Lemony Almond Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup of almond flour (if you don’t have any, just use the same amount of all-purpose flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Zest of 2 large lemons
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Rolling ingredients:
1/2 cup granulated sugar for rolling cookies
Zest of one lemon

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, combine the lemon zest and sugar. Using your fingertips, run the zest into the sugar until the sugar becomes moist and aromatic. Set the bowl aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer (or any large bowl, if using a hand held), beat the butter just until it’s smooth. Add the lemon sugar mixture and beat until creamy.
Add the egg, almond extract, and lemon juice. Mix to combine.
With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture. Beat only until the streaks of white have disappeared. Turn off the mixer and, using a rubber spatula, give the dough a few more stirs.
Cover and refrigerate while you prepare the rolling ingredients.
In a large, shallow bowl, combine the sugar and lemon zest. Using the same technique that you used for the dough, rub the zest into the sugar.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and, using a rounded tablespoon per cookie, roll the dough into balls. Roll each ball into the lemon sugar mixture to coat.
Leaving about 2-inches between each one, place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets.
Bake 7 to 9 minutes or until the edges are just beginning to turn brown. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to rest on the sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Snickerdoodles Cookies
Yield: About 4 dozen

Ingredients:

2 and 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a baking mat and put in refrigerator to chill.

Whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Gradually stir in the flour mixture, beating on low speed just until the flour is blended. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. In the meantime, mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Scoop 1-inch balls of dough and roll in the cinnamon and sugar mixture to coat. Place on chilled cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and bake for 10 minutes. Chill the dough and cookie sheets between batches. Let cookies set on baking sheet for 2-3 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack. Store cookies in an airtight container.

Coconut White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
About 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
1/3 cup oil
1 cup bread flour
1 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup white chocolate chips
3/4 cup old fashioned oats (I lightly toasted mine in the oven for 10 minutes)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat cookie sheets with cooking spray.

Process coconut and oil in a food processor until very finely ground.

In a medium bowl, sift together bread flour, cake flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together ground coconut and sugar until well combined. Beat in vanilla and eggs until combined – about 2 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in white chocolate chips and oats until well combined.

Chill dough in refrigerator or freezer for 20 minutes or until firm. Using a cookie scoop, place scoops of dough onto cookie sheets. Bake 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute before transferring cookies to wire racks to cool.

Peanut Butter Snickers Cookies
About 24 cookies

Ingredients:

1¼ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cups chopped Snickers candy bars (about 4 regular size bars)
¾ cup milk chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and the peanut butter together until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat until smooth. Add the egg and mix until combined. Add the milk and the vanilla extract and mix again. Add the flour mixture and beat until flour disappears. Stir in the chopped Snickers and chocolate chips.

Drop by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets. (I weighed mine out to about 2 ounces of dough per cookie.) Gently flatten each cookie ball with the palm of your hand. Bake for 10-11 minutes, or until cookies are slightly brown on the edges. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for about 5 to 10 minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Chocolate Chip Cream Scones

Ingredients:

2 cups (10 oz) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 stick butter (4 oz) (cold, cut into pieces)
1 cup (8 oz) heavy whipping cream (cold)
1/2 – 3/4 cup miniature chocolate chips (depending on preference)

Topping:
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp sanding sugar or granulated sugar

Directions:
Preheat over to 390 degrees. Mix together dry ingredients.

Using a pastry cutter, two knives or your fingers , cut in the butter. Add whipping cream and chocolate chips. Blend together quickly. Do not overmix. Shape into a round or square. Brush with egg wash. Sprinkle with sugar. Cut into shapes. Place on parchment or Silpat covered baking sheet.

Bake for 14-16 minutes until golden brown and delicious.

Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
± 16 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
½ cup rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

On medium speed, cream together the butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat to combine. On low speed, gradually add the flour until just combined. Stir in the oats, and then the chocolate chips.

Use a large cookie scoop (3 tablespoons) and drop dough onto prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden. Cool completely on the baking sheet and then store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Christmas Cookies
±40 cookies

⅔ cups Shortening
¾ cups Sugar
½ teaspoons Grated Orange Or Lemon Zest
½ teaspoons Vanilla
1 whole Egg
4 teaspoons Milk
2 cups Flour
1-½ teaspoon Baking Powder
¼ teaspoons Salt

Decorative Icing:
1 and 1/2 cups powdered Sugar
1 larg egg white
1 tsp vanilla essence or lemon juice
Food Coloring

Directions:

Cream shortening, sugar, orange peel, and vanilla thoroughly. Add in egg and beat until light and fluffy. Add in the milk and mix.
Sift dry ingredients together, then blend into cream mixture. Divide dough in half (thirds if you double your recipe), slightly flatten between two sheets of waxed paper, then refrigerate for one hour (or freeze for 20 minutes).
Roll out dough on lightly floured surface and cut into shapes with a cookie cutters. Transfer shapes to lightly greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 6 minutes. Do not allow the cookies to brown.

While cookies are baking, mix powdered sugar, essence, egg white and food coloring to make the decorative icing. Remove cookies from oven to a wire rack to cool. Then, using a pastry bag or Ziploc bag, pipe with white icing to decorate.

Note: when making the white decorative icing, make sure that it is thick and somewhat retains its shape.

Cornstarch Guava Cookies

Ingredients:

250g sugar
500g cornstarch
100g all-purpose flour
200g unsalted butter
2 eggs
Vanilla extract
Guava paste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F and place rack in center of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Sift cornstarch, sugar and flour together. Add the lightly beaten eggs, vanilla extract and blend in the butter. Knead well. Let stand ten to fifteen minutes. Roll the dough into balls about 1 inch in diameter. Place the balls on parchment lined cookie sheets. Press down with your thumb to make a small well in the center of the cookie and fill with guava paste. Do not press too hard or the cookie will fall apart. Or you can use cookies cutters and spread guava paste in one cookie and top with another cookie.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until slightly firm. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet to firm up before moving them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Subway Chocolate Chip Cookies
36 cookies.

Ingredients:

125g butter, softened (if using unsalted butter, add 1/4 teaspoon salt with the butter)
110g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
90g (1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons, very firmly packed) brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (1 teaspoon natural vanilla essence)
1 large egg (we use eggs with a minimum weight of 59g)
100g (2/3 cup) self-raising flour
150g (1 cup) plain flour
200g (about 1 rounded cup) chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 degrees fan-forced).
Line one to three large baking trays with non-stick baking paper. If you have a fan-forced oven, you can use three trays and bake all of the cookies at once. Otherwise, bake the cookies one or two trays at a time so they bake evenly.
Using an electric mixer or electric hand-held beaters, beat butter, caster sugar, brown sugar and vanilla together until pale and creamy.
Stop the machine occasionally and use a spatula to scrape down the side and base of the bowl. Add the egg and beat until well combined.
Stir the plain flour and self-raising flour together in a small bowl. Add the flour and chocolate chips to the butter mixture and stir until well combined.
Form heaped teaspoons of dough into balls and place balls about 6cm apart on a baking tray. If baking the cookies in batches, you can refrigerate the dough between batches to prevent it from becoming too soft.
Bake for about 13-15 minutes, or until cookies are lightly golden but still very soft (they will firm up on cooling). The longer the baking time the crunchier the cookies will be. If you are using two trays, and you don’t have a fan-forced oven, swap the trays around halfway through the baking time so that the cookies brown evenly.
Leave cookies to cool on the tray for about three minutes, and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Once the cookies have cooled to room temperature, store them in an airtight container.

Cinnamon Biscuits
Makes 40

Ingredients:

¾ cup + 1 tablespoon (184g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup + 1 ½ tablespoons (218g) caster sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 ½ cups + 2 ½ tablespoons (375g) all purpose flour
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 egg white, lightly beaten with a fork
granulated sugar, for sprinkling

Directions:

Place butter, sugar and cinnamon in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the flour, egg and egg yolks and process until a smooth dough forms – my processor wasn’t strong enough to process the dough, so I prepared it on my Kitchen Aid using the paddle attachment. Lightly knead the dough, divide in two parts and wrap each one in plastic wrap; refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
Roll 1 leveled tablespoon of the dough to form a log (roughly 10cm/4in long). Carefully bend the top to form a candy cane and place onto prepared sheets, 2.5cm (1in) apart. Repeat with the remaining dough. Brush the canes with the egg white and sprinkle over the sugar. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool.
Store the cookies in an airtight container for 2-3 weeks.