Whirl Cookies

Whirl cookies are a source of great controversy in the Bechberger household. You either fall on the side of white swirl on the outside or chocolate swirl on the outside. There is a difference! This year I just made the white on the outside, but I secretly doubled the chocolate in the chocolate recipe and I love how it came out.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (if you used unsalted butter)
4 squares/ounces melted chocolate

Servings:
Makes about 30 cookies

Instructions:
Mix all the wet ingredients then add the dry ingredients. The dough is often soft enough to add the chocolate to half the batch at the end if you would prefer.

I find it easier to either make two batches; one all white and one all chocolate or halve the recipe and make each separately. The half batch proportions are 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt and if chocolate 4 oz melted chocolate.

Roll out each dough between saran wrap. You could chill the dough if you want to roll it with a rolling pin, but I am impatient and roll it freshly made between two pieces of saran wrap. Roll each to 1/4 inch thick in roughly the same shape. Rmove the top layer of saran wrap on each and lay dough side together. Again remove one side of saran wrap and roll up like a jelly roll.



You can chill the dough to slice, but I find it so much easier to just go ahead and slice with dental floss. place the floss under the log and cross over the top. Pull on the floss in opposite directions and you will get a nice perfect slice no matter how warm the dough is.



Place slices on parchment paper and bake for 8-10 minutes (just barely starting to turn golden on the edges) in a 400 degree F oven.


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Rugelach - My favorite Holiday Cookie

Rugelach is my favorite holiday cookie. The dough turns out incredibly flaky and moist filled with cinnamon and nuts (raisins optional). Just be careful too cook them long enough in the middle to be fully cooked. I used to make circles, then roll them like croissants, but found they don't cook as evenly as cylinders.

Ingredients:
Dough
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter, cubed
1 - 8 oz package cream cheese
1/3 cup sour cream
Filling
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tblspn cinnamon
1 cup finely ground walnuts
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Servings:
about 30 cookies

Instructions:
In mixer cream butter and sugar, then cream cheese, eggs, salt, sour cream, and last flour. If it's too wet to handle you could add more flour, but it will be a sticky dough. Adding too much flour will make it a tougher cookie. Chill if it is too difficult to roll out.


Flour the work surface and the dough if needed. Roll out in a cylinder and top with the filling. Press filling lightly into the dough. Begin rolling the cylinder from one end, about 3 times. Cut along the cylinder and set aside. Keep rolling and cutting till it is all rolled. Then cut each cylinder every 1-2 inches. Place each cookies an inch apart on parchment paper. Bake a few cookies to start to get the baking time down (open up to check center is done). Depending on home much you rolled it they can bake from 20-35 minutes. Luckily, this is a forgiving dough and the sugar is the first thing that will burn on the bottom of the cookie. If you find you can't cook the center without burning the bottom, lower baking temp or roll thinner. Cool and store in airtight container.



Recipe Modified From:
Allrecipes.com

Caramel Apple Cider Cookies Recipe

Super easy sweet fall treat. Strong apple cider taste with gooey or chewy caramel in the middle.

Caramel Apple Cider Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar**
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (7.4 ounce) box Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink Mix (*not sugar free*)
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 (14 ounce) bag Kraft Caramels, unwrapped

**I used 3/4 of a cup, should have used 1/2 cup or none at all. The drink mix is sweet enough on its own!

Servings: ~45 cookies

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Line cookie sheets with parchment or a silpat. (The melted caramel may stick to the bottom if you just use cooking spray on a plain baking sheet.)

In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. With an electric mixer, cream together butter, sugar, salt and all 10 packages of apple cider drink mix powder, until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix well. Gradually add flour mixture to butter/egg mixture. Mix until just combined.

Scoop out cookie dough ball about the size of a walnut (about 2 tablespoons). Flatten the ball of dough slightly in the palm of your hand. Press the unwrapped caramel into the center of your dough and seal the dough around it, covering it completely. Shape the dough into a ball, and place on parchment covered cookie sheets about 3 inches apart.

Bake 12-14 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges. Once the cookies are done, carefully slide the parchment or silpat off of the baking sheet right out onto the counter. Allow cookies to partially cool on the parchment/silpat. When cookies are cool enough to be firm but still slightly warm, carefully twist off of parchment and allow to finish cooling upside down (either on the parchment/silpat or on a rack).

Recipe From: Gimmesomeoven.com

These were pretty quick and easy to whip up, however they also taste a little quick and easy to whip up. The drink mix doesn't "dissolve" in the cookie, which keeps the strong apple flavor going but leaves it all a little "fake". This recipe could do with a small bit of tinkering. Right now it tastes like a "box mix" but I think with some improvements it could be made awesome.

As it is now, kids will love it, adults will like it, health nuts will cringe. Eat these warm (but well cooled, molten caramel burns!) from the oven to get gooey caramel, eat these cold and get chewy caramel (but not in a bad way).

60 Calorie Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin bread in cookie form. Chewy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside. Full of fall flavors this cookie whips up fast and requires no eggs or butter.

Ingredients:
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/4 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 Maple syrup
1tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice
1/2 unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 tsp of Almond Extract
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup of canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
Cooking spray

Servings: ~22 cookies

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a cookie sheet with cooking spray or use a silpat (no spray needed)

Cream sugars, Maple syrup, applesauce, pumpkin, almond and vanilla extract together. mix in baking soda, baking powder and pumpkin pie spice. Add four and stir until just combined.

Drop cookies in ~1-2 tbsp mounds, a cookie scoop makes pretty cookies and helps you achieve your perfect 60 calorie cookies but is not needed.

Bake 15-18 minutes, you can even use a toothpick to check doneness like pumpkin bread if your nervous. That's what I did when I left out some of the original recipes flour. 

Nutritional Information: With 22 cookies you get - Calories: 60 Total Fat: 0.2g Cholesterol: 0.0 Sodium: 80.2 mg Total Carbs: 14.7g Fiber: 1.1g Protein: 0.9g Recipes.sparkpeople.com

Recipe From: Nutritionfor.us

The basic recipe on this took a major change when I flat out forgot to add the other cup of white flour. But I already had some of them in the oven, so I pressed on to see how they would come out, and they came out perfect. No need for the added flour at all!

I am also not sure how the original recipe came to 42 calories a cookie, my calculations came out to 60 calories, and that was with a cup less of flour. But I think 60 calories a cookie is still perfectly acceptable in my book.

I think you could cut some more sugar out and not miss it, but I have not tried it yet. I think you could use 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup maple syrup (use light and cut out some more calories) with no white sugar at all and still get amazing cookies.

These came out chewy on the outside and soft and moist like pumpkin bread on the inside. Fantastic flavorful treat, and close to guilt free!

Nutterbutter Peanut Butter Cookies

Photo from Crepes of Wrath (I forgot to take a picture!)
Soft chewy peanut buttery goodness with bits of satisfying crunch from the Nutterbutters and peanut butter chips.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup peanut butter (I like crunchy, but creamy works, too)
1 cup honey
2 eggs, room temperature
1 12 oz. bag peanut butter chips
15-20 crushed Nutterbutter cookies (not too crushed – it’s fun to have some big chunks of Nutterbutter in there)

Servings: 25-30 cookies

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt, and set aside. Beat the shortening, peanut butter and honey together for 3-5 minutes, until smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix well. Gradually add in the flour mixture, mixing until just moistened. You will be folding in your Nutterbutters and peanut butter chips later, so you can finish up any mixing at that point.

2. Fold in the Nutterbutter cookies and peanut butter chips. Roll the dough into balls and then pat down into disks and place on greased and/or lined baking sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes, until just barely golden (I like very soft, chewy peanut butter cookies). Remove from oven and let cool for a bit on your cookie sheets before removing and placing on another surface to finish cooling.

Nutritional Information:

Recipe From: http://crepesofwrath.net/2010/12/31/nutterbutter-peanut-butter-cookies/

If you want these cookies to be nice and soft, then really, remove them when they are just barely golden brown. They will seem soft, too soft. But let them cool for a bit on the cookie sheet, then carefully remove them and place them on a cooling rack. Once they are fully cooled, they will be just fine. If you prefer a harder cookie you can cook these guys a little more, but after having tried it both ways, the soft cookie is much better.

Also make sure you pat the cookies down a little bit, the original instructions left this out. I had rolled the cookies into a ball and tried to cook them that way, they will not flatten out and don't cook properly. Shape them close to what you want them, I went with big thick soft cookies!

Ranger Cookies

This is a crunchy crispy all around great cookie base. Use it as a spring board to add in other ingredients to tailor it to your tastes. Fruits, nuts and any flavored chips will only make this cookie better!

Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup coconut
2 cups Rice Krispies
*Add Ins*

Servings: 2-3 dozen cookies (depending on size)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375°F.

Cream the butter with the white and brown sugar. Add in the baking powder, baking soda, salt and vanilla and stir until combined.

Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing between each egg. Add flour in 3 or 4 increments mixing well between each addition.

Stir in oatmeal, coconut, and Rice Krispie cereal and mix well by hand. Add any addition ingredients you might like at this time. Fruit, nuts, chocolate etc.

Roll into small balls and flatten with a hand or the back of a spatula. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheets for 10-12 minutes or till light brown. Remove carefully from the pan and transfer to a cooling rack until cooled.

Nutritional Information:

Recipe From: http://www.food.com/recipe/ranger-cookies-19445

This cookie is okay with out any add-ins but when you add in some extra goodies that is when this cookie really shines. Add in as much or as little as you want and you can add just about anything your heart desires. I have made it with cranberries, white chocolate, chocolate, butterscotch, nuts and combinations of all of those and the cookies always turn out fantastic.

I first stumbled onto this recipe when looking for cookies to send out for a friend who was deployed to the desert. These cookies travel well and hold up to some tough conditions but still taste great and they freeze well too. My personal favorite is cranberry, white chocolate and almonds.