Lovin' From the Oven

Toffee Butter Cookies

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I’m a terrible shopper. I really am. Terrible as in, I’m itching to go shopping whenever I’m not working, bored, or whenever I’m feeling down. Earlier this week, I wandered into the Chanel store to take a gander at all the beautiful bags, pondering if there were any more lovelies to add to my “must have before I die” list. Lucky for my future wallet, there was nothing else I really wanted besides my usual 2.55 jumbo classic red flap in caviar leather.

Just then, a wonderful salesman happened to ask me if there was anything he could help me with, and I inquired about my dream bag out of curiosity (it’s really hard to find the purse and if you do, there’s always a waiting list). He proceeded to tell me that there was a waiting list of about twelve people and that they’d only be getting five (for the year, I’m assuming?). Before I knew it, he was adding me to the wait list so that I would be informed when they received my dream bag for me.

I walked out of the store thinking, “What the heck did I just do?” But there was no harm done because I didn’t and won’t get charged anything– I’d just be the first to know when the purse came in. I definitely don’t have the money right now to buy that purse (not quite sure if I ever will), but I told myself that I will be a proud owner of it before I die. Hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?

OH! I would also love to welcome my boyfriend’s third niece, Giuliana Rose, into the world! 🙂

This recipe is from Miss in the Kitchen. The cookies are made with powdered sugar, so the cookie itself is very light and fluffy. They don’t spread at all, but I was fine with it because they looked like cute little buttons. These toffee butter cookies were not heavy at all and had such a lightweight texture. Toffee and butter complement each other wonderfully and I wouldn’t change a thing about this recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup butter,softened, no substitutes
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup toffee bits
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat together with electric mixer, butter and powdered sugar, add egg and vanilla, beat until fluffy.
  2. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and toffee bits, beat at low speed until well combined.
  3. Use a medium cookie scoop or a tablespoon full rounded into balls and place 2 inches apart on greased or lined cookie sheets.
  4. Bake 10-12 minutes or until cookies are starting to brown on the edges. Cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes, move to wire rack to finish cooling.

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Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I baked a whole bunch for my boyfriend’s grandma’s 70th birthday. Let me tell you, the Argentinians sure do know how to throw a party AND party. They went all out and hired a company that cooks the meat in your backyard. Literally. They made their own huge fire pit to roast all of the meat on. The caterers cooked from noon til nearly eight o’ clock at night, and they serve it to you fresh off the grill. The first round was chicken and pork ribs, so naturally, I nearly stuffed my face full. Little did I know that that was only the appetizer! There was still two rounds of beef afterward and I couldn’t eat another bite! Such a shame. 🙁

Regardless of how great the food is, I’m the girl that’s always waiting for dessert. No matter how much food I eat, I always have room for dessert. How can you not? The dessert table at the party didn’t disappoint, either. Gabe’s other grandma made home-made tiramisu and dulce de leche. She also made alfajores (which is so time consuming!) to top it all off. I need to have a observing day to sit in the kitchen and watch her make everything so that I can learn all of her secrets. Her flan is to die for!

Out of all the cookies I baked, this one was my favorite. I actually have never tried nutella until I met Gabe. We somehow came onto the topic of nutella on our first date, and he found out that I’ve never tried it. He instantly drove me to his house, opened up the can of nutella in his pantry, and grabbed a spoonful for me to taste. Umm, hello? How have I been missing out on this hazelnut goodness all my life? Ever since then, I could never turn it down. I keep asking my mom to buy the Costco sized nutella jar cause the ones at the grocery store are just so gosh darn expensive and I go through it like I go through flour and sugar.

I first saw this recipe over at Sugar Cooking and decided to use her version instead of the original one that she linked to. The original uses chopped hazelnuts instead of chocolate chips, but I didn’t have any on hand. The result was a very chewy and moist cookie with nutella as the main flavor. I’m really glad the chocolate didn’t overpower the hazelnut taste. I also used the whole stick of butter instead of 7 tbsp (who the heck uses just a tbsp shy of a whole stick of butter?! Not me!).

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 8 tbsp unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temp.
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup light brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Mix together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside dry ingredients.
  2. Cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in Nutella and vanilla extract. Mix in egg.
  3. Add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Add chocolate chips.
  4. Chill for at least 1 hour.
  5. Drop tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 350 for about 11 minutes until the edges look set. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then carefully remove to cooling racks.

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White Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies with Dried Cranberries and Slivered Almonds

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I had a weekend full of meat. Have I ever told you how my boyfriend doesn’t eat any vegetables? Like, zip. nada. zelch. He won’t touch anything that’s green, with spinach being the only exception. Even so, he’ll only eat like three bites of spinach and he’ll be done for the month. Our relationship works out perfectly because I eat all of his vegetables and he finishes all of my meat.

What’s even better is that he fits into my family perfectly. My dad made a comment to my older sister and me that we couldn’t find normal boyfriends.. we had to find ones with weird eating habits (joking, of course). But it worked out in the end because my older sister’s boyfriend is vegan. Everything he doesn’t eat, my boyfriend eats. Everything my boyfriend doesn’t eat, my sister’s boyfriend will eat. Put the two together and they can finish an entire plate. Works out perfectly, right?

These cookies have some great ingredients that work well together. They were crispy on the edges and the oats made it chewy on the inside. I just wish that they were turned out a bit thicker. A bit of tweaking and this recipe could do wonders. Recipe’s from Dash and Bella.

ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups white chocolate chips
3/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries
3/4 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
directions:
Place butter in the bowl of the electric mixture and allow to soften for a few hours if it’s not room temperature already.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a new bowl, mix together chocolate chips, dried cranberries, almonds, and oats. Set aside. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix with a whisk to make sure baking soda and salt are evenly distributed. Set aside.
Add both sugars to the butter and beat like crazy for a few minutes. Scrape down the sides. Add 1 egg. Mix for a few seconds. Scrape down the sides. Add the 2nd egg and mix for a few seconds. Scrape down the sides. Add the vanilla. Mix for about 3 seconds. Scrape down sides. Add 1/3 of the flour mixtures, mix for a few seconds, scrape down the sides. Add the 2nd 1/3 of the flour mixture, mix for a few seconds, scrape down the sides. Now add the final 1/3 of the flour mixture PLUS the chocolate chip/oat/cranberry/almond mixture. Mix briefly until flour is just incorporated. At this point all the chips, nuts, oats, and cranberries should be evenly distributed as well.
Use an ice cream scoop. Scoop out balls of dough (a bit bigger than a golf ball). Don’t flatten them. Keep them spherical. This way the center will stay gooey and the edges while the edges get crisp. Place a few inches apart on the cookie sheet. Bake in the middle rack of the oven.
Bake 10-12 minutes. But don’t go according to time. Instead, keep an eye on the cookies. When the center (quarter-sized) is still raw, take the cookies out. Leave them on the sheet pan for a few minutes. Move to a rack and let cool. Or just cool them on the cookie sheet.

Freeze balls of dough for up to 6 months in a ziploc bag. You can place the frozen cookie balls onto a cookie sheet and right into a preheated oven.


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