Warm and Cuddly Snickerdoodle Cookies

As fall finally starts to roll around, I want something warm and comforting to snuggle up with. This felt like the perfect opportunity to add fuel to the flame of my crazy cookie obsession.

They are perfect for eating warm with a nice glass of milk or a steamy cappuccino. Make these cookies and share them with someone you love. Turn the season premiere of your favorite tv show into a celebratory cookie palooza.

Snickerdoodles fall right behind chocolate chip cookies on the ultimate comfort food scale. These cookies are soft, chewy, and down right addictive. Because there are no overpowering ingredients, the focus is more on the light and fluffy texture.

These cookies are for Goose because not only is he sugar and spice and everything nice (just like the cookies themselves), he also ate them already and won’t complain about me posting a recipe from a few weeks back. Especially if I promise to make some more for him very very soon. Like this weekend soon.

In case you still weren’t already convinced, these snickerdoodles really are that good that they will disappear and force you to remake them again and again. And since they take less than a half hour to whip up, I’m sure you won’t mind filling your house with the scent of warm, cinnamony cookies again.

 

Healthier Snickerdoodle Cookies 

Adapted from ElleFirebrand’s recipe on Food.com

Yield: 24 cookies

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar plus two tablespoons, divided
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 1 egg white
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon plus 1/2 teaspoon, divided
• 1/8 teaspoon allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line 2-3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking power, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, ginger, allspice and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a mixmaster on medium-high speed, cream together brown sugar, 1/2 cup of white sugar, and butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla and egg white.
4. Turn the mixmaster down to slow, then gradually add in the dry ingredients.
5. Once combined, shape the dough into 24 balls and place them on baking trays in the freezer for about a minute to allow them to firm up. Meanwhile combine the remaining 1/8 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon.
6. Remove the cookie dough from the freezer and roll each ball in sugar mixture, then place them two inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Use the palm of your hand to lightly flatten the cookie dough balls.
7. Bake the cookies for about 6 minutes. Allow them to cool on the baking pan for 1 minute before transferring them to cooling racks to finish cooling.

 

Oatmeal Cookies Two Ways: Chocolate-Cherry and Butterscotch-Chip

I know that as summer rolls around, people start choosing frozen treats over baked goods, but I wholeheartedly believe that even during the summer, nothing can beat homemade cookies.

Butterscotch-Chip on the left and Chocolate Cherry on the right

These cookies are for when you just need a good, chewy cookie. The cookies that I have to share with you today are not soft, airy cake cookies, but rather chewy, textured oatmeal cookies. That’s why they’re best served warm with a glass of milk!

Yummy Fillings

Carmely sugar and butter mixture

Sugar mixture plus flour mixture

Dough combined

Mixed again after addition of egg and vanilla

Although my mom has always had a soft spot for  oatmeal raisin cookies, to be honest, I’ve never been a big fan. I always felt like I was getting ripped off by finding yucky raisins instead of chocolate chips in my cookies. Unlike raisins, tangy sour cherries, on the other hand, are delicious. Even still, everything is better with chocolate chips.

Two bowls of basic oatmeal cookie dough

Butterscotch and Chocolate Chips added

Dried Sour Cherries and Chocolate Chips added

Butterscotch-Chip on the left and Chocolate Cherry on the right

That’s why I first decided to make cherry chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. But Goose hates cherries (or any fruit for that matter) and whenever I bake, I like to be able to share the goodies with him. So I decided to also make chocolate chip butterscotch cookies, so that he could have some too. Instead of making two entirely different cookies, I wanted to make a basic dough that could suit us both. Hence, these super-adaptable oatmeal cookies were the perfect fix. Simply divide the batter into two (or more) bowls and add whatever mix-ins you want.

Butterscotch-Chip cookies ready to bake

Chocolate-Cherry cookies ready to bake

Chocolate-Cherry Cookies (for me)

Butterscotch-Chip Cookies (for Goose)

Chocolate-Cherry and Butterscotch-Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Adapted From Cooking Light

Serves 60

Ingredients

•  2/3 cup all-purpose flour
•  2/3 cup whole-wheat flour
• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup dried cherries
• 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
• 2/3 cup butterscotch chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° and line your baking trays with parchment paper.
2. Combine flours, oats, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk until combined.
3. Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat, then remove from heat and stir in the brown sugar until smooth.
4. Add sugar mixture to flour mixture and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Then add the vanilla and eggs and beat until combined.
5. Divide the dough among two bowls and add cherries and one cup of the chocolate chips to one bowl. Add butterscotch chips and the remaining chocolate chips to the other bowl.
6. Drop tablespoons of the dough two inches apart onto the baking trays from the first step.
7. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes. Cool on pans 3 minutes or until almost firm. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks. Repeat until you have baked all of the cookies.

Other possible flavor variations…the sky’s the limit!

• Pistachio Ginger
• Salted Caramel
• Apple Pie (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and freeze dried apples)
• Peanut butter
• Pumpkin Pie (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and pumpkin puree)
• Maple Pecan
• Rocky Road (mini marshmallows, walnuts, and chocolate chips)
• Fluffernutter (peanut butter chips and marshmallow fluff)

Halfway Cookie Bars

Recently I’ve been reading Amy Thomas’s dessert-filled memoir, Paris My Sweet in which she describes her journey to track down the most delectable sweets in Paris. I am so impressed by how simply through her mastery of language, she can make my mouth water! I’ve had an insatiable desire for an indulgent treat ever since reading Thomas’s description of macarons as “firm but tender, shiny yet rigged ,with ethereally light shells and heavy middles [that make them] miniature studies of contrasts-and deliciousness.”

While these Halfway Cookie Bars definitely lack the delicate refinement of macarons, they make up for it with their melty chocolatey deliciousness.

Cookie Dough

Press it into the pan: Layer one done!

I’m warning you now…these cookies are addictive. Make them at your own risk. Luckily for me, I made them and then was immediately able to dispense them among ravenous friends, our high school’s victorious baseball team, and much-deserving teachers.

Chocolate: layer two

These things are ridiculously good! If chewy chocolate chip cookies and fluffy meringue cookies had a love child, this would be it. These bars consist of a classic cookie dough base topped with a layer of chocolate, and then finished off with a meringue coating. The lightness of the meringue makes it so that you can scarf down two or three of these bars without going into a butter-induced food coma.

Whipped Brown Sugar Meringue

Scoop all of that fluffy deliciousness on top of the cookie dough and chocolate…what could be better!

Three layers complete. Add the sprayed parchment, then into the oven they go!

My little sister helped me make these scrumptious treats, and while they do require quite a few steps, none of them are that difficult… except for the last one.

 

Halfway Cookie Bars

Adapted from The Kitchn

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, separated
• 1 whole egg + 2 egg whites
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chunks
• Canola oil cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cover a 9 x 13 inch pan with aluminum foil, leaving some extra foil to  hang over all four sides of the pan and spray the foil with cooking spray. This will ensure safe removal of the bars after they cool.
2. Make the cookie dough by whisking together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl. Then use a mixmaster to blend together the butter, the granulated sugar and just 1/2 cup of the brown sugar until it’s smooth and creamy. Slowly mix the egg into the sugar-butter mixture until it is completely absorbed, then mix in the water and vanilla. With the mixer at a low speed, add the flour mixture and beat gently until all the flour has been absorbed and the dough looks crumbly.
3. Gently press the cookie dough gently into the pan with your hands, making sure the surface is even.
4. Sprinkle the chocolate chips and chocolate chunks on top of the cookie dough and use your palms to press them slightly into the dough. This will help keep the chips from moving when you add the meringue.
5. Start making the meringue by whisking together the two egg whites in the mixmaster in a clean bowl with a clean whisk attachment. Gradually increase your speed to medium-high. When the egg whites are very frothy and look like loose foam, start adding the remaining half cup of brown sugar a little at a time. Continue increasing your speed to the highest setting. When all the sugar has been added, continue whipping the meringue until it holds firm peaks.
6. Use a spatula to gently spread the meringue on top of the chocolate layer. Star by dumping the meringue in the center of the pan, and gradually spreading it out towards the edges.
7. Coat a piece of parchment paper with cooking spray, then lightly press it on the top of the meringue to protect the meringue from scorching. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the parchment. Continue baking for an additional 5-10 minutes, until the edges look toasted and are pulling away from the sides of the pan.
8. This is the most difficult step of the entire process, but do your best to wait until the pan is completely cook before lifting out the bars and cutting them into pieces.

Optional Variations:

• Add some espresso powder or cocoa powder to the top merangue layer for a more pronounced flavor
• Swap some or all of the chocolate chips for butterscotch chips or toffee pieces
• Replace the chocolate layer with a fresh fruit preserve layer
• Replace the classic cookie base with a peanut butter cookie base
• Add old fashioned oats and coconut to the bottom for a bar reminiscent of Hello Dolly Bars

Or try anything else you can think of, the sky’s the limit!

Fluffernutter Cupcakes

If you enjoyed my Peanut Butter M&M Rice Crispy Treats, here’s another recipe for you! These cupcakes are a follow-up to my last post in which I shared a recipe for Homemade Marshmallow Fluff.

I’ve been dying to make these cupcakes ever since I saw them on Gingerbread Bagels, and I figured that my friend’s birthday was the perfect time!  Yes these cupcakes take more steps and require more time than most recipes that I post, but they are well worth it. Nothing can beat the expression of child-like joy that will fill the face of anyone who is lucky enough to bite into one of these fluffernutter-inspired cupcakes.

If don’t have two hours to dedicate to cupcake making, feel free to break this recipe up into various mini projects for a few days. You can make the marshmallow cream up to a week in advance, then make the frosting a day or two in advance, and finally pull it all together by making and decorating the cupcakes.

No this isn’t your everyday cupcake, but this is an ooey gooey indulgence that everyone should try at least once in their lives. Perhaps you save this recipe to your archives, or maybe you decide that you simply must try it today, but don’t let this delicious treat pass you by. Enjoy lovely readers!

Fluffernutter Cupcakes

Yield: 16 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Vanilla Cupcakes

Adapted from the Cupcake Project

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 3/4 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup lowfat milk

Fluffy Marshmallow Filling

Peanut Butter Frosting:

From Brown Eyed Baker, Originally from Ina Garden

• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup heavy cream (or milk)

Instructions:  

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, mix together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Then add the sugar and mix until well combined.
3. Add butter and mix on medium-low speed for three minutes.  Because there is so little butter, you’ll end up with a very fine crumb texture.
4. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, yogurt, oil, and vanilla extract until smooth.
5. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined.
6. Slowly add milk and mix on low speed until just combined.  The batter will be liquid.
7. Fill cupcake liners just over 1/2 full.
8. Bake for 14 minutes and then test to see if they are done. The cupcakes should appear white with specks of vanilla bean. They should not turn a golden brown.  If they are not done, test again in two minutes.
9. When the cupcakes are done, remove them immediately from the tins and leave them on a cooling rack (or just on your counter if you don’t own a cooling rack) to cool.
10. To fill the cupcakes, first fit a piping bag with a round decorating tip and fill the piping bag with the marshmallow cream. Then take a completely cooled cupcakes, insert the tip into the cupcake. Push all the way down to the bottom of the cupcake and squeeze the marshmallow cream into the cupcake. Continue filling all of the cupcakes and set them aside.
11. To make the peanut butter frosting, first place the confectioners’ sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.
12. To decorate the cupcakes, fit the piping bag with a decorating tip and fill the piping bag with the peanut butter frosting. Then pipe the frosting on the cupcake in a swirl, starting from the outside and working your way inward. Continue frosting all of the cupcakes. Finally either take some mini marshmallows and cut each one half then top the cupcakes with the marshmallows, or top the peanut butter frosting with some extra marshmallow cream.

Lets Play Ball….With Some Rice Krispy Treats That Is!

The best way to judge the character of a friend or boyfriend is by how they treat your family. Anyone can be nice to you, but it takes someone really wonderful to be good to your entire family. That is how you can tell that he or she is in it for the long haul. After the initial honeymoon phase wares off, it is the person who will hold your hand at family functions and help your family out in times of need that you truly want to be with. If someone bothers to invest him or herself in your family, it proves that he or she is really thinking in terms of the future.

Whether it means taking care of your younger siblings from time to time or spending time with your parent, a boy who cares about more than just getting close to you is one to hold on to.

Melt butter and marshmallows

Mix in cereal and press into the greased pan

I’m incredibly lucky that Goose gets along so well with my sisters and parents that he’s practically part of the family. He babysits with me, goes on trips with my family and I, plays fantasy football with my dad, and tonight he’s even taking my sisters and I to my sisters’ first Dodger game.

Cut out your baseball circles

Dip into white chocolate

Back around Oscar season, when Goose and I were babysitting my little sisters, we made these Baseball Rice Krispy Treats that I thought would be perfect to share with you, as baseball season is now getting started. These are the perfect treat to serve at a baseball tailgate, a birthday party, or as a post-game snack for your little sluggers. What do you do to get into the spirit of baseball season?

Use red icing to draw on your stripes

Rice Krispy Treat Baseballs

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter plus more to grease the pan
• 4 cups mini marshmallows
• 5 cups Rice Krispy cereal
• 1 1/2 cups good-quality white chocolate or white chocolate melting chips
• red icing pen

Directions:

1. Butter a 13 x 9 inch pan.
2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Once melted stir in the marshmallows, and stir constantly until fully melted.
3. Remove marshmallow goop from heat and stir in cereal.
4. Use a buttered spatula to scoop the rice crispies into the pan and press them down evenly.
5. After the rice krispies are completely cooled, use a medium-sized circular cookie cutter to cut out your baseballs.
6. Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler, and once it is completely melted, dip the circular rice krispy treats into the chocolate. Alternatively, you could spoon some of the white chocolate on top of the rice crispy, and then use the spoon to smooth it over the entire top.
7. Once the chocolate has cooled, use your red icing to draw two small C’s facing the opposite sides, and then three stripes on each C to form the baseball stripes. Make sure not to place the stripes too close together, as the icing may spread a bit. Enjoy!