Entries Tagged as 'martha stewarts cookies'

Martha Stewart’s Grammy’s Chocolate Cookies

January 22nd, 2010 · 4 Comments

Again with Martha Stewart’s Cookies. This is my all-time favorite cookie cookbook. I made these Grammy’s Chocolate Cookies for Jess’s 30th birthday party. They were really great. Slightly crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Yum!

Grammy’s Chocolate Cookies

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (I didn’t use a Dutch-process one)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Sanding sugar, for rolling (I used Sugar in the Raw)

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed untl light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat to combine. Reduce speed to low and gradually add dry ingredients; beat to combine. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and chill until dough is firm, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with Silpat baking mats. Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Roll each ball into sanding sugar. Place on prepared baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until set, about 10 to 12 minutes, rotating halfway through.

Transfer to a rack to cool for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies from baking sheet to wire rack. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in an airtight container at room temperature up to a week.

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Martha Stewart’s Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

January 8th, 2010 · 2 Comments

Back to my old favorite Martha Stewart’s Cookies for this recipe. Martha’s book has about 5 different recipes for chocolate chip cookies in it, depending on how you like them. Honestly, this wasn’t my favorite, but not bad overall. I made these for Jess’s 30th birthday party.

Martha Stewart’s Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (about 12 ounces) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. (About 2 minutes.) Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

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3rd Annual Cookie and Tree Trimming Party

December 14th, 2009 · 3 Comments

On Saturday I hosted a cookie and tree trimming party. The day before I’d taken off work to prepare for the party, but that night we went out for Dallas’s birthday. We drank too much at the Whistler and stayed out til midnight. I was feeling it a bit in the morning, but it was not nearly as bad as last year. Still, I’m starting to think I can’t host this party NOT hung over!

Many of my friends and family came over and each brought a few dozen cookies. We laid all of the cookies out and sampled them over the course of a few hours. This year we had a lot of cookie party first timers, which was fun. In general there were more people than usual. In previous years people have been really busy, but this year the stars all lined up and we had a great turn out.

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Cory, Jen, Tommy, Eleanor

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Cory, Mary, Jen, Tommy

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Aunty Laura, Kristin, Amy, Eleanor

To counter-balance all the sweets, I also served a Wisconsin cheese plate, a mix of crackers and breadsticks, chopped veggies for dipping, some Lit’l Smokies, and 3 dips: crack onion dip, olive parsley pesto spread, and roasted red pepper and cannellini bean dip. Naoko also made some queso that was really addictive when paired with potato chips! To drink we had hot apple cider (spiked or not) which I had Steph in charge of, using Julene’s Chicagoist recipe.

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Kate and Natalie (due any day now!)

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Eleanor, Amy

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Mom & Eleanor

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Laura, Amanda, Margo

I do a lot of shopping for the party after Christmas and just store it in a box for the next year. This year when I opened the box I’d purchased two different gifts for some reason… so I was able to give away a door prize as well as a best cookie prize. My mom got everyone to put their names in a bag. Aunty Gail was standing by me as I drew a name. I asked her if she was feeling lucky, then I looked down and I was holding her name in my hand! So weird!! Tommy helped her open her gift.

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Tommy

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Aunty Gail

We passed time talking and eating. This year we had a lot of kids at the party, which was fun. Steph and Jess were there, of course. Kelly brought Tessa again, she and Jess are such great pals. Quinn and Tommy came this year. They’ve met one time before and ran around together and with Jess and Tessa. Kenji didn’t run around too much, since he’s just turned one year old this past weekend. And then there are the little babies! I finally got to meet Margo, and Jill brought Halle as well. They’re only a week apart in age!

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Jessica

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Margo

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Halle

Since there were so many people and cookies, today has been a bit of an exercise in matching the cookie with the recipe with the person. This may be slightly off, but here’s a pretty complete list of all the treats we sampled:

  • Toffee Chocolate Walnut Bar (Caroline)
  • Swedish Oatmeal Cookie (Kristin)
  • Peanut Butter Truffle (Cory)
  • Mint Chocolate Wafer Cookie (Jen)
  • Walnut Thumbprints with Pumpkin Apricot Marmalade (Joanna)
  • White Chocolate Peanut Butter Crispy Balls (Kate)
  • Deliciously Dandy Ding Dongs (Natalie)
  • Gingerbread Spice Cookies (Cinnamon)
  • Mint Cookie Gems (Mary)
  • Chocolate Crispy Cookies (Gail)
  • Melting Moments (Jill)
  • Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (Katrina and Narni)
  • Triple Chip Peanut Butter Cookies (Eleanor)
  • Godiva Liqueur Chocolate Chip Cookie and Cream Tart (Amy)
  • Peanut Butter Blossoms (Laura)
  • Chocolate Chip Cookies (Glenna)
  • Outrageous Brownies (Amanda)
  • Snickerdoodles (Amanda)
  • Chocolate Truffles with Hawaiian Sea Salt (Rachelle)
  • Red Velvet Bon Bons (Rachelle)
  • 3 Truffles, Spiked with Baileys, Coffee and Raspberry (Kelly)
  • Pebber Nodder – Danish Christmas Cookie (Molly?)
  • Caramel Pecan Bars (Molly?)
  • Orange Chocolate Cookie (Naoko)
  • Chocolate Almond Cookie (Naoko)
  • Strawberry Cookie (Naoko)

As you can see, everyone stepped their game up this year. Everything was so delicious!! Since no one can ever pick one favorite, I handed out cards to get everyone to say what their top 3 cookies were. Steph and I tallied up the votes by giving a 1st place vote 3 points, a 2nd place vote 2 points and a 3rd place vote 1 point.

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Rachelle, Steph

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Tallying Votes

The results? There was a 3rd place tie between Jen’s Mint Chocolate Wafer Cookie and Cory’s Peanut Butter Truffle. In second place was Kristin’s Swedish Oatmeal Cookies. First place was a surprise to me. I could see what cookie won but I had no idea who made it! Surprise! It was Caroline! She won a Christmas hotpad and oven mitt as well as my all time favorite cookie book, Martha Stewart’s Cookies.

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Caroline is crowned the winner!

I think my cookie party was a success. It seemed like everyone had a great time. I’m already looking forward to next year’s party!

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Martha Stewart’s Rosemary Butter Cookies

August 28th, 2009 · 2 Comments

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These Rosemary Butter Cookies are the perfect mix of sweet and savory, which I love. I also loved how these cookies had a bit of a crispness on the outside but were soft on the inside.

I found the recipe for Rosemary Butter Cookies in Martha Stewart’s Cookies, made them with the rosemary I grew on our roof deck, and brought them to a barbecue. I don’t know if they were fully appreciated by the crowd there. Bake these for people who love fresh herbs and nontraditional flavors combinations.

This was my first stab at rolling out cookies into a tube shape, freezing or refrigerating them and then slicing off individual cookies. They didn’t turn out exactly round, but otherwise turned out great.

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Martha Stewart’s Rosemary Butter Cookies
Rosemary, which denotes remembrance, love, loyalty and friendship, has long held a place of honor in wedding ceremonies. These were originally developed as favors in Martha Stewart Weddings magazine. Makes 5 dozen.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg white, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 cup fine sanding sugar (I used Sugar in the Raw instead)

Put butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in whole egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour, rosemary, and salt, and mix until combined.

Halve dough; shape each half into a log. Place each log on a 12-by-16-inch sheet of parchment. Roll in parchment to 1 1/2 inches in diameter, pressing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow log. Transfer to paper-towel tubes to hold shape, and freeze until firm, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375. Brush each log with egg white; roll in sanding sugar. Cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake until edges are golden, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Store in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

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Martha Stewart’s Peanut Butter Cookies

August 24th, 2009 · No Comments

peanut_butter_cookie

I made these when my nieces and cousin’s kids were visiting because all kids love peanut butter cookies, right? The recipe is from (surprise, surprise!) Martha Stewart’s Cookies. I love this cookie cookbook so much. Every cookie I’ve made from this book has been delicious and turned out. That being said, the dough for these peanut butter cookies was very sticky. I couldn’t press it down really. Maybe because it was very warm in my kitchen? Anyway, the cookies turned out very light and delicate, unlike a heavier, chewy peanut butter cookie. Very tasty!

Peanut Butter Cookies

Recipes for peanut butter cookies abound, but this one packs a particularly powerful punch. The dough is studded with whole salted peanuts for extra crunch. Sandwich a few with jelly for an afternoon snack. Or embelish them instead by piping melted semisweet chocolate into the lines of the cross-hatch pattern. Makes 2 1/2 dozen.

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for flattening cookies
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup smooth peanut butter (crunchy may also be used)
1/2 cup salted peanuts

Preheat oven to 350. Sift flour and baking soda into a bowl.

Put butter and both sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy; about 3 minutes. Add egg; mix until well combined. Mix in vanilla and then peanut butter. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Turn in peanuts.

Drop batter by heaping tablespoons onto baking sheets lines with parchment paper, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart. Dip the bottom of a galss in flour, tapping off excess and use it to flatten balls slightly. Firmly press fork tines into each dough ball to make a cross-hatch pattern.

Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until centers are firm and edges are lightly browned, about 25 minutes. transfer cookies on parchment to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

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