Coconut Swirl Brownies

I made these Coconut Swirl Brownies (page 274) for Shabbat dinner when my brother-in-law and his family were visiting. I wanted something easy, kid-friendly and quick - and this recipe was all of those, as well as delicious!

I happened to have had a can of sweetened condensed milk stashed away in the pantry, which was the only "unusual" ingredient that I don't typically stock. Also, the batter is meant to be spread into an 8" x 8" square baking pan, and I discovered that I don't own one of these staple items! Instead of making crispy brownies in my 9" x 13" pan, I chose to use a 9" round pie pan instead. It worked just fine, and I cut the brownies into triangular wedges.

These brownies were included in the "rich and dense" section of Martha's cookbook, and rightly so. They were very rich, but not terribly dense. They were on the cakier side of brownies.

Below is a picture of my brother-in-law devouring this yummy dessert!

Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

Nothing is on the DVR, so that means it's time to make cookies. Tonight I picked out Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies (page 207), just because the name makes me giggle.

This is a HUGE recipe ... the yield says 3 dozen, and it makes at least that. Since they are sandwich cookies, that means 6 dozen cookies - wow. The recipe calls for buttermilk, which I don't keep in the house. A while ago, I picked up Saco Cultured Buttermilk Blend, for recipes just like this one. It's a shelf stable powder that you mix with water to substitute for buttermilk. You add the water with the wet ingredients and the powder with the dry. When the water is added to the wet ingredients, the batter becomes somewhat sloshy and it does not incorporate the same way buttermilk would; however, once you add the dry ingredients, the batter mixes together just fine. The taste was unaffected by using a buttermilk substitute.

I did use natural peanut butter, as called for in the filling recipe. I despise natural peanut butter because I think it's totally gross and don't usually keep it in the house - and I certainly never eat it. We did have a jar of it, though, from our weekly farmer's market bag, so even though it was crunchy, I used it for the filling. What could possibly be gross when it's mixed with powdered sugar and butter?

The cookies were cakey and light and not too sweet, perfect when paired with the creamy, sweet peanut butter filling. These cookies would be great for a child's birthday party.

Iced Oatmeal Applesauce Cookies

I have laid off the blogging for a few weeks, but I have still been making cookies. I left out a few entries - for Gingersnap Palmiers (not my fave) and Buttery Pecan Rounds (tasted like Butter Pecan ice cream) - and maybe I'll make those cookies another time, and blog about them then.

For Memorial Day, we joined good friends for a wonderful barbeque and I made some Iced Oatmeal Applesauce Cookies (page 77) to bring along. As usual for our kitchen, I omitted the golden raisins called for in the recipe. The recipe also calls for chunky-style applesauce, which I didn't have. I just threw in one single serve no-sugar-added applesauce container that my son usually has for lunch.

The icing was very easy, and the maple syrup gave the whole cookie a delicious maple flavor. The kids and adults liked the cookies, and afterwards, our host took them to his poker game, where they were devoured.

Carrot Cake Cookies

I decided to tackle this recipe, Carrot Cake Cookies (page 202), after our weekly market bag came back FULL of carrots. These cookies are essentially two tiny carrot cakes sandwiching cream cheese frosting. The recipe online is a smaller-yield version of the one in the cookbook, which made about 3 dozen cookies (before they were sandwiches).

These cookies were very easy to prepare, with no unusual ingredients. I just grated the carrots in the food processor, so they weren't as finely grated as Martha suggested, but they worked just fine. As per usual, I also omitted the raisins since raisins are not popular in our house. While the cookie dough was chilling, I whipped up the frosting in no time flat.

These cookies are decadent ... very filling, and super delicious. A wonderful treat.

Almond Horns

In the absence of any delicious snack foods in our house, I know it's time to break out a new batch of cookies. This recipe is Almond Horns (p. 107), a delicious butter cookie so named for it's curved shape, and also sometimes referred to as "almond crescents".

These cookies were quite simple to make. The recipe did call for whole almonds to be toasted and processed, but you could easily use pre-sliced almonds (that's what I had on hand) and I did not toast them, to no ill effect.

The dough definitely needs to be chilled prior to handling; it is rather sticky. Once it is refrigerated, however, it is manageable. I only baked the cookies for 17 minutes as opposed to the recommend 20, and they came out crisp and golden.

The powdered sugar was a bit of a mess, and despite numerous cleanings and wipe-downs, left our floor feeling tacky, but hopefully that will dissipate with a good mopping.

These cookies were absolutely marvelous and only lasted two days. I couldn't keep my hands off them. I left a tell-tale powdered sugar trail wherever I took them though, so no denying who ate them!

(Not-So) Giant Chocolate Sugar Cookies

My daughters are having a playdate tomorrow and I decided to make these Giant Chocolate Sugar Cookies (p. 163) for their snack. When I made the last cookie recipe, my husband complained about how few cookies the recipe yielded, and this recipe promised only EIGHT. He was aghast.

So, instead of using a 2-1/2 inch ice cream scoop to drop the cookie batter onto the baking sheet, I used my standard 1 inch scoop. I baked them at 350 degrees instead of 375, and for 14 minutes instead of 18. The cookies were not-so-giant in size, but I got 24 of them instead of 8! They were chocolately and soft and delicious.

Biscuit Sandwich Cookies

Time to make more cookies! This I chose the Biscuit Sandwich Cookie (p. 299) recipe because I was looking for a something a little bit different. These cookies were very easy to make, and didn't generate a huge mess because you mix them in the food processor as opposed to the mixer. The food processor is much easier to handle.

When the dough came out of the food processor, it was quite soft and sticky. Martha's suggestion of rolling out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper was very helpful. However, the dough was still quite soft and sticky after it was rolled out, so I put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes before I cut out the shapes, and it was much easier to handle and maintain the cookies' shapes.

It is important to make sure the cookies are evenly rolled out to a consistent thickness; otherwise, some will burn, or get browner on the edges.

I used melted milk chocolate for the filling, but you could easily use Nutella or another kind of dessert spread. The cookies themselves are not terribly sweet, but with the chocolate, they are just sweet enough, and crispy and delicious! My husband did complain about the low yield of this recipe (~1 1/2 dozen) ... but that keeps us from overindulging.

The picture below is my mom and daughter enjoying a Biscuit Sandwich Cookie for dessert!