Banana Oatmeal Cookies with Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chips

Last weekend after Alex and I returned from Whistler we went on something of a baking bonanza because we returned to an entire bunch of overripe bananas.  I was originally planning on making banana bread but we always make banana bread so I decided to be a little more creative.  Let's just say that Alex wasn't thrilled with the whole idea but I was pretty pumped to be in the kitchen.  It has been so long since I had time to bake/cook that I got a little excited and overambitious (we had stock going and dinner to prep while I was baking).  These cookies were the perfect breakfast cookie - they weren't too sweet and who doesn't love oatmeal and bananas for breakfast?  I have no shame in admitting that I ate one or two cookies most mornings before work.  I also had a few after work, but that's beside the point.  Unfortunately I didn't do a very good job of mixing the dough (it is a pretty thick dough and I got a little lazy) so the distribution of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips wasn't very even, but I thought the cookies were still pretty delicious.

Recipe after the jump!

Salty Chocolate Chunk Cookies

This past Sunday I was suddenly struck with an urge to bake.  It happens from time to time, but I'm usually struck with the violent desire to make a particular type of baked good (like pumpkin bread) or I happen to have something in the apartment that I need to use before it goes bad (this happens pretty regularly with bananas and banana bread).  This time I just wanted to bake something for dessert.  I had a bunch of chocolate in the apartment so it was a foregone conclusion that I would make something chocolate-y.  I was originally going to try to make something with the heavy cream or whole milk we had in the apartment, but I gave up on that idea pretty quickly.  I briefly considered making brownies (because who doesn't love brownies), but this cookie recipe was too delicious-sounding to ignore.  The funny thing about these cookies was how much the cookies changed from Sunday night (when I baked them) to Monday morning.  Both versions were delicious, but I wasn't expecting them to turn quite as crispy on day two.  I wish they had stayed a little softer, but c'est la vie.  Watch them carefully in the oven because you want to pull the cookies when they are just starting to turn lightly golden around the edges.  Don't wait until they are golden brown or they will be too hard.  These cookies are definitely an adult version of chocolate chip cookies - if you want to make them kid-friendly I would suggest leaving out the Maldon sea salt.  I think the combination of sea salt and chocolate is an acquired taste that is more appealing to adults than to children.  Then again, I know that some adults (like my mother) do not enjoy the combination of salty and sweet, so it is definitely a question of personal taste.  My officemates and I regularly inhale Lindt's dark chocolate with sea salt by the truckload and so I knew I would have a rapt audience if I brought them in to work.  They disappeared pretty quickly so I think they were a success.  If I were to make them again in the future for a different group I might sprinkle half of the cookies with sea salt and leave the other half salt-less so that everyone could enjoy. 

Recipe after the jump!

Lemon Shortbread with Fresh Rosemary

There is a coffee shop near my office called Blue Bottle that has the most amazingly decadent shortbread cookies.  They have two kinds of shortbread - an olive oil rosemary shortbread and a savory parmesan shortbread with fennel (which I will be making the next time we have people over because they are absolutely delicious - recipe available here).  Both of them are buttery and scrumptious, but I was looking for a dessert cookie so I decided to make some rosemary shortbread.  I spent a few minutes searching for a recipe and then came across a few different lemon and rosemary shortbread recipes that sounded promising.  So I picked one, threw together the dough and left it in the fridge to chill.  And then it kept chilling for a few days until I had the time to bake it because Alex cut me off on baking and cooking on Christmas Day since I made fudge that morning (more on that later) and we were already making duck, brussels sprouts, cornbread and salad for dinner.  Suffice it to say that I get a little over-ambitious sometimes and Alex has to rein me in.

These shortbread cookies are exactly the type of elegant little cookies I think should be served at high tea.  Or at a wedding/baby shower.  They are light, fresh and very easy to munch on.  The flavors of the lemon and rosemary are pronounced, but are balanced nicely by the buttery flavor of the shortbread and the crunch of the turbinado sugar sprinkled on top.  Brief side note - turbinado sugar is one of my favorite baking ingredients because it gives you those little bursts of sweetness and that nice crunch on top.  You have to be a little careful when baking with an herb like rosemary because a little goes a long way and you don't want to feel like you are eating a pine tree.  I felt like this was the perfect amount.  I do have one caveat - if you served a platter full of homemade chocolate chip cookies on one side and these shortbread cookies on the other they might be overlooked, but on their own they shine quite nicely.


Recipe after the jump!

Chocolate Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

This cookie recipe marks my first baking experiment of 2012.  Hurray!  And probably my last baking experiment for awhile because Alex and I have been eating entirely too many cookies recently.  We should at least pretend to be a little healthier.  But I found these Hershey's candy cane kisses that I am absolutely obsessed with so I was desperate to make a cookie with them.  The sad thing is that the gym was where I first encountered these kisses.  So I go there to sweat and lose weight, and instead end up scarfing down Hershey's kisses and daydreaming about cookie recipes.  Ironic, isn't it?

I originally wanted to do a riff on Peanut Butter Kisses using the candy cane kisses, but ended up making these instead.  The cookie itself is a little brownie like in flavor (with a hint of mint) and crispy/chewy, rather than soft.  I really like them because they are an excellent vehicle for my candy cane kisses.  Plus they look (and taste) really festive and fun!

Recipe after the jump!

Ming Tsai's Double Chocolate-Ginger Shortbread

Happy New Year!  And what better way to celebrate 2012 than with a baked good?  A group of friends came over last night to celebrate so I decided to bake my remaining two logs of butter shortbread cookie dough.  I knew I was going to make these Double Chocolate-Ginger Shortbread cookies, but I also wanted to make chocolate-dipped shortbread.  Sadly, I ran out of time to make the chocolate-dipped shortbread, so we ended up with one batch of plain and one batch of Double Chocolate-Ginger Shortbread.  I had the same problem with these cookies that I had with the Five-Spice Shortbread - the topping just doesn't stick very well.  But I got around that by sprinkling the chocolate-ginger mixture on top of the cookies before putting them in the oven (after dipping them individually in the mixture).  Another problem I had with the cookies was that it was almost impossible to get all of the ingredients in the chocolate-ginger mixture evenly distributed (both in the mixture itself and on the cookies).  Some cookies had a lot of chocolate and no ginger, others were a little more balanced, whereas some were so loaded down with ginger that they were almost harsh.  I think that if I make these cookies again, I will mix the chocolate-ginger mixture into the dough, rather than using it as a topping.  I think that will leave you with a more even distribution.  Alex said that the plain shortbread cookies are still his favorite, followed by the Five-Spice Shortbread.  I thought both of those were really good, but I thought the flavors were really good too.  I liked the candied ginger element a lot.  I just have to play with it a bit to perfect it...

Recipe after the jump!

Ming Tsai's Classic Shortbread and Five-Spice Shortbread

Shortbread cookies aren't exactly the sexiest of cookies.  Shortbread is a little plain, a little safe, and some might say a little boring.  But they are wonderfully easy to make once you have your dough prepared. I love cookies that come from chilled logs of dough because you don't have to mess around trying to measure out equal sized balls with a tablespoon or get dough stuck all over your hands.  You just wrap the dough in parchment paper, chill it and then slice.  Perfect.  And pretty freaking tasty.  A long time ago I made a recipe for Orange Shortbread Cookies with Chocolate Chips and I was shocked by how tasty those cookies were.  I really need to make them again soon.  I will add them to my list...  Anyway, I decided I needed to try to make some shortbread cookies last week when I was trying to think of holiday baking projects.  And I ended up picking this recipe because I loved how Ming Tsai came up with one base recipe for four batches of dough and then a bunch of variations for each batch.  I wanted to make all four batches the other night, but decided that I would bake two batches and save two for future experiments at a later date.  With these two batches I decided to go with his basic Classic Shortbread and Five-Spice Shortbread recipes.  For the remaining two batches I'm thinking chocolate dipped (maybe with some crushed hazelnuts or some orange zest) and then Ming Tsai's Double Chocolate-Ginger Shortbread.

These cookies were simple and quite delicious.  The cookies weren't as buttery or as flaky as I had anticipated, given how crumbly the dough was.  They also weren't super sweet, but I have never had an intensely sweet shortbread before so I imagine that is pretty typical.  I wish that the flavor of the five-spice had come through a little more on the five-spice shortbread cookies.  The five-spice wasn't adhering very well to the dough.  Perhaps I should have let them warm up a  little more so the spice would adhere better?  I would say that these two batches were good, but not amazing.  We will have to see how the next two batches go.  We should be baking those two batches shortly, so stay tuned!

Recipes after the jump!

Kruidnoten (aka Alex's Dutch cookies) - Takes 2 and 3

I have been asking Alex to write a guest post on the blog for weeks now about his newest attempts with Kruidnoten.  Last year he made his first batch while I was on vacation with my mom.  They weren't perfect so he wanted to make a few more attempts at refining/perfecting his recipe.  This post is about attempts 2 and 3, both of which he made in the past few weeks.  His first batch of 2011 was from a few weeks ago while I was working around the clock on a deal.  My main complaint about the cookies (which he agreed with) was that the spice blend was too overpowering and perfume-y.  I felt like I was eating potpourri every time I took a bite.  The texture was soft and almost like a peanut butter cookie.  He made the next batch with a few tweaks to the spice blend this past Thursday or Friday.  He wanted the cookies to be spicier - a little peppery, but less aromatic/perfume-y.  According to Alex, the cookies are traditionally fairly hard and spicy.  I guess that is why their name literally means "spice nuts."  You can leave out or change the ratios of spices to suit your own tastes (and your spice cupboard because his final recipe uses everything but the kitchen sink).  Per Alex, some recipes note that you can even just substitute pumpkin pie spices for the speculaas.  Since I know nothing at all about these cookies (except the little that Alex has told me) and I think of the cookies as being similar to gingersnaps, I guess that makes sense.

Rather than making the final batch of cookies hard, he baked them until they were crispy, but with a bit of chewiness remaining.  It was a very pleasant texture, unlike the first batch that was super dry and the second batch that was a little softer.  I have to say that I vastly prefer his last attempt at cooking the cookies far more than the previous two.  The spice blend was better, the texture was better - everything was better.  I would recommend making the cookies small, because the flavor is pretty powerful and one small cookie goes a long way.  The first and second batches were just too big for me.  And Alex is happy enough with his final batch that he's done experimenting.  It looks like he has found the kruidnoten recipe that he will be making at Christmas-time for years to come.

Recipe after the jump!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

I'm not really sure what inspired me to make this recipe.  I have been thinking about making a red velvet cake or cupcakes for some time now and when I started seeing all of the recipes for red velvet whoopie pies around Valentines Day I figured why not make them instead?  This past fall I really wanted to make pumpkin whoopie pies, but I never got around to it so I figured now was the time to try out some whoopie pies.  While I like pumpkin desserts, I really LOVE a good red velvet cake.  I love the cream cheese frosting, the hint of cocoa, and the slightly tangy moistness from the buttermilk.  I also love the the cake itself isn't typically that sweet.  It really bothers me when you bite into a red velvet cake and either tastes like chocolate cake or vanilla cake.  Or when it is totally dry and flavorless.  Red velvet should be moist!  Well, all cakes and cupcakes should be somewhat moist, but it bothers me most when red velvet is dry.  What perhaps bothers me the most is when some bakeries serve red velvet cake with buttercream frosting instead of cream cheese frosting.  Ick.

I really liked the cookie parts of these whoopie pies.  I thought that the flavor balance and the slightly spongy texture were just perfect.  The cream cheese frosting was a touch on the sweet side for me (although again it was texturally perfect), so I would probably cut down on the amount of powdered sugar just slightly.  But I tend to prefer my cream cheese frosting a little less sweet than most people I know.  All I know is that I couldn't eat an entire one of these on my own because they are rich and the frosting is sweet, so maybe in the future I will make them a little smaller or use just a little less frosting.  Hurray for whoopie pies!

Recipe after the jump!

Kruidnoten

So while I was off in San Diego with my mom, Alex made cookies.  When he said that he was going to bake cookies, I literally thought the world had ended.  Alex is not a baker.  In fact, he periodically places a baking embargo on our kitchen.  I don't usually fully comply with the baking embargo, but that's just me.  But I can't remember him ever baking anything else.  He used to help his mom bake the slice and bake cookies you buy at the grocery store around the holidays, but that's as much as I can ever recall him doing before.  Anyway, back to the cookies.  These cookies are Dutch cookies that Alex used to eat around Christmas-time when his family lived in the Netherlands.  They kind of remind me of gingerbread - they are dry and crunchy like gingerbread and use similar spices. As far as cookies go, I have to admit that I prefer softer cookies. I like a good shortbread cookie every once in awhile, but if push comes to shove I want a nice peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. Gingerbread has never been among my favorites. 

So it is no surprise that these cookies are not my favorite. Alex definitely likes them more than I do. He said that there are a few things he would change about them, but he likes the flavor (although he did mention that he thought the flavor would be a bit more "intense" and taste a little less like gingersnaps, and a little "spicier"). He thinks that they are a little dry (I think they are a lot dry, but like I said, I like softer, moister cookies than he does). According to him the cookies should be a lot smaller than he actually made them. The cookies are supposed to be 1/2-inch marble-sized balls, but his cookies were more like 1-inch balls. He blames their size for the dryness. Either way I totally think it's adorable that Alex baked! 

Recipe after the jump! 

Coconut Macaroons

I'm not certain what it is that I like about coconut macaroons.  But I really like them.  I like everything about them.  I might even like them more than I like cookies, which is shocking.  They are sticky, intensely coconut-y and delicious.  I like them chocolate-dipped, with almond extract, and plain.  I like all of them.  I guess most of that can be attributed to the fact that I really love coconut and always have.  I have really only found a few macaroon variations that truly disappointed me enough that I couldn't finish them.  Conversely, I have really only found a few variations that were good enough that I remember them distinctly.  One variation on a macaroon that I love is the macaroon and nutella sandwich cookie that they serve at the Street Sweets truck.  The macaroon at the truck is thin and crispy, almost like a florentine.  And I had never considered the combination of nutella and coconut before, but it was totally delicious.  And I generally like my macaroons a little on the sticky side, but they taste really nice crispy like that.  Joe the Art of Coffee on the UWS also has really nice chocolate-dipped macaroons.  They're not too sweet, not to sticky - a very classic macaroon.

I have never tried a macaroon recipe that uses condensed milk before, but I figured why not give it a try?  The last batch of macaroons I made using a more traditional recipe just weren't quite as good as I was hoping for, so I was looking to try something new and different.  I kept finding blog posts and recipes that used condensed milk, so apparently it's not that uncommon to add it to your macaroons.  Who knew?  As you might expect from macaroons that used condensed milk (or from any baked good that uses condensed milk), these macaroons were a bit on the sticky side.  But that's ok, because I like sticky.  They also spread out and ooze a lot more than your typical macaroon (which is made up of coconut, egg white, vanilla extract and very little else) during the baking process.  The macaroons weren't crispy enough for me to want to make sandwich cookies out of - I think if you're going for that kind of recipe we would need coconut that is more finely ground, a touch of flour to bind the ingredients and give them a more cookie-like texture, and no condensed milk.  The fact that we started out with over a dozen macaroons and now only have one or two left should bear witness to the fact that these macaroons weren't too shabby...

Recipe after the jump!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Cookies

The other night I had a dream about peanut butter and jelly and I woke up with the thought stuck in my head that I absolutely had to make peanut butter and jelly cookies.  Don't ask me where my dream came from, or what else happened in the dream because I have absolutely no idea.  I basically rolled over in bed and told Alex that I had a dream about cookies.  Then I immediately got out of bed and went to look up recipes.  I found the 'wichcraft recipe for Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies and decided to modify the recipe a little and add some jelly

So this might sound like a strange recipe, but these very well might be my new favorite cookies.  The peanut butter cookies themselves are delicious, with a slightly dry and crumbly texture (which is a little like shortbread) and a little crunch/texture from the toasted oats.  The cookies aren't that sweet, and are almost a little salty.  Then you get a mouthful of the creamy peanut butter filling combined with the jelly and it's a total epiphany.  It has that whole salty-sweet thing going on that I love, plus I think the combination is every child's absolute fantasy.  Now if you don't like peanut butter (and I have been informed that some people just don't like it), these are definitely not going to be your new fave cookie recipe.  You might want to stick to chocolate chip.  Or anything else really.  But if you love peanut butter as much as Alex and I do, then you need to try these.  They are fun and totally different from your typical bake-sale cookie selection, but once you try one you will be in love.

Recipe after the jump!

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Levain Bakery makes absolutely amazing dark chocolate peanut butter cookies.  They are fantastic, as well as gigantic.  I was baking cookies as a gift for some friends the other day when I decided to make some dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookies of my own.  My cookies are a little less sweet than Levain Bakery's cookies, but they are incredibly chocolatey - far more so than Levain's.  If you love dark chocolate, these cookies are decadent and I highly recommend them.  But if you want a sweet cookie, and are more of a milk chocolate lover, you are going to need to use semisweet chocolate rather than bittersweet.  While the taste of peanut butter is definitely present, these cookies are all about the chocolate.  My friends loved them and so did I.


Recipe after the jump!

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Somehow I don't bake cookies very often.  It's probably because somehow I feel like cookies involve so much more mess and effort than simply baking a cake.  But nothing, and I mean nothing, can replace a really good cookie in my book.  Case and point, the cornflake marshmallow chocolate chip cookies I am always raving about from Momofuku Milk Bar and the chocolate peanut butter chip cookies from Levain Bakery.  After snacking on those all weekend I couldn't resist the chance to bake myself a batch of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.  Then I got the grand idea that I should add some oats so I could at least pretend that the cookies were healthy (or healthier).  Since I'm giving the majority of these cookies away the health factor doesn't really matter (and it gets me around Alex's baking moratorium, which I already circumvented with two batches of banana bread last week), but let's keep pretending that we're being good here.  I used to have a really kicka** recipe for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that I lost.  And no batch that I have made since then has quite compared.  So instead of increasingly futile attempts to recreate those cookies, I have started purposefully straying from them in hopes that I will find something different, but equally delicious.

These cookies are interestingly fluffy.  The texture that I was expecting from the cookies was not the texture that came out of the oven.  I think it has something to do with the combination of old-fashioned oats and flour in this ratio. Texturally, these cookies are more like peanut butter cookies in that they are somewhat dry and crumbly like a lot of peanut butter cookies, rather than gooey and soft like chocolate chip cookies.  The cookies also weren't as sweet as I expected.  I considered rolling the dough in granulated sugar before baking them (a la Magnolia Bakery), but decided against it because I was worried they would be too sweet.  In the future I think I will play with the balance of oats and flour, and perhaps add a little more brown sugar.  Oh and I will go back to using Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of the mini Tollhouse chocolate chips.  They were out of the Ghiradelli chocolate chips when I went to the store the other day, so I had to improvise.  I'm a big believer that the chocolate can really make the cookie.  All things considered, this wasn't my best cookie ever, but for a first attempt it wasn't bad at all!  One of these days I will find (or make up) a new go-to chocolate chip peanut butter cookie, with or without oatmeal.  And when I do, you all will be the first to know.

Recipe after the jump!