Happy Friday! Here we are at day eleven of Lemon & Mocha’s 12 Days of Cookies and I’ve definitely been saving some of the best for last. First of all, let’s just discuss how pretty these Cherry Kiss Cookies are! With their pink hue they certainly would be fitting for Valentine’s Day, but they also add a great pop of color to a Christmas cookie platter.

If there was ever a cookie to be described as melting in your mouth, it would be these pillowy Cherry Kiss Cookies. They are soft, buttery and have just the perfect amount of cherry flavoring. There’s also a chocolate Hershey Kiss in the center of every cookie, which is always a delicious bonus.

The cherry flavor in these cookies comes from cherry extract and chopped maraschino cherries, both which get mixed right into the batter. If you remember my Chocolate Raspberry Heart Cookie Pops I had a difficult time finding cherry extract in the grocery store so instead I used raspberry extract. Since I now have a big bottle of raspberry extract from those cookie pops I actually used it instead of cherry extract for these cookies as well. So I guess they are technically Cherry Raspberry Kiss Cookies. Either way you make them I’m sure you will be hooked. I saved these for right before Christmas because the dough requires no chilling and they’re very easy drop cookies to make so they would be a great last minute baking project.

The cookies look very soft when they come out of the oven, but they will firm up as they cool. I left mine in the oven until I noticed just a couple of the cookies had started to very lightly brown on the edges, which can be difficult to notice at first since the cookies are pink.

I used milk chocolate kisses since that is what I had on hand, but you could experiment with different kinds as I think the dark chocolate kisses would be extra tasty in these. Okay, only a few more days until Christmas! What are you baking this weekend?

Cherry Kiss Cookies

 

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Yield: 28 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temperature
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1½ teaspoons cherry extract, see note
• 5 drops red food coloring
• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup chopped maraschino cherries
• 28 Hershey Kisses, unwrapped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, making sure oven racks are in the upper and lower thirds positions. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a large bowl with a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, confectioners’ sugar and salt on low speed to combine then medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla, cherry extract and food coloring. Beat until combined. Add the flour and beat on low until only a few streaks remain. Use a spatula to stir in the chopped cherries.
3. Use a medium cookie scoop to balls of dough onto the prepared cookie sheets. I put 14 on each of my half sheet pans; the cookies spread a little, but not a lot. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a couple of the cookies just start to very lightly brown on the edges. Remove from the oven and immediately press a chocolate kiss into the center of each cookie. Once the cookies have cooled for 2 minutes on the pan, remove to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes

If you don’t have cherry extract, raspberry extract also works really well.

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Lauren Uncategorized 0 Comments

We’re here for day ten of the Lemon & Mocha 12 Days of Cookies! Even though I have three more recipes scheduled to post before the end of 2019, the post for these Soft Gingerbread M&M Cookies that you are reading now is the last one I wrote right before my post-baby blog break started!

The only reason I was shuffling around the kitchen baking these cookies in my compression socks and the last remaining outfit that would fit over my big belly was because I had to wait for the red and green M&M’s to arrive in the stores. I wanted them to look pretty and festive for the photos, especially since the post is so close to Christmas. Usually I’m the first to shake my head when I see grocery stores putting holiday items out months in advance, but of course this time I was actually complaining about them not having Christmas items out early! Go figure.

So let’s talk about these Soft Gingerbread M&M Cookies. They’re buttery, chewy and definitely chocolate-packed. I’m declaring these cookies the chocolate chip cookie lover’s perfect holiday-spiced cookie.

They have the same soft, chewy texture and buttery brown sugar flavor you get from chocolate chip cookies, plus the added bonus of gingerbread flavors through molasses, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Also, between the chocolate chips and the M&M’s they are chock-full of chocolate goodness.

The good news is, as my swollen feet/ankles/calves/aka everything-below-my-belly can attest to, these cookies are super simple to whip up so you can be done in the kitchen and kicked back eating platefuls of Soft Gingerbread M&M Cookies in no time! Enjoy!

Soft Gingerbread M&M Cookies

 

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Yield: about 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

• 2¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1½ teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temperature
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ⅓ cup molasses
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 10-ounce bag M&M’s (about 1½ cups)
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar, for rolling

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, cloves and salt until combined. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and molasses on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla; beat until combined.
4. Add the flour mixture then beat on low speed until only a few flour streaks remain. Add the M&M’s and chocolate chips (leaving some aside - we’ll press these into the rolled balls so they look pretty!) and stir until just combined. Scoop out 1½ tablespoons of dough (if using Oxo cookie scoops use a medium cookie scoop) and roll into a ball. Roll the ball into the granulated sugar then place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat for the remaining cookie dough. Lightly press an M&M and a chocolate chip into the top of each cookie ball. This will make sure they look nice and pretty!
5. Bake for 12 minutes then let cool on the cookie sheet placed on a wire cooling rack for 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to the wire cooling rack to cool completely. Repeat with 1 cookie sheet for the remaining cookie dough.

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Lauren Uncategorized 0 Comments

Last holiday season I was experimenting with a bunch of new cookie recipes and I wanted to try something that was a little lighter. I instantly thought of meringue cookies since they are definitely light and have that sort of melt in your mouth texture about them. I didn’t want to just make plain meringue cookies though; what’s the fun in that?!

Even though I don’t drink coffee I like coffee flavored desserts, especially if they’re paired with chocolate, so I went seeking out a coffee flavored meringue recipe. Thankfully it led me to this delicious espresso meringue kiss cookie recipe from King Arthur Flour. So for day nine of Lemon & Mocha’s 12 Days of Cookies we have Chocolate Dipped Espresso Meringue Kisses.

Making meringue cookies is actually really simple and requires only a few ingredients. Egg whites, cream of tartar, salt, espresso powder, coffee extract and sugar are beaten until you have stiff and glossy peaks. Making sure the peaks of your meringue are stiff is key otherwise they will start deflating and not holding their shape when you go to pipe them out into the star kiss shapes. Alternatively, you could always just drop teaspoonfuls of batter onto your baking sheet; they don’t need to be perfect!

The finicky part of meringue cookies is the cooking and cooling since they cook on a really low temperature for quite a while and then have to sit in the cooling oven after it’s turned off for a few more hours. However, once they’re done, you get to dip them into melted chocolate for that espresso mocha flavor combination that is out of this world. The cookies are crispy, light and good luck eating just one!

Chocolate Dipped Espresso Meringue Kisses

 

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Yield: about 54

Ingredients

• 2 large egg whites
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder
• ½ teaspoon coffee extract
• ½ cup granulated sugar, divided
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, plus more as needed
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil, plus more as needed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt until foamy. Add the espresso, extract and 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Beat on medium-high speed until soft peaks form.
3. Gradually add the remaining sugar while continuing to beat until stiff and glossy peaks form.
4. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe 54 cookies onto the prepared baking sheets. Alternatively, you could drop heaping teaspoonfuls of batter onto the baking sheets.
5. Bake the meringues for 1½-2 hours, switching pans from top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Meringues are done when they are barely dry on the outside and soft in the middle. Turn off the oven and let cookies cool in the oven for 1-3 hours.
6. Put the chocolate chips and the vegetable oil in a microwave-safe measuring cup or bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, then continue microwaving and stirring at 15-second intervals until the chocolate is completely melted. Dip the bottoms of the meringues into the melted chocolate and let the excess drip off. Set on a baking sheet lined with wax paper to allow the chocolate to harden. You can speed up the hardening time if you put them in the fridge. Repeat for all the meringues, melting more chocolate as needed.

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Lauren Uncategorized 2 Comments

Remember the Flourless Chocolate Walnut Cookies? Of course you do. I shared the recipe three weeks ago and they were fudgey and chocolatey and exceptionally delicious. I made the recipe from my Food52 Genius Desserts cookbook and I figured if the first cookie recipe I tried was that good that I definitely needed to bake another cookie recipe from the cookbook before the cookie season was through.

So, today, on day eight of Lemon & Mocha’s 12 Days of Cookies, I’m sharing the recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle. This cookie brittle is for all the crispy cookie fans out there. The cookie dough is baked in a half sheet pan and then cracked into pieces once it’s cooled.

This unconventional cookie requires an unconventional cookie dough. In this case, the cookie dough doesn’t have any eggs or any leavening ingredients. In fact, we’re just combining melted butter, turbinado sugar, flour, vanilla and salt and spreading it super thinly onto that half sheet pan. Don’t forget the chocolate chips!

Since this is a stripped down type of cookie with plenty of chocolate chips you’re definitely going to want to use high quality chocolate. Stick with semisweet or bittersweet; my go-to brands are Ghiradelli or Guittard.

Matt couldn’t get enough of this crispy, crunchy confection and I’m glad to have found another hit from my cookbook. This cookie brittle won’t be replacing my Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies anytime soon since I’m more of a soft and chewy cookie fan, but if you’re looking for a crispy cookie fix then this Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle is just what you need!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle

 

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Yield: about 3 dozen pieces

Ingredients

• 14 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
• 1 cup turbinado sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1¼ cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the butter and sugar in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 20 seconds, stir, then continue microwaving and stirring in 20 second intervals until the butter is almost fully melted. Alternatively, you could melt the butter and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, making sure you don’t let it come to a boil. Whisk until the butter is melted and the sugar has mostly dissolved. Let cool for 5 minutes.
3. Whisk until the mixture is thick, smooth and doesn’t look separated, about 1 minute. Add the vanilla and salt, whisk until combined. Add the flour and stir with a spatula until no streaks remain.
4. Scrape the dough onto a rimmed ungreased half sheet pan (about 12-inch x 17-inch) and use your hands to pat it into a thin, even layer. It won’t look like you’re going to have enough dough to completely fill the pan, but you will. Keep pressing the dough to the edges; the layer will be very thin. Once you’ve filled the pan, use an offset spatula to smooth the top before sprinkling the chocolate chips all over. Lightly press the chocolate chips down with your hands.
5. Bake for 22-25 minutes (rotating the pan every 7-8 minutes), or until light golden brown and slightly firm. Place the baking sheet on a wire cooling rack and let cool completely in the pan. Use a thin spatula to loosen the edges of the brittle from the baking sheet then break into pieces and let the pieces cool completely on the wire cooling rack, while trying to avoid smudging the chocolate chips. Alternatively, if the brittle is already completely cool you can put the pieces straight into an airtight container with layers of wax paper or parchment paper in between the brittle layers and store at room temperature.

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Lauren Uncategorized 2 Comments

You knew I couldn’t stay away from the chocolate for too long! I’m catching us all up on chocolate by providing double the chocolate today. For day seven of Lemon & Mocha’s 12 Days of Cookies I present to you Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies! They should really be called double chocolate double peppermint cookies since, you guessed it, there’s both double the chocolate and double the peppermint, but I figured one “double” would work just as well.

Do these round, dark and slightly crispy cookies look familiar? If they do, it’s because we’re using the same cookie base from the Chocolate Raspberry Heart Cookie Pops recipe. Back in February, Matt and I couldn’t get enough of the buttery dark chocolate cookies. The first time I posted this cookie base I described them as a buttery version of the Sheila G’s Brownie Brittle and that is so spot on. Except this time, we’re dipping them in peppermint-flavored melted semisweet chocolate and sprinkling crushed candy canes on top to make them extra festive.

A couple months ago I shared these cookies with some friends and they were a big hit. I love when recipes like these are a big hit. And by recipes like these I mean recipes that are easy! So easy!

First of all, the cookie dough comes together in a food processor. I use this 14-cup food processor by Cuisinart. The dough is pulsed together then cold butter cubes are added and you continue to pulse until the dough completely comes together, just like if you were making a pie crust. Cold butter also means no waiting for ingredients to come to room temperature – hurray!

When I made the cookie pops, the cookie dough was rolled out, but to simplify things even more I’ve adjusted these to be made as slice-and-bake cookies. The dough comes out of the food processor and is rolled into a log in plastic wrap. Pop it into the fridge overnight or until firm and then it’s time to slice the dough into rounds and bake up the cookies! Once cooled, a quick dip into some minty melted chocolate and some sprinkling of peppermint candy and you’re done! Yum! I hope you all enjoy these!

Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

 

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Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup powdered sugar
• ⅓ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2½ sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
• Candy canes, crushed, for decorating
• White sanding sugar for decorating, optional

Directions

1. In a food processor, pulse together the flour, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, granulated sugar and salt. Once combined, add the cold butter cubes and the vanilla extract. Pulse until the mixture looks like it has larger crumbs and will hold together when pinched. Transfer the dough to a large bowl or clean work surface and press the dough into a ball. Knead the dough a few times. Place the dough on a large piece of plastic wrap and work it into a log with a 2.5-3 inch diameter. Roll the dough log in the plastic wrap (I usually continue rolling and shaping it while it’s wrapped in plastic). Refrigerate the dough log until firm or overnight.
2. Make sure oven racks are positioned in the lower and upper thirds of the oven. Preheat to 325 degrees F. Using a sharp knife, slice the log into ⅜-inch thick cookies and arrange 2 inches apart on 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake the cookies for 25-27 minutes, switching the pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through. Let cookies cool for 10 minutes on the pan on a wire cooling rack then transfer cookies to the wire cooling rack to cool completely.
3. Once the cookies are completely cool, melt the chocolate chips and vegetable oil in a microwave safe liquid measuring cup. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, then continue microwaving and stirring in 15 second intervals until it’s melted and smooth. Stir in the peppermint extract. Dip a cooled cookie halfway into the melted chocolate, place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper and sprinkle with crushed candy canes and white sanding sugar (if using). Repeat for the rest of the cookies, melting more chocolate if needed. Towards the end I didn’t want to melt more so I just used a spoon to help spread it on the remaining cookies. Place in the fridge until the chocolate sets then remove and store at room temperature.

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