Chocolate-dipped Rolled Sugar Cookies

Posted: February 13, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Cookies | Tags: , | 1 Comment

Well it is time for the Hallmark-made holiday! Valentine’s Day yet again, or as I like to call it – Single’s Night at the Gym! I realize that there are many people who don’t celebrate V-day that are in committed relationships still at the gym on Feb 14 but I like to believe it is single’s night. And if it isn’t, why aren’t there single’s nights at the gym??

When I switched from an all women’s gym to a co-ed gym I thought that I would have more opportunities to meet people but instead I think the guys just get more annoyed because I use their equipment rather than staying on the women’s-only side. (They don’t realize that not only do we not have a proper power/squat rack but our free weights only go up to 30lbs.) So for ‘freaks’ like me that like to lift heavy, we are ‘stuck’ sharing the equipment with the meatheads or the groups of guys that seem to spend more time gossiping than actually working out. There are of course some that don’t fall in either of those categories but I just assume they also don’t fall into the ‘single’ category either so then my time spent in their area of the gym goes to waste for meeting purposes (of course it isn’t wasted entirely – I still get a great workout!)

Anyways, back to these cookies. I have made these cookies for years any time that I have wanted cutout cookies and the recipe always works out. They are soft and buttery and tasty without being overly sweet. It comes from allrecipes.com and it is simply called “The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies” and that it is!

Rolled Sugar Cookies (from allrecipes)

  • 3/4 cup butter, room temp
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  1. In the bowl of a mixer (or with a hand mixer) beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Bead in eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla.
  2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl and then add this to the butter/sugar/eggs mix.
  3. Wrap in plastic wrap and refridgerate at least one hour or overnight
  4. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
  5. Roll dough out on a WELL-FLOURED surface to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut with desired cookie cutters and place on prepared baking sheets. Reroll dough when necessary.
  6. Bake 6-8 min (careful – if they are thin they will cook fast). Cool a few minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a rack to cool completely.
  7. Once cooled, you can either dip them in melted chocolate as I did or you could decorate them with royal icing or you could just eat them plain!

Chewy Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies

Posted: February 10, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Cookies | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies: the pictures really don't do them justice

I have started making cookies for a department wide weekly seminar at work. After people have complained for years that the cookies are not to their liking (first they were too sweet and somewhat nauseating on an empty stomach then the next ones were too hard), I finally convinced them to let me make them. To me it was a great opportunity to test out the MANY cookie recipes that I have been wanting to try for years but have not out of fear of eating entire batches of cookies to myself.

So the person that helped me organize this is obsessed with peanut butter cookies. I don’t know a lot of people that would choose a plain peanut butter cookie as their favourite one but he would. Of course that meant that I had to find a perfect peanut butter recipe immediately. This recipe is delicious. Even as a lover of peanut butter I usually prefer my cookies with a little more to them but these are definitely the exception. They are super thick and chewy and have the perfect peanut butter’y richness to make them truly delicious! I need to make them again soon.

The 2nd week I didn’t make any peanut butter cookies – and I was warned.

So with my peanut butter cookie recipes nailed on the first try, now I just have to figure out how to not eat so much dough every week… it is a bad situation. Three batches of cookies each week = 3 times too much dough. Even worse is when I make ginger molasses cookies and the dough needs to sit overnight in the fridge. I ended up making the dough on Sunday and baking the cookies on Wednesday… so that meant the delicious dough sat in my fridge for 3 days… and was munched on somewhat regularly for 3 days. Bad situation. I admit it, I love ginger molasses cookies cookie dough. Shockingly I love it more than chocolate chip cookie dough.

Oh, wait this post was supposed to be about the peanut butter cookies, the dough talk got me thinking about how much I loved having that dough in the fridge. And how bad I may do on my upcoming half marathon because of the junk I have been eating! Coming back to peanut butter but related to the ginger molasses cookies – how many people would think that peanut butter ginger molasses cookies would be good? I have made them before and I think they are fabulous but I am not sure if they appeal to too many others…

Anyways, if you happen to notice a few extra cookie recipes on here in the next few months, now you know why!

Chewy Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies (uh oh, I don’t remember who’s blog I got these from! Sorry!)

  • Butter & Peanut Butter: Creamy & Dreamy

    1 cup peanut butter

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  •  3 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  3. Cream together peanut butter and butter with mixer. Add sugars and beat until light and fluffy.
  4. Add eggs one at a time and then add vanilla while continuing to beat.
  5. Add the flour mix while continuing to beat.
  6. Spoon/scoop out desired sized cookies. Dip a fork in cool water and use tines to add the familiar cross-hatched pattern.
  7. Bake 10-12 minutes (depends on the size of your cookies!). Allow to cool at least 3 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring them to the cooling rack. Then ENJOY!!!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Fudge

Posted: February 4, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Candies | Tags: , | 1 Comment

I had some ideas earlier in the week as to what I was going to write here but I am blanking now. I know it was something unrelated to the recipe… everyone else goes on about random things on their food blogs that are unrelated so I figured I could start doing that too! But now I am in a bit of a weird mood and am blanking on what it was. So maybe I will just say that this recipe is delicious and you should make it!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Fudge

  • 1 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup cream
  • 1/4 milk
  • 1 Tb corn syrup
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 2 Tb butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 flour
  • 1/3 chocolate chips

  1. Beating the cooled syrup

    Line an 8×8″ pan with parchment.

  2. Bring sugar, brown sugar, cream, milk, corn syrup and salt to a boil in a 3-qt saucepan over medium. Stir occasionally with a spatula. Boil to 242 degrees, stir frequently.
  3. Remove from heat and stir in butter, vanilla and flour.
  4. Pour the syrup into a 9×13″ pan (not the parchment lined one 8×8″ one!) and let sit at room temp about 20 minutes. The recipe said to let it cool to 110° but I accidently left it to 90 degrees. Oops. It still worked.
  5. Scrape the batter into a stand mixer. Beat on medium with the paddle attachment until fudge thickens and it holds its shape. This is about 3-5 minutes. Scrape into the 8×8″ pan & spread evenly.
  6. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top and press down lightly.
  7. Let cool completely. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or so. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

    Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Fudge