Triple Chocolate Fudge Cookies

Triple Chocolate Fudge Cookies - made dough September 25, 2022 from The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar, firmly packed

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1/2 cup white chocolate chunks

1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks 

1. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder and baking soda.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add salt and vanilla extract, mixing to combine. Add egg and mix until just combined.
3. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overbeat. Fold in white chocolate and bittersweet chocolate chunks.
4. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space dough balls and bake 12-15 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Do not overbake.
6. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes. Using a small metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

Back to my baking books for this recipe. While I know I can't possibly make all the recipes in all the baking books I have (unless I live to be 304), I really am trying to use them more often. Or else, what's the point of keeping them?

I'm glad I tried this one as it was really, really good. Not too rich or overwhelmingly chocolatey but just right, whether you're a chocoholic or not.

I went with milk chocolate chips instead of bittersweet and I thought it paired well with both the white chocolate chunks and the chocolate cookie itself to lend a good balance between chocolate and sweet.

The dough was easy to handle, not too dry or too sticky. Of course I froze the dough balls first and baked from frozen dough like I always do to minimize the spread. These weren't too thick or too thin.

Time the bake and remember that chocolate sets as it cools so err on the side of underbaking to get a nice fudgy texture.

Cake Batter Monster Cookies from Beyond Frosting

Cake Batter Monster Cookies - made dough October 3, 2022 from Beyond Frosting 

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and sliced into tablespoons

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup (110 grams) light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup (140 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 cup (35 grams) vanilla cake mix, dry

1 cup (80 grams) rolled oats

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup M & Ms

1/4 cup sprinkles

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until creamy, about 1 minute. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar, beating until well combined, 2-3 minutes.
2. Add egg and vanilla extract, mixing until combined.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, dry cake mix, oats, baking soda and salt. Add in two additions to butter mixture, mixing on low speed after each addition, until combined. Do not overmix.
4. Fold in white chocolate chips, M&Ms and sprinkles.
5. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls and flatten slightly to thick discs. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment. Evenly space dough discs on baking sheets. Bake 12-15 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw or shiny. Do not overbake. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

These were the last of the Halloween-ized cookies I made and I'm rushing to post before everyone's Halloween baking is done. I feel like I'm in retail and by the time I bake them, mail them, blog about them and post them, the season is past and I should be working on Valentine's by now. (Don't worry, I'm not).

The original recipe had these as monster sandwich cookies with vanilla filling but since I was mailing these, I skipped the filling and kept them as plain single cookies. Although "plain" is relative as you can see they're quite busy with sprinkles.

I was trying to use up the last of my monster mash sprinkles and get just two more care packages out to a deployed service man (and a servicewoman) early enough so they'd receive the boxes before Halloween. Plus, let's be honest, I didn't want leftover monster mash sprinkles sitting in my pantry until next Halloween.

So I might've been a little generous with the sprinkles so I could empty the container. These aren't traditional monster cookies in that they don't contain peanut butter but they do have oats, white chocolate chips, M&Ms and, of course, sprinkles. I think they came out okay. They're a bit sweet and you don't really get a strong cake batter flavor so they seemed more like funfetti cookies. I think they'd be good kid cookies as they're bright and colorful and most kids don't share my dislike of sprinkles.

Nutella Crumble Bars from Lemons and Zest

Nutella Crumble Bars - made October 3, 2022 from Lemons and Zest

1 1/2 cups oats

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup butter, melted

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup Nutella

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 8 x 8-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine oats, flour, melted butter, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Stir together until combined.
3. Press 2/3 of the mixture into the bottom of prepared pan. Spread Nutella evenly over bottom layer. Crumble remaining dough over the Nutella. Bake 25 minutes or until top is lightly golden. Remove from oven and cool completely.

These are exactly what the title says they are: bar cookies, Nutella in the middle, sandwiched between an oatmeal crumble layer.

They're also quite good, especially if you like Nutella and oatmeal. Most recipes put oatmeal together with peanut butter or chocolate but Nutella works well in these bars too. Plus they were easy to Halloween-ize with the Halloween mix of M&Ms.

Be warned to take the "crumble" part of the title seriously as the oatmeal does make them more of a crumbly texture. I liked the heartiness from using old-fashioned oats and they cut the sweetness from the Nutella and the M&Ms.

All in all, a quick and easy bar cookie you can make. You can omit the M&Ms and keep them plain or garnish them in the holiday colors of your choice for a little pizzazz.

Drop Sugar Cookies from Sally's Baking Addiction

Drop-Style Sugar Cookies - made dough October 2, 2022 from Sally's Baking Addiction 

1 1/2 cups (188 grams) all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup sprinkles

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until creamed, about 1 minute. Add the egg and vanilla extract; beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to keep mixture even textured.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients; mix on low until combined. Beat in 1/2 cup of sprinkles. Portion into golf-ball-size balls and dip tops into remaining sprinkles. Cover and chill for several hours or overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space dough balls and bake for 12-13 minutes, until edges are golden brown and middles no longer look raw. Cool on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

I used a different set of Halloween sprinkles for these drop sugar cookies. The original one from Sally's Baking Addiction made them Christmas-themed with red and green sprinkles. I had already done something with black and orange sprinkles so I mixed it up with this "monster mash" set of green and purple sprinkles with white skull and black spider sprinkles.

You have to peer a little closely to make out the white skulls and black spider shapes but I promise they're there. I liked the sugar cookies themselves but - you guessed it - given I'm not a sprinkles fan, I think these cookies would've been better without them. I didn't care for the crunch or the slightly messy look they gave to the cookies, particularly the sprinkles that bled their colors into the dough. But they all went in as part of Halloween care packages so at least I kept on theme.

Peanut Butter Monster Cookies from Kroll’s Korner

Peanut Butter Monster Cookies - made dough September 24, 2022 from Kroll's Korner 

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup cake flour

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup mini M&Ms

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 heaping cup quick oats

1/2 cup chopped peanuts

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Whisk together flour, cake flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add in the creamy peanut butter, then egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract, mixing briefly after each addition to combine.
4. Add the dry ingredients on low speed in two additions, mixing until just combined after each addition. Mix in the M&Ms, chocolate chips, oats and chopped peanuts until just combined.
5. Form dough into 6 large dough balls and place on a cookie sheet. Flatten each dough ball slightly and press a few M&Ms on top. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until tops of cookies are golden brown. Cool on baking sheet for 15 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Continuing with the Halloween theme by using Halloween add ins, in this case, Halloween mix of M&Ms. The original recipe called for making these behemoth cookies and normally I'd do at least one big one and make the rest normal sized. But since I didn't feel like eating a huge peanut butter cookie, I made them all small. These don't spread so make them as big or small and as thick or thin as you want the final product to be. It's a good peanut butter and oatmeal cookie and keeping them thick ensures they're less likely to crumble in mailing. I didn't have peanuts on hand so I didn't include them. Instead I just added more chocolate chips and M&Ms.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Bars

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Bars - made September 25, 2022 from Inquiring Chef 

1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup M&Ms

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together melted butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla extract until combined. Add dry ingredients and mix to combine. Stir in oats. Fold in chocolate chip sand M&Ms.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Press in additional chips and M&Ms on top if desired. Bake 24-28 minutes or until edges are set and golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting and serving.

This is an easy, straightforward bar cookie that's not only perfect for mailing in care packages but also lends itself well to any holiday or theme you need, just by virtue of what kind of M&Ms you add in.

These went into Halloween care packages so it was easy to use the M&M Halloween mix. Flavor-wise, they're made hearty by the oats and the chocolate adds a nice touch. If you're mailing these, bake on the lower end of the recommended time to keep them soft and moist. The toothpick test doesn't work as well after 20 minutes because the oats aren't going to be raw batter on the toothpick. I only baked these for 24 minutes and they were fine. 

Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Sally's Baking Addiction

Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough September 23, 2022, modified from Sally's Baking Addiction

1 1/4 cups (156 grams) all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups (190 grams) yellow or vanilla boxed cake mix (not the whole box and you just need the dry mix)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar

1/2 cup (100 grams) packed light brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cake batter extract (sub vanilla extract if you don't have cake batter extract)

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup sprinkles

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, dry cake mix, 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 until well combined and creamy, about 1 minute.
3. Add the egg and mix to combine. Add vanilla and mix to combine.
4. Add dry ingredients in two additions, beating on low speed after each addition until just combined. Mix in the chocolate chips and sprinkles on low speed until evenly dispersed. Do not overbeat.
5. Cover and chill dough for 2 hours then portion into dough balls making them taller than they are wider, cover and chill or freeze.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly place dough balls. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. 

Can you believe it's already October? Yeah, me neither. I love this time of year so it can never come fast enough but I'm almost always surprised when it does arrive because it signals the slide into the end of the year. Already??

I started making Halloween-themed treats even before October though since I was mailing these in care packages for Soldiers Angels and had to account for mailing time. The first week of October is the very latest I want to make anything Halloween-related if I want them to arrive by or before Halloween.

These Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Sally's Baking Addiction seemed like a good one to go with for the season. I'm not a fan of sprinkles but they are the easiest way to add to any holiday theme, depending on which colors you choose. It was simple enough to Halloween-ize these cookies.

I also still had cake batter extract from the Crumbl Copycat Birthday Cake cookie recipe so I did a 1:1 substitution for the vanilla extract in the original recipe. My palate isn't sensitive enough to tell how much of a difference that made, especially since I didn't make the original recipe as is for a control point but I like to think it helped add to the cake flavor along with the dry cake mix in the recipe.

Although, to be honest, this seemed like a chocolate chip cookie with a little cake batter flavor in it. I think I'd prefer a straightforward chocolate chip cookie with milk chocolate chips but I wasn't making these for me and I think they'd appeal to both chocolate chip cookie traditionalists and cake batter flavor consumers. Plus, sprinkles make them festive and perfect for care packages.

Giant White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Cookies

Giant White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Cookies - made September 16, 2022 from Baking with Blondie

1 cup unsalted butter, cold and sliced into tablespoons

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 whole eggs, cold

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (can use half cake flour and half all-purpose flour)

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped and lightly toasted and cooled

1 cup white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 410 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute until light and fluffy. Add in the brown sugar and granulated sugar and cream together for 3 minutes on high speed.
3. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to keep mixture even-textured. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt in two additions, mixing on low speed, until just combined. Do not overmix.
5. Reserve 1/8 cup of chocolate chips and macadamia nuts before stirring the rest gently into the dough. Portion dough into 8 dough balls and place 4 cookie dough balls on each cookie sheet. Flatten very slightly and hand press the macadamia nuts on top. Bake for 9-10 minutes. Remove from oven and press reserved white chocolate chips over hot cookies. Let cool in baking sheets for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

yes, yes, I could

Another solid cookie recipe from Baking with Blondie and, as you can tell from the pictures, I mean solid. This ain't no airy, light textured cookie. 

But if you like your cookies with some heft (I do), moist and chewy (raises hand) and has amazing texture (still here), her cookies are for you. They're almost like baked cookie dough where the outside is baked and provides a "shell" for the almost-cookie-dough-like texture on the inside.

They may not be for everyone but they sure are for me. I like the macadamia and white chocolate combination as well (one of the few times I like white chocolate). Next time though, I might make them more like discs than rounded mounds for easier biting and eating. These don't spread much so they'll bake and hold the shape you make them into.