Low Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

As I mentioned previously, I've been trying to be "virtuous" lately when it comes to what I've been eating.  But I have to be honest - sometimes all I really want is a cookie.  A hint of salt to balance out the sweet, not too many chips - oatmeal in the batter is good.  Nuts are even better.

In the interest of virtue ... these cookies are OK.  They get the job done in satisfying my sweet tooth and I also appreciate the fact that they are "low fat" but don't contain any funky unpronounceable ingredients.  Would I make them again?  Maybe ... In the meantime, you can find the recipe here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Nothing says "love" like conversation hearts.  The sugar cookies are my grandma's recipe and the frosting is Alton Brown's Royal Icing.  The rest is pure snark.

And this one was suggested by my husband:

Inspired by this clip ...

Holiday Snickerdoodle Cookies

While there are several reasons why I married my husband (he's cute, he loves me, he puts up with the cat, etc.), I have a secret that I need to share with you.  You know how that adage goes, "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach?"  I think my mother-in-law might have tweaked it to say "the way to get a daughter-in-law is to send home treats with her single son to woo potential suitors."

I'll be featuring her cinnamon popcorn at some point during this holiday season.  (That's actually one of my most favorite things that she makes.)  But this is my second favorite recipe of hers that started as a holiday treat and has now been tweaked to make a year-round appearance in her cookie jar.

I think the recipe originally came from a Taste of Home magazine. What's brilliant about it is that you can change the coffee creamer used to fit the holiday season.  Gloria's used eggnog-flavored creamer in the winter months and uses French vanilla creamer at other times.  You could also use some of the pumpkin-flavored creamers around Thanksgiving and Halloween, etc.  These are also brilliant because they freeze brilliantly and a single batch makes about 100 cookies.

Holiday Snickerdoodle Cookies

½ c. butter-softened
½ c. shortening
2 c. sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. rum
½ c. evaporated milk
½ c. refrigerated French vanilla nondairy creamer
5 ½ c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda

Cream butter, shortening, and sugar.  Beat in egg and extract. Add milk and creamer.
Stir in flour, salt and baking soda.

Shape dough into 1 in. balls and roll in mixture of 5 T. sugar and ½ t. ground nutmeg or cinnamon.  (I used Penzey's Baking Spice.)  Flatten slightly with a fork.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  Let rest on the cookie sheet for about five to 10 minutes before removing to a rack to cool.

#GreatHallowTweet: Pumpkin Shortbread Cookies

There is only one word to describe these cookies.  And that word is: "da-a-a-a-a-a-a-mn."  If it were appropriate to catcall at a cookie, this would be the cookie that I would choose to harrass in such a fashion.  Because they are like eating pumpkin pie in a cookie form.  And I love pumpkin pie.  And cookies.  You can imagine why I am so transfixed.

I got this recipe from Recipe Girl, and although the recipe takes a little bit of pre-planning (you need to chill the dough for four hours or just overnight), I think it's well worth the wait.  Especially when you consider how gloriously simple these are.

Where have I been? (And a recipe for some kick ass cookies)

I do love to blog.  I love the people that I've gotten to know throughout the blogosphere.  I love trying new recipes and I love weekends where I wake up and wonder ... "what am I going to bake today?"

Well ... here's what has happened to me this summer.  My gorgeous hubby and I decided to go on a bunch of roadtrips.  Over Labor Day weekend, we had a baby shower to go to for our future niece.  I don't know what she's going to be named, but I like to refer to her as Sweet Pea.  We've spent some great nights with old friends drinking a lot of wine.  I've participated in a couple of 5Ks (that balances out my wine drinking) and even helped organize one.  We've driven to many places in the Midwest.  We've just had a lot of fun.

We celebrated summer's last hurrah recently with some of our family in Wisconsin.  No, I'm not technically related to these people, but as far as I'm concerned - my dear friends Sharon and Weeve are my sisters.  Sharon's folks are my folks.  Joe is stuck with me as a sister-in-law and my husband has learned to accept that my already (ridiculously) large family is just made larger by this association.

These pictures are from the Wet Whistle Wine Fest in Algoma, Wisconsin. Every year, the Von Stiehl winery hosts this festival and this is our second year in attendance.  So far, we've been blessed by extraordinary weather every time we've been there - the food, which is made by the Farm Market Kitchen, is ... I'm at a loss for words.  Let me just say this - there are fresh French baguettes that are available for purchase.  They hand you the whole baguette and tubs of REAL butter infused with garlic.  Then you stand around and tear chunks of bread off the baguette and dip them into the butter?  And this is while drinking wine bought on site at the festival ... by the bottle?  I am not lying to you - in the week that preceded this event, I found myself salivating when I thought about the baguettes.

To my Wisconsin family - words do not say how much I look forward to this weekend.  It restores my soul in ways that I cannot express.  It also makes me participate in 5Ks.  Because the bread is just that good.

From left, Joe; Dad (Charles to most people); Mom (otherwise known as Roxanne); and Sharon.  The reddish-orange sleeve belongs to my beloved Weeve (who had an unfortunate incident last year with red wine and a white shirt) and the man in black is my husband.  Mom is holding the bread that I dream about.

Ryan and I are having an "emo" moment where I'm reenacting some crucial scene in the "Twilight" book series.  Or something.  I had been drinking at this point.

These are my sistas.  Note the empty boxes of wine in the background ... no, we did not drink that much.  But it was pretty slick how they arrange it at the wine festival - you have about five wines that you can choose from and you can either buy wine by the bottle or by the glass.  Folks work behind the scenes to make sure that the bottles are uncorked, minimizing the time you wait in line for the vino, as well as allowing me to travel corkscrew free.

This handsome fella is Joe ... I wasn't going to share this extreme close-up, but it provides a segue for the recipe I'm going to include in this blog post.

For the six-plus years that I've known Joe & Sharon, they have always been incredibly gracious to me (and later on to my husband) when it comes to letting me shack up in their spare bedroom, eat all the cheese in their house and drink their wine when I come to Manitowoc to visit.  Since I love them and since I know that Joe loves cookies, instead of the usual 12-pack of Leinie's that I bring as a peace offering to Joe, this year I baked him some chocolate chip cookies.  But not just any kind of cookies:

These are Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Cherries & Walnuts from the kitchn.  I wasn't sure, at first, if these were going to make a good thank you gift or what, but between my co-workers who graciously sampled them (and made them disappear in a record time of 15 minutes from when I actually opened the container and set it out from when someone told me they were gone) and my husband who almost didn't leave any cookies for Joe ... these are good. 

A couple of notes - I didn't have pecans, as the recipe specified, so I subbed walnuts.  Still good.  I used Ghiardelli bittersweet chocolate that I chopped up for the chocolate portion of the cookie.  And instead of using whole wheat flour, I used buckwheat flour.  Because I'm contrary like that.

Giada's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Someday I need to do a bake-off of chocolate chip cookies, because by virtue of the man I married, I end up baking a lot of this variety because it's his favorite. 

This is Giada DeLaurentiis' version of chocolate chip goodness. Supposedly, she loves them so much that she baked over 200 of them for her wedding reception.  I cannot attest that they are that good, but you really can't go wrong with butter, sugar, chocolate chip cookies, oats, eggs and flour.

Yes, that's a garden hose you are seeing in the background.  Just focus on the cookie goodness.

One note - I think the next time I make these, that I would up the oats content to 3/4 of a cup or a whole cup.  These aren't the sturdiest cookies that I've ever made and I think additional flour or oats would make these a bit better and reduce them spreading all over the fracking cookie sheet.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

One of the weirdest compliments I've ever received about my cooking (other than the "wow, this looks terrible but sure tastes good" one) was when one of my former co-workers told me that I was unabashedly un-humble about my baking skills but that she understood why I raved about my own work.

Although I'd like to chalk up the fabulousness of this recipe to my mad skills, I have to give tons of credit to the creators at Picky Palate and Sinful Southern Sweets for making and blogging about this cookie.  Chopped peanut butter cups added to peanut butter cookie batter - how could that be wrong?  Unless you have a peanut allergy, but barring that - this cookie is ... well, words fail me.  Just trust me and bake these.

"C is for Cookie ... that's good enough for me ..."

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

2 sticks softened unsalted butter
1 C. packed brown sugar
1 C. granulated sugar
3 T. corn syrup
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
2 lg. eggs, plus one egg white
1 T. pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 C. all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt 
5 pkgs of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a stand or electric mixer beat the butter, sugars, peanut butter and corn syrup until well combined.  Beat in eggs and vanilla until well combined.
 

In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt.  Slowly add to wet ingredients along with the chopped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  Mix only until just combined.  Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop dough onto a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake for 9-11 minutes until just turning golden around edges.  Let cookies cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Oatmeal PB Cinnamon Chip Cookies

On the night before Valentine's Day, there were a group of women in my town who had been abandoned by our husbands so that they could go to New Ulm and drink copious amounts of beer at the Schell Brewery Bock Fest.

*Sniff* I was one of those *sniff* wives.  (I can just hear my husband faux-coughing at his computer as I write this:  "Mexico!") And true ... the majority of the women I was abandoned with had been part of January's three-day cruise weekend - so if you really look at it, we spent three days in the sunshine.  Our husbands spent one morning and afternoon drinking beer in 30 degree weather.

I'll stop complaining now.

Anyway - I wanted to treat my friends to some mini cheesecake bites that I had found over at Smitten Kitchen, but I realized at 1 p.m. that they needed six hours to chill in the fridge.  Dinner with my friends was at 5:30 p.m. and I was scheduled to work until 2 p.m.  You do the math ... So when I got home, I whipped together a cookie recipe that I found over at Evil Shenanigans.  For those of you who are regulars here, you'll remember the Spiced Cake with Brown Butter Frosting.  I still have friends who mention that reverently ...

Anyway - this is an old family recipe from Evil Shenanigans and the only alteration I made was to replace the semi-sweet chocolate chips with Hershey's cinnamon chips.  And man - my friends are lucky that there were any left ...

'Tis the Season: Nigella's Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

Are you getting nervous yet?  It is the DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS!  Meh - as far as I'm concerned, my planning, my fretting and my actual work all goes downhill at this point.  Christmas starts for me today with a time-honored tradition: Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the family.

It's kind of funny - when I was a kid, I know I enjoyed the holiday from the sheer presents side of the equation.  Family was an additional bonus - for my dad's side of the family, Christmas Eve was one of those times where I'd get to see my cousins from out-of-town.  It also meant lefse and my Grandma Phyllis's beef stew (I think I was a foodie at birth ...).  But then as I grew up, Christmas changed meaning ... my rebellious teenage self didn't really like the get-togethers where my dad and his siblings would talk and talk and TALK and talk, usually ignoring us kids who would then conspire to throw my cousin Larry into a snowbank.  No kidding - this happened a couple years in a row until Larry shot up over six feet in height.

Then there was the year that I actually missed the Christmas Eve get together.  I was probably 24 or 25 and I had pulled the short straw to work Christmas Eve at the newspaper in Wisconsin.  So I hung out with my then-boyfriend, but my mind kept wandering to what my family would be doing at that time (eating and talking, perhaps?).  And as cheesy as it sounds, I promised myself that year that I wouldn't miss Christmas Eve again.  I can't guarantee that things won't come up, but I missed the simplicity of tradition that year.  I would have given my right arm to chat at my Uncle Gary about some obscure book or musician from the 1960s or to talk to my Uncle Bruce about movies.  I missed the hugs that I get from my aunts.  I missed the prayers that usually come from my Uncle Steve or my Aunt Robin.  I especially missed my Grandpa Bob ... he's the patriarch of the family.  He doesn't usually say much, but it's nice to have him near.  Every once in awhile, he'll just chuckle to himself and that's when I realize that me being random doesn't really have anything to do with me just being me - being random in a birthright in my family ...

So if you're reading this on Christmas Eve and are a little pressed for time, here's a recipe from my favorite Brit, Nigella Lawson.  (BTW - she's gorgeous. I know that's random, but it's so refreshing to see a woman who actually looks like she eats the food that she cooks on food TV.  She is God's gift to men and women alike.  Sorry - RANDOM!)

Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
by Nigella Lawson

Cookies:

    * 2 1/4 sticks (18 Tbsp.) soft butter
    * 3/4 cup sugar
    * 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
    * 2 cups all-purpose flour
    * 1/2 tsp. baking soda
    * 1 tsp. baking powder


Preheat the oven to 325° and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl and, when you have a light, soft whipped mixture, beat in the 1/3 cup cocoa powder (sifting if it is lumpy) and, when that's mixed in, beat in the flour with the baking soda and baking powder.

Pinch off pieces about 1 tablespoon in size, roll them into balls, then slightly flatten into fat discs as you place them, well spaced, on cookie sheets. You should get about 12 on at a time.

Bake each batch for 15 minutes.  Move to a cool surface and let sit for a bit before moving them to wire racks.

*~*~*~*~*~*

I found this recipe on Oprah.com and Nigella suggests topping these cookies with a chocolate frosting.  Although I am loathe to argue with the domestic goddess, I had some leftover powdered sugar frosting from my cutout cookies and just slathered that on top of the finished goods.

'Tis the Season: Grandma Sophie's Cutout Cookies

While all my food blogging friends have been all awesome and getting ahead of the eight-ball when it comes to baking (ahem, Renee!), I have to admit that I have to be in a certain mood when it comes to preparing holiday fare.  Forget holiday music, that mood is usually sheer panic as in "oh shit, I need to finish those cookies for my husband's coworkers!" 

The other day I bought some beer (very conducive to baking) and a ton of groceries.  The recipes you'll see this week are going to be "gifts" that will be given to family, friends, etc.  There's even liquor involved, beyond the beer I drank to create these treasures ...

Thank you all for reading. Thank you to the food bloggers who inspire me and to my family members who share recipes with me.  I hope that you all have a blessed holiday season ...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I think the biggest connection that I have to my family and to those that I've lost over the years are the recipes that get handed down from generation to generation.  I do not remember a time (except when my mom fooled my dad and I with cutout cookies from U-Bake ... she claims it was dad who got pissed off at the substitution but I kinda remember throwing an absolute hissy fit that year ...) that these weren't a part of my mom's Christmas baking repertoire.

This recipe comes from my grandma Sophie.  Unfortunately for me and for the rest of her grandkids, Grandma Sophie was only with us for a short time and passed on in 1984.  Sometimes it is hard for me to remember what she looked like, but when I think about my grandma I think about cream soda, homemade Play-Doh, kindness and when I make these cookies, I let myself think that she's in the kitchen with me and probably shaking her head from the time in my novice cooking experience when I substituted butter for margarine.  Don't do it.  Just trust me.

Believe it or not, my favorite way to eat these cookies are plain ... don't need icing, don't need dusting sugar. Just give me stack of stars and I'll be a happy camper.

Sophie's Christmas Cutouts

4 cups flour                      

1 cup sugar
pinch of salt                                       

1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup butter (no substitutes!)                 

1 tsp. soda
4 egg yolks                                           

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix the flour, salt and butter like piecrust.  Next cream egg yolks and sugar together.  Mix soda and sour cream, add to second mixture.  Then add to flour mixture.  Roll out and cut.

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes until just brown on edge and set in middle.  Cool and frost. 

The following notes are from my momma:  "Have Joe and Cody up to shake on the sugars. (Those are my nephews ... they're a treat.)  I use powdered sugar frosting, but you can use white frosting already prepared too.  there are no better cookies in the world HOWEVER I did fool your dad one year and used u-bake cookies ... he was really pissed when I broke the news to him ... shit happens and I'm short on time."

I love you ma - as far as I'm concerned, you're the best cook in the world. :)

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

For the past two years, I've worked weekends at my town's local cab company.  It's a job that I've done to make some extra bills so I can pay off MY extra bills and have generally enjoyed it enough to stay there longer than I have ever stayed at a part-time job.

That's not to say my part-time job is perfect.  In fact, since I'm in the communication business at the cab company (I basically take phone calls, put cab requests in the computer and panic if the dispatcher steps away from their microphone for a smoke break.), the worst moments are when we have miscommunication.

These cookies were an apology gift to Pablo, who was driving the airport shuttle bus on Sunday.  He called me to see if there was a credit card number in the office on one of his fares, I thought he was checking to see if he could accept credit cards and long story short, Pablo got screwed out of $11.50.  Since Pablo is an all-around nice guy, I promised him that I would bake some cookies as a mea culpa and even let him pick what kind of cookie he wanted.  So he picked these.

That was a wise choice ... they are damn tasty.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
adapted from Brown Eyed Baker who adapted them from Crepes of Wrath

Yield: About 2 dozen cookies (depending on size)

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup butter, melted
1 cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped macadamia nuts
8 oz. white chocolate (Brown Eyed Baker used 2 c. of white chocolate chips. I used 2 Ghiardelli White Chocolate bars and chopped them roughly with my knife.)

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease baking sheets or line with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.

3. Beat together the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the egg, then beat in the egg yolk, then beat in the vanilla.

4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture until just moistened. Stir in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips by hand with a rubber spatula.

5. Roll into balls or drop by heaping tablespoons onto baking sheets.

6. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges look golden brown and the middles don’t look quite set. Allow to finish cooling on the baking sheet.

#GreatHallowTweet: Creepy Spider Cookies

My friend Lindsey is one of my favorite contributors to ShelleyBakes ... as a little bit of background, I think Lindsey and I technically met our freshman year, but didn't become friends until we were both employed at our college's radio station.  It goes like this:  If Lindsey says something is fashionable, that woman just knows and when it comes to cooking, her taste is impeccable.  What's also incredible is that she's the uber-busy mother of two incredibly busy kiddos and has another one on the way.  Also - her timing is uncanny - when she emailed me this morning - I was thrilled - what a perfect recipe for the #GreatHallowTweet!

Lindsey - you are saving my ass, just like you did back in college.  I adore you. :)

Creepy Critter Spider Cookies
from Martha Stewart

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 TB vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Black sugar
Black Licorice laces
Cinnamon Red Hots

Heat oven 375. Combine sugar, egg, butter and vanilla in bowl.  Beat.  Add flour, baking powder and salt.   Beat and scrape bowl.  Roll dough into 1 inch balls.  Roll balls in black sugar to coat entire ball.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 8-10 min.  Immediately insert 4 licorice pieces into each cookies (pre drill hole with toothpick)  and add eyes.  Transfer to cooking rack, let set.

These guys are Lindsey's adorable kids Kyler and Anya ... thanks guys for helping your mommy make these!

Old School: Grandma Schlitter's Oatmeal Cookies

As much as I love trolling the Internet for recipes, I'm gonna be honest - some of the best recipes I've ever found were given to me ages ago. I'll bookmark various recipes for chili - but I still like my mom's the best. Chocolate chip cookies are another one - there are a zillion recipes out there and I've made a few variations - but what's wrong the recipe on the back of the Nestle's bag?

When I have a wicked craving for oatmeal raisin cookies, I have a host of options that I've found on the Internet, but the best cookie I ever ate came from a German woman who happened to be my grandma's mom - my great-grandma Schlitter. I have two distinct cookie memories that are assigned to Grandma Schlitter - one was her killer gingerbread men that she'd make at Halloween and pass out to the grandkids in lieu of candy. One year I got to apprentice in her tiny little kitchen. After a morning of baking, she fed me and my mom boiled cabbage which only made me love her more.

The second cookie recipe that I associate with Grandma S. is this oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. According to my Grandma Schlitter, the gingerbread recipe came from her mom and was the cookie that she'd always pack in little Geneva's lunch pail when my great-granny went off to school. There was another girl in the class whose mom made these oatmeal raisin cookies. The girls would switch their cookies and Grandma Schlitter later received this recipe.

Unfortunately, my great-grandma made these cookies so much and foisted them on her grandchildren so much that one day she asked my Aunt Sue if she'd like a cookie and my aunt calmly replied "I wouldn't eat another one of those dog biscuits if my life depended on it." Which is why we also call these cookies dog biscuits. Rest in peace, Grandma Schlitter - I hope heaven is full of more appreciative people. :)

Grandma's Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 c. lard (don't even THINK about substituting it for shortening)
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. salt
1 c. heavy cream **
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1 c. raisins or more
2 c. flour
1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional)
2+ cups steel cut oatmeal (you can use quick oats ...)

Cream lard and sugar together and add egg, mixing well. Add remaining ingredients in the order given and stir in enough oatmeal to make a very stiff dough. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned. If they spread out and are too crisp, add more flour and oatmeal.
A couple of notes: Lard? Oh yes, lard. I've done the leg work and I've tried making these cookies with shortening. They are a pale imitation of what they SHOULD taste like. You will usually find lard somewhere in your grocer's refrigerated section. This time, I found mine sandwiched near the salt pork/bacon products. Other times, I've found it near butter. Once I found it on a shelf and it was NOT refrigerated. Just ask if you can't find it.

** Heavy cream. The first time I ever made these cookies solo, I had to call my mom because the original recipe called for "sweet cream."

Me: What the hell is sweet cream?
Mom: Well, when your grandma would make these cookies, she'd get the cream straight from the bulk tank. You're probably not going to find cream that fresh.
Me: SIGH!

And finally - these cookies, while admirably good, are nothing like I remember from childhood. But I'll keep trying ... :) I have to use up that lard somehow.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

How good are these cookies? So good that I've made them twice since I found this recipe ...

Again - this recipe comes from my abundance of zucchini. And although I had one person who refused to eat this cookie on principle (you know who you are ... ;-p), most people raved about how cake-like these cookies are. This is a definite keeper.


Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies
from Recipezaar.com

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs, beaten
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 small zucchini, grated (you want it to measure approximately 2 cups of grated zucchini)
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (**I threw caution to the wind and ignored any constraints from my pocketbook and spent the $3.50 on a bag of Ghiardelli semi-sweet chips. I am now ruined from Hersheys, Nestles or any generic forever. DAMN ME!)
1 1/2-2 cups walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with cooking spray or line with parchment paper. Cream your butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy, add eggs and incorporate until fluffy. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into the butter mixture, gradually; mix well. Stir in the zucchini. Add chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls with two (2) inches between each cookie onto the cookie sheets. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Let stand to cool for 2 to 3 minutes, then remove and place on wire racks to allow to cook completely.

A couple of notes - I omitted the walnuts, although I think that would elevate this recipe from awesome to droolworthy. (Alas, hubby does not like walnuts in baked goods ... it's one of his only flaws.) Another thing I found and fretted over was that before I put the zucchini in the recipe, my dough was really dry and crumbly. The zucchini is what really made this moist and delicious.

Also - the second time I made this recipe, I halved it (still a ton of cookies) and I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract because it baffled me to make a chocolate chip cookie without vanilla. I don't think it really added anything to it, so ... meh.

Cornmeal Cookies

Disclaimer - do not eat this after you've ate curry because the delicate flavors of the lemon zest and the cornmeal will be lost on you.

Other than that, this is a damn fine cookie - I think it would be perfect to make for a brunch, wedding shower or baby shower (note to friends: someone get preggo so I can throw you a shower. I think I have a bridal shower to throw in my future ... woo!)


Cornmeal Cookies
from Cooking Books

3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 large egg yolks
Grated zest of 1 medium lemon
1/2 cup plus 2 teaspoons all purpose flour
7 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon yellow cornmeal

Oven preheated to 475F

In a small stainless steel bowl, beat the butter with a wooden spoon, placing it over low heat if necessary, until it's smooth, creamy and lightened in color. Sift the sugar over the butter and continue to beat. Next, beat in one yolk, still with the wooden spoon, then the next yolk, this time beating it with a wire whisk. Whisk in the lemon zest. Sift the flour and cornmeal into the batter, and using the wooden spoon, mix them in.

Scoop the batter into a cookie press or just spoon it in small balls onto a baking sheet prepared with a layer of parchment paper. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, for about 5 minutes. The bottoms should be browned, but the tops still a light, buttery yellow. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy.

White Chocolate Lime Cookies

I made these for the bachelorette/family weekend extraordinare and found these to be a neat alternative to regular chocolate chip cookies. Hubby's only complaint was that he couldn't taste the line, so I'd increase the zest a bit. I also only used about 1/2 of the white chocolate specified ... I don't like a lot of chocolate in my cookies. Odd, I know.


White Chocolate Lime Cookies
from Technicolor Kitchen

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ teaspoons lime juice
1 tablespoon lime zest
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (**I increased the flour by about a 1/4 cup because my cookies spread something fierce in the oven.)
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
12oz white chocolate chips/chunks

Preheat oven to 350ºF; line two large baking sheets with parchment/baking paper.

In a large mixing bowl beat sugar, brown sugar and butter until combined but not fluffy.
Add eggs one, at a time, then add vanilla, lime juice and lime zest. Mix to combine.
Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix into creamed mixture until just combined. Fold in the white chocolate chips/chunks.

Shape the dough into 1 inch balls and place 2 in apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the centers are just set – mine needed 15 minutes.
Allow to sit on the pan for three minutes before moving to wire racks.

Makes 5 dozen cookies.

Itty Bitty Chocolate Chip Cookies - 101 Cookbooks

When I was painstakingly chopping/shaving the bar of expensive, artisan, bittersweet chocolate needed for these cookies, the thought struck me ... it is so obvious that I do not have children and have actual time to dawdle and make this recipe. So simple and easy? Oh hell no. Delicious? If these cookies were a sin, I'm paving the highway to hell with Scharffen Berger chocolate.

Like the "who knew tequila could go with popcorn" recipe, this comes from 101 Cookbooks, run by Heidi Swanson - something of a guru in the American natural food movement.

Ryan loves chocolate chip cookies. I liked this recipe because it included walnuts and oatmeal. It also included molasses, which is an underutilized staple from my pantry. I was also intrigued to see what 12 dozen cookies would look like resting on my counter, but like all recipes - I have no clue what I screw up to end up with less than they claim I should be making.

On the "pain in the ass" scale, this one breaks the range at an 11 (it took me 20 damn minutes to chop up all the chocolate - sure I was making dinner at the same time, but c'mon ... 20 minutes?), but the minute that I bit into one of these and tasted the hint of molasses, along with the subtle crunch of the natural sugar I used. Holy crow ... I could have cried these tasted so good.

Itsy Bitsy Chocolate Chip Cookies

by 101 Cookbooks - Heidi Swanson

5 ounces good-quality semi-sweet chocolate bar (Scharffen Berger 62%)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour **HS used whole wheat pastry flour ... I used all purpose flour and it turned out fine.
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup walnuts, very, very finely chopped (by hand)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
scant 1 cup natural cane sugar (or brown sugar)
scant 1 tablespoon unsulphured molasses **HS uses organic, I used the bottle of Brer Rabbit that's been taking up shelf space since the 1990s. OK - only since the beginning of the century, but you get the point.
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup large-grain sugar (for ex: turbinado)

Preheat your oven to 350F degrees. Finely chop the chocolate bar into 1/8-inch pieces, more like shavings really. (Pain in the ass factor - 11.)


In a mixing bowl, whisk together dry ingredients except for sugars. Set aside.

Using a mixer (or by hand) beat the butter until fluffy. (I did it by hand - must be something of a martyr in me this evening.) Beat in the sugar and mix until it is also light and fluffy. Add the molasses, then the egg, mixing until both are well incorporated. Beat in the vanilla. Add the flour mix and stir by hand until the ingredients barely come together into a uniform dough. (This is pretty darn important - I kind of half-arsed this step and my first batch of cookies didn't get enough flour in them, so they spread out all over and stuck to the pan. Still tasty ... but once I really got the flour mixed into the cookies, they baked so much better.)


You're going to take impossibly tiny chunks of dough (HS takes 1 tsp of dough and divides it in half ... I did this for a little bit but then figure out the approximate size for tiny cookie goodness) Place two inches apart on baking sheets. Gently flatten each dough ball and then sprinkle the top of each cookie with a pinch of large-grain sugar. Bake for 7 minutes. Remove from oven, cool for a bit on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack.

Makes about 12 dozen tiny, bite-sized cookies.

Monster Cookies

To view the awesomeness that constitutes one of my favorite cookies in the world, view picture below.

I got this recipe from the SingForYourSupper blog, but for some odd reason, I'm having problems with the link, which is here. She found the recipe at AllRecipes, which is here. There's really nothing Christmasy about monster cookies, but the recipe below makes a ton of cookies. Perfect to feed both Ryan's and my coworkers.


Monster Cookies

INGREDIENTS
6 eggs
2 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup butter
2 2/3 cups peanut butter
9 cups rolled oats
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I omitted)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease cookie sheets.
Cream butter and peanut butter together. Add the sugars and stir until well mixed.
Add eggs one at a time, then add vanilla.
Mix oatmeal and baking soda separately, then stir into batter.
Add chocolate chips last. (Omitted!)
Drop by heaping teaspoons onto cookie sheets. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Nutty Choco-Oatmeal Cookies

These cookies ended up being gifts to my coworkers out at the cab company. I assume they loved them. Heard no reports of food poisoning ...

I'm not a big chocolate chip cookie fan, but if I am craving said cookie, this is my favorite recipe on the entire planet. I found this recipe a few years ago, probably from Family Circle, and it's been cut out and hung on my fridge ever since. When I was in newspapers, I liked to whip up a batch of these from time-to-time. I don't make them as often anymore because Ryan's a purist and isn't a fan of healthy stuff (oatmeal) in his cookies.

These are seriously good though.

Nutty Choco-Oatmeal Cookies
1 1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 c. (two sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 c. old fashioned oats (I use rolled oats that I find at the natural foods store)
1 c. chocolate chips
3/4 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, take your electric mixer to the butter and brown sugar. Beat until fluffy, add eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated. The recipe says to use your mixer for the next part, but I always make a godawful mess, so I use my wooden spoon and fold the flour mixture into the egg/sugar stuff. Mix until just combined. Then add the oats, chips and nuts.

Place these bad boys on your cookie sheet about two inches apart. Typically, my little dough balls are about 1 inch in diameter, etc. Bake for 11 to 13 minutes.

Eat. Love. Thank me later.