Stamped Cookies #22 - Lemon Shortbread

Stamped Cookies #22: Lemon Shortbread - made August 30, 2022 from Brown Bag Cookie Company

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

1 cup all-purpose flour

1. Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and lemon peel, creaming until well combined. Add the flour and mix until combined.
2. Shape into prepared molds or stamp with cookie stamps, lightly dusted with powdered sugar. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Bake for 12-15 minutes, depending on the size of your mold, or until lightly golden brown at the edges.

Remember the Brown Bag Cookie company? They made large-ish cookie molds where you're supposed to fill it with dough and tap out the molded impressions. I'm not sure if they're still in business as their molds were somewhat expensive, larger than most cookies people-who-are-not-me would eat and it wasn't always easy to tap out the molded cookie intact. Then the rise of silicone molds probably hurt their business as well since silicone molds are easier to take cookie dough out of and are cheaper. I don't really use either as I prefer to use cookie stamps.

Such as this citrus set from Nordic Ware. I bought these months ago when there wasn't a cookie stamp I didn't like. But I haven't used them until now when I *had* to use them with this lemon shortbread recipe. I'm glad I waited as this was an excellent cookie, good texture, pure lemon flavor which comes from the lemon zest so don't skimp on that if you're a lemon lover. It seems fitting to match the citrus flavor of the shortbread with the citrus stamps. Next time I'm going to try these with orange zest.

Emily Luchetti's Blondies

Blondies - made August 18, 2022 from The Fearless Baker by Emily Luchetti

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 9 x 9-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar together until smooth. Scrape down the sides sand bottom of bowl to keep mixture even textured. Beat in egg then vanilla extract. Add the flour, baking powder and salt, mixing until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. 
3. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs or clean and top is a light golden brow, about 30 minutes. Cool completely before cutting.

Since I'm still trying to eke out my dwindling supply of unsweetened chocolate, I've switched to trying out more blondie recipes, especially from my existing baking book collection. I'm not a huge blondie fan. Most of them are essentially brown sugar bar cookies without chocolate.

I did like Alice Medrich's version though and thought I'd try out this one from Emily Luchetti. Unlike Alice's version, this one didn't call for rum and while I thought I might try adding a dash, I refrained so I could make this as it was originally intended to be. Except that went out the window as I decided to swap out the chocolate chips called for in the original recipe and substituted white chocolate instead.

This was okay (remember my picky taste buds where "okay" to me might be greeted with more enthusiasm by someone else). But it was okay in terms of being a nice cakey brown sugar bar cookie. The white chocolate adds considerably to the flavor profile so if you prefer "real chocolate", use semisweet or milk chocolate chips instead of white chocolate.

But now that Alice Medrich has spoiled my taste buds with rum, I think I will lean towards adding rum into blondie recipes to kick up the flavor profile.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Chocolate Chunk Cookies - made dough August 12, 2022 from The Essence of Chocolate by John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup bread flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

16 tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

9 ounces 70% bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chip-size chunks

2 1/2 ounces 41% milk chocolate, chopped into chip-size chunks  

1. In a medium bowl, stir together all-purpose flour, bread flour, baking soda and salt.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium speed for about 5 minutes or until pale, light and fluffy. Scrape down the bottom and sides of bowl to keep mixture even textured.
3. Beat in eggs and vanilla, mixing until combined. Reduce the speed to low and add the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined, scraping the sides and bottom of bowl as needed.
4. Fold in chocolate chunks until evenly distributed. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls. Cover and chill or freeze several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls. Bake for 15 minutes or until edges are golden and middles no longer look raw. Let rest on baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

After baking multiple counts (think in the hundreds, if not thousands) of chocolate chip cookies, and trying out many, many different recipes for them, I put chocolate chip cookie recipes in two categories.

There's the awesome, great, amazing category that make thick, chewy cookies with crisp edges, soft middles, melt-y chocolate chips, a texture you can really sink your teeth into and a brown sugar caramelization only a truly great chocolate chip cookie can deliver. Many of the Crumbl and Levain Bakery copycats I've tried fall into this category as does the most recent one I've tried from Baking with Blondie.

Then there's the other category that I would consider the more basic Nestle Tollhouse-back-of-the-bag recipe type of cookie. It doesn't mean it's bad but, thousands of cookies later, I don't find them to be that special. They're either too thin for my taste or not thick enough. When cool, they taste okay but tend to have a dry mouthfeel, even if not overbaked. 

Unfortunately, this one falls into that latter category. It was okay but nothing special, not thick enough, not brown-sugar-caramelized enough and the texture was, again, "just okay". 

Soft Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Soft Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough August 7, 2022 from Butternut Bakery

2/3 cup (90 g) all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups (130 g) old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (130 g) creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup (110 g) unsalted butter, room temp (vegan or dairy)

1/2 cup (100 g) dark brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup (55 g) granulated sugar

2 tablespoons unsweetened apple sauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (vegan or regular)

Flaky sea salt for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar and sugar until no butter lumps remain. Add peanut butter and cream until well combined. Mix in the apple sauce and vanilla.
3. Add the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder and salt; mix to combine. Fold in chocolate chips.
4. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, portion the cookie dough into dough balls. Flatten slightly. Evenly space on baking sheets. 
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges are a very light golden brown and middles are set. Remove from oven and garnish with additional chocolate chips, pressing gently over tops. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt if desired.

These are exactly as advertised - they're soft, they're peanut butter and they have chocolate chips. 

If you like those things, this is a good cookie to make. Peanut butter cookies tend to be a bit fragile but the oatmeal makes this a little more sturdy. This does still have a soft chewiness to it rather than a crispness so it delivers well on its title.

The dough was easy to make and this bakes well from frozen dough; no need to thaw before baking. It doesn't spread too much and the oats give it a hearty chewiness.

I'm not a big fan of peanut butter but made this for Soldiers Angels care packages as I figure the deployed military service members could get some enjoyment from that combination of peanut butter, oats and chocolate. For myself, my favorite recipe from Butternut Bakery still remains her Chewy Sugar Cookies.

Milk Chocolate Brownies

Milk Chocolate Brownies - made August 20, 2022 from Chef Lindsay Farr 

10 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 ounces milk chocolate

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 ounces milk chocolate, chopped

Milk Chocolate Ganache

4 1/2 ounces milk chocolate

2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8 baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder and salt; set aside.
3. In the top half of a double boiler set over hot water, melt butter and 2 ounces milk chocolate. Whisk until completely melted and smooth.
4. Add granulated sugar to melted chocolate mixture, whisking to combine. Add the vanilla and eggs, whisking until completely incorporated and smooth. Stir the dry ingredients into the melted chocolate mixture, stirring until combined. Fold in the remaining chopped milk chocolate.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing the top with a small metal spatula. Bake 25-30 minutes or until top is set and a toothpick inserted near the middle comes out with a few moist crumbs.
6. Milk Chocolate Ganache: in the top half of a double boiler set over hot water, melt milk chocolate and heavy cream, stirring until combined, completely melted and smooth.
7. When the brownies have cooled for 10 minutes out of the oven, spread ganache in an even layer over the top. Refrigerate until set. 

Although these are titled Milk Chocolate Brownies, my rendition didn't turn out very milk chocolatey. It was more like a dark chocolate. That's because I used a rich dark cocoa which likely overwhelmed the small amount of melted milk chocolate in the batter. I also didn't make the milk chocolate ganache to pour over it since I was mailing these out in care packages. Instead, I added milk chocolate chips (turned upside down for easier packaging) on top before baking.

Regardless, I thought these turned out well, nice and fudgy with a good rich chocolate flavor. It still doesn't unseat my favorite brownie recipe but it remains triple digit temps where I live so I'm still being parsimonious with using my dwindling supply of unsweetened chocolate. But summer heat has to end sometime (!) and the minute it cools down, I can place an online order and stock up without worrying the chocolate will melt en route or at delivery. Meanwhile, I'm testing out more cocoa-powder-based brownie recipes.

Levain Bakery-Style Oatmeal Scotchie Cookies by The Domestic Rebel

Levain-Bakery Style Oatmeal Scotchie Cookies - made dough July 30, 2022 from The Domestic Rebel

1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cubed

1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed (172 grams)

1/2 cup granulated sugar (95 grams)

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup cake flour

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats

2 cups all-purpose flour (253 grams)

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 cups butterscotch chips

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the cold butter cubes, brown sugar and granulated sugar on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to keep the mixture even textured, increase the speed for medium and beat for 30 seconds. Increase the speed to medium high and beat for another 30 seconds until light and fluffy. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.
2. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla extract, mixing until just combined after each addition.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together cake flour, oats, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt and ground cinnamon, Add dry ingredients in two additions, mixing on low speed after each addition. Stir in the butterscotch chips. Chill dough for 15 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 410 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Measure out 6 ounces of dough and form into a loosely packed dough ball, repeating with remaining dough. Place 4 dough balls evenly spaced on prepared baking sheet. Bake one sheet at a time for 11 - 14 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets for 30 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

I'm not normally a huge butterscotch fan as I often find the flavor too sweet but I have to admit, few things smell better than anything with butterscotch chips added to it. These cookies smelled divine when they were baking.

I'm happy to say they also tasted as good as they smelled. Butterscotch chips are still a little too sweet for me but they worked well in this cookie, paired with the oats to tone down the sweetness. They were also complemented well with the brown sugar caramelization of the cookie itself.

I didn't make mine the size of Levain Bakery cookies so they weren't as thick as they could be/should have been but they worked well as normal-size cookies and were easy to package up for shipping.

Chocolate Chip Cookies from Baking with Blondie

Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough August 13, 2022 from Baking with Blondie

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cubed

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, cold

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (can use half cake flour; I used 1 cup cake flour, 2 1/2 cups all-purpose)

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup large chocolate chips

1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

sea salt for garnish, optional

1. Preheat oven to 410 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter for 1 minute until light and fluffy. Add brown sugar and granulated sugar, mixing on high speed for 3 minutes. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl to keep mixture even textured.
3. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
4. Add flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt, mixing on low speed until just combined.
5. Reserve 1/8 cup of chocolate chips and fold in the remaining chocolate chips. Portion dough evenly into 8 balls. Hand press reserved chocolate chips over each dough ball and sprinkle with sea salt if desired.
6. Bake for 9-10 minutes until slightly golden. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

I enjoyed all the recipes I've tried from Baking with Blondie's blog so it's almost surprising I waited this long to try out her chocolate chip cookie recipe. 

It's the same base recipe as the other ones so of course it turned out the way I liked and of course I like this cookie. It's really more for people who like big, thick, chewy cookies. Not to mention people who have the patience to wait until this cools to room temperature or even the next day. Yeah, I know, who does that?  But for my taste and texture preference, that's what I recommend. The picture above was taken when the cookie was freshly baked and had cooled to the cool side of lukewarm. Looks like raw cookie dough, right? That's not my thing.

But this picture above was taken when the cookie was fully cool, hours later. This ^^ picture shows the texture I prefer the most. Not mushy but still soft and chewy. Perfect. 

Stamped Cookies #21 - Sugar Cookie Recipe from Preppy Kitchen

Sugar Cookies - made dough August 23, 2022 from Preppy Kitchen

Baked version 

4 cups (480 g), sifted
1/3 cup (40 g) cornstarch

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup (200 g) sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Sift flour, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl, whisking to combine.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix to combine, scraping down the sides and bottom of bowl to keep mixture even textured. Add vanilla extract and mix to combine.
3. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overmix. Divide dough into thirds and roll each third between two sheets of parchment paper. Chill 10-15 minutes until dough is slightly firm but still malleable.
4. In a small bowl, combine equal parts flour and powdered sugar. Once dough is chilled, sprinkle a rolling mat with a little flour-sugar mixture and roll out dough with a rolling pin to desired thickness. Lightly brush cookie stamps with flour-sugar mixture. Press dough with cookie stamps and cut out desired shapes. Place cut out cookies in freezer while oven preheats.
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space cookies and bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of your cookies. Let rest on baking sheets for several minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Unbaked version

Another recipe I found in the files of the Molded Cookies of the World Facebook group and another winner in terms of keeping the impressions from my cookie stamps. Any deficiencies were more mine, i.e. not pressing evenly or hard enough with the whole stamp rather than the recipe's. I haven't stamped cookie dough regularly in awhile so it took a few tries. 

But as you can see, this is another good recipe for stamping. They didn't keep the impressions quite as crisply as the ones I used for my Snoopy stamps; however, these were softer and less crisp so I think I prefer them for mailing in care packages.

Although they're labeled sugar cookies, they're not actually that sweet. The cornstarch allows for a softer texture but there isn't so much that it makes the cookies dry or bland. However, be sure to use fresh butter and real vanilla extract. I also added some vanilla bean paste to amp up the vanilla flavor.

I do recommend chilling this for at least 15-20 minutes, just long enough for the dough to be firm enough to handle but still malleable enough to take a stamped impression well. If your dough is too soft, not only will it stick to your stamps but it will also be more apt to become misshapen when you try to transfer the stamped and cut out cookies (ask me how I know). Additionally, you’ll want to cover and chill or freeze these before you bake them to help keep the impressions intact.

Stamped Cookies #20 - Butter Cookies for Molding

Butter Cookies for Molding - made August 21, 2022 from Caroline Kallas (from Molded Cookies of the World Facebook page)

Baked cookies - kept the impressions

Unbaked cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter 

2 large eggs 

1 teaspoon salt 

2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 

2 tablespoons heavy cream 

4 cups all purpose unbleached flour 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Beat butter, salt, and vanilla extract until combined and creamy. Add sugar, beating until light. Add eggs and beat until smooth and combined. 
3. Incorporate 3 cups of flour, mixing on low speed then add cream. Add the rest of the flour, beating until just combined. Dough is done when it begins to clean the sides of the mixer bowl. This dough does not like to sit or be refrigerated, use immediately after making. However, if it's really soft, chill for 10-15 minutes before using.
4. Cut or stamp with cookie molds, stamps and cutters. Evenly space on baking sheets. Bake time will vary depending on cookie size and mold depth. A medium cookie (3 to 4 inches) takes about 10 minutes. Bottoms should remain very pale. Cookies firm up as they cool.

I haven't tried out a real stamped cookie recipe in awhile (the Butter Delights didn't count as that wasn't a recipe really meant for stamping) but wow, I'm glad I found this new recipe.

I found it through a Facebook group I'm a member of called Molded Cookies of the World and the admin is Kitchen Vixen (Jen), the etsy seller I met at the Cookie Con in Reno who's also the creator of the military seal molds I've posted about before. Jen is amazing, a highly talented artist and baker and shares her talents through her Kitchen Vixen etsy shop and her facebook pages. 

The facebook group is always full of pictures of beautifully stamped or molded cookies with seriously next-level extra of aesthetic beauty in cookie form. Some are butter cookies, sugar cookies or springerle cookies. I found this butter cookie recipe in the files of that page and thought I'd give it a whirl as I'm on a never-ending quest to find good cookie recipes that will hold an impression after baking and taste good. So far my previous 19 efforts have typically netted one or the other but seldom both. Until this one.

The pictures speak for themselves and you can also probably tell what my earlier efforts look like as I haven't done cookie stamping in awhile and had to relearn some basic habits to get clean edges and even impressions. It took me a little while so you can see the gamut of my efforts in these pictures.

But no matter as I'm just happy the impressions didn't bake out and remained pretty faithfully to their pre-baked version, always a challenge with stamped cookie recipes. This one turned out beautifully. And they tasted as a good butter cookie should - simple, straightforward butter taste.

The original recipe calls for using the dough right after mixing and not chilling it but, given the warm summer weather I made these in, I do recommend that if your dough is warm or too soft, roll it out between 2 sheets of parchment paper and chill it for 10-15 minutes first before stamping and cutting. Some of my initial misshapen efforts were due to skipping the chilling step then finding the dough too malleable and losing shape when I tried to stamp, cut and move it.

You don't want to chill the dough too long though. Just long enough for it to handle easily between parchment, soft enough to take the impression from your cookie stamp and firm enough to be cut with a cookie cutter and moved gently with a spatula.

I got these Snoopy cookie stamps from Williams Sonoma early this year. I think they were part of the spring line as they're not available on their website now. For once I'm glad of my cookie-stamp-acquiring nature as I got these when I saw them even though it's taken me almost 7 months to finally use them. But I love them and I love finding a recipe where the Snoopy renditions stayed faithfully through the baked product. If you like crisp cookies, bake them a little longer or roll the dough a little thinner. If you like more chewy butter cookies, bake only until the edges are just light golden brown. I liked them both ways. These taste best when eaten as soon as they're cooled. They're still fine the next day but a little more chewy and not as crisp. If you bake them too long, they will get hard. I need to try tweaking the recipe so they’ll have a softer texture but I don’t want to mess with it too much and risk losing how well the impressions hold during baking.

But at least now you (or I) can break out all your fun cookie stamps and use them with confidence that the stamped impressions will make it to your baked cookies.