cookie recipe Archives - 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Posted by Keelin Hollenbeck on February 14, 2014

The most popular type of dessert in this house is by far cookies. It seems we have tried every type of chocolate chip cookie and frosted sugar cookie there is. I am always saving the latest and greatest recipes I find. While I was thinking about what I was going to make for Valentine’s Day, I knew that a soft fluffy cut-out sugar cookie with buttercream frosting was in order. Last years cutout sugar cookies with buttercream frosting were such a hit that I thought soft heart cookies would be worth a try. I made soft sugar cookies with buttercream frosting a couple years ago for a bake sale and they were heavenly. My mom made them for Christmas this year and between my boyfriend and I we ate at least half the batch! These heart shaped soft sugars are right up there with the my other two favorite recipes!

I divided the original recipe in half because it made 6 dozen cookies. Since there is only the two of us in my house and we are both on Weight Watchers, we really did not need 6 dozen cookies!

After decorating these cookies with pink frosting and Valentine’s Day sprinkles, I realized how similar these looked to last year’s cookies! I should have tried to make red or purple frosting, but oh well! They were delicious anyways.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Soft Heart Sugar Cookies with Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

For Cookies:

3 cups of All Purpose Flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 small eggs or 1 and ½ large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¾ cup sour cream or light sour cream

For Frosting:

½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners' sugar
Smidgen of salt
3 tbsp. heavy cream
food coloring, optional
sprinkles, optional

Instructions

For Cookies:

In the bowl of your stand mixer, mix the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in egg and mix until combined. Add in vanilla extract and sour cream and stir until everything is incorporated.
In a separate medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Slowly mix dry ingredients into the butter mixture, with your mixer on low and making sure to scrape down the sides. Once all combined, divide dough into two. The dough will be sticky so you may want to lightly oil or flour your hands to prevent sticking. Place each dough half on a piece of plastic wrap and flatten to about 1 ½ inches thickness. Wrap completely, repeat for second half, and chill both halves for at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Flour countertops and roll out the first dough slab to about a ¼th inch thickness. You may need to flour the top of a dough a little too if it gets too sticky. Lightly flour your cookie cutter and cut out your shapes, place each cookie on prepared baking sheet and leave about 2 inches between each cookie. Repeat until you use up all the dough. This recipe should make about 3 dozen but that all depends on the size of your cookie cutter (mine was about a 3 inch heart.)
Bake for 7-8 minutes until cookies start to turn golden on the edges. Using a spatula, gently move your cookies over to a cooling rack.

For Frosting:

Cream together butter and vanilla extract in the bowl of you stand mixer set at a low speed. Slowly add confectioners’ sugar and a smidgen of salt (half a pinch) until smooth. Add in heavy cream a tablespoon at a time and continue to beat on medium for 1-2 minutes until the frosting has a light and fluffy consistency. Add your desired food coloring and mix in.

For Assembly:

Once the cookies are cool, frost them with 1-2 tsp. of frosting with a offset spatula or a butter knife. If desired, add sprinkles to frosting right after before it begins to set. Enjoy!

Source- Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Posted by Keelin Hollenbeck on December 24, 2013

Roly-Poly Santas

Here we are, our last cookie of the 2013 2 Sisters 2 Cities’ Cookie Countdown! The last cookie is always the hardest to pick. Since we photograph the number of cookies that correlate with the day of the countdown (if you haven’t noticed yet), having one cookie in a photo can be boring! I knew that the last cookie had to be something special so when I saw these Roly-Poly Santa Cookies on Better Homes and Gardens’ website I was sold. The funny thing is that M and I both had these cookies on our 2013 cookie brainstorming list.

Roly-Poly Santa

Although these cookies are so cute, they are a little bit more labor-intensive than your average cookie. I think this would be a great recipe to gift to kids. I wanted to save one for my nephew T, but I knew they would never last in my luggage on the way home.

Roly-Poly Santas are made up with 11 red and white dough balls, then embellished with mini chocolate chips, red hots, and frosting. I was worried that my red dye wouldn’t make a true red color. I always get a bright pink when I try to make red frosting, but I’ve heard this happens to a lot of people. From my research, I discovered that Americolor’s Super Red soft gel paste does the trick. I was happy with the red color that my Santa cookies came out in and I did not taste any dye in them.

Roly-Poly Santas

Author: 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Recipe type: cookies

Ingredients

For Cookies

1 cup of butter, softened
½ cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2¼ cups of all-purpose flour
Red paste food coloring
Miniature semisweet chocolate pieces
1 recipe of Snow Frosting
Red cinnamon candies

White Frosting

¼ cup of shortening
¼ tsp. of vanilla
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. of confectioners' sugar
1½ tsp. of milk

Instructions

For Cookies:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
In the bowl of your mixer, beat butter on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Add sugar to butter and continue to beat until combined.
Beat in milk and vanilla, scraping down sides until all is combined.
Next mix in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour by hand. Remove 1 cup of the dough and place in a separate bowl . With the remaining dough, tint red with food coloring gel in mixer.
For each Santa (this should make 10-12 cookies), shape red dough into twelve- 1-inch ball and sixty -1/2-inch balls(one 1-inch red dough ball, and five ½-inch red dough balls per Santa cookie.)
Shape plain dough into twelve- ¾-inch ball and forty-eight- ¼-inch balls (one ¾-inch plain dough ball, and four-1/4 inch plain dough balls)
Line 2 baking sheets with baking mat or parchment paper.
Place the red 1-inch ball on a baking sheet, flattening the dough ball until about ½ inch thick. Attach the plain ¾-inch ball for head, flattening until ½ inch thick.
Next, attach four of the red ½-inch balls for arms and legs and then attach the plain ¼-inch balls for hands and feet. Pinch the remaining ½-inch red ball into a Santa hat and attach to head.
Repeat steps to create the rest of the Santas. Add the mini-chocolate chips as eyes and buttons.
Bake Santa cookies for 12 to 15 minutes until edges are lightly browned.
Let the cookies cool on baking sheet. Be careful because the are extremely fragile. Once cooled, gently move to a wire cooling rack.
To create beard, put frosting in a piping bag with a small star tip (recipe below). Attach the red hot for the nose. Let sit until frosting sets.

For Frosting-

In the bowl of you mixer, beat together shortening and vanilla for around 30 seconds. Gradually mix in around ½ cups of the confectioners' sugar until smooth. Next beat in 1½ tsp. milk. Continue to mix in remaining confectioners' sugar until the consistency for piping.

Source- Slightly Adapted from BHG.com

sisterk (2)

Posted by Meaghan Barry on December 19, 2013

Today’s 12 Cookies of Christmas countdown post is brought to you by Kraft.

A Little Help For The Holidays From Kraft

Christmas is less than a week away and it’s time to get serious about Christmas preparations! When I saw this Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookie idea on Pinterest, I knew I had to make these little guys. These reindeer are so stinking cute and peanut butter cookies are a family favorite in our household. They also reminded me of K’s Black Cat Cookies and I had fun making those for T this past Halloween. Whether you are baking for kids or grown-ups, these reindeer cookies will be sure to bring a smile to their faces.

Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies {from 2 Sisters 2 Cities}

I was able to save a little bit of money this holiday season by picking up some Planters Peanut Butter at Target. Kraft is currently offering a number of coupons for exclusive use at Target to make your holiday entertaining a bit easier. ( Save up to $20 on participating Kraft products, only at Target.) These Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies will be the hit of your Christmas party!

Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies {from 2 Sisters 2 Cities}

Save Print

Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies

Author: 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Recipe type: cookie

Prep time: 50 mins

Cook time: 9 mins

Total time: 59 mins

Serves: 36

Ingredients

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
½ cup light brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
1 egg
¾ cup Creamy Planters Peanut Butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 and ¼ cup all-purpose flour.
¼ teaspoon salt
chocolate-covered pretzels, cut in half (for the antlers)
mini brown M&Ms (for the eyes)
regular-sized red M&Ms (for the nose...you could also use brown M&Ms if you prefer non-Rudolph cookies!)

Instructions

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar using the paddle attachment. Next, add in the peanut butter, egg, and vanilla and mix together until combined. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the baking soda, flour, and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the electric mixing bowl and mix until fully incorporated. Once all the flour mixture has been added, chill the dough in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare baking sheets with parchment paper. Once dough has chilled, use a mini ice cream scooper to scoop out small balls of dough. Place the ball of dough on the cookie sheet and gently flatten it with your hand. Bake for 8-9 minutes or until edges turn slightly golden.
Remove cookies from oven and immediately add the chocolate-covered pretzels as antlers, two mini brown M&Ms for eyes, and red M&M for the mouth. Carefully transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Source: Reindeer Cookie idea from Bakergirl and Peanut Butter Cookie recipe slightly adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction

Here’s the rest of our 2013 Cookie Countdown in case you have missed any!

4 Oatmeal Chocolate Mint Cookies
5 Sprinkle Cookies
6 Chocolate-Dipped Shortbread Cutouts
7 Chocolate Hazelnut Coins
8 Italian Lemon Drops
9 Chocolate Toffee Crackers
10 Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies
11 Christmas Snickerdoodles
12 Chocolate Raspberry Thumbprints

sister m signature

From shopping for gifts to planning family dinners, it’s hard to keep up with all your holiday to-do’s. This year, Kraft is helping out with great weeknight meals and entertaining ideas to make the season a little bit easier. Plus, Kraft is offering up to $20 in coupons, redeemable exclusively at Target, to make food shopping easier and to help you have a happy holiday season.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Kraft. The opinions and text are all mine.

Posted by Keelin Hollenbeck on December 18, 2013

Oatmeal Chocolate Mint Cookies

Was that a misprint? An oatmeal cookie with mint? No mistake here, these two flavors are a hidden treasure. San Francisco is know for an ice cream sandwich from IT’s-IT Ice Cream which is vanilla, mint, chocolate, or cappuccino ice cream in between two old-fashioned oatmeal cookies and then dipped in dark chocolate. We found them at the grocery store recently and have tried both the vanilla and mint sandwiches. I have to say my favorite is the mint. The classic oatmeal cookie with the cool refreshing taste of mint ice cream all pulled together with the bitter dark chocolate is something truly to write home about.

IT'S-IT Inspired Cookies

I was inspired to try to make a cookie version of this ice cream sandwich after eating some of Hershey’s Holiday Mint Truffle Kisses. I searched through my cookbooks for a basic oatmeal cookie recipe and decided to tuck the kiss inside the cookie versus placing on top. When the cookies came out of the oven, the flavor was almost perfect but missing something. I had leftover melted chocolate from the chocolate-dipped shortbread cookie recipe so I drizzled some chocolate on top. With the addition of the chocolate, the cookie instantly tasted just like the ice cream sandwich.

My boyfriend told me that they were best of all the holiday cookies I created, which is a huge feat after our favorite shortbread recipe. I was a little worried about bringing them into work because of the weird combo, but my co-workers went nuts over them and they were gone quickly. Take a chance this holiday season and make these cookies before those truffle kisses run out!

4 Oatmeal Chocolate Mint Cookies

Author: 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Ingredients

1 cup of unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. Cinnamon
½ tsp. salt
2 ½ cups old fashioned oats
30-36 Hershey’s Mint Truffle Kisses, unwrapped
¼ cup Bittersweet chocolate chips

Instructions

In the bowl of you mixer, beat together butter and brown sugar until its fluffy and light yellow in color. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in egg and vanilla extract, mix for about 1 minute.
In a separate bowl mix together flour, cinnamon, and salt. Add in oats.
With mixer on low speed add dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix for about 30 seconds and then finish the rest with a rubber spatula.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or up to 12 hours.
After at least an hour of chilling, preheat oven to 350 degrees
Taking about 2 teaspoon of dough in your hand, flatten into a disk and place a mint kiss in the middle. Fold sides up around the kiss and top with an additional teaspoon of dough so that the kiss is completely sealed in the dough ball. Place on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper, leaving at least 2 inches between each cookie.
Bake for 14-16 minutes or until set. Let cool on baking sheet a couple of minutes before moving to a wire cooling rack.
Once cookies have cooled top with chocolate drizzle.
For Drizzle- In a small heat proof bowl, add chocolate chips. Microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring in between until melted. To drizzle, take a spoon of melted chocolate, tip the spoon to get a small stream of chocolate going and move back and forth over the cookies so you get zig zags over the cookies.

Have you been following our entire 2013 Cookie Countdown? Catch up below if you have missed any!

5 Sprinkle Cookies
6 Chocolate-Dipped Shortbread Cutouts
7 Chocolate Hazelnut Coins
8 Italian Lemon Drops
9 Chocolate Toffee Crackers
10 Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies
11 Christmas Snickerdoodles
12 Chocolate Raspberry Thumbprints

sisterk (2)

Posted by Keelin Hollenbeck on December 14, 2013

Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cutouts

On the sixth day of Christmas cookies my true love gave to me… 6 chocolate-dipped shortbread cutouts! Aww, thanks! I love love this recipe for shortbread. It is one of my favorite cookies. I feel like I say that a lot, but what can I say, I love me some cookies. My boyfriend and I make them year-round in different shapes based on the season. He will make the dough and put it in the refrigerator, and do the dishes, and then I will roll it out, cut them out, bake them and dip them in chocolate. When I am feeling festive, I add sprinkles! I love the longer “jimmie” sprinkles rather than the nonpareil sprinkles.

Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cutouts

I happened to only have the later when I was making these cookies so I ran out the grocery store to get some more. I later discovered that I also had no confectioners’ sugar left to make my next cookie! Don’t you hate when that happens! I had every type of sugar – granulated, light brown, dark brown, and even superfine! I had to change my next cookie recipe up because I was not about to go back to the store. Sprinkles and chocolate are optional and if this recipe looks familiar to you, it’s just a variation of the recipe I use for linzer cookies.

Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies

These cookies are great to come home to after a long day of last-minute shopping. Not to toot my own horn, but I don’t have any last minute shopping to do because I bought everything on-line last week…Toot TOOT! I do have some serious baking to do this weekend though!

6 Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cutouts

Ingredients

1½ cups of Butter (3 sticks), at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3½ cups AP flour
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup sprinkles (optional)

Instructions

In the bowl of a mixer, add in butter and sugar and mix until combined (using the paddle attachment.) Mix in vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl whisk together flour and salt.
With mixer on low, add the dry ingredients into the butter and mix until combined.
Take dough out on to a floured surface and form into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
On a floured surface, roll out dough with a rolling pin to ¼-1/2 inch thickness.
Using a 3 inch cookie cutter, cut out shapes and place them on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper lined baking sheet. Space cookies at least 2 inches away from one another.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until cookies start to brown on edges.
To melt chocolate-- In a microwave safe bowl place chocolate chips. On a 50% power setting on the microwave heat the chocolate for 1-1½ minutes. Stir chocolate then continue to heat until melted in 20 seconds intervals until completely smooth or melted.
Dip cookies in melted chocolate, using a off-set spatula to scrape the chocolate off the bottom of the cookie. Lie on parchment paper. Add sprinkles immediately before chocolate starts to dried. Repeat for all cookies. Let dry before repacking cookies. Eat within three days or freeze.
*I would recommend higher quality chocolate chips for this process because although I am a huge fan of Nestle chips and Costco chips in cookies, they have added more wax in their chips in the last few years and they do not melt as smoothly. I used Ghiradelli Bittersweet Chocolate chips and they melted perfectly. For smoother chocolate you can even used baking bars of chocolate which have even less wax in them resulting in smoother chocolate.

Posted by Keelin Hollenbeck on December 11, 2013

Italian Lemon Drops

As I have told you all before, I have a crazy food memory in which I can practically remember everything I have eaten at most events in my life. Can I remember a phone number or where my keys are…uhhh nope! It’s funny how selective memories can be, but I guess it shows my love for all things food.

Where were we? Oh right, when I think of Christmas as a child, all the cookies my mom made around the holiday time come to mind. I can remember the peanut brittle, the chocolate crinkles, the peanut butter cup blossoms, the Mexican wedding cakes, the cut-out cookies, the buckeyes and endless more. As I grew up and learned how to bake, I started taking on more baking around the holidays and emulated the same tradition my mom had in my own place. The whole Christmas cookie process of planning, sharing, giving and of course, eating has become quiet an obsession of mine and really how our 12 Days of Christmas Cookies started here at 2s2c.

Italian Lemon Drops

I have shared most of the above recipes that I remember growing up with, but there was one cookie missing that I couldn’t put my finger on. I kept remembering a round puffy lemon cookie with lemon glaze. It was driving me crazy that I couldn’t find the recipe in any of my family cookbooks. When I asked my mom, she remembered where it was from: a school fundraiser cookbook she had bought over 30 years ago. Alas, here is how we came to cookie number eight on this year’s countdown- the Italian Lemon Drop cookie (i.e. the Lemon Anginetti.) I have updated some of the ingredients to more modern ones since the original recipe included melted Crisco and 3 tablespoons of lemon extract!

Italian Lemon Drops

Author: 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Ingredients

Cookie-

½ cup unsalted butter, melted
Zest from one lemon
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
pinch of salt
3½ cups all-purpose flour
7 tsp baking powder
⅔ cup whole milk
2 tsp. lemon extract
½ tsp. vanilla extract

Glaze-

1 lemon, juiced
1-1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In the bowl of your mixer add sugar and lemon zest. Mix for 1-2 minutes to infuse the sugar with the lemon flavor.
Add melted butter to lemon sugar and combine. Mix in eggs and salt.
In a separate bowl sift together flour and baking powder.
In measuring cup mix together milk, lemon extract and vanilla extract.
Mix in ⅓ of flour mixture to butter followed by ⅓ of milk mixture. Repeat process ending with milk and stirring until all ingredients are combined.
Line baking sheets with non-stick baking mats or parchment paper. Roll dough in balls the size of walnuts. The dough may be sticky so make sure your hands are well floured. Leave about 2 inches between each cookie.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until cookies are firm to touch. Let cool on wire rack.
To make glaze- whisk together 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar and 1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Continue to whisk until smooth, adding more lemon juice as needed. If glaze gets too thin add additional confectioners’ sugar. Dip each cookie top in glaze and let excess drip back into bowl. Place on parchment paper and let dry completely before putting away. Can be store in air tight container for up to three days or frozen up to 3 months.

Posted by Meaghan Barry on December 6, 2013

Christmas Snickerdoodles (from 2 Sisters 2 Cities)

For my first Christmas cookie recipe of the season, I decided to turn a traditional year-round cookie into a Christmas version of itself. I used red and green sugar crystals in the recipe to turn these Snickerdoodles into Christmas Snickerdoodles!

This recipe was super simple and it was the perfect cookie recipe to make with a 3-year old and 5-month old. After I formed a ball of cookie dough, I handed it to T and he would roll it in either the red or green sugar & cinnamon mixture, then place it on the pan. We got a good laugh as Baby N sat in his Bumbo chair and kept trying to grab for the red cookies…you can have cookies soon baby! I hope you have as much fun as I did making these Christmas Snickerdoodles this holiday season. (Just keep in mind that the dough needs to be refrigerated for one hour before baking- the perfect amount of time to grab a quick afternoon nap or watch a Christmas movie by the fire!)

Christmas Snickerdoodles (from 2 Sisters 2 Cities)

11 Christmas Snickerdoodles

Prep time: 1 hour 30 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 1 hour 40 mins

Turn this classic cookie recipe into a Christmas one by using green and red-colored sugars.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1 and ½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
¼ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons red sanding sugar or sugar crystals
2 tablespoons green sanding sugar or sugar crystals
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions

Add the softened butter to a mixing bowl and use an electric mixer to beat butter on high for 30 seconds. Add the 1 and ½ cups sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt and mix until combined. Use a spatula to scrape the side of the mixing bowl if necessary. Turn off mixer and add in eggs and vanilla- mix for 30 more seconds until combined. Turn off mixer and add 1 cup of flour at a time, beating after each addition until flour is incorporated. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour or more.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and prepare cookie sheets with parchment paper. Add the red sugar into a small bowl and the green sugar into a second small bowl. Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon into each bowl and mix. Shape dough into ~1 balls (you can make the balls smaller or larger based on how what size cookie you prefer. I ended up making 36 cookies from this batch of dough.)
Roll balls in either the red or green sugar mixture until dough is coated. Place 2 inches apart on the parchment paper.
Bake for 12-13 minutes or until bottoms are light brown. Transfer to wire racks and allow to cool.

Source: BHG.com

sister m signature

Posted by Keelin Hollenbeck on December 4, 2013

Chocolate Raspberry Thumbprints Cookies

Well, here we are again! It’s the most wonderful time of year- the 2 Sisters 2 Cities 12 Days of Christmas Cookie Countdown! We are going to start this party with a delicious classic holiday cookie with a new twist: a chocolate thumbprint cookies with raspberry jam and drizzled with bittersweet chocolate!

12 Chocolate Raspberry Thumbprints

This year with my holiday cookies, I am going for more classic types of holiday cookies. When I think of Christmas cookies I think of small special cookies embellished with icing, chocolate, powdered sugar, frosting, glaze, jam, nuts, peppermints, or sprinkles. The great part about Christmas cookies is that you can grab a bunch of different kinds and and you get to try all the amazing flavors. Obviously you know what my favorite time of the year is!

My boyfriend loves thumbprint cookies, but he is not a big chocolate cookie fan. I was hesitant to make this recipe because I thought he wouldn’t like them. Boy was I wrong, he loved them! The deep chocolate flavors are perfect with the sweet tart raspberry jam. Add them to your Christmas cookie to-do list today!

Chocolate Raspberry Thumbprints

12 Chocolate Raspberry Thumbprints

Author: 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Ingredients

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter (2 sticks + 2 tbsp),at room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
Raspberry jam
2-3 tbsp. bittersweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In the bowl of a mixer add butter and sugar, mixing until smooth.
Add in cocoa powder until combined
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until all is combined
Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Place on baking mat at least 2 inches away from each other.
With the tip of your thumb, press down in the middle of the cookie ball to make a well (don't press down all the way.)
Fill each thumbprint with around ½ tsp of jam
Bake for 9-10 minutes
Cookies will spread out a little so if you need more jam in the center add some more before they cool.
For Drizzle- In a small heat proof bowl, add chocolate chips. Microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring in between until melted. To drizzle, take a spoon of melted chocolate, tip the spoon to get a small stream of chocolate going and move back and forth over the cookies so you get zig zags over the cookies.

Source– Base cookie recipe adapted from Pinch of Yum, addition of raspberry jam and chocolate drizzle is a 2S2C original

sisterk (2)

Posted by Keelin Hollenbeck on February 27, 2013

Thumbprint Cookies

Guess what I am sharing with you? That’s right, another cookie recipe! These cookies were part of my boyfriend’s little bake-a-thon 2013. Thumbprint cookies are very special to my boyfriend because when he was little, he used to make these cookies with his Nanny (grandma.) This isn’t the exact recipe he made with his Nan, but is the closest thing he could find since he lost her recipe. How can you say no to a cookie with a story like that!

Raspberry Thumbprints

The cookies he made with his Nan didn’t have icing on them, but I had him add this because that’s how my mom’s thumbprint cookies are. A little drizzle of icing makes everything better, right? He used two different types of jams and then filled some with apple butter. We got the delicious apple butter in Napa a couple weeks ago from Frogs Leap Winery. It was by far the best winery we went to while we were there and they served us cheese, crackers and this apple butter that we had to have more of. The jams in the thumbprint cookies were raspberry (my favorite) and apricot (his favorite.)

Plate of Thumbprint Cookies

Thumbprint Cookies

Author: 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Ingredients

1 cup butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
½ cup of sugar
2 eggs yolks
1 tsp. of vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
2 cups AP flour
½ cup of your favorite jam
2 tsp. Milk
½ Confectioners sugar

Instructions

In the bowl of a mixer cream together sugar and butter.
Add in egg yolks and vanilla extract to the butter mixture.
Add the flour and salt to batter and mix until just combined.
Form dough into ball and flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheets.
Lightly press down with your thumb in center of the cookie dough ball and make a small well. In the well fill with ½ teaspoon of jam.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until slightly firm.
Make icing by stirring together confectioners’ sugar and and milk. Stir until completely smooth. It should be runny to be able to drizzle over cookies.
Once cookies are cooled, take a spoon and drizzle icing back and forth over cookies to make stripes.

Source– adapted from Garret McCord from Vanilla Garlic via Simply Recipes

Apple Butter Thumbprints
sisterk (2)

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on February 20, 2013

Do you know what happens when I tell my boyfriend that we need to take a break from baking? He puts on his apron and takes it upon himself to learn how to bake. Yes, that’s right- I didn’t make this recipe, but I did show him the recipe in my cookbook and mentioned that I planned on making it in the future. I came home on Valentine’s Day after resisting all the yummy temptations at work that day to find my boyfriend making these delicious chocolate chip blondies. It would have seriously been okay it this was just an average chocolate chip cookies, but no, these were the oooiest gooiest chocolaty chip overload blondie bars ever made.

Chocolate Chip Blondies {from 2 Sisters 2 Cities}

Needless to say, I ate a bunch! How could I resist? I wish I could say it stopped there, but it didn’t. The whole weekend was a slew of baking up all the most delicious treats in the world. I have loved baking my whole life because it makes me happy and relieves stress and frustration. I also love eating dessert and sharing them with others. My boyfriend must have recently figured how amazing this feeling is.

On Monday, President’s Day, he had the day off and I didn’t. I received texts all day in between meetings that went like this:

Do we have coconut?
Are we out of cinnamon?
Do we own ground cloves?

The baking madness was not over and I could only imagine what I was coming home to. So last night, he pinky swore me that we would both stop baking for three weeks. Don’t worry you will hardly even notice I am not baking because I have so many recipes to post now!

Chocolate Chip Blondies {from 2 Sisters 2 Cities}

Chocolate Chip Blondies

Author: 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
½ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups AP flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt
1½ cups chopped walnuts
1¼ lbs. semi sweet chocolate chips (about 1⅔ bag of a 12oz. bag)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Using the paper from the sticks of butter, grease a 8½x12x2 inch baking pan and then dust with flour.
In the bowl of an electric mixer cream butter and sugars on high speed until light and fluffy.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl, turn mixer to low and then add in vanilla extract. Next add in egg one at a time mix until all combined.
In a medium sized bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, and kosher salt.
Gradually add in dry ingredients with the mixer on low speed until all combined.
Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
Spread the dough onto baking pan until smooth
Bake for 30 minutes. Stick a toothpick into the middle of blondies and if there is no batter on the toothpick they are done.
Let cool and then slice into squares.

Source– Adapted from Ina Garten’s Cookbook Barefoot Contessa Foolproof

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Chip Blondies {from 2 Sisters 2 Cities}
sisterk (2)