Cookie Recipe

[luvnit]

My niece is coming to visit for a day and I want to bake cookies with her. Poor little girl has been having a rough time and I wanted something fun to do.

Does anyone have a great cookie recipe. As far as I know she is not picky (chocolate, oatmeal, raisins, nuts, whatever, even coconut!) NO PEANUTS, my son is very allergic.

I am having trouble finding a recipe. Please bear in mind that I cook, I usually do not bake. Cookies are a challenge for me.

[pjcooks]

How old is she, Laura? I might have a few fun ideas!

PJ

[labradors]

Here is one that always works well for me. Have to confess, it's from another site,but it is a sure-fire winner.

Snickerdoodles

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
  
• 1/2 cup shortening
  
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
  
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
   
2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
   
3. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
   
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

Also, here are some hints so that even a novice can get perfect cookies:

• Always use a REAL baking sheet (or half sheet, if that's all your over will hold) available from restaurant-supply stores), NOT the flimsy, "non-stick" things sold in the department stores. They are NOT expensive (in fact, it's often easy to get good, clean, used ones for far less than the department-store stuff).
  
• Line the pans with parchment paper (or Silpat, if you are willing to pay the price). That will prevent sticking, AND make the cookies spread out more evenly than on just an unlined sheet.
  
• Use a cookie dropper - a device that looks and operates the way an ice-cream scoop does. That way, you get consistent cookies every time. When I would take those snickerdoodles to church or to the office, people always thought I had bought them at a store - until they tasted them, of course. Then, they would ask me how I got them all to come out so round and all the same size. The scoop and the parchment are the answer. You can get scoops of different sizes to make cookies of different sizes, but I pretty much stick with one that holds two teaspoons of batter.
  
• If you are making a large enough batch of cookies (e.g. the above recipe makes about 60 when I use the two-teaspoon scoop), you will probably need to bake them in batches. To make this easier, use THREE sheets:
• One is in the oven, baking.
  
• While the first one is baking, you are preparing the second one.
  
• When a sheet is taken out of the oven, it becomes the third sheet, which is allowed to cool slightly before moving the cookies to the racks. Once the cookies have been removed, this sheet will also be able to cool down some more so that the fresh down you put on for a new batch doesn't start to melt right away.
  
• Just rotate through the sheets as necessary, and you'll have a smoothly running operation that will easily turn out large batches of amazingly uniform cookies.

[HomeCulinarian]

I recommend going with the tried & true original Toll House Cookies.

[luvnit]

I appreciate all the tips. I am a notorious

Quote:

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Cookie Baking Failure

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and can use all the help I can get. I like snickerdoodles and recently purchased Cream of Tartar on a whim recently.

Thanks Labradors... two paws up!

[labradors]

Quote:

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I recommend going with the tried & true original Toll House Cookies.

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If you do, remember that the "tried & true" recipe used Crisco, but the recipe they print now calls for butter, which changes the taste and texture of the cookies to something different from what you may remember. Thus, go back to using Crisco, instead.

My Mom happened to notice this when she recently made them using the recipe currently printed on the package and wondered why they were different. She went into her recipe box and took out the recipe she had cut out of the package years ago, and found the recipe had changed.

[Mare749]

You know, I thought they were different! So that's what it is. Well, at least they are still good. I like oatmeal cookies too. You can always put chocolate chips in those as well. Then, there is always Linda's gingersnap cookies. We can't stop eating them this week.

Whatever you decide, Laura, there is nothing better than creating memories of baking. Have a wonderful day!

Maryann

[cjs]

Here's a couple more ideas to think on -

CORN CHIP COOKIES

1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup walnuts chopped
1 cup crushed corn chips

Cream shortening and brown sugar, add eggs, mix well.
Add remaining ingredients, blend well.

Drop by tablespoons on to greased cookie sheet.
Bake 350 F for 12 minutes.
Makes 2 dozen cookies
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and then there is Maryann's Mom's -

Cream Cheese Cookies w/Apricot jam

1 3 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups wheat flakes -- coarsely crushed

Cream cheese, butter and sugar; add almond extract. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture. Chill dough 1 hour. Shape in small balls, roll in crushed wheat flakes. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Press centers and top with apricot jam.

Bake 350 F for 12 - 15 minutes.

Notes: These are really good rolled in chopped nuts as a sub for wheat flakes.

Maryann

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[cjs]

Just saw this one in a newsletter I rec'd this a.m. - looks yummy!

Cinnamon Popcorn Crunch

3 quarts popped popcorn, unsalted
1 (6 1/2-ounce) can salted mixed nuts
1 pound light brown sugar
1 cup light corn or maple syrup
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Mix popcorn and nuts in large buttered bowl. Combine sugar, syrup, butter or margarine, water, salt and cinnamon in saucepan. Heat slowly to the boiling point, stirring until sugar melts. Cook to hard crack stage, 290 to 295*F (145*C).

Pour syrup in a fine stream over popcorn and nuts. Stir until popcorn and nuts are evenly coated with syrup. Spread out on large buttered surface or waxed paper. Separate into bite-size portions with forks. Cool.
Makes 4 1/2 quarts.

[HomeCulinarian]

I've thought that the Toll House cookies of my youth were crispier. Now I know why! Hadn't given it a thought before.

Also recommend using a cookie scoop. Try as I might, my dallops of dough are always unequal, using the scoop helps make them uniform for even cooking. The scoops are a very small investment and can also be used for making meatballs and probably lots of other uses I'm unaware of.

The important part is to have fun and let the kid measure and pour.