Adam Cooks: Chocolate-Mint Hearts

From Taste of Home



Ingredients:
1 package (10 ounces) mint chocolate chips, divided
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup shortening
Colored sprinkles, optional

Directions:
In a microwave-safe bowl, melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips; stir. Cool slightly. In a small bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, vanilla and melted chocolate. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture.

Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until easy to handle. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. heart-shaped cookie cutter. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 7-10 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

In a microwave, melt shortening and remaining chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Dip each cookie halfway into chocolate mixture; allow excess to drip off. Sprinkle chocolate with sprinkles if desired. Place on waxed paper; refrigerate until set.

Comments:
In honor of Valentine's Day, Adam made these cookies. I think the chocolate dip tastes like a Thin Mint Girl Scout cookie. Overall, pretty good. Can never get enough chocolate!

Brookies

From Andrea the Kitchen Witch



Ingredients:
2 cups high quality 62% cacao chocolate chips
3/4 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 T oil
1 t butter
1/2 c flour
1/4 t salt
1/4 t baking powder

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F

Melt 1 cup chocolate chips with the oil and butter until melted. Stir well to melt all chips. Allow to cool slightly.

In a small bowl mix the flour, salt and baking powder together.

In a medium work bowl mix the eggs and brown sugar together. Add the melted chocolate, stirring well to thoroughly mix. Scrape down sides before adding the flour mix. Whisk it in until just in mixed, then add the remaining chocolate chips and stir well.

Transfer batter to a shallow pan, like a pie pan and put in the freezer for about 10 minutes to firm up batter before scooping.

Scoop cookies onto either a parchment or silpat lined sheet pan. Using a 1T size scoop, form cookies.

Bake 10-11 minutes, until tops are dry looking and cracked like a brownie. Remove from oven and allow to rest on tray for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. The centers will be very soft and brownie like in texture. These cookies are best consumed in the first 12 hours, they begin to dry out after that and lose that brownie like texture.

Comments:
Not brownies, not cookies, Brookies.

These are awesome. Go make them right now.

I did screw up the recipe a little and I melted all the chocolate chips instead of reserving half of them to stir into the batter. Doesn't appear to have affected the end result too much. Also, you must resist the temptation to just eat all the batter when you take it out of the freezer. Good lord, it looked tasty!

Carrot Cake Cookies

From Everyday with Rachael Ray



Ingredients:
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/2 cups flour
2 cups coarsly shredded carrots
2 cups fruit-and-nut granola
1 cup corn flakes
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Directions:
1. Position 2 racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 375°. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar until creamy, about 3 minutes. Mix in the eggs, vanilla and baking soda on medium speed until fluffy, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Mix in the flour on low speed. Stir in the carrots, granola and corn flakes.

2. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough about 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Sprinkle with the granulated sugar and bake until golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Comments:
First off, these do not taste like any carrot cake I've ever had. That said, they're not bad. Just not at all what I was expecting. Secondly, I suspect 375 is too high a temp to bake these. All of my first batch burned on the bottom long before they were cooked through. I turned the oven down to 350 for the rest and they turned out a little better. I think my carrots were too big - I got matchstick rather than shredded - and this made it a little harder to get normal looking cookies. In any case, probably won't try this recipe again.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

From Allrecipes.com



Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts
1 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

Comments:
I had made these kind of cookies previously, but lost the recipe. Sorry person who emailed me about that a while back. I looked everywhere and couldn't find where it ended up.

Anyway, while we were at Fleet Farm this morning for a jerky gun (more on that later), I stopped by their candy and nut section to see if anything leapt out at me. Adam spotted macadamia nuts and when I asked if he wanted me to make cookies since he had just finished off the cake in the fridge he immediately grabbed the chance. So, white chocolate macadamia nut it was. He found this recipe and I made it. At the same time that I was making dinner. Talent...

I haven't tried one yet - and probably won't. Neither white chocolate nor macadamia nuts are really my thing. But Adam likes them and he's my target audience, so I'm satisfied.

Loaded Oatmeal Cookies

From Paula Deen via Foodnetwork.com



Ingredients:
butter
shortening
brown sugar
eggs
buttermilk
flour
baking soda
salt
baking powder
ginger
nutmeg
cinnamon
cloves
allspice
quick-cooking oatmeal
raisins
walnuts
vanilla

Comments:
Adam emailed me this recipe at work on Friday morning saying, "These look good." I emailed him back saying, "In other words, you'd like me to make these this weekend." So I did. I even followed the recipe, excluding just the cloves since I didn't have any and we don't like them anyway. I even got the buttermilk and raisins. Impressive, if you ask me. Anyway, they're a pretty basic cookie recipe and although Adam pointed out the cookies in the picture had been much larger, they still turned out satisfactory.

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies

From the back of the Mauna Loa macadamia nut package



Ingredients:
butter
sugar
brown sugar
egg
vanilla
flour
baking soda
salt
white chocolate chips
macadamia nuts

Comments:
I was originally going to adapt my dependable chocolate chip cookie recipe for white chocolate chips but when Adam saw me buy said white chocolate chips he suddenly had a desire for macadamia nut cookies. So I went and got some macadamia nuts later in the day when I was out shopping and just used the recipe on the back of the bag. Now, the cookie dough managed to break both of my small cookie scoops, but Adam says the ratio of cookie to nuts and chocolate is great so I guess these cookies are meant to be scooped by spoon, not scoop. Meh.

Soft and Chewy M&M Cookies

From Recipezaar



Ingredients:
brown sugar
shortening
sugar
eggs
vanilla
flour
salt
baking soda
M&Ms

Comments:
Well I think I may have found my stock M&M cookie recipe. After my last attempt I was hoping for the best. They really are chewy and I used mini M&Ms and dumped in probably twice the amount called for in the recipe. Woo! We'll see how they hold up in the container while they last.