All posts in category Cookies

Pumpkin Cookies

Don’t say I didn’t warn you! I am seriously on a pumpkin spree. This week I made pumpkin cookies, which came out really puffy and soft, like fresh gingerbread. I think they’d be perfect drizzled with chocolate or, even better, in a pumpkin whoopie pie with a maple and pecan filling. Hmmmm, I may actually have to make those soon!

These cookies were delicious, and addictive. I think I ate about five of them! Big thanks to Diamonds for Dessert for the recipe!

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups flour, sifted
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (115 grams) butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin (or cooked and mashed up)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F (approx 1750°C). Line a few cookie sheets with baking paper and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

3. In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs and vanilla. Once everything is incorporated, add in the pumpkin.

4. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients and mix until the dough forms. Spoon out even portions of the dough in about 2-Tablespoon sized portions (or you can use my favorite gadget, the cookie dough baller!).  Take a fork and dip it in a bowl of water and gently press the top of the ball down to form a criss-cross pattern and to form the dough into a slight oval.

5. Bake for 10-15 minutes until firm. They will get nice and puffy. Let them cool on the cookie sheet for about 2 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

1 Comment
by Ashley on November 4, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Cookies
Tagged , ,

Posted by Ashley on November 4, 2012

https://pajamabaker.com/2012/11/04/pumpkin-cookies/

Peppermint Meringues

 

So, I had a bit of a lapse this week and didn’t plan what I wanted to bake this weekend. What makes it worse, is that it was a 3-day weekend, and thus I actually had MORE time to bake. So I was sitting on my couch today, having just finished reading my book and nothing to watch on daytime television, wondering what I could possibly make. I had no chocolate. Only one stick of butter (still rock-hard in the fridge), no cream cheese, no Oreos – basically I was missing quite a few key ingredients to make something interesting.

After thinking about it for awhile, I realized that I basically had a ton of eggs and sugar. That’s when it hit me: meringues! They’re nothing but eggs and sugar. And I’ve never made meringues in my life, so today seemed like a good day to start trying. I tried my hardest to beat the egg whites into submission, but unfortunately they didn’t cooperate and reach the stiff peak consistency I was looking for, which meant my meringues were more blob that swirl – but they still tasted good!

So here’s the recipe for my first attempt: a basic peppermint-flavored meringue [blob].

Ingredients

  • 4 egg whites
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
  • 3 Tablespoons icing sugar

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 220°F (110°C), then line your baking sheets with baking paper. In a glass or metal bowl, beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt until they reach a soft-peak stage (this will work best if you have a whisk attachment for your mixer).

2. With your mixer still running, add in the sugar about a teaspoon at a time – waiting until each spoonful is fully incorporated before adding the next. Once all of the sugar is incorporated, add in the peppermint extract.

3. Continue mixing on high speed and add in the icing sugar. Keep the mixer running until you reach stiff peaks.

4. Transfer your mixture to a piping bag to swirl onto your prepared baking sheets, or use a spoon to dollop them onto the trays.

5. Bake your meringues for about an hour – or until they are light and airy. They should not start to turn a golden color, so keep an eye out to make sure you don’t over-bake them.

I left these plain, given the amount of time and lack of ingredients I had on hand – but ideally I would have made a chocolate buttercream to sandwich the meringue puffs together. But try experimenting with shapes, colors, and flavors to see what you can come up with!



Leave a comment
by Ashley on May 7, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Cookies
Tagged

Posted by Ashley on May 7, 2012

https://pajamabaker.com/2012/05/07/peppermint-meringues/

Palmiers

 

My best friend, Leslie, and I went to Switzerland a few years ago where we visited her aunt. She offered up these cookies for us, and Leslie and I were addicted. I think we ended up eating about a box of them a day! I’ve always wanted to try to figure out how to make them, but never got around to it. Until the other day when I made steak and ale pie for dinner.

I had some leftover puff pastry from the pies, so I decided to try whipping up a batch of these. They were super easy to make, and ready to eat in about 45 minutes. Fortunately I was able to use some restraint this time around and I left a few for Ben to eat.

Ingredients

  • puff pastry (a store-bought roll/sheet is fine!)
  • sugar (about 1/2 cup, depending on how much pastry you have)

Directions

 

1. Dust your worktop with a layer of regular ol’ sugar, then place your puff pastry sheet on top.

2. Dust the top of the puff pastry with a generous coating of sugar.

3. Roll up the long edges of the sugar-coated pastry until the two spirals meet in the middle, then wrap the roll in a sheet of wax paper or plastic wrap. Place the roll into the fridge to chill for about 30 minutes.

4. Take the pastry roll out of the fridge and slice it into 1/4-inch thick pieces (about 1/2 a centimeter).

5. Place each sliced cookie onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper, and place in an oven preheated to 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes. Your cookies are finished when the edges have turned a wonderful caramel color, but the middles are still relatively light in color.

And that’s it! Quick. Simple. And a great way to use leftover pastry!



2 Comments
by Ashley on April 30, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Cookies
Tagged

Posted by Ashley on April 30, 2012

https://pajamabaker.com/2012/04/30/palmiers/

Double Chocolate and Marshmallow Cookies

This recipe is from a Patrick Cox cookbook I got from a co-worker as a Secret Santa gift. They have a great texture, and I love the bitterness that comes with all of the dark chocolate. According to the recipe, it’s only supposed to make 24 cookies, but I easily got three dozen out of it using my cookie dough baller.

Yes, this is a UK recipe, so everything is done by weight. So all of you back in the States, come to the dark side – get a set of scales (mine was pretty cheap). Or, you can have a go at converting the measurements using the Weight Conversions pages I’ve started compiling – the links are in the menu at the top of the page.

Ingredients

  • 75 grams plain (dark) chocolate, broken into pieces
  • 125 grams butter, softened
  • 200 grams brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 4 Tablespoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 150 grams flour
  • 100 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 150 grams dark chocolate chips
  • 75 grams marhmallows
  • 2 teaspoons water

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C), and line two baking sheets with baking paper.

2. Melt the plain (dark) chocolate in a bowl placed over a pan of simmering water. Be sure not to let the water boil, or let any water drip into the chocolate, or it will seize and be ruined. Stir the chocolate pretty constantly to avoid burning it. Once the chocolate is melted, set it aside to cool.

3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Then add the egg, milk, and vanilla. Continue to mix until combined.

4. Add the melted chocolate, and mix until everything is combined. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Finally, mix in the chocolate chips. The resulting dough will have a really gooey, paste-like consistency.

5. Using a cookie dough baller, place balls of dough onto your prepared baking trays. Bake for 12 minutes, until firm to the touch. I would recommend rotating the trays halfway through baking so that they all bake evenly.

6. Allow the cookies to cool on the tray for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

7. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the marshmallows and water. Stir constantly until the mixture is melted. Once melted, drizzle the marshmallow over the cooled cookies. If it starts to set up in the pan, return to the heat and add a few more drops of water until it reaches a drizzling consistency again.

Leave a comment
by Ashley on April 15, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Cookies
Tagged ,

Posted by Ashley on April 15, 2012

https://pajamabaker.com/2012/04/15/double-chocolate-and-marshmallow-cookies/

S’mores Cookies

Every kid in America has had a s’more at some point in their life. There’s just no avoiding the warm gooey mess that makes up the campfire treat. I decided to introduce my coworkers to the wonder that is the s’more through these cookies. (That and I had a ton of graham crackers I needed to use up!) They’re essentially an adapted chocolate chip cookie recipe, so it may seem pretty familiar!

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1 cup graham cracker crumbs (you can substitute plain digestive biscuits for this)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (230 grams) butter, at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • mini marshmallows
  • 1 cup chocolate chunks, plus extra to top the cookies

Directions

1. Cream the butter and sugars, then slowly add in the eggs and mix well.

2. Add in the baking soda, salt, vanilla, and graham cracker crumbs. Once everything is well combined, slowly mix in the flour. Finally add in the chocolate chips.

3. Cover and chill the dough in the fridge for about an hour. Then preheat the oven to 375°F (190°F).

4. Place balls of the chilled dough onto a cookie sheet, leaving about 1 1/2 inches in between each. I find it easiest to use a dough baller to keep everything the same size, and you don’t get dough all over your hands. 

5. Bake the cookies for 6-8 minutes until they’re set at the edges, but the middle is still really gooey. Open the oven and slide out the pan enough for you to work on, then quickly place three marshmallows and three chocolate chunks on the center of each cookie, then return to the oven and bake for about another 2-3 minutes until done.

6. Allow the cookies to cool on the tray for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Leave a comment
by Ashley on March 17, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Cookies
Tagged , ,

Posted by Ashley on March 17, 2012

https://pajamabaker.com/2012/03/17/smores-cookies-2/

« Older Posts
Newer Posts »