Honey Cinnamon Butter Cookies

These festive December 2016 cookies were baked as a gift. I had run out of all-purpose or pastry flour so I had to fall back on self-rising flour. I hunted around the internet, and came across this recipe.

For fun, I rolled these into coarse sugar so they would have a bit of a crunchy sparkle.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 100 g butter, softened
• 13 g sugar
• 2 tbs (42.5 g) honey
• 150 g self rising flour
• cinnamon (optional)
• pinch of salt

  Procedure

1. Preheat oven 180°C.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix butter, sugar, and honey until smooth.
3. Sift in the flour, and add in cinnamon if using.
4. Roll into 16 balls and flatten slightly.
5. Roll into coarse, granulated sugar (optional).
6. Bake 8-10 mins until edges are browned.
7. Cool 10 mins on the pan before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I wanted to bake cookies for my friends. I found a load of oatmeal so I went for chocolate-chip oatmeal cookies (because I didn't have any cranberries on hand).

Recipe yonder this way~ Just sub chocolate chips instead of cranberries.

Lime Pistachio Shortbread Cookies

December 18, 2015

A friend had requested that I bake something for her (anything was fine). I also needed more cookies to give away as there was not enough mint chocolate cookies. This time I was extremely fed up with studying for exams, so I figured I could go and deal with a lime.

This recipe is adapted from Cooking Channel, although I did not use cardamom. I chopped the pistachio into stick-like slivers instead of crushing them or putting them through a blender.

I glazed them with the same lime glaze I have used before. As a last minute decoration, I slivered some lime zests and dropped them on top. The squares I had originally scored in the dough were a little big, so instead of re-drawing the lines, I split each in half to get triangles. I think these were the most fragile shortbreads I have made.

These were also packaged into little bags to give away, and served as snacks to go with tea for an end-of-semester get-together with friends.

Mint Chocolate Cookies

December 15, 2015

As the end of the semester approached, I wanted to give little packs of cookies to my professors, as thanks for teaching. I also felt that some of them had been particularly helpful to me this semester.

I looked around in my stash of baking ingredients, to see what kinds of cookies I could make with what I had. I had thought about chocolate chip cookies, but I didn't have anymore choc chips... No more cranberries either, and at the time I was starting to dig in my boxes, I was not up for zesting a lime. Then I saw a box of mint-filled chocolates I had gotten before but that was just sitting there. I figured I could try and put that on or in a cookie somehow.

My first test attempt was a flop and almost left a chunk of charcoal at the bottom of the oven. The cookie had fallen through the grill despite the baking paper (I neglected to put a pan between the paper and the grill), and had spread like crazy. Some flour and chilling later, I finally managed to get something decent.

The mint chocolates were cut into small rectangles/triangles depending on the part of the chocolate. I then stabbed them through the top of each cookie formed. Some pieces melted and caramelized on the sides of the cookies.  It might have been better if I had just stuck a bigger slab in the middle of each cookie, but I settled with what was done.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup golden sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp Orgran egg replacer
• 4 tbs water
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp hot water
• mint chocolate (or sub in 1 cup chocolate chips)

  Procedure

1. Preheat oven 175°C.
2. Cream butter and all sugar until fluffy.
3. Mix the egg replacer and the 4 tbs water (proportions ~2 eggs) and beat them into the mixture.
4. Dissolve baking soda into the hot water before adding.
5. Stir in flour and chocolate chips.
6. Put on baking sheet by large spoonfuls.
7. Bake for 10-15 mins.

Lime Glazed Cranberry Shortbread Cookies

Remember these cranberry shortbread cookies I made last summer? Well I made them again, this time for a friend's birthday gift. I wasn't really up for rolling out the dough, however, so the dough was rolled into a log, then refrigerated. I then sliced the log into fairly irregular (I don't have much experience in cooking log cutting) slices, then baked them. Since I only made half a batch, my log was short enough that I could wrap it in cling film, and tie one end to the rack in the fridge, so that the surfaces didn't leave any flat side to my log.

Just like for the oatmeal cookies, I soaked the dried up cranberries in a bit of hot water before chopping them and throwing them into the mix. Instead of leaving them plain, I made a quick glaze with some icing sugar and lime juice, which I spread on half of the top surface of each cookie. The recipe for this glaze was from Cakecrumbs. The cookie recipe can be found in the link above.

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LIME GLAZE

  Ingredients

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 tbs lime juice

  Procedure

1. Mix together sugar and lime into a paste in a heat-proof bowl.
2. Set the bowl into a pot of simmering water and heat until mix is runny.
3. Glaze cookies, and let dry.

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

 

With all the academic deadlines flying around at this time of the semester, I needed to get rid of some stress. I had pulled an all-nighter the night before, and was trying to stay awake long enough to go to bed at a reasonably normal time.

I gave in to the temptation that had been gnawing at me for the past few days, but that I had to push away due to the aforementioned deadlines: BAKING.

Trying to think of what I wanted to make, I remembered the last of the dried cranberries sitting in one of the kitchen drawers. I used some for other cookies I will post in a few days, that I plan to give to a friend for her birthday. Then my cousin L (who is also my roommate) complained that I hadn't made normal cookies in a while for her to eat. I think she actually had chocolate chip in mind, but my stash of chocolate chips is long gone. I hit up Google, and came up with these cranberry oatmeal cookies.

The recipe is from Eggless Cooking, and makes more than the pictured 20 as plenty disappeared into L's stomach as I baked tiny batch after tiny batch of 6-7 in our tiny oven. The pack of cranberries had somehow ripped at some point, and wasn't closed properly, so the cranberries were dried up. I attempted to slightly rehydrate them in hot water before using them. I also subbed walnuts for the pecans.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 3/4 cup (70 g) butter, softened; margarine makes this vegan
• 1/4 cup cane sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• vanilla or 1 packet vanilla sugar
• 1/2 cup non-dairy milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 pinch nutmeg
• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 cup cranberries
• 1 cup walnuts (optional)

  Procedure

1. Preheat oven at 180°C.
2. Cream sugars and butter until well combined.
3. Add in milk, and mix.
4. In a bowl, mix spices, flour, and baking soda. Add to the butter mix.
5. Fold in oats, cranberries, and pecans.
6. Spoon tablespoons of mix onto a lined baking tray. Flatten with a fork.
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Spiced Cookies

July 27, 2015

While in China, I traveled a lot to Hong Kong. My cousin and I also met up with a classmate from high school. During our last week there, we decided to meet up once more before our return to Europe. I thought I'd make some cookies to give to that friend.

I had wanted to make Spéculoos, but I was missing some ingredients (namely cassonade, or dark brown sugar). I tried to substitute some yellow sugar that was grated from a block, but the result wasn't exactly the same.

Instead of just putting the dash of cinnamon I usually use, I decided to go all out. I know the original Spéculoos uses at least 4-5 spices, namely cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove, and anis. I never have all these on hand, but I thought I'd give a few more spices a try. In this batch, I put some nutmeg and powdered ginger on top of the usual cinnamon.

The cassonade gives off a very fragrant flavor, as well as the usual dark brown color of the cookies. As I did not have this on hand, I ended up with a different type of cookies, which was rich in nutmeg flavor. It was also my first time grating a nutmeg to use, and it was stronger than I expected.

Recipe for Spéculoos can be found here~

Cranberry Shortbread Cookies

I have been meaning to make cookies to give to the people in the department at the hospital in which I had worked for a month, a few years back. One of them recently found an internship for me, so I wanted it to double as thanks for him, too.

Instead of doing plain butter and sugar cookies, I decided it was time to try another recipe from my shortbread cookies and crackers recipe book. I had received this book for Christmas last year, from a cousin.

I had some dried cranberries laying around (my aunt usually brings a huge bag from the US every time she comes here, as she knows many people here like them). Thus, I ended up with cranberry shortbread cookies.

These were quite easy to make, although the 1-hour waiting time was kind of bothersome, as it was 1 am by the time I could stick them in the oven. I think the most bothersome part of this recipe is that, when cutting out shapes, my cookie cutter sometimes cut through a cranberry. If I was not careful, the cranberry would rip the cookie, thus ruining the shape.

I had planned to take progress pictures, but as soon as my hands got involved in mixing the flour into the butter mix, it was impossible to handle my camera. Maybe next time! I packaged these in little transparent plastic bags to give out.

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CRANBERRY SHORBREAD RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 50 g dried cranberries, roughly chopped
• 40 g icing sugar
• 150 g unsalted, softened butter
• 200 g flour
• 1/3 tsp salt

  Procedure

1. Whisk together butter and sugar until creamy.
2. Add in flour, salt, and cranberries, and mix by hand until the dough is homogeneous and supple.
3. On a floured working surface, roll out the dough to obtain a thickness of about 5 mm. Cut out shapes, and put them on a baking sheet covered with a piece of baking paper, or a silicone mat.
4. Refrigerate for one hour
5. Preheat oven 180°C.
6. Bake for 15 minutes. Let cool.

Banana Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich

With just 2 bananas and 1 cup of oats, I made these delicious, but somewhat messy to eat banana ice cream sandwiches! I found the recipe on Cheap Clean Eats, a cooking portion of the blogilates YouTube channel.

With only 2 ingredients, it is very easy to make! All you need are some oats, bananas, an oven, and a blender! Next time, to make it a bit easier to eat, I would probably make them a lot smaller, so that they are only a bite or so.

View the recipe's video here!

Spéculoos

In addition to the Almond Berry Cookies, I added in some spéculoos into the little bags to give to my friend and professors.

I made a good 75 of them:

I have been having fun using flower-shaped cookie cutters. I guess you could say I got a little bored of making circular cookies all the time.

Recipe can be found here~

Almond Cookies with Berry "Jam"

I wanted to bake cookies for a friend, as well as for my professors. I settled for a basic almond butter cookie base, on top of which I spooned a "jam" made of frozen berries boiled down with some sugar.

The recipe and method is pretty much the same as the ones used in this recipe, except that in an effort to reduce the butter, I reduced butter content and brought the dough together with some water. My dough was still somewhat dry, hence the cracks in the cookies.

Coconut Shortbread Cookies

I believe I mentioned before that I got an awesome cookie stamping set along with a cookbook. The cookbook is full of shortbread cookies and cracker recipes.

I thought it was time for me to tackle one, with some of the ingredients I had on hand.

Due to having some shredded coconut left, I decided to make some coconut shortbread cookies! I personally thought they were kind of on the dry side, and not as good as some I've made in the past, but I liked experimenting. I used egg-replacer instead of the egg yolks in the recipe.

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COCONUT SHORTBREAD COOKIES RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 2 tsp egg replacer
• 2 tbs water
• 100 g softened butter
• 200 g flour
• 70 g sugar
• 50 g coconut powder
• 1 pack vanilla sugar
• 2 pinches of salt

  Procedure

1. Mix sugar and flour. Add the coconut, vanilla sugar, and salt.
2. Mix egg replacer and water. Add to the mix.
3. Add in butter
4. Let the dough rest 1 hour.
5. Roll out the dough into a 5 mm thickness.
6. Cut shapes out of the dough.
7. Bake for 15 minutes at 190°C.

Peanut Butter Chips, White Chocolate Chip Brown Sugar Cookies

American-themed hallway dinner? Due to a lack of time and inspiration, I decided I would make cookies. Easy right? I've made so many choc-chip cookies before, it would be easy!

Wrong.

I went and weighted my remaining half block of butter, and found out that I had less than 150 grams of butter. The recipe I usually use requires around 340 grams. I did not really want to end up with only 6 cookies, so I went to look for an alternative.

This recipe was the one I used. Since it uses oil instead of butter, I could use it safely even with my butter shortage. Instead of putting all the sugar, however, I did not put the 1/2 cup of granulated sugar (as I used some white chocolate chips, which are plenty sweet already). I also added more flour as I felt the dough was too wet and would spread too much while baking. The last adjustment made was that I used white chocolate chips and peanut butter chips (Reeses ones that a cousin brought me from the US).

The cookies are pretty much vegan, except for possibly the white chocolate chips~

These cookies were well liked by my hallway mates during dinner!

"Merci" Sandwich Cookies

I received this awesome cookie stamping set (with a cookbook full of shortbread cookies that I can't wait to try) for Christmas from one of my cousins. As thanks, I made these butter cookies (much like the ones I made for Christmas presents, minus the sugar coating), and stamped them with the French word for "thanks," which is "merci." Due to some mistake on my part, likely due to carelessness, or distraction, these cookies turned out more on the dry side. I had also forgotten to put the 2nd spoon of sugar!

What to do?

Since I had some leftover berry-sauce-turned-jam-ish from the Triple Cheesecakes, I spread some on a cookie, and plopped another on top. I tested a small piece myself (by breaking the leftover cookie in half and sandwiching it like that), and it seemed to have solved the problem.

Christmas 2014 Gifts

Whew! Now that I am done posting all the stuff I baked during the semester, when I was too busy to post, it's time to post recent baking!

Like for a couple of the past years (2011 and 2013), I made little pack of baked goods to give out as gifts for Christmas. As usual, procrastination prevailed and I started on the evening of the 23rd of December.

I started out by making the dough for cookies. I had made these cookies a couple of weeks ago, and they're easy enough to make, and since Christmas baking means making a lot of cookies, I opted for these cookies.

A lot of rolling out, cutting with an emptied can of tomato concentrate, and baking later, I ended up with some 195 cookies. These were the first things in the little bags of goods.

I then made some chocolate cakes (white and dark) for another cake that I will post later. With the leftover scraps, I made little cake truffles, mixing cake crumbs with chocolate ganache. I rolled them in some desiccated coconut (and the white cake ones have coconut mixed inside as well).

I wrapped these in some cellophane film to keep them from moistening the cookies when in the little package. The dark choc ones were made after Christmas, so they only got added to the later packets.

Sugar Butter Cookies

December 6th

Despite using the dough I had laying around to make mini jam tarts, I still had a little bit left. It was too little to make another tart, and I was out of jam anyways. I opted for turning them into little butter and sugar cookies. By rolling out the dough and cutting out circles, I ended up with these round cookies.

In an attempt to make them more interesting, I smacked them down in a bowl of granulated sugar prior to baking, which gives them this shiny and rough look.

Choc-Chip and Walnut Cookies

I had this very sudden urge to bake some choc-chip and walnut cookies for my academic counselor (yes, very random). So as I was preparing dinner on Thursday, I got the dough ready for these, and then baked them after eating.

Surprisingly, they didn't spread as much as I expected. They have a somewhat crumbly texture... I can never truly predict how these cookies turn out, since I always treat the butter differently each time (this time I was a bit short on time, so I zapped it in the microwave). Also, I usually beat the dough with egg-beaters, which I don't have with me now, so I just used a wooden spoon to mix everything.

The recipe can be found here, I just used dark choc chips and no lemon, with added walnuts (the lemon in that recipe was to curb the sweetness, which is done by using walnuts in this batch.)