Patriotic Peanut Butter Cookies (Frosted)

Prep time: 20 mins  *  Cook time: 20 mins  *  Total time: 40 mins  *  Serves: 24

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup butter (room temperature)
• 1½ cups dark brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1½ cup chunky peanut butter (room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• 4 cups white chocolate chips
• 6 teaspoons vegetable shortening
• red food coloring
• blue food coloring

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
• In a stand mixer, combine the softened butter with the dark brown sugar and granulated sugar until well mixed.
• Add the eggs and continue mixing until the eggs are completely incorporated.
• Now pour the vanilla extract into the cookie dough and mixer for 30 seconds to combine.
• Add the chunky peanut butter to the bowl and mix for 2 minutes, or until the peanut butter is completely mixed into the dough.
• Now add the salt, baking soda, and flour and mix slowly for 2-3 minutes. The dough should be very sticky.
• Scoop the dough onto un-greased baking sheets (2-3 tablespoons per cookie). Lightly press the cookie down to form a small disk (do not use a fork!).
• Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges start to brown. Remove from the oven and let sit for a minute before moving to a cooling rack. Once the cookies are cool to the touch, move them to the refrigerator or freezer to cool completely.
• While the cookies are cooling, separate the white chocolate chips into 3 bowls and add 2 teaspoons of shortening to each bowl. Microwave for 60-90 seconds to melt the chocolate. Add red coloring to one of the bowls and blue to another.
• Once the cookies are cooled, place the cookies upside-down into the plain white melted chocolate to coat the top of the cookie. Place back in the refrigerator or freezer so that the chocolate can harden.
• To add the red and blue stripes, use a spoon to spread the red and blue chocolate over ⅓ of the cookie. Again, place back in the refrigerator or freezer to harden. Store in the refrigerator until serving.
• Note - I found it hard to apply colored frosting on top of the white frosting. As an alternative, I used a zip lock bag to pipe the colored frosting through.

Recipe from Zack and Cilantro Saga on Cooking & Beer.

Orange Lace Cookies - An Amature Trial

Orange Lace Cookies

makes about 60, even after casualties

Ingredients

1 cup + 2 tablespoons (8 oz) sugar
3/4 cup (3 oz) flour
1/2 cup (4 oz) orange juice
1 stick (4 oz) butter
1 orange zest - I was lazy and simply used orange juice with pulp

Needs

Silpat 11-5/8-by-16-1/2-Inch Nonstick Silicone Baking Mat - I don't have. Used parchment paper instead.
Professional Offset Spatula Set, Ateco - I don't have. Used my hands, shhhh.

Not the right way to do it...

1. Stir together the flour and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Melt the butter. I like to stick it in the microwave in 30-second intervals until it’s liquefied.
3. Add the orange zest to the bowl with the juice…then pour the juice over the flour.
4. Whisk until it’s smooth as a baby’s bottom.
5. Then pour in the butter and whisk until that’s completely incorporated. There’s still stubborn butter pooling at the edges of this bowl. Better get that all incorporated.

This needs to be refrigerated before proceeding. At least 2 hours or overnight. Actually this batter can be kept in your fridge for up to 3 days, as long as it’s wrapped tightly.


6. Now it’s later and we’re ready to bake. First preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Then fill a pastry bag, outfitted with a small plain tip, with batter. (You can also fill a ziplock back, then snip off a bit of the corner.)
7. Pipe nickel-sized rounds on Silpat-lined cookie sheets, spaced 3 inches apart. Yes, space them far apart. You’ll thank me later. And use the flattest sheet pans you’ve got or the batter will slide around. You will have way more batter than sheet pans, so you’ll need to bake them in batches. Or bake some today, and then some tomorrow.
8. Bake for about 10 minutes. Keep a close eye on these. You want them golden orange. If they get into the brown palette, they start to get bitter.

Comments:

Fun crunchy cookies; not worth the work. Also, I thought I was supposed to squeeze them onto the cooking sheet as perfect dots and they would naturally spread out to form a lace shape. Turns out I was wrong, simply squeeze zig zag circle mess and it turns out to be beautiful crunchy lace.

Super Bowl Cookie Cake

Last minute desire to make Super Bowl themed cookie cake. Inspiration from Brad back in college days. Lucky for me Mallory showed up drunk with the guts to color in the cookie so it was not too plain.

Before drunk friend............................ After drunk friend. Much cuter!