Coloring The City

Happy Monday!

How was everyone’s weekend? I spent most of mine STILL sick at home…which gave me plenty of time to bake some cookies as a (very) late birthday present for my Dad, who is in town from Portland this week. He is usually hard to bake for because he doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, but there are some desserts he likes.  I was almost dead set on recreating a Hostess snowball for him, but at the last minute decided to go with another of his favorite treats that are probably much, much easier to transport: cookies. I did pick a recipe that involves coconut…so it’s almost like a snowball?  These cookies are so delicious. Crunchy on the edges, soft on the inside and a ton of flavor from the coconut and chocolate.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Coconut Cookies

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1  1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/2 cup oats
• 1 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
• 12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

Pre-heat the oven to 375.  Combine the sugar and butter in a mixer and beat until will combined. Add the eggs and combine. Add the vanilla, salt and baking soda and the rest of the dry ingredients, mixing with the mixer on medium-high. Turn the mixer off and add the chocolate chips, then mix at low speed, wiping the batter down with a spatula from the sides if necessary. When the dough is completely combined, spoon cookies on the a parchment lined baking sheet and pat them down to 1/2 inch thick. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until cookies are golden brown. Serve warm with a glass of milk!

There is this grocery store, called Brooklyn Fare, that has a power over me that I will never understand. The produce is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, I could honestly go in that store just to ooh and ahh over the green and purple cauliflower and marvel and the giant organic carrots.  Then there is the baking section to which I am completely helpless. I usually leave the store with a basket full of baking supplies that I could not resist and most likely forgot to buy whatever it was I was going to the store for in the first place. So, on my last trip to Brooklyn Fare, when I left the store with whole wheat flour, chocolate chips, heavy cream, and strawberries I knew 2 things for certain, There were many whole wheat chocolate chip cookies and strawberry shortcakes in my future, and I had to find a recipe that calls for caramel apple butter so  I can go back and buy it (but who an I kidding, I could probably just spoon that stuff straight from the jar.)

On to the recipe.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe yields 2 dozen cookies

adapted from Betty Crocker

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 package of semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies

Pre-heat oven to 375. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together in a large mixing bowl. I like to use salted butter for cookies and omit the 1/2 teaspoon of salt that most recipes call for. I find that adding salt to the dough makes the cookies much too salty, while salted butter gives them just the right amount of flavor. Beat the egg into the sugar/butter mixture. When egg is completely mixed in, add the flour 1/2 cup at a time to avoid a massive flour explosion in your mixture. Next add the baking soda. mMake sure dough is completely combined before adding the whole bag of chocolate chips. Spoon the dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

These little beauties have been dancing through my head since Sunday. I had some good friends over to my apartment for a Christmas cookie baking party, where we of course ate our body weight in candy and cookies, which obviously lead to Chinese takeout. Nothing like some MSG to wash down the sugar! The cookie menu included Ashley’s Famous No Bake Cookies – I’ll steal the recipe for “Ya’ll” (In true Ashley spirit) and post it soon. Chocolate, peppermint swirl cookies by LC2, Mexican Wedding Cakes and, of course, sugar cookies! We had waaay too much fun decorating the sugar cookies, these snowflakes some how made it out of the decorating workshop with only some subtle shine.

Recipe for simple sugar cookies:

Blend all ingredients in a mixer then wrap in plastic wrap to chill in the fridge for at least an hour. Pre-heat oven to 400 and roll out the chilled dough. Cut into desired shapes (dough maybe have to be floured slightly to prevent sticking) then place on parchment lined baking sheets . Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool competely before decorating.

We used simple buttercream for this recipe and added a few drops of blue food coloring. While frosting was still wet, we dipped the cookies face down in white sugar chunks to give the snowflakes a glittery finish.