Brown Butter Blondies from 100 Cookies by Sarah Kieffer

Brown Butter Blondies - made January 29, 2023 from 100 Cookies by Sarah Kieffer

2 cups (284 grams) all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup (2 sticks, 227 grams) unsalted butter

1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar

1 cup (200 grams) brown sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs plus 4 large egg yolks room temperature

3/4 cup (90 grams) toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

4 ounces (113 grams) bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup (85 grams) semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder.
3. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter. Brown the butter until dark golden brown and giving off nutty aroma, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add remaining 4 tablespoons butter, swirling until the butter stops foaming.
4. Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and salt; stir to combine. Let mixture cool to room temperature.
5. Add eggs and yolks; whisk to combine. Transfer mixture to large bowl.
6. Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in the pecans, chopped chocolate and chocolate chips. Pour into prepared pan and smooth to an even layer.
7. Bake for 16 to 22 minutes, until the edges are set and the top is golden brown and just beginning to form cracks. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out slightly moist with crumbs. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.

I'm not a huge fan of blondies, especially when you add chocolate chips. Then they just seem like chocolate chip cookies in bar form. I have nothing against that concept but if I had a choice, I'd prefer chocolate chip cookies in, well, cookie form. Crisp edges, chewy middles, what's not to love?

But since these aren't about me but about the military care packages going overseas, I wanted to try this recipe to send. It's a good thing I did as these turned out pretty well. At first I was concerned they would be dry (blondies dry out faster than brownies) even though I didn't overbake them or even fully bake them. 

But these were pretty good. For a chocolate chip blondie anyway. They're not super rich and they are more cakey than a chocolate chip cookie but for a blondie bar, thumbs up.

Stamped Cookies #29 from Hayden Annika

Stamped Cookies #29 - made dough January 14, 2023, recipe from Hayden Annika

3 egg yolks, room temperature

75 grams powdered sugar

100 grams salted French butter, room temperature (I used Kerrygold) 

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

250 grams cake flour

1. Whip yolks and sugar until pale and thick with whisk attachment of stand mixer. 
2. Add softened butter and vanilla until well combined and smooth.
3. Change to a paddle attachment and mix in cake flour until combined.
4. Wrap dough and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Working with chilled dough, stamp cookies. Freeze stamped cookies for at least 1 hour.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space frozen stamped cookies. Bake for 10-12 minutes. 

This is a picture-heavy post as you can't have too many pictures of Snoopy, right? I love these Snoopy cookie stamps. Best over-priced thing I've bought at Williams Sonoma. And it looks like they're a seasonal item as they're available again on the Williams-Sonoma website right now. 

I liked using this dough as you can see even the baked cookies kept their impressions as faithfully as I've ever seen on any of the recipes I've tried.

I didn't even need to chill the dough that long after mixing before I could stamp them easily. You can see the results above and below.

The downside, however, is these didn't have a lot of flavor. Normally, with butter cookies, you can taste - well - the butter. For some reason, not so much with these, even though I used European butter (Kerrygold), which tends to have more flavor than US butter. These cookies are also not that sweet and were a little dry, even though I didn't overbake them. 

The good news is they were soft, though not fragile. Some of the other stamped cookie recipes I've tried tend to be a little hard-crisp to eat. Not these.

What the underside should look like when the cookies are baked

On the flavor issue, for more flavor, I suggest amping up the vanilla extract or using some other flavor extract you'd prefer. I want to play with the flavoring on this one as the stamped impressions really can't be beat.

Vacuum sealed and ready for mailing

Oreo Brownies from Tastes of Lizzy T

Oreo Brownies - made January 31, 2023 from Tastes of Lizzy T 

10 tablespoons salted butter (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons)

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

20 Oreo cookies

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 the top half of a double boiler set over hot water, melt together butter, sugar, cocoa powder and salt, whisking until smooth, completely melted and combined.
3. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. Whisk in eggs and vanilla extract until combined.
4. Slowly mix in flour until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
5. Pour half of batter into an even layer on pan. Line with 14 Oreos then cover with remaining batter. Coarsely chop remaining 6 Oreos and sprinkle over top. Bake for 33 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Do not overbake. Remove from oven and let cool before cutting and serving.

Break out the Oreos for this recipe. Oreos are layered in the middle: you lay down half the batter, arrange the Oreos in a single layer and cover with the remaining batter. Then sprinkle the top with chopped Oreos and chocolate chips.

Despite the chocolate flavor only coming from unsweetened cocoa powder, these were pretty fudgy. If you want to enhance the Oreo flavor, substitute some of the regular unsweetened cocoa powder with black cocoa powder.

If you've got an Oreo lover in your life, these are a good brownie to offer them. The brownies themselves are rich and fudgy while the Oreos add a nice crunch. Plus they just look (and taste) decadent.

Sugar Cookies from 100 Cookies

Sugar Cookies - made dough January 20, 2023 from 100 Cookies by Sarah Kieffer

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

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

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

1 3/4 cups (350 grams) granulated sugar plus 1/2 cup for rolling

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and cream of tartar.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamy, about 1 minute. Add 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and beat 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, 12 to 14 minutes. Let rest on baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes then transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely. 

I'm so glad I borrowed this book because I've got to tell you, this sugar cookie recipe alone made it worthwhile. Although they came out of the oven puffy, similar to the snickerdoodles from the same book, they did deflate to flat cookies (yes, I'm still in the Flat Cookie Club).

However, these taste sooooo good. I don't know why I liked it so much but they were chewy and did I mention they're delicious?? They reminded me of the chewy sugar cookies you can buy at your favorite bakery or the baked goods section of your uppity grocery store. 

They're more chewy than cakey and the vanilla and butter flavor come through quite well, more so than the sugar. I loved them so much that it's probably a good thing I packaged up all but the taste test cookie for military care packages before I even ate the taste test cookie. Because if I had eaten the taste test cookie first, I wouldn't have stopped at one cookie like I normally do.

I baked off all the cookie dough for this one and mailed them in the care packages so I'm going to have to make these again and hold back a few next time, lol.

Funfetti Cookies from Kroll's Korner

Funfetti Cookies - made dough January 22, 2023 from Kroll's Korner 

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups cake flour

2 teaspoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cubed

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon cake batter extract

1 cup sprinkles, divided in half

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter on low speed for 30 seconds. Add the granulated sugar and beat for 1 minute, scraping down the sides and bottom of bowl to keep mixture even textured.
4. Add eggs, egg yolks and cake batter extract, mixing until combined.
5. Gradually add dry ingredients, in 3-4 additions, mixing on low speed after each addition until just combine. Add half the sprinkles, mixing on low until disbursed throughout dough.
6. Portion out dough into seven 6-ounce portions and roll into balls. Roll in remaining sprinkles. Evenly space 4 cookies on 1 sheet and 3 on the other.
7. Bake cookies, one sheet at a time, for 9-11 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Let rest on baking sheet for 15 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

You can Valentine-ize these funfetti cookies with Valentine sprinkles or heart-shaped chocolates on top. Or, as you noticed with the sprinkles I used, you can go with a touch of spring and use spring-colored sprinkles. Ditch the chocolate hearts and you can have spring funfetti cookies.

The "fun" of funfetti cookies is you can mix up what color sprinkles to use so you can adapt them to any season. I combined two occasions (spring and Valentine's Day) for these particular ones, partly to use up the spring sprinkles I had and partly to use up the heart chocolates I also still had. 

For the taste test cookie, I left off the heart chocolate so I could get the full flavor of the cookie itself. And I must say it was a good flavor in and of itself. Like a sugar cookie without being too sweet.

I'm not a sprinkles fan so I didn't use a lot of sprinkles in the cookie. If you like sprinkles, feel free to use a heavier hand.

Fudgy Cocoa Brownies from Cafe Delites

Fudgy Cocoa Brownies - made January 28, 2023 from Cafe Delites

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and hot

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/8 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 

1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 8 x 8" baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Whisk together hot melted butter, olive oil and granulated sugar until smooth and combined. Add eggs and vanilla extract, whisking to combine.
3. In a small bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix to combine, stirring until glossy. Add any mix-ins if desired (I added chopped up Rolos).
4. Pour into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake 20-25 minutes or until center is set and toothpick comes out with a few fudgy crumbs. Do not overbake. Remove from oven and let cool before cutting and serving.

Those weird squiggly things you see in the brownies are cut-up Rolos. I had hoped for a more flowy caramel look but alas, Rolos don't provide it at room temperature or in cold winter temps. I would probably have been better off with Caramellos but Rolos were all I had.

These look dark because I used a combination of regular unsweetened cocoa powder from Costco and black cocoa powder from King Arthur Flour. Although I went with a 3:1 ratio, it seems like even a small amount of black cocoa powder turns the brownies dark enough to look like black cocoa brownies.

I'm glad I tried a new brownie recipe but I have to admit, I still prefer my go-to recipe for brownies. Maybe it was the black cocoa or maybe I needed to bake these a tad longer but these didn't have the same chewy-dense texture I prefer in my brownies. Still good and worth trying although next time I would do a different mix-in as Rolos were a bit too chewy for this brownie’s texture.