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!

Kosher for Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies and Chocolate Chunk Coconut Macaroons

It's Passover time! Which means lots of dietary restrictions. If you are interested in what the actual rules are, click here for information about general laws regarding eating kosher, and here for specific restrictions for Passover. Basically, because the Jews had to flee Egypt quickly, they had no time for their bread to rise and had to eat matzah, an unleavened bread similar to a cracker. So, when making baked goods, matzah meal has to be substituted for flour to keep the items kosher for Passover.

Martha has one specifically marked "Kosher for Passover" recipe in her cookies cookbook, Kosher for Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies.

These cookies call for matzah meal as well as matzah farfel instead of flour. Because kashrut requires that dairy and meat not be eaten together at the same meal, and meat is typically served at most seders, this recipe is also dairy-free, using vegetable oil instead of butter and dairy-free chocolate chips. Matzah meal is by no means a perfect substitute for flour, and kosher for passover desserts have a deservedly bad reputation. Unfortunately, although these cookies are edible and not horrendous, they certainly not amazing either. They are crisp and crunchy, and the walnuts give them a nice flavor ... but I will definitely not be making these during the rest of the year.

The cookie most people associate with Passover are macaroons, typically the ones prepared by Manischewitz. Martha has a coconut macaroon recipe in her cookbook, so I decided to try it out, since nothing in the recipe is trafe for passover.
The recipe I chose has several variations, for simple plain coconut macaroons, chocolate chunk or chocolate macaroons. They were incredibly simple to make with very few ingredients, just coconut, a little sugar, egg whites, vanilla and a dash of salt. On the website, it appears that this recipe has been removed, and replaced by this one, which also calls for condensed milk. In any case, these were very simple and very good, kind of like a Mounds Bar.

White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Today my daughter was supremely disappointed by a couple of her friends. As many mothers in the past, I decided to make cookies with her to assuage her sadness. We flipped through Martha's cookbook and decided on White Chocolate Chunk Cookies (page 172) because (a) we had all the ingredients and (b) it was the one cookie that both of my daughters and I could agree on.

These cookies are supremely easy to make - just mix up the ingredients, drop onto the baking sheet and slide into the oven! A relief after the last recipe! This recipe is rightly included in the "chunky and nutty" section as it has all kinds of goodies - oats, coconut and walnuts - which make it a very satisfying cookie. The recipe also calls for golden raisins, but my daughter requested I omit those and I happily obliged.

One of the comments on the web version of the recipe suggested substituting macadamia nuts for walnuts, and I think that would be a nice variation.

She was delighted with the result and declared them delicious!

Pecan Linzer Cookies with Cherry Filling

I was really excited to make these cookies and use my new Linzer cookie cutters. These cookies are the Pecan Linzer Cookies with Cherry Filling (page 137) from the "crumbly and sandy" section of Martha's cookbook.

These cookies are named after the city of Linz, Austria and are a holiday tradition in that part of Europe. I just wanted a tasty treat and a chance to use my new baking toy!

Traditionally, linzer cookies use hazelnuts, but this recipe called for pecans. The recipe had several steps, including toasting the pecans, grinding the pecans with cinnamon and sugar, mixing and refrigerating the dough, rolling it out and cutting the pieces, baking the cookies and finally assembling them. Wow! When I write it all out, it seems like a lot of work! But, it honestly didn't take long and I was able to fit in the baking while making dinner and then before I put the kids to bed.


Here's a picture of the cookies after they have been baked. I was very impressed with how they turned out. They held their shape very well. The cookies themselves are not terribly sweet, but with the addition of the jam and powdered sugar they are just sweet enough. They are absolutely gorgeous, and I quite like the delicious combination of the pecans & cherry. Yum!

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

This is my first "do-over" recipe. I tried making these cookies for my husband to take on his poker weekend, but I accidentally used bittersweet instead of semi-sweet chocolate. Let me just say, it was not a happy accident. Huge waste of time and ingredients.

In any case, I was excited to give Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies (page 67) a second chance. By the way, these are cookies pictured on the cover of Martha's cookie cookbook so somebody must like them!

They are an unexpected mix of flavors - bitter and sweet. They have a nice crunchy outside and a chewy, gooey, chocolately inside. My husband went crazy for them. They are a little bitter for me. The online comments on the web recipe are somewhat divided. This seems to be one of those recipes you either love or hate.

I followed the recipe pretty much to the letter and the cookies are beautiful and tasty.

Chocolate Crackles

Finally, I cookie that was simple to prepare! I feel like I have been tackling all kinds of crazy cookie recipes lately, and this one was refreshingly easy. I flipped through the cookbook quickly, looking for something I could make with one stick of butter, since that was all I had. I discovered Chocolate Crackles (page 68) in the "soft and chewy" section.

I am in love with these cookies. They are beautiful, and SO DELICIOUS. These are the dangerous kind of cookie that I could devour a whole in batch in about 90 seconds. They are very rich and chocolately, but because they use bittersweet chocolate and not much sugar, they aren't very sweet.

Instead of using a full eight ounces of bittersweet chocolate, I combined six ounces of bittersweet with two ounces of semi-sweet chocolate, and achieved the perfect level of sweetness.

Hamantaschen

It's Purim time! Which means it's time for hamantaschen! Seriously, you have to love a holiday that has a cookie as it's featured food (find some interesting commentary on what hamantaschen are here). Of course, Martha Stewart is too goyische to include a hamantaschen recipe in her Cookies cookbook, but she does have a recipe on her website. So, in the spirit of this blog project, I baked her recipe rather than a more traditional one.

Obviously, Martha can't do anything the simple way, so her recipe is fairly time-consuming and involves refrigerating the dough throughout the baking process. She also includes a recipe for making your own poppyseed filling, but since this is not one of the "official" cookbook recipes, I eschewed that in favor of storebought dessert fillings.

One of most obvious differences between Martha's recipe and the more traditional ones is the inclusion of orange zest and freshly squeezed orange juice in the dough. You can definitely taste it and the orange adds a citrusy zing without being overpowering. I'm sure you could omit it without any ill effects if you so chose.

I filled my hamantaschen with poppyseed, apple, cherry, chocolate chip, white chocolate chip and spiced gingerbread butter. The poppyseed and fruit fillings were Baker products (easily located in the baking section of your grocery store) and their thick consistency held up well. One year, my husband tried using jam to fill the hamantaschen with poor results because of their high water content.

Unfortunately, the chocolate chip fillings were less successful. For whatever reason, the sides of the hamantaschen triangle collapsed and they just looked like blobs. Tasty blobs, but blobs nonetheless.

The recipe suggested that it will yield 60 cookies but I got closer to 35-40 cookies out of it.

Coconut-Cream Cheese Pinwheels

My husband asked me to slow down with the cookie-making because we have had way too many sweets in the house, so it has been a few days since my last batch of cookies. I thought it was time to break out the baking gear, though and picked a doozie for today!

Martha's recipe for Coconut-Cream Cheese Pinwheels (page 61) is extremely labor-intensive, but as you can see from the picture, produces beautiful, impressive-looking cookies. While the recipe is certainly time-consuming, none of the tasks are difficult. This is a wonderful cookie for a party or a baby shower.

In her cookbook, Martha recommends using a fluted cookie cutter and pastry wheel, but since I don't own those tools, I simply used a square cookie cutter and a sharp knife and I still thought the cookies looked gorgeous.

Coconut is only used in the filling and is not an overpowering flavor in these cookies. In fact, if you don't like coconut, you could easily omit it and still have a delicious cookie. The amount of filling is well more than enough for the recipe - in fact, you could halve the amount and still have enough.

I used a baby spoon for doling out the filling and the jams and that worked beautifully. I used both strawberry and raspberry jams, but found that the raspberry was a better choice because it had more substance while the strawberry jam ran a little (but still tasted yummy!).

Chocolate Cookie Cutouts

We have been snowed in for the past few days, so what better activity to do with the kids than bake cookies!? Of course, Valentine's Day is upon us so I wanted to make something heart-shaped. I tried out Martha's Chocolate Cookie Cutouts (page 239) recipe.

I made the dough last night, and refrigerated it overnight. When I took it out of the refrigerator to roll out this morning, it was fairly hard. But with some muscle power, I was able to roll it out thinly onto the parchment paper. I also got to use my new kiddie cookie cutter from Sur La Table. I had to press the nonpareils into the cookies to get them to stay put.

I was so impressed with the cookies when they came out of the oven! In the past, when I have made cutout cookies, the shapes have oozed and turned into giant glops that in no way resemble the intended shapes. These were perfect hearts! They were beautiful and tasted yummy too. They weren't too sweet (my husband suggested they would be delicious made into a sandwich cookie with icing in between). This recipe was in the "crispy & crunchy" section of the cookbook, but the cookies were soft and delicate when I made them.

Since it's Valentine's Day, I wanted to make more heart cookies, especially since one of my daughters is not a huge fan of chocolate. I also wanted to try out my new Kuhn Rikon cookie press. I bought it to use with one of the Martha recipes, but I haven't been able to find a key ingredient so today, I just used the recipe in the booklet that came with the press.

The press came with 14 different disks that shape the cookies, including hearts, flowers and of course, pumpkins and bats, among others. It took only a minute to figure out how to assemble it and insert the dough, and soon enough, I had perfect little hearts! They were fairly small, so I could fit LOTS of them on one cookie sheet. I can't wait to try out all the other shapes!

Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies

The Cigarettes Russes were very popular and almost gone, so I made another batch of cookies tonight. We are buried under a ton of snow here in Columbus, OH, so I wasn't able to run out to get any special ingredients and I just wanted to make some comfort food. The recipe I chose was Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies (page 170), from the "crunchy & nutty" section of Martha's cookbook.

These cookies were extremely easy to make. Since I didn't have whole wheat flour, I simply used all-purpose flour for all the required flour. I substituted semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of chopping up chocolate into chunks (so this should probably be called Banana Walnut Chocolate Chip cookies in this case). As Martha says in her little intro to this recipe, these cookies combine "two bakery classics" - they are a delicious blend of banana bread and chocolate chip cookies. Yum!

My husband has been complaining that I like my cookies too crispy, so the texture of these were perfect for him, a little cakey and nice and soft.

Everyone enjoyed them - these are my kids and my brother-in-law noshing on the cookies after dinner.

Cigarettes Russes

I decided to get a little fancy in my cookie-making today. I tried out Martha's recipe for Cigarettes Russes (page 30). These are the wafer-like tube-shaped cookies that are often paired with ice cream and either filled with or dipped in chocolate.

The batter was fairly easy to make. It called for powdered sugar, flour and salt to be sifted together. Then, in a well in the center (pictured), combine melted butter, egg whites, cream and vanilla. Although the recipe didn't mention an electric mixer, I used the whisk attachment on my KitchenAid and it was a fairly painless process. The batter was pretty runny, but in accordance with the directions, it was refrigerated for several hours (in this case, it was in the fridge for about 8 hours).

I almost forgot about the cookies though, until my husband saw the dough in the downstairs refrigerator and reminded me. The most labor-intensive process is baking and forming the cookies, but it wasn't difficult and I found it fun. You have to spread the batter onto the cookie sheets VERY THINLY (I don't think I ever got it thin enough). In fact, I think the batter should almost be translucent when you have spread it out. My cookies were more like cigars rather than cigarettes because the batter wasn't spread thin enough.

I only fit about 3 cookies on each cookie sheet because of how large the cookies get when you spread out the batter. They cook for a very short period of time - 6 minutes.

As soon as the cookies are removed from the oven, you quickly remove them with your handy offset spatula and wrap them around a dowel (or in my case, a chopstick). I realized by the end of this process, however, that I could have just rolled them up. After you let them cook, dip them in melted chocolate and/or nuts. This recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate; I thought that would be too harsh, so I used half bittersweet and half semi-sweet, but my husband and I both thought it was still quite bitter.

The cookies are "light and delicious" - as per the section of the cookbook into which they fall. They are a little spongy, quite sweet, and crunchy on the edges. Delightful!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Tonight I made Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies (page 228) for dessert after our Shabbat dinner. This is a fairly simple recipe, but the cookie is loaded with goodies. I made a couple of substitutions - I do not have whole wheat flour in our pantry, so I used all-purpose flour and I hate natural peanut butter, so I just used regular old Jif (yum).

My daughters helped me measure out and pour the ingredients and we used our medium sized Oxo cookie scoop to ladle out the dough. The optimum baking time for our oven was 14 minutes and the cookies needed about two minutes to cool on the baking sheet before transferring them to the wire rack.

My mom's boyfriend suggested that the peanut butter flavor was a little understated, but I thought the cookies were delish!

Striped Icebox Cookies

The recipe that I made today was Striped Icebox Cookies (page 227). These are a beautiful shortbread tea cookie with stripes of jam running through them. We get a weekly bag of fresh, locally produced goodies from our farmer's market, and this was a chance to use some of those wonderful organic ingredients from local vendors. The dried cherries, cherry jam and yellow cornmeal were all products that I got from the Greener Grocer at the North Market in Columbus.

Making this cookie involves several steps: preparing the jam filling on the stovetop, mixing the dough, freezing the dough, assembling the cookie layers and freezing again, then baking in the oven. Each step was fairly quick, however, and it did not seem like an overwhelming or labor-intensive process.

I will say, though, that working with shortbread dough is quite difficult. I thought maybe it was just the last recipe that I did, but now I'm starting to think it's just the nature of shortbread dough. It is very sticky and hard to roll out. I think in the future, I would refrigerate the dough before I began rolling it out to see if that helps. Rolling it between two sheets of parchment paper was helpful as well.

When baking this recipe, I was able to use my silpat mat for the first time (pictured above). This is a specialized baking mat that fits on a typical baking sheet (they come in different sizes) and is the best non-stick surface available. It worked perfectly - nothing stuck to it at all. The cookies were fairly delicate when they came out of the oven. I let them cool off for a full minute before removing them from the pan, which I did very gently with a long offset spatula.

The cookies are delicious - the sweet/sour taste of the jam filling balances nicely with the crunch from the cornmeal shortbread. Plus, they look interesting which is always good too. They would be a great treat to bring to a party.

Coconut Macadamia Shortbread

So this is the first cookie from Martha that I do not love, even though it has all the components that would normally make it a favorite - coconut and macadamia nuts. I chose this recipe - Coconut Macadamia Shortbread (page 148) to use the macadamia nuts I had in the pantry. This recipe calls for a couple of ingredients that I consider somewhat obscure - cream of coconut (not to be confused with coconut milk) and coconut extract. While imitation coconut extract can be found in most neighborhood grocery stores, I of course sought out the pure extract which I had to order online, along with the cream of coconut (which might be able to be found in a Mexican grocery store). Strike one.

Following the recipe was not complicated, but involved several steps and was quite time-consuming. Toast the macadamias, grind them in the food processor, grind the coconut, mix the dough, various steps of refrigeration. When I got the dough out of the refrigerator to roll out, it was quick crumbly and difficult to work with (appropriately, this recipe can be found in the "crumbly & sandy" section of the cookbook). Strike two.

Finally, the suggested cooking time (20-25 minutes) is definitely on the long side. My first batch of cookies came out a little too brown (baked at 20 minutes), but the second batch looked better at 18 minutes. The crumbly nature of the dough made it hard to roll it out to an even 1/4" inch thickness, and therefore the cookies baked unevenly as well. Strike three.

The cookies tasted all right, a little caramel-y and sweet, but not sure they were worth the effort.

Addendum:
My husband loved the cookies and says they taste wonderful, and suggests that they be paired with ice cream.

Snickerdoodles

Today I am celebrating a friend's 38th birthday. What better way to celebrate than cookies? If you can't indulge on your birthday, then when can you? So I chose the Snickerdoodle recipe (page 82) to take over to her house for our little get-together.

I have linked to the Snickerdoodle recipe on Martha Stewart's website, but that is slightly different than the recipe in the cookbook. The cookbook recipe is simpler, with no cream of tartar or vegetable shortening. It's just a simple sugar cookie recipe, and then the balls of dough are rolled in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar before being put on the cookie sheet and into the oven.

The result is a lovely, soft cookie with a nice cinnamon flavor. My daughter helped me make the cookies, and she even got to sneak a bite!

Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies

Tonight I looked up "white chocolate chips" in the index of Martha Stewart's Cookies and found this recipe: Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies (page 173). From the "chunky & nutty" section, these cookies are a perfect storm of all of my favorite things: chocolate, coconut and almonds. Yum! (Actually, the recipe called for walnuts, but in my humble opinion, almonds are a better combination with chocolate and coconut.)

These cookies are TROUBLE ... they are soooooo delicious that I will not be able to keep my hands off of them!!!

I used two tablespoons to drop them onto the baking sheet instead of the ice cream scoop as recommended by Martha, and as a result, my cookies are a little larger than hers and therefore yielded a lower number of cookies (I got about four dozen rather than the five dozen suggested in the recipe).

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, this is my third batch of cookies for the boys' poker weekend. The other batch of cookies (about which we will not blog) was a disaster, due to a horrendous error on my part. Let's just say it's a good thing I'm not a surgeon, because I'd probably be the one who accidentally amputated the wrong limb. My bad.

Anyway, so the fallback is the "undisputed champ of the cookie world" (so says Martha): the chocolate chip cookie (page 58). Not such a bad alternate, but not what I wanted to send with him either.

It was a cinch to pull together - all your typical cookie ingredients. The only deviation I made was to substitute mini chocolate chips for regular ones, since I didn't have any regular-sized chocolate chips in the pantry. The result is a more chocolatey cookie. Very tasty.

Almond Macaroons

So because the best cookie is one you share with a friend ... I decided to send the next two batches of cookies with my husband to his boys' poker weekend in Hocking Hills. I chose two recipes in Martha's "Soft & Chewy" section. These were the Almond Macaroons, from page 91.

The recipe is fairly simple and calls for only six ingredients, most of which you probably have in your pantry already (except for maybe the almond paste). I did have some almond paste in my pantry, actually, and I chose this recipe as a chance to use it. In fact, I doubled the recipe so that I could the entire can.

It was a good thing that I did double the recipe, because it doesn't make very many cookies. Martha claims that her recipe yields a dozen, but I only got a dozen and a half out of the double recipe (of course I think my cookies were a little bigger than hers).

The cookies were soft and chewy. The first batch stuck to the parchment paper a little, so I cooked the second batch 2 minutes less, and they came off the parchment with ease. When my husband and brother-in-law got home and saw them cooling on the rack, they were DYING to eat one, but I am making them wait until their trip tomorrow. I know, so mean.

Magic Blondies

The first recipe that I attempted from Martha Stewart's Cookies was the Magic Blondies recipe from page 180. I am not going in any particular order in the cookbook; I chose this recipe because I was looking for something that contained coconut to use up the large amount of shredded coconut that I found in our pantry (no idea why we have THREE bags of shredded coconut in there anyway).

The recipe chapters in this book are divided by texture. This recipe was deservedly located within the "chunky and nutty" section of the book, as they call for chocolate chips, coconut, walnuts and dried cranberries (or cherries). Because my husband has an almost pathological aversion to dried fruit, I omitted the cranberries/cherries.


The cookie batter itself is fairly basic - flour, baking powder, salt, brown sugar (no white sugar), butter, eggs and vanilla. No special techniques or tools are needed.

You add the coconut/nut/chocolate chip mixture to the top of each cookie. These are meant to be baked in muffin tins, I like a mini portion better, so I used my mini muffin pan with excellent results (same baking time).


They were absolutely delicious! The consistency is somewhere between a cookie and a brownie, with a nice crunch from the coconut and nuts and a little gooey-ness from the chocolate chips. The mini portion is perfect for a two-bite snack. The topping is a little crumbly and probably would not withstand a lot of jostling if you wanted to take them somewhere else, but I was able to pack away a few for my mom without any major damage.

Welcome! Have a Cookie!

I love cookies! I find them a delicious, perfect snack. While I try to live a healthy lifestyle and make generally nutritious choices, I am often caught with my hand (literally!!) in the cookie jar.

I also enjoy baking cookies. This is a fun activity to do with the children, and I love the feeling of creating something new from basic ingredients. I have recently been trying out all kinds of different cookie recipes, and I really felt a desire to branch out into new territory for me. So -- I got a cookie cookbook (say that five times fast!). Not any cookie cookbook, mind you, but Martha's cookie cookbook. That's right, the Martha.

So, in the spirit of Julie & Julia (I so wanted to call this blog Bitchy & Bitchier, but resisted), I am embarking on a challenge to bake all the recipes in Martha Stewart's Cookies. Without gaining 150 pounds (or 15, or 5). Unlike Julie, I am not imposing a time limit upon myself. It will probably be something like one recipe a week.

Feel free to join me on this journey and try out anything that sounds good! If you want a cookie, let me know, and I'll send a few over your way.