Buttery Shortbread Cookies

These are the tastiest, crumbliest, butteriest shortbread cookies I have ever eaten. I got the recipe from a dear friend at our church, and you will not believe how easily they come together. They are sinfully rich and perfect. If you're feeling extra scandalous, dip them in chocolate, but they are equally delicious plain.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound (2 cups) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups sifted flour

1 cup brown rice flour

1/4 cup white sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Cream together softened butter, powdered sugar and salt.
2. Add sifted flour and rice flour, and mix until dough holds together and everything is incorporated.
3. Form dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
4. Roll each ball of dough into a "log" approximately 1 1/2" to 2" in diameter. Roll each "log" in white sugar, and wrap in plastic wrap. Return to fridge for at least another hour, until dough is easy to cut.
5. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Using a sharp knife, cut dough into 1/2" slices and lay cookies down on an ungreased baking sheet about an inch apart. Bake for 18-20 minutes until edges are set and a light golden color. Remove cookies immediately to a wire rack and cool completely.

Makes at least 4 dozen cookies.

OPTIONAL CHOCOLATE DIP

1. Once cookies are completely cool, melt a heaping cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips in a glass bowl in the microwave (stirring every 30 seconds). Add a generous shaving of paraffin wax if you have any on hand to keep the chocolate from being too sticky once set.
2. Carefully dip cookies by dragging them across the chocolate. Allow to set on wax paper. Store in the fridge.

I just have one last thing to say about all of this: YUM. Oh, and these go great with a cup of tea!

Grandma's Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe

Although my Grandma Williamson has passed on a number of sugar cookie recipes, I find this one to be the easiest. Mainly because it doesn't require chilling any dough or going through the rather laborious process of rolling and cutting dough. Score! I topped these beauties with a lemon icing this time around but I'll give you both icing recipes so you can choose between the two.

Sugar Cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened (or half butter/half shortening)
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 5 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat butter and sugar together until well blended. Add all other ingredients and mix until well incorporated. Use either a cookie scoop or a rounded tablespoon to drop batter onto a greased cookie sheet. These do spread a little when baking so leave some space between them. Bake for 12 minutes or until they start to be golden brown.

Standard Icing

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
  
• 2 T milk
• 2 tsp vanilla

Lemon Icing

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
  
• 2 T milk
• 4 T lemon juice or to taste
  

For the icing, I just beat together the softer, or liquid, ingredients first and then incorporate as much powdered sugar as is necessary to get it to spreading consistency.

After I got my icing to the lightly lemoned state, I set aside about 1/3 cup and colored the remainder with yellow food coloring. The picture shows the finished product with all the pieces put together! The squiggles are nothing more than the basic icing squeezed through the snipped tip of a Ziploc bag. Be as creative as you want to be and enjoy!

Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

Since we had a choice between the two items, I decided to go with the item that required me to make my own marshmallows - something I had never attempted! The somewhat time consuming process to make these little numbers was worth it. They were great! Thank you, Gale Gand, for the recipe and Nicole, this month's DB host, for the idea.

For the first step, you make the cookie base. The dough is chilled after mixing it up but you will need to let it set after you take it out of the fridge. I chilled mine overnight and found it nearly unworkable until it had warmed back up a little. As you can see, this makes a ton of cookies! If you're going to go with this one, plan on having some people over to help you eat them. I'm sure they won't mind.


After the cookies have cooled is when you put together your marshmallow concoction and pipe it out over all the cookies. Although the recipe says that the marshmallow will be "stiff", it certainly doesn't have the traditional stiff peaks that egg white will produce. I basically just beat the heck out of it and went from there. Work quickly though as the gelatin involved WILL start setting whether you're ready for it to or not.


After you let all the little marshmallow clouds firm up it's time for the chocolate. I love this part! I had to melt down about twice the amount of chocolate chips suggested to get all of my cookies well dipped. I also think that it would probably work better to use shortening, not vegetable oil, with the chocolate chips. The chocolate wouldn't harden until I actually refrigerated it and even then, it was kinda soft. Maybe adding some paraffin would help as well. You'll also want to watch out because anything and everything that touches the marshmallow sticks to it!


I'm ready to make these again but probably only for a special occasion. All the time required to harden, set or chill makes this impractical for a busy mom!

Emily's Rather Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe was adapted from a brilliant chocolate chip cookie recipe that my mom has been in possession of for the last several years. While the original is delicious, it's not so great for those of us watching our sugar intake and such. For those not familiar with agave nectar, it is a great alternative ingredient for, in this case, both brown and white sugar. Less of the nectar is required for an equivalent amount of sweetness and the glycemic index is drastically lower.

Thus...a healthier version is born.

• 1/2-3/4 cup butter, softened
• 12 oz. agave nectar (this can be found at Trader Joe's and in the health food section at Fred Meyer's)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups Quick Oats
• 12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2-1 cup chopped nuts (I usually use pecans)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter and agave nectar together until well incorporated. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add remaining ingredients and mix well, adding more flour or oats if the batter seems too wet or sticky. Drop batter in large rounded tablespoons (I use a medium-sized cookie scoop) onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 12 minutes. Keep in mind that cookies will not tend to flatten or change shape from how they were originally placed on the cookie sheet. After a few minutes, transfer cookies to a wire rack or a sheet of waxed paper to cool.