I might be a recipe hoarder. Lucky for you.
The recipe could easily be doubled for a larger batch.
You can also freeze the dough so you always have freshly baked cookies available. I shaped them into balls before freezing them. You’ll need to extend the baking time a bit if going from freezer to oven.
I adapted the recipe from Babble. Here are a couple of notes:
These are not your typical chocolate chip cookies, but they are dense little bites of goodness that completely satisfied my craving. Plus they are gluten- and dairy-free, if that’s what you’re into.
Earlier this month, I helped a friend decorate her Christmas tree. She baked up some Nestle dark chocolate peppermint cookies to make her home smell like…freshly baked cookies. Not only did they smell great, they tasted great too! And since then I have been thinking about those cookies more than I probably should, so I decided I had to try to recreate them.
I used Ghiradelli peppermint bark (a 3.5-ounce bar was plenty; 4-5 of the individual squares would be enough too). I wanted to add a little peppermint extract but I couldn’t find it, and I gave up after looking in Whole Foods, Shaws, and Target. I give myself an A-minus…they are pretty tasty but I wanted them to be a little more peppermint-y.
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| Peppermint two ways |
Chocolate peppermint cookies
Makes: about 3 dozen
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped peppermint bark (I used Ghiradelli)
1/4 cup chopped peppermint candy canes, plus more for topping
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
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| Cookies! |
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in egg, then stir in vanilla.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir into the butter and sugar mixture until just blended. Mix in the chopped peppermint bark and candy canes.
4. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets (I line mine with parchment paper). Top each cookie with a few pieces of crushed candy canes.
5. Bake for 9-11 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
One zucchini per week feels pretty manageable, especially when it’s a ‘normal’-sized one and not a super-sized one. I decided to prep breakfast for the week with these tasty zucchini muffins. And this recipe made a perfect little six pack of muffins.
The batter will feel really dry and lumpy after adding the egg and oil in step three. Don’t panic! The liquid from the zucchini will make it more batter-like…I promise. And bonus, you don’t have to do creative things to squeeze the liquid out of the shredded zucchini, a step that is often included. I am all about the short cuts!
Also, I accidentally doubled the baking powder, which did not have an adverse effect..probably because it was such a small amount to begin with. But according to this article, too much baking powder can cause baked goods to rise too high (then collapse) and taste metallic. GTK (good to know).
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| Muffins! |
Zucchini pecan muffins
Makes: 6-7 muffins
Source: adapted from Taste of Home
Ingredients
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or spray with cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the egg and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened (it will feel dry and lumpy). Stir in the zucchini just until combined. Fold in the pecans and chocolate chips.
4. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups until about three-quarters full. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan, then cool completely on a wire rack. Enjoy!
Sometimes I just feel like baking! And I love it when that urge arises and I actually have ingredients on hand to make something, aka no trip to the grocery store required. This happened recently when I decided I wanted to make muffins that would incorporate a few leftover carrots and a Granny smith apple. A quick search on Pinterest led me to this recipe, which also included oats.
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| Dry ingredients + carrot and apple |
I also inadvertently tested out the new battery in my smoke alarm (and learned that my smoke alarm has a “snooze” function). Since I typically make muffins on the smaller side, I decided to test out a silicone muffin pan with the extra batter. Both pans went into the oven at the same time, and the muffins baked in silicone burned…thus triggering the smoke alarm. I think I’ll be sticking to my regular ol’ metal muffin pans from now on.
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| Adding the wet ingredients |
Except for the four burned-on-the-bottom ones, these were pretty tasty and were great for breakfast during the week.
Carrot apple oat muffins
Makes: 12-16 muffins
Source: Annie’s Noms via Pinterest
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 cup light brown sugar
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| Ready for the oven |
1 cup grated Granny Smith apple, grated (about 1 apple)
1 cup grated carrot (about 2-3 medium carrots)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup low-fat milk
1/2 cup canola oil
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 12-hold muffin pan, or use paper liners; may need more than one pan, depending on how big you like your muffins.
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| Ready to eat! |
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and brown sugar. Add the grated carrots and apple and stir until they are coated in flour.
3. In a medium bowl, lightly beat together eggs, vanilla extract, milk, and canola oil. Pour over the dry ingredients and mix just until combined (do not beat or overmix).
4. Spoon batter into muffin pan(s). Bake for 15-20 minutes, until lightly golden and a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
5. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
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| View from my front door |
This weekend brought another 16-plus inches of snow to the Boston area and So. Much. Shoveling. I thought brownies would be a slightly different twist on my tradition of baking during storms that start with “N” in February…see my recipes for Nika cookies (oatmeal chocolate chip pecan) and Nemo cookies (chocolate chip pecan). I mean, how can you resist a recipe that calls itself “the best brownies in the world.” After these, I’m not sure I will ever be able to go back to brownie mixes!
Neptune brownies
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| Ingredient prep |
Serves: about 16
Source: Tasty Eats at Home and Cravings of a Lunatic via Pinterest
Ingredients
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Line an 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper.
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| Delish! |
3. In a medium saucepan melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly.
4. Remove from heat and add the sugar. Stir well. Add eggs and vanilla, and stir until smooth.
5. Add chocolate chips, flour, and salt. Stir until well blended.
6. Pour into pan and place in oven. Bake for 35-45 minutes until done (when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean).
7. Remove pan from oven and cool on a wire rack before cutting.
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| The infamous nut chopper |
I do not know the story behind the name for these cookies or where the recipe even came from…I just know that, when made correctly, they are delectable.
I haven’t made these cookies in years (they used to be part of the regular Christmas cookie repertoire), and I accidentally doubled the amount of butter…using two sticks instead of just one. Even though they didn’t turn out as planned (flat, crumbly cookies instead of balls), they were still pretty tasty. I mean, how can you go wrong with two sticks of butter?
Delectabites
Makes 50 cookies
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| Butter (times 2) cookies |
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
Powdered sugar
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, thoroughly mix butter, sugar, and vanilla. Gradually stir in flour and walnuts. Chill.
3. Shape into marble-sized balls. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 15-17 minutes, until firm but not brown. Roll gently in powdered sugar. Cool; sugar again.
Bananas are not my favorite fruit, and I don’t often buy them…unless my parents are visiting (Charlie likes a banana every morning with breakfast) or I want to bake. I recently bought a bunch of bananas just so I could make this banana bread.
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| Trifecta of ingredients |
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| PB batter on the left, chocolate chip on the right |
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| The finished products |
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| Chopping Butterfingers |
I know it may seem like all I do lately is run and bake cookies. It’s not entirely untrue, but I will hopefully get back to some regularly scheduled programming (aka cooking) in the near future. I do have to come up with something interesting for an Olympics potluck this weekend…any ideas?
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| Folding in the chopped candy |
Claire and I made these for the fundraiser that we planned for the UNC-Duke game that was not meant to be, in addition to Valentine M&M cookies and Nika cookies (oatmeal chocolate chip pecan). We made 1.5 times the recipe in order to have enough to fill all of the Valentine treat bags, but I decided to include the original recipe here…because math is hard.
I got to use Claire’s fancy new meat mallet to chop the Butterfingers. I might need to invest in one of those – it had more surface area for “chopping” than my hammer!
Butterfinger cookies
Source: Sally’s Baking Addition via Pinterest
Makes: about 3 dozen Kara-sized cookies
Ingredients
1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
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| Delicious finished product! |
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg (use 2 if dough seems too dry)
8 fun size Butterfinger candy bars, chopped
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl and set aside. In a medium or large bowl, mix together sugar and butter until creamy. Beat in egg until just combined.
3. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Fold in Butterfinger pieces. The dough will be very thick. Drop by slightly rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool and wire rack and enjoy! (I bet it will be hard to resist sneaking a warm cookie…)
Apparently I like to bake during storms that occur in February and start with the letter “N”…last year Nemo, this year Nika, a slightly different version of a previous Oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve made. If you’re curious about the rest of this winter’s storm names, check out the list on the Weather Channel.
Nika (NEE-ka): From Greek mythology; the goddess who personified winning or victory.
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| View of the storm from my place |
I was pretty excited that I actually cooked something…baking = cooking, right? It was a toss up between cookies and a red lentil soup recipe that I saw on Pinterest. Cookies won since I had all of the ingredients on hand (we definitely overbought for our post-Christmas cookie bake-a-thon as I still have two more pounds of butter in my freezer). Speaking of the Christmas cookiefest, these cookies were my almost favorite this year…M&M cookies will always be the favorite favorite. I think it was the substitution of the pecans for walnuts that gave them the silver medal over Martha’s sugar cookies and Sofra’s molasses cookies.
If you want to try these for yourself, I’ll be giving them away, in addition to Valentine M&M cookies, next week (2/12) at the UNC-Dook game watch event at the Baseball Tavern…in exchange for participating in a 50:50 fundraiser raffle to support my Boston Marathon fundraising efforts. I guess that’s what some people call bribing…you say potato, I say potato. Feel free to stop by, as long as you’re not rooting for the Dookies!
Oatmeal chocolate chip pecan cookies
Source: AllRecipes
Makes 6-7 dozen (depending on how big you like ’em)
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| This is how I chop pecans |
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
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| Just add milk |
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in the oats, pecans, and chocolate chips.
4. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets (I line mine with parchment paper).
5. Bake 9-11 minutes or until light golden brown. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Kara Cooks and Eats 