Cookies for me! Trust me - they won't eat them...

I like chocolate cookies - like dark deep chocolate cookies filled with chocolate chips. My family? nope... they are a hard quick pass on that. But what happens when I want to try a delicious looking deep dark chocolate cookie recipe? Neighborhood Christmas Cookie Boxes. These cookies were easy to toss together the night before and bake up the next morning - I did a lot of that this year. It seemed to work out much better for some reason. The dough was fudgy and rich - the baked cookies even better. These do not make a huge batch but are well worth it. I might just freeze some dough balls and bake a few when I'm feeling the need for some chocolate when my crazy family wants oatmeal raisin cookies - gross.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
1/2 cup (8 Tbsp) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
2/3 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon milk (any kind, dairy or non)
1 and 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus a few more for optional topping

Preliminary note: This cookie dough requires at least 3 hours of chilling, but I prefer to chill the dough overnight. The colder the dough, the thicker the cookies.
In a large bowl using a hand-held or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together on medium high speed until fluffy and light in color, about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla extract, and then beat on high speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly pour into the wet ingredients. Beat on low until combined. The cookie dough will be quite thick. Switch to high speed and beat in the milk, then the chocolate chips. The cookie dough will be sticky and tacky. Cover dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory for this sticky cookie dough.
Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator and allow to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. If the cookie dough chilled longer than 3 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes. This makes the chilled cookie dough easier to scoop and roll.
Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommended for cookies.) Set aside.
Scoop and roll dough, a heaping 1.5 Tablespoons (about 35-40g; I like to use this medium cookie scoop) in size, into balls. To ensure a thicker cookie, make the balls taller than they are wide (almost like a cylinder or column). Arrange 2-3 inches apart on the baking sheets. The cookie dough is certainly sticky, so wipe your hands clean after every few balls of dough you shape.
Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes or until the edges appear set and the centers still look soft. Tip: If they aren’t really spreading by minute 9, remove them from the oven and lightly bang the baking sheet on the counter 2-3x. This helps initiate that spread. Return to the oven to continue baking.
Cool cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. During this time, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies. (This is optional and only for looks.) Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies will slightly deflate as they cool.
Cover leftover cookies tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Comfort in a bowl

I can't remember the last ham I made, surely I've made one but I can't recall. I do remember over 10 years ago making a ham and cutting up the extra and freezing it. I remember that because I remember making this Chowder Soup at our old house... which is over 10 years ago, since we've lived in this house for 10+ years. Anyway - ham was insanely inexpensive (8 pounds for $5) so I got one to have some friends over for dinner. We got covid shortly after and were not eating the left overs so I chopped the ham into chunks and tossed them in the freezer. A chilly day and in office day meant crockpot for the win - so this Chowder Soup is what I picked for dinner. It's so good and so easy. Lots of veggies and yummy ham. Perfect with some bread - comfort in a bowl!

Ham Chowder Soup
1 box Au Gratin Potatoes or Scalloped Potatoes (with Seasoning Packet)
4 stalks Celery, diced
2 Onions, chopped
4 Carrots, chopped
4 cloves Garlic, minced
1 cup Diced Precooked Ham
4 cups Chicken Broth
1 dash Black Pepper
⅓ cups Flour
2 cups Milk

Combine the uncooked potatoes, seasoning packet, veggies, ham, chicken broth, and pepper in your crock pot. Cook on low for about 6 hours (or on high for about 3 hours). There is some flexibility here, you just need to make sure the potatoes are soft. Whisk the four and the milk together in a bowl and add to the crock pot. Cook an additional 30 minutes on high, stirring occasionally.

Of guns and cookies...

This year we made our cookies for Santa the day before Christmas Eve. We had very important business to attend on the Eve - movies and appetizers... all of them! Who has time to bake cookies for Santa? We decided spritz cookies were the way to go this year. We asked Nicholas what he thought Santa might like - he didn't know. One I said these cookies were made with a cookie gun - he was sold. He's an 8 year old boy who is all about guns and knives... and plenty else he shouldn't be drawing at school and does. Oof. These cookies were fun to make and put sprinkles on and the best part, they were so fast to mix together, shoot out and bake. We got to use food coloring and sprinkles. They checked off many boxes! Nicholas set out the cookies and milk and the cookies were gone in one bite - because Bernard was extra interested in them. Ugh... so we replated and held them in the kitchen until Bernard was sent to bed. Santa must have loved them because only a few crumbs and sprinkles remained! Now that I've searched for Spritz cookies I've found so many new dies to make different shapes - not just Christmas! I just may get some to play - who knows!

Spritz Cookie Recipe
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
gel food coloring, optional

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place two large light-colored baking sheets in the refrigerator to chill as you make the cookie dough.
In a large mixing bowl add butter and sugar. Use a hand mixer to cream together until creamy (about 5 minutes).
Add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract. Mix in until well combined.
Add the flour and salt. Mix the dough until just combined. (Do not overmix.)
If using food coloring, gently fold a few drops of the food coloring into the dough.
Add the dough to the cookie press with your desired shape, filling it with as much dough as it will hold. To start the press, double-press the first cookie so that there is some dough still sticking out of the press. Then, continue to press out the cookies onto the chilled baking sheets.
If you don’t have a press, you can pipe the spritz cookies. Add a decorating tip of choice to a heavy-duty pastry bag and fill the bag with the dough. Before piping, make sure to remove any pockets of air in the dough. Pipe dough onto the baking sheets.
If using decorations like sprinkles or decorating sugar, add as desired.
Bake 5-6 minutes, or until the edges are set, but not browned.
Let the cookies cool slightly (5-10 minutes) before removing them from the pan to continue cooling on a wire rack or parchment paper.
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Cookie Box Mystery

This year's neighborhood Christmas cookie boxes were a mystery right up until bake day. Covid finally came to visit our family, four years into the pandemic and well... it hit me like a ton of bricks. I kept hemming and hawing about what cookies to make and finally decided I wanted to try these so these made the cut. These Cinnamon Roll Sugar Cookies are very fun. You make your own little cinnamon butter squares that get folded into the dough. They bake into these crispy cinnamon crunchies. I used a round cookie cutter to circle around the baked cookies to get them back into a round shape - something I've seen plenty but never felt the need to do. This made sense since some of the cinnamon butter crunchies ooze out a bit and make the cookie an odd shape and size.
These cookies were amazing. So good. Everyone in our house agreed these go on the make again list. I didn't ask the neighbors but I'm hoping they thought the same thing. Either way... we'll make them again. I was able to make the dough the night before then bake the next day - that worked out very well since I still had a kid in school but he didn't leave until 9 so I had cookies to bake before I went back to making magic for Christmas.

Cinnamon Roll Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Cinnamon sugar filling:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
⅓ cup brown sugar, packed
1½ tablespoons all purpose flour
2½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
pinch salt
Cookies:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened but still cool to the touch
1 ⅓ cups granulated sugar
1 ¾ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 ¾ cups all purpose flour,
¾ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°F with racks near the center. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Cinnamon sugar filling:
Mix together all ingredients (I use a small rubber spatula or fork) until well combined. Place in the freezer for about 10 minutes while you prepare the cookie dough.
Cookies:
Using an hand mixer, or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add vanilla, egg, and egg yolk, and beat until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
In a separate bowl, combine flour (see note), baking powder, cornstarch, and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat until combined.
Remove half of the dough from the mixing bowl and spread the remaining dough out across the bottom the mixing bowl.
Remove the cinnamon mixture from the freezer and use two spoons to scoop small pieces (about a teaspoon each) of the cinnamon mixture and place them all over the dough in the mixing bowl.
Once you have used half of the cinnamon mixture, get the cookie dough that you have set aside, and spread it or press it with your fingers into a somewhat even layer on top of the cinnamon and dough in the mixing bowl.
Proceed to add the remaining cinnamon mixture (in little pieces) all over the top of that piece of dough. Your bowl should now have two layers of cookie dough, each layer topped with cinnamon sugar bits.
Step by step cinnamon roll cookie dough in a white bowl.
Once you have your dough layered you are going to fold and mix it just barely. I do two folds, scraping up and over, followed by one to two stirs by hand with a rubber spatula. Do not use an electric mixer, this needs to be a brief stir that leaves some pieces of the cinnamon mixture in chunks and some pieces swirled into the dough.
Cinnamon roll cookie dough in a white bowl with a rubber spatula.
Scoop the dough into two-tablespoon portions using a cookie scoop. Pay attention while scooping to ensure that each scoop has a fair amount of dough mixed with cinnamon.
Place the dough balls on a plate and freeze for 10 minutes. This quick chill firms up the butter so the cookies don't spread too much.
Scoops of cinnamon roll cookie dough on a white plate.
Place dough balls a couple inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets. For thicker cookies leave the dough balls in higher mounds, for thinner cookies give them a slight pat down before baking. Any dough balls that do not fit into this batch that's baking should be refrigerated (not frozen) until the baking sheets have cooled and you're ready to bake them.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies have spread, the edges are beginning to brown and the center is still slightly underdone.
Some of the cookies will bake up a little misshapen. This is because pockets of cinnamon sugar might melt out while baking. Don't worry, I have two techniques that work for getting a perfectly round shape for every cookie in the batch! See notes for shaping cookies as soon as they come out of the oven.
Place baking sheets on wire racks and allow cookies to cool completely. They will firm up as they cool.

Tag Team Pie Making

"What kind of dessert do you want for your birthday?"
"One you can't make or eat - Lemon Meringue Pie"
Hrm... great.
The birthday boy gets what he wants since he rarely asks for something specifically. Good thing B isn't allergic and did the lemon part, Actually she did quite a bit of the pie. The giant winning part of the pie in our house was the meringue. BOTH kids could not get enough of eating the unbaked fluff. The lemon part came together wonderfully - we didn't scramble the eggs - which we were VERY proud of - and it looked lemony yellow and wonderful. B piped the meringue on top and we baked it into a beautiful pie. The pie came out of the oven SO tall. Eventually it settled and wept a little but I found out that's normal. The birthday boy loved his pie and has been enjoying it. The kids tried it. The meringue changed texture from the amazing fluff... so that was unexpected... it was a bit tart for N. I'm glad we were able to tackle this for Andy, Happy 45!

Classic Lemon Meringue Pie
Preformed Pie Crust
5 large egg yolks (use the whites in the meringue below)
1 and 1/3 cups water
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
Meringue
5 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C) and adjust your oven rack to the lowest position. Partially blind bake pie crust in a 9-inch pie dish. (Follow blind baking instructions on package). Tip: You can get started on the lemon meringue pie filling steps while your crust is blind baking. But making the filling is time sensitive because you will temper the egg yolks, so if multi-tasking isn’t your thing, just wait until your crust is done blind baking before beginning the filling.
Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.
Make the filling: Whisk the egg yolks together in a medium bowl or liquid measuring cup. Set aside. Whisk the water, granulated sugar, cornstarch, salt, lemon juice, and lemon zest together in a medium saucepan over medium heat. The mixture will be thin and cloudy, then eventually begin thickening and bubbling after about 6 minutes. Once thickened, give it a whisk and reduce heat to low.
Temper the egg yolks: Very slowly stream a few large spoonfuls of warm lemon mixture into the beaten egg yolks. Then, also in a very slow stream, whisk the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan. Turn heat back up to medium. Cook until the mixture is thick and big bubbles begin bursting at the surface. Remove the pan from heat and whisk in the butter. Spread filling into the warm partially baked crust. Set aside as you prepare the meringue. (Don’t let the filling cool down too much as you want a warm filling when you top with the meringue in step 7. The warm filling helps seal the two layers together, preventing separation.)
Make the meringue: With a handheld mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar together on medium speed for 1 minute, then increase to high speed until soft peaks form, about 4 more minutes. Add the sugar and salt, then continue beating on high speed until glossy stiff peaks form, about 2 more minutes. Spread meringue on top of filling. (I like to make decorative peaks with the back of a large spoon.) Make sure you spread the meringue all the way to the edges so that it touches the crust. This helps prevent the meringue from weeping.
Bake pie on the lowest oven rack for 20-25 minutes. (If the meringue is browning too quickly, tent a piece of foil over it as best you can without the foil touching the meringue.) When pie is done, remove from the oven, place on a wire rack, and allow to cool at room temperature for 1 hour before placing in the refrigerator to chill. Chill for 4 hours before slicing and serving.
Cover any leftovers and store in the refrigerator. Lemon meringue pie tastes best on day 1 because it doesn’t keep very well. No matter how hard you try to prevent it, the meringue will wilt and separate over time. Best to enjoy right away.