Cookies for Two

A snowy day calls for fresh-baked cookies, especially with Christmas around the corner. This recipe is simply a smaller version of my "classic" chocolate chip cookies (adapted from the Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe). You will end up with about five cookies instead of almost four dozen. A perfect way to warm up after shoveling snow!

Chocolate Chip Cookies for Two
Makes 5 3-inch cookies

2 T. unsalted butter, softened
2 T. brown sugar
1 T. raw sugar
1 egg yolk
1/4 t. vanilla
1/4 c. flour
1/4 t. baking soda
pinch of salt
chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350° and line a small baking sheet with parchment paper.

Blend butter and sugars in a bowl with a fork. Stir in yolk and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, and salt and stir until well combined. Fold in a handful of chocolate chips, M&M's, or other chocolate candy.

Drop by rounded tablespoon or ice cream scoop onto baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake 8-11 minutes until golden brown. Let cookies cool for 2 minutes before removing. 

December Baking

December is a busy month in the kitchen. Between Christmas cookies and homemade gifts, my sink is always full of measuring cups, spatulas, and cookie sheets. Short, dark, cold days left me yearning for the tastes of summer at the beginning of the month. I broke into my frozen blueberry stash from July to make a batch of orange blueberry poppy seed muffins on December 8th. 

These muffins are a twist on Joy the Baker's lemon blueberry poppy seed muffins. I swapped the whole milk in Joy's recipe for soy and the lemon zest for orange. These muffins are moist and full of blueberries. If your blueberries are frozen to start, toss them with 1-2 tablespoons of flour in a bowl. This will help prevent your batter from turning blue.

When you begin to sprinkle the crumb topping over your muffin cups, you will be hesitant to use all the topping. Don't stop sprinkling! I was hesitant too, but I was so very happy I used it all.

Dark Chocolate Chip, Pistachio, and Smoked Salt Cookies

I love adding pistachios to cookie recipes (as in these Oatmeal Cranberry Pistachio gems), so I bookmarked Joy the Baker's recipe for dark chocolate, pistachio and smoked salt cookies as soon as I saw it. But what the heck is smoked salt and where was I going to find it?

The recipe sat for a few weeks as I waited for an excuse to bake these cookies, or stumbled upon smoke salt (whichever came first). I was stopping in Whole Foods to pick up some treats for an impromptu dinner with friends, and somehow remembered my need for smoke salt. I tried the baking aisle first, where two gentlemen who worked at the store looked at me confused and asked, "What are you trying to make?" Luckily, one of them thought to radio the man at the specialty foods/cheese counter, who happened to be standing behind a huge glass jar filled with a smoky brown salt. Within minutes I found myself in a circle with these three workers, all sniffing the campfire worthy scent of their smoked salt.

Needless to say, once I had the salt I didn't need an excuse to bake. These cookies are as easy to whip up as any other chocolate chip cookie recipe and I was delighted at their thinness and chewy texture (if you want to hear me talk more on that, check out my classic chocolate chippers).

A smoked, nutty, and chocolately cookie - how can we make it any better, you ask? How about using some homemade vanilla extract. Yes, be jealous, and then make your own. Luckily, the man in my life has a stash of these perfect bottles in his kitchen and I get dibs.

Vegan Chunky Monkey "Ice Cream" Sandwiches

These little gems happened by accident this afternoon. I've wanted to make my own version of (never home)maker's vegan chunky monkey cookies for some time now. My three favorite foods in this world are peanut butter, bananas, and cheese. Luckily two of them pair up nicely.

Chunky Monkey = banana, peanut butter, and chocolate. After I pulled the first batch of cookies out of the oven, I realized how perfect they would be for ice cream sandwiches. I've been craving ice cream for the past two weeks. It's an annual craving that occurs around this time of year. I blame the summertime blues: summer's almost here, but it's still a little too chilly to eat ice cream every night (yes, I do that).

Of course, I have no ice cream in the freezer (hence the cravings). But I do have bananas. I always have bananas. Solution: mash frozen bananas and make "ice cream." Brilliant. Even better, the end product is still 100% vegan.

Oatmeal Cranberry Pistachio Cookies

I turned my granola into a cookie with this recipe. If you like my granola, you will like this cookie. 

 

This is my favorite version of the traditional oatmeal raisin. Swapping cranberries for raisins adds more sweetness and a pop of color. A big handful of pistachios adds a hint of unexpected nuttiness and some health. But really, these cookies are good for three reasons: granulated sugar, brown sugar, and most importantly, maple syrup. It smells like breakfast when you take these puppies out of the oven.

Cookie Dough Bites

The best way to say "I love you" to a sweet tooth is with cookie dough. Trust me.

Greek yogurt is the secret to making this cookie dough recipe egg-free and granting you the permission to lick the bowl, spoon, your fingers, and eat as much as you like. Simply blend the ingredients together as you would a normal cookie recipe: blend butter and sugars, add vanilla and yogurt, mix in the dry ingredients, and lastly, the chocolate chips.

For quick cookie dough bites, drop the dough onto a cookie sheet using an ice cream scoop. Pop those bad boys into the freeze and you're done! For a more festive treat, spread the dough into a jelly roll pan and cut into shapes with cookie cutters after freezing.

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

It was easier than I expected to pick a recipe for my first post. My family has been baking chocolate chip cookies since I was too short to see the stovetop. My mom was in charge of the Christmas baking when I was kid, but she always knew to call me when I was allowed to lick the bowl. What a good mother! She also knew to make my sister and I some cookies without any chocolate chips. Have you ever tried it? YUM! Sorry chocolate lovers, but I like to taste the cookie too!

A few years ago, I took over most of the Christmas baking for our family gatherings. In my years as a baker, I’ve learned that you don’t mess with something great. We have been using the recipe on the back of the Nestle semi-sweet chocolate morsel bag, minus the chopped nuts, for years.

It may be our retro oven, my mixer, baking pans, or old habits, but these chocolate chippers always turn out to be flat and chewy. Many bakers may frown on my flat cookies but I promise they are delicious. The flat nature of these cookies also makes them great for ice cream sandwiches.