I saw these on another website and thought they would be perfect for a quick christmas cookie. They require no butter, and are super easy to make. At first as I made the first batch I thought they weren’t going to turn out at all. I had to convert the measurements and I thought I might have done it wrong, but when I went to get them from the oven 10 minutes later, I was pleasantly surprised to see how great they turned out! I made two batches.

These are super quick and a lighter christmas cookie alternative, crispy and chewy. Their inspired from the Starbucks cookies apparently, which I wouldn’t know as I don’t drink coffee, and rarely visit starbucks. But they are good!

(more…)

First off – I love my cookie jar. that is all.

Now, As I’ve mentioned before, I have a slight, slight, peanut allergy. Meaning when I was 16 I went for allergy tests and they said I was allergic. Funny, as I had definitely consumed my fair share of peanuts and peanut butter in my 16 years and hadn’t experienced any type of reaction. So I quit it. Cold turkey.  No Pb&J sandwiches, no Reeses Peanut Butter cups, no Oh Henrys. Zilch. I was livin peanut free. Which was good I guess. But a girl can only go so long without peanut butter. So dare devil that I am, I decided It was about time I ate them again, seeing as how I’d lived 16 years with it. So now whenever I have a craving for peanut butter I go right ahead and eat it. In small quantities that is.

And I just purchased some new mixing bowls! I was getting mad the other day as somehow all the bowls seemed to have dissapeared. We moved two years ago, downsized, and I think half of our stuff is still packed up I swear! So I decided it was about time I bought some new ones. So I got a set of glass Pyrex ones. Their great!

Back to the story, yesterday as I was visiting some friends in town at their work, they had kindly requested, for the 1000th time, that I bring them baked goods. I decided this time I’d give in. The boys, as i’ll call them, work at a TV and Stereo store in town and spend the majority of their day “working” and taking time out of their busy day to talk to me whenever I stop by before work or on my break (as I work across the street.) So they requested the following types of cookies: Chocolate Chip, Vanilla Cookies (what are those?? he just likes vanilla), Sugar Cookies, Peanut butter (which I could make because the other guy who works with them who is actually deathly allergic to peanuts wouldn’t be there today.) So I thought of what I could make to satisfy them all. I thought of making a couple different types of cookies, but that takes too much time and quite frankly, I didn’t want to = ). So I thought I would satisfy them all with these Chunky Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. Hopefully they’ll like em.

After looking for some recipes online I combined a few ideas and recipes to satisfy their cravings.

Ingredients – in nice little prep bowsl! (that’s a first!)

Mix it up good!

Roll em into ball and dip em in sugar!

Flatten with a fork – and put in oven!

Chunky-Peanut-Butter-Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 Tsp. Baking Soda
• 1/2 Tsp. Baking Powder
• 1 Cup Butter, Room Temperature
• 1 1/4 Cups Crunchy Peanut Butter
• 1 Cup Brown Sugar
• 3/4 Cup Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 2 Tsp. Vanilla
• 1 1/2 Cups Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
3. In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder. Working with a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium until smooth and creamy.
4. Add the peanut butter. Beat on slow and add the sugars.
5. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each one. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula or wooden spoon, and on low speed, add the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.
6. Mix in the chocolate chips.
7. *Optional* Pour 1/2 cup sugar (fine, granulated or large decorating sugar) into a small bowl. Use a small ice cream scoop or spoon to scoop dough and then roll the dough into small balls and then roll the ball into the small bowl of sugar, coating it evenly.
8. Place on the backing sheet. Using a fork, press it into the top of the cookie, to make the signature criss cross pattern on the cookie, flattening it just slightly.
9. Bake for 12 minutes, until slightly browned and just about set in the center.
10. Carefully transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Make sure they are fully cooled before storing them.

    Note – You can make these in advance, and roll the cookie dough into the little balls, storing them in a container and freezing them until ready to use. When baking from frozen cookie, place them on the sheet and into the oven for a few minutes til they get soft, and then pull them out and make the criss cross pattern with the fork, and then stick em back in the oven to fully bake =) baking time may need to be increased by a minute or two since they are baking from frozen. You can also make these with smooth peanut butter, or if you want crunchy add peanuts to them.

Enjoy = )

As everyone knows one of the greatest performers, and King of Pop has recently passed away. After yesterdays event, of his memorial ceremony I wanted to dedicate a post to him. I remember being in grade 7 and being absolutely in love with Michael Jackson! My friend Amanda and I were obsessed at 13 years old! We loved all of his music, and I remember after school we would go to each others house and listen to all of his music and have dance parties. We thought we were sooo cool listening to MJ. I remember for Amanda’s birthday I really wanted to get her something to do with Michael, so I went looking in town for a gift. The only music store in town was a small CD store that had old and new CD’s and music posters. I remember finding two, now thinking back I wish I had bought one for myself as well! I finally decided on one of them, it was a collage of pictures of MJ and I can still picture it today. Actually, I sorta wished I kept it! haha. But birthdays are about giving!..and not to yourself. But today I bought a People magazine to have a small memorial of him and his life. I loved all his music, and my friend and I would watch all his music videos on our old computer, waiting patiently for it to download! My mom actually saw him in concert, and now wishes she had kept her ticket stub! ( this is why I keep all of mine! You never know! )

So today while I was shopping I needed to pick up ingredients to make cookies for an upcoming trip! Tomorrow morning I’m heading up to Merritt for the Merritt Mountain Music Festival. For all you non-canadians, or even non-BC’ers it’s a four day event of country music in the interior of BC. Lots of concerts and cowboys!! Im super excited to go, and Im leaving tomorrow morning veryyy early with my friend Justine! She’s been before but I haven’t! So I’m looking forward to it! And I promised her baked goods!

While I was at the store I had Michael in mind and came up with the idea of black and white mini chocolate chip cookies. Because as Michael said “it don’t matter if you’re black or white” (more…)

 Happy Holidays! It’s baking time. And here’s one from Martha Stewart’s Cookie of the Day! With these delicious Chocolate Thumbprints!  I have been baking up a storm today! I hope this makes up for my absense for most of december! But again, I’m a busy student! (not a starving student, clearly!) But all the exams are finished and all the gifts are wrapped! So enjoy all my christmas baking and hope you have a wonderful holiday! (Scroll down for all the latet baking posts for christmas!)

With Halloween just around the corner I thought I’d make some Halloween sugar cookies! Last weekend I made the trip to my favorite baking supply store – Scoop&Save. I only go there once in a while because its pretty far away, about 40 mins to drive there. So i stocked on some decorations and cookie cutters, royal icing mix & piping tips etc. I wish I lived closer so I could go all the time.. although it’s probably best that I don’t! I found this recipe in Baking: From My House to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I made my pumpkin tarts from it as well. I really like the recipes in there, and my favorite thing is all the pictures! I really hate cookbooks that don’t have pictures.. as many people know. haha. I always make sure when I get a cookbook that it has a good amount of pictures accompanying the recipes. I’m glad I got this book for my birthday! I thought about joining Tuesdays With Dorie but being a student/working it’s a little hard to commit to baking every other Tuesday. So I’ll just got through the book on my own and experiment! Ps. I went to see Celine Dion Tuesday night..soo good! Now all I have stuck in my head are her songs..Which means Im definitely listening to her while I bake. . .ohh Celine!

So here’s the recipe:

*Just to let you know, these take at least 2 hours to chill prior to baking..which I only found out once I had my oven pre-heating and got to the end of my mixing & finished reading the bottom of the page..Oh well! I just had to wait a little longer before eating baking and decorating!

Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

From Baking: From My House to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Whisk the flour, salt and baking powder together.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed for a minute or so, until smooth.

Beat in the sugar and continue to beat for about 2 minutes, until the mixture is light and pale. Add the egg and yolk and beat for another minute or two; beat in the vanilla.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and steadily add the flour mixture, mixing only until it has been incorporated — because this dough is best when worked least, you might want to stop the mixer before all the flour is
thoroughly blended into the dough and finish the job with a rubber spatula. When mixed, the dough will be soft, creamy and malleable.

Turn the dough out onto a counter and divide it in half. If you want to make roll-out cookies, shape each half into a disk and wrap in plastic. If you want to make slice-and-bake cookies, shape each half into a chubby sausage (the diameter is up to you — I usually like cookies that are about 2 inches in diameter) and wrap in plastic. Whether you’re going to roll or slice the dough, it must be chilled for at least 2 hours. (Well wrapped, the dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.)

Getting Ready To Bake:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

If you are making roll-out cookies, working with one packet of dough at a time, roll out the dough between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper to a thickness of 1/4 inch, lifting the plastic or paper and turning the dough over often so that it rolls evenly.

In case your wondering..that’s Jordan’s hairy arm..not mine! haha

Lift off the top sheet of plastic or paper and cut out the cookies — I like a 2-inch round cookie cutter for these. Pull away the excess dough, saving the scraps for rerolling, and carefully lift the rounds onto the baking sheets with a spatula, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between the cookies. (This is a soft dough and you might have trouble peeling away the excess or lifting the cutouts; if so, cover the dough, chill it for about 15 minutes and try again.) After you’ve rolled and cut the second packet of dough, you can form the scraps intoa disk, then chill, roll, cut and bake.

The First Few!

If you are making slice-and-bake cookies, use a sharp thin knife to slice the dough into 1/4-inch-thick rounds, and place the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 1/2 inches of space between the cookies. 6. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 9 to 11 minutes, rotating the sheet at the midpoint. The cookies should feel firm, but they should not color much, if at all. Remove the pan from the oven and dust the cookies with sugar or cinnamon sugar, if you’d like. Let them rest for 1 minute before carefully lifting them onto a rack to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remaining dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

One of these things is not like the other…

Storing: The cookies will keep at room temperature in a tin for up to 1 week. Wrapped well, they can be frozen for up to 2 months.

Enjoy!