The last cookies

Two types of chocolate drop cookies for our last night of class. Basic recipes...

Chocolate Caramel Pecan cookies: Butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, egg, flour, baking soda are mixed. Chocolate chips and pecans are added in. Cookies are scooped onto a tray and half a caramel is pressed into each cookie before being baked for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

Chocolaty Chocolate Chip cookies: Lots of stuff in these! Bread & pastry flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, butter, sugar, white & dark chocolate chips, pecans...baked at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.

I hate coconut!

Something to do with the stringy texture in my mouth. And both of this week's cookies included it. They were also both drop cookies, which we've done before, so overall, not my most favourite class. Coconut Macaroons include whipped egg whites, icing sugar, coconut, ground almonds & lemon zest. They are then scooped onto onto a tray and baked for about 20 minutes. Once cooled, they are dipped in chocolate.

Apricot Coconut cookies include more of the dreaded coconut, dried apricots, oats, and the usual suspects {butter, sugar, flour...}. They also include orange juice and zest, which gave them a fresh, healthy taste. Yes, even when I'm not excited by our recipes, I still want to sample them!

No mint. No chocolate. No likey.

These Choco-Mint Pinwheels contain: butter, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, baking powder and milk. The dough is then cut in half; cocoa powder is mixed into one half and peppermint into the other. A piece of each colour of dough is rolled flat and one laid on top of the other, then rolled into a log, refrigerated and cut into pieces. Baking time is 10 minutes. Even though we used 2 tsp of peppermint extract instead of the suggested 1/2 teaspoon, all we got was a minty after-taste. Peppermint oil would definitely be better to use and I couldn't taste the chocolate at all! Not my favourite but they made for a nice photo.

Straight from the ice box

Is it just me or do these look like shrimp cakes? Orange Pecan {Ice Box} cookies contain: butter, white & brown sugar, eggs, orange zest, flour, coconut and pecans. What we learned this week was how to roll dough into a log, refrigerate it {which makes it easier to cut as the dough has a chance to set} and then cut it into pieces. This log was rolled in pecans before being baked for 10 minutes. They taste pretty good.

Chocolate overload

These look like plain chocolate cookies but god, they are good! Most likely because they include both melted bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder. That, plus butter, eggs, vanilla, brown sugar, bread flour & baking soda are mixed and rolled into little walnut-sized balls which spread when baked for 10 minutes. Once cooled, they are dusted with icing sugar. Will definitely be making these again over the holiday season.

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So Split Second Cookies don't actually take a split second to make but they are pretty simple. They're a cross between shortbread and biscotti and contain: butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, bread flour & baking powder. The dough is shaped into a 12"-long roll and a depression {"split"} is made down the middle with the handle of a wooden spoon, which is filled with cherry pie filling. They are baked for 20 minutes at 350 degrees and once cooled, they are cut diagonally into strips.

Sugar & spice

Who cares what this is made of? It's so cute. Sugar cookies taste a lot like Peak Freans. Sugar, milk powder, shortening, butter, salt, vanilla & lemon zest are creamed and sifted cake flour & baking powder are added. Then water is poured in until the dough binds together. After being refrigerated for about half an hour, it's rolled out and cut out with cookie cutters. Baking time is only 10 minutes {at 375 degrees} and the result cookies are sandwiched together with jam and dusted with icing sugar or drizzled with chocolate.

I didn't realize that Rugalachs are what my babcia makes as hers are filled with jam and these also include a mixture of pecans, raisins, sugars & cinnamon. The dough is very simple: cream cheese, butter, sugar and bread & pastry flours are mixed, formed into a ball and refrigerated for an hour. As with the sugar cookies, this dough is rolled out, but into a 10" circle that is cut into pie-shaped wedges. Each wedge is filled and rolled. Baking time is 25 minutes {at 350 degrees}.

Lemon & peanut butter dropped

It was drop cookie week, where dough gets rolled into little balls and flattened with either a Hershey's kiss or the end of a spoon. Sounds delicious, no? The Peanut Butter Blossoms were made with shortening, peanut butter, brown & white sugar, baking soda & powder, egg, vanilla, milk and bread flour. Lots of ingredients and it only took about 5 minutes to mix the dough. The dough is then rolled into little balls and rolled in sugar {I will leave this step out when making these again; it adds a weird texture to the cookie}. After being baked for 10 minutes, a chocolate kiss is pressed into the center while the cookie is still warm.

I had such a hard time getting a good picture of the Lemon Blossoms. These were made with butter, icing sugar, lemon juice and pastry flour. As with the peanut butter ones, these were rolled into little balls and rolled in chopped walnuts. An indent is made with the handle of a wooden spoon, which is then filled with jam and baked for about 12 minutes.

I don't like piping

I felt like I would never reach the bottom of the bowl of the cookie batter for these. I must have piped 5 or 6 sheets of Chocolate Spritz and Hazelnut Rosette cookies. They're the sort of thing that took so long to make that by the time they came out of the oven, I had no interest in eating them. These are similar to the cookies I made in Baking Arts I. The chocolate ones are a mixture of shortening, butter, vanilla, orange zest, icing sugar, eggs, milk, flour and cocoa powder. Once piped and baked, they were made into raspberry jam sandwiches and dipped or drizzled with white chocolate.

The hazelnut cookies contained butter, icing sugar, eggs {+ additional yolks}, hazelnuts {aka filberts - who knew?}, flour, vanilla and spices {cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice}. After being piped and baked, a drop of raspberry jam is placed on the top and these are drizzled with chocolate.

"Having no interest in eating them" is actually code for "I caved the next day anyway because they looked so good" and yum! Both variations were good.

Cookie classics

Oatmeal Raisin and Chocolate Chip cookies aren't the most challenging things to bake, but they're always a hit. They were gone in a minute when I left them in the kitchen at work. These are "drop" cookies {which means exactly that; they're dropped onto the cookie sheet} and include the usual suspects: butter, sugar, flour, eggs, baking soda, eggs, vanilla and chocolate chips/oats. The oatmeal cookies also included some cinnamon...a nice touch!

Not sharing these

I love biscotti! We made two types last night: Espresso and Chocolate Chip Almond. I've never made it before as the twice-baked process seemed hard but was actually really easy. For the Espresso ones {the "dry" recipe which uses butter}, it only takes 5 minutes to cream the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla and then mix in the dry ingredients {flour, baking powder, cinnamon, espresso, orange zest, chocolate chips}.

The dough is then rolled into a log and baked for 35-40 minutes, cooled, cut, then baked again for 20 minutes. Cooled, then DIPPED in CHOCOLATE.

The Chocolate Chip Almond ones {"wet" as oil is used instead of butter} are basically the same process, except for the oil and baking soda instead of powder. Those were baked for 30 minutes, removed, cut and baked again for 10 minutes. Cooled and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

Coming this Christmas...

Back to school! My Art of Cookies class started off simple last night with a classic shortbread recipe. This is a less buttery version of typical shortbread: butter, icing sugar, bread flour and rice flour are combined and rolled out and baked for approximately 20 minutes. Very light and flaky. I can't wait to make these again during the holidays.