tasty tuesday: bison cookies (chocolate sugar cookies)

I am ridiculously excited to share these cookies with you all.  They are bison!!!  And they're hilarious.  Totally a man cookie.  So make these for your man friends and I guarantee they'll be pretty stoked (mine definitely were).

I made these bad boys as a snack for my mini Grey Cup party (that's like the Superbowl for Canadian football in case you're confused) I hosted a million years ago in November right before Christmas took over the blog.  Ha!  One of my friends has a dream to own a bison ranch when he "grows up", so I knew these would be perfect to make!

Jordyn and I debated doing gingerbread for the cookie base, but eventually decided that we wanted something a little simpler.  I decided that chocolate shortbread might be the way to go, however, recipe after recipe called for several hours of chilling the dough, and that just wasn't cool with my timeline.  So, we decided to just try something new!  Jordyn adapted our favorite sugar cookie recipe (see it here, here, and here!), and it turned out beautifully.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

by: Jordyn Siemens

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 Tbsp milk
1 3/4 cups flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder

Directions

1) In a small bowl, cream butter - add sugar, vanilla, egg and milk; beat hard.
2) Add flour, cocoa powder and baking powder to cream mixture and beat again.
3) Roll onto a floured counter and cut into shapes.
4) Bake at 400 degrees F for 5-6 minutes.

Decorating

Icing (either soft butter cream or royal icing)

Chocolate sprinkles

Black icing (we bought a tube from Michaels)

1)  I used royal icing to outline where I wanted the bison's fur to be, leaving out the shape of the horn to fill in later.

2) Then I pressed chocolate sprinkles into the icing, and shook off any excess.

3)  Once the icing had set, I added in a small horn with white icing, as well as a black dot for eyes and black hooves.

*next time I'll use chocolate icing so that you can't see the white through the chocolate sprinkles.

I love how well these turned out, and am pretty stoked to have a new, no-fuss chocolate sugar cookie recipe.  It'll be great for more animal cookies that are sure to happen in the future!

p.s. ♥ kelsey

coconut oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

There are some days when any old cookie will satisfy my sweet craving....and then there are some days when any old cookie will definitely not cut it.  

I got hit by a craving for coconut and oatmeal, together, in a cookie, asap.  I knew I wouldn't be satisfied until I bit into a hearty oatmeal cookie, decked out with chocolate chips (duh), and toasted coconut would somehow be involved.  An hour and a half later.... (after much research and deliberation) these babies were born!

The original recipe comes from the most gorgeous food blog ever called krew!melko (which google tells me is blood and milk)...and it just happens to be in polish.  So yeah, some things don't always translate quite right, but I'm in love with it anyways.  I tweaked her recipe a bit, and am so so pleased with the end result.  And my craving was 100% satisfied!

Ugh...the toasted coconut along the edges was absolute perfection.  

Let it be known that it took a lot of restraint not to break off all the crunchy bits from other cookies and eat them... oh dear.

coconut oatmeal chocolate cookies

adapted from: krew!mleko

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter (softened)

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 cups quick cooking oatmeal

1 1/2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut

1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional....but not really)

Directions: 

1)  In a large bowl, mix together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

2)  Add the egg and vanilla, and mix well.

3)  Slowly add in flour, baking powder, oatmeal and coconut, and beat until thoroughly mixed.  The dough will be super thick and delicious.  

4)  Finally, stir in chocolate chips.

5)  Place dough in balls on a cookie sheet, and lightly press them down to flatten them.

6)  Bake at 350 for 11-12 minutes.  

I loved the crunchiness of the coconut along the edges, the chewiness of the middle, and the fact that they aren't too sweet.  So for those of you who aren't super duper into sweet things, this is the cookie for you!

Next time I'll definitely be adding in some chopped pecans...I think they'd just be the cherry on top of these hearty, delicious cookies!

p.s.  ♥ kelsey

tasty tuesday : snickerdoodles

I love snickerdoodles. And for more reasons than the fact that they are delicious! They're my favourite kind of cookie... soft, moist, chewy, with a lovely cinnamon-sugar topping.... and then there's the name. Snickerdoodle. 

Best. Cookie name. Ever. Right?

So, this got me thinking... why in the world are they called snickerdoodles? So here's what my research (*cough* wikipedia *cough*) revealed to me.

Snickerdoodles are probably German in origin and it a corruption of the German word "Schneckennudein," which was a kind of pastry that translated means "snail noodles." 

Yeah. Weird. 

But wait, it's ALSO possible that: the name could also simply be a nonsense word with no particular meaning, originating from a New England tradition of whimsical cookie names. 

Much better. 

So there you have it! A little lesson on the origins of the perfectly delectable and delightful sounding, "snickerdoodle."

{  i  n  g  r  e  d  i  e  n  t  s  }

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp white sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
a very, itsy, bitsy, teenie, tiny pinch of nutmeg!

{  i  n  s  t  r  u  c  t  i  o  n  s  }

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees!
2. Cream together your first three ingredients.
3. Mix your dry ingredients separately.
4. Blend your two mixtures together until they are well-blended!
5. In a separate small bowl, mix in your 2 tbsp of white sugar and spices.
6. Roll your dough into small balls, then roll them in your small bowl of the cinnamon sugar.
7. Place them onto a greased baking sheet, approximately 2 inches apart.
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes (DON'T OVERBAKE!), and remove from pans to cool on wire racks.

Enjoy!

p.s.  ♥ clara

tasty tuesday: salted caramel pretzel cookies

Are you ready for a recipe that will change your life?
I think I made these cookies about 3 times the very first week I discovered/created this recipe!

The pretzels are what really make these cookies special.  

The salty sweet combination of pretzels and chocolate makes me want to do the happy dance!

Throw in some toffee bits, and I am 100% sold.

So you may be saying "But Jordyn, pretzels in my cookies?  I thought pretzels were just for munching on while drinking beer, or even better, diet Dr. Pepper!"

(Was anyone else thinking that, or just me?  I'm pretty sure Dr. Pepper and pretzels is the superior pretzel/carbonated beverage combo!)

If you are a little hesitant to put pretzels in your cookies, you are not alone.  But I must ask you to trust me on this one.  I promise you will not be sorry.

Salted Caramel Pretzel Cookies

inspired by this recipe on Sugar Cooking

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of butter at room temperature

1/2 cup of tightly packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup of granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. of salt

1/4 tsp. of baking soda
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips*

1/2 cup SKOR toffee bits

1/2 cup broken up pretzel piece (plus extra for the top)

Preztel Salt or Sea Salt

*you may be able to tell that in the photos I used regular sized chocolate chip, and I used a whole cup.  I found that this made the cookies have trouble sticking together, there were too many goodies, and not enough dough.  So the next time I made them I substituted the whole cup of chocolate chips for 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips, it worked like a charm!

Directions:

1) In a large bowl, mix together the butter and both sugars.
2) Add in your eggs and vanilla, and mix until nice and fluffy.
3) Mix in the salt and baking soda.
4) Add in the flour.
5) Stir in the chocolate chips, toffee bits, and pretzels
6) Scoop the dough onto a cookie sheet (using a silpat on your cookie sheet is best!).
7) Press more pretzel pieces onto the tops of your cookies if you so desire.
8) Sprinkle pretzel salt or grind sea salt on top of the cookies as well.
9) Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Toffee bits always make an awesome addition to chocolate chip cookies.  There is just something about the way they caramelize that adds something special.

In this case the combination of toffee, chocolate, and pretzel create a little piece of cookie heaven!

Adding extra pieces of pretzels on top of the cookie really lets your taste tester (cough cough, or you know, you) know what they are getting into.  It screams "I'm a pretzel cookies, and you should probably eat the heck out of me!!!"
  It is the perfect way to complete these cookies, and guarantees that everybody will get a piece of crunchy pretzel in their cookie!

Please, if you like the salty/sweet combination you MUST try these cookies.  Everyone around you will thank you.  They are definitely my new go to cookie recipe.  I even have friends from school requesting them before class!

Also big thanks to Kelsey who took all these amazing photos!!

p.s. ♥ jordyn

tasty tuesday: moustache cookies for movember - part 2

Welcome to part two of "moustache cookies for movember"!

Now these cookies are perfect for those of you that prefer buttercream icing, and have your very own moustache cookie cutters!

{If you missed part 1, where we used royal icing and round cookie, check it out HERE}

Again, you start with sugar cookies, and then whip up some buttercream icing to decorate!

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Butter

3/4 cup Sugar

2 tsp Vanilla

1 Egg

1 TBsp Milk

2 cup Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

Directions:

1)  Cream butter - add sugar, vanilla, egg and milk; beat hard.

2)  Add flour and baking powder to cream mixture and beat again. 

3)  Roll onto a floured counter and cut into shapes.

4)  Bake at 400 degrees F for 5-6 minutes.

For your buttercream icing, you can refer to our back to basic buttercream post HERE, and add food colouring depending on the colour of moustache you desire.  Or below is a recipe for chocolate buttercream!

Chocolate Buttercream

Ingredients

1/2 cup Butter (or margarine) {It's very important that this be at room temperature}

2 1/2 cups Icing Sugar

1/3 cup of Cocoa powder

1 tsp *Vanilla

2-5 TBSP Cream

Directions

1)  Begin by beating your butter on medium-high until well mixed.

2)  Add icing sugar, vanilla, and a couple tablespoons of cream.

3)  Beat on medium until combined.

4) Here's the tricky part: use a spatula to test the consistency, and stick a spoon in to do a taste test.  Adjust the taste and consistency by adding any of the above ingredients!

We decorated our cookies using sprinkles and shaved chocolate.  To draw in different textures, we used toothpicks and the back of our cookie cutters which had indents in them!

Jordyn and I made these for her epic moustache party....which you can read more about HERE!

Happy Movember!

p.s. ♥ kelsey

tasty tuesday: moustache cookies for movember - part 1

So, last week I was struck with this thought: "Why in the world do ALL of the guys in Vancouver suddenly have super sketchy moustaches?"  And then I remembered....

MOVEMBER!

How could I forget?  I suppose I just wasn't prepared for the sheer number of moustaches that would be grown....some better than others.

So, to celebrate, we're bringing you 2 different ways to make moustache cookies!  Here I'll be showing how to decorate with royal icing, and part 2 will be with buttercream.

I found THESE through pinterest, and was in love.  And the lovely sugarbelle even shows you how to use a template to make piping shapes easier, so I decided to give it a go!

First you'll need cookies!  I used our favorite sugar cookie recipe, and used a simple circle as the base.  If you are using a template, make sure that your moustaches will fit on the size of circle you choose!  I used a cup since I didn't have quite the right size of cookie cutter....and it worked great!

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Butter

3/4 cup Sugar

2 tsp Vanilla

1 Egg

1 TBsp Milk

2 cup Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

Directions:

1)  Cream butter - add sugar, vanilla, egg and milk; beat hard.

2)  Add flour and baking powder to cream mixture and beat again. 

3)  Roll onto a floured counter and cut into shapes.

4)  Bake at 400 degrees F for 5-6 minutes.

Royal Icing
Ingredients:
1 egg white
Icing Sugar (approximately 1 cup and a few teaspoons)

Directions:

1)  Mix in icing sugar with your egg white until the desired consistency has been reached.

2)  Just add a (very small!) amount of water to adjust the thickness.

3)  Keep covered until you're using it or else it will start to harden!

For royal icing, it's easiest to first outline your cookies with a slightly thicker icing (when a spoon is drawn through the icing, it should take about 10 seconds for it to become smooth again).  Once your outline has set, thin out your icing using a tiny bit of water, until it only takes about 5 seconds for the icing to settle.

It also works well to use a ziplock bag and an office clip when piping!

Once your icing has completely set (this will likely take several hours), you can use an edible writer to trace a template onto your cookies, or just freehand it!  I chose to use a mix of black decorating gel, and brown royal icing for my moustaches.  The downside to gel is that it never sets, so if you need to transport your cookie, royal icing might be a better choice!

If you'd rather use butter cream icing, or if you have actual moustache cookie cutters....stay tuned for part 2!

Happy Movember!  

p.s. ♥ kelsey

p.p.s. If you don't know what the heck Movember is....click HERE for more info.

tasty tuesday: mom's chocolate chip cookies

Jordyn and I definitely got our love for cooking and baking from our mom, and we are so blessed to have been encouraged to help in the kitchen from a young age.  We were (and still are) always free to experiment in the kitchen, no matter how many mistakes or giant messes we make...and we are so thankful!

Now, this recipe is an absolute classic in our house....and there are almost always a few kicking around, whether it be in the cupboard, or in the freezer.  Chocolate chip cookies are my dad's all-time favorite, which is the reason for their abundance!

This recipe is the brain child of our mom, who combined and modified 2 different recipes until she had her own creation that she was happy with!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups Butter (or margarine) - at room temperature!

1 1/2 cups Sugar

1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar

3 Eggs

2 tsp Vanilla
2 tsp Baking Soda

4 1/2 cups Flour

2 heaping cups of Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1) In a large bowl, mix together the butter and both sugars.

2)  Add in your eggs and vanilla, and mix until nice and fluffy.

3)  Gradually add in the flour and baking soda.

4)  Stir in the chocolate chips.

5)  Scoop the dough onto a cookie sheet (using a silpat on your cookie sheet is best!).

6)  Bake at 375 degrees for 10-11 minutes.

Jordyn and I love using a scoop when putting the dough onto our pan.  It makes the job nice and easy, and helps keep the size your cookies uniform!

Another tip is to always pull your cookies out a little bit before you think they're done.  Cookies tend to bake a little after you pull them out of the oven, and will set as they cool.  

In my opinion, there are two ways to enjoy these cookies.  Either warm out of the oven, or cold out of the freezer.  I don't know why, but I'm a sucker for frozen cookies!

Now, go ahead and make these cookies!  They taste like home, and are perfect when paired with a glass of milk.

p.s. ♥ kelsey