Chocolate chip cookies (the best recipe to freeze)

I make a batch of this cookie dough, freeze it in cookie dough balls and whenever we want a warm chocolate chip cookie (perfect with ice cream!) we can just throw them in the oven.  These are thick, chewy, big and must be eaten warm :)

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 1/3 cups flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bag mini chocolate chips or half and half mini and chunks

Directions:

1. Mix the butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt then slowly add to creamed mixture.
4.* the dough should not be sticky...
5.  Add chocolate chips.
6.Form cookie dough into balls using a 1/4 inch scoop or measuring cup and freeze for at least 2 hours or up to 3 months.

7.  To bake: place frozen cookie dough balls on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Homeade Oreos

Ingredients:
For the chocolate wafers:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened Hersheys special dark cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
• 1 large egg

For the filling:

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 2 cups sifted confectioners sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.
2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
3. Take rounded 1/2 tablespoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 8-9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.
4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
5. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk.

My Favorite Vegan Cookies (chocolate chip)

this makes one pan of cookies..... usually always double the recipe.

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cu sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon blackstrap molasses
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup non-dairy chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
• In a bowl, sift in the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the sugar and salt, and stir until well combined. 
• In a separate bowl, combine the maple syrup with the molasses and vanilla, then stir in the oil until well combined. 
• Add the wet mixture to the dry, along with the chocolate chips, and stir through until just well combined (do not overmix).
• Place large spoonfuls of the batter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and flatten a little.
• Bake for 11 minutes, until just golden (if you bake for much longer, they will dry out). 
• Let cool on the sheet for no more than 1 minute (again, to prevent drying), then transfer to a cooling rack

Sugar cookies

Ingredients:
1 C Butter (room temperature)
3/4 C Vegetable Oil
1 1/4 C Sugar
3/4 C Powdered Sugar
2 T Water
2 Eggs
1/2 t Baking Soda
1/2 t Cream of Tarter
1 t Salt
5 1/2 C Flour

  frosting:
1/2 cup room temperature butter
3/4 C Sour Cream
Approx 1 2lb Package of Powdered Sugar
1/4 t salt
1/4 C Milk
Red Food Coloring

Directions:

1. Cream the butter, oil, sugar , water and eggs.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients and slowly add to the butter mixture
3. The dough should be a little crumbly, not sticky
4. Scoop 2tblsp sized balls onto cookie sheet
5. Flatten the cookies with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar, and a pinch of salt
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool cookies on a cooking rack. Once cool put them in the fridge.
7. For the frosting, cream the butter, sour cream , and salt together.  Slowly add the powdered sugar, add the milk a splash at a time until you get your desired consistency.  add 1 drop of red food coloring and mix on high for 1 more minute.
8. Keep the cookies sealed in a container in the fridge, frost with room temp frosting right before serving.

Glazed Pumpkin Sugar Cookie

Ingredients:

1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
for the glaze-
3 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2) In a large bowl, stir butter, oil, pumpkin, sugars, vanilla and eggs together until incorporated and smooth. 3) Slowly mix in all dry ingredients until completely incorporated.
4) Scoop onto prepared baking sheet using 1 1/2 tablespoon scoop and flatten to 1/2 inch thick using the bottom of a glass. If the dough is sticking to the glass, press the bottom of the glass in granulated sugar before flattening. Bake 8-9 minutes.
5) While cookies bake, stir all ingredients together for glaze until smooth.
6) Once cookies are finished baking, cool 3 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to cooling rack. 7)Spread 1 1/2 teaspoons glaze over each warm cookie. Let glaze harden 2-3 hours before serving. OR eat them warm with lots of runny glaze 

Easy Oreo Truffles

These have become a tradition.  This super easy recipe has become very popular, I'm not surprised!
Mint oreos are great with this too.

Ingredients:

1 package Oreo cookies
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
16 ounces chocolate, melted for dipping

Directions:

1. In a food processor, process cookies into fine crumbs.
2. Add the cream chesse, and mix until well blended.
3. Roll mixture into 42 balls, about 1 tablespoon each.
4. Dip the balls in melted chocolate and place on wax paper.

Chewy Ginger Cookies

These are a big time holiday favorite of ours.  A few years back I even won "best overall dessert" with these cookies.  I've been trying to get a picture of these for a long time, but they always get eaten too fast.  Today I managed to get the last 2.!

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup margarine, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon orange juice concentrate
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup white sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the orange juice and molasses.
3.  Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture.  But do not over mix.
4.  Using a 1tabelspoons sized cookie scoop, scoop balls of cookie dough into the remaining 1/4 cups of sugar.  Roll them very gently into the sugar.  Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.
5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

I love how cute these little candy corn sugar cookies are.  How perfect are they for October?!

Ingredients:

2 Sticks unsalted Butter, softened

1 Cup Granulated Sugar

1 Egg

2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

2 Teaspoons Lemon Zest

1 Teaspoon Salt

3 Cups All-Purpose Flour

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

Red Food Dye

Yellow Food Dye

1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar (for dusting)

Directions:

1.Combine butter and sugar in a large bowl; beat at medium speed until creamy 3-5 minutes.

2.Add egg, lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt. Continue beating until well mixed.

3. Sift the flour and baking soda together and add to the creamed mixture.  Stir just until combined.

4. Divide the dough into thirds (each 3rd is jsut over 1 cup of dough).  Leave 1/3 of the dough white.  mkae 1/3 of the dough yellow and the last 1/3 orange. 

5. Press the white dough evenly into the bottom of a loaf pan that you have lined with foil, wax, or parchment paper.

6. Press orange dough evenly over white dough.

7. Pressyellow dough over the orange dough, so it is even and flat

8. Cover and refrigerate until firm (2 hours or overnight is best). Once chilled, invert your loaf pan and unwrap your dough. On a cutting board cut loaf crosswise into 1/4-inch slices using a sharp knife, trimming edges to make even, if necessary. Cut each slice into triangles.

9. Place 1-inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 7-10 minutes in a pre-heated 375 degree oven. Place cookies straight into a bowl with sugar and coat. Place coated cookies on a baking rack to cool.

Recipe from: http://kaitlininthekitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/candy-corn-sugar-cookies.html

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today was the first day of school, so in preparation for the boys return home this afternoon Ada and I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  I have 3 different chocolate chip cookie recipes that I love.  This one is super soft, I think you will love them!


Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant french vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups chocolate chops

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.
3.  Cream together the butter and sugars.  Beat in the instant pudding mix until combined.  Mix in the eggs and vanilla.  Mix in the flour mixture until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Use a 1 tablespoon sized cookie scoop (or roll spoonfuls of dough in hand) and scoop dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until edges are golden.  The cookies will look a little underdone.  Let them rest on the pan for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on wire racks.

Caramel filled chocolate cookies

These cookies couldn't be any better. period.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter softened

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cocoa powder
52 chocolate covered caramels  (My favorite is rolos.  Nestles treasure and Caramelos are good too.  I plan to try the Hershey Kisses filled with caramel one day)

1/2 cups chopped walnuts

1 tabelspoon sugar

Directions:

1. Beat butter until creamy.
2. Gradually beat in white and brown sugar, eggs and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, soda, salt, cocoa, and gradually add to butter and sugar mixture.
4. Cover chill dough for 1 hour.
5. Roll the dough into balls around each caramel piece.  ( make each dough piece into a bowl shape, place the candy into the bowl, then wrap the dough up around the candy and then mold the whole thing into a round ball)  I get about 52 cookies using a 1 tablespoon sized cookie scoop.
6. Combine the tablespoon of sugar and chopped nuts in a small bowl
7. Dip the top of the cookie dough ball into sugar and nuts.  (or just into sugar if you don't like nuts) 
8. Place cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet and cook at 375 for 8-9 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.
9. enjoy warm and gooey or cool and chewy.

Sugar Cookies (from the pioneer woman)

I love these cookies.  They are the sugar cookies that our Grandmothers made. These aren't the cookies that you load with tons of frosting.  These are light, delicate and melt on your tongue kind of cookies.  My grandma had nutmeg in hers, lemon would be good too.

I got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman. ; Thank you!
Ingredients


■2 whole Large Eggs

■1 cup Canola Oil

■2 sticks Butter, Softened

■1 cup Sugar, Plus Extra For Sprinkling

■1 cup Powdered Sugar

■1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

■4 cups Plus 2 Tablespoons, All-purpose Flour

■1 teaspoon Salt

■1 teaspoon Baking Soda

■1 teaspoon Cream Of Tartar

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.



In a large mixing bowl, cream together eggs, oil, butter, sugars, and vanilla.



Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Cover and refrigerate dough one hour.



Using a cookie scoop, drop balls of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.



Smear a dab of butter all over the bottom of a glass, then dip the glass in granulated sugar. Use the glass to flatten each ball of dough, dipping again into the sugar each time. Repeat until all are flattened.



Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until cookies are just barely turning brown. Don’t overbrown!



Allow to cool before eating. Cookies are ultra crumbly!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

This year we made Santa Red Velvet Whoopie Pies, I think he liked them.

Ingredients:

1 box Red Velvet Cake Mix
1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 tablespoon water
2 eggs
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
2 cups marshmallow cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pinch salt

Directions:

Combine cake mix with the oil, water and eggs. Use a 2 oz cookie dough scoop to drop the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake at 325 degrees for abour 13 minutes.
Cool oin wire racks.

For the filling, beat together the butter and powdered sugar until fluffy. Beat in the marshmallow cream, vanilla and salt until smooth. Spoon filling between two cookes to make a sandwich.

Store pies between layers of wax paper in an airtight container and refrigerate.


This makes about 18 cookies

Oatmeal Cream Pies

(from "The Amish Cook's Baking Book")

These were amazing. So amazing that the only way I could make them is if I sent them all away with Tyson to work. Thanks to all the brown sugar, these cookies are soft and get even softer as they sit out.

Ingredients:

3/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups quick cooking rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 tablespoons boiling water

Cream:
1 1/2 cups butter cream frosting
1 1/2 cups marshmallow cream fluff stuff

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet and set aside (or use parchment)
Cream the butter, sugar, and eggs in a large.
In a separate bowl, sift together the salt, flour, and baking powder. Add to the reamed mixture.
Add the cinnamon and oats. Mix well.
In a small dish, add the baking soda to the boiling water, and then stir the mixture into the rest of the batter. Mix well.
Drop by tablespoons onto the baking sheet about 2 inches apart and bake until the cookies are firm and just starting to turn golden around the edges, 10 to 15 minutes. (what??!!! I cooked mine for 6-8 minutes, and they were perfect)
Cool the cookies on a wire rack.

For the cream filling. Mix the butter cream frosting and marshmallow fluff with a beater for 1-2 minutes.

* I am not sure what the cook book actually used for the cream filling, I forgot to write it down. So I came up with my own.

No Bake Cookies

What? You don't make no bake cookies all the time for your family and eat the whole batch in one day? Well you should, and this is THE recipe.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup cocoa (preferably Dutch processed cocoa, or a mixture of dark cocoa powder)
1/2 cup peanut butter (or any nut butter, try Nutella too!)
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 heaping cups quick cooking oats
a pinch of salt

Directions:

Combine butter, sugar, milk and cocoa in sauce pan over medium heat. Cook and stir until it comes to a complete boil. Boil for 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and stir in the remaining ingredients until combined. Drop spoonfuls of cookie mixture onto wax paper and let cool.
Store cooled cookies in the fridge or at room temperature.

My "go to" granola bars

This recipe originally came from allrecipes. I love this recipe because you can really do so much with it. You can add in anything you want, any kind of nut or fruit or chocolate etc.... The above picture has white chocolate chips, walnuts and dried cherries. My favorite is to add some peanut butter (and reduce the oil a bit) and chocolate chips. I also like to make the recipe more healthy sometimes by subbing some of the oil for applesauce or reducing the sugar etc..... Below is the basic recipe I use (it is a little different from the one from allrecipes)

Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats

3/4 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup wheat germ or ground flax seed or any combination of both

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp salt

nuts, dried fruit, coconut, chocolate etc....

1/2 cup honey

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp extract (like vanilla or almond)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and oil a 9x13 inch baking pan. In large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. Poor in the remaining ingredients and mix well. Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan. Make sure it is really packed in. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the bars are golden around the edges. Cool for 5-10 minutes and then cut bars while they are still warm. Let the bars cool completely and enjoy! Store in an air tight container.

* If your bars come out too crumbly, one good trick is to just break the bars into little pieces and bake them again on a cookie sheet, then you will have some delicious crunchy granola.

Coconut Cookies

OK, so these are pretty much amazing. Super chewy, crispy, chewy, rich, chewy. The fact that these cookies were the size of Jonas's head did not stop us each from eating 2 or 3 or 4. :) Unless you feel good about your body image after eating 2 cups worth of butter plan on giving some of these away, or at least only make half the batch.
So, I saw someone make this cookie on Martha Stewart then I looked up the recipe on her site, but the recipes were not the same.... So here is my version:

2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups dark brown sugar (light brown sugar would be fine)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
8 cups of flaked coconut (and if you can find it and afford it, get the coconut chips)

Directions:

Cream together butter and granulated sugar. Add brown sugar and mix well. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture and mix until combined. Mix in coconut.

Using a 2 inch ice cream scoop, scoop dough onto parchment paper lined baking sheets. (6 cookies per pan) Flatten dough slightly. Put baking sheets in the refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 350 degrees, and cook for 14-16 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool. You will be tempted to eat them at this point, very very tempted. But really, let them cool on the pan for at least 20 minutes.

This makes about 24-28 big cookies.

Sugar Cookies

I love this recipe because it is not too sweat and it is very soft. Just perfect for a mountain of fluffy butter cream icing!

3/4 cup butter room temp
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
3 cup flour


Cream butter, sugar and egg until very light and fluffy.
Add sour cream, vanilla and lemon
Sift together flour, salt and baking powder and add to cream mixture.
Mix to a soft dough.

Place dough between two pieces of plastic wrap and roll dough out until about 1/4 inch thick.

Place plastic covered dough in the refrigerator for three hours or over night.

Cut out cookie shapes and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
Heat oven to 350 degrees and cook cookies for 8-9 minutes. Take out when the first cracks appear on cookies.

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cookies

If I ever ask my kids what kind of cookies I should make they usually say the ones with the peanut butter on the inside and the chocolate on the outside. So here you go...

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, soft
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 tblsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup powder sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
granulated sugar

Cream butter, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar and 1/4 cup peanut butter until combined. Beat in egg, milk and vanilla. Beat in flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Shape dough into about 32 balls.
For peanut butter filling, stir together powder sugar and 1/2 cup peanut butter until smooth (this is a good job for the kids, because it is kind of a pain. sometimes I add a drop of milk if it is too crumbly) shape into about 32 balls. Shape chocolate dough around peanut butter filling and roll into balls. Place on cookie sheet and lightly flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in granulated sugar.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes or until surface is slightly cracked. Let cool on pan for 1 minute then move to wire racks.

Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup butter flavored shortening (or regular)
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 ( or chocolate chips or my favorite cinnamon chips, they have them during the holidays)
1 cup chopped nuts


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
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, raisins and nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes until light and golden. Do not over bake. Let them cool for 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheets to cool completely. Store in airtight container.

*seriously the cinnamon chips are so good.
*parchment paper is good