Essential Cookie Recipes

By Kathleen Little

If you’re anything like me, your to-do sheet is about as long as Santa’s naughty list and you could use a few shortcuts. Delegate the cleaning and wrapping to someone else, but don’t skip the baking! With cookie recipes this easy there’s no stress involved. The dough can be frozen and made in small batches as time allows or easily baked all at once. Also, all of the recipes have the same cooking temperature, making it possible to make more than one variety at a time. 

Traditional Cookie Dough Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups of all-purpose flour

1/3 cup of white granulated sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp of baking soda

½ tsp of salt

2 tsp of vanilla extract

1 cup of unsalted, softened butter (2 sticks)

1 large egg

This dough is used for both the chocolate chip and the white chocolate macadamia cookies.

Just choose your preference. 

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Or…

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

1 1/3 cups of white chocolate morsels or white baking chips

2/3 cup of crushed macadamia nuts

Instructions:

1. Mix flour, white sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, vanilla extract, butter, and egg thoroughly to a gritty, wet consistency. 

***Cocoa powder is added and mixed in at this point if you’re preparing the peanut buttery chocolate cookies***

2. Add your chosen morsels and/or nuts to the mixture and stir until evenly distributed. 

3. Place the finished dough into the refrigerator for at least two hours in order to chill and marry. 

4. Roll chilled dough into tablespoon-sized balls. 

5. Distribute the dough balls onto parchment-lied cookie sheets, allowing about an inch and a half of space between each ball.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 9 -11 minutes. It is best to babysit your first batch. Sometimes the cookies take 8 minutes. Sometimes 12. 

Avoid over-cooking! 

7. Remove the sheets from the oven once the cookies have developed a light golden color. Allow them to rest on the sheets for a few minutes before transferring them to cookie racks to cool. 

Peanut Buttery Chocolate 

Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup of all-purpose flour

1 cup of white sugar

1/3 cup of cocoa powder

½ tsp of salt

½ tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1 egg

2/3 cup of unsalted butter (roughly 1 1/3 sticks) 

2/3 cup of peanut butter chips

Instructions:

1. Follow the same directions as the other cookie dough recipe, adding your cocoa powder where you see the *** symbols and using peanut butter chips as your preferred morsel. My only suggestion would be to take extra care not to burn your cookies since the dough is already so dark in color. 

As always, I ask you to be creative, substitute ingredients, make mistakes, throw food, have fun, and try to share your baking experience with loved ones. This may be an anxiety-fueled time of the year, but allow this one simple chore to fill you with cheer. 

From my kitchen to yours, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and eat well, friends!