Chocolate-Corn Flake Cookies

Chocolate-Corn Flake Cookies

2-½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened to room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 cups chocolate chunks or chips

3/4 cup toffee bits (such as Skor baking pieces)

1 cup finely chopped toasted almonds (I use my food processor)

1 cup finely chopped corn flakes (I use my food processor)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. In mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter till light and creamy. Add sugars and beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla gradually add dry ingredients ¼ cup at a time until well incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips, toffee bits, nuts and corn flakes. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto Silpat lined baking sheet.

Bake 11-14 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Yield 3-4-dozen cookies. 

Christmas Cookie Exchange

We decided to start a new Christmas tradition in our new home, a cookie exchange. We do do a lot of entertaining this time of year, but mostly in the fall. We both felt a Christmas cookie exchange would be a fun thing to do as a family. And as Oscar grows older had an help prepare cookies and invite his friends down the road to be a part of it all.  

Holly and I each came up with a new recipe to share. It was fun perusing many cookbooks and looking online. I decided to to a traditional chocolate chip cookie, but added a bunch of toffee bits and pretzel chunks into the batter. It came out to be a nice salty-sweet concoction.

Holly made a really rich & dark chocolate cookie with chunks of peppermint and white chocolate chunks in it. The fun thing about a cookie exchange is you can try all sorts of new things and add some new recipes to your cooking repertoire.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Holly Craven

1-1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup dutch-process cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 ounces good quality semi sweet chocolate coarsely chopped

4 to 6 ounces peppermint chunks (such as Andes baking pieces)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1-1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla or pure peppermint extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

Melt the 4 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate with the butter in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Let it cool slightly.

Put chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs and extract in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until combined. Reduce the speed to low and gradually fold in the flour mixture. Fold in the peppermint chunks.

Using a 1-1/2 inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto silpat or parchment lined baking sheets spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are flat and surfaces are cracked, about 15 minutes. Cookies should be soft. Let cool on parchment lined wire racks to prevent sticking.

Cookies can be stored between parchment layers in an airtight container. Best if eaten within 3 days, or frozen.

Yields 2 to 2.5 dozen cookies. 

Pretzel Chocolate Toffee Cookies
Dan Craven

2-½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened to room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1/2 to 3/4 cup toffee bits (such as Skor baking pieces)

1 cup roughly chopped pretzel chunks

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. In mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter till light and creamy. Add sugars and beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add dry ingredients ¼ cup at a time until well incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips, toffee bits and pretzel chunks. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto Silpat lined baking sheet.

Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Yield 4-dozen cookies. 

With our house full of friends old and new, I also made a big batch of Aztec Hot Chocolate. This was pretty much milk & cream based, with spices and some chopped-melted chocolate to the simmering milk.

Lastly I made a big pitcher of Cranberry Shrub. Holly and I both like Cranberry Shrub, and it stems to our time we spend in Williamsburg, VA. We honeymooned there, as well as spending our 10th Anniversary there. Many of the traditional tavern recipes can be enjoyed in King's Arms Tavern, or Christiana Campbell's Tavern to name a few. Cranberry Shrub traditionally is spiked with your liquor of choice, but we typically make it alcohol free. It's a very tart & refreshing combination of 100% juices and lots and lots of fresh lime juice. It was a fun new tradition to start and we look forward to doing this in the years to come.

Peanut Butter Reese's Pieces Cookies

After my last half marathon run, I was really craving something peanut butter. That along with chinese food and lemonade made for an interesting combination, but I felt like I deserved it after hitting the pavement and burning 3000+ calories in a 2.5 hour run...! I looked at a few peanut butter cookie recipes and came up with this one. We had some Reese's Pieces lying around the house and they seemed like a logical inclusion in lieu of chocolate chips this time around. 

Dan's Peanut Butter Reese's Pieces Cookies 

1 cup super chunky peanut butter
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
2 tablespoons dark corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt 
1 to 2 cups Reese's Pieces 

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 325°F. 

Line 2 large baking sheets with foil or a silpat baking sheet. Using an electric mixer, beat first 6 ingredients (peanut butter through vanilla extract) in large bowl until well blended. Add baking soda & salt to flour. Then stir flour and oats into mix peanut butter mixture. Gently mix in Reese's Pieces.

Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets (15 per sheet), spacing 1 1/2 inches apart. Flatten cookies slightly with moistened fingertips. Freeze cookies on sheets 15 minutes. Bake cookies 10 minutes. Reverse sheets and rotate in oven and bake until golden, about 10 minutes longer. Let cookies cool on sheets until beginning to firm, about 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely.

Chocolate Shortbread Shamrocks

I grew up with distinct family food traditions at holidays. No exception even for St. Patrick's Day. Growing up my Mom had a cookie cutter collection all over the kitchen. Nails everywhere with cookie cutters hanging just about everywhere. There were cookie cutters for just about every holiday and every important family celebration like birthdays, graduation, back to school etc. One of my favorites growing up was this shamrock cookie cutter. Last summer when we were down in Utah visiting family, my Dad decided to divvy up Mom's cookie cutters and cook books so we could take them home and enjoy them in our own homes. While she's not longer with us, it's nice to reflect on the fun family memories and food traditions.

I decided to do my own twist on the Craven family favorite, sugar cookies. Instead I made a short bread chocolate cookie dough base. Then I decided to make a pistachio-lime glaze for the top.



Prepping.



Rolling.



And cutting out dough in the shape of shamrocks.



Mom's shamrock cookie cutter from when I was a little kid.



Spacing out the cookies on my silpat baking sheet.



Cutting dough.



Getting ready for baking.



Some luck of the Irish Shamrock's on our dining table.



Our holiday table.



Roasted pistachios for the lime glaze.



Zesting & squeezing fresh lime juice.



Adding powered sugar to fresh lime zest, juice and some melted butter.



Finishing up the glaze.



Holly & I frosting the cooled cookies.



A few treats for us to enjoy on this 2012 St. Patrick's Day. Holly and I look forward to keeping many fun family food traditions alive and sharing them with Oscar as he grows up.

Chocolate Shortbread Shamrocks

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Combine all dry ingredients in a separate bowl and sift them together. Add sifted dry ingredients to creamed mixture, blending well. Chill dough about 1 hour until firm enough to roll out.

Once dough is firm, portion out on a floured work surface. With a floured rolling pin, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with shamrock shaped cookie cutter. Place on a prepared baking sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for 6-7 minutes. Cool and glaze. Makes about 15-18 cookies.

Pistachio-Lime Glaze

1/4 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
Zest of one lime
Juice of one lime
Pistachios, roasted & finely chopped

In a small saucepan or skillet melt butter over low heat. Remove from heat and blend in powered sugar, zest & juice. If glaze is too thick add more juice to get to desired consistency. Frost cooked & cooled shamrocks and sprinkle roasted pistachios on top.