Mint Cocoa Cookies – think chewy girl guide… oh my!

a while back I stumbled upon a very simple idea: mint chocolate cookies.

I was perusing the local downtown bakery, erwin’s, on a lunch break. I felt terribly lucky after sampling a few of these baddies: dark chocolate and a minty chewy/soft loveliness… the most basic, unflowery way I could describe these. anyway, since starting my new job at a coffee shop that shall remain nameless (though I’m sure lots of you know where and what it is) and overhauling the baked-goods menu, I knew I wanted something similar to this awesome cool-weather treat.
enough banter and on with the goods!

spread before you is:

1 1/4 C unsalted butter at room temp
2 C sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp peppermint extract (for the love of god, not spearmint… unless you want toothpaste cookies…)
2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt plus a little more… so more like 3/4 tsp
3/4 C to 1 C good cocoa, dutch processed works

. cream the soft butter with the sugar
. add the vanilla, peppermint extract and eggs and mix

. in another bowl, add all the dry ingredients together. you may want to sift in the cocoa or sift the whole mix before adding it to the wet ingredients. cocoa has a lovely way of being all clumpy and difficult to incorporate…
. dump the dry into the wet and stir to combine
. wrap the bowl with cling film and let it hang out in the fridge for an hour or so

. crank yer oven to 325.
. take the dough out of the fridge and use a spoon to scoop bits of it onto a cookie sheet. you could make them into balls and squish them down with your hand if you like round cookies, but I like mine rustic and fat so I bake ’em as they fall to the pan: wonky
. bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges are done but the middle still looks a bit undercooked… though it’s really not

these should end up being soft and chewy on the inside and just slightly crunchy around the edges. if that’s not happening for you, try baking them at 300 or at 350 for different amounts of time to get the right texture

enjoy your weirdly refreshing, house and heartwarming mint cocoa cookies!

amber sunshine oatmeal cookies – they’re soft

right off the bat, I’ll confess to not coming up with this recipe in anyway. not only that, I have also forgotten where I got it from. so, someone, somewhere, I’m sorry for ripping you off. I find this recipe is fairly versatile as far and the chunks-of-something you can add into them. I prefer diced apple or dried blueberries, but raisins or chocolate chips or nuts or cranberries and orange zest would probably be pretty nice as well.

spread out before you is:

1 1/4 c rolled oats
1 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c unsalted butter, at room temp
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp molasses
1  egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup dried blueberries (or some other fruit, nuts, etc. chopped [if necessary] into smallish pieces)

. set le oven to 350
. cream the butter, sugar, vanilla, and molasses. add the egg and stir until it’s smooth
. combine all the dry ingredients except for your fruit addition
. dump the dry into the wet and add the fruit or nut selection. stir until all combined and there aren’t any dry bits of oaty flour
. form the dough into whatever sized cookies you like to eat. they won’t spread out much, so keep that in mind when it comes to the thickness you desire. or you could mash it all together on one sheet and bake as a giant cookie you can cut into bars or wedges

. bake for 16-20 minutes depending on how crispy or soft you want them. they should be golden on the edges and cooked through in the middle, but not hard

this sunday, baking means chocolate chip cookies

oh yes, and how! without introduction (or much of one), chocolate chip cookies:

with the utmost enthusiam, establish the following:

½ C white sugar
½ C brown sugar (demerara, please, it really does make a difference, and that ‘golden’ crap just isn’t going to cut it)
1/3 C butter (unsalted)
1/3 C shortening
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (if you respect yourself, you’ll use real vanilla…)
1 ½ C flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1/2 pack semisweet chocolate chips

. preheat your oven to 375
. in a bowl, mash the butter and shortening together until combined and smooth
. add the sugar, egg and vanilla. mix until smooth
. in a separate bowl, have you boyfriend (or you can do it) mix the flour, baking soda and salt with a whisk or run it through a sieve
. add the chips to the wet mix, and then dump in the flour mix. stir gently so you don’t send flour everywhere, but get everything incorporated and happy. the dough should be fairly light, but not crumbly
. place semi roundish balls on baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until they’re the sort 0f doneness you like

if you like granola, I suggest baking these at 325 for longer so they’re rock hard. then bang ’em up with a rolling pin and sprinkle into unsweetened yogurt. in my house, this is known as róny granoly.
if it’s luxury you crave, rather than chocolate chips, do a mix of 75% cocoa chocolate (you know the lindt bars with different percentages that are supposed to be from different places like cuba, columbia, all that nonsense) wunked into little pieces along with chopped up frozen caramilk bars (as my dear friend Emelia and I used to do). they are special, let me tell you

30 Helens agree… texture, is important – peanutbutter cookies

it’s sunday. you can’t go to a dinner you would like to go to, so make something sweet to take your place. peanutbutter cookies, you know the ones… a bit more affordable because they’re made with shortening instead of butter; are soft and have that brown sugar comfort thing going for them. this is my grandma’s recipie and I hope she’s cool with me sharing it with you. I never got to meet her, but I really cherish being able to share the food she used to make for her friends and family (like my mom, who passed it on to me). try these and see why.

½ C short’nin’
½ C raw peanut butter (no salt or sugar)
1 C brown sugar (demerara is best)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 C flour (½ C all-purpose and ½ C whole wheat is nice)
¼ tsp soda
¼ tsp salt

. cream the short’nin’ with the peanut butter
. add the sugar, vanilla and egg
. in a separate bowl, mix the flour, soda and salt
. sift the dry ingredients into the wet stuff and mix well
. roll the dough into balls (large egg size) and flatten with a fork on the cookie sheet. these don’t really spread out much when you bake them, so only squish ’em down to about 3/4″
. bake in a preheated oven for ten-ish minutes at 375. they should be goldenish but still a bit soft in the middle. texture is important.