Maple Cookies

Happy Fathers' Day, everyone!

You know what I love about making cookies as gifts for people? I get to taste test them.

My dad loves a good maple bar, so when I ran across a maple cookie recipe on Pinterest, I thought they might make a good gift for him.

Maple Cookies

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar

Equipment
oven, mixer, baking sheet, cooling rack

Instructions
In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Add the egg, syrup, and vanilla; mix until combined. Add soda, salt, and flour; mix until combined. Refrigerate for about an hour. Preheat oven to 350 F. Put sugar in a small bowl. Shape dough into 1" balls and flatten slightly; dip one side in sugar and set on greased baking sheets (sugar-side up). Bake 8-10 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Yields
2 dozen cookies

Total time
90 minutes (a few minutes to mix everything, 1 hour to refrigerate, a few minutes to roll into balls, 10 minutes each for two batches to bake)

Cleanup rating 2/5
As long as you can manage to not get syrup everywhere while you're measuring, this is only as messy as a basic sugar cookie (simple enough to get the batter off the bowl and beaters, throw your measuring implements in the dishwasher, you're done).

Difficulty rating 3/10
The hardest part is creaming the butter and sugar, which is so easy.

Flavor rating 6/10
They're pretty good. They don't have a strong flavor (which I prefer, personally) but they're nice. I used light brown sugar, so that probably makes a difference.

Adjustability: low
I don't know what I could do to change this recipe. Maybe some kind of frosting to make it sweeter, or throw some walnuts in there?

Make it with...
Nothing, they're cookies. If I were a coffee drinker, I might think they go well with coffee... I'm not sure.

Happy Mothers' Day!

I made cookies for my various moms for Mothers' Day (and two of their birthdays, too)!

For my mom, I made walnut butter balls.

For my stepmom, I made gluten-free chocolate cookies.

And for my mother-in-law, I reprised the raspberry-lime cookies, but I used lemon juice like the original recipe said to, instead of lime.

Top left: gluten-free chocolate cookies.
Top right: raspberry-lemon cookies.
Bottom left: walnut butter balls.
Bottom right: For Birk's birthday, peanut butter Kiss cookies.

Happy Mothers' Day!

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cookies

These are the cookies I made for my stepmom! She's gluten-free, and she loves chocolate, so I jumped on this recipe when I found it.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter (softened)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup butterscotch chips

Equipment

oven, baking sheets, parchment paper, cooling racks, mixer

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Add egg and vanilla; mix thoroughly. Combine baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder, and mix into wet batter (be careful not to make chocolate clouds that choke you). Stir in the chocolate and butterscotch chips. They will expand while baking, so give them some room on the parchment-lined baking sheet (about 1-1.5" should do). Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Yields

I got about 15 cookies out of it, but they were pretty big cookies.

Total time

A little under 30 minutes.

Cleanup rating 3/5

Chocolate everywhere. Delicious batter that I know I shouldn't lick off the spoon and beaters and bowl because it has raw egg, but yummy anyway. Definitely an instance of "clean immediately or regret it."

Difficulty rating 5/10

Not hard, but there is skill and patience required when baking cookies. Mixing, measuring carefully, fully incorporating ingredients... it might help to know that I use a hand mixer, so it's a tiny bit trickier than using a stand mixer.

Flavor rating 3/10

Disappointment. I hope my stepmom liked them more than I did. They are INCREDIBLY sweet. And I have an insane sweet tooth... but this is ridiculous. I washed down a bite with some Coke and it made the Coke taste bland like water. Still, though... chocolate. So it's not like a 1 or 2.

Additional note: The original recipe called for white chocolate chips instead of butterscotch ones, and mentioned that you can also add 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (which I had, leftover from Mom's walnut butter balls, but I was fairly certain that my stepmom and I agree that nuts are great but they don't belong in our baked goods).

Walnut Butter Balls

Happy Mothers' Day! I made cookies for my mothers this year... a different kind for each mother, according to their tastes.

For my mom, I made Walnut Butter Balls. The criteria for Mom were (1) I had to be able to mail it across the country without too much damage; (2) she likes nuts in her cookies/brownies/whatnot; (3) preferably no chocolate (only because it would melt in the mail, not because she doesn't like it).

While I was making them, I thought they smelled kind of like Christmas... and they look kind of like snowballs! Maybe they just remind me of rum balls (without rum) but I think these will get a repeat around Christmas.

The original recipe is from here.

Walnut Butter Balls

Ingredients
1 stick of butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
another 1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup chopped walnuts
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Equipment
oven, parchment paper, baking sheet, cooling rack, mixer

Instructions
Soften your butter in a large bowl (I let it sit out for about 30 minutes). Preheat oven to 350. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar to butter and beat with mixer until creamy. (Beware of sugar clouds.) Add flour, walnuts, salt, and vanilla and beat until incorporated. It will be pretty crumbly. Take tiny handfuls of batter and squeeze it together to get the air out. Squeeze into balls and set on parchment-paper-lined baking sheet. You don't need to give them a lot of room; they won't expand much. Bake 15-20 minutes. They'll be pale but firm (not squishy). Let them cool on the pan for a few minutes. Put about 1 cup powdered sugar in a bowl. While the cookies are still warm, roll them around in the sugar to coat them and set them on the cooling rack. Once you've done all the cookies, start again from the beginning and roll each one a second time.

Yields
I probably got about 20 cookies.

Total time
Prep + baking + sugar coating = about 30 minutes. Plus 30 minutes for butter softening, so about an hour.

Cleanup rating 2/5
Powdered sugar everywhere. Other than that, you just have a mixing bowl to clean (put parchment paper under your cooling rack to catch all that powdered sugar).

Difficulty rating 5/10
Not the easiest cookies to make, but certainly not difficult, either. It takes some patience and attention to mix the butter and sugar properly (and without making it sugar-snow all over the kitchen). And making the balls takes a little talent and a little patience. Otherwise, not too difficult.

Flavor rating 7/10
Birk loved them. I'm typing this up before Mom gets them so I don't know yet what she thinks of them. I thought they were pretty good, but I'm not a nutty cookie person, so they aren't my favorite. But they're good.

Bonus photo: cookies pre-sugaring.