Every time I come home I am expected to do a few things. Make dinner, fix problems on my mom’s iPhone and laptop, etc. Making my mom a lemon drop martini every night is also on the list. I’m happy to do it – playing bartender for my mom has a very fun Christina Crawford feel to it. Making lemon drop inspired cookies is even better.

I tried these weeks ago during a shoot at work and immediately photocopied the recipe for my own use. Finding a really really delicious no-bake treat is hard, in my opinion, and this one is fantastic. Just the right balance of sweet and tart, plus oddly refreshing since they’re chilled. There’s no vodka in them (sadly!) but instead crushed up lemon drop candies, my all-time favorite treat. Be sure to use the rough, cheap drug store-type lemon drops. The kind that make your tongue feel like sandpaper after having too many. Yummy!

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No-Bake Lemon Drops 

Makes 3 dozen treats.

Ingredients 

• 2 cups finely crushed shortbread cookies (about 7 ounces)
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• ½ cup whole almonds, toasted and finely chopped
• ½ cup finely crushed lemon drop candies
• 2 Tbsp. light-colored corn syrup
• 2 Tbsp. milk
• 2 Tbsp. butter, melted
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 3 Tbsp. finely crushed lemon drop candies

Directions 

1.) In a large bowl, stir together the crushed cookies, the 1 cup powdered sugar, the almonds, and the ½ cup crushed candies. In a small bowl, stir together corn syrup, milk, and melted butter. Stir the corn syrup mixture into the cookie mixture until well combined.

2. Shape cookie mixture into 1-inch balls. In a small bowl, combine the 1/3 cup powdered sugar and the 1 tablespoon crushed candies. Roll balls in powdered sugar mixture. Place on a large baking sheet or tray.

3. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours before serving. Roll balls again in powdered sugar mixture just before serving.

© Jessica J. for jonesing for..., 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: christmas cookies, cookies, indulge, sweet

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On the twelfth day of Christmas my oven gave to me… 4 dozen awesome oatmeal cookies!

Okay I know the twelfth day of Christmas is technically January 5th but it’s 12 days until Christmas right now and I can’t help it. It’s inevitable. The holidays roll around, I get insanely festive, and the baking bug bites me bad (try saying that 3 times fast!) Even after a full day of cooking and styling I still want to come home and just listen to Bing Crosby and make cookies. That is the power of Christmas. And that is why I love it so.

These cookies are a riff on my favorite oatmeal raisin by using some golden raisins and pecans, two things I had sitting around and just sounded fun to toss in. I’m such a fan of scooped cookies – rolls you have to chill and then slice seem so tedious and not at all what you want to bake after a hard day’s work. So throw these together and enjoy! You can even freeze the dough balls and bag them up to bake in the future. Not a bad present to save for yourself, if I do say so myself!

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Double Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

Makes 4 dozen.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp. ground ginger
• ½ tsp. table salt
• 3 cups old-fashioned oats
• ½ cup chopped pecans
• ¾ cup raisins
• ¾ cup golden raisins

Directions

1.) Preheat oven to 350°F. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat butter 30 seconds or until soft. Add sugar and beat on medium until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs and vanilla until just combined.

2.) In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt. Beat into liquid ingredients. Fold in oats, pecans, and both kinds of raisins.

3.) Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto ungreased cookie sheets. Freeze or refrigerate until chilled, at least a half hour.

4.) Bake 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely on cookie sheet. Store tightly covered.

© Jessica J. for jonesing for..., 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: christmas cookies, cookies, indulge, sweet

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The Test Kitchen is swamped with cookies right now. Every few hours it feels like a new batch appears. Millionaire’s shortbread. Madelines. Pear bars. A new cookie book is in the works and you’d think it would make my desire for cookies wane, but oh no, the exact opposite has been happening. I just want cookies more now.

I whipped these together after reading the recipe in Everyday Food. I love macadamia nuts and the idea reminded me of one of my favorite guilty pleasures, the Sausalito cookie from Pepperidge Farms. Toasted macadamia nuts, bittersweet chocolate, and just the right texture of a moist inside with a delicately crisp bottom.

The chocolate is pretty thick so I didn’t dip so much as paint on the portion that is chocolate. I was tempted to break out the pastry bag and tips and do pretty designs but yeah, delusions of grandeur and laziness got the better of me. Lack of frills aside, these are still delicious and soul satisfying.

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Chocolate-Dipped Macadamia Nut Cookies

Makes 18 cookies.

Based on the recipe from Everyday Food.

Ingredients

• 1 stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp. kosher salt
• ½ cup macadamia nuts, toasted & finely ground in a food processor
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
• 5 oz. semi-sweet chocolate (morsels or chopped)

Directions

1.) In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium-high until fluffy, 2 minutes. Beat in egg yolk, lemon zest, juice, and salt until just combined. Beat in nuts and flour with mixer running on low until combined, 2 minutes.

2.) Lay out a piece of plastic wrap and pour dough onto it. Form dough into a 4½-inch log and freeze 30 minutes until firm.

3.) While the dough chills, set racks in top and bottom thirds of oven. Preheat oven to 350° F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

4.) Once ready, slice dough into ¼-inch slices and lay out on prepared baking sheets. Freeze sheets 5 minutes then bake until golden at edges, 12-14 minutes. Rotate sheets halfway through baking.

5.) Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely. Keep sheets lined with parchment on the side.

6.) Once cookies are cooled, microwave chocolate in 30-second increments, stirring in between each time, until completely melted. Dip half of each cookie in chocolate and transfer back to parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until set, about 10 minutes.

© Jessica J. for jonesing for..., 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chocolate, cookies, indulge, macadamia, nuts, sweet

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It’s time for… Oscar Oscar!

This year I’ve gone all out. I mulled over the idea of throwing an Oscar party and finally decided to go ahead and do it when I found this recipe for Popcorn-Raisinet Cookies I just about died over. Me being me, I had to embrace my old nickname of The Hostess with the Mostest and really have fun with the menu. The fact that the majority of my guests tonight will be my coworkers (aka great cooks but also junk food indulgers) made it extra fun. I wanted to theme everything served around a Best Picture nominee and here’s what I came up with:

Amputated Roasted Chicken Wings

Ingredients

Directions

1. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil, and set rack inside. Carefully dry chicken wings with paper towels. Place 1/3 of wings in large bowl, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt, and toss until thoroughly and evenly coated. Place on rack, leaving slight space between each wing. Repeat with remaining two batches of wings
2. Place baking sheet with wings in refrigerator and allow to rest, uncovered, at least 8 hours, and up to 18 hours.
3. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat oven to 450°F. Add chicken wings and cook for 20 minutes. Flip wings and continue to cook until crisp and golden brown, 15 to 25 minutes longer.
4. Meanwhile, combine butter and hot sauce in small saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking until combined. Transfer wings to large bowl, add sauce, toss to thoroughly coat, and serve immediately with blue cheese dressing and celery sticks.

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Popcorn-Raisinet Cookies

Recipe courtesy of Bluebonnets & Brownies.

Makes about 18 large cookies.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. table salt
• ¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, melted
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup Raisinets (2 small boxes)
• 1 cup popped Kettle Corn popcorn, cooled and crushed

Directions

1.) Preheat oven to 325° F. Line baking sheets with parchment and set aside.

2.) In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat together sugars and butter. With mixer running, beat in vanilla, egg, and egg yolk. Beat until batter is light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add flour in 3 parts, letting mixture completely combine before adding next addition. Fold in raisinets and popcorn by hand.

3.) Using an ice cream scoop, scoop batter onto baking sheets. Give at least 3 inches of space between dough balls – about 6 to a sheet. Bake 17-19 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheet and move to cooling racks.

© Jessica J. for jonesing for..., 2011. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chicken, cookies, indulge, spicy, sweets

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Sometimes you just have to bake cookies at 11pm on a Saturday night. And sometimes they just have to be chocolate-oat-pretzel cookies.

I got the Baked Explorations book for Christmas and this is the first thing I made out of it. I love the writing style of the Baked duo and their absolutely meticulous borderline OCD/Rose Levy Beranbaum way of explaining how to bake something as simple as cookies. Use cool (but not cold) butter, use a scoop this exact size, press down on the cookies but don’t smush them, etc. As much as I love to cook on the fly, sometimes it’s more relaxing to just follow instructions to the T. And this T stands for Totally awesome cookies.

Everyone knows I’m a sucker for salty sweets and so the pretzels are of course a fabulous element I love in these. Still, I wish they were even more salty. So in the ingredients listed below I’ve added a bit more salt and say you should use bittersweet chocolate. I think the cookies would just really benefit from it. They would go from totally awesome to super totally awesome. If there is such a thing.

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Cowboy Cookies

Based on the recipe from Baked Explorations.

For the “cool but not cold” butter, the Baked boys detail it by saying you should take the butter out of your fridge, cut it into 1″ cubes, and let it sit out for 20 minutes.

Makes 36 cookies.

Ingredients

• 1¾ cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ¾ tsp. table salt
• 2 cups rolled old-fashioned oats
• 14 Tbsp. butter ( 1¾ sticks), cool but not cold
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. espresso powder dissolved in ¼ cup hot water
• 12 oz.  bittersweet chocolate chunks
• ¾ cup crumbled pretzels, divided

Directions

1.) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the oats and stir to combine.

2.) In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars together until smooth and creamy. Add the egg and egg yolk, beating until the mixture looks light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, add the vanilla, and beat for 5 seconds. Add dissolved espresso and mix until combined.

3.) Add half of the dry ingredients and mix for 15 seconds. Add the remaining dry ingredients and beat until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and fold in the chocolate chunks and ½ cup of the pretzel pieces.

4.) Cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate the dough for at least 4 hours.

5.) Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper.

6.) Use a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism to scoop out dough in 2-tablespoon-size balls and place the dough balls onto the prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle the remaining pretzel pieces over the dough balls. Use the palm of your hand to press the dough down lightly; don’t smash the cookie–you just want to slightly flatten the ball and push the pretzel pieces into the dough.

7.) Bake for 11-13 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until the edges of the cookies are golden brown or just start to darken.

8.) Set the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes to cool. Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to the rack to cool completely. They can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

© Jessica J. for jonesing for..., 2011. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: baking, chocolate, cookies, indulge, oats, salty, sweet

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