To me, one of the best things about the Christmas season is baking cookies…lots of them! These are slowly becoming my favorite Christmas cookie – you can make them in a flash and everybody always seems to love them. What cookie am I talking about? Why, Monster Cookies, of course!
Oatmeal, peanut butter, holiday M&M’s….these cookies are chock full of goodies! Normally I don’t really like peanut butter-y desserts, but I made these last year for the first time and fell in love! They’re chewy, not-too-sweet, and have a little crunch, thanks to the M&M’s. I made a huge batch of these the other night for a party (yeah, the same party that I made the buttery jam cookies for) and they were definitely everyone’s favorite – especially my good buddy Susan – she loves her some cookies!
These are flourless, which I always thought was kind of weird, but it really works out – I’m tellin’ ya, these are awesome cookies! Probably a great cookie to make with your kids…if you have any….I definitely don’t have any…..not really a “kid” person….there’s a bird that sleeps on our front porch every night….that’s about as close to having kids as I get…..I doubt the bird would want to make monster cookies with me, though………….um, right…well anyway – if you’ve got some peanut butter, oats and chocolate chips or M&M’s lying around in your pantry, you can definitely make these cookies TODAY! Do it!
Monster Cookies
-slightly adapted from allrecipes.com
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 M&M’s candy (I use the holiday kind)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper. 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 M&M’s last. Drop by heaping teaspoons onto cookie sheets. Bake for 12-15 minutes.
*NOTE: the above recipe makes about 10 gazillion cookies…I was smart and cut the recipe in half and still got about 3 dozen or more
This will be the last TWD cookie post for December…sad, I know. Next week is butterscotch pudding, though, so that’s something different to look forward to! I’ve actually been sick all night last night and all day today and I feel like crap, so this post will most likely be short and sweet (I’d really just like to get some sleep, y’know?)
This week’s cookie was Buttery Jam Cookies, chosen by Heather of Randomosity and the Girl. These were surpisingly really good cookies – essentially, it’s just a soft, pillowy sugar cookie with apricot jam mixed in with the dough – sounds good, huh? I served these at a little Christmas shindig I was having the other night and they were a hit with my guests – I also sent some to work with hubby and he said his coworkers went nuts over them too! Yay Dorie! Another smash hit!
These are a really subtle cookie – not too sweet, with just a hint of apricot (or whatever jam you choose to use). I bet they’d be absolutely perfect with a cup of tea. If you’d like the recipe, go visit Heather’s blog. Happy baking and merry Christmas!!
Well, I’d be lying if I said I had baked my cookies this week like a good little TWD baker – I didn’t. In fact, I was so busy making those 12 batches of cookies for my mother-in-law, I didn’t even get around to thinking about this weeks’ recipe! I know….bad Amy, bad! BUT– the good news is, I’ve made these cookies before, so I can at least say that I’ve tried them and they’re the most perfect sugar cookies I’ve ever eaten!
This week, Ulrike of Kuchenlatein chose Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Coookies, and let me tell you – these are awesome sugar cookies! They’re my go-to sugar cookie recipe from now on. I made them when my nephew came to visit for a few days and we made these together – he said they were the best cookies he’d ever had!
Go check out Ulrike’s blog for the recipe! Sorry I sort of “cheated” this week and posted re-run pictures! Happy baking!
First, let me clarify – before I got married, the extent of my baking (besides helping my mom in the kitchen every now and then) was break and bake cookies or a boxed cake mix of some sort. In college, I baked a few things from time to time for Tyler and Seth, the boys who lived across the way from my roommate and me; but really, when it came to “real” baking – not using boxed mixes or slice-n-bake cookies- I didn’t do much of it at all! Then I started dating my hubby and somehow, my affections came out through baking…who ever saw that coming! I would send him boxes of cookies in the mail (he was at one college, and I was at another) and bake him special cakes when he’d come to visit for the weekend. So now, after two years of marriage, somehow my baking abilities have gone from store bought cookie dough to making up my own kinds of cookie recipes, homemade frostings, ganache, and all kinds of other things! Yay me! I totally found my niche…baking is what I love doing now (besides opera) and I’m getting better and better everyday! (I still have a LONG way to go, however!)
So since I’ve started this food blog, my friends and family have started seeing me as more of a serious cook/baker. They ask for recipes and call with cooking questions, which is amazingly flattering; and most recently, my mother-in-law asked if I would make cookies for her work Christmas party! How exciting! Can I call myself a professional caterer now?? No? Ok fine….worth a try….
She said I could make any kinds I wanted, but the only request she had was for me to make the oatmeal with golden raisins, pecans and coconut that I had made for them recently. No problem! So…without further ado, here are the heaps and mounds of cookies I made yesterday!
First up, Jan’s favorite. Essentially, an oatmeal raisin cookie, jazzed up a bit…Amy style! (I’m also sending these particular cookies into Joelen’s Holiday Cookie Swap blogging event, by the way!)
Oatmeal with Golden Raisins, Coconut and Pecans
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (one stick) plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temp.
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon half and half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1/2 – 1 cup (however much you want, really) shredded sweetened coconut
1 cup golden raisins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice in a bowl. Set aside. In a separate bowl, cream both sugars and butter until light and fluffy and smooth. Add egg, half and half and vanilla and blend until smooth. Stir in the oat mixture, walnuts, raisins and coconut. Drop dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper in rounded spoonfuls (or you can use a cookie scoop) about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 13 -15 minutes or until edges of cookies are golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack for cooling.
Second: the chocolate mint cookies (which I have appropriately re-named, “Chocolate Mint Puddles”). A full recipe makes about a TON of these cookies…but they’re so amazingly good!! My favorite Christmas cookie, as a matter of fact! How can you go wrong with chocolate and Andes mints??
Chocolate Mint Puddles
-allrecipes.com
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 (4.5 ounce) packages chocolate covered thin mints (Andes mints)
In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the sugar, butter and water, stirring occasionally until melted. Remove from heat, stir in the chocolate chips until melted and set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Pour the chocolate mixture into a large bowl, and beat in the eggs, one at a time. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the chocolate mixture. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets. Roll cookie dough into walnut sized balls and place 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, be careful not to overbake. When cookies come out of the oven, Press one mint wafer into the top of each cookie and let sit for 1 minute. When the mint is softened, swirl with the back of a spoon or toothpick to make a pattern with the green filling of the mint wafer. For smaller cookies, break mints in half.
Third on the list, my absolute favorite chocolate chip cookie – the “BFCCC” (big, fat, chocolate chip cookies…I think chewy is supposed to go in there somewhere, too…). I made these not long after hubby and I were married and they became an instant hit with my entire family!
And in the haste of my cookie-making….this happened: A prime example of what NOT to do when you’re making cookies for your mother-in-law:
UGH. Just don’t ask…..its the spatula’s fault! That’s all I’m going to say about it!
Big, Fat, Chocolate Chip Cookies (the BEST!)
-allrecipes.com
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I use almost an entire package of chips…)
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon.
Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted (If you’re making smaller cookies like mine, bake them for about 12 minutes). Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
And last but not least, last week’s Tuesdays with Dorie cookie – the Linzer Sable (except that I didn’t make them into sandwich cookies, so I guess they’re just Sables…)
Linzer Sables
-Dorie Greenspan
1 1/2 cups finely ground almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Scant 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 large egg
2 teaspoons water
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
Whisk together the ground nuts, flour, cinnamon, salt and cloves. Using a fork, stir the egg and water together in a small bowl.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together at medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add the egg mixture and beat for 1 minute more. Reduce the speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the dough. Don’t work the dough much once the flour is incorporated. If the dough comes together but some dry crumbs remain in the bottom of the bowl, stop the mixer and finish blending the ingredients with a rubber spatula or your hands.
Divide the dough in half. Working ,,~th one half at a time, put the dough between two large sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap. Using your hands, flatten the dough into a disk, then grab a rolling pin and roll out the dough, turning it over frequently so that the paper doesn’t cut into it, until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Leave the dough in the paper and repeat with the second piece of dough. Transfer the wrapped dough to a baking sheet or cutting board (to keep it flat) and refrigerate or freeze it until it is very firm, about 2 hours in the refrigerator or about 45 minutes in the freezer. The rolled-out dough can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months. Just thaw the dough enough to cut out the cookies and go on from there.
Getting ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
Peel off the top sheet of wax paper from one piece of dough and, using a 2-inch round cookie cutter-a scalloped cutter is nice for these-cut out as many cookies as you can. Transfer the rounds to the baking sheets, leaving a little space between the cookies. Set the scraps aside-you can combine them with the scraps from the second disk and roll and cut more cookies.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 11 to 13 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden, dry and just firm to the touch. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool to room temperature.
Repeat with the second disk of dough, making sure to cool the baking sheets between batches. Gather the scraps of dough together, press them into a disk, roll them between sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, then cut and bake.
So there you have it – the plethora of cookies (12 batches in all) I’ve been busy making. This has really been a lot of fun, though… I couldn’t justify making all these different kinds of cookies for just hubby and me – so this gave me an excuse to get in the kitchen and bake my little heart out! 🙂 Happy baking and Merry Christmas!!
How exciting!! I am so giddy about being a member of TWD during the Christmas season!! And not only that, but to actually have a food blog during all this wonderful holiday baking (Sing For Your Supper is only 8 months old, so holiday blogging is a new experience for me!)! I love baking Christmas cookies – like every cook/baker, my love for holiday baking started when my sister and I were kids and my mom would let us help her make all kinds of Christmas cookies. One particular kind I can remember making the most were called Santa’s Whiskers- sugar cookies that had a rim of coconut and maybe a few other things, I can’t quite remember. I actually never ate those cookies – I didn’t like them (it’s a coconut thing), but really enjoyed making them with my mom. So, naturally, I was super excited to see all the cookies chosen for TWD’s December line-up! Linzer Sables, Sugar Cookies, Buttery Jam Cookies….all kinds of fun stuff, and perfect for the holidays!
This week’s recipe was Linzer Sables, chosen by Noskos of Living the Life. Crisp, buttery cookies cut into cute shapes and filled with jam (or in my case, Nutella…genius!). These were great…I actually misread the recipe, as I so often do, and added 1 1/4 teaspoons of salt instead of 1/4 teaspoon (JEEZ, Amy!!), but they were still really good – you didn’t even notice the extra bit of salt! The Nutella was DELICIOUS all smushed up between these little cookies….sheer bliss!
A little tip: these cookies are perfect with some steaming hot chocolate on a cold night….especially after you’ve just been out in the cold all night trying to hang Christmas lights on the dang house. Just a suggestion.
Go check out Noskos’ blog if you would like Dorie’s recipe for Linzer Sables…..these are perfect for your next Christmas party!
Do you see this giant mess of a kitchen?? That would be my kitchen…..after my first attempt at making this week’s TWD recipe. What a MESS I am when I get in a hurry!!! Yikes!
Ok so anyway, this week’s TWD recipe is one I have been waiting for for quite some time. I had never even heard of Rugelach until I saw Ina making it one day on the Barefoot Contessa – you know, that adorable episode where she makes Jeffery a big ‘ol traditional Jewish meal? So cute! – anyway, I decided right then I would try my hand at making these cute little crescents myself. Its a shame I waited this long…but whatever – now I can cross them off my “Dying To Try” list!
So, now I have Piggy of Piggy’s Cooking Journal to thank for choosing these tasty little cookies and forcing me to finally try them! For those of you who don’t know, Rugelach (or “Little Twists”) is a traditional Jewish cookie that starts with a cream cheese dough topped with things like raspberry jam, apricot jam (which is what I used), chocolate, raisins, walnuts or pecans, sugar and cinnamon, etc, then cut into wedges and rolled up crescent-style. Very tasty. Dorie’s recipe calls for a thin layer of jam, a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar, pecans, chopped chocolate and raisins – I, however, omitted the raisins (duh!) and used walnuts instead of pecans. I have to say, these were the biggest MESS to make, but in my opinion, worth all the effort (and clean-up).
I really enjoyed these – hubby hasn’t tried any yet, but I’m sure he enjoy them too!
If you would like the recipe, head on over to Piggy’s blog and she’ll fix you up!
Its true – I’ve never made biscotti before. In fact, I’d only ever eaten it a couple of times. I have to say, I’ve never been a big fan of biscotti – I know you’re supposed to dunk it in your coffee and all, but its just too crunchy and hard for my taste. Those chocolatey kind at Starbucks aren’t half bad, but its not something I want to spend money on. I wasn’t thrilled about this week’s choice – Lenox Almond Biscotti, chosen by Gretchen of Canela and Comino, but I really wanted to give it a chance, especially since last week’s recipe was such a bust.
After all was said and done, I actually really enjoyed these. They weren’t too crunchy and really were excellent with my coffee! I will say, though, the cornmeal kinda threw me off a little….but not enough to cause a problem! These were great and I’ll most definitely be making them again!!
If you want the recipe, visit Gretchen’s blog! These are really great – give ’em a try!!
Wow, that title is a mouthful! After a week or two (or three…ugh!) of eating really, terribly unhealthy (but mucho-yummy!) fast food (think Taco Bell, pizza, burgers…) because we’ve been working so hard on the house, hubby and I are trying really hard to eat healthier. I like to look through Weight Watcher recipes and get ideas (not too many because I mean, come on, its low-fat stuff…eww) and I was really excited when I came across these cookies on Erin’s blog.
These are nice when you need something sweet but don’t want to eat 300 calories worth in one cookie – I think they’re around 100 each, or maybe less. I did decide to jazz them up a little bit, though, with a maple glaze just for a little extra something. I just love the combination of pumpkin and maple! Mmmm!!
Low-fat Maple Glazed Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
1 c. pumpkin
2 egg whites, whipped
1 c. brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup AP and 1/2 cup whole wheat)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cloves
3 c. rolled oats
1 c. raisins (I omitted)
1 c. powdered sugar
1 or 2 drops maple extract
splash of milk (I didn’t measure, I just splashed some in with the powdered sugar)
DIRECTIONS:
Spray baking sheet with cooking spray. In a large bowl combine pumpkin and egg whites. In a separate bowl combine sugar, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, oats, and raisins (batter will be very dry at first). Mix ingredients together just until moistened.
Drop cookies by tablespoonfuls onto a prepared baking sheet, 2″ apart. You can leave the cookies in the shape of a ball (the baked cookie will still be a ball) or flatten them out with the bottom of a glass before baking. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
For Glaze: mix the powdered sugar, milk and maple extract in a small bowl, then drizzle over cooled cookies.
This week’s recipe was Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops chosen by Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart. Ok, now, I have to confess – when I first got Dorie’s cookbook, Baking From My Home to Yours (aka: the book that changed my life!), I immediately saw this recipe and did a mental, “BLECH!” I’m sorry, but these cookies were one of the firsts on my “probably won’t try” list. I’m not a huge fan of whoppers to begin with, so when I found out Rachel had picked these for TWD this week, I wasn’t really enthusiastic about making them. Buuuut, I figured I’d give them a try for variety’s sake and also since my dad really likes whoppers.
Ok, believe it or not, I really liked these! I mean, I don’t know if I liked them enough to make them all that often, but at least now I’ve tried them and know that they’re really not bad! Here’s a run-down of some of the main ingredients: chopped up whoppers, malted milk powder (I used chocolate), chopped bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder (to name just a few). As they bake, the whoppers inside the cookies sort of caramelize and come out really chewy and toffee-like. (I really liked that!) The cookies were super moist and chewy, almost like a brownie.
I will say, though, I stored these in a ziploc bag overnight and the next day the cookies tasted totally different. I didn’t like them at all the next day – in fact, I ended up having to throw them out. Warm out of the oven was a totally different story, though – I think I ate about 10 in one night!
If you would like the recipe for these funky whopper cookies, head on over to Rachel’s blog and check it out!
Well, the title really does say it all. These cookies should not be in existence right now….I should be in Playa del Carmen with my smiling husband, sipping frozen drinks, lying on a sunny beach, enjoying a temporary escape from our busy, dramatic and chaotic life…not blogging about these cookies. Obviously Hurricane Gustav had other plans for our little vacation. Soooo, as it turns out, I had plenty of time to bake, photograph and blog about these delightful cookies for this week’s TWD.
This week’s TWD recipe was Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters (what a mouthful!), chosen by Stefany of Proceed With Caution. These reminded me of a monster cookie (one of my favorites!), but had a few small ingredients that made them a little different. We really enjoyed these – I froze the leftover dough to save as a nice treat for everybody who will be helping us move into our new house in two weeks (yaaaaaaay!)
A few of the ingredients included: Peanut butter (I used Natural because some of the girls suggested trying it if you wanted a more “peanutty taste”), chocolate chips, old fashioned oats, cinnamon (this gave a really nice flavor!), grated nutmeg and brown sugar to name a few. I cut the recipe in half and still had a ton of dough. These were a great cookie (although they didn’t taste quite as good as a trip to Mexico) and if you would like the recipe, visit Stefany’s Blog.
** On an separate note, I would like all of the people in the areas affected by Hurricane Gustav to know that you are in our thoughts and prayers.
