Posts Tagged ‘cookies’

I was trying to think of an idea for a blog post and realized that I had never posted the recipe for these Big Cookies.

I got this recipe many, many years ago from my friend Sue. Over the years my daughters and I have made hundreds of these big cookies. One year DD, Nora, made these cookies in heart shaped pans for every room on her hall in the dormitory!

You can put all the dough in a 9" x 13" pan and cut them into bars or you can bake the dough in two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans. The round "big cookies" can then be turned out onto a paper plate or cake board and these make really nice treats, especially for hungry college students. They are also a nice dessert to include when you are taking supper to someone.

Here are the ingredients:

Here's the recipe:

Big Cookies

1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup oil
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1tsp. vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Mix cake mix, oil, water, egg, and vanilla until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Spread in two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans that have been greased and floured and lined with parchment or waxed paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 mins. Cool in pans for 10 mins. and then turn out onto a cooling rack covered with a towel. Immediately turn right side up onto a plate or cake board. Cut into wedges to serve.

If you are baking in a 9" x 13" pan you don't need to line the pan with waxed paper. Bake the same way and cut into bars. You can decorate these with the person's name and a border of icing for a birthday or other event. You can also use a chocolate cake mix for a brownie like version. You can also drop the dough onto cookie sheets and bake as you would bake regular chocolate chip cookies.

Here I'm tracing the pan onto waxed paper:

Here is the pan greased, floured, and lined:

Here's the cookie dough ready to go into the oven:

This picture shows how to flip the cookie out onto a towel lined cooling rack:

Here's the important step of peeling off the waxed paper before flipping the cookie right side up onto a plate:

One of DD Megan's friends made a batch with a lemon cake mix one time -- I don't recommend the lemon.

Becka

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In my last post I mentioned some new things I had been baking in recent days. I also hope to make a couple of old recipes too. One of my very favorite cookies are these snowballs. My mom didn't bake much during the year, but she always made some of these for Christmas. They are very simple to make but they are so good. You may already have a recipe similar to this one in your file.

Snowballs
1 cup (or 2 sticks) butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Additional powdered sugar for rolling

Cream butter and then add powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix in flour and chopped nuts. Form into small balls a little smaller than a walnut. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 mins. Cookies should be brown on the bottom only. Let cool slightly and then roll in additional powdered sugar. After they cool a bit more roll in the sugar a second time to give them a more "snowy" appearance. Makes about three dozen.

Another family favorite is this peanut butter fudge. This is another recipe I got years ago from that recipe program on the radio. It, too, is very simple, but very good. Mrs. Pra---, who used to teach in the RTV department at school gave this recipe and said that her boys called pieces of this fudge erasers because it looks like those brown art gum erasers. It is good plain, but over the top with the chocolate layer added. Sorry there's no picture--haven't made this one yet.

Peanut Butter Erasers
2/3 cup evaporated milk
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup chocolate chips

Combine evaporated milk and sugar in a saucepan and cook to softball stage (a drop of the mixture with form a ball when dropped in a cup of cold water. The ball will be soft and will flatten when you try to pick it up on your finger.) Stir constantly while this mixture is cooking and be sure to use a big enough pan as the sugar mixture will froth up.
Remove the pan from the heat and then add the peanut butter. Stir the fudge until it is about the consistency of runny mashed potatoes and then quickly pour it into a buttered 7" x 11" pan. Immediately sprinkle the chocolate chips on top and let sit for about 5 mins. until the chips soften and you can spread them on top of the fudge. Let cool completely and cut into pieces. Enjoy your delicious fudge!

Becka

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I've tried a couple of new Christmas cookie recipes this year from the King Arthur Flour recipe website. I love their Baker's Banter Blog. They post recipes a couple of times a week with step-by-step pictorial directions. It is interesting to read about the new products and new recipes. The cookie recipes I have tried have been very good and all of these cookie recipes feature dough that can be made ahead.

Last weekend I made these butter pecan cookies. I didn't have any of the unusual flavorings so I just used 1 Tbsp. vanilla. The combination of the butterscotch chips, toasted pecans, and the sugar/salt coating is very good.

I also made this Mandelbrot, which my husband, the former German teacher,told me means Almond Bread. These cookies are like biscotti. The recipe on the blog uses walnuts, but since I had a large bag of almonds I used those along with the chocolate chips. These are delicious!

I also recently tried these Cranberry Pistachio cookies from a blog called Joy of Baking.

My friend, Cheri, shared some fresh pistachios received as a gift from a relative in California. The green pistachios and red cranberries made a very pretty and tasty cookie. These are a refrigerator cookie and the dough can be made well advance of when you bake the cookies and refrigerated or frozen. I can remember my Aunt Hazel making refrigerator cookies when I was a little girl -- long before you could buy refrigerated cookie dough in the grocery store.

How about you out there in blog-land -- have you tried any new cookie recipes this year that you are willing to share?

Becka

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I don't often bake cookies any more since it's just the two of us. I actually kind of miss making them. It seemed like when the children were all at home someone always needed cookies for some event or another. Just last week Rob mentioned that he was hungry for these Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies. I got this recipe from my Aunt Nana several years ago and it has become one of our favorites. These are a puffy, soft, cake-like sugar cookie.

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

1 cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsps. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
4 cups flour (I use bread flour)

Cream margarine and sugars. Add eggs. Stir together dry ingredients and add alternately with the buttermilk.
Chill this dough for several hours or overnight. You can either roll out this dough and cut with cookie cutters or prepare it the lazy way that I do it by scooping it out with a scoop and flattening the balls of dough with your floured fingers. I find that these bake best if you bake them on parchment lined baking sheets. I have small cookie sheets and find I can only put six on a sheet at a time. I get about two dozen cookies from this recipe. Bake at 400 degrees for 9-10 mins. Cool slightly and remove from cookie sheets. Frost with the following icing:

Browned Butter Frosting
6 Tbsps. butter or margarine
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3-4 Tbsps. milk or cream

Heat the butter over medium heat until a delicate brown. (A stainless steel pan works better than a non-stick pan for this so you can see how it is browning) Remove from heat and mix in the powdered sugar, vanilla, and the milk. Spread on cookies while still warm. Let dry completely before storing the cookies. It works best to place waxed paper between the layers. This should be enough for one batch of cookies.

Scooping out the cookie dough:

Patting out the cookies:

Becka

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