Milk & Cookies

Random Caption... SUPER DONKEY BUSINESS MAN! I'm pretty sure no one reads these anyways...

These are the types of mistakes that I love.  I was most of the way done making these “Lime Tea Cookies” when I realized we didn’t have any real limes to zest.  We had some left over ginger on hand (see previous cookies), and I thought, “Hey why not.”  Lucky me, these cookies are great!  They are light and moist and  you can easily eat like 10 before you realize what just happened.  They are very quick and easy to make and they taste great.  They are definitely not as comforting as chocolate cookies, but they are perfect for a spring day or for taking on a picnic.

I didn’t end up taking a bunch of pictures this time around, so I am gonna steal a page from Zoe and put random pictures in my post to make up for it.

LOOK AT THE SILLY MONKEY…

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tspn. lime juice
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tspn. minced ginger
• 1-3/4 cup flour
• 1 tspn. baking powder
• 1/4 tspn. baking soda
• 2 Tblsn. lime juice (for the glaze)
• 1/4 cup sugar (for the glaze)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 350°F and prepare a baking tray with parchment paper.

In a small bowl combine the lime juice and milk and let stand for 5 minutes.  In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until its fluffy and smooth.  Add the egg and beat it in.  Then add the lime-milk mixture and the ginger.  Finally mix in the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.  That’s it for the dough. (optional) Let it cool briefly in the fridge (1-2 hours).  This will result in softer cookies.

When you are ready drop spoonfuls of the dough onto the tray and bake them for 8 minutes or so.  The edges will just start to brown when they are done.  Let them cool for a few minutes on the tray before moving them.

The last step is to glaze the cookies.  The glaze is made by mixing the remaining lime juice (2 Tblsn.) with the extra sugar (1/4 cup).  Just brush the glaze onto the cooled cookies and let it sit for a few minutes.

Ok I lied, the last step is to see how many of these you can get into your mouth at one time!  I’m pretty sure I saw Zoe with at least 8…

Gourmet Smores? ... yes.

Super easy, no bake cookies! And see how fancy they look? These are some time consuming cookies to make, but honestly, most of that time is your refrigerator doing the work. It’s really only a little time up front and then some more time on the back end (if you plan on wrapping them up). Overall these are some of the easiest cookies I have made, and they’re already on my top 5 favorite list.

cookie credit: Joy the Baker (yet again)

Without further adu:

INGREDIENTS (makes 18-24 cookies)

• 1 box of graham crackers (14 oz)
• 3 handfuls of mini marshmallows
• 3 sticks and 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS

Get out a large bowl and crumble the graham crackers into it. Break them into medium sized peices (about 1/8 of a cracker). Then toss in 2 handfuls of marshmallows. Set this bowl aside for now.

In a medium sauce pan, combine the butter, cocoa powder, corn syrup, and a pinch of salt. Warm it on the stove until all of the ingredients are melted and mixed smooth. Now turn off the heat and let it cool for a few minutes.

While waiting, prepare a 9 x 13 pan with a parchment paper to line it. When the time is up, pour the chocolate into the bowl with the crackers and marshmallows. Stir this mixture up until all the graham crackers are coated in chocolate. Then pour it all into the pan. Spread the dough around and press it down with your fingers using a second piece of parchment paper. Once its well spread out, sprinkle another handful of marshmallows on the top and press them in.

Now you should have a flat tray full of cookie mash. Set it aside for 30 minutes before placing the tray in the fridge for at least a few hours (preferably over night). Once cooled, cut the cookies into bars and serve them up.

Keep any uneaten cookies individually wrapped in the fridge.

For Serious? I am highly skeptical of these cookies...

Zoe is gone. She left me…

Well, I guess I don’t need to be so dramatic… she will be back in two weeks. While she is off playing physics-genius in Brazil, I have the whole kitchen to myself. Yep, a deprived meat-eater suddenly has the freedom to cook anything he wants. This could be trouble…

After my first steak and potatoes meal in well over a year, I was looking online for an interesting cookie to make this week and I stumbled upon this crazy creature: Joy’s Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies. Now, I’ve tried chocolate bacon before under the pretense “It’s Chocolate + Bacon…. how could it go wrong?”. Well, I hated it. But, Joy has rarely steered me wrong with her cookie recipes. After some waffling, I decided that if I ever wanted to give it a shot, this was the time to do it. So here goes… cookies + bacon…

INGREDIENTS (makes 12-15 cookies)

• 6 slices of bacon
• 1 cup Peanut Butter (all natural)
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tspn baking soda

DIRECTIONS

Start with the bacon. Cook it up in a skillet like normal, until its nicely cooked. Let it cool on a plate with some papertowels to absorb the extra grease. Then chop it up into bacon bits and set it aside.

Preheat your oven to 350F, and line a tray with parchement paper.

Combine the peanut butter and both types of sugar in a mixing bowl. Mix em’ together for about 2 minutes. Add the egg and baking soda and mix for another 2 minutes. The dough stays crumbly so it doesn’t really mix very well. Just keep going until you either get tired of it, or it looks mixed enough. Lastly, fold in the bacon by hand. That’s your dough.

Making the dough into balls is the most difficult part about these cookies. It’s messy, and the dough really doesnt want to stick together very well. Just dive in and get your hands dirty. Make the dough into ~1.5″ balls (ping pong ball size). Optionally, you could roll the balls in extra granulated sugar if you want. I did not. Place the balls a few inches apart on the tray and use a fork to mash them down a bit. Crisscross the tops or go crazy and make your own pattern!

Bake the cookies for 9-10 minutes. Then let them cool for a few minutes before transfering them to your belly.

So, are they good? I don’t know yet… I am not eating mine until cookie time.

Devils Food was actually sent from heaven.

Devil’s Food is one of my favorite desserts of all time. Right up there with cheesecake, blueberries, and dark chocolate. Zoe stumbled upon the following recipe on the internet and it was so simple and easy, I knew that I was going to have to try them sooner or later. Well, sooner won.

We have both been so busy with work/school that it has been getting difficult to maintain the motivation to keep making cookies every week. Recipes like this one are perfect because they don’t require a big time commitment, or a bunch of ingredients, so really there is no excuse not to make them. Yes, I am talking to you…. go make them!

The results of this week’s baking experiment are below:

INGREDIENTS (makes 25-30 cookies)

• 1 box devils food cake mix (18.25 oz.)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• …thats it?
• yep. crazy simple!

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 375°F and prepare a baking tray with parchment paper.

Mix (by hand) the cake mix, eggs, and oil together in a large mixing bowl. Whew, these cookies are so complicated! There you go, stick that dough in the fridge for 15-30 minutes while your oven heats up.

Put the powdered sugar in a small bowl. Now start scooping the dough into ~1″ diameter balls. I prefer my cookies a little larger so don’t worry about them being a bit big. The larger dough balls will actually crack better during the cooking. Take each ball and roll it around in the powdered sugar. Try to get them as coated with sugar as you can. Place them a couple of inches apart on the baking tray. I was able to get 15 cookies on one tray, but they were just starting to touch, so maybe 12 is better.

Bake the cookies for 8 minutes. If you overcook them they will be a bit dry (like the edges of brownies) which some people seem to prefer, but not me. Let them cool for a minute before moving them to your serving plate. These cookies are so fast and easy that I think you should serve them right away. If you want some more later, just make some more then!

Seriously, don’t forget the milk with these bad boys. They go together like…. well, like milk and cookies, but you know, like, to the extreme!

Whats black and white and red all over?

Baking ritual part II. Scotch. As I mentioned before, nothing is as good as turning up the music and tuning out the world. As a part of that goal, I love to have a glass of scotch while I make cookies. Somehow music, a smooth scotch, and baking unite to form a trifecta of awesome that turns my kitchen into a temporary sanctuary from the world. I suggest that you try it, at least once.

These cookies come (yet again) from Joy the Baker. The results of this week’s baking experiment are below:

INGREDIENTS (makes 10 huge cookies)

For Cookies:

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbls cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 5 Tbls butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbls red food coloring
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

For Vanilla Glaze: (OR VANILLA FROSTING)

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Tbls hot water

For Chocolate Glaze:

• 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
• 3 Tbls butter
• 1 Tbls light corn syrup

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 350°F and prepare a couple of baking trays with parchment paper.

Now, I needed to make cookies for more than 10 people so I doubled this recipe. I don’t recommend this. These cookies are HUGE, and you can get away with just making more smaller cookies if you so desire. Anyways, lets get started. Stir together the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set it aside for now.

In another medium bowl, beat together the sugar and softened butter until fluffy (~3 min).  Then add in the egg, vanilla, and food coloring and beat until well mixed.  Next, slowly incorporate the buttermilk and the flour mixture beating them in until the whole thing is smooth.  Nice red dough huh?

Now start spooning 1/4 cup scoops of dough onto the baking trays.  Spread them around a bit with a spatula so that they are nice and round.  The dough tends to want to puddle anyways, so it shouldnt be to hard.  Leave 2″ gaps between cookies, as these suckers will expand.  These cookies will be very large.  I was only able to get 6 per cookie tray without them merging during the baking process.

Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes or until they pass the toothpick test. Let the cookies cool and then set them aside until you are ready to glaze them.

The vanilla glaze is very easy to make…just combine the powdered sugar, vanilla, corn syrup, and water in a bowl and mix it together with a fork (or whisk). The glaze immediately begins hardening and crystallizing so make sure you are ready to put the glaze on right away. I made the mistake of letting mine sit on the counter for a while and when I went to use it, it was virtually un-spreadable. Alternatively, you could use vanilla frosting from a mix. I would like to try this recipe again later and try that, as I felt this glaze was way too sweet.

The chocolate glaze is made by melting the chocolate and butter together in the microwave. Then add the corn syrup and mix it a little bit more. Voila!

Spread the glazes onto the cookies 1/2 and 1/2 with a butter knife or a spatula. Then pop the cookies into the fridge for 20+ minutes to set the glaze. These cookies can be very beautiful, but its not actually that easy. Maybe a few more tries and I can get it right. Thanks for reading…