This is one of my favorite cookies of all time.  I make them all year long whenever I crave something sweet, yet not too overpowering. This one has the double bonus of using fruit topping on the top and uses ingredients that I usually have handy around the house. The dough that I use is also pretty versatile; it can be used as a sandwich cookie, or regular sugar cookies and can be flavored with lemon or orange zest, or almond extract. Really, whatever you want. Some people roll the dough balls with chopped nuts, shredded coconut, etc before they bake them. Or sprinkle them with powder sugar before serving.  The possibilities are endless!  Not convinced yet of its versatility? It also freezes great, and makes a large batch… there! You can always have these handy in the freezer, and when you want something to snack on or have company over, you have freshly baked homemade cookies waiting to the delight of your guests.

I also found it work best for me, to roll the dough using my hand first, then make make the small indentation, bake them, fill them, then finish baking the rest of the time. Some people may indent it halfway through the baking, then fill it. Others want to just make the indentation at the beginning, fill them, then bake all the way through the entire time.

If you have never tried this recipe before–this is a must try!

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living, December 2003

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/4 cup of raspberry preserves/jam (you can substitute this for whatever filling you like)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy. Add yolks, one at a time, scraping the bowl after each addition. Add vanilla. With mixer on low, add flour; mix just until combined. Wrap in plastic; chill until firm, about 1 hour.

On parchment-lined baking sheets, drop about a teaspoon-size cookie dough, 1 inch apart. Use the back of a 1/4-teaspoon measure to gently press a hollow in the center of each dough mound.

Bake for about 8 min. Fill each hollow with 1/2 teaspoon jam or jelly, a chocolate chunk, or a nut, and return to the oven, and bake for another 8 minutes.

To make ahead: Refrigerate up to 2 weeks, or freeze up to 3 months.

Yield: 4 dozens

Raisin oatmeal cookie is probably the only type of cookies that my mom actually loves. She doesn’t really have sweet tooth; and I definitely take after her. However, I can appreciate good cookies once in a while. I have relied on this Oatmeal Craisin Cookies from Martha Stewart for a successful “chewy in the inside and crunchy in the outside” cookies; but wanted to try a new variation, and decided to try Ina’s recipe. After all, I have had very high success rate with a lot of her recipes.  The two recipes are basically similar: this one though, uses toasted pecans that added extra crunch to the cookies, but skips the coconut that the other recipe has. This one uses regular granulated sugar instead of maple syrup for an added hint of sweetness. I honestly can’t say which one I prefer since both fit into what I am looking for in a cookie. Red thinks that he likes the addition of pecans to the cookies slightly more, so we may keep this variation. You really can’t go wrong with either one of these. I also used a smaller ice-cream scoops than what she had recommended (1.5-inch instead of 2-inch size), and made these into a perfect bite-size goodness.

Adapted from: Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups pecans
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 1/2 cups raisins

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the pecans on a sheet pan and bake for 5 minutes, until crisp. Set aside to cool. Chop very coarsely.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.

Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together into a medium bowl. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Add the oats, raisins, and pecans and mix just until combined.

Using a small ice-cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop 2-inch mounds of dough onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper. Flatten slightly with a damp hand. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer the cookies to a baking rack and cool completely.

Yield: 30-35 cookies, using 2-inch size ice-cream scoops, or ~ 50 cookies using 1.5-inch ice-cream scoops

Regardless of how consistently gorgeous the weather was all throughout last week, we started getting warning for “storm & hail” on Friday night. We ended up getting a cloudy Saturday and I even had to put on my little spring coat when we went for our grocery run. In the up side, however, we thought that this was a perfect baking weather.

Red has been asking for some kind of cookies, plus we’re heading to a friend’s house for dinner. So we decided that we would try making these chocolate butterscotch chip cookies that I saw from an old Martha Stewart magazine.

We really enjoyed this recipe, but they turned out a little bit thinner than what I would normally like my chocolate chip cookies be. And the amount of butter can also be cut down. But the cookies in overall have great flavor from the combination of chocolate chip and butterscotch chips.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup butterscotch chips
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until well combined. Add the flour mixture all at once, and beat until just combined. Stir in chips.
3. Drop tablespoons of batter onto prepared baking sheets, two inches apart. Bake until golden brown, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool on baking sheet, one minute, then transfer cookies to rack to cool slightly. Repeat until all batter has been used.

Red has been wanting to bake cookies for a while now. He loves cookies. He tells me that he prefers cookies over cakes. Or cakes. Yes, honey, I hear you! We thought about doing chocolate chip cookies, but chose this instead since I prefer non-chocolatey cookies. Yes, there you go, I admit it. I am probably one of the few women who don’t have chocolate as weakness.

But I told Red that I’d eat shortbread cookies, or snickerdoodles–which I am sure that we will make in the future. So here we go! This Barefoot Contessa recipe hit our tummy in so many satisfying ways!

Ingredients