Tag Archives: Cookies

Bakery Miscellaneous

Island White Cookies

White chocolate and macadamia nuts star equally in these fabulous cookies!  A friend asked if I would bake these cookies for him if he bought the ingredients and because I am always up for cookie baking, I agreed.  Though I have several recipes with variations on white chocolate-macadamia cookies, I used the recipe on the back of the package of the Nestle white chocolate chips he supplied me, and doing so proved more than satisfactory.

Chewy centers and crisp edges give this cookie its distinctive texture.  Softened butter, brown sugar, and the white chocolate provide the flavorful backdrop for the macadamia nuts.  I put the butter out to soften early so that the prep work would go faster and had 3 dozen cookies within an hour of beginning.  Do not microwave the butter, only soften it until pliable; you want softened butter, not melted butter, for these cookies.

This is a basic cookie recipe: cream the butter and sugars, add an egg, beat well, add dry ingredients, and stir in the chips and the nuts. The cookies bake up rounded and soft with lightly browned edges.  If you’re a cookie lover, do try this twist on the more traditional chocolate chip recipe.  Go white, go island style!

Island White Cookies

Ingredients

1-2/3 cups flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1-1/2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 large egg
1-12 oz. pkg. white chocolate chips
3/4 cup macadamia nuts, chopped small
1 cup flaked coconut, optional

Directions Preheat oven to 375. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in small bowl; stir to combine. Beat butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and vanilla extract in large mixing bowl until creamy. Beat in egg. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chips and macadamia nuts (and coconut flakes, if using). Drop by rounded tablespoons on ungreased baking sheets or cookie sheets covered with parchment paper. Bake 8-11 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes then remove to wire racks to cool completely. Store airtight. Yields 5 dozen cookies.

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Bakery Miscellaneous

Betty’s Molasses Cookies


Day 3 Cookie Bake! My heart beats faster when I run across a recipe that is obviously well-used and treasured. This recipe came to me from mama’s recipe box and it to her from her close friend Betty Hopkins. Miss Betty’s Molasses Cookies made for a satisfying and wholesome end to cookie baking time today and I definitely see why mama insisted these cookies be included in my cookbook.  These proved to be a perfect cold weather stay-at-home-with-a book treat.

The buttermilk is in the dough, they aren’t glazed, and they have a soft, yet chewy, texture.  They bake round and tall and fill your kitchen with the aroma of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.  I love the dark raisins and the walnuts I used as they make  the cookies dense and satisfying; these are definitely cookies to sink your teeth into, and, needless to say, so perfect with a glass of cold milk (yes, for lunch). The molasses sweetly softens them but also makes for a sticky dough and these benefit from just a bit of shaping once they are on the cookie sheets. The spices layer with the molasses throughout and I have to say there really isn’t a thing that needs changing here, proving once again that old recipes are, like old friendships,  treasures indeed.

Betty’s Molasses Cookies

1/2 cup Crisco shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
2-1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1-1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup raisins
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped

Directions  Preheat oven to 400. In large mixing bowl, cream shortening, sugar, and the molasses with a wooden spoon until well blended. Add the egg and buttermilk and beat briefly with electric mixer. Combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, cloves, cinnamon and salt in a separate bowl and stir with a fork to sift. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture gradually, blending well with a large rubber spatula after each addition. Fold in the raisins and the nuts. Bake on lightly-greased cookie sheets for 10 minutes. Store airtight. Yields 5 dozen.

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Food for Thought

Cookies & Books & Buttermilk

Holy Moley!  So, what began as a desire to use the last of the buttermilk chilling in the fridge  evolved into a very fruitful three days of cookie baking at my house.  And okay, well, yes, a second motivation, admittedly, is being engrossed in an interesting new book and knowing that using that buttermilk is going to net me a stash of cookies (and plenty to share also, added bonus!) for enjoying with late-night page turning of that very book. It all sounded good to me, and before I knew it, I was on a mission!

I ended with three very different batches of cookies whose common ingredient is buttermilk.  The Dark Brown Sugar Cookies and the Lemon Bursts both use buttermilk in their glazes and Betty’s Molasses Cookies use 1/2 cup in the dough.

Because we’re all about added bonuses around here, the kitchen, the entire house, is fragrant  with strains of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves with a fresh zesty lemon scent layered on top.  It’s enough to make me believe my next retirement venture just might be transferring this heavenly aroma into perfume: “Spiced Essence of Winter Kitchen Days”.  I’d buy a decanter for sure.

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