Dessert

Ingredients
16 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 ³⁄₄ cups sugar
³⁄₄ teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 tablespoons plus ³⁄₄ cup sour cream, at room temperature
¹⁄₃ cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 ¹⁄₂ cups all purpose flour
¹⁄₂ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 ¹⁄₄ teaspoons baking soda
1 ¹⁄₃ cups water
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400*F. Line 2 standard muffin tins with cupcake liner for a total of 24 cupcakes. 

2. With mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese, ¹⁄₂ cup sugar, and ¹⁄₄ teaspoon salt until smooth, about 30 seconds. Beat in egg whites and 2 tablespoons sour cream until combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and set aside.

3. Whisk remaining sugar, remaining salt, flour, cocoa, and baking soda in large bowl. Make well in center, add remaining sour cream, water, butter, and vanilla and whisk until just combined. Divide batter evenly among 24 cupcake liners and top each with 1 rounded tablespoon cream cheese mixture. Bake until tops of cupcakes just begin to crack, 23 to 25 minutes. Cool cupcakes in tins for 10 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. (Cupcakes should be refrigerated in airtight container for no more than 2 days.)

Comments
Since Art is a lover of both cheesecake and chocolate, this recipe from the 2007 Cook’s Country Annual seemed like it would be a huge hit for a Game Day dessert.  And it was!  With everyone except Art.  Woe is me.  The chocolate was extremely rich and the cheesecake was lovely.  I wasn’t expecting there to be quite so much cheesecake per cupcake, but it worked out very nicely.  I’ll make these again in the future… just not when Art is home! ;)

Cook’s Country 2007

Ingredients
1 teaspoon instant coffee or espresso powder
1 tablespoon hot water
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
¹⁄₂ cup sweetened condensed milk
¹⁄₂ teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch salt
1 ¹⁄₄ cups heavy cream, cold

Instructions
1. Combine coffee (or espresso) powder and hot water in small bowl. Let stand until coffee dissolves, about 5 minutes. Microwave chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, and coffee mixture in bowl, stirring every 10 seconds, until chocolate is melted, about 1 minute. Stir in vanilla and salt.

2. With mixer on medium-high speed, whip cream to soft peaks, about 2-3 minutes. Whisk one-third of whipped cream into chocolate mixture. Fold remaining whipped cream into chocolate mixture until incorporated. Freeze in airtight container until firm, at least 6 hours or up to 2 weeks. Serve. 

Comments
When I read the recipe for this ice cream in the 2009 Cook’s Country Annual, I was intrigued.  “Ice cream without a machine?  Sure, I’ll try it.”  For all intents and purposes, this is frozen chocolate mousse.  And it’s delicious.  It’s super rich and the texture is perfect.  I might consider using half semisweet chips next time, since it was almost too rich, but this will appease the chocolate lover in any home.  And, best of all, it doesn’t require an ice cream machine!

Cook’s Country 2009

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 ¹⁄₄ cups bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt or ¹⁄₂ teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
¹⁄₄ cup sugar
1 ¹⁄₄ cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions
1. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl. 

2. Pour the melted butter into mixing bowl and add the sugars.  Cream on medium speed.  Add the egg, yolk, milk, and vanilla.  Mix until well combined.  Slowly incorporated the flour mixture until completely combined.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour. 

3. Preheat oven to 375*F and line baking sheets with parchment paper. 

4. Using a #20 ice cream scoop (about 2 tablespoons), scoop 6 balls of dough onto each cookie sheet.  Bake for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown.  Rotate the sheets halfway through cooking for even browning.  Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. 

Comments
This recipe makes about 2 ¹⁄₂ dozen cookies and is from Alton Brown’s fantastic episode on cookies.  I made all three varieties of cookies from that episode and settled on this one as my favorite.  You can easily add nuts to the recipe, or use other types of chips if you prefer.  These are delicious, chewy, and chocolaty.  In my opinion, they’re pretty much the perfect chocolate chip cookie.  Especially with a cup or two of chopped walnuts added to the dough!

Internet - Alton Brown

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
6 tablespoons powdered sugar, plus extra for rolling
2 cup all purpose flour, plus extra as needed
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350*F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper. 

2. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and powdered sugar.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Continue adding flour until you can form firm balls. 

3. Working with 2 teaspoons of dough at a time, roll into balls and lay them on the baking sheets, spaces about 2 inches apart.  Bake until just starting to brown, about 12 minutes. 

4. If desired, roll in powdered sugar while hot.  Cool completely on wire racks. 

Comments
These are one of my all time favorite cookies.  This recipe is from Art’s mom and she sent us a bag of them for Christmas in 1997 and I fell in love.  I think she adds more flour than I do since I can never quite seem to get them to form perfect balls like she makes.  I also skip rolling in sugar step which gives these cookies their name since it also gives them the ability to make quite a bit of mess.  I love them with or without the powdered sugar coating.  Yum.

Person - Art’s Mom

Ingredients
1 ¹⁄₃ cups all purpose flour
¹⁄₂ cup salted dry-roasted peanuts
¹⁄₄ teaspoon baking soda
¹⁄₄ teaspoon baking powder
¹⁄₄ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
¹⁄₃ cup dark brown sugar, packed
¹⁄₃ cup granulated sugar
¹⁄₂ cup creamy peanut butter (I used the all natural type.)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions
1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350*F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Process ²⁄₃ cup of the flour and the peanuts in a food processor (or mini chopper) to a coarse meal, about 15 seconds. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and stir in the remaining ²⁄₃ cup flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugars together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. Beat in the peanut butter, egg, and vanilla until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl as necessary.

3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture, mixing until combined, about 30 seconds. Cover the bowl and refrigerate until the dough is stiff, about 30 minutes.

4. Working with 1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls and lay them on the baking sheets, spaced about 1 ¹⁄₂ inches apart.

5. Bake the cookies until just set and beginning to crack, 9 to 11 minutes. Working quickly, remove the baking sheet from the oven and firmly press one Kiss into the center of each cookie. Continue to bake the cookies until lightly golden, about 2 minutes longer.

6. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving.

Comments
This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies and is from The Cook’s Country Cookbook.  When I was a child, my mom and I would make Peanut Butter Blossoms and just have a blast.  I remember one year we decided to experiment with sticking the Kisses in the cookies point side down, just to see what would happen.  (They were still tasty.)  When I asked my parents for suggestions for my 2010 holiday baking extravaganza, they both requested that I make these.  Since I didn’t have my mom’s recipe, I decided to try out this one from Cook’s Country and I was pleased, as I always seem to be with their recipes!

The Cook’s Country Cookbook

Ingredients
2 ³⁄₄ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¹⁄₂ teaspoon baking powder
¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 ¹⁄₂ cups sugar
1 egg
¹⁄₂ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons lemon extract
Zest of 1 lemon
¹⁄₂ cup granulated or raw sugar for rolling cookies (I used raw sugar.)

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350*F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

3. In your mixer’s bowl, rub together the zest and granulated sugar with your fingers until the sugar is a pale yellow color. Add the butter and beat until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. 

4. Beat in egg and extracts.  Gradually blend in the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened.

5. Roll rounded tablespoons of dough into balls, and roll in sugar. Place on baking sheets about 1 ¹⁄₂ inches apart.  Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly golden and set.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes on baking sheets before removing to wire racks. 

Comments
This recipe makes about 30 cookies and is from the fantastically named food blog: Crepes of Wrath.  I’m not a huge fan of sugar cookies but this recipe looked appealing due to the lemon so I decided to try it out.  Thanks to a mistake with the first batch, I can tell you that they taste great with half the butter that the recipe calls for but they taste fantastic with the correct amount of butter too!  I love the pronounced lemon flavor.  These are definitely a leap ahead of regular sugar cookies.

Internet - Crepes of Wrath

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ¹⁄₂ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
Red food coloring (Liquid dye and food paste both work well.) 

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375*F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper. 

2. In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and extracts, beating until combined.  Mix in the flour and salt until incorporated. 

3. Divide the dough into two parts and add red food coloring to one half until the desired color has been reached.  Roll the dough into 3-4 inch long ropes.  Twist together one rope of white dough with a rope of red dough and bend at the top to form candy canes.  (This is best done if you have a small child to help.  Otherwise, roll into 1 inch balls and skip the candy cane part.) 

4. Place cookies on baking sheets and bake for 9-11 minutes or until the edges are starting to brown.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes on baking sheets before removing to wire racks. 

Comments
These cookies have been in my life for as long as I can remember.  I have many fond memories of making them with my mom at Christmas.  Apparently I was more patient as a child because I did not have the tolerance to make the cookies into actual canes.  Instead, I ended up with lovely roundish cookies that were just as delicious.  I’ve heard stories of people making these with peppermint extract instead of almond, but I would be a sad bear with that substitution.

Person - Mom

Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup brown sugar
¹⁄₂ cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons boiling water

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350*F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper. 

2. Mix together flour, oats, coconut and sugar on low speed. 

3. In a small saucepan, over low heat, combine the butter and honey.  Stir until melted.  Mix the baking soda and the boiling water and add to the butter mixture.  Pour the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well. 

4. Spoon tablespoon-sized dollops of the dough onto parchment paper, allowing plenty of space for the cookies to spread.  Bake for 9 minutes, switching the sheets halfway through baking. 

5. Cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheets before removing to wire rack.  Cool completely before storing. 

Comments
I’ve heard nothing but praise for Anzac Biscuits from my Australia-dwelling friends, so I decided to try them out during my 2010 holiday baking.  A friend sent me a few recipes to consider and I ended up picking this one since I recognized all of the ingredients. 

And that was the easiest part of the process. 

My first mistake was to try to bake 16 cookies on the first two sheets to go in the oven.  They flattened and expanded significantly during baking and ended up covering the entire sheet.  Oops.  This problem was rectified by only baking 6 cookies per sheet for future sheets. 

My second mistake was the timing.  The recipe said to bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes.  My oven tends to run cool, so I opted for the higher number since that has served me well with all the other cookies I have baked.  It didn’t work so well for these cookies.  The sugars caramelized and burned, but the failed cookies made great dog treats…  I experimented with times for subsequent sheets and decided that 9 minutes was pretty much perfect. 

I’m glad that I made these cookies on the third day of baking; since I probably would have given up on cookie baking all together if I had tried them earlier. 

As for taste, they’re delicious, buttery, and sweet.  The individual flavors of the oatmeal and coconut aren’t very discernable, and I’m not sure I’ll be making these again in the future, but they’re different and tasty nonetheless.

Internet - Aussie Slang

Ingredients
1 ³⁄₄ cups sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
2 ¹⁄₂ cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
¹⁄₂ cup vegetable shortening
2 large eggs

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375*F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine ¹⁄₄ cup of the sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in a shallow dish for rolling. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and remaining teaspoon cinnamon together.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, shortening, and remaining 1 ¹⁄₂ cups sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, until incorporated, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed.

3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture, mixing until combined, about 30 seconds. Give the dough a few final stirs with a rubber spatula to make sure it is combined.

4. Working with 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls, and then roll in the cinnamon sugar to coat.  Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart.

5. Bake the cookies until the edges are set and just beginning to brown but the centers are still soft and puffy, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through baking. (The cookies will look raw between the cracks and seem underdone.)

6. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Comments
This recipe makes about 24 cookies, is from The Cook’s Country Cookbook and finally ends my search for the Snickerdoodles of my youth.  These are just about perfect.  The cream of tartar and shortening help to make the cookie live up to my childhood memories.  I did add extra cinnamon as the original recipe only had cinnamon in the coating and not in the batter.  That, of course, would not do so I upped the cinnamon content and was very pleased with the results!

The Cook’s Country Cookbook

Ingredients
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
¹⁄₂ cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon mint extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
3 ounces Guittard mint chips
¹⁄₂ cup powdered sugar

Instructions
1. In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, sugar, and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time, and then stir in the vanilla and mint. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture.  Gently stir in mint chips.  Cover dough, and chill for at least 2 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 350*F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into one inch balls. Coat each ball in powdered sugar before placing onto prepared baking sheets.  Place cookies about 2 inches apart. 

3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. 

Comments
This recipe makes about 30 cookies and I found it at Bonnie’s Bakery.  These cookies are very minty and super chocolaty. 

The dough is a pain to deal with; it’s very moist and sticky.  I started off trying to deal with the dough by hand but quickly switched to spoons.  I recommend using a spoon to scoop the dough from the bowl and then a second spoon to scrap the dough from the first spoon into the container with powdered sugar.  (I used a large, shallow Tupperware for the powdered sugar.)  The dough is much easier to deal with and roll once it is coated in powdered sugar.  If you have a small ice cream scoop, that would also work well.  Sadly, I’ve only got one and it’s twice as large as needed for these cookies!

Internet - Bonnie’s Bakery