Flourless peanut butter cookies

Flourless Peanut butter cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

(plus granulated sugar for rolling dough)

Mix first 6 ingredients with a mixer, on medium/high.  The dough should be sorta fluffy.  Roll into tablespoon sized balls (yes, it will be sticky, just try your best :)  Roll each ball in sugar.  Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes, until bottoms are lightly brown.

So I've made these before, but I couldn't remember what the recipe was exactly..I looked it up online, and found a bunch of recipes calling for baking soda, and bunch calling for baking powder, and a bunch more not asking for any leavening at all...hmm

So Emily and I did an experiment.  One batch with baking powder, one without.  On the pan, the cookies on the right have baking powder; in the other picture, the cookie on the bottom had baking powder.  Definitely go WITH baking powder, the cookies looked better, were softer, and just overall better.

Monster Cookies

These giant cookies are packed with good things.  Ground walnuts, flaxseed, oats, coconut, chocolate chips and M&M's all in a giant soft cookie.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup margarine

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/4 ground flaxseed

1/4 cup ground walnuts

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup M&M's (mini or regular)

Preheat oven to 325° F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together margarine, butter, and sugars until very smooth.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, coconut, flaxseed, ground walnuts, and oats; stir into creamed mixture.  Mix in the chocolate chips.  (The M&M's can be mixed in at this point or placed on top of the cookies before baking.)

Use a 1/4 cup measure to drop dough on greased baking sheets.

  Place M&M's on top. (If you didn't mix them in the dough.)

Make sure you leave enough room for the cookies to spread out, about  4 to 5 inches.

Bake at 325° F. for 15-17 minutes, until edges are browned.  Cool before removing from baking sheets.

Andes Mint Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup margarine

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 Tablespoons water

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

On low heat melt margarine, sugar, and water.  Add chocolate chips; stir until half melted.  Remove from heat and stir until completely melted.

Coo for ten minutes.  Beat in eggs one at a time.  Reduce speed and add dry ingredients.

Chill one hour (Dough will be like fudge).  Preheat oven to 350°.  Roll into balls, about 1 inch in diameter.  Bake on a foil lined baking sheet for 12 minutes, no longer.

Immediately put 1/2 an Andes mint on each cookie.  Let them sit for one minute, then spread the mint around the cookie with the back of a spoon.  Cool completely before stacking.  (I like these cookies better if they are cold, but some people at my house prefer them warm.  We keep some in the fridge, some on the counter.)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients:

1 19.5 oz. packaged brownie mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup cooking oil

1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Lightly grease a 13 x 9 in. baking pan.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine brownie mix, eggs, and oil. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined.

Remove 1/2 of the brownie mixture and set aside.  Spread the remaining brownie mixture evenly into prepared pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together sweetened condensed milk and peanut butter until smooth.  Spread evenly over the brownie mixture.

Flatten pieces of the remaining brownie mixture with your hands.  Then place them on top of the peanut butter mixture.

Bake at 350° F. for 20 - 25 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the top is set.  The middle will be very jiggly.

Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.  Cut into bars.  Makes 32 bars.

To store, layer bars between waxed paper in an airtight container.

Many thanks to Emily who took pictures for me!

~Samantha

Chocolate chip cookies

My sisters and I are babysitting the younger kids tonight, and I thought it would be fun to make cookies with them. We just made regular chocolate chip cookies, and I added a little variation at the end. Ingredients will be in green.

Chocolate chip cookies

In a large mixing bowl mix
2 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed,
2 Tablespoons vanilla extract, and
1 1/2 cups butter.
Beat for several minutes until the dough is whipped, it should be light, and fluffy.



It should look like this.  ↓

Add,

2 Tablespoons milk, and
2 eggs,
and beat well again, for several minutes.
I used egg replacer so its entirely safe to eat the dough!

Add
4 cups all-purpose flour,
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda,
1 teaspoon salt.
Mix well.

I used 3 cups all-purpose flour and 1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour.

 
 Add 4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Mix gently.

If you mix this step to long the chocolate chips will melt and turn the dough a dark brown color. 

 For a slight variation I decided to add several Tablespoons of coconut to a small bowl of cookie dough, and mix it in well. The cookies turned out nicely.  My sisters say they like them.

Drop by rounded Tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350º for 10 to 12 minutes.  They will still look slightly raw, but the edges should be a little bit browned.

Let the cookies sit on the pan for 2 or 3 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.


The kids all enjoyed a cookie with milk!

~Samantha