The Perfect Cookie to Eat with Blue Cheese

Ginger Molasses Cookies (From the Blue Cheese Bonanza -- I think this is the right recipe)

2 1/4 c (11 1/4 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1 1/2 t ground cinnamon
1 1/2 t ground (dried) ginger
1/2 t ground cloves
1/4 t ground allspice
1/4 t ground black pepper
1/4 t salt
12 T (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cool but soft
1/3 c (2 1/2 oz) granulated sugar (plus more for coating)
1/3 c (2 1/2 oz) packed dark brown sugar
(maybe a bit less sugar?)
1 egg yolk
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 c molasses

In a small bowl, whisk the flour together with the spices, soda and salt. In a medium bowl, cream the butter with the two sugars until smooth. Mix in the yolk and vanilla until homogeneous. Stir in the molasses until uniform. Mix in the flour until just mixed, but with no floury spots; pay attention especially to the bottom of the bowl.

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190 C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Dump about 1/3 cup of white sugar into a shallow bowl. With your fingers, pull out walnut sized lumps of dough (or slightly smaller). Drop them into the sugar. Break off as many at a time as will comfortably fit in the sugar and then, one at a time, toss each in the sugar, roll into a ball and place on the lined baking sheets. Space the cookies about 2 inches apart from each other on the baking sheet.

Bake the cookies for about 11 minutes, until the edges are set but the inside still looks underdone. Let the cookies cool about 5 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer them to the racks with a spatula. They will firm up while they cool. Form and bake cookies as above until the dough is used up.

The cookies can be stored in a tin.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies - Grad Student Style

*Candied Bacon not included in this recipe

So Bret promised me his first-born child if I posted these to Recipe Go 'Round, and as there is no such thing better than a tiny little helper monkey, I must post it.

History 

It was given to my mother when she was getting her masters in behavioral therapy by another grad student.  The name of the original giver is lost to time, but the recipe remains.  It was a favorite of mine as a child and still is.

Also, this is probably the easiest recipe in the world.

Ingredients

• 1 box Duncan Hines Butter Recipe Fudge Cake
  
• 1/2 Cup Flour
  
• 2/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
  
• 2 Eggs
  
• 6 oz Chocolate Chips
  
• 1 Cup Walnuts (optional)
  

Directions

• Pre-heat oven to 350˚
  
• Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl until everything is well incorporated.  The cookie dough should have a slightly glossy shine to it.
  
• Take a spoonful of dough or just tear out a chunk from the mix and roll into balls between your hand.
  
• Bake on a greased cookie sheet for 8-11 minutes.
  

Notes

I personally prefer the cookies to be slightly undercooked and allowed to cool for 15 minutes before eating them silly-like.  Also, the boxed cake mix doesn't have to be Duncan Hines nor the Fudge cake variety.  The cake mix does heavily influence the flavor of the cookie, so choose wisely.   From personal experience, strawberry cake mix does not taste that good.

Novelicious Pumpkin Butterscotch Chip Cookies

It's crazy, right? Pumpkin and butterscotch? Yes, it's a novelty cookie. But it works.

These little gems end up being more like bite sized cake-breads thanks to all the moisture (pumpkin and oil), but they have a fantastic flavor thanks to the surprising little butterscotch bits.

2 C. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 C. white sugar*
1/2 C. canola or corn oil**
1 C. canned pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
1 C. butterscotch chips

* (could reduce a tad?)
** (try butter instead for crunchier cookies?)

Rack in middle of oven. Preheat to 325 degrees.

Sift flour, powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon. In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar until smooth. Mix oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended. Mix in flour mixture until incorporated. Mix in butterscotch chips.

Scoop out 1/4 C. mounds at least 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Smooth out the mounds with a spatula before baking to get a prettier cookie (they end up coming out about how they go in).

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until the top are firm and toothpick just comes out clean -- about 16 minutes. Cool, and dust lightly with powerdered sugar.

Strangely, these cookies only get more and more moist the longer they sit around. Experiment with butter to keep that in check. Or just eat them up faster.

Lemon Ginger cookie sandwiches

Just made these tonight with my friend Isaac - they came out pretty well, though are insanely rich.

Cookies

2 C unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 t. salt

2 1/2 t. ground ginger

1 t. ground cinnamon

1 C (2 sticks) butter, room temp.

1 C powdered sugar

2 t. finely grated lemon zest

1 t. vanilla

1 C whole blanched almonds, toasted then finely ground (4 oz)

Lemon filling

1/2 C (1 stick) butter

1 1/2 C powdered sugar

2 t. lemon zest

1 TB lemon juice

Sift all the dry stuff. Mix butter and sugar until smooth, with an electric beater if you have one. Add the zest, vanilla, and almonds. Mix in the flour until it's just incorporated. Divide the dough in half and form into 2 6-inch disks - wrap in plastic and refrigerate 40 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 325. Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness, and cut out disks with your favorite round thing. This recipe is actually suppose to make only 9 cookies, but I made them a little smaller and wound up with more cookies. Since the recipe has THREE STICKS OF BUTTER in it, it's probably a good idea. For half of the cookies (ie, the tops of the sandwiches) it can be cute to poke out a smaller hole - donut-style - so that the filling oozes out of the sandwiches. 

Bake the cookies for 20 minutes, or until lightly brown. Note: They don't actually change color all that much.

For the filling: With an electric mixer, mix butter, sugar, zest, and lemon juice until smooth. 

Let cookies cool, then spread filling and make the cookies. Then, eat them. Store in the fridge but serve at room temperature.

Bestemoder's Klejner

Bestemoder Jørgensen's Klejner (pronounced Kliner)

3 Eggs
1 cup Sugar
1/4 cup (whipping) Cream
1/2 cup Butter
1 1/2 tsp Cardamom (open pods, the crush the seeds inside)
1 tsp Baking Powder
3 & 1/2 cups flour (more or less)
vegetable oil for frying
powdered sugar, sifted and in a big bowl

Blend softened butter and sugar, then stir in the eggs and cream. Sift flour and baking powder. Add to first mixture. This should make a soft dough, yet stiff enough to roll. Chill the dough for at least two hours.

Roll dough out to about 1/8 inch thickness (thin) on a floured surface and cut into diamond shapes (a roller for cutting pastry helps here). Make a slit in the center and pull one point (end) through the slit.

Heat one or two frying pans half-full of oil (depending on how many people participate in this project! - if only one person, one pan is enough).

Drop a bit of dough in the oil to see if oil is hot enough (dough rises to the surface if hot enough). Place 3-5 klejner in the oil, turn them when they BEGIN to turn golden and have risen to the surface, then take quickly out of pan with a knitting needle (the Danish way) or, if no needle, use a pairs of tongs or skewers (for kebabs), and put on paper towels on a plate.

If children are involved in this (such as Katy and Bret (Jørgensen) Turner), they can do the following part with no risk of getting burned and much risk of getting cavities:

Sift powdered sugar lightly on klejner, or, more fun for kids, let them roll (LIGHTLY) the klejner in the powdered sugar. Place on a plate (or in the mouth if the parents aren't watching too carefully).

These doughnut like cookies need to be kept in an air tight container or in the fridge, well sealed, since they don't keep well. They are beautiful and delicious, well worth the work, and go very well with Christmas!