Heath Bar Toffee Cookies

As if 12 days of cookies wasn't enough for me, I had to keep on baking some more before the new year. I try to bake candies into my baked goods a lot, particularly the candies that I adore (HERE's a list of all the baked goods containing candy). I'm a total sucker for Heath Bar/Skor bars, along with my boyfriend, so I knew that I had to incorporate them into a cookie somehow. The result? A definite keeper. I underbaked my cookies, as usual, to keep them on the softer side. I also upped the brown sugar amount. My boyfriend loved these cookies the best out of everything that I've baked for the holidays. DO NOT skip the step on chilling the dough, otherwise your cookies will come out flat and spread! No one likes flat cookies, so refrigerate them! Overnight, if you have to. If you do, they'll come out nice and fluffy like the ones pictured. :)

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
  
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cups chopped Heath Bar pieces (Four 1.4 ounce bars)
• 1/2 bag of Heath toffee pieces
  
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1 Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine Heath Bar pieces & tofee with chopped walnuts. Set aside.

2 Cream butter until fluffy. Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy (a couple minutes). Beat in eggs one at a time, and vanilla.

3 Alternatively mix in the Heath Bar mixture and the flour mixture, a third at a time, until well blended. Chill cookie dough for at least 45 minutes.

4 Preheat oven to 350°F. On cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or Silpat, spoon out the cookie dough in small 1-inch diameter balls. Place dough balls 3 inches away from each other on the cookie sheets.

5 Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes. Then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

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I hope everyone had a great holiday and are preparing for the new year! I just have to blog about my Christmas because I'm still so excited about it. First off, I got my boyfriend tickets to the Lakers/Celtics game for his xmas present. Premiere seats! It was one of the most amazing games to be at and I had such a blast. My boyfriend is a die hard lakers fan, so he was ecstatic that he go to go. Plus, the Lakers won!! Boston sucks! (no offense to any celtics lovers) :]

Getting ready to go in our matching lakers shirts. Him with his favorite: Gasol and me with mine: Fisher.
Our view of the game from our seats. (We got there really early.. hence the reason why so many seats are empty)

Ok so the real thing I wanted to show you was this:
You're probably wondering, "What the heck is that space looking thing?" Well, I've been wanting this for years and my boyfriend gave it to me for Christmas (along with Kurt Halsey art and something else coming in the mail, idk what yet.) :) If you open it up, it looks like this..
It's a Cricut machine! I know, best boyfriend ever, right?!? It's basically an electronic die cut machine for scrapbooking. I'm seriously the happiest girl on earth and I'll probably be scrapbooking for the next couple of days... there may be a delay on updating my baking blog. Haha, but don't worry.. I'll be back soon enough!

Day 12: Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

First off, I want to thank everyone who followed along this month for my 12 days of cookies countdown. It's been such a hectic month and my oven has been baking non-stop. If you've tried any of the cookies off my countdown, or any recipe on my blog at all, I'd love to hear from you! I always appreciate comments and feedback. Anyways, I hope everyone has a safe (and delicious) holiday! Merry Christmas!

Day 12 of my 12 Days of Cookies: Hooray! We've made it to the end of the countdown. Keep in mind that these were in no particular order, and that they can all bring just the same amount of Christmas spirit as any other cookie. I've been on a baking rampage lately and decided to end with these. Why? I've never made these before, but absolutely LOVE maraschino cherries. I can eat a whole jar by myself if I was left alone. My favorite drink is a shirley temple.. the more cherries, the better! So why not give these a shot? My best friend came over last night and I made him sample every cookie that I baked that day. He said that he really loved the texture of these cookies the most. These were a bit more tedious than a simple drop cookie, but are totally worth it. I loved every part of it.. the cookie, the cherry, and the chocolate layer on top!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 t vanilla
24 maraschino cherries
1/2 c semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 c sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder & salt together, set aside.

In a mixer beat the butter until softened. Add the sugar and cream the mixture until like & fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour mixture & beat until well mixed.

Roll the dough into 1-inch balls & place them 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheets. Use your thumb to make an indentation in the center of each cookie.

Drain the cherries reserving the juice. Remove the stems & cut the cherries in half. Place 1/2 of a cherry into the indentation in each cookie.

Put the chocolate chips & condensed milk in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until the chocolate is melted. Stir in 4 teaspoons of the cherry juice. Spoon 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of chocolate over the top of each cherry covering it completely. If the chocolate is too thick add a little more cherry juice.

Bake for 10 minutes & cool on a rack.

Day 11: S'mores Cookie Bars

Day 11 of my 12 Days of Cookies: Time for a little variation. Who says a cookie has to be round? These are probably on my list of top 3 things that I've EVER baked, believe it or not. They're just that good. I mean, s'mores are delicious as is.. but baking them into a cookie bar? Absolutely genius. They are the best when warm, because everything inside it is still gooey and you really get the whole campfire feeling. You can microwave these for about 10-15 seconds prior to eating them so you melt the chocolate & warm the marshmallow. For those of you that don't know what a s'more is, it's basically a popular campfire treat that consists of a roasted marshmallow and a chunk of chocolate (usually Hershey's) sandwiched between two pieces of graham cracker. The roasted marshmallow melts the chocolate when being sandwiched, and voila, you've got yourself one of the most delectable treats known to mankind. Seriously, I can't even begin to tell you how good these are.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
• 1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
   
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
   
3. Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together).
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Makes 16 cookie bars.

Day 10: Gingerbread Men

Day 10 of my 12 Days of Cookies: More cookies made especially for the holidays.. gingerbread men! Now, I am not a fan of molasses and most recipes for gingerbread men actually require more than 1/2 cup of molasses. The recipe that I use only has a mere 2 tablespoons of it. If you like more of a molasses flavor in your cookie, then I wouldn't recommend using this recipe. I also got too lazy to decorate these with all of the baking that I've been doing, so my cookies ended up being rather plain. You can also under bake these cookies a bit so they stay softer, or sub some white sugar with brown sugar.

You can use any royal icing recipe to decorate these cookies; You can even use frosting, if you prefer. For these cookies, I used: 1 egg white, 1 cup of powdered sugar, and about 1 tsp of vanilla. My other royal icing recipe can be found HERE, at my previous post with sugar cookies. Another helpful tip when making these is to roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment or wax paper. It makes such a less of a mess!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, mix well. Mix in molasses. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, & salt, mixing til well combined. Chill dough for at least 2 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease cookies sheets. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/4" thick. Cut into desired shapes, place inch apart on cookies sheets.
3. Bake for 9-10 minutes.

Day 9: Peanut Butter Blossoms

Only 4 more days til Christmas! Eeeekk that means I have to do all of my bulk baking for my gift baskets/boxes tomorrow. I'll be in the kitchen all day long, so expect the end of my countdown within the next two days. I baked these cookies for my friend's fondue party that she was throwing, and everyone LOVED them! Even on top of all the food we ate for the cheese & chocolate fondue (trust me.. we had A LOT! For the cheese fondue: wedge fries, ham, broccoli, cauliflower, bread, pretzels, & tomatoes. For the chocolate fondue: strawberries, pineapples, bananas, pretzels, & rice crispy treats.), people still had room for these cookies. They even smuggled some home for the road! That must mean that they're good.

Day 9 of my 12 Days of Cookies: Peanut Butter & chocolate... almost as good of a combination as mint & chocolate. These cookies take a bit more effort, but are totally worth it in the end. They are extremely soft cookies (my favorite), yet they can hold up when being stacked upon one another. The peanut butter ratio is the perfect amount.. not too overwhelming, but you definitely taste it. The Hershey's kiss just tops it off.. give someone a kiss this Christmas!

You can vary this recipe by omitting the kiss if you wanted just a plain peanut butter cookie. You can also change your kind of kiss (swirled, filled, white chocolate, dark chocolate.. the list is endless!) to better suit your taste. There are a TON of different kinds out there! You can even do red and green swirled ones for the holidays. I halved this recipe and made a little over 2 dozen.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup softened butter
  
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup white sugar for decoration
• 2 (9 ounce) bags milk chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening, butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, and 1 cup white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and stir in the milk and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the peanut butter mixture until well blended. Shape tablespoonfuls of dough into balls, and roll in remaining white sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to12 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from oven, and immediately press a chocolate kiss into each cookie. Allow to cool completely; the kiss will harden as it cools.

Day 8: Andes Mint Brownies

Day 8 of My 12 Days of Cookies: Okay, so this technically isn't a cookie... It's a brownie. But to be fair, these go just as great in gift baskets/Christmas packages as any other cookie. I mean, who doesn't love the combination of mint and chocolate? You can even cut them small enough so that they are cookie/bite size. These brownies were delicious.. I'll have to try them with york peppermints next time to see which one comes out better. Now, everyone has a different type of favorite brownie. Mine are fudgy, gooey, and thick. This recipe comes out with just that kind, and they're easy! You can omit the chopped Andes in the batter if you think that's too much mint, but personally, I think the more the merrier.

I waited for them to cool before cutting them, and that made it EXTREMELY difficult! I would recommend that you cut them before the chocolate cools so that your brownies are prettier than mine. It's hard to cut hardened chocolate, and I'll know that for next time. If the chocolate has already cooled, then it'll crack when you try to cut them into bars.

You can use a brownie mix to simplify the process and just mix Andes mints into the batter before baking. Also, after spreading the Andes mints on top of the freshly baked brownie, it takes a while for the chocolate to stiffen back. So, if you are making these for a party, make them well in advance because they need at least an hour to cool!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar (white)
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• ½ cup cocoa
• ½ teaspoon salt
• about 1/4 cup (or however much you please, really) of chopped Andes mints
• An additional package of whole Andes mints
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 9 x 13 pan. Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. Once melted remove from heat and add sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Blend together. In separate bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, and salt. Add dry mixture to the wet and mix well. Add chopped Andes mints. Pour into greased pan and bake for 35-40 minutes.

RIGHT when the brownies come out of the oven, layer the top with the whole package of Andes mints (or however many it takes to cover the surface). Let them stand for a minute or two, until they are smooth enough to spread. Using a frosting spatula or a flat knife, spread the melted Andes mints evenly over the brownie to cover. Cool, cut and enjoy.

Day 7: M&M Cookies

Day 7 of My 12 Days of Cookies: M&M Cookies. I thought it would be fun and festive to finally add some Christmas color into my cookies. These are the standard Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe with M&M's replacing the chocolate morsels. The result? Ehhh these were just ok. I think now that I've found my elite chocolate chip recipe, nothing else compares. Don't get me wrong, these are always fun to look at that, though... with all the festive colors. They would look great in a basket given for the holidays!

I used some leftover Halloween candy for these cookies. I had an assortment pack of M&M's, with peanut, regular, and mini M&M's. I had to pick out all the red & green ones and left a huge bowl of M&M's on the island in the kitchen, up for grabs for whoever walks by. What's your favorite? Mine are definitely the peanut butter M&M's. Sidenote, I think the mini M&M's taste ten times better than regular sized M&M's even though they're the same.. why? I have no idea. I think all foods that are made miniature just taste better. Period.

The original recipe can be found HERE

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups M&M's (I used a mixture of mini and regular M&M's)

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

* May be stored in refrigerator for up to 1 week or in freezer for up to 8 weeks.

Day 6: Oatmeal Toffee & Walnut Cookies (With a hint of Cocoa!)

This stormy weather has made me quite lazy! All I want to do is drink tea and cuddle up next to my fireplace while watching movies all day long. It was 42 degrees today! .... In Southern California! If it's gonna get this cold, I wish it would just snow. That's hopeful wishing on my part. [Now, people that are reading this from around the world must think that I'm crazy to be considering 42 degrees as freezing, you must bear with me because I'm used to 80-90 degree weather on a yearly basis. It's always sunny in Southern California and hardly ever drops below 65 degrees!]

I've finally finished with my Christmas shopping and am quite ecstatic with what I got everyone. I love shopping for others-- just the quest of finding a perfect gift to match everyone's individual personality brings me joy. I hope you guys are done with your holiday shopping as well, seeing as how there's only only 8 more days for last minute shopping!

Day 6 of my 12 Days of Cookies: Half way there! I decided to do a little twist on the usual Oatmeal Toffee/Oatmeal Raisin cookie. I added a bit of what I had on hand in my kitchen: walnuts & cocoa powder. I used just a bit of Ghiradelli cocoa powder, but would definitely up the ratio the next time I make these. You can hardly taste the amount I put in. Also, don't over bake these babies! They taste better the next day, believe it or not. By leaving the cookie out overnight, the flavors really get to mix and then get to the perfect consistency. They're crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside. I made a half batch and pulsed my oats in the food processor until they were FINELY ground. These were adapted from Martha's Stewart's Recipe for her Oatmeal Raisin cookies.

Ingredients

• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup toffee bits
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Whisk together oatmeal, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In the bowl of stand mixer cream butter and sugars until pale and fluffy (5 mins) and add eggs and vanilla until just combined. Add oat mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in walnuts and toffee.

Scoop onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-13 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies. Let cookies cool on sheet for five minutes and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Day 5: White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Day 5 of my 12 Days of Cookies: White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies. I'm surprised at how many people love this cookie. Everyone that I assumed who doesn't like macadamia nut cookies, actually do. Maybe it's because I think most of the people that I know are not nut-lovers. This recipe is my by far my favorite white chocolate macadamia nut recipe, mainly due to the texture. They are sturdy enough that they won't break when packing them for travel, but remain soft when you bite into them. Give them a shot; there are more white chocolate macadamia nut cookie lovers out there than you think!


Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup softened butter
  
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  
• 2 cups white chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped macadamia nuts

- Heat oven to 375*F (190*C).
- In a large bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt
- In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg and vanilla.
- Gently stir in flour mixture.
- Fold in the white chocolate and macadamia nuts.
- Drop cookies by rounded tablespoonfuls onto a non stick cookie sheet about 1-inch apart.
- Bake for 9 to 12 minutes or until lightly golden.

Sidenote: Gosh, my visitor count has been going up like crazy recently and I want to thank you guys for visiting! I haven't hit a thousand different viewers in a day, yet.. My past couple days have been just shy, of about 930, 940. That's my new goal for myself.. reach 1000 first time visitors in one day. :)

Day 4: No Fail Sugar Cookies

Yay! Finals are done! Time for me to bake all I want... So you can expect a lot of posts for the next three weeks. I have a lot on my agenda.. from buying Christmas gifts for everyone to catching up on my much needed SLEEP! I've been sick for the past week. I came home from LA and my mom greeted me with "You're sick, huh? You look like a dead person. I can tell." Haha, Thanks, Mom. And the next morning, she said to me after hearing me cough, "You're going to get water in your lungs and die from pneumonia! Wear a jacket. And pants. You sound like an old man. I'm going to go buy you medicine so you can sleep at night and stop coughing." She's so mother-ly, overexaggerating everything and worried all the time. I love her.

I've been obsessed with looking at puppies lately. I want one soooo bad. Preferably a german shepherd or a siberian husky. Ahhhhhh they're so cute. Anyways, back to the cookies...




Day 4 of my 12 Days of Cookies: No fail-sugar cookies. So I knocked down two birds with one stone on day 4 of my cookies. I'm going to my boyfriend's cousin's engagement party tonight and baked this for the newly engaged couple (hence the bride & groom cookies). Now, I've NEVER had any luck with baking sugar cookies simply because they either turn out flat, lose their shape, taste terribly, or are too crumbly. I discovered this recipe a couple of years ago and I haven't used another one since. I mean, look at the name of the cookie: No-fail sugar cookies! How can you go wrong with that? This dough stands up to the most complex cookie cutters and always come out perfect. I made them a little thicker than normal so that they would be sturdy enough to stand on a cookie stick for my bouquet. I also halved this recipe because I didn't need that many cookies. After they were cooled, I decorated them however I wanted.

I haven't had a lot of experience with piping frosting, so don't be too harsh! This is actually the first time I've piped with royal icing. This royal icing is very forgiving and can be stiff or thin, depending on what you want to do with it. Either add more powdered sugar for a stiffer icing to pipe, or add more water to make it into a thinner consistency to fill in cookies. I halved this recipe as well, and still have a ton leftover.

I used my heart cookie cutter from my Crate & Barrel set I got for Christmas last year from one of my cousins that can be found HERE. It has a cookie cutters that will last you throughout the year.. one for each month! How cute is that!? And it even comes in a cute container, that could be used for cookie storing.

Ingredients

• 6 cups flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 2 cups butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring
• 1 tsp. salt

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.

Chill for 1 to 2 hours

Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350
degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe
can make up to 5-dozen 3” cookies.

For the Royal Icing:
6 oz (3/4 cup) of warm water
5 Tablespoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 kilogram (2.25 lbs.) powdered icing sugar

In mixer bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened...about 30 seconds.

Add the cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds more.

Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer.

Using the paddle attachment on the LOWEST speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy.

Cover the bowl with a dampened tea-towel to prevent crusting and drying.

Tint with food colourings or thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.

Ok, I have to add a picture of the love of my life at the moment. I bought myself a little Christmas present and am SO excited! It's Wilton's 56 Piece Tip Set. I can pipe all sorts of things now! :)

Day 3: NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's finals week and the workload is driving me crazy! It's really such a cruel time of the year for students.. minimal sleep & maximum work. I've already written 37 pages of papers and still have 15 left to go. I've finished 2 finals, and have 2 more left throughout the rest of this week. Can we fast forward to Friday already? Yesterday, I wrote about 25 pages for a paper that was due today (we all procrastinate, it's no surprise) and had roughly 3 hours of sleep. After driving to UCLA to turn my papers in, I was stuck in LA traffic for a good half hour or so on the streets trying to get to the freeway, only to have bumper to bumper traffic on the 405. Ugh! I hate LA traffic.

When I got back, I told my boyfriend that I had to bake something in order to relieve my stress and take a break from all this madness. He told me that I couldn't because I had another paper to write due tomorrow and should be working on that. Granted that he was probably right, I rummaged through the pantry and pulled out all my baking ingredients, anyway. I opted for something simple because I was short on time and just needed something comforting: chocolate chip cookies. Thank goodness I did!

Day 3 of my twelve days of cookies: The infamous NY Times chocolate chip cookies by Jacques Torres (found here if you have no idea what I'm talking about). These belong in my cookie countdown because it's such a classic! Everyone loves chocolate chip cookies & loves receiving them as well. Even though I've found my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, I can't help but try new ones. There are just so many versions out there and I want to try them all! These cookies were absolutely AMAZING. The sea salt made a world of a difference, and it tasted like the Trader Joe's cookies that you buy in a bag (theirs are amazing as well, even the vegan ones!). I replaced cake flour & bread flour for AP flour, since that was all I had on hand. I used more brown sugar than white sugar because I prefer softer, chewy cookies and swear by brown sugar. I also didn't chill the cookies at all. I know, I'm impatient.. but I can't help it! Regardless, they still turned out great. This might even replace my current CCC recipe. Maybe if I have the patience next time and chill them for at least 24 hours, they'll turn out even better! Heres my version of the CCC adapted from the NY Times:

Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch)

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 2/3 cups minus 2 tablespoons (17 ounces) AP flour
  
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
• 1 3/4 cups light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 pounds semi sweet chocolate chunks (I used Guittard)
  
• Sea salt.

DIRECTIONS:
1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and mix.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.

Day 2: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Day 2 of my twelve days of cookies: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies- Even though Thanksgiving is over, I can't bear the thought of pumpkin being out of season. I mean... Why should it? It's definitely is an essential ingredient for the holidays. Anything pumpkin always turns out cake-like and fluffy, so be prepared for that light consistency when making these cookies. The combination of chocolate and pumpkin is also divine, so you know that you can't go wrong. These cookies made A LOT, and I only made 1/4 of the recipe. They pretty much keep their form from how you place the cookie dough on the baking sheet, so using a cookie scoop helps keep all your cookies uniform. This recipe comes from the foodnetwork, courtesy of George Duran.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 cups (12-ounce bag) milk chocolate chips, not semisweet
• Nonstick cooking spray or parchment paper

Directions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper.

Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in the chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cool them on wire racks.

Day 1: Outrageous Chocolate Cookies

Well, I finally did it! I bought my own domain name last night!! My website URL is now officially: http://www.lovintheoven.com and I cannot be any more excited. (I'm such a kid at heart, I know.. but little things like this make me so happy!) Thanks to everyone for following along with my blog and for all the feedback. :]

We've now entered the month of December, which means it's officially holiday season. Actually, the holiday season started the moment Thanksgiving ended and the Christmas lights & trees went up. Since everyone (FoodNetwork, Betty Crocker, etc.) does the twelve days of cookies for the holidays, I thought I'd join in and make my own list. These twelve cookies that I'll be baking throughout December will be ideal for holiday gift baskets, just in case you need ideas for what to add in yours.

Day 1 of my twelve days of cookies: I introduce to you.. outrageous chocolate cookies by Martha Stewart! I have such mixed feelings on her.. Actually, it's more of a love/hate relationship. I find that with her recipes, you either love it or hate it, there's no in between. Although, with her scrapbooking line, it's all LOVE LOVE LOVE. The only thing I hate about her scrapbooking line is how ridiculously overpriced everything is. Anyways, back to the topic.. these cookies turned out great! They have a chewy center and a crackly top, similar to that of a brownie. The batter may turn out a bit more liquidy than normal cookie batter, but don't fret! It's supposed to be like that. The only thing that I would change about this recipe is replacing semi-sweet chocolate with milk chocolate because the cookies turned out a bit too bitter and not sweet enough for my taste. Either that, or add more sugar. They are also VERY chocolatey, so if you aren't a fan of chocolate, I'd recommend finding a different recipe.

Ingredients

Makes 2 dozen

• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chunks

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat chopped chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl in 20-second increments, stirring in between, until almost melted; do not overheat. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; beat in melted chocolate. Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks.
3. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough 2 to 3 inches apart onto baking sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are shiny and crackly yet soft in centers, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on sheets 10 minutes; with a thin metal spatula, transfer to racks to cool completely.