reverse chocolate chunk cookies

I knew as soon as these came out of the oven that they'd be good. So good that I'd have to eat like five right away just to be sure. Use quality white chocolate (I use Lindt white chocolate wafers)—I find that some cheaper white chocolate tends to be chalky and too sweet rather than creamy and vanilla-y. Recipe here.

reese's pieces cookies

Remember those Smarties cookies I made for Valentine's Day. Well, those disappeared really quickly. I used the same cookie base for these Reese's Pieces cookies.

i heart cookies

This was my attempt at making love themed cookies (notice the red and pink smarties? That's the love part.) Joe asked if I picked through the smarties for those two colours. Of course I did! (No, I didn't.)

1 C butter, room temperature

1/2 C brown sugar

1 1/2 C sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 C flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

red & pink smarties

1. Using a stand mixer (or hand mixer or by hand), cream butter and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla.

2. Add the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda and mix on low until combined. Place dough in the fridge for 1.5 hours.

3. Scoop out a ball of dough and press some smarties into it. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the edges are barely brown (the centre will still be slightly raw). Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.

toffee bit cookies

This may be my new favourite cookie. They're easy to make; soft and chewy; and are flavoured with Skor toffee chips. You can find the recipe here.

nutella sandwich cookies

See I told you I lied. Here are some more cookies I made recently. I used my sugar cookie recipe and made little sandwiches filled with Nutella. I think these would also be good filled with Dulce de Leche or salted caramel.

holiday sugar cookies

Ok, I know I said that I wasn't going to do much baking before the holidays, but I totally lied. These sugar cookies are my favourite. They're soft and chewy and you can actually taste the vanilla in them. They're also perfect for decorating.

1 3/4 C flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 C salted butter, softened

2 tbsp vegetable shortening

2/3 C sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla bean paste OR 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. In a bowl whisk flour and baking soda. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat to combine.

2. Add the flour mixture and beat until incorporated. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap (I shape press my dough into a ball then flatten into a 1-inch thick disk). Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

3. On a floured surface, roll the dough until 1/4-inch thick. Cut out into shapes with your favourite cookie cutters. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 325 for about 12 minutes or until set, but not brown. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

For the icing:

2 C icing sugar, sifted

2 large egg whites

2 tsp vanilla bean paste OR pure vanilla extract

1. Whisk together sugar, egg whites and vanilla until completely smooth. Add more sugar if the mixture is too thin.

2. Add a few drops of food colouring paste to colour the icing. If you use food colouring drops they may thin out your icing so keep some extra icing sugar on hand just in case.

raspberry rugelach

I've made rugelach once before and decided to give them a go again since it is Hanukkah and rugelach are a popular Jewish cookie. The last time I used a traditional filling of apricot jam and chopped walnuts, but this time I went for a simpler take and only used some raspberry jam. I used Martha Stewart's rugelach dough recipe.

scottish shortbread

Christmas is just around the corner, and although I'm not planning on doing a crazy amount of baking this year, I really wanted to find a good, traditional shortbread recipe. After doing some research I came up with this recipe. I made my shortbread into thick squares opposed to cookies and they turned out just like Walkers shortbread (which I happen to love). They are crisp yet buttery, crumbly and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I plan on making another batch before Christmas with toffee bits and maybe even a chocolate-dipped version.

1/2 C sugar

1 C cornstarch

2 C flour

pinch of salt

1/2 lb salted butter, room temperature

1 tbsp of sugar for sprinkling

1. In a mixing bowl combine sugar, cornstarch, flour and salt.

2. Cut butter into cubes and add to dry ingredients. Use your hands to incorporate butter until the mixture resembles the texture of sand (it won't look like a dough).

3. Press mixture firmly and evenly into a 8 x 8-inch baking dish. Use a fork to prick the dough about 1-inch apart over entire surface.

4. Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes, then turn down oven to 300 and bake for an additional 35 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with additional sugar. Let cool completely before cutting into squares.

oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Remember when I was on the hunt for the perfect oatmeal cookie? Well, the last batch I tried turned out awesome so I made another recently and added chocolate chips. It was a good move.

a tale of three cookies: part 3

This is the final recipe I tried on my quest to find the perfect oatmeal cookie. Overall I think these were the best cookies of the bunch. Thin and chewy, with that golden crispy edge, we ate these cookies up fast. They even stayed crisp and chewy for a few days after. I think I'll add some coconut or raisins or maybe even some chocolate chips next time. So glad I finally found an oatmeal cookie to love.

* cookie #1, cookie #2, cookie #3

1 C butter

1 C sugar

1/2 C brown sugar

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla

1 2/3 C flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 C quick cook oats

1. Preheat oven to 350. In a stand mixer, combine butter and sugars until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix.

2. In a bowl, combine flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda. Add to butter mixture and mix. Next add oats and mix again.

3. Roll dough into golf ball sized balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Take a glass and wet the bottom. Dip the glass into some white sugar. Flatten each ball with the glass(you'll have to re-dip the glass every once in a while). Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until edges just turn golden. These cookies spread A LOT while baking so don't put too many on a sheet. Let them sit on the baking sheet for one minute before transferring to a cooling rack.

a tale of three cookies: part 2

Here's the second recipe I tried. The raw dough tasted bad so I immediately wrote this one off as being a bad cookie. But I was wrong. After baking, the resulting cookies were only a bit thicker than my long, lost cookie recipe, were slightly crisp around the edges yet still soft in the middle. The only problem was that they needed a bit more salt and sugar.

1 C Crisco

1 C brown sugar

1 C sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 C flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

3 C quick cook oats

1/2 C finely chopped pecans

1/4 C shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350. In a stand mixer, cream shortening and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix.

2. In another bowl mix flour, salt and baking soda. Add to butter mixture and mix. Next add oats and coconut and mix again. Finally add the nuts and mix thoroughly.

3. Roll dough into a log wrapped with wax paper. Slice dough into 1/4-inch rounds. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for about 10-12 minutes or until just golden brown.

a tale of three cookies: part 1

I've been looking for a good oatmeal cookie recipe. A few years ago I had one that was perfect, producing almost flat, crispy-edged, chewy middle cookies. But that was when I would write out recipes on post-its and stick them on the inside of my cupboards. Needless to say, that recipe has disappeared. I recently tried three new recipes. One with raisins, one with finely chopped nuts and coconut, and one just straight-up oatmeal. So, did I find "the one?" I'll reveal my findings on friday. Until then, here's recipe number one.

This oatmeal-raisin cookie tasted great, but the texture itself was too cakey and too thick. Yes, they were chewy, but I need those crisp edges!

8 tbsp butter, room temperature

1/2 C brown sugar

1/2 C sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

3/4 C flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 C quick-cook oats

3/4 C raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or using a hand mixer) cream butter and sugars. Add egg and vanilla and mix.

2. In a bowl mix flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. Add to the butter mixture and combine. Stir in oats, then stir in raisins.

3. Shape the dough into balls and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until cookies brown at the edges.

momofuku's cornflake marshmallow chocolate chip cookies

Making these cookies is a bit time consuming, but well worth it. They're sweet, but not too sweet, chewy, crispy and have a nice caramelized flavour from the marshmallows. Although it isn't the actual Momofuku recipe (here's hoping for a Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook soon), this copycat version makes some tasty cookies.

* caramelized cornflakes

thomas keller's chocolate chip cookies

My idea of the perfect chocolate chip cookie is simple: crunchy edges, chewy in the middle, not too sweet. This chocolate chip cookie recipe comes from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc At Home cookbook. I found these cookies to be almost there, but not perfect. Why? They were a bit too chocolate-y for me. It was probably my own fault for using only dark chocolate (it was all I had) rather than the two different types the recipe specifies. The recipe also doesn't call for any vanilla and I missed that little hint of flavour. Texturally the cookies were great. Crisp edges, soft centre. Most importantly everyone who ate these loved them.

peanut butter sandwich cookies

I'll admit that peanut butter just isn't my thing. I don't eat it straight out of the jar, I don't slather it on toast, and I usually only have it around for cooking purposes. I had a jar of the nutty stuff sitting in my pantry that I wanted to use up, so I decided to make these. And I liked them. Chewy peanut butter and oat cookies filled with a not-too-sweet peanut butter filling, they kind of reminded me of those Pirate cookies from when I was a kid, but chewy. I may even make these again soon.

cookies:

3/4 C flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C butter, room temp

1/2 C creamy peanut butter

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 C quick-cook oats

filling:

3 tbsp butter, room temp

1/2 C creamy peanut butter

3/4 C icing sugar, sifted

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir to mix evenly.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (you can probably do this with a hand mixer too), cream together butter, peanut butter and both sugars on medium speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in egg and vanilla and mix.

3. Add in the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Sit in the oats by hand until evenly distributed.

4. Use a small ice cream scoop or a spoon to scoop out about a tablespoon and a half of dough for each cookie. Roll into a balls and place on baking sheet a couple of inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes and rotate the baking sheet halfway through for even cooking. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Make the filling by creaming all of the ingredients in a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer) until light and fluffy. Spread filling on the flat side of one cookie and sandwich with another.

coconut lime crisps

I finally got to make these great cookies the other day and the recipe was pretty simple. I found this recipe at Plate Online which has a good list of recipes from different chefs. I think I wanted to make these cookies because they had the word "crisps" in them. They are crispy, chewy, citrusy and coconutty all in one.

momofuku's blueberry and cream cookies

When I was in New York this past February I made sure to stop by Momofuku's Milk Bar for some late-night cookies. I fell in love with their compost cookie and the marshmallow, cornflake, chocolate chip cookie, but unfortunately their blueberry and cream cookie was sold out that night. So when I got home I decided to make them instead. Though a bit time consuming, these cookies were worth it. They're not overly sweet and have a unique flavour that I presume comes from the "milk crumbs". I found the recipe here.