Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been making these cookies for years now; they're probably the cookie I'm most known for.  These cookies have lots of flavor and taste like they're gourmet/from a fancy bakery.  I love them!  The original recipe was from my friend, Whitney, I'll forever be grateful to her for giving it to me.  

3/4 cup White Sugar
3/4 cup Brown Sugar, packed
3/4 cup salted Butter, softened

Mix sugars and butter with a mixer, or whip with a spoon, until creamy and light in color.

Add:
1 Egg
2 tsp. Vanilla, I use Watkins Vanilla

Mix well again.

In separate bowl mix:
2 1/4 cups Flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt

Add flour mixture to creamed mixture.  Mix well! 

Add 1 cup chocolate chips of your choice (I use milk chocolate Ghirardelli or Guittard) and mix again.

Bake at 375 for 8 minutes, or until just a little golden on top.
Let cookies cool and then store them in an air-tight container.

You can double this recipe and it still turns out great :)

Brown Butter Cookie with Salted Caramel Frosting

Perfection right here.  I got this recipe off of cookingclassy.com and it is the best thing I've ever tasted.  I hope you love it as much as I do! 

• 1 cup salted butter, diced into cubes
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar, for rolling cookies

Salted Caramel Frosting
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp caramel sauce or caramel ice cream topping (I used Hershey's)
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3/4 tsp coarse sea salt, divided

Directions

• Heat butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook just until butter has browned, swirling occasionally (butter will go through stages, it will melt, then splatter a bit, then foam and golden bubbles will begin to appear in the center on the surface with little brown specs - this is when you want to remove it, don't burn it). Pour butter (and scrape out all of the browned butter with a rubber spatula) into a heat proof bowl. Allow butter to cool until just warm to the touch, about 20 - 25 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside. Add cooled butter, 1/2 cup granulated sugar and light-brown sugar to an electric stand mixer and mix until well blended. Add in egg, egg yolk and vanilla and mix until combine. Slowly add in dry ingredients and mix just until combine. Scoop dough out 1 1/2 Tbsp at a time and form into balls (dough will seem a bit dry, I think this is due to using warm butter it seems to slightly begin the cooking process before baking), then pour 1/4 cup granulated sugar into a small bowl and roll balls in sugar to evenly coat. Place sugar coated dough balls onto a Silpat lined or greased baking sheet. Using the bottom of a flat measuring cup or drinking glass gently flatten each ball to 1/2 inch, then bake in preheated oven 9-11 minutes.
• Allow to cool several minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Cool completely then frost each cookie with Salted Caramel Frosting and sprinkle each cookie evenly with a small pinch of sea salt immediately following (so the salt sticks before frosting sets). Store cookies in a single layer in an airtight container.

Salted Caramel Frosting
• In a large mixing bowl, using and electric hand mixer on low speed, whip together caramel sauce, butter and vanilla until pale and smooth about 1 minute. Add in powdered sugar and mix until well blended and smooth. Use coarse sea salt to sprinkle over frosted cookies.

Vanilla No-Bake Cookies

This is a new recipe going around my ward, it's pretty sweet and a fun twist on the classic.  Enjoy!

• 2 c. sugar
• ¾ c. butter
• 2/3 c. milk

• 1 small box instant vanilla pudding mix
• 3 ½ c quick cooking oats
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract

In a large pan mix together the sugar, butter, and milk, and bring to a

boil. Boil 2 minutes. Turn off the heat, and add pudding mix, oats,

and vanilla. Let stand 5 minutes. Drop onto waxed paper, use a

cookie scoop if you want them pretty.  Let cool.

No-Bake Chocolate Cookies

I love these cookies!  They're always a classic in our home. 

In a big saucepan add:

2 cups White Sugar
2 1/2 Tbl. Baking Cocoa
1/2 cup Milk
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/4 cup Butter

Bring mixture to a boil, while stirring the entire time. After it comes to a rolling boil remove from heat! (This is where I messed up when I was a kid...I left it on the heat and burned the sugar to the bottom of the pan, it was no fun)

After removing mixture from heat add:

2 tsp. Vanilla
1 cup Peanut Butter (I always add a little less-1 Tbl)
3 cups Uncooked Quick Oatmeal-not the rolled oats
(I usually get the peanut butter and oatmeal all measured and set aside before even boiling the other mixture, that way I can quickly add them to the hot mixture and it comes together great!)

Stir all together and scoop onto foil or wax paper. Let cool and enjoy!

Homemade Oreo's

I love these cookies!  They are basically divine and everyone always loves them! 

2 Devil's Food Cake mixes
1 1/3 cups Shortening/Crisco
4 Eggs
1 Tbl. Vanilla

Mix very well, then scoop dough into small balls.
Bake at 350 for 9 minutes. Let cool completely.

Meanwhile make the Frosting:

4 cups Powdered Sugar
8 oz. Cream Cheese
1/2 cup Butter

Cream ingredients to make frosting. Sometimes I like to add a little Peppermint Extract to the frosting to make Mint Oreos.  It's fun to add a little Food-Coloring to the frosting to mix it up.

Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies

Looking for a good from scratch chocolate cookie?  Well, here it is!  And the marshmallows within create a magical cookie.  It's so good, you have to try it!

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar

beat till light and fluffy, then add:

• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla..or more :)

beat again, and set aside, it will be nice and creamy looking.

In seperate bowl mix:

• 3 cups flour
• 2/3 cup baking cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the creamed ones, the dough will be nice and thick, and delicious.

Next add:

• 1-2 cups mini chocolate chips

mix again.

next you'll need:

• frozen mini marshmallows

Now that the dough is done scoop it into balls (I use my cookie scoop) and press dough ball in the center of your hand and place 3-4 frozen mini marshmallows in the center, pinch the edges together and roll into a ball.

Place 12 onto baking sheet and bake at 400 for 8 minutes. Makes 40+ cookies.

Toffee Pecan Cookies

This is one of my ultimate favorite cookies, seriously so good! Not only are the cookies amazing, but the cookie dough is fabulous as well.  These cookies always turn out so well and pretty sure I'll never get sick of them. My mom found this recipe on the baking blonde, such a cute blog. It has been my favorite ever since. I hope you enjoy it!

1/4 cup Butter, softened
1/4 cup Shortening/Crisco (I use butter-flavored)
2 cups Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Tbl. Vanilla

Cream ingredients together very well!
Then add:

3 cups Flour
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 1/2 tsp. Cream of Tartar
1/4 tsp. Salt

Mix very well, the dough will be very pretty and light brown, then stir in:

1 cup Heath Toffee Bits
1/2 cup chopped and toasted Pecans-I just chop the pecans, put them in a pie tin and stick them in the oven while it's pre-heating. Make sure you stir them around every 5 minutes or so and pull them out when they're golden and smell really good.

Scoop dough into balls, I roll mine too.
Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. They will be puffy and golden, make sure you don't over bake them! They will harden up a bit with time.

You can chill the dough as well, it turns out great either way.