S'sK Shortbread Cookies with Drizzled Chocolate

*A Sebastian’s Kitchen Original

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Shortbread Cookies with Drizzled Chocolate

Ingredients:
Cookie dough:
2 cups butter softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar

4 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups all-purpose flour

Topping:

5-10 oz Ghirardelli 60% cacao baking chips (dark chocolate)

Step 1: Cookie

1.    Add butter to a large bowl and beat it with a mixer until white and creamy about 2 minutes.

2.    Add sugar to butter and beat until fluffy. It should look thick like buttercream frosting.
3.    Add egg yolks and vanilla extract and continue to mix with electric mixer until batter is very thick.

4.    Add flour a little at a time and mix with mixer until mixer struggles. Continue incorporating batter by stirring and mashing with a fork until batter is doughy.

5.    Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill for about an hour or until dough is firm.
6.    Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
7.    Remove dough from the refrigerator.
8.    Add cookie dough to a rolling surface like a counter or a cutting board.
9.    Roll cookie dough flat and as thin as you like.
10.  Use cookie cutter to shape cookies.
    a.    I like using a heart cookie cutter - even after Valentine's Day.
    b.    Gently lift shaped cookie dough onto parchment paper lined baking sheet.
11.   Add the rest of the shaped cookie dough to baking sheet.    
12.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
13.    Bake for 8-12 minutes until slightly golden brown. Time varies based on how thick you rolled out your cookie dough, the shape, and overall thickness of the cookie. Check the bottom of the cookies if you are unsure.
13.    When cookies are done baking, remove from oven and let sit until cool.
    a.    Let cookies sit until completely cooled to avoid them falling apart.
    b.    I slide the parchment paper full of cookies off of the hot baking sheet and let the cookies cool on the counter (on a dish towel if the counter is heat sensitive). Don’t try to pick up individual cookies as they are fragile and can break apart when warm. Leave the cookies on the parchment paper for decorating.

Step 2: Decorate

1.    Melt Ghirardelli chocolate according to package instructions.
    a.    I microwave mine in 20-30 second intervals stirring between each microwave session until melted.

2.    Add melted chocolate to a piping bag or piping bottle, or drizzle chocolate on cookies with a fork or spoon.

3.    Let decorated cookies sit out for about an hour until the chocolate sets.
4.    Store most of the cookies in the refrigerator in an air-tight container. If you are going to be eating them all soon, you can leave them all in an air-tight container at room temperature. I usually store most of my cookies in an air-tight container in the refrigerator and then get a few cookies out for the day and let those sit at room temperature in an air-tight container.

S'sK Chocolate Chip Cookies (2nd Version)

*A Sebastian's Kitchen Original Recipe

This is my second version of my chocolate chip cookie recipe. I've changed a few things since my other version. Here's just a quick list of what I changed.

Removed whole wheat flour and adjusted all purpose flour
Adjusted white sugar and brown sugar

With this recipe, you'll need two bowls. A dry bowl for your dry ingredients (except sugars), and a wet bowl. You'll combine the dry bowl into the wet bowl at the end.

 

S'sK Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 10 oz bag Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips

1.    Beat butter with a mixer until white and creamy.
2.    Add white sugar and brown sugar to butter bowl.
3.    Add eggs and vanilla extract; continue to beat until fluffy. Set aside.

4.    In a separate bowl add all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well with a fork.

5.    Add dry bowl ingredients to wet bowl - mixing with a fork until dough forms.

6.    Add chocolate chips to the dough and fold them in with a fork or spatula gently.

7.    Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
8.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
9.    Spoon dough on to parchment paper and flatten dough with hand.

10.    Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden on top. (Time depends on how big/thick you make your cookies.

S'sK Peanut Butter Oatmeal Crater Cookies with Nutella Dark Chocolate Filling

*A Sebastian's Kitchen Original Recipe

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Crater Cookies with Nutella Dark Chocolate Filling

Ingredients:

Wet bowl:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter (salted butter) softened to room temperature

1 ½ cups brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ cups creamy natural peanut butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Dry bowl:

1 cup King Arthur Flour Unbleached White Whole Wheat Flour

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 cups old fashioned Quaker oats

Nutella Filling:

5 oz Ghirardelli 60% cacao baking chips (dark chocolate) (1/2 of a 10 oz bag)

½ cup Nutella

Step 1: Wet bowl

1.    Add butter to large bowl and beat it with a mixer until white and creamy about 2 minutes.

2.    Add brown sugar and white sugar to bowl and continue beating.

3.    Add eggs and continue beating.

4.    Add peanut butter and vanilla extract and beat until well incorporated.

5.    Set bowl aside.

Step 2: Dry bowl

1.    In a medium bowl add: whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and Quaker oats and mix with a fork or whisk.

Step 3: Putting it together

1.    Pour dry bowl contents into wet bowl half at a time and stir well with fork until well incorporated.

Step 4: Prep baking sheet, shape cookies, and bake

1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.    Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

3.    Put about 3-4 tablespoons worth of cookie batter on parchment paper.

4.    Flatten dough with your hand.

5.    Place your crater tool in the center of the cookie and squish your cookie dough up towards your tool creating a crater.

6.    Remove crater tool and pinch crater sides to make it look neater.

7.    Repeat steps 3 through 6 until all cookies are craters.

8.    Bake for 7-12 minutes or until cookie is done. Bottom should be slightly golden, the top may look a little under-cooked, but check the bottom of the cookie if you are unsure. Time varies a lot here based on how thick and how tall you made your crater cookies.

9.    Remove pan from oven and let cookies rest for 5-10 minutes then move to cooling rack.

10.    Once cookies have cooled, you can start to make your Nutella filling.

Step 5: Nutella Filling

1.    Melt Ghirardelli chocolate according to package instructions. Place it in a medium sized bowl.

    a.    I microwave mine in 20-30 second intervals stirring between each microwave session until melted.

2.    While chocolate is melting, measure out your Nutella and add it to your chocolate bowl once it is melted.

3.    Stir Nutella and chocolate mixture with a fork or a whisk until well incorporated.

4.    Using a large spoon or ice cream scooper, scoop Nutella filling in crater of each cookie.

5.    Let cookies sit at room temperature for 10 minutes, then transfer to the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour until chocolate filling is firm.

6.    Store most of the cookies in the refrigerator in an air-tight container. If you are going to be eating them all soon, you can leave them all in an air-tight container at room temperature. I usually store most of my cookies in an air-tight container in the refrigerator and then get a few cookies out for the day and let those sit at room temperature in an air-tight container.

Butter Cookies with M&Ms Adapted from mindybakes.com Recipe

I discovered this recipe on mindybakes.com. You can find the original recipe here: mindybakes butter cookies with M&Ms. Click on the link and check her website out.

Take the cookies out of the oven when they have a slight faint golden color on their edges. Don’t wait until they have a dark golden color around their edges as that is too long.

Butter Cookies with M&Ms Adapted from mindybakes.com Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups butter, softened to room temperature
3 cups white sugar
4 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 large bags milk chocolate M&Ms

Step 1: Wet ingredients bowl
1.    In a large bowl, beat butter by itself (on medium high speed) until it is fluffy and turns slightly white. This will give the finished cookies an airy light texture.

2.    Add sugar to bowl and cream butter and sugar together until thick and fluffy.
3.    Add 4 eggs and vanilla extract and continue mixing.

4.    Once well incorporated stop mixing and set bowl aside.

Step 2: Dry ingredients bowl
5.    In a large bowl, add dry ingredients all at once.
    a.    Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

6.    Stir with a fork until ingredients are distributed well.

Step 3: Putting it together

7.    Add dry ingredients bowl to wet ingredients bowl a little at a time and start beating with mixer on medium.

8.    Continue beating until dough gets too thick that mixer struggles.

9.    Use a fork to continue beating and mixing the dough by hand.

10.    Once dough is finished, refrigerate bowl for 45 minutes to let dough harden.

Step 4: Prepare to bake

11.    Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

12.    Place about a tablespoon worth of dough per cookie on baking sheet and press flat gently.

    a.    Leave a lot of space between cookies as they will double in size.

    b.    When cookies are done being placed on baking sheet, add M&Ms by hand and press them into the dough. They may seem like they are kind of close together, don’t worry, they’ll spread out during baking.

    c.    You can alternatively roll dough balls in a bowl of M&Ms… I like doing it by hand better as it looks neater when finished.

14.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

15.    Bake for 6-8 minutes until cookies are slightly golden around the edges.