Peanut Butter Cookies

So the business has really taken off recently; my supplier is selling four batches per week and I'm really enjoying coming up with new mix in ideas (next up is smores!!!). I've also been doing comissions and last week I got an order for two batches of peanut butter cookies to be given as gifts.

I haven't made peanut butter cookies since I was like 11 years old and the recipe I use hasn't changed that much. It came from a really old children's cookbook given to me by my Percy when I was 9. Unfortunately I have since lost that cookbook somewhere along the way but I still have my peanut butter cookie recipe!

I've swapped 1/2 cup of granulated sugar for the same of light brown sugar and added the baking powder. The original recipe also called for creaming the butter and sugar but melting it gives a chewier cookie which is much better!

Peanut Butter Cookies
Makes 12

• 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup & 2 tbsp peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
• 1 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180C

Combine the cooled melted butter and sugars in a bowl and beat well

Add the egg and vanilla and beat well

Add peanut butter and beat until well combined

In another bowl combine the flour and baking powder

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix, using your hands when the flour is almost totally mixed in

The dough should come together easily and be slightly sticky (add more flour if it is very sticky)

Pinch off tablespoonful sized lumps and roll into balls

Flatten these balls into rounds and place on a lined baking tray

Bake for 7-10 mins until the edges are golden

Cool completely and enjoy with milk :)

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the made up gift jars (my camera went on the blink) but they turned out really well and the recipient was very happy :)

M&M & Mars Bar Cookies

Everything's go around here! I found myself an outlet to sell my baked goodness and they go on shelves from Monday!!! For starters they just want cookies and based on the clientèle I decided that M&M and Mars Bar cookies would be the best option because, y'know, who doesn't like a colourful cookie or one packed with gooey loveliness.

Now, I will have to make these in huuuge batches, but to save you guys the headache the recipe here is enough for 18-20. It's a really simple recipe, super quick to whip up and perfect for a kids party or a not so kids party! Actually, it's a great one to make with kids; let them choose mix ins and have great fun with it :D

M&M Cookies

Makes 16-18

• 300g flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 180g butter, melted and cooled
• 270g brown sugar
• 1 egg & 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 cups M&Ms
• 2-3 tbsp milk (if necessary)

Preheat the oven to 160 C, line trays with greaseproof paper

Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamy

Add egg, yolk, vanilla and mix

In another bowl combine the flour and baking powder

Add the dry ingredients to the wet, at this stage the mixture will be a bit crumbly 

but it will come together after mixing, don't fret.

If it doesn't come together properly add the milk 1 tbsp at a time until it does.

Add the M&Ms and fold them into the dough

Form heaped tablespoonfuls of the dough into balls then flatten them

Place them on the prepared baking tray

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the edges are golden but the centers are still soft!

for the Mars Bar version just sub out the M&Ms for 2 cups of chopped Mars Bar.

thanks to How Sweet Eats for the photo :D

Selection Box Cookies & A New Year 12 hour Dungeon Crawl

So it's the New Year, a time for getting together with family and friends, bidding farewell to the old and looking forward to the new. Normally celebrations consist of drinking, dancing, partying, going to the pub and counting down the final 10 seconds (with a possible kiss at the stroke of midnight). This year however we decided to do something totally different and host a marathon Pathfinder dungeon crawl.


But not just any dungeon...the most intense, difficult and terrifyingly deadly dungeon ever created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson; The Tomb of Horrors. So, as the clock struck 7PM two teams of intrepid explorers probably with more weapons than sense, set forth. We had our first death within 10 minutes...


In order to get us through this ordeal, I brought home made cookies. In Ireland at Christmas the Cadbury's chocolate company (who make the best chocolate in the world) brings out a selection box which contains a variety of their best loved chocolate bars. It's a pretty standard gift and we ended up with 4 in the house but since I can't really eat chocolate I decided to make cookies with mine. The different chocolate bars came together really well and they were a huge hit so I think they'll become a New Years staple from now on!


Selection Box Cookies
Makes around 18

• 255g flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 180g butter, melted and cooled
• 270g brown sugar
• 1 egg & 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsps vanilla essence
• 1.5-2 cups mixed chocolate bars, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 160 C, line trays with greaseproof paper

Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamy

Add egg, yolk, vanilla and mix

In another bowl combine the flour and baking powder

Add the dry ingredients to the wet, at this stage the mixture will be a bit crumbly 

but it will come together after mixing, don't fret

Add the chopped chocolate bars and fold them into the dough

Form heaped tablespoonfuls of the dough into balls then flatten them

Place them on the prepared baking tray

Bake for 14-17 minutes, until the edges are golden but the centers are still soft

Cool completely or have one fresh from the oven with vanilla ice cream!

Thanks to Sprinkled With Flour and Pam for the pics 

Happy New Year! :) x

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - Take 2

I love OMRCs, the taste, the texture and the warm, inviting smell they leave in the kitchen while they're baking. My very first blog post was a recipe for Slightly Healthier Oatmeal Raisin Cookies because I needed my OMRC fix and am unable to eat the regular kind. But I made a batch for friends the other day and tweaked my recipe a little with apparently good results so I decided I'd post up this recipe too! After all, you can NEVER have too many oatmeal raisin cookie recipes :P

Also, on a sad note, my weighing scales has met an untimely end so I'm using U.S. measurements because I had a mug handy :P

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Makes 12-15 cookies

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsps. vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup plain flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp all spice
• 1 1/2 cups jumbo oats (old fashioned oats)
• 3/4 cup of raisins
• 2-3 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 175 C

Put the raisins in a bowl, add water to cover and add 1 tsp of the vanilla extract.

Allow to plump for 10-15 mins

In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar.

Add eggs and the other tsp of vanilla and beat until creamy

In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and allspice

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until combined

Stir in the oats

Drain the raisins and stir into the mixture.

Add the milk if the mix is on the dry side

Spoon tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper

Bake in the oven for 15-20 mins, or until the edges of the cookie are golden brown

The centers should remain soft but not too doughy.

Also, my camera's been very dodgy lately so all photo credits for this post go to Dana from The Homesteading Housewife

x

White Chocolate Chunk Cookies and the End of an Era

College is over! After three long and exciting years I'm finally finished my Undergraduate degree...*sniff* I'll never forget the time I've spent at NUI Maynooth, they really were the best years of my life (so far) :D. So, I confess, I've been SUPER lazy the past few days about posting and our oven in the apartment is STILL crap so I haven't been able to bake ANYTHING down here... *sad face* But, last Wednesday was my little brothers 17th birthday so I high-tailed it home on Friday morning...very much in the morning (we were up at 6:30) and rushed home to bake him his favourite cookies! I would also like to thank Amy Kelly for the lovely photo at That Winsome Girl and apologise because blogger deleted my link the last time :( I'm very sorry Amy :(


White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Makes around 12 biggish cookies

• 245g plain flour
• 100g butter (melted and cooled)
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 180g packed light brown sugar
• 50g white sugar
• 2 eggs (beaten)
• 1tsp baking powder
• 400g white chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 160 C

Combine all dry ingredients in a medium bowl

Add the melted butter to the sugars and beat until creamy

Add vanilla essence to the eggs and mix

Add eggs and vanilla mixture into the wet ingredients bowl, beating well.

Add dry ingredients to the wet and combine to form a sticky dough

Throw in chocolate chunks and mix

Roll Tbsp sized blobs of the dough into balls about the size of a ping pong ball

Place them 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with greaseproof paper and press to flatten them by about half.

Bake for 16-20 mins until golden at the edges but still quite pale in the middle

Cool for 10 mins on the sheet and then cool completely on a wire rack

According to my brother these are better than M&S and Subway white chocolate cookies. I think that's a pretty solid testimonial from a foody fusspot :P

All Butter Shortbread and a Rather Long Hiatus

So first off, I'm going to apologise for the lack of posts in a while, I'm very sorry about that :( Unfortunately I was in hospital being poked and prodded by Doctors. On a foody hospital note, I don't understand why people complain about it so much, the food is perfectly edible and can actually be quite nice if you choose wisely. Yes, there are more unhealthy options like battered fish and chips and suchlike but there are also loads of healthier options :) Although maybe I'm wrong and Ireland just happens to have good hospital food, what do you guys think? Anyway, enough hospital talk, I'm out and I have a recipe ready to go!

This shortbread recipe is one I inherited from my nana and have used for years. It has been adapted many times to make different flavours and has yet to fail me. It produces a lovely cookie, crunchy but not too crisp when you bite into it and then crumbly and melt in your mouth with a heavenly buttery aroma and a slight sweetness (I'm drooling slightly). There's no vanilla or any other essence added so the buttery flavour shines right through. My mum loves this shortbread so I bake it quite a lot when I'm at home (which isn't really that often unfortunately).


Shortbread

Makes around 30 cookies

• 220g butter (room temperature)
• 100g caster/ superfine sugar (granulated will work but the others are preferable)
• 350g plain flour
• 1-3 tbsp milk (more if necessary)

Preheat oven to 170 C

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy

Add flour and mix until the dough has the consistency of breadcrumbs (I always use my hands for this)

Add milk 1tbsp at a time until dough comes together into a ball

Roll dough out to 2-3mm and cut out cookies

Bake for 15 mins, until golden at the edges

Cool on a wire rack

Feel free to add essences and stuff and let me know how they turn out :) x

Icebox cookies and the 24 hour Juggle-a-thon

Firstly I feel I should apologise for the lack of pictures of the cookies themselves; they were hoovered up in no time, before I had a chance to take any snaps!

So yesterday (and this morning) we held our second annual 24 hour Juggle-a-thon in college to raise money for charity. I should probably explain this a bit better; I'm the current president of the Juggling Society in university and I've been a member of the society for 3 years and will continue to be for as  long as they will let me. Last year I decided we needed to do an event for charity week; and so the 24 hour juggle-a-thon was born!

It kicked off at 12 noon yesterday and we juggled all day and throughout the night, finally finishing at 12 noon today to the strains of the Final Countdown by Europe. We were raising money for M.S. Ireland which is the Multiple Sclerosis charity over here and is a fantastic cause. I'm still not quite done counting the money (there's a lot of small change left) but we've broken the €400 mark!!! It was a great laugh and the people walking by seemed to enjoy the event as much as we did!

Anyway, you're here for a cookie recipe, not to hear me go on and on about juggling (it's a fantastic past time, and I would strongly recommend it to everyone!). I did have a problem in that they were a little cakey because I couldn't find my usual go-to cookie recipe but leaving them in the oven a little longer yielded better results. I will be trying them again with my usual recipe and I'll report back which is better :)

Chocolate and Vanilla Icebox Cookies

(Makes around 30)

• 200g butter (softened)
• 185g sugar
• 1tsp vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 280g flour (divided)
• 1tsp baking powder (divided)
• 3 tbsp good quality cocoa powder
• 40ml milk (divided) (if necessary)

Cream butter and sugar in a bowl until fluffy

Add vanilla and egg and beat well

Divide the mixture into 2 bowls (one for the vanilla dough and one for the chocolate)

Sieve 1/2 of the flour and baking powder into each bowl of the wet ingredients 

Add the cocoa powder to one bowl and mix into a soft dough

Mix the ingredients in the other bowl into a soft dough

Add some or all of the milk if necessary to achieve this consistency (my dough came out a little dry so I had to use all of the milk)

Roll out the dough you want to use on the outside (I picked the chocolate dough) into a rectangle 1cm thick 

Roll the other dough into a sausage shape the same length as the rectangle and place at the edge of the rectangle.

Wrap the chocolate dough around the vanilla dough and seal with your fingers

Slice the resulting log into 2 smaller logs and wrap the logs in cling film, rolling them on a hard surface to remove the uneven seam in the dough

Place in the freezer for 20 mins (hence 'icebox' cookies :P)

While the dough is chilling preheat oven to 180 C and line baking trays with greaseproof paper

Take the dough out of the oven and slice into 1cm thick rounds

Bake for 20-23 mins, until golden, cool and serve.

They're great party cookies because the yield is high and they're the best of both worlds; chocolate and vanilla :D. You can alsomake spirals or Battenberg style checkerboards; give your creativity a whirl and let me know what you come up with :)

                                

Oatmeal Raisin cookies

I have to thank Ethan for putting me on to the idea of making these many moons ago. It had never even crossed my mind to make them and now I've made them twice in the same week (they're pretty popular with my room-mates). I've been fiddling with the original recipe a bit by substituting some of the white flour for wholewheat. I think because of this they turned out possible a little bit sconey but hey, they're still full of oaty raisiney cinnamony goodness...-y :P Also, the wholewheat flour makes them dense and really satisfying :D 


I've stuck the substitutions for not using the wholewheat flour down the end in case that's more your thing :)


Oatmeal Raisin Cookies


Makes around 15 depending on what size you like them


200g wholewheat flour
100g plain flour (+2 handfulls if necessary)
1/2 tsp baking powder
170g melted butter
200g light brown sugar
1tsp cinnamon
2 tsps vanilla essence
2 eggs
130g oats
180g raisins


Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C
Soak the raisins in water with 1 tsp of the vanilla essence (this will make them plump up and be wonderfully juicy)
Combine the flours and baking powder in a medium bowl
Mix butter and sugar in a bigger bowl until well blended
Add cinnamon, remaining vanilla essence and eggs and beat until creamy
Add the flour mix and beat until just combined
Add in oats and raising and mix until just combined
Bake for 13-15 mins (edges should be slightly brown and centres slightly soft)


Cool on a wire rack (or dive straight in) :)


Enjoy x


(If you don't want to use the wholewheat flour then 250g of plain flour should be used instead of the combination)