Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

These are Bf's favourite cookies. They are soft, chewy and full of cinnamon-y goodness. You get old-fashioned rolled oats and plump raisins with every bite. You also get a lot of fiber, so I definitely feel less guilty when I'm munching on these. I forgot to chill the dough before baking so the cookies spread a bit and came out thinner than I would've liked, but they were still delicious!

 

 

  

Cream the butter with the sugars

Mix the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together

 

Soak the raisins in warm water for ten minutes to plump them up. They become much juicier! Remember to blot them thoroughly with kitchen paper before mixing with other ingredients.

You can use instant/quick oats (which are the same as rolled oats, just finely chopped) if you don't want to have big chunky bits in your cookies.

Add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture, mixing with a spatula. Add the oats and raisins. Chill in fridge.

 

Measure out the chilled dough into balls using a tablespoon (about 1.5 tablespoons per ball) and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake until the edges are golden.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup raisins, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes then dried thoroughly

Method

1. Cream the butter and both sugars together until smooth. Add the egg and mix until combined. Add the vanilla. Set aside.
2. In a separate medium bowl, toss the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Slowly add to the butter and sugar mixture, mixing with a spatula. Add the oats and raisins.
3. Chill dough in fridge for at least 30 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 175C / 350F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Measure out the chilled dough into balls using a tablespoon (about 1.5 tablespoons per ball) and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes until the sides are turning golden.
6. Remove them from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

Soft Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've never been a big fan of just peanut butter cookies. They seem so one-dimensional, just mouthfuls of peanut butter in cookie form. Might as well just have PB straight from the jar. However, the cookies are elevated to a different level when you add in chocolate chips. It transforms the cookie: it first tastes like an extra buttery chocolate chip cookie, and then you are left with a lingering nutty aftertaste of peanut butter. These melt-in-your-mouth cookies stick to the roof of your mouth, like when you eat peanut butter by the spoonful. The semi-sweet chocolate chips add a little bit (but not overpowering) of sweetness, which cuts through the richness of the peanut butter. I couldn't wait for them to cool before munching on one so I kind of burnt the roof of my mouth a bit. Always have a glass of cold milk handy!

Cream the butter and sugars together in a big bowl until fluffy. I recommend using an electric mixer, but you can do it by hand. 

Beat in the peanut butter, egg and vanilla. 

Time to work those arm muscles if you aren't using an electric mixer. I felt like I was churning butter thanks to the thick peanut butter!

Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a separate small bowl. 

Mix the flour mixture with the peanut butter mixture and add lots of chocolate chips. Chill the dough for at least an hour.

Roll the chilled dough into small balls of similar size. Place them 2 inches apart from each other on a non-stick cookie sheet/baking tray. Alternatively, line your sheet with parchment paper.

Flatten them with the palm of your hand.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges of the cookies have set. The middle will seem underdone, but that's okay because the cookies will continue to cook on the metal sheet after you remove them from the oven.

Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cook completely.

Enjoy these babies with a glass of cold milk!

Soft Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 24 small cookies

Ingredients

½ cup butter, room temperature
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup creamy peanut butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 ¼ cups flour
Pinch of salt
1 ¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy.
2. Add the peanut butter, egg and vanilla and beat until well-combined.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the baking soda, flour and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and mix with a spatula or wooden spoon until just combined. Do not over mix.
4. Fold in the chocolate chips. Chill the dough in the fridge for 1 hour.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 175 C / 350 F. Line a cookie sheet or baking tray with parchment paper if not using non-stick.
6. Roll the chilled dough into small balls and flatten them with the palm of your hand onto the sheet. Keep the balls at least 2 inches apart. 
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges of the cookies have set. The middle will appear underdone. 
8. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cook completely.

Recipe adapted from here

New York - Eleni's Cookies

Eleni's Cookies is a cute store inside Chelsea Market that sells baked goods. They sell "normal" cookies (their butterscotch is amazing) and also customised sugar cookies. They have cookies for pretty much any occasion or theme that you can think of: birthdays, weddings, animals...even silly ones like Emoji! You can also special order your own for events. I bought their DIY Color Me cookies as a souvenir for Nene because she likes to doodle. It came in a sturdy tin box with 8 cookies and 5 edible markers. We had fun coloring the cookies (I felt like a kid again!), but the cookies were way too sweet for our liking. It would definitely be a cute idea for kids' birthday parties though!

Sugar Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

My sister Nene has a massive sweet tooth. While I only crave sweet things when I'm PMS-ing, she snacks on candy pretty much everyday. As I'm typing this, she is at her desk having Oreos. We bought some at London Heathrow before our flight back to Hong Kong, and we both agreed that they taste much better than the ones they sell in Hong Kong. The cookie is sweeter, flakier and the center is creamier (not like its chalky counterpart). I must stock up when I'm overseas again for the sake of my PMS! Both Nene and I are now on our summer break (my last ever before I enter the drone-y workforce for good), so it's the perfect time for us to bake and cook together in between binge-watching TV shows. Here is our first bake together! We made ice cream sandwiches using sugar cookies and strawberry cheesecake ice cream that we had in the freezer. 

A thick layer of ice cream sandwiched between two soft sugar cookies and covered with sprinkles. Tasted like funfetti cake but with a cool and creamy filling. Yum!!

Roll each cookie dough ball in sugar, and place them 2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Flatten the balls with the bottom of a glass. 

Bake the cookies until their edges are golden brown.

Pair up cookies that are of a similar size.

Put two heaped tablespoons of ice cream on the bottom side of a cookie. Top with the other cookie to make a sandwich.

Roll the sandwich in sprinkles and enjoy immediately! Perfect treat for a hot sunny day.

Recipe – Sugar cookie recipe adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

Makes 12

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened slightly but still cool
1 cup granulated sugar, plus ½ cup for rolling dough
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 large egg
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Ice cream of your choice, slightly softened (I used Strawberry Cheesecake from Haagendaz)

Method

1. Heat the oven to 375F / 190C. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl.
3. In a separate large bowl, cream the butter with 1 cup granulated sugar and the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined.
4. Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. Do not over mix.
5. Place the ½ cup sugar for rolling in a shallow bowl. Fill a medium bowl halfway with cold tap water.
6. Dip your hands in the water and shake off any excess. This helps prevent the dough from sticking to your hands.
7. Roll a heaping tablespoon of dough into a 1½-inch ball, roll the ball in the sugar, and then place it on the baking sheet.
8. Repeat with the remaining dough, spacing the balls about 2 inches apart.
9. Flatten the dough balls with the bottom of a glass until they are about ¾ inch thick.
10. Bake until the cookies are golden brown around the edges, about 12-15 minutes.
11. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets about 3 minutes before transferring the cookies to cool completely on a wire rack. 
12. Put two heaped tablespoons of ice cream onto the bottom of one cookie. Top with another cookie of a similar size to make a sandwich.
13. Roll the sandwich in sprinkles and eat immediately before the ice cream melts!

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt

It’s only fitting to start my new blog with one of the most loved (and easy) recipes of all time. I absolutely love chocolate chip cookies. But it’s even better with a sprinkle of sea salt! I find that the salt brings out the richness of the chocolate, and makes the cookie even more flavorful. This recipe uses dark or semi-sweet chocolate, but feel free to substitute for milk. There is also Greek yogurt in this recipe, which makes the cookie moist. Enjoy! These will surely impress anyone.

Brown butter – this creates an amazing hazelnut aroma which adds richness to the cookies. Make sure not to over brown it or it will taste bitter! Keep whisking!

Blend the sugars with the butter.

Add the dry ingredients bit by bit. Stop mixing once all the flour bits are gone.

Add the chocolate chips. I only had dark and semi-sweet at home, which were of different brands and sizes. But I guess the cookies turned out looking okay!

I made one batch of 16 without sprinkling sea salt on top, and one batch with. Both came out delicious.

Recipe – adapted from Serious Eats

Makes 32 medium cookies

Ingredients

•  2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon of sea salt, plus more for sprinkling
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 ½ cups packed dark brown sugar
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt
• ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ¾ cup dark chocolate chips

Method

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Make sure you whisk consistently during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the saucepan. Continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty aroma. Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside. 
3. Whisk butter and sugars until blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. Add the dry ingredients bit by bit and mix until combined and you don’t see anymore of the flour.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Chill your dough for 2 hours in the refrigerator. This makes it easier to form the dough into balls and keep a uniform shape when baking.
6. When the dough is chilled, preheat the oven to 350F/175C.
7. Use a tablespoon and measure out the dough to roll into balls. I used about 2 tablespoons per dough ball. Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and sprinkle each dough ball with a little bit of sea salt.
8. Bake the cookies 8-10 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. Mine were done at 8 minutes. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but will continue to cook on the baking sheet when out of the oven. Cool the cookies on the sheets and sprinkle with a little sea salt. 
9. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets after 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.