There was a storm rolling in yesterday, so it was a bit warm and sticky. We were craving something sweet, but didn’t want to fire up the oven, so I started digging through my no-bake recipies for somethign quick and easy. This recipe started life as a no-bake peanut butter oatmeal cookie recipe, but once set, Mer immediately declared it “oatmeal fudge”. Chocoholics can add 1/4 cup cocoa to the mix to make chocolate peanut butter oatmeal fudge.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Fudge

Ingredients:

• 3 2/3 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/3 cup powdered milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup butter

In a large bowl, combine oats, peanut butter, vanilla, cinnamon, and powdered milk; mix until few lumps remain and peanut butter is well-distributed. Set aside.

Melt butter and sugar in a sauté pan or shallow sauce pan over medium heat; stir in water. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture boils. Hold at a rolling boil for 90 seconds. Carefully pour hot syrup over oat mixture and stir to combine. (This takes a bit of elbow grease.) Once mixed, gather the dough into balls (portion control is up to you) and place on sheet pans lined with silicone baking mats, parchment, or waxed paper. Flatten with a spatula and set aside to cool.

At room temperature, fudge will set in about 30 minutes; refrigeration speeds up the process.

My goodness! Too much cooking/blogging, too little time. No matter. I’ve been keeping track of new tasty treats in my handy dandy notebook, and I hope to spend the next week or two getting caught up on what I’ve missed. Alas, there are very few pictures involved, as I keep forgetting, but I’ll supplement with stock when I can. On to the food!

I was having a very, very crappy day when these cookies came into my life. Cobbled together from several recipes, they’re incredibly decadent but incredibly simple. I’ve made these several times since that day, and have managed to blow through a good portion of our frozen butter supply in the process (which is impressive, considering the quantities in which I buy butter.) These are officially fighting the Magical Mint Cookies for my all-time favorite. I think I might go make some now… Anyway, I hope that these brighten your day!

Butter Drop Cookies

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter (at room temperature)
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375° F. In a medium bowl, whisk togetherflour, leavenings, and salt. Set aside. In a separate, larger bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until thoroughly incorporated. Add vanilla. Alternately add milk and dry ingredients, by thirds, until batter is smooth and homogenous.

Using a small disher or spoon, drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto non-stick sheet pans. Bake for 8-10 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking. Cool on pans for 10 minutes before moving to rack.

Makes 6 dozen.

I’m finally over the flu, and I’ll be baking Christmas cookies this weekend. Yep, Christmas cookies. The holidays are too darn crazy, so my mom and I make time in late winter/early spring to enjoy a day in the kitchen baking cookies. This year, our plans may be foiled by the new arrival in our house (a Wii), but I’m hoping to get a few batches in between rounds of boxing.

I have a few new recipes lined up to try, but in case you are in the mood for a sugar-riffic weekend, here are some old standbys and new favorites from the Catch the Spoon archives to get you started:

• Magical Mint Cookies
• Nutmeg Sugar Cookies
• Date Squares
• Bacon Cookies

Happy belated holidays to one and all! After the semester ended, Mer and I got to work on our holiday baking. We split our projects between family traditions and our own take on other bloggers’ recipes. Our other projects included Mer’s Date Squares, our version of the Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies from Never Bashful with Butter, and our version of the Ginger-Cinnamon Caramels posted at The Kitchn at Apartment Therapy.

Concluding our Holiday Baking Recap are my Magical Mint Cookies. This recipe holds a special place in my heart and stomach, as it is the first recipe I ever remember “creating”. I tweaked a basic cookie recipe to use ingredients that I had on hand, and served the results to the girls that my mom worked with. The cookies looked disgusting – flat, wrinkled, and brown – but damn, they tasted good. While they haven’t gotten any prettier over the years, my Magical Mint Cookies have become a holiday tradition.

As a special bonus, these cookies freeze extraordinarily well. I like to keep a batch in my freezer all year, and I toss one or two into the microwave for 30-45 seconds to warm them up and make them gooey when I’m in the mood for a treat. they also make great ice cream sandwiches!

Magical Mint Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 10 oz. mint chocolate chips or chopped mint chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar. Slowly beat in eggs and vanilla. Beating with a wooden spoon or with mixer on low speed, add dry ingredients one cup at a time until just combined. Stir in chips.

Using a small small disher, drop dough onto greased or non-stick cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-9 minutes, but do not overbake – cookies will be very soft. Cool on pans until cookies have firmed and can be transferred to wax paper without the edges collapsing. Cool completely before storing.

Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.

Meredith says:

“My family isn’t much for baking, and we don’t have a holiday cookie tradition at all. What we do have are Date Squares.

Date Squares are actually one of the original, orange-book Betty Crocker recipe known as “date bars”, with very minor tweaks accumulated over the years. My grandmother would make them for breakfast whenever my Aunt Sue and Uncle Bob would come and visit for a weekend, so there would be an easy, quick breakfast available, since Sue and Bob were usually bopping around on errands while they visited. Sue thought they were the best things ever, especially since they’re sort of healthy for a cookie, and the rest of them enjoyed them, too.

As the years have gone by and the few food traditions my family does possess have been distributed to the different branches of the family, date squares seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle. Since I’m the first person to think of making them for years, this one is now mine. I took a pan to my family’s Christmas dinner, and they were a big hit. So, now you get to try them.

They’re a great bar cookie, landing somewhere between brownies and granola with fruit. They’re not too sweet, and great for breakfast, dessert, or any time you need a treat that won’t make you feel too overly guilty, and they’re definitely a wholly American recipe right out of the Donna Reed era that deserves to be remembered.”

Date Squares

Ingredients for filling:

• 16 ounces dates (Dromedary brand works best)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/4 cup white sugar

Ingredients for crust and topping:

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3 c oats

Chop dates finely (sharp scissors or kitchen shears are the perfect tool for this.) Add chopped dates, water, and sugar to a wide heavy-bottomed sauce pan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture has thickened and turned a deep brown color. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease or line a 13×9″ pan. In a medium bowl, cream together brown sugar and butter. Add remaining ingredients and stir until thoroughly combined.

Layer half of the oat mixture in the bottom of the pan, covering the bottom completely and pressing firmly to ensure a dense base. Smear the cooled filling on the crust and lightly crumble the remaining oat mixture on top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Cool before slicing into squares. Makes 18-24 squares.

Image by Roboppy.

Happy belated holidays to one and all! After the semester ended, Mer and I got to work on our holiday baking. We split our projects between family traditions and our own take on other bloggers’ recipes. Stay tuned for my Magical Mint Cookies, Mer’s Date Squares, and our version of the Ginger-Cinnamon Caramels posted at The Kitchn at Apartment Therapy.

Today’s recap is our version of Muffin’s bacon chocolate chip cookies with maple glaze, posted in the first week of December at Never Bashful with Butter. We tweaked the basic cookie recipe a bit, changed the nuts, and used a completely different glaze. The result was a delightful surprise: not only were they delicious, but they didn’t just taste like bacon cookies. They stood well on their own as a dessert, and made for a fabulous conversation piece at the holiday gatherings we attended.

Bacon Cookies with Maple Glaze

Ingredients for cookies:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup miniature chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts
• 2 cups bacon bits

Ingredients for glaze:

• 4 tsp butter
• 4 tsp real maple syrup
• 1 1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars. Stir in eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add to wet ingredients, mixing until just combined. Stir in chips, nuts, and bacon. Using a small small disher, drop dough onto greased or non-stick cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Cool on wax paper laid over newspaper or kitchen towels.

While cookies cool, combine butter and maple syrup in a small heavy-bottomed sauce pan and whisk until butter has melted and liquids are well-combined. Whisk in confectioner’s sugar. Drizzle warm glaze over cooled cookies. Allow glaze to set completely before packaging.

Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.

So, what yummy goodies did you create this holiday season? Tell us all about it in the comments.

Image by Liquid Lucidity

Biscotti is a great treat to have with your coffee on a lazy weekend morning. It’s simple to make, but time-consuming, due to its twice-baked nature. Be sure to keep the finished product sealed tightly in an air-tight container; stale biscotti are soft and blah.

Iced Anise Biscotti

For biscotti:

• 6 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 teaspoons anise extract
• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
• 5 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For icing:

• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
• 2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together salt, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.

In large bowl, cream butter and sugar until very light and fluffy (about 15 minutes with electric mixer). Add eggs, one at a time, and both extracts. Slowly add flour mixture, 1/3 at a time.

Divide dough into fourths. On cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or a silpat, shape each portion into a flat loaf. Bake for 15-20 minutes of until lightly colored. Remove from oven and cool slightly.

With a serrated knife, cut each loaf into 1″ thick slices. Lay each slice flat on a lined baking sheet and return to oven for about 15-20 minutes, flipping slices halfway through cooking. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

While cookies are cooling, whisk together confectioner’s sugar, lemon extract, and milk until mixture is smooth. Drizzle over cooled cookies. Allow icing to dry completely before storing in an airtight container.

Makes 5-6 dozen cookies.

Every winter when I was a child, my mom and I baked cookies together. As the years passed, the holidays became busier and more complicated, so we created a new tradition: we bake cookies in February or March, when the holiday rush is over and we can really enjoy our time together. This is one of our traditional recipes.

The classic sugar cookie shines with the addition of nutmeg, replacing the cloying sweetness of years past with hints of traditional winter flavors. Be sure to use fresh nutmeg in this and every dish that calls for it; pre-ground nutmeg has a very short shelf life, but whole nutmegs will keep for years. There are adorable miniature box-graters available for nutmeg grating, but a microplane, hand-held cheese grater, or the small holes on a box grater will work just as well.

Nutmeg Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 2/3 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream together butter, vanilla, and sugar, beating until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, waiting until one is completely incorporated before adding the next. Add flour mixture in three stages, scaping down sides of bowl between each stage. Cover mixture by pressing wax paper to the surface of the dough, and chill for at least 90 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Divide dough in half and return non-working half to refrigerator. Roll dough to 1/8″ thickness on a floured board. Cut into desired shapes. Repeat for remaining dough.

For soft cookies:
Transfer cookies to parchment-lined baking sheet and set on top of the oven to soften for 3-5 minutes. Move baking sheets to oven and cook for 10-12 minutes, or until edges are golden. Cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to cooling rack.

For crisp cookies:
Transfer cookies to parchment-lined baking sheet and chill for 30-45 minutes. Move sheets directly from refrigerator to freezer, and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until edges are golden. Transfer to cooling rack as soon as cookies are cool enough to be moved without losing their shape.