Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Talk about food porn!! These cookies taste like brownies. Very chewy and indulgent. I did copy the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, but I usually don't follow it all the time. The chocolate chips are my own idea. This is a tricky and messy recipe, but it is totally worth it. I have spent hours cleaning up after making these, because the chocolate will go all over the place. 

Recipe makes 12+ cookies depending on size
Calories per cookie: 200

Ingredients: 

• 10 oz of chocolate or chocolate chips-> this is the chocolate that you will melt. 
• 4 oz of chocolate chips 
• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar + 2 tablespoons 
• 2 eggs 
• 2/3 cup of flour 
• 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla 
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder 
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt 

Directions: 

• Heat the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl and melt the chocolate until it is thoroughly melted on medium heat. 
• Mix the eggs, vanilla and brown sugar with an electric mixer. 
• Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. 
• Add the chocolate mixture to the eggs, vanilla and brown sugar and mix. 
• Add the flour, baking powder and salt into the whole mixture and make sure that everything is smooth and mixed well. 
• Add the extra chocolate chips. 
• Put the cookie dough into the fridge for about five minutes and spoon it out onto a baking sheet with parchment paper. Flatten the cookies out a little. They will puff up in the oven. 
• Bake for 12-15 minutes at 325 degrees. 

Gingersnaps

My favorite recipe by Alice Walker. All of these cookies are so chewy and they are best eaten right out of the oven!

Makes 60 cookies

Each cookies is about 63 calories

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 lb unsalted butter (2 sticks) at room temp

• 1 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 1/2  teaspoon vanilla extract
• 
1 egg

• 1/3 cup of molasses

• 3 cups of flour

• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

• 1 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon  of  powdered ginger

Directions: 

• Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer. 
• Add the egg and vanilla. 
• Add the dry ingredients- flour, salt, cinnamon and powdered ginger. 
• Add the molasses 
• Roll the dough into parchment paper. Freeze the dough for as long as you want, but in order to serve the cookies, they should be frozen and then sliced thinly and evenly. 
• Slice the cookies to be about 1/4 inch thick. Since they were frozen they do not spread out on a baking sheet. 
• Bake at 350 for ten minutes and top the cookies with some granulated sugar after they are finished. 

Shuku Shuku Cookies

A friend and I made Shuku Shuku cookies together during the afternoon on a boring, slow day. They remind me very much of my mother's classic coconut cookies, but are much richer and thick.  Be careful not to overcook them.

Recipes make about 14 cookies

Ingredients:

• 3 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of flour
• 1 cup of unsweetened coconut flakes

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees farenheit
• Mix the coconut, sugar and eggs
• Squeeze the dough into 1 inch balls and roll each ball in the flour
• Place them on a baking sheet about 2 inches apart and bake them for 20 minutes until they turn a golden color.

Calories: 85 per cookie

Stareos

These are my favorite cookies ever! Just one cookie is enough to satisfy a sweet craving. Many of my friends call them "fancy oreos." The cream filling is very sweet while the cookies themselves are a little bitter. They complement each other out. Make sure you plan ahead of time to be home while these cookies are baking. They bake for one whole hour in the oven at 250 degrees.

The recipe makes: 18 cookies

INGREDIENTS: 

Chocolate Shortbread

• 1 1/2 cups flour 
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 8 ounces (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces 
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

White Filling: 

• 1 cup of mascarpone cheese 
• 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar 
• 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract 

Directions: 

• Combine the butter and sugar in a mixer with a paddle. There is no need to set the butter out ahead of time to bring it to room temperature. 
• Beat on low speed for about 15 seconds. 
• Add flour, salt and cocoa powder and continue to mix until the dough comes together (about 3 or  4 minutes.) 
• Prepare your baking sheets with parchment paper. 
• Roll out the dough on a table with some flour sprinkled on it so the dough does not stick. Roll out the dough 1/4 of an inch thick. 
• With a star cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as you can. Keep reusing the dough until you have used up almost all of it. You don't want to rework the dough too much. You should have around 34-36 cookies. 
• Place the cookies on the baking sheets and refrigerate them for at least one hour so they don't spread out in the oven. 
• Preheat the oven to 250 and bake the shortbread for an hour. 
• To make the filling: stir the mascarpone, vanilla and sugar until smooth. 
• Do not put the filling on the shortbread until the cookies are completely cool. The cookies should not be assembled until the day you will serve them. The shortbread dough can be wrapped and refrigerated, and made one week in advance. The mascarpone can also be made two days in advance. 
• Spread about 1 tablespoon of the filling on top of 18 cookies and smash the other 18 on top with the filling inside. 

Recipe from Star Desserts by Emily Luchetti

Raspberry Thumbprints with Jam

Raspberry Thumbprints 

Photograph: Jenny 

My mom has recently been making a lot of batches of sugar cookies with jam. This cookie is a lot like the cookie with a hershey kiss in the middle. Instead of a hershey kiss in the middle of a cookie, she decided to use her homemade rasberry jam. The jam plays a nice fruity contrast in comparison to the sugary cookie.

This recipe is used from the Babbo Cookbook by Mario Batali

Ingredients:

• One stick of butter
• 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1/2 cup of mascarpone cheese
• 2 3/4 cup of flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• Jam

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees farenheit
• Cream the butter and sugar together with a mixer
• Add the vanilla and egg and mix
• Add the mascarpone cheese and mix

• Add the dry ingredients and mix (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt)
• When you are ready to bake the cookies, allow the dough to be at room temperature and shape into balls. Place the balls on a piece of parchment paper and make an indentation with the dough.
• Bake for about 12-15 minutes at 325 degrees farenheit
• Add the jam

Cookies

Here are some of my favorite cookie recipes that I have made. I'd say that out of all these cookies the double chocolate chip cookies are the hardest. The chocolate gets really messy and they are hard to form into a small ball before you put them into the oven.

Chirstmas Sugar Cookies (Recipe from Martha Stewart) 

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (Recipe from The Humming Bird Bakery)

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies ((Recipe from The Humming Bird Bakery)

Peanut Butter Cookies

M and M Cookies
one of my favorites- same cookie dough recipe as the chocolate chip cookies from Star Deserts by Emily Luchetti

Chocolate Chip
I have two different recipes to make chocolate chip cookies. I prefer the one where you don't add one tablespoon of warm water. Recipe is from Star Deserts by Emily Luchetti.