Tag Archive: Cookies

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

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Something hit me when I was browsing TasteSpotting a couple weeks ago: I haven’t had a cookie cake in ages. I decided right then I wanted a cookie cake at my birthday party this year, because clearly I’m 20 going on 12. But then I figured why wait? I could bake a cookie cake for any occasion.

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Of course I made mine gluten-free using one of my favorite flours: Almond flour. It also just happens to be dairy-free because I was low on butter that day. The peanut butter helps to act as a binder, makes the cake richer and adds a nutty flavor. You could substitute in almond butter to work around a peanut allergy.

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I liked mine slightly under-baked because it kept the inside moist and gooey almost like eating cookie dough. If you like your cookies a little crustier, I would recommend adding a few minutes onto the baking time and watching it carefully.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup almond flour
  • 6 Tablespoons cane sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 6 Tablespoons chocolate chips

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Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
  2. Mix together the almond flour, sugar, and baking powder.
  3. Beat in the eggs, peanut butter, oil, vanilla extract, and water.
  4. Gently fold in the chocolate chips.
  5. Grease an 8-inch cake pan. Pour the batter in and spread it around the bottom into an even layer.
  6. Bake for 20 minutes until the outside is firm and bounces back to the touch.
  7. Let cool slightly before cutting in.

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I thought this could have used a little more sugar, but that’s probably because I love things sweet. If you’re making this for adults, it’ll be fine the way the recipe is. If you’re making this for little children or me, I would add a 1/4 cup of sugar to the recipe.

The Most Popular Recipes Of 2011

Life’s a bit of a popularity contest; I’m not delusioned into thinking otherwise. And so, instead of me telling you what my favorite recipes have been so far, I figured it’d be more useful to show you the recipes you all picked as the best—the popular crowd.

These are my 5 most visited recipes over the past year. Rereading the comments on all of these posts, I’m shocked by how many people tried(and loved) them. It makes me happy since I loved all of these, too. Hopefully as popular as they are you’ll find one that’s new to you and be inspired to try it out like others have.

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These Raw Vegan Hazelnut Chocolate Cakes blew up on stumbleupon. With almost 40,000 views and a couple hundred likes, it’s been a huge hit for plenty of foodies. But don’t think it’s just for raw vegans; this tastes delicious no matter who you are(even the avocado frosting, which I swear you won’t be able to taste anything funny in).

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Healthy Frozen Smore Parfaits were a huge hit on Pinterest over the Summer. I have to say I made these more times than I can count myself; they were the perfect way to beat the Summer heat with 2 servings of fruit in each serving. 

If you’ve ever googled “Almond Flour Cookies”, you’ve probably landed on these Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies. It’s one of my most visited daily pages and has been visited even more frequently in the past few weeks; looks like a lot of people will be having gluten-free holidays. The best thing about these is that you probably already have all the ingredients for them in your pantry. 

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To this day I’m surprised by how often this Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip is pinned on Pinterest. If everyone who pinned this onto a board called “NEED TO MAKE!!” actually has—well that would be a lot of peanut butter. Apparently it’s a big hit with little kids, which I can understand since I love it and am pretty much just a big kid at heart.  

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This Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Hummus is probably my most made recipe judging by the comments and testaments I’ve gotten. If you’re still afraid of the idea of a sweet hummus, trust the hundreds of people who tried it and know that you can’t taste anything but goodness.

Here’s to 2012 being an even tastier year.

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies

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Last week I got together with old friends for an annual cookie baking party. Good company, tons of sugar, and frosting—what’s not to love?

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For my part I offered to bring peanut butter and make peanut butter cookies. The hostess knows I’m allergic to wheat and when she asked what we could make that was gluten-free, this recipe popped into my mind because of how simple and crowd-pleasing it is; who doesn’t love peanut butter cookies?

…Well, probably people who are allergic to peanut butter, but thankfully no one there was. If you are allergic to peanut butter, you can easily substitute almond butter or sunflower seed butter in these for a similar taste and texture.

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 12 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 24 cookies):

  • 2 cups salted peanut butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

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Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix together all of the ingredients in a large bowl until the dough is thick and sticks to itself.
  3. Break about an ounce of dough off and roll it into a ball in between your hands. Place on a non-stick cookie tray and press down lightly with a fork in a criss-cross pattern. Repeat with all of the dough.
  4. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the edges begin to darken. Remove from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack until the outside has crisped.
  5. Store at room temperature in a sealed container for up to a week.

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Mine came out a little flat, probably because I didn’t measure any of the ingredients and only looked at the recipe after the fact. Oh well, they still tasted great, and there was definitely no shortage of cookies that night.

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Homemade Gluten-Free Cookie Mix

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If you’re giving out brownies, you might as well give out cookies, too, right? Again, I used one of my favorite recipes for the mix: Almond flour chocolate chip cookies. Since the full recipe didn’t fit in a single jar, I scaled the ingredients down a bit; don’t worry, though, because it’s still the same delicious recipe. These cookies bake more like doughballs and have a really soft, chewy center, which is my idea of a perfect cookie.

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For the mix, you need:

  • 1 18oz mason jar
  • 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons almond flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • Enough chocolate chips to fill the jar
  • 1 index card
  • Ribbon to attach the card.

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Method:

  1. Clean and dry an 18oz mason jar
  2. Add in layers the almond flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and chocolate chips.
  3. Write on an index card the following:

“You’ll need:

1 mix
1 egg
3 Tablespoons butter

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Soften the butter to room temperature and cream it together with the egg. Add in the mix and continue to blend until it forms a dough. Roll pieces of dough into 1-inch balls and place them on a cookie tray. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the outside is golden.”

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Hopefully between brownies and cookies you’ll find something for somebody special.

Peanut Butter Buttercream Sandwich Cookies

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Like I’ve said before, I’m not a big cookie fan. I’m a frosting person. I was the kid who would break apart an Oreo or maple leaf cookie, lick out the inside, and put the cookie halves back in the box. You can’t imagine how much that thrilled my parents.

I was going to fill these with a soft chocolate ganache, but since the cookies are rather unsweet on their own I thought a sweeter filling would contrast nicely and let all the flavors show. Because of that I went with my favorite kind of frosting: Buttercream. The filling is rich, sweet, and creamy adding a whole new level to the cookies.

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I give a suggested recipe for the cookies to use but you can really do this with any cookie recipe. Again, this is really easy to make vegan by simply substituting a dairy-free margarine for the butter.

Peanut Butter Buttercream Sandwich Cookies

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 9 sandwich cookies):

  • 1 batch peanut butter cookies
  • 3 Tablespoons no-oil added peanut butter
  • 3 Tablespoons butter, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

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Method:

  1. Cream together the peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract until it makes a smooth and thick buttercream.
  2. Scoop 1 tablespoon of buttercream onto the flat side of a cookie and sandwich together with an equally sized cookie. Repeat until all of the cookies and frosting are gone.

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Egg-Free Peanut Butter Cookies

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Well I made it 4 days into December before breaking down and making Christmas cookies. I couldn’t hold up to the pressure any longer.

The truth is I’m not the biggest cookie fan. I have my favorites(like peanut butter cookies) but on the whole would rather have something else. One cookie I love is the peanut butter cookie from Wildflour Bakery which is gluten-free and vegan. It’s so sweet and soft and falls apart in your mouth. I thought I might try to make a cookie like theirs; this isn’t nearly the same, but I like it in its own respect which is why I’m posting the recipe. It’s less sweet but much more peanut buttery; it almost tastes like eating a spoonful of peanut butter in cookie form.

This recipe can easily be made vegan by using a dairy-free butter substitute. I would not recommend subbing in coconut oil for the butter in a 1:1 ratio because they do not act the same in baking and I can’t say for how it would turn out.

Egg-Free Peanut Butter Cookies

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 16-18 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 1 1/2 dozen cookies):

  • 1 cup no-oil added peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup maple syrup
  • 3/4 cup brown rice flour
  • 1/4 cup tapioca starch(or corn starch)

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Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a couple baking trays with parchment paper.
  2. Beat together all of the ingredients. Put the batter in the refrigerator of freezer to harden until you can handle the dough and roll it into balls.
  3. Once the dough has reached that stage, scoop the dough and roll it into balls. Place the balls about 2 inches apart on the baking trays.
  4. Bake for 16-20 minutes until the outside is golden. The cookies will still be very soft to the touch when they’re done.
  5. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool completely before handling. As they cool, the outside will harden up and make them less fragile.
  6. Store sealed in an airtight container at room temperature when not eating.

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Double Take: Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies

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One of my most popular recipes on this site is the almond flour chocolate chip cookies. I never understood why it was so popular; sure, it’s a good recipe. But it didn’t get too much attention when I posted it and the pictures weren’t that great. It all made sense one day when I realized it was the #1 google search result for “almond flour cookies” and “almond flour chocolate chip cookies”. Well I felt humbled.

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Ever since I found that out, I’ve been wanting to make these again and take better photos. I mean, if people I don’t know are visiting this website, it’s good to make the best first impression you can, right?

It also so happens that this week was one of my good friend’s birthday, and homemade baked goods sounded like a great gift from someone whose home is 2000 miles away from campus. So cookies it was, with about twice as many chocolate chips as the recipe calls for because who wouldn’t love that for their birthday?

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A funny thing happened when I made these this time around: They didn’t spread out nearly as much as I expected, making more of a doughball than a cookie. The taste and texture was nearly the same cooked either way: Crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. As long as they taste good, I don’t mind so much how they came out.

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And then I held on to them just long enough to get these photographs + more before I gift wrapped them and handed them off to the birthday girl. If you want to see more photographs and the recipe, click over to the original recipe page. These make great birthday cookies or just anytime cookies. Of course they’re gluten-free, and also fairly low in sugar for a cookie(since almond flour is naturally sweet) and grain-free, too.

Gluten-Free Whoopie Pies

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Who’s ready to make whoopie?

I shouldn’t have been allowed to watch The Newlywed Game growing up; those euphemisms were not hard for a 6 year old to figure out. Also The Match Game; you don’t have to tell me where Alice told Frank to stick his blank.

I got side-tracked. I meant to tell you a different childhood memory.

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My grandmother-in-law(I’m not sure if that’s a real thing but that’s basically what she was) always made the best whoopie pies for celebrations. She also made the best molasses cookies, peanut butter cookies, and soft butter taffy specially for Christmas, but let’s start with whoopie pies. Between losing her and finding out I can’t eat gluten, I haven’t had a whoopie pie in probably 6 years. That’s too long.

I tried making these last December but didn’t get the recipe right and ended up making fudge pies instead. This time the cookies held their shape and tasted as well as they photographed. While the thought of making them scared me before, it won’t ever again.

This recipe uses xanthan gum, a hyper-powerful fiber that simulates the support of gluten in baked goods. I generally try to avoid using such a specialty item but every recipe for gluten-free whoopie pies I looked up stressed this ingredient and the last time I tried making these without it the cookies fell flat. It really is an essential ingredient in this recipe.

Gluten-Free Whoopie Pies(adapted from this recipe)

For the cookies:

  • 2 1/2 cups gluten-free flour blend
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
  • 1/2 cup coconut milk
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg yolk

For the filling:

  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 4oz butter, room temperature
  • 2 egg whites, cold
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

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Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Line baking trays with parchment paper.
  3. Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum and mix until emulsified.
  4. Add in the coconut milk, egg, egg yolk, and scant 1/4 cup of water and mix it into the dough. The dough should be heavy and stick to itself.
  5. Roll chunks of dough into 1-inch balls and put a few inches apart on the baking trays. Bake for 15 minutes until the top is firm.
  6. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before filling.
  7. In a bowl(chilled is best), beat on high the sugar, butter, egg whites, and vanilla together for 4-5 minutes until light and airy.
  8. Scoop 1/2 tablespoon onto one cookie and press another down on top.
  9. Repeat until all of the cookies are used.

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It’s always a good sign when all the desserts are eaten, and these are long gone. I was more interested in this cake but if whoopie pies are your cup of tea and you’re gluten-free, let this be a treat for you.

Make These Now

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I’ll keep things short and sweet because that’s exactly what this recipe is: Short and sweet. And delicious. And addicting. And pretty fattening. But I can’t make a paragraph all those things.

I saw a recipe for something like this in the latest Food Network magazine and was dead set on making it myself. It has chocolate and fruit so it’s totally healthy and Summer appropriate. I used homemade cookies and chocolate mousse but store-bought would be great, too. However, if you do make your own chocolate mousse, adding a touch of liqueur takes this dessert over the top.

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Chocolate, Raspberry, and Amaretti Parfaits

Assemble by putting raspberries at the bottom of a parfait glass and layering on top a layer of mousse, 1 1/2 cookies crushed into pieces, more raspberries, and another dollop of mousse. Garnish with whip cream if desired. Serve at room temperature.

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The best bites are always the one with a taste of each flavor in them. Rumor has it stores sell vodka-infused whipped cream now; if you want to spray that on top, I wouldn’t judge.

Amaretti Biscuit Cookies + Dessert Overload?

I’ve baked more in the past few days than I had all Summer. I love baking but usually I can’t(or rather shouldn’t) eat a whole batch of sweets by myself, so as soon as I get a chance to bake for others I jump at it. Here’s a sneak peak at what’s come out of my oven lately:

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9am is too early for cake, right? Just checking.

And last but not least:

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Almond cookies. I looked all over for these one night and couldn’t find them anywhere. I threw in the towel and decided to bake them, which couldn’t have been easier. The secret to getting a crisp, biscuit-like texture to these is using regular and superfine sugar to create hard shell on the outside. And since you don’t need to whip the egg whites at all, it’s simple enough for a beginning baker to do!

Amaretti Biscuit Cookies

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups almond flour
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup cane sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

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Beat together the egg whites, almond flour, both sugars and extract until the dough is unified and sticky.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and place them on the baking tray. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the outside is hard and golden.

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Serve with a cup of tea, coffee, milk, or almond milk. Since they’re crispy cookies, they’re perfect for dunking to get them soft and crumbly. If you want to spike your milk with amaretto, I won’t judge.

Can you have such a thing as too much dessert?