Lovin' From the Oven

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

by 10 Comments




I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day.. whether it was with your significant other or with a box of chocolates. My boyfriend surprised me and took me to go see the movie “Valentine’s Day” and I was absolutely delighted. Any movie with Bradley Cooper is lovelovelove! As for dinner, I ended up cooking my first real meal ever for the boy and it wasn’t too shabby, if I do say so myself. Call me crazy, but I’m terrified of cooking. I’ve never been good at it or really tried. It’s just not my cup of tea. For some reason, I find it so much more complicated and stressful than baking. I ended up making lemon/cilantro chicken, mexican rice, roasted potatoes, and rosemary focaccia bread. A little ambitious for my first cooking meal, I know.. but the boy is worth every bit of it. The bread turned out beautifully despite my hatred for yeast, but more on that later! Now that I’ve broken down my fear of cooking, you can expect me to branch out from the oven.

Usually, I’d take any other flavored cookie over chocolate, but there are those days where nothing can satisfy you quite as well as a chocolate cookie. Today was one of those days. This recipe comes slightly adapted from allrecipes.com and I chose it because it had 1,402 reviews. Anything with over a thousand reviews is a definite try in my book. This recipe didn’t fail me— thank you allrecipes! The nuts blended well with the chocolate, as always. There’s something about chocolate and walnuts that’s just magical. The cookie itself was pleasant, fudgy, and moist… exactly the way a chocolate cookie should be.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 3/4 cups white sugar
  • 3/4 cups brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup cocoa powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. In large bowl, beat butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
  3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Brown Sugar & Spice Cut-Out DHARMA cookies!

by 8 Comments



Ah! Lost premiere tonight! I have a confession to make… I’m not THAT much of a crazy Lost fan like a lot of people out there. I simply pay attention to the show and remember not to miss any episodes, for fear of completely falling behind. Now, that doesn’t mean that I have the need to go buy a khaki jumpsuit, find a dharma patch to put on it, and jump into my blue Volkswagon van. I’m sorry to all you readers that don’t watch Lost, for I probably lost you in this last paragraph alone. You see, my boyfriend is a die hard lost fan– I’m talking about Lost forums, Lost discussions, Lost theories…. all of the above. He was having a little get together to watch the premiere tonight and I decided to bake for the boys. This is what I came up with.

I’m still kicking myself in the butt for forgetting to dye the cookies red before rolling them out, but I wasn’t about to go put the dough back into the mixer just to do that. So, I trucked along and ended up with this. Of course, I didn’t have a fish stencil, so I free handed one on cardboard and used that as a template. As for the letters, I used my Christmas present from my boyfriend’s sister in law to press “dharma” into the cookies. Umm… best present ever! It’s so useful and I can already imagine the numerous possibilities from the little gadget.

Anyways, these come from Bake at 350, who decorated them way better than I ever could. I’ve had them bookmarked for a while, but I just haven’t gotten around to making them. Plus, roll & cut out cookies seem to scare me a bit because of how much effort they take. These, however, rolled and cut with ease. They held their shape and were sturdy after baking. Absolutely perfect! They’re a great alternative to sugar cookies– give them a shot! I would definitely recommend making some royal frosting to go with it, though.

  • 3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ginger
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/8 tsp allspice
  • 1/2 c granulated sugar
  • 1/2 c light brown sugar (packed)
  • 2 sticks butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Whisk the flour, baking powder and spices, set aside.
  3. Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg and extracts and mix until well-blended.
  4. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the bowl, especially the bottom.
  5. Roll on a floured surface and cut into shapes. Place on parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 9-12 minutes, depending on the size of your cutter. Let sit a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Everything Cookies

by 16 Comments




So I’ve definitely talked about these cookies before and previously posted them before here. However, I somehow missed posting the recipe way back then and finally decided that it was time to share this magical cookie. I got this recipe from my aunt on a little recipe card that looks like it’s been used and abused because it’s been through so much in the kitchen. It has a vanilla drop in one corner, grease from a cookie dough crumb that fell on it years ago, and smudges here and there. You can always tell the best cookie recipes just by a simple glance at the condition of the recipe card.

My aunt has been making this cookie for years. It’s my dad’s personal favorite cookie and it’s the one that he requests the most. They’re called everything cookies because it really does have everything in it. There is usually coconut included in the batter, but I couldn’t find any on hand to include with this batch so I omitted it. But of course, the moment my dad took one bite out of the cookie, he immediately noticed something was wrong– no coconut! Nothing gets by him.. especially after he’s been eating this cookie for numerous years. Shucks.

The cookie itself has a crumbly texture and tends to fall apart while melting in your mouth. Every add-in is essential for this cookie and I wouldn’t leave anything out of it. It’s different from other cookies because it involves the use of vegetable oil on top of butter. Don’t let the long list of ingredients scare you, they’re really easy and worth every minute to make!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar (unpacked)
  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup quick quaker oats
  • 1 cup corn flakes
  • 1/2 cup chopped nuts
  • 1/2 cup coconut flakes
  • 3 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  2. Mix flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Set aside.
  3. Cream butter and both sugars. Add oil, mix. Add egg, mix.
  4. Add oatmeal then add dry ingredients to mixture. Blend well. Add coconut flakes, nuts, corn flakes, and vanilla.
  5. Drop by spoonfuls, press slightly with a fork.
  6. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until brown.
** this recipe makes 4 dozen cookies, so feel free to cut it in half!

Categories