SUGAR COOKIES - Pretty Party Cakes

It just hit me. Teacher's Day will arrive in no time at all (I know it is only March but I like to plan things way ahead of time). Gifts are sought after by kids to celebrate this auspicious days. I was once a teacher, thus, I know what gifts would please an educator's soul. Mugs? I got one full box in my closet, collecting dust over the years. Picture frames and vases? A dozen or so. Diaries and stationery?...Enough to equip my kids in school for the next 2 years. Not to say that I do not welcome or appreciate those gifts, I do and I value those gifts from the bottom of my heart. I just find that a touch of creativity can turn those gifts into awesome surprises.

Mugs or vases filled with cookies or candies are simply delightful and meaningful. Or cupcakes with colourful toppings neatly placed in fancy cupcake boxes...or even iced cookies...or mini cakes..or petit fours topped with colourful fondant glaze...In short, I find anything edible, artfully presented, a wonderful gift. Hence, I've decided to make iced cookies for Teacher's day.. My reference? Peggy Porschen's book. The result? Lovely sugar cookies which taste good, unlike a few other recipes which I find rather bland and floury. Worth trying.

Recipe:
Makes about 25 medium-size cookies

200g unsalted soft butter
200g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
400g plain flour, plus more for dusting

For chocolate cookies (which I made) replace 50g of the plain flour with 50g of cocoa powder.

- In an electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream the butter with sugar until well mixed and just creamy in texture. Do not overwork, or the cookies will spread during baking.
- Beat in the egg until well-combined. Add the flour and mix on low speed until a dough forms. Gather into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 1 hour.
- Place the dough on a floured surface and knead briefly. Roll out to an even thickness.
- Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, and, using a palate knife, lay on a baking tray line with greaseproof paper. Chill again for about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180C, gas 4.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on size, until golden brown at the edges. Let cool on a wire rack.

A very simple recipe.

CHOCO-O'S - 101 Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Not bad at all for a so-called healthy cookies. I wonder if this still counts as 'healthy' considering that the recipe calls for butter. Perhaps the oats would gleefully absorb all the nasty fats as well my guilt for eating a handful of these lovely crunchy delight. Oats has never successfully fit into any part of my daily meal (tastes like tiny bits of papers in my mouth), but its presence in cookies, pies or seafood coating is simply delightful for my palate.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats (instant oats)

1 cup butter or margarine

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract (I didn't add this)

1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts + almonds)

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375C

2. Sift together the flour and baking soda. Add the oats and set aside

3. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter or margarine and sugars. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition, until the mixture is creamy. Fold in the sifted ingredients. Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Gently mix in the nuts and chocolate chips.

4. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheets, spacing cookies 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned.

You can add raisins or chopped candied fruits, as suggested, but they taste good as they are.

GLORIA'S DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES - 101 Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Double chocolate sounds devilishly inviting for a chocolate lover like me. So this fits the craving I have. When I made these my neighbour said these were the best chocolate chip cookies I ever made (Oh Yeah? Obviously she hasn't tried the winning recipe from the same book). Agreed..this is good, but it really depends on what texture you want ....crispy, chewy, chocolatey, healthy, or gluten-free.

These were undeniably good and required few ingredients to make. Funny, how pretty simple ingredients can turn into an amazingly beautiful batch of cookies! Crispy, chocolatey, and they melt in your mouth.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

6 ounces (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped nuts ...I used walnuts (although macademia or pecan may be a better option)

- Preheat oven to 375C

- Sieve together the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside.

- In a large bowl, cream together the sugars and butter until the mixture is light and fluffy. Blend in the vanilla and egg. Add the sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture. Gently stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.

- Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing well apart. Bake for 7 - 11 minutes, or until the dough is set. Do not overbake. Let cool 1 minute before transfering cookies to a cooling rack.

There you go...one of the best cookies ever...

JOYOUS CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES - 101 Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies (Robin Joy Minnick's recipe)

If you're looking for a chewy and soft cookie inside (achieved from adding the corn syrup), this is one of them. This is one of the finalists in the Orchards' 1987 contest and is a winner among my kids. Has just been 5 hours baking them, but the cookie jar is already half empty.

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 tbsp milk

3 tbsp dark corn syrup (I use golden syrup instead)

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup pecans, broken (I use 1 cup for that chunky nutty result)

Directions:

This would go into the 'yes chocolate chip cookies recipes' in my list...

101 PERFECT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES - Gwen Steege

     I marveled at the variety of chocolate chip cookies recipes in this book. They evolved from a nationwide contest held at the Orchards Inn in 1987. The search for the perfect cookies has brought in as many as thousands of contestants sending in their recipes. This book records more than a hundred best chocolate chip cookies recipes ever.

There is the classic Nestle's Toll House Chocolate Chip recipe to begin with (as an honour to the birth of chocolate chip cookies). The sections include 'Traditional Chocolate Chip Cookies', 'Traditional Chocolate Chip Cookies Plus', 'And They're So Good For You Too' (wholesome ingredients added), 'Double Chocolate Chip Cookies', and 'Special Occasion Chocolate Chip Cookies'. 

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES - PERIPLUS Step-by-Step

Like I said in my previous post, these were a hit among the kids (but were a bit too sweet for my other half). Easy peasy recipe..minimal effort, maximal flavour...I made these big and thick, and they spread out nicely and evenly (3 1/2 to 4 inch cookies). They tasted a bit like shortbread on the inside but crispy on the outside. Worth to try.

Ingredients

150g unsalted butter

1/4 cup soft brown sugar

1/3 cup caster sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 1/2 cup self-raising flour

1 cup (200g) choc dot - actually you can put more

- Preheat oven to moderate 180C. Line a 32X28 cm biscuits tray with baking paper.

1. Using electric beaters, beat butter, sugars and yolk in small mixing bowl until light and creamy. Add essence, beat until combined.

2. Transfer mixture to large mixing bowl; add flour and 2/3 of the dots. Using a metal spoon, stir until ingredients are just combined.

3. Using fingers, press mixture together to form a soft dough. Roll 1 tbsp of mixture at a time into a ball.

4. Press remaining chocolate dots firmly on top of balls. Arrange on prepared tray, allowing room for spreading. Bake 15 minutes (Turn the tray around halfway through the baking time for even colouring) or until crisp and lightly browned. Cool biscuits on trays.

BISKUT COKLAT CIP

Bahan-bahan

150g mentega

1/4 cwn gula perang lembut

1/3 cwn gula kaster

1 kuning telur

1 sudu teh esen vanila

1 1/2 cwn tepung naik sendiri

1 cwn (200g) cip coklat - boleh letak lebih

- Panaskan oven 180C. Alas dulang 32X28 cm.

1. Pukul mentega, gula perang, gula kaster dan kuning telur hingga kembang. Tambah esen vanila, pukul hingga sebati.

2. Masukkan tepung dan 2/3 cip coklat. Gunakan sudu untuk kaup adunan supaya rata.

3. Guna tangan untuk kemaskan adunan menjadi doh yang bulat. Sukat 1 sudu besar adunan dan bulatkan.

4. Tekan cip coklat yang lebih di atas bebola biskut. Susun di atas dulang.

Bakar 15 minutes (Pusingkan dulang separuh masa untuk dapatkan warna perang rata). Sejukkan sebelum disimpan. 

BISCUITS, COOKIES & BROWNIES (PERIPLUS Step-by-Step)

Another book that I often use. There's a chocolate chip cookie recipe here which is a hit in the family. The content covers a few sections. First, mouthwatering classics like choclate chip, viennese fingers, florentines etc. Also a section on Family favourites - coconut macaroons, chocolate caramel slice, walnut brownies etc. Then there are scrumptious shortbread, crazy for chocolate, irresistable fruit & nut treats and sensational savouries. Over 80 recipes altogether. The price : RM24.90 which is pretty reasonable.

SWISS CHOCOLATE ROSETTES - Chef Wan's Sweet Treats

These cookies look perfect but they were a huge dissappointment...Dry, hard and doughy tasting...Couldn't even pipe it out easily as instructed. Again, I didn't mess it up, I am sure. And where has the chocolate flavour gone to? Tasteless and bland...Take a look at the recipe

Page100

Ingredients

200g powdered sugar

500g butter

150g eggs

1 tsp orange essence

700g all-purpose flour

45g cocoa powder

Method

1. Beat together sugar, butter, eggs and orange essence until smooth.

2. Sift together flour and cocoa. Fold into the batter.

3. Using a no. 7 star tube, pipe out rosettes onto a lightly greased baking tray. Bake at 205C/400F for 15 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar.

Bake these cookies at 205C for 15 minutes practically burnt them.

SWEET DREAM COOKIES - Chef Wan's Sweet Treats

I swear I did not screw up this recipe. First, the dough was impossible to work with (even after chilling for a few hours as instructed). Second, the cookies spread out too thin and lost their shape (the one with red sprinkles-supposed to be a butterfly...does it look like one?). So I made a second batch, add 5 tbsp of flour and it was easier to work with (the one on the right). The thing is, they still turned out to be too eggy for the family and had no flavour.

Ingredients:

8 tbsp salted butter, melted

1 cup castor sugar

1 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

a pinch of salt

Method

1. Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg and egg yolks, beating well.

2. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually, add enough to the butter mixture to make a dough that holds together and can be rolled. Form the dough into 2 balls, wrap in foil and refrigerate for several hours.

3. When chilled, roll out thinly on a floured board.Cut into shape with cookie cutters and sprinkle with castor sugar. Place on a greased baking tray and bake for 10 minutes at 180C/360F until the cookies are golden.

So, where did I go wrong?