Kid Friendly Food (AND Holiday Tradition!): Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Mr. Pie didn't bring a lot of Christmas traditions to our family when we got married, which was hard for me, because I come from a big family full of tradition.  Games and movies and outings and recipes...there was so much I wanted to bring from my Christmas experience to our family!

 

But in the beginning, I felt like I really needed to scale back because: 

 

A) Mr. Pie didn't seem to really get into Christmas, and

 

B) I felt like I would be steam-rolling right over him if I bombarded him with all the things I wanted to bring over from my family. 

 

So really, until we had kids, our Christmases were rather quiet.

 

However, there was one tradition he did bring... Chocolate Crinkle Cookies.

Every year, the one thing that did seem to make him happy during the holiday season was the package of Chocolate Crinkle Cookies that usually arrived either from his mom or his sister.

 

According to my husband, they were his grandfather's favorite cookie, and his grandmother would make them every Christmas.

 

Eventually, the packages stopped being sent from his mother, and the responsibility of carrying on this one tradition for my husband fell to me.

 

Well, this is definitely a Christmas Tradition I can get behind!

 

But what's even better is that I now have three little boys who like to help/watch me make "Daddy's Special Christmas Cookies", as they are otherwise known at our house.

And I have a feeling these cookies will become a strong Christmas tradition for them in the years to come.  And that makes me happy.

 

 

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
(recipe taken from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book)

1/2 c. vegetable oil
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
2 c. sugar
1 T. vanilla
4 eggs
2 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
powdered sugar

In large bowl, mix oil, chocolate, granulated sugar and vanilla. Stir in eggs, one at a time. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover; refrigerate at least 3 hours. 

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease cookie sheet with shortening or cooking spray. 

Drop dough by teaspoonfuls into powdered sugar; roll around to coat and shape into balls. Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.

Bake 10 minutes. You want them to still be slightly soft in the center. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.

Tips:

 

Although it says to just drop the dough into the powdered sugar, I actually roll the dough into a ball before rolling in the sugar.

 

I also bake these only for 10 minutes.  I have found if they are baked longer they will dry out more quickly. 

 

Enjoy!

Cooky #6 - Teen-Time Chocolate Nut Bars

Teen Time Chocolate Nut Bars (pg.13).  I can easily say I didn't care for these.  And not just because I find the title to be somewhat off-putting. 

Of course, we still ate them all because, regardless of this recipe's faults, it still had chocolate in it, right?

However,  I just couldn't tell what these were trying to be. They are supposed to be a bar cookie, yet you melt the sugar and butter together like brownies.  But then you add milk to the melted butter/sugar mixture and boil it, which is most definitely unlike brownies.

And they weren't chewy like brownies, either.  In fact, they were rather...spongy.  And spongy cookies are weird in my world.

Now in fairness, I did do a few things wrong.  First, I stirred the chocolate chips in too soon and they semi-melted in the still-warm mixture.  So these ended up being a swirly bar, with no real noticeable chocolate chips in it. 

Secondly, I baked it in a smaller pan than called for - an 8x11 rather and a 9x13.  That could account for a bit of the sponginess, I suppose.

Still, I wasn't impressed by anything these cookies have to offer.  I won't waste anymore time or chocolate making these again.

Cooky #5 - Ethel's Sugar Cookies

I had promised my boys on Valentine's Day that we would make cookies.  It never happened.  I think I promised them at least three more times during the days following Valentine's Day that we would make cookies.  It never happened.  Between family visiting, trying to get things ready for the Preschool Fundraiser (which, by the way, was postponed until May, UGH), I just didn't have time for cookies.  However, in order to keep my word to three little boys, once things slowed down a bit I found some time to made these cookies over the weekend.

Ethel's Sugar Cookies (p.18).  I made them into bar cookies, since that is my new cheater shortcut way to make sugar cookies, so technically, I suppose I can't judge this recipe as I would for regular, roll-out sugar cookies.

However, I can say that I prefer my usual sugar cookie recipe to this one. These were dry (however, I very possibly over baked them.)  And I think I just like the flavor of my usual sugar cookies better. 

I also frosted these with the Butter Icing recipe in the back of the book (pg. 150).  As with the chocolate icing recipe I used on the chocolate drop cookies, I had major issues with this recipe.  First of all, I had to double the recipe that was listed in the book.  The amount of the written recipe was so skimpy, even though it claims to be enough to frost 4 dozen cookies.  Even doubled I had my doubts that it would frost 4 dozen cookies.  The doubled batch barely covered a regular-sized cookie sheet pan of bar cookies.

Now, while I am making these recipes, I have to remind myself sometimes that these are the recipes as they were written back in 1963.  The way people ate was most definitely different back then.  Maybe in 1963 a scraping of frosting over a cookie was sufficient.  But that is not how we roll in this house.  I love frosting, especially on Sugar Cookies, and I need it to be very generous, which this recipe, even doubled, was not. 

So, to summarize, I didn't love these, and won't be making them again.  However, there are a few more basic cut-out recipes in the cook book that I want to try, one being a sour cream cut-out dough.  I have much higher hopes for that one.

Cooky #4 - Chocolate Drops

Yes, that is the hand of my 3-year-old son reaching in to sneak another cookie.  Excuse the dirty fingernails, please.  Like I said, he's three.  And a boy.  'Nuff said, right?

These are Chocolate Drop Cookies (page 8.)  I would describe these as a brownie-like cookie.  They are soft and wouldn't do well overbaked. 

I topped it with "Marie's Chocolate Icing" (page 150) as suggested in the recipe, and won't make it again.  Or, should I say, I won't make it again the way it is written in the book.  It called for an ounce of unsweetened chocolate, some butter, water and 1 cup of powdered sugar.  I could taste the bitterness of the unsweetened chocolate in the icing, and it was distracting to me.  I think it would be fine, however, made with semi-sweet chocolate, and will try it that way next time.

The cookie itself, like I said, is brownie-like, which I love.  However, just as written, again, I found it a little plain.  However, one of the variations has cherries in it, which sounds delicious!  And I think that the cherries, along with some nuts, will make for a cookie that is more my style.  Apparently I have discovered that I need a lot of goodies and texture in my cookie to really love it! 

My boys, however, were crying for more after 3 cookies, so it passed standard for the three-year-old set just as it is.

A few more notes: I think because the chocolate flavor in this one is so apparent, it is worth using a high quality chocolate.  I used Baker's brand, because it was the only kind at the store when I bought it, but I will definitely use at least Ghirardelli brand or better next time.

Also, I scaled way back on the salt this time because I was using salted butter, and the last few times I used the called for amount of salt with salted butter it was just a little too much.  This time, it wasn't quite enough.  I used about 1/8 t. (the recipe calls for 1/2 t.) and I think next time I will use at least 1/4 t.  So I haven't figured out the salt ratio quite yet, but I will get it eventually!

So, all in all, expect to see this cookie again, but in a slightly sweeter, cherrier, nuttier version.

Cooky #3 - Brown Sugar Coconut Drops

This morning was spent making Valentines, and these cookies (page 8) with my twins.  We live literally across the country from my parents, and don't see them often enough, so we make Valentines to send them every year.  January always seems way too early to start Valentine activities to me, but I seem to forget every year that Valentines Day sneaks up on us a mere 14 days into February, and if I don't plan a little early for it, we miss it almost entirely!  So this morning seems a good day to pull out all the pink and purple crayons and glitter glue and get to work.  They created masterpieces, if I do say so myself!

And now, the cookies.  I have been wanting to make this recipe since the beginning, simply because it calls for buttermilk, and I have some buttermilk that needs using.  Now I am glad I made them, because I don't have to worry about making them again.  These were way too boring for me.  Even with the addition of coconut.  I kindof knew they would be from reading the recipe, but you know, the buttermilk.  Anyway... 

They are very soft, almost cakey cookies.  They are simply flavored, pretty much a chocolate chip cookie dough flavor without the chocolate chips.  I'm not really a cakey cookie kind of girl.  I feel like any cakey cookie needs frosting on it to make it worth it.  And you could put a frosting on this very easily.  But I was A) lazy today, and B) wanted to stick as close to the recipe as possible and it didn't mention frosting in any of its variations. 

So needless to say, I won;t be making these again.  But, were they a total bust?  NEVER! (As my three-year-old would say.)  He went back quiet a few times, risking his sweet, tiny arm each time by reaching up onto a still-warm pan to grab another one.  I guess at 3 years old, a cookie is a cookie is a cooky...

Cooky #2 - Butterscotch Brownies

Cookie # 2 - The Butterscotch Brownie (pg.11).  Simple and yummy.  If you like the flavor of caramel-y sugar, this might be the recipe for you. The point of these, I'm guessing, is to have the dense, chewy texture of a brownie, without the chocolate.  They were definitely chewy.  It is a simple recipe, whipped up in about 10 minutes total.  Butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, walnuts, salt, baking powder and flour.  They had a few variations.  Coconut would have been good, and I debated it, but in the end, I stuck with the basic recipe.

I think I was a little hasty in cutting them.   They were still warm, so they cut a little sloppily, but they still tasted good!  The bars in the center were a little thin, so they didn't come out of the pan in one piece until they were completely cool.  It is definitely best to wait to dig in until they are cool.

The one thing I will do next time (and from now on with the recipes in this book, I think) is use unsalted butter.  I had the same problem as I did with the chocolate chip cookies with the salted butter and the salt from the recipe being just slightly too much. 

So what is the final verdict?   They were definitely good. Chewy and rich.  Will I make them again?  It's hard to say, only because I have another brown sugar square recipe that I think I like a little bit more.  But let's just say that if someone asked me to make these, they wouldn't have to twist my arm!

Cooky #1 - Chocolate Chip

So for my first (OK, technically second) "cooky" (as it is spelled, singularly, in the book), I decided to go with something simple.  The plain, old Chocolate Chip Cookie (page 144).  Partly because I wanted to start with a classic, and mainly because it is what I had all the ingredients for!

My review?  Really good.  In fact, possibly better than my current "go to" Chocolate Chip recipe.  I compared the two, and while they consist of exactly the same ingredients, the amounts of each are different in the two recipes.  The Betty Crocker cookie has more butter/shortening, more sugar and more vanilla.  Honestly, I think it made a difference.  The flavor seemed enhanced in the Betty Crocker version. 

Some small changes I made:  the recipe calls for all shortening, or part butter or margarine.  I was out of shortening and used all salted butter.  I think next time I will try it with half shortening as written, or unsalted butter instead.  I think the salted butter along with the additional 1/2 t. salt called for in the recipe made the salt flavor a little more noticeable than it probably would have been with the shortening.  I also used milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet.

I will be making these again.  And probably again and again. 

Betty Crocker's Cooky Book Challenge

So when I first got married over seven years ago, my mother-in-law gave me the reprint of the original Betty Crocker's Cooky Book for Christmas, because it had in it the Chocolate Crinkle cookie recipe that was a holiday tradition in their family.

As of right now, it is still the only recipe out of the whole entire book that I have made. So I decided, just for fun, to change that. I am going to bake my way through the book.  I'm sure I am not the first person to think of this, nor the last.  But I think it will be a fun little challenge for myself that I am sure my husband and boys will not object to!

Here are my ground rules (subject to change as I go along):

1- I will make a recipe at least once every other week, but no more than once a week. Or in other words, 2 times a month minimum, but no more than 4-5 times per month. Why? Well, mainly because I have 3 little boys that don't need to be eating a gajillion cookies, and let's be honest, I don't need to be eating a gajillion cookies, either. So that is why no more than once a week. The "at least every other week," is to give me some wiggle room for those weeks when things are busy and I just don't have time or energy (or desire) to make cookies.

2- For the cookie recipes that list different variations of the same recipe, I will only "have" to make one version to fulfill my requirement of making "every recipe" in the book. However, if I feel like making more than one variation, I reserve the right to do so :)

3 - I am not requiring myself to make the cookies in any sort of order. I will just make whatever sounds good at the time.

4- Not technically a "rule", but more of a "heads up."  I will not be posting the actual recipes.  I feel like that is probably a copyright violation, since I will be following the recipes as closely as I can to how they are written, so they are not really mine to share.  However, I will give my opinion of each recipe, the page number, and I will post a picture of each recipe made.  If you are really interested in making all these cookies with me, you can purchase the book here! (Or, call me and I will give you the recipe.)

Ok. I'm off to bake!