Brown Sugar Cookies from 100 Cookies

Brown Sugar Cookies - made dough January 13, 2023 from 100 Cookies by Sarah Kieffer 

2 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (364 grams) all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks or 227 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 3/4 cups (350 grams) dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon molasses

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup granulated sugar for rolling

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the brown sugar and molasses and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and beat on medium speed to combine.
5. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just combined.
6. Place the remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar in a small bowl. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls and roll each ball in the sugar. Evenly space on baking sheets. 
7. Bake one baking sheet at a time, rotating pan halfway through baking. Bake until the sides are set and the bottoms are light golden brown, 10 to 11 minutes. Let rest on baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes then transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely. 

I loved these cookies. So far, every recipe I've tried from 100 Cookies has turned out really well. I highly recommend this book just for the handful of recipes I've tried from it. 

I didn't roll the cookies in sugar before baking as the recipe suggests since I figured they would be sweet enough without the sugar coating. Plus I wanted to keep the brown sugar caramel flavor in the cookies and not have it compete with an additional sugar coating.

It turned out to be a good call as the cookies were fantastic enough without it. They did deflate and flatten but not as much as other cookies I've made recently. Despite that, these were still good. The caramelized flavor really pulls through.

Stamped (Chocolate) Cookies #28 from Your Baking Bestie

Stamped (Chocolate) Cookies #28 - made dough January 20, 2023, modified from Your Baking Bestie 

1 cup salted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder (I used 1 teaspoon)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon espresso powder

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and granulated sugar until well combined, 1-2 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla until just combined.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and espresso powder. Add to butter mixture in two additions and beat on low speed after each addition until just combined. 
3. Cover and chill dough for several hours.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Remove dough from refrigerator and pour 1/4 cup granulated sugar in small bowl. Portion dough into balls, roll in granulated sugar and press with cookie stamp. Cut with cookie cutter for clean edges. Evenly space on baking sheets. Bake 12-13 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheet for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

I'm listing the recipe as I originally found it on Your Baking Bestie's blog but I modified this to only use 1 teaspoon of baking powder instead of the 2 teaspoons she listed. I wanted to have sharp impressions of the designs in the baked cookie and the more leavener you have, the more your cookies are likely to puff during baking then deflate, leaving a less distinct stamped impression.

At first I was afraid cutting the baking powder by half would yield a more dense cookie but this actually had good texture and "fluff" (not too light but not too dense either) while still keeping a faithful rendition of the stamped designs.

Flavor was good as well. As usual, you want to use a good, high quality cocoa powder so that you can enjoy a good, high quality flavor.

Funfetti Cookies (Valentine version) from Butternut Bakery

Valentine-ized Funfetti Cookies - made dough January 23, 2023, modified from Butternut Bakery 

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 large egg

2/3 cup sprinkles

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together melted butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium high speed until well combined, light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and egg, mixing until just combined.
3. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, scraping down the bottom and sides of bowl to keep mixture even textured. Add sprinkles and mix on low to evenly disperse sprinkles.
4. Scoop into 1-2 tablespoon dough balls. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space dough balls and bake 8-10 minutes or until edges are golden and middles are no longer raw. Remove from oven and gently place heart-shaped chocolate candy in the center of each cookie. Let rest on aking sheets for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Good news/bad news on these cookies. Bad news first: the white chocolate hearts are Hershey brand for Valentine's Day and were billed as strawberry cream white chocolate hearts. Pretty, right? I did the usual thing of pressing them into the center of the cookies as soon as the cookies came out of the oven.


Now, white chocolate has a lower melting point than even milk chocolate so I expected these would melt into the cookie and would be fragile until they cooled enough to harden again. Except they didn't soften. At all. Which means they're probably waxy more than chocolatey. Ugh. I didn't taste them but I did package them up for mailing. Hopefully the recipients will either not mind or find the chocolate hearts edible enough or (what I would do) will ditch the hearts and just eat the cookies.





The good news is actually excellent news that this cookie was freaking delicious. As in, I'd ditch both the hearts and sprinkles and make the cookies plain. They were that good. Almost like chipless chocolate chip cookies but better. Brown sugar flavor, chewy goodness all around.








They look pretty (and seasonal) but taste even better.

Toasted Hazelnut Slice and Bake Cookies from Sally's Baking Addiction

Toasted Hazelnut Slice and Bake Cookies - made dough January 20, 2023 from Sally's Baking Addiction 

3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup (133 grams) brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (120 grams) hazelnuts, toasted, chopped, divided

coarse sugar for rolling, optional

8 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter for 1 minute until creamy. Add brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until just combined.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon and salt. Add to butter mixture in two additions, beating on low speed after each addition until just combined. Add half the chopped hazelnuts and mix until dispersed throughout the dough. Do not overmix.
3. Divide dough in half and roll into logs, about 2.5" in diameter. Wrap each log in plastic wrap and chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Slice chilled dough logs into 12 equally thick slices and evenly space on baking sheets. Bake 12-14 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.
5. Melt the chopped milk chocolate in the top half of a double boiler over hot water, stirring to prevent burning. When completely melted, remove from heat, dip half of each cookie in the melted milk chocolate and spread out on parchment paper. Sprinkle with the remaining chopped hazelnuts before the chocolate sets.

I don't often get a chance to make "fancy" cookies with fancy being defined, in this case, as being half-coated in chocolate and that half covered with chopped toasted hazelnuts.

But I had an in-person event to go to and it seemed like a good opportunity to do the extras for this one. They taste perfectly fine plain but they're also good dressed up with chocolate and more hazelnuts.

These cookies are thick enough that they didn't bake up crisp. Or at least I didn't bake them long enough to get crisp/hard. They aren't soft enough but have a good chewy texture. Although I don't normally like nuts in cookies, the hazelnuts worked well in these. I don't bake with hazelnuts often enough but I like the flavor they impart. They worked well with the brown sugar flavor in these cookies.

The event attendees liked them too so they're a good choice as a crowd pleaser. 

Brown Sugar Brownies from The Ultimate Brownie Book

Brown Sugar Brownies - made January 19, 2023 from The Ultimate Brownie Book by Bruce Weinstein

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

5 ounces unsweetened chocolate

2 cups dark brown sugar, packed

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray
2. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In the top half of a double boiler set over hot water, melt together butter and unsweetened chocolate, whisking until completely melted and smooth.
4. Remove from heat and pour into mixing bowl. Add brown sugar and mix for 3 minutes with an electric mixer or 6 minutes by hand until well combined and silky. Add eggs and vanilla; mix until just combined.
5. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Do not overbake. Remove from oven and let cool.

I make brownies almost every week for the care packages I send for Soldiers Angels. I almost always make my favorite brownie recipe because it bakes up thick, fudgy and rich without being too overwhelming. Plus I've made it so often that I have the recipe memorized and it takes me only a few minutes to mix it up and get it in the oven.

But I still occasionally try new recipes so I went with this one from one of my baking books. It makes a 9 x 13 pan so I also thought it would yield more brownies for more care packages. Which it did. Unfortunately it also made a thinner brownie than my go-to recipe. Don't get me wrong, this is the thickness most brownie recipes make. I just prefer them a little thicker, both as a personal preference and because they're less fragile and better for shipping that way.

These were good but a bit delicate, not quite cakey but also definitely not as dense and chewy as I prefer. Still, if you want a larger batch, this recipe works well to provide a good yield.

Stamped Cookies #27 - Kitchen Vixen's Shortbread Cookies

Stamped Cookies #27 - made dough January 14, 2022 from Kitchen Vixen

I'm including this recipe as the picture of the card I got in my latest Etsy order from Kitchen Vixen. You can also find it on her Facebook page.

All the cookie stamps you see in this post are all from Kitchen Vixen so I thought it was fitting to try her shortbread recipe. I've included the links to her Etsy shop for each stamp. I'm not affiliated with Kitchen Vixen and I don't make any money if you click on the links and subsequently make a purchase. I just like their products and believe in them.

I've posted about Jen and Mike (the owners) before and the high quality of their products as well as how genuinely nice they are in person.  

With Honor stamp

The cookies did puff up and spread slightly but surprisingly, even given that, the stamped impressions held up pretty well. They still held well enough for the design(s) to be recognizable including some of the finer details like the lettering in the Army stamp.

With Honor stamp

Army stamp

Super bonus is they tasted really good too. In my quest for good stamped cookie recipes, I'm finding the ones that hold the best impressions also tend to bake a little hard or else taste a little bland. This strikes a good balance, not too hard, not too soft and definitely delicious.

Independence Day stamp

Eva's Lace stamp

Here's a look at how I package some of the cookies before vacuum sealing them for mailing to deployed troops for Soldiers Angels. The cellophane cookie bags are from Amazon. I wrap each cookie in plastic wrap, put one cookie per cellophane bag, then vacuum seal 5-6 cellophane-bagged cookies in one sealed bag. It might be a bit overkill but I want to make sure the cookies stay as fresh as possible, no matter how long it takes for them to arrive.

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies from 100 Cookies

 Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough January 14, 2023 from 100 Cookies by Sarah Kieffer

2 1/2 cups (355 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks, 170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar

3/4 cup (150 grams) brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

7 ounces (198 grams) bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped into chunks

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat on medium until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down bottom and sides of bowl to keep mixture even textured.
4. Add eggs and vanilla, mix to combine.
5. Add dry ingredients and beat on low speed until just combined. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls and evenly space on baking sheets.
6. Bake for 8 minutes, then lightly tap baking sheet in oven and continue baking cookies another 2 to 3 minutes (10-11 minutes total). Give pan one final tap in the oven then remove from oven and let cookies rest on baking sheet until completely cooled.

I'm so glad to have discovered this baking book just for this recipe alone where, unlike the Snickerdoodles from the same book, this chocolate chip cookie recipe didn't spread much and stayed decently thick. Some cookies I don't mind being thin but chocolate chip isn't one of them.

These are a good, simple recipe for chocolate chip cookies. The dough came together nicely, not too dry or too soft/sticky. I'm learning to adapt to this world of potential butter issues, especially with chocolate chip cookies.

Despite my years of baking instincts to follow the recipe EXACTLY, those same instincts and years of baking experience says to adapt to how ingredients seem to be now and make adjustments as needed. For chocolate chip cookies, while I do like whisking dry ingredients together to disperse the leaveners and salt more evenly with the flour, I held back 1/4 cup of the flour and after the combined dry ingredients were added, I added the held-back flour until the dough was the consistency I wanted.

The good news is I've noticed the recipes from 100 Cookies tend to match my weight measurements more than other recipes. I do the scoop and level method to measure flour and when I measure ingredients and weigh them, other recipes always have a lower weight for flour than how I measure out. Not 100 Cookies; we match almost exactly. And the dough consistency was perfect without me having to make any adjustments after all.

I copied the directions as is from the book but I always, always chill cookie dough first. That helps prevent spread and concentrates the flavors better as the dough "ages" in the refrigerator. These were good, especially 10 minutes out of the oven.