Baking Delights » cookie-recipes

Triple Chocolate Mint Christmas Kisses

Marye Audet — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:48:55 +0000

Let me start this by just saying…Oh. Yum. I wanted something just really chocolatey and minty…the kind of cookie you will want to have with a large, cold glass of milk or a steaming mug of coffee.

The cookies themselves are made with Hershey’s Dark Cocoa. It is important that for this recipe you use a very rich, dark cocoa to get the level of chocolate intensity that these need. After the cookies are baked they are cooled and filled with a bittersweet ganache, sprinkled with crushed candy cane, and then topped with a Hershey’s Mint Kiss. These are a specialty kiss that I found, a traditional Hershey’s Kiss but filled with a mint truffle type filling.

Roll the cookie in sugar.

The result is amazingly rich, dark, and chocolatey with a fresh burst of peppermint flavor that cools your mouth and cuts through some of the chocolate.

This are going to be a popular addition to the cookie trays or gift baskets you create this year!

Triple Chocolate Mint Christmas Kisses

1/2 cup unsalted butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/3 cup Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa
1 cup sugar or confectioner’s sugar for rolling
Ganache filling
24 unwrapped chocolate mint Kisses
2 candy canes coarsely crushed

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add egg and cream and beat well.
Combine the flour, cocoa, and salt and blend into the creamed mixture
Chill for at least two hours
Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment or silpat
Roll teaspoons of the dough into balls, roll in confectioner’s or granulated sugar, and place on baking sheet
Indent the balls with your thumb
Bake 10-12 minutes
Push the middles back down with your thumb and cool
Add 1/2 tsp ganache to each cookie and press a kiss into it
Sprinkle with ground candy canes
Cool completely

Makes about 2 dozen

image:marye audet

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50 Best Cookie Recipes on Internet: Scene 2

Marye Audet — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:58:45 +0000

Just about two years ago I innocently wrote a list post called The 50 Best Cookie Recipes on the Internet. In 24 hours it hit the first page of Digg, and stayed there. In the past two years I have found this list everywhere often with other people’s name on it…and I have also found some great links to it, which I appreciate.

Coconut Cherry White Chocolate Bars

This post is the one that I look at as being the pivotal post on Baking Delights, the one that turned the blog around and made it grow. I hope that, if I linked to your blog in that post, it has also helped your blog to grow! It is one of my favorite go to posts of my own when I need inspiration.

Anyway, things on the internet change rapidly and I thought maybe it was time to revisit The 50 Best Cookie Recipes with a part two. C’mon, it worked for Rocky, Nightmare on Elm Street, Star Wars…. surely it is time to look at more of the awesome cookie recipes you guys come up with.

Just a quick note. If you like this post, I am glad. Please don’t copy it to your own blog or chat-board. Just say Hey this is a cool post….and link to it. I would appreciate it..thanks. It takes hours to sort through all of the thousands of awesome recipes and come up with the very best, the most intriguing, and the most creative.

Check out the links and see if you agree with my choices. And if you like it…do me a favor? Digg, Stumble, and Tweet! Here we go…

The 50 Best Cookie Recipes on the Internet:Scene 2

And there you have it. I hope you agree with me on these…if you think I missed something be sure to leave a comment and let me know! I will try to pick up any stray recipes on this weeks Blogsurfing Saturday.

Image:Marye Audet

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Hey! It’s Sugar Cookie Day!

Marye Audet — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:48:40 +0000

You know what that means, right?

How are you going to look your kids, your husband, your neighbors in the face and tell them you did not bake sugar cookies on sugar cookie day? Don’t even think about it. It is too awful to imagine.

Don’t worry, I have ya covered. Here are the sugar cookie variations that have been posted here on Baking Delights:

The BEST Sugar Cookies

Rose Crackle Cookies

Lemon Snaps

Sugar Cookies

Homemade Animal Crackers

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Chai Spice Snowballs

admin — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:01:26 +0000

We were headed to a party the other night. It was the birthday party for some friends of my younger sons, but the whole family was invited. I always feel badly for people that invite all of us because of the sheer amount that means. We are 3-4 times the size of the average family.

We were asked to bring a snack, and so I decided to try a recipe that had been whirling around in my head for awhile..I get these awesome ideas that have to stay on the back burner until I have a chance, or a reason to make them! I figured most kids wouldn’t like them, chai and all, but I knew my kids loved chai and that would at least keep them away from the other stuff and give other people a chance.

These are much like Mexican Wedding Cakes, in the way that they are made. The dough is high in butter and fat, both from the butter and the ground nuts. The taste is intensely chai because..well I ground up 2 tsp of strong chai tea leaves to add with the flour. What a taste kick that provided! I think that in doing it again, I would allow the dough to stand for awhile for the flavors to intensify.

Don’t overbake..they will get rock-like. You want a crumbly, melt in your mouth texture.

Snowball Cookies

2 cups flour
2 cups coarsely ground pecans or other nuts
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 tsp chai tea ground with the nuts (I used 2 tea bags of Yogi,Indian Spice and just cut open the bags)

1 teaspoon vanilla
Powdered sugar for rolling in

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Combine all ingredients, except the last powdered sugar, in large bowl. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl occasionally, until well mixed.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls.

Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 18 to 25 minutes or until very lightly browned.

Cool 5 minutes; roll in powdered sugar while still warm and then again when cool.

Makes 3 dozen cookies

Images:Marye Audet

Content:Marye Audet for Baking Delights

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Key Lime Bars

Marye Audet — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:11:00 +0000

So, how was Mother’s Day? Mine was extremely quiet and uneventful which sounds boring but was really nice! My oldest son called and we ended up chatting for over two hours. That usually does not happen but I guess we were both rather lonely for each other. He comes home the end of this month. Did I mention he comes home the end of this month? Not that I am excited. I always want to bake lots of things for him and feed him well but he is very much into grilled chicken breast/fresh green beans from the garden, gee thanks mom, I don’t want dessert. :/ He is busy creating muscles on his muscles.

Not so with my other children. The sweeter the better. Chris was always a little weird.

Did I mention he was coming home at the end of this month? ..Excited? Me? No, not at all, why do you ask?

Marc, on the other hand, has a sweet tooth the size of Alaska. Funny story…..We got married in 1980. I was rather naive about people’s eating habits because I grew up in a family where my mom did not cook, I was an only child, and I was an anorexic..I grabbed a lettuce leaf or a carrot every few days to sustain me. Marc, on the other hand, grew up eating. Lots. Snacks, cookies, pies, cakes….

SO…. we get married and I want to show my new husband that I am not just HOT I am a HOT cook. I made 6 dozen chocolate chip cookies, and a full dinner with dessert. I thought that the cookies would be a great snack for him for the week. He walked in the door and I put the platter of cookies on the coffee table and went back to finishing dinner.

When I called him for dinner he had finished half the cookies off. He then ate dinner AND dessert …and went back to finish off the cookies. My visions of being organized and planning ahead ..uh….crumbled. And that has been the way it is ever since. Cookies last no more that 1-2 hours here. Period. Leftover cake or pie? Right. You might as well hope to snow ski down the courthouse steps in downtown Dallas in July.

One of Marc’s favorite cookies is lemon bars. He likes the tangy-ness of them. When I came up with these slightly more tangy lime bars he was a happy, happy man. The secret to the taste in these is the just barely there whisper of rose-vanilla in the shortbread layer. Top these with some candied rose petals and they become impressive tea table fare.

If there are any left, which there probably won’t be..but IF, then just wrap them and keep them in the fridge.

Key Lime Bars

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp rose water flavoring
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup key lime juice
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 tablespoon grated lime peel

Powdered sugar for dusting.Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour and 1/2 cup powdered sugar in large bowl. Add the butter, vanilla, and rosewater and cut in with your fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Press mixture into bottom of 9×13x2-inch baking dish that has been buttered.

Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven.

Whisk eggs, 1 1/2 cups sugar, lime juice, 1 tablespoon flour and lime peel in medium bowl to blend. Pour into crust. Bake until mixture is set, about 20 minutes. Cool.

Cut into 24 bars.

Sift powdered sugar over top before serving.

Oh, and hey, did I mention my son was coming home the end of this month? No, I am not excited in the least…

Image:Marye Audet

Content:Marye Audet for Baking Delights

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Peanut Butter & Chocolate Ganache Sandwich Cookies

Marye Audet — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:47:19 +0000

Being a homeschooler I have many opportunities to witness when something “clicks” with one of my kids and becomes something the understand rather than something they are learning. I love watching that light go on in their heads!

Shiloh has a knack for cooking. Somewhere I have a picture of her holding the first tray of cookies she ever baked on her own, at age FIVE! Many times I will just ask her to make some cookies, and within a short period of time the whole house smells great.

Baking has clicked with her. She now adapts recipes easily and without much though, measures by the feel of it in her hand, the weight, and the texture and look of what she is baking. Because of that she enjoys it. And she is good at it.

These are her recipe, totally. She adapted another recipe, changing both ingredients and actual structure of the cookie. I thought the addition of the pecan half on top was brilliant. The cookies are rich and peanut butter-y, and the bittersweet chocolate ganache gives them a sophisticated touch. They were completely gone in a matter of minutes.

This recipe is (c) Marye Audet at Baking Delights (http://bakingdelights.com) If you find it on another website..please visit the original and comment to let me know..thanks.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Ganache Sandwich Cookies

1/2 c unsalted butter

1/2 c peanut butter, preferably freshly ground homemade

1/2 c sugar

3/4 c brown sugar, packed

1 Tbs honey

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 c flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 c finely chopped pecans

1 tsp salt if the peanut butter is homemade

In a large bowl cream the butter, peanut butter, sugars and vanilla. Beat in the egg.

Combine the dry ingredients, and pecans, and mix into the creamed mixture.

Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto a silpat covered baking sheet. Bake at 350 until golden brown. Cool.

Ganache

10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream

Bring cream just to a simmer. Remove from heat. Add the chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. Cool in refrigerator until the consistency is thick and spreadable (about like peanut butter)

Sandwich two cookies together with a tablespoon or so of the ganache. Place a dab of ganache on the top of the sandwich cookie and affix a pecan half. Makes about 2 -3 dozen, depending on size.

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101 Easy Peasy Cookie Recipes: A Cookbook Review

Marye Audet — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:49:59 +0000

Every once in awhile some one sends me a cookbook to checkout and potentially review. I always like doing that for a couple of reasons. One, I am naturally nosey, so when I can get a cookbook and read someone else’s recipes that is just cool. Second, I have dreams of doing a cookbook myself someday so it is just planting good seeds to be nice about looking at someone else’s.

101 Easy Peasy Cookie Recipes is a really excellent collection of cookie recipes. I do not know if there are a hundred and one, the authors say there are and who am I to doubt them? There are certainly alot. I will count them later.

Some of the recipes are very predictable: Best Ever Oatmeal cookies, for example, but others, like Rootbeer Frosties are interesting and unique.

The instructions are easy to follow. In fact rather than baking them myself, I handed the cookbook to Shiloh (12) and told her to choose and bake something. She did, entirely on her own, and then made it again and adapted the recipe to create something totally different. That is the sign of an excellent cookbook.

You can find it on Amazon

Price is 16.95

Things I Really Liked:

Recipes are really straight forward and basic
Collections are separated by type
Ingredients are basic and easily acquired
Honestly this is a great book to use with kids

The things I did not like. There weren’t many and mostly just personal preference:

It is paperback. I really dislike paperback
No cookie images. I like to see what things will look like.
No personal information. This is completely cookie recipes. Some people will really like this aspect. I like to know who I am reading. you would think I was the chatty type or something.

Here is a sample recipe from the book, which the authors have given permission to reprint here. Unfortunately, I did not realize that I could not post any other recipes from the book when I handed Shiloh the cookbook and told her to bake, so I don’t have a picture.

Oranges and Cream Cookies

Makes about 3 ½ dozen cookies.

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2-3 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 package (12 ounces) white chips

Preheat oven to 350ºF. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, cream together butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in egg and orange peel. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in white chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Allow cookies to cool for 2 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

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Chocolate Intrigue Cookies

Marye Audet — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:00:01 +0000

Chocolate Intrigue Cookies are the most chocolaty and intriguing combination of ingredients that I could come up with. The addition of black pepper spices it up and adds an amazingly exotic touch to these exquisite chocolate morsels. They are rich and dense, but chewy and comforting…sort of like a chocolate chip cookie gone wild. Serve them to only your most favorite people. And only when they have been especially nice.

Chocolate Intrigue Cookies

2 c flour

1/3 c dark cocoa

1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks unsalted butter

2 c sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 c bittersweet chocolate chunks

3/4 c dark chocolate chips

3/4 c macadamia nuts or brazil nuts, chopped coarsely

3/4 c sweetened coconut

Mix dry ingredients together.

Cream the butter. Add sugar and mix until light. Beat in the egg. Blend in vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in the coconut, nuts, and chocolate and blend well.

Drop by teaspoons onto a parchment or silpat covered cookie sheet. Bake about 10 minutes, or until set. Remove from oven and allow to cool on sheet for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely. For a fancier cookie drizzle melted white chocolate over top. 4 dozen cookies that will disappear very fast.

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