25 Delicious Cookie Recipes

Time for this month's roundup!

Sure cookies are the hip thing at Christmas, and around Valentine's Day, but if we are going to be really honest, cookies are good all the time. They have been the bane of my existence since I've learned how to bake, the reason those last 3 stubborn pounds hang on.

Boston Cream Pie Cookies

I think it's time for something fun! Something totally off the wall and different. How about cookies? And make it a cake-y sugar cookie, sandwiched with rich custard infused with vanilla bean, and topped with a luxurious chocolate ganache! 

Wow, these cookies are pretty amazing. As individual parts (i.e. cookie, custard, ganache) they are delicious. Combine them all into one, however, and you have a full-on dessert. I guarantee you won't be eating more than one of these at a time! The hubby and I had to split our first taste-tester. Of course, we were taste-testing before dinner, so neither of us wanted to fill up on cookie. One cookie + a glass of milk= the perfect after dinner dessert.

I'd also like to add that these are probably a weekend cookie. They are labor-intensive, but don't let that scare you. They are worth it. These took the better part of my Saturday to make, but I'm not one to complain about fooling around in the kitchen. In fact, I think I perfectly timed making these cookies. I ended up making the custard while I set my butter and eggs out to soften for the dough. Once the custard was chilling in the fridge, I started on my dough. The dough is super-easy to make, and using my stand mixer, it only took about 15 minutes to get my dough in the fridge to chill. I showered while everything was chilling, and immediately came back to pre-heat the oven. The cookies were all baked and cooling within another 45 minutes. The custard needs a couple of hours to chill in the fridge so by the time I'd made the dough, chilled it, showered, baked and completely cooled all the cookies, it was ready to go. All that was left to do was to make the ganache.

I'd say the ganache took about 15 minutes to make, and it probably took 5 more minutes to drizzle chocolate on the cookies. So, to sum up, I started the cookies at 9 in the morning and by the time I finished cleaning up the fallout, it was 2 pm. As I said before, don't let this scare you! A lot of the time is hands-off (chilling, baking, cooling, etc.) and I was able to multi-task throughout. Indeed, I finished a book, got dinner prepped, took the dogs on a jaunt outside, and painted my toenails in that 5-hour window. A pretty successful day, if you ask me. 

I'd highly recommend trying these cookies. You won't regret it. They'd be great for a potluck or crowd. They'd be great for anyone that likes sugar cookies. Or vanilla bean custard. Or chocolate. Or cream puffs. You know, because these cookies kind of remind me of cream puffs. 

So, unbelievably, I seem to have caught another cold while on the tail-end of my first cold. I started getting a painfully sore throat yesterday, and it's even more sore today. Argh! This is incredibly frustrating. I'm not good at rest, and I've pretty much been resting non-stop for 2 weeks. Thank goodness for 2 things: bird-watching and books. I picked up 2 new suet baskets and a new feeder over the weekend, and the birds are coo-coo for cocoa puffs over the new seed dispensary. It's a tube feeder with 5 actual perches on it. I've caught up to 3 birds on it at the same time. It makes me giggle because it reminds me of people flocking to a bar. A bird bar, if you will (that could just be the cabin fever-induced insanity talking, peeps). I've also been burning through library books during this couple of weeks. I read one of my library books in 1 1/2 days. I literally couldn't put it down. Of course, the hubby did get a new video game for his birthday, so that's given me tons of reading time as well. I've surpassed my New Year's resolution of reading 1 book per month. In fact, my average is 2 books per month right now. Go Jessica!

So, will this be the week I get well? Fingers crossed!

Have a great week everyone!

Ingredients (makes 11 sandwich cookies):

Custard-

1 cup + 3 tbsp almond milk

1/2 vanilla bean

1/4 cup sugar

1/8 tsp salt

3 tbsp cornstarch

2 egg yolks

3-4 drops vanilla extract

Cookies-

1 3/4 sticks of unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs, room temp

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Ganache-

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

up to 2/3 cup half-n-half

Directions:

1. Before making custard, set out butter and eggs for cookie dough.

2. Make the custard: Heat 1 cup almond milk in a medium size pot. Just when it starts to simmer, scrape seeds from vanilla bean into milk. Add vanilla bean pod to milk. Remove from heat, and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Remove vanilla bean pod from pot, and discard. Place back over medium heat, and add sugar and salt. In a small bowl, combine 3 tbsp almond milk with 3 tbsp cornstarch. Whisk to thoroughly combine. While constantly stirring the milk and sugar mixture, slowly pour the cornstarch mixture into the pot. In another small bowl, thoroughly whisk the egg yolks. Slowly stir 1/2 cup of hot milk mixture into egg yolks to temper them. Slowly add egg mixture back to hot milk mixture on the stove. Whisk constantly over medium heat until custard begins to thicken. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla. Strain mixture through a sieve. Place a piece of plastic wrap over completed custard to keep a skin from forming, and place in fridge. Chill for 2-3 hours.

3. Make the dough: In a stand-mixer bowl, combine butter and sugar. Mix until it forms a crumbly mixture. Mix in vanilla. Mix in eggs, one at a time. In a separate bowl, add flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine. Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Mix until well combined. Chill dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

4. Remove dough from fridge. Preheat oven to 350º. Lightly coat 2 cookie sheets with cooking spray. Using a 2-tbsp cookie scoop, roll dough into balls. Place dough 2 inches apart (about 8 cookies to a sheet). Using the bottom of a glass, slightly flatten dough balls. Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for 10 minutes on cookie sheet, them remove them to a cooling rack. Cool completely before moving on to the next step.

5. Place custard in a pastry bag. Pipe about 1 tbsp of custard onto the bottom of 11 of the sugar cookies. Sandwich with another sugar cookie. Place sandwiches on another cookie sheet covered with a piece of parchment paper.

6. Make the ganache: Using a double broiler, place chocolate in bowl. Add 1-2 tbsp of half-n-half and constantly stir while chocolate is melting. Add more half-n-half until chocolate is completely melted and consistency is good for drizzling chocolate onto cookies. Drizzle chocolate as desired onto cookies, allowing chocolate to drip down over cookies. Place completed cookies in fridge and allow to set for 30 minutes before serving. Store cookies in an airtight container and keep in the fridge.

Printable Recipe

Recipe adapted from Eat, Live, Run.

Looking for other cookie recipes? Try these!

Soft and Fluffy Peanut Butter Cookies

S'mores Cookie Sandwiches

Zucchini Cookies

Linked to: Treasure Box Tuesday, Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday

Boston Creme Pie: Round 2

So the hubby requested Boston Creme Pie for his birthday. I had only attempted the Boston once before and the results were less than appetizing. So I was nervous making the cake for Jerame's family but it all turned out for the best. My custard was not overcooked this time and my cakes rose. I did have a snafu with the ganache as my first ganache separated. I had to run the store to get more ganache supplies but my second ganache turned out perfectly! I've made ganache many, many times and I have never had one separate. Oh well, it all worked and the cake was delish!

Infusing the milk with vanilla bean

The finished custard going into the fridge to chill

Cake going into the oven

Cake mess!

The finished cakes cooling

After putting the custard between the cakes

Dark chocolate for the ganache

The finished cake

Ready to eat! Yum!

Jerame's 34th Birthday!

I have been slowly climbing out of the migraine hole, not yet feeling 100%. The migraine came last Friday, knocked me out all weekend, left me in the migraine hangover on Monday and has been hanging on all week! I am not feeling nearly as foggy as I was earlier in the week but definitely still feeling the effects. It is a good thing that I am starting to feel better because yesterday was the hubby's birthday! He had requested his favorite pasta for dinner and Boston Creme Pie for his birthday cake, which of course I obliged. Boston Creme Pie has given me trouble in the past so I am happy to report that I nailed this one! Oh yeah! More on the conquering of that mountain later. We had Jerame's mother and Martha and Ron over for cake and ice cream and then later... Ducks football! Good times were had by all (or so I was told) :)

Jerame's Boston Creme Pie

Jerame and his cake

Jerame, Ron, and Brutus

Cutting the cake

Yum!

Jerame and I in our Game Day gear

We wanted a picture without 70's wallpaper in it, thank you very much

Adventures in Baking

I love to cook. Cooking is fun and relaxing and at the end of the day, you can make some pretty amazing things! I'm a decent cook due to the fact that I can follow a recipe and that I have been cooking long enough that I generally know what tastes go together and how much of what seasoning I should use. Now baking... baking is another story. Baking is all chemistry and chemistry (next to plant biology) was not my strongest subject in my education. Baking is about precise measurements whereas in cooking a heaping tablespoon is not going to kill your dish. Baking is also about precise cooking times and knowing exactly when that little toothpick pulls out "clean". Now I must admit that I have never had the precision of a surgeon or the desire to, which I think makes me better suited to cooking. However, I can't stand not being a good baker so over the past couple of months I have been trying out my hand at baking.

My first concoction was a Boston cream pie. What a lesson! My cakes did not rise, which I later found out was most likely due to the fact that my baking powder was expired. I learned to check my expiration dates on my products. I also over cooked my custard which resulted in the cream part of my pie being somewhat... dry and lumpy. Boo. Another valuable lesson learned. My next project was chocolate chip cupcakes, which actually turned out fantastic! I learned that cupcakes are ALMOST impossible to screw up. Keeping up with the cupcakes, my husband asked me to make Red Velvet cupcakes for his mom's birthday. These also turned out great!

The thing I have learned about cupcakes that makes them almost impossible to mess up is that if you properly cream the butter and sugar, the rest pretty much makes it self. I have found that creaming takes a lot longer than you think it would or should. In fact, a lot longer! But that proper creaming technique makes all the difference in the world and you end up with a light and moist cake. Here is the recipe I used for these wonderful confections-

Ingredients and Preparation:

• 3 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 6 tablespoons red food coloring
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 recipe Creamy Vanilla Frosting (below)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and lightly flour three 9- by 2-inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with waxed paper. To make the cake: In a small bowl, sift the cake flour and set aside. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a small bowl, whisk together the red food coloring, cocoa, and vanilla. Add to the batter and beat well. In a measuring cup, stir the salt into the buttermilk. Add to the batter in three parts alternating with the flour. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overbeat. In a small bowl, stir together the cider vinegar and baking soda. Add to the batter and mix well. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl, making sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth. Divide the batter among the prepared pans. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the layers cool in the pans for 1 hour. Remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack. When the cake has cooled, spread the frosting between the layers, then ice the top and sides of the cake with Creamy Vanilla Frosting (below) .

Creamy Vanilla Icing

• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 In a medium-size saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk until smooth. Place over medium heat and, stirring constantly, cook until the mixture becomes very thick and begins to bubble, 10-15 minutes. Cover with waxed paper placed directly on the surface and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes. In a large bowl, on the medium high speed of an electric mixer, beat the butter for 3 minutes, until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar, beating continuously for 3 minutes until fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat well. Add the cooled milk mixture, and continue to beat on the medium high speed for 5 minutes, until very smooth and noticeably whiter in color. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes (no less and no longer- set a timer!). Use immediately.

I know this sounds like a lot of work but it's worth it!

My happy cupcake customers! Recipe courtesy of www.epicurious.com