Showing posts with label #cookieweek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #cookieweek. Show all posts

Friday, November 7, 2014

Chocolate Shot Cookies

Rich and buttery, like all shortbead cookies should be, these refrigerate-and-slice chocolate shot cookies also contain rolled oats. They are easy to make, keep well in the freezer and will be a welcome addition to your holiday cookie baking.

 

Welcome to the last day of Cookie Week, hosted by Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Susan of The Girl In the Little Red Kitchen! We hope you've enjoyed this week as much as we have!

On to the final cookies! 
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I am a cookbook junkie. I have a very hard time passing by a stack of books at a garage sale or car boot sale or estate sale or charity shop without rifling through them and looking for cookbooks. Sometimes I get lucky and find an already coveted book and sometimes I find a treasure previously unknown to me.

The book whence came this slightly adapted recipe is one of the latter finds. It’s called Heart of the Home – Notes from a Vineyard Kitchen and it was published in 1986. According to author/illustrator Susan Branch, it is now out of print but copies can still be found on Ebay. It’s a beautiful book, hand lettered and illustrated with watercolors and each page is a joy to behold. Plus each recipe I’ve tried has been a keeper. It's so sad when beautiful books like this one are out of print so I am delighted to have found a copy.

Ingredients for 2 1/2 dozen cookies
1 cup or 225g butter, softened
1 cup or 125g powdered or icing sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
1 cup or 90g rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup or 150g chocolate shots or sprinkles

Method
Cream the butter and the sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Add in the vanilla and beat again.



In a separate bowl, combine your flour, baking powder and salt.

Add them into the butter/sugar bowl, along with the oatmeal and beat until well combined.



Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for about half an hour. A word of warning: If you chill it for too long it gets completely stiff and unmalleable. (<new word I just made up. Oxford Dictionaries, take note. Why is it not a word?)



Cut the dough into three pieces and roll them into logs. Pile your chocolate shots in the middle of a clean tray with sides and roll the logs in them till you have full coverage.



Wrap the logs in more cling film and refrigerate for at least two hours or until you are ready to bake.  (These can also be frozen.)

When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and use a thin serrated knife to slice off however many cookies you are wanting to bake. The original recipe says to use an ungreased cookie sheet but I lined mine with a silicone baking mat.



Bake in your preheated oven for about 9-11 minutes. The tops don’t brown much but the bottoms get lovely and golden. The bottom is definitely the more attractive side. :)

Food Lust People Love: Rich and buttery, like all shortbead cookies should be, these refrigerate-and-slice chocolate shot cookies also contain rolled oats. They are easy to make, keep well in the freezer and will be a welcome addition to your holiday cookie baking.
Just out of the oven

Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: Rich and buttery, like all shortbead cookies should be, these refrigerate-and-slice chocolate shot cookies also contain rolled oats. They are easy to make, keep well in the freezer and will be a welcome addition to your holiday cookie baking.


Take a look to see what might inspire you to break out the butter and sugar this weekend.



Pin it! 

Food Lust People Love: Rich and buttery, like all shortbead cookies should be, these refrigerate-and-slice chocolate shot cookies also contain rolled oats. They are easy to make, keep well in the freezer and will be a welcome addition to your holiday cookie baking.

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Thursday, November 6, 2014

Christmas Pudding Cookies #CookieWeek

These little rounded Christmas Pudding Cookies have the rich taste of Christmas pud – dried fruit, dates, orange peel, spices - in bite-sized portions, complete with brandy butter to serve.


It’s Day Four of Cookie Week and I’m finally getting around to my second cookie! It’s been a busy week. But if this year’s Cookie Week is anything like last year’s Cookie Week, I know folks are going to be using our Pinterest board for holiday baking inspiration in weeks to come, so I wanted to share something a little different, with a British twist.

This recipe comes from a Jamie Oliver Christmas magazine a couple of years ago, December 2012, in fact. But, of course, he called them Christmas Pudding Biscuits. I think the only thing I’ve changed, besides the name, is to put just a little bit less flour so that the round cookie I like to bake is less dry. 

Jamie rolls them out and bakes them flat, like sugar cookies, but my cookie scoop makes the most perfect little Christmas pudding-shaped cookies and when that idea originally popped into my head, I couldn’t resist.

Make sure you scroll on down to see the other cookies we’ve baked for you today.

Ingredients
For the cookie dough:
2 2/3 oz or 75g toasted flaked almonds
5 1/3 oz or 150g medool dates, pitted
3 oz or 85g dried mixed fruit
Grated zest 1 orange
1/3 cup + 1 rounded tablespoon or 85g caster sugar
1/3 cup or 85g butter, softened
1 egg
1 1/3 cups or 165g flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice

For the brandy butter:
1/4 cup or 50g butter, softened
1 cup or 125g icing or powdered sugar
Pinch salt
1-2 teaspoons brandy

Method
Put the toasted almonds in your food processor and process briefly to chop them up.



Add in the dates, mixed fruit and orange zest and pulse until finely chopped. This could make your food processor jump around quite a bit so make sure to hold it down while pulsing.  Set aside.

There are still going to be some small chunks and medium-sized chunks.


Combine your flour, baking powder, cinnamon and mixed spice in a bowl.



In another larger bowl, cream together your butter and sugar. Add the egg to the butter and sugar and beat well until combined.



Stir in the flour mixture, mixing well.



Now fold in the almond/fruit mixture from the food processor. It looks like it’s going to be dry and bits keep falling out but persevere. Soon it will come together into a nice thick dough.




At this point you can wrap the dough in cling film, chill it for 20 minutes and then roll it out and cut it as you would sugar cookies or  - my idea - you can scoop it into little balls with a cookie scoop.  They look like little Christmas puds!

Either way, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a baking pan by lining it with parchment or a silicone baking mat.

I scooped mine into little balls and baked for about 14-16 minutes, until they were golden on the outside and a little darker on the bottom.



While they bake, you can make your brandy butter.
Use a wooden spoon to beat the softened butter together with the powdered sugar and a pinch of salt.

Once it’s light and fluffy, add in the brandy one teaspoon at a time, beating well in between.



The brandy transforms the butter and sugar into something even more fluffy and light and wonderful. If you aren't using it right away, it will stiffen back up in the refrigerator and you may need to let it warm up a little before it will spread.

Once the cookies are baked, allow them to cool completely before you top them with a swipe of brandy butter.



Enjoy!


I cannot tell you how perfectly these go with a cup of tea!










Many thanks to our Cookie Week hosts Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Susan of The Girl In the Little Red Kitchen! We’ve got a great team of 12 bloggers bringing you five fantastic days of cookie recipes to get you in to the holiday spirit. Are you feeling like a cookie monster yet? If not, you should be – because resisting all these delicious cookies is nearly impossible!

Grab a warm cookie from our Cookie Week bloggers!

And here's what you might have missed from Tuesday and Wednesday while I was shaking cocktails and stirring noodles!




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Monday, November 3, 2014

Muffin Top Cookies #CookieWeek

It’s the best part of every muffin! For those who like to eat the tops off of muffins and leave the rest, I give you Muffin Top Cookies with semi-sweet chocolate chips and chopped pecans. 


It’s Monday so usually that means muffins are baking at my house but today Muffin Monday and Cookie Week collide in a subtly spectacular fashion with Muffin Top Cookies. All the best of both worlds! 

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know that Cookie Week is the fabulous five-day celebration hosted by Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Susan of The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen, who, by the way, also has a commercial kitchen and will ship her delicious cookies right to your door. I participated in the inaugural Cookie Week last year and it was such fun that I begged, "please, pretty please," to be allowed to take part again. It's a great group of bakers – a dozen all told – and we'll be bringing you delicious cookies all week long!

Ingredients for about 2 dozen cookies
3/4 cup or 140g semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup or 60g chopped pecans
1 2/3 cups or 210g flour
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
1/3 cup or 80ml canola or other light oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method
Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C and prepare your cookie sheets by lining them with parchment or silicone liners.

Measure out your chocolate chips and pecans then set aside a small handful of each to decorate the tops of the cookies before baking.

In a large mixing bowl, combine your flour, sugar, baking powder, chopped pecans and salt.  In a medium bowl, whisk together your milk, oil, egg and vanilla.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ones and stir until just mixed.

Fold in the chocolate chips.


Spoon about 2 level tablespoons of dough, at 2 in or 4cm apart, onto your prepared cookie sheets. I like to use a two-tablespoon scoop, which makes the process so much easier.



Poke a few of the reserved chocolate chips and pieces of pecan into the top of each.



Bake the muffin top cookies for 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges are a light golden brown. Cool for a couple of minutes and then use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.



These turn out cakey and very much like a muffin top! Enjoy!






 Are you ready for some more warm COOKIES?!
Other blogs participating later this week include:
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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Chewy Cocoa Fudge Cookies #CookieWeek

Using coconut oil instead of butter or canola gives these fudgy cookies a wonderful rich flavor. The jury’s still out on whether they are healthier but I can tell you they are delicious.



This is day three of #CookieWeek and we have a whole other group of beautiful cookies for you.  In fact, many of my fellow cookie bakers posted recipes yesterday as well, bring our total cookie recipes to date to 44!  And we’ll be here all week, friends!



If you’ve just joined us you should know that Susan of The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen and Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic have joined together this week with 23 of their blog friends (including me!) with a week of cookie treats for you! We have every type of cookie you can imagine listed this week, including something for our furry friends! Now is the time to bookmark these recipes for the upcoming holidays and cookie swaps or simply follow our Pinterest board!

Credit for this great recipe goes to Soni at Soni’s Food.   I shifted the sugar amounts and added mini M&Ms but the rest is all her.    

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons or 90ml coconut oil
2/3 cup or 53g unsweetened cocoa
1 cup or 225g granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed or 100g brown sugar
2/3 cup or 160g plain low-fat yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup or 60g mini M&Ms

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C.  Prepare your cookie sheet by greasing it with non-stick spray or lining it with parchment paper.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine your flour, soda, and salt.  Set aside.



In a microwaveable measuring cup, warm your coconut oil for about 20 seconds in the microwave.  This step might be unnecessary if you are in a warm climate.  My coconut oil was already quite liquid straight out of the bottle.

Put your sugars in a large mixing bowl, add the coconut oil and stir well.



Add in the cocoa powder and stir again.

Now add in the yogurt and vanilla and stir again until well combined.

Dark and chocolately! 




Add your flour mixture and your baking M&Ms, stirring until all the flour has been incorporated.



Scoop balls of dough or drop by level tablespoons onto your prepared baking sheet.   

You can either leave them in balls which will give you round even chewier cookies, or press down gently to flatten the dough before baking.   I made one batch round and one batch flat.



Bake in the preheated over for 10 -14 minutes or until almost set.

Allow to cool on pan for a few minutes or until firm then remove with a spatula and cool completely on a wire rack.  


Enjoy! 

Check out all the beautiful recipes my fellow bakers have for you today:



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