Cherry Poppy Seed Twinks

Cherry Poppy Seed Twinks

These were a lot of fun to make.  Mostly, because my 4 year old helped me. First of all, you mix powdered sugar with butter together.  I suggest wearing a scarf over your face for the dust storm that develops.  Once the dust settles, you can mix up the rest of the cookies.  Callie looked at the poppy seeds and asked, "Why are you putting cat litter in the cookies?"  I looked at the jar and had to agree.  It did look just like cat litter.  I had her taste a few in her hand and she slowly spit them back into her hand.  I didn't think she would even try to lick the beaters after that, but she did and she said, "They are so YUMMY!"

Ready for the oven!

The "Twinks" were easy to make and required very few ingredients (see recipe below).  We decided that instead of vanilla, we will try lemon juice next time.  We tried cherry jam in some and raspberry jam in others.  Both were great!  These cookies cook at a lower temp than most cookies and thus require a longer baking time (mine took 18 minutes).  Be careful to bake them all the way thru.  Otherwise, the jelly falls through the cookie (see picture below).  They still taste good, but you loose most the jam.

Ooops!

So far these are my favorite cookie.  All the kids loved them which is quite an accomplishment.  I give a few cookies each week to a friend of mine to get a non-bias opinion.  They are delivered via her son in our car pool.  Ryan stated that his mom may not receive them this week because he may eat them all first.

These get my first 5 out 5 rating!  My outside cookie critic, Mary, gave them a 4.75 out of 5. She gave the shortbread cookies from a couple weeks ago a 5 out of 5 and they are " THE standard by which all other cookies will forever be judged!!!"

Cherry Poppy Seed Twinks

1 cup Powdered Sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla (or lemon juice?)

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 Tblspn poppy seeds

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup cherry preserves (other flavors are good too)

1. Heat oven to 300 degrees.  In large bowl, combine powdered sugar and butter; beat until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla (or lemon juice) and egg; blend well.  Add flour, poppy seed and salt; mix well. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

2. With thumb, make imprint in center of each cookie.  Fill each with about 1/2 teaspoon preserves.

3. Bake at 300 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets.

Fresh Orange Cookies

Fresh Orange Cookies

These cookies are more like bite size cakes than cookies.  When fresh out of the oven, they bounce back to the touch.  When cooled, they have a crusty top, but the center is still cake like.  Once frosted, it a nice soft, orangy cake.  Yum!

The dough is more like cake batter also.  It is sticky so be prepared to use a spoon and spatula to get them to the cookie sheet.  They baked up nicely and did not stick to the pan even though you do NOT grease the pan.  Initially, this texture worried me.  I thought they were going to come out flat as pancakes.  I was calculating how much flour I should add. Then, the first one came out of the oven and I didn't add a thing.

Ingredients:  Again, I am surprised to add sour cream to cookies. I had orange/peach/mango juice instead of plain orange juice.  I had never zested an orange before.  I know pretty weird, but I hadn't.  I only got 1 tablespoon of peel from a whole orange.  I stopped because I didn't know if anyone wanted oranges right then and didn't want to waste them.  The dough smelled plenty orangy so I didn't worry.  Now, I'm thinking I should do all 3 tablespoons.  They are still tasty, but a little more might be nice.

Critics weighed in prior to the first cookie coming out of the oven, though.  The beater lickers decided they did not like the flavor.  The little one, who always licks the beaters clean, did not even finish hers. I need my non-chocolate bias critic to weigh in on this one.  We shall wait for a rating on this one......

Next up?  Cherry Poppy Seed Twinks

Here is the recipe:
Cookies 
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup orange juice
3 tablespoons grated orange peel

Frosting
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
2 to 3 tablespoons orange juice

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.  In a large bowl, combine sugar and butter; beat until light and fluffy.  Add sour cream and eggs; blend well.  Add all remaining cookie ingredients; mix well.  Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.
2. Bake at 375 for 8 to 11 minutes or until edges are light golden brown.  Immediately, remove from cookie sheet.
3. Meanwhile, in small bowl, combine all frosting ingredients, adding enough orange juice for desired spreading consistency.  Frost cool cookies.  If desire a more glazed look, frost while cookies are still warm.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Choc. Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are definitely hitting the target.  They have chocolate and lots of it! Instead of making just Chocolate Chip Cookies we decided on the Chocolate Chocolate Chip variation.  I also couldn't resist adding a few extra chocolate chips.  You can never have too many, can you? The recipe is at the bottom.

One thing I noticed with adding the cocoa.  The dough initially became kinda powdery.  I started to get a little nervous.  I thought maybe I forgot something!  The more I mixed it, though, the more it began to form together and was just fine.

I decided to compare this recipe with my choc chip cookie recipe (originally from my mom).  I usually make mine with margarine instead of butter.  My Mom's recipe also calls for 1 cup brown sugar, 2 eggs and thus 2 cups of flour.  I also add walnuts to mine.  Both are good.  I think my loyalty will keep me with my Mom's recipe, but these are tempting!

Everyone in the family has enjoyed them and I don't believe they will lasting a total of 24 hours in this house. We had a few extra critics this week - a friend of mine and her 2 kids (ages 6 and 4).  The 4 yr old said they were "Yummilicious".  I think she created a new word!  I'd have to agree with her.

Still waiting to see if my weekly critic has received her allotment.  They were delivered via her husband.  Will they make it?

Here is the recipe:
1 cup butter
3/4 cup packed br sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup semi-sweet choc chips (I used 2 cups)

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  In large bowl, combine br sugar, sugar and butter.  Beat until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla and egg; blend well.  Add flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; mix well.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes (mine were 9 minutes).

NEXT Up?  Fresh Orange Cookies

Easy Brown Sugar Shortbread Puffs

"The Puffs"

"Flattened"

Drizzled

This may turn out to be the easiest cookie I ever make.  There are only 5 ingredients that the majority of people have on-hand (butter, brown sugar,vanilla, egg yolk and flour).  Now, if you add the drizzle on the top then you have to add 2 more ingredients (powdered sugar and milk), but that's pretty easy too.

I did end up changing it slightly.  It said to just "drop them by teaspoons onto the cookie sheet", but I found, at least for me, they did not cook all the way through before browning on the bottom.  My daughter said they tasted fine this way, but I decided to flatten them before I put them in the oven.  I guess that takes the "Puff" out of these, but not the flavor.

I tried something new with the drizzle.  I've heard to mix it up and then put it in a baggie and cut the tip off to drizzle.  I've done this in the past and it works great!  I decided why not mix the ingredients up in the bag - save a dish?  Well, initially I thought, "This is not working."  As I kept mixing and smudging, it all mixed together and turned out just fine.  You just have to watch the corners.

The puffed cookies were soft.  The flattened ones became crunchy when cooled.  The cookies by themselves were good, but the drizzle gave them that little added touch of sweet.  They will probably be really good with coffee...  Oh yeah, Yum!

The reviews so far have been good on these cookies.  I liked them much better than the last ones.  Drizzle is much better than frosting, in my opinion.  My daughter kept snitching them all night so I think she liked them a lot.  My 8 year old actually tried them which in itself is a compliment.  He said they were, "Very Good".  My husband said they were "good".  His mind seemed on other things last night so I'm not sure whether his review is real accurate this week.  The little 4 year old has been sick so we'll have to wait for her review.  Poor little one.

At this point (without the little ones vote) this cookie gets a 4.5 out of 5.

Next up?  Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Yeah, I know, I found this funny too.  We've already decided we'll be doing one of the variations listed.

Newsflash on Frosted Cashew Cookies

Okay.  So the rating on these cookies may have been a little premature.  My husband and kids took them for a sleepover at Grandma's this weekend and Grandma gave them a wonderful review!  I took the remaining cookies to my Monday night class and got several great comments on them.  One friend wants the recipe and another loved them and wants samples of ALL upcoming cookies.

I guess that means that we should upgrade the rating to at least a 4 out 5.  I guess I need a panel of reviewers for this.  Especially, because of my chocolate bias....Hmmm.