Chinese cookies

 Lightly sweetened cookies

Chinese cookies 

Ingredients

1. 2 cups all purpose flour
2. 4 tablespoons each of butter, cream cheese
3. 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
4. 1 large egg
5. pinch of salt

Mix the butter and cream cheese into a smooth batter and add sugar and mix until its melted. Add the egg and mix well. Add the salt and flour and mix for a smooth dough.
Divide the dough into 15-18 parts and flatten them into 1/2 cm thick cookies.

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 15- 17 minutes. Enjoy!!!

NOTE : Add chocolate chips to these cookies and make them into choc chip cookies :)

Baked beans cookie sticks

Who says cookies have to be round? After seeing these cookie sticks/ fries I am in love with them and I want all my cookies to be shaped like this. They are the perfect shape to dunk it into your tea/coffee if you want to.

Also instead of making the regular chocolate chip cookies I added Bush's Vegetarian Baked beans in them. Oh Gosh...so yummy. You will not taste the beans but you will not be able to resist these cookies. sooooooo goooood.

Baked beans cookie sticks (Chocolate chip cookies in the form of a stick with baked beans)

Chocolate chip cookie sticks with baked beans

Chocolate chips cookie sticks

 Ingredients:

1. 3 cups all purpose flour
2. 1-1.5 cups Bush's vegetarian baked beans (drained as much as possible) and mashed
3. 1 stick butter
4. 2 eggs
5. 1/2 cup brown sugar (if you like it sweeter make it 3/4 cup)
6. 1-2 tablespoons hot water
7. 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Mix the room temperature butter with the mashed beans and add the eggs and sugar and beat them up for 2 minutes. Add the flour and mix well. If the dough looks too tight (dry) add 1-2 tablespoons hot water. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spread the dough in a 8X8 tray into a 1/2 inch flat and put it in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Pre heat oven to 325 degrees (even for dark pans)

Cut it into 1/2 inch thick 4-5 inches long stick, place them on a parchment paper. Bake for 20-22 minutes until golden brown. 

Cool on a wire rack for  10 minutes before consuming. :) Enjoy

Orange Cranberry Butter Cookies

These are the most delicious and easy to make cookies, I have ever made.  This recipe first appeared int the "Southern Living" magazine. The original recipe called for 1.5 cups of butter. But I used only 1 cup better and the cookies were awesome.

Orange Cranberry Butter Cookies

Orange Cranberry Butter cookies

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup butter softened
2. 1.5 cup cups powdered sugar
3. 1 cup dried cranberries chopped
4. Zest from 2 oranges
5. 3 cups all purpose flour
6. sprinkling sugar of your choice color...I choose golden
7. 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
8. 1/2 teaspoon salt
9. 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Beat the butter for 2 minutes and add the powdered sugar and mix well. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder and add it into the butter and mix well. Add the cranberries and orange zest and stir to combine. Divide the dough into 2 parts and roll into 2 square logs and wrap in plastic and refridgerate for 2 hrs.

Roll the logs in sprinkling sugar and cut them into 1/4 inch pieces. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Set the cookies on a parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes until the edges turn slightly brown.

Cool on a cooling rack and enjoy

Sugar cookies

I can cook but baking cookies is my nemesis...I have tried and tried again. Either they turn to be very crunchy...which I do not like, or turn to be cake like. I want a chewy cookie not a cake EEEKKK!!!

But today I hit the jackpot. Finally found the recipe which makes the delicious chewy cookies I love love love.

So...I must tell you, I have never baked a sugar cookie. So I missed one BIG detail about baking it. I should have left them like a ball and with enough space between each of them. So :(  they spread out and touched each other...so no round nice looking cookies. But for the first time baker, the taste is fantastic. Anyone trying to bake a cookie for the first time should start with this recipe.

This recipe makes about 30-32 cookies.

Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies

Ingredients:

1. 2-3/4 cup all purpose flour
2. 1 teaspoon baking soda
3. 1/2 teaspoon salt
4. 1 cup (8oz) butter melted
5. 2 cups sugar divided into 1-3/4 cup and 1/4 cup
6. 2 teaspoons vanilla
7. 2 eggs

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until  fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients until just blended. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls and roll the balls in remaining 1/4 cup of sugar ( I used the different colored sugars I had) . Place cookies 2 inches apart onto a cookie sheets and flatten slightly.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly browned at the edges. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve with coffee or as is :)

How to freeze sugar cookie dough

 Place the cookie dough after rolling them in the sugar on to a cookie sheet and freeze them. So once you need some sugar fix, thaw as many as you want and bake and enjoy