cookies Archives - Page 2 of 3

Almond Butter Trail Mix Cookies

June 6, 2015 by Jenna

Almond butter and trail mix got married. Then they had two dozen children. These are their children:

Almond butter trail mix cookies.

Aren’t they beautiful?

All they had to was combine with an egg and some brown sugar. Then BAM! these cookies were born.

And then this blog post got a little awkward so I’m ditching this analogy right… meow.

So these cookies! They are so easy to make. I made them the hard way and they were still easy.

The “hard” way = make your own almond butter and mix your own trail mix.

The “easy” way = buy almond butter and trail mix at the store.

No matter which path you tread you’ll end up with delicious cookies and that’s the most important part. Gotta love that salty-sweet combo.

And you know what? As far as cookies go, these aren’t so bad for you. They are primarily made up of healthy, whole ingredients (nuts, seeds, egg), but we throw in some brown sugar to make them a little more of an indulgence.

Live a little.

They are naturally gluten-free, so if your body hates gluten it will love these!

These almond butter trail mix cookies would be great companions for when you go camping. They seem like very outdoorsy-type cookies to me. Maybe because they have the word “trail” in them? IDK.

I did bring them along to a picnic and they were good. I ate them inside and they were still good. I recommend trying both out!

Almond Butter Trail Mix Cookies

Prep time

25 mins

Cook time

8 mins

Total time

33 mins

These almond butter trail mix cookies are basically just almond butter and trail mix with a few other ingredients. They are super simple to make! You can make your own almond butter and trail mix or buy your favorite at the store.

Serves: 2 dozen

Ingredients

2 cups almonds
1 egg, slightly beaten
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup raisins
⅓ cup dark chocolate chips
⅓ cup salted sunflower seeds
⅓ cup roasted, salted peanuts

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Toast almonds in the oven for 7-10 minutes (oven doesn’t have to be fully pre-heated at this point) until toasted and fragrant. Let cool for a few minutes.
Place almonds in a food process and process for 5-10 minutes until it becomes smooth almond butter. You may have to stop it every so often to scrap down the sides. Once almonds have reached the desired consistency transfer to a bowl. Make sure this is about to room temperature before mixing with the other ingredients. It will make the dough easier to handle.
Add the egg, brown sugar, baking soda, and vanilla extract. Stir until completely combined.
Stir in the raisins, dark chocolate chips, sunflower seeds, and peanuts.
Roll dough into balls.
Optional step: refrigerate dough for 10-15 minutes before baking. This will result in denser cookies. If you don’t refrigerate they will spread a bit and will be thinner and crispier. They will be delicious either way!
and place on the cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

Notes

You can use store bought almond butter rather than making your own. Use 1 cup.
You can replace the raisins, chocolate chips, sunflower seeds, and peanuts with 1⅓ cups of your favorite trail mix.

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Sprinkle Sugar Cookies

April 18, 2015 by Jenna

Coffee tastes better on Saturdays. Sunshine is the best. Sprinkles make everything more fun.

These are just facts of life that I’ve learned over the years. 28 years to be exact. Exact because today is my 28^th birthday. And to celebrate I made these super fun sprinkle sugar cookies.

SEE. So much fun. Look at those colorful sprinkles! I just can’t get enough.

I haven’t made sugar cookies in forever, but I have been craving them for (what seems like) forever. Since I wasn’t in the mood to roll out dough with a rolling pin, cut out dough cookie cutters, and frost/decorate cookies to look all fancy – I didn’t!

It’s my birthday and I’ll do what I want.

And what I wanted was to make easy, delicious, drop sugar cookies that were covered in colorful sprinkles. Fancy enough for me!

These are not your crispy, dry sugar cookies. No. These are your soft, melt-in-your-mouth, amazing sugar cookies. Like clouds. Clouds that were made with butter and powdered sugar and cream cheese, because those are the ingredients that are making these sugar cookies so heavenly.

And the sprinkles. Because, once again, sprinkles make everything more fun.

But also, how cute are these colorful little bowls? My brother and sister-in-law gave them to me for my birthday! Technically, they are dip bowls, but they work for cookies too.

So right now: I’m drinking coffee. Eating one of these cookies. The sun is shining. It’s my birthday. I have high endorphins from the 25K trail race that I ran this morning. I’m meeting up with friends soon for drinks on a patio.

Needless to say, 28 has been pretty good to me so far and I’m really excited to see what else it has in store!

Life is pretty fun. Kind of like these sprinkle sugar cookies. Enjoyyyyyy <3

Sprinkle Sugar Cookies

Prep time

1 hour 10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

1 hour 20 mins

These are soft, delicious, melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookies rolled in sprinkles for an added oomph of fun!

Serves: 2½ dozen

Ingredients

2 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup cream cheese
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup powdered sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups rainbow sprinkles

Instructions

In a medium bowl combine the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer add the butter, cream cheese, and sugars. Mix on medium until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Beat in the egg and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Transfer dough to a sealed container and refrigerate for 1 hour (up to 48 hours).
When ready to bake preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Roll the cookie dough into small balls, about 1-1 ½ inches in diameter, then roll the balls in the sprinkles.
Evenly space the cookie dough balls on the cookie sheet and press each down just slightly with either your fingers or a glass until they are in the shape of small disks (but not too flat!).
Bake for 10 minutes. Let cookies sit on the pan for 1-2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

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Cardamom Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies

February 21, 2015 by Jenna

How do we make chocolate chip cookies better? Well, we can’t. It’s just a fact of life. But that’s ok. What we can do is make them different. We’re going to add cardamom and pistachios and we’re going to be very happy about it. Trust me on this.

(Side note: different does not mean better or worse, it just means different and different is still good.)

Cardamom Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies. Yum.

According to my blog index I haven’t made cookies since December 15, but really it was probably at least a week before that. Ok, maybe there was that one time in January… But still, that’s just too many weeks without baking cookies. Eating cookies though, that I have for sure done since December 15 (quantities not to be discussed).

People at General Mills (AKA: the people I give most of my baked goods away to so that I don’t have to eat them all myself) were all like, “Hey Jenna, you haven’t brought in any cookies lately.” And I’m all like “Yeah, I know… weird. Perhaps, soon?” Then I promised I would bring in cookies to the next Twin Cities in Motion marketing committee meeting (which was this past Thursday).

So, cookies just needed to happen. I baked some. And then I ate some. And then I shared some. And then I ate one. And then I shared the rest. But I kept two for myself. And then everyone lived happily ever after.

Now I’m sharing the recipe with you so that you and those around you (assuming you share, not judging if you don’t) can be happy as well.

We take a basic, but delicious, chocolate chip cookie recipe with lots of butter and sugar and flour. Then we sneak a teaspoon of cardamom in with the dry ingredients and stir some pistachios in with the chocolate chips. We are also going to refrigerate the dough over night so that all these wonderful flavors can meld together.

You know what, let’s not even sneak in that cardamom. Let’s conspicuously add it and blatantly stir in those pistachios. No one likes sneaking around anyways.

If you don’t want to wait for the cookies to refrigerate overnight, you should probably work on your patience. But, I understand. When you want a cookie, you want a cookie. I feel you. You can go ahead and bake them right away if you want, I’m sure they will still be delicious. But just know that good things take time and you could be missing out on some even better cookies. #FOMO

We can compromise: bake a couple (example: 3) right away. Eat one straight from the oven. Eat one completely cooled. Give the last one to your significant other/best friend/cat/yourself. Let the rest of the dough sit overnight and bake them ALL the next day. You could even wait an entire 72 hours if you really wanted to.

But let’s be real, in whose fridge does cookie dough even last 72 hours?! A handful of carrots, a spoonful of cookie dough. A bunch of grapes, a bunch of cookie dough. This is why I bring cookies into work!

This recipe makes 3 ½ dozen cookies. 3 dozen if you taste test the dough a lot…

And then I ran 10 miles. And then I found $5.

Oh, and don’t forget to sprinkle on some sea salt after pulling them out of the oven. Game changer.

Cardamom Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

11 mins

Total time

26 mins

These cardamom pistachio chocolate chip cookies have all the deliciousness of regular chocolate chip cookies, but also some added flair from the cardamom and pistachios.

Serves: 3½ dozen

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup unsalted shelled pistachios
Sea salt, for sprinkling

Instructions

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cardamom, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Beat in the egg and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Stir in the chocolate chips and pistachios (feel free to chop up the pistachios a bit).
Transfer dough to a sealed container and refrigerate for 24-72 hours.
When ready to bake preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Drop dough by rounded teaspoons (or cookie scoop) on the cookie sheets, leaving an inch or two between each cookie.
Bake for 10-12 minutes. Sprinkle a bit of sea salt on the cookies, then let them sit on the pan for 2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes

The more you let the dough soften after pulling it out of the fridge, then more they will spread in the oven.

cardamom pistachio chocolate chip cookies

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Christmas Treasure Drop Cookies

December 15, 2014 by Jenna

I need to tell you about these Christmas treasure drop cookies, because I think you need them in your life.

Two years ago my mom and I started entering the Star Tribune’s Holiday Cookie Contest. We brainstorm. We bake. We taste test. By the end of the day the kitchen is covered in flour and we have sugar pulsing through our veins. It is always so much fun.

This year for the contest we made these Christmas treasure drop cookies based off of the classic treasure chest bars, one of my mom’s favorite Christmas treats. When my mom first brought up the idea I was a bit skeptical. Maraschino cherries in cookies? Umm… not sure about that, but I said we could try it as long as we used brown butter in the cookie dough. She agreed to my terms and we tried it out.

OH MY GOODNESS. I am not lying to you when I say that these are some of the best Christmas cookies ever. EVERRRR.

Who knew that maraschino cherries, toasted walnuts, chocolate chips, and brown butter would taste so magical together?!?

Not I.

But now I do and I need to share this with you.

The cookie dough itself isn’t overly sweet, but gets a crazy amount of flavor from the brown butter and is packed full of maraschino cherries, toasted walnuts, and chocolate chips. Oh, and love too. There is a lot of love in these cookies. Let the dough sit in the fridge for at least an hour (but overnight is best) so that all these flavors can meld together. I kid you not, the extra time is totally worth it.

After being baked and cooled these cookies are topped with a brown butter frosting. No Christmas cookie is quite complete without some sort of frosting. Right? Yes. Plus, the frosting helps get these cookies up to that perfect level of sweetness and also amplifies the brown butter taste in the dough.

We didn’t win the contest, but in the process we had a blast and discovered our new favorite Christmas cookie (these ones if that wasn’t obvious). Our first two years we made the honorable mention with these and these. This year we just got mentioned – still fun!

This year I was able to join in on The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap hosted by Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil and Julie from The Little Kitchen. Hundreds of food bloggers participate each year and help raise money for Cookies For Kid’s Cancer. I was so excited to be a part of it this year!

I instantly knew that these Christmas treasure drop cookies were the ones that I needed to send out. I baked up and bunch and sent out a dozen each to Bree from Baked Bree, Amanda from Fun in the Oven Blog, and Faith from Pixie Dust Kitchen.

I then received some ridiculously amazing cookies in return from Ellen and Aimee (Like Mother Like Daughter), Linda (Food Huntress), and Ashley (Taylors 4 You).

I had such a fun time being a part of this cookie swap! I loved sending out the boxes (I rarely mail things, so it just seemed so exciting). I loved getting all the packages and eating (and sharing) all the cookies. And I loved getting the opportunity to connect with other bloggers. The whole experience was such a treat.

So anyways, these Christmas treasure drop cookies. Please make them! I promise you won’t regret it.

Also, all the other food bloggers that participated in the cookie swap will be posting their cookie recipes today too, so make sure to check out all the links above. A full list of ALL 500+ the cookie submissions will be sent out on Friday. Get excited. But be careful, you may end up drooling all over your keyboard…

Christmas Treasure Drop Cookies

These are my new favorite Christmas cookies! The cookies are packed full of brown butter, maraschino cherries, toasted walnuts, and chocolate chips and topped with a brown butter frosting.

Serves: 4 dozen

Ingredients

For the Cookies:

1 cup walnuts, chopped
15 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 ice cube
2 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-10oz jar maraschino cherries, quartered
1 ½ cups chocolate chips

For the Frosting:

¼ cup brown butter (included in butter quantity listed for the cookies)
2 cups powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 350° F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
To toast the nuts: spread nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Stir them around occasionally (every 5 minutes or so) to ensure they are not burning. Once toasted, set aside.
To brown the butter: melt butter in a medium saucepan. Whisk the melted butter until brown specks appear at the bottom, it will froth and foam a bit. Watch closely and be careful not to burn. It should be a light brown color and have a nutty aroma. Place ½ cup of the browned butter into a heatproof bowl and whisk in an ice cube. This will be used for the cookies. Place the remaining ¼ cup aside to use for the frosting.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, add the ½ cup brown butter and the sugars. Mix on medium speed of an electric mixer until smooth and combined, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the eggs and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in the nuts, maraschino cherries, and chocolate chips.
Let the dough sit in the refrigerated for one hour or overnight.
Place scoops of cookie dough onto the prepared pans. Bake for 8-11 minutes. Let cool on the sheet for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Make the frosting while the cookies are cooling. Place the remaining ¼ cup brown butter, 1 ½ cup of powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla into a mixing bowl. Beat on medium until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add in the remaining sugar ¼ cup at a time until the frosting has reached your desired consistency. It should be thick enough to easily spread.
Once the cookies are completely cooled, spread a nice layer of frosting on each one. Serve and enjoy!

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Molasses Creams with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting

December 8, 2014 by Jenna

I am in full swing holiday cookie baking mode. My kitchen is stocked with butter, sugar, flour, and eggs. I have a list of (at least) a dozen cookie recipe experiments I want to try. There are Christmas movies playing 24/7 on TV. It is just the best.

Feeling a little nostalgic this weekend I decided to whip up a classic family recipe: Molasses Creams.

Molasses Creams are one of my great-grandma’s recipes. My mom remembers driving down to Iowa as a little girl with her brothers and parents every year to visit family for the holidays. My great-grandma would always send them back home to Minnesota with Molasses Creams wrapped with wax paper in shoeboxes.

Luckily, my mom was able to receive the recipe from my great-grandma before she passed away. They are now a family staple that make it to the “must bake” Christmas cookie list every year.

After you bake them, you’ll see why.

Molasses Creams are soft, thin molasses cookies sandwiched with cream cheese frosting. They are heavenly.

The molasses cookie dough comes together quickly and simply, but there is some rolling and cookie cutter-ing involved. Watch the movie Elf or sing along to Christmas music while you stamp out cookies and you won’t even mind the little bit of extra time that it takes. Just make sure that you roll your dough out on a well-floured surface. I didn’t and had one heck of a time with all those little circles.

Molasses Creams These cookies bake up nice and soft. If you like them a little crunchier keep them in the oven for an additional minute or two. Once they are completely cooled, make them into delicious cookie sandwiches with some cream cheese frosting. Not just regular cream cheese frosting though, ginger cream cheese frosting. It’s amazing.

I hope you try them out and love them as much as my family and I do. Who knows, maybe you’ll even add them to your annual Christmas cookie baking list!

Molasses Creams with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting

Molasses Creams consist of soft, thin molasses cookies sandwiched with ginger cream cheese frosting. This recipe was passed down from great-grandma and is on my holiday cookie list every year.

Ingredients

For the cookies:

5 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup shortening
1 cup molasses
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 eggs

For the ginger cream cheese frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla
4-5 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat mat.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixture, cream together the brown sugar and shortening until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.
Add the molasses, vinegar, and eggs. Beat until thoroughly combined.
Stir in the dry ingredients until all the flour is incorporated.
Roll out the dough on a well floured surface until it is ¼-inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to stamp out circles.
Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes (the less you bake them, the softer they will be).
Let cookies cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the frosting: cream together the cream cheese and butter, about 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and ginger. Add 3 cups of the powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add the remaining powdered sugar ½ cup at a time until desired consistency is reached.
Add a dollop of frosting to half of the cookies and top with the other half to make a delicious cookie sandwich.

PS- Just a head’s up that December will probably over-index on the baking side of things, rather than the workouts. But then January will be the opposite, so it’s all good.

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Sprinkle Pudding Cookie Bars

September 29, 2014 by Jenna

Find me a person that doesn’t love sprinkles. I want to tell them to their face that they’re crazy. Sprinkles. They just make everything so much more fun. And couldn’t we all use an extra dose of fun on Mondays?

I think so. That’s why I’m bringing you these sprinkle pudding cookie bars.

And as if sprinkles weren’t enough, I topped them with these cute frosted animal cookies. Because, why the heck not?

In case you’re curious: yes, they do taste as good as they look.

The secret here is in the instant pudding mix. A couple of months ago I made these banana pudding cookie bars and discovered how truly amazing pudding cookies are. They are just so… soft. Soft and crumbly and delicious.

From the flavor to the sprinkles to the texture to the animal cookies, I just love everything about these adorable little bars. They appeal to both the eyes and the taste buds. They are also super easy and quick to make. The dough comes together like standard cookie dough. Cream the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs, vanilla, and our new favorite cookie ingredient (pudding mix). Stir in the dry ingredients. Throw in sprinkles and crushed up cookies, just for fun. Press the dough into a pan.

Top it off with some animal crackers. Bake for approximately 13 minutes. Wait for bars to cool (warning: this is the hardest part). Then cut them up and enjoy one… or five. Then go bring some to your friends because they deserve sprinkles on Mondays too. And because having an entire pan of these around is a dangerous thing.

Sprinkle Pudding Cookie Bars

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

14 mins

Total time

29 mins

I love everything about these adorable little bars. The addition of pudding mix into the dough makes these bars extra soft and delicious. The sprinkles and animal cookies make them super fun.

Author: Jenna Duesterhoeft

Serves: 20 bars

Ingredients

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 (3.4 oz) package vanilla instant pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup animal cookies, coarsely chopped (optional)
1 cup sprinkles

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl of an electric mixer, cream together sugars and butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add the pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
Add in the flour mixture. Stir until combined.
Fold in the cookie chunks and sprinkles.
Put the dough into the prepared pan and press until even. Then press animal cookies on the top of the dough. I did 5 columns and 4 rows (20 total).
Bake for 12-14 minutes. Let bars cool completely before cutting and eating.

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