I Love Cookies! (and Chocolate Chip & Peanut Butter Cookies, too)
I have always enjoyed cookies – making them, eating them, sharing them. In my years of cookie baking I have collected a few treasures that I like to make over and over again because of their consistent ability to please the palate.
My children also have a few favorite cookies that they like to sneak when they think I am not looking.
After School M&M Cookies
Often their request is for M&M cookies. There seems to be something very appealing in the colourful candy peeking out from the vanilla-spiked dough. I must admit that even I find it very difficult to stick to only one of these mouth-watering cookies at a time.
When M&M cookies are not readily available, chocolate chip cookies are another favorite – especially right out of the oven, when the chocolate chips are still melted and gooey. (There’s a reason for the cliché of chocolate chip cookies and milk after school!)
Spiced Chocolate Chip Cookies
Surprisingly, chocolate chip cookies are not on the top of my one daughter’s list. Her preference is the ginger-zinger cookie – soft, chewy and fragrant with spices. This also happens to be the favorite of my in-laws whose sweet tooth often run to more exotic flavors.
Whipped Shortbread Cookies
I am personally a lover of shortbread. I like the simplicity of the ingredients and the way they can melt in your mouth when you take a bite. Saving them primarily for Christmas time ensures that they stay special, at least in my mind. Of all the shortbreads that I have made, however, my favorite this past year was the Almond Snowballs – perhaps not technically shortbread, but they may be some kind of hybrid. In any case, it melts in my mouth just like a shortbread cookie would and it tastes buttery and not too sweet. My husband is particularly fond of the chocolate chunk shortbread, or is it just the chocolate chunks in it? And, as it turns out, this year I didn’t get a chance to sample any of the Scottish shortbread because my son gobbled up the few pieces left at home after all the cookie packages were made up for the teachers.
Whatever your preferences, I am sure you will find a favorite cookie recipe at Sweetie Treats.
Let me know what recipe you’d like to see next and I’ll try to feature it in my next blog.
For today, though, I made Chocolate Reeces Pieces Cookies. These satisfy a craving for both peanut butter and chocolate. You can also use peanut butter chips instead of Reeces Pieces, if you’d rather not have the crunchy candy coating. I have to thank one of my sister-in-laws for getting me addicted to this. Last summer she brought a batch to my mom’s house during a visit. They were so delicious I didn’t want to stop eating! I hope you enjoy them too!
- 1 ¼ cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt (optional)
- 1 cup Reeces Pieces or peanut butter chips
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- Heat oven to 350 F.
- Mix butter and sugar well, beat until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
- Combine flour, sifted cocoa and baking soda (and salt, if you use it) in a separate bowl. Add to wet ingredients and mix well.
- Mix in Reeces Pieces (or peanut butter chips) and chocolate chips by hand.
- Drop 1" rounds onto cookie sheet, at least 2-3" apart.
- Bake 8-12 minutes (depending on your oven) until they seem set in the middle.
- Allow cookies to cool for 10-15 minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to wire rack to cool completely.
- Pretty much any kind of chips can be used - you could use M&Ms, Smarties, milk chocolate or dark chocolate chips. Be creative and find a combination you like!