This time of year, cookie swaps are everywhere. Like I’ve mentioned, I’m not the biggest cookie lover. However, there are some that I tip my hat to. I love the standard peanut butter cookie. And I’ve already paid tribute to the pairing of chocolate and orange once this Christmas season. But when I saw Kaitlin’s recipe for chocolate orange cookies, I had to make them and make them mine. While I was worried how these would taste at first, they ended up being the perfect balance of nuttiness, citrus, and chocolate. They’re festive and bound to be a hit at any cookie swap.

Chocolate Chip Almond Butter Cookies With Citrus

Ingredients(Makes 18 cookies):

• 1 cup natural almond butter
• 3/4 cup cane sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt(omit if your almond butter is salted)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips
• Zest of one orange

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Start by mixing together the almond butter, sugar, salt, egg, and baking soda until it has all emulsified.

Next add in the chocolate chips and zest in the orange. Continue to mix this until the mix-ins are evenly distributed. Roll the dough into 18 1-inch balls and lay them out on a lined baking tray about 2 inches apart.

Press down on the top of each dough ball gently with a fork to make a criss-cross pattern. Bake these for about 12-14 minutes or until the edges start to brown slightly.

These are so festive! I was pleasantly surprised at how well the orange flavor came through, and yet you clearly get the almond flavor and sweet chocolate, too. It was completely necessary to eat 2 out of the oven to make sure they were OK. But if you can wait longer, these are perfect to eat alongside a tall glass of almond milk. I bet you Santa has never had milk and cookies like this.

If you ask most people what the pride of New England is, they’d probably say The Red Sox or The Patriots. A foodie, on the other hand, knows that the best part about New England is our maple syrup(with Ben & Jerry filling the 2nd and 3rd spot). There’s nothing like warm french toast with pure maple syrup and some hazelnut coffee on a Fall day in New England. But this isn’t a french toast recipe. It’s better: Dessert. Nicole posted these maple snickerdoodle cookies and instantly my mind was filled with a cinnamon sugar dessert. Instead of cookies, I made blondies since they’re a little less tempermental(and so much denser). This recipe is perfect to have after dinner with a little coffee because it’s just the right balance of sweetness and spice. As we say in New England, fuck you Yankees they’re wicked good!

Maple Cinnamon Blondies

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoon butter(or vegan alternative like Earth Balance)
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup natural almond butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour(or gluten-free alternative like Bob’s Red Mill)
• 1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees and let your butter soften before using. Cream together the butter, sugar, almond butter, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg until it’s all combined.

Next, add the maple syrup, egg, and vanilla extract and stir briefly. Sift in the flour and baking soda and mix until just combined. The batter should be rather thick like a cookie dough.

Grease an 8×8 baking pan and press the dough down in an even layer. Bake for 28-30 minutes until the center is set and the edges turn a crusty golden brown. Let the blondies cool before cutting into squares.

Mine came out a little thin(read: fudgy) since I didn’t use an egg or egg replacer and used gluten-free flour. But the flavor was everything that I wanted and more.

On a related note, I have no idea when this week became all about baked good recipes.  I’ve been eating real food, too(sometimes…), so expect those recipes to come.

*Have you entered the holiday giveaway yet?*

I have to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of cookies. Besides being a huge challenge for a gluten-free baker, they just aren’t as interesting as cakes or as chocolaty as brownies. But come every Christmas, there’s always one cookie that has my heart: I love Italian anise cookies. Growing up Italian-American, my relatives always bought these for me fresh from an Italian bakery. I love the sharp licorice flavor with a super sweet frosting. I couldn’t imagine Christmas without them, so this year I tried to adapt the recipe to be gluten-free. After 2 batches, I came out with the perfect, sinfully good Christmas cookies.

Gluten-Free Italian Christmas Cookies

Ingredients(Makes 20 cookies):

• 2 cups gluten-free all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup neutral flavored oil(not coconut oil and not butter)
• 1 1/2 eggs, lightly beaten(see here how to measure this)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons anise extract

*If you’re making these with regular flour, use just 1 egg

Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the oil, eggs, and extract.

Combine the dough by mixing until it’s firm and the flour has been all absorbed. Put the dough in the refrigerator to chill 30-60 minutes.

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees with the baking trays inside the oven to warm them up. When the oven is ready, take out the baking trays, line them with parchment paper, and roll the dough into 3/4-inch balls lining them up with enough room to spread. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the outside starts to turn slightly brown and the center is almost set. Take them out of the oven and let them set completely before moving them to another tray.

These taste just like the cookies from the bakery: Soft and slightly cakey yet still sugary dense. The anise flavor is strong, so you’ll want to give these to a true lover. And the icing—oh, the icing. But that’s for another day.

P.S. Today is the last day to enter the Stonyfield giveaway!

In all respects, this is one of my favorite cookie recipes. It’s one of the first I learned, and continually go to in a pinch. The ingredients are simple. It’s gluten-free without requiring any special ingredients. And it just tastes delicious. What more could you want? There’s something so satisfying about a peanut butter cookie that it could please anyone. If you’re a budding chef, consider remembering this recipe because you never know when you’ll be in a pinch without a recipe book and need to whip up something delicious.

5-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients(Makes 16 cookies):

• 1 cup peanut butter(a salted one)
• 3/4 cup cane sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir until it all has come together.

Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper. Tear chunks of dough off from the bowl and roll in between your hands to make dough balls about 1 1/2 inches thick.

Put the balls about 2 inches apart on the lined baking sheet. Dip a fork in water and press down twice on each dough ball in a perpendicular fashion to make a crisscross pattern. Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges firm up and the center is beginning to set. Let the cookies cool completely before trying to lift them from the tray.

These cookies are soft and taste freshly-baked on the first day; there’s no doubt they beat anything bought from a store. The flavor is undeniably peanut butter without being sickingly sweet. If you need a last-minute recipe for a party, this is the perfect thing to whip up!

Like I mentioned yesterday(p.s. Have you entered the giveaway yet?), I’ve been doing some baking recently. I’m one of those people who like to jump the gun with holidays. If I had a house it’d probably have had a Santa Claus in the front yard on November 1st. So excuse me if it’s too early to be making gingerbread but I just couldn’t wait. I love this because it’s spicy and comforting on these cool Winter nights, especially with a cup of coffee for dipping. The ganache really puts it over the top and makes it something special.

Gluten-Free Gingerbread

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 6oz container plain yogurt
• 2 cups gluten-free all purpose flour such as Bob’s Red Mill’s(could use regular flour, too)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat an oven to 325 degrees. Mix together the brown sugar, eggs, yogurt, and vegetable oil until it’s emulsified.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices.

Pour the wet into the dry and fold until the batter comes together.

Grease a loaf pan and pour in the gingerbread batter. Drop the pan a few times on a flat surface to make sure it’s level. Bake for 50 minutes or until the center is cooked through.

Now, you could stop here. The loaf is moist with a nice spice and definitely a great breakfast bread. But why not push it over the top for a dessert and give it a simple ganache?

White Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

• 3oz(about 6 tablespoons) white chocolate
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon heavy cream

Melt down the white chocolate in a microwave or over a double boiler. Once it’s smooth and runny, slowly add the heavy cream and continuously whisk to incorporate it. It helps if your cream is room temperature or warmer when you start. Once the two are mixed, pour it over the gingerbread loaf and spread to form an even layer.

Perfect. The frosting is sweet while the bread is spicy. It has all the flavors of Fall and makes a great treat on a Winter weekend.