Homemade Cookies – Page 3 – Bead Yarn & Spatula

Cookie Palooza: Key Lime Crinkles

How about some crinkles for Mr. Kringle? Sorry for corniness, but, I couldn’t resist. While crinkles are customarily a chocolate cookie I decided to switch things up a bit and bring you Key Lime Crinkles for the last cookie of Cookie Palooza week. And in case you didn’t know, crinkles are a drop cookie that is rolled in confectioners’ sugar prior to baking. The sugar draws moisture out of the cookie while it’s baking allowing the cookie to crack and dry out. Leaving the exterior of the cookie with a bit of a crust and the interior soft and yummy. This key lime version is a great cookie for someone who wants something sweet but not with all the decadence of chocolate.

The search for these cookies came about because I recently asked some friends what cookie they wanted for Christmas and one friend said rugelach and a key lime pie. So, I started searching for key lime cookies since I wasn’t planning on making a pie during my weekend of cookie baking in a few weeks. The first cookie I came across was a thumbprint cookie that actually has a key lime filling, I was all set to make that one for Christmas and then I came across this recipe and decided that I would share this recipe with you as my final cookie for Cookie Palooza week. While I normally share a no-bake cookie as my final cookie, I just couldn’t find one this year that I liked 100%. My friend who wants the key lime pie tried these and he said that while they are good and they do have the key lime flavor he likes, he was hoping for a key lime filling, a la the aforementioned thumbprint cookie. So, I will be making the pie after all since that is quicker and easier than the cookies.

It may be hard to find key limes this time of year, so, you can use bottled key lime juice. I usually find this key lime juice in the baking aisle of my supermarket. This is the same juice I use to make my key lime pie when I am short on time to squeeze key limes, or they are not available at my supermarket. In all honesty, I’ve made key lime pie with fresh limes and with this juice and the taste is exactly the same. And if all else fails, you can use regular limes. I actually used the zest of a regular lime in this recipe. And speaking of zest, if you want more of a lime flavor I suggest adding in more zest. I would avoid adding in more lime juice as that will alter the consistency of your dough.

I hope you’ve enjoyed Cookie Palooza 2018 as much as I enjoyed baking the cookies and bringing you the recipes. Check back next week for Holiday Cake Week. I’ve also got some other Holiday treats hitting the blog soon as well… Chocolate Covered Pretzels, Slow Cooker Spiced Nuts (they are really Candied Nuts) and a Chocolate Truffle Cookie (which I initially was thinking would be cookie #5 for this week).

Key Lime Crinkles

Servings: 30 cookies
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Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon key lime zest

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon key lime juice

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, zest and salt.

In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each one. Mix in the lime juice.

With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until just combined. Cover the dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place the confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl.

One chilled, use a cookie scoop to scoop the dough and roll into balls and then roll in the confectioners’ sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until the cookie begin to brown along the edges.

Cool on the pans for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Bake or Break

Cookie Palooza: Cranberry Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Welcome to day 4 of Cookie Palooza. Today’s cookie is basically a kitchen sink cookie. Don’t worry, there are no food scraps in this cookie, but, there are a bunch of add-ins, hence the kitchen sink analogy. There are pecans, dried cranberries, semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, oatmeal and coconut. And while I know many people are not a fan of coconut (it seems people either love it or hate it) don’t fear, this cookie does not have a coconut flavor. The coconut adds texture to the cookie. And I am sure I may have lost some of you already as I know people are not always fond of a cookie with texture, especially a cookie like this that already has so much going on, but, trust me, all of the ingredients work so well together you will forget that there may be an ingredient or two you don’t like. Unless you have an allergy to one of them of course.

I got this recipe from Food Network’s 50 Chocolate Chip Cookies, and while there were quite a few among those 50 that sounded yummy I opted to make this one because it reminded me of another cookie I like to make around the holidays, a White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cookie, that I just realized I have never posted about. I’ll have to do that this holiday season as I am sure I will be making it again. Something I did realize though going through some old posts, I need to stop taking pictures at night. Unfortunately I do a lot of baking at night, but, I will have to refrain from taking picture then because they just do not post well.

The recipe called for 1/4 cupfuls of dough (about an ice cream scoop size) to make about 10 cookies, I opted to use a cookie scoop to make mine. Which yielded about 30 cookies. A nice amount to gift or to have on hand for a holiday guests.

Cranberry Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2/3 cup milk chocolate chips

2/3 cup old fashioned oats

2/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut

2/3 cup dried cranberries

2/3 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and beat in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the remaining ingredients.

Using a cookie scoop, drop the dough 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until set around the edges. Let cool for 10 minutes on the cookie sheets then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Food Network

Cookie Palooza – Lemon Ricotta Cookies

Lemon Ricotta… A flavor combination I first had in the form of pancakes and was instantly hooked so when I saw a cookie recipe using the two I knew I had to try it. A few things to note, these cookies are soft, almost cake-like. They kind of remind me of muffies – aka the top of a muffin. And while I am not one for glazes, I usually leave my baked good unglazed when a recipe calls for it, these cookies definitely need the glaze. Not because they are not delish without it – I tried one before glazing and it was good as is – but when I added the glaze the lemon flavor was kicked up a notch, but, not to the point that it was overbearing.

Lemon Ricotta Cookies Lemon Glaze

Servings: 40 cookies
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Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 15 oz. container whole milk ricotta cheese

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (juice of 1 lemon)

1 lemon, zested

Glaze:

1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 lemon, zested

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375F.

In medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beat the mixture well so all of the ingredients are incorporate.

Add the ricotta cheese, lemon juice & zest. Beat to combine and then stir in the dry ingredients (the flour mixture.)

Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon the dough – about 2 tablespoons for each cookie – onto the baking sheets. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are golden. Remove from the oven and the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 20 minutes.

During the 20 minutes make the glaze: Combine the all of the ingredients in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon onto each cookie and use the back of the spoon to smooth the glaze over the cookie. Let the cookies sit for 2 hours so the glaze can harden.

Recipe from Food Network

Christmas Themed Sugar Cookies

It’s Christmas Eve and I am happy to say that all of my Christmas baking is officially done. For my final cookie post before the holiday – check out my Rainbow Cookies and Gingerbread Men from earlier in the week – I am going completely traditional with sugar cookies decorated to reflect the holiday!

After sifting together cake flour (yes, you read that correctly, cake flour for cookies), baking powder and salt in a large bowl…

I then mixed together butter and sugar in a separate bowl and then added in an egg and vanilla extract and continued mixing until all of the ingredients were incorporated.

Next I added in the flour mixture to the butter mixture in 2 additions.

Once the dough came together I divided it in half and wrapped it in plastic wrap and refrigerated it until it was firm – the recipe stated at least an hour but I left it in the fridge overnight and just let it sit out for a few minutes before rolling it out.

Whereas the recipe said to roll the dough to about a 1/8-inch thick I found it to be thin to work with and the few cookies that I did manage to cut out at that thinness ended up over-browning when I baked them so I went with the standard 1/4-inch thick.

I decorated a few of the cut-outs with sanding sugar prior to refrigerating them for 30 minutes before baking them in a 350 F preheated oven.

After letting the cookies cool it was time to spruce them up with royal icing, sanding sugar and sprinkles.

These snowflakes were by far my favorite and I must say that the cake flour produced a sugar cookie that was much more delicate than and not as crunchy as your typical sugar cookie. I definitely think this will become my go-to sugar cookie recipe from now on.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Sugar Cookies

Makes 24 to 36 cookies

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising), plus more for dusting

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Sift the cake flour, baking powder and salt onto a piece of parchment paper or into a medium bowl; set aside. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the flour mixture in 2 batches until just incorporated. Divide between 2 pieces of plastic wrap; shape into disks. Wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour. (The dough can be frozen for up to 1 month; thaw overnight in the refrigerator before rolling.)

2. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out the dough on a floured surface, dusting with flour as needed, until about 1/8 inch thick*. Cut out shapes with 2-to-4-inch cookie cutters; arrange 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. (If the dough becomes too soft as you work, return to the refrigerator until firm.) Gather the scraps and refrigerate until firm; reroll once to cut out more cookies. Chill the cutouts 30 minutes.

3. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Bake, switching the pans halfway through, until the cookies are slightly puffed and just golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to racks to cool completely before icing.

*I rolled out my cookies 1/4 inch thick.

S’Mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Not that long ago I finally joined Pinterest and while I am no nowhere near being an expert on it, I am getting the gist of it. Maybe with the holiday season just around the corner I’ll utilize it a bit more. Luckily I have friends who are on it who find cool things to share with me and politely hint at me to try, like S’mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies . I’ve actually never had a s’more; mainly because I am not particularly fond of marshmallows. I recall eating them as a child but chances are I ate one too many of them and got my fill. I figured since these marshmallows would melt into the cookie while baking I wouldn’t be bothered by them. And boy was I right!

I began by making the chocolate chip cookie dough.

I then gathered my three ingredients to make s’mores – graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows.

And a assembled a s’more. I should note that I opted to use mini-marshmallows as opposed to the larger ones which probably explains the lack of marshmallow gooeyness in my cookie. I’m not complaining though!

This is where the messy part began and I’ll spare you those pictures – mainly because I didn’t take any since my hands were covered with cookie dough. Using an ice cream scoop I scooped the dough into the palm of my hand and flattened it. I then placed the s’more on the flattened cookie dough and then placed another ice cream sized scoop of cookie dough on top of the s’more and smoothed the dough to form a decent sized mound. One more thing about those pesky marshmallows, if I had used the larger sized ones it probably would have been easier to shape the cookies since the smaller ones allowed the graham cracker and chocolate to move around a lot while forming the cookie.

I baked the cookies (4 at a time) in a 350 F preheated oven for 15 minutes – they were just beginning to brown and the tops were cracking a bit. I let them cook on the pan for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Overall these cookies are amazing! The cookie itself was delicious and I will probably use the recipe the next time I make basic chocolate chip cookies.

But the best part is when you split the cookie in half and you have all that chocolate in the middle… YUM!!!

S’Mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 12 Large Cookies

Ingredients:

2 sticks softened butter

1 Cup granulated sugar

3/4 Cup packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla

3 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 Cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

24 graham cracker quarters or 12 full sheets separated at perforations

3 Hershey Bars, broken into rows of 3 bars

12 large marshmallows cut in half lengthwise**

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment or a silpat liner.

2. In a stand or electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, continue to beat until well combined.

3. Place flour, salt and baking soda into a bowl; mix to combine then add slowly to wet ingredients along with the chocolate chips.

4. Layer a graham cracker quarter with 3 Hershey chocolate squares and 2 marshmallow halves. Close with another graham cracker. Top s’more with a large scoop of cookie dough. Place in hands and place another large scoop on bottom then front and back sides as needed. Form dough around s’mores. Will get messy, but stick with it, it does not have to be perfect. S’mores will move around but it’s no big deal. Place large cookies onto prepared baking sheet and bake for 15-17 minutes or until edges are golden and centers are cooked through. Let cool for 10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack or serving plate.