Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

I've never made these cookies before. I was really excited to make them because I love making cookies, and they looked pretty easy to make. And they were! I mainly made these because my neighbors bring over fudge every year, and we never know what to give them in return (besides shoveling their driveway) so I made these! My parents were pretty sad that I gave most of them away because they loved them, so I'll definitely make these again. I only adapted the recipe a little bit, but next time I might use chocolate nutella instead of peanut butter. Either way would probably be really good(:

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

recipe adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients

1/2 cup light butter, room temperature

3/4 cup Jiff omega 3 peanut butter

1/3 cup Splenda brown sugar

1/3 cup organic sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons soy milk

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Coating:

1/3 cup organic sugar

Garnish:

48 milk chocolate Kisses, unwrapped

Directions

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Set aside.

In medium bowl with electric mixer, beat the butter. Add peanut butter and sugars and beat until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat to combine. Beat in the milk. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. And to the peanut butter mixture and beat until Incorporated. Cover and chill the batter for about an hour, or until firm enough to roll into balls.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven.

Roll the batter into 1 tablespoon round balls. Place the organic sugar in a shallow bowl and roll each ball in the sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart.

Bake the cooking for about 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned. Immediately upon removing the cookies from the oven, place a chocolate Kiss in the center of each cookie, pressing down until the cookie just starts to crack. Cool completely on wire rack, then put in a sealed container.

Makes about 2 dozen big cookies, or 4 dozen small cookies

Pistachio Pudding Cookies

These are probably the favorite cookies I've made so far. And you really only need four ingredients to make them! My mom's lovess Pistachio and it was her birthday so I wanted to make something Pistachio flavored. First I wanted to make a pistachio cheesecake, then a pistachio layer cake, but I finally decided on the Pistachio cookies. And she loved them!

These cookies are really easy to make and can easily be switched with a different pudding. You can also add any chocolate and nuts to them you want. I added some white chocolate chips and some milk chocolate chips to it. Next time, I think I'll make Vanilla or Cheesecake pudding cookies.

Pistachio Pudding Cookies
recipe adapted from Eggless Cooking

Ingredients
3/4 cup butter, softened
Instant Pistachio Pudding Mix- 1 package (3.4 oz)
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons milk chocolate chips
2 tablespoons white chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 Degrees F

In a small mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, cream butter and pudding mix together until smooth.

Gradually beat in flour.

Fold in chocolate chips.

Grease a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

Take a tablespoon of dough and drop it on the baking sheet sheet 2 inches apart.

Bake for 10-13 minutes until light golden brown.

Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet 5 minutes. Then transfer to cooling rack and let cool completely before transferring to airtight container.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Yay more pumpkin recipes! I've been finding even more ways to use pumpkin. I usually use them in desserts, but lately I've been thinking about using them in main dishes. There's lots more pumpkin recipes to come, I want to try them all before the season is over.

I've always wanted to make whoopie pies. The name sounds fun and they always look really good. I've made sandwich cookies before but they were the hard kind that aren't good after they harden too much. This cookie is great because it's almost cake-like. It's very soft and it never gets hard. This was also another great way to use pumpkin! The recipe called for 3 cups of pumpkin but I only used two cups and it was still delicious. Everyone loved them and I'm sure they'll be gone soon ;)

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

recipe from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

for the cookies

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 cup canola oil

3 cups chilled pumpkin puree

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

for the cream cheese filling:

3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

To make the pumpkin cookies, preheat oven to 350 Degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (I used aluminum foil). In large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Set aside. In separate bowl, whisk sugar and oils together. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk to combine thoroughly. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the pumpkin mixture and whisk until completely combined. (Batter should be smooth. Not doughy.)

Use a small ice cream scoop to drop pumpkin mixture onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on pan for 4 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining pumpkin mixture.

To make the filling, in a bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter until smooth with no visible lumps. Add the cream cheese and beat until combined. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth. Be careful to not over beat the filling or it will lose structure.

To assemble, turn half of the cookies upside down. Pipe filling onto the flat side of the overturned cookies. Place another cookie, flat side down, on top of the filling. Press down slightly so that the filling spreads to the edge of the cookie. Repeat until all the cookies are used. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Yield: about 21 sandwich cookies

Whole wheat chocolate chip cookies

These are maybe the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had. No seriously. And that's saying a lot because I've had a lot of good cookies. But for some reason, I usually prefer the store bought kind. Why? Because the one's that are homemade are always flat, dry, hard, and tasteless. Which is another reason why I buy store bought cookie dough and eat it without baking it. And it sure is good.

On my hunt for the perfect chocolate chip cookies, I literally looked everywhere until I found the perfect recipe. Chocolate chip cookies are a pretty delicate thing that is meant to be perfect. When i found this one, I knew it was right. It's a very unique recipe that uses yeast in the recipe! And when I made the cookies, they were a hit too. My parents loved them and begged me to make them again and I liked them too! My mom even brought them to her work to share with everyone and they were a hit there too. If you want perfect chocolate chip cookies, you should make these.

Whole wheat chocolate chip cookies

adapted from Sugar Plum

Ingredients

1/2 cup salted sweet cream butter

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1/4 cup salted sweet cream butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

8 oz semisweet chocolate

Directions

Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter, whisking frequently, until it starts to brown and foam, about 2-3 minutes. Set aside.

In medium bowl, mix flour and baking soda. Stir in yeast and salt until combined.

In large bowl, using a mixer at medium speed, beat softened butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until well combined and grainy. Beat in browned butter for 1 minute. Beat in eggs and vanilla until well combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually beat in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate. Chill dough in refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Generously butter a cookie sheet. Drop 1/4 cup measures of dough onto cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown around edges. Cool 2 min before transferring to wire racks. Cool 10 minutes before putting into sealed container.

Snickerdoodles

Let me just say these are probably the best snickerdoodles i've ever had. This was my first time making them so i wasn't sure what to expect. They're really easy to make! I was glad this recipe didn't call for the cream of tarter, it might have ruined the recipe. These cookies are perfectly moist in the middle and they're the right size too! The only thing I would do differently next time is cutting the cinnamon sugar part in half. I was left over with a lot of cinnamon sugar.

Snickerdoodles

from Cooking Light

Ingredients:

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine 3/4 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, and butter in medium bowl. Beat with mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and egg. Set aside.

Lightly spoon flour in measuring cup. Level with knife. Combine flour, baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, beat until just combined. Shape dough into balls.

Combine 1/3 cup sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon in a small shallow dish. Roll balls in sugar mixture and place 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes or until tops crack. Cool on baking sheet for 1 minute. Remove from pans and cool on wire rack.