Cookies - Double-Post Tuesday

Besides being Taco Tuesday, it's also Double-Post Tuesday. Today's double post deals with fresh baked cookies, and include Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies and Raisin Oatmeal Cookies. Enjoy!

COWBOY COOKIES

This came from the infamous long-since-forgotten emailing list.

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups quick cooking oats

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Layer the ingredients in 1 quart jar in order given. Press each layer firmly in place before adding the next one. Include a card with the following instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets.

In medium bowl, cream together 1/2 cup of butter or margarine, 1 egg, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Stir in entire contents of jar. You may need to use your hands to finish mixing. Shape into walnut sized balls. Place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 11 to 13 minutes in preheated oven. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

STRAWBERRY MAPLE OAT COOKIES

This is from Crofter’s Organic, and was featured in the December 2018 issue of Taste For Life, which I’d picked up at one of my favorite places, Rollin’ Oats in St. Petersburg, Florida. If you’re ever in St. Pete (especially if you live nearby), check it out!

Anyway, the recipe begins, “This recipe is far from your grandma’s oatmeal cookie. These cookies are the epitome of summer - chewy oatmeal goodness bursting with juicy strawberry flavor all thanks to our strawberry premium fruit spread. Count us in. This flavor combination is one for the books and will take your cookie game to the next level. Not to mention, they’re healthier than your average cookie but shhh no one needs to know. That’s because they taste great. Give them a try and see for yourself! Yum!”

Serves 6 - 8; Prep Time: 10 minutes; Cook Time: 15 minutes.

Check them out online at https://croftersorganic.com/recipe/strawberry-maple-oat-cookies/.

Ingredients

1 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon Himalayan salt

1 teaspoon Ceylon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder

1/2 cup coarsely ground walnuts

1 egg

2 tablespoons coconut oil melted and cooled

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 cup Crofter’s Organic Strawberry Premium Fruit Spread

Directions

In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients - flour, oats, baking powder, and salt. Add spices and walnuts. Mix all together until combined.

In a separate bowl whisk the egg, coconut oil, vanilla, and maple syrup. Mix well with a whisk until well combined.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix. Finally, stir in the diced strawberries. Mix gently with a spoon. Let the mixture sit for few minutes.

Preheat oven to 356F (180C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

With a scoop or spoon, scoop the dough, and place it on the baking sheet. Arrange the cookies 2-inches apart. Slightly flatten the dough with the spoon.

Bake 12-15 minutes until the edges of the cookies begin to brown.

Remove cookies from the oven, and let them cool for few minutes on a baking sheet. Then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

CHOCAPOCALYPSE COOKIES

This is from Alton Brown of the Food Network's show, Good Eats. Total Time: 2 hr 30 min; Prep: 45 min; Inactive: 1 hr 15 min; Cook: 30 min; Yield: 55 cookies; Level: Intermediate

To view this online, go to http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/chocapocalypse-cookie-recipe.print.html?oc=linkback

Ingredients

6 ounces 54-percent bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

6 ounces light brown sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 ounces 70-percent bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

3 ounces 40-percent milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

2 ounces cocoa nibs

Directions

Place the 54-percent bittersweet chocolate and unsweetened chocolate in a medium glass mixing bowl and microwave on high for two 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval. If still not smooth, heat for 10 additional seconds at a time and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool to 90 degrees F, approximately 15 minutes.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together, transfer to a paper plate and set aside.

Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until combined and looks like wet sand, about 2 minutes.

Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a small bowl. Turn the mixer on low speed and slowly add the egg mixture until fully incorporated. Pour in the melted chocolate and mix to combine. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.

With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and mix until integrated. Add the 70-percent bittersweet chocolate, 40-percent milk chocolate and the cocoa nibs and mix until combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Scoop the dough using a 1 1/4-inch-diameter disher or ice cream scoop onto parchment-lined half-sheet pans, placing 2 inches apart, 12 cookies per pan. Bake for 8 to 9 minutes, rotating after 5 minutes. Do not over-bake; the cookies may look wet and doughy.

Cool the cookies on the pan for 2 minutes, then transfer on the parchment paper to a cooling rack to cool completely.

OLD FASHIONED SUGAR COOKIES

This comes the Food Network Kitchen.Total Time: 4 hr 40 min; Prep: 10 min; Inactive: 4 hr; Cook: 30 min; Yield: 3 dozen cookies, depending on the size of the cutters; Level: Easy

To view this online, click here.

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Colored sugar and milk, for decorating, or Royal Icing, recipe follows

Royal Icing:

2 pounds confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons meringue powder (egg white powder)

Food coloring, as desired

Directions

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a second large bowl and mix well. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture 1 cup at a time. Chill the dough for 3 to 4 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Roll out the dough and cut it into shapes with cookie cutters or a knife. Place the shapes on the prepared cookie sheet. If decorating with colored sugar, brush the cookies with milk and sprinkle with colored sugar (if using royal icing, leave unfinished). Bake until the cookies are just beginning to brown around the edges, 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies.

Remove the cookies to a rack to cool completely. If using royal icing, decorate the cookies as desired.

Royal Icing:

Combine the confectioners' sugar, meringue powder and 3/4 cup water in a large bowl. Mix slowly with an electric mixer until stiff enough to form peaks; the icing should be pure white and thick, but not fluffy and bubbly. If the frosting is over-beaten, it will get aerated which makes it harder to work with. If this happens, let the frosting sit to settle, and then use a rubber spatula to vigorously beat and smooth out the frosting.

Add up to 1 tablespoon food coloring and mix with a rubber spatula until the color is uniform. Gels are best with royal icing. You don't want to thin them with liquid colors. Be careful of adding too much color, which reduces the sheen of the frosting and can break down the consistency of the frosting over a couple of days. Store the icing at room temperature, covered, with plastic wrap on the surface.

Yield: 3 1/2 cups icing

PERFECT BLACK AND WHITE COOKIES

This is from Melissa Clark at The New York Times cooking e-newsletter. Melissa wrote, “Tender, moist and scented with vanilla, almond and lemon, these classic confections popular all over the Midwest and the state of New York are more cake than cookie, with a fine crumb and velvet texture from the sour cream in the batter. Even better, they are glazed with both vanilla and chocolate, so you don’t have to pick favorites. These are best eaten within 24 hours of baking, when the cake is at its softest and the glaze at its snappiest. But if you store them in an airtight container at room temperature, they’ll be good for a few days longer.”

Yield: 12 to 14 cookies; Time: 1 hour, plus cooling

To view this online, go to https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020254-perfect-black-and-white-cookies.

Ingredients

For the Cookies:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup sour cream or whole-milk yogurt

1/3 cup whole milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoonsgranulated sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

For the Glaze:

2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Boiling water, as needed

1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of fine sea salt

2 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

2 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

Preparation

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Arrange racks in top and bottom thirds, and line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sea salt and baking soda. In a medium bowl, whisk together sour cream, milk, vanilla, lemon zest and almond extract.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Reduce speed to low and beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture, then 1/3 of the sour cream mixture. Repeat until both mixtures are incorporated, scraping sides of bowl as necessary. (Mixture will be the consistency of thick poundcake batter.)

Dollop heaping 1/4-cup scoops of batter onto prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. (You should have 12 to 14 cookies.) Bake for 6 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets. Continue to bake until the cookies have firmed up and spring back when lightly pressed in the center, 6 to 9 minutes. (They’ll brown only on the bottoms.) Take care not to overbake, or they will dry out.

Transfer baking sheets to wire racks and let cool for 15 minutes, then transfer cookies directly to racks to cool completely.

While the cookies cool, make the glaze: Place the confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and whisk in 3 tablespoons boiling water, the corn syrup, vanilla and salt. Continue to whisk, adding more boiling water as needed, until you have a thick yet spreadable frosting that is the texture of hot fudge sauce. (Too thick is preferable to too thin.) Flip each cookie over and spoon glaze over half of its flat side, spreading to edges with the back of the spoon. Place on wire rack to set. You will have vanilla frosting left over.

Whisk melted chocolate into vanilla frosting, then whisk in cocoa and enough room temperature water to make a thick yet spreadable glaze. Glaze the bare half of each cookie. Let glaze set for at least 1 to 2 hours before serving.

RAISIN OATMEAL COOKIES

This is from the infamous long-since-forgotten emailing list, though it looks like it was from a diabetic list.

Yield: 2-1/2 dozen cookies (1 per serving)

Ingredients

6 tablespoons margarine, softened

1/4 cup fat-free sour cream

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1-1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup raisins for baking

Directions

Mix margarine, sour cream, egg, and vanilla in large bowl; mix in brown sugar. Mix in combined oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Mix in raisins.

Drop dough onto greased cookie sheets, using 2 tablespoons for each cookie. Bake at 350 degrees F. until browned, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Nutritional Information Per Serving (1 cookie): Calories: 90, Fat: 2.7 g, Cholesterol: 7.1 mg, Sodium: 57 mg, Protein: 1.5 g, Carbohydrate: 15.3 g

Diabetic Exchanges: 1 Bread/Starch, 1/2 Fat