Mrs. Fields' Chocolate Chip Cookies (+ Chocolate)

Though I love my own CCC recipe, sometimes I crave that slight taste of oatmeal that only Mrs. Fields can deliver. This is a not-so-secret recipe that periodically makes the rounds of the Internet, but I like to add extra chocolate to mine. Growing up, these were my favorite chocolate chip cookies . . . and they're still as delightful as I remember.

This cookie dough makes seven dozen and DOES NOT refrigerate or freeze well--the oat flour makes it too dry and it crumbles apart.  So you have to make all seven dozen cookies soon after you make the dough.  Allen's Grandmother (check out her amazing chocolate cream pie recipe) gave me this giant Tupperware container--it's perfect for cookie storage.

I make these cookies when I am going to big family functions and they are gone in an evening.

*(Click the link to my CCC's to get all kinds of cookie-tips)

Bex Deluxe Triple C's (Chocolate Chip Cookies)

I've always disliked how inundated January is with weight-loss tips and must-have exercise equipment and fitness routines and recommended healthy snacks foods. I subscribe to mostly food/cooking magazines, and the hypocrisy of January's low-fat chickpea salads with lighter dressing is made all the more nefarious by the spate of December's best Christmas cookies EVER recipes, in close-up, full-color photos that essentially force me to don aprons daily and buy butter in bulk. Those marketeers have got my number.

But there's one cookie that I make year-round, never mind the delectable December duress. A cookie I have, in all the modesty I can muster, perfected. I've picked up a few tips here and there: Heather (who can go from zero to cookies in ten minutes) first introduced me to more-brown-than-white-sugar, Morgan and Carson shared an article with invaluable cookie-baking tips, and I picked up on Adriane and Tom's tendency to refer to this great American tradition as "CCC's." These things combined, with my own quest for the perfect see-see-see, have aided in the composition (and completion) of my masterpiece.

Here are the tips that make any CCC recipe even better:

• Double the recipe. If you're going to take the time for homemade, go ahead and make a lot, because chocolate chip cookie dough freezes beautifully, and it's great to have on hand for unexpected company or a last-minute dessert. (I freeze a dozen dough-cookies per quart-sized Ziploc and feel the security that only chocolate prepearedness can bring).
  
  

• Chill the dough--it keeps it from spreading too thin when it bakes, and is part of what makes the cookie crackle beautifully.
• Lower the temperature and lengthen the time in the oven, for a softer, more chewy-gooey cookie. A good rule of thumb is to add two minutes for every 25 degrees lower.
• Always use room temperature butter, and even room temperature eggs (if you remember to set them out in advance). They'll blend better and maximize the amount of air you can whip into the dough, which makes the cookie less dense and more moist.
• Bake on aluminum, or something shiny--dark pans almost always burn the bottom of your cookies.
• I change the sugar ratio (which is usually equal parts white and brown sugar) to one part white, two parts brown--makes it a little richer. Mmmmm.
• I always add whole wheat flour, which gives the cookie some texture and substance, using the ratio one part whole wheat to two parts white (in this recipe, the whole wheat flour is slightly greater than that). Plus, (hello!) healthy!
• Add more chocolate. Duh. To quote my chocolate-worshiping father-in-law, "I want a cookie with just enough dough to hold the chocolate together." Amen.

I was going to take a picture of myself eating a Bex Deluxe cookie, but candid eating photos never look good (I'm one step behind this Facebooking generation that has somehow mastered the art of photographing oneself flatteringly), so this low-light picture will have to suffice. I added the Lego R2-D2 as a point of reference. You're welcome.

Shout out to Shanna M. for this beautiful photo!!!

PS- If you are in the mood for my other favorite CCC, try Mrs Field's recipe.

Super Soft Sugar Cookies

I just made these for the umpteenth time for Valentine's Day.  I took some plates around to my friends that I visit-teach, and made a huge batch for my kids' Valentine parties at school.  A double batch makes SEVEN DOZEN.  They go so quickly because I always forget how addictive they are: one bite and suddenly there's a pile of crumbs on my shirt and in my hair and a half dozen are missing . . .

Double batch: time to bring out the Bosch

Roll into balls just smaller than a golf ball--20 on each cookie sheet!

I think the pictures speak for themselves.  This is my go-to recipe when I need to take cookies to one of my kids' classes at school . . . or on holidays . . . or when I am craving something delectably sweet . . .

I got these pie/cupcake carriers at Wal-Mart and I LOVE them.
I use three blocks to hold up the second "tier" inside--perfect for
a second grader to carry into school.  Here is a similar product:
Cupcake / Pastry carrier

Sweet Mollie loves to help "clean up"

Sweet Calvin loves to help "clean up" . . . 

Chocolate Truffle Cookies

I am going to add photos of the finished cookies next time I make them. I don't have photos because WE EAT THEM ALL.

This is how they look rolled in cocoa and ready to bake

The original recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe says to dip the cookies in powdered sugar, but I think they are much prettier (not to mention more rich and less sugary) when you dust them with powdered sugar instead.  But maybe it's because I love any excuse to use my OXO powdered sugar wand.  It's the most fun kitchen gadget you can own.  

Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies

Last year, Allen's parents stayed with us for Christmas, and his mom asked me before they arrived if I had molasses and ground ginger on hand.  I did.  But I never guessed that these two pungent ingredients could combine to make the most heavenly Christmas confection known to man.

They are beautiful and crackly and festive.  They are soft and rich.  They are so fragrant and chewy and sweet, with the perfect hint of spice.  They may have actually TIED WITH CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES (gasp!) as my favorite cookies of all time.  In fact, these ginger molasses cookies differ specifically from CCCs in that, once I have eaten one, all I can think about is having another.  I can limit other kinds of cookies to one or two, but I feel like I never want to stop eating these.

This particular holiday treat comes with a pretty sweet story, too.  My mother-in-law clipped this recipe from her local paper years ago and everyone raved about the cookies . . . but then she somehow lost the clipping. Years later (tortured years of pining for the most-perfect-holiday-cookie-ever, no doubt) she went to the library and used the microfilm machine to look through years' worth of the Northwest Arkansas Times until she found it again.  The librarian copied it for her, and the rest is Renfroe family holiday history!

I love how Mom wrote out the triple-batch
amount to the side, which is what I put on the
recipe card below.  Go big or go home, people.

Mollie and I had so much fun making the cookies with Mom last year, made more fun by the adorable, matching, chicken-print aprons she sewed for each of us as an early Christmas present.

She gave me the recipe while she stayed with us, but then history repeated itself and I misplaced it.  Fortunately, I didn't have to use a microfilm machine--Mom just used her telephonics machine (read: iPhone 6) to snap a picture of her well-used recipe and send it to me via electronic mail . . . all taking about three seconds and zero research trips to the library.

I have made this tripled-recipe twice this December and am going for a third time tomorrow.  If you're going to make 24 dozen of any cookie during Christmas, this is the one . . .

My cookie helpers!

Brer Rabbit never tasted so good . . .

I hope we'll have some left for Santa--he might have to settle
for Oreos if we scarf through all seven dozen in the next four
days.  I wish I was kidding . . .

My house smells like Christmasy heaven . . .

Perfect cookies for large family / social / holiday functions!

Gluten Freebies

The best gluten-free dessert money can buy you can make at home.

"Swig" Sugar Cookies

Swig.  It's the name of the number one drink stop in St. George, Utah, which does land-office, drive-through business, year-round.

Swig has two locations in St. George

Here is a sweet article about how the drinks-and-treats shop opened.  Below is an even sweeter treat: their unbelievably delicious sugar cookie recipe, which I got from my bestest friend, Cori.  They are different than my super-soft sugar cookies, but just as good as!  My husband says he likes these ones better.  But my eight-year-old Brigham says, "I like the puffy soft ones."  Both are delicious--you decide.

The dough is easy to mix and not sticky at all

I love using my favorite milk glass (the one that looks like it came
from a Slimfast commerical) to press sugar down on the dough balls

  The signature way to enjoy a Swig cookie is a cold-from-the-fridge cookie that is frosted with room-temperature frosting, just before eating.  Since this frosting has a fourth-cup of milk in it, it's a bit smoother than other frosting recipes.  I wouldn't call it "runny"--but it's definitely not thick.  The hint of salt in the cookie, on the cookie, and in the frosting are (I think) what make the cookie so darn addictively delicious.  The first time I made these, we had all four dozen eaten within a 16-hour period.  Shameless.

Truman's No-Bake Cookies

No-bake cookies are the perfect "first cookie" for your kids to learn to make.  My son, Truman, actually learned to make these in his second grade class, with teacher par excellence, Mrs. Williams.  He came home with the recipe and couldn't wait to try it out.

Two years later, it's still his favorite thing to make.

What a handsome ten-year-old!

Frozen Banana Ice Cream Sandwiches

Hello, yumminess.  Original and delicious dessert.  Perfect for summer entertaining!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

A fabulous new recipe from my friend Melanie, mistress o' cookies!  Seriously, she inspires me to get out of my chocolate-chip zone . . . every cookie she's made for me has been reduced to crumbs in seconds.  If you like cream cheese, or chocolate, or cookies, or cake . . . then look no further.  This recipe is your new best friend.  I think the picture speaks for itself.

Soft Peanut Butter Cookies

I had to do a recipe card makeover before I posted pictures of these peanut butter cookies.  Here is the old card:

This is the old card--scroll down for the new and improved

I don't like using color pictures if I can avoid it--I don't know why I used an actual photograph on this original recipe card.  Or either of those fonts.  If you're like me, you can't afford to buy a new color printer cartridge every month.  Plus, I think black and white on a recipe card looks more authentically vintage.

I got this recipe years ago from the Martha Stewart website, and these cookies turn out perfectly every time--I've never had a batch that wasn't soft and delicious.  If you dip your fork in warm water before pressing each cookie, it won't ever stick and makes the perfect cross-hatch top.

(By the way, I love the tablecloth in the above photo--it used to be Allen's Grandmother's and I think it is so pretty and feminine.  Vintage linens are some of my favorite things to look at when I go to my local thrift store.)

And here is the new recipe card.  Much better, don't you think?

Kolachke: Glazed Polish Pastry

Five ingredients and some frosting, and you've got the most delicious, flaky pastry you've ever had. These kolachkes (pronounced KOH*lawch*kuh) are a cinch to whip up and look really pretty after they've baked.

*Variation: make a slight indent with your thumb in the center of each "cookie" before you let them rise. After they've baked, fill the indent with a teaspoon of your favorite jam, a slice of strawberry, or a chunk of apple pie filling before drizzling glaze over the top.

Klejner

This is the biggest food tradition of my husband's family, right along with their other Danish food: aebleskiver. At Christmas time, my mother-in-law has several tins filled with these yummy fried treats--the love child of a cookie and a doughnut. How can you go wrong?