When we went home for Fathers’ Day, my mother-in-law showed me a new cookbook her friend lent her: Six Sisters’ Stuff. I took one look at their picture and knew they had to be from Utah, based on their hairdos. On the fly of the book, sure enough, it said they were raised in Utah. I don’t know if I should be proud or embarrassed to be so familiar with Utah hairdos.

I picked a couple of recipes, looked them up online on my phone and told my mother-in-law I didn’t need to write the recipes down because they were all online. She was amazed and even told her friend who lent her the book that I could find the recipes online. They were really impressed.

It was my daughter-in-law, Elizabeth’s idea to try these this week. She recommended that we bake up some with semi-sweet chocolate chips rather than the white chips. It was a great idea but she liked the white chips better. They are very buttery!

Recipe By:

Six Sister’s Stuff

Yield:

32

Ingredients:

2½ cups all purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ easpoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons orange zest (for me that was the zest of 2 oranges)
2 cups white chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla until smooth.

4. Gradually stir in flour mixture until combined.

5. Stir in orange zest and white chocolate chips.

6. Drop 2 tablespoon balls of dough onto cookie sheets that are ungreased or lined with parchment. Bake 8 – 10 minutes or until golden brown around edges. Do not overcook! Cookies will be plump. Cool for several minutes on cookie sheets before transferring to rack to cool completely.

Here is a little recipe I came up with this morning. The marshmallows melt and caramelize as they bake.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup instant coffee granules

2 tablespoons hot water

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup butter, softened

1 ¼ cups white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 cups miniature marshmallows

 Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Dissolve coffee in 2 tablespoons hot water. Set aside.

3.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

4. Beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer at a medium to high speed until fluffy.

5. Stir coffee, vanilla and eggs into butter mixture. Mix well.

6. Reduce speed to low and slowly pour flour mixture into the butter mixture. Mix just until combined.

7. Fold in chocolate chips and marshmallows.

8. Drop dough by 2 tablespoon cookie scoop onto an ungreased or parchment-lined cookie sheet.

9. Bake about 10 minutes.

Hilary was here this week and we came up with these, a variation of one of her favorites. Baking them slowly helps preserve that chewy texture you might want in a cookie with caramel sauce in it.

Recipe from:

Hilary, The EQOTW

Serving Size:

40

Ingredients:

3 ½ cups flour, 15.75 oz

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon soda

½ teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup butter, at room temperature

2 cups brown sugar

⅔ cup sugar

2 large eggs

¾ cup caramel sauce

4 teaspoons vanilla

2½ cups oats

3 cups chocolate chips

2 cups unsweetened coconut, toasted * SEE NOTE

 Directions:

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Combine flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and set aside.

3. Whip butter and sugars.

4. Stir in eggs, caramel sauce and vanilla.

5. Blend in flour mixture until just combined.

6. Stir in oats, chocolate chips and coconut.

7. Bake about 18 minutes or until the edges and bottoms are just turning light brown.

Note:

Spread coconut onto baking sheet. Bake at 250 degrees for five minutes. Remove from oven, stir and return to oven. Repeat until coconut is toasted and aromatic. Don’t over-brown.

It is fresh cherry season here.

After peaches, this is my favorite fruit. I am not a great fan of cake mix cookies but I have at least one in my list that is one of my family’s favorites.

http://badtadmd.com/chocolate-cake-mix-chocolate-cookies/

That helped me have a good attitude towards trying this one. A couple of people who tried them said they reminded them of scones.

Recipe By:

Raley’s/Nob Hill

Yield:

24

Ingredients:

½ cup butter, melted
¼ cup flour
2 eggs
1 box lemon cake mix, 16 ounces
¾ cup white chocolate chips
⅔ cup unsweetened fine shredded coconut, toasted *SEE NOTE
1 cup fresh cherries, pitted and quartered

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Stir together butter, flour, eggs and cake mix in a medium bowl.

3. Stir in chocolate chips and coconut.

4. Lightly mix in cherries.

5. Scoop 2 tablespoon balls of dough onto baking sheets.

6. Flatten gently with bottom of a drinking glass, smeared with butter then dipped in sugar. Redip in sugar before flattening each dough ball.

7. Bake 13 to 15 minutes or until cookies are set in the center and just browning around the edges.

8. Let cool on baking sheets, then store in an airtight container.

Note:

* Heat oven to 250 degrees. Spread coconut on baking sheet. Bake for five minutes. Stir and return to oven. Repeat every five minutes until lightly browned and fragrent.

I had some more of those left-over Easter caramel-filled eggs and some toffee chips. I decided to clean up the cupboards a little by putting them into a cookie. I chose the $250 Cookie, which I made according to the recipe, then threw in my extra candy in place of the Hershey Bar. This is part of the fun of baking cookies, you really can try different things to see what turns out.

 When I was baking at our church girls’ camp, we ran out of white sugar at the end of the week so I made Snickerdoodles with all brown sugar. I thought they were great. This time, I did the same but substituted browned butter for regular butter and shortening in the original recipe. This results in a very interesting and rich flavor like no ordinary Snickerdoodle.

Adapted from recipe by:

Peg, a nurse I worked with  in Dothan, Alabama

Yield:

30

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 ½ cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2¾ cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Heat butter in light colored skillet, swirling constantly, until dark golden brown and has a nutty aroma. Set aside to cool.

3. Cream together:  butter, brown sugar and eggs.

4. In a separate bowl, mix together:  flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.

5. Blend both mixtures together.

6. Form into balls and roll in cinnamon sugar.* SEE NOTES

7. Bake for 8-9 minutes.

Notes:

* ¼ cup sugar to 1 tablespoon cinnamon

** Alternative: Added 3 tablespoons lemon zest to cookie dough. Skip the sugar-cinnamon. When cookies are cool, glaze with 1½ cups powdered sugar mixed with ¼ cup lemon juice.

This spring, we went to Patagonia to celebrate our thirty-fifth anniversary. While we were there, we discovered alfajores* (all-fah-HOR-es.) This week I tried for the first time to make them and they turned out really fun. The cookies are very easy to make and, if you buy the dulce de leche rather than make it, as I did, and you skip dipping them in milk chocolate, as I did, they are really easy to make and very tasty.

Recipe By:

All over the Internet

Ingredients:

1 cup cornstarch
¾ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
⅓ cup granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon pisco or brandy** SEE NOTES
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup dulce de leche, at room temperature
Powdered sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Place cornstarch, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk briefly to combine. Set aside.

2. Place butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl once with a rubber spatula, until the mixture is light in color and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg yolks, pisco or brandy, and vanilla. Mix until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. On low speed, gradually add the reserved flour mixture and mix until just incorporated with no visible white pockets, about 30 seconds.

3. Turn dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Shape it into a smooth disk. Wrap it tightly. Place in  refrigerator until firm, at least 1 hour.

4. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

5. Remove  dough from the refrigerator. Unwrap it. Place it on a lightly floured work surface. Lightly flour the top of the dough. Roll to 1/4-inch thickness (the dough will crack but can be easily patched back together). Stamp out 24 rounds using a plain or fluted 2-inch round cutter, rerolling the dough as necessary until all of it is gone.

6. Place  cookies on  prepared baking sheets, at least ½ inch apart. Bake 1 sheet at a time until the cookies are firm and pale golden on the bottom, about 12 to 14 minutes. (The cookies will remain pale on top.) Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

This is where I dipped them in tempered milk chocolate. Some I dipped the bottom cookie and sprinkled the top with powdered sugar, others I dipped both cookies.

7. Flip half of the cookies upside down and gently spread about 2 teaspoons of the dulce de leche on each. Place a second cookie on top and gently press to create a sandwich. Dust generously with powdered sugar before serving.

Notes:

* Alfajores are cookies we ate in Chile. I understand they are common in other South American countries as well. The cookies are basically short bread cookies made softer and crumblier by adding corn starch. They are usually sandwiches filled with dulce de leche, which is sweetened, condensed milk cooked until it thickens and turns a rich, dark brown color. You can buy it or, if you want to make your own, you can find recipes on line. In fact, I saw one posting entitled, “8 Ways to Make Dulce de Leche.”

** I had no pisco or brandy so I just left this out. When in Chile, we ate one type of alfajor that tasted like booze and we didn’t enjoy it as much as we did the others, so I don’t think we missed anything by leaving it out.

Anyone following the cookie recipes in my blog will know that an unusual ingredient is the most likely thing to get me to try a new recipe. The other night, LA, one of our emergency doctors, challenged me to come up with ube cookies. At first blush, this seemed crazy but when I went to the Internet, I was able to find several possible recipes to try.

One of the biggest challenges I had was coming up with the ingredients. Most of us have never even heard of ube. It is a yam that is amazingly purple, colored like a beet. It is very popular in the Philippines. The first time I heard of it, was when I ate ice cream made out of it. Naturally purple and very tasty.

This is the kind of recipe that you will only be able to try if you live somewhere with lots of Filipinos or you are willing to go online and have ube jam and ube flavoring sent to you.

I have made chocolate crinkle cookies many times so the idea of a bright purple crinkle cookie really grabbed me. This is fun cookie baking and eating!

Recipe By:

bakehappy.net

Yield:

30 cookies

Directions:

3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cups ube jam / halaya,  *SEE NOTES
2 teaspoons ube flavoring,  **SEE NOTES
2 cups powdered sugar ***SEE NOTES

Directions:

1. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.

3. Beat in eggs.

4. Beat in ube jam and ube flavoring.

5. Gradually stir in dry ingredients.

6. Cover bowl with cling wrap and chill for 4 hours or overnight.**** SEE NOTES

7. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

8. Scoop 2 tablespoon balls of dough with an ice cream scoop. Roll dough balls in powdered sugar. Arrange baking sheets covered with parchment.

9. Bake about 14 minutes until just set. Of course, as in all cookies, don’t over-bake.

Notes:

* Original recipe called for Ube Jam from Mountain Maid Training Center. It is made with ube and sugar but also milk. If you Google “ube jam,” you come up with recipes that mostly contain milk and butter and are more like pudding than jam, like we would put on toast. The jam I bought at Seafood City, my local Filipino market, has just ube and sugar. That is what I used for these cookies.

** When I first saw “ube flavoring” in this recipe, I thought, “Oh, sure.” But, sure enough, at Seafood City, they had McCormick Ube Flavoring. Amazing from my white American perspective.

*** I alway sift my powdered sugar. I just like it better without lumps.

The original name of this cookie was Chewy Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Oatmeal Cookies with Semolina Flour. That name is too long and they are not at all what I would call a “chewy” cookie. I would call them “crunchy” from the  texture that comes from the semolina. The dough is smooth and fun to work with and the cookies are soft.

Source:

Adapted from myjerusalemkitchen.com

Yield:

21

Ingredients:

1 cup semolina flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
¾ cup peanut butter *see note
¾ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
½ cup rolled oats
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1.  Heat oven to 350 F.

2. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

3. Whisk together semolina flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

4. Cream together butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and vanilla.

5. Beat in egg.

6. Beat in semolina flour mixture until just combined.

7. Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

8. Scoop 2 tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake 13-18 minutes until set and edges and bottoms are golden brown. I would usually not cook cookies that long, but it may be needed for this recipe.

Note:

When we got married, 35 years ago, I came from a “smooth” peanut butter family and my wife from a “crunchy” family. I have alway maintained that there would be no trouble in having both but she converted and now we only have smooth so that is what I used, though the original recipe called for crunchy.

I recently shared a recipe I got from a Daughters of the Utah Pioneers cookbook my wife got from our friend, Louise. This is the only other recipe in that book that was unusual enough to interest me. Who every heard of cooking cookies in a waffle iron rather than baking them? Obviously, they look like no other cookie you have ever seen before. We only have a Belgian waffler you heat on the cooktop. I am pretty sure the author (Mary Nordin) used a regular waffle iron, which would probably be a bit easier.

Recipe By:

Adapted from Daughters of Utah Pioneeer Cookbook

Ingredients:

1¼ cups sugar
6 eggs
1 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 tablespoon vanilla, ** SEE NOTE
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons baking powder
5 cups flour, 22 ounce
½ cup cocoa (optional)
Directions:

1. Heat waffle iron to medium heat. Oil with cooking spray as needed.

2. Sift together dry ingredients. Set aside.

3. Beat together sugar and eggs.

4. Stir in butter and vanilla.

5. Stir in dry ingredients.

6. Place about 2 tablespoons of dough onto hot waffle iron. Close lid. Cook about a minute or until browned and cooked through.

7. Frost or coat in powdered sugar.

Note:

** Substitute ½ teaspoon anise oil