Day 5 – Iced Orange Cookies

Tough to follow yesterday’s combination of great memories and classic baking (including the shortening!), so I decided to take a chance with a brand new recipe.  We have an Orange Cake that we make fairly often (I know many of you have had it) and it’s become a family favorite, so I wanted to try to duplicate it in a cookie. 

Today’s feature ingredients – Orange (fresh juice and zest) and Whole Wheat Flour.  We added plenty of butter and sugar to offset these two “SuperFood” ingredients and found ourselves with a “cakey” cookie.  I cheated a bit and used some leftover icing that I’d frozen after using it for a cake at Thanksgiving, but it was very similar to the recipe.   So far the reviews are mixed with the consensus being that they’re good, but it’s hard to compete with Chocolate.

http://www.recipegirl.com/2007/02/17/iced-orange-cookies/

The elves have a very busy day tomorrow, so they may be doing some catch up work on Friday and over the weekend with the Cookie Joy; but be ready, cause tomorrow may be your day!

See you Thursday.

Day 4 – Grandma R’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Going old school on you today.  Woke up this morning and thought today’s cookies need a different look, but then I thought a new look can wait another day – I need to go old school.  I wanted to start Day 1 of this adventure with this recipe but John was baking on the first day and he looked at the recipe and said, “I’m not baking anything that calls for shortening”.  Well, these aren’t Grandma R’s cookies if you don’t use shortening.  It’s my day to bake and I used shortening.  (I looked at the shortening we had and it said use by 2009 – so that tells you how long it has been since we baked these cookies – I did toss that and started fresh).

There is a trick to these cookies – you beat the batter by hand and it is stiff batter so you get a good workout.  I can remember watching my grandma well into her 80’s and 90’s make these cookies and wondered how she still had the strength to beat the batter.  I can’t imagine how many times she made these cookies over the years but you can ask anyone who ate them – they were consistent.  These are a crunchy chocolate chip cookie so they are a perfect companion to a glass of cold milk.

As they came out of the oven I could tell they were pretty close to the original.  I watched them with tender loving care as they baked because I wanted them to be perfect.  I’m not sure if these taste so good because of the taste or if it is from all of the memories, but the first bite took me back a number of years.

This recipe came well before technology, so there is no link for this recipe - here you go:

Grandma R’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

½ Cup Shortening

½ Cup White Sugar

¼ Cup Brown Sugar

1 egg

1 Cup sifted enriched flour

½ teasp. Salt

½ teasp. Soda

Chocolate Chips (about 8 oz)

1 teasp. Vanilla

Mix shortening and sugar; add egg; sift soda and flour together – add to mixture; add chips and vanilla.  Mix with wooden spoon until well mixed.

Bake at 350-375 for 9-11 minutes.  (I baked at 345 for 11 min.)

They rise a bit in the oven but when you remove them they continue to brown slightly and they fall to a thin, crunchy cookie.

Grandma always wrapped these cookies in wax paper and served them out of a greenish-golden tin.  I’ve carefully wrapped these in wax paper and the USPS is helping us distribute – they are headed around the east coast to a few long-time friends who have had and enjoyed the original.  They can compare and see how these match up.  Today was fun, I baked with the recipients in mind.  

Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Day 3 – Oatmeal Scotchies

The first Monday of our experiment proved to be more of a challenge than I’d hoped.  After a long day at work, my lack of preparation was evident, so I went with an old favorite.  We make these throughout the year, but they’re always on the short list when we need a tasty treat.

Today’s feature ingredients – Oats and Butterscotch.  Because they’re a SuperFood, you’ll see lots of Oats over the next 3 weeks.  It always feels more healthy when I eat 4 cookies if they feature these fiber packed goodies.  I cut this recipe in half and it still provided almost 4 dozen cookies.

http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/18478/Oatmeal-Scotchies/detail.aspx

The elves will be back in the neighborhood tomorrow, while we finalize our plan to spread the Cookie Joy!

Have a great Tuesday.

Day 2 – Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Another “day of rest” gone awry, but we split time between a fun morning at church and the second early wake-up call for our youngest swimmer, then a trip to help Mom get a Christmas Tree. 

After that excitement, we were able to focus on today’s feature ingredient - Toasted Coconut.  Beth and I love Coconut and continue to search for any excuse to include it in every possible dessert.  We had some extra dark chocolate  (82% Cacao) in the house, so the chocolate was a bit stronger than the recipe called for, but the crew again enjoyed them.

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/toasted-coconut-chocolate-chunk-cookies-10000001973633/

The 25 Days of Cookies elves will be visiting a few of our neighbors tomorrow, so listen for a knock on the door sometime in the afternoon.

Can’t wait to see what our first Monday brings.

Day 1 – Sweet & Salty Peanut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today was a filled with Haley’s swim meet and first hoops game of the season, afternoon swimming for Logan and other weekend work, so we kept things pretty basic.

This is a recipe we found last year and it features Sea Salt and Chocolate, which is always a great combo.  I stayed pretty true to the recipe below and got thumbs up  from the hungry swimmers.

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-salty-peanut-chocolate-chunk-cookies-10000001591048/

We’re splitting the dozen three ways, four will go to the tonight’s babysitter, four to the Schroeder family who are joining us to watch our good friend Greg Jarrell play Jazz tonight at Delta’s and four to the Youngs, who are recovering from a tough State Championship game with Charlotte Catholic (Be proud of a Great Season!).

Hope to see you tomorrow!