Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Posted on December 10, 2009 by Trista

pumpkin_cookies There it was. Staring at me with sad little orange eyes. Every time I opened the refrigerator, I could hear its insidious whisper:

“Please don’t throw me away.”

But what to do with it? I had about a cup of pumpkin puree leftover from Thanksgiving. Trying to find a savory recipe just seemed like a lot of hard work, and I was suffering a bit of a pumpkin hangover. So there it sat, that lonely container of orange mush. For days. A week almost. Then:

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!

I found a recipe on allrecipes.com and changed it around a bit. I added my own spices (the original recipe called for pumpkin pie spice) and used a combination of brown sugar and white sugar, instead of all white sugar. These cookies are cakey and moist; warm from the oven, they are all but irresistible. I’ve tried the recipe with different kinds of nuts, but my favorite (so far) is chopped, toasted hazelnuts.

Recipe after the jump.

Continue reading →

Ginger & Molasses Cookies

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Trista

Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie

These cookies were the second half of my recent cookie bender. Unlike the peanut butter cookies, these cookies looked the worst but tasted the best.

I’m on the fence when it comes to ginger. Most of the time, I find the flavor to be overwhelming. But in these cookies, the ginger is very subtle. Instead of calling for powdered ginger, the recipe uses freshly grated, and I think that is the difference.

The molasses flavor is front and center. This isn’t the time for those weak, light molasseses. I used dark molasses and it was perfect.

This is another pretty standard cookie recipe, except the dough is very, very soft. I let the dough chill in the fridge for a couple of hours and it was still too soft to shape with my hands. Finally, I ended up scooping the dough into balls and freezing the balls until they were hard enough to handle. In the oven, the cookies spread quite a bit, developing a crisp edge with a soft, chewy center.

Did I mention how good these were?

A few days later, I made this recipe again, but meddled a bit (imagine that!). I added some lemon zest and cut down on the amount of leavening. This version was good, but the original is better. I think I’ll stick with that.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Posted on September 14, 2009 by Trista

pb_cookie Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie

I went on a cookie bender the other day and ended up making two of Mackie’s cookie recipes. The first, this peanut butter cookie, was the better looking but least successful of the two.

This is a basic cookie dough with lots and lots of chunky peanut butter mixed into the dough. The dough is shaped into logs, rolled in chopped peanuts and left to chill in the refrigerator. Once cold, the dough is sliced into rounds and baked.

The finished cookies were very peanutty, but they were dry and crumbly. I really liked the flavor of them, but not the texture. I’m not sure if I overcooked the cookies, but my cookies only cooked for about 15 minutes, even though the recipe said they’d cook for 20 to 25 minutes.

Guess I’ll just have to keep experimenting.

Chocolate Cookies with Coconut

Posted on August 30, 2009 by Trista

Choc_cookies Remember these cookies? At the time, I was thinking of all sorts of variations besides lime and cocoa nibs. It took me a few months, but I finally got around to trying a couple of different combinations.

The first combination I tried was chocolate with coconut. I made the basic cookie dough recipe, but left out the lime zest and cocoa nibs. After scooping out the balls of dough, I flattened them slightly and topped each with a mixture of sweetened flaked coconut and sweetened condensed milk. I refrigerated the dough for about a half an hour before baking them. These cookies flattened out a bit more than the original, but they were very good. Chocolate and coconut is a classic combination, and it was hard not to eat the whole batch in one sitting. The only thing I would change next time would be to toast the coconut first.

The second combination was chocolate, walnut and cinnamon. Again, I made the basic recipe, leaving out the lime zest and cocoa nibs. I added about 3/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and a cup of chopped walnuts to the dough, then scooped and baked the cookies normally. These cookies were okay, but I thought the cinnamon flavor was too faint. Next time, I’ll increase the cinnamon to a full teaspoon.

Another combination I’d really like to try is chocolate chip with chipotle powder.

Chocolate Cookie with Cocoa Nibs and Lime

Posted on June 4, 2009 by Trista

choc_lime_cookies I’ve been looking for a way to use up the last of my cocoa nibs, and when I saw this recipe at simplyrecipes.com, I knew I had found it. The combination of chocolate and lime strikes some people as odd, but they go together really well. The key, I think, is in the amount of lime. These cookies get it just right. You mostly taste chocolate with just a hint of lime in the background. The cocoa nibs contribute mostly texture, but not a lot of flavor.

The batter comes together pretty easily. Because of the amount of butter in the recipe, I was worried that the cookies would spread unless they were refrigerated. I needn’t have worried. The batter is dry enough that refrigerated or not, it doesn’t spread much in the oven.

I can see these cookies lending themselves to all sorts of variations. I’m already planning a chocolate/cranberry cookie, a chocolate/cinnamon cookie and maybe, even, a chocolate/chili powder cookie.

Ricotta Cookies Recipe

Posted on May 18, 2009 by Trista

ricotta_cookies I came across this recipe while in culinary school. One day, my cooking buddy Jamie came into the kitchens declaring that we had to make these cookies. I think she found the recipe in a mailer from a ricotta cheese manufacturer. At that point, I had never baked with ricotta cheese, and I was skeptical. Besides, I was a ‘serious’ baker and these cookies had sprinkles, for heaven’s sake!

Well, about a thousand batches later, I am comfortable enough in my bakerhood to admit that these are one of my favorite cookies. They are tender and moist with a faintly sweet vanilla flavor. You don’t taste the ricotta cheese; it contributes more to the texture than anything else. These are so good that Bryan recently requested them for his birthday instead of a cake!

I prefer to glaze the cookies while they are still hot, as it makes the glaze more transparent. The glaze sets up pretty fast, so it is easier to have an extra set of hands manning the sprinkler.

Recipe is after the jump. Continue reading →

Nibby Buckwheat Butter Cookies

Posted on March 19, 2009 by Trista

Currently cooking out of Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich.

Not long after Pure Dessert was published, this cookie recipe started popping up on the internet. Pretty much everybody who tried them really liked them, and I have to agree. These cookies are addictive. The buckwheat flour gives the cookies a slightly grassy, sweet flavor that goes really well with the cocoa nibs. What are cocoa nibs? They are bits of roasted cocoa beans that have a very faint chocolate smell, but a bitter taste. However, baked into these cookies, the cocoa nibs lost their bitterness and added a nut-like crunch to the cookies.

Besides buckwheat flour and cocoa nibs, the recipe calls for a lot of butter, some sugar, salt and vanilla. All in all, a very easy recipe. The hardest part was letting the dough sit the refrigerator long enough to harden so it could be sliced into rounds.

While my cookies tasted really good, they didn’t look so good. I think I sliced the dough too thinly as my cookies spread and turned out very lacy and crumbly. Some of the other people who tried the recipe rolled the dough out and used cookie cutters. Next time, I might try this.

For another look at these cookies (they are much prettier than mine) and the recipe go here. Cocoa nibs can be found online or in some grocery stories in the baking aisle.

Peanut Butter Thumbprints with Peanut Caramel

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Trista

Currently baking from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet.

This is the recipe that started it all. Back in December, I came across this recipe featured on David Lebovitz’s blog and had to try it immediately. My cookies, however, came out pretty dry. I did some searching on the internet, but couldn’t find any other reviews of this recipe.That’s when I started considering doing my own reviews.

But back to the cookies. Continue reading →

Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

Posted on January 13, 2009 by Trista

Oatmeal Cherry Cookies Currently baking from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet.

I have a hard time not changing recipes. I tend to add almonds to just about everything sweet I make, and a handful of frozen peas usually finds its way into savory dishes. So, when I first read the title of this recipe, my first thought was cranberries, not cherries, and chocolate chips would be better. Fortunately, the variations listed for this cookie included both cranberries and chocolate chips.