Sprinkle-filled Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have posted a chocolate chip cookie recipe every now and then. I've been partial to Sharyn's and love making the BIG cookie, too. Yet, with all the recipes I have in my file and the ones that I love and swear by... I'm always game to try another recipe.

When I was pinning all my ideas to my secret board for Sophia's birthday party, I found the Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe at Sally's Baking Addiction. She's my hero. Sally painstakingly went through trial and error 7x over to come up with the secrets behind this cookie. And if that wasn't enough, she added sprinkles.

Sprinkles get me EVERY. TIME.

They're just the happiest little bursts of color that make anything better: pancakes, yogurt, cookies, popcorn. Hot dogs. no, not hot dogs. I promise I've never eaten a sprinkle ridden hot dog.

Off track.

Okay, so give these a go and the next time I talk about cookies, I would be remiss if I didn't post and talk about "Happy's" Ultimates. They're really good, too. She should post them on her new blog.... (wink wink)

Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

1 1/4 c all purpose flour
1 1/4 c yellow or white boxed cake mix
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash of salt- my addition
3/4 c (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temp
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c light brown sugar
1 egg, room temp
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c chocolate chips (can use semi-sweet and white together)
1/2 c sprinkles- whatever colors you love

1. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Stir with a whisk (or sift) to incorporate well and break up any lumps from the cake mix.

2. Cream together the butter and sugars on medium speed of an electric mixer. Add in the egg and vanilla and mix until creamy

3. Add the dry to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Fold in the chips and sprinkles. Don't over mix.

 {this is where I taste the dough. it's raw and all that and I don't care. I love it}

4. Form into cone like balls (rocket ships maybe). Sally swears by this method and you can head to the recipe link above to see a more detailed step on this, but really, it's worth making them cone-like. I form them into these shapes THEN refrigerate for 1 hour.... or more. Refrigerating helps the cookies to not spread so much.

5. Preheat the oven to 350°. Place cold dough onto your baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes until edges are slightly browned. The center will still look soft, but as they cool, it will set. Allow them to sit on the baking sheet for 4 minutes then transfer to a wire rack or set on a brown paper bag to cool. (see image below)

These can certainly be frozen and I do love a frozen chocolate chip cookie.

Thank God I still have some in the freezer because I can barely make it through typing this without going to nab one of them!

Ultimate Double Chocolate Cookies ~ 8.6.11

I have a birthday party to go to this weekend and when I found out that the birthday boy loves chocolate as much as I do.... I knew just what to gift to him. A box of homemade Ultimate Double Chocolate cookies. These are extremely fudgy chocolately. So, if you're a chocolate fan, I recommend you get yourself to the store and scoop up these ingredients in a jiffy! Luckily, I had them on hand and got right to work...

Ultimate Double Chocolate Cookies
adapted from Ghiradelli.com


1 bag (11.5 oz) Ghiradelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 oz)
optional: 1 cup (4oz) chopped walnuts

In a microwave save bowl, dump your bittersweet chips and butter. Microwave in 20 sec increments, stirring after each, until smooth and completely melted. Don't rush, or you'll burn your chips! Alternately, you can do this over a double boiler set up.

In large bowl of electric mixer, cream eggs and sugar until thick; stir in the melted chocolate. In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking powder; add to chocolate/egg mixture. Gently mix in semi-sweet chocolate chips (and walnuts, if using).

Using a large sheet of plastic wrap, pour dough (yes, it's very, very soft) in a log form about 8 inches by 2 inches (eyeball it, k?). Wrap plastic around dough to form a log and place in fridge for 1 hour. I made two logs with this dough.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Unwrap dough and slice into 3/4-1 inch slices- if you like BIG cookies, just place those slices on a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Knowing these were rather rich and wanting MORE cookies, I sliced each 3/4 inch slice in half and had 2 smaller cookies.

Bake 12-14 minutes or until shiny crust forms on top but interior is still soft. Cool slightly on baking sheet, transfer to rack or my favorite, brown paper bags.

Enjoy with a tall glass of milk.

Polish Sugar Cookies ~ 5.5.11

This past Sunday was a special day for me as our late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II was beautified in Rome! I wanted to make a special dessert but we had a very busy weekend and I knew that simple would be the only way to go. Friday morning, I whipped these cookies up in no time flat. They are really quick to come together and the only thing that takes a little extra time is the rolling them into balls and into the sugar.
Now, I was bringing these into Max's classroom for a snack after my lesson to the kids on Blessed JPII, so I used vanilla instead of lemon as the original recipe intended. I knew vanilla would be a hit but sometimes kids can be funny about lemon.
The kids loved the cookies and wanted seconds (and thirds)! When I told our boys that I could make them lemon the next time they encouraged me to definitely give that a try. When will I ever figure these boys out?
These are the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea!
Enjoy!

Polish Sugar Cookies

1 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. sugar, plus extra for rolling
3 egg yolks
1/2 t. lemon extract (or 1 t. vanilla)
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream sugar and butter.
Add egg yolks and vanilla (or lemon extract).
Add flour, baking soda and cream of tartar.
Mix until well combined -- dough will be stiff.
Pinch off dough and roll into 1-inch balls.
Roll in granulated sugar.
Place on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake until set, not brown, for 10-12 minutes.

 

recipe from Catholic Cuisine

Zach with our cookies and "statues" of Blessed JPII!

Sharyn's Chocolate Chip Cookies ~ 12.21.10

My friend Sharyn makes these delectable chocolate chip cookies and thankfully, she shared her secrets with me. And trust me, there are secrets to these turning out just right. You'll need to follow the directions for baking to a "T"! If you like your chocolate chippers soft, chewy and melt-in-your-mouth buttery, these cookies are right up your alley.

Sharyn's Chocolate Chip Cookies

2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup butter flavored Crisco
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (I do a 1/2)
12 oz chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
Cream butters and sugars.
Add eggs and vanilla, mix.
Add flour, b. soda, and salt, mix.
Fold in chocolate chips.
Bake on a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet for 7-9 minutes
Take the cookies out BEFORE they turn brown, they should be puffy, not greasy.
Remove cookie tray from the oven and allow the cookies to "bake" about 2 more minutes ON the baking sheet.
Transfer cookies to a cooling rack and let cool about 5 minutes (I depart here and cool them on brown paper bags to soak up a little grease). Place in a container (while they're still warm) and put the lid on immediately!

Makes about 3 dozen.

So there you have the secret to soft, chewy and delectable chocolate chippers. I like mine cold, room temp, frozen, straight from the oven.... I just love chocolate chip cookies! I think Santa will be quite pleased with these on Christmas Eve!

Back to school BIG cookie ~ 9.4.10

I happened upon this recipe the other day and I've always wanted to make a really BIG cookie. They're so pricy at the store and I don't like all the icing (I know I iced mine) or what they usually say. SO, I made one from scratch. Actually, I made three.... one for Gl's first day. One for M's first day and one for my friend who just had a baby a few days before her kids went back to school. I made it for her dessert when I brought dinner over to her. The first one I made on a foil lined pizza pan and the other two I made on my pizza stone. All three turned out perfectly. BUT I  will say this recipe makes more dough than necessary. I froze the extra in case I needed some cookies or wanted to make a smaller BIG cookie one day.

The icing... I had in the freezer leftover from the cakes I made this past year. It was the perfect amounts needed to pipe my little messages and a little border around the outside, too. So glad I don't throw stuff away... just popped them into baggies and defrosted them while the cookie cake baked. Snipped off a corner and voila! Instant piping bag!

Back to School Cookie Cake
(from here, with a different name)

Cream these in your mixer:
2 sticks of butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar

Add to creamed butter mixture:
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp water- just doing what I'm told...

Mix well, then add:
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal- I used quick cooking
4 handfuls of chocolate chips- I'm really precise about this... kidding

Dump your mixture onto a pizza stone OR prepared pizza pan (I lined mine with foil and sprayed it well with cooking spray).
Bake at 350 for 10 minutes then check every 2-3 minutes until golden brown. (Mine took about 18 minutes)

Let cool then decorate!

The kids were really excited to have a cookie cake on their first day of school and this recipe was indeed stellar!

Kid recipe: Cookies and {chocolate} Milk ~ 6.10.10

I nabbed this recipe on a discussion board of a class I'm taking online--we have a whole thread specifically devoted to cookie recipes. The class is a scrapbooking class. Now that is my kind of people! Anywho, it drew me in b/c I thought it would be a perfect summer recipe that the kids could make. I did a trial run the other night and it's a winner. So easy to make and I love the variety of flavors that you could make these cookies. Check it out.

Cake Mix Cookies

Ingredients:
a box of cake mix- I went with devil's food
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
2 cups of a mix in (chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, m&m, marshmallows, anything!)

1/2 cup chopped nuts (totally optional)

Stir it all together and drop onto an ungreased cookie sheet in rounded teaspoons. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. And once you remove them from the oven let them sit on the sheet for two minutes before moving.

They were especially good while they were warm! Enjoy!