Mini Limeade Sandwich Sugar Cookies

I am very proud of the cookies I made this afternoon. I am proud of the surprising taste they have (much better than I anticipated), and the fact that I made a sugar cookie dough and it worked.

The cookies have a lime twist for the sheer fact that my husband and I bought a bottle of Simply Limeade a few weeks back because we had a coupon. The drink is ok...we just don't LOVE it. Determined not to waste the whole bottle, I have been searching for recipes using lime juice and then I figured I would just substitute using the lime juice with limeade. And it worked for this recipe!!

The lime icing is not as tart as it would be using actual lime juice, and I think that is why I like this cookie. I found this recipe here on AllRecipes.com. The only change I really made was using the Simply Limeade instead of lime juice, and making mini cookies instead of big ones. I also halved the recipe.

The process actually turned out easier than I thought when making the dough, and the cookies baked up quickly. 10 minutes of cooling and they were reading for icing, 5 minutes after that - ready to eat!

These are delicious cookies for the summer - nice and refreshing. These are great for BBQ's and picnics. Try them out!!

I am posting the recipe with my substitution, but posting the entire recipe - not the measurements for the halved recipe I did.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

For Icing:
2 teaspoons Simply Limeade
1 tablespoon milk**
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 drops green food color

** You can use water instead of milk)

Directions:

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until well blended.

Cover or wrap dough, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. If you are in a big hurry, freeze for a half hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch in thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. (It looks like the original poster on AllRecipes.com used stars - I did mini circles!)

Place cookies 1 1/2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 7 to 8 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the frosting: In a medium bowl, whisk the Limeade, milk, confectioners' sugar and green food color until smooth and creamy.


Add more milk or sugar if necessary to achieve a good spreading consistency.

When cookies are completely cool, spread icing between cookies to make sandwiches.

Flu Fighter Cookies!

Well, flu season is technically over, but with the crazy weather we've still been having where I live, people are still feeling sick all the time.

This recipe came to us from our Food Network Magazine back in October 2009, and we made them winter 2010. Did they work? I can't say for sure, but neither my husband nor I had the flu that year. So, I guess all the healthy ingredients packed into these little cookies boosted our immune systems somewhat!!

They are kind of heavy cookies, but tasty. They are definitely not the kind of cookie you will eat 5 of in one sitting, at least in our opinion. I used to eat it in the morning between breakfast and lunch, for me, it seemed like a good mid-morning snack because they didn't really feel like treat cookies like chocolate chip do.

Anyway, they are easy to make, but this cookies seriously has a crap-load of ingredients. When we made them, we actually had all but 5 in the house, which wasn't too bad.

So, here is the recipe for these little immunity boosters - try them out!

Ingredients

* 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
* 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
* Pinch of ground cloves
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
* 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 1/4 cup molasses
* 1/4 cup low-fat plain Greek yogurt
* 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
* 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
* 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
* 1 1/4 cups golden raisins
* 1 1/4 cups dried cranberries
* 1 1/4 cups roughly chopped walnuts, toasted

Directions

Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt in a medium bowl.

Beat the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next.

Add the molasses, yogurt, ginger and lemon zest and beat until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the flour mixture to make a sticky batter (do not overmix).

Fold in the oats and half of the raisins, cranberries and walnuts. Mix the remaining dried fruit and nuts in a small bowl and set aside.

Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of batter onto the prepared baking sheets. Top each with some of the reserved dried-fruit-and-nut mixture and chill for 30 minutes.


Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Bake the cookies until dark golden but still soft, 10 to 12 minutes; cool on a rack. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Pudding Drop Cookies - Spotlight on Butterscotch with Chocolate Chips!

Today's recipe actually comes from The Great American Cookie Cookbook, a gift to me from my mother-in-law a few years back. Originally, this book was my husband's baby, as he was the main baker in the house and I burned cookies left and right.

He's made the pudding drop cookies before, and we really enjoy them. So I decided to make a batch the other day. Originally I was going to make a few batches and bring some to work on Monday, but I only made one because I got lazy! Haha. One day I'll make some more and bring it to work, but for now, this butterscotch batch is ours.

AND - my cookies came out PERFECTLY!! Not burned...not overcooked and still soft 2 days later. Success.

The recipe is very versatile because you can basically use any kind of pudding mix that you like, and put anything you want in them... chips, nuts, candy, whatever. So the recipe I am going to list is just an example.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup margarine or butter, melted
1 cup all purpose flour
1 package of Instant Pudding and Pie filling (we used butterscotch this time) *
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips **

* again, any kind of flavor instant pudding can be substituted
** nuts, candy, white chocolate chips, etc can be used instead


Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, beat eggs and sugar with an electric mixer at high speed until thick and pale yellow.

Beat in margarine or butter and stir until smooth.

Stir in flour and pudding mix until blended.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop batter by tablespoonfuls (def. use a tablespoon...I used a scoop and my cookies turned into JUMBO cookies), 2 inches apart, onto greased and floured cookie sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cool slightly on cookie sheets, then remove and let cool completely on wire racks.

Store in airtight container.

Makes about 24 cookies.

Fruity Chocolate Cookie Cakes

A few Saturdays ago, my husband and I were stuck in the house while the fence company was here installing our brand new fence. (bye bye ugly chain link fence, helllooooo new white PVC!)

I decided to try and bake something since I was kind of bored and a few nights earlier I was at a work function for my new job and the guys were joking that the new girl needed to buy lunch for everyone. Well, forget that, but I could bring in baked goods or something.

I was flipping through some cookbooks that friends had given me for my birthday and came across these cookie cake things. I had all of the ingredients in the house, so I decided to give it a go.

I made one error - you were supposed to bake them in cupcake pans (which I did) but I ALWAYS end up filling the baking cups too much. So my little cookies were a bit thick. My husband, when tasting the finished product, said it was good but a little dense. Yeah, well, they were super thick. Haha. At least they were edible!!

Anyway, the recipe below calls for apricot jam but honestly, this recipe is super adaptable to whatever kind of preserves/jam/jelly you like with chocolate. I could see strawberry tasting fabulous!!

They were easy enough but I am not sure if I personally will make them again - didn't turn out to be my favorite treat I've made. But they got good feedback from my husband and the guys at work. They had to be good - they inhaled them rather quickly...

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
6 tablespoons apricot-orange marmalade or apricot jam
4 1/2 ounces of semisweet chocolate pieces

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease muffins tins, preferably non stick. (Or cheat and use baking cups like me!)

2. Stand a mixing bowl in hot water for a few minutes to heat through - but keep the inside of the bowl dry.

3. Put the sugar and eggs in the bowl and mix with a hand mixer until light a frothy, when the beaters leave a ribbon trail when lifted.

4. Sift the flour over the mixture and stir in gently using a large metal spoon.

5. Divide the mixture in the muffin tins. Bake for 10 minutes until just firm and pale golden around the edges.



6. Cool on cooling rack.

7. Spoon a little jam on the center of each cookie. (Try to keep fruit chunks out of it).


8. Put chocolate into a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of gently simmering water. Heat - stirring frequently - until melted and smooth. If you need more smoothness, toss in a sliver of shortening.

9. Spoon chocolate on top of each cookie and spread gently to the edges. Leave to set for at least 1 hour.


Enjoy!

Good Ol' Fashion Root Beer...Cookies!!

I am VERY excited about the following cookie recipe for two reasons. 1) I LOVE root beer and 2) I FINALLY made cookies without burning them!!! Score!

This is also a GREAT recipe for those of you who have labor day weekend BBQ's coming up. Perfect way to end summer!!

Anyway, a few weeks ago I saw a recipe posted through the Better Crocker website for Root Beer Cookies and I was immediately attracted to it. My first hurdle, however, was finding root beer extract or root beer concentrate. NONE of the grocery stores around me, even the specialty food ones, sold it!! I know McCormick's makes root beer concentrate but it's not a big seller where I live apparently. So my husband and I found a store online that sells pretty much any extract you'd want. We decided to invest in a few for recipes we felt we'd make later on but within two days, my root beer extract was at my door!

Then it was time to try it out...based on my past failure with cookies, I was nervous. But determined.

So, I followed this recipe exactly, but halved it. I didn't want to waste too many ingredients if I messed up again. Here is the recipe:

Cookies
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup flat root beer
2 large eggs
2 teaspoon root beer extract or concentrate
1 teaspoon vanilla


Heat oven to 375F.
In medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt.
In large bowl, beat granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter, root beer, eggs, root beer extract and vanilla until well blended.
Beat in flour mixture just until combined.

Form dough into balls, about 1 1/2-inch diameter (using a rounded tablespoon of dough).
Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until lightly browned. (Do not over bake or cookies will be dry.)
Cool completely on rack.



Icing
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon flat root beer
2 teaspoon butter, softened
1 teaspoon root beer extract or concentrate

In small bowl, combine icing ingredients, with spoon, until smooth. Add more powdered sugar if too thin; add more root beer if too thick. Spread on cooled cookies.


Makes about 4 dozen cookies

I baked mine for about 10 minutes and they turned out great!! I also had to add a little more root beer to the icing recipe, mine was coming out too thick. But it turned out well and my husband loved the cookies. I also sent some to work with him for his parents to taste and will be delivering some to my own parents so I am hoping to get some good feedback on these.

I think my next challenge will be cream soda cookies! I love cream soda!

Enjoy!

Cookies Are Not my Friends...But I Love Them

So...this post is going to have 2 parts. First I am going to talk about the recipe I used the other day...then I will talk about my issue with cookies.

If you want a quick and easy cookie recipe, try cake mix cookies. Take a box of cake mix, throw it in a bowl and add 1/2 cup vegetable oil (or oil of your choosing), 2 tablespoons of water and 2 eggs. Mix it into a dough and until all ingredients are combined.

Scoop onto a cookie sheet and bake at 375 for about 10-12 minutes, or until you can insert a toothpick into the cookie and it comes out clean. If you regularly bake cookies, you will get a feel for how long it should take.

Once the cookies cool you can either leave them plain or dress them up with frosting and sprinkles.

The other day I used half a box of strawberry cake mix in an effort to use it up. I threw in some white chocolate chips to give it some flair. Everything should have been great!


I mixed up all the ingredients, used our fun little cookie dough scooper thing and put the cookie sheet into the oven.

About 10 minutes into baking, I check on the cookies and do the toothpick test - they were not quite done. So I put them back in and walk away for 3 minutes - only to return to incredibly burnt cookies. WTF?!?!

So into the garbage they went. I don't know what my problem is...I can bake cakes, cupcakes, muffins and brownies. I can cook dinner. But cookies - they are my NEMESIS. Every time I try to bake cookies, they burn. My husband bakes great cookies! I don't know how he can do it.

Sigh. So that was a wasted effort, and a waste of food. At least it was only half a box of leftover cake mix. Maybe next time I can do better. I know my friend called me right away after I texted her to tell her I burned my cookies to try and "teach" me how to bake them over the phone. I might need to take a trip down to DC in order to learn. :-)