Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

On New Year's Eve, I wanted to make a small batch of cookies to take to a party. I started with a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe that said it made 30 cookies. Because I didn't really want leftovers, I cut the recipe in half. I figured if I did a half recipe with a small cookie scooper, I'd still get a decent number of cookies but not the 30 large cookies that the original recipe said I'd get.

So I made the necessary changes to the recipe and then started scooping the cookies with my small cookie scooper. Sixty-four cookies later, I was done! That's right. Sixty-four cookies. So much for not having leftovers.
  

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1-1/4 cups oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup pecan chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a large mixer bowl, beat butter until creamy. Beat in both sugars. Then beat in egg and vanilla. Add as much flour mixture as possible. You made need to use a wooden spoon to finish the combining.

Stir in the chocolate and pecan chips.


With a small cookie scooper, drop onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes until edges are light brown. Cool one minute before removing to cooling rack.

Yields: about 60 small cookies

Rugelach

This will surprise some of my friends, but I had never heard of rugelach until they made some a couple years ago. I did a little history search on it and found out it's a Jewish pastry. So when did my friends and I make some rugelach? For Christmas, of course. When else do you make Jewish pastries? :)

 Rugelach 

Ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup butter, softened
2-1/4 cups flour
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, divided
1/4 cup Solo brand raspberry cake & pastry filling

Beat cream cheese and butter on medium speed. Gradually add flour. Divide dough into four portions. Pat into 1-inch thick circle with flour hands and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheets with foil or parchment paper.  

Mix walnuts, 1/2 cup sugar, and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. On lightly floured surface, roll dough into 11-inch circle. Dough should be very thin by now. Spread each circle with a tablespoon of raspberry filling. Sprinkle with 1/4 of nut mixture. Using a pizza wheel, cut circle in 16 wedges. Roll up each wedge, starting from wide end. 

Place point side down on prepared cookie sheet. Sprinkle with extra cinnamon and sugar. 

Bake 25 minutes until lightly browned. Remove to wire rack for cooling.   

Fruit-Filled Almond Shortbread Cookies

A friend saw another friend post a picture of these on Facebook, so off I went in search of a recipe online. There are several similar ones.

My friends and I decided to follow this recipe on food.com, but we used cherry cake and pastry filling as well as lemon curd instead of the prescribed raspberry jam. 

A couple weeks later, I made these cookies again. This time I used seedless black raspberry jam. All three variations were yummy.

Fruit-Filled Almond Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups flour
1/2 cup fruit filling*
1 cup powdered sugar
3 teaspoons water
1/2 teaspoon almond extract     
 *you can use Solo brand cake & pastry filling, lemon curd, or seedless jelly or jam

In a mixer bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the almond extract. Gradually add flour until dough forms a ball.

Cover and refrigerate for about an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll into small balls. We discovered small (less than 1-inch) balls worked better than bigger ones. Place onto ungreased cookie sheet. With the front knuckle of your forefinger, make an indentation in the cookie. 

Fill this indentation with a small amount of fruit filling. (I found it easiest to use a pastry bag fitted with a large round opening to fit the jam into the indentation.)

Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes. Remove and place on wire rack for cooling.

When the cookies are cool, combine the last three ingredients to make a glaze. Drizzle glaze over cookies in a zig-zag fashion.

Cookies of Christmas Past

I don't have a new recipe for this week yet, so I thought I'd post links to some of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes from past Christmases. Imagine you're Ebenezer Scrooge, and you've just been visited by . . .

Cookies of Christmas Past!

First up is Melting Snowman Oreo Balls.

Next is a recipe I've made several times in different variations: Candy Cane Snowballs.


The slightly difficult but definitely yummy Egg Nog Cups.


If you're Italian, you might enjoy some Cucidati.



Want something easy and simple? How about some Holiday Rice Krispie Treats?

And who could forget Mom's famous rum balls!

Stay tuned to see what I'm baking up this year!

Lemon Drop Cookies

I found this recipe on a bottle of Crisco Vegetable Oil and made only a few slight changes. You can find the original recipe online here.

The cookies are very light in flavor and texture. One of the changes I made was to use lemon juice instead of lemon extract. Perhaps the extract would have given it a stronger flavor. Either way, these cookies will melt in your mouth.

Lemon Drop Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup solid vegetable shortening (i.e. Crisco)
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Frosting:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/4 cup warm milk
1-1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray cookie sheets with baking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Beat in shortening on low speed until completed mixed. Add egg, milk, and lemon juice and mix until blended.

Using small cookie scooper, scoop dough onto prepared baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes. Cookies should be lightly browned. Cool completely on cookie sheet on wire rack.

To make the frosting, beat the above ingredients. Add more milk if a thinner consistency is desired. Spread on top of cooled cookies.

Yields: about 2-1/2 dozen cookies

Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies tasted good, but they were a little crunchy for my liking. The centers were still chewy, so if you like that kind of crunchy outside, chewy inside cookie, then this one's for you!

Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm going to do something a little different today. Usually, I take an old recipe or two, make some changes, and then come up with my own version.

For this cookie, I didn't change a thing from the original recipe. I found it on two different websites: The Curvy Carrot and How Sweet It Is. The second site claims the cookies are supposed to be chewy, so maybe I simply left mine in the oven a tad too long.

Nonetheless, since I didn't make any changes, simply click on the link to either website if you want the recipe. I'll be a kind blogger and throw some traffic their way. :)

White Chocolate Kahlua Balls

These cookies have a taste similar to tiramisu. When I made them, I discovered that many of my friends don't like tiramisu. Oh well, more cookies for me!

White Chocolate Kahlua Balls

Ingredients:
20 mini Nilla wafers (about 1 cup), finely crushed
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons Kahlua
6 oz. white chocolate
4 Wilton candy melts

Mix the crushed Nilla wafers with the softened cream cheese and the Kahlua. Roll into small balls and refrigerate on waxed paper for 10 minutes.

Melt the white chocolate in a small bowl. Roll the balls in the white chocolate and return to waxed paper to harden. Refrigerate one hour.

Melt Wilton candy melts (you could use chocolate chips instead) and place in a decorating bag with a small tip like #3 or #4. Drizzle chocolate over cookie balls.

Keep refrigerated.

Yields: 16 cookies

Superbowl Cookies -- Oreo Style

These cookies will probably post too late for people to use it this year, but maybe they'll be useful next football season. :)

Superbowl Cookies -- Oreo Style

Ingredients:
20 Oreo cookies
2-1/2 ounces cream cheese, softened
7 squares sweetened chocolate
white icing

Finely crush the Oreo cookies. With a pastry blender, mash the cream cheese into the cookie crumbs.

Using a heaping tablespoonful at a time, shape the cookies into footballs. Placed on tray lined with waxed paper. Refrigerate at least ten minutes.

Melt the chocolate squares in a small bowl. Dip the football cookies into the chocolate until coated. Return the waxed paper.

When the chocolate hardens, use the white icing to decorate the cookies so that they look more like footballs. Refrigerate cookies until ready to eat.

Yields: about 12 cookies

Chocolate Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

The original version of these cookies can be found here. I made a few changes based on the comments other bakers left. These are soft cookies that keep pretty well for several days if you store them in an airtight container.

Chocolate Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
4 (1 oz.) squares of chocolate*
1/2 cup butter
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1-1/4 cup sugar (divided)
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup red raspberry preserves**

*I used one square of semi-sweet chocolate and three squares of unsweetened chocolate. The original recipe called for all of them to be unsweetened. Many of the people who commented on the recipe said they used 2 semi-sweet and 2 unsweetened. I guess it depends on how sweet you like your chocolate. :)

**The original recipe called for jam, but the preserves seemed to hold up better.

Mix flour, baking soda, and salt. In large microwavable bowl, melt chocolate and butter for 2 minutes on high. Chocolate will hold most of its shape. Stir until smooth. Cube the softened cream cheese and stir into chocolate until melted. Stir in 1 cup of sugar, vanilla, and egg. Add flour mixture and combine thoroughly. Refrigerate at least fifteen minutes.

Heat oven to 375. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and then roll in remaining sugar to coat. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet. Dip the end of a wooden spoon into sugar and depress in center of cookie to make a well for the preserves. (You can, of course, use your thumb for this, but the end of a wooden spoon makes a neater depression, which leads to less preserves spilling out the sides of the cookie.)

Fill each well with 1/4 teaspoon of preserves.

Bake 8-10 minutes. Cool one minute before transferring to wire rack.

Yields: about 4 dozen cookies.

Chicago Public Schools Butter Cookies--Egg Free!

A co-worker suggested I search the web for this recipe. She attended the Chicago public schools, and she remembers these cookies from her childhood. She said she'd found the recipe online was was surprised to learn there were only four ingredients.

The recipe intrigued me because there are no eggs, and I'm always keeping an eye out for treats my nephew with the egg allergy can enjoy.

Although I didn't find the taste of these cookies to be anything exceptional, they were probably the easiest cookies I've ever had to roll.

Chicago Public School Butter Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla extract. Gradually add in flour. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and flatten with three fingers.
This will make the nice set of ridges the Chicago public school butter cookies are known for.
Bake until golden brown (about 12-15 minutes).

(You can see from the top photo that I sprinkled them with a little colored sugar before baking because I was making them for the holidays.)

Yields: 2 dozen

Holiday Cookies: Melting Snowman Oreo Balls

The inspiration for this cookie came from this Kraft website. Their recipe used Nutter Butter cookies, but I decided to try this with the Oreo balls recipe instead. The only problem was that the white chocolate did pick up some of the dark Oreo cookie crumbs, but they seemed to melt right into the white chocolate eventually.

Melting Snowman Oreo Balls

Ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 package Oreo cookies, finely crushed
16 oz. white chocolate
about 48 mini Oreos
colored icing for decorating
(I used the Wilton Icing Writers.)

Finely crush the Oreo cookies. (You can use a blender, food processor, or--my personal favorite for letting out aggression--a Ziploc bag and a rolling pin.)

Mix the crushed cookies with the cream cheese. Line a couple cookie sheets with waxed paper. Roll the cookie mixture into 1-inch balls on placed on waxed paper. (You should get 45-50 of them.) Freeze for at least ten minutes.

Melt the white chocolate. (Follow instructions on baking chocolate box or white chocolate chip bag.) Working with just one cookie sheet at a time, dip the cookie balls into the melted white chocolate. Before the chocolate hardens, top each one with a mini Oreo so that it looks like a top hat for your snowman. (The mini Oreos come in the Snak-Saks as pictured to the left.)

Next, decorate the snowman's face by giving him a nose, a smile, and two eyes. You can use colored icing that you made or store-bought decorating icing. I used the Wilton icing writers for this. They worked pretty well, although I had to knead the little tubes first or they came out too runny. (Maybe my icing writers are getting old?) Also, I wish they had an orange one for the nose.

The decorating works best if the cookie is still cold when it is dipped in the white chocolate. That way the chocolate begins to harden fairly quickly but not too quickly. You'll want to get the little Oreo hats on right away, and then add the face as soon as the chocolate gets a firm surface. A goopy chocolate snowman means facial features that melt right off!

Yields: about four dozen cookies

Christmas Cutout Cookies

Merry Christmas, everyone! I'm not going to post an entire recipe today. Instead, I'm simply going to refer you to the King Arthur Flour website, where you can find the recipe for the Christmas Cutout Cookies some friends and I tried this year.

The dough rolled and cut pretty nicely, but other than that, they were your typical butter/sugar cookies.

Here is a photo of a few of the ones we decorated:
Yes, that is a mini tree cookie inside the large snowglobe and a mini snowman cookie inside the middle snowglobe.

We used the King Arthur recipe for royal icing. While this recipe was a little easier to make than the traditional royal icing I make (using the Wilton recipe), it certainly wasn't any easier to work with. In fact, I found it to be rather a pain. My right hand cramped up so bad from squeezing the icing bag that I couldn't fully open my fingers for a half hour or so after decorating.

If I make sugar cutout cookies again, I think I'm sticking with buttercream icing. It takes longer to dry, but it goes on more smoothly and (in my humble opinion) tastes better.

Christmas Cookies: Candy Cane Snowballs

I've made several different cookies over the years that require crushed candy canes on top. These are pretty good. I don't know if they are my favorite of the candy cane cookies (I think I may actually like these better), but I do like the white chocolate instead of the icing on top of these.

Candy Cane Snowballs

Ingredients:
2 cups butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 cup chopped pecans
8 oz. white chocolate chips
1/2 cup crushed candy canes

Cream butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla and then gradually add the flour. Stir in chopped pecans. Refrigerate 3-4 hours for easier handling.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place two inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 18-20 minutes until lightly brown. Cool on wire rack.

Melt white chocolate in the microwave until smooth. (The package directions suggested one minute at 70% power, stir, and then 15 second increments as necessary.) Dip the top of each cookie into the chocolate and then the crushed candy canes.

Instead of always dipping the cookie in the chocolate, I tried putting the melted white chocolate in a decorating bag and squeezing it on top of the cookies. That was a little easier than dipping them. I also tried just sprinkling the candy canes on top, but I think dipping the cookies in the crushed candy canes actually resulted in better coverage.

Yields: about 5 dozen cookies

Mudslide Cookies

A friend gave me a recipe box called Chocolate Bliss (Music Cooks) as a gift. Inside are ten recipe cards and a music CD to play while you are making or enjoying the recipes.

I made only one minor change to this recipe. I used milk chocolate chips instead of the semisweet ones in the original recipe. If you are a huge chocolate fan, you will love these cookies because they are what the name implies: a whole mudslide full of chocolate.

P.S. If you want more recipes like this, you can buy the Chocolate Bliss recipe box online at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

Mudslide Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter, the unsweetened chocolate, and the bittersweet chocolate. It is best to cut the chocolate into smaller pieces (I cut the 1-ounce squares in half) and then melt them on high for 30 seconds. Stir and melt again for another 30 seconds. Stir again. If they are still some unmelted chocolate pieces, continue cooking and stirring every 30 seconds.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and the sugar on high for 3 minutes. The mixture should become pale and somewhat fluffy. Add the chocolate mixture and the vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute. Gradually add flour mixture and beat until just blended. Stir in walnuts and chocolate chips.

Use a small cookie scooper to drop batter onto prepared cookie sheet. The batter will be rather runny so don't expect perfectly rounded scoops of dough.

Bake for 12-14 minutes. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack.

Yields: about 36 cookies.

Butterscotch Bliss Cookies

This week's cookies are a re-vamping of my very first entry. This time I used butterscotch chips in place of peanut butter chips.

The best part about these cookies is how soft and chewy they are, even days after baking them.

Butterscotch Bliss Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup melted butter (2 sticks)
1 ½ cups white sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs (beaten)
2 ½ cups flour
¾ cups chocolate chips
¾ cups butterscotch chips
2 cups coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the butter in a large microwave-safe bowl.

Then mix in the white sugar and the brown sugar. Add the salt, baking soda, and vanilla. Mix well.

In a small bowl, beat the two eggs. Add the beaten eggs to the mixture in the large bowl and stir thoroughly.

Add about half of the flour and incorporate it into the dough. Then add the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and coconut. Stir until the chips are evenly distributed.

Finally add the remainder of the flour and mix well. Drops by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. To make sure your cookies remain moist, remove them before they start to really brown.

Cool cookies for two minutes before transferring from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

Yields about 5 dozen cookies.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Squared Cookies

These cookies have twice the chocolate and twice the peanut butter, so some friends and I decided we should call them Chocolate Peanut Butter² Cookies. (I couldn't get the number 2 in superscript in the title.)

This recipe is adapted from the September issue of the King Arthur's Flour catalog. I added a bit more water than they called for, and substituted both peanut butter chips and chocolate chip for the mini peanut butter cups in the original recipe. I also used salted butter instead of unsalted.

Chocolate Peanut Butter² Cookies

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2-1/2 tablespoons water
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 375. Grease cookie sheets.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

In a mixer bowl, beat together the sugars, butter and peanut butter. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and water. At a slow speed, gradually add in the dry ingredients until thoroughly incorporated. Stir in both kinds of chips.

Scoop onto greased cookie sheets. Bake for 7-8 minutes. You should be able to smell the chocolate. Cool for one minute before removing to wire racks.

Yields: about 50 cookies

No-Bake Cookies: Chocolate Peanut Butter Drops

The weather is starting to cool off here a little, but it still felt a little too warm yesterday afternoon to turn on the oven. That's why I decided to try a "no-bake" cookie. The cooking part is done on the stove top, so your kitchen doesn't get so hot. These were pretty fast and easy to make, and they disappeared just as quickly.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Drops

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
dash of salt
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup butterscotch chips (optional)

In a saucepan, mix the sugar, cocoa, and milk. Add the butter and cook over medium heat until butter melts and mixture begins to boil. Stir occasionally. Boil for one minute.

Remove from heat and add vanilla, salt, peanut butter, and oats.

Use a small cookie scooper to drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto waxed. Press a few butterscotch chips into cookies, if desired. Cool for at least an hour.

Yields: about 40 cookies.

Butterballs

I made these cookies a while ago, but never got them on the blog. I can't say they were my favorite, but if you like nutty cookies, you'll probably enjoy these.

Butterballs

Ingredients:
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, softened
3 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon almond extract
1 cup flour
1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
3/4 cup powdered sugar

Cream butter. Beat in honey, salt, and almond extract. Gradually add in flour and then stir in pecans or walnuts.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Roll dough into balls and place two inches apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake 35 minutes.

Allow to cool for a few minutes before rolling in powdered sugar. Allow to cool fully and then roll in powdered sugar.

Yields: about 3 dozen cookies

Apple Oatmeal Cookies

After playing around with a recipe I found online, I baked my first batch of these cookies. Oops, they cooked a bit faster than expected. O.K. on to round 2! These I took out a couple minutes sooner, and they seemed fine, but they were very thin. I decided that perhaps the batter was too runny, so I added some more flour and oats before trying a third batch in the oven. The result was higher cookies that kept their rounded shape from the cookie scooper.

I took samples of both the flatter cookie and the higher, rounder cookie to a friend's house. There was good news and bad news. The good news is that everyone liked the cookies! The bad news is that the vote was split as to which was better--the flatter cookie or the higher cookie! I'll give you directions for both and you can decide which you like better.

Apple Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons apricot brandy (you can substitute vanilla extract for this)
1 cup flour*
1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups quick oats*
1 1/3 cup peeled and diced apple (about 2 small apples)

*for the higher, rounder cookies add an extra 1/2 cup flour and an extra 1/2 cup oats

Preheat the oven to 375 and grease your cookies sheets or line them with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, white sugar, egg, milk, and apricot brandy until well blended.

In a small bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and nutmeg. Add to butter mixture and beat at low speed until thoroughly combined. Stir in oats and apples. Scoop onto cookie sheets and bake 10 minutes. Cookies should be slightly browned around the edges.

Cool for a minute before remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Yields: about 36 cookies

Chocolate Cranberry Walnut Cookies

These cookies were kind of a "what do I have at home that might make a good cookie" type of recipe. Enjoy!

Chocolate Cranberry Walnut Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 small package (3.9 oz.) chocolate or chocolate fudge instant pudding
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup Craisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer. Add pudding and beat again. Add eggs, baking soda, salt and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour.

Stir in Craisins, walnuts, and chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets covered with parchment paper. Bake 10-12 minutes.

Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire rack.

Yields: about four dozen cookies