Category Archives: Cookie

Salted Caramel Brownie Cookies

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Ok, to say that I have been obsessed with salted caramel over the past several months would be an understatement. I think about it, I dream about it, I want it all the time! I love the sweet taste of caramel with the distinct saltiness of sea salt at the end. I love the sweet and savory! I want it on cupcakes, custards, yogurts, milkshakes, breads, treats, you name it!

So, this cookie turned into a little salted caramel, chocolate, heaven on earth type dessert. Chewy brownie cookies with a creamy, salted caramel filling, I could die right now and be just fine! It happens to be the best thing that I have tasted in a long time. I tested it out on my Dad and my husband and both said,”winner!” And since I am in such a giving mood, I want you to have it, too!

Salted Caramel Brownie Cookies 

For the Cookie:

  • 12 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
  • 3 Tablespoons butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼  cup flour, sifted
  • ¼  teaspoon baking powder, sifted

For the salted caramel creme filling

  • 1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • ¼ cup caramel sauce (I used Nestle’s La Lechera-Dulce de Leche)
  • ½  teaspoon sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place butter in a saucepan over low heat and gently stir until melted. Add 7 ounces of chocolate and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a stand up mixer, combine, eggs, sugar and vanilla and beat for 15 minutes or until pale and creamy. (The extreme beating gives this cookie its great texture! So set your timer!) Add in flour, baking powder, melted chocolate mixture, remaining 5 ounces of chocolate and mix just to combine. (Don’t over mix.)  Chill batter for 10 minutes. Dough should still be slightly gooey, but not watery.

Spoon 2 tablespoonful of the mixture, onto parchment lined jelly roll pan. Bake for 8–10 minutes or until puffed and cracked. Allow to cool completely on pans before transferring to a wire rack.

Caramel creme filling and assembly:

Place butter in a bowl and beat until fluffy., about 4 minutes. Mix in powdered sugar and salt, add in caramel and beat until smooth and creamy.

Spread or pipe the frosting in between two cookies. Sandwich them together.

Yields 12 large cookies

Stacey’s Meltaway Cookies

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Well, the school year has started again and so that means that HOT COOKIE MONDAY has started again as well.  For those of you who are new to our little blog, “Hot Cookie Monday” is a tradition we came up with to help our families get through the dreaded first day of the work/school week.  Here at Lucy Janes Best, we LOVE cookies!  Every kind, every variety, every flavor!  From simple to fancy, we love them all!  Now we don’t know about all of you, but after a fun weekend spent doing whatever we want, Monday is quite the downer.  So this tradition gives us something good to look forward to at the end of the day.  Our families know that after school, right around 3:00, EVERY MONDAY,  there will be hot, fresh, homemade cookies coming out of the oven.  A good little pick me up, don’t you think?  In fact, our tradition has become so well known around our circle of influence, that it’s not uncommon to get a few neighborhood drop in visitors.  They all know to show up at 3:00 and cookies will be shared and enjoyed by all!  So, if you start this tradition for your family, be sure to make a double batch every time… it doesn’t take long for the word to get out!

Over the past year we’ve made lots of yummy cookies and shared the recipes for you to enjoy.  Here’s the links so you can jump start your Hot Cookie Mondays: Brown Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, Lemon Crinkles, Toasted Coconut Thumbprints with Salted Caramel Cookies, No Bake Cookies, Lemon Coconut Cookies, Robert’s Chocolate Cookies, Double Peanut Butter Blossoms, Gingerbread Boys, Cornstarch Cookies, Homemaade Oreos, Double Chocolate Peppermint Surprise Cookies, Rolo Cookies, Pumpkin Chcolate Chip Cookies, Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies, Monster Cookies, Brownie Cookies, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies,  & Chocolate Crinkles!

That ought to get you through to the new year and beyond, but don’t worry, we’ll keep posting our favorite cookie recipes, so you’ll have plenty to choose from.  This week we made Stacey’s Meltaway Cookies.  They are easy to make, to die for, deliciousness!  When word got out that these were on the menu last Monday I had 5 drop ins… including one from Stacey herself!  Nothing better than getting a few of your own favorite cookie without having to make them yourself, right?  Thanks Stacey for this yummy recipe!

Stacey’s Meltaway Cookies

  • 2 sticks butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 cup flour
  • pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In an electric mixer, mix all ingredients together until well combined.  It will take a few minutes for the ingredients to come together; just turn the mixer on medium and let it work until everything is combined.  Using a small cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, then flatten each cookie slightly.

Bake 10 minutes, cookies will not brown, do not over cook.  Let cool 5 minutes on cookie sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  Frost and serve.

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 Tablespoons milk

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and cream cheese.  Add powdered sugar and mix to combine.  Add vanilla and mix.  Add milk until frosting reaches desired consistency.

Brown Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

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My favorite dessert is chocolate chip cookies. Yes, I know, not very original or daring, but I have always loved them more than anything! I have tried all sorts of chocolate chip cookie recipes and even made up a few of my own. So now it’s time to try the brown butter approach. These cookies are fantastic! And browning the butter is so easy! The smell of the butter will have you salivating before you’ve even made the batter. Yum! My one tip is to make sure not to burn the butter! It should be a nice amber color:

To brown the butter, simply put butter in a saucepan on a medium heat and stir with a wire whisk. After about 4 minutes it should look like the above picture.

BROWN BUTTER OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

  • 
1 cup butter, melted and browned
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 3/4 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir with a wire whisk often to make sure the butters solids will brown evenly as they drop to the bottom of the pan. Once browned, set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. In a stand up mixer, add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and browned butter together. Mix together for two minutes. The mixture will be grainy. (Can you smell that Browned butter?!?!) Add the egg and egg yolk and mix well. Mix in the vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated. Use a spatula to fold in the oatmeal and chocolate chips.  The dough will be dense compared to chocolate chip cookies recipes that use the step of creaming butter with the sugar. Use a cookie scoop and place dough on parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Lemon Crinkles

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Lemon Crinkles. I had never had one of these before. But it just so happened that a friend gave me a whole lot of lemons that needed to be used up. I love cookies. I love lemons. This seemed like a no brainer. This Lemon Crinkle recipe happens to be the winner of the LDSLiving.com 2011 cookie contest. The original recipe is posted here. I just tweaked slightly. And for the record, these are great! Chewy, sweet, tangy! I doubled the recipe and made them the size of a typical chocolate chip cookie. Delish!

Lemon Crinkles

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 2 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. (about 4 minutes) Add in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a shallow dish. Roll a heaping Tablespoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Look what I’m making today… Sugar Cookie Perfection

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This is a picture of our famous, light and fluffy sugar cookies.  Emily and I both make these as a regular item on our catering services.  We get hundreds of orders for these all year long.  They are ridiculously popular with our clients.  They are sugar cookie perfection!

So, I’m making some for my handsome nephew’s Eagle Court of Honor tonight.  They are his favorite, so I can’t disappoint by showing up with anything less.  He has worked so hard to achieve this huge goal, and we are so proud!!!!  The sugar cookies shall be his!

Unfortunately for all of you out there in “web land”, Emily and I have decided that this recipe, among others, will be saved only for our cookbook.  We have to keep you guessing, and we have to let you know that some of the VERY BEST recipes will only be available in our book.  But I just couldn’t resist putting up some pictures… maybe try to tempt you a little…

Stay tuned, the book will be coming out soon.  We are hard at work, and getting really excited to get it released!

Toasted Coconut Thumbprint Cookies with Salted Caramel

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I cannot tell a lie.  This recipe comes from the queen, Martha Stewart.  It has been floating around on pinterest for a while now and I’ve always looked at it and thought, “hmmm, maybe I’ll try those.”  Then one day, my fabulous friend, Stacey, showed up at my door with a plate full of these in her hands!  They are so yummy.  And so worth the little bit of extra effort it take s to make them.  I served them at an event my mom and I catered in San Francisco the other night and they were a huge hit!

Toasted coconut Thumbprint Cookies with Salted Caramel

  • 3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • Table salt
  • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 12 ounces sweetened flaked coconut
  • 44 small soft caramel candies (12 ounces), such as Kraft
  • 6 tablespoons heavy cream
  • Large, flaky sea salt, such as Maldon
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together butter and sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. With mixer on low, gradually add flour and 1/2 teaspoon table salt, and beat to combine.Press dough together in plastic wrap, then roll into 1 1/4-inch balls.

    ( I skipped that last part and just used my small cookie scoop to create the dough balls, straight out of the mixing bowl, it worked just fine.  I’m all about finding an easier way.  I also scooped all my balls into a separate mixing bowl so that once the dipping began, I wouldn’t have to be trying to scoop balls again.  See picture below)

    Dip each ball in beaten egg, and roll in coconut.

    Place balls on parchment-lined baking sheets, and press an indentation into each with your thumb.

    Bake for 10 minutes, then remove sheets from oven, and re-press indentations.

    Bake cookies until golden, 9 to 10 minutes more. Let cool on wire racks.

  2. Place caramels and heavy cream in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the caramels are melted and mixture is smooth, 4 to 6 minutes.Spoon into indentations in cookies, and sprinkle with sea salt.

    Rewarm caramel if it hardens before all cookies are filled.

    ENJOY!

No Bake Cookies (with Agave Nectar)

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The No Bake Cookie. The easiest cookie to make known to man, right? Since we had such a huge response with the Homemade Luna Bars (sweetened with agave nectar), I thought we would give the agave another shake with these delicious no bake cookies. I am by no means claiming these to be “healthy.” But agave is such is a good alternative to white sugar. Agave does not give your blood a spike and then crash like a good dose of white sugar will do. That really appeals to me since I have a 3 and a 5 year old who are sugaraholics. (Love to deal with them 15 minutes after eating a popsicle) Aren’t those sugar crashes fun? Agave Nectar can also be a good source for iron, soluble fiber, and calcium. While I am no expert on agave, I do have to say that it seems to be a “healthier” choice than white sugar and I will try to use it more often!

No Bake Cookies 

  • 3/4 cup agave nectar
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup chunky peanut butter (I also have used creamy)
  • 3 – 3 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • pinch of salt

Put rolled oats in a medium sized mixing bowl and set aside. In a medium sauce pan on medium heat, mix agave nectar and cocoa. Add milk and butter. Stir constantly over medium heat, and bring to a boil. Boil for one minute. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter, vanilla, salt. Poor chocolate mixture over rolled oats. Stir until combined. If mixture is too runny, add more oats. Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Put in the fridge for about 30 minutes to let cookies set. Yields about 18 one inch cookies.

Day 7 of LJB Cookie Week… Coconut Lemon Snowflake Cookies

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These yummy little gems came to us just this season.  We tried this recipe and fell in love!  We love that they are a rolled cookie; doesn’t the snowflake shape just make it so festive?  And we love the texture of the coconut paired with the tang of the lemon.  Delish!!!

 

Coconut Lemon Snowflake Cookies

 

  • 2 ½ cups flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • 2 sticks , plus 5 Tablespoons butter at room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon coconut extract
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 2/3 cups powdered sugar
  • 4 Tablespoon half and half
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons lemon zest
  • white sparkling sugar, for decoration
  • 1 cup shredded coconut

Using an electric mixer, cream 11 Tablespoons butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add eggs, and extracts, scraping the bowl and beat for 2 minutes.  Mix in the dry ingredients.

Divide the dough evenly between to pieces of plastic wrap.  Shape into 2 disks, seal and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, beat the remaining 10 tablespoons butter, salt, powdered sugar, half and half, lemon juice and lemon zest.  Beat on high for 2 minutes, until fluffy.  Cover and chill the filling.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

When dough is ready, roll out on floured surface to 1/8” thick, and cut with snowflake cookie cutter.  Transfer to parchment lined cookies sheet.  Sprinkle each cookie with sparkling sugar and bake for 8 minutes.

Transfer to cooling rack and let cool.  Spread the bottom each cookie with 1 teaspoon of the filling.  Use your finger to press the coconut onto one side of the sandwich then add another cookie to create entire sandwich.

Chill 30 minutes to set filling.

Day 6 of LJB Cookie Week… Robert’s Chocolate Cookies!

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This recipe cracks me up every time I make it, because I don’t know who Robert is!  I was given this recipe by one of my Mom’s best friends, Karen, who is a fabulous cook and an excellent cookie maker.  The title was “Robert’s Chocolate Cookies” and remains that to this day.  Even though I probably could rename it to something like “Chocolate Decadence Cookies” or “Devine Chocolate Cookies”, I just can’t… like I said, because it continues to rouse a chuckle when I pull out the recipe.  So, thank you Robert, whoever you are… from one chocolaholic to another… thank you for this delicious recipe!!!!

 

Robert’s Chocolate Cookies

 

  • 6 ounces unsweetened premium quality baking chocolate (I use Guittard)
  • 4 ounces semi-sweet premium quality chips (Guittard again)
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • ¼ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2 large eggs at room temperature
  • 1 1/3 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2  teaspoons Starbucks VIA finely ground coffee  (a little less than an envelope)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • ½ cup walnut pieces (optional)

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

 

Place unsweetened chocolate and butter in microwave safe bowl and melt together and 30 second intervals, stirring at each interval until melted.  Set aside.

 

In small bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.

 

With electric mixer, beat eggs, sugar, coffee and vanilla until pale and thick (about5 minutes).  By hand, stir in chocolate mixture, using a rubber spatula.  Then gently stir in the flour mixture, followed by the chocolate chips and nuts.  Cover and refrigerate till firm (one hour or up to 4 days)

 

Drop level tablespoons (I use a small cookie scoop) onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 8-12 minutes, until cookies are puffed, dry and cracked on the surface, but soft and gooey within.

Day 5 of LJB Cookie Week… Double Peanut Butter Blossoms

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We’ve mentioned several times that we love cookies here at LJB, but have we also mentioned that we love peanut butter… and we love chocolate.  So, this cookie is always a favorite of ours because it’s peanut butter and it’s chocolate and it’s candy.  Is there anything better than that?  I submit there is not!!!!

This is an oldie but a goodie, meaning that we’ve been making these for as long as I can remember and I still love them everytime I make them!  Hope you do too!

Double Peanut Butter Blossoms

  • 1 ¾ cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup light brown sugar
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ½ cup shortening
  • 1 egg
  • ½ cup peanut butter
  • 2 Tablespoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 36 miniature peanut butter cups, wrappers removed & chilled

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

With an electric mixer in a medium bowl, combine the shortening and the sugars.  Add the egg, peanut butter, vanilla, and milk.  Mix to combine.  Add all the dry ingredients and mix to combine.

Shape dough into walnut sized balls (I use a small cookie scoop to do this) and roll in sugar.  (I don’t like to roll the sticky balls in sugar, I’m just lazy like that,  so I just sprinkle with the sugar after I have them on the baking sheet.) Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until bottoms are golden.

Remove from oven and immediately press one peanut butter cup in the center of each cookie.  Let cool and serve.

*** You can also use Hershey Kisses for the candy.  I just prefer the peanut butter cups, because I’m a peanut butter-aholic!

For other cookies with candy in them, check out our Double Chocolate Peppermint Surprise cookies, or our Rolo Cookies

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