food stuffs

I made these cookies yesterday, and even calculated the Weight Watchers points for them! As before, let me know if you try them and how they worked out for you! I’m working on figuring out how to best present my recipes, so bear with me as I try different formats!

POINTS® Value: 2
Servings: 36

Preparation Time: 20 min
Cooking Time: 12 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients
1/2 pound unsalted butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon mint extract
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/8 teaspoon table salt, pinch
2 Tablespoon milk

Instructions
Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer, then add the egg. Beat until combined thoroughly, scraping the sides of the bowl.

In another bowl, mix the flour, salt, cocoa, and baking powder. Slowly add the dry mix to the butter mixture, adding the milk so it can be well combined.

Roll out into 1/8-1/4 in sheets or into a log to refrigerate. Refrigerate for 2 hours or up to 2 days.

Use a cookie cutter or knife to cut cookies. Cookies should be between 1/8 in to 1/4 in thick. Place on a cookie sheet (preferably on parchment paper) evenly spaced, and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on the sheet for 2 minutes, then place on a cooling rack.

While I wait for butter to soften for my next cookie experiment, I thought I’d share one of my recent experiments. My recipe was adapted from Mark Bittman’s Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies in How to Cook Everything.

1/2 pound unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups extra bittersweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli’s 72% for Baking, which are large chips)
1 oz baker’s chocolate
1 oz extra bittersweet chocolate chips
about 1 cup of brandy to cover cherries (reserve liquid after soaking)
1 cup dried cherries

Oven 375˚F

Put dried cherries in a bowl, add brandy enough to cover, set aside to soak.

Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer, then add the eggs one at a time and beat until well blended

Mix flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Melt the bakers chocolate and 1 oz of the extra bittersweet chocolate. Next add the dry ingredients to the eggs, butter and sugar, beating a bit, then adding the vanilla and the melted chocolate. After everything has been well beaten together, strain the cherries and reserve the brandy liquid. Add the cherries to the mixture with two tablespoons of the brandy that they soaked in. Finally, stir in the chips.

Use two spoons to scoop out about a table spoon of cookie dough on a baking sheet. I highly recommend parchment paper if you have it! Bake for 10 minutes until lightly brown. Cool on racks for 2-3 minutes and store in a cookie tin or plastic sealed container for no more than 2 days.

Let me know if you try this and if it works for you!