Friends, I have a confession.

A lot of the recipes I post on this blog are ones that I cook quite often. Lots of dinners, side dishes, breakfasts, and even desserts that you’ve seen in the last three years make regular appearances in my kitchen or in the kitchen’s of friends and family when I’m visiting. It’s actually pretty convenient to have my very own personal recipe book at my fingertips in any kitchen, grocery store, or farmers market that has data or free wifi.

But I’ve been holding out on you. I haven’t shared with you one of the treats I cook most often, a recipe that I know so well I haven’t looked at the recipe card in years, a recipe that continues to be Brad’s most-requested dessert.

My mom’s chocolate chip cookies.

My mom has been baking these cookies since long before I was born, and truth be told, they’ve gained rather a lot of fame at the staff meetings, potlucks, and holiday gatherings in her little corner of Southwest Colorado. This is also one of my mom’s memorized recipes, complete with a snappy little mnemonic jingle that I learned growing up and use to this day to remember the order of ingredients.

So why wasn’t this recipe at the top of my list to share when I started this blog I’ve shared numerous other treasured recipes from my childhood: Almond Toffee, Lasagne, Favorite Party Mix, to name a few.

Here’s the truth. Most of my life, my mom used butter-flavored Crisco for her magical chocolate chip cookies. And while I had tried using butter and liked the results, it just felt odd to make such a vast departure from her recipe and then post it as “hers”. Irrational Probably. But it held me back. I was writing a blog about eating less-processed, locally sourced ingredients. Butter-flavored Crisco is none of those things.

But then, a few months ago, my mom informed me that she had switched to butter for her cookies. Liberation! Now I could honor this, my “Mom’s recipe”, without the mysterious yellow shortening. I’m so excited to finally share these with you.

These cookies are composed of fairly basic ingredients that, if you bake, I’ll wager you already have around. There’s two really, really important tips I can’t stress enough. The first: use DARK brown sugar, as opposed to light brown sugar. The additional molasses in dark brown sugar not only provides lovely color to these finished cookies, but also a lovely caramel-y flavor you just don’t get when using light brown. Trust me, Sierra and I experimented to find out.

The second tip is to cream the crap out of your butter and sugar. If you’ve ever seen a recipe cautioning against over-mixing, it’s referring to the addition of flour at the end. The initial mixing of butter and sugar, on the other hand, will incorporate more air into your dough to create a fluffier, softer cookie. If you have a stand mixer, add your butter and sugar and blast them for at least five minutes. If you’re using a standard mixing bowl and a spoon, get ready for a good arm workout!

Once the creaming is done, the remaining ingredients go in fairly quickly. An egg, and then some salt, baking soda, and vanilla will give you a lovely tasting dough. Then some chocolate chips (obviously) and flour, and you’re ready to go.

These cookies don’t need to be shaped, you can just drop a wad of dough on a cookie sheet. On a normal basis, I usually only cook 6-8 at a time because Brad is partial to fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies, and the dough refrigerates well so we can have cookies on demand later in the week. Just store the extra dough in an airtight container.

Once the cookies are beginning to brown around the edges, they’re done! My mom likes these cookies very well done, though I prefer them a bit on the lighter side. Just a minute or two will make the difference.

These cookies are not a baking project you need to delay to the weekend: when I use my mixer, I can have a batch in the oven in ten minutes flat. And I’m gonna be totally honest with you: if you’re into eating raw cookie dough, like I am, this dough is for you. Of course I can’t officially recommend it since the dough has a raw egg, but… it’s BONKERS delicious.

And the finished cookies aren’t half-bad either.

Mom’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted just a smidge from my Mom

Makes 16-20 cookies

Note: After several years of flat cookies, I finally wised up and added more baking soda to my recipe. The lower altitude of my kitchen means that my recipes require more leavening agents when preparing recipes that were developed or perfected in my mom’s or grandmother’s high altitude kitchens. If you live at high altitudes, knock the backing soda back to a 1/2 teaspoon. Because science.

1/2 c hard-packed dark brown sugar
1/4 granulated white sugar
1/2 c unsalted butter (1 stick) at room temperature
1 large egg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c milk chocolate chips
1 1/4 c all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine brown sugar, white sugar, and butter in the bowl of a standing mixer or other medium mixing bowl. Cream together very well until mixture has lightened in color and is somewhat fluffy. Add egg and combine thoroughly. Mix in salt, baking soda, and vanilla. Mix in chocolate chips. Add the flour and mix just until combined.

Drop heaping tablespoons of cookie dough onto a cookie sheet, about two inches apart. Bake on a center rack for 10-11 minutes until cookies begin to brown around the edges. Remove cookie sheet from the oven and let the cookies sit for 1-2 minutes, then lift the cookies onto a serving tray with a spatula.

Cookies can be baked all at once, or, dough can be refrigerated and baked within a week.

In the meantime, though, I desperately want to talk about this cookie.

If you’ve ever enjoyed one of those Lofthouse cookies, or the grocery-store knock-offs, this recipe is for you. Not only are these cookies SHOCKINGLY easy to make, but they are soft and fluffy and flavorful and cute and everything you want them to be without the weird sugar-y aftertaste of their inspiration.

We start with a pretty basic array of ingredients. Flour, baking powder, and salt combine to form the dry set, butter and sugar cream together to form the base, and egg, vanilla, and just a bit of almond extract wrap it all up.

A tip for these (and really all) cookies: cream the heck out of the butter and sugar! The more they whip together, the more air will be introduced, which will yield a fluffier cookie. On the other hand, once you add the dry ingredients, you’ll want to mix the dough just until it is thoroughly combined.

Once ready, the dough chills for an hour or so. It doesn’t have to be super-cold since you won’t be rolling it out, but the time in the fridge does help the flavors blend and the cookies to hold their shape.

After the dough has chilled, roll it out into balls between the palms of your hands. I’ve found that I always make them too small and end up needing to add more, so shape all the balls before you press them with the heel of your hand to flatten them slightly.

When you bake these cookies, don’t be tempted to let them brown. These cookies must remain soft, so you’ll want to pop them out of the oven when they are just barely beginning to brown on the bottom edges. In fact they may still glisten a bit on the top, but they’ll finish cooking as they cool.

Once the cookies are cool, it’s icing time! This frosting is just about as basic as the cookies (honestly, how have I never made these cookies before?) and it comes together quickly.

Because it’s March and I’m desperate to see ANYTHING green, I added a couple drops of green icing color. It doesn’t take much, and you can obviously dye your icing whatever color you want.

Once the icing is mixed, you’ll need to work quickly before it begins to set. Now it’s not going to freeze up instantly, but this is not the kind of icing you can abandon for a couple of hours while you do something else.

In fact, I worked one cookie at a time, adding sprinkles as I went, to avoid the surface hardening before I could ice all twelve. I used pearl sprinkles because I was feeling fancy, but you can use sanding sugar or ice cream sprinkles or even chocolate curls.

Soon, you’ll have a rack of the prettiest little cookies you ever did see. They’re quick and easy, so you can whip up a batch on relatively short notice. They’re not overly sweet, soft as can be, and can be dressed up in whatever colors you like. And since they’re best eaten within a day or two of baking, they’d make a killer hostess gift, birthday treat, or dinner party contribution.

Maybe I’ll start making more cookies after all.

Frosted Fluffy Sugar Cookies
Adapted from Beantown Baker

Makes 12 cookies

Notes: The recipe can be easily doubled, tripled, quadrupled… you get the idea. Also, the icing recipe listed below makes just enough for twelve cookies.

For the Cookies
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Cream together the butter and sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer (or other large mixing bowl) until slightly lighter in color, about 3-4 minutes in the standing mixer. Add the egg and beat until combined, scraping down the bowl once or twice. Add the vanilla and blend. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed just until completely combined, scraping down the bowl at least once to collect all the dry ingredients. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment. Remove dough from the refrigerator and discard plastic wrap. Form twelve balls, each about 1 1/2″ inches in diameter, using the palms of your hands to form them into balls. Space evenly across the baking sheet leaving about two inches between them. If you have any remaining dough after you have formed all twelve balls, add bits of dough to the smaller ones and re-roll.

Press the heel of your hand gently onto each ball so that it forms a thick disc. Bake at 350°F for about 11-12 minutes until bottom edges have barely begun to brown and tops still glisten slightly. Do not overbake, as cookies will dry out quickly if baked too much.

Remove pan from the oven and allow to cookies to rest for 3-5 minutes. Lift cookies onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

For the Icing
1 1/4 c powdered sugar, sifted
1 1/2 T unsalted butter, melted
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 T milk (plus a bit more if needed)
a couple drops of gel color (if desired)
sprinkles (if desired)

Sift powdered sugar into a small bowl. Add melted butter, vanilla, milk (start with 2 tablespoons), and gel color and whisk together. If icing is a bit too thick, add just a bit more milk. Icing should be thick enough that the tracks of whisk form when stirred but disappear within 5-6 seconds once the whisk is still.

Spoon a small dollop of icing onto a cookie and spread gently with a knife. If you’re using sprinkles, add them now. Work one cookie at a time: the icing will begin to harden within minutes of being applied, so your sprinkles may not stick if you wait until all cookies have been iced.

Serve immediately, or allow icing to harden for a couple of hours. Once the icing has hardened, store cookies in an airtight container.

These cookies are best the day they are baked, but they’re mighty fine the next day as well. I couldn’t tell you how long they last after that because they’ve always been eaten by the second day!

Oooooooooooooh blackberry season is here! It’s been summer here for a long time, but blackberries have always signified summer for me more than any other bounty the garden has to offer. Usually, between Brad and I, fresh blackberries don’t last long enough for me to put them into baked goods. They’re just too damn delicious raw and fresh! But this year, with a half batch of leftover buttercream lurking in the freezer from a round of wedding cake recipe-testing, I decided I’d test out a flavor combination I’ve been curious about for some time now: blackberry and lemon.

Perhaps it’s my love of sweet and tart flavors. Perhaps it’s the purely aesthetic bliss of bright purple icing against a mellow yellow cookie canvas I don’t know. But this was the year! I would not let blackberry season pass me by without trying out the union of blackberry and lemon. I thought about making a layer cake, or maybe cupcakes, but since there’s been a lot of cake around here lately, cookies seemed like the way to go this time around.

This is, I must admit, a particularly lovely cookie even (!!) without the icing that I’m making such a fuss about. With the juice and zest of an entire lemon, this is a quick and easy cookie full of lemon flavor. For a little extra, the dough is rolled between palms and then coated in powdered sugar. I wanted fairly small cookies, so I rolled them out with a one-inch diameter, but you could easily make them larger, as well.

With the cookies well on their way to completion, I busted out my leftover buttercream. Don’t worry, if you don’t happen to have a quart of buttercream sitting around, I included the recipe below. Or, you could probably mix the blackberries into ANY icing and still end up with beautiful purple clouds atop your cookies.

A quick note about blackberries: I don’t really notice them when eating them raw, but blackberries do have a pit, of sorts, that just doesn’t play nicely when blended into icing. They are much larger than raspberry seeds, so they are easy to pluck out of the mixture. No need for a food processor or blender, fresh blackberries are tender enough to be squashed with a fork, at which point you can easily spot and remove the pits. Then it’s time to dye the icing purple with one of nature’s best food dyes!

And then to decorate! I originally planned these cookies as little sandwich cookies, like super-summery Oreos, but after some, er, testing (for science!) I determined I really liked the cookie-to-icing ration better with a swirl of icing atop each cookie. This icing can be piped or spread with a knife, whichever makes you happy.

You guys, these cookies are good. I mean really good. They are soft and chewy, and the tart, creamy icing really sends them over the edge into awesome-town. Plus, they are quick and easy if you already have icing on hand, which as you may suspect, I usually do.

As with most icings, this one is best eaten at room temperature. However, you can totally store them in the fridge for serving later, just remember to take them out a few minutes before you want to eat them.

That is, if you can wait that long…

Lemon Cookies with Blackberry Buttercream
Adapted from Lauren’s Latest

Makes 5-6 dozen cookies

For the Cookies
1 c unsalted butter, cold
1 c granulated sugar
zest of one lemon (about 4 loose teaspoons)
juice of one lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 whole eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3 c all-purpose flour
1 1/4 c powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Cream together butter and sugar in a standing mixer until light and fluffy. Add lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and eggs. Beat well. Add salt, baking powder, baking soda, and flour. Mix just until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl to ensure you mix in all the dry ingredients.

Measure the powdered sugar onto a plate. Scoop a heaping teaspoon of dough and roll between your palms to create a ball about one inch in diameter. Gently roll the ball in the powdered sugar and place on the lined cookie sheet. Continue with the remaining dough, placing dough balls about three inches apart, until cookie sheets are full. Bake for 12 minutes and then remove from the oven. Leave the cookies on the cookie sheets for 2-3 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack. Using the same parchment paper, continue with the remaining dough. Allow all cookies to cool completely before icing.

For the Icing
Like I said, I was using up leftover buttercream I’d stashed in the freezer after a round of recipe testing a month or two ago. If you want the exact icing I used, you can use the recipe below. It’s damn good. But, you can also mix your blackberries into any old icing, and the effect would be similar.

5 large egg whites (about 150 grams total)
1 1/4 c (250 grams) granulated sugar
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (NOT melted) and chopped into cubes
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
2 c fresh blackberries

Lightly wipe the bowl of a stand mixer with vinegar to remove all traces of grease. Using a pot that does not allow the stand mixer bowl to touch the bottom, add 2-3 inches of water in the base of the pot. Then, place the mixer bowl in the pot and heat over medium heat. Add sugar and egg whites to the mixer bowl and simmer, stirring constantly, until temperature of the mixture reaches 140 °F.

Move bowl to mixer and use whisk attachment. Whip at medium-high speed until mixture is thick, glossy, cool to the touch and forms stiff peaks. Switch over to paddle attachment and beat on medium speed. Add 2-3 cubes of butter at a time until incorporated, never turning off the mixer. The mixture will appear to curdle, but just keep mixing! Once icing has come to a silky, smooth texture, add vanilla & salt.

In a separate bowl, crush the blackberries with the back of a fork. Remove any large pits (they will be easily visible against the dark purple mixture). Add the crushed blackberries into the icing and beat until icing is purple and berries have been thoroughly mixed in.

Assembly
Once cookies have cooled completely, fill a piping back without a tip with icing. Give each cookie a generous swirl of icing. Serve immediately, or refrigerate. Once refrigerated, cookies are best served if allowed to come to room temperature, about 20 minutes.

I’ve never been a particularly voracious celebrator of Valentine’s Day. Perhaps I spent too many years as a single teenage girl, pining for the magic of rom com love and commiserating with fellow single teenage girls about the fairy tale love affairs we surely were soon to have. I supposed that Valentine’s Day for those lucky ladies in relationships were whimsically romantic and that I was sure to celebrate this holiday with fervor when I, someday, became an un-single lady.

What’s interesting is that, once I did find a smart lad to be my companion, I virtually stopped caring about Valentine’s Day all together. Those romantic candle-lit dinners at tables with red rose centerpieces were wildly extravagant for college students on a budget (and I was probably in rehearsal anyway). The idea of receiving gushy Valentine’s gifts, which seemed so appealing when I was younger, seemed borderline silly. You’re more likely to find Brad and I ordering pizza in and laughing ourselves to tears watching funny YouTube videos this Thursday night. And you know what I wouldn’t want it any other way.

What I do love about Valentine’s Day is the opportunity it offers me to bake pink, chocolatey, heart-shaped little treats to share with the people around me. These cookie sandwiches have it all. Crisp, deeply chocolate cookies sprinkled with course red sugar press together around a layer of creamy icing studded with raspberries. And despite their showy appearance, they are incredibly easy to make.

We start by making the crisp, chocolate cookies. I’ve been eyeballing this recipe from Smitten Kitchen since she posted it a couple weeks ago. In addition to cocoa, these chocolate sables contain a whole bar of rich, dark chocolate.

This dough is a little more delicate than, say, sugar cookie dough. However, it holds its shape nicely during baking, even without re-chilling the dough before it goes in the oven. For obvious holiday reasons, I chose to shape my cookies into little hearts, but any small cookie cutter shape will do.

In the midst of chilling dough and cooking sheets of cookies, you can quickly whip up the filling. It’s based on a cream cheese icing I use for Carrot Cupcakes, and I can’t get enough of it. I still had some raspberries frozen from the summer, and they lend both a tart fruitiness and a stunning pink shade to this creamy icing.

I ended up with extra icing, but I don’t foresee any problems putting it to good use for other snacking. Perhaps even a second batch of cookies is in order.

These cookies are best served cold, with your favorite companion, and with a box of pizza and some YouTube videos.

Chocolate & Raspberry Cream Cookie Sandwiches
Adapted liberally from Smitten Kitchen

3 oz semi-sweet chocolate
1 c all-purpose flour
1/3 c Dutch-process cocoa
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
course red sugar

8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
2 T unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 c powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 c fresh or frozen raspberries

Break chocolate into chunks and place in the bowl of a food processor with the blade attachment. Pulse several times until chocolate resembles a powdery, coarse meal. Sift together flour, cocoa, and baking soda onto a sheet of parchment paper and set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer or in another large bowl, cream together butter, salt, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix well. Scape down the sides of the bowl and add the ground chocolate and sifted cocoa mixture. Mix until a crumbly dough is formed, scraping down the sides of the bowl to incorporate all ingredients. Dump the dough onto a sheet of waxed paper and wrap tightly, which will help the dough to come together. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes to allow the dough to firm up a bit (not too much or it will be hard to roll).

While the dough is chilling, you can prepare the filling. Clean out the mixer bowl and beat cream cheese and butter on high speed for about 5 minutes until light and creamy. Add powdered sugar and beat for 5-8 more minutes on high. Reduce speed to low and add raspberries, blending until thoroughly combined. Place bowl in the refrigerator until the cookies have been baked.

Line 2-3 cookie sheets with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350°F. On a floured surface, roll dough out until it is about 1/8-inch thick. Roll it out slowly, as the dough will still be somewhat crumbly. Use your favorite cookie cutter to cut the dough into shapes and carefully lift each cookie to the lined cookie sheets, spacing them about an inch apart. Gather all dough scraps together and roll out again, continuing this process until all dough has been used. Sprinkle each cookie with some course red sugar.

Bake for 10 minutes, then remove cookie sheets from oven. Leave cookies on the trays for about 5 minutes, then carefully remove them to cooling racks and allow to cool completely.

Spoon filling into a piping bag (you can also use a sandwich bag with the corner trimmed off). Flip over one cookie and pipe a mound of filling onto it, making sure to keep the filling 1/4-inch away from the edge. Gently press another cookie on top until the filling squeezes to the edges. Repeat until all cookies have been used. You will have some leftover filling, which makes a wonderful dip for everything from graham crackers to apples.

Store cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

My local food quest suffers no greater challenge than it does in January and February. I love fresh fruit, and as I don’t live in a citrus-producing state, the options are pretty sparse for local fruit.

The earliest harbinger of spring, however, earlier even than the asparagus and strawberries that declare the season’s coming with certainty, is rhubarb.

Rhubarb, which grows in varieties ranging in color from pale green to deep red, is technically a vegetable. However, it has been classified as a fruit in the United States since the late 1940s since it is primarily used as a fruit. Naturally quite tart, it is typically paired with sugar and other sweet fruits to create tangy, flavorful desserts.

Rather like this one.

These little cookies feature drops of tart rhubarb jam nestled in a soft butter cookie. The jam is easy enough to make: just a little sugar and vanilla and heat and soon enough, jam! I admit… I was hoping for a pretty red jam, but since the vendor selling rhubarb right now grows the green variety, it’s actually sorta greenish-brown. Oh well! It can’t all be gems and sparkles.

And then the cookies themselves! What a delightful discovery this recipe was. These cookies are bright and soft and wonderfully comforting. Plus, they whip up quickly into an easy, workable dough.

Once the dough is rolled out into balls, each one gets a big ol’ thumbprint filled with jam. And for a little extra fun, some sugar is added for a sparkly crunch before the cookies head in the oven for baking.

This recipe can be even easier! Don’t wanna make your own quick jam Get a jar of your favorite and use it instead! I see lots of batches of these cookies in my future… filled with all manner of pretty, fruity flavors.

Maybe I’ll get my pretty red cookies after all.

Rhubarb Thumbprint Cookies
Adapted from Farmers’ Market Desserts

4-5 stalks rhubarb, about 2 cups chopped
3/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 c + 2 T granulated sugar
1 tsp sea salt
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 3/4 c all-purpose flour
raw or other large-grain sugar

Chop rhubarb into pieces, then pulse in a food processor until relatively fine. Combine rhubarb, sugar, and vanilla extract in a medium sauce pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for about 15 minutes or until mixture is thick and jam-like. Spoon the hot jam into a small dish and set aside to cool while you prepare the cookie dough.

Preheat oven to 350°F. In the bowl of a standing mixer or other large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, and salt until it is light and creamy, about 5 minutes. Mix in each egg yolk, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl between each addition. Add vanilla and mix well. On low speed, add the flour a cup at a time and mix just until combined, making sure that all dry bits are mixed in.

Set up two large cookie sheets. Make balls of dough about one inch in diameter by rolling them between your palms, placing them about two inches apart on the sheets. Once all dough has been rolled, use your finger or thumb to form a deep impression in the center of each ball. Using a 1/4 teaspoon, fill each impression with the rhubarb mixture. Sprinkle raw sugar over the cookies, focusing on the jam centers. Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden-brown. Remove sheets from the oven and allow the cookies to cool, on the sheets, for 5 minutes, then transfer them to cooling racks to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container, separating the layers by waxed paper, for up to one week.

I’ll always love my mom’s classic sugar cookie recipe. It tastes like tradition and family gatherings and anticipation for what Santa might put under the tree. But I must admit: these cookies, based on a recipe I’ve been eyeballing for a while, are definitely worth repeating. And while I only make classic sugar cookies at Christmas, these maple-rockin’ ones qualify for year-round baking.

The stars of this little cookie show are maple syrup, nutmeg, and sea salt. I’m not certain I’ve ever tasted cookies so magical and complex in flavor before. I also added a bit of cinnamon to bring even more seasonal flavor to the mix, but the combination of sweet maple and the occasional punch of salt make each bite a pleasure.

Like most cutout cookies, this dough needs a good long chill in the fridge before rolling. And like pie crust, it’s best to keep it as cold as possible. I work with only a quarter of the dough at a time AND return the unbaked trays of cookies to the fridge for a few minutes before they go in the oven. The cold helps the cookies keep their shape so your reindeer look like reindeer and not bulbous root vegetables.

These cookies are darn good right off the pan. But it’s Christmas, so I wanted to add a little extra panache. While still warm from the oven, each cookie gets a final kiss of maple syrup and a sprinkle of large grain sugar (I found mine in the sprinkles section at the grocery store). The result is a chewy but crisp, flavorful cookie with just the right amount of sparkle.

I’d love to sit here and chat cookies with you, but I have a lot of actual cookies to bake right now. And I bet you do, too.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Salted Maple Cutout Cookies
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 5-6 dozen cookies

1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 c granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 c pure maple syrup (Grade B)
3 c all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (or 3/8 tsp ground nutmeg, which packs more tightly)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 c additional maple syrup (for decorating)
large grain sugar sprinkles (for decorating)

Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and fluffy. With mixer on medium, add egg yolk and drizzle in maple syrup.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and sea salt. Add to the butter mixture and mix just until combined, making sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl several times to incorporate all dry ingredients. Gather the dough onto a two-foot stretch of plastic wrap and wrap well. Place dough in the refrigerator to chill for at least two hours.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper. Remove about a quarter of the dough from the fridge and place on a floured surface. It’s important to keep the dough cold as long as possible, so working in small batches is best. Roll dough out to about 1/4″ thick and cut into desired shapes. Lift each cookie onto the lined cookie sheet, leaving about 1/2″ between cookies.  Once the first sheet is full of cookies, place it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes. Chilling the uncooked cookies will help them retain their shape while baking. Gather scraps into a ball and return to the fridge. Remove another cold quarter of the dough and repeat with second cookie sheet.

Once first cookie sheet has chilled, bake on a center rack for about 10-12 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned around the edges. Remove from oven and carefully lift each cookie onto a cooling rack. Pour 1/4 c maple syrup into a small dish. Use a pastry brush to lightly brush each cookie with maple syrup (think kisses, not puddles). Once all cookies from the first sheet have been brushed, lightly sprinkle each cookie with the large grain sugar.

Continue this process of rolling out dough, cutting cookies, chilling cookies, baking cookies, brushing with maple, and sprinkling with sugar until all dough has been used up.

Cookies can be served warm (obviously) or can be stored in an airtight container for several days.

It’s June! And this first day of June is many things!

1. The first day of June, which is exciting enough on its own
2. The first day of National Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Month
3. The first day of National Accordion Awareness Month (who knew we even had that Consider yourself aware.)
3. Mah birthday!

I’m spending the day doing what any sensible girl would do. Reading on the balcony, possibly getting a pedicure, re-organizing my spices in tiny matching jars (!!!!!!), taking a stab at cooking crème brûlée, seeing a movie with friends… it’s a lovely day off! Full of little birthday presents to myself.

My birthday present to you, however, are these cookies.

Last year around this time, we talked about carrot cake. I was never a particularly big fan in the past, but I now frequently find myself craving those tender bites of spice-filled, textured cake topped with a healthy dollop of tangy icing. Plus, the carrots in my garden are now bursting from the soil (okay not bursting, they actually require rather a lot of coaxing to come out of the ground), and my experiment with a curious variety put carrot cake on the top of my list to make.

Aren’t these neat I wish I had taken pictures of them straight out of the earth, their brilliant fuschia dims slightly within minutes: they are easily the most intriguing vegetable I’d planted so far. And what fun would it be to use purple carrots for carrot cake?

But I couldn’t just make carrot cake. I couldn’t convince myself that re-making my carrot cupcakes with purple carrots instead of orange merited a new post, and I wasn’t in need of a new recipe, as I love the one I have beyond compare. So what else could I make Perhaps, I thought, I could find a carrot cookie recipe instead. Makes sense, right I set forth, found a recipe that seemed reliable, and started my project.

Surprise! Upon grating my first carrot, I discovered that in fact, I wouldn’t have purple carrot cookies at all! This variety, I learned in a hasty Wikipedia search later, contains more antioxidants than other carrots that manifest themselves in a thick purple skin concealing a brilliant orange carrot inside. So no, they wouldn’t be purple, but they would sure as hell be delicious.

I made one sample cookie before cooking the whole batch: I’d fiddled with the recipe significantly, and I wanted to make sure they weren’t going to be gross. Or spread all over the pan. Or gross. But oh, my fears were allayed with the first bite. A thin crispiness on the outside, but tender, almost cake-y fluff on the inside, and bursting with little flecks of carrots, pieces of pecan, and hearty oats.

Yet there was still something missing.

What carrot-y sweet is complete without just a bit of cream cheese icing?

This one is really more of a glaze: it pipes easily, but could also be spread onto your cookies. But this baker pipes, so there you have it.

And then it’s time for dessert! Nay, breakfast! Pretty as can be, these little cookies were easy to make and disappeared in a flash. And no, they aren’t purple as I’d not-so-secretly hoped, but one bite in, and it didn’t even matter.

I’d go buy some carrots if I were you.

Carrot Oatmeal Cookies with Cream Cheese Glaze
Adapted from Baking Bites

For the Cookies:
1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 c white sugar
2 T brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 c grated carrots
1 c old-fashioned oats
3/4 c chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 °F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a large bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and egg with the back of a spoon until thoroughly combined and creamy. Add vanilla extract, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, carrots, oats, and pecans and mix just until dry ingredients are all moistened.

Use a spoon to drop dough onto parchment-lined cookie sheet about two inches apart. Bake at 350 °F for 13-15 minutes. Remove from oven when tops begin to brown but still look slightly gooey. Let rest on cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling rack. While cookies cool, prepare glaze.

For the Glaze:
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 c powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
dash salt
2 tsp milk

Beat cream cheese for 2-3 minutes or until cream cheese is smooth and fluffy. Add powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt and beat until smooth. Add milk 1 tsp at a time to desired consistency.

Pipe a narrow squiggle of icing on each cookie or spread thinly with a knife.