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Baked Northwest

Category Archives: Desserts

Slice and Bake Sugar Cookies with ALL of the fillings!

15 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by BakedNorthwest in Baking, Cookies, Desserts, LuLu's Classics

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Tags

candied ginger, cranberry, Dried Cranberries, ginger, orange, orange zest, Slice and Bake, sugar cookies, White Chcolate

Slice and Bake

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?

Slice and Bake

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!

Slice and Bake

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!

Slice and Bake

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.

Halloween Brownie Sugar Cookies

25 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by BakedNorthwest in Baking, Cookies, Desserts, Holidays

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Brownie Cookies, Chocolate Sugar Cookies, Halloween, sugar cookies

Halloween Brownie Sugar Cookies

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 →

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies with Maple Frosting

30 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by BakedNorthwest in Baking, Cookies, Desserts, Holidays, LuLu's Classics

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Tags

fall, Halloween, maple, pumpkin, pumpkins, sugar cookies

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

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!

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies with Maple Frosting

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:

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • ½ cup canned pumpkin
  • 4 cups flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • ½ tsp. baking soda
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (can sub cinnamon)

For the Maple Frosting:

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup maple syrup
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons milk (nonfat is fine)
  • orange food coloring, or a mix of red + yellow food coloring (optional)
  • Black tube frosting (we used store bought, and this is totally optional. If your decorating skills are like mine you may want to skip this).

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!

Zucchini Pound Cake

17 Thursday Sep 2015

Posted by BakedNorthwest in Baking, Bloggerific, Breads, Desserts

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

bundt cake, bundt pan, cream cheese, Joy the Baker, pound cake, zucchini

Zucchini Cake

In terms of recipes, we have a lot of options these days. I think it’s safe to say we probably have too many recipes available to us…it can be very daunting. Regardless of reviews, you really never know how something is going to turn out until you make it and taste it for yourself.

Zucchini Cake

Continue reading →

Fruit Pizza

31 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by BakedNorthwest in Baking, Cookies, Desserts

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

august, big cookie, blackberries, blueberries, Cream Cheese Frosting, fruit pizza, kiwis, mandarin oranges, strawberries, sugar cookie, Sugar Cookie of the Month

Fruit Pizza

Fruit pizza is something I have been wanting to experiment with for a long time. Our classic sugar cookie recipe works great for individual cookies, but would it work as one large cookie? I rolled the dough out into one large (and very imperfect) circle, threw it on a pizza sheet and hoped for the best.

Fruit Pizza

I wasn’t sure if this “experiment” had worked, as the cookie came out browned around the edges and the top. Was it going to be way too crispy? After it cooled I spread on some cream cheese frosting, then layered on some tasty fruit. Continue reading →

Watermelon Sugar Cookies

23 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by BakedNorthwest in Baking, Cookies, Desserts, LuLu's Classics

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

green, June, Pink, Sugar Cookie of the Month, sugar cookies, summer, Watermelon, Watermelon Sugar Cookies

Watermelon Sugar Cookies

We are already halfway through the year! So far, I’ve had no regrets on my decision to do a new riff on my favorite sugar cookie recipe each month. Well, minus the chocolate sugar cookies which will surely reappear again in the next six months. I’ve been waiting all year to make these easy summery watermelon sugar cookies. No special flavors, just some food coloring and chocolate sprinkles to show you really can eat sugar cookies whenever you want!

Watermelon Sugar Cookies

I can’t take full credit for this idea, I’ve seen watermelon sugar cookies at the store and all over Pinterest, and in many different creative and cute forms. My version can be filed under “easiest possible way” as they are just round sugar cookies with some pink frosting and chocolate sprinkles (although mini chocolate chips would also work great here). Part of my goal to make a new sugar cookie every month this year was to tackle easy and approachable ways to decorate the cookies – pastry arts can often be frustrating and difficult for me. I’m trying to show myself (and whoever chooses to read this blog) that there are tons of ways to make cute cookies without making royal icing (which omg is def not nearly as good as buttercream frosting).

Watermelon Sugar Cookies

Continue reading →

Eton Mess

19 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by BakedNorthwest in Desserts, Easy, Entertaining

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Cook the Cover, Eton Mess, limoncello, meringues, raspberries, whipped cream

Eton Mess

The Eton Mess is one of the easiest desserts on the planet, AND it can look totally messy and you don’t have to worry about it, because it’s already in the name and it’ll taste good no matter what! As you can see, I spilled all over my serving tray and everyone managed to survive…

Eton Mess with my favorites

This recipe also kicks off one thing I have always wanted to do – “Cook the Cover” of all of my favorite cookbooks! As you can see above, we are clearly channeling the cover of Ina Garten’s “How Easy Is That?” cookbook. And clearly Ina’s desserts had a little more cream in them than fruit…Oops! But hey, it’s a fun project, and strangely enough, I don’t think I have ‘cooked the cover’ of any of my other cookbooks. I mean, the recipe on the cover of a cookbook HAS to be delicious and foolproof, right?

IMG_0385 Continue reading →

Chocolate Sugar Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

08 Friday May 2015

Posted by BakedNorthwest in Baking, Cookies, Desserts

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Brownie, chocolate, Cream Cheese Frosting, Roll Out Cookies, sugar cookies

Chocolate Sugar Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

We are on month five of my year of Sugar Cookies! This month I was ready to change things up a bit. I have been waiting to share this recipe for Chocolate Sugar Cookies for quite some time – it’s a classic that you’ll make again and again. The chocolate sugar cookies are a great vehicle for so many different kinds of frosting. This month I was feeling some cream cheese frosting for the top. In the future, I would consider orange frosting, peppermint, chocolate, raspberry, the list goes on! You can easily change these up to be appropriate for almost any holiday. Continue reading →

Cadbury Mini Egg Sugar Cookies

04 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by BakedNorthwest in Baking, Cookies, Desserts, Eggs, Holidays, LuLu's Classics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Cadbury, cadbury mini eggs, Easter, Easter Candy, Easter Eggs, sugar cookies, Vanilla Bean

My April Sugar Cookie of the month was a tough call. Between Bunnies, Carrots, and pretty Easter Eggs, I had a lot of options on what to make!

Cadbury Mini Egg Sugar Cookies

Then, dangerously close to Easter, I realized I hadn’t yet purchased my FAVORITE Easter Candy in the entire World – Cadbury Mini Eggs. Then I thought…why not pay homage to my favorite Easter treat this year?

Mini Eggs

Thus, a very basic sugar cookie idea was born. The classic sugar cookie recipe, with the scrapings from a vanilla bean added to the frosting to try to get that speckled Cadbury Mini Egg look. I have gotten away with very basic cookie decorating for yet another month! Since there is no actual chocolate in this recipe, the cookies actually pair quite well with real Mini Eggs…Because cookies + candy together = no brainer. Especially on Easter!

Cadbury Mini Egg Sugar Cookies

Recipe
Cadbury Mini Egg Sugar Cookies
By Baked Northwest
Makes about 30 Egg-shaped sugar cookies (you will only use half of the cookie dough)

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 Frosting:

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
the scrapings from 1 vanilla bean (about 1/2 tsp)
about 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk (nonfat is fine)
Blue Food Coloring
Red Food Coloring
Yellow Food Coloring

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. 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 an egg-shaped 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, vanilla, vanilla bean, and 1 cup of the powdered sugar. Add milk and remaining sugar, alternately. Mix until smooth & creamy.

Divide frosting evenly into 4 bowls. Add a tiny drop of blue food coloring to one bowl, a tiny drop of red to one bowl, a tiny drop of yellow to another bowl, and leave the last bowl white, without coloring. Mix each bowl with a clean fork until combined and to desired Cadbury Mini Egg Colors. Mini Eggs aren’t very dark, so you do not need much food coloring. Frost the cooled cookies. 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!

Cadbury Mini Egg Sugar Cookies

Shamrock Sugar Cookies with Bailey’s Buttercream

17 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by BakedNorthwest in Baking, Cookies, Desserts, Entertaining, Holidays, LuLu's Classics

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bailey's, Bailey's Frosting, irish, march 17th, Shamrocks, st pattys, st. patrick's day, sugar cookies

Shamrock Sugar Cookies with Bailey's Buttercream

St. Patrick’s Day is near and dear my heart. Not only for me, but to my mom’s entire side of the family. No…we are not Irish…we just miss someone who was born on March 17th. While St. Patty’s Day is a great holiday when you are thinking about it in terms of Irish Beer, Whiskey, Bailey’s, potatoes, corned beef (gross), and soda bread, I am just quietly celebrating the birthday of one gone too long but most definitely not forgotten.

Grammy

These cookies and this blog exist because of Lois. Or, as I called her…Grammy. She was the best person and the best cook any of us knew, and I think about her every time I make her sugar cookies. I wish I could tell her I was making Shamrock Sugar cookies this year for her birthday, but instead of regular frosting I made ridiculous Bailey’s Irish Cream Frosting. I wish I could tell her I was making her cookies once a month for the entire year, for so many reasons other than the fact that they are the best damn cookies to ever come out of the oven.

Shamrock Sugar Cookies

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