Watkins Vanilla Sugar Cookies - a Valentine's Day spin

Watkins Vanilla Sugar Cookies - made dough January 7, 2022 from All-American Cookie Book by Nancy Baggett 

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted after measuring

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large egg yolks

generous pinch of salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2-3 tablespoons sugar or colored decorated sugar, for sprinkling

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugar until well combined and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks then salt and vanilla, until evenly incorporated.
3. Beat in flour on low speed, in two additions, mixing until just combined. 
4. Divide dough in half and place each half between large pieces of parchment paper. Roll each piece 1/8" - 1/4" thick, depending on your preference. Keeping between the parchment paper, refrigerate each piece for at least 30 minutes or freeze for 15 minutes, until cold and firm.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Working with one piece of dough at a time, remove chilled dough from the refrigerator or freezer and remove top layer of parchment paper. Cut into desired shapes and evenly space on prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle with sugar if desired.
7. Bake cookies for 8-11 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes then transfer cookies to wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Back to my baking books for this one. I'm still on a Valentine's Day care package bender and wanted a simple sugar cookie cut out recipe that I was going to decorate for the care packages. That is, if by decorating you mean sticking 5-6 red M&Ms on each one before baking. I also cheated on the M&Ms because they weren't from the Valentine M&M package which hadn't gone on sale at Target yet when I made these. Instead, I opened a bag of Christmas red and green M&Ms that I bought before Christmas (although they hadn't been on sale then either, come to think of it) and yes, I picked out all the red M&Ms to use for this recipe. What?? They're still M&Ms! Plus I didn't want to hang onto the bag until next Christmas. And yes, I plan to use the leftover green M&Ms for St Patrick's Day cookies.

As you can see from the pictures, this kept the cookie cutter shape okay but it did spread out enough that I wouldn't trust it with a cookie stamp if I want to keep the stamped impressions clear. From a taste perspective, it was fine and had the pure clean taste of butter and sugar as befitting a sugar cookie without it being overly sweet. For thinner cookies, it makes a nice "snap" and has some chewiness. Personally I didn't love the M&Ms on it as I prefer my sugar or butter cookies plain without the addition of chocolate. But for the Valentine's version, hopefully the troops, who might not always get M&Ms on their deployment, will like it.

My Go-To Brownie Recipe - Valentine's Day version

My Go-To Brownie Recipe - Valentine's Day version - made January 10, 2022 (original recipe)

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

5 ounces unsweetened chocolate

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8 baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In the top half of a double boiler set over hot water, melt the butter, unsweetened chocolate and bittersweet chocolate until completely melted, whisking until well combined and smooth. Remove from heat.
3. Stir in granulated sugar and mix until well combined; mixture will appear grainy.
4. Add eggs, mixing until well combined. Add vanilla and mix until combined; mixture will be glossy.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Add to butter-chocolate mixture and mix until combined. Stir several times until batter is glossy and comes together. Batter will be thick.
6. Pour into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in a corner comes out clean and one inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting and serving.
7. If adding mix-ins to the batter, you can either fold into the batter before spreading into pan or spread half to two-thirds of the batter in the pan, add the mix-in and cover completely with remaining batter. Sprinkle with any toppings, if desired.

This is the brownie recipe I created and have alluded to in the past as the one that's become my favorite go-to recipe over the past year. Considering I've made possibly hundreds of brownies, if not thousands over the years, and tried hundreds of recipes, that's saying something. 

Everyone has their own favorite qualities in "the best" brownie and not everyone is the same so one person's best may be another person's "meh". Here's what I like in a brownie and you can decide for yourself if that speaks to you or not:

• Thick - something you can sink your teeth into
• Fudgy
• Dense, not fluffy or cakey
• Dark or rich chocolate flavor, not milk chocolate or sweet
• None of that flaky, crackling stuff on top

This makes a thick batter and the beauty of it is you can keep it plain or stir in add-ins or sprinkle on a topping and it'll hold up just fine. It also has the ease and simplicity that it can be made in one bowl or even in the top half of the double boiler you use to melt the butter and chocolates in. Less to clean up and no mixer needed, just a wooden spoon and a strong arm.

For this particular one pictured, I added milk chocolate covered caramels into the brownie itself and sprinkled Valentine's Day sprinkles on top before baking. I did that for Valentine care packages but you can leave out the mix-in and add-ins and it'll hold up just fine plain. I had the caramels left over from a Christmas gift and I wanted to use them so I spread about 2/3 of the brownie batter in the pan first, dotted it with the milk-chocolate-covered caramels then covered them completely with the remaining batter. For the Valentine's Day touch, I had won these sprinkles from a baking contest from Soldiers Angels and I used some of it to sprinkle on top of these brownies. Voila, fudgy, delicious, Valentine's Day-ized brownies ready to be packaged up and mailed out to the troops.

This is one brownie I wouldn't advise underbaking by too much. It's such a thick batter that it can survive an extra minute or two in the oven without getting dry. You want the texture to be soft and fudgy but not mushy or raw. From the pictures, I can tell I could've left this another minute in the oven and it might've been a tad better. Still okay though, especially as I'm mailing it overseas and it needs to survive a 2-4 week mailing time. Hopefully they'll arrive before Valentine's Day.

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies with Caramelized Cocoa Nibs

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies with Caramelized Cocoa Nibs - made dough January 6, 2022, modified from Sugar Spun Run 

1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1 large egg yolk, room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, mini and regular size

1/2 cup caramelized cocoa nibs (I ordered mine from chefshop.com)

1. Combine melted butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth and well combined. Add egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract; stir until combined.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. Add to butter mixture in two additions, stirring after each addition until combined. Fold in chocolate chips and caramelized cocoa nibs. 
4. Portion into large dough balls (I got 11 cookies out of this dough). Cover with plastic wrap and chill or freeze for at least an hour 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 14 - 16 minutes or until edges have set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

I was hunting through my pantry for espresso powder as I could've sworn I had some left and I wanted to use it in a recipe for a coffee-based cookie. But of course I didn't have any. But I did find these caramelized cocoa nibs that I must've bought awhile ago and forgot about. Not the first time that's happened, believe you me.

So I decided to add them to this recipe for giant chocolate chip cookies. Cocoa nibs add a little crunch to baked goods but unlike nuts which steam and soften during baking, cocoa nibs retain their crunch. Plus they add a dark cocoa flavor to the cookie. I'm more of a milk chocolate person myself but since I wasn't the one eating 12 giant cookies (yes, these went into military care packages), I thought I could send them to people who probably didn't have my fanatic sweet tooth. Plus chocolate chip cookies....

This dough came together beautifully. Not too dry or too sticky and it was easy to form into giant dough balls. I bought a huge cookie scoop from the Le Creuset last year. It was criminally expensive for a cookie scoop (let's face it, I could go the cheap way and just use two spoons), even for an outlet, but I'd been wanting that size cookie scoop for years. I'm glad I bought it as it enables me to make evenly-size huge cookie dough balls. Which I then flattened slightly to thick discs as I wanted an even bake for a uniformly shaped cookie. 

Besides the cocoa nibs, I also added regular semisweet chocolate chips and mini chocolate chips. When making giant cookies, if you want a more even distribution of chocolate and just more chocolate in a chocolate chip cookie, the best way to ensure that is (conversely) to use smaller chocolate chips. They're easier to disperse in large cookies and you get more even distribution of chocolate.

This recipe actually made 11 giant cookies and 1 medium-ish-sized one. I had the medium-sized one as the taste test cookie. I had to bake it separately from its gigantic brethren or else the little cookie would've baked too much before the big ones were done.

Just above and below is the taste test cookie. You can see it doesn't spread too much and bakes up to a good thickness.

I don't believe I overbaked this cookie but I also didn't underbake it as much as I normally would have. So it might be baked "just right" for people who don't like underbaked cookies. Flavor-wise, this was also pretty good. The edges had a nice crunch to them. The middle wasn't as chewy as I normally prefer my cookies, probably because I baked it a minute or so more than I normally would. Still a good cookie though and the cacao nibs worked well.

Stamped Cookies #18 - Maple Sugar Cookies

Stamped Cookies #18: Maple Sugar Cookies - made January 2, 2022, modified from Liv for Cake 

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1 large egg yolk

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and salt; set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until well combined, light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes on medium speed. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl to keep mixture even textured.
2. Add egg yolk and beat on low speed until combined. Add maple syrup and beat on low until combined.
3. Add dry ingredients in two additions, mixing on low speed until just combined and dough comes together. Divide dough in half and form each half into a thick disc. Cover in plastic wrap and chill for 30-45 minutes.
4. Tear off a large piece of parchment paper and lay out on your work space. Lightly flour. Tear off a second, equally large piece of parchment paper. Leaving one dough disc in the refrigerator while you work on the first one, unwrap chilled dough and place in the middle of the lightly floured parchment. Cover with second piece of parchment and, using a plain rolling pin, roll out to an even 1/3" thickness. Flour sparingly, if needed, to keep the dough from sticking.
5. Remove top piece of parchment and lightly flour dough. Roll out with your embossed rolling pin. Cut into desired shapes. Take remaining dough scraps and roll into golf-ball-size dough balls. Roll in granulated sugar, coating completely then use cookie stamps to stamp out designs. 
6. Repeat with second dough disc. Cover and chill or freeze embossed, stamped and cut out cookies for several hours or overnight.
7. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees (I baked at 375). Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space cookies. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Make sure you click on the post title to go to the original blog post and see Liv for Cakes pictures. Her stamped cookies turned out more defined than mine although I used the same ingredients and followed the recipe with the 2 exceptions of I froze them longer than an hour (I actually had the stamped cookies in the freezer for several days before I baked them) and I baked at a higher temperature.

I'm wondering if that's where I went wrong, by baking at 375 degrees instead of 325 like the recipe said to. Intuitively I've always baked at a higher temp so the outside and the impressions would set more quickly before spreading and potentially losing the impressions.

Also because I baked at a higher temperature, my cookies browned more than hers did, which makes sense. I'll have to try the lower temp next time and see if that works better.

Fortunately I will be making these again as they were delicious. The maple flavor comes across well but not overwhelmingly so. Please use good-quality maple syrup (I used the one from Trader Joe's) as your cookies will be flavored by the syrup you use. I know that's stating the obvious but I'm a fanatic about high quality ingredients so I will state the obvious.

I like to do close ups of the inside so you can see the texture. This was both crisp (at the edges) and pleasingly chewy in the middle. That's my kind of cookie.