Toffee Cookies

I really like the flavor of English Toffee, but I have never had great success in incorporating it into cookies.  I think it's because toffee isn't usually a very strong flavor on its own.  Every cookie I have used toffee in has either tasted like something else (i.e.: chocolate chips) or has been so crunchy and hard after baking that they almost tasted burned.  Husband mentioned the other day that he was really hungry for a toffee bar, so I bought a bag of milk chocolate toffee bits to see if I could make some satisfying cookies.  And boy are they.  Baked the way I made them, the edges are chewy and the centers are fluffy and soft.  The toffee flavor comes through with just a hint of chocolate.

Makes about 40 cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 2/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup toffee bits with chocolate

1. In bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars.  Add vanilla and eggs, beating well.  Scrap sides and bottom of bowl with a strong spatula.  Stir in 1 cup of the flour and the soda and salt.  Mix well and scrap bowl again.  Add remaining flour, mixing at low speed until incorporated.  Add toffee bits and mix on lowest speed just until incorporated. Turn off mixer and mix a few times with strong spatula by hand, ensuring all flour and toffee bits are incorporated.
2. Line a heavy baking sheet with parchment paper. Parchment will keep the toffee from sticking after baking.
3. Scoop dough by tablespoons onto lined baking sheet, spacing down about 2 inches apart.  Bake in 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden and centers are puffed and set.  Allow to sit on the sheets for a minute before removing them to a waxed-paper covered surface to cool.  Waxed paper will keep the toffee from sticking while cooling.
4. Cool cookies completely before stacking in an air-tight container.  They will keep in this container for up to 4 days.

Brownie Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

I developed this recipe to have chocolate cookies that were also festive.  I love to make sugar cookies, but I also love chocolate.  It just seemed unfair that the only options for using all the fun festive sprinkles that I have are cupcakes or sugar cookies.  I also love the flavor of brownies with buttercream, but at times they just aren't as portable as they should be.  These particular cookies were made to go to a tailgater for a football game, which is a place where portability is a necessity.  They were a pretty big hit.

Makes about 60 cookies

1 3/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
6 oz unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
6 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
Basic Buttercream

1. In heatproof bowl, combine chocolates and butter.  Heat mixture in the microwave for about 2 minutes--stirring every 30 seconds--or until all chocolate and butter is melted.  Set mixture aside and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
2. Mix sugar into melted mixture.  Stir in vanilla.  Mixture will appear grainy at this point.  Stir in eggs, a few at a time, and beat well.  Make sure eggs are incorporated before adding dry ingredients. Measure salt into mixture and stir.  Add flour, one cup at a time, and beat well.  Be sure to scrap the bottom of the bowl well, as flour seems to collect there very well with this recipe.
3. Cover cookie sheet with parchment paper.
4. Drop scoops of dough onto prepared cookie sheet.  You will want each cookie to be about 2 tablespoons of dough.  Bake cookies in a 375 degree oven for about 10 minutes.  As these are very dark cookies, you will be able to tell that they are done when they are evenly puffed, the tops are dry, and the edges are crackled.  Allow cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
5. Once cookies are completely cool, frost them with about 1 tablespoon of buttercream.  Add sprinkles, if desired.

Basic Buttercream

I use this frosting for pretty much anything.  I like it on cookies, on cakes, on graham crackers.  Pretty much anything that needs sweet or vanilla, this is the frosting I use.  This recipe will be enough for 12-16 cupcakes (spread frosting; it will frost fewer if the frosting is piped on), 30-45 cookies (depending on cookie size), or about half of a 9-inch layer cake.

Makes about 3 cups frosting

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Milk, if needed
Food coloring, if desired

1. With an electric stand mixer, beat butter until fluffy to loosen it up.  This will take about 30 seconds.
2. Add vanilla.  Scrap sides and beat again until vanilla is incorporated.
3. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time.  Scrap sides of bowl and beater after each cup is added.  After all 4 cups are added, if the frosting seems too stiff to use, you will want to add milk 1/2 teaspoon at a time.  You won't need much milk, so don't add too much or you will have to add more powdered sugar to even it out.
4. Add food coloring, if using.  Frosting itself will be a very pale yellow / off-white color.  I usually use the gel food colorings for frosting, as the liquid that comes in dropper-bottles thins frosting.

Chocolate Almond Biscotti with Cherries

I've made biscotti a couple of times before, but usually it's for a pretty specific occasion.  Where I live is transitioning between summer and fall now and somehow biscotti sounded good.  The combination of chewy cherries with crunchy almonds with crumbly biscotti dough, I think, is a good one and the chocolate is really just the icing on the cake.  The cookies are good on their own, but they are made for dunking in coffee or milk so plan your enjoyment accordingly.

Makes about 25 cookie slices

3/4 cup whole almonds
4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup dried cherries
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, broken into chunks if a bar
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar

1. Toast almonds in 350 degree oven for 5 minutes or at high power in a microwave for 30 seconds. Set aside and allow to cool.
2. In bowl of electric mixer, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until combined.  Add extracts and eggs, then beat well.  Stir in flour, salt, and baking powder. This will create a thick, sticky batter.  Using a sturdy spatula, fold in almonds, chocolate, and cherries.  Distribute ingredients as best you can.
3. On a floured surface, turn out batter.  Knead a few times to decrease the stickiness and to distribute the whole ingredients fully.  Divide dough in half and form each half into a log that is about 10 inches long.
4. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Place each dough log on the parchment paper, spacing so they are about 3 inches apart.  In a measuring cup or small glass, beat the 1 egg until frothy.  Brush egg over dough logs using a pastry brush.  Sprinkle logs with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.
5. Bake logs for about 25-30 minutes or until they are golden and firm.  Pull parchment paper off the cookie sheet and transfer it to a cooling rack.  Allow logs to cool until they are warm and you can handle them easily, about 20-30 minutes.
6.  While your logs are cooling, fit the cookie sheet you were using with a cooling rack that can go in the oven.  Set aside.
7.  Remove cookie log from the parchment paper to a cutting board. With a serrated knife, cut logs at an angle into 3/4 inch slices.  Each log will make about a dozen slices.  Place cookie slices on the cooling rack you placed on the cookie sheet.  Cookies can touch because they won't change shape at all.  Once you have cut one log and placed it on the rack in the cookie sheet, cut the other log in the same manner.
8. Bake cookie slices in a 300 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.  Cookies will get slightly more brown on the edges, but you will know they are done when they don't give as you poke them.  Leave cookies on the rack in the cookie sheet to cool completely.  Moisture is the enemy of biscotti, so store it in an airtight container for up to a week.

Oatmeal Cookies

Whenever fall rolls around, I tend to want oatmeal.  I really like oatmeal cookies, but they always cause a bit of a controversy in my house.  I love oatmeal raisin and like oatmeal chocolate chip; but Husband hates raisins and isn't real fond of chocolate chips in his oatmeal cookies.  So in my house, oatmeal cookies mean just oatmeal.  The problem with this is that there are very few oatmeal cookie recipes without something in them and--I say through years of experience--taking the something out usually results in sub-par cookies.  So I invented this recipe. The abundance of flavors helps cover up the lack of somethings, making a cookie that is very wonderfully simple.

Makes 36 cookies

1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon molasses
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
2 cups quick-cook oatmeal
2 cups flour

1. In mixing bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars until combined.  Add vanilla, molasses, and eggs.  Beat at medium speed until fluffy.  Scrap sides and add salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and whole-wheat flour.  Stir at low speed until all are incorporated.  Scape sides again and add oatmeal, then flour.  Beat just until incorporated.
2. Grease a large cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper.  Spoon cookie dough by tablespoons onto prepared cookie sheet.  Bake cookies in a 375 degree oven for 9-11 minutes or until edges and bottoms of cookies are deep golden.  Cool before storing.  Store cookies in an airtight container with waxed paper between any stacked layers to prevent cookies from sticking together.

Vanilla Icebox Cookies

Since I used the pod of a vanilla bean to make these custards, I needed something to do with the seeds.  If I had to pinpoint two things that get me into trouble almost daily, it would be my tendency to multitask and to over-plan.  With that in mind, of course I made the dough for these cookies while I was making the custard.  You don't have to, you can actually just soak the pod in the milk for the custard while you are making these cookies.  Or you can just throw the pod away and make these cookies.  They are a lovely simple cookie with a light vanilla taste and, best of all, they are convenient.  Just make the dough, freeze it, and slice and bake when you need cookies up to a month later.

Makes 28 cookies

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 oz cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
Seeds of 1 vanilla bean
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
Sanding sugar, optional

1. In mixing bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy.  Add sugar and beat well.  Beat in eggs, vanilla bean, and salt.  Scrap the sides of the bowl and make sure there isn't residue in the bottom.  Add flour and beat until combined.
2. On surface covered with plastic wrap, turn out dough.  Use your hands to compress dough into a log about 8 inches long and 2 inches in diameter.  Place log of dough in freezer until solid, at least 2 hours.
3. When ready to bake, cut frozen log into 1/4 inch slices.  Place slices on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and sprinkle with sanding sugar, if using.  Bake cookies in a 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or until bottoms are golden brown and cookies are solid.  Allow cookies to cool before serving.  Cookies can be kept in an air-tight container for up to 3 days.

Tin Roof Ice Cream Sandwiches

It has been really hot here lately, so yesterday I kept thinking of how good ice cream sounded.  I wanted the peanut-chocolate treats that they have at Dairy Queen, but I also wanted an ice cream sandwich.  I decided to try ice cream sandwiches that were based on chocolate and peanuts.  The cookies themselves have a good peanut flavor, which gos well with the layers of chocolate fudge sauce.  (A note on making the sandwiches: working with the cookies is a lot easier with an ice cream sandwich maker.  The cookies are pretty sturdy here, but they can still break while making the sandwiches.  I used a sandwich maker that is a lot like this: Kitchen Art Ice Cream Sandwich Maker Set.)


Makes 14 sandwiches

3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup whole salted spanish peanuts
1 quart vanilla ice cream
1 cup hot fudge sauce

1. Combine butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar together in a mixing bowl.  Beat until fluffy.  Add baking powder, baking soda, eggs and vanilla.  Beat until incorporated, scraping bowl as needed.  Beat in oatmeal and flour until a somewhat sticky dough is formed.  Add peanuts and stir to combine.
2. Prepare baking sheets by greasing them or lining them with parchment paper.  Spoon dough onto baking sheets 2 inches apart (my cookies were about 2-3 tablespoons of dough each).  Bake cookies for 12 minutes or until edges and tops are golden brown.  Remove to cooling rack and cool completely.  You should have about 28 cookies.
3. Pair cookies together, matching cookies for size.
4. Once cookies are cool, allow ice cream to sit at room temperature for 2-5 minutes or until softened.
5. Pull a 6-inch piece of plastic wrap off roll.  Line ice cream sandwich maker with plastic wrap or place plastic wrap flat on counter. 
6. Spoon a teaspoon of hot fudge sauce onto the backs of each cookie in the pair.  Place cookie, fudge side up, in sandwich maker or on counter.  Scoop about 1/3-1/2 cup ice cream on top of hot fudge sauce on cookie.  Top with other cookie, fudge side down.  Gently press top cookie downward to sandwich.  Bring plastic wrap up around sandwich and place sandwich in a larger air-tight container.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 until all sandwiches are made.
8. Once all sandwiches are made, store them in the larger air-tight container in a freezer.  They are better if you store them for 12 hours before eating and if eaten within 10 days of sandwiches being made.

Almond Butter Cookies with Bittersweet Chips

A friend of mine mentioned a while back that she had had cookies somewhere made with almond butter.  Intrigued, I decided to try to develop a recipe using the ingredient.  I had never bought almond butter before--all the nut spreads in our house are peanut-based--but I was willing to give it a shot.  I tried to find the thickest almond butter that I could, ending up with something called "spread ready."  I decided to pair it with bittersweet chocolate mostly because I like bittersweet chocolate and I especially like it with almonds.  The cookies don't really taste much like almonds, but they are really fantastic chocolate chip cookies. (For uniform cookies, it helps to use a cookie scoop.  The one I used for these cookies can be found here: Oxo Good Grips Medium Cookie Scoop.)

Makes about 29 cookies

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)

1. In mixing bowl or bowl of electric mixer, beat together butter, almond butter, and sugars.  Scrap sides of bowl.  Add vanilla and egg; beat until combined.  Add flour, baking powder, and baking soda to bowl.  Mix until all flour is incorporated.  Stir in chocolate chips.
2. Prepare cookie sheet by either greasing it or covering it with parchment paper. 
3. Scoop cookie dough onto prepared cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart.
3. Bake cookies in 375 degree oven for 8-10 minutes or until edges are brown.  Allow to cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet before removing to a cooling rack or other cooling surface.  Cool before storing.

No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookies

When I was in college, they served these fantastic peanut butter cookies with cornflakes.  They were vegan and therefore very popular in my school.  Years later, I still thought about the cookies.  This week I decided to try making them myself.  I think these are pretty close to what I remember, meaning delicious.

Makes about 30 cookies

4 cups cornflakes, slightly crushed
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup creamy peanut butter
Dash salt
2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Measure cornflakes into a large heatproof bowl.  Set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, mix together brown sugar and corn syrup.  Place saucepan on medium heat and stir until mixture bubbles consistently.  Remove from heat.
3. Immediately stir peanut butter into sugar/syrup mixture.  Stir until peanut butter is melted and incorporated.  Stir in salt and vanilla.  Pour over cornflakes and stir to incorporate.
4. Working quickly, spoon mixture into mounds on waxed paper.  I used a scoop that is about 3 tablespoons.  Let cookies cool before eating.