Category Archives: Cookie

Homemade Sugar Cookies

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Sugar Cookies

While we were all home for Christmas break, we made sugar cookies with the trio.  Of course, decorating them was completely messy, but it’s become a Christmas tradition at our house.  This cookie recipe is my favorite because the dough doesn’t have to be chilled, it’s easy to work with, and the taste is delicious (the secret ingredient is the almond extract!).  These are perfect for any type of cutout cookies — they don’t have to only be made at Christmas.

I made yellow, blue, green, red, and white icing (just add food coloring) and the trio had a lot of fun decorating them.  I had several different types of sprinkles, squeeze bottles, and bowls of icing that they shared.  Santa was left three of their masterpieces and there were two carrots for the reindeer.

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Homemade Sugar Cookies
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Prep time: 
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Serves: 24
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ tsp almond extract
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 3 cups flour
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350. Using a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add extracts and eggs. Add the baking powder and then add the flour a bit at a time. The dough does not need to be chilled. Divide into several batches and roll onto a floured surface to cut. They should be ⅛ to ¼th of an inch thick. Place on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper and bake for 6 to 8 minutes.
  2. Decorate however you choose -- the trio used royal icing and sprinkles.

 

Clara sugar cookies Sugar Cookies 2 Anna making sugar cookies Christmas cookies 3 Bo sugar cookies

Pumpkin Mini-Chocolate Chip Bars

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Things have been crazy here at the Five Wooden Spoons house — you’ve probably noticed that I haven’t posted a recipe in eons.  Well — this is due to a lot of factors — too much work, three kiddos with school and activities, and I’ve just felt uninspired to photograph food lately.  I’m still cooking — we have to eat — but I just never love the photos I take, so then I stop taking them.

Ultimately, no one cares (but me…) if my photos are perfect.  So I just need to get over it. Hence, another imperfect photo.

I’ve also been busy being social.  We constantly have something going on with friends these days – which is definitely a good thing!  Last Friday, I hosted a “Mom’s Night Sleepover” at my house.  I invited a big group of moms to my house in their pjs or yoga pants to eat, relax, and chat.  We had good intentions of playing a game, but that never happened. Three of us – Jamie, Jocelyn, and myself — somehow stayed awake the entire night.  I was awake and going for just over 31 hours before I convinced Bo to take a nap with me.  Crazy.

But anyway, for the sleepover, I made these pumpkin mini-chocolate chip bars and they were delicious.  Bo and I cut them into squares and ate all of the edges before the moms arrived.  These are perfect for fall and were perfect for a gathering.

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Pumpkin Mini-Chocolate Chip Bars
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Serves: 12
 
Ingredients
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp. pumpkin-pie spice
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • ¾ tsp. salt
  • 2 sticks butter, at room temperature
  • 1¼ cups granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 can pumpkin puree
  • 1 cup semi-sweet mini-chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with Baking Pam. Cream the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the egg, vanilla, and pumpkin. Reduce speed and add dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in the mini-chips. Spread the batter in the pan and bake for 35-40 minutes.

 

 

No Bake Cookies

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No dessert takes me back to the good ole days like no-bake cookies.  They don’t photograph well, but they taste delicious!

I always think about no-bake cookies at the beginning of the school year.  I was a teacher at my hometown high school for 5 years and had the honor of teaching with my best friend, Mandy, for 3 1/2 of those years.  We had so much fun and our crazy lunches, signs in windows, and yearbook sleepovers together are some of my fondest memories.

School started this week for Mandy and it made me think about the cafeteria’s delicious no-bake cookies.  Often, Mandy and I would head to the lunch room praying that it was no-bake cookie day.  Our favorite lunch?  Noodles and no-bakes.  It doesn’t get much better!

These would be a great after-school snack or dessert for all of the littles who are going back to school over the next few weeks!  Bo starts Kindergarten on Monday and Clara and Anna start their second year of Pre-K on the 26th.  I have a feeling more of these cookies are in our near future…

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No Bake Cookies
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Serves: 12
 
Ingredients
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ½ cup cocoa
  • ½ cup milk
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 stick butter
  • ½ cup peanut butter
  • 3 cups quick cooking oatmeal
Instructions
  1. Mix sugar, cocoa, milk, and butter in a saucepan. Boil for one minute. Remove from stove and add remaining ingredients. Drop by teaspoonfuls on to waxed paper. Let stand until firm.

 

Cookie Butter Baked Oatmeal

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Recently, breakfast has been baking time.  With the trio on summer break, we rarely have anything scheduled before 10 am, which gives us plenty of time to make yummy breakfast goodies in the morning.

This recipe was inspired by a jar of Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter that has been hanging out in my cabinet since Christmas.  It’s similar to Biscoff spread so either ingredient should work in this recipe.  The resulting oatmeal has that spicy cookie flavor — and it was the perfect recipe for the dreary and rainy day.  (Pardon the photo quality — it was raining and dark so there was no natural light).

I made this in a round 2 quart Corningware dish, but when I make it again I think I will make it in a 9×13 inch pan and cut it into squares.  Also, you can serve it with syrup, but I didn’t think it was necessary so we just ate ours plain.  The kids loved it.

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Cookie Butter Baked Oatmeal
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Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 1¾ cups old fashioned oatmeal
  • 1½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ cup Cookie Butter
  • 1¼ cup milk
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • ¼ cup sugar
Instructions
  1. Spray a large dish (round or 9x13) with PAM. In a large bowl, mix the oats and baking powder together. In a separate bowl combine the cookie butter, eggs, milk and vanilla and mix well. Mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together and pour into prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until set.

Anna requests chocolate chip oatmeal nearly every day and she gave this “special” Cookie Butter Baked Oatmeal two thumbs up — and a tongue out for good measure. 😉

Butterscotch Easter Nests

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Well, our Easter didn’t turn out exactly as we’d planned.  Both Clara and Anna are sick — it’s a strange illness — 100-102 fevers in the morning and evening — seemingly fine most of the day.  Not really eating.  Coughing.  Hacking.  Blah.  They were supposed to be Baptized this weekend and now we are working to reschedule it.  Best laid plans…

But that didn’t stop us from having fun in the kitchen to celebrate Easter.  One of our projects were these Butterscotch Easter Nests.  I made my mom’s haystacks and added jelly beans and Peeps.  All three kids thought they were neat to eat.  However, Bo was mad I put peanuts in the nests — and Anna and Clara wouldn’t eat the nests at all.  However, they did eat the Peeps and jelly beans.

The nests are very quick and easy to make — perfect for a cooking activity with preschoolers.

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Butterscotch Easter Nests
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Serves: 12
 
Ingredients
  • 1 - 12 oz. bag butterscotch chips
  • 1 - 16 oz. bag chow mien noodles
  • 1 cup peanuts
  • milk (if needed)
Instructions
  1. In a large microwave safe bowl, melt the butterscotch chips. I typically melt for about 30 seconds and then stir to judge consistency. Depending on the type of chip you have, you may need to thin them a bit with milk. Add milk, a tablespoon at a time, until chocolate is a pourable consistency. Add in the chow mien noodles and peanuts and stir well until everything is coated with the butterscotch mixture. Scoop onto waxed paper and form into nest shapes. Add jelly beans. Nests will need to set for several hours to harden.

 

Aunt Sally’s M&M Cookies

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For me, it just isn’t Christmas without lots of baking and goodies.  Growing up, my mom and Aunt Sally would both bake like crazy during the Holiday season and on Christmas Eve there would always be a table filled with all types of treats.  I’ve always loved baking and I love sampling everything even more.  One of my goals it to carry on the tradition of making holiday goodies with my trio — we’ve got lots of recipes on our list this year!

Aunt Sally passed away when I was in high school, but her memory lives on.  This year, I knew that I needed to make a batch of her M & M cookies — they were always one of my favorite Christmas treats — so I asked my mom about the recipe and she swore it was on the M&M package.  Of course, the package I had didn’t have a recipe — so I Googled it and tried a batch, but they just weren’t right.  Finally, I wised up and messaged my cousin Kelly and low and behold, she had the recipe.   They are perfect.  They taste just like they did when I was little. I couldn’t be happier.

We made these yesterday afternoon and we all had a cookie (or four) after dinner.  Delish!

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Aunt Sally's M & M Cookies
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Serves: 12
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup shortening
  • 1 cup brown sugar firmly packed
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2¼ cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1½ cups M&M's
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a stand mixer, cream shortnening, sugars, eggs, and vanilla thoroughly. Add dry ingredients gradually to creamed mixture, mixing well. Fold in ½ cup M&Ms, reserve remaining M&Ms for decorating. Drop by teaspoon (or melon baller) onto baking sheet. Decorate tops of cookies with remaining M&Ms - I do about 3 per cookie on top. Bake 10 to 12 mins or until golden brown. Makes 6 dozen 2½ in cookies.

Cake Batter Cookies

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Last Thursday, both Bo and Anna were home from school sick.  Anna was coughing and had a fever on Wednesday and Thursday, and Bo was coughing too.  Clara trotted off to school all by herself like a big girl, while the sickies attempted to entertain themselves while I worked.

By mid-day, Bo and Anna were both a bit stir-crazy, so after lunch we decided to make some Christmas goodies to surprise Clara with as an after-school snack when she arrived home.  However, since they were both sick, I didn’t really want them touching and sneezing on the ingredients, which they weren’t thrilled about – they like to be right in the middle of my baking creations.  Bo and Anna sat at the bar and I gave them each spoons of cookie dough while I pulled these cookies together.  The recipe they are based on was from Pinterest (where else?) and comes from Sally’s Baking Addiction.  I also halved this crockpot hot chocolate recipe so it would fit in my small crockpot to accompany the cookies – it was VERY sweet hot chocolate!

As soon as Clara was in the car, Bo and Anna were both excitedly telling her about the special treat we had at home — and everyone enjoyed sampling the cookies and hot chocolate.  After our snack, we wrote our letters to Santa — luckily, the trio has been pretty good this year so I think they’ll get several items off their lists.

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Cake Batter Cookies
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Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 25
 
Ingredients
  • 1 box white cake mix
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 large eggs
  • ⅓ cup canola oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup sprinkles (or more -- original recipe called for a full cup, but that seemed like a lot)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350. Line three cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix, baking powder, eggs, oil, and vanilla by hand. Mix well until a soft dough forms. Fold in the sprinkles.
  3. Using a melon baller, drop balls of dough onto baking sheets. Bake for 9 minutes -- the cookies will not brown. Allow to cool on the sheet for a few minutes and transfer to a cooling rack. Makes approximately 25 cookies.