Trail Mix Cookies

These are a slightly healthier version of regular cookies because they have reduced butter, oats, and whole wheat flour. They are still a treat though! Using melted butter helps encourage gluten formation, developing a chewier cookie. It also enables you to use less butter (only 5 Tbsp for 24 cookies!) because melted butter is easier to incorporate into the dough.

The cinnamon and brown sugar flavors combine perfectly with the oats, nuts, and dried fruit, producing a very flavorful cookie with great texture. Next time we will try toasting the oats to bring out their flavor more, and perhaps replacing some of the brown sugar with white sugar to cut back a little bit on the molasses notes and allow the oats and nuts to have their moment on the flavor stage. (Note: if you do this be sure to flatten the cookies a bit because they won't spread as much due to the reduced brown sugar; also, they will be less chewy)

Trail Mix Cookies

3/4 cup unbleached AP flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup of old fashioned oats (toasted)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 large egg

5 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup - 1 cup packed brown sugar*

1/4 cup chopped walnuts, almonds, or pecans

1/4 cup dried cherries, raisins, or cranberries

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds

1. Mix together flour, oats, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl.

2. Beat egg and brown sugar with melted butter and vanilla extract.

3. Fold the flour mixture and butter mixture together, and then fold in the mix-ins.

4. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, depending on whether you like your cookies soft and chewy (underbake them) or browned and crunchy (bake just shy of burnt).

*if you like sweeter, chewier, moister cookies, then use 1 cup. If you like less sweet, crunchier cookies then use 1/2 cup - but be sure to flatten them a little bit before baking because they will spread less.

S'more Cookie

S'mores Cookies

Ingredients

1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1.75 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs

1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

2 Hershey bars (I used dark)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line cookie sheet with foil.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in flour mixture until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips and graham cracker crumbs. Drop cookie dough 1/8 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. You should fit 12 cookies per sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven and remove from oven. Push 3 to 4 marshmallows and a piece of a hershey's bar into each cookie. Return to oven and bake for 3-4 more minutes. Cool on counter.

Choclate-espresso Snowcaps

Chocolate-espresso Snowcaps (recipe courtesy Martha Stewart)

Makes 18.
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 teaspoons instant espresso
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 cup confectioners sugar, for coating

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, espresso, baking powder, and salt. With an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg until well combined; mix in cooled chocolate. With mixer on low speed, gradually add dry ingredients; beat in milk just until combined. Flatten dough into a disk; wrap in plastic. Freeze until firm, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place confectioners' sugar into a medium bowl; working in batches, roll balls in sugar twice.

Place balls on prepared baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies have spread and coating is cracked, 12 to 14 minutes; cookies will still be soft to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Cranberry Spice Cookies

Adapted from Tish Boyle's chocolate cranberry spice cookies (The Good Cookie). Part of the reason for making these was to dispose of the rest of our "mascarpone butter" that resulted from overbeating that finicky mascarpone cheese.

Chocolate Cranberry Spice Cookies

1.5 cups all-purpose flour

6 tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cardamom (original recipe used cloves)

pinch of salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup mascarpone butter (from overbeaten mascarpone cheese)

3/4 packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tbsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup dried cranberries

1.5 cups coarsely chopped walnuts, plus 20-30 whole walnuts for pressing into tops of cookies

1. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, spices, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

2. Use a hand mixer to beat butter and sugars at medium speed until light, about 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. Beat in vanilla extract. Use a fork to add dry ingredients in three additions, mixing until just combined. Stir in cranberries and walnuts. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for an hour.

3. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with foil.

4. Use an ice cream scoop to drop dollops of cookie dough on sheets (12 per sheet). Bake for 15 minutes or until just set but still soft.