Cookies

Welcome to #cookieweek! Susan of The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen and Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic have joined together this week with 23 of their blog friends to present to you a week of cookie treats! We have every type of cookie you can think of listed this week, including something for our furry friends! Now is the time to bookmark these recipes for the upcoming holidays and cookie swaps or simply visit our Pinterest board!  Make sure you enter the giveaway with some fabulous prizes fromKitchenAid, King Arthur Flour, OXO, Silpat and Zulka Pure Cane Sugar to help with your cookie making needs!

Growing up in an Italian household not only meant lots of pasta and sauce and all sorts of delicious savory foods, but it also meant great desserts and snacks as well. My love of Biscotti stems from my Mom. She loves all things crunchy. When she toasts bread, it has to be extra dark and crispy – almost to the point of being burnt. Back to the crunchy… Biscotti is an anytime snack cookie for me. Most people like it with coffee or tea, and I’ll eat it like that too, but I also welcome it anytime of the day.

Biscotti, plural of Biscotto, is a twice baked cookie, which is how it becomes dry and crunchy. There are so many flavor options with Biscotti. The most traditional Italian biscotti is with almonds and anise. I’m not particularly a fan of anise so I went a more modern route with these Double Chocolate Biscotti. It’s a very rich cookie and perfect with a cold glass of milk.

Double Chocolate Biscotti

adapted from Advanced Bread and Pastry
yield 12 large or 24 small

Double Chocolate Biscotti Ingredients:
 – 2 oz unsalted Butter, room temperature
 – 7 & 1/8 oz granulated Sugar
 – 3 large Eggs
 – 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
 – 9 & 7/8 oz All Purpose Flour
 – 2 oz Almond Meal/Flour
 – 1 & 1/2 oz Cocoa Powder
 – 1 & 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
 – 1/2 teaspoon Salt
 – 3 & 1/2 oz Milk Chocolate Chips

Double Chocolate Biscotti Directions:
 – Heat oven to 325F
 – Cream Butter and Sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or with a hand mixer
 – Add in Eggs and Vanilla Extract
 – Combine All Purpose Flour, Almond Flour, Cocoa Powder, Baking Powder and Salt in a small bowl. If necessary, sift to prevent clumps.
 – Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly. Once all the dry ingredients are in, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in the Chocolate Chips. Mix just to combine, making sure all the dry ingredients is incorporated.
 – Place the dough on a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Roughly 12 inches long by 3-4 inches wide by 1 inch thick. You can also form it into two smaller loaves and the second bake time will be reduced.
 – Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until firm to the touch.
 – Lower oven temperature to 300F.
 – When the Biscotti is cool, slice on a bias with a serrated knife and return to oven. Bake for 15 minutes, flip to the other side and bake another 15 minutes, or until well dried.

This giveaway is open to US residents from November 11, 2013 through November 16, 2013 11:59pm EST and will be picked from random draw.  The winners will be notified via email and have 72 hours to respond, if not their prize is forfeited and another winner will be chosen.

How to Enter:

1. Mandatory Entry: Leave a comment with  your favorite cookie to bake during the holidays or for cookie swaps.
2. Many more ways to enter in the rafflecopter widget!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A little about our sponsors:

The iconic Kitchenaid stand mixer was born in 1919, from there stemmed an entire kitchen of  high-performance appliances -all created with the same attention to detail and quality. OXO’s mission is dedicated to providing innovative consumer products that make everyday living easier. King Arthur Flour was founded in 1790, as America’s oldest flour company they provided pure, high-quality flour to residents of the newly formed U.S., still going strong, they are the nation’s premier baking resource. Silpat was founded in 1965 by M Guy Demarle in Northern France.  He was an experience baker seeing a better way to bake bread with forms using non-stick silicone coatings.  He invented the first non-stick baguete baking trays and a few  years later invented  and created the original Silpat. Zulka Pure Cane Sugar is a Non GMO Project Verified “Morena” sugar – a term used to described granulated sugars that do not undergo conventional refining processes.  Zulka is perfect for baking, it tastes better, is less processed and is a cup for cup replacement.
Disclaimer: KitchenAid, OXO, King Arthur Flour, Silpat and Zulka Pure Cane are providing the prizes free of charge.  All opinions stated are my own.

Also, Check out the other #CookieWeek Participants and give them some love!

• Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Sandwich Cookies by The Cooking Actress
• Caramel Apple Cider Cookies by Like Mother Like Daughter
• Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookie Bars with Peanut Butter Frosting by Cupcakes & Kale Chips
• Chocolate-Filled Christmas Thumbprint Cookies by Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Fudge Brownie Sandwich Cookies by Cravings of a Lunatic
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie Cookie Cups by The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen
• Chocolate Peppermint Raisin Cookies from It’s Yummi!
• Classic Gingersnap Cookies by In The Kitchen With KP
• Coffee-Toffee Thumbprint Cookies from Crumb
• Dark Chocolate Andes Cookie Cups by Beyond Frosting
• Eggnog Cookies by Jen’s Favorite Cookies  
• Extra-Chewy Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookies from Omeletta
• Fruit Coolers by Texana’s Kitchen
• Gluten-free Elisenlebkuchen cookies  by Masala Herb
• Iced Molasses Cookies with by i heart eating
• Nutella Cookies by Total Noms
• Orange Cream Cookies by Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker
• Peanut Butter Cup Sandwich Cookies by Chocolate Moosey
• Pumpkin Coconut Macaroons by 52 Kitchen Adventures
• Rolo Brownie Cookies from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Saketini Christmas Balls from NinjaBaking.com

Until next time,
LOVE & CONFECTIONS!

I love cookies! Who doesn’t love cookies? When I heard about the opportunity to join a cookie swap, I was thrilled – especially since it was world-wide.

Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil and Julie from The Little Kitchen organized The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011. Over 620 Food Bloggers signed up, and over 22,000 cookies were baked and mailed – the post offices must have smelled delicious!

I bought little holly boxes to pack my cookies in, but didn’t want them moving around in the USPS box and breaking. The search continued and I luckily found the cutest snowman boxes that fit perfectly in the shipping box. They were too adorable!

The hardest part of this was deciding on what cookie to bake. It needed to be able to survive mailing – my matches were in Texax, Pennsylvania and Alaska! The cookies needed to arrive fresh and in one piece. A cookie with frosting was out of the question, so I searched through some family recipes and found the perfect one.

Booboop used to make cookies all the time, especially around the holidays. I loved the Split Seconds she used to make for our tea parties. She also made a variety at Christmas, including her Family recipe for Biscotti.

Now, this Biscotti is similar, but not the same to the usual long, hard, crunchy logs you see in coffee shops and cookie cases. It is moist, has a more tender crumb, and doesn’t get baked twice.
Shock! I know! But it turns out delicious, just the same. I tweaked the shape of them – hers were traditionally “S” shaped, and I also added some of my own variations instead of Booboop’s usual walnut and anise flavors.

If you would like to participate in next year’s cookie swap, you can sign up here to receive notifications.

Biscotti Bites
Original Family Recipe

Biscotti Bites Ingredients:
– 4 cups All-Purpose Flour
– 1 cup Sugar
– 1 tablespoon Baking Powder
– 1/4 teaspoon Salt
– 1 cup Shortening or Margarine
– 2 Eggs, slightly beaten
– 1/4 to 1/2 cup Milk

Biscotti Bites Directions:
– Preheat oven to 375F
– Sift together the Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder and Salt into your mixing bowl
– Cut in shortening with pastry blender, or use paddle for stand mixer, until small pea-size pieces are formed and mixture is somewhat crumbly in texture
– Add any mix-in ingredients
– Add in Eggs
– Add Milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until a soft dough forms. Make sure everything is mixed thoroughly
– Use a teaspoon, or teaspoon-size cookie scoop, and place 20 cookies per silpat-lined sheetpan, leaving about an inch between them.
– Bake for 12 minutes, or until lightly browned,

Each recipe makes roughly 60-70 cookies.

Variations:

Espresso Chocolate Chip Biscotti Bites
– Add 1 tablespoon Espresso Powder into sifted dry ingredients
– Add 1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips after Shortening is incorporated

Cinnamon Sugar Pecan Biscotti Bites
– Add 1 teaspoon Cinnamon into sifted dry ingredients
– Add 1 cup chopped Pecans after Shortening is incorporated
– Sprinkle tops of cookies with Cinnamon-Sugar mixture before baking

I want to thank Megan at Stetted for her Muddy Snowdrops and Jess at Pretty Physicist for her Snickerdoodles. They were delicious!

Until next time,
Love & Confections!

Everyone has childhood memories about special treats or snacks that make us long to be children again. I remember my grandparents picking my sister, KB, and me up from school and our ice cream afternoon snack. My grandmother, nicknamed Booboop, would buy those little, individual ice cream cups and we would put chocolate syrup and sprinkles on top – most likely where my love of sprinkles started.

Sometimes we had a special treat and she would make tea and cookies. My grandmother loved teapots and cups and saucers. She collected many different styles and displayed them in the dining room and kitchen. The three of us loved our tea parties. Booboop let KB and I each choose our teacup for the party. She made it even more special with little touches like putting milk in a special creamer, using pretty scalloped sugar spoons, and buying and arranging sugar cubes on a plate. KB and I were fascinated by sugar cubes – I still am fascinated by them – so perfect and square.

We also had cookies with our tea. Sometimes she would give us cookies from a special tin she ordered, but the best kind were homemade cookies. My grandmother loved to cook and bake. Her love for food, and making people happy with food, was one of the greatest traditions she has given us.

After my grandmother passed away, I was lucky enough to inherit a few teapots. Those afternoon tea parties were a great treat, and the memories of chatting about our day at school are bittersweet. Days like today, when the smell of cookies fill my apartment, make me wish I was 14 again – to have one more tea party with her, and tell her about my day.

Split Seconds
adapted from Ann Pillsbury (yes, that Pillsbury)
– I doubled the recipe, but you could easily halve it if necessary

Split Seconds Ingredients:
– 1 cup All Purpose Flour
– 6 tablespoons Sugar
– 1/4 teaspoon Salt
– 6 tablespoons Unsalted Butter, softened
– 1 Egg
– 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
– Blueberry Jam, or any other flavor you prefer

Split Seconds Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Sift Flour, Sugar and Salt into a mixing bowl
3. Add Butter, Egg and Vanilla. Stir/combine with a spoon – even though the dough will be hard. You can also combine it with your stand mixer, but do not overmix.
4. Sprinkle flour on a work surface and place the dough on the flour. Divide the dough into 8 equal parts (if you are using the doubled recipe stated above).
5. Shape each part into a roll about 6-8 inches long and place on an ungreased cookie sheet or silicone covered baking sheet. Be sure to place rolls at least 3 inches apart and away from the edges of the baking sheet
6. With your fingers, make a small dent, about 1/4 inch deep, down the center of each dough roll. Fell dents with your Jam or jelly.
7. Bake for 12-18 minutes, depending on your oven. Remove from the oven and cut rolls in small pieces while they are still warm.
8. Move pieces to a cooling rack to completely cool before eating.

Until next time,
LOVE & CONFECTIONS!

A while ago, I bought a few boxes of plain instant oatmeal. When I say, “a few” I mean 4 boxes at bogo. They were on sale, and I thought I would go through them rather quickly. I was wrong. I can only eat oatmeal so much. Don’t get me wrong, I do like it, but even if I add brown sugar or cinnamon, I can’t eat it every morning – especially since I don’t eat breakfast on a regular basis. I know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but I choose sleeping in until 5:45am, then leave for work 15 minutes later, over waking up early to eat breakfast – most days. So I have a lot of instant oatmeal packets on my hands.

What else could I do with instant oatmeal? Light bulb… Instant oatmeal cookies! There had to be a recipe for instant oatmeal cookies, and so the search began. The internet is wonderful, isn’t it? I found a few recipes and narrowed it down to this one. Instead of raisins, I added chocolate chips. Chocolate makes everything better.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies made with Instant Oatmeal
adapted from ehow.com recipe

Ingredients:
– 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
– 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
– 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
– 6 packs of Instant Oatmeal
– 1/2 cup Butter
– 1 Egg
– 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
– 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
– 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
– 1 tablespoon Milk
– 1 cup Chocolate Chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray, or use silicone non-stick baking mat.
3. Combine the Flour, Baking Soda, Baking Powder and Instant Oatmeal in a bowl. The oatmeal can be any flavor you want, or mixture of flavors. I used plain because I added chocolate chips.
4. Melt the Butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat.
5. Pour the melted butter into a bowl and crack the Egg into it. Whisk the butter and egg together.
6. Add the Granulated Sugar, Brown Sugar, Vanilla Extract and Milk into the melted butter. Mix together.
7. Add the Chocolate Chips to the mixture.
8. Gradually add the Flour-Oatmeal mixture to the sugar mixture. Add more oats or flour to the cookie dough if necessary to thicken it up.
9. Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet. I used an ice cream scoop, so they were all the same size – my scoop is a bit large, so that is why they are giant cookies.
10. Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes, or until they are light golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes on the pan before removing to a cooling rack.

Until next time,
LOVE & CONFECTIONS!

Macaroons are small confections made from egg whites, sugar and ground almonds. It has a crisp exterior and a soft, chewy interior. It can be flavored with other ingredients such as citrus, coffee, chocolate or coconut. Other ground nuts can be substituted for the almonds (which I did in this recipe). In France, macaroons are sandwiched together with a thin layer of ganache or raspberry or apricot jam. Their origin dates back to 14th century Venice and its name is derived from the Venetian word “macarone” which means “fine paste.”
The best known macaroons come from Paris. The most famous are Laduree and Pierre Herme and can sell 15,000 a day. Macaroons have remained relatively unknown in the United States and are often confused with coconut macaroons. They have recently become a novel dessert for weddings and a growing addition to specialty pastry and bakery shops. Classic flavors include vanilla, chocolate, coffee, almond pistachio, lemon and raspberry. Newer flavors can include pumpkin, cinnamon, passion fruit, peanut butter and jelly, green tea, truffles, olives, and many more.
I love macaroons! They are DELICIOUS! If you’ve never had one – try it. They are light and chewy and crispy – you can’t have just one.
I decided to use some hazelnut flour I had and use that instead of almond flour. Hazelnuts and chocolate – a great combination. I still need to practice more. I’ve only made them two or three times in school – mine have some peaks and a little too much volume. Like my mom says, “Good, Better, Best – Never, never rest until your Good gets Better, and your Better gets Best!”

Macaroons after resting 1 hour

90 grams Egg Whites
2 tablespoons Sugar
110 grams Hazelnut Flour
200 grams Powdered Sugar
The egg whites need to age at room temperature for at least 24 hours, loosely covered.
Whip the egg whites until they are foamy. Gradually add 2 tablespoons granulated Sugar until you have a glossy meringue. Don’t overbeat.
place 110 grams of Hazelnut Flour and 200 grams Powdered Sugar in a large bowl.
Add the whipped egg whites and fold. You don’t have to fold too gently, but you don’t want to over fold either. If you want to color them, add powdered food color halfway through folding.
When the batter is ready, pour into a large pastry bag with #807 tip (I just used the largest tip I had). It will ooze out the end, so keep the bag folded or crimp the bottom until you are ready to pipe.
Make small piped circles on a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat or parchment paper.
Once the tray is filled, let it sit for an hour to harden the outer shell before baking.
Bake at 300F for 18-20 minutes and then let cool.

4 ounces Bittersweet Chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1 tablespoon Instant Espresso Powder
Put Chocolate in a medium heat-proof bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream, with espresso powder mixed in, to a boil. Pour cream over chocolate and shake bowl gently so cream settles around the chocolate. Set mixture aside until the chocolate is soft, about 5 minutes. Whisk gently until smooth, taking care not to incorporate too many air bubbles. Cool at room temperature until set up.

Until next time,
Love & Confections!