Peanut Butter Cookies

The end of the year is approaching quickly and in attempts to clean out our fridge, I am trying to use everything up because I absolute hate wasting food. Since I’ve tried to cut down on eating peanut butter after reading the nutritional label, I had a jar of peanut butter left in the fridge. What better use than to make cookies? I first made these cookies in 7th grade cooking class and they only contain three ingredients: sugar, eggs, and peanut butter, how easy is that?

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix all ingredients together and scoop into small 2 inch balls.
3. Roll the balls in sugar and use a fork to make the criss cross shape.
4. Bake for 12 minutes and enjoy!

Nutella Cookies

Some delicious Nutella cookies that my apartment mate and I whipped up a week ago on a Friday night when we were both bored and all the other apartment mates were out with their boyfriends. We make a great team, I mix up the dough while she scoops out the cookies. You can never go wrong with these heavenly chocolate hazel spread.

Peppermint Kisses

Some cookies I made for my Dad’s holiday party during the winter break.

Saltine Toffee Cookies

Although the title of this post reads “Saltine Toffee Cookies”, I consider these more of a candy due to the fact that the brown sugar and butter creates a toffee brittle that reminds me of my favorite candy bars-Skor and Heath. I have seen these recipe around the blog and was very curious to try, using saltine crackers in a dessert?? Also I am the hugest fan of any dessert with toffee in it! Random fact: You cannot eat more than 6 saltine crackers at once, apparently your throat gets dry and you cannot swallow. Anyways, these were pretty simple to make since they only require five ingredients and would make a great and inexpensive Christmas gift. Recipe is from All Recipes.

Ingredients
4 ounces saltine crackers
1 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
2. Line cookie sheet with saltine crackers in single layer.
3. In a saucepan combine the sugar and the butter. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Immediately pour over saltines and spread t cover crackers completely.
4. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Let sit for 5 minutes. Spread melted chocolate and top with chopped nuts. Cool completely and break into pieces.

Grade: A+
So delicious! And so sweet! Chocolate and toffee, what a delicious combination.

Cook’s Illustrated Chocolate Chip Cookies

There’s honestly almost nothing better than the perfect chocolate chip cookie, still warm from the oven with crispy edges and a soft middle. While many popular chocolate chip cookie recipes call from certain ingredient such as cake flour and bread flour, I prefer one that is as simple as possible since I live on campus and do not have access to a car. I have also seen some recipes that call for refrigeration of 72 hours however I am not that patient! That is what I love about this recipe, all the only unusual aspect is the browning of the butter, other than that they are just like any other chocolate chip cookie recipe. Even in my tiny ancient little oven these turned out delicious! Recipe from Cook’s Illustrated.

Ingredients
1¾ cups (8¾ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1¾ sticks) unsalted butter
½ cup (3½ ounces) granulated sugar
¾ cup (5¼ ounces) packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
¾ cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (optional)

Directions
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.

3. Add both sugars, salt and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand for 3 minutes, then whish for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth and shiny. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using), giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

4. Divide dough into 16 portions, each about 3 tablespoons (or use a #24 cookie scoop). Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, 8 dough balls per sheet.

5. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10-14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.

Grade: A+
One of my friends looked me straight in the eye and said “These are really good, I mean it.” Now every time I get mad at him I threaten to not make cookies and then he apologizes. That’s how good these are.

Peanut Butter Kisses

As of today I am done with all my midterms until finals week! This means no more days of running on little sleep and instead relaxation until finals week. I’m even more excited because Thanksgiving is next week which means I get to go home! What better way to celebrate freedom and not having to spend every night at the library other than doing what I do best? Yes that means baking everyday and bombarding my apartment mates with tons of sugar. I actually first made these cookies in 7th grade cooking class. They are so easy to make since they only require 3 ingredients which I bought at an on campus market place using my dining dollars. Since peanut butter can be an overwhelming taste I decided to add a chocolate kiss on top.

Three ingredients! How much more simpler can it get?

Mix them all together. I spent 5 minutes looking for my mixer in my kitchen since it was misplaced. Good thing we only have a couple of cabinets.

Roll into balls and then into the sugar. This is a bowl I found in my cupboard.

Ready to bake!

Place the kisses on top!

Ingredients
1 cup of peanut butter
1 cup of sugar
1 egg
additional sugar for rolling
Hershey Kisses

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine all the ingredients together. Scoop out a tablespoon of the dough and roll into balls.
3. Roll the balls in sugar.
4. Bake for 10 minutes and place a kiss in the center of the cookie after taking the cookies out from the oven.

Grade: A
One of my apartment mates told me these were delicious! Not to mention adorable looking as well. And with three ingredients, these are the easiest things I have ever made.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I bought one of those ginourmous 72 ounce chocolate chip bags from Costco and am planning on putting all that chocolate to good use! Cookies are definitely one option and these were made with the help of my apartment mate Diana.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I made these last Friday for a road trip my friends and I took down to Irvine to visit a very close friend of ours Roya who is taking a summer session at UCI. Although I prefer my oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips, one of my friends Emily is lover of all things with spices and dried fruit especially raisins so I made these for her. Little did I know, my two other traveling companions, Safa and Nima liked oatmeal raisin cookies as well and within seven hours of driving and listening to Michelle Branch, these cookies were devoured. This was a great trip spending times with some of my favorite people. Recipe taken from All Recipes.

Dough.

Adding in oatmeal and raisins.

Ready to bake.

Cooling and ready to used as travel provisions!

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup butter flavored shortening
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, butter flavored shortening, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Stir in the oats and raisins. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until light and golden. Do not overbake. Let them cool for 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheets to cool completely. Store in airtight container.

Grade: A
I didn’t taste these cookies (I’m not a big fan of raisins ok?!) but my friends kept on eating them so I’m pretty sure they were delicious! So now I guess have another recipe to add to my backup plan if dentistry and real estate don’t work out!

Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

One of my favorite cookies obviously is the chocolate chip cookie, so this means I’m always willing to try a new recipe. These are suppose to be a copy cat of the famous Levain cookies from the Levain bakery located in New York. I can’t wait until I’m out of school and traveling everywhere in order to enjoy all the famous bakeries especially in New York. I think one of of the best parts about visiting a new city and traveling is the food especially the desserts. These cookies were humongous and had walnuts which was a nice touch! Recipe from How to Eat A Cupcake.

Cookie dough.

Chopping the walnuts.

Cookie dough batter, look at all those chocolate chips!

Ready to bake. Notice how huge the cookie dough balls are, I used my ice cream scooper normally reserved for cupcakes.

Done and cooling, or in my case ready to eat.

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter, cool but slightly softened
2 cups light brown sugar
2 eggs, straight from the fridge
2 3/4 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle, mix together butter and sugar on low speed until blended. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat on low speed until incorporated.

Add flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips and nuts.

Scoop cookie dough onto parchment lined baking sheet 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake 15-20 minutes until the edges are golden brown and the tops are just lightly browned. (For smaller cookies, of course you’ll need to watch them because they’ll bake much faster.) Cool completely on wire racks.

Grade: A
So yummy especially when still warm from the oven.

Chocolate Covered Biscotti

I made these biscotti to send to my friend Josephine who is off at summer session at UCLA. For the first half of summer she and I hung out almost every week, watching So You Think You Can Dance, chatting, or eating her family’s delicious BBQ. I thought since she’d was far away I’d send her a little taste of home. Biscotti are the perfect cookies to mail because they’re twice baked resulting in a hard cookie so you don’t have to worry about them breaking. Hard to believe but I send these on Tuesday and she received them today (Thursday!).