Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Recipe and Photo from: Ourbestbites.com


It's a cookie! It's a pie! It's COOKIE PIE!

And I don't think I have ever had a dessert that was so well received and yet so easy to make. Slap a scoop of vanilla ice cream on this baby and you are golden!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie
Recipe from Nestle

1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust, homemade or store-bought.
2 large eggs
1/2 C flour
1/2 C white granulated sugar
1/2 C packed brown sugar
3/4 C real butter, softened (1 1/2 sticks)
1 C chocolate chips (semi-sweet or dark works best, you might find milk too sweet)
1 C chopped pecans (you are welcome to make it without nuts)

Vanilla ice cream, or sweetened whipped cream for serving (a must! I prefer ice cream)

optional: chocolate sauce (honestly, doesn't really need chocolate sauce, but it looks pretty!)

Preheat oven to 325° F.

Beat eggs in large mixer bowl on high speed until foamy. Beat in flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat in butter. Stir in morsels and nuts. Spoon into pie shell.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until knife inserted halfway between edge and center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack or serve slightly warmed. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.


PS I am considering going sugar free for a month starting on February 15th (Valentines Day is also my anniversary there's no way I am going sugar free starting today). So, um, wish me well because I will miss things like this....but I am determined to go to a tropical island sometime in the next year and I want to be able to not have love handles when I do. So....you gotta do what you gotta do.

Delish Coconut Bars

We had these at Book Club the other night and they were so delish. I couldn't stop eating them. Luckily I can blame my gluttony on my pregnant belly :)

Gooey Coconut Bars

1 box French Vanilla cake mix (I just used white cake mix)

2 eggs

1 stick butter or margarine, melted

8 oz cream cheese, softened

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 box (1 lb) powdered sugar

1 1/2 cups coconut

Heat oven to 375. Spray a 13x9 pan.

Mix first three ingredients and press into bottom and 1 inch up sides of pan.

Mix next 6 ingredients and pour over crust.

Bake for 40-45 min, or until golden brown on top.

Cool completely, then cut into small squares.

From Rachel

Magic in the Middle Cookies

Magic in the Middle Cookies

MMMMM! I took these cookies to a family function and got rave reviews all night. And more importantly, people thought it was kind of magical how I got the peanut buttery filling in the cookie. These were actually really easy to make and really fun to make with kids helping. Gwen made all of the middle peanut butter portion herself and it kept her busy while I was able to get more of the the technical work done.

I got this recipe and the picture from melskitchencafe.com.

Chocolate Dough
1 1/2 cups (6 3/8 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 1/2 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar (plus extra for dredging)
1/2 cup (3 3/4 ) brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk

Peanut butter filling
3/4 cup peanut butter, crunchy or smooth, your choice
3/4 cup (3 ounces) confectioners’ sugar

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.
2. To make the dough: In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
3. In another medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the sugars, butter, and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the egg, beating to combine, then stir in the dry ingredients, blending well.
5. To make the filling: In a small bowl, stir together the peanut butter and confectioners sugar until smooth.
6. With floured hands or a teaspoon scoop, roll the filling into 26 one-inch balls.
7. To shape the cookies: Scoop 1 tablespoon of the dough (a lump about the size of a walnut), make an indentation in the center with your finger and place one of the peanut butter balls into the indentation.
8. Bring the cookie dough up and over the filling, pressing the edges together cover the center; roll the cookie in the palms of your hand to smooth it out. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.
10. Roll each rounded cookie in granulated sugar, and place on the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between cookies.
11. Grease the bottom of a drinking glass, and use it to flatten each cookie to about 1/2-inch thick.
12. Bake the cookies for 7 to 9 minutes, or until they’re set and you can smell chocolate. Remove them from the oven, and cool on a rack.

PS If you ever want to buy me a gift, you could buy my a cookie cooling rack. Thanks in advance.

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

Some of you may remember me making these (like all the time) when I lived up there! I have been making these and packaging them into snack size zip bags and putting into the freezer to make preparing school lunched cheaper and quicker.

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

1 c. margarine
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3 c. old fashioned oats
1 c. nuts or raisins (optional)

Beat together margarine and sugars until creamy.
add eggs and vanilla, beat well.
Mix in flour and baking soda.
Stir in oats and raisins/nuts; mix well.

Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.

Yields approx. 4 dozen

*Cookies will look flat, don't worry, that's how they are "chewy". Also you can use butter, although I've found that turn out differently, still good though.

Thick and Chewy Double (or Triple) Chocolate Cookies

If you liked those brownies I posted recently, you will love these. I might even like these better than the brownies. I am all about the decadent desserts lately, huh? You'd think I was pregnant or something...

This is another one from my America's Test Kitchen cookbook.

This makes about 3.5 dozen cookies (or 4 dozen if you add the chocolate chips)
(I often half the recipe because even just one of these cookies seriously mean business)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
16 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (I have used about 2 2/3 cups chocolate chips when I was out of bar chocolate, but bar chocolates have a better fat content for this application)
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons instant coffee or espresso powder (For SOME reason, I don't have any of this in my home ;) I skipped it.)
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Triple chocolate option (but who WOULDN'T want to add this??? seriously, not "optional" if you ask me): 12 ounces (2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips

1. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Melt the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of almost-simmering water, stirring once or twice, until smooth; remove from heat OR to melt in microwave, heat at 50% power for 2 minutes, stir, then continue heating at 50% power for 1 more minute and then if not completely melted, heat an additional 30 to 45 seconds at 50% power. Beat the eggs and vanilla lightly with a fork, sprinkle the coffee powder over to dissolve (if using), and set aside.
3. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 5 seconds. Beat in the sugars until combined, about 45 seconds; the mixture will look granular. Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in the egg mixture until incorporated, about 45 seconds. Add the chocolate in a steady stream and beat until combined, about 40 seconds. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl with a rubber spatula. With the mixer at low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overbeat. If using chocolate chips (YES, YES), use a wooden spoon to stir in now. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until consistency is scoopable and fudgelike, about 30 minutes. (Unless it is summer in Texas, in which case, about never. This will just be a very messy endeavor, but it's worth it!)
4. Meanwhile, adjust the oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. (Unless your other two cookie sheets are dirty and you're too lazy to wash them. Then just use one. The benefit of using just one sheet is that you're spared moving the sheets around part way through baking and you have more chances to fine tune your baking time. If you half the recipe like I did, two sheets mean they all cook at once, so if you decide you took them out a touch too soon, oh well. No second chance for you! But one sheet means second chances. I suppose the down side is that you spend more time with your oven heating up your house. Can you tell I'm not handling the heat well lately?) Leaving about 1 1/2 inches between each ball, scoop the dough onto the parchment-lined cookie sheets with a 1 3/4 inch spring-loaded ice cream scoop (I don't have this size scoop, so I just estimate a really really heaping scoop with my regular cookie dough scoop. Good luck.)
5. Bake, reversing the position of the baking sheets halfway through baking (from top to bottom and front to back), until the edges of the cookies have just begun to set but the centers are still very soft, about 10 minutes. (Resist the urge to bake the cookies longer than indicated; they may appear underbaked at first but will firm up as they cool.) Cool the cookies on the sheets about 10 minutes, slide the parchment with the cookies onto a wire rack, and cool to room temperature; remove with a wide metal spatula (or my greedy, greedy hands were all I needed).

oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

I made these sunday and i was a little skeptical because they were made with whole wheat- but they were delicious! So whole wheat means you could technically eat them for breakfast!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe


72 -96 cookies

* 1 1/2 cups butter or margarine, softened
* 4 large eggs
* 3 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 5 cups rolled oats
* 3 cups whole wheat flour
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 4 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Beat together the butter or margarine, eggs, brown sugar and vanilla.
2. Add oats, flours, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips.
3. Bake at 325°F (170°C) for 10-12 minutes.

Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today when I went in to sneak some chocolate chips from the recent stash I got for Christmas I realized that the entire stash were milk chocolate. I was taken aback at first because we normally go for semi-sweet, but then I remembered a good milk chocolate chocolate chip cookie recipe my old next door neighbor Amy used to make. They were pretty good. I haven't figured out the timing to keep them gooey and soft for as long as my regular ones, but they are still really good.

2/3 C butter or margarine, softened
2/3 C shortening
1 C sugar
1C packed brown sugar
2eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 C flour
1tsp salt
1 stap baking soda
1pckg milk chocolate chips
optional walnuts

In a mixing bowl cream butter, shortening and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla, mix well. Combine flour salt and soda and add to creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 10-11 minutes.

I don't know if it is my elevation or what but I had to cook them a bit longer, but then again maybe that is why they didn't stay soft? I dunno, but still very yum.

Brownie Roll Out Cookies

(image from Smitten Kitchen)

More experimentation for my son's upcoming first birthday party. Instead of a cake we're doing a build your own ice cream sandwich station with chocolate and vanilla ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles, and these from Smitten Kitchen.

They really do taste like brownies in cookie form. I tried them smeared with a little vanilla ice cream and they were absolutely heavenly.

The best part is that they require nothing but the bare baking essentials. To quote Deb,

There’s no sea salt in them, no melted 70 percent chocolate. There’s no brown butter or vanilla bean pulp or pinch of espresso powder. There is not a single thing in them we’d probably jazz them up with today, and instead of fighting this simplicity, I encourage you to revel in it.

Woooo simple cookies!

Recipe copied and pasted for your convenience:

Brownie Roll-Out Cookies*
Recipe from Deb’s mom

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup lightly salted butter, softened (Deb note: I don’t really see “lightly salted” much these days, so I used one stick salted, one stick unsalted)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa (I used the “good” stuff–Droste or Galler–but I can assure you that my mother only used Hershey’s growing up, so your choice)

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Whisk dry flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

Roll out cookie dough on floured counter. Cut into desired shapes, brushing extra deposits of flour off the top. (It does disappear once baked, though, so don’t overly fret if they go into the oven looking white.) Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes (the former for 1/8-inch thick cookies, the latter for 1/4-inch cookies) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

* According to my mother’s recipe, they’re called chocolate sugar cookies but I do not feel that it does them justice.

Ginger Snaps from the Kitchen of Jeannie McC

Ginger Snaps - Adapted from an All Recipes Recipe - yummmmmmmm

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened 2 cups packed brown sugar 2/3 cup molasses 2 eggs 5 cups unbleached all- purpose flour

1 T+ 1.5 t.  ground ginger 4 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup chopped crystallized ginger (chop in food processor until a ball of mush)

 

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.	Cream the butter and the brown sugar until fluffy. Add molasses and eggs and mix well.
3.	Combine flour, ground ginger, baking soda and salt and add to butter mixture. Blend in candied ginger. Roll into 1 inch balls and dip in chunky sugar.  Bake about 2 inches apart. Bake about 10 minutes, or until lightly golden and BARELY cracked... Cool.   *Very spicy  and flavorful!  You can buy Candied Ginger in bulk at HEB Plus for super cheap.... best when served about 30 minutes after baking*

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies - easy!

We made these for family night tonight and they turned out great. I halfed the recipe and still had over two dozen cookies. They turn out kind of like little cakes moreso than cookies and very delicious! Enjoy!

• 1 cup shortening
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla and pumpkin until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; stir into the pumpkin mixture. Mix in the chocolate chips. Stir in the walnuts if desired. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until edges begin to brown. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who ISN'T constantly on the lookout for a really awesome chocolate chip cookie recipe?
One of these days I'd like to try the fancy NYT chocolate chip cookie recipe but seeing as it calls for ingredients I can't afford right now (Valrhona feves, anyone?) I decided to look for a good recipe and tweak it to apply some of the things I learned in the NYT article (which I used to be able to access no problem but now it wants me to log in, so I can't link to it. But here is Not Martha's post about the cookies which includes info from the important parts of the article).

I used the recipe and cookie formation method (who knew there were options aside from "scoop. drop.") from Good Eats n' Sweet Treats.

I followed the recipe to a T except I refrigerated the dough for 24 hours before baking (NYT suggests 36 hours but I really really wanted a cookie and couldn't wait anymore) and sprinkled them with some sea salt before baking.

They were AMAZING. Best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had. Worth the 24 hour wait. Next time I will gather my strength and exercise all the self control I have and refrigerate the dough for 36 hours to see if it makes a difference. Pray for me.



Recipe and pictures copied from Good Eats n' Sweet Treats for your convenience with my additions in red:


These oversized cookies are chewy and thick, like many of the chocolate chip cookies sold in gourmet shops and cookie stores. They rely on melted butter and an extra egg yolk to keep their texture soft. These cookies are best served warm from the oven but will retain their texture even when cooled. To ensure the proper texture, cool the cookies on the baking sheet. Oversized baking sheets allow you to get all the dough into the oven at one time. If you’re using smaller baking sheets, put fewer cookies on each sheet and bake them in batches.

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (10 5/8 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup packed (7 ounces) light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
sea salt

Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.

Either by hand or with an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in the chips to taste.

Refrigerate for 36 (or, if you're weak, 24) hours.

Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray.

Roll a scant 1/4 cup of the dough into a ball.


Hold the dough ball with the fingertips of both hands and pull into 2 equal halves.


Rotate the halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, join the halves together at their base, again forming a single ball, being careful not to smooth the dough’s uneven surface.


Place the formed dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, jagged surface up, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart.


Sprinkle each cookie with a small pinch sea salt.

Bake until the cookies are light golden grown and the outer edges start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Cool the cookies on the sheets. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets with a side metal spatula.

Yield: About 18 large cookies

Note: the refrigerated dough was a little hard to scoop. I let it sit out for a bit before attacking it with a spoon. It warmed in my hands as I formed balls and became easier to work with.