Puppy Chow Cookies

The ladies on my What’s Cooking chat board have started the recipe swap again. This is the first one and I was given Caroline’s blog The Barbee Housewife. She has lots of wonderful recipes. For recipe swaps, I usually pick something other than cookies, but I spotted this recipe for puppy chow cookies on her site and I really wanted to make them. I had looked at making this recipe a while ago, and had never gotten around to it, so now was the time.

This recipe has you make peanut butter cookies, then dip them in a chocolate/peanut butter coating and then cover in powdered sugar. Caroline suggested baking the cookies one day and finishing them the next day, since you don’t want the cookies to be warm at all when you finish them. I planned to do that, but that just didn’t happen. I made them and did allow them to cool for a couple of hours, so that worked.

These cookies are fairly labor intensive and probably weren’t the best choice to make after a fairly stressful day at work. They are pretty messy, too, so you have to be prepared to clean the kitchen after making them. My husband thought the cookies were great without the coating, which was nice. I got my first batch of chocolate too hot so I had to start over again. I couldn’t figure out a neat way to dunk these in chocolate, and you have to be careful to get the extra chocolate off of the cookie. While they were quite a bit of work, they are worth it! They are such a decadent cookie, rich with the chocolate peanut butter flavor. Yes, maybe these take some time and they are messy, but if you are up to the challenge these are great! Thanks to Ashley from Cheese Curd in Paradise for organizing the swap.

Puppy Chow Cookies

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup shortening

2 cups powdered sugar

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

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and peanut butter together until smooth. Add the sugar and light brown sugar and beat on medium until creamy. Add the egg, vanilla, and salt and stir to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour. Stir just until combined.

Using a small cookie scoop, shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls. Place on the prepared baking sheet. With the palm of your hand or a small glass, flatten the cookies slightly, about ½” thick.

Bake for 9-11 minutes until golden at the edge. Don’t worry that the cookies seem soft. Cool on the baking sheet for several minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. The cookies must be completely cool before coating.

Make the coating: in a microwave safe bowl, combine the chocolate chips, vegetable oil, peanut butter, and shortening. Microwave until melted, stirring every 30 seconds.

Finish the cookies: Place the powdered sugar in a bowl. Place a cookie in the chocolate and then turn it over to completely cover in chocolate. Remove from the chocolate, allowing the excess to drip back into the bowl. Place in the powdered sugar and cover completely with powdered sugar. Place on a wire rack to set. Repeat with the remaining cookies.

Recipe from The Barbee Housewife

Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies with Maple Filling

It’s time for another recipe swap! For this round, the theme was Holiday Cooking and Baking, which is certainly right up my alley! I got Coleen’s blog The Redhead Baker and she had quite a few holiday recipes to try. I usually try to pick a non-cookie recipe to expand my horizons, but it’s been pretty busy getting back to work. I decided to make a holiday cookie from Coleen’s blog. I love ginger cookies so you are probably not surprised that I chose the Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies with Maple Filling.

The cookies are a refrigerator cookie, which is the best type if you are busy. The dough has to refrigerate for 90 minutes, and since I tend to do my baking in the evening after work, I figured I would make the dough one night and then bake and sandwich them the next day. That worked out wonderfully! The dough didn’t get too hard or anything, so feel free to refrigerate the dough to fit your schedule.

The recipe says to cut the dough 1/8” thick, and I’m not sure that I got mine quite that then, so I would estimate that my cookies were more like ¼” thick. They are pretty tiny little cookies, but when paired together with the maple filling it makes a nice little treat. I’ll admit that the cookies look a little plain, but look like perfect little tea cookies when all finished. I loved the flavor of these; they aren’t overpoweringly gingery, but you get that flavor. Ginger and maple come together to create a nice treat. I always have a lot of fun participating in the recipe swaps and thanks to Sarah from Taste of Home Cooking for organizing the swaps.

Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies with Maple Filling

2-1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup butter, softened

3 tablespoons molasses

1 egg

4 tablespoons butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat the brown sugar, butter and molasses on medium speed for 2 minutes, until light. Add the egg and stir to combine. With the mixer running on low, add the flour mixture and stir until the flour is incorporated and the dough comes together.

Divide the dough in halves, shape each portion of dough into an 8” long log. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and secure the ends. Refrigerate for 90 minutes (or longer).

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

Working with one piece of dough while keep the other refrigerated, cut the dough into ⅛-inch thick slices. Place on the prepared baking sheets and bake just until set and golden, about 8 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.  

Make the filling: in a large mixer bowl cream the butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and maple syrup, and stir until smooth. Sandwich the cooled cookies together with the maple filling.

Recipe from The Redhead Baker

12 Days of Cookies Day 6: Cranberry Pistachio Cookies

This year, I decided to participate in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap! Today’s the day to reveal our recipes. I had a lot of fun participating and I was thrilled to get three different types of cookies in return. Thanks to Rose at Rose Bakes , Kelley at The Culinary Enthusiast , and Lou at Lou & Esi for sending me such wonderful cookies.

I sent cookies to Monica at De Lisha’s Recipes , Sarah at Frankly Entertaining, and Lisa at Clawson Live . I chose these Cranberry Pistachio cookies. I hoped that they would ship well and remain fresh, and I hope they did. I know I had set some aside in a plastic bag at home and they remained fresh and soft for a really long time. The original inspiration for this cookie used a sugar cookie mix, but I just found a recipe for chewy sugar cookies in my trusty King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion. It worked great; I just reduced the flour a bit to compensate for the added pudding mix. My dough was light green and I did add a little food coloring to brighten it up a bit.

Green cookies do look a little weird, but it’s festive! I love the flavors in these. My aunt used to make pistachio bars at Christmas so I always connect pistachio with the holidays. These don’t take long to make and stay fresh for quite a while, so they are a wonderful choice if you want to get some of your baking done in advance.

Cranberry Pistachio Cookies

¾ cup butter, room temperature

¾ cup sugar

½ cup packed brown sugar

¼ cup light corn syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla

1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 cups flour

1 box instant pistachio pudding mix (4 serving size)

1 cup dry roasted salted pistachio nuts, chopped

1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped

Green food coloring

Sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, salt and egg. Stir until well combined. Add the flour and pudding mix and stir until combined. By hand stir in the pistachios and chopped dried cranberries. Add food coloring if you’d like the dough to be a brighter shade of green.

Shape the dough into 1-1/2 inch balls and roll in sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for about 8-10 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are lightly browned. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Inspired by The Girl Who Ate Everything . Cookie recipe from King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion

 

Balsamic Shredded Beef

For this round of the recipe swap, it’s Blogger’s Choice! I was assigned Carrie’s blog Carrie’s Sweet Life and I got to choose any recipe I wanted. It’s always quite a choice to pick which recipe I make. Since I participate in the recipe swaps to expand my horizons, I usually try to pick a non-baking recipe to make. Thanks Sarah from A Taste of Home Cooking for organizing the Recipe Swaps!

The weather is turning cooler, and my husband had been talking about making Philly Cheesesteak type sandwiches at home. Plus all my friends on Facebook and Pinterest keep posting yummy looking beef roasts. So I came across this recipe for Balsamic Shredded Beef and thought it would be wonderful. I really like balsamic vinegar so I thought adding it to a roast was ingenious! Plus, I got the makings for Philly sandwiches so we could go that route too.

I cooked my roast for about 8 hours, and it probably could have cooked even longer. I think it depends on the roast you get. This was way more meat than my husband and I could eat, so we had leftovers, warmed with barbeque sauce, that was excellent as well. I really liked this and the balsamic cooking liquid is just divine! Thanks for such a great recipe Carrie!

Balsamic Shredded Beef

3-4 pound boneless beef roast

1 cup beef broth

½ cup balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

4 cloves garlic, chopped

Place roast beef in your slow cooker. Combine the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Pour the mixture over the beef roast. Cook for 4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low.

Once the roast is cooked, remove it from the slow cooker and place on a cutting board. Shred the meat with two forks. Moisten the meat with some of the reserved cooking liquid. 

Serve the shredded beef on buns. Top with toppings of your choice: sliced cheese, grilled onions, grilled bell peppers.

Recipe from Carrie’s Sweet Life

Grilled Chinese Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing

This round of the recipe swap is Summer Salads and I got this great Chinese Chicken Salad from MaryEllen over at MaryEllen’s Cooking Creations. I’ve made a couple of recipes from her blog and they always turn out well. Thanks to Sarah at A Taste of Home Cooking for arranging these swaps. I’ve tried a lot of recipes that I wouldn’t have otherwise tried. And it gives my blog readers a chance to see something other than baked treats here on my blog. 

I love Chinese Chicken Salad, so I was really happy that I got this recipe. It’s a great recipe because so much of the prep is done in advance and then all you have to do at dinner time is grill the chicken and assemble the salad. I guess that I make enough Asian food that I even had all the ingredients on hand. I didn’t have Sriracha hot sauce, but I had some other hot sauce that I used. I don’t really like heat all that much any way so I just included a tiny bit of that. 

My only struggle with this recipe was getting the chicken cooked all the way through. The chicken breasts I used were huge, so they took a long time to cook. I really, really liked this salad, and loved that it was so easy to put together. My husband, who is not much of a salad fan at all, even enjoyed it (but he didn’t eat much of his lettuce). He liked the pasta that was mixed in with the salad and he liked the dressing. I consider that a big win!

Grilled Chinese Chicken Salad with Sesame Dressing

2 chicken breasts

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon sesame oil

3 tablespoon soy sauce

2 cloves minced garlic

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

½-1 teaspoon hot sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

¼ teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoon soy sauce

Salt and pepper

4 cups chopped romaine lettuce

2 green onions, chopped

1 carrot, julienned

1/2 cup bean sprouts

1 cup cooked pasta noodles, cooled - I used Ramen noodles

   

The night or morning before serving, marinate the chicken. In a large ziplock bag, place the two chicken breasts. In a bowl whisk together the olive oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, hoisin sauce, and hot sauce. Pour into the bag and seal. Refrigerate for 4-24 hours.

Make the dressing: in a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, rice vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until the salad is ready to serve.

In a large bowl, combine the Romaine, carrots, green onions, bean sprouts, and pasta. Add the dressing and toss to combine.

Heat the grill to 400 degrees (I used medium high) and grill the chicken until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees. Start with about 5 minutes per side, but it may take longer depending on the size of your chicken breasts. Slice the chicken breasts and serve on top of the salad.

Recipe from MaryEllen’s Cooking Creations