Tag Archives: cookie madness

cookie madness: nyo sugar cookies

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On my quest to find the perfect cookie for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, I read a lot of recipes.  A lot.

So many recipes that I had to ban myself from reading anymore recipes.  And then I read more.  And banned myself again.  And again.

And then I was grabbing something from the pantry and noticed this recipe hanging inconspicuously from a bottle of vegetable oil.  I didn’t mean to read the recipe, it just happened.  All on its own.  Out of my control.

Next thing I knew all of the ingredients were on the counter and then… by then I was too far in.  There was no turning back.

These are like sugar cookies, but so much better.  So, so much better.  The secret?  Brown sugar.

Brown sugar cookies.  So simple.  So sweet.  So delicious.

Even Boyfriend who thinks that sugar cookies are “a waste of a cookie” loved these.  Amazing what a difference brown sugar makes.  Just look at how soft and chewy they are.

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You’re drooling, I know.

It’s ok.  I won’t tell.  Just go into the kitchen and make these cookies.  Like, now.

Brown Sugar Cookies

[ Printable Recipe ]

  • 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

 

  1. Heat oven to 350ºF

 

  1. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt.  In a large mixing bowl, beat shortening and butter until creamy.  Add brown sugar, egg and  vanilla, continue to beat until light and fluffy.  Mix in flour, baking soda and salt.

 

  1. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place 2 inches apart onto cookie sheet.  (I chilled my dough and then flattened it slightly before baking).

 

  1. Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown (I kept mine closer to 12).  Cool on baking sheet on a wire rack 10 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to finish cooling completely.

 

[ Adapted from the tag hanging on my bottle of Crisco ]

red velvet cookies

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Today’s cookies are easy cookies.

Because it’s Sunday.

And because I’m baking cookie swap cookies today.

But I can’t post those yet.

And because BF couldn’t shut up about how good these were.

So today’s cookies had to be easy enough that I could make them and not interfere with my other baking.  But still good enough that BF couldn’t keep himself out of the kitchen.

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Inspired by Shannon’s beautiful 1-2-3 cookies.  She was embarrassed by how easy these were, but really, when you’re making a bajillion cookies for people, sometimes you need one really easy cookie.

I know I do, at least.

To make these more festive, you could color your topping green, or put Christmas-themed sprinkles on them.  Or you could make cute little Christmas Cookie Pops (similar to Shannon’s “caramel apples”… but maybe call them “ornaments’ or “holly berries” or something Christmas-y instead).

Oh, and did I mention that we made a cream-cheese-stuffed version?  I didn’t have the patience to freeze my cream cheese so it ended up kinda weaving itself through the cookie, which was actually rather delightful.

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Red Velvet Cookies

[ Printable Recipe ]

  • 1 box red velvet cake mix
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • Vanilla candy coating (optional)

If you want to add cream cheese filling

  • 4 ounces cream cheese
  • 1 tablespoon butter, softened
  • 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • tiny pinch salt (super tiny, MAYBE 1/8 teaspoon)

1.  In a large bowl mix cake mix, eggs, and vegetable oil with an electric mixer until smooth.  (It gave my mixer quite a workout).  Oh, and wear your apron unless you always wanted that shirt to have pink polka-dots anyway.

2.  Dump into dough-mound onto plastic wrap.  Wrap and chill 2 hours.

Once chilled, scoop into 1-inch balls and place on parchment-lined baking sheet.*

*Alternatively, you could scoop immediately and then cover with plastic wrap and chill 30 minutes to an hour. 

3.  When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F degrees for 8 – 10 minutes until baked through.   Let cool on baking sheet.

4.  Drizzle with melted candy coating in a haphazard manner.  Add decorative sprinkles before the coating dries, if desired.

If you want to add the cream cheese… 

1.  Whip cream cheese, vanilla, salt, and powdered sugar until blended.  Cover and freeze until firm, about two hours.

Once frozen, scoop into 1/2 teaspoon-sized balls.

When ready to form your cookies…

1.  Working in batches (so some can stay chilled in the fridge), flatten one of your cookie-dough balls until it is about 2-inches in diameter.

2.  Place cream cheese ball in the middle and pinch dough closed around it.  Roll until smooth and return to refrigerator for 15 minutes.

3.  Bake at 350F degrees for 11 – 13 minutes until done.

You may also like these Pumpkin Dessert Squares which cheat with yellow cake mix 🙂

pumpkin dessert (or breakfast) squares

Thursday Things

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Thanksgiving has come and gone (just like the pie above) and it is likely that I will be in a permanent food coma until the end of the year.  I realize some of you may still be detoxing, so please forgive me for all the sugar-talk that your eyes are about to ingest.

As many of you know, I have signed up for the GREAT FOOD BLOGGER COOKIE SWAP.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I still have no idea what cookie I am going to send.  I only know that I must send it by Wednesday, the 5th.  So, if you got me as your match… I will be equally as surprised as you are.  Well, only a few days less so.

So with December (the month of Christmas Cookies) rapidly approaching, and having to bake and research cookies anyway for the cookie swap, Wee Eats is going to enter a cookie vortex and the month of December will officially be deemed COOKIE-EMBER.

No wait, that doesn’t sound right.

DE-COOKIE-ER… no… ok.  I give up.  Let’s just call it what it is COOKIE MADNESS!

Very similar to space madness, but with cookies instead.

Do you love my chincy logo?  I just learned how to make it.  Like 3 minutes ago.  Don’t hate.  It’s a beautiful 3-minute logo.  (I think I may already be suffering from a little “cookie madness”… oops?)

Whatever.  Don’t lie.  You love it.  If you think you don’t you’re just lying to yourself.

And if you think it looks like a cookie with chicken pox, you’re also lying to yourself.  Chicken pox are red and those are clearly brown like chocolate chips.

So every week (until we reach Christmas) I will give you a new cookie recipe.  Exciting, right?  Assuming, of course, I don’t go into a sugar coma or diabetic shock before hand.

That might be a big assumption.

IN OTHER NEWS…

Have you seen that Cadbury created chocolate that DOESN’T MELT!  Well, I mean, it melts… eventually, but not until like 104 degrees or something like that.  Honestly, it kinda weirds me out.  Our bodies are what, like 98.6-ish?  Which means when you chew it up it will stay solid?  No melting?  That kind of sorcery is too weird for me!

I’ve also recently discovered the magic of a site called Issuu.  Issuu allows you to publish, or in my case READ, online “magazines” … for free!  Like this lovely magazine from FoodieCrush.  Which I probably shouldn’t have even looked at because now I’m even MORE undecided about which cookie to make for the cookie swap.  WHY MUST YOU HAVE SO MANY COOKIES?!?!  WHYYYY???

Sorry… tangent.

Boyfriend sent me this sandwich recipe, which actually looks relatively delish (and easy!).  So that may be on the menu soon.  Not this week.  I’m pretty sure we are going to eat cookies for every meal this week.  The fish sauce freaks me out a bit though… no way I’m putting three tablespoons of that stuff in there, no sir.

I’ve also really been craving some good tomato soup with grilled cheese, except that’s cold weather food and our highs are still in the 80s.  THE 80’S!!!!  It’s sunny and 80-something degrees out and the neighbors have their Christmas lights up and … and …

I’m sorry.  I’m apparently very unstable today.  Quite unstable indeed.  It’s all this cookie planning.  IT’S DRIVING ME MAD!!