Ingredients:

Yes, I do know that it has been years since my last confession update.  In my defense, this originally started as a one year and then done project.  So here’s the scoop to bring you up to date.  Ben, started working from home, and then after a couple years while we were on hiatus it was mostly just holiday and gift baking on the cookie front.  But now… Ben is back working at an office, which also just happens to be the old office and so… the cookies are back!

The first cookies to head into the office (just in time for a real TGIF) are chocolate and vanilla sandwich rounds which are a tribute to Go stones, as his new cube mate enjoys the game.

You will make two batches of cookies (and two batches of frosting filling) to make both the chocolate and the vanilla.

Cookie

Stacked for your deliciousness

• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 3 ounces cream cheese softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa* (for chocolate version only)

Buttercream Frosting Filling

• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar (vanilla frosting) OR
• 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar (chocolate frosting)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (chocolate frosting)

Directions:

Cookie

1. Combine butter and cream cheese together.
2. Add sugar, then eggs and vanilla
3. Slowly add in remaining dry ingredients.  Be aware that this dough will be very firm as you get the last of the flour, and depending on your mixer you may need to work some in by hand.
4. Chill dough for 2 hours or more.
5. Roll out dough to 1/8th inch thick on a lightly floured surface.  Cut out your cookies to approximately 1 1/2inch round*.
6. Bake for 6 to 7 minutes at 375ºF (190ºC) on an ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Transfer to wire rack to cool
8. Frost the backside of one cookie, and then sandwich a second cookie on top.

Frosting

1. Whip your softened butter until fluffy
2. Mix in the vanilla.
3. Slowly mix in the sugar (and cocoa for the chocolate filling) As your frosting gets too stiff, add in the first tablespoon of milk.  Finish adding in the sugar, and just enough of the second milk tablespoon to give your frosting a nice spreading consistency.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

*As some people may remember or just plain know… I have a rather large number of nifty cookie cutters (I even recently bought one shaped like a mouse) but for whatever reason, I do not own any plain old round circular cookie cutters.  This means my framed eggs are stars or hearts or even cat shapes….  every time a recipe calls for a round cookie cutter I find something to improvise.  For my larger Lemon cookies it was an espresso cup, but for this one, it was this spice shaker/toothpick holder.  Just unscrew the top and voila!  (I also briefly considered a flute glass)

Ingredients:

This is a variation on my grandmother’s oatmeal cookies that I came up with.  I swapped out a few ingredients so I’m willing to say this is my recipe.

I thoroughly taste test…. which is otherwise known as eating a half dozen cookies.

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 cups oatmeal
• 2 cups flour
• 1 CUP dried cranberries
• ½ tsp. cloves
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar together.
2. Add eggs and buttermilk and mix well
3. Add dry ingredients (flour, oatmeal, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves) and mix well
4. Stir in dried Cranberries
5. Drop by rounded tablespoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 10 minutes at 350℉

Makes roughly 5 dozen!

Ingredients:

So this recipe is named after Ben, and is a combination of Lemony Sweetness and Old Fashion Sugar Cookies.  It is a Carla Original recipe, so this is the very first version.   I still do not actually own a round cookie cutter… so I used a small espresso freebie cup, with the edge dipped in flour.

Lemony goodness in a sugar cookie crust. Its like a cookie that's a pie!

• 1 1/4 cups butter
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup lemon curd
• powdered sugar (for dusting)

Directions:

1. Cream Butter and Sugar together.
2. Add in Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Nutmeg and Salt.
3. Beat in Eggs and Vanilla.
4. Add in Flour and Buttermilk slowly until combined.
5. Cover and Chill for 3 hours.
6. Preheat oven to 375º F (190ºC)
7. Roll out the dough in small portions onto a lightly floured surface so that it is approximately 1/2 inch thick.
8. Cut dough into roughly 2 to 3 inch rounds.
9. Spoon approximately 1 tablespoon of lemon curd onto half the rounds.  Stack a plain round onto the round with the lemon curd.  Pinch edges slightly.  You can use a fork if that is easier.  (Baking will remove the fork marks)
10. Place stuffed cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
11. Bake for 8-10 minutes until set, the edges will just be turning brown.
12. Carefully remove cookies from cookie sheet and dust with powdered sugar while still warm.
13. Cool Completely.

Makes approximately 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Ingredients

This recipe comes courtesy of my earlier mentioned cookie cook book, I received for Christmas.  Unfortunately the bookmark is also noting the other recipe on the facing page, so my cookbook is still full of Christmas cards.  Also since my brown sugar dried out I ended up swapping in regular sugar and a dollop of molasses for that.  (Which is totally an acceptable substitute if you find you ran out of brown sugar.  Just use the same amount of white and about a tablespoon per cup of sugar of molasses to get the  flavoring right.)

Perfect for the next debate... two sides to the issues AND the cookies!

• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the peanut butter and butter until blended.
   

   You won't find these logs on Axmen!

2. Add the sugar, brown sugar, baking soda and baking powder and beat together until well combined.
3. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat.
4. Add in the flour.  (You may find you need to hand mix in the last bit of flour as the dough gets a bit thick)
5. Divide dough in half.  Roll 1/2 of the dough into a log and wrap in wax paper or plastic wrap and chill for one hour.
6. For second half of dough, add in the melted chocolate and mix well.
7. Roll out the chocolate half into a log of similar size and shape to your first.  (It may be easier to roll a couple shorter logs rather than one big log) Wrap it up like the first log(s) and Chill for an hour.
8. Cut each log in half lengthwise and partner a chocolate half with a peanut butter half.  Press together and roll lightly  to smooth out the seams.  Re-wrap your logs and Chill for another hour.
9. Pre-heat oven to 375ºF (190ºC).
10. Cut your log into 1/4 inch slices and bake them on an ungreased cookie sheet for approximately 8 minutes until the edges are just golden brown.
11. Cool on a wire rack.

This year for Christmas, I received “The Ultimate Cookie Book” with over 500 cookie recipes.  I’ve flipped through it several times and using the various envelopes and Christmas cards at my fingertips made note of quite a few notable recipes to try.

200 more recipes than King Leonidas' personal guard, surely the baking will prevail!

Ingredients:

So I had some coconut that has been in my cupboard from an earlier cookie idea I later passed on and went googling for a new recipe and came up with this one.  I’m afraid I made my cookies a bit large but…. that just means there is more to enjoy right?

Crisp Cookie Shell around creamy coconut filling!

Coconut filling:

• 6 oz cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cup  coconut flakes

Cookie Shell:

• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup butter softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, at room temperature

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Coconut filling:

1. Beat cream cheese and sugar at medium speed until smooth and light, about 1 minute.
2. Beat in egg yolk, then vanilla, until smooth.
3. Beat in coconut at low speed until evenly distributed. Set aside.

Cookie Shell:

1. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. Beat butter to soften. Add sugar and continue to beat until light and airy but still a little grainy. Beat in egg until smooth.
3. Add flour mixture, beat at low speed until just combined. Dough should be stiff but still pliable.
4. Scoop a small amount of dough out and flatten into a circle.  (I found it easiest to squash my cookie circles between two sheets of wax paper.
5. Mound a heaping teaspoon of coconut filling onto the center of the dough. Fold the sides of the dough up, but do not seal the top.
6. Place cookies on a greased cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
7. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. at 375ºF.
8. Cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Ingredients:

Lemon, so refreshing and spring of a flavor.  And something decidedly not chocolate.   While I’ve made a few different varieties of these in the past this recipe is from here.

Lemon Cookies are like a little ball of sunshine in your cookiejar

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
3. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

Now if you did like I did and over mixed your dough… just stick the bowl in the fridge for a couple hours to help stiffen it up.  I also added a couple drops of yellow food coloring to give it a little more yellow pop!

Ingredients:

So I experiment a bit in my kitchen…. trying new things and learning new recipes.  And one thing I decided to see just how tough they were to make was buttermilk biscuits.  And aside from them being shaped like acorns instead of circles (Who knew that plain circle cookie cutters/biscuit cutters weren’t so common in my house!)  they were quite tasty.  This did however leave me with extra buttermilk.  So firstly I used a bit of buttermilk in place of sour milk in my great grandmothers banana bread recipe.  The results were delicious!

So dark and Rich

Which made me wonder what else might be delicious with buttermilk…. and a short google later I found this recipe.  The results were AMAZING.  Super rich and chewy delightful cookies that are now on my short list for taking home to family.

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Melt the butter in a small, microwave safe bowl.
4. In a large bowl, combine the melted butter (still warm) with cocoa powder and whisk until very smooth. Whisk in sugar, vanilla extract and buttermilk. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Drop dough in 1-inch balls into prepared baking sheet, leaving about two inches between cookies to allow for spread.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes on a lightly greased baking sheet, until cookies are set around the edges.
7. Cool for 2-3 minutes on a baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack with a spatula to cool completely.

Ingredients:

Gingersnaps are like the more eccentric cousin in the molasses cookie family. The one that seems to get away with things your own parents wouldn’t allow. They have that added little bite that paired with a glass of milk and a good book make a perfect afternoon.

These cookies are made a bit smaller... better take two!

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Cream together the margarine, sugar, and molasses
2. Beat in the egg
3. Sift together dry ingredients, and then combine together.
4. Chill for 1 hour or until dough is fairly stiff
5. Roll dough into small balls, and then roll the balls in granulated sugar
6. Bake at 350 F for 12-15 minutes.

Ingredients:

These cookies have been a staple of my holiday memories ever since I was “knee-high to a grasshopper”.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate together in cookie form!

This is actually the second time I’ve made them, previously I made them about Mid/Late December.  According to Ben, one member of the team really enjoyed these cookies, so he got the last few from the jar when they went back to work after the move.

This time I ran out of Hershey’s Kisses so I made up the remainder with strawberry jam.

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup Peanut butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• Hershey’s Kisses (unwrapped)

Directions:

Also great with jam!

1. Cream together butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and the first half cup of granulated sugar.
2. Beat in Egg and Vanilla.
3. Add in flour, baking soda and salt and mix thoroughly.
4. Roll dough into ~2 inch balls.  Then roll balls into the 1/4 cup granulated sugar.
5. Bake on a greased cookie sheet for 10 minutes at 350ºF (176.6º C)
6. Remove cookies from oven and press a chocolate kiss into the top of each cookie.
7. Return to oven and bake for an additional 2-3 minutes.  Cookies should be slightly browned, and the kisses will have a glossy look.
8. Remove from cookie sheet and cool completely.

Its important to allow these cookies to cool completely or you will find your kisses smooshed and smeared.  (Or your jam all runny!)