cookies

White Chocolate Butterscotch Cookies…Being Martha

May 6, 2013 by Wendy Cohen 2 Comments

I am making progress through the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook and have found some great recipes along the way.

This post covers White Chocolate-Butterscotch Cookies found on page 76 or right here.

Make sure you have these two ingredients before you start this recipe: white chocolate chips and vegetable shortening.

White Chocolate Butterscotch Cookies

Ingredients: Makes about 2 dozen
- 1 ¾ cups of flour
- ½ teaspoon of baking soda
- ½ teaspoon of salt
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature.
- ¾ cup of vegetable shortening, room temperature.
- 1 ¼ cups packed dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract
- 8 ounces best quality white chocolate, chopped into ¼-inch chunks (I used white chocolate chips)

Here’s the mix…kind of a pasty grainy mix and light in color.

Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
- In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the brown sugar, butter, and shortening until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
- With the mixer on low speed and the flour in two batches until just combined.
- Stir in the chocolate.
- Drop 2 tablespoons of dough at a time about 2 inches apart.
- Bake rotating the pans halfway though, until lightly golden around the edges, about 15 minutes.
- Let cookies cool on the pans for 2 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. Cookie can be kept at room temperature in an airtight container up to 4 days.

Here are the finished cookies on the right.

They are super yummy and have such a different taste than I would normally prefer, but the combination makes them taste great!

They stayed nice and chewy…I took them out just when they browned per the instructions.

The vegetable shortening makes for nice chewy cookies.

You can find the recipe for the oatmeal cookies here. Happy Baking!

2 Comments

Gingerbread Men (and Women)….Being Martha

December 26, 2012 by Wendy Cohen 4 Comments

As usual, the holidays flew by. It was quite a whirlwind in the last few days where I tried to cram in as much baking as possible. Not because I have to, but because it makes my heart sing. Yes, sing! It wasn’t quite as planned since we were supposed to be in Chicago, but a blizzard changed all that. The gift in return of the cancelled flight was some extra time to bake. Ahhh….

This is classic gingerbread cookies….love this recipe. Just the right amount of spice! You can find it on Page 81 of Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook or you can find it here on line. Funny thing is the on line recipe is called “Gingerbread People”. Hilarious…

For this recipe, make sure you give yourself time to refrigerate the dough multiple times and to roll out and decorate. Maybe a few days.

The key to this cookie is the spices and the ROBUST molasses!

Here’s what the mix looks like before adding in the flour. Gradually add the flour mixture and do NOT over blend. Mix until just incorporated.

Turn dough out onto a work surface. Divid into two and pat into two discs. Place in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour…maybe overnight!

Remove the dough and let sit for a while so that it is easy to work with but NOT completely room temperature yet. I roll my dough out to about 1/4″. I do not have the fancy rolling pin with the measuring rings (YET), so I just wing it really.

Here are what they look like all cut out and ready for the oven. I used parchment paper to line the pan…this happens to be parchment paper on one side and foil on the other side. At first, I really like it because it is heavier than just plain parchment paper. However, the challenge is that you must cut the paper perfectly for the pan or it will curl up while in the oven and touch your cookies. Kind of a bummer. I think I will stick to regular parchment paper.

Here they are out of the oven and ready for decorating. I show you this photos to demonstrate how similar they look before and after baking. That is because they dough is chilled which keeps things from spreading and distorting too much in the oven.

To decorate the cookies, I used royal icing. It can be found on Page 389 of the book or here. I also tried a new technique for piping on frosting that I found here at Karen’s Cookies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxE-pnqmsE0&feature=player_embedded

Here’s a link to the video…it is fantastic. I tried to embed the video with no luck!

Mike even joined in on the fun and helped decorate a bunch of gingerbread men & women!

Hope you enjoyed your holidays….this is a great tasting recipe. Just make sure you give yourself enough time to enjoy the process!

Filed Under: baking, cookies, create, entertaining, Holiday, martha stewart Tagged With: cookies, gingerbread, gingerbread men, holiday baking, Martha Stewart, martha stewart's baking handbook, molasses, royal icing, women

4 Comments

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles….Say It Ain’t So

November 19, 2012 by Wendy Cohen Leave a Comment

Yes, another pumpkin recipe!

I pinned this pumpkin snickerdoodle recipe from here a long time ago. The blog is called Pennies on a Platter and she got the recipe who got it from someone else.

Isn’t that how we all come across recipes. Is anything really new or just new to me?

Regardless, I love snickerdoodles and you all know how I love pumpkin; add a little orange to anything and I am happy! I have copied her recipe here, added my own comments and photos.

For the cookies:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the pumpkin puree, then beat in the egg and vanilla.
In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Stir until fully incorporated. Cover and chill the dough for at least an hour.

Here is the cookie batter all made up and ready to chill in the refrigerator for an hour. Barely even looks like there is pumpkin, right?

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liner. Mix the coating ingredients in a small bowl.

For the coating:

1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Dash of allspice

Scoop equal dough balls and roll into the sugar mixture.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Set on cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Dip the bottom of a flat drinking glass into water, then into the sugar mixture and use to slightly flatten the dough balls. Recoat the bottom of the glass in the sugar-spice mixture as needed.

Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, or until baked through. Let cool on the baking sheets about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough. Here they are right out of the oven….do not over bake! You want these to be nice and chewy on the inside, right???

This is the first time I have made snickerdoodles that they haven’t flattened out…it could be that I refrigerated the dough for the full hour, used the parchment paper??

The other thing I wanted to share with you is an easy way to store cookies that I stumbled upon today in the grocery store. I purchased these throwaway lasagna tins / pans. They are the perfect depth and have a clear dome top to protect your cookies. Happy Baking!