Chewy Sugar Cookies

This weekend I had to go to a memorial service of a young 40 y/o man from high school. He was a young man with a very sweet little girl. I didn't have words to say but I have my gift of baking so I made cookies for the service. These Chewy Sugar Cookies from America's Test Kitchen came out perfect to fill bellies. 

Ingredients

2¼	cups (11¼ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
½	teaspoon baking soda
1	teaspoon baking powder
½	teaspoon table salt
1½	cups (10½ ounces) sugar, plus ⅓ cup for rolling
2	ounces cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces
6	tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, melted and still warm
⅓	cup vegetable oil
1	large egg
1	tablespoon milk
2	teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. Set aside. Place 1½ cups sugar and cream cheese in large bowl. Place remaining ⅓ cup sugar in shallow baking dish or pie plate and set aside. Pour warm butter over sugar and cream cheese and whisk to combine (some small lumps of cream cheese will remain but will smooth out later). Whisk in oil until incorporated. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; continue to whisk until smooth. Add flour mixture and mix with rubber spatula until soft homogeneous dough forms. Divide dough into 24 equal pieces, about 2 tablespoons each (or use #40 portion scoop). Using hands, roll dough into balls. Working in batches, roll balls in reserved sugar to coat and evenly space on prepared baking sheet, 12 dough balls per sheet. Using bottom of drinking glass, flatten dough balls until 2 inches in diameter. Sprinkle tops evenly with 4 teaspoons of sugar remaining in shallow dish (2 teaspoons per tray), discarding any remaining sugar. Bake, 1 tray at a time, until edges are set and just beginning to brown, 11 to 13 minutes, rotating tray after 7 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes. Using wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack and cool to room temperature.

ALEXIS NOTES: I ran out of cream cheese so I used a trick of cottage cheese and milk. I also ran out of oil so I used Olive oil. I found my first batch made cookies that spread and were not the best looking. I made a second batch and added a 1/2 cup of flour, along with putting the batter in fridge for 30 minutes to firm up and bam better!

I sat with a few friends from high school and made them my test subjects and they said they were so most and delicious.

Enjoy I promise these will be a hit!

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Beach Themed Party Food ... Sand & Sea Cookies

One more fun recipe made for the beach theme! These were simple sugar cookies just half was died blue, well a little more than half I didn't measure that well .. lol. I saw this idea on The Simple Parent, she used jello to color and flavor her cookies I love my AmeriColor food gel (no taste and a beautiful color).

What you Need:

Sugar Cookies (see recipe below)

AmeriColor Food Color Blue (or Jello like she did)

Half your recipe to keep one half the white (cream color) and then add food coloring to your mixer and mix to the perfect blue color. Take a ball of white and a ball of blue and roll them together! Bake like normal and tada Sand & Sea Cookies! My second batch got a little brown due to the kids were requesting things and I spaced on the cookies in the oven (still yummy just darker then I like).

Enjoy!!!

I started out with a Sugar cookie found on All Recipes, dubbed The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Pokemon Ball Sugar Cookies

And we continue with the Pokemon party items.  Since we had the party at Bass Pro Shop Bowling they didn't allow outside food like I usually do.  I found things to put into the treat bags I made. I saw a friend of a friend post a Pokemon party and they had a version of cookies and I thought I could make a version of these and put them in the bags!

I made my favorite sugar cookie recipe, decorated them and put them in clear bags that I then tied with ribbon and put in the treat bags. I did one cookie per bag, I could have eaten every one if they stayed in my house .. lol.

What You Need:

Sugar Cookie Dough

Circle Cookie Cutter

Red Melts

Black Melts (Mine didn't melt nicely so I used dark brown melts)

White Chocolate Chips

Clear Treat Bag (Dollar Tree 40pk $1)

Ribbon (Dollar Tree $1)

Roll out your dough and cut out the circles. I like thick cookies! I let the cookies cool, then I started to decorate. I melted red Wilton Candy Melts (1min 30 sec in microwave) then dipped half the cookie in.  I let the red harden  and the added the line and the white chocolate chip for the middle circle. I melted Wilton Candy Melts in dark brown to make the line (my black was clumping). Once the cookies had dried I put them into a small clear treat bag and tied with a ribbon. Into the bag they went!

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Sugar Cookie Recipe if you would like:

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Citrus Slice Cookies ... Summer Time Cookies

My next try for a slice cookie was for these ones I found on Betty Crocker.  The watermelon cookies I featured yesterday were easy and a piece of cake compared to these. LOL I mean really I thought it would be easy enough but they were a pain and I was happy to be done with them ... hehe.  But they were cute and the people at our family reunion really enjoyed them.

I used Americolor Electric Yellow Food Coloring and Electric Orange Food Coloring.  I found yellow sugar at Hobby Lobby but couldn't find orange so I mixed a little food coloring to coarse sugar.

1

cup unsalted butter, softened

1

cup sugar

1

teaspoon vanilla

2

eggs

3

cups Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour

Dash salt

Grated peel from 1 orange (about 1 1/2 tablespoons)

1

teaspoon orange extract

Yellow and red liquid food color

Grated peel from 2 lemons (2 to 3 teaspoons)

1

teaspoon lemon extract

Orange and yellow sanding sugar

• On work surface, shape dough into a ball. Divide into 3 equal portions. Return one-third of dough to bowl; beat in orange peel, orange extract and drops of yellow and red food color until orange color is consistent. Remove dough from bowl; cover with plastic wrap.
• Clean bowl; add another one-third portion of dough. Beat in lemon peel, lemon extract and drops of yellow food color until yellow color is consistent. Remove dough from bowl; cover with plastic wrap.
• Leave remaining one-third of dough plain; cover with plastic wrap.
• Refrigerate all dough portions 1 hour.
• Shape each portion of tinted dough into a roll about 5 inches long and 2 1/2 inches in diameter; set aside. On lightly floured work surface, roll plain dough into a rectangle. Place roll of orange dough on plain dough. Roll plain dough in a single layer around orange dough. Cut away excess dough; reserve for yellow dough.
• Place orange sanding sugar on plate; roll dough log in sugar until completely coated. Wrap sugar-coated dough log in plastic wrap; refrigerate. Repeat process with lemon dough, remaining plain dough and yellow sanding sugar. Refrigerate dough logs at least 4 hours.
• Heat oven to 400°F. Line cookie sheets with cooking parchment paper.
• Cut chilled logs into 1/8- to 1/4-inch-thick rounds. With back edge of knife, score “segment” lines into each round, making only indentations (do not go all the way through). Cut rounds in half; place on cookie sheets.
• Bake 6 to 8 minutes or until set. Remove cookies from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely.

The cookies made:

Thanks for stopping by

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Themed Cookies ... Circus Animal Sugar Cookies

I saw this yummy Circus Animal Sugar Cookies recipe on I Dig Pinterest on a blog hop a while back and had to give it a try.  Oh man are these cookies good, so good that I had to actually send them out of my house and to my friend so I would not sit and eat everyone.  They are really sweet so most people could stop at one but not this girl .. lol.  Knowing my weakness I did what any good friend would do and give to her friend .. lol, she has kids at the house so I knew she wouldn't be tempted like me and if she was she could have the kids eat them .. lol.

1 c. sugar

1 c. shortening

1 egg

3/4 tsp. almond flavoring

2 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. (or a little more if you'd like) Circus Animal Cookies, coarsely chopped

1 c. white chocolate chips for drizzling (or Wilton White Melts)

Cream together sugar and shortening.  Add egg and almond flavoring and mix once again.  In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.  Add to wet mixture and mix until combined.  Stir in Circus Animal Cookies.  No need to chill the dough! Form into round balls, put on cookie sheet, then flatten with a fork while using your other hand to keep the dough together.  Sprinkle sugar over the tops of them and bake at 350 for exactly 8 minutes.  Don't overbake!  Let sit on cookie sheet for a few minutes, then remove to a cooling rack.  When cool, drizzle with melted white chocolate chips.

ALEXIS NOTES: I used 1/2 a bag of Wilton White Melts instead of chocolate chips, they melt nicer and I like the taste better (I buy mine at Walmart cheap).  I used my ninja to chop up the cookies, made them a little smaller then I would have liked.  Next time I'll do the zip-lock bag full with a rolling pin.  Also make sure you cut a small hole for pipping the white chocolate.  Mine was a little too large which didn't make my cookies as pretty as her's.  Or I could always use a piping bag with a small tip, but I was being lazy and didn't want clean my pipping bag and tip.

I found the animal cookies when I was buying treats for the kids and thought of this recipe and knew it would just be perfect to try it out!  I got rave reviews on these cookies from my friend and her family, along with my grabby little hand that kept going back for more!!

Wouldn't these be fun for a Baby Shower or heck just because!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Themed Cookies ... Happy St. Patrick's Day - Shamrock Cookies

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  One last treat made for the Boys Classmates.  This was simple just a little time consuming.  I've made a version of these cookies as Pumpkins and Hearts.  NOW to find a shamrock cookie cutter took me going to EIGHT stores, who knew they would be so hard to find.  THEN of course I couldn't find one big and one small.  So on to Amazon I went to find a set of 3 Shamrock cutters. A little spendy but I was desperate, don't tell my husband .. lol.  He thinks I over do it and shouldn't do all these things for the kids school, I tell him I only have a few more years before they won't take to baked goodies.

I started out with a Sugar cookie found on All Recipes, dubbed The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

After I let the dough chill for an hour I took 1/3 and left it white.  2/3 I took Kelly Green Wilton Icing Color to color the dough the right shade of green.  I rolled out the dough and cut my large shamrock cookies.  I then took a smaller shamrock to cut out the centers, make sure you be careful to make sure the dough is on the sides of each side.  I then rolled out the 2nd color and cut out smaller shamrock shapes.  I inserted a smaller shamrock of the 2nd color into the large shamrock.  I baked them for 7 minutes and then let them cool on a rack.  See below for a step by step picture.  

I had extra green left over so I made some large green shamrocks that I baked also.

I love doing these two tone cookies, they always make me smile.  They look so special and really not too much work but I think look like a million bucks!  I mixed it up with green on the outside and then white on the outside.  

Any St. Patrick Day Plans?

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

We all need something sweet .... Peek-a-boo Pumpkin Shaped Sugar Cookies

I saw on a blog or Pinterest a while back these really cool cookies that had a heart with in a heart (a big hear with a smaller heart a different color).  It got me thinking why not make these for Halloween   WELL that was my plan to do a pumpkin with a black bat in the middle.  WELL Halloween came and went so I had to go to a back up plan.  I still wanted to try it and make some cookies for the tutor.  So why not a pumpkin with in a pumpkin?  So I hit up my box of 101 cookie cutters and found a large pumpkin and then I have a Martha Stewart small cookie cutter set and found a small pumpkin cutter.

I found Michelle's Soft Sugar Cookies on AllRecipes.com, they were very soft and fluffy. And tasted pretty darn good, not too sweet!

I had extra white left over so I made a few snowflakes.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup margarine 1 1/2 cups white sugar 3 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons cream of tartar 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Cream the margarine and add the sugar gradually. Beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition.
2.	Stir in the vanilla. Add the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt gradually to the creamed mixture, stirring in by hand. Cover and chill dough overnight.
3.	Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
4.	Roll dough out on a floured surface to 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick and cut into your favorite shapes. Place cookies onto the prepared baking sheets.
5.	Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 6 to 8 minutes or until cookie has a golden appearance.

Now onto the Pumpkins:

First I started with the sugar cookie recipe.  I took about 1/3 of the dough and set it aside since I was going to keep it white.  Then I took the 2/3 left and kneaded in some Orange Wilton Icing Color.  I find this is the best way to color anything from fondant to dough.  Once I got the orange I wanted I rolled out the dough.  I took my large pumpkin and cut out the cookies.  I then took my smaller pumpkin and cut out the middle of my cookie.  I set these aside and then took the white dough (now if I was doing the black bats I would be dying the dough black).  I rolled the white dough out and took the small pumpkin to cut out small pumpkins to go inside the big pumpkin (see picture below).  I then put the small pumpkin in the big pumpkin (almost like a puzzle piece) and lightly made the two edges stick together.  Bake like normal and rest on a cooling rack or eat right away :).

 Here's a Step by Step to help show my rambling above:

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE. 

Ready for a Touch Down .... Football Helmet Men (or to be PC I should say People right?? LOL)

Next on our list is some super cute Football Helmet men/people (LOL I'm so not a good PC person).  These Cute little Helmet Men I found on Spoonful (one of my favorite places to go for ideas).  For their men they used pre-made cookies, Most of you know me and know I rather just make my own.  So I found a yummy recipe for Knockoff Swig Sugar Cookies (aka literally the best cookie known to man) on Vintage Revivals site.   Those where their words but I did take a taste and they are pretty darn good.  Since I'm at a standstill with my diet I've decided I'm going to eat right with some little pleasures and keep on exercising and see what happens (1 1/2 years on this diet and I need a break ... ok enough about me). 

Here are the men I made 

(I ran out of red Wilton Icing Color used Maroon so it was a little on pink side):

For Cookies:

Ingredients:

1 C Butter (room temperature)
3/4 C Vegetable Oil
1 1/4 C Sugar
3/4 C Powdered Sugar
2 T Water
2 Eggs
1/2 t Baking Soda
1/2 t Cream of Tarter
1 t Salt
5 1/2 C Flour

Cream together Butter, Vegetable Oil, Sugars, Water, and Eggs. Combine dry ingredients and slowly add to butter mixture. Mix until everything is combined.  Your dough should be a little crumbly and not sticky at all.  Roll a golf ball sized ball of dough and place it on your cookie sheet.  Put 1/4 c of sugar and a pinch of salt in a dish (this is in addition to the sugar and salt listed above.)  Stick the bottom of a glass in it.  This is going to be your cookie press. Firmly press it into the center of your dough ball.  You want your dough to spill out over the sides of the glass.  If there is a lip its even better.  Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.  They should just barely be browning on the bottom.    Move cookies to a cooling rack.  Once they are cool put them in the fridge.

Alexis Notes: Instead of rolling into balls.  I rolled my dough out and then used my circle cutter to make sure all the men where the same size and shape.  For the top part the helmet I took a knife and cut out a square where the face would show through (see picture below to see shape, this was the only part that wasn't uniformed in shape, since I free handed each one). 

 For Men:

What you'll need

• Large, soft cookies (we used Archway oatmeal cookies)
• Frosting
• Food coloring
• M&M's Minis
• Black decorator gel
• Black licorice

How to make it

To make each one, first spread a thin layer of frosting on a large, soft cookie. Cut a square from a second cookie to create a helmet shape and set it atop the first.

Coat the helmet with frosting tinted the color of your family's favorite team, then add eyes (M&M's Minis with black decorators' gel dots), a black string licorice face mask, and 2 more M&M's Minis for the helmet's ear holes.

1. 
   

Alexis Notes: As mentioned above I made the cookies instead of pre-made ones. I used Wilton Icing Color tried my red didn't have enough so I used my maroon and got pink oh well! I used black icing gel for eyes and cut strips of Wilton licorice for the face mask.  I skipped the helmet ear holes.

Another simple one to make!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.