M&M Cookies!!

Of all of the cookies that I can think of, I think some of the very basics are my very favorite. One of those selected few is the beloved M&M cookie! When I say this recipe pop into my email inbox, I knew this weekend I would have to try it. This cookie proved to be soo good that the base of this cookie might be used in other cookie recipes in the future. These turned out perfectly cooked, slightly chewy, a little crisp, perfectly shaped. The only change I might try next time would be to add a little more salt, I think that might bring out the flavor of the sugar, and butter, and vanilla just a little more.

When placing the candies on top of the cookie just prior to baking, don't be afraid to put them a little closer to each other than you would think to. The cookie will spread a little bit which will give them necessary space between the candies.

The recipe is said to only make twelve cookies, they are a little bigger cookies. My try at it made thirteen cookies, with the last being a little bigger than the others. A measured scoop will also help make sure each cookie is the same size and shape. Enjoy with a cold glass of milk!

M&M Cookies (from Joy of Baking)

2 cups of All Purpose Flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (*see note above)
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup M&M candies (rough estimate)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place one oven rack in the top one-third of the oven and one oven rack in the lower one-third of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper for easy cleanup.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, or in a separate bowl and use a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes.) Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the egg and egg yolk, beating well until combined. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, and beat until just incorporated, scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Form the dough into balls, using 1/4 cup for each cookie. Place six balls of dough on each lined baking sheet. Gently flatten each dough ball into a 2 1/2 circle. Gently press the candies into each cookie. Bake for 15-17 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway. Cookies are done when when they are light golden brown in color and are just set. The cookies will continue to set as they cool, be careful not to over bake.

Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets before cooling on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

Apple Spice Cookie Bars

I wish I could have gotten a better picture of these tasty bars, because I really don't think that this does these bars justice. Oh well, it's a learning process right! I took a moment to do some Googling, who was Granny Smith and how did she get an apple named after her? Well I found out that a lady named Maria Ann Smith cultivated an unintentionally cross bread seedling to yield these tasty green apples. Additionally, the Beatles' Apple Records adopted the Granny Smith as their icon in 1968.

Apple Spice Cookie Bars (From Good Things Catered)

2c plus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

small pinch of ground cloves

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 eggs

1 c packed brown sugar
1 c white sugar

1 Tbsp Vanilla extract

2 Granny Smith Apples, peeled and diced

about 1/4 cup cinnamon sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9x13 pan, lined with foil and baking spray.

In a medium bowl combine sugars, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves.

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine sugars, melted butter. Set on medium high speed and mix until batter is light and fluffy. Add eggs one by one, also add the vanilla at this time. Turn mixer on low and add the flour mixture slowly, incorporating it fully before adding more.

Once the mixture is fully combined, remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in apples . Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared 9"x13" pan. Very generously sprinkle the top with the cinnamon sugar. Use more than you would think, because after the bars bake up, the cinnamon sugar will form a nice little crust on top.

Bake for 30 minutes until cooked through and the top springs back when pressed gently

Cool and serve!

Hazelnut Biscotti

Each Holiday season comes around and I have to make biscotti's! They are great to bring to work, or to a friends house for coffee or tea. They are especially nice because they are a nice option that isn't super sugary sweet, with all of the cookies and bars out and about that wonderful time of the year. Katie Lee Joel once described that biscotti's are named so because they are twice cooked (bi- meaning two.) She stood them up and baked them once after slicing to eliminate the extra cook time. That way the hot air in the oven could circulate to both sides. She gave rosemary biscotti's out as wedding favors when she married rockstar Billy Joel. Rosemary has many historic symbolic ties to weddings, among them is the belief that the herb represents fidelity and remembrance (and other as seen here.) However, in the summer of 2009, Katie and Billy split.

Hazlenut Biscotti's (adapted from Tyler Florence, Food Network)

1 1/2 cup hazelnuts

1/2 cup of unsalted butter, softened

3 eggs

1 cup of sugar

1 tsp almond extract

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

*semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Lay the hazelnuts out on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Toast in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the the nuts are lightly toasted. Remove from oven.

With an electric mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy. With the mixer running, gradually add eggs, sugar, and almond extract; mix until creamed. Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix the dough until smooth. Using a wooden spoon, mix in the nuts until evenly distributed.

Move the dough to a lightly floured surface and cut in half. Roll each half into a log, each 12 inches long by about 1 inch tall. Place the logs on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for about 35 minutes until the bottoms are lightly browned. Remove from oven and let the logs cool for five minutes, and then move them to a cutting board. Slice each log on a diagonal into 12-14 one inch thick pieces. Put the biscottis back onto the baking sheet and bake five minutes, remove from oven and flip, baking the the other side up for five minutes as well. Remove from the oven and let cool. Store in an airtight container.

For an added treat, melt some semi-sweet chocolate chips over a double boiler and dip the bottom half of each biscotti in the chocolate and let dry until hard on the parchment paper.

***Note: the flavors in this biscotti are interchangeable. If you choose to you can use a different nut, or none at all. You can use dried fruit, or seasonings and spices. Whatever you want to add is up to you :)

"Sandies"

I think the original, or correct name for these cookies are "Russian Tea Cookies." However, growing up my brother and I have known these as sandies. I've altered these a little from growing up, but now my husband Brian loves these! For a final touch, I have a sugar glitter that I sprinkle on afterwards for a pretty little snow ball effect (sugar glitter found at Michaels Craft Store)

"Sandies"

3/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup confectioner sugar

2 Tablespoons almond extract

1/4 cup water

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Cream together shortening, butter, and confectioner's sugar. Once complete add extracts, flour, water, and walnuts. Stir to combine.

Roll into 1 inch balls and place on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 325 degrees for 10-12 minutes until the bottoms are lightly browned. Quickly and carefully move to a cooling rack with parchment or wax paper underneath for easy cleanup. Either gently roll the cookie in a bowl of confectioner's sugar while the cookie is slightly warm. Or using a sifter, dust the tops of the cookie generously with the confectioners sugar.

Cool on the racks. For a nice touch use the sugar glitter for a pretty effect.

Chewy Ginger Cookie Experiment

I visited the Midtown Global Market here in Minneapolis for the first time last week and fell in absolutely head over heels love with their Ginger Spice Cookies-oh word were they tasty. Everything right and perfect about the holidays were wrapped up in this little cookie. The name of the bakery is Salty Tart and you can check them out here.

So I was in search of a recipe to replicate the prized cookie, and stumbled upon this one. The photos made it look like the ones in the cookbooks, so I thought to give it a try. The tricky thing about baking is that everything has to be absolutely perfect, the right temperature, the exact amount of this and that, it's a rather unforgiving science. Cooking on the other hand is usually salvageable if need be. Once cookies are done though, you can't go back and undo something.

I found out that the texture of a cookie can vary greatly if you change what type of flour is used and what types of fat is used also (e.g. butter vs. shortening.) I'll show you the photos of what happened to me. My first attempt at this recipe produced a flat, but still chewy cookie (and that could have been my pan, or the temperature I used, or something else funky, the original looked beautiful.)


The second attempt I altered a few things and used a cake flour instead of all purpose flour. There are less proteins in cake flour, so the cookie would be free to rise more quickly before the before the fats melt and 'set' the cookie. Having mentioned that, I also elected to use shortening instead of butter. Shortening has a higher melting point than butter, so as mentioned, the cookie can rise for longer before it sets.

One other change I might try for next time is instead of using one cup of granulated sugar is switching to 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar, I hope I remember! If you try let me know how it goes.

All of this and more can be found here Cookie Basics 101 from Alton Brown, the good stuff starts at about scene 5.

Ginger Cookies (Originally from Taste of Home adapted from Cathy)

3/4 cup shortening (regular or butter flavored)
1 cup plus two tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups cake flour
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening and one cup of granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, molasses and vanilla. Mix well. Combine dry ingredients in another bowl, gradually add to creamed ingredients and mix well.

Roll into 1" balls, and toss in remaining sugar, and place at least 2" from each other on a parchment lined baking sheet. Do not overcrowd the sheet. On a standard size baking sheet, bake no more than 8 at a time. For even size, use a small cookie scoop.

Bake for 9-10 minutes or until lightly browned. The cookies might not look all the way done, if you leave them in the oven until they 'look' done, they will actually be overcooked, and that is no bueno. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet until it can easily be transferred to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container

Peppermint Meltaways

I was up for trying a new holiday cookie to add to the cast of usuals, and these turned out perfectly. I first came upon this recipe flipping through a taste of home holiday cookie edition and there were so many fun ones to pick from, but I'm glad to have made these.

These had the perfect touch of mint without being too sweet or sugary. The frosting I made left white, but I used a few drops of red coloring and used a toothpick to swirl the color through the icing, and that kind of mimicked a candy cane effect. I don't have a piping bag for the frosting so I used a ziplock bag with a star tip.

Peppermint Meltaways (from Taste of Home)

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup corn starch

Frosting

3 Tbsp butter, softened

1 1/2 cups confectioner sugar

2 Tbsp milk

1 tsp peppermint extract

2 to 3 drops red food coloring (optional)

1/4 cup crushed peppermint candies (best done in a food processor or blender)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a small bowl, cream butter and confectioner sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the extract. Combine flour and cornstarch in a separate bowl. Gradually add to the creamed mixture until fully combined.

Shape into one inch balls, Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until the bottoms are very lightly browned. Remove to wire rack to cool.

In a small bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy. Add the confectioners sugar, milk, and extract.

Once fully incorporated and mixture is smooth, add a few drops of the red food coloring if using. Spread the frosting over the tops of the cookies, a piping bag will make for a pretty effect if available. Sprinkle a little of the crushed candies over the top.

Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Pecan Pie Cookies

Pecan Pie Cookies (from Elizabeth's Edible Experience)

Cookie Ingredients:

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

Filling Ingredients:

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all cookie ingredients except flour and baking powder in large mixer bowl and beat until creamy. Reduce speed to low and add baking powder . Beat until well mixed.

Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Using your finger, make a small indentation or well big enough to host a small teaspoon of filling.

Combine all filling ingredients in a small bowl and stir to combine. Place one teaspoon of filling in each cookies' well. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool one minute on the sheet and move to cooling rack. Enjoy!

**One note, I had extra filling left over. I saved it because I plan on making these again in the near future. However, it might be okay to scale back the filling quantities.

Toasted Coconut Macaroons

I think personally the term macaroons can mean different things to different people or in different parts of the world. To the French they are macarons, made with the addition of almond paste and is more dense. To some on this side of the ocean, macaroons are more similar to a Mounds Bar (w/o the chocolate) and to some they are light and airy. The last of those are the ones I prefer, toasty outside and moist and fluffy inside. It seems like coconut is something you for sure like or for sure dislike.. Personally I hope you like it as much as I do!


Toasted Coconut Macaroons (From Alton Brown)

4 Large Egg Whites (maybe consider saving 3 of the egg yokes for a homemade chocolate pudding)

pinch of salt

8oz bag of shredded sweetened coconut

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread coconut out on prepared sheet pan. Toast coconut in the oven for 7-10 minutes until lightly browned, allow to cool before incorporating.

In a stand mixer bowl fitted with the whisk attachment, place the four egg whites and pinch of salt and mix until mixture has turned white and is beginning to form soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar in 3 batches, and mix until stiff peaks are formed. The whole process will take about 10 minutes. Once this is complete, using a rubber spatula gradually fold in the toasted coconut.

On the parchment lined cookie sheets, spoon out mixture leaving an inch or so between the cookies. The mixture will not spread too much. The finished product will also cook down, as in it will not be as tall as the the 'dough' is. For instance if your cookie is 1.5" tall before going into the oven, it will be 3/4" thick after it is baked and cooled. Not that important but if you like a more tall macaroon, keep that in mind when portioning out each cookie.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. The outsides will be browned but the insides should still be moist.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

TheI've heard a bit about the pumpkin shortage in certain parts of the country and am fortunate to report no site of one here yet. Sorry if this applies to you-I can send you some if you'd like. That being mentioned I thought I would get a jump start to fall baking while the pumpkin was available. And boy did I find a good one. Goodthingscatered is a goldmine for wonderful baked treats, check Katie out if you get a chance. The little cookies made the house smell scrumptious and is a wonderful way to kick off the first full day of fall!



Spiced Pumpkin Nut Cookies

2 c. plus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1 ½ tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick (8 Tbsp) unsalted butter, softened
3 Tbsp oil
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 c. dark brown sugar, packed
3/4 c. pumpkin puree
1 Tbsp applesauce
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c. chopped walnuts
3/4 c. raisins

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment.
-In large bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
-Whisk to combine well and set aside.
-In bowl of stand mixer, combine butter oil and sugars.
-Beat on medium speed until fluffy and light in color, about 1 minute.
-Add pumpkin, beating to combine.
-Scrape down sides of bowl and then add applesauce, egg and vanilla, beating to combine well.
-Scrape down sides of bowl then add flour mixture.
-Beat on low until barely combined, or use a wooden spoon to just barely incorporate, do not over mix.
-Remove bowl from mixer.
-Add walnuts and raisins and gently fold into batter.
-Chill the batter, covered in the refrigerator for one hour.
-Using large spoon, spoon 2 inch wide rounds onto baking sheet, spacing 2 inches apart.
-Place into oven and bake for 13-15 minutes.
-Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes.
-Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 36 cookies