White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Inspired by Chew Out Loud

How have I not posted a recipe for White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies?? They're my husband's favorite cookie! Well, it is about time. I decided to do something nice for my hubby and make said favorite cookie today.

What you need:

3/4 cup granulated Sugar

1 cup packed Brown Sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 tsp Almond Extract

3 cups Flour

1 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1 cup White Chocolate Chips

1/2 cup Macadamia Nuts

What you need to do:

1. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix together sugars and softened butter together until  'fluffy' in a mixer.

3. Crack eggs into a separate small bowl, so the shell doesn't get in the mix. Add in eggs one at a time. Next, add almond and vanilla extract. Mix well.

4. In a separate bowl, add together all dry ingredients. 

5. Start your mixer and add in mixed dry ingredients, slowly. 

6. Once all mixed, on a greased cookie sheet or place parchment paper on your cookie sheet, placed small balls of cookie dough 2 inches apart. 

7. Bake for 10 minutes, until edges are a little brown.

8. Place on a cooling rack for about 3-5 minutes. 

9. Enjoy!

Blog Parties:

Miz Helen's Country Cottage

Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies (Low Carb)

New year, Same Resolutions: : Losing Weight. 

Actually, it's more like... getting healthy.

Also, please visit my new blog about getting fit and eating healthy.
Pasta to Zucchini

My husband and I watched a documentary called Fat Head. Tom Naughton took the documentary Super Size Me to a whole new level. He wanted to prove that you can eat out like the guy from Super Size me and not gain weight. It was all about portion control when it came to carbs. Carbs has so much sugar in it that even if you're eating a 'diet' bread or cupcake there's still so much sugar in it.
Or something like that. My husband took more out of it. but I recommend watching it. It is eye opening. It's on Netflix watch instantly.

Anyway, so my husband and I are cutting out carbs for a little while. It's getting a little tough. I've been craving cupcakes and cookies. So I found these cookies when I was looking for some inspiration to do something without flour or with almond flour and right in front of my face were these cookies.

My Source: Culinary Couture

What you need:

1 cup Peanut Butter (I used Smart Balance)

1/2 cup Brown Sugar (Original called for a full cup but I wanted less sugar)

1/2 cup Splenda

1 Egg

(I added in a pinch of my homemade vanilla. It makes everything better.)

And you can also add chocolate chips!

What you need to do:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

MIX IT ALL TOGETHER. Don't even worry about dirtying your Kitchen Aid or Bosch. You can seriously whip this up real quick!

Bake for 9 minutes and let cool. Enjoy!

Makes 24 cookies

Per cookie:

54.9 Calories, 3.2 g Total Fat, 0.6 Saturated Fat, 15.5 mg Cholesterol, 26.0 mg Sodium, 53.4 mg Potassium, 7.6 g Total Carbohydrate, 0.3 g Fiber, 6.3 g Sugars

Literally the Best Sugar Cookies in the World!

I didn't even attempt to mess with this recipe and make it my own. Sugar cookies and I have a love hate relationship; in that, I love to eat them, but they hate to come out right when I try to bake them. It's very sad. Until now, that is. I came across this recipe on allrecipes.com. It is awesome because most sugar cookie recipes call to be put in the fridge for an hour or more. Sometimes I'm lazy. I don't want to do all that. Well, this recipe is a little bit of labor, but it's so good, so it's worth it.

(I do not recommend these cookies for cut out cookies)

What you need:

2 3/4 cup all-purpose Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 1/4 cup Margarine

2 cups White Sugar

2 Eggs

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Additional white sugar for decoration

What you need to do:

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.

Gradually stir in the dry ingredients until just blended. 

Roll the dough into walnut sized balls and roll the balls in remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. 

Place cookies 2 inches apart onto parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly browned at the edges. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies come out perfectly crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. 

They do however, get harder. What I recommend for consistently chewy cookies if you're keeping them for more than a day is to put a slice of bread in a tightly fit container. The bread lets out moisture, so your cookies never get hard. Try it. It seriously works. 

Also, what I recommend, if you're like me, you'll eat the whole batch because they are so good, so do this: Bake a few, then on another parchment lined cookies sheet place the sugar coated raw cookie balls then freeze them. When you want more simply defrost them (it doesn't take long at all) then bake them like normal!

Enjoy!


file:///C:/Users/Alyssa/Downloads/pinterest-2a0be%20(1).html

Blueberry Muffin Top Cookies

I have finally gotten settled, but don't get used to it guys! We're going to start looking for houses in February. But until then, there is a LOT I have to catch you up on. I have a few restaurant reviews as well as recipes that I want to share! 

I got this recipe from Iowa Girl Eats. I love that blog! I'm on my journey to finally looking great and feeling great about my body. So, I haven't been baking much because of it. But Iowa Girl Eats has so many inspirational ideas and recipes to help me lose weight without eating crap and feeling guilty. 

Blueberry is Joe's favorite, so of course I had to try these when I stumbled across it on her blog.  

ok, on with pictures and recipes!

I must admit now, her's looks SOO much better than mine!! I don't know how she got the blueberries to be so plump and not collapse. 

What you need:

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup salted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon almond extract (or Vanilla Extract)

2 teaspoon lemon zest, about 1 lemon

1 cup frozen blueberries, thawed and drained

What you need to do:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, set aside.

2. In the bowl of your mixer, cream together butter and sugar until well combined. Add in egg and beat until combined. Add milk, almond extract and lemon zest then beat until combined.

3. Slowly add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and mix until combined. Gently fold in blueberries. The dough will seem too thick, but just keep at it!

4. Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour, then shape into large balls. Bake 6 to a baking sheet for 13-15 minutes, or until slightly golden brown on the bottom, and set on top. Do not over bake! Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool all the way.

I had extra's so, I greased up a cheap ice tray and dolloped some dough into each slot and froze them for another day. 

 Recipe from Iowa Girl Eats

Orange Creamsicle Cookies

I got this cookie recipe from: The Girl Who Ate Everything

What You Need:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour 

3/4 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar 

1/2 firmly packed brown sugar 

1 large egg 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

2 tablespoons orange zest (for me that was the zest of 2 oranges)

2 cups Vanilla Chips

What you need to do:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

 In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. 

 In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and creamy. 

Beat in egg and vanilla until smooth.

 Gradually add flour mixture until combined. Stir in orange zest and chips. 

 Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

 Do not flatten cookies; it will make them dry. 

Bake 8 - 10 minutes or until golden brown around edges. 

Do not overcook! Cookies will be plump.

 Cool for several minutes on cookie sheets before transferring to rack to cool completely. 

Store in airtight container.

Unicorn Poop Cookies

So I've heard these are called Unicorn Poop cookies or Rainbow Pinwheel Cookies. I like the Unicorn poop one myself because unicorns poop rainbows! Anyways, these are fun for kids; fun to eat and fun to make!
It's not too difficult, I think, yes it does take some time, but all in all I think it's worth it! And to make it easier I didn't make my own sugar cookies, because I was lazy, so I bought a packet of sugar cookie mix!

So, what you need:

Your favorite sugar cookie recipe, or a sugar cookie mix

Jimmies (Sprinkles, as you other people call it)

3-4 different food dyes

3-4 bowls

What you need to do:

Preheat oven to 350°F. 

 Divide dough evenly into 3 or 4  bowls(I did this and after words I wrapped them up in the fridge for later), depending on how many colors you're using, and color each with a different color liquid food coloring.

Grab a piece, roll around making it soft.

Roll into a thin log

Do the same step with the other colors and wrap all the logs together.

Twist

and roll!

Run the edges on some sprinkles

Bake for 10 minutes

Linked to THESE awesome blog hops.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookies

These cookies weren't very cheesecake-y, rather a soft creamy chocolate chip cookie. They were still good, but I think I could mess with this more and perfect it! I borrowed this recipe from Sister Wisdom.
I only have one or two picture of the cookies and no step by step pictures (sorry guys) because I was hired to bake these cookies for a birthday party along with a few others and I had no time to take pictures! Again, Sorry!

What you need:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

10 tablespoons butter (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons)

1 cup sugar

1 egg

3 ounces cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla

12 ounces chocolate chips

What you'll need to do:

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. 

In mixer, blend butter, sugar, egg, cream cheese, and vanilla. 

Slowly add the dry ingredients until all are incorporated. 

Lastly, Stir in the chocolate chips.

Grease a cookie sheet or use parchment paper and drop dough by the spoonful onto sheet, at least 1 inch apart.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown around edges.

Note: Dough can be refrigerated until firm, then rolled into a log and frozen (in air-tight freezer bag) for up to 1 month. When ready to bake, let thaw 30 minutes to 1 hour (until soft enough to slice); slice in 3/4″ wide disks and bake.

Linked to THESE Awesome Blog Hops!

Blueberry and Strawberry Jam Sandwiches with Lemon Icing

Fairly easy cookies, definitely delicious, I will most likely make these again. 

I got this recipe from the Modern Baker by: Nick Malgieri. 

My Review - 

I love this book and I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to have 'the basics'. This book offers 150 classic and contemporary recipes. It's great for a novice because before each chapter, for example, cakes, it lists cake technique with the batter, the actual cake, frosting, cake wash, etc! and it's great for the more experienced baker because, if you're like me, I like to go back and re-read to remind myself of some things, not saying I am at all experienced. 

If you want to read more about this book review go to my BOOK REVIEW page

Ok! Onto the recipe!

What you will need:

For the cookies dough:

2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup Sugar

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 tsp Lemon Extract

2 large Egg Yolks

3 cups All Purpose Flour

1 jar Seedless Preserves

For the Lemon Icing:

2 cups Powdered Sugar

1 tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice

1 tbsp Water

2 cookie sheets or jelly roll pans lined with parchment paper or foil

What you will need to do:

For the dough, combine the butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon extract and mix. Beat about 3 minutes.

Beat in yolks, one at a time. Slowly add in the flour, while still mixing. 

Place some plastic wrap on a cookie sheet. Scrape the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and cover with more wrap. Press the dough with the palm of your hand to make it about 1/2 inch thick. 

Place cookie sheet in the fridge until firm, 1-2 hours or up to 3 days.

When you are ready to bake, place the oven racks to the upper an lower slots of the oven and preheat the oven to 350. Take out your dough and cut off 1/3 of the dough, placing the rest back in the fridge.

Sorry, I didn't take pictures of the next part. Roll our your dough on a floured surface, if it's too firm add in a pinch of water and mix. Roll out to a 9 inch square. Use a 3 inch fluted round cutter to cut into disks, lifting them with a cookie spatula and placing them about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Place left over scraps in the fridge. Repeat with 2/3's and the 3/3's and with the cookie scraps.

Bake the cookies until they are no longer shiny about 15- 20 min. After 7 minutes, place the pan from the lower rack to the upper and vice verse, turning pans back to front at the same time. 

While your cookies are baking, get the lemon icing ready. Simply mix all ingredients together, make sure there are no clumps! The book says to leave it in a bowl and use a spoon to ice them, but I poured mine into a bottle.  

The book says to heat the preserves in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer, letting them simmer for about 5 minutes to thicken, but I didn't do that.

I let my jam sit out to get to room temp, because it's already pretty thick. And I had leftover pie filling from my Sweetie Pies, so I used some of that for the filling in these cookies as well.

Once the cookies are cooled, spread your jam on those bad boys and place another cookie on top.

They're looking delicious already!

Ice, Ice, Baby!

I had to steal a bite... it was so tempting! 

This recipe is linked to THESE awesome linky parties!

A Themed Baker's Sunday #21

Let's just dive right in!

Number 6

Earthquake Cake By: Life's Simple Measures

Number 5

Aogynas - Jumbo Cookies with Chocolate Ganache Filling By: Something Sweet

Number 4

Over the Top Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies By: Picture Perfect Cooking

Number 3

Chocolate Bundt Cake By: Cupcakes with Sprinkles

Number 2

Kahlua Cake Trifles By: Just Putzing Around the Kitchen

Number 1

 White Chocolate Vanilla Bean Cheesecake By: The Kitchen Cookie

Congrats to everyone and thank you for participating!

Please grab the I was featured button if you'd please --->

Unto our next theme,

COOKIES!

Cream Cheese Filled Snickerdoodles... Yum!

This was featured on:

So I came across this recipe from Cookies and Cups, as soon I read the title I knew I was in love!

The only thing that I would add/change is to cut the filling ingredients in half because I have a lot of cream cheese filling leftover. 

What You Need:

1 1/2 cups Sugar

1 cup Butter, Room Temp

2 eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

2 3/4 cups all purpose Flour

2 tsp Cream of Tartar

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

1/4 cup Sugar

2 tsp Cinnamon

FOR THE FILLING:

8 oz Cream Cheese, softened

1/4 cup Sugar

2 tsp Vanilla

What you need to do: 

Make the cream cheese filling by mixing the cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tsp vanilla. 

Cover the cream cheese mixture and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°

Cream butter and 1 1/2 cup sugar until fluffy.

Add eggs and 1 tsp vanilla. Mix until combined.

On low speed mix in your flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Set dough to the side.

In a small bowl combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon, set that aside as well.

Remove the cream cheese mixture from the refrigerator.

For each cookie you will need 2 flattened balls of dough, 1 Tbsp each. (The flattened disk will be approx 2″ in diameter)

Place 1 tsp of the cream cheese mixture on top of one of the flattened dough disks. Then place the other flattened dough on top of the cream cheese. Pinch the edges together to seal.

Carefully form into a ball and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Place on a plate as you finish making each and refrigerate. Before baking the cookies they should chill for 15 minutes.

When the dough is chilled bake on a parchment lined baking sheet 2″ apart for 8 minutes.

Transfer to wire rack to cool.

YUM!

 I even wrapped some up for my new neighbors! 

Makes approx 24 cookies

Linked to THESE awesome blog parties!