ounces mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp heavy cream (can use milk in a pinch)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup minced crystallized ginger (optional)
For the Fruit Topping:
6 ounces fresh strawberries, cut into fourths (or bite sized pieces)
6 ounces fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained
6 ounces fresh blackberries, rinsed and drained
other fruits that are fun to use: kiwi, canned and drained mandarin oranges, raspberries, etc.
Directions
For the Cookies:
In a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla, mix thoroughly. Add sour cream, mix thoroughly.
Sift together flour, salt, soda, baking powder and nutmeg. Add to butter mixture in
two parts and mix thoroughly.
Divide the dough into two parts and wrap each in wax paper. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
On a clean, floured surface, roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Roll the dough so it’s about 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick, and use your favorite cookie cutters to cut out shapes of the dough. For these cookies, I used the top of a stemless wine glass to cut out perfect circles. Use a cookie spatula (better known as a pancake flipper) to move your cookies from the floured surface to a well greased baking sheet. Ungreased silicone baking sheet liners work great here too.
Bake the cookies at 400 degrees F for 8 minutes. You never want them to get too browned around the edges, or they’ll be super crunchy. We like ours on the softer side. Baking time depends on what shapes you cut your cookies into – we have adjusted baking times from 8-12 minutes depending on the size of our cookies. Let cool completely before frosting.
For the Frosting:
In an electric mixer, beat the mascarpone, cream cheese, powdered sugar, cream, vanilla, and salt together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the crystallized ginger, if using, and beat for another 30 seconds until fully combined.
Frost the cooled cookies and add the washed and sliced fruit in whatever kind of design you choose. Have fun with it and enjoy!
17 Tuesday May 2016
This is the cookie recipe I have been waiting for. I knew it was out there, but I hadn’t had a double chocolate chip cookie since the days of the middle school snack bar. It’s a dangerously easy recipe that you can throw together before any party, picnic, or potluck. I am currently wondering if I will ever make another cookie or brownie recipe again, since these little babies are the best of both worlds.
Recipe
Double Chocolate Cookies
Adapted from Trisha Yearwood
Makes about 3 dozen cookies
Ingredients
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cocoa powder
6 ounces chocolate chips (milk, semi-sweet, or dark are all good choices)
6 ounces white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts, such as pecans or walnuts (optional)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until fully combined, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix to combine. Add the vanilla and mix. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt and mix. Add the white and chocolate chips; mix until just combined. Fold in the nuts, if using.
Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto the baking sheets. Bake, rotating the sheets once halfway through, until the cookies are set, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining dough.
02 Tuesday Feb 2016
Tags
chocolate, Cornflakes, cranberries, cranberry, Crisps, orange, peanut butter, peanuts
Plan on every post on this blog starting with “When I was pregnant…” for awhile. Now that Quinn is out in the world and I’m feeling better, I want to try to post all the things I wanted to when I was too tired to do anything. You would think I would be saying that AFTER baby, but man, I’m convinced being pregnant was like having mono. No matter how little sleep I get I still feel better than the days I got home from work and could only manage eating a PB&J or cornflakes.
Speaking of cornflakes, I had a craving for a bowl of them when I was pregnant. That craving lasted for exactly one bowl. Of course, I bought the HUGE box of cornflakes. I don’t think any other cereal comes in a box so big. So…I’ve had some cornflakes I’ve been needing to do something with for way too long.
What’s the best thing to do with cereal? Make it into something even more unhealthy, of course! I had so many cornflakes I was able to make 2 batches of chocolate crisps inspired by Ina’s “English Chocolate Crisps.” For the first batch, chocolate, orange, and cranberry were perfect together. But then I realized that Chocolate and Peanut butter was kind of a no-brainer too. The process can get a little messy and each batch turns out slightly different. Above are the peanut crisps and below are the chocolate-orange crisps. I was able to get the orange ones into balls better and the peanut butter ones were a little harder to mold. Regardless of the messiness, these no-bake snacks are still super easy and worth it. It’s a great way to get a nice little hit of chocolate goodness without having too feel too guilty.
Recipe
Chocolate Crisps, 2 Ways
Makes 2 dozen medium-sized crisps
Adapted from Ina Garten’s Make It Ahead
Chocolate-Orange Crisps
Ingredients
Directions
Chop the dark chocolate (if you aren’t using dark chocolate chips) and place into a double boiler. Add the bittersweet chocolate chips, the orange zest, and orange juice and stir until smooth. Alternately, you can place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals, stopping to stir until chocolate is melted.
Place the cornflakes and dried cranberries in a medium bowl and stir to incorporate the cranberries. Immediately fold in the melted chocolate with a rubber spatula, working quickly so the chocolate doesn’t harden.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Working with 2 large spoons or soup spoons, spoon mounds of chocolate onto the paper. This gets a little tricky since everything doesn’t quite stick together, but try to get the mounds clumped together. It’s messy, but the chocolate will harden in the fridge! Make about 2 dozen, 2-inch round crisps.
Refrigerate crisps until hardened, at least 1 hour.
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Crisps
Ingredients
Directions
Place chocolate chips into a double boiler. Add the peanut butter and stir until smooth. Alternately, you can place the chocolate and peanut butter in a heatproof bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals, stopping to stir until chocolate is melted.
Place the cornflakes, dried cranberries, and peanuts in a medium bowl and stir to incorporate everything. Immediately fold in the melted chocolate and peanut butter mixture with a rubber spatula, working quickly so the chocolate doesn’t harden.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Working with 2 large spoons or soup spoons, spoon mounds of chocolate onto the paper. This gets a little tricky since everything doesn’t quite stick together, but try to get the mounds clumped together. It’s messy, but the chocolate will harden in the fridge! Make about 2 dozen, 2-inch round crisps.
Refrigerate crisps until hardened, at least 1 hour.
21 Monday Dec 2015
I can’t believe we are here! The last installment of 2015’s “Sugar Cookie of the Month.” I kind of went the easy way out here since I just had a baby and all (I’ll probably be using this excuse for awhile) but these cookies are still festive and delicious!
Once again we are using the chocolate sugar cookie base I used for my Halloween cookies and for May’s cream cheese frosted cookies. Then we are adding some crushed candy canes and calling it good! Continue reading
15 Sunday Nov 2015
Posted in Baking, Cookies, Desserts, LuLu's Classics
Tags
candied ginger, cranberry, Dried Cranberries, ginger, orange, orange zest, Slice and Bake, sugar cookies, White Chcolate
After a few disastrous cookie decorating experiences, I vowed that my last sugar cookies of 2015 would be really low maintenance – aka no piping or pastry art required. Then I thought, do you even have to roll out the dough with this cookie recipe? What if we added fun ingredients to the dough instead of making frosting?
Enter my fall-themed slice and bake sugar cookies – white chocolate, dried cranberries, candied ginger, and a touch of orange zest. I was SO happy with the end result. It turns out this classic sugar cookie recipe works great as a “slice and bake” cookie palette as well. For someone like me who will leave sugar cookie dough in the freezer for months just to avoid the task of rolling out the dough then decorating the cookies, this may be a much better way to go in the future. With this new take on sugar cookies, all you have to do is be patient waiting for the dough to chill, then you slice and bake and you are DONE!
I wanted these cookies to feel somewhat festive, and I thought adding white chocolate, dried cranberries, candied ginger and orange zest was a good way to go. They are reminiscent of the “cranberry bliss” flavor that is popular this time of year. In the future, I’ll definitely be trying different flavors!
Recipe
Cranberry Orange Slice and Bake Sugar Cookies
By Baked Northwest
Makes about 4 dozen small cookies
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
½ cup sour cream
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp nutmeg
4 cups flour
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped candied ginger
1 tbsp. grated orange zest
Directions
In a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla, mix thoroughly. Add sour cream, mix thoroughly.
Sift together flour, salt, soda, baking powder and nutmeg. Add to butter mixture in
two parts and mix thoroughly. Fold in the white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, candied ginger and orange zest.
Divide the dough into two round logs and wrap each in wax paper. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Remove and unwrap the dough, and with a sharp knife, slice cookies about 1/2 inch thick. Place cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Bake the cookies at 400 degrees F for about 10-12 minutes. You never want them to get too browned around the edges, or they’ll be super crunchy. We like ours on the softer side.
25 Sunday Oct 2015
At this point in the game, I’m convinced sugar cookie decorating will never be my forte. Back in January, when I first dreamed up the idea of one sugar cookie per month during 2015, I had the fantasy that with practice, I would become an expert cookie decorator. We are ten months in, and all I can manage is little orange dots on these Halloween cookies. They are still pretty cute, but you should see the test cookies…the final ones only amounted to little frosting dots for a reason. I think I’ve finally learned that I may never grow to love cookie decorating. It always feels like so much pressure and I get so frustrated when the picture I have in my head does not translate from the frosting tip. Ultimately, I just want the cookies to taste good. So, round cookies with buttercream frosting may be my go-to from this day forward. And I’m okay with that. Continue reading
30 Wednesday Sep 2015
Posted in Baking, Cookies, Desserts, Holidays, LuLu's Classics
While my cookie decorating skills aren’t really getting any better with the sugar cookie of the month, I at least got to try out a fun experiment in altering the recipe: swapping out the sour cream for canned pumpkin. I’m happy to say…success!
These cookies have a very subtle hint of pumpkin and fall flavors along with maple icing. You can save these for Halloween, or skip the pumpkin shape and decorations altogether. As you know by now, I’d rather have a tasty cookie than a pretty one.
Recipe
Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
By Baked Northwest
Makes about 32 pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies (you will only use half of the cookie dough)
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
For the Maple Frosting:
Directions
For the Cookies:
In a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla, mix thoroughly. Add pumpkin, mix thoroughly.
Sift together flour, salt, soda, baking powder, nutmeg, and pumpkin pie spice. Add to butter mixture in two parts and mix thoroughly.
Divide the dough into two parts and wrap each in wax paper. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. For the amount of frosting we are making, you will only use half of the dough. You can freeze the 2nd batch of dough for another use, or just double the frosting recipe!
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
On a clean, floured surface, roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Roll the dough so it’s about 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick, and use your favorite cookie cutters to cut out shapes of the dough. For these cookies, I used a pumpkin cookie cutter. Use a cookie spatula (better known as a pancake flipper) to move your cookies from the floured surface to a well greased baking sheet. Ungreased silicone baking sheet liners work great here too.
Bake the cookies at 400 degrees F for 8 minutes. You never want them to get too browned around the edges, or they’ll be super crunchy. We like ours on the softer side. Baking time depends on what shapes you cut your cookies into – we have adjusted baking times from 8-12 minutes depending on the size of our cookies. Let cool completely before frosting.
For the Frosting:
Combine butter, salt, maple syrup, vanilla, and 1 cup of the powdered sugar. Add milk and remaining sugar, alternately. Mix until smooth & creamy. Add the food coloring to make the frosting orange, if using.
Frost the cooled cookies. If desired, decorate the pumpkins with fun jack-o-lantern designs. We used store bought black frosting for this, and it’s totally optional. Cookies keep well in the fridge for a up to a week, a few days at room temperature. Enjoy!
NOTE: I made a full recipe of the dough and only used half. This cookie dough freezes really well and can be saved for another use, or you can double the frosting recipe and go crazy and bake all of the cookies!
