Prancer Sugar Cookie
Sugar cookies are probably the most simple cookies you could make but you can do so many things with them! Flavor them, color them, shape them... eat them. The way I like to make them always reminds me of one of my favorite Christmas movies- Prancer. Yes, an oldie but a goodie. I admit, I have been watching this movie on a VHS tape I had recorded off the tv many many years ago up until... recently. I'm now the proud owner of one of these fancy DVD things, you don't need to rewind! Anyway, back to the cookies. In the movie Jessica feeds these cookies to Prancer and I have always had the image of that's what a sugar cookie should look like. These sure won't disappoint, everyone loves a good sugar cookie!
-3 cups flour -2 eggs
-1/2 Tsp baking powder -1 Tsp vanilla extract
-1/4 Tsp salt -Lemon zest to taste
-1 1/2 sticks butter at room temperature -Sprinkles the color of your choice
-1 cup sugar
1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until incorporated and light and fluffy.
3. Add lemon zest, vanilla extract, and eggs. Mix to combine.
4. Slowly add the baking powder, salt, and flour- mix on low so you don't get it all over you!
5. When a dough forms, dump the lump of lovely dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Tightly wrap up the dough and put in the fridge for 1 hour to firm up. At this point feel free to split the dough and throw it in the freezer for later use!
6. When the hour is up, take the dough out and leave at room temperature for 5 minutes to make it a bit easier to roll out.
7. On a floured surface roll the dough out to your desired thickness. Have fun with the shapes- today I chose a star, circle, and a gingerbread man.
8. Move cookies to a sheet tray lines with parchment or a silicon mat.
9. Feel free to put as many or as few sprinkles as you wish- I load em up.
10. Pop the cookies in the oven for about 8 minutes, watch them though they can burn quickly. You want them to be turning a light golden color. The color of deliciousness.
-Let the cookies cool on a wire rack and enjoy!
I originally spotted this gem on Pinterest. The name simply has all my favorite things in it so it had to be good right?! I made these for a housewarming I had recently and they were gobbled up almost immediately. I snuck one and yes, they were amazing. These are the perfect chocolatey cookie- the espresso brings out the chocolate like crazy and it's just flavortown USA- one of my favorite vacation spots. And the salt, ohhh the salt, just brings the flavors out even more. These ones require a bit of extra time so I always start these the night before. These cookies will be sure to please the chocolate lover on your list this year!
-10 ounces of bitter sweet chocolate (don't use chocolate chips) -2 eggs
-6 Tbs butter -3/4 cup sugar
-2 Tbs instant espresso powder -1 Tsp vanilla extract
-1/3 cup flour -Sea salt for garnish
-1 Tsp baking powder
-1/2 Tsp salt
*At least an hour before wanting to bake them or the night before(I like letting this batter sit overnight).*
1. Chop your chocolate and melt with your butter and espresso powder in the microwave or a double boiler if you're feeling fancy, set aside to cool.
2. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Whisk the chocolate mixture, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract into the dry ingredients- combine well. It will be a pretty wet mixture, don't worry, you're doing it right!
4. Place in a sealed container for at least 1 hour or overnight.
5. In an hour or the next day, preheat oven to 325F.
6. Scoop the batter in 1 inch diameter balls onto a sheet tray lined with parchment or a silicon mat(silicon mat works best I must say). These cookies will really flatten out so space wisely!
7. You can either do this step before baking or after- I like to do it after, the salt sticks better. But the world if your pickle, do what you want, make it rain salt all up on that cookie.
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Every oven is different, so check at 10 I'd say. They will look a bit puffy and underdone, but they are done. Once they cool they will harden and become flat.
-These cookies can be touchy just out of the oven- give them a few minutes to cool down and set up before transferring to a wire rack for complete cooling. Enjoy!
Almond Joy Chocolate Chip Cookie
What's a cookie swap without a classic chocolate chip cookie! I've put a little twist on these ones though, but they are just as great! A close friend who will remain nameless calls them crack cookies because you can't just stop eating them! And a certain roommate that will also remain nameless ate quite a few one day... for breakfast. Needless to say, they are a good time.
-1 1/2 cups flour -1 cup brown sugar
-1/2 Tsp baking soda -1/2 cup white granulated sugar
-1/2 Tsp salt -1 Tbs vanilla extract
-3/4 cup butter room temp -1/4 Tsp almond extract
-2 cups milk chocolate chips -1 egg
-2 cups sweetened shredded cocoanut
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment combine the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until light and fluffy.
3. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. On low speed, add your egg, vanilla extract, almond extract, and your dry mixture. Scrape the sides of the bowl down if it builds up.
5. With a spatula, incorporate the cocoanut and chocolate chips.
6. Spoon 1-2 Tbs of batter onto a sheet tray lined with parchment or a silicon mat.
7. Bake 10-15 minutes, check frequently because all ovens are different don't ya know.
8. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and enjoy!
French Macaron
Time to get a little technical with your bad self. These pretty little cookies always scared the you know what out of me. How to they get to have that perfect texture? How do they get those signature little "feet"? I'm not a master baker! My opinion is that it takes a few tries but you can definitely get the hang of it! They are such a crowd pleaser too- everyone will think you took the concord to Paris, picked up an assortment at a cute little patisserie, learned to play La Vie en Rose on the accordion, and jetted on back to display these beautiful little things! Wrong- what they don't know is that your kitchen is a complete mess but they look darn good eh? The possibilities are endless when it comes to macarons, with some food coloring and flavoring you can make any concoction that comes to mind! This time I decided to go for some Christmas colors and a Nutella filling. YUM.
Cookies:
-3 egg whites
-1/3 cup granulated sugar
-1 cup almond flour
-1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
-Food coloring of your choice if wanted(powder or gel)
-Extract if your choice
Filling:
-Nutella! (however much you want)
1. In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment whisk the egg whites on medium-high until foamy.
2. At this point, pour in the granulated sugar into the mixer.
3. Mix on high until you reach stiff peaks. This is where you want to add your coloring and flavoring if you desire- I wanted mine to look Christmasy so I opted for red and I threw some gold dust on there at the end to make it all fancy. Little tip- put a little more food coloring than you normally would, the colors usually lighten during the baking process. If you chose not to use food coloring, the macarons will turn a light tan color- still very yummy!
4. In a separate bowl, sift the almond flour and powdered sugar. You want all the lumps out so that you get a smooth cookie.
5. Gradually add the dry into your egg whites- fold very gently, you don't want to deflate the whites! At this stage you can also add any extract you'd like, I once made a lemon macaron with raspberry jam filling. Very tasty.
6. Once you have all the dry ingredients mixed in with the egg whites you want to continue to fold gently until you reach a "lava" stage where if you let the batter fall back into itself it will incorporate slowly and have a nice flow back into itself. This will take a few minutes so you probably won't have to go to the gym later on- good arm workout.
7. Carefully transfer your mixture into a piping bag or a zip lock bag with a small hole snipped in the corner.
8. Onto a sheet tray lined with parchment pipe the mixture into dots as small or large as you'd like, but try to make them all the same size to make pairing up easier later on.
9. Once you have your dots piped out you have to wait a bit. Take the tray and lift and drop onto the counter to get any air bubbles out. This also helps give you those little feet. Do this at least a couple times and let them sit out until you can lightly touch the tops and it's dry- usually takes 25-30 minutes.
10. Preheat oven to 300F.
11. Once you have let your macarons set and the oven is ready, put the tray in for 10 minutes.
12. When they come out of the oven do not take them off the tray right way, they will stick! Let them cool for a good 5-10 minutes or until they naturally come away from the pan and you can transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
13. When they have cooled completely you can slap on your filling! Choose two halves similar to size and on one half place a small amount of filling and sandwich the other half pressing ever so lightly so spread the filling throughout.
14. Decorate however you want- I sprinkled mine with a bit of eatable gold dust... because who doesn't love gold dust?
-Enjoy! These cookies are a classic sandwich cookie and are always SO pretty. And they taste amazing, the texture is great the way they have that outside crunch and the inside chew of a classic macaron. They are a yummy little snack and will have you feeling very accomplished!
12. When they come out of the oven do not take them off the tray right way, they will stick! Let them cool for a good 5-10 minutes or until they naturally come away from the pan and you can transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
13. When they have cooled completely you can slap on your filling! Choose two halves similar to size and on one half place a small amount of filling and sandwich the other half pressing ever so lightly so spread the filling throughout.
14. Decorate however you want- I sprinkled mine with a bit of eatable gold dust... because who doesn't love gold dust?
-Enjoy! These cookies are a classic sandwich cookie and are always SO pretty. And they taste amazing, the texture is great the way they have that outside crunch and the inside chew of a classic macaron. They are a yummy little snack and will have you feeling very accomplished!
Peanut Butter Kiss Cookie
I took a small survey of friends, family, and co-workers to find out what their favorite holiday cookie was and this was a winner by a landslide. I don't know what it is about these babies but they are definitely a favorite, chocolate and peanut butter is one of the most beloved flavor combinations of course so this is a no brainer. These are best straight out of the oven, but if you don't want to burn your mouth off, they are good cooled too- knock yourself out!
-1 stick of butter -1 Tsp vanilla extract
-3/4 cup peanut butter -1 egg
-1/3 cup light brown sugar -2 Tbs milk
-1/3 cup granulated sugar -1 Tsp baking soda
-1 1/2 cups flour -1/4 Tsp salt
1. In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and the peanut butter.
2. Add the light brown sugar the granulated sugar- combine well.
3. Add the vanilla extract, egg, and milk- combine well.
4. slowly add the flour, baking soda, and salt.
5 Once everything is mixed well, put into a container and chill for 1 hour. The mixture will be on the wetter side.
6. Once you have waited for what feel like an eternity, preheat the oven to 375F.
7. Line with parchment or silicon mat and roll mixture into 1 inch balls
8. Bake for 8-10 min until lightly brown.
9. While these are baking, unwrap the kisses because need to place on as soon as they come out of the oven.
10. Once these little yummies are done baking press the kisses into the center of the cookie until they start to crack a bit.
11. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
-Andddd this is the part where I give myself third degree burns and devour them, the kisses are all melted and the cookie is just so warm and soft, one cannot help themselves!
I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as my friends and family do! There are so many more you could make but if I baked all of them to test I'd be on the fast track to a diabetic coma... and no one wants that! What's your favorite holiday cookie??
-Meaghan
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