Lemon Crinkle Cookies

 My sister-in-law, Mandy has a huge lemon tree in her yard. I mean huge. Seriously, there are hundreds of lemons on it. So, there will be lots of lemon recipes to try. Too bad most recipes don't call for very many lemons!

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 whole egg

1 tsp lemon zest

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice- I just used one entire lemon, zest + juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside. {I used a baking mat}

2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice.  Scrape sides and mix again.  Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar.  Scrape sides of bowl and mix again, briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate.  Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in the powdered sugar.  Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte (not melted or shiny).  Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

from Aunt Cindy

Snickerdoodles

There was a good period of time where Sunday afternoons my brother Anthony, my sister Brittany and I would make snickerdoodles and then watch a Disney movie. A lot of recipes call for shortening, but really you can make it work well with butter.
  I recently got some Saigon cinnamon and wanted to try it out. It is more concentrated than normal cinnamon (more like the red-hot candy flavor), so I did a blend of the two.

Ingredients

1 cup of unsalted butter (2 sticks), room temperature
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour  (last time I used 1/2 cup wheat flour and 2 1/14 cups all-purpose)
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. white sugar
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cream together butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Add the eggs and the vanilla and beat slowly til combined. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet and blend. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.

2. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes (I bake right at 8 minutes). Remove immediately from baking sheets and transfer to wire rack to cool. {Better to almost underbake than over bake as they get hard pretty quick. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Coconut Chewies

 

from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Okay. Really I ate at least 9 of these yesterday. Easily.
The only thing I might play with next time would be trading a little more oatmeal for a little less flour. Thanks for introducing these to me, Katie!

Ingredients

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened to cool room temperature
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour (can also use white-wheat flour)
1 cup shredded, sweetened coconut
1 cup quick oats

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl cream together the sugar and butter. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.  In a small bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to sugar mixture and mix until combined. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a greased or lined (silpat or parchment) baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes, until the cookies are set but not overly browned (bake a few minutes longer for a crispier version- I baked mine right at 9 min). The cookies will appear a little doughy at first, but quickly settle upon being transferred to a cooling rack.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Blackberry Jam

adapted slightly from Giada

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar, plus 1/4 cup
1/2 packed cup light brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup blackberry jam {I had raspberry on hand, so that's what I used}


Directions

1. Put an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

2.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, peanut butter, 3/4 cup of sugar, and light brown sugar together, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until blended. With the machine running on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture until incorporated.

3. Put the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar in a small bowl. Form the dough into 1/4 cup-size balls-split in half- and roll in the sugar. Arrange 8 balls of dough, evenly apart, on each baking sheet. Using a round 1/4 teaspoon measure, or the thin end of a wooden spoon, make a hole in the center of each ball of dough, about 1/2 to 3/4-inch deep. Fill a ziploc bag with jam, cut one corner off, and squeeze about 1 tsp. jam into each hole. Bake for 11 to 14 minutes until the dough has spread and the surface of the cookies are crackled (mine were ready at 11). Cool for 5 minutes on cookie sheet and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, about 20 minutes.

Oatmeal Cookies fit for a Lion

little cookies, for little hands 

{I know, I know. I kinda want to barf at the sign of anything sweet right now, but this post was from last week...}

    So… I may or may not have googled ‘healthy sugar cookies.’ I know, it  is an oxymoron, but I was thinking maybe there was some alternative to 100% sugar for Siena and her little friends to eat. No, I’m not one of those crazy people who doesn’t let my child eat sugar at all, but I am one of those people who’d rather give her treats that are from real ingredients and maybe have a little something good in them- in this case, oatmeal.

   I’m not pretending these are healthy- note the 2 cups of sugar and cup of butter. They would be divine with chocolate chips, peanut butter anything, white chocolate and dried cranberries, butterscotch etc., but for this special little lady we just kept it real simple.

I didn't have cinnamon on hand like my original recipe calls for, but I did have pumpkin pie spice- either is great.

 Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

1 cup white sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt (or just under if you can)

1 tsp. pumpkin pie filling, or 1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

3 cups quick cooking oats

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time,  and vanilla, beating to incorporate.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie filling (or cinnamon). Gradually add dry mixture to sugar mixture, stirring to incorporate. Stir in oats til just blended.

3. Roll oatmeal into small balls (or use a cookie scoop) and place cookie dough on baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Allow cookies to stay on sheet for 3 min or so before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

from Gastronomy
My amiga, Kari, shared this link a few weeks ago and it has been bookmarked tempting me since. I had to get over the amount of butter and the fact it used Skippy instead of Jiff, and then I was ready to make it. The original recipe says to use an ice cream scoop for the cookies- I tried that on one pan and they were way too big for my boca, so the rest I made with a cookie scoop. I made the filling and paired it with some cookies for sandwiches but had plenty of cookies left over to enjoy on their own.
Ingredients
Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
4 tsp. baking soda
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
 2/3 cup creamy peanut butter, preferably Skippy
 1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
 1/3 cup coarsely chopped peanuts
 2 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

Filling
¼ pound (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
½ cup creamy peanut butter, preferably Skippy
1 2/3 cups confectioners’ sugar
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and baking soda; set aside. Using a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and peanut butter. Add sugars and beat at medium speed for 4 minutes, scraping down bowl twice.
2. At low speed, add eggs and vanilla. Add flour mixture and beat at low speed until well mixed, frequently scraping down bowl. Add peanuts and oats, and mix well. Using a cookie scoop, place balls of dough on parchment-lined baking sheets at least three inches apart.
3. Bake until cookies have spread and turned very light golden brown, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool and firm up, 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely before filling.
4. To make the filling, use an electric mixer, cream together the butter, peanut butter, and confectioners’ sugar until very smooth. Transfer the filling to a pastry bag or makeshift pastry bag (i.e. Ziploc bag). To assemble cookies, pipe filling on underside of a cookie. Sandwich with another cookie. Repeat.

White Chocolate, Chocolate Cookies

from allrecipes.com


Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Add vanilla. In a medium bowl, whisk together the baking soda, baking powder, salt, cocoa, and flour. Gradually stir dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Finally, fold in white chocolate chips. Use cookie scoop and arrange on prepared cookie sheet {dough will be a bit sticky}.

3. Bake for 8 minutes, until puffy but still soft. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.