Lemon Oatmeal Cookies

Since my cache of cookies that I have baked was dwindling, I wanted to make a couple of things to have in reserve. I didn’t quite know what I wanted to make, but I searched my recipes and figured that I was good with the exception of lemons for lemon zest. We picked up a couple of lemons at the store and headed home, knowing I could make something great!

One recipe that I made called for the zest of three lemons, but I edited that website slightly and used only one lemon. Having lemons on hand, I found this recipe that sounded great and it was also easy to convert this to a dairy free recipe. I try to make dairy-free recipes from time to time, and by substituting vegan butter here this cookie is instantly dairy free. The vegan butter tends to be softer, so I did end up chilling the dough for a short time to firm it up.

The original recipe had you flatten the cookie with a glass dipped in sugar, but I simply rolled the cookie dough in sugar. The cookies are extremely flat, and I don’t really think that you need to flatten the cookies. I did a little, but I don’t think it made much difference. While these cookies are flat, they are super crunchy and oaty. Oats and lemon are such a good combination, and these simple cookies fit the bill.

Lemon Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup butter or vegan butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon extract
Zest from 1 lemon
1 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
Additional sugar or sanding sugar

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter and sugar and mix on medium until light. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the lemon extract and zest. Stir on medium to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Once those ingredients are incorporated, mix in the oats with a spatula.

Shape the dough into tablespoon-sized balls. Roll the dough balls in sugar and place on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten the cookies slightly with the palm of your hand.

Bake the cookies for about 10-11 minutes, until golden. Some of the edges may be a little loose, but I tidied those up with a small metal spatula. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes and then cool completely on a wire rack.

Recipe from Leigh Anne Wilkes

Brown Sugar Toffee Bars

I had built up a fair number of recipes to post but I was getting to the point where I needed to start baking some treats! It starts to get hard this time of year when there are many commitments, weekend trips away, and that sort of thing, so I rely on having some recipes ready to go. I have a lot of recipes planned, but then figure I will change this thing or that, which makes deciding what to bake a bit more challenging.

These bars don’t call for much that is different, but does require rice flour. I didn’t have that on hand, and I was surprised at how difficult that was to find at some grocery stores! There are different types of rice flour, and they do vary so that was more complex. Since I needed such a small quantity, I ended up going to the local organic/community market and they had rice flour in their bulk section, which was exactly what I needed. The rice flour gives the shortbread base that classic sandy texture.

When you bake these bars, the shortbread is thin, but I didn’t have any trouble covering the base of the pan. I have had much more difficulty with other recipes! I do think I baked the shortbread base a bit too long, and likely should have taken it out of the oven after 25 minutes. As a result, my bars are quite crunchy. They taste wonderful, but they do have that crunch!

Brown Sugar Toffee Bars
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ tsp almond extract
1½ cups flour
½ cup rice flour
¼ tsp salt
12 ounces chocolate chips
4 ounces sliced almonds, finely chopped

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Beat the butter on medium in the bowl of a mixer for 2 minutes. Add the brown sugar and beat on medium until light. Add the almond extract and stir to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, rice flour, and salt. Press the dough in a thin layer into the prepared pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until firm along the edges. (Keep the oven on.)

Once you have removed the shortbread from the oven, immediately sprinkle the chocolate chips in an even layer over the bars. Return the bars to the oven for 3 minutes.

Remove the bars from the oven and spread the chocolate into a smooth layer. Sprinkle the bars with chopped almonds.

Allow the bars to completely cool before cutting into bars. It helps to refrigerate the bars right before cutting.

Recipe from Sweet Recipeas

Peanut Butter Marshmallow Cookies

From time to time, in an effort to make something resembling a chocolate chip cookie in order to appease my husband, I try to find something that is close to chocolate chip cookies. When I first came across this recipe, I wasn’t sure how close it would be, with the peanut butter in the dough and the mini marshmallows, but in the end, these were a very interesting take on chocolate chip cookies.

There isn’t anything unusual in these cookies, and the combination of peanut butter and marshmallow is becoming more common. I was sure that I had all of the ingredients for these, and I went to bake them and realized that I didn’t have mini marshmallows. I did have freeze-dried marshmallow bits, which are significantly smaller than mini marshmallows, but I figured they would work. I used all the marshmallow bits I had and now I have to find those again. Oh well!

These cookies come together like a traditional peanut butter cookie, but then you shape them before chilling. I have come across this in a handful of recipes and I think it helps cookies keep their shape, but I honestly haven’t done any sort of real testing to be sure. Chilling the dough did keep these cookies together very well, and I didn’t have an issue with them spreading. The combination of chocolate, peanut butter, and marshmallows was really interesting, and I really liked these cookies. It didn’t make a huge number of cookies, so I guess I will have to make them again!

Peanut Butter Marshmallow Cookies    
10 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 egg
1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup mini marshmallows

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, brown sugar, and peanut butter on medium until creamy. Add the egg, stirring to combine, and then the vanilla. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking soda, and salt. When the dough is almost together, add the mini chocolate chips and mini marshmallows and stir with a spatula to incorporate.

Shape the dough into 2-tablespoon balls and place on a plate lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate the dough for an hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Place 6-8 cookie dough balls on the prepared baking sheet, leaving plenty of room between the cookies as they may spread.

Bake for 13-15 minutes, until the cookies start to brown slightly along the edges. Allow to cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Parsley and Icing

Cinnamon Sugar Blondies

I was planning what cookies to bake, something that would make a decent-sized batch that I could take and share with others. I had my recipe all planned and there was only one ingredient that I needed to get. I thought that was great but then did that final check on my blog and I had made those cookies previously. Once I made a recipe I typically move that recipe to a different Pinterest board, but I guess I hadn’t done that. I’ve been blogging for a long time so I suppose that is bound to happen.

I adjusted and decided to make these cinnamon sugar blondies instead. While I have made similar recipes, this one was new to me. Anything with cinnamon sugar or anything snickerdoodle-like is well received, so I figured these would be a good choice. I had everything on hand, so great! I usually have cinnamon sugar on hand, if you want to make your own I use 3-parts sugar to 1-part cinnamon. You can adjust your ratio depending on your taste.

These bars are simple, just using brown sugar, and then the cinnamon sugar goes on top of the dough before baking. Depending on how dark your cinnamon sugar is, it may be difficult to tell when the bars are done. Mine didn’t quite seem done after 25 minutes, but perhaps the few extra minutes was too much. The glaze is nice, and it does spread but I liked that. It didn’t fully cover the bars, but it was close! These bars are simple bit very tasty. I am used to the flavor of a snickerdoodle, which is slightly different, but they are very yummy.

Cinnamon Sugar Blondies  
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 ½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cinnamon sugar

1 cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2-4 tablespoon milk

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Press the dough evenly into the prepared pan. Top the dough with cinnamon sugar.

Bake for 25-28 minutes, until the bars begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Allow the bars to cool for 30 minutes before adding the glaze.

Make the glaze: in a small bowl whisk the powdered sugar and cinnamon. Add 2 tablespoons of milk and whisk until the glaze comes together. If needed, add additional milk to make the glaze more spreadable. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled bars in a crisscross pattern. Allow the glaze to set before cutting into bars.

Recipe from This Delicious House

Strawberry Shortbread Cookies

I hadn’t brought cookies to work in a while, and I figured that I would have some time to bake. Of course, I chose a recipe that looked great but then didn’t actually make that many cookies! This recipe makes less than two dozen cookies, and not all of them were ready for prime time, so I just took some to my friend at work rather than bringing the entire batch. Soon I will bring something for the bigger group!

This recipe is a roll-out cookie, which isn’t something I make that frequently. They really aren’t that hard to make, and I have made more recently so I am starting to feel more comfortable with the process. These are roll-out shortbread cookies, with some added freeze-dried strawberries. I had those on hand since I had used them previously, so I didn’t have to get any additional ingredients to make these. I used my egg cookie cutter since Easter is so soon, but you could honestly use any shape.

The dough for these is very simple, and you hardly need to crush the freeze-dried strawberries as I added to the dough and the mixer does a good job of crushing them. The first roll is the hardest, when the dough is cold, but it gets better. The original recipe used a white chocolate glaze, but I changed that to a powdered sugar icing. I was a little short on glaze, so I did end up sprinkling the cookies with additional crushed freeze-dried strawberries to make them look fancy. I like these cookies, I don’t think that the strawberry flavor is strong, but they look lovely.

Strawberry Shortbread Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
½ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ¼ cups flour
¼ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup freeze-dried strawberries, crushed

¾ cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon freeze dried strawberries, crushed into powder
2-4 tablespoons milk

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla on medium until light. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour and salt. When the dough is almost fully formed, stir in the crushed freeze-dried strawberries. Divide the dough into two halves. Shape each half into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

On a lightly floured surface, roll one piece of the dough until about ¼” thick. Cut the desired shapes out and place on the prepared baking sheet. Reroll the dough one additional time, then repeat with the second piece of dough. The number of cookies will depend on the size of your cookie cutter.

Bake the cookies 15-20 minutes, until beginning to turn golden. The thickness of your cookies will impact whether your cookies bake for a shorter or longer time.

Once the cookies come out of the oven, allow then to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cool, make the glaze: in a small bowl combine the powdered sugar and powdered freeze-dried strawberries. Add 2 tablespoons milk, whisking frequently, until the glaze is the right consistency. If too thin add additional powdered sugar, additional milk if too thick.

Drizzle the icing over the cooled cookies. Sprinkle with additional crushed freeze-dried strawberries if desired. Allow the glaze to set before serving.

Recipe from Little Vintage Bakery

Bee Sting Bars

Whenever I have a particularly long or busy week, I find a lot of solace in looking through recipes that I have pinned and think about what I can bake. I have a well-stocked pantry, so I try to consider recipes that don’t call for too many special ingredients. I find it surprising how many baked treats use ingredients that I have. Of course, it is helpful that I keep things like cream cheese, honey, several types of chocolate chips, and sliced almonds on hand!

This bar cookie is based on the German Bienenstich Cake, which is a yeasted cake with honey and sliced almonds. This recipe is much easier to make, which is wonderful as I had thought about making the original cake, but I’m scared away whenever I read the recipe. This has a shortbread base, topped with a honey/almond topping. You can use sliced almond that have the skins on or not; it doesn’t matter. In the States it is easier to find the ones with skin, but I ordered mine from a company that has the ones I like.

When you make these bars, the recipe warns that the base is crumbly, and they are not kidding. The dough does stick together well, so that was helpful. I found that any larger bits of butter weren’t sticky, so I did away with those. Refrigerating the dough helps it stay together, so once I made the topping and baked the bars, I had no issue at all. With my giant knife I had, I cut these into lovely diamond shapes. These bars have a good substantial shortbread base, but these are all about the topping. It has wonderful almond flavor and I wonder why it took me so long to bake these!

Bee Sting Bars
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
8.5 ounces flour

6 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons honey
2 Tablespoons amaretto
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups sliced almonds

Line an 8” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar until well combined. Add the vanilla and salt and stir to incorporate. Add the flour, mixing on low. The mixture will be very crumbly. Press the dough into the 8” pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium saucepan, combine all of the topping ingredients: butter, sugar, honey, amaretto, vanilla, and sliced almonds. Heat the saucepan over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil for two minutes and then remove the mixture from the heat. Pour the topping onto the shortbread base, making sure the mixture is evenly distributed.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until the bars are golden. Allow the bars to cool before cutting into pieces.

Recipe from Fifteen Spatulas

Pistachio Cookies

I wanted to do something for St. Patrick’s Day, although having the holiday on the weekend is a little bit different. I’m not one to go to a bar all that much anyway unless they also have great food. My husband and I went out on St. Patrick’s Day to an Irish place once and it was absolutely insane, and we’re not interested in doing that again.

These cookies get their green color (somewhat) from the pistachios, which are tinged green. If you don’t care about the color of the cookies, you can keep them as is, but I did add some green food color to enhance the green. The icing is a parchment color, so I decided to add some green sprinkles to gild the lily even more. Those aren’t necessary but they added some fun.

These cookies are simple to put together, and just need to chill for the shortest amount of time. They are very similar to a Russian teacake/Mexican wedding cookie except for the inclusion of pistachios. The icing is quite different, a browned butter powdered sugar icing that is very flavorful. I liked the icing thinner, so I added more cream than the recipe specifies. These are tasty little cookies, not surprising as Russian teacakes are one of my favorites! I don’t think these are going to last very long!

Pistachio Cookies
130 grams pistachios
1 cup butter, room temperature
90 grams powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
281 grams flour
1-2 drops green food coloring

4 tablespoons butter, cut in pieces
120 grams powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons milk/cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Place the (shelled) pistachios in a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped and you have about 3/4 cup finely chopped pistachios. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter powdered sugar, vanilla and almond extract on medium until creamy. Gradually stir in the flour, mixing on low and the stir in the chopped pistachios and food coloring. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill 30-60 minutes.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 14 minutes, until just beginning to brown. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cool, make the icing: in a small saucepan, place the butter. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. The butter will melt and then foam and then will begin to brown and smell nutty. This will take about 5 minutes. Once browned, immediately remove from the heat. Cool 5 minutes and then add the remaining icing ingredients: powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth. If too thick, add additional milk, or if too thin add additional powdered sugar.

Dip the cookies in the icing or drizzle onto the cookies. Allow the icing to set before serving the cookies.

Recipe from Sally’s Baking Recipes