No Bake Cookies

Chocolate No Bake Cookies are always a big hit... especially when you want something quick that won't heat up your house. My mother started making these after her younger brother was in college and used to eat them straight out of cooking pot. It became a great wheat-fee treat in my childhood home of no wheat or dairy. I used milk and butter in my recipe, but one can use water and vegi marg. just as easily to get dairy free!

Chocolate No Bake Cookies
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 cups instant

Directions:
Lay out wax paper BEFORE you make the cookies. Combine the sugar, cocoa, milk and butter in a saucepan. Bring to a heavy boil for exactly one minute. Remove from heat. Add the vanilla, peanut butter and oatmeal; stir well to mix up all the ingredients and make spoon sized amounts onto foil or wax paper. Let cool then serve.

World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookie.

Well, it's time I let the cat out of the bag... and let the world know the secret recipe for the WORLD'S BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!! It's no joke. I've looked. I've tried. I've baked, and finally I have found the best ever recipe! They are always plump and soft and chewy without being raw-ish and with just enough crunch to still call them cookies. These are true art. Your friends and family probably won't know how good they have it, or that they could have been eating a crunchy yucky cookie or a mushy mess.... but indeed they will be eating perfection!
I made the dough with my little helper (as usual) and this time he got to roll the cookies onto the sheet all by himself. The result was a cookie sheet full of various sized cookies. I have to admit that my two year old has a great idea here! There are big cookies for a big cookie need and little cookies for dieting mommies and medium cookies for two year old hands. I think I'll make a variety of sizes myself next time!
This recipe is from Betty Crocker, and is truly the most amazing in the history of C.C. Cookies.

Chocolate Chip Cookies:
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 oz. bag semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°
Mix the sugars, butter, vanilla, and egg until well blended and creamy.
Combine flour, baking soda, and salt together. (You can do it right on top of the wet ingredients, mixing the soda and salt into the flour a little with a dry spoon before mixing the flour into the wet ingredients.)
Stir wet and dry ingredients together until well blended. The dough is very dry and stiff, and it may seem as though it is too dry to combine, but it will come together.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Put rounded spoonfuls of dough on a cool cookie sheet a few inches apart.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until edges are just beginning to brown. For best results, use one cookie sheet at a time in the center of the oven.
Cool 2 to 3 minutes on the cookie sheet and then transfer cookies to a cooling rack.

Dear love.. I made cookies.

It's almost Valentine's day. Valentine's day is a holiday especially made for making sweets for the sweet. In celebration Albie and I made cookies with heart themes. We had a blast looking for the recipes and found MANY possibilities on the world wide web. It seems the world loves heart shaped things. These simple sweets are at once delicate and endearing as they are both dusted with the lacey confectioners sugar. What better way to say happy Valentine's day than with a such a sugary-sweet gesture?

Pecan Linzer Cookies with raspberry filling (recipe from Martha Stewart.com

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup pecan halves, toasted
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup raspberry jam, strained
Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl; set aside. Pulse pecans, confectioners' sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a food processor until finely ground (but not wet); transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
Add butter and granulated sugar; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in vanilla and egg. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until combined. Halve dough; shape into disks. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch thick. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Cut out squares with a 2-inch fluted cutter. Cut out centers of half the squares with a 1/2-inch heart cutter; reroll scraps. Space 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake squares and hearts until pale golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to racks to cool.
Meanwhile, heat jam in a small saucepan over medium heat until reduced and thickened, about 7 minutes; let cool.
Sprinkle cutout cookies with confectioners' sugar. Spread jam onto uncut squares; top with cutout ones. Store in an airtight container up to 2 days.

Heart shaped lemon bars:
For the lemon bars we used the recipe we have already posted in another blog post. I'll put it up again just in case someone wants it RIGHT NOW! After making the recipe of lemon bars I used a cookie cutter and cut out the heart-shaped treats. Yum.

lemon bars (as seen previously):

2 sticks (8 ounces) butter

2 cups flour

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

4 beaten eggs

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel

sifted confectioners' sugar

Heat oven to 325°. Blend butter, 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar. Pat into ungreased 13x9x2-inch pan. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. For filling, blend together eggs, sugar, 4 tablespoons flour, lemon juice, and lemon peel.Pour over first layer. Return to oven and bake at 325° for 20 minutes. Loosen around edges, cut into bars and sift confectioners' sugar over the top while warm.

What a cute Valentine baker Albie is!! I believe he wears more confectioner's sugar on his clothing than on the cookies he made.