Tag: Cookies

Candy Bar Bars

This recipe comes from Jeff’s Mitchell Family Cookbook, so I definitely wanted to include it. The taste is similar to No Bake Cookies, but with a nice crunch from the peanut butter. Haha, it may be the only time I ever buy crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth.

For gluten free, you just need to use gluten free oats and make sure you use a new jar of peanut butter or one not contaminated with crumbs.

Candy Bar Bars

  • Servings: 12?
  • Difficulty: medium
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From the Mitchell Family Cookbook.

Ingredients

  • 2/3 c. Butter

  • 1 c. Brown Sugar
  • 1 Tbsp. Vanilla
  • 1/2 c. Corn Syrup
  • 4 c. Quick Cooking Oats (or gluten free oats)
  • 1 c. Semisweet Chocolate Chips
  • 2/3 c. Crunchy Peanut Butter

Directions

Lightly grease a 9×13 pan. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Mix in the vanilla, corn syrup, and oats. Pat this dough into the greased pan. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes (don’t overbake). Meanwhile, over low heat, melt together the chocolate chips and peanut butter. Allow the cookie base to cool slightly, spread the chocolate peanut butter mixture on top. Cool completely and cut into bars.

 


Alice’s Best Sugar Cookies

This recipe comes from Grandma Alice, and I just love whenever cookies have almond extract in them. It makes such an amazing flavor.

FYI, I found a recipe a few years ago for sugar cookies, and they just rolled out the dough onto Silpats right after it was made and still room temperature, then covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge to chill for half an hour. Then you cut them after. Ever since then, I’ve been rolling cookies like that because it’s much easier than trying to flatten out a block of cold dough.

I haven’t made this one gluten free yet, but of course you’d want to switch out the flour for a gluten free flour blend with xanthan gum and maybe add a few tablespoons extra. Also, you may have to add a few minutes to the cook time.

Alice's Best Sugar Cookies

  • Servings: 4 dozen
  • Difficulty: medium
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Almond extract gives them a wonderful flavor.

Ingredients

  • 1 c. Butter, softened

  • 1 1/2 c. Powdered Sugar, sifted

  • 1 Egg

  • 1 tsp. Vanilla

  • 1/2 tsp. Almond Flavoring

  • 2 1/2 c. Flour, sifted

  • 1 tsp. Baking Soda

  • 1 tsp. Cream of Tartar

Directions

Cream sugar and butter. Mix in eggs, vanilla, and almond flavoring. Sift and measure flour and blend dry ingredients; stir into mixture. Refrigerate 2-3 hours. Heat oven to 375°. Divide dough in half and roll out on a lightly floured area to 3/16″ thick. Cut with floured cookie cutters (dip in flour and shake off extra before cutting). Sprinkle with sugar. Place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake 7-8 minutes or until delicately golden. Makes 4 dozen 3″ cookies.

 


 

Cinnamas Cookies

In 2021, Jeff and I entered a Christmas cookie contest for Go Bold with Butter. Jeff wanted a fun cinnamon cookie, and this was the recipe he developed, adapted from a delicious sugar cookie recipe.

I haven’t made this one gluten free yet, but if you’re making it gluten free, of course just use a gluten free flour blend with xanthan gum, plus a few tablespoons extra. 

“Cinnamas Cookies

  • Servings: about 36 cookies
  • Difficulty: medium
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Don’t chill the dough–the Red Hots tend melt out more when chilled.

Ingredients

  • 1 c. Butter, softened

  • 1 1/2 c. Sugar

  • 1/2 tsp. (1/2 dram) Super Strength Cinnamon Candy/Baking Flavoring (aka cinnamon candy oil)

  • 1 Egg

  • 2 1/2 c. Flour (or gluten free flour with xanthan gum, plus a few tablespoons extra)

  • 1 tsp. Baking Powder

  • 1/2 tsp. Salt

  • Red Food Coloring to desired color

  • 1/3 c. Red Hots cinnamon candies

  • 1/2 c. Sugar for rolling cookies

  • 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

  • 1/2 c. White Candy Melts or vanilla candy coating, melted

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°. For the tallest cookies, line the cookie sheets with parchment paper. Beat the butter and 1 1/2 c. sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the egg and mix well. Pour in the cinnamon oil and mix well. Add flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix until combined. Add red food coloring as desired and mix well. Place the red cinnamon candies in a zippered plastic bag, then crush with a rolling pin until they’re small pieces about 1/3 their normal size. (Large pieces can melt out.) Stir the broken candy into the dough. In a small bowl, combine the 1/2 cup sugar with cinnamon and stir. Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons into the cinnamon sugar and roll around to coat. Use a cookie scoop for best results. Afterwards place the dough on the lined cookie sheet, leaving about 2 inches of space between each cookie. Bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned. Do not overbrown. When the cookies are cooled, melt the white candy melts and spoon into a plastic sandwich bag. Snip off a small corner of the bag and quickly stripe the cookies with vertical lines.

 


 

“Frosting the Snowman” Carrot Cake Cookies

Haha, Jeff and I decided to enter a Christmas cookie contest in 2021 for Go Bold with Butter. I wanted something that was visually interesting but easy to create–a snowman! But how do you make a cookie look like a snowman? Then it hit me in the middle of the night when I was brainstorming–frosting! Frosting the snowman! And it could be a carrot cake cookie, so his carrot nose would be perfect! How could it not win some sort of prize, with a clever name, a cute look, delicious cream cheese frosting, and even a gluten free option? Haha, needless to say, the recipe didn’t win ANY sort of prize. Seems like the prizes all went to the cookies with coffee or alcohol in them. Haha. Oh well, I enjoyed my cookies.

If you’re making it gluten free, of course just use a gluten free flour blend with xanthan gum. Also make sure your nuts don’t say that they may contain wheat.

“Frosting the Snowman” Carrot Cake Cookies

  • Servings: 40-42 cookies
  • Difficulty: medium-hard
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Time-consuming but festive for Christmas.

Ingredients

Cookie batter:

  • 1 c. Butter, softened

  • ¾ c. Sugar

  • ¾ c. Brown Sugar, packed

  • 2 Eggs

  • 1 tsp. Vanilla

  • 2 ½ c. Flour (or 2 ¾ c. gluten free cup-for-cup flour)

  • 2 tsp. Baking Soda

  • 2 tsp. Cinnamon

  • ½ tsp. Ginger

  • ½ tsp. Ground Cloves

  • ½ tsp. Nutmeg

  • ½ tsp. Salt

  • 2 c. Grated Carrots (generally 4-6 carrots, depending on size)

  • 1 ½ c. Chopped Pecans (optionally toasted for best flavor) (check for gluten free)

Frosting:

  • ½ c. Butter, softened

  • 8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened

  • 2 tsp. Vanilla

  • 3 c. Powdered Sugar

  • 1/8 tsp. Salt (optional)

  • Orange and black food coloring

Directions

For cookie batter: Preheat oven to 350°. Beat together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar until creamy and lighter in color. Scrape down sides, then add the eggs and vanilla, and mix until combined. Add the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and salt) and mix well. Add the carrots and pecans and mix well. On a greased cookie sheet, spoon a rounded tablespoon in a nice circular, tall mound for the snowman’s head. Leave 1-2 inches between each mound. (The cookies will spread a little and have a cakey texture.) Bake 11-13 minutes until golden brown.

For frosting: Beat together the butter and cream cheese until creamy. Add the vanilla, powdered sugar, salt (if using), and mix until smooth. Set aside ½ cup frosting to color for the face. Color half the reserved frosting orange and the other half black.

To decorate: Frost each cookie with a circle of white frosting. Place the orange and black frosting in plastic sandwich bags and cut off a tiny corner. Then pipe an orange carrot in the middle of the cookie for a nose. Finish by piping black eyes and a smile.

(Tip: For the gluten free version, make sure to spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level off with a knife.)

 


Coconut & Oatmeal Cookies

Jeff grew up making these cookies and even made them one year for a Christmas cookie auction, so I wanted to preserve it as a family recipe. The shortening makes the cookies nice and chewy. Note that the dough does tend to spread and flatten quite a bit in the oven.

I haven’t made this one gluten free yet, but make sure you use a gluten free flour blend (maybe with a few extra tablespoons), gluten free oats, and uncontaminated other ingredients.

Coconut & Oatmeal Cookies

  • Servings: 2 1/2 doz
  • Difficulty: medium
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Don’t place the dough balls too close together because they will spread in the oven.

Ingredients

  • 2 c. Sugar
  • 3 1/2 c. Flour (or gluten free flour with a few tablespoons extra)
  • 2 1/2 c. Rolled Oats (or gluten free oats)
  • 1 1/2 c. Coconut Flakes
  • 4 tsp. Baking Powder
  • 2 tsp. Baking Soda
  • 1 tsp. Salt
  • 1 1/2 c. Shortening
  • 3/4 c. Corn Syrup
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla

Directions

In a large bowl, mix sugar, flour, oats, coconut, baking powder, soda, and salt. Blend in shortening until the mixture is crumbly like pie dough. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in the corn syrup, eggs, and vanilla. Mix well. Roll into balls and place on lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350° for 6-8 minutes. Do not overbake. Cookies should be light golden on the bottom.

 


Russian Tea Cookies

These cookies have a lot of names, but we always called them Russian Tea Cookies. And they’re traditional at our house at Christmastime. We make big batches and add them to cookie plates for our neighbors.

If you’re making this one gluten free, you’ll just want to use cup for cup flour instead of regular flour. It turns out great! Just be extra careful when rolling in powdered sugar because they fall apart more easily.

Russian Tea Cookies

  • Servings: 36
  • Difficulty: medium
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Small, popable cookies great for Christmas.

Ingredients

  • 1 c. Butter, softened
  • ½ c. Powdered Sugar
  • 1 tsp. Vanilla
  • 2 ¼ c. Flour (or gluten free flour with xanthan gum)
  • ¼ tsp. Salt
  • ¾ c. Finely Chopped Nuts (Walnuts or Pecans)
  • Powdered Sugar

Directions

In a large bowl, beat butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla together until light and fluffy. Add flour, salt, and nuts. Mix well. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place them on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes until set but not brown. While cookies are still warm, roll them in powdered sugar. Cool and roll in powdered sugar again. Makes 3 dozen.


Peanut Butter Magic Middles

Man, I love these cookies. The recipe is adapted from one in a cookie magazine that my roommate had–these won an award at a fair. They do take quite a bit of time, but they’re always delicious and impressive. The original name was “Peanut Butter Munchies”–but I never liked the name, and people always wonder how the peanut butter got in the middle. Haha. The answer is forming the chocolate dough around a peanut butter ball, then pressing them flat with a glass dipped in sugar. FYI, the dough does have peanut butter in it–I’ve considered making it straight chocolate like with the Black Cat Cookie dough then filling with peanut butter, but I haven’t yet.

I haven’t tried making this gluten free yet, but I’ll definitely use cup for cup flour and let you know how it goes. And make sure your peanut butter and powdered sugar are new or dedicated gluten free.

Peanut Butter Magic Middles

  • Servings: 32
  • Difficulty: hard
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Soft chocolatey cookies with a peanut butter filling. Delicious but time-consuming.

Ingredients

Cookies

  • 1 ½ c. Flour (or gluten free flour with xanthan gum, plus a few tablespoons extra)
  • ½ c. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
  • ½ tsp. Baking Soda
  • ½ c. Butter, softened
  • ½ c. Sugar
  • ½ c. packed Brown Sugar
  • ¼ c. Peanut Butter (new or dedicated GF jar)
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 tbsp. Milk
  • 1 tsp. Vanilla

Filling

  • ½ c. sifted Powdered Sugar
  • ½ c. Peanut Butter (new or dedicated GF jar)
  • (2 Tbsp. Sugar for dipping glass)

Directions

Preheat to 350°. In medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda. Set aside. In large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, brown sugar, and peanut butter. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; beat well. Beat in flour mixture. Form chocolate dough into 32 balls about 1 ¼“ in diameter. Set aside.

For filling, combine powdered sugar and peanut butter until smooth. (Add more peanut butter if it’s too dry.) Shape mixture into 32 (3/4”) balls. Slightly flatten a chocolate dough ball; top with peanut butter ball. For each cookie, shape chocolate dough over filling, completely covering the filling. Roll dough into a ball. Place balls 2” apart on cookie sheet. Lightly flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in the 2 Tbsp. sugar. Bake for 8 minutes or until just set and surface slightly cracks. Let stand 1 minute. Transfer to wire racks; cool.


Homemade Oreos

This recipe comes from my sister-in-law Stephanie. These are always very popular, and might even be considered whoopie pies because of their rather cakey chocolate cookies and white filling. Whatever they’re called, they’re always delicious.

I haven’t tried making this gluten free yet, but you’ll want to use gluten free cake mixes and check the texture before baking.

Homemade Oreos

  • Servings: ?
  • Difficulty: medium
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Cakey cookies with white filling.

Ingredients

Cookies

  • 2 Devil’s Food Cake Mixes
  • 4 Eggs
  • 1 ½ c. Shortening

Filling

  • 2 pkgs. Cream Cheese (16 oz. total)
  • ½ c. Butter
  • 4 tsp. Vanilla
  • 4-6 c. Powdered Sugar

Directions

For cookies, mix together all ingredients and form into small round balls on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350° for 8 minutes.

For filling, mix together and spread on one cooled cookie. Then place another cookie on top of frosting and press down.


Ginger Snaps

These ginger snaps are actually soft and delightful, so maybe they aren’t technically snappy. But they’re amazing for Christmas. This recipe comes from my sister-in-law Stephanie’s family, and they are always a delightful spiced addition to any cookie plate.

If you’re making this one gluten free, I haven’t tried it yet. But all the ingredients except the flour are naturally gluten free, so I’ll just try swapping out gluten free flour for regular flour.

Ginger Snaps

  • Servings: haha, a lot?
  • Difficulty: medium
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Soft, full of spices, and perfect for Christmas.

Ingredients

  • 3 c. Sugar
  • ¾ c. Butter
  • 1 ½ Shortening
  • 3 Eggs
  • ¾ c. Molasses
  • 5 c. Flour (or gluten free flour with xanthan gum)
  • 4 ½ tsp. Baking Soda
  • 3 tsp. Cinnamon
  • 1 ½ tsp. Salt
  • 1 ½ tsp. Ginger
  • 1 ½ tsp. Allspice

Directions

Beat sugar, butter, shortening, eggs, and molasses. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Roll into balls and drop into sugar. Bake on greased cookie sheets at 350° for 10 minutes.


Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s the king of cookies: Chocolate Chip. Sometimes you’re just in the mood for a warm chocolate chip cookie. Or as my brother and I say, “Mm, cookie goo.” Haha. Of course room temperature cookies are also great, but warm cookies are Homer-Simpson-drool-inducing. Most standard chocolate chip cookie recipes are basically the same, but this one seems to have more butter than some–it’s just the recipe off the back of the Ghirardelli bag with an extra 1/4 c. flour, but boy is it delicious.

If you’re making this one gluten free, you may want to add a little extra cup for cup flour and cook it a little longer. I did make these cookies gluten free once, and they got pretty flat. They were delicious and I froze the extras, but they were a little flat. I may also want to try making big scoops and getting them nice and cold in the fridge beforehand so they hold their shape better. Oh, also, if you’re getting chocolate chips out of a giant bag, just be careful that you haven’t contaminated it with a flour-covered measuring cup from previous uses. You’re always safe to use a new bag instead.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • Servings: 4 dozen
  • Difficulty: medium
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Buttery and heavenly.

Ingredients

  • 1 c. Butter, softened
  • ¾ c. Sugar
  • ¾ c. Brown Sugar, packed
  • 2 tsp. Vanilla
  • 2 large Eggs
  • 2 1/2 c. Flour (or gluten free flour with xanthan gum, plus maybe a little extra)
  • 1 tsp. Baking Soda
  • ½ tsp. Salt
  • 2 c. Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Directions

In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy and lightened in color (about  4 minutes). Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed until incorporated. Gradually blend flour, baking soda, and salt into creamed mix. Stir in chocolate chips. For cookies that hold their shape better, refrigerate at least half an hour. Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheet or Silpat. Bake for 9-11 minutes at 375° or until golden brown. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.