The Cookie Monster

While my husband, Kyle, is not always a fan of every dinner dish I cook (usually due to a lack of "meat" in  a dish or too many vegetables-yes, he's twelve in case you were wondering), he is pretty easy to please when it comes to the sweets department. To say he has a sweet tooth is putting it lightly. He is worse than I am PMS style. Since I have a mild addiction to pinterest, and especially all of the wonderful recipes I come across on it, I have accumulated quite an impressive amount of cookie recipes that I have had grand intentions to make for him (but haven't because who needs a couple dozen cookies laying around when you're desperately trying to get rid of those last few stubborn pounds of baby weight?)  However, I was just telling him tonight about these frozen banana bites recipe I found, and what was his suggestion? That we have a "cookie weekend." That's right, my very masculine/un-creative husband came up with a "theme weekend" for us. When I asked him what that meant, he explained to me it was a weekend where we would make cookies for each other. I'm fairly certain he meant me make cookies for him, but I guess that's at least a little bit sweet that he attempted to make it sound like he would bake for me. So if we ever get around to having this "cookie weekend" (I personally think Labor Day weekend would be a great weekend for this. ie. no more swim suits), here's a few I might whip up.

No Bake Cookies

Ugh. This would be a completely unselfish recipe I would make for him. Am I the only person on planet earth that is not a fan whatsoever of no bakes? Unfortunately, Kyle is the biggest fan on planet earth of these. I'll allow him one major fault I suppose.

PS. I feel quite certain I do not need to post this recipe since everyone seems to already have it.

Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies

Two of AKN's favorite things in life are lime and coconut (cue music). Maybe his most favorite thing ever in this life (maybe even more than me) is sugar cookies. Put all three together and you have these little yummies. I think they sound delightful; and although I like to believe I have a fair amount of feminist in me, I still derive a pretty good amount of pleasure out of cooking something my husband looooves. ;)

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 ½ cups white sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
zest of one large lime, finely minced
3 tbsp lime juice
½ cup unsweetened toasted coconut
½ cup sugar for rolling cookies

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. If you haven't already toasted your coconut just put a layer of coconut on a cookie sheet and bake it at 350 degrees for 5-7 minutes. Watch out. It goes from white to burnt really quick if you aren't watching closely.
2. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. Using a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and very fluffy.
4. Beat in egg, vanilla extract, lime juice and lime zest.
5. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients and toasted coconut. 
6. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and roll in sugar. Place on lined cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. I made mine too big and they ran together. These do spread quite a bit.
7. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned.
8. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (modified slightly from the New York Times)

Everyone's making a big fuss about these on pinterest. They look pretty delish, so I think we'll add these to the line up.

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour

1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt (I used kosher salt)
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, grated
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
sea salt

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Stir all chocolate into dough using a wooden spoon. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. The original recipe recommends using 3 1/2 ounces of dough per cookie and baking six cookies per baking sheet, but I thought that made for an entirely too large cookie. So I dropped the dough by tablespoonfuls on to the prepared cookie sheet, then sprinkled lightly with sea salt and baked until golden brown, but still soft, 10-12 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 3-4 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day.

Sugar Cookie Truffles

You may think that two sugar cookie recipes for one weekend may be too many. But that's just how much Kyle loves them. The only woman (other than Kathy Ireland, which is another story) that he might divorce me for, is Eileen. These bear a striking resemblance to cake balls, which are on my top 5 list of favorite things in life. As a bonus, I might add red sprinkles to these which would make them "OU colored" sugar cookie truffles, which might make me the best wife in existence to Kyle since football season starts in less than a month (insert gag noise here), and maybe, just maybe, he won't notice a couple hundred dollar purchase from pottery barn next month...

1 16 oz. package of sugar cookie dough

1.5 oz room temp cream cheese

4 oz white melting chocolate OR 1 cup white chips

1 T. shortening

sprinkles for garnish

Bake cookies according to package directions...BUT baking until cookies are crisp, but NOT burned.

Cool cookies completely on wire rack before moving on to the next step.

Line baking sheet with wax paper or silicon baking mat. 

Crumble the cookies into the food processor.  Process until the cookies are a fine crumb.

Add the cream cheese and process until the mixture starts to hold together.

Don't worry it won't be too sticky.

Roll mixture into 1" balls placing on prepared baking sheet and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour.

* or freeze for 10-15 minutes.

Melt white chocolate and shortening on medium power in 30 second intervals until just melted, stirring well after each interval. 

Dip each ball into white chocolate with a fork tapping off the excess.  Return to baking sheet to set.  Sprinkle with sprinkles while white chocolate is still wet.

Let set and enjoy!

And since we have almost 10 month old twins, that's probably all the baking this mom can handle in one weekend. Feel free to join us (or more practically, just swing by our house and take your pick) in our "cookie weekend" to celebrate the upcoming cooler temps/no more swimsuits/more body-concealing clothing. 

Sweet dreams. :) 

xoxo