Cookies Archives - Page 6 of 9

Oatmeal Flax Cocoa Nib Cookies.

April 18, 2013 by Knead to Cook Filed Under: Cookies, Vegetarian 6 Comments

I’ve been trying very hard to eat as clean a diet as I can. I wanted to create a cookie that reflected that. This is as close as I’ve come thus far. Now this cookie isn’t for everyone, I realize that. It isn’t ooey and gooey. My goal, create a cookie that my family would eat, enjoy and wouldn’t compromise their healthy goals and their endless fitness activities yet would refuel in a good manner. My kids loved these, so I’m happy! I hope you give them a shot because they are really good and I promise, guilt-free.

Ingredients:

9 tablespoons of ground flax seed meal
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of agave nectar or maple syrup
1 egg
1 tablespoon of water
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (King Arthur)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1.5 cups of rolled oats (I used organic)
2 tablespoons of organic cocoa nibs

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your cookie sheet with parchment or a Silpat. Set aside.

In your stand mixer, blend your flax seed meal, sugar, agave, egg and water. In a separate bowl sift your whole wheat flour, salt and baking soda. Then add to the wet mixture. Blend well. Then add your oats and cocoa nibs and blend again. Avoid over-mixing. Using a mini scoop, drop the dough balls onto your prepared pan and bake for 12 minutes or until golden around the edges.

— Knead to Cook

Oatmeal Shortbread Cookies Drizzled in Chocolate.

April 11, 2013 by Knead to Cook Filed Under: Cookies, Snacks 3 Comments

My awesome husband got me several cookbooks that I wanted for Christmas and sadly, the time seems to fly by so fast that I never get a chance to sit down and “devour” the recipes, figure out what I want to test out in my kitchen and actually execute it. Well today, while making dinner, I whipped up these cookies inspired by The Sprouted Kitchen. My daughter loved them! She couldn’t figure out the texture – that would be oatmeal, but as a shortbread connoisseur, I knew she would adore them.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of organic rolled oats
1/2 cup of Smart Balance butter
1/2 cup of raw turbinado sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup of unbleached all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (ground)
3 ounces of chocolate (for melting)
ziploc baggie
Sea Salt (I used Trader Joe’s)

Directions:

This entire recipe can be made in your food processor. LOVE that!

Okay starting… add the oats to your food processor and pulse a few times. You don’t want it to become flour like but a good mixture of flour/chopped up oats. I pulsed it quickly maybe 8 times or so. Then pour it out and set aside. Then into your food processor, add the sugar and butter. Blend. Then add your vanilla and egg. Mix again. Then add the flour, oat flour, salt and nutmeg. Pulse a few times to combine it all. The dough will be totally sticky, so expect it.

Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap. Plop (yes a fancy cooking term) the dough into the center of the wrap and spread it out making a long, log like shape. Continue to wrap it up tightly as you go forming the shape. Wrap again with another piece of wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour or up to 2.

Preheat your oven to 350. Line your baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat. Then remove the dough. Working quickly, slice it into 1/2 inch slices. Place on the cookie sheet and bake for 15-16 minutes or until lightly golden around the edges. I cut mine a little thicker so they took 16 minutes. Thinner cut cookies will be around 12-14 minutes.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt your chocolate (according to your microwave setting). Avoid overcooking or you will burn it. Once melted, let it cool for a few minutes. Then pour your cooled chocolate into a sandwich size ziploc baggie. Snip the one edge so you can drizzle the chocolate over top of the cookies. Move in a zigzag pattern. Then sprinkle some sea salt over the top of each one. Let set and enjoy!

— Knead to Cook

Sea Salt Nutella Peanut Butter Cookies.

April 3, 2013 by Knead to Cook Filed Under: Cookies, Snacks, Vegetarian 3 Comments

These cookies are the perfect combination of flavors… sea salt, velvety Nutella and crunchy peanut butter. Hello my lovely! I also used a really healthy nut-packed, flax seed packed peanut butter for extra healthy fats.

Ingredients:

1 cup of crunchy peanut butter (I used Nutzo brand but any crunchy nut butter would work)
1/4 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon of flax seed meal
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sea salt

Optional: Nutella OR Jelly

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your baking sheets with parchment or Silpats. Set aside. In your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the peanut butter, sugars, egg, meal and extract. The batter will be crumbly and oily (depending on the nut butter you use). Using a small scoop, place the cookie dough balls on your baking sheet leaving about 1/2 inch apart. Then with the bottom of a glass flatten out each cookie to about 1/2 inch thick or so. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. This part is important to let the cookie set up. Then using something to make the indentation (I used the handle dowel from a wooden spoon). Then spoon in your filling. Nutella or jam work great. Then sprinkle the Nutella filling with a dash of sea salt. I did half and half. I figured my husband would love the PB&J option and my kids would love the Nutella option. Let cool for 10 minutes then enjoy!

— Knead to Cook

Easter M&M Mini Cookie Muffins.

March 21, 2013 by Knead to Cook Filed Under: Cookies, Desserts, Vegetarian 5 Comments

Today, while grocery shopping I spotted with my little eye peanut M&M pastel Easter eggs candies and I thought, even though I won’t eat these, I have two special girls who would love them! I then thought I would whip them up in my chocolate chip cookie recipe but in a mini muffin form. They turned out perfectly cute and I think my girls will totally heart them!

Adapted from Guittard Super Cookie Chip Cookie Recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of butter, softened
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 tablespoons of light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 bag of Peanut Easter Pastel M&M’s

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray your mini muffin pan with baking spray and set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, soda and salt. Set aside.

In your stand mixer, paddle attached, cream butter and sugars. Then beat in the egg and vanilla until creamy. Add the flour mixture, blend. Blend well. Add 3/4 of the bag of M&M’s by hand. Drop dough (about 3/4 of the muffin tin) with the cookie dough and place the extra M&M’s on top of each cookie muffin. Bake for 14-16 minutes.

— Knead to Cook

Peanut Butter Cookie Bars with Chocolate.

February 21, 2013 by Knead to Cook Filed Under: Cookies, Desserts, Vegetarian Leave a Comment

Tomorrow night we’re hosting a Carb Fest for our swimmers and some our of swimming friends that are competing on Saturday in a Championship meet. We thought it would be fun to open our home up and feed the swimmers (and some coaches) in preparation for our big meet. I wanted to make a fun, easy dessert that had peanut butter in it that would also provide some protein along with carbs to follow the pasta dinner that we’re serving. These instantly came to mind and hey they’re kids… they will burn the calories off in an instant!

I’m behaving and not touching these

*Cookie recipe was inspired by Williams Sonoma.
Ingredients:

1/2 cup of melted butter (unsalted)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup of white sugar
1 cup of creamy peanut butter
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup of all purpose flour (I used King Arthur’s)
1 teaspoon ground flax seed meal
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup of dark or milk chocolate chips

Directions:

In your stand mixer, paddle attached, cream the melted butter, sugars, peanut butter, egg and vanilla together.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, powder, soda, flax and salt together. Then in thirds, add this mixture to the stand mixture and blend until just incorporated. The dough will be crumbly. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a 8×8 or 9×9 glass pan – spray baking spray with flour on the bottom and the sides. Then add a larger piece of wax paper over top fitting into the corners. Spray that with the baking spray as well. Then dump your cookie mixture in the the pan pressing firmly until you have an even level of batter. Bake for 18 minutes or so. Until the dough is firm to the touch and lightly golden. Then remove and pour your chips over the top, spreading them out evenly. Place back in the oven and bake for another 2-4 minutes. Remove and spread the chocolate evenly. You can add additional peanut butter in and swirl it if you like or leave it with a plain chocolate layer.

— Knead to Cook

FUNfetti Cookies.

February 11, 2013 by Knead to Cook Filed Under: Cookies, Valentine's Day, Vegetarian 2 Comments

Friday night’s typically involve me making a carb-loaded pizza dinner for my family as my girls swim most Saturday mornings at their dual meets. In conjunction with that, I always make a special treat to share with our awesome coaches and as a concession stand contribution. This week I knew what I wanted to make, birthday cake batter cookies, to celebrate our dear coach Nikki’s birthday! I didn’t have time to play around with creating a recipe so I searched the internet and found a great one from Cookin’ Cowgirl. I adapted the recipe from their inspiration.

Made about 25-26 cookies (normal sized)

Ingredients:

1 box Funfetti cake mix (going to use the powder)
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cup color sprinkles, separated in 2 – 1/2 cup bowls

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. In a small mixing bowl, combine the cake batter mix (powder) and the baking powder. Whisk until combined. Then in your stand mixer, blend the eggs, oil and vanilla. Add the the dry mixture to the wet and blend. Add 1/2 cup of the sprinkles to the dough and mix again. Then, using a melon baller, scoop out the dough into small balls and roll in your hands. Then coat with the remaining sprinkles all over. Place on a silpat or parchment paper. Bake for 12 minutes and remove. Let cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Then remove and let cool completely. Package up in cute bags, serve or place in tupperware. The cookie dough is very soft when it comes out of the oven- don’t panic. Just let them cool on the cookie sheet as noted. They will firm up.

— Knead to Cook

Chocolate Chip PB Cup Minis.

February 1, 2013 by Knead to Cook Filed Under: Cookies, Desserts, Valentine's Day 2 Comments

This is one of those OHHHHH mmmmm GEEE recipes. It’s the perfect storm of chocolate, chocolate and oh wait, peanut butter! I made these for our concession stand “contribution” for our swim meet tomorrow. Standard protocol for sweets at a swim meet. I think it should be dubbed “Junk food heaven” if you asked me. I digress, if you love chocolate chip cookies and Reese Peanut Butter cups – you will totally love these! Would be fun for your Super Bowl party this weekend or a special treat for your Valentine too!

Ingredients:

1 bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (small but not the mini size) that are wrapped in foil – remove the foil and paper and set aside
1 cup + 2 tbl of all purpose flour (I used King Arthur’s)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of butter or butter substitute, at room temperature
5 tablespoons of sugar
5 tablespoons of light brown sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
10 ounces of chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. I used a mini muffin pan and lined with little paper cup liners. In a small bowl or large measuring cup, combine the flour, soda and salt. Set aside.

In your stand mixer, cream butter and sugars. Then add the egg. Blend. Then add the vanilla extract. Blend again. In thirds, add the flour mixture. Beat after each addition. Avoid over mixing. Add the chocolate chips and blend. Then fill each muffin cup with about 3/4 of the dough. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until slightly golden. Remove and immediately place a peanut butter cup in the center, gently pushing down, until each cookie has a pb cup. This recipe yielded 42 mini cookies for me.

This cookie recipe is adapted from Guittard Chocolate.

— Knead to Cook

OXO Good Grips Cookie Press Butter Cookies

January 31, 2013 by Knead to Cook Filed Under: Cookies, Valentine's Day, Vegetarian 2 Comments

OXO sent me some foodie swag this week and I have to tell you, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and use it in the kitchen. I have a an older cookie press I believe from Williams Sonoma that isn’t that easy to use. I’ve honestly always shied away from using it because of that fact, again, it’s old. The OXO Good Grips Cookie Press tube for the cookie dough is huge! That makes life so much easier! It comes apart easily for cleaning. The disks for shapes are so varied and awesome. I’m in love… like I am with all of their products! I went with a Valentine theme today in making over 100 cookies. Yes, I’ll be sharing these with my friends! I used the recipe for Butter Cookies that comes with the manual. I made only two adaptations that I note below. The retail value on the press is around $29 and they did send me their springtime shapes kit as well, which can be purchased separately. Packaging was phenomenal. The hard case that holds all of the shape disks is lovely. Top notch! Five star review. Here is the link if you’re interested.

http://www.oxo.com/p-1243-cookie-press-with-disk-storage-case.aspx

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of butter (3 sticks) – a lot of butter but I used Smart Balance baking sticks and this yields about 12 dozen or more cookies
1 cup of white sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
Hot pink food coloring (I used all natural food coloring that I found on line)
4 cups of all purpose flour (I used King Arthurs)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Use ungreased, unlined baking sheets.

In your stand mixer, blend the butter, sugar and salt. Beat until fluffy. Add the vanilla, almond and the eggs (one at a time). Gradually add one cup of the flour at a time. Blend after each addition. Add the food coloring (optional). Then spoon the dough into your cookie press and go to town Add sprinkles (optional) before baking. Press them down a bit so they stick.

I baked my cookies for 7 minutes and 30 seconds because I wanted them just done without any brown edging. Those cookies will stay home for my family

Place on a cooling rack and then store in a tupperware container.

— Knead to Cook

Lemon Bars.

January 27, 2013 by Knead to Cook Filed Under: Cookies, Desserts, Valentine's Day, Vegetarian 4 Comments

{Will take better finished product/staged photos tomorrow – just got home from a fabulous party and daylight is gone.}

My husband is allergic to chocolate, cocoa specifically, and never really gets to eat dessert that I make for the family (not that he’s a big dessert fan). Today, I wanted to make a recipe using my Magimix Food Processor that I’m also giving away tonight. This recipe is a little thank you because he bought me a new car yesterday and I wanted to do something nice for him. Plus my kids love lemons and I had a ton on hand so I thought I would give it a whirl.

Now I’ve never made lemon bars before. I’m not sure exactly that I’ve ever even eaten one before. So I went to my trusted source, foodnetwork.com and pulled a recipe. I made it straight up like their’s and hope and pray it’s a hit with the family.

Ingredients

For the Crust:

Vegetable oil, for greasing
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, diced
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar, plus more for garnish
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the Filling:

4 large eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 8 lemons)

Directions

Make the crust: Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-by-13-inch pan with vegetable oil and line with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on all sides; grease the foil with oil. Pulse the butter, flour, both sugars and the salt in a food processor until the dough comes together, about 1 minute. Press evenly into the bottom and about 1/2 inch up the sides of the prepared pan, making sure there are no cracks. Bake until the crust is golden, about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the filling: Whisk the whole eggs and yolks, sugar and flour in a bowl until smooth. Whisk in the lemon zest and juice. Remove the crust from the oven and reduce the temperature to 300 degrees F. Pour the filling over the warm crust and return to the oven. Bake until the filling is just set, 35-40 minutes.

Let the bars cool in the pan on a rack, then refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours. Lift out of the pan using the foil and slice. Dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving.

Finished bar photos will be shared tonight. I’m rushing off to a party this afternoon while these cool. But wanted to share with you the process

— Knead to Cook

Sweet & Salty Valentine Cookie Bars.

January 21, 2013 by Knead to Cook Filed Under: Cookies, Desserts, Holiday Baking Ideas, Valentine's Day, Vegetarian 9 Comments

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Adapted from Guittard Super Cookie Chip Cookie Recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of butter, softened
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 tablespoons of light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
10 ounces of Guittard Super Cookie Chips
1/2 cup of pretzel pieces, salted
1/4 cup of M&Ms
Sprinkles (optional) Valentine Day oxoxo sprinkles used.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, soda and salt. Spray the 9×9 glass pan with baking spray. Set aside.

In your stand mixer, paddle attached, cream butter and sugars. Then beat in the egg and vanilla until creamy. Add the flour mixture, blend. Blend well. By hand, stir in the chocolate chips. Spread the dough into the pan evenly distributed. Then press in pretzel pieces and the m&m’s throughout the top. Bake for 20 minutes or so (until the edges are golden brown). Let cool and then store in a container with a lid.

— Knead to Cook