Cookie of the Week

Yes, I am still making cookies! Well, I missed last week and I haven't even thought about this week yet, but let's not talk about that. I have a few recipes to share from the past month.



These are so good! A little rich and buttery but that is not neccesarily a bad thing! We had these for breakfast as well as dessert.

English Matrimonials

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups oats
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 3/4 sticks butter, cut into pieces
1 12 ounce jar of your favorite preserves ( I use peach)

Mix all ingredients except Apricot Preserves. Press one half of the mixture into a buttered 8 inch square pan. Spread the preserves over the crust. Sprinkle second half of mixture over the top and pat lightly. Bake at 350 for 30 - 40 minutes or until light brown. Let cool completely, then cut into squares.



This is one of my favorite cookies. It always makes me think of my grandmother and I'm not exactly sure why. I don't really remember her making these but I always think of her when I make them.

This is a two-fer recipe. You make a batch of butter cookie dough and divide in half. Half goes to these cookies and half gets wrapped in the freezer for another cookie recipe that I'll share later or another batch of these.

Basic Butter Cookie Dough
1 lb butter softened
1 1/3 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3 large egg yolks *
2 tsp vanilla
4 2/3 c flour

Beat the butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Add in the egg yolks one at a time. Add the vanilla. Gradually beat in the flour until combined well.

* save the egg whites and freeze for later use.

Jelly Bowl Cookies

1/2 batch of Basic Cookie Dough
3/4 c jam (I like Strawberry)

roll the dough in small balls and place on a prepared cookie sheet. Using your thumb, press an indentation in to the dough to for a little bowl. Fill will a small about of jam. Bake at 350 for 12 min.



There is not much really to say about these cookies. They are kind of light and crumbly (in a good way) with a great taste of honey. It's a simple cookie that stores well.

Honey Tapioca Cookies

1/2 c butter, softened
1/3 c honey
2 Tbls brown sugar
1 large egg
3/4 c tapioca flour
1 1/4 c rice flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder

Cream the butter, honey and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg. Add remaining ingredients and mix for about 2 minutes. Roll in to tablespoon sized balls, slightly flatten and place on a prepared baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.



What can I say about chocolate chip cookies?! Everyone loves them and these are no exception. The kids (mine and the neighbors) have no idea that they are made with whole wheat flour so you can sneak a little more whole grains in to their diet (let's just not talk about the sugar, though!) The whole wheat flour gives them an almost nutty quality. You can't go wrong with chocolate chip cookies!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 c brown sugar
1 c white sugar
2 c butter, softened
4 eggs
2 Tbls vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 3/4 c whole wheat flour
4 c semisweet chocolate chips

Cream together the brown sugar, white sugar, and butter until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla, salt, and baking soda until well blended, then mix in the flour. Stir in the chocolate chips last. Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets so they are about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes, until the cookies are just starting to brown at the edges.

Cookie of the Week

Well I guess they can't all be winners. And this one, unfortunately, wasn't a winner.

The recipe was found here (via this blog post). It sounded like a good recipe. The picture looked promising. It just didn't come together well. Actually they didn't come together at all. The clusters just fell right apart. More like cereal than clusters, really. The yogurt coating also never set up. It didn't drizzle, just sort of ... plopped. Then remained very soft and gooey. The whole thing is just one big mass in my refrigerator, now. I didn't know what else to do.

Let's hope for better luck next week.

Cookie of the Week

This week's cookie is a small batch cookie - only 16 2x2 bars. They are filling though. They are also the kind of cookie that is perfect as part of quick on the go breakfast. Don't let the ultra healthy ingredients turn you off. They are solid but not dry. And more importantly, my kids like them. That is the ultimate stamp of approval.

Raisin Bars

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
1 1/2 cup raisins, finely chopped
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
1/3 to 1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 325º and grease an 8x8 baking pan. Blend the flour, oats, salt and oil. Mix in the raisins, nuts if using and water. Use the larger amount of water only if needed to make the mixture hold together. Press the dough in to the pan, pressing down very well. CUt in to 16 squares before baking. Bake for 30 minutes.

I think these would be good with other dried fruits besides the raisins. Dates, maybe? We leave the nuts out because of allergies but I'm sure they are wonderful with that little bit of crunch.

Cookie of the Week

This week's cookie is, hands down, my dad's favorite. I can't eat them with out thinking of him. They are classic Peanut Butter Cookies. I like to use crunchy peanut butter for a little extra umm... crunch. They are so good. I think I can probably count them as my favorite cookie, too.

Growing up, I used to hate it when people said I was like my dad because I thought he was pretty strict and kind of stubborn. (and I'm sure these are the traits they were referring to.) Now I realize that I AM like my dad in those ways and that is ok with me. But am also like my dad in other ways, good ways -- and we can share a love of peanut butter cookies, too.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup shortening
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunch, whichever makes you happy)
3 cups flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350º and prepare your cookie sheets (I use parchment). Cream the shortening, vanilla and both sugars. Add in the eggs and beat well. Stir in the peanut butter. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Add to the peanut butter mixture and combine well. Form in to little balls and place on your cookie sheets (sometimes I roll the balls in white sugar. This time I didn't). Using a fork, press the tines in to the balls to make the crisscross pattern. Bake 8-10 minutes.

Cookie of the Week

This week's cookie is Chocolate Snappers. They are like a crispy little brownie cookie. Great with a cold glass of milk! (I'm still looking for a great fudgy brownie recipe recipe, by the way. If you've got one, please let me know!)

Chocolate Snappers

1 1/2 sticks of butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup white sugar (reserved)

Cream the butter, brown sugar and 1 cup white sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, vanilla and cocoa. Blend in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Cover and chill.

Preheat oven to 350º. Roll chilled dough in to 1 inch balls and then roll the balls in the reserved sugar. Place on a prepared cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake 8-12 minutes depending on how crispy you like them.

Cookie of the Week

C is for cookie!

This week's cookie was chosen by Chaz. He really loves The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, so when I came across this recipe for Lemony Snickets I knew I had to bookmark it for him. The recipe can be found here. I'm not sure how I found this recipe - probably a link to a link sort of a thing.

The recipe was pretty easy to whip up. The frosting part was a bit messy but things like that usually are. The cookies alone are kind of plain. I thought they would have a bit more lemony flavor. I think next time I'll use lemon juice instead of the vanilla extract. I'm not normally much of a frosting person but in this case, the frosting really makes the cookie. It tastes a little like lemonade and really adds a (much needed) lemony flavor to the cookies. Of course, this is all personal preference, I realize. My personal preference is for a really lemony taste. I just love lemons! Since Chaz is a fan of lemons too, these cookies were very well received.

Cookie of the Week

This week's cookie is a little less cookie and a little more.... I don't know, something else. A snack, maybe? A breakfast on the go? A healthy treat disguised as something sweet?

This week I made granola bars.

I love how easy they are and so customizable, too. The boys can pick their own combination of fruits, nuts and seeds to make a treat that suits their tastes. Much better than store bought (then again isn't homemade anything better than store bought?)

Granola Bars

14 oz can condensed milk
2 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup dried fruit of choice (diced apple, cranberries, raisins, etc)*
1 cup seeds of choice (pumpkin seeds, sesame, sunflower, etc)*
1 cup nuts of choice (we need to be nut free so I just split this cup between the fruit and seeds but peanuts or almonds are a nice choice, too)*

* this time I used 3 cups of Not Nuts Mountain Mambo nut free trail mix by Enjoy Life. You just need a total of 3 cups of whatever combination of stuff you like. If you add chocolate chips, they'll get all melty and very unchip like but that might be ok, too.

Preheat the oven to 250 F. Oil a 9x13 baking pan (I just line it with parchment paper. Less to clean up). Lightly oil a large mixing bowl.

Warm the condensed milk in a saucepan. Combine all the other ingredients in the oiled bowl. Pour the warm milk over the dry ingredients and mix well.

Spread the mixture in the prepared pan with a rubber spatula or with your hands (light coated with oil so the gooey stuff doesn't stick. You can get CSI-like and wear gloves but I don't have any and haven't bothered to get some.)

Bake for 1 hour. Cool for 15 minutes and then cut in to bars. Makes 16-24 bars depending on how big you like them.

Enjoy! These store really well. I keep them in a cookie tin lined with some of the same parchment paper that I lined the baking pan with. (I'm frugal that way!)

Cookie of the Week

This week's cookie is a quick and easy cookie. It also happens to be a gluten free cookie using potato flour and rice flour instead of wheat flour. The batch is a small one but the cookies taste best when they are fresher. I think it's better to make a second batch halfway through the week than to try and double the recipe and make it last.

Raisin Spice Cookies

1/2 c honey
1/2 c coconut oil
1 egg
1 c brown rice flour
1/2 c potato flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cardamom
1/2 c raisins

Preheat oven to 375º

Cream together the honey, oil and egg. Add all ingredients except raisins. Mix well. Stir in raisins gently. Drop on to a prepared baking sheet. Slightly flatten the cookies. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Cookie of the Week

I had a request this week for Oreos. I'm not feeling up to figuring that one out right now so we compromised. This week's cookie is a White Chip Chocolate Cookie.

White Chip Chocolate Cookies

2 1/4 cups flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/ tsp salt
1 cup softened butter
3/4 cup white sugar
2/3 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. in a separate bowl, cream butter, both sugars, and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time. Gradually add flour mixture. Stir in chips. drop by spoonfulls on to a prepared baking sheet. Bake for 9 minutes, until centers are set. Be careful not to over bake as it is hard to tell if they are done by color.

Cookie of the Week

Not exactly what I had planned but good none the less. This week I made Butterscotchies. But... I got distracted and left out a key ingredient - 3 cups of oatmeal! So these cookies are predominately butter and sugar. Like I said, still good, just not what I had planned. (and not the prettiest of cookies)

Butterscotchies

1 1/4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 c white sugar
3/4 c packed brown sugar
2 eggs
grated peel of 1 orange
3 c old fashioned oats
2 c butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 375º

Beat butter, both sugars, eggs and oatmeal and orange rind in a large bowl. Mix together the rest of the ingredients (except for the chips and oatmeal) in a separate bowl. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until well mixed. Stir in the butterscotch chips and the oatmeal.

Drop spoonfulls on to a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake 7-8 minutes. They get dark but that's ok.

Cookie of the Week

It's Edmund's birthday week so he go to pick this week's cookie. There was no question as to what his choice would be - his favorite Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars. Oh so very rich but oh so very very good! Definitely a favorite of ours.

The recipe comes from one of Ina Garten's books (I just love her! I really want to be her friend) but you can find it here. I'm too busy eating to type up the recipe.

Cookie of the Week

Another week, another cookie. I have fond memories of some grocery store coconut cookies. Little white rectangles with rows of ridges across the top. I'm not sure when I had them last and I can't even remember what they are called. I haven't been able to stop thinking about them, though.

I found a recipe for Coconut Icebox cookies and it sounded like it might fit the bill. They are not exactly what I was imaging but they are close. Actually they are very good, especially with a cup of tea. (but then again, aren't all cookies great with a cup of tea?)

I had to make a couple of very minor changes to the recipe. The first batch in to the oven where HUGE! So big, in fact, they took almost twice the time to cook. The rest of the cookies were made smaller which I think is better anyway. I also found the dough too soft to slice from the refrigerator but just right out of the freezer. Minor changes.

Coconut Icebox Cookies

3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 c sugar
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1 1/2 c melted shortening
4 c grated coconut
5 1/2 c cake flour, sifted
1 Tbls baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Combine eggs, sugar, melted shortening, and coconut in a large mixing bowl. Mix well. Combine dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to the egg mixture, combining well.

Press dough in to a 8x8 pan lined with wax paper. Cover and refrigerate overnight (place in the freezer). Turn dough out and slice in to 3 logs (slice these in half again - 1.5ish x 8 inches). Cut in 1/4 inch slices and place on a prepared cookie sheet. Bake 400º for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cookie of the Week

With it being Valentine's week, I really wanted to use my heart cookie cutters for this week's Cookie of the Week. I had big plans, too. I was dreaming of little heart shaped butter cookies filled with raspberry jam. However, my cookie cutters just weren't the right size for that. I had a really hard time thinking past what I wanted to make to figure out what I was going to make. (this is often a problem for me)

I found a recipe for Old English Crisps - or as I like to call them, Butter and Honey Cookies - and thought I'd give them a try. I like the simplicity of the recipe. There aren't a lot of ingredients. I also like that they are sweetened by honey. I thought this would be something just a little different. The cookies smelled wonderful while baking. You could really smell the honey! They are flaky and tender and they remind me of a good pie crust. (Except with honey!)

The only problem I have with this recipe is that it doesn't make a lot. Most of the time my cookie jar is nearly full. Today it is only about a third of the way filled. We'll have to show a little restraint in our cookie gobbling eating this week, I suppose.



Old English Crisps

3 1/3 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup cold butter (cut up)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup honey

Sift the flour and salt in to a large bowl. With a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Mix in the cream and honey to form a stiff dough. Divide the dough in half and press each in to a disk. Wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 300º. Roll dough disk out on a floured surface to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Cut with cookie cutters and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Continue until all dough is used. Bake 15-20 minutes until golden.

Cookie of the Week

It's that time again! It's time for another cookie of the week. Last week's cookie was a little late in getting made so the cookie jar is still pretty well stocked. This week we decided to make a pan of brownies instead. I used the Moosewood Fudge Brownie recipe from The New Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. The brownies are good but they are dense and cake-like instead of fudgy and a little gooey (which is what we were hoping for). Chris says they remind him a little of the cake part of a Devil Dog. They just need a little dollop of whipped cream.

I suppose this is the start of a new project - the quest for the perfect brownie recipe. Yep, because I need to eat a ton of brownies! Maybe the Great Brownie Experiment needs to be a sporadic one. Anyone have a good brownie recipe?

Cookie of the Week

It's a little late but this week's cookie of the week still got made. This week's cookie was requested by Edmund. He wanted chocolate chip cookies with other flavor chips, too. So it is Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Chip Cookies. I used my favorite basic cookie recipe - my grandmother's recipe - and added a mixture of peanut butter chips and chocolate chips. You really can't go wrong with that combination!

Last week's cookies were also made and enjoyed but never photographed. We were too busy eating them to stop and take pictures. My parents were here and my Mom suggested my Ginger Cookies. It's been such along time since I've made those, I'd forgotten how good they are! My Mom made them with Edmund while Topher and I were at an appointment. It was so exciting to come home to warm cookies!

Ginger Cookies

3/4 c shortening *
1 c sugar
1 egg
1/4 c molasses
2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbls ground ginger
1 Tbls cinnamon
additional sugar for rolling

Cream shortening. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add egg and molasses. Beat well. Add remaining ingredients and beat well. Shape dough in to 1 inch balls and roll in additional sugar. Place on parchment paper on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350º for 8-10 minutes.

* shortening is key in this one. It makes for a nice chewy cookie with a little bit of a crisp edge. Butter will give you a hard crispy cookie - like a Ginger Snap

Cookie of the Week

This week's cookie of the week is Coconut Crunch Drops. This recipe comes from my Mother-in-Law. Chris says he doesn't remember eating these growing up, though. Too bad! They're so good! Real crispy and buttery and ever so slightly chewing right in the center. It's going to be tough to make these last the week!

Mimi's Crunch Drops

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups oatmeal
3 1/2 oz coconut

Preheat oven to 375º. Sift flour, baking soda and salt. Beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat in the flour until well combined. Stir in oats and coconut until blended to make a stiff dough. Drop by spoonfuls on to a prepared cookie sheet. Bake 10-14 min.

The Cookie Project

I've been thinking about this for quite sometime but never really did anything with it. Which is really very silly since as far as projects go, this one is so simple. I want to do a "Cookie of the Week". See, how simple is that! I'd like to try new to us recipes but I know that there will be a lot of family favorites too. The kids love cookies and I hate buying them. I like making them but I just don't very often. I'm not sure why I don't make them more often but that will change.

This week I made snickerdoodles. This week was an easy one, too. I had frozen cookie dough that I bought from the middle school band's fundraiser so I just needed to place the dough balls on a sheet and bake. Easy peasy!