Going native, maple sunflower seed butter cookies

If you grew up near Brookings, S.D., you most likely visited McCrory Gardens for an elementary school field trip. Chances are, your brown-bag sack lunch contained a soggy, white-bread bologna sandwich and a plastic baggie filled with Dakota Style chips. Fast forward twenty-five years and you can bake cookies with maple syrup straight from McCrory’s trees and sunflower seed kernels from the potato grower in Clark, just 80 miles up the road.

The inspiration for these cookies came from three things:

1. I bought a jar of sunflower seed butter from Trader Joe’s a few weeks ago and I wasn’t sure what to do with it.
2. I purchased a little jug of maple syrup from the McCrory Gardens gift shop.
3. I love peanut butter and maple syrup on my waffles.

So, I bought a bag of Dakota Style sunflower kernels and whipped up a batch of cookies quite different from my normal baking — there’s no chocolate!

Maple Sunflower Seed Butter Cookies

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup sunflower seed butter (of course you could use peanut butter if you prefer)

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 egg

1-1/2 cups crispy rice cereal

1/2 cup sunflower seed kernels

Make the cookies:

Preheat the oven to 350°.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a small bowl stir together the white sugar, brown sugar, sunflower seed butter, maple syrup, vanilla, and softened butter. Briskly stir in egg until the mixture is well combined and creamy.

Add the sunflower seed butter mixture to the dry ingredients and stir. A wooden spoon works best. Stir in the crispy rice cereal and sunflower seed kernels.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Drop the cookie dough by the teaspoonful onto the pan, leaving an inch between cookies. Gently push the cookies down slightly to make circles. Bake 10 minutes.

Remove from oven. Let cool on the cookie sheet for at least 20 minutes. These cookies are really soft so they are hard to move onto a cooling rack when they are hot. Once the cookies have cooled enough to move them without falling apart, transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

Store cooled cookies in an airtight container. Makes approximately 32 soft cookies.

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Have you been to McCrory Gardens recently? They have developed the botanical gardens nicely the last few years and they recently opened the Education and Visitor Center. Here’s a picture of the cute little cottage in the winter. I have a nostalgic connection to this cottage — if I remember correctly, it used to be a little gas station in Lake Preston. For those of you who remember my best friend and our classmate, Darya, she loved this little station. There was a time after Darya died that her parents and another local family had the opportunity to donate the small building to McCrory gardens in memory of their loved ones. It makes a romantic, dreamy background for photos so bring your camera.

If you’re in the area:

McCrory Gardens

631 22nd Avenue

Brookings, SD 57006

www.mcrorygardens.com

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Busy weekend. Lazy weekend. | Peanut butter KISSES cookies

Certainly there are fancier, more homemade baked goods that come out of our ovens. But let’s not kid ourselves. Even though we crave fresh-bakes cookies, on some weekends we are just too busy, and on some gray cozy Saturdays we are just too lazy, to spend more than half an hour baking and cleaning up the kitchen.

The good thing is that even as classic and simple as these are, I’ve never known a kid, or any human for that matter, to refuse a HERSHEY’S KISS surrounded by a soft peanut butter cookie. That’s why these used to be the perfect classroom or 4-H party treat. (B.P.A. – Before Peanut Allergies)

And I love that I can use my new bowl that I got from my mom last Christmas. It’s from the General Store of Minnetonka in Minnesota — an incredible shopping experience.

Another one-bowl peanut butter and chocolate recipe that makes a couple dozen pop-in-your-mouth goodies is Reese’s P.B. Poppers. Basically, your pantry shelf should always hold a package of peanut butter cookie mix and either HERSHEY’S KISSES or miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Peanut Butter KISSES Cookies

1 package peanut butter cookie mix and the ingredients to make them

1/4 to 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, optional

approximately 36 HERSHEY’S KISSES milk chocolate candies, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 350˚. Make the cookie dough according to package directions; stirring in 1/4 to 1/2 cup peanut butter to dough if desired.

Place dough by tablespoons on a cookie sheet. I make the cookies really small because my favorite part is the middle bite that has a chocolate KISS with a little bit of soft peanut butter cookie stuck on the bottom. If you make them really small, you’ll get approximately 36 little cookies from one batch.

Bake according to package directions. Do not overbake. Remove from oven. Immediately place an unwrapped HERSHEY’S KISS in the center of each cookie, pressing down gently. Cool 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

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Your IT guy knows how to make monster cookie bar strips

He’s been holding out on you. No, it’s not about monster (strip) bars, your IT guy knows how to bake! His secret is out – and from one big, bad batch, you can make a 10-pound pan of golden brown monster bars and at least two dozen Monster cookies easily mistaken for small pizzas jammed with M&M’s, oatmeal, peanut butter, and chocolate chips.

For the sake of privacy, we’ll call him Rich. Ok, maybe it wasn’t his idea to cut the bars into strips and triangles, but Rich was the one who brought these to work in 2007. And I’ve only used his monster cookie recipe since.

I recommend you use a sturdy, wooden spoon toward the end of the mixing process in this recipe. If you try to whip these up with nothing but your electric mixer, it’ll start smoking like a hot summer night’s fire pit.

I like to make a pan of bars and roll the rest of the dough into big cookie balls and put them in the freezer to bake another day. (Use a cookie scoop so you are making similar sizes.) Line the balls of dough on a large cookie sheet(s) and put them in the freezer. Don’t let the cookies touch each other. Once they are frozen, you can put the cookie balls in plastic containers or plastic freezer bags. When you want fresh-baked Monster Cookies, grab how many ever you want from the freezer and thaw. Then bake as usual at 350° for approximately 12-16 minutes, depending on how large they are.

Monster Cookies, Bars and Strips

2 sticks softened butter

2-1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

2 cups white sugar

2 cups brown sugar

4 teaspoons baking soda

6 eggs

1 Tablespoon light corn syrup

1 Tablespoon vanilla

9 cups quick-cooking oats

2-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

3-1/4 cups plain M&M’s

Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare pans. If you want to use all your cookie dough at once, you can make one 13×9 pan of bars (baking time takes about 20-25 minutes) and at least two dozen large cookies (baking time takes about 12-16 minutes). Or, you can make two 13×9 pans of bars. Or, if you only want cookies, you can make at least six dozen large cookies or even a few more dozen if you make them smaller.

1. In a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer, cream softened butter and peanut butter together.
2. Add white sugar and brown sugar, beating until well combined.
3. Add baking soda.
4. Add eggs and beat well.
5. Pour in the corn syrup and vanilla. Continue mixing until everything is incorporated well.
6. At this point, you should be able to add at least a few cups of the oats and still use your mixer. But once the dough gets too heavy, stop using the mixer and continue adding oats stirring the batter with a wooden spoon. Use your sexy arm muscles.
7. Stir in the M&M’s and chocolate chips.

If you are making bars, spread half of the dough into a 13×9-inch pan. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until nice and golden brown. If you take the pan out before they turn golden brown, the middle will not be done.

For cookies, baking time depends on how large you make them. Place on cookie sheet. Using the back of a spoon, gently push down the dough a little but so that they spread out instead of baking in one mound. Bake at 350° for 12-16 minutes, or until golden brown. I like to sprinkle just a tiny bit of pink Himalayan salt or sea salt on mine when they come out of the oven.

That’s it! Now you’ve got enough monster cookies, bars, and strips to share with your favorite IT guys. And gals.

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They Ate All But Three | Chewy Cocoa P.B. Chip Cookies

It’s not clear to me how it happened, but somewhere between the pumpkin pie, washing the dishes, opening presents, and setting out all the goodies, all but three of my chewy cocoa peanut butter chip cookies disappeared.

And I faintly recall what sounded like a Food Network cookie review behind me as we washed dishes. There was talk of “they’re so soft,” “I like the crunchy edges,” and “there’s a perfect ratio of chocolate and peanut butter.”

Speaking of Christmas cookies, we can’t be the only family that’s overly ambitious with our Christmas baking. Between the bakers in my family, there are six ovens, six mixers, and countless pounds of sugar involved in the making of our annual goodies feast. Of course, we eat a traditional meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole, too.

And this table is not an accurate account of how many sweets we really had because there are more in the refrigerator and a big stack sitting on my entryway bench that hadn’t made it to the table yet. Luckily, we all pack up containers of our favorites and enjoy them for a few weeks after Christmas.

Chewy Cocoa Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

2 cups sugar

1-1/4 cups butter, softened

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

10-ounce package (1-2/3 cups) peanut butter chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat sugar and softened butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Stir together and then gradually add to the butter mixture; beating until well combined. Stir in the peanut butter chips until they are distributed evenly into the cookie dough.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9 to 10 minutes. Do not overbake. The cookies will not look like they are done but they will puff up a little when baking and then they’ll drop when they are cooling. They are soft with a little crunch around the edges. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes and then move them to a cooling rack.

Forget about cooling completely. Start eating them after they’ve cooled 15 minutes or so. Store in an airtight container. Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.

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Minty Cream Cheese Cookies

It’s a cookie that swerves completely off the track from traditional chocolate chip cookies. You’ll grab a cookie thinking you’ll eat just one. You take a bite, roll your eyes back in delight as you chew the lightly crisp edge. With the next bite comes the soft, dense center that’s dotted with minty chocolate chips. A few more bites and you don’t even realize it but your hand is reaching for another.

1 cup butter-flavor shortening

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1-3/4 cups mint chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, beat softened cream cheese until smooth. Add shortening, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until well combined.

About half a cup at a time, mix the flour into the cream cheese batter on low speed just until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. The cookies don’t spread so they are about the size that you place them on the pan.

Bake 8 minutes or until just lightly browned. Don’t overbake. Cool a few minutes in the pan and then transfer to a cooling rack. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

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You know how most cookies are best warm out of the oven? These are good then too, but they seem even better after they’ve been sitting around a few hours or a day or so. What’s even better is if you make the dough, refrigerate it a day or two and then bake them. But keep your eye on the dough. Once the kids find out it doesn’t contain eggs, they’ll be sneaking spoonfuls when you’re not looking.

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{So What if I’m a Rebel | Dark Cherry Chocolate Cookies}

Is there a “rule book” in food photography that says you can’t eat bites of your photo subject? Even if it is oozing warm chocolate? Because I just realized that I do it a lot, and after taking a quick surf through the cookies section on the Food Network and Betty Crocker websites, it doesn’t appear that those people are hungry when they shoot photos of their sweets. Hmm. I guess I’ll have to publish my own cookbook – with pages of scrumptious recipes and nicely lit pictures of scattered crumbs and dirty dishes. Just like at home. I’ve never been one to follow rules anyway.

The only thing I ever knew to use cherry chips for was my mom’s recipe for Cherry Bing Bars (I’ll share the recipe with you soon). So last year, I created a recipe for cupcakes using cherry flavored baking morsels (chips) and black cherry soda. (Yum!) And now I have a new cookie to share with you.

{Dark Cherry Chocolate Cookies}

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1-1/4 cups brown sugar (I like to use dark but light is fine, too.)

1 teaspoon cherry extract

2 eggs

2 Tablespoons corn syrup

2-1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chopped cherry flavored baking morsels (I grate them finely in my cheese grater.)

1 cup 60% cacao bittersweet chips (I use Ghirardelli because they melt nicely into the cookie.)

Powdered sugar to sprinkle on cooled cookies if desired

Preheat oven to 375˚. *Or prepare dough and let sit, covered in the refrigerator.

In a small bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, soda, and salt. In a large bowl, cream together softened butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and cherry extract until creamy. Beat in eggs until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in corn syrup. Gradually beat in flour mixture until combined. Stir in the chopped cherry chips and the cacao chips.

Drop by extra-large teaspoons full onto a baking sheet. (Makes 6 cookies at a time on regular sized cookie sheets.) Bake at 375˚ for 15 minutes or until the edges are crispy and the middle is just set. Cool on pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack. When completely cooled, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

*I read a cookie baking study last year but I don’t know where I saw it. Here’s what I remember though – if you mix up a batch of cookie dough and bake them right away, they will taste good. If you stick that dough, covered, in the refrigerator for a day and then bake them, they will taste even better. But if you stir up a batch of cookie dough and let it sit covered in the refrigerator for two or three days, the cookies will come out more flavorful, more delicious than ever. After about four days or so in the fridge I think, they just don’t get any better so you might as well bake at day two or three.

What recipes do you use that call for cherry chips?

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{Reese’s® P.B. Poppers}

When I asked my nephew, Cody, what I could bake and send to him at college, he texted back saying, “anything Reese’s would be amazing, please and thank you.” These poppers were the first treat in the oven.

The recipe can be found under many names but I like to call them Reese’s® P.B. Poppers. It’s not often you find sweets called ‘poppers’—poppers are more typically found on savory appetizer menus. Taste of Home published this recipe as Peanut Butter Cookie Cups. Whatever you call them, they are easy to make and delicious to eat.

The next treat in the oven was a pan of Peanut Butter Brownie Cups, a recipe I found this weekend on Cookies and Cups’ blog. I’ll post my take on those this week. They are cooling so I haven’t tasted them yet.

1 package peanut butter cookie mix and the ingredients to make them, plus 1/4 to 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, optional

36 miniature peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 350˚. Grease mini muffin tin. Make the cookie dough according to package directions; stirring in 1/4 to 1/2 cup peanut butter to dough if desired. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place in mini muffin tin. Press dough evenly onto the bottom and just to the top of the muffin cups. (I use a mini tart shaper.) If they spread over the sides of the muffin cup, they are hard to get out of the pan in one piece.

Bake at 350˚ for 7 minutes or until set. Immediately place a peanut butter cup in each popper, pressing down gently. Cool for 10 minutes and carefully remove from pans. Cool on wire rack.

When searching the history of chocolate and peanut butter mixed together, I found that the two flavors were married in a candy made in the 1920s by a former dairy employee of Milton S. Hershey, Mr. Harry Burnett Reese. The H.B. Reese Candy Company was later sold to Hershey Foods Corporation (now known as Hershey Chocolate Company) in 1963.

 

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{Giant Ginger Cookies}

The warm and cozy smell of fresh-baked ginger cookies draws everyone to the kitchen. With a crispy, sugar-coated outside and soft chewy middle, these cookies will become a family favorite the first time you make them.  

  

 There’s always a reason to bake ginger cookies; my reason a few weeks ago was to give to my sister for her birthday (she LOVES anything ginger) and to my grandma for Grandparent’s Day. The smell of molasses brings me back 25 years to my grandma’s kitchen with her warm cookies baking in the oven. My grandpa loved her crispy molasses cookies because he liked dunking them in his coffee—something my sister still does.   

My grandpa worked for the local John Deere dealer, Eugene Beckman & Sons, for many years. When he died, my grandma gave me one of his coffee cups. I keep it behind glass now but took it out on Grandparent's Day to photograph with the cookies.

 

 

Giant Ginger Cookies

4-1/2 cups flour

4  teaspoons ground ginger

2  teaspoons baking soda

1-1/2  teaspoons cinnamon

1  teaspoon ground cloves

1/4  teaspoon salt

1-1/2  cups shortening

2  cups sugar

2  eggs

1/2  cup molasses

3/4  cup  coarse sugar or granulated sugar

Make the cookies!  

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt; set aside.  

In a large bowl, beat shortening on low speed for 30 seconds to soften. Gradually add the 2 cups of sugar. Beat until combined. Beat in eggs and molasses. Beat in as much of the flour mixture as you can with the mixer and then use a wooden spoon to stir in the remaining flour mixture.   

Shape dough into 2-inch balls using 1/4 cup dough. Roll dough balls in the 3/4 cup coarse sugar. Place 2-1/2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350˚ for 12-14 minutes or until cookies are light brown and puffed up; being careful not to overbake or they will not be soft inside. Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then set them on a wire rack to cool completely. Store cookies in a covered container for 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.   

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This recipe is from the Better Homes and Gardens 100 Best Cookies 2008 magazine but it is also on their website here. The magazine says that these cookies were shown on the cover of the November 1998 Better Homes and Gardens magazines and that it prompted “scores of calls from readers saying they were the best ginger cookies ever.” I (and my family) agree.  

What are some baking smells that remind you of visiting your grandparents when you were a kid?

 

 

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{Pumpkin Chip Cookies}

Pumpkin is one of my favorite flavors and one of the yummiest “baking smells.”  I don’t know how long ago I found this recipe in a Taste of Home magazine but it’s been in my recipe box for long enough to become a family favorite. These soft cake-like cookies have been enjoyed at many of our fall and winter holidays. If you’ve never tried pumpkin and chocolate together, you are in for a serious treat!

 I  shared some of these with my sister and nephew this week and my sister texted me to say, “these cookies are ‘da bomb’, you need to do a blog post !” I couldn’t agree more, Heidi so here it is. I’m kicking myself because as I write this blog post, I am traveling to the Black Hills and I FORGOT THESE COOKIES AT HOME. What was I thinking?? Oh, and the house is locked up like Fort Knox so don’t even think about raiding my cookie jar.

1 1/2 cups butter, softened (3 sticks)

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup sugar

1 can (15 oz) solid-pack pumpkin

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups quick-cooking oats

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (this is my own addition)

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups (12 oz) chocolate chips

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars. Beat in the egg, pumpkin and vanilla. Combine the flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Makes 10 dozen. 

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I sprinkled the cookies with cute little chocolate vermacelli  I bought while I was on my annual sister’s trip last year. I’d never seen such tiny little chocolate sprinkles–it was one of my best finds that year! Like a kid in a candy store…

If you enjoy the flavor of chocolate and pumpkin paired together, we also enjoy the Pumpkin Chip Muffins from Taste of Home. I often bake them in mini loaf pans at Christmas time and give them as gifts.

What pumpkin recipes do you enjoy?

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Chocolate Chip Crunchewy Cookies {AKA Cap’n Crunch® Cookies}

Cap’n Crunch® cereal  in a cookie? I know, I know–it sounds strange, but back in May when C&H Sugar posted this recipe on Twitter, I knew I HAD to try it. These have some of my favorite ingredients: chocolate, toffee bits, oatmeal, peanut butter and cereal! I made a double batch for my son’s 9th birthday party and all but a few were eaten by the end of the night (the cookies, not the kids). They were a big hit with the kids and adults. This weekend I had a chance to make them again.

Full recipe and ingredient list below. Beat the first six ingredients until it’s creamy. For better mixing, bring your egg to room temperature before beating.

Mix the flour, soda and salt together before adding it to the creamy mixture. Please note: I used half the amount of salt that it calls for in the recipe. The first time I made these, I could “taste” the salt in them so this time, I used half as much. They are even better this way. And, it’s probably the only time in my life I’ve gone easy on the salt…

And now, it’s time for the Cap’n Crunch®! Add the three cereals: Cap’n Crunch®, Oatmeal (not instant) and Rice Krispies® cereal (sorry about that Krispies, I haven’t even mentioned you until now. You are the “star” in your own treats so let’s give the Cap’n the spotlight in this one, okay.)

By now the dough is getting pretty stiff so you’ll want to stir the last two ingredients–chocolate chips and toffee pieces–with a wooden spoon or spatula. The recipe calls for mini chocolate chips but I didn’t have any so I used regular. I do suggest using mini though if you can because the dough is really chunky and it’s easier to shape using mini chips.

And now the dough is ready to put on the pans. This dough is crumbly so instead of dropping the dough by spoonful, they hold together better if you roll them into a ball and then lightly flatten the tops with a spoon. You want to make sure you do that because these cookies don’t spread out at all while baking so you’ll end up with a “mound” instead of a cookie. Yep–learned that from experience.

Chocolate Chip Crunchewy Cookies

3/4 cup butter flavored vegetable shortening

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 Tbsp. milk

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt (orignal recipe calls for 1 tsp salt)

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats, not instant

1/2 cup Rice Krispies cereal

1 cup Cap’n Crunch cereal

1 (12 oz pkg) mini chocolate chips (1 1/2 to 2 cups)

1/2 cup toffee bits

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter cookie sheets or spray with nonstick cooking spray. In bowl of electric mixer, combine first six ingredients and beat on medium speed until creamy. Add flour, salt, and baking soda and combine. Add oats, Rice Krispies, and Cap’n Crunch and mix. Stir in chocolate chips and toffee bits. Drop batter by spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets. Using a spoon, slightly flatten the tops of the cookies. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on the sheets for two minutes; then cool completely on cooling rack. Makes 3 or 4 dozen. I make mine a little smaller and get 4 dozen.

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