Ok, I didn't cook these cookies, I baked them. But the name of this blog segment is "Rachel Cooks". I'm over
it. Do you like the graphic? Does it bother you that I'm posting it on Sunday and not Saturday? I'm over that too. The graphic is part of a link-carnival over at Fiddledeedee's site, and this way I can post my delicious recipes (which aren't really mine) on her blog too.
Anyway....why bake cookies? The long version of the story is that Yoav and I hadn't seen each other in too long, and made plans to do something "fun and different" last night. Then one of his co's got sick, which meant that he had to spend Shabbat at the pnimia, working - and that included Saturday night too. So "fun and different" was out. But...hanging out with a bunch of fourth grade boys was in! And what better way to win 8-year-old-boys' hearts than cookies?! (it doesn't work too badly with a twenty-something-year-old too!)
Ok, honestly, the boys weren't really that into me. They were much more excited about The Lion King #2 (dubbed into Hebrew). But they took a momentary break from the movie to eat the cookies and say thank you. Then they went back to ignoring me and watched the movie. I was definitely ok with that! :)
Because I had little else to do on Friday, and I enjoy methodically rolling dough into little balls, I actually made three different kinds of dough. My roommates thought I was nutso. But I froze many cookies for next Shabbat when my parents are here, and filled our cookie jar for people in the apartment to eat in the meantime. So I actually have three recipes for you - but they all come from elsewhere on the web. And I only did a so-so job of remembering to take pictures:
I should have made the peanut butter cookie dough first because it requires an hour in the fridge, but I didn't. Let's pretend I did. Here's that ingredient list:
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
And the recipe:
1 .Cream together butter, peanut butter and sugars. Beat in eggs.
2 In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir into batter. Put batter in refrigerator for 1 hour.
3 Roll into 1 inch balls and put on baking sheets. Flatten each ball with a fork, making a criss-cross pattern. Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F oven for about 10 minutes or until cookies begin to brown. Do not over-bake.
I found a great tool to make the criss-crosses with - it was a large salad tong. But alas, even though I made them, once the cookies baked, I don't think you could tell. Sometimes I also stuck chocolate chips in the top of these cookies -just for the added excitement!
Sugar cookies are my absolute favorite kind of cookie. I love them. And this recipe came out just perfect. I even decorated some of them, to make them extra-special. Ok, my cookies don't look quite like the Christmas cookies that the website has a picture of, but that IS where I got the idea to decorate them from!
Here are the ingredients:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
And here are the directions:
1 Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
2 In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3 Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.
The KEY to making these cookies come out round and perfect, seems to be NOT greasing the pan! Who would've known?! Not me! But I followed the recipe and it worked! It makes sense, because as my roommate Lisa said, the cookies contain so little that the extra grease from the Pam spray (or butter or oil) would've made them dissolve and spread out. Next time I want to make cookies, someone remind me that I don't want to spray the pan!
I debated whether or not to make chocolate chip cookies. But I had the extra time, and really, who makes cookies without making chocolate chip ones? Especially if they're for kids? So I found a recipe that didn't call for butter, because of the massive amounts of margarine used in the other recipes, I was all out - and didn't feel like going back to the store. This recipe comes from Levana Kirshchenbaum's cookbook. She uses vegetable oil instead of butter (or margarine, since thats what I used). I will say that of all three doughs, this one was the most "oily" and thus the most sticky (to my fingers) and the least likely to stay in the round circular shape that I attempted to put them in.
Here are the ingredients - I forgot to take a picture of them, because you know, I was already on my third kind of dough (crazy person that I am):
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups best-quality chocolate chips, the smaller the better
and here are the instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the oil and vanilla and mix in thoroughly. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix at low speed.
Fold in the chips by hand.
3. Drop the dough by heaping teaspoonfuls 1 inch apart onto cookie sheets lined with foil. Bake only one tray at a time. If your cookie sheets are the professional heavy-gauge type, bake the cookies for 10 minutes. If they are lighter, bake for 8 minutes. The cookies will firm up as they cool, so do not be tempted to bake them longer or they will harden.
4. Store the cookies in tin boxes, separating each layer with foil or wax paper so they don't stick.
She says that it yields four dozen cookies. It did not. But perhaps that was because of my inability to roll the dough into the small round balls that I was supposed to. It was just too sticky. Also, I can't believe that I am going to say this, but I think that the recipe called for TOO MANY (can you imagine such a thing?!) chocolate chips. Next time I would put in, at most, 1 cup, but maybe even less.
Here is a picture of the box of cookies that I brought to the kids. Trust me, you don't want to know how many cookies are left in the freezer...But they got very good reviews! Yoav sent some cookies downstairs to a co-worker, and got a text message back saying how good they were! That made me happy :)
Happy Baking!!!
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