What Is Your Favorite Cookie Recipe??

I LOVE making cookies. I actually have a bunch of recipes posted on my blog, most of them are from the holidays.

http://alli-n-son.com/recipes/

My very favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe is one I found on America's Test Kitchen. The process that they use is very good...browning the butter, then mixing the sugars, vanilla, salt and egg in and doing a process of whisk, sit, whisk, sit, whisk, sit transforms these cookies into chewy deliciousness! I posted a link below. :)

http://www.food.com/recipe/perfect-chocolate-chip-cookies...

The chewiest peanut butter cookies ever:

1 c. softened margarine (2 sticks)
1 c. peanut butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Combine margarine, peanut butter, sugars and eggs. Stir in baking soda and flour and remaining ingredients. Mix well and drop by the teaspoonful onto a cookie sheet, leaving 1-inch space between cookies.
Bake in a preheated 325°F oven for 10 minutes or just until set (depends upon size of cookies).

Remove to wire rack to cool. Store in refrigerator for best taste.

Makes about 50 cookies.

My favorite to make for my exchange are Christmas Pinwheel cookies. I usually do a red and white batch with cinnamon flavoring and white and green with peppermint. They're nice because they look different and add some color to cookie plates. Plus, they taste good.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Christmas-Pinwheel-Cookies/D...

One that I make every year at Christmas time are Strawberry Lilies. They are a cream cheese and butter cookie with strawberry jam in the middle. They're crazy good! Message me if you want the recipe.

.....Now you've made me hungry!

Nestle Chocolate Chip with fewer chocolate chips baked chewy, and home made short bread.

I just made these cookies like 20 mins ago and they are AMAZING!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
* 1 cup butter, softened
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2/3 cup cocoa powder
* 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
* I also added like 1/2 tsp of espresso powder for a little kick!
Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

I love lots of different cookies and make numerous ones every year. My favorites are Krumkake, but that is hard to make without the proper iron and someone who can lead you through the trial and error of learning. Definitely not good to do with little ones.

But this next recipe is a Star Tribune contest winner from years ago. It is not a cheap cookie to make and it seems like it might be gross, but in reality is sooooo good (although a little hot/spicy for many little kids).

Devil's Delight Cookies
10oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2C. + 2 tsp. flour
3T. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. chipotle chile powder (or cayenne pepper)
1/4 tsp. salt
5 TBL unsalted butter (room temp)
1C. + 1 T. sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. Mexican vanilla
1 (3.3 oz.) Vosges Red Fire chocolate bar, chopped (from Whole Foods or www.vosgeschocolate.com )
1/2 C. (3oz.) cinnamon chips (such as Hershey)

For dusting:
4 tsp. sugar
4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp chipotle chile powder (or cayenne)

Preheat oven to 350 (325 for convection). Line baking sheets w/ parchment. In double boiler over simmering H2O, melt bittersweet choco until smooth, remove & cool 10 min. In medium bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, chile powder, and salt. In large bowl, use electric mixer on med-high to beat butter & sugar until crumbly. Add eggs 1 at a time, beat well after each. Continue to beat until pale, light, and creamy (~5 min.). Reduce speed to low, add lukewarm melted chocolate & vanilla and beat until just combined. Fold in flour mixture, then fold in chopped chocolate bar & cinnamon chips. In a small bowl whisk together the dusting ingredients.
Drop big spoonfuls about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle a pinch of dusting powder on each. Bake ~15 min (13 in convection) or until tops are evenly cracked but cookies not yet firm to the touch. Remove from oven but let cool completely on the baking sheets.

Peanut Butter Kiss cookies are fun for the kids. But in reality at our cookie bakes, we just give the kids sugar cookie dough or gingerbread dough to roll out and decorate. Then they run off to play and the adults make the rest of the goodies :)

Oooh, too many to pick just one!!

Molasses Crinkles, Snickerdoodles, Birds' Nests (thumbprints with confectioners sugar icing "egg" instead of jam in the indentation), Butterballs (sometimes called Russian Tea Cakes), of course Chocolate Chip...

I'm with Kate B., you're making me hungry!

Let me know if you want recipes. ____@____.com

K. Z.

I love Martha Stewart's Giant Ginger cookies! It says that it only makes 12 cookies, but I usually get about 3 dozen from the recipe. And they are still big cookies!

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus 1/3 cup for coating
6 tablespoons molasses
1 large egg
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, allspice, and pepper.
With an electric mixer, cream butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses and egg. With mixer on low, gradually beat in flour mixture until just combined. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic, and freeze for 20 minutes.
Divide dough into twelve 2-inch balls. Place remaining 1/3 cup granulated sugar in a bowl. Roll balls in sugar to coat; place at least 4 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Flatten into 3-inch rounds. Sprinkle with sugar remaining in bowl.
Bake until brown, rotating sheets halfway through, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

PI know this sounds crazy but we LOVE the recipe on the bag of Ande's mint chips. My friends and I call them the "better than sex cookies!" My husband objects to our name for them, but that doesn't stop him from eating them non-stop! Like all cookies, they are best when they are warm from the oven, but they are still good for several days after baking (if they last that long in my house!)

My fav for cookie exchange recipe is ginger snaps. I have an easy recipe, it makes tons and they look so festive just stacked in a cello bag tied with curling ribbon.

Chocolate snaps is also good and peacan meltaways/ russian teacakes are pretty and festive.

Let me know if you would like the recipe. Let us know what you decide.

* Russian teacakes (also sometimes called Mexican wedding cookies, I believe).
* Baklava (this makes tons, but you need to put them into cupcake papers,
because of the stickiness due to the honey
* Buckeyes (but these are now off limits, due to a with a peanut-allergic child)* Homemade peppermint patties
* Homemade fudge

My mom does pinwheels (and probably 10 other kinds of cookies, LOL!), but they always seemed to fussy for me...

Almond flavor humbprint cookies with classic powder sugar buttercream icing, colored for the holiday's (or white if your 3 yo is helping!) piped into a 'kiss'.

The recipe is simple, but makes a TON! That's why it's good for exchanges or class treats.

COOKIES:

1 1/3 C. butter, softened
1 1/3 C. sugar
2 whole eggs (or 6 egg yolks)
1 tsp each pure Vanilla and Almond extracts
4 C all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder

1) Cream butter and sugar 'till fluffy.

2) Add eggs and both extracts, beat well.

3) Gradually add flour and salt, mix until smooth.

4) Refridgerate for 30 min. (hardens dough enough to make balls without
getting messy).

5) Pre-heat oven to 400.

6) Form about 1 to 1 1/2 inch diameter balls and place on ungreased
cookie sheet.

7) Press DEEP (almost to the point of pushing through the dough to the pan) holes in center of cookie (it sounds funny, but I use a clean tube of chapstick-perfect size hole and easy to 'twist' back out of the hole).

8) Bake 8-10 min.

9) Cool and fill with Buttercream icing.

BUTTERCREAM ICING:

Use recipe on back of powdered sugar box/bag!!!

If you have an icing bag or tool, great! If not, put icing in a ziplock bag and cut the corner out to pipe into the cooled cookies.

i like the classic nestle tollhouse recipe for chocolate chip cookies, sometimes i add chocolate to the batter to make it double chocolate, but the genius of proportions and textures and simplicity stays the same.

One of my new favorites is homemade Oreo cookies. So yummy and so easy!

2 boxes Devil's Food cake
4 eggs
1 c. shortening, melted

Mix together, bake @ 350 for ~12 minutes.
Place cream cheese frosting between 2 cookies.

Snickerdoodles!! I make them every year for the neighbors and they are always a hit. I can send you the recipe if you'd like.