Cookies

A good family friend of mine asked me to bake for her son's engagement party that she was hosting at her house.  Since it was the beginning of summer she thought it would be a great idea to take advantage of the local strawberries and asked me to bake her chocolate covered strawberries, strawberry tarts, strawberry shortcakes and strawberry shortbread cookies. 

For the chocolate covered strawberries, I thought it would be a cute idea to decorate the strawberries in outfits of chocolate covered wedding dresses and tuxedos.  I used semisweet chocolate for the tuxedo jackets and white candy coating for the wedding dresses.

For the shortbread cookies, I got the idea from the Pioneer Woman for this recipe.  I thought the combination of shortbread, creamcheese, and strawberries was perfect for a light and sweet simple dessert. I decided to use a flower shaped cookie cutter and sprinkled the dessert with raw sugar to make it look more prettier.

The tarts were very fun to make and I used this vanilla pudding recipe that turned out really well.  I didn't have any vanilla beans so I added an extra 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla to the recipe and used 2% milk.  I made the pudding the day before assembling and let it sit in the fridge overnight so it was extra vanilla tasting.  Hope you enjoyed all the strawberry treats, happy baking!

Nothing is better than a warm chocolate chip cookie right out of the oven!  The other week I went over to my girlfriend's mom's house and she served us warm, chewy, and gooey chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven...I ate 6...but who's counting?  After that night, I still had a craving for warm chocolate chip cookies all week.  These cookies melted down into thin and chewy wonderful treats with a hint of crispiness on the outside, they definately satisfied my cravings.This recipe tastes good either right out of the oven or even a week later with a big glass of milk.

Thin and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 Cup butter, at room temperature
3/4 Cup packed brown sugar
3/4 Cup white granulated sugar
2 Large eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 Cups flour
1 1/2 Cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1) Preheat oven to 350F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper
2) In a large bowl cream together butter and both sugars
3) Add eggs and vanilla and beat until well combined
4) Stir in baking soda, salt, and flour until dough comes together
5) Stir in chocolate chips, then scoop 1 Tbsp of dough onto prepared cookie sheets and bake for 12min or until edges begin to turn golden
6) Let cool on wire racks for 5min then begin eating cookies warm or store them in an air tight container to enjoy all week!

My friend called me the other day telling me that he was looking on my website for a healthy cookie recipe.  He said the only one he could find that wasn't too sweet for him was the breakfast cereal cookie but he didn't have any Corn Flakes on hand.  So I decided to make this cookie just for him.  I decided to call it the 'somewhat' healthy cookie because I did use a fair bit of sugar still and I added chocolate chips (but only because my boyfriend asked me too) but feel free to omit them if you like or substitue them for nuts. 

I went to this restaurant one night and ordered this drink called Matty's Mint Mudslide and it had to be one of the best beverages I've had.  It was like a mocha milkshake with a hint of mint flavor.  I was craving one of them today and was too lazy to go back to the restaurant so I decided to recreate the drink into a cookie form.  They turned out great, very soft and chewy, and definately satisfied my craving.  The were full of chocolate flavor and had just enough hints of mint and coffee flavors that weren't too overpowering.