Cookies cookies cookies!

Back left = Ricotta Cheese cookies with frosting & sprinkles

Front = Ricotta Cheese Cookies with sprinkles only

Back Center = Chocolate Sugar Cookies with sprinkles

Back right = Grape Jello Spritz cookies with sprinkles

There you have my weekend 🙂 Chocolate cookies done Saturday and the rest Sunday.

RECIPES:

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Courtesy of Blue Flowers and Folly it is apparently a family recipe and it is a must have for any chocoholic. Not too sweet at all. And if you are sensitive to the caffeine in chocolate? (ahem, as I found out the hard way) don’t eat these after dinner! Rolling them in sugar/sprinkles gives them a nice thin crunchy outer layer and the center is gooey heaven.

• 4 Squares (4-oz) Bakers Unsweetened Dark Chocolate
• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1+ tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• additional sugar and colorful sprinkles to coat

1. Use a large microwavable bowl from start to finish. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Microwave chocolate with butter on high for 2+ minutes or until butter is melted. Keep stirring the butter/chocolate mix until the chocolate is fully melted.

2. Stir in 1 cup sugar until well blended (note: I just use a wooden spoon for these cookies – no mixer, but I assume a mixer on low for all steps would be fine. No whipping is needed).

3. Stir in egg and vanilla.

4. Mix in flour, baking soda and salt and stir until a nice dough is created.

5. Chill dough in refrigerator for 30 mins. Shape into 1″ balls and roll in extra sugar/sprinkles. Place on parchment paper on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 8 minutes. Remove and cool. Makes close to 2-3 dozen depending on how you roll them!

RICOTTA CHEESE COOKIES

Yes, these are a repeat from last year and they are on my Recipe Page. Such a hit with peeps at work and with Sports Boy (ok, I kinda like them too!) that I had to keep them in rotation this year. Again, these are not overly sweet. The ricotta cuts the sugar and makes this a ridiculously moist cookie. Add sugar sprinkles or frosting to sweeten if desired. Posting the recipe again with a few tips & tricks this time.

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter – softened
• 1 15oz container ricotta cheese
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 4 cups flour
• 2 tbl baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• sprinkles & cream cheese frosting (we like Pillsbury vanilla or basic white)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl with mixer at low speed, beat sugar & butter until blended. Increase speed to high and beat until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). At medium speed, beat in ricotta, vanilla and eggs until well combined.

2. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add flour, baking powder & salt and beat until a dough forms. It will be a gooey dough.

3. Drop dough by level tablespoons about 2 inches apart on parchment paper on an ungreased cookie sheet. They don’t spread too much and you can easily fit 12 on a large cookie sheet. Use a butter knife or thin spatula to scoop dough out of spoon then use spatula to gently smooth the surface edges of the dough on the sheet. Sprinkle with colored sugar sprinkles if using them. Bake 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden. Cookies will be SOFT. If frosting them, let them cool first. Makes up to 4 dozen.

Beware! This is some of the best raw dough ever 😉 I made two batches this year – once last weekend in preparation for a neighborhood cookie party and then the batch this weekend for work. Pretty sure SB and I ate enough dough off the mixer blades & such to cover another dozen. Bad for you yeah…but oh so GOOD!

JELLO SPRITZ COOKIES

These came from PA mom last year and I’m finally making them. I tried black cherry last weekend and grape this weekend. SB did not like the cherry, but we should have suspected he would not since he generally doesn’t like cherry flavoring. So he chose grape for this weekend. Now, I liked the cherry plenty fine, BUT, I must say that the grape is even better! Now I want to try strawberry and blue raspberry. Ack! I may be baking for beyond Christmas 🙂 The thing is that the jello flavor does come through quite strong so do make sure and pick a flavor you will like. My problem is that the recipe calls for a small, 3oz pack of jello mix but my store only had the larger 6 oz packets which I simply split in half but that means I still have two small packets of cherry & grape in the cupboard to use before I should buy more.

• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups butter – softened
• 1 (3 oz) package of fruit flavored jello mix
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• additional sugar and/or sugar sprinkles
  

1. Cream butter, sugar and jello mix. Add egg & vanilla. Beat well. Gradually add flour and baking powder. Blend at low speed until smooth.

2. Refrigerate for 30 mins or until dough is firm. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

3. Roll into balls, then roll the balls into sugar/sprinkles. Place on parchment paper on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 8 minutes. Makes 4 dozen easily!

You’ll notice I’m addicted to parchment paper 🙂 Makes cleanup so easy AND since I only have one really nice cookie sheet it allows me to just remove the paper with cookies fresh out of the oven onto the counter to cool and then lay another piece on the sheet and get right back into dropping cookies on the pan.

Let me know if you try these out and if you come up with a good tips or variations!