spicy pb cookies (flour less)

Have you ever made peanut butter cookies with peanut flour? I didn't either, and I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty peanut flour is. Actually I prefer it over regular flour for many baking items: cakes, cookies, muffins, etc.. But then I heard that Trader Joe's isn't making the peanut flour anymore? Is this true? That was a quick fad. I have to find another good source for peanut flour. Anyone have recommendations?
Warning: these pb cookies are GOOD. I made about 12 cookies, ate 6, then ate 3 more, then finally someone else finished them off--all in a matter of hours. You've been warned.



I'm sure you recognize these cookies from another post? The first time I made these cookies (almost flour less pb cookies, everyone raved about them and they became the hit of the web). Now with these cookies, they are completely flour less, so those with gluten allergies can rejoice. And if you don't like the heat in the cookies, you can easily swap out the cayenne for coriander. The addition of coriander is wonderful, like a small flavor boost, that makes people go "hmm, what is that taste...I can't quite put my finger on it but I love it". I've made them both ways: with heat and with coriander; can't decide which I prefer I as I love them both. The peanut flavor is so deep and intense with the peanut flour.









spicy peanut butter cookies (flourless)
print recipe

1 cup all-natural chunky or all natural smooth peanut butter (not oily pb)
¾ cup dark brown sugar
¼ granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temp
1 ts baking soda
3 TB peanut flour
¾ - 1 ts cayenne OR ¾ ts (more or less) coriander
1 ts sea salt
Bittersweet chocolate chips, about ½ cup, optional

Cook notes:
This recipe makes a small batch (about 12-15), if you want more, just double all the ingredients. Please use your own judgment when using the amount of cayenne or coriander. I used bittersweet chocolate, but you could use milk or semi-sweet—keep in mind, I felt the cookies tasted off using milk chocolate. The cookies have to sit in fridge for at least an hour to come together; don’t let them sit in fridge overnight as they become very dry. This is a dry cookie, and will a tiny bit hard to roll. Also they are delicate and tend to break apart if you make them big. So try not to make the dough balls bigger than a tablespoon size. Using chocolate is optional. If you do use the chocolate chips, keep in mind I found it easiest to make a well in the cookie dough ball, place in a couple chips, and when done baking, take a chop stick or other pointy tool to swirl around the warm chocolate chips.

In a small bowl add the peanut flour, baking soda, cayenne, and salt and mix, set aside.
In a small bowl crack egg open and beat.
In a mixer or by hand, combine peanut butter and sugars until well combined.
Add egg to the cookie mixture, mix well.
Add in the flour mixture, by sprinkling it over the cookie dough, not just depositing it in one large dump. Mix till just combined.

Cover bowl and let it sit in fridge for about an hour. Do not let this sit overnight as the dough becomes very dry!
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Roll into tablespoon (or smaller) sized balls and place on non-stick cookie sheets or greased cookie sheets. With your finger or end of spatula, make a small well in middle of cookie dough. This is where you will place a couple chocolate chips in. If you don’t want to add chocolate then just flatten dough ball a bit and using a fork make a cross-cross pattern, optional of course.

Bake for 10 minutes, until lightly browned. These cook up very fast, so I really wouldn’t go past the 10-12 minute mark.
Using the end of a chop stick or other fine pointy tip, swirl it around the chocolate chips to smooth out the warm chips. This should also get the chocolate a bit glossier too.
Cool on a baking sheet for a while.
The cookies are fragile and tend to break.
Should make about 12-15 cookies (small batch). If you want more, just double all the ingredients.

guest post: gooey chocolate chip sandwich bars w/ cranberry

I was delighted to have the creative genius Joanne of the wildly creative with healthy edge to it blog called 'eats well with others'. I am drawn to Joanne and her baking & cooking ways because she, unlike me, has a healthy edge (I need to get my baking-healthy edge on) . When this girl isn't creating amazing healthy yet definitely delish recipes in her nyc kitchen, you can find her exercising; well, exercising to the extremes honestly. I've lost count on how many marathons she's done. I was able to stop counting her marathons this past fall when ironically, she and I were both nursing knee injuries. Jokingly we would tease each other via twitter on who had the worst cabin fever since knee injuries take their own sweet time to heal. Oh did I mention she also is in the process of getting her MD/PhD? Yeah. The woman has crazy energy, and insane passion; I just love that about her!

A couple things I wanted to know:

You seem to have a mainly ‘healthy edge” to all your recipes, where or when did this start?
My family is the quintessential meat and potatoes family so I grew up on absolutely zero vegetables and lots of bread and cannoli. I started eating more healthy my junior year of college. I kind of woke up one day, realized just how overweight I was, and decided I was tired of being “the fat girl” among all my friends. Dining hall food isn’t the best for getting healthy and so I started to cook for myself. Since then, it’s pretty much been history. I fell in love with vegetables and, a year ago, stopped eating meat entirely. I still have a pretty intense sweet tooth so dessert will always be a part of my life, but I try to eat uber healthy the rest of the time to make up for it.

Do you plan out what you’re going to make? Or are they spur of the moment?

I am quite the stereotypical medical student in the sense that I am an organizational freak...however, I use those OCD tendencies to menu plan instead of study plan. It happens. Occasionally when I get a craving or inspiration hits, some spur of the moment cooking gets done, but most of the time there’s a plan and I follow it. Or sushi gets ordered.

When looking at recipes to try or create next, what sparks your interest most?

I definitely have certain flavor profiles that jump out at me. I love very bold, spicy food so anything Indian, Thai or Middle Eastern always appeals to me. I also have a strong and definite penchant for orange vegetables. If you show me a recipe with a sweet potato or winter squash in it, I am about 1000x more likely to make it. If it has celery...then there is no chance in hell it will come anywhere near my kitchen.

What country would you like to visit most for their food?

I would love to go to Thailand, Morocco or India. Although, my roommate just brought an intestinal parasite back with her from India (Giardia) and so my desire to go has declined a bit.

Are there any junk foods you love?

I’m a Reese’s-aholic. And a nutella-aholic. Although, I wouldn’t consider nutella a junk food. It’s more of a food group.

Favorite health foods?

Sweet potatoes, winter squash, and apples. I seriously eat an apple a day. Honeycrisp are my favorites!

What was your favorite food to write about?

I love writing about cupcakes. They’re my favorite thing to bake and one of my favorite things to eat. There are just so many cupcake/frosting/filling combinations and you really can’t go wrong with any of them.

Below is one of Joanne's recipes. For more info on her and her recipes check out her food blog: eats well with others.



My mom always used to tell me that you can catch more bees with honey than you can with vinegar.
It was her quaint way of saying, "I know you're thirteen and have an attitude problem, but if you want me to drive you to the mall then you really probably should take out the garbage. And do the dishes. And clean your room."



I just didn't get it though.
Why would anyone ever want to catch bees?
And given how much time my mother spent swatting at them all summer long, why weren't we dotting vinegar below our ears and on our wrists until we smelled like balsamic vinaigrette (yum) to try to keep them away?
She is such an enigma.



However. If she had said, you can make more friends when you sandwich fudge in-between two layers of chocolate chip peanut butter chip cranberry cookies than you can if you try to give them bran muffins?
That, I would have understood.



Nothing against bran muffins. But they don't say "love me always and forever" as much as gooey chocolate chip sandwich bars do. Truth. I speak it.



Gooey Chocolate Chip Sandwich Bars
adapted from Food and Wine
print recipe

Ingredients
• 2 cups AP flour
• 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup peanut butter chips
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking pan. Line the dish with parchment paper leaving 1-inch of overhang on either side.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the flour with the oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg, followed by the egg yolk and vanilla, scraping down the sides after each addition. Beat in the dry ingredients, then add 3/4 cup chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and dried cranberries until just incorporated. Set aside.
3. In a small saucepan, melt 2 cups chocolate chips in the sweetened condensed milk over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the vanilla and let cool to room temperature.
4. Press half the cookie dough into the prepared baking dish. Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the dough and spread evenly. Top with small dollops of the remaining cookie dough. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the top is lightly browned. Let cool completely before cutting.

quick and easy chocolate chip cookies

If you're like me you hate waiting for the butter to come to room temp to make chocolate chip cookies. You want them now, not in a few hours because by then the craving for the cookies will be gone--well, maybe for some of you.
So you turn to the melted butter version of chocolate chip cookies and turns out they always turn out to be flat: thin and crispy. Which is fine, but I don't always like thin & crispy. I lean more towards the side of thick and chewy with a nice crisp outside.
After a few experiments using a basic cookie recipe from america's test kitchen or cooks county whatever they call themselves today--I found a good one using melted butter that resulted in giant, thick, crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside chocolate chip cookies. It's really all about the right ratio of baking powder to flour to salt and butter. haha. But all that does make a difference if you break it down. Less flour less chewy, more butter more crisp/flakiness, and of course using good quality chocolate helps too as well as using the right kind of chocolate. If you used milk chocolate the cookie might be too sweet, so using a bittersweet won't overpower the chocolate thus making the dough flavor shine through. You all know this already..... just get to the cookie recipe already!


Use an ice cream scooper for all cookie doughs. Makes the cookies nice and round and even. Use any size really, just watch the baking times if you use smaller scoops.





Baking times matter! Of course this is dependent on various ovens, but keep an eye on your cookies after the 10 minute mark. They burn up fast.

quick & easy chocolate chip cookies
based on America’s Test Kitchen
print recipe

2 cups plus 2 TB all-purpose flour
1/2 ts baking soda
¾ TB baking powder
¾ ts sea salt
1 and ½ sticks (12 TB) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 yolk
2 ts pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Cook notes: make sure to let the melted butter cool a bit (about 15 minutes before using). When you are ready to use the butter give it a good stir to incorporate the butter solids and fats back together.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line about 4 cookie sheets with parchment paper. I found that using milk chocolate chips were just too sweet with this dough. Using bittersweet or semi was just right. Always make sure your baking soda and baking powder are fresh; when they go stale they result in thin tasteless cookies. I love to use ice cream scoopers to make the perfect, round size cookies. I adore large cookies so I used a regular sized ice cream scoop. If you want smaller size cookies, use a smaller ice cream scoop but remember to reduce the baking time a few less minutes!

Whisk all the dry ingredients together; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, either by hand or using a mixer (I don’t have a mixer so I did this by hand) mix butter & sugars until thoroughly combined. Add in the egg and egg yolk and vanilla extract, mix well. Then add in the dry mixture, mix until just combined, do not overmix. Next FOLD in the chocolate chips (if you want to add in nuts go ahead—about 1 cup).

Using an ice cream scoop, and making sure to compact the dough in the scooper as much as possible, scoop out on baking sheets about 1 & ½ inches apart.
Bake about 11-14 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. You’ll know the cookies are done by light golden brown edges and slightly puffy middles. As soon as they turn golden brown, in a matter of minutes they turn dark, so take them out, plus they do continue to bake once out of the oven. Don’t try and take them off the cookie sheets, they will just break. Should make about 15-18 large, if using a smaller scoop then you’ll have a few more.

cream cheese filled sugar cookie wedges

Ever get that impulse when visiting the "larger" grocery stores to stock up? Like stock up on stuff you really don't need and shouldn't buy? But you buy it anyways because IT'S ON SALE?

Yeah, me too. And then those things you bought sit in your cupboards and you haven't a clue what to do with them? Well, I found something to do with the 'instant' sugar cookie packs! And they don't taste that bad really, I doctored them up a bit to make them even more appealing and tasty. A nice addition of cream cheese, then a warm chocolate bath followed up with a nice coating of crushed candy canes--they tasted fabulous.

So if you have an upcoming holiday office party or casual cookie swap or like me, need to use up the sugar cookie packs that might be sitting in your cupboards. They were quite a hit here at home --very tasty. Serve with a tall glass of ice cold milk!

Easy peasy to do. Just bake the sugar cookie packs (2) in cake pans. Let cool.





Let them cool. Then spread a nice even layer of the cream cheese filling, being careful not to go to the edges. Place other sugar cookie cake on top and into fridge to set up for a bit.



When ready to start dipping, use a biscuit cutter and place in the middle of the sugar cookie cake. Push down all the way but don't remove--we want to use this as a guide for cutting even wedges. Cut like you would an old fashioned shortbread wheel.





Dip in melted semi sweet chocolate and garnish with crushed candy canes or whatever else you desire. (I tried using milk chocolate but it was just too sweet; the semi sweet tastes much better). Store in fridge.

cheese cream filled sugar cookie sandwich wedges
print recipe

Cook notes:
Feel free to use your favorite sugar cookie recipe for this. If you do decide to use your own sugar cookie mix make sure to make enough dough for two- 8 (or 9) inch cake pans.

Sugar cookie dough packs (2) or use your own favorite sugar cookie recipe

filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, room temp
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
Pinch of salt

garnish:
18 ounces semi sweet chocolate, melted
Crushed candy canes, optional but wonderful

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Prepare cookie mix according to directions, Instead of baking them on a pan we will use 2- 8 or 9 inch cake pans. Make sure to grease up the cake pans, really well as we do not want them to stick.
Bake at 350 for about 12-16 minutes or until edges are golden brown; center might still be somewhat soft. That’s ok as we will let this harden up in fridge. I like to think these sugar cookies taste a little better when they are soft, but if you like crunchy sugar cookies then by all means do what you like most.
Let these cool and meanwhile let’s make the cream cheese filling. Mix the cream cheese with about ¼ cup or so (taste test as you go to see if it needs more sugar). Mix well. Then spread a nice layer of the mixture on one of the giant sugar cookies (be careful not to go to the edges), place the other sugar cookie on top, cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for a couple hours or overnight.
When ready to dip in chocolate, take a biscuit cutter and place in the middle of the cake, pushing down, but do not take cutter out as this will help guide us in slicing them into wedges. You want to slice them into wedges like you would shortbread. You should get about 16-18 wedges depending on the size/width you slice them.
While you get your melting chocolate ready, place wedges back on cookie sheet and into fridge to chill them again.
Get your crushed candy canes ready and into a bowl for easy dipping.
Use whatever method you like best for dipping chocolate. (The semi sweet chocolate works best, the milk chocolate was just a bit too sweet). I used a double boiler for melting my chocolate as I have a few wedges to dip and want to keep the chocolate melted for a while.
Dip each wedge into the melted chocolate, then dip into crushed candy canes. I dipped the fuller/wider end of the wedge instead of the longer/skinnier end. If you’re not comfortable dipping then you can easily drizzle the wedges with chocolate. Place dipped wedges on parchment paper to set up.
Keep wedges in fridge until ready to serve. They don’t keep that long, maybe a couple days. I wouldn’t go past 3 days since there is cream cheese in there. Do they freeze well? I doubt it.
Makes about 16-18 wedges depending on how thick you cut them.

pumpkin-nutella fudge puddles

I wonder if I should even write up a post for these. Will anyone read it? Or will they just go straight to the recipe to read the ingredients, look at the photos again and then print the recipe?
Do I even have to tell you how amazing these were? My stars. When they were fresh from the oven and just filled with that filling? Blisssss.
You. Must. Make. These.

Inspiration came from the ever infamous peanut butter fudge puddles I made years ago.
Tempted to call these muffins, they do look like it, but they taste like a cookie. I make these using a mini muffin tin because I want the filling to have a nice, perfect little cup to stay in. Haven't tried making them as just cookies for fear there wouldn't be enough of a 'cup' to hold the filling. How horrid would that be? :-)

pumpkin-nutella fudge puddles
print recipe

cookie base:
1/2 cup butter, softened
Not quite 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 dashes of pumpkin pie spice (more if you like pumpkin-y flavor; I do not)
1/2 ts vanilla extract
1-1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 ts baking soda
1/2 ts salt

Cook notes:
You really want to slightly undercook this so it’s easy to add in the indentations and then the fudge. It will be hard to look for a “very light golden brown color” with the addition of pumpkin, so you can tell by touching the tops and if they give a little (not a lot) then it’s time to take them out. I mixed all by hand I don’t have a mixer, but feel free to use a mixer. I made the indentation in the centers using the other end of a spatula, re-wetting the end as I go along. If you don’t wet the end it will stick to the cookies. There might be extra filling left over. Store it in the fridge as it makes an excellent ice cream topping. To use later just reheat in microwave in short bursts.

In a large bowl, mix the butter, pumpkin, and both sugars. Beat in egg and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add the dry to the wet mixtures.
Chill in the fridge for at least one hour. Remove from fridge and form into just over 1-inch balls.
Grease a mini-muffin pan and add 1 ball to each muffin cup. Using a wet spoon push the dough mixture down into the cups. (see photo)

Bake in a 325 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes or until VERY lightly browned.

Remove from oven and make an indentation in the center of each ball (using the other end of a spatula), big enough to fill the middles with the fudge filling. (see photo)
Let them cool in the pan for at least 5 minutes and then move to a cooling rack.

Filling:
1 cup nutella
1 cup milk chocolate chips
4-5 ounces sweetened condensed milk
chopped walnuts or pecans (I forgot this step but it would have been fabulous, so please do this)

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips. Once melted add in the all the ingredients except the nuts, and mix well; make sure it’s nice and heated though. Then pour the filling into a heat safe measuring cup and pour the filling into the cookies. I found using a measuring cup helps the pouring go a lot smoother.
Decorate with chopped nuts if desired. In about an hour or more the filling does start to harden.
Should make about 24 – 30 mini’s

chocolate-peanut butter and shortbread chunk cookies

On my fridge sits many a recipe paper cut outs attached to various magnets. These are recipes that I need to try and also kick up. Some recipes have been there for years, some even longer. And with each new place we move to they come with only to get placed back up on the fridge to sit there.....forever. Well the other day I finally was able to take one down. One that came from a cut out from King Arthur catalog. A peanut butter-chocolate chunk cookie. King Arthur has fabulous recipes, and I'm so glad that they add them into their website and catalogs. Just like Barefoot Contessa, King Arthur has recipes you can trust and count on; tested, tried and true. So I didn't do that much to their original recipe, I only added on extra butter, some baking powder, used a double dutch cocoa powder (for more chocolately flavor) and of course added in the shortbread chunks. Why? I just knew that these cookies would be nice and soft and I just had to add in a subtle layer of 'crunch'. OK and more butter flavor too.
If you make these make sure to read all my cook notes. OK?

Do you want a money shot? Yeah of course you do.

chocolate-peanut butter and shortbread chunk cookies
sort of adapted from king arthur
print recipe

1½ cups and 3 TB all-purpose flour
6 TB Dutch-process cocoa (I used double dutch, either is fine)
½ ts baking powder
¾ ts baking soda
¾ ts coarse salt
1 stick (8 TB) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup and 3 TB creamy peanut butter (do not use all natural)
½ cup white sugar
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 ts pure vanilla extract
2 TB whole milk or half & half
1 & ½ cups mini PB cups OR regular PB cups, chopped
1 cup of shortbread chunks, rough chop

Cook Notes: I used Trader Joe’s mini pb cups in this, but next time I will use Reese’s PB cups. The trader joe ones were not that peanut buttery for my taste. I just wanted a bit more peanut butter taste and I know that Reese’s will do it just right.
As for the shortbread chunks, use a good quality shortbread; one that is nice, buttery, crispy and thick like Lorna Doone.
As for the dutch process cocoa, I used a double dutch for that extra chocolate richness, but regular dutch process is just as fine too.
I made these cookies large using a regular size ice cream scoop. You can make them smaller, but whatever size you use I highly recommended using an ice cream scoop (any size) to scoop them onto baking sheet as the dough is very sticky.
Do the cookies freeze well? No.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, dutch cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter, peanut butter, and both sugars.
Beat till light and fluffy. Then add in the egg, vanilla extract, and milk. Mix until smooth.
Next add in the dry ingredients and mix till just incorporated.
Then by hand, add in the peanut butter cups and shortbread chunks using a spatula.
Place in fridge and chill at least half hour, longer if it’s humid and/or hot outside.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out even sizes of dough onto baking sheet, making sure to place doughballs at least 2 inches apart from each other. Cookies don’t spread that much.
Bake 13-14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking.
The cookies will be soft to the touch. But as they cool they do firm up a bit. I know you might be tempted to overbake them, please don’t.

peanut butter-oreo ice cream

Yes, peanut ice cream with Oreo cookie chunks. Can you believe it? I owe all the inspiration for this to Emack & Bolio's ice cream. We have an Emack & Bolio's on the cape, and every spring I wait patiently for them to open, to see what new flavors they have created. When I first saw peanut butter oreo I knew I was not only in heaven, but had to give props to Emack & Bolios' for such a genius creation, plus I had to recreate this divine creation at home. I mean why have we not seen peanut butter and oreo ice cream before? I haven't. So right, so modern, such a perfect combo. My all time favorite ice cream is mint oreo, but now, geez I have to give it up to this one. Peanut butter and oreo's.....swoonworthy.
Is this as good as it looks? Oh indeed it is. It's pure custardly, pure peanut butterly, pure filled with Oreo chunk heaven.
And the best part? I did not turn a stove on at all to make the custard. Nope. I used an old classic ice cream base recipe from the boys at Ben & Jerry's. Yes, it involves raw eggs, but in my opinion as long as the eggs are fresh and organic they are fine to eat.

Pretty darn close to the Emack & Bolio's version of pb & Oreo. This Emack & Bolio's is located in Orleans, MA. A place I go to often. If you go there, just down the street about 7 miles is the national seashore--another place I love. I'm sure you've heard me talk about the cape cod national seashore many many times.

peanut butter-oreo ice cream
Sweet cream base from Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book

print recipe

1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar (next time I would use about 2 TB less of the ¾ cup)
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 ts vanilla extract
About 1 cup of chopped plain oreo’s (I think, I might have used a bit more)

Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue to whisk until completely blended, about 1 minute more.
Pour in the cream, vanilla, peanut butter, and milk and whisk to blend.

Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s manufacturer instructions.
The last 2 minutes of ice cream churning add in the chopped cookies.
Makes about 1 quart.

wordless wednesday (brownies w Oreos!)

:-x

print recipe

a good sugar cookie

The perfect sugar cookie, a good sugar cookie--hard to find isn't it?
Well it's hard to recreate too.
What is the perfect sugar cookie? Is it taste, texture, creaminess, the right amount of sugar to butter ratio?
For me it's not being too sweet, with more butterness taste over sugar taste.
What about you? What do you look for?
We all have different likes, wants & needs in a sugar cookie.
I love a light airy cookie with real buttery taste, crisp edges and just a hint of chewiness (a hint!).
Need to have the right sugar sprinkles on my sugar cookies for texture and eye appeal.


Some sprinkles really stink--too corn syrupy tasting or too chemically tasting. Who likes that? Not me. But I have found some really good sugar sprinkles made with pure sugar, no chemicals, and colored naturally. In of all place, my second home: Whole Foods. Yes indeed. They have the best sugar sprinkles. They are a bit pricey, but the flavor is spot on--what one would think a sugar sprinkle should taste and look like: like sugar and like big old chunks of glistening sugar crystals. No dyes, or chemicals either. Best part? The sugar crystals stay crunchy "after" baking. A lot of good bakers look for that. So give these a go, you can find them at any Whole Foods in the baking section, next to the jimmies, in the same area as the extracts, herbs, and spices.

This recipe, if you do make them try using the European butter.
It's just a better grade of butter with a better flavor; a richer flavor of butter.
So if you like light sugar cookie with a hint of chewiness, gentle crisp edges and incredible pure butter flavor, then give these a go. I promise you will love these. When I made these for friends they were not only gone in a matter of minutes but everyone wanted the recipe. That good! These are perfect for any Easter functions you have coming up; way better than store bought.

perfect sugar cookie

print recipe

2 sticks unsalted butter, grated & kept cold (use European butter if you can, makes all the diff)
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 TB pure vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all purpose flour (13 ½ oz)
1 ts sea salt
1 and ¼ ts baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda

course sugar sprinkles, for decorating

In a bowl mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.
In a mixing bowl, mix butter and both sugars until just mixed. It won’t be creamy because butter is so cold—that’s ok. Add the egg and vanilla, mix till just incorporated.
Add in the dry to the wet and mix till just incorporated—never over mix. The dough should be a little dry. We want to mix as little as possible as we don’t want the butter to get too warm nor do we want gluten to start forming—this will give us a nice light, airy, crispy cookie. Place bowl in fridge to chill/firm up. At least an hour, longer if its warm weather.
When ready to bake preheat oven to 375 degrees. You can divide dough how ever you like; I wanted large cookie so I made “almost” golfball sized balls and kept them round as they will spread when baking. Roll the balls in the sugar sprinkles on one side (or both if you desire). Place onto parchment lined cookie trays or non stick cookie trays. Do not press flat.
Bake for 18-22 minutes—all depending on your oven. Look for almost golden brown edges.
I got about 15-17 large cookies; if you make them smaller maybe you will get about 25-30 cookies, I don't know haven't made them small yet.