Better than Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sometimes at 9:00 at night, you just really need a chocolate chip cookie.  And sometimes you have so many dishes in the sink and your kitchen is such a mess you can't actually bake cookies until your kitchen is clean, two hours late. By which point you're tired and hungry and eat far more than that singular chocolate chip cookie you intially desired.  Whoops.  It's okay though, these cookies are so satisfying they justify the calories (or so I tell myself), and so satisfying that you might want to eat 17.  But I won't tell if you do.

Healthy Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies

 I get really excited about Fall, because it means beautiful foliage, and pumpkin everything.  So, the other day I had this streak of brilliance and decided I needed to make non-dairy pumpkin yogurt.  While in theory, it was an awesome idea, I failed epically.  But upon my culinary defeat, I had an extra cup of pumpkin to use and alas these cookies were born, and far from a culinary defeat they were.  Plus, who doesn't love the notion of eating a cookie (or four) for breakfast--and at only about 50 calories a cookie, you totally can.

Oatmeal Raisinet Cookies

I have a confession.  I am a cookie discriminator.  When someone brings cookies to an event, or you get a plate for Christmas, or any other situation arises where a variety of cookies is available, I would altogether pass on a cookie than eat an oatmeal raisin cookie.  There is something about raisins in a cookie that just makes me kind of sad.  (Or it may just be the raisins that make me sad... Benny & Joon, anyone?)  Anyhow, the point is, when you cover said humiliated grapes in dark chocolate, the whole cookie is transformed.  And now incredibly delicious.  I made these cookies quite a while ago, and realized I didn't blog them.  So when I saw Raisinets on sale at the grocery I decided I needed to make them again, just to blog them... not at all because they are incredibly tasty or anything....

Chewy Ginger Cookies with Cardamom

Everyone has their weird food tastes.  Mine is ginger.  I adore the stuff.  I have ginger cravings, which can only be satisfied by obscene quantities of candied ginger.  Yeah, it totally makes my mouth burn, and it's wonderful.  Most people crave ice cream, brownies, or chocolate chip cookies, nope not me.  I crave ginger snaps.  These ginger snaps are perfect- a strong gingery bite, a chewy moist center, and crunchy raw sugar coating, all punctuated by a lovely undertone of cardamom.

What's your strangest food craving?

The Eli Cookie: Oatmeal White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

Anyone watch the Bachelorette?  I cringe with embarrassment to admit that I occasionally catch an episode, but I do.  Usually, I think the show is utterly ridiculous, and I laugh the whole way through, but this last episode, Emily totally stole one of my dating techniques!  Cookie making!  I make killer chocolate chip cookies. So, once a guy has tried them and gotten hooked, I (if interested) casually invite him to make cookies with me if he wants the recipe.  Then, I can evaluate if he is kitchen-competent, able to follow instruction, and simply if he's fun to be with.  It's a perfect scenario.  Except then a certain boy came along, experienced my chocolate chip cookies, and instead of deciding they were the greatest cookie ever and wanting the recipe, he brought up these cookies his mom used to make.  And what did I do?  Get offended  I made those cookies for him.  ALL BY MYSELF.  I now coin them "The Eli Cookie", because never before have I baked a boy one of his family recipes.  I knew there was something different about this boy.

Orange & Black Sesame Cookies

Don't tell my ultimate chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I think I have a new favorite cookie.  I realize putting sesame seeds in a cookie sounds, well, strange, but just try it!  (Plus, black sesame seeds are sweeter and lack much of the bitterness found in white sesame seeds.)  These cookies have just the right level of sweetness, crumble, and texture.  Divine, that's a good word to describe them.  And if exquisite taste isn't enough to sell you, the sesame seeds add protein and fiber to this cookie :)

Vegan Gooey Butter Cookies

When I google a vegan recipe, and find unsatisfactory results I have an inexplicable urge to fix it.  I'm not even a vegan... I guess I just like fixing things or I have a bunch of coconut oil and Tofutti cream cheese I need to use before I move.  Plus there are all those poor vegans in the world unfortunate enough to have never experienced the unique St. Louis offering of gooey butter anything.  So, animal-friendly folks: gooey butter cookies!  Ta-dah!

Gooey Butter Cookies

So, I'm on this St. Louis pride kick.  Maybe it's the fact that I'm realizing I will never permanently live there again and I am subconsciously devastated about it. Hahaha.  Or maybe it's that I am procrastinating packing up the entire contents of my apartment, and cooking distinctive foods that I grew up with for the sir in my life seems a reasonable distraction.  I'm guessing the latter.  Definitely the latter.  Plus, after looking up a recipe for gooey butter cookies and seeing how simple they are, I couldn't not make them.  These gooey little cookies really do possess everything so awesomely divine about the cake version, that chewy golden crust, a sticky sweet center, and the crackle dusted with powdered sugar all so synonymous with the real thing.  So, try them at least once and make another St. Louisan proud ;)

Rolo Cookies

These cookies take 4 ingredients, it's awesome.  What's even better is that they seem far more gourmet than four simple ingredients.  The only downside is that you can eat like 5 without even realizing it... so uh make them small or something.  

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

"Cookie" and "Chocolate"are two of my most frequently used labels... I clearly enjoy both.  The combination of the two is even better, especially if you use four varieties of chocolate chips, in ridiculous quantities.

I made the mistake of using a recipe that yields 60 to make only 30 or so, so each one of my cookies was a meal--an intoxicatingly chocolate, decadent, rich, delicious meal, best accompanied by a glass of [almond] milk.   

Crunchy Ginger Snaps

[Insert witty introduction]

• 3/4 cup shortening
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1/3 cup raw sugar (optional) 

Raspberry Chocolate Ganache Sandwich Cookies

Girl Scout cookies have a dear place in my heart.  No commercial cookie even comes close to competing with the sheer deliciousness of a Tag-a-long, Samoa, or Thin Mint.  Seriously though.  Maybe it's the exclusivity that make them taste so divine, or the dynamic crunchy/chewy/sweet combination that enables them to supersede every other cookie in existence.  Either way, they are basically the greatest cookies ever.***

Pepperidge Farms' Mint Milano cookies do however follow as a close second in the commercial cookie championship. (I like alliteration.)  These super simple cookie sandwiches are loosely inspired by Milanos, only better, because I made them.  No, I'm kidding.  They're better because the group of business students I fed them to said they were better.  And folks, that measure right there is as good as science.

Loaded Banana Cookies

This recipe makes a chewy, delicious cookie that is almost more like a muffin top than a cookie. They aren't too sweet, and are very satisfying.

• 1/2 cup coconut oil (may also use shortening or butter)
  
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp banana extract (optional)
• 3 mashed very ripe bananas
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (walnuts may also be used)
  
• 1/4 cup chopped peanuts
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• ~12 oz chocolate chips (optional)

1. Heat oven to 350°F
   
2. Cream coconut oil and sugar together. Add mashed bananas, vanilla extract, banana extract, and eggs, mix well. Add pecans, peanuts, coconut, chocolate chips, flour, and baking powder, stir until incorporated.
3. Using a large cookie scoop (~1/4 cup) scoop dough onto a greased cookie sheet, leaving plenty of space between each cookie (I only put 6 on each cookie sheet) and bake for 15 minutes.

Notes:

• White chocolate chips can be used instead of chocolate
• A small scoop makes perfect mini cookies
• I leave out the chocolate chips and drizzle chocolate over the cookies to make them more attractive
  

Yields ~16 large cookies

Easy Lemon Cookies

Cookies

• 1 box Lemon cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/3-1/2 cup oil (whatever the cake mix calls for)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• zest of half a lemon

Icing

• 2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
• ~2 Tbs lemon juice
• zest of the other half of the lemon
• ~1 tsp corn syrup

1. Heat the oven to 350*.
2. Mix the cake mix, oil, eggs, vanilla, and zest.
3. Form into golf ball sized cookies and place ~2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet, and bake 8-12 minutes, or until golden on the bottom.
4. While baking, make the icing by mixing lemon juice and confectioners sugar, Add the juice little by little, and stop adding liquid as soon as desired consistency is reached.
5. Then stir in corn syrup and zest.
6. Allow cookies to cool, ice, or drizzle with icing, and enjoy!

Notes:

• There are so many variations of this cookie possible, chocolate cake mix, spice cake, yellow cake, etc.

Yields approx 2 dozen cookies.

Black & White Cookies

• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
  
• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
  
• 4 large eggs
  
• 1 1/2 cups milk
  
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
  
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
  
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 8 cups confectioners’ sugar
  
• 2/3 to 1 cup water
  
• 2 teaspoon light corn syrup.
  
• 2-4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 2 baking sheets with nonstick spray, or line with parchment paper.

2. In large mixing bowl, combine sugar and butter. Mix by machine or hand until fluffy. Add eggs, milk and vanilla and lemon extracts, and mix until smooth.

3. In medium bowl, combine cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Stir until mixed. Add dry mixture to the wet in batches, stirring well after each addition. Using a soup spoon, place heaping spoonfuls of the dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake until edges begin to brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool completely.

4. Place confectioners’ sugar in large, heat-safe mixing bowl. Gradually stir in enough hot water to the sugar to make a thick, spreadable mixture, then add half the corn syrup. Err on the side of caution because a too-thin frosting is hard to undo.

5. Spread frosting on half of the flat side of each cookie. Once all cookie halves have been frosted, place the bowl of the remaining frosting in the microwave for 20-45 seconds (enough time to loosen the consistency). Stir in the cocoa, as well as the other half of the light corn syrup.

6. Ice the remaining half of the cookies with the chocolate frosting. I find that the chocolate–especially with cocoa in it–is especially prone to getting too dry, so don’t worry about whisking in an extra teaspoon of that hot water from time to smooth it back into a shiny frosting.

7. Let the frosting set. Store in an airtight container.

Chewy Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick) preferably unsalted
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 1/4 cup Nutella
  
• 1 cup chopped hazelnuts (optional)
  

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and prep baking sheets with silpats, parchment paper, or nonstick baking spray.

2. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter, the sugar and the brown sugar. Add the eggs and the vanilla until combined.

4. Gradually add the flour until the mixture is combined.

5. Then mix Nutella. Finally add in the chopped hazelnuts.

6. Use ice cream scoop and drop on a greased baking sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Notes:

• The cookies will flatten out and grow, so leave at least a few inches between cookies
  

The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie (Really though)

• 3 eggs
• 4 cups flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 cups butter (4 sticks) @ room temp
• ~4 cups of oat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups chopped nuts (I use pecans)
• 2 bags chocolate chips (milk chocolate is better)
• Paper grocery sack

1. Heat the oven to 400°F.
2. Cream sugar and room temperature butter (blend with an electric mixer until it’s a homogeneous mixture).
3. Add eggs, salt, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, stir in flour, chocolate chips, and ground nuts.
4. For best results refrigerate dough overnight. (But you don’t have to)
5. Cut paper sack to fit the cookie sheet. (It helps absorb the grease, and eliminates greasing the cookie sheet. Strangely necessary step, just go with it!)
6. Scoop into golf ball sized balls, and gently flatten.
7. Bake 6-8 minutes at 400°.

Notes:

• The recipe makes a LARGE batch. I often scoop all the cookies (using an ice cream scoop), and freeze half in a gallon freezer bag for a later time.