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Peanut Butter Molasses Ginger Chews

March 27, 2013 by 15 Comments

Peanut Butter Molasses Ginger Chews | www.foodiewithfamily.com

Cookies are the instant gratification fix of the food world. You mix things together, you scoop, you bake and you iiiiiiinhale them. Or at least that’s what I do. This recipe was developed at the request of my dear-ole-dad who asked me to find a road-tested peanut butter and molasses cookie recipe for him. I couldn’t. So I did what any self-respected recipe developer would do.

I made one up. Then I tested it like I was doing a recipe for a company, because people, this is my DAD we’re talking about. I don’t give him lousy recipes. Something about owing my life -in part- to him, blah blah blah.

I put everything my dad loves in a cookie into one little chewy, crispy package: peanut butter, molasses, and ginger. And Dad specifically asked that I make it “not-cakey”. He said, “Crispy and chewy are both fine, but if I want cake, I’ll eat cake.”

Understood.

The addition of peanut oil to this recipe helps it to spread while it bakes. This does double duty- it prevents cakiness and it adds a bit of crispiness to the edges. I call these “The Incredible Morphing Cookies” because when they come out of the oven, they’re domed and puffy and soft.

Peanut Butter Molasses Ginger Chews | www.foodiewithfamily.com

As they sit on the cooling racks, they deflate a bit. When they’re completely cooled, they become crisp. When you transfer them to a cookie jar and let them rest overnight, they remain crisp at the edges and soften to chewy inside. Every single stage is delicious. I highly recommend eating a couple at each point. You know, for scientific reasons.

 

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Peanut Butter Molasses Ginger Chews

Rating: 51

Peanut Butter Molasses Ginger Chews

These crisp-yet-chewy cookies are full of good stuff: peanut butter, molasses, white whole wheat flour, ginger, butter and more. They are simple, fast and taste like Mary Jane candies!

Ingredients

  • 2 cups brown sugar, packed
  • 1 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 2/3 cup molasses
  • 1/2 cup peanut oil (or vegetable or canola oil)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 4 cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpat.

Cream together the sugar, peanut butter, butter, oil, molasses and eggs in the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl until smooth.

Sift the flours, baking soda, ginger and salt together then add to the peanut butter mixture. Beat on low or stir in the flour until it is well mixed and even.

Use a small cookie scoop or a teaspoon to scoop the cookie dough into mounds that are about 2 teaspoons worth of dough. Roll the dough into balls and roll the balls in the extra sugar to coat completely.

Place the sugar coated cookie dough balls in 5 rows of 4 (using an extra cookie sheet if necessary to make sure you have at least 2 inches between each cookie dough ball.)

Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are set in the center and firm at the edges.

Let the cookies cool on the pans for 2 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. Store at room temperature in a cookie jar or other airtight container.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2013/03/27/peanut-butter-molasses-ginger-chews/

Filed Under: Cookies, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Sweet and Salty No-Bake Popcorn Cookies | The Croods

February 27, 2013 by 13 Comments

Salty and Sweet No Bake Popcorn Cookies from Foodie with Family

I love movies of all kinds: comedy, drama, action, adventure, COLIN FIRTH (because he gets his own category), HUGH JACKMAN (because he does, too), classics, musicals, suspense, animation (both silly and serious)… I love all of them. I can converse entirely in movie quotes and adaptations thereof when in the company of another movie lover. I don’t do this often because it’s just not as much fun when someone looks at you blankly when you say something like, “Wonder Twin powers activate! Form of a play date!” and try to fist bump.

Sigh.

I am especially fond of animated films. I’ve loved them my entire life and being firmly entrenched in adulthood is -in my opinion- not any kind of reason to stop. So when Dreamworks Animation -the studio behind some of my all time favourite animated films (Shrek, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Chicken Run, Kung Fu Panda, and Megamind)- contacted me and asked me to develop a recipe for their upcoming film THE CROODS, I said yes enthusiastically.

From the moment I signed on, I knew what I was going to do… A Sweet and Salty No-Bake Popcorn Cookie. What goes better with movies than popcorn? And without giving too much away, popcorn features prominently in THE CROODS as well. It was a match made in animated film heaven!

Sweet and Salty No-Bake Popcorn Cookies are -like the movie- full of everything whimsical and bright: crunchy popcorn and salty pretzel sticks, sweet and sticky marshmallow, nutty brown butter and bright candy covered chocolate pieces.

Sweet and Salty No Bake Popcorn Cookies from Foodie with Family

They’re like a cross between a popcorn ball, rice crispy treat, candy bar, a bag of pretzels and a rainbow. Every bite is a happy bite; I challenge you to eat these without a smile!

Thankfully, you don’t have to wait long or fire up the oven when you get a hankering for these fabulous treats. All you have to do is pop some popcorn, melt some butter and marshmallows together, stir all the goodies together and scoop-n-squish the cookies. You don’t even have to wait until they firm up. Eat them warm and gooey if you want. I won’t tell!

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Sweet and Salty No-Bake Popcorn Cookies | The Croods

Sweet and Salty No-Bake Popcorn Cookies | The Croods

Sweet and Salty No-Bake Popcorn Cookies like a cross between a popcorn ball, rice crispy treat, bag of pretzels, chocolate candies, and a rainbow with crunchy popcorn and salty pretzel sticks, sweet and sticky marshmallow, nutty brown butter and bright candy covered chocolate pieces. These chewy no-bake cookies are guaranteed to make you smile!

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup unpopped popcorn kernels (if using a pan on the stovetop, you also need enough oil to pop it according to package directions.)
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 10-ounce bag of marshmallows or 4 cups of mini marshmallows
  • 3 cups thin salted pretzel sticks
  • 2 cups candy coated chocolate morsels
  • oil for your hands

Instructions

Pour the pretzels into a large mixing bowl and use your hands to break them roughly. The goal is to have most of them broken into three or more pieces. Set the bowl aside.

Line two sheet pans with silpats, parchment paper or wax paper and set them aside, too.

Pop the popcorn kernels using either an air popper or on the stove top using the directions on the bag of popcorn. Pour the popcorn into a bowl and give the bowl a couple of firm shakes back and forth to loosen unpopped kernels and let the drop to the bottom of the bowl.

Use your hands to scoop and shake the popcorn (again, to get rid of any remaining unpopped kernels) before transferring them to into the mixing bowl that has the broken pretzel sticks in it.

Use your hands to gently crush the popcorn so that about 1/3 of it is broken into smaller pieces.

In a medium sized saucepan, melt the butter over medium low heat and let it bubble around the edges, lowering the heat if necessary to keep it from burning, just until the butter is golden and smells a little nutty. Add the marshmallows and carefully stir to coat them in butter. Drop the heat to low and -stirring constantly- melt the marshmallows in the butter until smooth. Pour over the popcorn and pretzel mixture and stir to coat everything evenly. Stir in the candy coated chocolate morsels just until distributed.

Oil your hands generously and use them to scoop about 1/3-1/2 of a cup of the popcorn mixture and gently press it together to form a ball. Put it on the lined pan and gently press down to flatten it slightly into a thick cookie. Repeat with the remaining popcorn mixture until it is gone.

Eat immediately or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2013/02/27/sweet-and-salty-no-bake-popcorn-cookies-the-croods/

Would you like to learn more about The Croods?

Visit the official website

Like The Croods on Facebook

Follow @DWAnimation on Twitter #TheCroods

Re-pin great DIY tutorials, printables & more from The Croods on Pinterest!

THE CROODS is a 3D comedy adventure that follows the world’s first modern family as they embark on a journey of a lifetime when the cave that has always been their home is destroyed. Traveling across a spectacular landscape, the Croods are rocked by generational clashes and seismic shifts as they discover an incredible new world filled with fantastic creatures — and their outlook is changed forever.

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke and Cloris Leachman.

Croods_Poster

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by The Croods by Dreamworks Animation. All opinions and are -as always- my own.

Filed Under: Cookies, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , ,

Grandma’s Snickerdoodles

February 20, 2013 by 20 Comments

Grandmas Snickerdoodles from Foodie with Family

My family lives, talks, dreams, plans, prepares, preaches, and eats food. We don’t breathe it, however, as aspirating food is generally acknowledged to be a bad idea. In short, we are all food maniacs.

There have been a handful of time that I’ve been brought up short when chatting with people and they inform me that their family tradition is to keep their recipes secret. At those moments, my jaw has dropped open like a cod and I’ve been at a loss from words. This is probably because in my family, if you even imply you like something we’ve cooked for you, we hurriedly jot down the recipe and cram it into your hands.

The recipe I’m sharing today is my Grandma’s snickerdoodle recipe. When I posted a picture of it on facebook, one of my aunts said, “I can smell them now!” Thus is the power of Grandma’s snickerdoodles. My Grandma’s version of this classic cookie is a classic itself. And while I’m certain Grandma made them for everyone, I always felt like she made them just for me. And THUS is the power of my Grandma.

I’ve talked before about my prized possessions: my handwritten recipe cards that Grandma gave me in my first years of marriage. (You can read a couple of those posts here and here.) I cannot even find the words to say what my Grandma means to me.  Every single one of those now-laminated recipe cards represents my Grandma thinking of me when I wasn’t there and wanting me to eat well. And honestly, friends, I think that’s what our compulsive recipe sharing boils down to; it’s our desire to be part of feeding you and caring for you even when we’re not there.

Can you imagine anything better than coming in from playing in the snow for hours to the smell of snickerdoodles fresh from the oven? There really is only one thing better than that: sitting down at the table of someone you love, being handed a plate of those cookies and a mug full of warm tea.

There’s something about the scent of those cinnamon and sugar crusted butter cookies that -to this day- puts me back at the table in Grandma’s dining room. I suspect that for the rest of my life, cinnamon is going to smell like hugs to me. I’ll take it.

Fair warning, though: these cookies are absolutely irresistible. And when I say irresistible, I mean that you’ll be unable to walk past the cookie jar without fishing out one… or two… or three…(or five. Oh dear.) You wouldn’t say no to Grandma’s cookies, would you?

 

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Grandma’s Snickerdoodles

Rating: 51

Grandma’s Snickerdoodles

My Grandma's Snickerdoodles are a perfect rendition of the classic: tender butter cookies with a cinnamon sugar crust. Be warned, though, they are completely irresistible.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups and 2 tablespoons granulated white sugar, separated
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 3/4 cup flour
  • 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions

Cream together the butter, 1 1/2 cups of sugar and eggs until smooth. In a separate bowl, use a whisk or fork to combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix until well combined. Cover the dough and chill for at least 30 minutes but up to 24 hours before working with it.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line cookie sheets with silpats or parchment paper.

Use a fork to combine the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar with the 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon.

Use a small disher (cookie scoop) or teaspoons to scoop about 2 teaspoons of cookie dough, roll it into a ball and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar to coat. Place the cookies 2-inches apart on the cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly browned but still soft. Let them rest on the cookie sheets for one minute before transferring to a cooling rack.

Store at room temperature in an airtight container.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2013/02/20/grandmas-snickerdoodles/

 

Filed Under: Cookies, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: , , ,

Holiday Cookies and Goodies Round-Up

December 7, 2012 by 5 Comments

Were you to be looking for me this past Tuesday or Wednesday, you would’ve found me in the basement of the student center at Houghton College in Houghton, New York, selling tasty goodies at a table set up at the 26th Annual Houghton Arts & Crafts Fair. This was the first year the college did two floors of vendors and I was there on a mission: to sell as many baked goods as I could possibly turn out of my kitchen to benefit the Cookies for Kids Cancer organization.

First I want to say a word about this fabulous group. Cookies for Kids’ Cancer was the brainchild of a mother who was inspired by her two and a half year old son’s own battle with pediatric cancer. She took what is most parents’ worst nightmare and turned it into a mission to help other families touched in the same way. Here are some important statistics to know about pediatric cancers.

  • Cancer claims the lives of more children annually than any other disease ” more than asthma, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis & AIDS combined.
  • 46 children per day are diagnosed with cancer totaling nearly 13,000 new cases per year.
  • Cure rates have improved dramatically and advances in childhood cancer research has provided seminal insights into the cancer problem in general. Today, 4 out 5 children diagnosed with cancer can be cured.
  • Combined funding for all pediatric cancers accounts for less than 4% of the National Cancer Institute TOTAL cancer funding budget.*

All statistics sourced from Cookiesforkidscancer.org.

The opportunity to take part in the arts & crafts fair was pretty last minute, so I didn’t have a ton of time to recruit friends and family to donate baked goods for sale, but I wasn’t about to give up the chance to use my partnership with the GLAD Product Company to help as many people as I possibly could. Why was this such an opportunity? Because GLAD was going to donate up to $1.00 for every single cookie (or goody) I sold, up to $100,000. I knew I couldn’t dream of turning out one hundred thousand cookies, but my kitchen kicked into as high a gear as I could make it go. I made a monstrously huge batch of Chex mix (as in three boxes worth of cereal, a bag of pretzels, a mega-box of Goldfish crackers,  three-quarters of a pound of butter and various other bits and pieces), a quadruple batch of salted caramel corn, and a bunch of homemade instant vanilla chai mix. I took them to the sale on Tuesday, hoping I might be able to sell out before the six o’clock end time to get home with plenty of day left to make things to sell the next day.

I had no idea.

I was cleaned out by two o’clock in the afternoon. The pleasant surprise spurred me to have more the next day, so the boys and I went home to make something REALLY spectacular for day two. I turned out forty eight Hot Chocolates on a Stick, four batches of homemade marshmallows (Bourbon Vanilla, Coffee, Orange Vanilla and Mint flavoured, respectively), another roaster pan of Chex mix and four batches of kettle corn (two classic, two spicy/sweet chipotle). Phew. I bagged everything maniacally Wednesday morning, pulled a brush through my hair and threw some makeup at my face, hoping it would land in the right place and had everything on my table to start selling at ten in the morning. My prayer was that I’d once again be able to sell most of what I had brought. I promised the kids they could eat whatever I didn’t sell.

Again? Whoa.

Houghton students and community members from the county really know how to kick it into gear when it comes to charitable giving. I sold out again by two.

One student came by and listened sweetly to my spiel then opened her wallet and stuffed what she had into the donation jar with the simple statement, “I am cancer. I survived.”

That makeup I threw at my face melted off as I thanked her tearfully.

All in all, I sold two-hundred and fifty items at that sale. My word.

You can get in on the giving, too, from the comfort of your own home or office and without baking a thing! Exchange a virtual cookie with a friend at the GLAD Cookie Exchange. GLAD will donate up to $1.00 to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer for each virtual cookie sold, exchanged or given this November and December 2012 – up to $100,000! In other words, all you have to do to help is click! Keep on clicking, folks. Together we can take a bite out of Pediatric cancers. Please visit the Glad Cookie Exchange and Cookies for Kids’ Cancer to see what you can do to help!

Now let’s talk goodies and cookies round-up, shall we? All of these recipes are suitable for holiday cookie exchanges, giving or bake sales.  First, let me show you what we offered at our bake sale.

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

Sweet and Spicy Chipotle Kettle Corn

Salted Caramel Corn

…And now for other cookies and goodies that make great gifts or holiday cookie exchange items!

Ada and Anna’s Maple Sandwich Cookies (Maple Whoopie Pies)

Homemade Twix Cookies

Amish Cookies

Almond Joy or Mounds Cookies

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

…And because not EVERYONE has a sweet tooth, include this for your favourite savoury snack lovers!

Rosemary Garlic Almonds



I have partnered with The Glad Products Company through DailyBuzz to help promote their Food Storage products. I have been compensated for my time commitment to work with this product. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments. Thank you GLAD!

Filed Under: Rebecca, Round Ups Tagged With: , , , , ,

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

September 26, 2012 by 17 Comments

There is nothing like a warm cookie on a cold day. While my husband and I play our annual game of “just how long can we wait to fire up the wood stove”, the days are getting cooler and the nights are colder yet.

We try to eek as many days wood stove-free as we possibly can out of each year and steadfastly refuse to start a fire at least –AT LEAST- until fall has officially started. It’s ridiculous. It’s petty. It’s stupid… we march around in so many layers that we look like the baby brother in ‘A Christmas Story’. We wear gloves in the house. I bake like it’s my job. In a way, I suppose it actually is, considering how many mouths we feed.

Baked potato lunches are had for no reason other than I want to warm the darned place up a bit. Bread is baked for anyone who looks like they might have ever been hungry just because.  The boys check on the progress of whatever is in the oven even more than they usually do because, well, they want to warm up as much as I do. No soufflés this time of year, no sireebob. The oven door is opened too many times for something as delicate as that.

But cookies… Cookies get the most play of everything. Cookies are the almost instant gratification of the baking world. You whip the dough together and then you wait about twelve minutes. Sure, you probably oughta wait at least until they cool down enough not to take the skin off of the roof of your mouth, but let’s not kid each other. I bite into a cookie as soon as it holds together long enough for me to get it to my maw from the pan.

Since we’ve already established my bonafide obsession with all things pumpkin, you probably shouldn’t be surprised that one of my favourite cookies at this, the very cookie-est time of year, is a pumpkin one. It’s not just any pumpkin cookie, though. Oh no. It’s a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie. Hallelujah! It’s everything wonderful all at once.

I have to confess, I roast the pumpkins to make the pumpkin puree for these bad boys. I do it for two reasons (one of which I’m sure you’ve already sussed out.)

  1. While the pumpkins are roasting, the house is warming. Heck yes.
  2. I like homemade pumpkin puree better. I just plain do.

Now, if you don’t have access to sugar pumpkins or don’t feel like roasting your own or aren’t as dogged and stubborn as I am and have a plenty warm house, by all means, use canned pumpkin puree. And I like my cookies made with white whole wheat flour (King Arthur, thankyouverymuch), but you’re more than welcome to substitute all-purpose flour in equal amounts if that doesn’t float your boat. Just think, though… pumpkin, whole wheat, oats and chocolate? That’s practically a health tonic. Right? RIGHT?!?

I’m partial to using Nestlé TollHouse SemiSweet Morsels here. Honestly, who doesn’t get excited when they see that yellow bag of sweet goodness? You know it’s going to be good when you see that! Pumpkin and chocolate were meant to be together. Truly.

One more thing, and then I’ll leave you to cookie baking; if you have kids at home, please get them involved in baking these.  Taciturn teenagers (and I am NOT saying mine is one),

Look! A Jedi is making cookies in my kitchen!

silly sweet eight year olds,

Pssst. He’s wearing a pumpkin coloured shirt. We are all obsessed.

and every age in-between and above and below love having a hand in making cookies. If they balk, go all Little Red Hen on them and inform them that they have to make ‘em to eat ‘em. I guarantee they’ll enjoy it once they get started. And when they get to eat the fruits (or the cookies, rather) of their labours, they’ll be so proud.

What I especially love about these cookies is that they have a little bit of an identity crisis. Like me. Hello, I’m the girl who equally loves Downton Abbey, Dr. Who, Tommy Boy, The Godfather, Babette’s Feast, Punk, Gospel Music, Bluegrass, and Classical.  I can’t make up my mind! The cookies almost act like little hand held cakes. But then they’re like oatmeal cookies. And then they’re ever so slightly pumpkin-y. But no! They’re a chocolate chip cookie. Oh geez. Whatever. They’re just wonderful!

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Indulge in this taste of the season -Pumpkin Chocolate Chips Cookies- all you want; they're made with real pumpkin and oats. You'd never know how healthy they were to taste them!

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat (or all purpose) flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 cup chilled butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup fresh or canned pumpkin (or butternut or acorn squash) puree
  • 1 3/4 cups rolled or quick oats
  • 1 cup chocolate chips or chocolate chunks, preferably semi-sweet

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking soda in a large mixing bowl. Using a pastry cutter or two butterknives, cut in the butter until it the butter is pea-sized or smaller.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin or squash puree and the egg until smooth. Add that into the dry ingredients along with the oats and chocolate chips until the mixture is evenly combined and there are no dry pockets.

Scoop onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet by rounded tablespoons (or with a cookie scoop/disher.) Bake for 12 minutes or until the cookies are set and lightly browned around the edges. These cookies will not flatten as they bake.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/09/26/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies/

 

 
All opinions are -as always- my own.

This post is sponsored by Nestlé®
Toll House® Morsels, the perfect special ingredient for all of
your family’s favorite treats!

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Almond Joy or Mounds Cookies

March 2, 2012 by 9 Comments

By a show of hands, who out there is going to be angry with me if I post two dessert recipes in one week? Anyone? No? We’re good? Good. Because this one? Phew. This cookie recipe is the ne plus ultra of cookies.

This is like a combination of a Twix bar with an Almond Joy or Mounds bar. The anatomy of the cookie is thus:

  1. Crispy chocolate butter cookie base. It is what it sounds to be. It’s a little shortbready and carries a little snap to it. It’s the perfect place to put your…
  2. Honey caramel coconut chew. Yes. Just yes. Have you had honey coconut caramels? Maybe not. It’s an old one (and I blush to see the photo of it, but ever onward, right?) And if you’ve parked a honey caramel coconut chew on top of a crispy chocolate cookie, you might as well add a…
  3. Big, fat toasted almond. Sigh. There are very few things I like better than a handful of still warm aromatic, toasted almonds.  Well, maybe there’s one thing I like better than that. It’s when I cover them with…
  4. Melted dark chocolate. This doesn’t require a whole lot of explanation, but I’ll do it anyway because I add a little coconut oil (you could sub in butter if coconut oil is hard to find where you live) to the melted chocolate for added flavour and to make it a little softer once it’s set up. All this would be plenty fine, but if you’re going to the trouble you might as well gild the lily, right? Top the whole thing off with a sprinkle of…
  5. Flaked sea salt. Have you had sea salt with dark chocolate? When you add just a touch of sea salt to chocolate you taste chocolate like you never have before. The salt actually performs in this role. It suppresses some of the bitter flavours and amplifies the sweet and sour flavours.

Can you use regular old table salt here? Negatory. Table salt has iodine added to it which is great if you have goiter issues, but not so great taste wise. You know those bitter flavours you were suppressing with the salt? Yep. The iodine adds it right back in along with a pronounced metallic taste. Don’t go there. If you can’t get my favourite Maldon Sea Salt*, use a nice coarse sea salt or kosher salt (church of the last resort, but still acceptable.)

*I collect different salts. Crazy salts are my impulse buy weakness. Maldon Sea Salt is one of my all time favourites, though. It is harvested in Great Britain and is sold in the most impossibly beautiful irregular flakes. Some of them are pyramid like, some are flat and clear, some of them look like tiny gemstones. You usually grind them together in your fingers while sprinkling over food (or your tongue) and it’s generally used as a finishing salt rather than one you cook into foods.

The cookies, despite all their components, are deceptively simple to make. The dough can be made and frozen ahead of time. In fact, freezing the dough is necessary, so make it up to three months ahead of when you’d like to make it if you feel like it! The honey caramel coconut chew takes only one and a half minutes to make then five minutes to cool before scooping onto the cookie bases. Toasting almonds is a piece of cake and then you melt chocolate and coconut oil together for dunking. It doesn’t get much easier than that. And cookies can’t taste much better than this.

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Almond Joy or Mounds Cookies

Almond Joy or Mounds Cookies

These dreamy crispy chocolate butter cookies topped with honey coconut caramel chew and a toasted almond are enrobed in a subtly coconut flavoured dark chocolate.

To make these into Mounds rather than Almond Joy cookies, simply omit the toasted almonds.

Ingredients

    For the Cookie Base:
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch or rice flour
  • 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • For the Honey Coconut Caramel Chews:
  • 1 cup pure honey
  • 1/2 cup raw sugar or granulated sugar
  • 2 1/2 cups unsweetened medium flake coconut
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • Also needed:
  • 24-30 whole almonds, toasted (If you can only find raw almonds, see instructions below the recipe to learn how to toast almonds.)
  • 2 cups dark chocolate chunks (or chopped chocolate)
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil or butter
  • flakey sea salt or kosher salt

Instructions

To Make the Cookie Dough:

Whisk together the flour, cornstarch (or rice flour), cocoa powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or using a hand mixer, beat together the butter and granulated sugar until smooth and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl, add in the milk and vanilla extract and beat on low speed until combined. (It will not look smooth, but that is okay.) Add the flour to the butter mixture about 1/3 at a time, beating after each addition to combine. When all the flour mixture has been incorporated, turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and split into two equal amounts. Form the dough into logs and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Place cookie dough logs in the freezer until ready to bake.

To Bake the Cookies:

Preheat oven to 375°F and line cookie sheets with parchment or silpats.

Slice 24 rounds of frozen cookie dough no thicker than 1/4 of an inch.

Arrange the dough rounds on the lined cookie sheets. These cookies do not spread much while baking, so you don't have to worry about leaving more than 1/2 of an inch between them.

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until the cookies are firm all the way around on the edges. You can cool the cookies on the sheets on which they were baked.

While the cookies cool, make the honey coconut caramel chews.

To Make the Honey Coconut Caramel Chews:

In a medium sized, heavy bottomed saucepan, bring the honey and sugar to a boil over medium high heat. Boil hard for exactly 1 minute then turn off the heat. Immediately stir in the coconut and salt. Remove from the burner and let cool 5 minutes before portioning onto the cookie bases.

To Make the Chocolate Coating:

In a microwave safe bowl, combine the chocolate chunks (or chopped chocolate) and coconut oil or butter. Microwave on high for 45 seconds, stir, and continue microwaving in 15 second increments, stirring well after each burst, until the chocolate is smooth and glossy and completely melted.

To Assemble the Cookies:

Scoop generous tablespoons full of the honey caramel coconut chew mixture on top of each cookie base. Gently press 1 toasted almond onto the coconut chews.

Let the mixture cool completely. Stir the chocolate mixture, which by this time should have thickened just slightly. Lift a cookie by the base, invert it and dunk the coconut/almond part of the mixture into the melted chocolate. When you lift it and turn it back right side up, swirl it around a bit to get the chocolate to coat the coconut and drizzle onto the cookie base. Set the cookie back on the pan and repeat with the remaining cookies.

Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with salt to taste. Let stand until the chocolate has cooled completely.

Store leftover cookies in a tightly covered container at room temperature.

To Toast Almonds:

Stir almonds in a heavy, ungreased skillet over medium heat until golden brown. Turn them out of the pan immediately when they reach this stage or they will scorch.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/03/02/almond-joy-or-mounds-cookies/

P.S. If you run out of coconut to make the honey coconut caramel chews (like I did), you can make something remarkably similar to a Thin Mint by adding a little peppermint extract or oil to the same chocolate coating and dunking plain old (HA! Plain old chocolate cookies. I should be thrashed with a wet noodle for saying that!) into it with the remaining cookies.

Filed Under: Chocolate, Comfort Food, Cookies, Desserts, kid food, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , ,

Shortbread Cookie Spoons (Spookies)

March 28, 2011 by 4 Comments

You know how sometimes everything just comes together at the right time? Those moments where inspiration strikes at the same time that you have all the supplies to make it happen? This is one of those moments.

I had just made some velvety, luscious chocolate custard and one of my friends started talking about the world’s best shortbread cookies that she just made. I wished aloud that I had a couple of her cookies to dunk in my custard and asked for the recipe.

Lightbulb.

I was going to make cookies that were spoons and eat my custard with them. Were they cookies? Were they spoons? Yes, they were both; they were Spookies*.

*Like a spork, but much more delicious.

I imagined them wrapped up in cellophane and a bow as the prettiest cookie at the bake sale, bagged up with a gift tag as a hostess gift, then the dipping and dunking vistas opened up before me;  Spookies dunked in custard (as I served them), Spanish Style Hot Chocolate, coffee, hot cocoa, pudding… What couldn’t Spookies do?

I messed with my friend’s recipe ever so slightly, substituting orange zest for lemon zest out of necessity and  rice flour for half of the all-purpose flour in her recipe. Why? Well, the best shortbread cookie I have ever had in my entire life came from an elderly Scottish woman who told me she the secret to truly wonderful shortbread was to use half all-purpose flour and half rice flour.  She said as long as you used real butter and the flour blend, everything else would fall into place.

Every shortbread I’ve made since has incorporated her trick. To test her (now our) theory, I did a side-by-side comparison on my friend’s recipe. I made a batch using all-purpose flour and one using the blend of all-purpose and rice flour. They were both outstanding, but the one made with rice flour was slightly more delicate in crumb and flavor.  The verdict: Half the crew here was in the rice flour camp and half was in the all all-purpose camp but everyone agreed that they would eat either without hesitation. If you can lay your hands on a bag of rice flour, I encourage you to make it as written below. If you can’t, substitute another cup (4 1/4 ounces, by weight) of all-purpose flour for the rice flour. It’ll still be delicious!

Note: To the best of my knowledge, there aren’t any spoon shaped cookie cutters in the world. I did the next best thing. I used brute force and a pair of pliers to bend an old bell-shaped medium-sized (2″) cookie cutter into a spoon-ish shaped cutter. It was a bit wonky, but effective and efficient. If you’d prefer, you can trace a tablespoon sized measuring spoon on cardboard and cut that out to use as a template.  I found it much simpler to bend the tar out of a cookie cutter and use it than to cut around a cardboard template repeatedly, but do as the whimsy moves you!

Shortbread Cookie Spoons

Gently adapted from Krysta, Evil Chef Mom.

Scroll to the bottom for an easy-print version of this recipe!

  • 2 sticks (8 ounces, by weight) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature, cut 1/2-inch pats.
  • 1/2 cup superfine sugar (Can be made by placing granulated sugar in a blender on HIGH for about twenty seconds.)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • zest of 1/2 an orange
  • 1 cup (4 1/4 ounces, by weight) unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup (5 ounces, by weight) white rice flour
  • 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup Bourbon and Vanilla Infused Sugar (preferably Bourbon infused) or granulated sugar

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flours and set aside.

Fit a stand mixer with the paddle attachment  and beat butter on medium high until butter is totally smooth, about 1 minute. Change mixer speed to low, and with it running, gradually add the superfine sugar, then the vanilla, orange zest and salt, and continue mixing until it lightens in color. Turn mixer off, add about 1/3 of the flour blend. Turn mixer onto low and incorporate all the flour. Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides and add another third of the flour blend.  Again, mix on low until incorporated, then turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides and add and blend in the final installment of flour. Continue mixing on low until the dough forms a fairly cohesive mass.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead four times, or until smooth. Dust the top of the dough with flour. Gently roll the dough out to an even thickness between 1/4- and 1/3- of an inch.

Line two cookie sheets with silpats or parchment paper and place to the side.

Use your spoon cookie cutter (or trace around the edge of our template with a sharp paring knife) and carefully transfer the shapes to the lined cookie sheets, placing them 1-inch apart.  Collect the scrap dough, gently push it back together and roll out, cutting more cookies. Continue gathering scraps, re-rolling the dough, and cutting until all the dough has been used.

Place the cookie sheets in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F with racks positioned in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. When hot, place one cookie sheet on each rack. Cook,rotating the trays from front to back and top to bottom after 7 minutes, for a total time of 15 minutes or just until they become golden brown around the edges. Remove the trays from the oven and immediately sprinkle the raw sugar over the hot cookies. Cool the cookies completely on the pans.

 

Store in an airtight container at room temperature. These cookies just improve with age.

…Want your own bourbon and vanilla infused sugar? That’s coming your way tomorrow! I guarantee you want this recipe. Think of it stirred into coffee, tea, sprinkled over cookies, etc… I thought so. See you tomorrow!

 

Print
Shortbread Cookie Spoons (Spookies)
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert, Cookie
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 15
 

These lightly orange-scented, spoon shaped shortbread cookies turn the ultimate cookie into the ultimate dipper. Dunk in hot chocolate, coffee, tea, or milk. Don’t stop there, though. Try them in pudding, custard, and ice cream!
Ingredients
  • 2 sticks (8 ounces, by weight) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature, cut ½-inch pats.
  • ½ cup superfine sugar (Can be made by placing granulated sugar in a blender on HIGH for about twenty seconds.)
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • zest of ½ an orange
  • 1 cup (4¼ ounces, by weight) unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup (5 ounces, by weight) white rice flour
  • ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ½ cup raw sugar (preferably Bourbon infused) or granulated sugar

Instructions
  1. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flours and set aside. Trace a measuring spoon (tablespoon size) onto cardboard and cut out to use as a template or bend a medium-sized metal cookie cutter into a spoon shape. (Of course, if you happen to have a spoon sized cookie cutter that will work!)
  2. Fit a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and beat butter on medium high until butter is totally smooth, about 1 minute. Change mixer speed to low, and with it running, gradually add the superfine sugar, then the vanilla, orange zest and salt, and continue mixing until it lightens in color. Turn mixer off, add about ⅓ of the flour blend. Turn mixer onto low and incorporate all the flour. Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides and add another third of the flour blend. Again, mix on low until incorporated, then turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides and add and blend in the final installment of flour. Continue mixing on low until the dough forms a fairly cohesive mass.
  3. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead four times, or until smooth. Dust the top of the dough with flour. Gently roll the dough out to an even thickness between ¼- and ⅓- of an inch.
  4. Line two cookie sheets with silpats or parchment paper and place to the side.
  5. Use your spoon cookie cutter (or trace around the edge of our template with a sharp paring knife) and carefully transfer the shapes to the lined cookie sheets, placing them 1-inch apart. Collect the scrap dough, gently push it back together and roll out, cutting more cookies. Continue gathering scraps, re-rolling the dough, and cutting until all the dough has been used. Place the cookie sheets in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
  6. Preheat oven to 350°F with racks positioned in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. When hot, place one cookie sheet on each rack. Cook,rotating the trays from front to back and top to bottom after 7 minutes, for a total time of 15 minutes or just until they become golden brown around the edges. Remove the trays from the oven and immediately sprinkle the remaining sugar over the hot cookies. Cool the cookies completely on the pans.
  7. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. These cookies just improve with age.

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Filed Under: Cookies, Desserts, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Deep Dish Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie

March 8, 2011 by 12 Comments

Raise your hand if you, like me, love snickerdoodles beyond any other cookie on the face of the earth.  Raise your other hand if you, also like me, really don’t think snickerdoodles need to be messed with to make them wonderful.  Raise your foot (since we’re running out of hands) if you think tinkering with snickerdoodles is close-on to blasphemy. Well, now that we’re most of us standing on one foot with both hands in the air, let me make a confession (because at this point, if you raise that other foot to kick me you’re down on your keister. This is what I call self-protection.) I messed with snickerdoodles today.  And I didn’t just mess with any snickerdoodles, I messed with the best, most sacred recipe for them in the entire world; My Grandma’s.

My Grandma’s snickerdoodles are the cookies that made my teen years not so gloomy, clad-in-black and angsty. Simple, pure barely sweet sugar and butter cookies rolled in cinnamon sugar and baked until puffy, crisp on the outside, and tender as could be on the inside. Life was very good when Grandma put a plate of them in front of me.

I have been playing with skillet cookies (as seen here, here, and here). Reasoning that if chocolate chip cookies worked, so would a host of other flavors, I boldly went where Grandma’s cookies have not gone* and plopped the whole batch of snickerdoodle dough into a sugar and butter coated cast-iron skillet. And ain’t a thing wrong with it, let me tell you.

Why bother skillet-ing the cookie? Why not just roll the dough into balls and proceed as normal? Because we can. And because we’re talking about one skillet, cramming the cookie dough in and baking. Hello time saver. You’re awfully handsome.

This is different than Grandma’s snickerdoodles. For starters, and most obviously, it’s one mondo huge cookie.  It’s deep dish. It’s mega, mega. Secondly, and more subtly, there is a high ratio of caramelization and crisp on the bottom of the cookie. This is a-okay by me.  When cooked at the lower end of the time frame given in the recipe, you get a more chewy, moist center.  The longer you leave it in the oven, the higher the crisp layer ascends. Cook accordingly.

But do cook.  And I’ll just bet you have everything you need in the pantry and refrigerator to make a pan full of Deep Dish Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie in time to have a warm wedge of this topped with a scoop of melting vanilla ice cream* in your mitts before your evening date with the couch. It is a mighty nice thing. And I do believe Grandma will approve.

*My ice cream is winging its way homeward in the back of my husband’s car as I type.


Deep Dish Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie

Scroll to the bottom for an easy-print version of this recipe!

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup (2 sticks/8 ounces) butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces by weight) granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 3/4 cups (11 3/4 ounces by weight) all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

In a mid-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and eggs until the mixture is smooth and lightened in color.  Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix together until evenly and thoroughly combined. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Rub a cast-iron (or other oven-proof) skillet with a small amount of butter.  Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon sugar mixture over the bottom of the skillet. Scrape the cookie dough into the pan. Moisten your hands with water and pat out the dough evenly, covering the bottom of the skillet completely. Evenly sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar over the cookie dough. Bake the cookie for 30-45 minutes. When the edges have browned and the center is golden brown the cookie is ready to be pulled from the oven.  At this stage, the cookie, when sliced, will be very moist. If you like your cookies crispier, leave in the oven for closer to the 45 minute mark. When done to your liking transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes, you can slice the cookie into wedges.  This is best served slightly warm with ice cream melting over it.  But really? What in life isn’t better that way?

 

Print
Deep Dish Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert, Cookie
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 12
 

The classic snickerdoodle cinnamon and sugar rendered as one huge deep dish cookie with a high ratio of caramelization and crisp on the bottom of the cookie.
Ingredients
  • 1 cup (2 sticks/8 ounces) butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1½ cups (10½ ounces by weight) granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2¾ cups (11¾ ounces by weight) all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions
  1. In a mid-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Set aside.
  2. In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and eggs until the mixture is smooth and lightened in color. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix together until evenly and thoroughly combined. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.
  3. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  4. Rub a cast-iron (or other oven-proof) skillet with a small amount of butter. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon sugar mixture over the bottom of the skillet. Scrape the cookie dough into the pan. Moisten your hands with water and pat out the dough evenly, covering the bottom of the skillet completely. Evenly sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar over the cookie dough. Bake the cookie for 30-45 minutes. When the edges have browned and the center is golden brown the cookie is ready to be pulled from the oven. At this stage, the cookie, when sliced, will be very moist. If you like your cookies crispier, leave in the oven for closer to the 45 minute mark. When done to your liking transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, you can slice the cookie into wedges. This is best served slightly warm with ice cream melting over it. But really? What in life isn’t better that way?

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