Chocolate Roll Out Cookie Dough

Now, a good homemade sugar cookie is a classic. But sometimes we want a little something... more. So here is a great chocolate "sugar" cookie roll out dough. You can roll it out, cut it and frost them if you want! I think I might do these at Christmas instead of my usual sugar cookie! This recipe I use is from the Martha Stewart Magazine (yes I'm the girl who tears pages out of magazines whether they are mine or not, keeps them until she forgets then finds them and is giddy like a kid on Christmas!)

INGREDIENTS

2 2/3 Cups flour

1/3 Cup cocoa powder

3/4 Teaspoon baking powder

1/2 Teaspoon salt

2 Sticks unsalted butter

1 Cup sugar

1 Egg

2 Teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Beat butter and sugar in a mixer until fluffy. Add in the vanilla and egg. 

2. Add all the dry ingredients slowly until it forms a dough ball. 

3. Chill for a few hours, I did it over night. 

4. Preheat oven to 350F. 

5. Roll out the dough with a little flour and cut desired shapes.

 6. Put cut shapes on a non stick baking sheet or parchment paper.

7. For the small sized cookies I made, I baked the cookies for 7 minutes. Larger cookies will need a few more minutes. 

I thought the cookie was a little plain as is so I dipped the edge in chocolate gnache. You can buy it already made in a store or make your own. I did option 1. These are soft and have a rich dark chocolate taste to them. I took a few to work each day and my sweet tooth was definitely satisfied!! Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day out there to all the dads! I had a great brunch with my dad and family. I cheated and bought a fruit bowl! Sometimes you just want to cheat lol

Swung by my mom's to wish my stepdad a happy Father's Day and drop off a nice treat for him...

Who doesn't love a giant cookie cake?!

I'm not posting a recipe because you can get if off any chocolate chip bag. Just use a shallow pan and a lot of grease so you can pop it out. A little frosting and bam! Better than going to the Nestle store and standing in line for one!

The Big 5-0!

 Some people mourn turning 50... others celebrate it. And when you celebrate anything what do you need... sweets!!!! Check out these 50th birthday cookies I made for my stepmom and a family friend. They went to a casino for the night and one of the ladies going wanted to surprise them with some birthday treats!

I made two cookies: a birthday cake and a square. I went with my favorite sprinkles (they just scream party right?!)

 I love these. The "50" is black royal icing covered in navy blue edible glitter. It kind of made it look like it exploded. I liked the effect.

I ended up bagging each individual cookie in a clear bag with red ribbon tied at the top. Too cute right!?

Happy 50th Eileen!

Fall Cookie Basket

My boss gave me an unbelievable task: take $50 and get us 7 centerpieces, name tags, three gift bags and place cards for the holiday party for the employees. Um... what?

But, since I'm crafty, and also thrify, I realized how cheap it would be to make cookie baskets!

I used my usual sugar cookie recipe. Pretty simple. Stuck a stick in them when still warm and sat down ant thought.

I wanted to do the whole veins in a leaf type thing but the first one I made was... kindergarten scribble.

So instead I covered them in colored royal icing and then the same color sugar. Dry, wrap, done. :)

Onto the baskets, if you've never made a cookie basket, they're really simple. All you need are a few simple things:

Baskets
Zip bags
Rice
Floral foam blocks
Tissue paper
Cookies on a stick!

I put three cups of UNCOOKED rice in a zip bag and in the bottom of the basket.

Then I cut a foam block (they look like bricks and may need to be cut to size) and squeeze it into the basket. Since the baskets I got taper at the bottom this was easy. If your baskets don't taper you can use some ribbon, stick it through the bottom of the basket, wrap it around the rice and foam, back down out of the bottom of the basket and tie a knot under the basket... did that make sense?!

Anywho, stick in 3 or 4 pieces of tissue paper and stick the cookies into the foam (through the tissue too) and voila! Cookie baskets! 

I guess I didn't get the greatest pic but there are large and small leaves in red, orange and yellow. I know you get the idea! 

We put them on all the tables and then raffled them off at the end of the dinner. Most of the kids who won them didn't get to take them home though... they ate them with their bowling teams!!! Too cute, and yummy!

Oh, and if you're wondering, between cookie sticks, 7 baskets, foam, rice and tissue (I had all the baking ingredients and baggies) it only cost $29 and some of my time. :)

Apple Walnut Raisin Cookies

Yes, it is that time of year. Just last week I went to the apple orchard, had some cider, ate a donut and dreamed of all things apple.

I found this recipe at Food.com which is one of my favorite spots to look for new recipes.

Here is my overindulgent version!

INGREDIENTS

3 cups crisco
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups quick oats
1 cup peeled and diced apple (I needed about an apple and a half but the other half was already diced so it went in the batch as well!)
1 cup raisins
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Combine crisco, egg, milk, sugar and vanilla in a mixer until creamy.

2. Add in cinnamon, salt, soda and nutmeg. Slowly add in the flour until well combined.

3. Fold in oats, apples, raisin and walnuts by hand.

4. Drop onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes for a softy doughy cookies, 12-13 for firmer cookies.

These definitely smelled like heaven when they were baking. Next time I might press them down a little bit. They didn't spread very much, but they tasted amazing!

They were naturally sweet, had a crunch with the nuts and the oats made a nice firm "muffin" type cookie.

The best way to eat them... microwave them for about ten seconds and enjoy with your morning tea... or coffee!

PS Isn't my cookie jar too cute?!

Graduation Cookies

I spent all day working on these! They were fun (and stressful) to make since I had not done grad cookies before. Trying a new design and such small writing was nerve wracking!

The customer (hehe!) wanted three dozen cookies for her son's graduation from high school. We talked and settled on grad caps, diplomas and footballs since he was an athlete.

I used two blues, slightly different shades, to separate the top of the hat from the bottom.

A little blurry I know... I'm an amateur. Still cute. Though the peaks annoy me.

And my fav... the footballs!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th everyone! I hope you all had a safe and fun holiday!!

So, I really wanted to share these cookies I made... I found the recipe at The Cooking Photographer. I used my own sugar cookie recipe but kept most else the same.

The best part of these cookies is that the red and blue are flavored! I think I will call them... Very Berry Sugar Cookies!!!

INGREDIENTS

1 batch of cookie dough (chilled at least three hours if not overnight)
1 tablespoon cherry jello mix
1 tablespoon berry blue jello mix
Red food coloring
Blue food coloring

1. First, separate the cookie dough into three equal sized portions.

2. With one portion, add red food coloring (quite a bit... I added three drops concentrated gel and I wish I would have added a bit more!) as well as the cherry jello mix. Knead until the color is smooth through the dough. Set aside.

3. With the second portion, add the very berry jello mix and blue food coloring. Knead well and set aside.

4. Next, separate each dough ball into two... so now you have six balls of dough.

5. Now comes the fun part. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper. Press one dough color into the pan at a time. Layer so that you have six lines in the dough.

6. Freeze for at least a few hours. I froze mine overnight. Then pop out of the pan and slice like a loaf of bread. Slice each slice in half and place on a baking sheet.

7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the cookies for 9-12 minutes. My first few batches took about a minute or two longer than the last batches because they were more frozen than the last few. 

My BF loved these cookies. He took some to work but I'm not sure if he shared! 

Enjoy and happy 4th!!

My First Cookie Order

Just a quick update... I delivered my first cookie order yesterday. Baseballs and trophies with the team name on them!

I know, I need better lighting... but these are white with the outline and writing in burgandy (team colors). 

The best news though is that she loved them so much she passed on my name to her sister in law who needs cookies for a grad party. She also asked to sample a cupcake because she is a school principal who orders sheet cakes all the time from Sam's and isn't a fan!!! 

I hope this doesn't get too out of hand... I mean... I'd hate to have to quit my job and make baked goods all the time! lol 

Cookies and Cakes OH MY!

The other weekend I had a baking blitz!! I wanted to make some cookies for my little brother's baseball team... which turned into trying a few other cookie shapes. Then my stepmom called and asked if I could bring a cake to the event to celebrate the team and grandpa's birthday... sure! More baking!

First I want to share one of my fav cookie books...

It has cute ideas and great tips and quick and easy decorating methods... Plus... they have a website The Decorated Cookie. Check it out! 

So first, baseball cookies... 

I took half baseballs and half trophies with their name on it... since they did come in first place in the regular season!! 

Then the cake was a must... can't show up without cake!

The color didn't come out great in this photo... the red is a lot more red and the green is... greener! Anyway, it was yellow cake with vanilla frosting. Some simple candles (since it was really hard to write on the grass! I did try though!)

Then the extras. I had some extra dough so I thought I'd play with some ideas... here are the ones I liked!

4th of July is coming!

Pretty summer flowers! 

These were too cute but I couldn't get my green more lime like... 

Now that my hand had recovered from all the decorating and piping... I need to get a few more vibrant colors... I like the black piping on the cookies but I don't like the white on the flowers. Next time I'll outline in the same color as the cookie will be. 

And as always... I need better lighting in my apartment!!!!!! 

Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies and Chicken Veggie Pasta

I love looking through other food blogs and found Lovin' From the Oven , a new fav!! Scrolling through I found her Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies and had to make them... what was even more awesome than the cookie was that my BF wanted to make them too! So I let him! With some supervision of course!!

INGREDIENTS

1 Stick softened butter

6 Tablespoons sugar

6 Tablespoons brown sugar

1 Egg

1 Teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 Cup flour

1/2 Teaspoon baking soda

1/2 Teaspoon salt

1 Cup chocolate chips

12 Crushed up Oreos (we used Double Stuf)

Crush Oreos with whatever method you choose. BF chose to "punch them into submission".

1. Cream together butter and sugars. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Add in egg and vanilla until combined.

3. Add in dry ingredients until well combined.

4. Slowly fold in the chocolate chips and Oreo pieces.

5. Bake for about 10 minutes or until you start to see a golden brown color on the edges.
6. Eat!!
These were really good and a recipe I plan to keep. They are very chocolately and because we had double stuf Oreos it had a sweet cream taste to the cookie too!

EDIT: So while I was posting this, my BF took unsupervised control of the kitchen!! He didn't lose a finger either! He was so proud of this dish he wanted it blogged too!

Whole wheat pasta

2 Organic Chicken Tomato Basil sausages

1/2 pound whole wheat pasta

Varying amounts (he doesn't measure!) of:

diced red, yellow and orange peppers

halved grape tomatos

sliced mushrooms

And "some pinches" of parsley, basil and chopped garlic

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1. In a sauce pan, heat water and boil pasta until almost done

2. Saute sliced sausage with a few tablespoons of olive oil until cooked

3. Add diced veggies and seasoning

4. Add in the pasta. Toss and serve!!

Yum!! So proud of my lil chef!