Week Four: Apple Spice Drops

Apple Spice Drops
Yields about 3 1/2 dozen

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup apple juice
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup finely chopped peeled tart apple
1 cup shopped walnuts
Frosting:
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 to 4 tablespoons apple juice

Directions:
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and apple juice. Combine the dry ingredients; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Fold in apple and walnuts.
Drop by teaspoonfuls 2 in apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cook completely.
For frosting, cream butter, sugar, vanilla and enough apple juice to achieve spreading consistency. Frost cooled cookies.

Ok. Here's the thing. These taste amazing. However, they fell flat. They lost their "cookieness" to me. I like a fluffy cookie with some fluffy frosting. These cookies spread out way too much while cooking. Here's the fix: if the recipe falls flat, replace half of the butter with shortening. This is great if you don't mind making a whole new batch of cookies. I, however, tried to fix the recipe by putting the dough in greased mini muffin pans. They are soft, but they still spread outside the muffin form. I had to scrape the edges back into the depression and continue baking for another three minutes. As they came out this time, these would not be a good cookie to put in a tin for gifts as they are way too brittle. Next time I try this recipe I'm going to make the switch. I also left out the walnuts and added more apples. We went apple picking so we are elbow deep in apples. They are absolutely applicious.

Week Three: Cloud Kisses

Cloud Kisses
Yield: 2 1/2 dozen   *GF

Ingredients:
2 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/8 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
food coloring, optional

Directions:
Place egg whites in a small bowl; let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Add extracts and vinegar; beat on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, on high until stiff glossy peaks form and sugar is dissolved, about 6 minutes. Beat in food coloring if desired.

Cut a small hole in the corner of a pastry or plactic bag; insert a round pastry tip. Fill bag with egg white mixture. Pipe 1 1/2 inch diameter clouds onto parchment paper lined baking sheets.

Bake at 250 for 40-45 minutes or until set and dry. Turn oven off; leave cookies in oven for 1 hour. Carefully remove from parchment paper. Store in airtight container.

I have always had many reservations about making meringue cookies. Especially when I am making thirty other cookies I've never had time to just let them sit for another hour in the oven. I was also afraid of not knowing if I had mixed the dough enough. However, I found them quite simple to make! The original recipe called for tiny chocolate chips that you would place onto them for the eyes of ghosts. I didn't have any around and after eating about seven of them when they came out of the oven, I didn't miss them either. This recipe does make quite a few and you could always double it to make a extra large batch. They are light and airy and have a great almond taste. The originall recipe also called for just regular cider vinegar but apple cider vinegar was all I had on hand. I don't think it changed it too much but made them perfect for fall. You could also add any type of extract you wanted instead of the almond extract. Orange or lemon might be great for a summery snack. I do like these better than the store bought ones I've tried because they are as crumbly. And surprise! They are gluten free!!

Football Weekend: Maple-Pecan Sticky Bars

Tailgating Weekend!      GO HAWKEYES!!
Maple-Pecan Sticky Bars
Makes 30
Epicurious.com, Bon Appetit, October 2003

Ingredients:
Crust:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

Filling:

1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups coursely chopped pecans

Preparation:
For crust: Preheat oven to 350. Butter 9x9x2 inch metal cake pan. Using electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and egg yolk in bowl to blend. Add flour and salt; beat until moist clumps form. Gather dough together. Press dough over bottom and 1/2 inch up sides or pan. Bake crust until golden, about 20 minutes. Cool.

For filling: Combine first 4 ingredients in medium saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until butter melts and mixture is smooth. Boil filling 30 seconds. Remove from heat; mix in vanilla, then nuts.

Pour hot filling into crust. Bake bars until filling is bubbling in center, about 15 minutes. Cool bars completely in pan on rack (filling will become firm). Chill at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and keep chilled.) Cut into 30 bars.

The directions sound complicated but they are very easy. I was in a hurry so I accidently put all the crust ingredients in the mixer all at the same time. It took a little more mixing, but the crust turned out just as well. Don't be worried if the crust is really crumbly. You press it all together into the pan anyways and it comes together. Unfortunately I cannot tell you what these are going to be like in a few days because they were all gone by the end of the tailgate. They almost taste like pecan pie but I don't think they are as sugary sweet. My husband, who claims to hate pecans but eats them in everything I add them to, loved these. They are what he would call "breakfast dessert", but they can be eaten any time of day. Bars are outside of the cookie project prerequisite as they aren't actually cookies, but I wanted something that would travel well that I haven't made before. Brownies and rice crispies are always prominent on the tailgate table, but at 7am, maple sugar and pecans are exactly what I crave.

Week Two: Iced Cinnamon Chip Cookies

Iced Cinnamon Chip Cookies
Yields about 3 1/2 dozen

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 package (10 ounces) cinnamon baking chips

Icing:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars until light and fulffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Fold in cinnamon chips.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 in apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.

In a small bowl, combine icing ingredients; beat on high speed for 1-2 minutes or until fluffy. Spread over cooled cookies.

These might be my new fave. Warning: The previous sentence might be repeated quite a few times throughout this blog. They taste like a cool fall morning cinnamon roll breakfast. I had forgotten I had these cinnamon chips in my cupboard until I saw this recipe. They spread out quite a bit on the pan so I would recommend placing them in the recommended alottment from each other. The frosting is chunky for quite a bit so you'll know when you've mixed it enough. It gets nice and creamy smooth. I didn't have enough to spread on all the cookies the recipe made and I spread it on pretty thin. I would recommend making one and a half batches of the frosting. They are hard to stack as the frosting sticks to other cookies but it is totally worth it. Yummy...I enjoy them with a cup of toasted almond coffee while my husband prefers the 5 year old's choice of appie juice.

Week One: Devil's Food Cookies

Devil's Food Cookies
Yields about 2 dozen
Ingredients:
1 pkg devil's food cake mix
2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (add more to your liking)

In a large bowl, combine the dry cake mix, eggs, butter and water (batter is super thick). Fold in chocolate chips.
Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 in apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 10-13 minutes or until set and edges are lightly browned. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks.
Recipe from: tast of home Cookies, Reader's Digest, copyright 2009

These are all that are left tonight. Since I just decided to start blogging my progress, I am surprised there aren't just meager crumbs left. These cookies are super easy. But they do taste as though they weren't made from normal cookie dough. I think the more chips you can put in these cookies, the better.