Mo Cookies Please!

This recipe is a slight variation of Momofuku’s cornflake marshmallow cookie. After testing it a few times I’ve changed a few things like leaving out salt from the cornflake crunch mixture, hand mixing because using an electric mixer didn’t seem to alter taste or form, and altering the baking time according to my own oven. It’s a lot of work but it’s worth it.

Ingredients for Cornflake Crunch

5 cups of cornflakes

9 tablespoons of melted butter

1/2 cup of instant milk powder

3 tablespoons of sugar

Directions for Cornflake Crunch

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

2. Pour melted butter over cornflakes. Then add milk and sugar.

3. Bake for 20 minutes and let it cool.

Ingredients for Cookies

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

16 tablespoons, 2 sticks of softened butter

1 1/4  cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup light brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3 cups of cornflake crunch

2/3 cup chocolate chips

1 1/4 cup mini marshmallows

Directions for Cookies

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Cream together butter with sugar.

3. Then add egg and vanilla and mix together for a few minutes.

4. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix.

5. Fold in cornflakes and chocolate chips, and then add in marshmallows.

6. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Make small scoops. This cookie will spread out.

7. Bake for about 8-9 minutes. I found this time to be enough for the middle to still be a little chewy and the edges crunchy.

Chai Ginger Cookies

After having some delicious ginger beer, Aly was inspired to make a dessert with ginger. She found candied ginger at a magical place called Trader Joes and with Thanksgiving just around the corner she decided to add some seasonal spices. A dash of cinnamon and a dash of cardamom and voila! Chai spiced ginger cookies with a great balance of sweet and spicy.

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of cardamom

3/4 cup unsalted butter

1 and 1/4 brown sugar

1/4 white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped candied ginger

Directions

1.Take eggs and butter out about 30 min before you start so they are room temperature.

2. Sift flour with baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom and set aside.

3. Blend butter with sugar until creamy. Then add eggs and vanilla. Slowly add the flour mixture and then add chocolate and ginger.

4. Refrigerate dough for 1-2 hours.

5. When you’re ready to bake, line your cookie sheet with parchment paper. Preheat the oven at 400 degrees and bake for 10-12 minutes (until edges are golden brown). Cool on the sheet for 1-2 minutes then move to cooling rack.

Oreo Rice Krispies

This dessert was inspired by Aly’s Prince Charming. He was quite helpful in coming up with the idea to add oreos.. not so helpful in the castle’s kitchen when oreos kept “mysteriously” disappearing.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of butter

4 cups mini marshmallows

6 cups rice krispie cereal

3 cups of oreo crumble

Directions:

1. Crumble oreos using hands or food processor and set aside.

2. Melt butter in a large pot on medium heat.

3. Add marshmallows and stir until melted and smooth.

4. Turn heat off, add rice krispie cereal and oreo crumble.

5. Fold until mixed. Press mixture down into a rectangular pan using a spatula and cool.

6. After it’s cooled, cut into squares or use cookie cutters for fun shapes.

* Variations – I can’t wait for girl scout season to make thin mint and samoa rice krispies!

Meet the Brookie!

While in LA for her dear friend Princess Anny’s graduation, Aly found the inspiration for a new dessert. There in a little bakery sat the brookie; a perfect marriage between 2 of Aly’s favorite sweets: a brownie and a chocolate chip cookie!

Directions

1. Make your favorite chocolate chip cookie batter, then chill in the refrigerator for a few hours.

2. Make your favorite box of brownie mix, and add it to a baking pan.

3. Take your cookie dough out of the fridge and add dollops of dough into the brownie batter.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

* I used a square 9″x9″ pan, but next time I would use a 13″x9″ rectangular one so they’re not as thick and to have more cookie to brownie ratio.

May the Fourth…

Be With You!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Princess Aly and Prince Charming came across a Jedi master chef. He used the Force to create tools called cookie cutters. He supplied them with 4 shapes: Darth Vader, Yoda, Boba Fett, and a stormtrooper.

Aly and Charming used a shortbread recipe and added green food coloring to a portion of the dough to make Yodas. They also experimented with Wilton cookie icing, but the tips on the icing bottles were a bit large for the grooves of the cookies.

In case you have not been lucky enough to meet a Jedi, you can buy the same set Aly used from Williams-Sonoma (includes 4 cookie cutters and a shortbread recipe):

Star Wars Heroes & Villains Cookie Cutters

Hunger Games Bakeshop

There was only one day left until the Hunger Games movie premiere! Aly got pretty hungry while she counted down so she decided to make Hunger Games inspired desserts: Mockingjay Cake, Prim’s Goat Cheese Cheesecake, Girl on Fire Cupcakes, and Peeta’s Lavender Shortbread. The Mockingjay Cake is a 5″ x 5″ piece of red velvet cake, covered with buttercream frosting and black sprinkles, and the symbol is made out of shortbread. Same cake and frosting for the Girl on Fire Cupcakes; also decorated with shortbread. See below for recipes. Enjoy and may the odds be ever in your favor when you bake!

Prim’s Goat Cheese Cheesecake

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup butter

16 ounces cream cheese (softened)

8 ounces goat cheese from Prim’s goat Lady

8 ounces sour cream

4 eggs (room temperature)

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

Directions

1. Mix graham cracker crumbs with butter and press it onto the bottom and about a third way up the sides of your pan.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. Beat the cream cheese and goat cheese with an electric mixer on low until light and fluffy.

4. Add sour cream and continue mixing on low. Then add eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract and mix.

5. Pour filling into the crust and bake for about 45-50 minutes. Cool and then refrigerate for at least a few hours before serving.

Shortbread

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick of butter (softened)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 egg yolk

Directions

1. Combine flour with salt and set aside.

2. Mix butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Then add flour and mix.

3. Separate dough depending on how many colors you want to use for decor.

4. To make the Mockingjay symbol I added yellow food coloring and used a knife to cut the circle, bird, and arrow. Then I layered each piece on top of the cake which was frosted and covered with black sprinkles.

5.  For the fire design on the cupcakes, I used red and yellow food coloring and layered the yellow piece on top of the red and baked them as one piece.

6. Bake at 350 for about 7-9 minutes depending on how thick you rolled your designs.

* To make Peeta’s Lavendar Shortbread, add 1 tablespoon of lavender extract and 2 tablespoons of honey to the recipe above and use purple food coloring.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Aly lived in a land where everyone loved to sing! The bakers sang while they made fresh bread, children sang on their way to school, and Aly loved to sing with her animal friends from the forest. Singing made everyone happy except for the evil witch who lived near the castle and constantly plotted against Aly and her family. One day the witch could no longer tolerate the singing so she cast a spell and took everyone’s voice! This happened right around Valentine’s Day so Aly had to find a way to say Happy Valentine’s Day to her Prince Charming and all her loved ones. She baked conversation heart cookies to give all her loved ones special Valentine messages. As for the evil witch she received no cookies and the spell wore off soon after.

Ingredients

1 cup butter (softened)

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon of lemon extract

2 1/4 cups of flour

Assorted food coloring

1 heart cookie cutter

Wilton’s icing writer – red tube

Directions

1. Stir softened butter until creamy, then add sugar and stir.

2. Add lemon and mix. Then flour and mix.

3. Separate dough into smaller portions.

4. Add food coloring, a few drops at a time to create your favorite colors. Wash and dry hands between each color to avoid staining dough with previous color. (If you are going to bake later you can refrigerate the dough but will need to bring it back to room temperature before you are able to roll and cut shapes).

5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll out dough on wax or parchment paper and cut into heart shapes. Rinse and dry rolling pin/cookie cutter every time you work with a different color.

6. Place on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper and bake for 20-22 min. Edges will turn slightly golden brown. Cool on the cookie sheet for 1-2 min then move to racks.

7. After cookies have fully cooled, you can use the icing to write messages to your valentine.

Now look down at your hands. If you’re like Aly your hands are now a rainbow of colors. Washing your hands enough times with warm water and soap will eventually remove the stains. However if you need the stains removed faster, lemon juice, shaving cream and vinegar are all household items that can speed up the process. Coat your stains with any of those products for about 4-5 min and rinse with warm water.

The Fairest Cookie

It was January and Aly was obsessed with French macarons, not to be confused with macaroons which are disgusting cookies usually made with shredded coconut. The obsession began in August when she had the most beautiful, delicious French macarons from Chantal Guillon in the Hayes Valley. They were the fairest macarons in all the land with flavors including salted caramel, rose, hazelnut, pumpkin and more!

http://chantalguillon.com/

Days went by.. months went by… and Aly constantly thought about these bites of heaven and how she wished she could make her own. So as a new years resolution, she vowed to make at least ONE perfect French macaron. Then Aly’s sister Princess Deanna pointed out that one could be a complete fluke and made her revise it to one entire batch. So there it is… one year to make at least one batch of perfect French macarons. Stay tuned to find out if our Princess Aly was successful….

Everything is Better with Bacon…

…or at least that is what all the people of France used to say. So one day Aly decided to experiment and added them to her cookies! Everyone in the kingdom was happy with the result except for the royal family’s pet pig. He was so upset he refused to talk to the princess for an entire year! She finally won him over when she promised to name the cookie after him. Meet the Piglet.

(Box from Michaels – Martha Stewart collection. Is there anything that woman can’t do?)

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter (softened)

1 and 1/4 brown sugar

1/4 white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg + 1 egg yolk (room temperature)

1 cup milk-chocolate chips

6 slices of bacon

2/3 cup toffee bits

Directions

1. Sift flour with baking soda and salt and set aside.

2. Prep the bacon. Four slices are for the cookie batter, and two are for garnishing on top before baking. Cook the bacon on a pan, then chop into small pieces.

3. Blend butter with sugar until creamy. Then add eggs and vanilla. Slowly add the flour mixture and then add chocolate chips, bacon bits (roughly 4 slices worth), and toffee bits.

4. Refrigerate dough for 1-2 hours.

5. When you’re ready to bake, line your cookie sheet with parchment paper. Preheat the oven at 325 degrees. Add the bacon garnishing and bake for 14-16 minutes (until edges are golden brown). Cool on the sheet for 1-2 minutes then move to cooling rack.

Salted Wonderland

Princess Aly’s favorite holiday was Christmas. Every year she told her band to play holiday music (All I Want for Christmas was her favorite song) and then she baked special cookies. She named them Salted Wonderland because the sea salt crystals reminded her of snowflakes.

Ingredients

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup white sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg (room temperature)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup milk chocolate chips

sea salt grinder

Directions

1. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt, then set aside.

2. Blend butter with sugar until creamy. Then add the egg and vanilla extract. Slowly add the flour mixture and chocolate chips.

3. Refrigerate dough for 1-2 hours.

4. When you’re ready to bake, line your cookie sheet with parchment paper. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees and bake for 10-12 minutes.

5. After removing from the oven, cool for 1-2 minutes, then move to the cooling rack. Grind sea salt on the top of each cookie and let it fully cool since these cookies have a soft, brownie like texture in the middle. If you add the sea salt immediately after removing from the oven, some will melt right into the cookie.