I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in a holiday cookies swap (apparently you need to have like-minded friends), but if I were, I’d bring these chocolate snowcap cookies. They just look so wintry, with their powdery-white tops, contrasted against those deep, dark cracks.

They’re so captivating, that I find myself daydreaming about tiny Christmas elves skiing down them when no one is looking. I really should see someone about that. Anyway, the point is, if you’re looking for a holiday cookie so seasonally appropriate it hurts, this is the one for you.

As I stated in the video, the only way to mess these up is to not use enough powdered sugar. The first batch I made looked like they had plenty, but that little bit I shook off before placing them on the pan made all the difference. You want to coat them, roll them, coat them again, and then, coat them again. You can’t put too much on.

Also, the batch I made after letting the dough sit overnight didn’t spread out as much, which I thought looked better, and much more mini mountain-like. As far as baking time goes, mine took about 12 minutes, but that depends on exactly how large you roll your dough balls.

To be safe, you should probably do five or six practice batches to get this time dialed in [wink]. Once you do, you’ll be rewarded with a classic Christmas cookie that tastes as good as it looks. I think I speak for tiny, imaginary elves everywhere, when I say we hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 2 dozen Chocolate Snowcap Cookies:

Recipe found here on Foodess.com

6 ounces dark chocolate, broken in small pieces, melted over hot water

3/4 cup AP flour

1/3 cup cocoa (I used Guittard’s Cocoa Rouge)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp fine salt

1/2 cup room temp butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup powdered sugar, or as needed

*Bake at 350 degrees F.  for about 12 minutes, depending on size

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Mother’s Day is coming up, and since so many of you brave souls will be attempting a celebratory brunch, I thought I’d post this much-requested lemon bars recipe, in case things don’t go as smoothly as anticipated. 

Preparing brunch can be tricky anytime, let alone under mom’s watchful (aka “extremely concerned”) eyes. Can someone please get her a mimosa and walk her into the garden?

So, even if a few poached eggs break, or the toast gets a little too golden-black, no worries! If you finish the meal with these gorgeous, and absolutely impossible to mess-up lemon bars, she'll be as proud as she will be impressed. Our moms may have taught us the importance of a good first impression, but its America’s restaurateurs who discovered the importance of a delicious last impression. There's nothing like a well made pastry to make one forgive a tough steak.

Other than a baking dish, there’s no special equipment or techniques required. Both the shortbread base and the lemon custard take only minutes, and are simply hand-mixed in a bowl. 

Basically, if you can move your arm in a circle, and effectively set a timer (there’s one on your phone), your lemon bars should look just as good as these (maybe better – see meringue note below). Anyway, whether you’re going to make these for Mother’s Day or not, I hope you give them a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 16 Small Lemon Bars:

For the shortbread crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup room temp unsalted butter (1 stick)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

Bake crust at 350 degrees F. for 22 minutes

For the lemon layer:

2 large whole eggs

1 large egg yolk

1 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp grated lemon peel

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes

Garnish with powdered sugar; or top with *meringue (the extra egg white whipped with 1 tablespoon of sugar) and brown with torch.

*My Meringue
If you decide to turn these into lemon meringue bars, do yourself a favor and actually measure the sugar. I couldn’t be bothered to check a recipe, so I only tossed in a teaspoon of sugar, and it should be closer to a tablespoon. The technique is the same; beat the extra white to the ribbon stage (where drips of white stay on the surface for a few seconds), and then add the sugar and continue whipping until you have nice, glossy peaks. My “by eye” batch worked fine, but it was a little too dry, and not quite sticky enough. Be advised.

View the complete recipe


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If you like Smores you HAVE to try these cookies.  They are super delicious and taste just like smores.  They have all the right components to the original dessert, graham crackers, marshmallow and chocolate not to mention the added bonus of chewy chocolate chip cookies! YUM YUM YUM!  And again in true Everyday Sisters style this recipe is extememely easy and a big crowd pleaser.

 

Ingredients:

 

18 graham cracker squares

3 cups Refrigerator Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (or you cam make your favorite homeade chocolate chip cookie recipe)

1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

9 mini Hershey chocolate bars broken in half (or two squares from a large bar)

 

Preparation:

 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Meanwhile either bring your refrigerator cookie dough to room temperature or prepare your homemade dough.  Once dough is at room temperature mix mini marshamallows into the dough until combined well.  Spray a cookie sheet with non stick cooking spray and lay down the graham cracker squares in a single layer on the prepared sheet.  Add a heaping tablespoon (or more) of the cookie dough marshmallow mixture on to each graham cracker square.  Bake in oven for about 10 minutes or until the cookie dough starts to spread and is halfway baked.  Pull out cookie sheet and press chocolate squares carefully onto each cookie square and then put back in the oven for an additional 8-10 minutes until cookies are lightly browned.  Cool on  wire rack.  The cookies may spread together  when baking so it's important to remove them off of the pan and onto a wire rack while they are still fairly warm so you can easily lift them.  Once the melted marshmallows cool they can really stick and be hard to separate.

 

 

 

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I've been wanting to use Biscoff Spread inside a cookie for awhile and then I saw this delicious recipe for Molasses Ginger Cookies on Table for Two and I thought it would be the perfect cookie combination and I was so right!  These cookies are so super delicious without the biscoff spread but when you add it between two cookies.....WOW!

 

Ingredients:

 

 

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp ground cloves (the recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon but I don't really like cloves so I cut it down)

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup molasses

1 jar of Biscoff Spread (you will probably only need about a cup or so to spread inside each cookie sandwich)
 

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line baking sheet with a silpat liner or parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and brown sugar until creamy and fluffy. Add in the the egg and molasses. Beat until incorporated.

Slowly add in the dry ingredients until just combined. Refrigerate dough for an hour or so to firm it up and make it easier to handle.  Drop about 1/2 teaspoon of cookie dough into a shallow bowl filled with turbinado sugar, cover dough with sugar and then gently roll into a ball and place on lined cookie sheet.   Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before removing baking sheets. Let cool completely on a wire rack.   Spread about a teaspoon of Biscoff Spread on the bottom of a cookie and then top with another cookie to create a sandwich.  Store in an airtight container

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Admittedly, the witch joke at the beginning of the video may have been a little graphic, but that’s what I always think of when I hear the legend of how these cookies supposedly got their name. As the story goes, when these sweet treats first made their appearance, people that tasted them were so taken by the sheer awesomeness, that they went nuts and started running around shouting, “Whoopie!! Whoopie!!” 

Sure they did. This seems very exaggerated, but no matter how they got the “whoopie” part, at least the rest of the name is not accurate either. That’s right, not only is this cookie not a pie, this pie isn’t even a cookie…it’s really a little cake. Confused? Me too, and I just wrote that.

Anyway, despite the dubious name, and the other dubious name, at least the gingerbread part is accurate. Although, now that I think about it, it’s not really a ”bread”…okay, this has to stop. With holiday cookie exchanges in full swing, the only thing I can say with certainty is that these whatever-they-are’s were very delicious, fun to make, and I hope you give them a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 9 to 12 finished Gingerbread Whoopie Pies (depending on the size!)

10 ounces (by weight) all-purpose flour (about 2 cups of sifted flour - see note below!)

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 rounded teaspoons ground ginger (3 if you like it spicy)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup dark molasses

1 egg, beaten

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup boiling water

Bake at 350ºF or about 12 minutes

For the filling (makes extra!):

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

2 tsp cream or milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

*you can adjust texture by adding more powdered sugar or milk

View the complete recipe

Flour portioning note: It is critical to weigh the flour for this recipe to work as seen in the video. 10 ounces by weight is about 2 cups by volume, but because flour can become quite compressed in the bag or canister, portioning by cup is not very accurate. If you are not going to weigh, only add about a cup and a half of flour, proceed as shown, and if the batter seems too thin after mixing, add more flour, little by little, until you have the thick batter seen in the video.

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I get a lot of cookie requests this time of year, and while I’m not a fanatical cookie lover myself, I have posted videos for a fair number of them. In fact, I have a new and exciting Christmas cookie post coming later this week. In the meantime, I thought I’d repost this great recipe from three years ago, featuring my favorite, Michele’s famous Chili Chocolate Cookies.

As most of you know, Michele is my lovely and talented wife, and as I joke about in the original post, this would still be my favorite chocolate cookie, even if I weren’t legally bound by marriage to say so. I hope you enjoy this very chocolately blast from the past, and stay tuned for what I hope will have many of you yelling, “Whoopie!”

Click here to read the original post and to get the ingredients.

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Another great Pinterest find.  Nanci actually found these while searching and deciding what type of cookie to make for this year's Cookie Swap with our friends.  She decided on another cookie so I decided to make these right away.  I have always loved candied cherries in cookies.  I think they are terrible on their own right out of the container but baked in a cookie, YUM!  This is a great recipe which is very similar to a shortbread cookie but not as crumbly.  They are slightly sweet and buttery and the added texture from the candied cherries and pecans is perfect!  The original recipe can be found at The Merry Gourmet

 

*note - it's really important to freeze the cookie dough overnight otherwise the dough will be too soft to slice into perfect neat slices.  If you don't care about having a sliced cookie then they taste just as good as drop cookies but I still suggest freezing or refrigerating the dough for at least a few hours so it's easier to handle.

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, room temperature
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 1/2 cups candied cherries
1 cup chopped pecans

Preparation:

Using a handheld mixer, cream together butter, powdered sugar, and egg. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and cream of tartar until well incorporated. Add in flour mixture to butter mixture slowly, blending after each addition until dough forms. Stir in remaining ingredients (candied cherries and pineapples, pecans).Turn dough out onto wax paper and divide into two equal parts. Roll each into a log, 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap in wax paper and freeze until firm, approximately 1 hour.  Place oven rack in middle position and preheat to 375 degrees F. Slice each log into 1/4 inch thickness. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until light brown. Cool on a wire rack until room temperature.

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Rosh Hashana

Happy New Year!

 

Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New Year.  Many recipes for Rosh Hashana contain honey in them because honey symbolizes the "sweetening" of the New Year.  It's very traditional to make Honey Cake on this holiday but typically Honey Cake isn't the most exciting dessert especially for the kids.  These cookies are such a nice change from the usual honey cake.

 

 Our sister Susan always hosts Rosh Hashana dinner and cooks a fantastic dinner for the whole family.  We like to help out and each of us try to make one or two dishes that would contribute to the meal.  Susan keeps a  kosher home so it's also important that we follow those kosher guidelines.  This dessert is the perfect recipe since it uses oil instead of butter as the fat in the recipe which makes these cookies non-dairy (pareve) and can be served after eating a meat meal.  Susan found this recipe on Pinterest and was originally posted on Lil' Miss Cakes blog.  Please follow the link to view a really nice blog with lots of fantastic recipes.  I actually made these as a test recipe and served them at a PTA meeting at my children's school.  I LOVE these cookies.  They have a distinct honey flavor which is really delicious and the texture from the Turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw) makes these crunchy on the outside while they are still moist and chewy on the inside.  Really a fantastic combination.  You can also change the taste of these cookies by using different types of honey as well as different types of oil.  I loved this recipe with Wildflower Honey and Olive oil, really unique delicious flavors.  Change it up and use the flavors that you prefer.   You can easily find Clover, Wildflower and Orange Blossom in your grocery store with Clover being the most common and most mild in taste.  I love the slightly bolder and floral taste of the Wildflower Honey.

 

Ingredients:

 

2/3 cup oil

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup honey

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw), for rolling

 

Preparation:

 

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, beat the oil, honey, and sugar until smooth.  Add in the egg and vanilla mix until combined.  Mix in the flour, baking soda, and salt.  If your dough is soft, refrigerate for 15-30 minutes until firm.  Shape the dough into balls and roll in the turbinado sugar making sure to coat the whole cookie.  Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for 7-9 minutes until the edges are light brown in color.

 

 

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I’ve gotten a lot of shortbread requests, but haven’t done a video for it yet, since I’m not a huge fan of that particular cookie in its classic form. However, I love those little bars you see in the pastry case at the coffee shop, which feature a slightly moister shortbread base, topped with some kind of seasonal fruit.

I always wondered how they were made, and then I saw this peach shortbread post on Smitten Kitchen, which looked just like the aforementioned bars. So, I adapted that recipe, losing the egg white and switching out peaches for the very user-friendly blueberries. Besides, by adding fruit and calling them “bars,” we have something that sounds so much healthier than “cookies.”

There are no special skills required here, but you really want to get your hands on a wire pastry cutter, literally. Sure, you can dirty your food processor, but a pastry cutter will do the job quickly and easily, and you can really feel and see what’s happening in the bowl. Of course, if you’re not doing the dishes, go ahead and use the machine.

As I say in the video, any summer fruit will work, as long as you don’t use too much, and it’s not too wet. You need to have room for the crumbs on top to nestle down around the fruit to hold everything together. Also, if you roll with a particularly large entourage, you can easily double this recipe for a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 12 bars:

6 1/2 ounces (by weight) AP flour (about 1 1/2 cups of sifted flour, aka not packed)

1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp Chinese 5-spice (or a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg)

1 stick (1/2 cup) very cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon ice water, dripped over mixture

about 3/4 cup blueberries, or enough to cover surface

View the complete recipe

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Calling a brownie made with pistachios a “greenie” seemed like a perfectly sensible thing to do, until I realized that was also the name of a popular brand of pet treats, as well as the street name for amphetamines.

Most chefs, not wanting their recipe associated with such unsavoriness would have changed the name, but not me. I’m hoping that these become so popular that eventually the pet people and druggies will be forced to change their names instead. We shall see.

Anyway, as I exclaimed in the video, these were great, but some dark chocolate chips really would have put this over the top. I’m adding a half-cup of mini chips to the recipe ingredients below, and I highly recommend you do as I say, not as I did.

I’m generally pretty mellow (unless I’m on greenies) about substituting ingredients in my recipes, but I can’t think of another nut that would work here instead of the pistachio. There's something about the relationship between orange and pistachio that’s just so much more intimate than other nut/citrus combinations.

The good news is, thanks to mass-marketing and large grocery stores, shelled pistachios are now widely available at a very decent price. Buy a few extra, since snacking on them while you make these is virtually impossible not to do. They’re really addictive…like greenies, and greenies. I hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 9 Orange Pistachio Greenies:

Wet ingredients:

1/2 cup melted butter

2 tbsp grated orange zest

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 tbsp orange juice

1 tbsp milk

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Dry ingredients:

2 cups shelled, dry-roasted pistachios (*note: mine were lightly salted, so if yours are not salted or heavily salted, please adjust the added salt in the recipe)

1/2 to 1 tsp salt to taste

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (add when you combine dry into wet ingredients) 

*Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes
For the glaze:
1 or 2 tbsp orange juice
2 tsp orange zest
enough powdered sugar to thicken

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I saw this recipe on Pinterest and it looked so easy and so much fun to make.  I did it with my kids one day and they had a blast.  It's like a craft project and cooking project rolled into one.  You can make this recipe even easier by using a store bought sugar cookie dough which is what I did.  Below are step by step picture directions.  Have fun!

Ingredients:

Sugar Cookie dough

Red, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple Food coloring

Non-pareil sprinkles

Preparation:

Take your prepared cookie dough and divide into 5 equal parts.  Color each part with a different color food dye.  You can use any colors that you like (I did the typical "rainbow" colors).  Knead the color in until the dough is colored throughout with no white streaks. 

Next roll each section of colored dough into long snakes.

Then cut the snakes up into small 1 inch pieces

Next take one piece of each colored dough and gently roll into a ball

Now take each of the colored dough balls and roll into a long snake again

Next wrap each of the long snakes into a spiral shape

Only two more steps! Roll the edges of each sprial in non-pareil sprinkles and lay flat on a baking sheets lined with a silpat or parchment paper.

Bake at 350 F. until baked through but not brown about 10 minutes (watch them carefully)

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I did it. I made macarons. Finally, I can apply for my food blogger merit badge! Hold on, I’m being told I still need to make mini-cupcakes and a quinoa salad to qualify. Oh well, I’ve waited this long.

Anyway, this was my first attempt at macarons, and for not having any clue what I was doing, I was quite happy with the results. They looked fine, and the texture was almost identical to the ones sold at Chantal Guillon, a famous macaron bar here in San Francisco.

So, was it beginners luck? Yes. You would think since I waited three years to make these, I would have done more research, but I did almost none. In fact, I literally used the first chocolate macaron recipe I found, which happened to be from David Lebovitz. He’s an American, but he lives in Paris, so I figured I was okay.

I watched a few videos, read a few articles, had a couple drinks, looked at a few step-by-steps, and off I went.  One thing I did notice was every single resource used a different recipe, as well as different times, temperatures, and techniques. So, I figured I would just use my instincts and try the most straightforward method possible.

I didn’t do any high-heat/low-heat tricks; no waiting for the tops to dry; no sugar syrups, etc. I just made the batter, piped it out, baked them off, and as you can see, they were not bad at all. One thing I did figure out all by myself was to use the ugly ones as the bottoms. By the way, there’s a very inappropriate metaphor there, if you’re looking.

So, here’s the deal; if you’ve never made these before, I hope this inspires you to give them a go. Believe me, if I can do these anyone can. However, if you’re an experienced macaron maker, we’d love to have you chime in. I can’t wait for this comment section to fill up with invaluable tips and tricks for what I should have done, and how I should have done it.

I know I piped them wrong. You’re not supposed to make a swirl, but keep the tip pressed in the center as you squeeze. I also heard that I should have cooked one pan at a time, because the bottom pan is more likely to crack. What else? Don’t worry about my feelings…after four years of posting videos on YouTube, I don’t have any left…so let me have it. And, as always, enjoy!

Basic Chocolate Macaron Batter (I found this recipe on davidlebovitz.com):
Makes about 18 finished cookies

*Weighing the ingredients is critical. Do not make these unless you have a digital kitchen scale!

100 gram powdered sugar

50 grams almond meal aka almond flour (the finer the better)

25 grams unsweetened cocoa powder

2 large room temperature egg whites

65 grams granulated sugar

For chocolate ganache:

1/3 cup hot heavy cream

4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

pinch of salt

*pour hot cream over chocolate, and stir until smooth. Allow to cool slightly before filling cooled cookies.

Bonus Coverage: For more chocolate macaron information, my friend Denise from ChezUs makes some amazing ones, and knows WAY more about these than I do, so you can bug her with your questions too! ;-)

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This was my answer to my husbands request "honey can you make something sweet to eat?"  "Sure no problem, I'll whip something up".....I'm June Cleaver after all!.  So I figured I would make some simple straight forward chocolate chip cookies but as I was preparing the batter I thought, BORING!  How about Chocolate Chip Almond Cookies?  I substituted the vanilla extract for almond extract and added sliced almonds.  I ended up making half the batter with chocolate chips and half without to make everyone in my house happy.  I really LOVED the plain almond cookies, they were light, crisp and buttery.   The next time I make these I'm not using chocolate chips at all.  The chocolate takes away from the delicious almond flavor so add the chocolate if you are craving it but try some without too and let me know which ones you like better.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks (1 cup) butter or margarine
1 cup white sugar
1/4 dark brown sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons almond extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sliced almonds
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a small bowl whisk together flour, salt and baking soda.  In a large bowl with an electric mixer cream together butter and sugars until light and creamy.  Add almond extract and eggs and beat until combined well.  Add almonds (and chocolate chips if desired) and mix until incorporated.  Drop by tablespoons on a lined baking sheet.  I prefer using silpat liners but you can also use parchment paper or reynold release foil.  Bake for 12 minutes until cookies are light golden brown.
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I was home bored one day so I decided to go into my kitchen and bake cookies.  I didn't want to follow a recipe soI just started adding ingredients that I had on hand and this is what I came up with.  They came out really delicious.  I made most of them plain but my husband wanted chocolate chip cookies so I took half the batter and added chocolate chips and although the ones with chocolate were delicious you really lost the brown sugar/molasses flavor of the cookie, the chocolate was just too over powering.  These are a keeper!!

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
1 large egg
2 tablespoons molasses
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl cream together brown sugar and butter.  Add egg and molasses and beat until combined.  In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Add dry ingredients to wet a little at a time until fully incorporated.  Dough will be very thick and stiff.  Using a cookie scoop, make even sized balls of cookie dough and then roll each cookie ball in brown sugar and then  roll in your hands again to coat evenly.  Place cookies on a lined cookie sheet and bake for 13 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack and serve.

Cookies with Semi Sweet Chcolate Chips and Chopped Bittersweet Chocolate

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This classic peanut butter cookie recipe has me thinking about something I saw on the history channel a few months ago, about how the bald eagle became our national bird, instead of the wild turkey.

While the regal eagle was the popular choice, many, including Benjamin Franklin, argued that the lesser attractive turkey was more deserving. Not only was it truly indigenous, but they also argued it was more courageous, and unlike the eagle, was not a lowly scavenger. Of course, we all know how that one turned out.

Now, I don’t think America has an official national cookie designation, but if it did, I bet you a Benjamin (see what I did there?) that the ever-popular chocolate chip would beat out peanut butter cookies for the honor. It would be eagle vs. turkey all over again.

Sure the chocolate chip is always popular, and more visually enticing, but when you compare the relative historical significance to American culture, the peanut far eclipses the chocolate chip. I mean, come on, is there even a “Mr. Chocolate Chip?” I don’t think so.

By the way, let me go ahead and answer the obvious question that’s probably on many of your minds right now… no, I don’t have anything more important to worry about. I hope you give this peanut butter cookie, America’s cookie, a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients (makes about 24):

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/4 tsp fine table salt)

1/2 teaspoons baking soda

*Bake at 375 degrees F. for 10 minutes

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I have to say that chocolate and peppermint are my two most favorite flavor combinations.  I'm sad that candy cane season is over.  I say why wait for Christmas time to have these delcious dark chocolate peppermint cookies!!  I might have to make some this week!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips, divided

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

2 large eggs

4 candy canes or 16 red-and-white- striped hard peppermint candies, coarsely crushed

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Stir 2 cups chocolate chips in medium metal bowl set over saucepan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Measure 2/3 cup melted chocolate; transfer to small metal bowl and reserve for drizzling.  Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, espresso powder, and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until creamy. Add sugar and both extracts; beat until smooth. Add eggs; beat to blend. Beat in melted chocolate from medium bowl. Add dry ingredients; beat just to blend. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Measure 1 level tablespoonful dough; roll dough between palms to form ball. Place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, spacing cookies 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake cookies until cracked all over and tester inserted into center comes out with large moist crumbs attached, 8 to 9 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes. Transfer cookies on parchment paper to racks to cool completely.  Rewarm reserved 2/3 cup chocolate over small saucepan of simmering water. Using fork, drizzle chocolate over cookies. Sprinkle crushed candy canes over, arranging some pieces with red parts showing. Chill just until chocolate sets, about 20 minutes.

*Can be made 3 weeks ahead. Store airtight in freezer. Bring to room temperature before serving.

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I have found myself slightly addicted to Pinterest.  I go on daily and can easily spend an hour searching through other peoples pins, especially food related ones.  This recipe I found during one of those browsing sessions.  The original recipe comes from a really nice blog Kevin and Amanda.  The picture that was posted for this recipe was gorgeous......it was similar to the one above but topped with vanilla icecream and covered with chocolate fudge....YUMMY!  I hope you enjoy this recipe as much I as did.  I brought it to a friends house and everyone loved it!

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups (12 ounces) milk (or semi sweet) chocolate chips

1 pkg Double Stuffed Oreos

1 Family Size (9×13) Brownie mix

1/4 cup hot fudge topping

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream the butter and both sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed for 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well to thoroughly combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt, then slowly incorporate into the mixer until the flour is just combined. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips.

Spread the cookie dough in the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish that’s been lined with wax paper and sprayed with cooking spray.

Top with a layer of Oreos.

Mix together brownie mix, adding an optional 1/4 cup of hot fudge topping to the mix. Pour the brownie batter over the cookie dough and Oreos.

Sprinkle an additional 1/4 - 1/2 cup of chocolate chips on top of Brownie batter

Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for an additional 15-25 minutes. Brownies are down when a toothpick inserted 2″ from the edge comes out clean or with moist pieces clinging to it. Let cool completely before cutting.

*To half this recipe for an 8×8 brownie mix, simply half the chocolate chip cookie dough ingredients. Enjoy!

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