Carrot Cake Cookies

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I had a very nice Christmas break. Two weeks was not quite long enough to recharge my school batteries, but it was nice to remember what sleep feels like.

It's back to the college grind today, but it's very unsettling to think that I only have 5 months left.

Code Boyfriend and I have huge plans for after graduation, but more on that later.

Right now, I want to show you pictures from my awesome new camera (hooray for Christmas presents!), as well as the cookies I made for the Knitting Club e-board.

I got so busy before break that no one got any cookies! I had to fix that. So now, carrot cake cookies.

They're soft, and cake-y. Just like a carrot cake muffin. But only the top, which is everyone's favorite part anyways.

Doesn't that look good?

I'm so excited to dig in to them at the meeting tonight.

Carrot Cake Cookies
 Adapted from LandOLakes

• 1 Cup of Butter, softened
• 3/4 Cup of Brown Sugar
• 3/4 Cup of White Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 2 and 1/2 Cups of Flour
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• 2 Teaspoons of Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 2 Cups of Shredded Carrots (About 4 Carrots)

Cream together butter and both sugars until fluffy.
Slowly beat in both eggs.
Beat in flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
Finally, gently mix in carrots.

Place about 2 tablespoons of dough about 2 inches on a baking sheet, lined with parchment or a silicon baking mat. (Please note my awesome new silicon baking mats!)

Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. They won't stay soft if you overcook them. And who wants crunchy carrot cake??

Frost with cream cheese frosting and enjoy!

Peanut Butter Honey Cookies

So... Happy Tuesday!

... Ok, so I lied. It's not Tuesday. But yesterday when it was Tuesday, I spent so much time doing reading for Organic Chemistry, I convinced myself it was Thursday.

And since it was Thursday, not Tuesday, I had no reason to be working on a post for you lovely people.

Then my loving BF pointed out that it was actually Tuesday, ruining my productive feeling.

So today, the real Wednesday, I've decided to explain myself.

As it happens, I'm doing a Cell Biology on peanut allergies tomorrow, so I got the idea to make peanut butter cookies for my class. Haha. I gave myself an extra project right before final... I think I might secretly be a masochist...

Moving right along, I just spent the last 2 hours making cookies. It's not my recipe. Not even close. The recipe is the result of a quick internet search from me, and what tastes like countless hours of a lovely blogger named Annie.

Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe I used

I did make 1 substitution. Not because there is anything wrong with the original recipe. Nothing at all actually. But I am a college student. I do not keep shortening in the house and am waaay too lazy to drive to the store for one ingredient. So I used 4 tablespoons of butter and 1/4 cup of vegetable oil. They still came out great!

Told ya.

Now, I have also begun knitting items for my club's winter sale. So soon there will be pictures of all the adorable headband I am knitting, along with a link to the adorable pattern.

Not now though. Now I must go back to my studying and hope I pass all my exams.

Goblin Bar, The Best Halloween Cookie

So, I've been trying to get a post out every Tuesday this quarter... As you can tell by the giant lack of posting last week, that didn't happen.

Sorry guys, 4 exams, my parents were in town, and I got the stomach flu. That leaves surprisingly little time for baking, cooking, or knitting.

Not to worry, because my lovely craft club came over last Friday anyways for a little party, and I was all over refreshments.

Halloween happens to be my favorite holiday. Funny thing about that is, I don't particularly like being scared. But I do love dressing up. I love any excuse to eat chocolate. I love pumpkins, apple cider, and fall. And most of all, I love Goblin Bars.

Goblin Bars
(Before the yelling starts, I am aware that these cookies go by many other names. This is just what I call them)

• 1/2 Stick of Butter

• 1-2 Cups of Graham Cracker Crumbs, (from a box or freshly smashed)

• 1 Bag Chocolate Chips with Peanut Butter Chips

• 1 Can of Sweetened Condensed Milk 

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and insert either a 12 inch round cast iron pan or 8by13 inch rectangular baking dish with the butter. 

 When butter is melted, sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs.  Press the crumbs together to form a crust, using crumbs as needed to make a 1/4 inch crust. Make sure all of the crumbs are held together by the melted butter, or your crust will fall apart.

Cover the crust with your chocolate and peanut butter chips. This won't take the whole bag... Oh darn, you'll need to snack on a couple.

Now is when you'll want to open your condensed milk.

Drizzle the milk over the chips, try to keep it as even as possible.

Place your cookies into the 350 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until the milk is caramel colored and bubbling.

Allow to cool before cutting into squares. These are quick and delicious cookies, very handy for when you forget you're having people over.. not that I'd ever do that...

 

White Chocolate Orange Cookies

I made these cookies for my mother's friend's retirement party... twice.

You see, the recipe was supposed to yield 24 cookies, which was waaaay more than I wanted. So I originally cut the recipe in half, for a dozen cookies, in a normal cookie size.

Then I made mini-cupcakes and tiny little lemon cookies. The cookies looked GIANT, which worked out, because cutting the recipe in half was too few cookies... I know it sound like a lot, but these cookies are delicous and bake up fast.

I got the recipe from The Goddess's Kitchen, but the recipe was in grams... I'm in college, I do not own, nor wish to own a kitchen scale. So, here is a fantastic cookie recipe - in cups :)

White Chocolate Orange Cookies
Makes 2 dozen, and you are going to want all 24 :)

• 1/2 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 tsp of orange zest (1 orange)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups - minus 4 tablespoons of flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 cups of white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream together butter and sugar.

Add beat in egg, orange zest, and vanilla.

Whisk together all dry ingredients.

 Combine wet and dry ingredients.

Beat in chocolate chips.

Roll into balls and flatten on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Try not to eat them all at once.

A Nice Change in Scenery

This blog is supposed to be about cooking good, fast, cheap food in a college apartment. I am a Biotech major, so I'm busy beyond all reason, and get asked how I find the time and money to cook. So, it's blog time...

But, alas, the first chance I have to post and I am not in my college apartment. I'm in Colorful Colorado until after the New Year.

This means no quick dinners for the boyfriend and myself, no friend's birthdays giving me a prefect reason to make a cake, and no early morning classes to prepare breakfast for on the weekends.

But with this lack of a college scene, comes a bit of time to make Christmas cookies. I receive with my present from my good friend Amber several awesome cookie recipes, so I decided to jump in and try one. Just a simple sugar cookie recipe - from Pillsbury - but my loving friend Amber modified it.

So, off I run to my mother's kitchen, armed with a real stand mixer (something our apartment is lacking) to try it out...

Amber's Sugar Cookies

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup butter (softened)
• 3 oz of cream cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I didn't have almond extract, so I used 1 teaspoon of vanilla)
• 1 egg yolk 
• 2 cups of flour

1. In large bowl, (I got to use the lovely stand mixer for this. Happy Panda.) combine all ingredients except the flour. Beat until light and fluffy.
2. Add the flour and mix well. This took my dough a while, but Colorado does have an altitude problem...
3. Shape dough into 3 disks, wrap in whatever packing material you have handy, I used plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour if you want any hope in the world for them to roll our properly.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. If you try and use Celsius, please show me your oven, cause that would be a pretty epic oven.
5. On a flour surface, roll our one disk of your dough to a little more than an 1/8 on an inch think. (The original recipe said an 1/8 of an inch, and I got very, very thin cookies.)
6. Cut out into whatever shapes you want. I used a circle cutter because I believe my mother got rid of all of the other cookie cutters.
7. Bake for 6-10 minutes, or until golden brown. (I like my cookies chewy, so I only baked mine until I very mostly certain I wouldn't die of salmonella from the egg.)
8. Frost or decorate with whatever you wish, and enjoy. (My sister loves store bought icing... It's a solid idea.)

This is a picture of the final product... after my family had eaten several. I know, I know, boring decorating job. Hey, I'm on break. I didn't want to spend 3 hours decorating cookies. Sue me.

These cookies are amazingly tender, sweet, and the dough came together in no time. They take a little too much effort with the rolling and cutting, not to mention the extra equipment that took to make in a college kitchen, but it nice to splurge a little at home.

Tasty, tasty cookies. :)