Here's the recipe for Rene's Oatmeal Shortbread Cookies in process.
Add all the ingredients to a bowl. Surprise! No eggs.
Combine all the ingredients until the butter and vanilla are evenly distributed. Then grease a pie plate with butter.
Place the combined ingredients in the greased pie plate and press down into a flat, even disk.
Bake, slice into wedges, and let cool. Perfect for dunkin' in tea.
Here's the recipe for my Halloween Pinwheel Cookies in process.
Part 1 of 2: the dough-making phase. Except for a few flavor- and color-specific tweaks, the ingredients for each layer are the same.
The process is also the same. (Note: You will have to make each layer individually.) Cream together the butter and white sugar. Combine the wet ingredients and add to the creamed creamables. Grind the oatmeal. Combine the dry ingredients, add to the combined creamables and wet ingredients, and mix to combine.
Vanilla Layer: vanilla, finely ground Nilla Wafer cookies, and yellow food coloring.
Orange Layer: orange extract and red and yellow food coloring.
Chocolate Layer: cocoa powder and black food coloring.
See Picturing Halloween Pinwheel Cookies II for the assembly phase.
Here's the recipe for my Peanut Butter and Apple Cookies in process.
Cream the creamables: butter, dark brown sugar, white sugar, and peanut butter.
Combine the wet ingredients: an egg and vanilla.
Add the wet ingredients to the creamed creamables. Mix.
Peel and roughly chop the apples.
Combine the dry ingredients and add to the combined creamables and wet ingredients. Mix again.
Scoop and bake. Light, tasty, and arguably healthy.
Here's the recipe for my Sweater Weather Cookies in process.
Cream the creamables: butter and dark brown sugar.
Combine the wet ingredients. An egg; vanilla, orange zest, juice, and extract; and the contents of six Mandarin Orange Spice tea bags.
Add the combined wet ingredients to the combined creambles. Mix.
Combine the dry ingredients and add to the wet ingredients/creamables mixture. Mix
Scoop, bake, and enjoy. Smells so good!
Here's the recipe for my Margarita Cookies in process.
Cream the creamables: butter, white sugar, and light brown sugar.
Combine the wet ingredients. Lots of lime zest and lots of tequila. I used two nips of tequila in the wet ingredients alone.
Add the combined ingredients to the combined creamables. It looks a little wet, but don't worry.
Combine the dry ingredients and add to the mixer. Be sure to measure the oatmeal after you grind it.
Scoop and bake the cookies. When they come out of the oven, give the cookies a light smoosh to flatten them a little, then set them aside to cool.
Ice and salt the cookies. Once the cookies have cooled completely, drizzle them generously with the tequila/lime icing. Then top with a pinch of sea salt. And there you have it: a drink in a cookie--no paper umbrella required.
Here's the recipe for my Mojito Cookies in process.
Cream the creamables: butter, dark brown sugar, and white sugar.
Combine the wet ingredients. This may seem like a thick combination, but trust me...it works. Mix together an egg yolk, lime juice, lime zest, the contents of three mint tea bags, vanilla, and rum.
Combine the dry ingredients and add to the combined creamables and wet ingredients.
Scoop, bake, and cool the cookies.
While the cookies cool, make the icing: confectioner's sugar, lime juice, rum, and the contents of two mint tea bags. Then drizzle over the cooled cookies. Cheers! (Or should that be salud?)
Here's the recipe for my Beach Plum Thumbprint Cookies in process.
Cream the creamables: butter and white sugar.
Combine the wet ingredients: egg and vanilla.
Add the wet ingredients to the creamables and mix.
Grind the oats and combine the dry ingredients.
Add the dry ingredients to the combined creamables and wet ingredients.
Form the dough balls, make the indentations, and fill with jelly.
Bake, cool, and try not to eat them all in one sitting.
Here's the recipe for my Savory Parmesan & Black Olive Cookies in process.
Cream the creamables: butter, olive oil, and shredded Parmesan cheese. You don't have to use expensive, fancy-schmancy cheese like Parmigiano-Reggiano. Pre-shredded Parmesan in a resealable plastic pouch--the kind in the dairy section of your grocery store--will do just fine. (That's what I used.)
Combine the wet ingredients: an egg, Italian seasoning, and milk.
Add the combined wet ingredients to the combined creamables. Mix.
Chop the olives. I used one drained can of medium-sized black olives. Add to the slurry and mix until well incorporated.
Chop the fresh parsley and add to the dry ingredients. Stir well to make sure everything is mixed together evenly.
Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix. Smells so good. You could serve these as an hors d'oeuvre or as an alternative to garlic bread with a hearty pasta dinner.
Scoop, bake, mangia! Who needs a breadstick when you've got these flavorful little pillows of love. Best when served warm, but you can wrap the cooled cookies in a damp paper towel and zap them in the microwave for 30-40 seconds to bring them up to temperature.
Here's the recipe for my Lemon Curd & Gooseberry Biscuits in process.
Make the thumbprint filling. I used 1/3 cup lemon curd and 1/3 cup drained gooseberries. Smoosh everything together until smooth, and place the mixture in the fridge to firm up.
Cream the creamables. Butter and good-old white sugar. Yup...this has an oatmeal sugar cookie base.
Combine wet ingredients: egg and vanilla.
Combine the dry ingredients. Make sure you grind the oatmeal before you measure.
Scoop, thumbprint, and fill the dough balls with about 1/2 teaspoon of the firmed-up lemon curd/gooseberry mixture.
Bake, cool, and glaze. To melt the dark chocolate chips, I used a really simple double boiler: a bowl sitting atop a pan with simmering water. Dip the cookies, top-sides down, into the chocolate and cool on wire racks.
Here's the recipe for my Cherry-Vanilla Crispies in process.
Cream the creamables: butter, light brown sugar, and white sugar.
Combine the wet ingredients: an egg, vanilla, and milk.
Grind the Nilla Wafers and combine the dry ingredients. Make sure you grind the Nilla Wafers first and then measure.
Add the dry ingredients to the combined creambles and wet ingredients. Mix 'n mingle.
Coat the dough balls with Rice Krispies and bake. You might need to apply a little pressure to make the Krispies stick, but it's no trouble.
Here's the recipe for my Fourth of July Cookies in process.
Cook the blueberries, white sugar, lemon juice, and milk. Once you've got a silky purple mash, set aside the mixture to cool. This stuff is good enough to eat on its own...or on top of vanilla ice cream.
Cream the creamables: butter and light brown sugar.
Add the cooled blueberry mixture to the creamables. Mix. It looks messy, but don't worry.
Combine the dry ingredients. This recipe is loaded with flavorful stuff: dried cherries, fresh cherries, coconut, white chocolate chips, cooked blueberries, and fresh blueberries. Yup...red, white, and blue.
Add the dry ingredients to the combined creambles and cooked blueberries. Mix. Then chill to firm up.
Scoop, bake, and set off the fireworks. Happy Birthday, America!
Here's the recipe for my Caramel Apple Bars in process.
Cream the creamables: butter and dark brown sugar.
Combine the wet ingredients: apple sauce, an egg yolk, milk, and cinnamon.
Add the combined wet ingredients to the creamables. Take everything for a spin.
Peel and dice the apples. My alligator-style chopper makes this bit a snap.
Combine the dry ingredients and add to the combined wet ingredients and creamables. Take everything for another spin.
Scoop the dough into a greased baking dish and spread out into an even layer.
In the microwave, melt the caramel bits and apple juice. Stir to even out the mixture.
Pour the melted caramel over the dough and spread out evenly.
Bake, cool, and cut.
Here's the recipe for my XXX Cherry + Chocolate Cookies in process.
Halve the cherries and add them to the sugar, milk, and lemon juice. Cook over medium high heat until the cherries break down and the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool.
Cream the creamables: butter and dark brown sugar. I made this batch at Mumma's, so I had to use her hand mixer, not my trusty Kitchen Aid stand mixer.
Add the cooled cherry mixture to the combined creamables and mix. That's right...this is an eggless cookie.
Add the contents of two cherry-vanilla tea bags to the combined cooked cherries and creamables. Mix.
Combine the dry ingredients and add to the combined cooked cherries and creamables. Mix.
Scoop and bake. Like I always say about my XXX cookies, these are so good they're obscene!
Here's the recipe for my Blueberry & Lemon Cookies in process.
Cream the creamables: butter and--this time--light brown sugar because I wanted a chewy texture but not the stronger molasses flavor of dark brown sugar.
Combine the wet ingredients and add to the creamables. I use three forms of lemon here: lemon extract, lemon juice, and lemon zest. This triple shot of citrus is guaranteed to give you a lemony cookie.
Combine the dry ingredients and add to the combined creamables and wet ingredients. I halved the blueberries and filled the measuring cups as I went along. (1 1/3 cups' worth.) I sliced these guys in half so that they would be distributed evenly in the dough when I mixed all the ingredients together.
Mix, mix mix.
Scoop and bake. Serve 'em warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and you'll have a bowlful of summertime.
While I was staying with my brother and sister-in-law in Boston over the weekend, we made a batch of homemade soft-serve ice cream. Hmmm...perhaps "mock-serve" would be a better name for it. The secret to that soft-serve flavor and texture is the pudding and Cool Whip.
Mix together the milk, sugar, pudding, and Cool Whip until everything is smooth and clumpless.
Scoop the mixture into an ice cream maker. Sit back, relax, and wait for the mixture to solidify. This was an incredibly close approximation of real soft-serve. Who needs Dairy Queen?
Here's the recipe for my (Dark) Chocolate Lemon in the Coconut Cookies in process.
Cream the creamables. Butter and dark brown sugar.
Combine the wet ingredients and add to the creambles. I used leftover cream of coconut that I froze.
Add the dry ingredients to the combined creamables and wet ingredients.
Scoop and bake. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the compliments.
Here's the recipe for my Lemon in the Coconut Cookies in process.
Cream the creamables. Butter and dark brown sugar.
Combine the wet ingredients and add to the creambles. I used leftover cream of coconut that I froze.
Add the dry ingredients to the combined creamables and wet ingredients.
Scoop and bake. These cookies will fill your house with coconut-lemony goodness.
Here's the recipe for my Neapolitan Cookies (strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate) in process.
Combine the wet ingredients. Cook the strawberries, milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and sugar over medium high heat. Smoosh everything around until it forms a red pulp. Add the vanilla extract after the mixture has cooled a little.
Cream the creamables. Butter and light brown sugar.
Add the wet ingredients to the creamables.
Grind the Nilla Wafers (grind first, then measure) and measure the dehydrated strawberries.
Combine the dry ingredients--including the sliced fresh strawberries--and add to the combined creamables and wet ingredients. Mix.
Scoop, sugar, and bake the cookies. Come and get 'em!
Here's the recipe for my XXX Strawberry Cookies in process.
Combine the wet ingredients. Cook the strawberries, milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and sugar over medium high heat. Smoosh everything around until it forms a red pulp. Add the vanilla extract after the mixture has cooled a little.
Cream the creamables. Butter and light brown sugar.
Add the wet ingredients to the creamables.
Grind the Nilla Wafers (grind first, then measure) and measure the dehydrated strawberries.
Combine the dry ingredients--including the sliced fresh strawberries--and add to the combined creamables and wet ingredients. Mix.
Scoop, sugar, and bake the cookies. Simply delicious.
Here's the recipe for my Fluffernutter Cookies in process.
Form the filling. Use a teaspoon to scoop the Marshmallow Fluff into individual dollops. Drop the scoops onto plates spritzed with cooking spray and place in the freezer to form firm, nonsticky Fluff chips. The cooking spray will make it easier to remove the Fluff chips from the plates.
Cream the creamables. Butter, dark brown sugar, and peanut butter.
Combine the wet ingredients. An egg, vanilla, and milk.
Add the combined wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix. Mmmm...peanutty.
Grind the cereal. Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch cereal is one of the secrets to making a peanutty peanut butter cookie. Remember to grind first, measure second.
Combine the dry ingredients and add to the combined creamables and wet ingredients. Mmm...even more peanutty.
Scoop the cookies. Peanut butter cookie dough can dry out quickly. If your dough starts to get tough after you've scooped a dozen or so cookies, simply add a teaspoon or two of milk to the bowl and kneed the dough gently with your hands to incorporate the added liquid. This will keep your dough moist and supple while you scoop and stuff the cookies.
Stuff and bake the cookies. I love it when the Fluff breaks through the surface of the cookies. Keep an eye on these when you bake them. You don't want the Fluff to toast or brown, and you want a chewy, not crunchy, cookie.
Here's the recipe for my Copycat Momofuku Compost Cookies in process.
Cream the creamables: butter, dark brown sugar, white sugar, and used coffee grounds. I included the coffee grounds only because they're in the original Momofuku cookie. They add more of a novelty factor than real flavor, so feel free to leave them out.
Combine the wet ingredients and add them to the creamables. Egg and vanilla. Pretty simple, right?
Combine the dry ingredients and add them to the combined wet ingredients and creamables. Mix again. Feel free to swap out my ingredients for an equal amount of something else. If you like Bugles better than Fritos, use those instead. If you like butterscotch chips better than peanut butter chips, use those instead.
Scoop and bake. These guys hit all the right sweet, salty, crispy notes. So good!
Here's the recipe for my (Dark) Chocolate Lime in the Coconut Cookies in process.
Cream the creamables. Butter and dark brown sugar.
Combine the wet ingredients. If you don't have or can't find lime extract, replace it with an equal amount of lime juice. I put the unused portion of the cream of coconut in the freezer to use in future recipes.
Add the wet ingredients to the ceamables. Mix.
Combine the dry ingredients and add them to the combined wet ingredients and creamables. Mix again.
Scoop and bake the cookies. These guys really spread out, so make sure you leave enough room between each dough ball. Delicioso!
Here's the recipe for my Hot Cross Bun Cookies in process.
Cream the creamables. Butter and white sugar.
Combine the wet ingredients. Vanilla, an egg, and milk.
Add the wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix.
Combine the dry ingredients and add them to the combined wet ingredients and creamables. Mix.
Scoop and bake the cookies. These raisins were huge!
Make the icing and drizzle over the cooled cookies. I put a piece of waxed paper under the cooling rack to make cleanup easier. To make the icing set faster, place the cookies in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes. For a more traditional cross pattern, you'll need a thicker icing, so increase the confectioner's sugar from 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup. Use a plastic baggie with the corner snipped off to pipe intersecting lines across the cookies.
Here's the recipe for my St. Patrick's Day Cookies in process.
Reduce the Guinness by 2/3. Put 1 1/2 cups of Guinness in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until you are left with 1/2 cup of liquid. Set aside to cool. (Did you know there's a ping-pong ball in these cans? I heard something rattling around inside the can, so I cut it open. Yup...a ping-pong ball.)
Cream the creamables. Butter and (surprise!) dark brown sugar.
Combine the wet ingredients. An egg yolk, some vanilla and Jameson whiskey, and the cooled, reduced Guinness.
Add the wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix.
Combine the dry ingredients and add them to the combined wet ingredients and creamables.
Scoop, baste, and bake. Baste each dough ball with some Bailey's. This dough doesn't spread much in the oven, so feel free to smoosh the dough balls with a spatula about halfway through baking if you want a flatter cookie. Don't let these get too brown because the Bailey's can scorch and become bitter. Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!
Eggplant parmesan is more a process than a specific recipe. Here's the process...in process.
Because Holland eggplants include very few seeds and don't need to be salted and drained to remove extra moisture, I prefer them over standard American or "globe eggplants" for parmesan. (I used 7 Holland eggplants in this parmesan.) I find eggplant skins bitter, so I skin mine. If you like your eggplant with the skin on, go ahead and leave the skin on. I use a mandolin to make nice, even 1/4"-thick slices of eggplant.
After slicing comes breading. Dip a few slices of eggplant in scrambled egg. Then dredge the egg-coated slices in breadcrumbs. I always use Progresso Italian breadcrumbs because that's what Mumma always uses. (Eggplant parmesan just doesn't taste like eggplant parmesan if you use other breadcrumbs.) Fry the slices, a few at a time, in olive oil.
Drain the fried eggplant on paper towels or brown paper grocery bags. After the eggplant has drained and cooled, you can start assembling. You'll need shredded mozzarella and your favorite jarred marinara sauce. (Rao's is my favorite jarred sauce.) Start with a very light layer of sauce on the bottom of your casserole dish. This will keep the eggplant from sticking and make it easier to serve. Next, add a layer of eggplant, making sure to cover any gaps or openings.
Top your first layer of eggplant with an even layer of sauce. Next, add an even layer of shredded mozzarella. Repeat these steps, building layer upon layer, until you end with a layer of cheese. (Depending on the size of your casserole, you might need two jars of sauce and two bags of cheese.) Pop the casserole in the oven and bake at 350º for about an hour, or until the cheese has melted and browned. Mangia!
Here's the recipe for my Irish Breakfast Scone Cookies in process.
Brew the tea and enplumpen the currants. To make a strong, dark tea with lots of flavor for the currants to soak up, I used 6 tea bags and 2 1/2 cups of boiling water. Soak the currants in the hot tea for 30-45 minutes.
Cream the creamables. The golden ratio: 1 stick of butter to 1 cup of dark brown sugar.
Combine the wet ingredients. An egg, brewed tea (which you take from the soaking currants), milk, vanilla, and the contents of 4 tea bags.
Add the wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix. It looks wet, but don't worry.
Drain the currants and add them to the combined wet ingredients and creamables. Mix again.
Combine the dry ingredients and add them to the combined enplumpened currants, wet ingredients, and creamables.
Scoop and bake. You'll love these...and that's no blarney!
Here's the Smitten Kitchen recipe (with a tweak or two) for soft pretzels in process.
Proof the yeast and make the dough. Make sure your yeast is fresh. Use your mixer's dough hook attachment to mix the dough until it forms a ball.
Rise up! Put the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel for about an hour, or until the ball doubles in size.
Portion the dough, roll into snakes, and form the pretzels. Your snake should be 12-15" long and about 1/4" thick. Pull the ends of the snake up and cross each other so that your shape looks like 3/4 of a figure eight. Turn the arms together once so that they have one complete twist.
Complete the pretzels and secure the loose ends. Lift the twisted arms from the top and bring them down on the rounded bottom, allowing the loose ends to overlap. Poke the loose ends of the twisted arms in, making dimples, to secure the loose ends.
Reproof and boil. Let the formed pretzels rise a second time under a tea towel. Then boil the reproofed pretzels, a few at a time, in water with salt and baking soda. This step gives the finished pretzels a chewy, bagel-like texture.
Glaze, salt, and bake. The original recipe called for an egg-wash glaze and pretzel salt. I used a butter glaze and sea salt. These have a wonderful texture and flavor. I ate 10 of the dozen I baked. So good!
Here's the recipe for my Orange & Mint Cookies in process.
Reduce the orange juice. Start with 1 cup and reduce over medium heat by half to 1/2 cup.
Cream the creamables. Butter, light brown sugar, and white sugar. I used light brown sugar this time because I wanted chewiness but not the color or strong molasses flavor of dark brown sugar, which I almost always use. I wanted the orange to shine through.
Combine the wet ingredients. Orange marmalade, reduced orange juice, orange zest, orange extract, vanilla, mint extract, and the contents of 2 Celestial Seasonings Mint Magic tea bags. This slurry smells so good!
Add the wet ingredients to the creamables. It looks a little wet, but don't worry.
Combine the dry ingredients. Add to the combined wet ingredients and creamables.
Mix and refrigerate. Let the dough hang out in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to firm up.
Scoop, sugar, and bake. These cookies are refreshing little bites of sunshine on a plate.
Here's the recipe for my Apple Jack Cookies in process.
Reduce the apple juice. Start with 1 cup and boil it down to 1/4 cup.
Peel and chop the apples. I use Fuji apples, and I chop them with an alligator-style chopper, which gives me a uniform 1/4" cut. You'll need 4 good-sized apples to yield 3 cups of chopped apples.
Cream the creamables. Butter, dark brown sugar, white sugar, and cinnamon.
Combine the wet ingredients. Eggs, lemon juice, vanilla, and the reduced apple juice.
Add the wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix.
Combine the dry ingredients. Don't forget to grind the graham crackers before you measure. And don't forget to include the cinnamon chips.
Add the dry ingredients to the combined wet ingredients and creamables. Mix again.
Refrigerate, scoop, and sugar the dough. Turbinado sugar gives these cookies a great crunch.
Bake and enjoy: apples + cinnamon x oatmeal = delicious muffin top-like cookies.
Here's the recipe for my Spicy Valentine's Heart Cookies in process.
Cream the creamables. Butter and white sugar. Essentially, this is an oatmeal sugar cookie dough.
Combine the wet ingredients. Vanilla and egg. Simple, simple, simple.
Add the wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix.
Combine the dry ingredients. Don't forget to grind the oatmeal before you measure it.
Add the dry ingredients to the combined wet ingredients and creamables. Mix again.
Roll out the dough, cut out the cookies, and bake. I used two chopsticks as thickness guides. Aim for about 1/8" thick. I used a small heart cookie cutter. My blog buddy Alicia sent me this a while back. (Thanks, Alicia!)
Grind the cinnamon candy. While the cookies are baking, roughly chop/grind your cinnamon hearts or Red Hots.
Melt the chocolate and coat the cookies. Once the cookies have cooled, melt milk chocolate (or whatever chocolate you like) over a double boiler. Dip the cookies, facedown, into the chocolate.
Dip the chocolate-coated cookies into the candy topping. While the chocolate is still wet, press the cookies, facedown, into the chopped-up candy pieces. To get the chocolate to set up, place the cookies in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes. Happy Valentine's Day!
The other day I bought an avocado, not really knowing what I was going to do with it. Sure. I could have made guac, but I wasn't in a guac kind of mood. And then it hit me: an at-home version of the Empire Diner's ABS (avocado, bacon, and Swiss) sandwich. I decided to swap out the bacon with some leftover chicken and to use that countertop grill I got for Christmas a couple years ago. Tadah...ACS (avocado, chicken, and Swiss) panini!
1) Spread mustard on the bread. I really, really love Honeycup's "uniquely sharp" mustard--you can eat the stuff straight from the jar with a spoon it's so good. 2) Layer Swiss cheese on one of the pieces of bread. 3) Top the Swiss cheese with some avocado slices and top them with a few grinds of black pepper.
4) Add a layer of meat on top of the avocado. I used leftover rotisserie chicken, but bacon would be amazing on this. If you're going veggie, replace the meat with some tomato slices. 5) Add the top piece of bread to the sandwich and grill until the cheese melts and the bread is nicely browned and crispy. 6) Let the grilled sandwich cool slightly, slice it, and eat. Mmmm. Light and tasty but substantial enough not to be hungry in an hour.
Here's the recipe (1/2) for my Florida Cookies in process.
Cream the creamables. Butter and dark brown sugar. (Like you couldn't see that one coming.)
Combine the wet ingredients. Orange juice, zest, and extract; vanilla; and egg yolk.
Add the wet ingredients to the creamables.
Combine the dry ingredients. (Don't forget to toast the pecans.)
Add the dry ingredients to the combined wet ingredients and creamables.
Scoop and bake.
Melt some white chocolate chips with some orange extract and dip the tops of the cooled cookies into the mixture. (If you don't have or can't find orange extract, use orange juice.)
Sprinkle some orange dusting sugar on top of the still-wet white chocolate-covered cookies. Set aside to cool and solidify. Eating one of these cookies is like biting into a little piece of sunshine!
Here's the recipe for my Red Bean-Stuffed Green Tea Cookies in process.
Liberate your tea from their bags. I used about a dozen tea bags.
Cream the creamables. Butter, white sugar, dark brown sugar, and green tea.
Combine the wet ingredients. Egg, vanilla, and (cooled) brewed green tea.
Add the wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix.
Combine the dry ingredients and add them to the combined wet ingredients and creamables.
Scoop the dough balls, split them in half, and form into flattened disks.
Remove the beans from the fridge. Stuff the cookies.
Freeze the stuffed dough balls for five minutes and then bake.
Here's the recipe for my Flat, Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies in process.
Cream the creamables. Butter, white sugar, and dark brown sugar. The white sugar is key to making a crunchy cookie.
Combine the wet ingredients. Egg, vanilla, and milk.
Add the wet ingredients to the creamables. Take everything for a spin.
Shave the chocolate. Take one of those big bars of Hershey's milk chocolate, cut it in half, and have at it. I use a vegetable peeler, but you could use a microplane, a box grater, or even a knife. Whatever implement you use, your goal is to produce little pieces of milk chocolate.
Combine the dry ingredients and add them to the combined wet ingredients and creamables. The dough should be fairly wet.
Scoop 'n bake. Enjoy your flat, crunchy cookies with a glass of ice-cold milk. These guys are perfect for dunking!
Here's the recipe for my Coconut Rum Raisinet Cookies in process.
Toast the coconut.
Soak the raisins in rum to enplumpen 'em. Soak for 30-45 minutes (or longer, if you have the time).
Cream the creamables. Butter and dark brown sugar.
Combine the wet ingredients. Egg, vanilla, coconut extract, and rum.
Add the wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix.
Drain the raisins and add them to the combined wet ingredients and creamables. Mix again.
Combine the dry ingredients and add them to the combined enplumpened raisins, wet ingredients, and creamables.
Scoop, bake, and enjoy!
