25 Days of Cookies: Vanilla Sugar Cookies

Merry Christmas!

The cookie countdown is over! Somehow, I made 25 different types of cookies. I won't be doing it again! :) I'm gonna take a break from cookies and maybe baking for a while. The thought of pulling out the cookie sheets, parchment paper, scoops, and measuring cups and all that damn butter that had to be at room temp is painful.

The 25th cookie: the good old classic sugar cut-out cookie from Fine Cooking which you can find the recipe for right here. The fun part about it is that this recipe gives you instructions on how to change the flavoring up to make them more interesting. I stuck with vanilla because it's honestly my favorite flavor. There's nothing boring about it!

Let me tell you how much I hate making cut-out cookies. They are such a process! There are so many other tastier cookies in the world but cut-out cookies are cute. That's really all they've got going for themselves. I complained about these the entire time I was making them. Here's why:

First you make the dough.

Then you divide the dough into thirds. Create 3 thick 5X5 inch squares. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Then you take one square out at a time and roll between two pieces of parchment paper to about 1/8 inch thick, and then you stack them in the refrigerator and chill for 45 minutes.

After they've chilled, you need to take one sheet out at a time and cut them with your shapes of choice. I was disappointed to find that we don't own a snowflake but I digress. Moving on. After cutting your shapes, you have to roll the cuttings back up and repeat the chilling and rolling process.

And once you have all your shapes cut and you've used all the dough that you possibly can, you have to freeze them for at least 20 minutes! What!? GAH! 

By the time you get to decorate these cookies, you're just over it. You don't want to look at them ever again. So you'll just have to eat them all up or give them away to your friends and family. Save a couple for yourself because after all, these are pretty damn tasty for a cut-out sugar cookie.

25 Days of Cookies: Amaretti

These cookies were nearly a HUGE failure. 24 Cookies and the 24th was the first to give me problems! I was  mortified! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!

What are they? Amaretti cookies from Cooking Light and they only had 5 ingredients! It seemed like a perfect fix for such a busy day. My dad's side of the family was supposed to be joining us for dinner but extenuating circumstances changed those plans. I didn't know that would be the case when I got up at 8:00 this morning to start cooking for dinner.

These are crunchy and sweet almond cookies, oh and they're completely gluten-free! They have great flavor but I think the instructions were a little unclear. If you try to move these cookies before they are room-temp on the inside and out, the bottoms will literally rip off.

I've never had a cookie stick to parchment paper before today but these cookies proved it was possible. My first batch was a bottomless failure.

Not to mention, I got a phone call from a good friend who I haven't seen in a while. It's her birthday and she's coming home for Christmas!! Excited to hear from her, I was distracted and instead of setting the timer for 5 minutes, I just turned the oven light on...I have no idea how long those cookie were in the oven for before my half-way rotation. I kept an eye on them and when they were browned around the edges, as described in the directions, I took them out but...

The bottoms ripped right off after I let them cool. Apparently they needed to cool for a lot longer than I realized.

Despite being essentially "ass-less", these cookies have a wonderful almond flavor from the almond paste and the addition of Amaretto (almond flavored liqueur). My grandfather didn't mind one bit that the bottoms were missing from the first batch.

My second batch was a success so here are my words of wisdom regarding this recipe: take them out of the oven after they have browned a bit on the tops and not just the edges then forget about them on the tray while they cool. They will still be stickier than most cookies and might not come away as cleanly as others do from the parchment paper but your bottoms won't remain on the paper.

And don't be scared by the runny consistency of this cookie "dough" when you scoop and place on the cookie sheets. There is no flour to stiffen the dough with but this doesn't adversely affect the cookie!

Oh! And "turbinado sugar" is Sugar In The Raw. The recipe calls for a 1/4 cup of this less processed sugar for the tops of the cookies but if you have packets, just use one packet at a time. Because I certainly didn't use all 12 packets worth of sugar that I opened one by one to get exactly 1/4 cup's worth.

25 Days of Cookies: Peanut Butter Cup Stuffed Chocolate Cookies

Unlike everyone else in the world, it seems, I hate peanut butter and chocolate together. Never been a fan of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups but I was getting questions about why I hadn't done a cookie with peanut butter... I just hate it! Never liked PB&J sandwiches and fluffanutters sounded worse. At least I like the jelly in PB&J. However, despite my undisguised loathing of peanut butter cups, the rest of my family loves them so mom bought a bag to have around the house for the holidays. I caved and made a cookie with them. I even ate one so I could properly blog about it.

You may remember that recipe for the Caramel Filled Chocolate Cookies that I made in the beginning of this cookie countdown. I decided to swap the Rolos for peanut butter cups and nixed the white chocolate drizzle and the crushed pecans on top. Instead of the white chocolate drizzle, I made, for all of you peanut butter lovers, a Peanut Butter Drizzle which I will share with you for the sake of this recipe. Hating peanut butter as much as I do, you'll believe me when I tell you that the drizzle is terrific. Dad used the leftovers to drench his third cookie.

For the cookie recipe go to the Pillsbury site. Use about 15 mini peanut butter cups instead of Rolos. These cookies will be fairly large, as you will need about a tablespoon and a half of dough per cookie to encase the peanut butter cup. After they've cooled, make my Peanut Butter Drizzle for the tops!

The Taming of the Roux

Peanut Butter Drizzle

Ingredients

1/2 c. powdered sugar

2 rounded teaspoons of your favorite peanut butter

2-3 teaspoons of filtered water

Directions

In a small bowl, combine 2 teaspoons of water and 2 rounded teaspoons of peanut butter. Use a whisk to dilute the peanut butter so it becomes fluid and emulsified with the water. Add 1/2 c. of powdered sugar and mix until all the sugar has dissolved and is well incorporated. If it gets too sticky while you're mixing, add an additional teaspoon of water to loosen the glaze.

Spoon into a plastic bag, zip, and snip off a tiny corner and pipe onto your finished cookies.

Believe me, even though I have so much contempt for peanut butter cups, these are very tasty. Everyone who has had one today has enjoyed them immensely.

My sister agreed to model with my cookie.

25 Days of Cookies: Vanilla Custard Filled Butter Cookies

What's this? It's cookie number 22 already! No way! And it's a two-step cookie :) These vanilla custard filled cookies are from the same cookbook as those Marble Cookies I adapted: Mrs. Fields Best Ever Cookie Book.

Oh, Cookie Tree O, Cookie Tree

Having never tasted, much less made custard before, this was quite the experience. Perhaps mine caramelized a little bit more than I wanted but that doesn't take away from the flavor by any means. The recipe calls for using a real vanilla bean and I would just love to do that but they are so very expensive. Thankfully, vanilla extract isn't nearly as pricey.

First step to making these cookies: crack two eggs, discard or save the whites and whisk the yolks in a bowl and bring to room temp. After they've warmed up, bring 1 cup of sweetened condensed milk and a teaspoon of vanilla extract to a slow simmer in a sauce pan over medium heat. (Small bubbles rising slowly to the surface). Temper your egg yolks by slowly adding about half a cup of the milk mixture to the yolks and whisking constantly. Then add the tempered yolk mixture to the pan and whisk constantly until the mixture thickly coats the whisk or spoon you're using. The recipe said to cook for 5 minutes but mine didn't need more than a minute. Strain the mixture through a sieve into a container and store in the fridge for a couple of hours to cool and thicken.

Second step: Preheat oven to 325. Mix 1 stick of unsalted room temp butter and 1/2 a cup of granulated sugar until well combined. Add one egg and two tablespoons of heavy cream. Mix, scrape the bowl, then mix again. Add 1 and a 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour slowly to the wet ingredients. Don't over mix. Just mix until all the flour is combined. Form 1 inch balls and position about an inch apart. They won't spread very much and you'll be able to fit a lot on one tray. Then press an indent into each dough ball with your thumb. Bake for 15-17 minutes. Mine needed 17.

Did you notice no rising agent was called for? Weird, right!? Anyway these butter cookies are surprisingly tasty despite the short ingredient list. I was impressed despite my doubts while making them.

After the cookies have cooled to room temp you can pipe the custard onto each cookie. You can also top them with powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and so on but I chose Christmas sprinkles in keeping with the holiday theme. They added a welcome bite to the cookie! (I made a mess while attempting to sprinkle though... :D )

25 Days of Cookies: Sugar-doodle Vanilla Cookies

These cookies will mess with your mind! Your tastebuds will tell you that you're eating a sugar cookie but the texture will be all wrong! This is not to say that they aren't good cookies. The truth of the matter is that these are soft and chewy and delectable cookies that you'll want to make again and again but never share because you'll be too selfish to let anyone else have even one of these cookies. Who do you have to thank for this wondrous creation? Averie from Averie Cooks. Check out her blog for the recipe and read it for all the great information she gives about using bread flour in this cookie!

Yeah, bread flour. It might sound a little strange but the combination of all-purpose flour and bread flour makes for one excellent cookie. I knew I had to try it out after reading her post. She had me convinced and in the future I will be playing around with this recipe and the bread flour/all-purpose mixture. But not before the end of 25 Days of Cookies. I can't wait for a break from all this cookie baking.

Making this cookie was actually quite easy this morning. I prepared the dough last night after finishing yesterday's Brownie Cookie and then put it in a plastic container, capped it, and chilled in the refrigerator overnight. All I had to do this morning was preheat the oven, line the trays, and scoop the dough! It was like buying your cookie dough in the store only better because it's homemade.

Taking pictures, is always a bit of a challenge as I have very few photography skills, a poor camera, and never enough lighting. Oh and it's dark, dreary, and damp today too. Though "damp" is a bit of an understatement. Very little natural light to speak of much less use for photos.

25 Days of Cookies: Brownie Cookies

I love this cookie not because it's a cookie but because it's more brownie than cookie! And I love brownies. Cookie #20! They are all that is good and great about chocolate. Mmmmm...

As you may already know, I'm tired of baking. Yesterday I got a break.  Today, however, I got to try out a different method. These are not box based brownie cookies by any means. In fact, they are quite a process. You must follow the directions to a T otherwise you'll end up with loose and unmanageable batter. There were a number of bad reviews of this recipe but I'm convinced that the reviewers did something wrong. They had me wondering if these were going to be a failure!

Fine Cooking didn't let me down though. These taste like the best brownies of your life but they're cookies and oh so tasty! You can find the recipe here. I omitted the nuts since more people enjoy brownies without nuts (at least more of the people that I know).

So what do you do to  make these fabulous brownie cookies? Melt your own chocolate. Yes, some of you might be scared by this but it is well worth it! 12 oz of chocolate and 4 tablespoons of butter are melted over a double boilers (a bowl seated over a lightly simmering pot of water). Let it cool after is is completely melted and shiny. Then mix the flour and baking powder, set aside, and mix your sugar and eggs on a medium high speed for 3-4 minutes. Add the vanilla and the cooled melted chocolate slowly. I think this part is important in case your chocolate it still a little warm. It gives the eggs and chance to come to the same temperature. It wasn't called for by the original recipe, but please do this if you're going to make it. Then you add your dry ingredients and let it sit for 5 minutes! Yes, let it sit!

Cookie dough should be stiff but this is technically brownie batter so you can't scoop it or roll it. You have to pipe it on to the parchment lined trays. Piping cookies! It was a welcome break from scooping, rolling, and flattening. It was great! And the deep dark chocolatey brownie taste of these cookies is worth the extra mess of a piping bag. All you'll need is some vanilla ice cream to eat with these.

25 Days of Cookies: Cool Whip Christmas-fetti Cookies

Not going to lie, this cookie baking every day is not a good idea. I really didn't want to bake today but I made a commitment and I'm sticking to it. I found this one online and originally I didn't want to take any shortcuts. I wanted to do everything from scratch.

I needed a break though and these were the perfect break from doing everything from scratch.

Start with a box of vanilla white cake mix. Add an egg, 1 cup of Cool Whip, a tablespoon of canola oil, and 3 tablespoons of red and green Christmas sprinkles. Mix and form tablespoon size balls. Roll in powdered sugar and bake for 10-12 minutes. TA DA! Cool Whip Christmas-fetti Cookies.

They taste like cake but they're cookies and they're like having funfetti but they're only Christmas colors, what more could you want from a handheld treat?

25 Days of Cookies: Cranberry Pecan Oat Cookies

 

 Browsing around for cookie recipes, I came across this one on The Cooking Channel website. Which sparks a quick tangent about the Cooking Channel: What is it really supposed to be? A new network for food fanatics or a dumping zone for old rerun episodes from the Food Network? I want new! Who else is with me!?

I was sadly informed about 20 minutes ago that my mother's work partner had forgotten the last of the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies I baked for him at work over the weekend. He had hoped they would still be there Monday only to find out that some awful, horrendous, crooked jerky jockey of a Grinch  didn't want cookies around and THREW THEM AWAY! WHO THROWS AWAY HOMEMADE COOKIES!? 

Thankfully, I baked these today and I hope he will enjoy them. If I weren't baking 25 different cookies, I would make another batch of those for him. They are pretty amazing.

But enough about a past cookie, time to get down to business and tell you about the 18th cookie of the Christmas Cookie Countdown: Cranberry Pecan Oat Cookies with Bourbon Glaze courtesy of Zac Young. I first saw him compete on Top Chef Just Desserts and he was very cute and entertaining.  Very excited to try this cookie recipe out!

I certainly wasn't let down. My mother describes them as "fantabulous" and I quite agree.

 Cranberries and oranges, they really love each other. A marriage of true flavors, let me not admit impediments. ;) Nod to Shakespeare though he didn't say flavors.  PLUS it's got a bourbon glaze! Say hello and take a big bite of one of these cookies!