Peanut Butter Butterscotch Cookies

So when I get super stressed out at work and don't want do anything except bake, I sometimes go looking for recipes. I know it's not the best thing to do, but 15 minutes and I'm back to work and much more concentrated. With stresses coming up soon with a whole bunch of deadlines, there will be a lot more baking on, unless I start having 12+ hour days again. Then it's just sleep when I get to my apartment.

Anyways, I promised that I would help a friend in any way that I could. Farah is a friend from high school. We met in sophomore year and to be honest we've never been super great friends, but we've always been there for the other person. We went to different colleges and have grown into our own. She has decided to be a producer for a great documentary coming out soon. I know this may mean nothing to you, but being an Asian American, I can see that her documentary meaning a lot to people who are in the same boat as I am.

I made some brownies and decided to decorate one with her logo, to the best of my abilities. It didn't turn out so well, but I'll do better next time. Actually, next time I would make sugar cookies and decorate using royal icing. Back to the cookies, they were super delicious. They were like peanut butter cookies and I added some butterscotch chips. The added chips gave the cookies a great dimension that I didn't think would be amazing.

Recipe:
(adapted from here)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (6-ounce package) butterscotch morsels


Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine sugar, brown sugar and butter. Beat with an electric hand mixer until fluffy.
Add the peanut butter, vanilla and egg, blend well. Add the flour, baking soda and salt to dough mixture and mix well.
With a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, stir in butterscotch chips. Take a tablespoon of dough and shape, with your hands.
Flatten the balls lightly with the fork in a crisscross pattern (like you would with a peanut butter cookie).
Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove cookies from cookie sheet immediately and place on wire racks to cool thoroughly.

Speculaas [Club Baked]

You know when the writers wrote that they loved the Delta cookies, I remembered how much I enjoyed those cookies on my trip to New York almost 2 years ago. My dad had free flights so my brother and I were able to go to New York City for the first time. I had such a great time with my brother - how weird right?

Anyways, these cookies brought me back to my flight. That 5 hour cross country flight was not the most fun flight, but you know what? The cookies were the best part of it. I'm so glad that I was able to learn how to make these.

As I eat these cookies, I remember all the great time I had in New York - watching my first Broadway show...on Broadway. The top of the Empire State Building and Rockerfeller Center. Brooklyn. Central Park. Wall Street. Ground Zero. My goal is to be there once for New Years Eve and stay in a hotel room facing Times Square, where I stayed last time with my dad and brother, and watch the ball drop from my room and be able to celebrate with my friends in the room. That way, I can be there, but also be warm and be able to use the bathroom. I MUST GO BACK SOON.

The flavors are great. I can taste all the spices and they go great with my morning drink from Starbucks (Soy Earl Gray Latte). I can just munch on these cookies all day. Love! I made mine in very little batches because I know if I make big batches I end up giving most of them to my boyfriend and as much as I love him, I love these cookies for myself. I've been baking about a sheet or two. I have about 1/4 of the dough left. I'll be able to eat these cookies for next couple of days.

Check out the recipe here and other bakers here.

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

After I got back from Sacramento, my boyfriend and I wanted to make dessert together since we never do it. We only make dinner together...sometimes. I made him promise that he wouldn't eat all the oreos and he didn't! He had about 10 left and we made half the recipe. It combines two of his favorite things together - chocolate chip cookies and oreo cookies.

To be honest, I've had one of these cookies that my friend had made a year or two ago. It was so sweet and decadent and I decided I would put off making those for a while. Well, it was a while, and I wanted to see if I could make them for myself.

These were super easy to make and using a silpat and some parchment paper, we threw the recipe together in a couple of minutes. Putting the cookie together was the best party and we had a lot of fun doing that together. I think the next time, I'll make these with mini Oreos so that they don't come out like huge cookies that no one wants to eat. Instead, they'll be smaller with a little surprise in the middle!

Recipe:
Modified from Becky Bakes
1 sticks (1/2 cup) softened butter
3/8 cup or 6 Tablespoons packed brown sugar, light or dark
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup of chocolate chips
some Oreo cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars together with a mixer until well combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda. Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined. Using a tablespoon take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo Cookie. Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of Oreo cookie. Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo cookie is enclosed with dough. Place onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet and bake cookies 9-13 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles. It's a fun word to say out loud. After baking a whole bunch for my friends for their holiday parties, I was baked out. But Scott asked me to bake one last thing for his dad. His parents have different ideas of the perfect cookie. His mom loves crunchy cookies - almost burnt; his dad loves the soft chewy type. Scott has the crunchy cookie down. Just bake them for a long time, but soft chewy cookies are a lot harder. You have time it correctly. You want a nice crunchy outer shell, but the inside has to be chewy and delicious.

He asked me to help him out. Since I was going to be stressed out about taking the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) test, I knew that baking was a great stress reliever. I bring them to work and I have a big group of people to eat them without having to force Scott to bring them to work or eat them himself. It's a great deal!

I made half of this recipe twice. So yes, I made a full recipe, but I found the second time I made it, it was much better. This is my second version of the cookie.

Snickerdoodles
(adapted from Joy of Baking)
Ingredients:
Cookie: 
1 3/8 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 cup of unsalted butter (1 stick)
3/4 cup of granulated white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla (or imitation)
optional: 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon


Cinnamon Sugar:
1/4 cup of granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon (add more if you would like)


Directions:
If you're like me and you don't start baking until you feel like, you won't have room temperature butter. The best way to get it soft is to microwave it. If you put it straight from the refrigerator, you'll have to first put it in for about a minute and a half, and then at half minute intervals. It should be fine around 2 minutes or so. After it's soft, you can add the sugar. Mix until combined (I use a spatula, but you can use an electric mixer). Add the egg and vanilla. MIX IT WELL.


Then add the flour, baking powder, and salt together. I know most places have you mix it in a separate bowl, but really, I don't have the time to wash so many dishes. If you mix it well, it won't really matter...I hope. 


Then make the cinnamon sugar, just mix the sugar and cinnamon together. Shape the dough into a ball. I use a tablespoon to make sure that my cookies are around the same size. I like to place my sugar and cinnamon into a shallow bowl (or a ramekin) so it's easier to roll around. After rolling it in the cinnamon sugar, I place it on parchment paper or a silpat. Then press down until it's about 1/2 inch. Before placing it into the oven, I sprinkle some of the cinnamon sugar on top, generously. 


Heat oven to 400 degrees F and bake for about 10 minutes. After letting it cool on the pan for 5 minutes, it's ready for consumption, or placing into tupperware for someone else to eat. 


ENJOY!

Christmas M&M Cookies

I love this time of year. It's just a great time to bake for your friends and coworkers. I baked a batch of these for Scott and some of my coworkers since they found out that I baked. Great huh?

Well I know that they enjoyed it because I brought about 20 and there weren't any left when I left from work. Scott says that he loves the cookies and that they were his favorite! I'm definitely happy that he enjoyed them. He's never really had any of my baking since I stopped after we started dating. Now he gets to try all of my baking since it's the holiday season.

I really do miss baking guys; I hope everyone still reads and I promise to bake at least once a month!

I found the recipe here, and its a great one. Try it! I baked it for a little longer than the recipe and it still turned out chewy. That's the most important part - chewy, soft cookies.

Pumpkin Butterscotch Chip Cookies

These cookies were for another one of the many committee banquets I have been participating in.

I have so many extra cans of pumpkin puree when I stocked up for the "shortage" of pumpkin puree, but now I do have lots of extras. I have at least 3 cans of the huge Libby pumpkin cans at home including 2 and half here with me in Berkeley.

Although it is not the fall anymore, I thought the flavors of pumpkin could be quite interesting on a sunny spring day. So I started looking through various bookmarked and starred recipes. I had quite a few that used pumpkin puree. After I narrowed down my choices to only pumpkin choices, I had to find a recipe that only used 1 egg since that's all I had in the house. [note to self: I need more eggs] I found the perfect recipe after a couple minutes of searching.

Pumpkin Butterscotch Chip Cookies
[adapted from My Baking Addiction]
Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup medium brown sugar [but any brown sugar will work]
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup butterscotch chips

Method:
1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg.
2. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt.
3. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
4. Add vanilla and chocolate chips.
5. Drop by spoonful on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Sugar Cookies [sms]

This week's Sweet Melissa Sundays pick, Sugar Cookies, was chosen by ME! This is my first time hosting anything really so I'm super excited!

I had originally wanted to do the wonderful red velvet cake, but that was taken already, but I thought this cookie/pie crust would be very versatile and fun for everyone. The sugar cookie itself is not very tasty, but I think that with all the decorations on top, it's quite fun and exciting.

I had first made these into cookies for my friend's New Year's Party. I had made them into a beautiful snowflake shape and then decorated them with royal icing. [I decided to try some effects out!]

Then, I was going to make these again but in pie form. I had run out of time before the publishing date with all the midterms, internship/job finding, and me being sick. It's just been a busy time for me. I think that the school year was a pretty bad time for me to host, but I was fun regardless!

Sugar Cookies/Sweet Pie Crust
from Sweet Melissa's Baking Book [pg. 142-143]

14 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 Cup sugar

Freshly grated zest of 1/2 lemon

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

To make the dough:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar, zest and salt until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

2. Add the egg and vanilla and mix to combine.

3. Add the flour and mix to combine. Be sure to scrape down the bowl.

4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Pat it together into one piece. Divide the dough into two equal parts, flatten into 5-in round disks, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Put what you will use today in the fridge, and the rest (if there is any) goes into the freezer for another time. Chill for at least 45 minutes before rolling.

To roll the dough:

1. When the dough is chilled through, remove it from the refrigerator and let it rest at room temperature for 10 minutes, until it is malleable. Lightly flour a work surface. Begin with one dough disk, lightly flour the top, and, using a rolling pin, press gently on the dough from the middle upward, and then middle downward. Turn the dough disk a quarter turn and repeat the light pressing process. Add more flour if needed to prevent sticking.

2. The dough should be a round, flatter version of the original disk. Now either you can use it to make cookies or the pie crust.

Make sure to check out the rest of the SMS bakers on the blogroll.

ps. since I promised those photoshoot pictures for a long time, here they are! First individual ones, then a couple between my co-family head and I, then the family ones!

World Peace Cookies

These world peace cookies are truly delightful. It's like a chocolate chocolate chip cookie, but better. As I was baking these, I was wondering, why are these called world peace cookies? Are they supposed to promote world peace? Perhaps, but regardless, this is the end of my journey of 21 different chocolate things. Most of these recipes were nice and simple, but I know that my boyfriend has enjoyed all of them. Hope you enjoyed all my chocolate recipes!

Triple Threat Cookies

These triple threat cookies were a wonderful delight. Chocolate cookies filled with more chocolate chips - bittersweet and white - and also nuts. It was just crunchy, and soft, and yummy. Although I know my boyfriend doesn't like nuts, I thought that they were a necessary part of this. I hope he likes them!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

These Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies were amazing. The combination of peanut butter and chocolate is always a great one and this is no exception. Delicious! Even my roommate who hates peanut butter loves this cookie!

Giant Dulce de Leche Samoas

These imitation Samoas were some of the most labor intensive cookies I made. My cookie cutter was a 2.5 in one so I decided to make giant ones. In addition, my boyfriend's favorite Girl Scouts Cookie is Samoas - perfect! [personally, I like thin mints better!] These were delicious!

Fudge Crinkles

These fudge crinkles were really melt in your mouth yummy goodness. I ate one when it was still warm and it was just really nice. I had also made half of this recipe. Two halves of a cake mix is a whole one!

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cinnamon cookies without the chocolate chips one of the two things my boyfriend requested, but since this whole box was chocolate themed, I decided to throw a couple of chocolate chips in. It tastes like a snickerdoodle, but with chocolate chips. It was so good.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

I based these cookies off these Chocolate Andes Cookies, but since I had mint chips already from winter break, I decided just to put those in the dough instead. They were a nice break from all the chocolate chips!

Chocolate Espresso Cookies

These chocolate espresso cookies, although I personally think they look similar to the Brownie Cookies, taste much different. They are a bold surprise if you're not expecting the blast of coffee taste. They are a great addition to any morning!