Secret Recipe Club: Nutella Thumbprint Cookies

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baking, chocolate, Cookies, food, Nutella, recipes, secret recipe club, src, treats

For this month’s Secret Recipe Club I was assigned to the adorable blog, Fearless Homemaker, by Amy.

Amy always takes gorgeous photos of food that has me wanting to just take a bite out of my computer screen.

But it wasn’t too difficult for me to choose a recipe for the SRC this month. I was in the mood for dessert. Specifically Nutella. And voila! Amy had a beautiful looking Nutella thumbprint cookie recipe on the blog. Bite-sized chocolate cookies with a dollop of Nutella on top?

Who can resist?

That’s right, no one!

Nutella Thumbprint Cookies (From The Fearless Homemaker)
Makes about 30 cookies
>> Click here for printable recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup Nutella

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine flour, powdered sugar, cocoa, and salt in a bowl and whisk together.
3. Beat the butter in a mixer at medium speed until it’s light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Stir in egg yolks with a whisk, then whisk in the instant coffee and vanilla.
4. Add the yolk mixture to butter; beat well. Then add flour mixture to butter mixture; beat at low speed just until combined.
5. Turn dough out onto a sheet of wax or parchment paper and knead until it is smooth and shiny.
6. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls, place on a pan lined with parchment paper. Press your thumb into the center of each ball of dough, leaving an indentation.
7. Bake for 10 minutes; let cool completely, then spoon a nice dollop of Nutella into each indentation.

My Two Cents: It’s hard to stop at just one of these little cookies. Let that be a warning to you all. I made these for a little dinner get-together with my siblings, and we polished off the plate of cookies very, very quickly.

Amy originally got this recipe from Cooking Light, and the editors of that magazine are severely sneaky. There isn’t anything healthy about these cookies, except for their size, which in the end means they aren’t healthy at all, because you’ll have eaten about 10 by the end of the night.

But I’ll let it slide, this once, Cooking Light, because these were good.

oh. so. good.

Thanks, Amy, for inspiring me to make these little treats!

To see more awesome recipes from the Secret Recipe Club, click the link below!

Chocolate Meringue Cookies

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baking, chocolate, chocolate meringue cookies, Cookies, dairy free, food, gluten free, recipe, recipes

Can you believe I’ve never made such a classic cookie before?

The reason behind that isn’t the difficulty of making meringue cookies (because they’re really quite simple, and fun), but I never ate homemade meringue cookies before. I only ever tasted the ones that came in a big plastic tin from the supermarket.

And to me, those were disgusting. They were too sweet — all I could taste in the store bought cookies was pure sugar, and it always left a bad aftertaste in my mouth.

But as usual, homemade is always better!

One of my good friends (the Veggie Vixen) had a birthday this past weekend, and I volunteered to make a few things to bring for the party. She requested they be gluten and dairy free. Without having any gluten-free substitutes in my apartment, I settled on the naturally gluten and dairy free meringue cookies!

And these were so great — a hit, in fact, among all the guests. They are light and airy on the outside, but just so perfectly slightly chewy. And not overly sweet at all.

Chocolate Meringue Cookies (Adapted from the Gluten-Free Homemaker)
Makes about 45 cookies
>> Click here for printable recipe

Ingredients:

• 4 large egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Place the egg whites, cream of tartar, and vanilla in a mixing bowl fitted with the whisk. Beat on medium speed until soft peaks form.
3. Slowly add the sugar to the egg whites and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.
4. Gently fold in a heaping 1/4 cup of cocoa powder to the egg white mixture until it’s just blended.
5. Scoop the batter into a plastic bag, snip off one corner, and pipe onto the baking sheets, leaving about an inch between the cookies (they will not expand in the oven). Or scoop by rounded tablespoon onto the baking sheets.
6. If your baking sheets are small enough, place side by side in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. (If they are not small enough to fit side by side, bake one sheet at a time).
7. Let cool on a wire rack, and enjoy!

My Two Cents: Fun, easy, delicious, and gorgeous!

P.S. A very happy marathon Monday! Good luck to my wonderful friend, Amanda, from Tales from a Kitchen Misfit, who’s running today!

P.P.S. Like my new header? Thought I’d spruce things up a bit!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

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Cookies, delicious, dessert, food, recipe, treats, whoopie pies

Um.

Hello gorgeous.

I saw these on Pinterest the other day (if you haven’t checked out my Baking board, you should — and then proceed to drool–) and wanted to make them as soon as possible.

Luckily I was hosting a swap at my apartment yesterday (a bunch of my friends came over with things they don’t use or wear anymore — clothes, jewelry, books, DVDs, CDs,, etc.—you should have one, too, they’re amazing! We all walked away with so many new clothes — for free!), and thought these would be perfect for the occasion.

And they were a huge hit.

I mean, there’s not really any way you can resist two large chocolate cookies that hold hunks of sugary peanut butter betwixt them.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies (From Created by Diane)

Makes 12 whoopie pies

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cookies:

• 1 box chocolate cake mix
• 1/2 cup oil
• 3 eggs

Peanut Butter Filling:

• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 tbsp butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tbsp milk

Directions:

1. Mix the cookie ingredients together in a large bowl. Roll the dough into 24 balls and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (12 on each sheet). Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 10-15 minutes until they are set and firm to the touch. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
2. Meanwhile, make the peanut butter filling. Beat the peanut butter and butter together, then add the powdered sugar and milk — beat until creamy.
3. Fill a plastic bag with the filling, snip off a corner of the bag, then pipe the filling onto a cookie and close with another. Or, spread generously onto the cookies with a knife.

My Two Cents: If you haven’t jumped on the cake/brownie-mix-in-cookie-form wagon yet, get on here.

Besides tasting wonderful (like you’re just eating giant bites of your favorite childhood birthday cake — with uh, peanut butter frosting — so really, better), these are incredibly easy to make. So few ingredients, so little mixing, no hassle — yet yields amazing results.

Plus, what a show-stopper! I’m definitely going to make these again and again

Enjoy!

Virtual Bake Sale at Tales from a Kitchen Misfit

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auction, bake sale, baking, Cookies, food, pumpkin, pumpkin cookies, recipes

I have an announcement to make!

My wonderful friend Amanda from Tales From a Kitchen Misfit is hosting a virtual bake sale on her blog to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team (a wonderful cause), and I am baking some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies for it!

Virtual bake sales are awesome.

If you participate, you are helping a great cause PLUS getting some amazing treats delivered right to your door.

So head on over to Tales From a Kitchen Misfit, take a look around at the goods, bid on some goods (preferably my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies — I’m telling you, they’re irresistible), and enjoy your goodies when they’re mailed to you in a few weeks.

You have until January 28th to bid.

….GO!

America’s Test Kitchen’s Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

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baking, chocolate, Cookies, dessert, food, oatmeal, oatmeal cookies, recipe, recipes

I’m on vacation.

And I’m loving every second of it.

The lack of posts and my absence from the Twitter convo this week is due to the fact that I’m sitting around in my pajamas until 11 or 12 every day, then doing some me shopping, then watching some corny 2-star movies, then most recently, playing with the new Wii.

So blogging has been pushed aside a bit, but I thought I would pop in before you all head out to your New Year’s Eve parties and give you an easy and delicious cookie recipe you can bring to ooo and ahhh your friends.

I found this recipe for chocolate oatmeal cookies in the America’s Test Kitchen Holiday Cookies magazine. (They sent me this as a Christmas gift, which makes me love them even more, which before then I was sure wasn’t possible.)

And besides being beautiful, these cookies taste better than any other oatmeal cookie I’ve conjured up. Here’s the secret: blending the oats into a flour-like powder instead of leaving them in their full form. B.r.i.l.l.i.a.n.t.

Try them. You’ll see what I mean.

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (Slightly adapted from America’s Test Kitchen)

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups old fashioned oats
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 10 tbsp (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 oz milk chocolate, melted and cooled (the bars or chips will work)
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (or 1 cup chocolate chips, 1 cup pecans or walnuts)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Process the oats in a blender or food processor until finely ground (should have the consistency of flour.) Transfer to a bowl and stir in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. Beat the butter and brown sugar until smooth, 1 minute. Add egg and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy. Add melted chocolate and beat until combined.
3. Gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Then stir in the chocolate chips (and nuts if desired).
4. Roll 2 tbsp of dough into balls and place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until the cookies are cracked and set on top but look moist within the cracks, about 14-18 minutes. Cool 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

My Two Cents: Most oatmeal cookies that I make do not get rave reviews. They get OK reviews. I think the chunks of oatmeal turn some people off to oatmeal cookies. Too much texture. However, with this recipe, you get the oatmeal taste without the oatmeal texture—a win-win. The original recipe stated to keep 3/4 cup of the oats in their full oat form, but I processed the whole bunch. The results were still phenomenal.

The melted chocolate added another element of pure yum to this recipe. I don’t usually melt chocolate and add them to any cookie I make—it never occurred to me to even do that. But trust me, it turns “chocolate chip” into “chocolate divine”.

The overall cookie was crunchy on the outside but chewy on the inside. How that’s not a perfect cookie is beyond me.

Enjoy! And Happy New Year! Can’t wait to make more recipes for all of you in 2012

Twix Cookies

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baking, Candy, Cookies, dessert, food, recipes, secret recipe club, sweets, twix

When in doubt, put hunks of candy in your cookies.

For this month’s Secret Recipe Club, I was assigned Fantastical Sharing of Recipes, and she has a fantastic dessert section on her blog. After browsing around for a while, I settled on the Twix Cookies because: a.) Cookies will forever have a soft spot in my heart. and b.) Candy.

If you’re looking for a simple cookie to whip up for a gathering, or just to hog for yourself, these’ll do just fine

Twix Cookies (From Fantastical Sharing of Recipes)

Makes about 3 dozen

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups chopped Twix bars

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugars.
4. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla to the butter-sugar mixture. Mix until combined.
5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until well combined.
6. Stir in the Twix bars. Roll dough into balls or drop dough by tablespoon onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-15 minutes until edges are light brown. Let cool for 5 minutes on pan. Then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

My Two Cents: Replacing chocolate chips with Twix bars for cookies may be one of the better ideas in the baking world. The caramel and chocolate melt and ooze into rivers of wonderful—something you don’t want to miss out on.

My cookies spread out more than I wanted them to, though. Cookies are funny like that. Sometimes they puff up beautifully and are especially cake-like. Sometimes they’re flat and crispy. But to me, it’s all good I think I may have left the cookies in too long. My suggestion is to take them out when they’re just starting to brown and look underdone. They’ll firm up when they’re out of the oven. Also make sure not to melt your butter, but that it’s at room temp. Cookie batter goes pancake-wild in the oven when the butter is in its liquid form.

The original recipe called for only 1 cup of Twix, but I threw in more, and honestly, if I made this again I would bump it up to 2 cups. The more candy the merrier. I use the same motto for chocolate chips

Not into Twix? Try a different candy–like Snickers or Baby Ruth. It’s a great twist to the traditional chocolate chip!

Enjoy! Check out Fantastical Sharing of Recipes for some more treats—And come back next month for the next Secret Recipe Club recipe

Click the image below to see ALL of the recipes in today’s Secret Recipe Club reveal day.