Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk: The Housewarming Cookie

Hello everyone! I'm back! I'm in Brooklyn and I'm back! It's been a long couple months between moving to Florida and then to Brooklyn, but now that I'm settled in here for at least a year, I've decided it's time to start baking again.

I would've started earlier but there were some glitches. You see, if you follow me on Tumblr you already know about the oven. For those of you who don't follow me on Tumblr: 1. Start! 2. The oven: Grease- EVERYWHERE. It was disgusting. It was caked on to the point where we thought it was rust and that the oven needed to be replaced. However, our Super showed us with his "Super" powers (get it?) that it was completely fixable with a little elbow grease and some degreaser (thanks Goo Gone!). Now we have a wonderfully clean oven and COOKIES!!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup chunky or smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F.

Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugars until light. Add the egg and beat until fluffy.

Blend the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together well in a separate bowl.
Add these dry ingredients to the butter mixture.
Add the chocolate chips.

Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheets.
Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375°.

Recipe originally found at About.com: Southern Food.

We're still missing some essential bakeware but I'm making do in the mean time. Stay tuned because I'm going to be on top of this blog from now on! And that's a promise!



Peace, love and cookie dough!

(p.s.- don't mind the monkey in the background. He just keeps the window seat warm ^_^)

Ee gads!

It's been ages since my last post! Oh my!

Some updates:

For my last swing dance at home I made Cinnamon Sprials, Oatmeal Chippers, and a Coconut Cookie (recipe coming soon!).

And then when I went home to visit darling (read about it here!) and made him Cupcakes, Cinnamon Spirals and Snickerdoodles.


In the interm the only thing I'd made was some yummy banana bread. I found the recipe here. It was sort of necessary because we had over-ripe bananas that needed to be used or disposed of.


Darling is going to be coming in one month and I'm hoping to make him these Moosehunter Cookies I stumbled upon.

In other words- I haven't been baking. It's been tough trying to cook myself dinners nonetheless desserts.

A sample of my meals:

Nachos


Oatmeal


Stir Fry


Burritos


Now that I've been here a while and have gotten the hang of cooking meals, hopefully I'll be able to start cookie baking once again!

White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

We made these sort of by accident the other nite (we had no chocolate chips, only white chocolate), and then I realize we had an actual recipe for them so we made them again, properly this time.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 3/4 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
2 cups chopped white chocolate or white chocolate chips

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and baking soda until well combined. Set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and almond extract. Scrape down sides of bowl. On low speed or using a wooden spoon, gradually add flour mixture, beating just until blended. Gradually stif in oats. By hand, fold in white chocolate.



Using a cookie scoop or spoons, drop tablespoonfuls (15 mL) of dough about 2 inches (5 cm) apart on prepared cookie sheets.



Bake one sheet at a time in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges start to turn lightly golden.

Immediately slide parchment paper onto a wire cooling rack. Cool cookies for 5 minutes, then transfer from parchment paper to cooling rack and cool completely.

Snickerdoodles

Yum yum yum

This is one of my FAVOURITE cookies.

(Apparently darling doesn't think too poorly of them either as he ate all of them in 2 days.)

Ingredients:

Cookie-

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cinnamon Sugar-
1/4 cup granulate sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and cream of tartar until well combined. Set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and beat well. Beat in vanilla. Scrape down sides of bowl. On low speed or using a wooden spoon, gradually add flour mixture, beating just until blended. Vover dough with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a shallow dish, using a fork or wire whisk , combine granulated sugar and cinnamon until well blended.

Lightly grease hands with nonstick cooking spray. Roll pieces of dough into 1-inch (2.5 cm) balls.



Roll balls in cinnamon sugar.



Place about 2 inches (5 cm) apart on prepared (parchment paper-lined) cookie sheets.



Bake one sheet at a time in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges start to turn lightly golden.



Immediately slide parchment paper onto wire cooling rack. Cool cookies for 5 minutes, then transfer from parchment paper to cooling rack and cool completely.



Yum!

White Chocolate Rounds, pg 271

I'm beginning to contemplate whether working through this whole book should be the goal. I think not. I think the goal is to make the best baked goods I can and tackle some interesting recipes. So I will no longer be counting the cookies. I will continue to leave the page numbers up though, so you know it is from Amendt's book.

Anywho, the weather is gorgeous and I wanted to make a cookie with a lighter side. I was thinking coconut at first but we don't have any readily available, so, next time.

The hint of almond in these cookies makes them perfect as a vehicle for the white chocolate.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 cup finely chopped white chocolate

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt until well combined. Set aside.



In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.




Add egg, beating well after addition. Beat in vanilla and almond extract. Scrape down sides of bowl. On low speed, or using a wooden spoon, gradually add flour mixture, beating just until blended



By hand or on low speed, fold in white chocolate.





Divide dough in half. Shape each portion of dough into a log 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter. Tightly wrap each dough log in parchment paper or plastic wrap and chill for 2 to 3 hours or overnight.




Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Working with one dough log at a time, remove parchment paper or plastic wrap. Using a sharp knife, cut log into 1/4 inch (0.5 cm) slices. Place about 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. (I've discovered that this particular cookie sheet was easier to use with out the parchment paper, most others, however, work better with it.)



Bake one sheet at a time in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges start to turn lightly golden.

Immediately slide parchment paper onto a wire cooling rack. Cool cookies 5 minutes, then transfer from parchment paper to cooling rack and cool completely.




Oh, and in other news, darling bought me the most wonderful apron with matching oven mitten set!


Isn't he the best? ^_^

Cookie 8- Vanilla Slices pg. 258

These are for my sister. She calls them "death cookies."

Cookies-

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt until well combined. Set aside.



In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.



Add egg and beat well. Beat in vanilla. Scrape down sides of bowl. On low speed or using a wooden spoon, gradually add flour mixture, beating just until blended.




Divide dough in half. Shape each portion of dough into a log 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter.*Tightly wrap each dough log in parchment paper or plastic wrap and chill for 2 to 3 hours or overnight.



*My logs were about 1/2 this in diameter and yielded more than twice the amount.

Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Working with one dough log at a time, remove parchment paper or plastic wrap. Using a sharp knife, cut log into 1/4 inch (0.5 cm) slices.




Place about 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. (We were out of parchment : ( )



Bake one sheet at a time in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges start to turn lightly golden.

Immediately slide parchment paper onto a wire cooling rack. Cool cookies 5 minutes, then transfer from parchment paper to cooling rack and cool completely.




Frosting-

Ingredients:

3 cups confectioner's (powdered/icing) sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 tbsp half-and-half (10%) cream or milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
Candy Sprinkles

Directions:

In a small bowl combine all ingredients.



Using a small whisk or a fork, blend until frosting is smooth and spreadable. Spread frosting over cooled cookies.




Top with candy sprinkles.


(You can see I got lazy with a couple towards the end and just made little cookie sandwiches. teehee.)

Cookie 7- Oatmeal Chippers pg. 150

These were one of the first cookies we made from the book. However this was before the blog. Because darling seemed to enjoy these I decided it was time to make them again.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
2 cups chopped semisweet chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F (180C)

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking poder, baking soda and salt until well combined. Set aside.



In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.




Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Scrape down sides of bowl. On low speed, or using a wooden spoon, gradually add flour mixture, beating just until blended.



Gradually stir in oats. By hand, fold in chocolate.



Using a cookie scoop or spoons, drop tablespoonfuls (15mL) of dough about 2 inches (5 cm) apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.



Bake one sheet at a time in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges start to turn lightly golden.

Immediately slide parchment paper onto a wire cooling rack. Cool cookies for 5 minutes, then transfer from parchment paper to cooling rack and cool completely.