Chocolate Chip Mug Cookie

This happened because I was scrolling through Pinterest and happened to have chocolate chips on hand. Also, I'm pregnant. As if I could have said no!

A chocolate chip mug cookie? As far as mug desserts go, this one I am sure I will go ahead and make again in the future. I wouldn't say that the cookie part itself offers much flavor, but it sure offered some great substance to eat some melted gooey chocolate chips with. So, when the craving hits, this will be a good one for me.

What you will need:

• 1 tsp. oil
• 3 T milk
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 3 heaping T brown sugar (not packed)
• 4 T flour
• 2 T chocolate chips to mix in
• 1 T chocolate chips to drop on the top

Directions:

• Mix together the wet ingredients (oil, milk and vanilla)
• Add in the brown sugar and mix well
• Mix in the flour 
• Mix in the chocolate chips
• Microwave for 1 minute if you want it nice and gooey, 1 minute and 30 seconds if you'd like it somewhere in the middle and 2 minutes if you want the dough to not be gooey but still a little gooey around the melty chocolate chips.

PMS Cookies

I spent a little while trying to figure out what to call these cookies. Double Chocolate Nutella....Nutella Chocolate....Chocolately Chocolate Chocolateness. Then I kind of just figured hey, I'll be honest. They're PMS cookies.

I spent a good 20 minutes scrolling through Pinterest trying to find a cookie recipe that I wanted to make after a day of raging irritation at every tiny noise and sight. After a day of feeling so tired and bloated and foggy. I just wanted chocolate. But I wanted nutella. But I wanted them both. But I didn't want any of the recipes I was seeing.

So I stood at my Kitchen-Aid and threw stuff in there. I know the basics of a cookie recipe so I just went for it and hoped it worked out. Oh gosh they freakin' hit the spot! I'm so glad they worked out. And I think my husband is too. Because I was nice again afterwards.

What you will need:

• 1/2 c butter, softened
• 1/2 c white sugar
• 1/4 c brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 c nutella (I feel like I could have gone up to 3/4 c to make them a bit more gooey)
• 1/2 c cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 c flour
• 1/2 c chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375*
• Mix butter, sugars and egg until light and fluffy
• Add in the vanilla and nutella and mix in until well combined
• Add in the cocoa powder and baking soda until well combined
•  Add in the flour a little at a time until well combined
• Toss in the chocolate chips and mix until just combined
• Roll dough (it will be very thick) into balls on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet
• Bake for 9-11 minutes depending on your oven

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Wow, a title doesn't get any more simple than that, does it? Chocolate chip cookies. What a wonderful name.

About 4 years ago or so I created my own "perfect" chocolate chip cookie recipe. It was fit for me. It had everything I wanted. Chewy, soft, spread out just right, not too dry, not too fluffy, gooey and buttery golden flavor (yes, "golden" is a flavor).

I hid it in my computer labeled "secret cookie recipe."

And then my computer crashed. We recovered some pictures, but no cookie recipe came along with it. I'd had it memorized for a while and slowly, I started forgetting exactly what it was. I settled for making the recipe on the back of Nestlea Tollhouse packages. They were satisfying enough. But I still longed for my cookie.

Fast forward to today, scrolling through Pinterest and I see a picture of a cookie that looked exactly like mine! I had to try. And boy, I tell you what. These are BETTER than mine! I did add 1tsp of water to the batter and it was just heavenly!

I will not use any other recipe other than this from now on. This is it, you guys! This is perfection! I stared at my nestlea chocolate chips and my guittard chocolate chips trying to decide what to use the first time around. I went with guittard. They're huge. And I wanted chocolate. So these were very, VERY chocolatey. I can't wait to make them again with the regular sized chips now.

The fact that I have no clue where this woman lives and having this recipe work brilliantly in my high altitude desert of a city says a lot to me. It's gotta be fool proof!

Here's my picture. But I promise you, the pictures of the cookies on her post is what makes it and does them justice. RUN to her page at Gimme Some Oven so you can see what you can really expect with these! Maybe I'll update my photo once I don't have these huge honkin' chocolate chips all over. Maybe.

What you will need:

• 1/2 C butter, softened
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/3 C white sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 C flour
• 2 tsp corn starch
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 C chocolate chips (+ some to stick on the tops right before they go in the oven)
• Parchment paper (optional, but it does make a difference!)

Directions:

• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
• Add in the vanilla and egg and mix until well blended
• Slowly add in the flour, corn starch and baking soda until well combined
• Toss in the chocolate chips and mix it all up
• Refrigerate the dough about 20 minutes (I didn't........so I guess you can see the difference!)
• Preheat the oven to 350*
• Lay some parchment paper over a baking sheet
• Roll the dough into balls, or scoop them using a cookie scoop (I scooped with a cookie scoop and then rolled them into a ball)
• Place each ball onto the baking sheet and stick a few extra chocolate chips on the tops of 'em
• Bake for 10 minutes
• Pull them out and let them finish cooking a bit on the sheet
• EAT. RIGHT AWAY.

Sugar Cookie Bars

Happy MONDAY, everyone! 

The day you're starting your diet. 

The day I'm going to ruin your diet.  

It's really okay, though, honestly.

You can start your diet tomorrow. 

Or next Monday. 

Or whenever you won't be eating these sugar cookie bars still. 

I love sugar cookies.

Doesn't everyone love sugar cookies?

I don't love the hours long process of making sugar cookies.

Am I alone in that one? I can't be. 

I can't be.

So you'll love this, too! 

Basically you're making a sugar cookie dough and smooshing the heck out of it all over a baking sheet and baking it before slathering the top with frosting. I mean it's perfect, it really is. You get the "aww cute" factor with the "mmm yummy" factor you want with sugar cookies but in about 20 minutes instead of a few hours!

Observe.

Awwww CUTE!!!

Mmmm...yummy...

What you will need:

Sugar Cookie dough

• 1 C butter, softened
• 2 C sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 3/4 C flour

Buttercream frosting

• 1/2 butter, softened
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 3-4 T milk
• 3-4 C powdered sugar, depending on your texture preference
• Food coloring, of course
• Sprinkles, OF COURSE

Directions:

Sugar Cookie Dough

• Preheat oven to 375*
• Cream the butter and sugar together
• Add the eggs in one by one and mix
• Add in the vanilla
• Add in the baking soda and salt
• Add in the flour a cup at a time and mix together
• Plop the dough into a greased baking sheet (18x13x1)
• Smoosh the dough out so it's a nice and even layer in the baking sheet
• Bake for 10-12 minutes
• Let it cool and frost

Buttercream frosting

• Mix all ingredients together and add food coloring of your choice! 

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Helloooo General Conference weekend! I let out a little secret on my Instagram today. I gain more weight during General Conference than I do at Christmas! It's the combination of the need for comfort food in the fall and being snuggled up inside during the weekend. It's just the atmosphere! Christmas time I am usually busy playing and making sure things are going as planned (where IS that special stocking stuffer I got for so and so?! It was here yesterday!!! Sound familiar?) General Conference? I have nothing to do but cook, eat and relax.

One tradition that I make every year is my mama's Beef Stew & Rolls (click the link to get the recipe. So delish!) But this year I tested out something else! I have my own "perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe" that I created last year (which I have yet to share with anyone), but when I saw these tiny ones on Pinterest I absolutely had to make them. I HAD to! I don't trust myself to convert a typical choc. chip recipe into a mini one so I went with someone who knew, Jaclyn at Cooking Classy, and boy does she know! These are heavenly! And so much fun for the kids! And of course....sooooo cute. Jaclyn's are cuter than mine because I didn't have any cornstarch and made them anyway :( haha. So if you're wondering what kind of difference that 1tsp of cornstarch makes, just compare my pictures with hers and you'll understand. But, if you're not worried about looks and taste alone, they taste mighty excellent even without the cornstarch so have no fear!

What you will need:

• 1/2 C butter
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/4 C white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 1/8 tsp. + 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/3 C flour
• 2/3 C chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degree's
• Blend dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and cornstarch) into a small bowl and set aside
• Cream together butter and sugars
• Add in egg and mix well
• Ad in vanilla and blend
• Slowly add in dry ingredients until well combined
• Add in chocolate chips and blend
• Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (I just lightly greased the cookie sheet)
• Roll dough into heaping teaspoon sized balls
• Lay balls out 1" apart on cookie sheet
• Bake for 5-6 minutes until edges are slightly golden (they will look underdone)
• Let them finish baking/cooling on the sheet for a few more minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack

Sugar Cookies

Happy Holidays!! I won't be around for the next few weeks. We're MOVING! And visiting family and celebrating and all things nice and Christmas-ee. Yesterday I had the urge to bake cookies in the middle of all the packed up boxes taking over the place. I had to rummage through a few of those boxes to find what I needed but it was totally worth it. My daughter walked in from school to see the first batch of cookies cooled and ready to decorate and she was just so excited! About the same time my other daughter woke up from her nap so they were both in heaven with these.

This recipe makes around 50 cookies or so. I burned an entire batch of some cute bells, though :(Quick tip here: If you check the cookies after the timer goes off and you decide to let them brown a tad more, don't forget that you decided to do that :). The flavor of them are really good, too. A lot of sugar cookies end up just tasting like bland dough. But this has a nice buttery sugary cookie-ee flavor. I really wanted to make some cookies and use sour cream, but I didn't have any, so you'll have to deal with this instead, even though I didn't really miss it in there!

Sorry about the frosting. I don't know the recipe. I threw it together until it tasted and felt right. I used a blend of almond and vanilla, though. It was gooooOOOOoood. And it had a GREAT texture. Creamy and smooth, but still glossy and firmed up just enough so that it wouldn't get all over the place when you stack the cookies. Perfect if you ask me.

What you will need:

• 3 sticks of unsalted butter
• 2 C sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 C flour + 1 C flour for rolling out (any time I make sugar cookies, I cut the original flour call by 1 C because I don't want them to end up dry or tough after adding in more flour to roll them out. I want to be able to use as much as I need without worrying. So this is how much I ended up using for both mixing and flouring later)

Directions:

• Cream butter and sugar together
• Add in vanilla and eggs
• Add in baking soda and salt
• Add in flour one cup at a time
• Mold dough into a ball and flatten it down into a thick disc shape
• Lay it on some greased plastic wrap and wrap it up
• Chill in the fridge for an hour or more
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Flour your dough surface
• Roll out your dough to about 1/2" thick (I found that the 1/4" thick cookies ended up a little more crispy than I liked and the 1/2" ones stayed softer, so if you like them a little crunchier, make them thinner)
• Cut them into shapes and lay them on a baking sheet (I put down some parchment paper, but you don't have to)
• Bake for 6 minutes and check them. If they are just baarely starting to brown on the edges, take them out. 

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten Free)

I have a wooonderful cookie recipe from the Ambitious Kitchen for you all! But before I share it with you, I'm going to get really opinionated for a sec.

I need to be honest here. I pretty much hate gluten free cookies. It's the truth. I have tried so so SO so so so many many many many gluten free cookie recipes. I'm unable to lie to myself and say that since I spent all this time figuring out how to make the darn cookie without white flour that it's super delicious. The good news about that is that I am not gluten intolerant so I can eat all the "regular" cookies I want (I don't mean that figuratively. I eat so many cookies). My daughter, however, was diagnosed with Celiac's disease a few years ago, and she's probably a bigger critic than I am (kids...amiright?)!

So, that being said. I've discovered the best way to know if it's going to be worth your time/ingredients or not. These cookies fall into the totally-worth-it-and-im-going-to-eat-all-of-them-before-my-daughter-gets-home category. They're not the kind that's "pretty good for a gluten free cookie." They're the kind that's "really really good, compared to any cookie." 

Ready for my secret?

 If it tells you to start subbing flours. Run away. Of course, there are decent cookies out there with a blend of other gluten free flours, but with how much each bag of those flours costs so you can use a tablespoon of one here and 1/4 C of another there, it was too much time, money and effort for a decent cookie (although usually just....gross). And in any case, if you're cutting gluten to try to be healthier and you start using gluten free flours, they're still white flour and you're probably not doing much for your diet there anyway either. So what do you look for in a recipe to make it DELICIOUS like these?

Can you take a moment and gaze into the gooey but not underdone center of that cookie with me?

You look for a recipe that just simply does not call for flour of any kind. There are ways to puff up your cookie and/or give it that yummy chewy cookie texture without using flour. Heck, these don't even use BUTTER. If it's "naturally gluten free" meaning you're not making substitutes for an otherwise "normal cookie," you will probably have a better chance at not wasting your time, money and ingredients. I feel this way about regular foods also. If it's "naturally gluten free" (meaning fruit, vegetables, rice, chicken, beef, potatoes, corn tortillas, etc.), you're going to get a better meal than trying to make a gluten free flour tortilla or gluten free rolls. The one exception I've found, though, is spaghetti noodles. Find out my favorite here!

Now, the inconsistency in my secret is that it's going to be tougher to find a gluten free  chocolate chip cookie that doesn't use any flour at all. So good luck with that. But peanut butter, nutella, chocolate, mint, etc....you'll be safe with those without using flour!

I know I mentioned these are really good. But they're also so easy to make and with such a small quantity of each ingredient. It takes me maybe 15 minutes from start to finish (I tend to drag my feet a little when I'm getting out my baking ingredients). It's so so SO perfect for the end of the chocolate chip bag that you don't know what to do with.

What you will need:

• 1 C creamy or chunky peanut butter
• 2/3 C packed dark brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 C rolled oats (make sure yours are absolutely gluten free if you're intolerant!)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2/3 C chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degree's
• Mix the oats and baking soda in a bowl and set aside
• In a large bowl mix the brown sugar, peanut butter, vanilla, eggs and chocolate chips one by one until mixed well
• Add in oats/baking soda and mix
• Bake for 8 minutes (don't over bake these! They'll get dry)

Peanut Butter Cornflake Cookies

Anybody else start feeling 'blah' when you haven't made anything new in a few days? I start getting antsy and find any excuse to make something. It's a Sunday, so I couldn't go to the store to grab anything and fulfill any crazy recipe desires. I settled for some cornflake cookies.

Basically, this, the scotcheroos and peanut butter rice krispies all use the same peanut butter mixture. They're just used in different ways. But, if I can have a variety of easy gluten-free treats in mind that my daughter won't recognize as "basically the same as the other one.." I'm good with that! And..these are actually really really delicious. To me, they're better than peanut butter rice krispies because they're crispier!

Kellogg's cornflakes are made with malt flavoring, which includes a little gluten. My daughter can handle a small amount of gluten, so this isn't a big deal for me, but brands like Nature's Path  makes cornflakes that are 100% gluten free. 

I followed this recipe from My Crazy Blessed Life. Before I poured the pb mixture over the cornflakes, though, I noticed that there was going to be some drownage going on. I added another cup of cornflakes in to make the ratio's a bit more even, and I still think they could have used another half cup or so! Food for thought. :)

What you will need:

• 1 C corn syrup
• 1 C sugar
• 1 C peanut butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 6 (or 6 1/2) C cornflakes 

Directions:

• Measure out 6 cups of cereal into a large bowl
• Bring the corn syrup and sugar to a boil for about a minute
• Add in the peanut butter and mix until creamy
• Add in vanilla and mix in
• Pour pb mixture over cereal and coat the cereal evenly
• Drop scoops of cereal on wax paper (I used a cookie scoop)

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

I stumbled on this recipe while I was scoping out ideas for my daughters Valentine's Day party coming up. They were super fun to make, and I'd never tried chocolate sugar cookies before so I absolutely had to! I think you'll be amazed. We frosted ours pink with pink sprinkles, but I prefer them without frosting at all!

What you will need:

• 2 1/2 C flour
• 1/2 C cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 C butter, softened
• 1 C sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
• Whisk dry ingredients together; set aside
• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
• Add the egg and vanilla
• Mix until well blended
• Gradually add flour mixture into butter mixture until blended
• Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes
• Bake for 8-10 minutes

Chocolate Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

Oooh wow. These cookies are AMAZING! I am so glad I decided to try them out. They are a perfect holiday cookie! And I love that they didn't call for anything out of the ordinary with the exception of the candy cane kisses. I also used mini chocolate chips instead of regular, I'm not sure if that's makes a ton of difference or not.

There was some debate in this home on when to put the candy cane kiss on the cookie. I didn't want it all melted, but my sweet man tried one that had melted and insisted that was the way to do it. He fell in love immediately soooo I'm torn. Try it out at different stages and see what you like the best!

^^Some of them are melted more than others. What do you think?

What you will need:

• 1/2 C shortening
• 1/2 C butter
• 1 C sugar
• 1 C brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. peppermint extract
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 C+2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 C flour
• 2 C chocolate chips

Directions:

• Combine shortening, butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla and peppermint extract and mix well
• In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients; flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder
• Combine all ingredients and mix well
• Fold in chocolate chips
• Refrigerate cookie dough for 30-60 minutes to prevent the cookies from flattening
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Bake cookies for 8 minutes or until they are set up but the middle is still soft
• Allow cookies to cool for 1-2 minutes before adding the candy cane kisses
• Allow cookies to cool until kisses have hardened

Grinch Chocolate Chip Cookies

For some reason I thought I posted about this last year! We did a theme night last December and baked some Grinch cookies before watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We had some cherry chocolate chips and put one in the center right out of the oven to symbolize the Grinch's heart :).

Other than that, all I did was add green food coloring to this chocolate chip cookie recipe and voila! 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Easiest recipe ever. The original recipe asks for an entire 15 oz. can of pumpkin. I learned tonight that I like about 3/4 of a 15 oz. can of pumpkin. They're not as orange, but I like the taste better.

What you will need:

• 1 box spice cake mix
• 1 bag chocolate chips
• 1 15 oz. can pumpkin

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Mix ingredients together
• Bake for 18 minutes

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are reaaaally really really good. Pinterest found them for me ;). I was surprised at how these tasted based on my idea that anything peanut buttery (and especially peanut buttery/chocolatey) will be really rich. I was able to eat 3 or 4 of these at one time (only slightly ashamed to admit that) without feeling like it was too much.

You will need:

• 1/2 C butter
• 1/2 C peanut butter
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 C flour
• 1 T milk
• 1 C chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Mix together peanut butter and butter on medium speed for about 30 seconds
• Add in sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda and mix well to combine
• Add in vanilla and egg and mix well to combine
• Add in flour a little at a time to mix well
• Add in the milk 
• Add in the chocolate chips
• Bake in the oven for about 9 minutes

Double Chocolate and Mint Cookies

I've been on the hunt for some chocolatey goodness. 

Thanks to my habit of leaving the Food Network on most days, I get to go about my business and do a little selective hearing. Yep, loading up the dishes into the dishwasher in my own little world and I hear Giada say the word "Chocolate." My ears go *ooinngg* (meaning they perk up?) and I ditch the dishes to see what she has in store for me.

She taught me how to make these freakishly good gems. I literally hated her when she took a bite and I just had to sit there watch. I decided I needed to try them for myself.

What you will need:

• 6 oz. semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped up into 1/2" pieces (I used 54%)
• 2 T unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 C flour
• 2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2/3 C sugar
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 T water
• 4.67 oz. pkg thin mints, like Andes (I just bought a 10oz. bag of  Ande's baking chips and about 3/4 of the bag)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 300 degree's
• Place one rack in the center of the oven, and the other rack on the bottom
• Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
• Bring small sauce pan with water to a slight simmer. Place a bowl on top of the pan and place chocolate and butter in. Stir frequently until melted
• Once chocolate is melted, set aside to cool for 10 minutes
• In small bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, set aside.
• In a large bowl, mix sugar, eggs, vanilla and water until combined
• Pour in dry ingredients
• Fold in the melted chocolate
• Fold in the Ande's mints
• Chill for about 10 minutes until dough is firmed up a little
• Place scoops of dough onto baking sheets
• Place one baking sheet on middle rack, and one baking sheet on the bottom rack
• Bake for 9 minutes
• Rotate baking sheets; take the bottom and place it on the top rack. Take the top and place it on the bottom rack
• Bake another 9-10 minutes

Candy Cane Cookies

This was my first time making these. As you can see, I need some practice rolling out dough and twisting them together. Also, I didn't bother making red and settled with a nice pink color :). They tasted great! I thought it was interesting that it called for powdered sugar to be used in the recipe, but gave it a try anyway and it works, especially with the almond flavor!

What you will need:

• 1 C butter
• 1 C powdered sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 1/2 C flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:

• Mix the ingredients together in the order they are listed and set aside
• Repeat that step in a separate bowl with the same ingredients (so really, you actually need 2 C butter, 2 C powdered sugar, etc. etc.) but with this batch of dough, mix in some red food coloring
• Take some of the non-dyed dough and roll it into a log
• Repeat with some of the red-dyed dough
• Twist the logs together and shape into a candy cane
• Repeat until all of your dough is used up
• Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 9-11 minutes

***This will make about 30 cookies. I had zero need for 30 candy cane cookies, so I just made one batch of the dough, split it in half and dyed the other half red so I came out with about 15 cookies instead***

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

A group of fun ladies and I did a cookie exchange. I wanted to try something new. I found this recipe for Lemon Crinkle Cookies on the LDSliving website. This recipe won their cookie recipe contest. The woman that won happens to live in Hood River, Oregon so I kind of felt biased immediately towards these cookies ;).

What you will need:

• 1/2 C. butter softened
• 1 C. granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 1 T fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 C. flour
• 1/2 C. powdered sugar

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Spray your cookie sheet with non-stick spray, or use a dark non-stick cookie sheet
• In large bowl, mix together butter and sugar
• Add in vanilla, egg and lemon zest and mix together
• Add in fresh lemon juice and mix together
• Add in the dry ingredients and mix all together until creamy and smooth
• Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball (I made them more like tablespoon size) and roll around in the powdered sugar, coating the ball
• Place onto cookie sheet and bake 9-11 minutes (if you are using a non-stick cookie sheet decrease baking time by about 2 minutes) or until sides just start to brown and the tops of the cookies have lost their shine
• Remove from oven and let cool 3 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack

**After all of my ingredients were mixed together, the dough still looked a little dry, so I added in more fresh lemon juice little by little until it was more of a creamy texture and it did not effect the taste of the cookie**

"WHAT THE HECK THEY'RE AMAZING!" Cookies

AKA: Cake cookies? I guess that's what I'd call them for reals.

My visiting teacher brought these over to me last month. I decided to try one right before dinner and ended up eating the entire plate two seconds later. How the heck do you make these pieces of goodness? I wondered. So I asked her. Am I the last person on earth to know about this? Because if everyone knew about them, they would be everywhere. They are ridiculous!

What you will need:

• 1 box cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 C oil

Directions:

• Mix all together with a hand mixer (by hand will be too hard..for me anyway)
• Use a cookie scoop or tablespoon to drop onto cookie sheet
• Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes

Are you wondering what kind of cake mix? Any. Kind. Yep. Any kind. I used chocolate fudge and threw in some peanut butter chips. You can do any kind of combination your little heart desires. Oh wow you guys...I love these so much.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

So good.

Let's take a closer look shall we? Chocolate-ee, golden brown, soft, chewy..aah.

Just look at the bottom of that cookie. Baked to perfection.

I am constantly looking for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. After years of trying recipe after recipe, I have found it. I could not believe what I was tasting. It almost felt like the first time you get glasses and you wonder why you didn't get them sooner. Not to mention it's a super easy recipe and it made exactly 24 cookies.

You Will Need:

• 2/3 C salted butter, softened
• 1/2 C granulated sugar
• 1/2 C packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
• 1 1/4 C flour
• 1/2 tsp. Baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
• 1 package semi sweet chocolate chips (I prefer milk chocolate?!)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Beat butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy
• Mix in flour, baking soda and salt until blended
• Stir in chocolate chips (I didn't use the entire package but pretty close)
• Drop by tablespoon onto cookie sheet
• Bake for 8-10 minutes until edges are golden (the middle looked like it wasn't done at all once the edges browned, but when I took them out and felt them they were actually done completely! So don't over bake!)

Chocolate and Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies

These are so amazing. I love regular no-bake cookies but when you add peanut butter to the mix? O-o-O wonderful.

I used my mom's no-bake recipe, and adapted it into a recipe for my taste, which includes peanut butter :).

You will need:

• 2 C Sugar
• 1 stick butter (1/2 C)
• 1/2 C Milk
• 3 TBS Coca
• 3 1/2 C Oatmeal (if you're nervous about cross-contamination in your oats, try out Bob's Redmill brand oats!)
• 3/4 C Peanut Butter
• 1 tsp Vanilla

Directions:

• Mix Sugar, Margarine, Milk and Cocoa in pan.
• Bring to boil and boil for 65 seconds.
• Take off heat and stir in the rest of ingrediants
• Drop cookies onto wax paper and let them set. (Or eat them when they're warm and gooey like me.)

Side Note: I always love Coconut in No-Bake cookies so if desired reduce amount of Oats to 3 Cups and add 1 Cup Coconut.