Peanut butter, peanut, and white chocolate chip cookies

Fun fact: I actually didn’t like peanuts until a few months ago, when my favorite local bartender, at Mockingbird Hill, insisted that I try a few peanuts with my Los Arcos (sherry). Game. Changer.

Now, of course, I stress eat peanuts so I always have a few jars at home…and what better way to eat them than in delicious cookies?

Peanut butter, peanut, and white chocolate chip cookies

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

1 cup brown sugar (packed)

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

2/3 cup roasted, salted peanuts

2 tsp vanilla

1) Preheat the oven to 350.

2) In a stand mixer, combine sugars, peanut butter, and butter. Mix in eggs and vanilla.

3) Mix together flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently mix into the stand mixer.

4) Add in peanuts and white chocolate chips, then roll cookies into balls and cook for 13 minutes or until slightly golden brown.

Salted Chocolate Cookies

Hey folks.

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen my kitchen table without cookies, which must mean we’re getting close to the end of this challenge, right?

My newest approach to 30 Days of Cookies has been begging my friends to find new recipes or flavor combinations for me to play with, since I’m just not that creative. Luckily, my friend settled on salted chocolate and I found this great Brown Eyed Baker recipe to play with. All in all, these were delicious – and more importantly, super easy.

Salted Chocolate Cookies

1¼ cups flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
11  tablespoons salted butter, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt (I used kosher salt)
1 teaspoon vanilla

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

2) In a stand mixer, combine butter and both kinds of sugar. Mix in vanilla.

3) In a separate bowl, combine cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, and sea salt

4) Mix dry ingredients into the stand mixer – the dough will be crumbly

5) Roll into balls, and cook for 12 minutes. Let cool slightly, then sprinkle with additional kosher salt

Chocolate thumbprint cookies two ways

After the successful thumbprint cookies the other day, I figured I’d try them with chocolate and see what happened.

I wasn’t disappointed with the results.

The first option have a cream cheese frosting center and red sprinkles:

The second have a peppermint glaze and candy cane chunks:

Both are delicious and wonderful and amazing…and you should make them right away.

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

18 tablespoons butter, softened

3/4 cup white sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2) In a stand mixer, combine butter and sugar, then mix in cocoa powder.

3) Add baking powder and baking soda to flour, then mix into the batter.

4) Roll into small balls, and cook for 7-9 minutes. When they come of the oven, use your thumb or a melon baller to create indents in each cookie. Let cool before adding center.

To make cream cheese frosting: Combine 3 oz cream cheese, 3 tablespoons butter, and 3-4 cups powdered sugar – mix until smooth.

To make peppermint glaze: Combine 1/3 cup heavy cream, 3-5 dashes peppermint extract, and 3-4 cups powdered sugar. Top with crushed candy canes.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies With Raspberry Frosting

As someone who doesn’t have a car, I often barter for help – you know, drive me to the grocery store and I’ll cook you dinner, or pick something up from Home Depot and I’ll trade you cookies.

Tonight’s trade was cookies in exchange for help carrying Thanksgiving groceries. I let Will  pick his poison, and this is what he requested!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies With Raspberry Frosting

2 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 1/2 sticks salted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting: mix 1/2 cup raspberries, powdered sugar (approx 3 cups), 4 tablespoons of butter, and milk as needed to make raspberry frosting.

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

2) Mix sugar and butter in a stand mixer, then stir in eggs and vanilla

3) In a separate bowl, combine baking soda, cocoa powder, and flour, then stir into the butter mixture

4) Mix in mini chocolate chips

5) Cook for 8-9 minutes, let cool, then frost. If desired, toss a raspberry on top.

Thumbprint cookies three ways

Confession: I’d never made thumbprint cookies before, but I was craving salted caramels, and figured this was a good way to combine that craving and get a daily cookie recipe.

These can be easily adapted with any type of filling – I’ll include recipes for the fudge and the caramels, but you could put almost anything else you wanted.

Thumbprint cookies

10 tablespoons salted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups flour

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) In a stand mixer, combine the sugar and butter until completely mixed, 2-3 minutes. Stir in vanilla.

3) Slowly add flour, and mix on increasingly high speeds until it’s combined.

4) Roll cookies into balls, and place on cookie sheet. Cook for 10 minutes, then remove from oven.

5) Using a melon baller or a coffee scoop, indent each cookie (this is where the “thumbprint” comes from). Bake for another 7-8 minutes, and let cool slightly.

6) Before cookies cool completely, fill the center with the topping of your choice – two recipes are below, or you can use jam (my third choice). Let cool completely before eating.

Fudge topping

2 tablespoons butter

2 oz semisweet chocolate

1 tsp corn syrup

Mix in microwave safe bowl, and zap for 30 seconds at a time until fully combined.

Salted Whiskey Caramel topping

Take this recipe: salted whiskey caramels and make it, but only cook the caramel until it hits 234 degrees. Let cool slightly before adding to cookies – then sprinkle with sea salt.

Chocolate pomegranate cookies with mini chocolate chips

A new grocery store opened in my neighborhood – just a few blocks from my house – and when I went to check it out, they had beautiful pomegranates in a display that called out my name.

I haven’t ever baked with pomegranates before, so I checked out How Sweet it Is, and of course she had a recipe I could adapt. My tip – don’t buy the whole pomegranate unless you have some time to kill. Just buy the arils…worth the extra dollar or so.

 

Chocolate pomegranate cookies

2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

1/2 cup pomegranate arils

1) Preheat the oven to 350

2) Mix the butter and sugar in a stand mixer, then add eggs and vanilla.

3) In separate bowl, mix cocoa powder, flour, and baking soda – then add to the mixer bowl.

4) Mix in the mini chocolate chips and pomegranates – you may need to do this by hand, I couldn’t get the stand mixer to really incorporate the seeds.

5) Cook for 8-10 minutes, then let cool completely before eating.

Bourbon balls

Sometimes, the holidays are stressful – too many people traveling, in crappy conditions, to eat a highly emotionally packed meal together. Plus, there’s always the awkward family member, or the topic of conversation you’re all trying to avoid, or maybe just the fact that you’re all trying way too hard to make everything perfect.

All I’m saying is, sometimes the holidays make you want a drink. Or chocolate. Or both. This is your recipe.

Bourbon Truffles

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

3 cups mini chocolate chips

1 tablespoon vanilla

3 tablespoons bourbon (I used buffalo trace)

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1) In a medium saucepan, combine sweetened condensed milk and mini chocolate chips, and heat over medium heat until fully melted.

2) Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla and bourbon.

3) Chill in fridge for 2-4 hrs (I left them overnight, but that’s not necessary).

4) Roll mixture into 1 inch balls, and roll in cocoa powder. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours to set.

Dark chocolate cookies with drunken cherries

I have to give Kevin a lot of credit – I hadn’t ever really thought of soaking dried fruit in bourbon until I saw his Facebook posts, and well, it’s safe to say I’m completely addicted.

These are just a basic chocolate cookie, swapping out the cocoa powder for hershey’s special dark cocoa powder, and plus a little bourbon.

Only downside of these cookies is that they look a lot less delicious than they taste.

Dark chocolate cookies with drunken cherries

2 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 1/2 sticks salted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup dried cherries

3 tablespoons bourbon

1) In a small cup, soak the cherries in bourbon for 30-60 minutes.

2) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

3) Mix sugar and butter in a stand mixer, then stir in eggs and vanilla

4) In a separate bowl, combine baking soda, cocoa powder, and flour, then stir into the butter mixture

5) Mix in the cherries and bourbon

6) Cook for 8-10 minutes, and let cool before eating

Dark chocolate candy cane cookies

The Walgreens near my office finally put out candy canes, but they were only selling 24 packs.

My inner monologue went something like this: “Sara, you live alone. You cannot consume 24 candy canes. But you could bake with them. How many would that use? Also, do candy canes go bad? No, this is crazy. Yes, I will buy them.”

So once I had the candy canes, it was only logical that I use them…and oh, what a delicious way to use them.

Dark chocolate candy cane cookies

2 cups flour
3/4 cups Hershey’s special dark cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Glaze:
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
12-15 drops peppermint extract
1 tablespoon water

8-10 candy canes

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2) In a stand mixer, combine butter, sugars, and cocoa powder. Mix in eggs and vanilla.

3) In separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda, then mix in to the butter mixture.

4) Mix in chocolate chips, then roll into balls. Cook for 8-10 minutes.

5) While cookies cool, mix together the glaze – stir until completely integrated. In a food processor, chop the candy canes until they are in very small, almost powdery, pieces.

6) Drizzle glaze over the cookies, sprinkle with candy cane bits, and enjoy!

Chocolate Cookies With Reese’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups

Surprisingly, I didn’t have 30 days of cookie recipes planned out before I started, so I leaned on a few friends to help me with ideas.

While brainstorming with Kevin and Will, the suggestion was made to add mini peanut butter cups to cookies, so I whipped up some chocolate cookies, cooked ’em, put the peanut butter cup on top, and waited until it was nice and melty to eat.

SInce that didn’t seem absurd enough, I also hid a few peanut butter cups inside cookies. Let me tell you – best decision I’ve made in a long time. So without further ado…

Chocolate Cookies With Reese’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups

2 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 1/2 sticks salted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

mini peanut butter cups, unwrapped

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

2) Mix sugar and butter in a stand mixer, then stir in eggs and vanilla

3) In a separate bowl, combine baking soda, cocoa powder, and flour, then stir into the butter mixture

4) Here’s where you have a choice – you can either make cookies with the peanut butter cups on top, or on the inside. To make them on the top, you’ll want to roll the dough into balls, cook for 8-9 minutes, let cool slightly, then slightly smoosh the peanut butter cup into the cookie. To put them on the inside, take a peanut butter cup, wrap it in dough, and cook for 11-12 minutes. Either way, you won’t regret your choice.