Chocolate Cherry Promises

 

If you're looking for a perfect treat for Valentine's Day next week, look no further. I made these back in December, so the Dove Promises available at that time had snowflakes on them, but in stores now, you can get heart-shaped Dove Promises. The hearts, coupled with the pink and red colors in these cookies, would scream Valentine's Day, whether you need something for your own loved one, to send into the classroom with your child, or to drown your own sorrows in. I don't judge.

These are basically a shortbread-like base, trashed up with chopped up maraschino cherries and cherry juice. The chocolates (I prefer milk chocolate here) are the perfect finishing touch. You could certainly use Hershey's Kisses too, which is actually what the original recipe called for, but I like the seasonal touch, plus these are easier to stack if you need to take them somewhere. And, I just really adore Dove chocolate more than any other brand! If you need to take these somewhere shortly after making them, you might want to stick them in the fridge to cool. The heat from the cookies makes the chocolate very soft and while it will hold its shape if left alone and allowed to harden up again, if you touch or try to stack them too soon, the chocolate will completely melt and blob all over.

Chocolate Cherry Promises
Recipe from The Curvy Carrot

Ingredients
2 sticks butter, softened, but still slightly cool
1 cup powdered sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp maraschino cherry juice
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup maraschino cherries, chopped
Granulated sugar, for sprinkling the cookies (optional)
36 Dove Promises (or other chocolate candies), unwrapped

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Beat the butter at medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Reduce the speed to the lowest setting and slowly add the powdered sugar and salt. Add the cherry juice and the almond extract until combined. With the mixer still on low, slowly add the flour, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Increase the mixer speed to medium and add the cherries.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls, and place the balls on a baking sheet, approximately 2 inches apart. If you'd like a little extra sweetness you can either sprinkle sugar on top of the balls or roll them in sugar. Bake the cookies until the bottoms are lightly browned, about 14 minutes.

Once removed from the oven, press a chocolate candy into each cookie’s center. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
 

Nana's Crescent Cookies

Today is my dad's birthday. I'm not sure he's ever read this blog, but I'll give him a shout-out anyway. Happy Birthday, Dad! Five or six years ago, I found out that his favorite cookies are these crescents that my grandmother used to make many years ago. So I got the recipe from my aunt and have made these cookies and mailed them to him for his birthday every year since. He's not one to ever want gifts, so this is a nice, somewhat sentimental way to let him know I'm thinking of him.

These cookies are very similar to what you might know as Mexican Wedding Cookies or Russian Tea Cakes or any number of other names, but in my family, they're simply called Nana's Crescent Cookies. Of course she had to be difficult and make the cookies into a crescent shape rather than a much easier ball/circle. Even after all these years, I still have not perfected the crescent shape all that well, but I don't think my dad minds too much!

The tricky part about these cookies is getting them at the right temperature before rolling them in the powdered sugar. If they're completely cool, the sugar doesn't always stick as well. If they're too warm, the sugar sort of melts into the cookie, almost disappearing and making them a bit sticky. This is nearly always the trap I fall into, and I find myself having to roll them in the sugar a second time, after they've cooled a little more, to coat them and cut down the stickiness. One of these years, I'll get it right. But until then, my dad's worth the extra work!

Nana's Crescent Cookies

2 sticks butter, softened
5 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp water
½ tsp salt
2 cups flour
2 cups pecans, finely chopped
Powdered sugar, for rolling (about 1/2 - 3/4 cup)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Cream the butter in a mixing bowl until fluffy and then add sugar and mix until combined. Add vanilla and water and mix well. On low speed, add salt and flour and mix until it's all incorporated. Stir in chopped pecan pieces.

Form into crescents (or balls if you don't have tradition standing in your way!) and bake for about 20 minutes until the bottoms and edges are starting to brown. I scooped about a one inch ball of dough to make each of my crescents and got almost 50 cookies out of the batch.

Allow cookies to cool a bit and while still slightly warm but easy to handle, roll in powdered sugar and move to a rack to finish cooling completely. If necessary, roll them in the powdered sugar again once totally cool.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle

Chocolate chip cookies that you don't even have to scoop or shape into individual balls? And that contain no egg, so you can safely eat the raw dough? Doesn't get much better than that! I'd be willing to bet that at this moment, you likely have all the ingredients you need to make this, which is equal parts awesome and dangerous. That's how I settled on making these. I had pinned the recipe a couple of years ago, but never got around to making it until this past New Year's Eve. I needed to bring a dessert to a party I was going to, but I was in the midst of my do-nothing-but-watch-Sons-of-Anarchy multi-day stretch and I really really really didn't want to go to the grocery store. So as I was skimming my Pinterest boards for inspiration, this looked like the best option that would allow me to avoid leaving my house until it was time to go to the party. Sometimes my laziness works out, because these were so good and I'm glad I finally made them!

A word of warning to you - you might want to use a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with sides. All of my cookie sheets have perfectly flat edges and while, without eggs or leavening ingredients, the dough didn't spread TOO much, it spread just enough for a little bit of it to drop over the side and burn onto the bottom of my oven. So I am now greeted with a burning smell and a bit of smoke every time I use my oven. Yes, I should clean it. But please see the above paragraph about my extreme laziness.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle
Recipe adapted only slightly from Piece of Cake

1 cup butter, melted and cooled a bit2 tsp pure vanilla extract1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour the melted butter into a large bowl, and stir in the vanilla. Add the sugar, salt and flour and mix to combine - no electric mixer needed! The mixture might be a little crumbly, but that's ok. Stir in the chocolate chips. Press the dough into a thin, even layer onto a large ungreased cookie sheet. You don't have to fill the entire sheet - use the chocolate chips as your guide and try to get them into a single layer, then you'll know you made the dough thin enough.

Bake for 20 - 24 minutes, until light golden brown (the edges will be a bit darker than the center). Let cool completely before breaking into pieces. I used a pizza wheel to cut it up and it just sort of cracked naturally into different size pieces. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Sometimes the things I cook or bake are just meant to be. On the day after I made my Slow Cooker Pumpkin Oatmeal, I felt like baking something and thought a pumpkin cookie of some sort would be just the thing. I searched a number of recipes and finally found one that called for one cup of pumpkin puree, the exact amount I had left after the oatmeal. It was pumpkin destiny. Even more perfect was that I still had some Cinnamon Brown Butter Frosting left in the fridge from my Apple Spice Cupcakes. I had a feeling that frosting would go very well with these pumpkin cookies.

So I scooped out a dozen balls of cookie dough just as is, with the intention of frosting them once cool. I then added some chocolate chips, about half a cup or so, to the rest of the dough to make some chocolate chip pumpkin cookies. Two different cookies, one base recipe. So quick and easy, and so delicious. The pumpkin makes the cookies very soft and moist. I hate the word "moist" but it's really the best word to describe these cookies! If kept in an airtight container, the cookies stay very soft and in fact get even softer over time. If you prefer a more dense cookie, I would probably just keep them on a plate wrapped in foil.

These cookies (and the frosting) freeze very well. I made the cookies over two weeks ago, and I am eating a frosted one as I type this. I let it sit out at room temperature for about 10 minutes to thaw and it's just as delicious as it was the first night I made them.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients 
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or use 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and 1/2 tsp cloves)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
Chocolate chips, optional (I would use a cup of chips if adding chocolate to the whole batch)

Directions 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt; set aside. 

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla to butter/sugar mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Add chocolate chips, if using. Portion out onto cookie sheets. I used a two tablespoon cookie scoop and got about 30 cookies out of the recipe.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, then allow to cool completely. If adding frosting, wait until cookies are cool to do so.


Cinnamon Brown Butter Frosting
Recipe from My Kitchen Addiction

Ingredients

8 ounces (1 cup) brown butter

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 cups confectioners sugar

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon of half and half

- See more at: http://www.mykitchenaddiction.com/2010/09/baking-with-brown-butter-wfmw/#sthash.UYdtR8OP.dpuf1 cup (two sticks) brown butter*

2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla 
6 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk (I needed slightly more to get it to the right consistency)

*To make brown butter, add two sticks of butter to a saucepan over low to medium-low heat. Allow butter to melt and cook, stirring frequently, until it turns an amber color and develops an almost-nutty fragrance. Keep a close eye on it - it can go from brown to burnt very quickly! Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Directions:
Pour the brown butter into the bowl of a standing mixer. Add cinnamon and vanilla and mix until combined. Gradually add in the powdered sugar until it is incorporated. Add the milk in as needed to allow the frosting to come to a smooth consistency suitable for spreading or piping.