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Christmas Gingerbread Bowl

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Christmas Gingerbread Bowl
Christmas Gingerbread Bowl

The story of this Christmas Gingerbread Bowl goes way back to the 1990’s. It’s been with me for a long time. During one of our office December potlucks, one of the girls brought in a show stopping gingerbread bowl filled with home made gingerbread cookies. I was seriously in awe. These were the days I photocopied recipes from the local newspaper because Internet, Google and Pinterest did not exist. I know, hard to believe right. Even KitchenAid Mixers did not exist back then. BUT we still managed to cook and bake and make fabulous food. Us home cooks.

I made this bowl once or twice during my Vancouver, BC days back in the 90’s and then shuffled the recipe into a folder. Fast forward, I move to Calgary, Alberta which sits well over 1,000 meters above sea level (Vancouver is right about sea level. Being so high affects baking and cooking. It just does.)

In my early Calgary years I found the recipe and attempted to make that exact recipe. Several times I failed. Sometime along the way I created my own Orange Gingerbread Cookie recipe (make with or without the orange) which I make annually, for bake sales or cookie exchanges. I decided this year I wanted to attempt the Gingerbread Bowl Recipe again but then I had an aha moment. My cookies bake beautifully, so why not use my own cookie recipe instead of the one given to me. So I did. BAM it worked.

Christmas Gingerbread Bowl
Christmas Gingerbread Bowl

I will forewarn you it’s a process that takes time. Make the time, refrigerate the dough. Roll the dough out, mould onto a prepared bowl, refrigerate again. Remove bowl, cut out shapes, refrigerate again. Bake bowl, let sit on rack until completely cool. Remove bowl. See, a process.

If you want to attempt this recipe give yourself the day to make it. Follow my Orange Gingerbread Cookie recipe and make the dough. Split into two discs, wrapped into plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple hours. This step is really important. Remove dough from fridge, let warm up a bit and start to roll. If you start to notice cracks, you need to let it warm up a little longer but not too long!

Christmas Gingerbread Bowl Method:

Tools:

  • Aluminum Foil
  • Cooking oil or spray
  • Cutting board or platter to fit bowl (not too big, not too small)
  • Small cookie cutter
  • Baking sheet
  • 1 1/2 quart ovenproof glass bowl

I use a Pyrex Mixing Bowl:

Pyrex Bowl
Pyrex Mixing Bowl, Photo Credit Pyrex

With aluminum foil cover outside of 1 1/2 quart ovenproof glass bowl with a lipped edge. Ensure the foil comes over into the inside about 1/2 inch. Spray or oil the entire surface of the bowl including the lipped edge getting every crack and crevice. Do your best to make sure foil is smooth and has no rough aluminum foil creases.

On floured surface roll out one disc of dough into a circle about 1/4 inch thick. Lift rolled out dough and place evenly onto bowl. Carefully and lightly press dough onto bowl, moulding firmly to shape bowl without stretching. If you end up with a crack, a little bit of water rubbed onto crack will help seal it. Trim dough around edge of bowl with sharp knife. Place on same size cutting board or plate and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Remove from refrigerator, and using your small cookie cutter start carefully cutting out cookies around the middle of the bowl about 1 1/2 – 2 inches apart. Do not go to close to the top or bottom. Refrigerate for an additional 1 1/2 hours. Firming your dough will help stop slippage during baking.

Christmas Gingerbread Bowl
Christmas Gingerbread Bowl

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Place inverted bowl on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Allow gingerbread bowl to cool right on bowl on the sheet. When completely cool, carefully loosen foil and lift foil and gingerbread bowl off your glass bowl. Remove any additional foil.

Until ready to use, store it uncovered in a dry place. With the second gingerbread disk, make cookies for your bowl following the steps in the Orange Gingerbread Cookie recipe.

This recipe will make two bowls or one bowl and cookies.

 

Christmas Gingerbread Bowl
Christmas Gingerbread Bowl

Honey Cranberry Cookies

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A new year means healthier eating right? But what about the cookies?

With resolutions of healthier eating it’s hard to give up snacks. So let’s talk oatmeal cookies, which come in all shapes and sizes. They really do. Soft and chewy, with ginger, chocolate chips, raisins, cinnamon and more. Everyone has a favourite and/or a favourite recipe they love. When I was a kid, my mom would make us papaya oatmeal cookies. I haven’t had one of those in years. But I found her recipe so it’s coming. To satisfy our sweet tooth and help get us through the first month of the year, we whipped up these Honey Cranberry Cookies.

Honey Cranberrey Cookies
Top view of the cookies

We’ve added cranberries, honey and sunflower seeds into this cookie to make us feel better about eating it. It works! And is the perfect January, get back to healthy, cookie treat to allow yourself on cheat days. Or in between.

5.0 from 1 reviews
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Honey Cranberry Cookies
Author: 
Serves: 30
 
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup butter, softened
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup pourable honey
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1½ cups large flake oats
  • 1¼ cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ cup dried cranberries
  • ¼ cup sunflower seeds
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F.
  2. Cream together butter, sugar and honey. Beat in egg and vanilla.
  3. Mix in oats, flour, baking soda, salt until combined. Lightly stir in cranberries and sunflower seeds.
  4. Drop onto parchment lined baking sheets in 1 inch spoonfuls.
  5. Bake in oven, rotating pans half way through for 10 - 12 minutes.

Espresso Cookies

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Espresso Cookies
Espresso Cookies

I like coffee and I love the smell of coffee. But I typically can only drink about half a cup of coffee before I’ve had enough. I even like it cold so the new nitro cold coffee fad was made for me. Unless of course my coffee comes with baileys or some other delectable enhancer.

While I may not drink a lot of coffee, I do like to eat my coffee. In baking and rubs and whatever else might work.

For this recipe I whipped up a batch of cookie dough and dropped in some of my ground espresso. What happened next was this insanely delicious cookie dough. In fact it was hard to stop eating it. The ground espresso showed beautiful flakes in the dough. It’s easy to roll out and doesn’t need to be refrigerated to firm up before baking.

The cookie dough displays a strong coffee flavour. The baked cookie just a hint. In fact my kids love this cookie (they are to young to drink coffee so they don’t really recognize the coffee flavour). You can add some sprinkles or not. Cut out any shape you like, re-roll and start over. These cookies were so good I’m going to go espresso & cookie crazy I think since the combinations could be endless.

Espresso Cookies
Espresso Cookies

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Espresso Cookies
Serves: 24
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • ½ cup brown sugar, packed
  • ¼ cup icing sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp ground espresso, finely ground
  • 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
  • Red and green sprinkles
  • Cookie cutters
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 300F.
  2. Add butter, brown sugar, icing sugar, egg and ground espresso to bowl. Stir well to combine.
  3. Add flour, mixing well.
  4. On floured surface, roll dough to ¼ inch thickness and cut into desired shapes.
  5. Place on parchment lined baking sheets leaving space between cookies.
  6. Bake for 12 minutes, turning and rotating pans half way through.
  7. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack.

 

Cocoa Nib Shortbread by Kimberley’s Kitchen

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Kimberley over at Kimberley’s Kitchen and I share a common bond….we are both Northern BC girls. I grew up in Northern BC and even though I left in 1989, I still pay homage to the town I grew up in. Kimberley lives in a town near where I grew up and it is there she creates hand-crafted artisan confections and fine foods using organic, fair trade and local ingredients/foods to create delicious treats and baked goods. Cooler yet is she sells them in her online store and packages them in sustainable bags and boxes. I’ve actually had my eyes on her marshmallows for quite some time!

We’ve gotten to know each other over social media, and I’m so thrilled to have Kimberley as my Guest Blogger for December. She is another one of those friends I feel like I’ve known a long time. Maybe it’s that NBC bond we share. In any case I was supposed to have this post up a little earlier this month, but sick on top of sick, my husband being sick, my MIL sick following surgery, plus a new puppy to keep us up at night…well let’s just say we are doing our best to capture the Christmas spirit this year.

I hope Kimberley doesn’t mind me sharing her fantastic news, but she is going to be moving her baking operation into a commercial kitchen in the New Year with construction beginning in January!! Such an exciting time for her and her family. I know it’s going to be a great year for her and wish her much success! Make sure you get to know Kimberley from Kimberley’s Kitchen…I think she’s going to be quite famous one day :).

Shortbread cookies are a mainstay in my kitchen and a popular cookie to make with my daughters. We love to experiment with new flavors and we recently tried making some with raw cocoa nibs. Have you cooked or baked with cocoa nibs before? They have a wonderfully nutty, chocolate flavour but are not at all sweet. So if you like bittersweet chocolate or coffee, try adding cocoa nibs into your recipes for something a little different. The bittersweet cocoa nib perfectly compliments the sweetness of the shortbread in this recipe and is a fun, new cookie for the holidays. Variations include using orange extract instead of vanilla, or finishing the cookies with some sweet chocolate drizzle. Enjoy! – Kimberley

 

Cocoa Nib Shortbread by Kimberley's Kitchen
Cocoa Nibs for Shortbread. Photo by Kimberley’s Kitchen

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Cocoa Nib Shortbread by Kimberley's Kitchen
Author: 
Recipe type: cookies, holiday baking, treats, snacks
Serves: 4 dozen
 
Ingredients
  • 2 sticks softened butter
  • 1 cup confectioner's sugar
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup raw cocoa nibs (available in natural and gourmet food stores)
Instructions
  1. In the bowl of a mixer, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and cream until combined. Add vanilla extract and mix until combined. With mixer turned off, add flour and salt. Slowly mix to incorporate and continue mixing on low speed until dough comes together.
  2. Remove dough from bowl and divide into two equal balls. Roll each in a log with a diameter of about 1½ inches. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.
  3. To bake, allow dough to rest at room temperature for about 15 minutes while you preheat your oven to 350.
  4. Slice dough into ¼ inch slices and place on parchment lined baking sheet, leaving space between cookies.
  5. Bake for 15 minutes or until slightly brown at edges. Cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container for 5 days. Enjoy!

 

Eggnog Sugar Cookies with Candy Cane Sprinkles

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What a crazy past couple of weeks. I remember Halloween..then my son’s birthday and wham here we are just weeks away from Christmas. From frantic bake sale baking, long distance cookie swap baking to mom’s wine night & cookie exchange baking….I feel like I barely came out alive. Maybe I just take on too much every holiday season and need to rethink my strategy next year. To add to all the craziness was the onset of the sick in November. From colds, pneumonia, bronchitis, tonsillitis to ear infections..4 in our party of 5 got hit pretty hard and I was one of them. Seems the older you get the harder you fall and while I don’t usually get sick, I fell pretty hard this time. Which meant no wine for weeks. On the bright side we are all done with being sick and I refuse to let it back in the house any time soon. Bring on Christmas.

One of the cookie swaps I am involved with again this year is the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2014. It’s a world wide affair but you have to be a Food Blogger to participate. For a small submission fee (goes to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer), you get matched up with other Food Bloggers in your Country. You always hope you end up with delicious cookies but that is the chance you take when you participate in something like this. It annoys me to no end to hear people complain that their cookies were not that good. Then honestly don’t participate it’s that simple since it’s for charity and it’s fun. The only thing I wish more bloggers would do is get acquainted with the more popular social media channels!! This year I sent my cookie swap cookies to BC and Saskatchewan. A little closer for me and I was happy about that (less travel time).

I had wanted to do a shortbread cookie this year. And after testing out one recipe I totally changed my game plan as I had also been wanting to create an eggnog cookie. For like years. So with just days to spare I came up with I guess a cross between a blossom cookie and a sugar cookie. I say sugar as the ingredients closely resemble a sugar cookie recipe. Took me two tries to get the ingredients right, but I did and it’s pretty darn good. I ran out of chocolate kisses so improvised with chocolate balls. I like this idea so much, my next batch of blossom style cookies will have balls and not kisses.

The cookies I received from Bloggers are: World Peace Cookies from The Blenderist, Coffee Sugar Cookies from Oven Mitt Adventures, and just received is my prettiest package yet, Sour Cherry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies by Wanna Come With. A fun way to get to know other bloggers!

This recipe makes close to 30 cookies so I had lots leftover. So much so I made these Eggnog Sugar Cookies with Candy Cane Sprinkles for another cookie swap!

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Eggnogg Sugar Cookie with Candy Cane Sprinkles
Author: 
Recipe type: cookies, desserts, snacks
Serves: 30
 
Ingredients
  • ½ cup butter
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 3 tbsp eggnog
  • 2 cups flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp nutmeg
  • ½ cup sugar & 1 tbsp nutmeg (for rolling)
  • 3 ;Lrge candy canes crushed up fine.
  • 30 chocolate kisses or chocolate candy balls
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375F.
  2. Beat your butter. Add in both sugars and mix until sugars mixed in and smooth. Add egg, vanilla and eggnog. Beat until combined.
  3. Sift in flour, pinch of salt, baking soda and grate your nutmeg in over a sifter.
  4. Your batter consistency should not be to sticky or to dry.
  5. Take pieces of the dough and roll into 1 inch balls. Set aside.
  6. Mix ½ cup sugar with 1 tbsp freshly grated nutmeg. Roll balls in nutmeg sugar.
  7. Place on parchment lined baking sheet leaving space between cookies.
  8. Bake for 6 minutes then rotate pans.
  9. Remove wrappers from all the chocolate kisses/balls.
  10. Bake for 4 minutes then pull pan out and sprinkle a little candy cane dust in the center of each cookie. It's ok if some of it falls to the side.
  11. Put pan back in oven for an addition 2 minutes and remove from oven.
  12. Press chocolate kisses or balls into centre of each cookie. You need to work quickly as the chocolate starts to melt a little.
  13. Remove to cooling rack. I put the cookies outside in the cold (on a table) or in the fridge to help the chocolate solidify again.
  14. This batch makes about 30 cookies.

 

Carrot Lentil Whoopie Pies

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This recipe is the combination of a Carrot Cupcake and a Pumpkin Whoopie Pie recipe. Yes it is possible to put pureed lentils into cookies which is how we got to these Carrot Lentil Whoopie Pies. And the kids don’t have a clue.

Batch one came about last week. Just before I got hit with a wicked head cold and the sick. Needless to say I couldn’t taste them, so I didn’t bother to ice them. Just sent the cookies out as is to friends, teachers at the school and of course my husband’s work mates. The feedback I got was incredible. Words like “exotic flavours” and the perfect amount of spice. Others advised there wasn’t enough spice. All good feedback since I cut back on sugar and oil in this recipe. The other surprise for everyone was they contained pureed green lentils. In fact you can put pureed lentils into most baking for that extra protein kick. Loved the feedback, which helped immensely.

Lentil cookie round two came about today. My sniffer was back, taste buds in check, a few modifications I needed to make were made and I think batch two was way better than the first batch from last week. Will have to wait to hear from the testers again but this time they have been iced.

One thing I decided to change with batch two was only using baking soda. In batch one I used baking soda and powder. The cookies were pretty big. This time, without using baking powder, they still turned out puffy. So the kids are enjoying eating them as singles with a dollop of icing on top. I say whatever works.

This will be my second entry into the Canadian Lentils Contest and my baked goods entry. I further created a Lentil Balls recipe a couple weeks ago, well according to the photo dates, it was March 5th. But the sick and all kinds of other stuff has kept me from getting that recipe posted. Soon I hope.

These cookies are moist, not too sweet, yet flavourful and I’m told delicious as is or with a dollop of icing in the middle.

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Carrot Lentil Whoopie Pies
Author: 
Recipe type: snack, cookie, whoopie pie
Serves: 20
 
Ingredients
  • 3½ cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 3 tsp cinnamon
  • ½ tsp cloves
  • ½ tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 eggs
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup canola oil
  • 2 jars pureed baby carrot food
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • ½ cup pureed green lentils
  • ½ cup shredded coconut
  • 1 cup carrots, shredded
  • additional cooked lentils for top, optional
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F.
  2. In a large bowl mix together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt.
  3. In a second bowl whisk together your eggs, sugars, canola oil, baby carrot food, vanilla and green lentils. Stir in coconut and carrots.
  4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix well to combine.
  5. Use a small cookie scoop or a large rounded tablespoon to drop the dough onto the baking sheets. It is important they are uniform in size and shape. Space 1 inch apart.
  6. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of cookie comes out clean and it lightly springs back when touched. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on a cooling rack.
  7. Once cooled, ice with cream cheese icing.
Notes
To making cream cheese icing, beat together ¼ cup softened butter, 1 8 oz block of softened cream cheese, 1 tsp vanilla, pinch of salt and 2½ cups icing sugar.

 

Vanilla Kipferl

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My daughter has been in Girl Guides for 4 years. My time flies. During this time she has been able to experience all kinds of fun outings and adventures with her district group. Truly a great activity for children to be involved in.

This week they celebrated Chinese New Year and part of the celebration included a Mission Impossible. This translates to Brownie Badge Work. Part of their cultural celebration included being asked to share a food from within their own culture. While our family is definitely a mixed bag (Ukrainian, Romanian, German, English, Swedish), we do not follow any one culture or religion. We keep an open mind and are open to all cultures and religion. Having said that I did grow up eating all kinds of yummy goodness including: cabbage rolls, borscht, pierogi, sauerkraut, and more.

Looking at ideas for food items for her to make and bring in, that were relatively easy, I told her about some of the German cookies my mom used to make. Cookies I’ve never even made. And honestly had forgotten about. Together we decided on a cookie recipe, one I remembered being almond and crescent shaped. A quick call to some relatives and we were ready to get baking.

We modified the recipe slightly and it turned out spectacular. I am so very proud of my little girl and her enthusiasm about this Mission and excitement over making something from our German heritage.

These are easier than you think and oh so enjoyable.

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Vanilla Kipferl
Recipe type: snack, cookie, german cooking, german cookie,
Serves: 24
 
Ingredients
  • 2 cups flour
  • ⅓ cup white sugar
  • ¾ ground almonds
  • 1 cup butter, cold
  • 1 egg
  • ½ cup icing sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • sugar or icing sugar for dipping
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 325F.
  2. Combine flour, sugar, icing sugar and ground almonds in a bowl. Cut cold butter into smaller chunks. Working quickly cut in butter with pastry blender. Add egg and vanilla.
  3. Stir to mix and knead into a dough. If mixture feels a little dry add a couple drops of water.
  4. Shape dough into logs. Cut off approximately ½ inch pieces. Shape each piece into a crescent and place on parchment lined baking sheet.
  5. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are starting to brown. Remove from oven and gently toss with either icing sugar or regular white sugar.

 

Orange Pistachio Ice Box Cookies

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This was the second batch of three ice box cookies I was testing in December. The last of the 3 turned out but one or two things didn’t, so the 3rd recipe won’t be featured on the blog. What I learned making Ice Box Cookies is you can put almost anything into them…well almost.

These cookies are both pretty to look at and easy to make. The combination of pistachios, orange and cranberries transcends both sweet and savory items and is always a winner when it comes to baking.

And I love the ice box cookie concept. Get your dough ready, roll and pop into the freezer to be made at a later date. This is something I might consider for a future cookie exchange. Each lady gets a frozen log to take home and a batch of the cookies. Fun!

5.0 from 1 reviews
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Orange Pistachio Ice Box Cookies
Author: 
Recipe type: Cookies, holiday, Christmas cookies, baking, snacks,
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp orange extract
  • 1 tsp orange zest
  • 1 tbsp orange juice
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ⅓ cup pistachios, shelled and chopped
  • ½ cup dried cranberries
Instructions
  1. In a bowl beat your butter with sugars until creamy. Add eggs, orange extract, orange zest and orange juice. Beat until combined.
  2. In a second bowl sift together your flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in pistachios and cranberries mixing until combined. The dough should be a little sticky and form into a ball easily. If you find it a little dry, you can add another tsp or so of orange juice.
  3. Split ball into two halves and roll each half into about a 12 inch log. Wrap in foil and put into freezer or fridge.
  4. When ready to bake cookies slice log into about ¼ inch slices. Bake in 375 F oven for about 8 minutes.

 

Kringle’s Cookies

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These cookies should really be called the last of the Christmas baking ingredients garbage cookies because essentially that is what they are. Searching through my pantry one day looking for inspiration on a cookie, and I started coming across all kinds of last little bits of ingredients to use up…a small ziplock bag of toasted coconut…bag of pecans…leftover glazed cherries…whatever I could find that looked good is what I grabbed and tossed into these cookies.

The cookie testers (including my Uncle) loved the cookies plain, meaning without any additional dipping into the naughty white chocolate and sprinkling of candy canes. The rest of the cookie testers loved them both ways and I must say the extra candy canes and white chocolate really do add that extra touch to these cookies that make them spectacular.

Now they could be made anytime of the year. Just omit the candy canes and use any hard candy, or even sprinkle plain rice krispies on the chocolate instead of holiday ones. And you could dip them into milk or dark chocolate.

Very pleased with how these cookies turned out and I can’t wait to make them again!

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Kringles Cookies
Author: 
Recipe type: holiday baking, christmas cookies, cookies, cookie exhange, snacks,
 
Ingredients
  • ½ lb butter
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • ¾ cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2½ cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cream of tartar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 cup rice krispy cereal, holiday red & green version
  • ½ cup glazed cherries, chopped
  • 2 tbsp toasted coconut
  • ¼ cup pecans, chopped
  • ¼ cup toffee bits
  • 3 candy canes crushed, regular size
  • 6 oz of white chocolate, melted
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl sift together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Set aside.
  2. In a smaller bowl cream together your butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla mixing until combined.
  3. Pour flour mixture into butter mixture in two additions mixing well each time. Once combined add in your krispy cereal, cherries, coconut, pecans and toffee bits. Stir just until incorporated.
  4. Place dough in fridge for 30 minutes.
  5. Preheat oven to 350.
  6. Drop tbsp sized cookie dough onto parchment lined baking sheets leaving 1 inch between cookies. Bake for 6 minutes then turn and rotate cookie sheets in oven. Bake for another 6 minutes or until cookies lightly browned around the edges. I always rotate the trays in the oven so the cookies bake evenly on all sides.
  7. Remove from oven and let sit on sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to racks to cool completely.
  8. Once cooled dip one side in melted white chocolate and sprinkle with crushed candy canes. Let sit on parchment lined sheet until white chocolate has dried.
Notes
To crush candy canes: Remove candy canes from wrapper. Place in ziplock type plastic bag and close. Place on cutting board. Using mallet or rolling pin gently start smashing candy canes to crush them. Continue until you have broken up all the candy canes into small pieces.

 

Orange Gingerbread Cookies

3 · · 9 Comments

A couple years ago I started a Mom’s Wine Group and this lead to an annual Cookie Exchange. It’s turned out to be a great evening hanging with the ladies each holiday season, talking smack, kids, partners or husbands, enjoying wine, bites and at the end of the evening getting to go home with dozens of cookies and/or holiday baking. Love this time with friends and the gift of cookies that keeps on giving. Until they are all gone.

This year I am making cookies for both our Annual Group Cookie Exchange, and, since I am always up for a challenge, The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2013. This Cookie Swap is Worldwide and you have to be a Food Blogger to participate. For a small submission fee (goes to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer), you get matched up with other Food Bloggers in your Country. Since my country “Canada” is rather large, I was paired with Food Bloggers who live in Eastern Canada. I am in the West.

For the cookie swap I needed a cookie that could stand up to traveling across Canada and arrive in one piece. Since moving to Calgary, I had been slightly challenged with getting a gingerbread cookie right, so I decided I was going to conquer gingerbread and declared let Battle Gingerbread begin.

Orange Gingerbread Cookies
Orange Gingerbread Cookies

A month or so ago I got to work playing with ingredients as I prefer soft gingerbread cookies and wanted to make sure I could come up with a recipe to get a soft cookie. In Calgary we are 3400 ft above sea level and as such ingredients need to be adjusted to compensate as this affects baking. The higher the altitude, the lower the atmospheric pressure. Lower pressure in turn causes water to evaporate more quickly. On or around my 3rd gingerbread cookie attempt I got the ingredients right with a little help from my Five Spice Ginger Cookies. Using a similar ingredient plan I was able to get the right consistency and taste adding in some orange zest for additional zip. Super Yum and I’ve even turned a few non gingerbread cookie fans into gingerbread cookie lovers with these gems.

If you choose to decorate and ice, I have included the royal icing recipe I use. The kids love to decorate these cookies and I love this cookie that has now become a family favourite and a new tradition.

By participating in the Food Blogger Cookie Swap I also received 3 fabulous cookies from Food Bloggers across Canada. Heather from The Tasty Gardener in Toronto sent over some “tasty” Egg Nog Cookies. Sarah at Feasts For All Seasons in Vancouver (my old stomping grounds & heart City) provided me with a Lovely cookie called Chocolate Gingerbread Crackles. Evelyne from Cheap Ethnic Eatz in Montreal sent along some Ohh La La Candied Orange Peel Shortbread. Fantastic cookies all around and I can’t wait until next year’s Cookie Swap 2014!

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Orange Gingerbread Cookies
Author: 
Recipe type: snacks, holiday baking, christmas cookies, cookies,
Serves: 24
 
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup butter, softened
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • ⅔ cup molasses
  • 2 tsp orange zest
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 3 cups all purpose white flour
  • ¾ tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg
  • 2 tsp ginger
  • ½ tsp cloves
  • ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl beat together butter, brown sugar, egg, molasses, orange zest and vanilla. Set aside.
  2. In another bowl sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to wet mixture, mixing well.
  3. Divide dough in half, shape into two discs, wrap in plastic and place in fridge until firm (2-3 hours or overnight).
  4. When ready to cut out cookies, roll out dough to about ¼ inch thickness on lightly floured surface. Using cookie cutters, cut out shapes and place on parchment lined cooking sheets about 1 inch apart. If the dough feels soft, place cookie sheet back in fridge for 15 minutes to firm up dough before baking.
  5. Bake in 350 F oven for 4 minutes then turn and rotate cookie sheets in oven. Bake for another 4 minutes or until cookies lightly browned on bottom and firm to touch. I always rotate the trays in the oven so the cookies bake evenly on all sides.
  6. Set on racks to cool completely before icing.
Notes
To make Royal Icing: Beat together 6 tbsp egg whites with 1 tsp vanilla until egg whites are frothy. Gradually mix in 4 cups sifted icing sugar until all incorporated. Turn speed up to high and beat until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks, about 5 minutes or so. If using food colouring add it and mix. Pour into pastry bags or a ziplock type plastic bag, clipping one of the corners.

 

Orange Gingerbread Cookies
Orange Gingerbread Cookies

Merry Cherry Ice Box Cookies

0 · · 5 Comments

Always wanting to create and try new cookie combinations I decided to investigate Ice Box Cookies as they are new territory for me. I googled ice box cookies and learned they are simply butter, sugar, eggs, flour, a few other ingredients and your add in of choice. Pretty much the basis to any cookie, except they are rolled and put into the fridge or freezer until ready to use. As usual my mind started spinning with all kinds of combinations I could make and so I went back to one of my basic cookie dough recipes and excitedly made 3 different variations of ice box cookies in two days hoping they would all turn out great.

The only time I used candied cherries is in Christmas baking, so I fondly named these Merry Cherry Ice Box Cookies. For my first batch of cookies, I opted to make them without baking soda or powder to see what they’d do. And I rolled them in toasted coconut since I love coconut. They turned out lovely and good enough to share. A simple but tasty little cookie that has received 4 thumbs up here.

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Merry Cherry Ice Box Cookies
Author: 
Recipe type: holiday baker, christmas, baking, cookies, snacks,
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2½ cups all purpose flour
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 cup candied red and green cherries, chopped small
  • 1 cup toasted coconut
  • Aluminum foil
Instructions
  1. Beat together butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla, continue to beat until combined. Add candied cherries and stir.
  2. Sift in your flour and salt. Mix until all combined. The dough should be a little sticky and come together easily. If you find it a little dry, you can add a couple drops of water.
  3. Split dough into two halves and roll each half into roughly a 2 inch log. Roll each log in the toasted coconut. Wrap in foil and put into freezer or fridge.
  4. When ready to bake cookies slice dough log into about ¼ inch slices. Bake in 375 F oven for about 7-8 minutes.

 

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

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Seems we live in a world of Whoopie Pies these days. Everywhere I go there are Whoopie Pies! Never being one to jump on a band wagon, I can honestly say this is the first time I’ve ever had or made a Whoopie Pie. It started when friends invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. Our friends were making a traditional turkey dinner and so I planned on making a traditional pumpkin pie. But I wanted something else, something more, just in case some people do not care for pumpkin pie. I googled pumpkin and have no idea how I ended up at pumpkin whoopie pies, but I did and the idea stuck. Always up for a challenge, this was definitely going to be uncharted territories. I do not particularly like to bring a recipe to a gathering that I have not tested yet. But there wasn’t much time and with the array of ingredients I had assembled, I felt quite confident making these cookies.

After browsing tons of whoopie pie recipes, all with similar measurements and ingredients, I finally made up a list of what I needed, combining a few ideas into my own concoction. In the end this recipe is not too far off some of the ones I saw and so I’m not sure who to give credit to, but I will go with the first recipe I looked at.

These cookies ended up being super easy to make and incredibly tasty both with and without the cream cheese icing. They would be the perfect bake sale item.

Now that I have made a basic whoopie pie, and they were a huge hit this past Thanksgiving, I am predicting more whoopie pies in our future. And just so you know, these cookies taste equally delicious with a dollop of leftover whipping cream on top!

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Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Author: 
Serves: 24
 
Ingredients
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp cloves
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar
  • ½ cup canola oil
  • 2.5 cups pumpkin puree
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Set aside.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, and oil together. Add the pumpkin puree, stirring well. Add vanilla and whisk until combined.
  4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture mixing as you go.
  5. Use a small cookie scoop or a large rounded tablespoon to drop the dough onto the baking sheets. It is important they are uniform in size and shape. Space 1 inch apart.
  6. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of cookie comes out clean and it lightly springs back when touched. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on a cooling rack.
  7. Once cooled, ice with cream cheese icing.
Notes
To make cream cheese icing beat together ¼ cup butter, 2½ cups icing sugar, 1 block 8oz cream cheese and 1 tsp vanilla. This recipe is enough to ice 14 cookies.

 

Five Spice Ginger Cookies

1 · · 3 Comments

Thrilled to be participating again in the 3rd Annual Calgary Food Bloggers Bake Sale. Proceeds from this Bake Sale go to The Calgary Foundation’s Flood Rebuilding Fund. A great charity to support considering the year Calgarians and Albertans have had following the nasty flood of 2013.

This is my first kick at the can with a ginger molasses cookie. Love to eat them. Bad habit of buying them at Starbucks all the while wondering about all the extra additives that might be in them. Until now. Starting with a basic cookie dough recipe and adding a whole whack of stuff, I believe I have given Starbucks a run for their money and no longer need to buy their cookies since these are delicious.

Early this week I decided to make these cookies but as always wanted to add my own spin. At first I thought chocolate dipped ginger cookies. But then, after snooping through my spices, I decided I would add in some Five Spice. I use Five Spice all the time and figured it would pair nicely with the spice in the cookie.

My gamble paid off as it’s an explosion of equally balanced flavours in every bite. I’ve gotten all kinds of positive feedback from the taste testers who have received a batch of these cookies and loved them. I choose to make these cookies for the bake sale, monster size. Definitely make them smaller if that’s what you prefer and you will get more out of the batch.

Another tip: make sure your butter is softened, not melting. It is the key to getting a good chewy molasses cookie. It was a hot day when I made these cookies and as such a hot evening in the house. I recall the inside temperature reading 27 degrees at one point. As you can imagine, my room temperature butter would melt and I would have to put it back in the fridge to firm up. Quite the game butter and I played the night I made these cookies.

5.0 from 1 reviews
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Five Spice Ginger Cookies
Author: 
Recipe type: Snack, treat,
Serves: 10
 
Ingredients
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp five spice powder
  • ½ tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp ground cloves
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¼ tsp kosher salt
  • ¾ cup butter, softened but not melting
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 1 egg (room temp)
  • 1 tbsp water
  • ⅓ cup fancy molasses
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • ⅓ cup candied ginger, chopped small
  • ½ cup white sugar (for rolling)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F.
  2. In a bowl, sift ginger, baking soda, five spice powder, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, flour and salt. Mix to combine.
  3. In a second bowl beat your butter with sugars until creamy consistency. Add egg and vanilla, beating some more. Finally add in your water and molasses mixing until everything is combined and smooth.
  4. Stir your flour mixture into your wet ingredients. Add chopped crystallized ginger and mix until combined. Mixture may be sticky. At this point you can put in refrigerator to chill for 10 minutes for easier handling. Or if you're like me and didn't have time for chilling get right to work.
  5. Pour extra white sugar onto a platter or pie dish. Set aside.
  6. Shape dough into balls. I made the balls about 2-3 inches or big enough to fit into a ¼ cup. Roll in white sugar until completely coated.
  7. I put four at a time on my cookie sheets, so they need to be spaced at least 2 inches for expansion. Flatten slightly with back of pan or flat cup.
  8. Bake large cookies for 14 minutes rotating pans half way through. Cool slightly in pan before removing to rack to let cool completely. If making cookies smaller adjust your baking time to 8-10 minutes.

 

Blueberry Mint Cookies

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It’s time again for the Food Bloggers of Canada and Eat In Eat Out Christmas in July Cookie Contest! I look forward to this cookie contest as it give me the opportunity to brain storm cookie ideas that I would not normally create. Since we were smack dab in the middle of blueberry season I wanted to create a fresh blueberry cookie. Although I never got around to posting the recipes, last summer I experimented with some fresh herbs in cookies and they worked out nicely. And so I wanted to incorporate a fresh herb in my blueberry cookies.

After thinking about what flavours pair nicely with blueberries, I decided on a combination of crystallized ginger, fresh mint and fresh blueberries. The trio tasted lovely together before being baked into a cookie so I figured it could work as a savory cookie.

The first batch fell a little flat, literally, and the blueberries released their lovely juices all over the cookie sheet. They were still edible and in one piece so I sent out test cookies to various audiences. The Sr. Director of my husbands department at work compared the taste of these cookies to the complex yet subtle notes of a fine wine. NOW that is a compliment! So I went back into the kitchen and reworked some of the ingredients resulting in this variation. Sent some more out for testing again and so far the feedback has been remarkable. All the kid testers have also loved them.

I ran out of all purpose flour while making these cookies so I substituted 3/4 cup white flour with whole wheat flour.

A very unique cookie that will leave your cookie monsters delighted.

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Blueberry Mint Cookies
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2½ cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
  • ¼ cup crystallized ginger, chopped
  • 1½ cup fresh blueberries
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F.
  2. In a large bowl and using a mixer of your choice beat butter until smooth. Slowly beat in white sugar & brown sugar. Add your eggs & vanilla.
  3. In a smaller bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir into wet ingredients. Add in your mint and ginger, mixing well. Slowly add in your blueberries. Mix very slowly and carefully as you do not want to burst the delicate blueberries.
  4. When I drop the cookie batter onto the parchment lined cookie sheets I try to ensure I have scooped up at least two blueberries per cookie. Sometimes my fingers have to assist. Space about 1 inch apart.
  5. Bake in oven for 8-9 minutes, turning/rotating half way through until edges lightly browned.
  6. Let cool completely on racks. Makes about 2-3 dozen cookies.

 

Sugar Cookies

0 · · 3 Comments

A day late and a dollar short I am with this recipe.  It was to be Recipe 12 of my 12 Day of Holiday Baking but for some reason my 2 yr old hard drive decided to die on me 3 days before Christmas.  Since we were expecting the In-Laws to arrive any minute I really had no time to commit to getting it fixed.  Then colds & sick came along as well as other distractions.

Happy as pudding to report hard drive data recovered, new hard drive in place programs reinstalled and everything good in the land of nod.  I am happy to bring the final entry.

I never had sugar cookies growing up…it’s one thing my mother never made.  I feel like somehow I must have been missing out since they are so yummy and such a great cookie for kids to be involved in making.  My kids have so much fun with these cookies and I love creating these memories.

I’ve experimented with a few sugar cookie recipes over the years and haven’t had the best luck until I found this one.  It’s yummy, easy to make and fun for all.  Even hubs gets involved when it comes to our cookie making & decoration sessions.  It’s awesome!

5.0 from 1 reviews
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Sugar Cookies
Recipe type: Cookies, Snacks, Treats,
 
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup butter
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1.5 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • Pinch of salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. In a large bowl cream together your butter & sugar. Mix in egg and vanilla until well combined.
  3. In a separate bowl whisk together your flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon and salt. Stir dry ingredients into wet. On a lightly floured surface roll out your dough to ⅛ inch thickness. Cut into shapes with your cookie cutters and place on parchment lined baking sheets re-rolling scraps until all the dough is used.
  4. Bake for 4 minutes then swap & turn your cookie sheets to allow for even baking. Bake for another 4 minutes. Cookies should be lightly browned on bottom.
  5. Remove from cookie sheets and cool on racks. Once cooled you can decorate with sprinkles, sugars or icing.

 

Candy Cane Cookies

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Candy Cane Cookies
Candy Cane Cookies

One our favourite things to do during the holidays is bake cookies, squares, cakes and treats. One of my fondest memories of my mom is making these Whipped Shortbread Cookies as kids. Family time together and making memories are part of what makes us who we are.

Every year for quite some time now, a group of us moms get together and have an Annual Holiday Cookie Exchange Night. It has become a much anticipated event every year and grown to include wine, food and usually some sort of other element.

For our cookie exchange this year I wanted to make something new and adventurous and I think I found the right recipe – Candy Cane Cookies. This cookie does take a little work since you have to refrigerate the dough, take out small amounts at a time and work fast. But look at them! The extra work is worth it – aren’t they stunning?!

Candy Cane Cookies
Candy Cane Cookies

5.0 from 1 reviews
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Candy Cane Cookies
Author: 
Recipe type: Cookies, christmas cookies, snacks.
Serves: 30
 
Ingredients
  • ½ lb (1 cup) butter, softened
  • 1 cup icing sugar, sifted
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp peppermint extract
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 2½ cups all purpose flour, sifted
  • Food colouring (red, green)
Instructions
  1. Cream butter & sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla, peppermint, salt and flour.
  2. Divide dough into two. Stir food colouring into one half. If you are making green/white or red/white candy canes leave the other half uncoloured. If you are making red/green candy canes you will need to colour both halves of dough. Keep adding food colouring (and mixing well) until you reach desired colour. Wrap each section in saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
  3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  4. Take a small portion of each colour of dough out of the refrigerator. Pick a colour and get started!
  5. Take a teaspoon of dough and roll into a 4 inch long snake. Do the same with the other half of dough. You will need to work fairly quickly as the dough warms up in your hands and becomes harder to work with.
  6. Carefully twist the snakes together and bend into a candy cane shape. Place on parchment lined baking sheets. Continue on with the rest of the dough placing candy canes approximately 1 inch apart on baking sheets.
  7. Bake for 7-8 minutes or until just a hint of brown starts on bottom of cookie.
  8. Set baking sheets on racks to cool (cookies will be to delicate to handle otherwise). Once able to remove cookies place on cooling racks until completely cooled. Store in sealed container.
Notes
I crushed some candy canes and mixed with sugar. Just as cookies came out of the oven I sprinkled some of the crushed candy cane/sugar mix on a few of the cookies to see how they turned out. Jury gave them 2 thumbs up!

This sugar like cookie with a peppermint twist is my cookie contribution for this year’s cookie exchange.

What is your favourite cookie to make or eat during the holidays?!

Boxed Candy Cane Cookies for cookie exchange
Boxed Candy Cane Cookies for cookie exchange

White Chocolate Cranberry Kiss Cookies

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Christmas is everywhere.  Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars are back.  My kids won’t stop singing Christmas Carols.  Neighbours have their Christmas lights up. We are 10 days away from Advent Calendars & Christmas decorations.  Bliss is in the air & Life is Good.

These White Chocolate Cranberry Kiss Cookies were created for a couple of reasons.  First I absolutely adore cranberry bliss bars and could spend way too much money treating myself this season…so I needed to create my own version. Second I wanted to challenge myself again to see if I could create another cookie made with canola oil. And finally I wanted to create a holiday cookie that becomes a family tradition.

For those that didn’t catch my Pumpkin Cookie post, I am trying to win a trip to a food blogging conference next spring hosted by the Food Bloggers of Canada.  I found making the pumpkin cookies with canola oil fairly simple and as such have been inspired to bake some more goodies using canola oil.

I even went as far as adding bacon to this recipe, just because I’m crazy like that!

In this process I came up against a mental block while trying to create a name for this cookie.  So I shouted out for help on Facebook and I’m grateful to those who shouted back (Laurie) with ideas & suggestions & eventually a name for the new cookie.

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White Chocolate Cranberry Kiss Cookies
Recipe type: desserts, snack, cookies, baking,
Serves: 48
 
Ingredients
  • ½ cup brown sugar, packed
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • ¾ cup canola oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ¾ cup white chocolate wafers, chopped
  • ¾ cup dried cranberries
  • 4 oz cream cheese (half a block), softened
  • 2 cups icing sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 4 tsp fresh lemon juice
  • ½ cup dried cranberries, chopped
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  2. In a bowl in this order add sugar(s), canola oil, eggs and vanilla. Whisk really well until combined.
  3. Next add your flour, baking soda and salt. Stir until everything is combined.
  4. Finally dump in your chopped white chocolate and ¾ cup cranberries. Mix one more time.
  5. I take about 1 tbsp of cookie dough and roll it in my hands to roughly form a ball. I then put it on a parchment lined baking sheet and press down just a little with my fingers flattening it. It puffs a little when cooking so leave at least 1 inch between cookies.
  6. Bake for 4 minutes, then turn and rotate cookie sheets in oven. Bake for another 4-6 minutes (watching carefully) or until cookies are lightly browned on the bottom.
  7. Let rest in pan for a few minutes then transfer to wire racks and let cool completely before icing with your glaze (below).
  8. Once you've glazed all your cookies sprinkle with chopped cranberries.
Notes
Glaze: Combine cream cheese, icing sugar, lemon juice and vanilla in bowl. Blend until smooth. Bacon: I pulled some of the dough aside and mixed in 3 cooked/chopped pieces of bacon. It works nicely in the cookie although you only taste the bacon when you bite into a chunk of bacon in the cookie. It becomes a little bit of salty goodness and is a nice surprise. Since it didn't make or break the cookie I probably wouldn't use bacon again but it's nice to know it works!

Pumpkin Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

0 · · 13 Comments

These are my Blood, Sweat & Tears Cookies…..but I’ll call them Pumpkin Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies cause that sounds better!   Why Blood, Sweat & Tears?  Well….while I was experimenting and making these cookies somehow my baby finger ended up slamming into the top of the opened pumpkin can = deep cut.  I won’t get into too much detail since we are talking about food…but there was blood, sweat & tears that ensued!

I’m so proud of these cookies I am entering them into the Food Bloggers of Canada and Eat In Eat Out’s Christmas in July Cookie Contest 2013. Wish me luck!

The first time I ever tried a pumpkin cookie was at one of the Mom’s Wine Tasting Nights I organize here in Calgary. Each evening consists of a theme and we all bring a bottle of wine and some bits & bites to share. On this particular night pumpkin cookies were on display and after tasting them I was in love. So in love I knew I wanted to make my own pumpkin cookies.

The results of my cookie experiment?  Outstanding. Every one in the family adores these cookies as well as several of the cookie taste testers I have given cookies to.  They are our new family Fall Cookie favourite!

These cookies are moist and melt in your mouth.  The cinnamon spiced glaze added later pairs nicely with the pumpkin, orange and chocolate flavours in this cookie.  If you like pumpkin and chocolate you must try these!

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Pumpkin Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe type: snack, treat, cookie,
Serves: 36
 
Ingredients
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ½ cup canola oil
  • 1 cup + ¼ cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg
  • 1 cup milk chocolate or semi sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 tbsp orange zest
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a bowl in this order add sugar, canola oil, canned pumpkin, egg and vanilla. Whisk until well combined.
  3. Next add your flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir until everything is mixed.
  4. Finally pour in chocolate chips and orange zest mixing lightly.
  5. Drop from tablespoonfuls onto parchment lined baking sheet.
  6. Bake for 5 minutes and then turn and rotate cookie sheets in oven. Bake for another 5 minutes or until cookies lightly browned on bottom.
  7. Let rest in pan for a few minutes then transfer to wire racks and let cool completely before icing with your glaze (below).
Notes
Cinnamon Spice Glaze: 1 cup icing sugar, 1 tbsp orange juice, 2 tbsp milk, ¼ tsp orange zest, ¼ tsp cinnamon. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth.

 

Spooky Halloween Cookies

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Halloween is such a fun time for the year. Fun for kids and fun for grown ups! I fondly remember dressing up, filling up our pillow cases with all kinds of candies, coming home so mom could check our candy bags and enjoying sugar highs for days on end. We never baked a lot of Halloween treats while I was younger…but I loved to when I got older and moved away. Office potlucks, dinner parties…always a reason to create in the kitchen.

And then came a husband and kids. Funny how that happens. The kids started going to school and I wanted to send treats for Halloween. They have a Halloween evening dance every year since they don’t celebrate during the day and we are asked to provide treats for sale during the dance. Enter Spooky Halloween Cookies. We use coloured Royal Icing for these cookies and the kids do the decorating. Too much fun.

This recipe makes 3-4 dozen cookies, depending on the size of your cookie cutters. I need a minimum of 25 cookies for class or to bring to the dance, so I kept the recipe as is knowing some would go to work….some to school…some to friends….well you get it!

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Spooky Halloween Cookies
Recipe type: Cookies, Baking, Snacks,
 
Ingredients
  • 6 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups cocoa powder
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 lb (2 cups) butter
  • 3½ - 4 cups icing sugar
  • 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 2 tsp vanilla
Instructions
  1. In a bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon and salt.
  2. In a large bowl mix your butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
  3. Add dry ingredients and mix well until combined. Divide dough in half, shape into a disc, wrap each piece in plastic wrap and chill for 30-60 minutes.
  4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a floured surface roll out dough to at least ⅛ inch thickness. Cut out your Spooky shapes and lay onto parchment lined baking sheet. You can re-roll the dough scraps 1-2 times before it will become over worked.
  5. Bake in oven until firm approximately 8-10 minutes. Let sit in pan a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
  6. Once cooled decorate with your favourite icing & sprinkles.

 

Chips & Bits Cookies

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Well I must say I earned my namesake in September since I did a ton of baking and averaged a big batch of home made cookies (such as these Chips & Bits Cookies) weekly.   It’s fun to try and create new cookies and make existing cookie recipes.

It was a beautiful September here in Calgary, averaging almost 24 daily with only 1 Rain Day.  Kind of made it hard to put the oven on since none of us want to let go of Summer but Fall is definitely in the air as it cools off nicely in the evenings.

This week they are forecasting snow and I cringe knowing this will take out the last of the late summer flowers and be the final sign Summer is officially over.

These cookies come out of the oven puffy and then they drop to a flatter state.  You could substitute an actual skor bar (broken up) for the plain toffee bits.  The addition of the butterscotch chips adds an extra sweetness to the cookie.  And the chocolate chips, well doesn’t everyone need a little chocolate sometimes?

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Chips & Bits Cookies
Recipe type: Dessert, snack,
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1¾ cups flour
  • ½ cup rolled oats
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup toffee bits
  • ¼ cup chocolate chips
  • ¼ cup butterscotch chips
  • ½ cup slivered almonds, toasted
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F.
  2. Mix butter, sugars, egg, milk and vanilla in a bowl mixing until creamy.
  3. Whisk together flour, oats baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add to wet ingredients and mix well.
  4. Stir in toffee bits, chocolate & butterscotch chips and almonds.
  5. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto parchment lined baking sheets leaving room in between the cookies.
  6. Bake 8 minutes rotating pans half way through. Cool slightly in pan before removing to rack to let cool completely.

 

Chewy Chipsters (Cookies)

0 · · 2 Comments

Several cookie monsters in our house and so these Chewy Chipsters (Cookies) hardly last a couple of days.

We’ve made so many cookies that incorporate the basic ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, baking soda/powder) that it’s easy to start with the basics and spin variations from there.

My daughter wanted to make cookies (I wanted some baking for school lunches) so we started with a basic recipe and added chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Unfortunately I forgot she is not allowed to bring peanut butter and/or variations and as such the cookies didn’t get to go to school that week but ended up as an afternoon and evening snack.

Here are our Chewy Chipster Cookies (as named by my daughter).

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Chewy Chipsters
Serves: 36
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter
  • ¾ cup brown sugar, packed
  • ¾ cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2¼ cups flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 cup peanut butter chips
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  2. In a bowl using a mixer combine your butter, brown sugar & white sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each egg. Stir in vanilla.
  3. In a second bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly add into wet mixture.
  4. Fold in all chips and drop spoonfuls (approximately 1 tbsp) onto parchment lined baking sheets leaving enough room between cookies for expansion.
  5. Bake for 8-10 minutes until light brown. Allow cookies to sit a few minutes on baking sheet, cooling. Remove to wire racks.
  6. These are delicious.
Notes
Replace peanut butter chips with butterscotch chips if you plan on sending these chewy chipsters to school!

 

Double Cherry Chocolate Cookies

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Summer reminds me of Cherries and fresh Cherries remind me of home.  This was the inspiration for a new cookie recipe I created today..Double Cherry Chocolate Cookies.

My folks used to have all kinds of fruit trees, berries, a garden and a green house….it was endless and always fresh food from Garden to Table…organic and delish.  They kept busy and we grew up indulging in everything from fresh fruit/berry jams, crisps, pies, fruit perogies to homemade fruit & berry wine (when we were old enough lol).

Since we are leaving for vacay in a couple days (my hometown in B.C.) I had some fresh cherries to use up and found myself lost in a memory from long ago.  So I decided to cut them up, combine them with dried cherries and some chocolate to create a new cookie.  I also added a new secret ingredient to add more chocolatey goodness (instand pudding powder). The end result is a chocoholic’s dream pairing chocolate with fresh & dried cherries made into a lovely bite that satisfies the soul.

The addition of fresh Cherries makes this a summer cookie.  In the winter months when fresh cherries are unavailable use extra dried cherries instead.

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Double Cherry Chocolate Cookies
Recipe type: Snack, Treat,
 
Ingredients
  • ½ cup butter
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • ½ cup flour
  • ¼ cup cocoa
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp instant chocolate pudding powder
  • ½ cup fresh cherries, pitted and chopped into small pieces
  • ¾ cup dried cherries
  • 2 cups chocolate chips, separated
Instructions
  1. In a bowl whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and instant chocolate pudding powder. Set aside.
  2. On stove in a saucepan pour in 1 cup of chocolate chips and butter. Melt over low heat stirring until smooth. Remove pot from heat and let cool down for about 5-10 minutes.
  3. Mix in your sugar.
  4. Whisk in your eggs, one at a time until combined. Stir in Vanilla.
  5. Add in dry ingredients mixing to combine. Then add in 1 cup of chocolate chips, fresh and dried cherries. Mix gently.
  6. This dough is very soft. Let it stand for 30-40 minutes to firm up. Preheat oven to 350F. Then drop 1 tablespoonful of dough onto parchment lined baking sheets (1-2 inches apart). Bake for approx. 11 minutes total or until edges of cookies set. Switch pans around about half way through cooking time for even cooking. Let stand on cookie sheets a couple minutes then remove to rack. These cookies can be frozen.

Bacon Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I’m thrilled to share with you these cookies took 3rd place in a Canada Wide contest sponsored by the Food Bloggers of Canada and Eat In Eat Out digital magazine! The contest was the Christmas in July Cookie Contest 2012.

A couple years ago I started buying hubs Vosges Bacon Candy Chocolate Bars for his stocking at Christmas. He is hard to buy for and I was getting desperate when I heard about these chocolate bars. Well elated does not even describe how we felt after tasting bacon & chocolate together. This is a match made in heaven.

And so calling all Bacon Lovers and Chocolate Lovers. I’ve been inspired by Vosges and wanted to create a chocolate chip cookie with bacon. I decided to take it a step further and add peanut butter to my bacon, chocolate chip cookie creation…booya!

What I came up with was a lovely tasting cookie that is not too sweet. Of all the flavour profiles in this cookie none are over powering…..instead you get a little bit of everything in each bite. Bacon lovers stand united and chocolate reigns supreme in the delightful bacon infused chocolate chip cookie.

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Bacon Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe type: Snack
Serves: 36
 
Ingredients
  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • ½ cup peanut butter
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1½ tsp vanilla
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • 2 cups flour
  • ½ cup Reese minis peanut butter cups, chopped
  • ¾ cup chocolate chips
  • ½ cup bacon, cooked & chopped
Instructions
  1. In a bowl beat your butter & peanut butter until smooth. Add in your brown sugar & white sugar mixing to combine. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
  2. In a separate bowl whisk together your baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and flour.
  3. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture. Gently stir in your chocolate chips, bacon and chopped peanut butter cups.
  4. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto parchment lined baking sheets, approximately 2 inches apart.
  5. Bake in 375 F oven for 13 minutes, rotating pans after 7 minutes. Let cool completely on racks.

Chocolate Easter Egg Cookies

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Up your chocolate chip cookie game by adding candy coated mini chocolate eggs to create Chocolate Easter Egg Cookies and become the new favourite parent on the block.

Chocolate Easter Egg Cookies
Chocolate Easter Egg Cookies

Some days you end up with way too much leftover chocolate or candy from Halloween, even Easter and you need a plan to determine what to do with all the leftovers.

Or you just eat it all no matter how hard you to try to hide it. That’s what happened here where chocolate chip cookie met leftover mini chocolate candy coated eggs and became one.

Chocolate Easter Egg Cookies
Chocolate Easter Egg Cookies

Get the kids involved in making these cookies. They are easy and delicious.

Here’s a fun fact about these cookies, they are on Food Network Canada’s website. You can check out the link by clicking Chocolate Easter Egg Cookies.

PRO TIPS:

  • Swap chocolate chips for white chocolate chips
  • If your mini eggs crack while baking, add them to cookies as soon as they come out of the oven instead of before baking
  • Essentially you need 48 mini chocolate eggs plus extras for the cook to sample because quality control

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Chocolate Easter Egg Cookies
Recipe type: cookies, snacks, easter, treats, baking
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 36
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • ½ cup brown sugar, packed
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2¾ cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1-2 cups Mini Chocolate Easter Eggs
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C).
  2. In a large bowl and using a hand mixer (or kitchenaid) beat butter until smooth. Slowly beat in sugar & brown sugar.
  3. Mix in eggs & vanilla.
  4. In a smaller bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon & salt. Stir into wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips and mix well.
  5. Drop onto parchment lined cookie sheets about 1-2 inches apart. Once cookie sheet is full, gently press in 2 mini eggs.
  6. Once all cookies have mini eggs; bake in oven for 8-9 minutes, turning/rotating half way through until edges lightly browned.
  7. Let cool completely on racks. Makes about 2 dozen delicious, chewy chocolate chip cookies.