Soft Sugar Cookies (Lofthouse, inspired)

I absolutely love the soft sugar cookies that Lofthouse makes. Occassionaly, I would treat myself to getting a box at the local supermarket, but I can never eat them all because they're a little too sweet for me. However, I do love, love, love the soft and cake-like texture of the cookie, which is why I always find myself calling them my favorite cookies.

I've always wanted to make my own, so last night, after my Environmental Lab ended, I decided to whip up a batch.

They turned out perfect! Not too sweet, and the consistency of the cookie was on point!

So, here's the recipe!

Ingredients:
For the Dough: 
1/2 cup of butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup of granulated sugar
1/4 cup of powdered sugar
2 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups of all purpose flour

For the Frosting:
1/2 cup of butter, softened
2 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons of milk
(optional) food coloring

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F
2. Cream 1/2 cup of soften butter, 1 cup of granulated sugar, and 1/4 cup of powdered sugar together.
3. Add the 2 eggs and vanilla extract and continue to mix the ingredients together until smooth.
4. Add 1/2 sour cream and mix on the low setting.
5. Add baking powder and baking soda to the mixture as it is still mixing.
6. Add the flour in small increments until everything is well mixed.
    The dough should be of a thick consistency, but not too dry.
7. Using a spoon (I used a tablespoon), scoop out a ball of dough and roll into a ball. I suggest that you dust your hands with flour when doing this to avoid the dough sticking to your hand.
8. Place the dough balls on a baking sheet 1 inch away from each other. The cookies should not spread too much, so you don't have to worry about spacing them out too far apart.
9. Lightly press the dough balls down with a flour-dusted spoon for a flatter cookie shape. Leave as dough balls for a more mounted cookie shape.
10. Bake the cookies for 10-11 minutes and immediately remove from baking sheets onto cooling racks.

For the frosting*
1. Cream the butter with a mixer until smooth.
2. Add vanilla extract.
3. Slowly add the powdered sugar while mixing.
4. Adjust the consistency of the frosting with the 1-2 tablespoons of milk.
5. Mix until the frosting is smooth.
6. (optional) Add food coloring as desired.

I hope you guys enjoy these cookies. These are a must to try out and they are fairly easy and quick to make!

Soft Snickerdoodles

There's a lack of pictures on this post because I was too busy rolling these little guys into balls that I couldn't pick up the camera to snap any pics.

These cookies are slightly crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 cup of flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar

1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 egg
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of butter

Instructions: 
1. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.
2. Add egg and vanilla and stir till evenly mixed.
3. In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together.
4. Transfer the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients.
5. Stir well.
6. Refrigerate the dough for 40-60 minutes.

7. Pre-heat oven to 300 F
8. Roll dough into 1-2 inch diameter balls and coat in cinnamon sugar.

8a. To make cinnamon sugar: Add 3 tablespoons of white granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

9. Place the sugar coated dough on a baking sheet and flatten a little with a fork.
10. Bake for 10 minutes.

 Enjoy!

Hope you guys give this recipe a try and let me know what you think about it. Originally, I tried this recipe with 1 teaspoon of baking soda and it was too much so I reduced it to 1/2 teaspoon. I also increased the amount of vanilla because I thought it brought out the flavor of the cookie more. I hope you guys like this recipe!

Happy baking!

Hot Cocoa Mixes

     

     This past Christmas, I tried making some hot cocoa mixes to give as gifts. I ended up doing a hot cocoa and peppermint mix that was fairly simple to put together. The materials/ingredients needed to make these mixes are pictured below. 

Hot cocoa mix | Marshmallows | Mini Chocolate chips | Mini Candy Canes 

Baker's Twine or Ribbons (of choice)

Mason Jars (Pint size, 16 oz)

Instructions: 
1. Clean mason jars and dry. 

2. Add 1/4 cup of marshmallows. 

3. Fill jar 1/3 full with the hot cocoa mix. I used about 3/4 cup. This should come out to about 4 servings per jar. 

4. Gently tap the jar so that the cocoa levels out. 

5. Add 1/2 a cup of mini chocolate chips, mainly spreading them out on the sides of the jar so that they form a visible layer. 

6. Fill the remaining space with marshmallows. 
    6a. Option 1: Place whole mini candy canes in this layer 
    6b. Option 2: Crush candy canes (as shown below) and sprinkle on top of chocolate chip layer. 

6. Cap tightly and decorate as desired. 

And, there you go! You've got your hot cocoa mixes. When I started making the jars, I realized that it probably would have been more convenient to go with a smaller jar. If I were to make these again, I would probably downsize these to the 8 oz jars (~2 servings) so that after one serving, you could directly boil water and pour it in the jar. Just a thought that I am yet to try out.

I got my jars at Michael's craft stores and there were a variety of jars. They even had ones with handles which would also be a great option.

Let me know what you guys think or if you guys have suggestions for me.

Thanks for reading!

Simple Rice Crispy Treats

     With all the last minute shopping and busy days that led up to today, it could be hard to come up with ideas as to what to bring to parties.Here's a spin on the classic Rice Krispy treats that we all know and love.

For this recipe*, we will need:

• 1 1/2 tablespoon of butter 
• 3 cups of marshmallows 
• 4 cups of rice crispy cereal 

For decorating (optional): 

• 1/2 cup of semi-sweet baking chocolate 
• 1/2 cup of white chocolate baking morsels 
• Sprinkles 

*Serving size: 12-14 pieces 

Total time: ~ 30 minutes (+ 1 hour to decorate and set)

Directions: 
1. Heat a pan or pot and melt the butter. 

2. When the butter is melted, add the marshmallows and stir.

3. Add the rice crispy cereal to the melted marshmallows and fold until everything is evenly distributed. Make sure to turn off the heat now since we won't be needing to melt anything anymore. 

4. Transfer the mixture to a pan that has been coated with cooking spray or covered in parchment paper. 

5. Using a spatula, press the rice crispy mixture evenly into the pan. Here, I am using a 9"x13" foil pan. Feel free to use any size pan as long as everything is evenly distributed.  

6. Let cool for about 30 minutes to an hour and cut into desired serving sizes. Here, I divided the entire pan of treats into 16 pieces. 

(optional--decorations) 
     To decorate these rice crispy treats, I melted 1/2 a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips to spread (or dip). Another alternative would be to use white chocolate chips and add a little bit of food coloring, depending on the occasion and/or liking.

     The easiest way to melt chocolate chips is to use a double-broiler method, except, we will microwave the water instead of setting it upon a pot and stove. First, set aside some chocolate chips in a small bowl. Next, in a larger bowl, add a little bit of water, just enough to reach halfway up the side of the smaller bowl. Microwave the water for about 3-4 minutes until you see small bubbles indicating that it's almost boiling.

     When the water is ready, set the smaller bowl inside the bigger one and stir until the chocolate is fully melted. Be careful; the steam is very hot. Be sure to wear oven mitts or take your time with melting the chocolate.

     Here, I repeated the process with the white chocolate morsels so that I could have some contrast in the colors used. Again, this is optional and how you want to decorate your treats is really up to you. I decided that I wanted to do some simple designs on top of the coated chocolate so I used some white chocolate morsels. For this method, all you have to do is spoon in the melted chocolate and cut a small hole on the corner to create a quick piping bag. Be careful with how big of an opening you cut, though; larger openings can be a mess sometimes, especially if the consistency of the chocolate is runny. I find that this is the easiest and cleanest way to decorate

     And, there you go! This is the finished product! I decided to spread the chocolate on top and use the white chocolate as a drizzle. I finished everything off with some holiday sprinkles. After decorating, I let the treats set for about an hour so that the chocolate would harden so that I could easily pack them to-go without worrying about the decorations being ruined.

     I hope you guys enjoyed this simple rice crispy treat. Thanks for stopping by and reading!

     Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Welcome!

Hi everyone,

I'm still working on putting everything together so this page will be "opening" very soon.
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http://instagram.com/clndyskitchenchemistry

Thanks for stopping by!

--Cindy