Cookie Recipe #6

Chocolate Cherry Thumbprints

These are the best ones. Only brought out for the holidays. It is impossible to describe how amazing these are. These are not cookies for mindless devouring. They are for savoring like a fine wine.

Ingredients: 

1 ½ cups of flour

½ cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

1 stick (½ cup) butter or margarine

1 cup sugar

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. baking soda

1 egg

1 ½ tsp. vanilla

48 undrained maraschino cherries

6 oz. chocolate chips

½ cup sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl combine flour and cocoa; set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter or margarine with an electric mixer on medium to high speed about 30 seconds or till softened. Add sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat till well combined. Add egg and vanilla. Beat well. Gradually beat in the flour mixture.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place on ungreased baking sheet. Press down center of each ball with thumb. Drain maraschino cherries, reserving juice. Place a cherry in the center of each cookie. In a small saucepan combine the chocolate pieces and sweetened condensed milk; heat till chocolate is melted. Stir in 4 tsp. of the reserved cherry juice.

Spoon about 1 tsp. of the frosting over each cherry, spreading to cover cherry. 

Bake in oven about 10 minutes or till done. Remove to wire rack, cool.

(recipe via mom’s recipe box)

Cookie Recipe #5

Magic-in-the-Middles

It’s a peanut butter cup, but it’s a cookie. Endlessly fascinating. Also far more satisfying than a normal peanut butter cup. You will probably be ready for a glass of milk and a nap after this beast.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups flour

½ cup unsweetened cocoa

½ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

½ cup sugar

½ cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 stick (½ cup) softened butter

1 cup creamy peanut butter, divided

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 egg

¾ powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together first 4 ingredients in a medium-size mixing bowl in a separate bowl, beat together sugars, butter, and ½ cup peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg, beating to combine. Stir in dry ingredients, blending well. Set dough aside.

2. Stir together remaining ½ cup peanut butter and powdered sugar until smooth. With floured hands, roll mixture into 26 1-inch balls. 

3. Break off about 1 tbs. cookie dough. Make an indentation in center with thumb, and press 1 peanut butter ball into indentation. Wrap dough up and over filling, pressing to seal; roll cookie to smooth it out. Repeat for each cookie. 

4. Dip top of each cookie in granulated sugar and place 2 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheets (or use parchment paper). Flatten each cookie to about ½ inch thick.

5. Bake cookies for 7-9 minutes or until set. Let cool on wire rack.

(recipe via old magazine clipping)

Cookie Recipe #4

Jumbles

It looks so average and unassuming, but it is probably in my top two cookies of all time. They have an unexpected chewiness and hint of flavor from the raisins mixed with the chocolate and the small tinkling of a crunch you get when you bite into the M&Ms. The real secret to these is to undercook them. Just slightly. The bottoms of these cookies should be toasted at most. If you burn these, you will regret it with each unpleasantly crunchy bite. Or you could just dunk them in milk.

Ingredients: 

1 stick (½ cup) softened butter or margarine

½ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1 ¼ cups flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 ¾ cups of M&Ms (minis are preferable)

1 cup raisins

1 cup finely chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl beat butter and sugars together until light and fluffy; add egg. Combine flour and baking soda; blend into creamed mixture. Stir in M&Ms, raisins and nuts. Drop rounded tablespoonsful (real word) of dough, about 2" apart, onto greased cookie sheets (or use parchment paper). Bake 13-15 minutes. Cool 2-3 minutes on cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks. 

(recipe via old M&Ms advertisement)

Cookie Recipe #3

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Everyone loves these. Bring these to a Christmas party and everyone will eat them and love them. In fact, this cookie was the last one, and I saved it just to take some glamour shots of it and then I ate it. If you make an array of cookies no matter what point in time they were baked, all scientific evidence points to the Peanut Butter Blossoms being completely eaten first. It’s true.

(Recipe via Food Network)

Cookie Recipe #2

Fudgie Scotch Squares.

Perfect for college care packages. Very filling, but it is still very hard to only have one. Nuts are strictly optional for this. Substitute them for more chocolate if you’re not into that sort of thing. Devour these as soon as you can right out of the oven and try not to scald your mouth, because the melted butterscotch chips make this cookie fabulous. Also, eating straight butterscotch chips is fabulous. I don’t know anyone else who does this, though.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup graham cracker crumbs

1 can sweetened condensed milk

6 oz. chocolate chips

6 oz. butterscotch chips

1 cup walnuts finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients well and pour mixture into a very well greased 9" square pan for 30-35 min. 

(recipe via mom’s recipe box)

Cookie Recipe #1

Hello there!

I realized that this week marked the two year anniversary of this blog! Can you believe it? So my present to you is a collection of SIX amazing cookie recipes. These are all of the Christmas cookies that we have baked as of yesterday. (More will be coming, no doubt.) So let’s begin.

Magic Bars

A distinctive cookie, a bakery staple. Chewy to crunchy ratio about 2:1. Undercooking these isn’t a bad idea at all, especially since there are no eggs in the recipe. Very messy treat. Have a napkin on hand or just pop the whole thing in your mouth, because crumbs are inevitable.

Ingredients:

½ cup margarine or butter

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 (14 oz.) can of sweetened condensed milk

6 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 1/3 cups of flaked coconut

1 cup finely chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 for glass dish). In 13x9” baking pan, melt butter in oven (remember to coat the sides of the pan as well). Sprinkle crumbs over butter; pour sweetened condensed milk over crumbs. Top with remaining ingredients, press down. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cut into bars.

(recipe via Eagle Brand Condensed Milk advertisement from 1988)