Coconut Macaroons

There is a wonderful bakery in a small town called McMinnville, Oregon near my town and they make the best coconut macaroons I have ever had. I have searched and tried many a macaroon recipe trying to duplicate this cookie to no avail, until today.

I have found a recipe and unfortunately I don't know the source. I read it months ago and took screenshots of the recipe where it has been sitting on my phone. I decided to give it a whirl today and it is a perfect macaroon.  Loaded with coconut, sweet, gooey in the middle, crunchy around the edges....just delightful. The other positive thing is that it is an easy recipe to make with no need for getting out the mixer. 

Coconut Macaroons

4 egg whites
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp honey
1/4 tsp salt
Mix together in medium saucepan over low until tepid. Do not overheat.

Add:
1/4 cup flour
1 cup toasted coconut
1 1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 tsp vanilla

Heat over medium heat stirring constantly until mixture resembles thick mashed potatoes.

Put mixture in bowl and cool to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 350 deg.

Place mixture in 1/8 cup mounds on parchment lined baking sheet.

Cook for 18-20 minutes until golden brown.  Cool on rack.

Tea Time Treats

 

It's raining and windy and not a day for my much loved hike in the park so I decided to bake, my other passion.  Unlike hiking which helps me burn calories, baking can be detrimental to my health.  My excuse today was to bake some shortbread cookies to give as a hostess gift to our best friends who have invited us for a socially distanced Thanksgiving next week.

These cookies are a breeze to make. I baked two types-regular butter shortbread and a brown sugar shortbread, Quality assurance is so important so I taste tested both of them. My preference is the brown sugar version. Both go perfect with a nice cup of black tea. If you are looking for a quick cookie for yourself or to give as a gift, these might fit the bill.  They freeze and pack up very well.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Butter Shortbread Cookies  (makes approximately 24 3 inch cookies)

1 stick softened butter

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.Cream together butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Slowly mix in flour and baking powder. Mix until a soft dough is formed. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for approximately 30 minutes. Roll out dough on lightly floured board to approximately 1/16th of an inch.  Cut out cookies with 3 inch cookie cutter. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until pale brown. Let cool on rack.

Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies (makes approximately 30 3 inch cookies)

1 stick softened butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.Cream together butter, brown sugar, and vanilla. Slowly mix in flour and baking powder. Mix until a soft dough is formed. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for approximately 30 minutes. Roll out dough on lightly floured board to approximately 1/16th of an inch.  Cut out cookies with 3 inch cookie cutter. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until pale brown. Let cool on rack.

Happy Valentine's Day

I am dedicating this blog post to my special Valentine, The Husband.  Not only does he assist me when needed in the kitchen, such as unwrapping all the Hershey's Kisses, he is my best taste tester and honest critic when it comes to my blog.  As we are just a few days from Valentine's Day and just a month from our 18th wedding anniversary (I can hardly believe it!), I reflect on how much I love him and how happy  I am he is my life partner.  He is going to absolutely hate this public declaration of affection but it's my blog and I can say what I want!!

About these fun cookies.  They are a remake of the third most viewed post I've had since I started this blog.  They are a cookie called Chocolate Blossoms and thanks to Pinterest and other bloggers who link their recipe to my blog, this has been a very popular one.  I originally made them to include in Christmas cookie baskets a few years ago, but today I rolled these little chocolate balls into festive Valentine sprinkles, and voila, a retooled holiday cookie.  You can get the recipe by clicking on the highlighted cookie name above. Enjoy!

Double Chocolate Cookies

I am not going to say much about these cookies but WOW!!!  These are really amazing.  So quick to make. So few ingredients. Such a delicious end result.  They're crackly, soft, chewy,chocolaty all in one cookie. If you are looking for a very chocolate cookie, may I highly recommend these double chocolate cookies. 

The recipe makes 12 large cookies (size of my whole hand!). Next time I will make them using a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon.  Give yourself plenty of room on the cookie sheet as the batter is very thin and they spread a lot when baking.  Also, it is imperative to use parchment paper or a slipat liner as these cookies stick and need to be literally peeled off the paper.  May I just say again, WOW!!

Double Chocolate Cookies

3 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted

2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cups semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 (F).

In a medium bowl, whisk together 3 cups confectioner's sugar, 2/3 cup cocoa powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 1/4 cups mini chocolate chips. Set aside.

In a small bowl, stir together 4 egg whites with 2 teaspoons vanilla. Pour into the medium bowl filled with dry ingredients (from the first step), and use a rubber spatula to stir the ingredients together until well-combined. Don't worry if your batter looks too liquidy! This is normal.  It should have a sludgey, paste-like consistency. If your batter is still too liquidy (if it has the consistency of milk, it's too liquidy), keep adding 1 tablespoon quantities of confectioner's sugar until you have the right consistency.

Line a baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat and use a cookie scoop to spoon 2 tablespoons of batter on top of each other (if you want to make smaller cookies, just spoon 1 tablespoons worth of batter). Leave plenty of space between the cookies because they will spread.  Bake at 350 (F) for 14 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies are cracked, glossy, and flaky.

Rest the baking sheet on a cooling rack and leave the cookies on the baking sheet for 10-15 minutes. Once the cookies have set, use a metal spatula to turn them into the cooling rack to cool completely.

Iced Molasses Cookies

School has started and I see the little ones walking toward the neighborhood school on my way to work. It reminds me of those long ago Fall days when my brothers and sisters and I would trek to our elementary school, lunch boxes in hand.  Now kids seem to carry everything they need in backpacks nearly as big as they are.  How much does an elementary student need anyway?

Back to my point.  In our sack lunches besides a sandwich and a milk ticket, would be two or three cookies and an apple.  Nothing fancy but certainly an adequate lunch to see us until dinner.  One of my favorite store bought cookies, though not one we got in our lunches, was Grandmas Iced Molasses cookies.  I loved the spicy soft cookie with the thin vanilla glaze on top. I'm not sure if they are even made anymore, but I looked up this recipe and they are so very reminiscent of those store bought cookies.  One helpful hint. Do not overbake or they will not have that soft center and will be more like a gingersnap.

These are the perfect cookie for Fall with their warm spices to get us ready for the cool days ahead. Enjoy!

Iced Molasses Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus 1/3 cup for rolling cookies
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsulphered molasses

Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice together in a bowl and set aside.

Use an electric mixer and beat the butter for 2 minutes. Add the brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes with mixer set at medium speed. Add egg, vanilla extract, and molasses. Beat until combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula.

Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.

Place remaining 1/3 cup of granulated sugar in a shallow bowl. Working with 2 Tbsp of dough each time, roll dough into 1 3/4 inch balls. Roll balls in sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheets, spacing them 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart.

Bake until the outer edges of the cookies begin to set and centers are soft and puffy, about 11 to 13 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets for 2 to 3 minutes before transferring them to cooling racks.
Optional Glaze
When cookies have cooled, lay out over a sheet of wax paper. Sift 1 1/4 cups of confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar) and then whisk with 2 Tbsp of milk until smooth. Dip spoon into glaze and dribble over cookies.
Yield: Makes 18 large cookies.

New Products

This week I purchased a new product called Nutella.  I know it's been around forever in Europe and has become quite a hit here in the U.S. but I have never tried it.  I think it was the thought of hazelnuts that turned me off. Not a fan.  While doing the shopping though, I came across a $1.00 off coupon next to the product that was already on sale for 50 cents off. So for quite a steal, I thought I'd give it a try. 

YUMMY!!  It's ultra-creamy, very chocolaty, with only a hint of nut flavor.  My BFF Patti tells me the go-to method for eating Nutella in her home is straight from the jar, onto a spoon, and into their mouths.  The commercials show happy mommies spreading it lavishly on toast to entice their little ones to eat a healthy breakfast before running off to school.  I question how healthy Nutella on toast is for breakfast, but that's not for me to worry about.  What was for me to worry about was how to use up a jar of this goodness.  Off to the Internet I went and found this delightfully easy 6 ingredient, no mixer involved, cookie recipe I share with you today.   WARNING:  They are extremely sweet and if I were to make them again, I would definitely add 1/2 tsp of salt and perhaps cut the sugar to 1/3 cup.

The other wonderful product I have recently discovered is Twining's Lady Grey tea.  For me it is just about the most perfect cup of tea I have had since I use to sit at my English grandma's dining room table and drink tea poured from her Blue Willow tea pot. Lady Grey tea is a delicate, fragrant variation on the more famous Earl Grey blend. It consists of black tea scented with oil of bergamot, lemon peel and orange peel. Nothing else needed in my opinion; no sugar, no milk.  But a couple of the Nutella cookies certainly went down well with this brew!

Nutella-Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup Nutella
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Combine all of the ingredients together in a medium bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined.  (This is a very stiff dough and I ended up using my hands at the end to mix.)  Roll into 1 inch balls, roll in granulated sugar and place 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.  Flatten each ball with the bottom of a smooth glass.  Edges will be jagged.  Bake for 7-8 minutes.  Place on rack to cool.  Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Happy New Year 2012

I am going to relax today as I begin a week-long vacation.  This will be my first whole week off since I began a new job in November 2010.  In reflection, 2011 was truly one of the most satisfying years of my life.  Though it was somewhat stressful initially learning a new job after fourteen years at the previous one, I have not looked back once regretting my decision.

My new career choice has filled me with such satisfaction and a new found compassion for my fellow human beings and an empathy for people, most of the time by no choice of their own, are dealing with such difficult lives.  Prior to taking my new job I had no idea what real suffering was all about.  I am so glad I can be a small part of a healing process for people who face huge challenges.

I give you this recipe for yummy chocolate peanut butter cookies that are really over the top if you're a peanut butter cup lover (I am)!  And I leave you with hopes that you have a wonderful New Year filled with happiness, laughter, time with your families, however you may define the word, and the ability to do what you love in life.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

1½ cups plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
6 tbsp. Dutch-process cocoa
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. coarse salt
¾ stick (6 tbsp.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup plus 2 tbsp. creamy peanut butter
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. milk
2 cups coarsely chopped peanut butter cups, divided

Directions
 Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter, peanut butter, and sugars. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Add in the egg, vanilla extract, and milk. Blend until smooth. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Add in 1½ cups of the chopped peanut butter cups and fold in gently with a spatula.

Use a large dough scoop (about 3 tablespoons) to drop rounds of dough onto the baking sheets, spacing 2-3 inches apart. Gently press a few pieces of the reserved peanut butter cups into the top of each of the dough balls. Bake 12-14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking. (The cookies may seem too soft immediately after coming out of the oven but they will set as they cool. You don’t want to overbake them.) Let cool on the baking sheets about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Three Times Is A Charm-French Macarons

Voila la Macaron Francais!! 

Here is a French bakery classic, the French macaron.  They have also been the rage amongst food bloggers for a couple of years now.  It was time I got on the band wagon and gave my spatula a whirl to try and master these elusive cookies. 

The thing about them is that the list of ingredients couldn't be more elementary: ground almonds, egg whites, powdered and granulated sugar, and flavoring  of your choice.  These cookies are all about technique.  One false move and you have a tray full of tasty sweets, but they are not French macarons.  There are a couple things imperative to a true macaron.  They must rise with a small "foot" at the bottom and the top must be smooth, shiny, and nicely rounded over.  It is said that making these are one of the trickiest techniques in French pastry making and that French bakeries throw away approximately 20% of them due to failure.

My first attempt turned out wrong as the batter was too thick.  I flavored these with some finely grated lemon zest and a few drops of yellow gel food coloring.  As you can see, they did not smooth out and the foot never appeared, just big cracks.  They tasted very good.

My second attempt turned out wrong as the batter was too thin.  The variance in batter texture has to do with how many times you fold it once the dry ingredients are incorporated into the stiffly beaten egg whites.  These ones didn't rise at all and their tops cracked.  They were flavored with vanilla extract and colored with a few drops of red food gel. Everything I have read says to use gel food colorings because even the slightest variation in moisture in the batter can effect the end results.  These too, were very tasty.

Today I attempted chocolate macarons as posted on a great baker's blog by the name of David Lebovitz who is an ex-patriot who lives in Paris.....lucky, lucky David.  I'm not going to post his recipe.  I'll just direct you to his site, Living the Sweet Live in Paris, and let you read up on his thoughts and his links to the many people who have achieved success and their techniques.

The possibilities are endless with flavorings you can use for both the cookie base and the fillings.  I filled these chocolate ones with a cherry butter cream which I made by combining powdered sugar, a little butter, a dollop of cherry jam, and a few drops of red food gel. if you attempt to make these, just know to be patient and give yourself time for some trial and error.  Once you've made your first successful batch you may be so excited you'll have to call your mother and tell her.  That's what I did!!

Snickerdoodles

Here is a wonderful, old fashioned and easy cookie to whip together on a Saturday.  This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookie Cookbook.  My adaptation is to add 1 teaspoon of vanilla as I think it is essential in almost any baked good, particularly cookies.

A couple of these, served with a cup of hot black tea and I'm a happy girl. Enjoy!

Snickerdoodles

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup pure vegetable shortening
1 3/4 cups sugar, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, plus more if needed
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, with one rack in top third and one rack in bottom third of oven. Line baking sheets with Silpat baking mats or parchment paper; set aside.


Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine butter, shortening, and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs, and beat to combine. Add dry ingredients, and beat to combine.

In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the ground cinnamon. Use a small (1 1/4-ounce) ice-cream scoop to form balls of the dough, and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are set in center and begin to crack (they will not brown), about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 5 minutes. Transfer the sheets to a wire rack to cool about 5 minutes before transferring the cookies to the rack. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Dulce De Leche Cookies

What a satisfying endeavor, baking cookies, and I seem to be doing a lot of that lately.  There is usually nothing to complicated about the process and the end results are so delicious.  A wonderful side effect is that the whole house smells great as the cookies bake. 

I have seen the recipe for these cookies on a few websites and they sounded so marvelous I had to try them.  I'm a sucker for anything that tastes of butterscotch or caramel and for those who don't know this product, dulce de leche is basically a caramelized condensed milk.  It is easily found in the Hispanic section of any grocery store in the town in which I live.  I also know that there are recipes on the Internet for making your own, but it takes hours and the thought of putting a unopened can of condensed milk in my oven to bake for a few hours is, quite frankly, a scary thought.  My oven is dirty enough without an exploded can of sticky sweet milk burning away!

These are meant to be a sandwich type cookie, but after trying one in that form, I found them to be just too rich so I opted to go with just a nice, thin single cookie.  They're great and will be added to my cookie repitoire.

Dulce De Leche Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup store-bought dulce de leche, plus more for filling
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and position a rack in the upper third of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together

In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until just softened and broken up a bit. Add the 3/4 cup dulce de leche, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating to incorporate.  Add the flour, baking soda and salt.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix only until the flour is just incorporated. You may need to finish off the mixing with a big spatula.

Spoon the dough onto the lined baking sheets using a heaping teaspoon of dough for each cookie. The dough will be soft. Leave 2 inches of space between each cookie for the baking spread.

Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes. The cookies will be honey brown with a light crust, but still very soft when they come out of the oven. Let them rest on the cookie sheet for a minute or two before removing to cool.

Once the cookies are cooled completely, spread them with dulce de leche and sprinkle with a bit of sea salt if you like. Keep well wrapped for up to four days.

Fairy Gingerbread

Isn't that a marvelous name for a cookie?  And these are marvelous cookies, indeed. Light as air yet they have a most potent double whammy punch of ginger flavor. They use fresh, grated ginger as well as lightly toasting ground, dried ginger.  When you take a bite, they literally melt in your mouth and then you can feel the warmth of the ginger spreading.  They are quite remarkable and quite addictive.  You've been forewarned!

This recipe came from the Cook's Illustrated folks other great cooking publication and show called Cook's Country. It takes rather old fashioned recipes they find from old cookbooks and other sources and modernize them for today's kitchens and cooks.  I am never disappointed with their recipes and this one will be a keeper.

Fairy Gingerbread

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
9 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
4 teaspoons grated fresh ginger  (Using a rasp grater works very well)
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup whole milk, room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and prepare your cookie sheets. Spray the cookie sheets with cooking spray and cover with a sheet of parchment paper.

2. Heat the ground ginger in a small skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute.

3. Combine the flour, toasted ginger, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

4. Using a stand mixer beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, on medium-high speed.

5. Add fresh ginger and vanilla and mix until incorporated, about 30 seconds.

6. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with 2 additions of milk.

7. You are now ready to spread the batter evenly on the 2 prepared cookie sheets. Each sheet should have about 3/4 cup of batter. Do not fret if it looks like there is not a lot of batter on the sheet. These cookies should be really thin.

8. Bake until a deep golden brown, about 16 - 20 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking. I baked it 16 minutes, but that felt a bit too long. Assess halfway through and determine how much more time you will need.

9. Once completely baked, take the cookie sheets out and score immediately using a chef's knife or a pizza cutter.

10. Once the cookies are cool, about 20 minutes, you can remove the cookies from the parchment. Go over scoring lines with the dull side of a paring knife and they should separate perfectly. Enjoy!

Cookies and Milk

Here is my idea of a perfect weekend day.  Me puttering in the kitchen, concocting something yummy for dinner, listening to NPR on the kitchen radio, The Husband in the TV room blissfully channel surfing (blissful because I'm not in there wanting to take control of the remote!), and the rest of the world is outside of our home leaving us alone.  Call me anti-social if you will, but I'm not really.  We just work very hard all week and relaxation in the variety of forms it takes in our house is much deserved.

Some weekends I go all out and whip up something fanciful and new to try, but this weekend the best I could come up with, at the request of The Husband, was peanut butter cookies.  He wanted nothing fancy, just the honest-to-goodness, peanut butter cookie like Mom use to make. 

I remember the first time I made peanut butter cookies when I was a teen, I found a recipe in this large book called the Whole Earth Catalog.  It was some kind of "hippie" catalog and what it was doing in our house and who brought it in is a mystery to me.  But anyway, they were delicious.  Alas, I was unable to find that recipe on the Internet so I went to one of my tried and true basic cookbooks, The Joy of Cooking, and found a wonderful substitute.  Served with a glass of milk, these cookies will surely remind you of your childhood.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Beat butter until soft.  Add sugars and beat until creamy.  Add egg, vanilla and peanut butter. Beat until creamy.  Add salt, baking soda and flour and beat until combined. 

Roll the dough into small balls. Place then on cookie sheet. Dip the tines of a fork into granulated sugar and press cookie balls flat making cross hatches.  Bake 12-14 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from cookie sheets onto cooling racks.

Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies

This is a cookie from my youth, either in this shape or in the pinwheel shape, which were my particular favorites.  I found this recipe in the September 2010 issue of Martha Stewart's Everday Food magazine and just knew I had to try them.  This is not a recipe if your goal is to whip out a batch of cookies in a hurry.  These took some time but were totally worth the effort.  The recipe states it makes 18, but I only managed to get ten out of the dough and had only enough chocolate, even after adding three more ounces, to coat nine cookies.  Oh well, nine cookies are better than none!!

Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies
(as adapted from Everyday Living Magazine)

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more for working
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3 tablespoons packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
9 large marshmallows, halved
9 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar on high, scraping down bowl as needed, until light, 4 minutes. Add egg and beat to combine, scraping down bowl as needed. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and beat until combined.

Drop dough by tablespoonfuls, 3 inches apart, onto two parchment-lined baking sheets. With the bottom of a measuring cup dipped in flour, flatten cookies to 2 inches in diameter. Bake until dry and set, about 7 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Remove from oven and top each cookie with a marshmallow half. Bake until marshmallows are soft, 2 minutes.

Remove from oven and, with a metal spatula sprayed with vegetable spray, gently flatten each marshmallow. Let cookies cool completely on sheets on wire racks.

Place chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl and microwave in 30 minute increments, stirring often, until chocolate is thoroughly melted. Place one cookie at a time on tines of a fork, submerge in chocolate, then tap fork on edge of bowl to remove excess. Place on wire rack set over a baking sheet. Let cookies set in refrigerator, about 10 minutes.

Enough With The Dried Cranberries

I realize as I post this entry that this is the third recipe in a month or so that I have used dried cranberries.  Well, I got such a deal on them and they have to be used up and they're so good!  Continuing with my holiday baking theme,  I chose to make white chocolate chip/dried cranberry cookies.  I used the original Nestle Toll House chocolate chip recipe but replaced the chocolate chips with white chocolate chips and cranberries.  "Yum" as my friend Patti always likes to say. 

I promise, this is the last recipe I will make with dried cranberries for a long time to come!

White Chocolate Chip/Dried Cranberry Cookies

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 sticks butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.  Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Stir chocolate and cranberries by hand.  Drop by rounded tablespoon onto baking sheets.

Bake in oven for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown.  Let stand for 2 minutes on sheets and then place on wire racks to cool completely.