baking Archives - Page 4 of 5

Coconut Coffee Cake

March 21, 2015 by Jenna

Happy second day of spring! It’s such a happy feeling. To celebrate, I made you some coconut coffee cake!

The recipe for this coffee cake was inspired from one I spotted in my new favorite cookbook:

Yeah, that’s right, The Duesterhoeft Café: A collection of our favorite treasured recipes. I know what you’re probably thinking, “The Duesterhoeft Cafe, where is that? I must go.” and then, “How can I get my hands on that cookbook???”

To answer the first question, The Duesterhoeft Café is in the heart and soul of my parents, siblings, and all the friends and family that inspired recipes and shared delicious food with us throughout the years.

Just kidding!

It’s a fictional name that my parent’s gave our house when tricking my siblings and me after church one Sunday. They said they were taking us out to eat at “The Duesterhoeft Café”. We thought it was a legit restaurant, but really it just ended up being our house. My sister was not pleased. My parents, the joksters.

To answer the second question, only a limited number of copies were printed, so unfortunately you won’t be able to find it in bookstores. But by following Just J.Faye, you are in luck! I’m going to be cooking and baking all through this cookbook so that I can share the treasured Duesterhoeft recipes with you. Delicious things like my mom’s famous chicken wings, the coveted Swedish rice ring, and my great-grandma’s German potato salad. Yummmm. Drool.

My mom put this wonderful recipe collection together, had it printed and bound, then distributed to family and close friends. Some recipes have deep family roots, some remind me of the early 90’s, and some I have never heard of, but if it comes from The Duesterhoeft Café, you can trust that it’s amazing.

Anywaysssss, back to the coconut coffee cake. As I was scanning through the cookbook I saw the word “coconut” and immediately stopped. It’s spring. It’s time for coconut. I knew I had to make this one first.

According to my mom’s notes she just found the recipe in her old recipe box and doesn’t know where she ate it or who she got it from, but that she liked it and wanted to save it. I guess it’s not the best example to start with from our “treasured recipes”, but I guess maybe it’s like a hidden treasure that we re-discovered. Sure. Let’s go with that.

The original recipe calls for boxed cake mix and coconut instant pudding. I could not find coconut instant pudding! Does it not exist?! I want it. Maybe I should have checked different grocery stores? Oh well. I used vanilla instant pudding instead, made a yellow butter cake from scratch rather than using a boxed mix, and made a few other minor tweaks.

The result: super delicious coconut coffee cake. I mean, look at it.

The cake itself is just so soft. It’s based off the one I used for this rhubarb cake, but with canned lite coconut milk and vanilla instant pudding.

In the middle of the cake you will find a ribbon made of cinnamon, sugar, pecans, and coconut. This mixture is on top as well. The pecans and coconut get perfectly toasted while baking in the oven. The cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top gives the cake a sort of thin crispy layer that you break through with your fork before reaching the soft yellow cake below it. Heavenly.

But then to make it perfect, the cake is drizzled with a simple icing made of powdered sugar, vanilla, and coconut milk. It’s… just… I…

So good.

If you aren’t crazy about coconut, I’m sure you’ll still enjoy this cake. The coconut flavor is super subtle. However, if you are crazy about coconut and want more coconut taste add in a little bit of coconut extract (~1/4 teaspoon) and replace the vanilla instant pudding with coconut instant pudding (lucky duck, if you find some).

Know what this coconut coffee cake would be perfect for?! Easter brunch. AKA, the best brunch day of all the days. Mother’s Day being a close second, of course.

Know what else this would be perfect for?! Saturday afternoon cake & coffee with girlfriends. I just can’t be alone with this cake much longer. Seriously, come over later. Thanks.

Annddddd now I’m going to go run 13 miles. Yay, marathon training!

Coconut Coffee Cake

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

50 mins

Inspired by a recipe from my mom's family cookbook, this coffee cake is so delicious. A yellow butter cake made with coconut milk and vanilla instant pudding mix is lined and topped with a cinnamon sugar pecan mixture. Then there is simple icing drizzled on top to make it perfect. This would be ideal for brunch or an afternoon coffee break.

Serves: 9

Ingredients

For the nut mixture:

½ cup sugar
¾ cup chopped pecans
¾ cup flaked unsweetened coconut
1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the cake:

1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 cup canned lite coconut milk
½ teaspoon vanilla
⅓ cup sugar
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons butter, softened

For the icing:

½ cup powdered sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla
1-2 tablespoons canned lite coconut milk

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x9 baking dish.
In a small bowl stir together the ingredients for the nut mixture. Set aside.
In another small bowl whisk together the egg, egg yolk, coconut milk, and vanilla.
In the bowl of the electric mixer (or a large bowl) stir together the sugar, flour, pudding mix, baking powder, and salt.
Add the butter and mix on medium for about 90 seconds. The butter should be evenly distributed throughout the flour mixture.
Add the wet ingredients and beat until combined, about 30-60 seconds.
Pour half of the batter into the baking disk. Top batter with half of the nut mixture. Top this with the remaining cake batter, then sprinkle the remaining nut mixture on top.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out with slight crumbs.
In a small bowl stir together the icing ingredients and drizzle on top of the cake.
Let the cake sit for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Notes

The coconut flavor is quite subtle. To make it stand out more add ¼ teaspoon coconut extract and/or replace the vanilla instant pudding mix with coconut instant pudding mix.

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Honey Cinnamon Muffins with Espresso Butter

March 7, 2015 by Jenna

It’s going to be a crazy busy, jam-packed, super fun, and exciting day! ADJECTIVE EXPLOSION.

But first, I’ll take a deep breath, slow down a second, and tell you all about these honey cinnamon muffins with espresso butter.

These honey cinnamon muffins are simple, little muffins and they are definitely worth slowing down for.

They come together easily as most muffin batters do. First we mix together the dry ingredients, which include a combination of all-purpose and whole wheat flours, leavening agents, and a bunch (i.e. a tablespoon) of cinnamon. Then in a separate bowl we whisk together the wet ingredients. Here we have eggs, melted butter, Greek yogurt, almond milk, honey, and vanilla. All good things.

Pause. If you read that paragraph again you’ll notice that I didn’t mention any sugar or oils. That’s because those ingredients don’t exist in these muffins. They are just lightly sweetened with honey and cinnamon and retain plenty of moisture from the melted butter and Greek yogurt. I wouldn’t call them health food, but I wouldn’t call them the devil either.

Un-pause. The wet ingredients are then stirred into the dry until everything is just combined. Lumpy batter is ok here. No need to be a perfectionist. Divide the batter between 12 muffin cups and pop them into the oven.

20 minutes later you will have a delicious smelling kitchen and perfect little muffins.

BUT WAIT! There’s more! There is also espresso butter.

Espresso butter is butter than has been beat together with espresso powder. It’s truly that simple. Just make sure that your butter is super soft (room temperature) to start. This will help the flavor incorporate better, allowing the espresso powder to basically melt into the butter.

It’s so dreamy.

The espresso butter is essentially the perfect accompaniment to these honey cinnamon muffins. It’s like… like… a honey cinnamon latte in muffin form. So go ahead and slather lightly spread the butter on the muffins, pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and have yourself a gorgeous Saturday.

I know we lose an hour today, but as I mentioned, these muffins are worth slowing down for.

And now I’m going to speed back up. Literally and figuratively.

I’m going to go run the first ever (!!) Hot Dash 10 Miler. It’s going to be full of flannel and beards and other Minnesotan things, like tator tot host dish (I hope??).

Then my mom (who is running the Hot Dash 5K), sister, brother, and cousins are coming over for chili and cornbread. 35 degrees isn’t too hot for chili and cornbread is it??

And thennnn my mom, sister, and I are going to hop on over to San Francisco. We’re going to spend Sunday in the city with my cousin and Monday in Sonoma wine tasting with my aunt. It’ll be magical. And super silly. I’m excited about it.

So moral of today’s post is to slow down, make & enjoy these muffins, and then go have a ridiculously fun day.

Honey Cinnamon Muffins

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

25 mins

These honey cinnamon muffins are made with whole wheat flour, Greek yogurt, and no refined sugars. They are delightfully simple and pair perfectly with espresso butter.

Serves: 12

Ingredients

¾ cup (112 g) all purpose flour
¾ cup (112 g) whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
¼ cup honey
¾ cup almond milk
½ cup Greek yogurt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin.
In a large bowl, mix together the flours, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients until smooth.
Pour the wet ingredients slowly into the dry. Stir until just combined, being careful not to over mix. Lumps are ok.
Divide the batter between the muffin tins. Each tin should be about ¾ full
Bake muffins for 20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Let muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Serve with espresso butter (recipe below).

Notes

These muffins aren’t overly sweet. If you would like them a little sweeter, feel free to increase the honey to ½ cup.

Espresso Butter

Espresso butter is a simple spread is perfect for morning toast or muffins!

Ingredients

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

Instructions

Using either a stand up or handheld electric mixer, beat butter and espresso powder until well combine and smooth, about 3 minutes.

Notes

After the butter sits for a few hours the espresso powder will dissolve a bit more into the butter, turning it a mocha color. I didn't know this until after I took all the pictures.
You can keep the butter in the refrigerator, but it is best served at room temperature.
If you think that espresso flavor might be too strong, feel free to decrease the amount of powder to ½ tablespoon or use instant coffee granules instead.

honey cinnamon muffins w/ espresso butter

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Cardamom Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies

February 21, 2015 by Jenna

How do we make chocolate chip cookies better? Well, we can’t. It’s just a fact of life. But that’s ok. What we can do is make them different. We’re going to add cardamom and pistachios and we’re going to be very happy about it. Trust me on this.

(Side note: different does not mean better or worse, it just means different and different is still good.)

Cardamom Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies. Yum.

According to my blog index I haven’t made cookies since December 15, but really it was probably at least a week before that. Ok, maybe there was that one time in January… But still, that’s just too many weeks without baking cookies. Eating cookies though, that I have for sure done since December 15 (quantities not to be discussed).

People at General Mills (AKA: the people I give most of my baked goods away to so that I don’t have to eat them all myself) were all like, “Hey Jenna, you haven’t brought in any cookies lately.” And I’m all like “Yeah, I know… weird. Perhaps, soon?” Then I promised I would bring in cookies to the next Twin Cities in Motion marketing committee meeting (which was this past Thursday).

So, cookies just needed to happen. I baked some. And then I ate some. And then I shared some. And then I ate one. And then I shared the rest. But I kept two for myself. And then everyone lived happily ever after.

Now I’m sharing the recipe with you so that you and those around you (assuming you share, not judging if you don’t) can be happy as well.

We take a basic, but delicious, chocolate chip cookie recipe with lots of butter and sugar and flour. Then we sneak a teaspoon of cardamom in with the dry ingredients and stir some pistachios in with the chocolate chips. We are also going to refrigerate the dough over night so that all these wonderful flavors can meld together.

You know what, let’s not even sneak in that cardamom. Let’s conspicuously add it and blatantly stir in those pistachios. No one likes sneaking around anyways.

If you don’t want to wait for the cookies to refrigerate overnight, you should probably work on your patience. But, I understand. When you want a cookie, you want a cookie. I feel you. You can go ahead and bake them right away if you want, I’m sure they will still be delicious. But just know that good things take time and you could be missing out on some even better cookies. #FOMO

We can compromise: bake a couple (example: 3) right away. Eat one straight from the oven. Eat one completely cooled. Give the last one to your significant other/best friend/cat/yourself. Let the rest of the dough sit overnight and bake them ALL the next day. You could even wait an entire 72 hours if you really wanted to.

But let’s be real, in whose fridge does cookie dough even last 72 hours?! A handful of carrots, a spoonful of cookie dough. A bunch of grapes, a bunch of cookie dough. This is why I bring cookies into work!

This recipe makes 3 ½ dozen cookies. 3 dozen if you taste test the dough a lot…

And then I ran 10 miles. And then I found $5.

Oh, and don’t forget to sprinkle on some sea salt after pulling them out of the oven. Game changer.

Cardamom Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

11 mins

Total time

26 mins

These cardamom pistachio chocolate chip cookies have all the deliciousness of regular chocolate chip cookies, but also some added flair from the cardamom and pistachios.

Serves: 3½ dozen

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup unsalted shelled pistachios
Sea salt, for sprinkling

Instructions

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cardamom, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Beat in the egg and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Stir in the chocolate chips and pistachios (feel free to chop up the pistachios a bit).
Transfer dough to a sealed container and refrigerate for 24-72 hours.
When ready to bake preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Drop dough by rounded teaspoons (or cookie scoop) on the cookie sheets, leaving an inch or two between each cookie.
Bake for 10-12 minutes. Sprinkle a bit of sea salt on the cookies, then let them sit on the pan for 2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes

The more you let the dough soften after pulling it out of the fridge, then more they will spread in the oven.

cardamom pistachio chocolate chip cookies

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Coconut Oil Brownies with an Almond Butter Swirl

January 17, 2015 by Jenna

Hi. It’s Saturday and I have a brownie recipe for you! If you are trying to stay away from the sweets this month, don’t freak out. These are healthy-ish coconut oil brownies with an almond butter swirl and they are super delicious.

Coconut Oil Brownies with an Almond Butter Swirl

I say “healthy-ish”, because I don’t like using full-on “healthy” unless it is actually 100% good for you clean eating food. I don’t want to mislead you into thinking they are health food. Afterall, brownies. BUT I took out some bad stuff and added some better stuff and they still taste pretty darn good.

So what makes them “healthy-ish”? I swapped butter for coconut oil, granulated sugar for honey, and all-purpose flour for a combination of almond meal and whole-wheat flour. I also made sure there were no refined sugars. See, not so bad. I based these off of the Blueberry-Mint Brownies that I posted back in August. Making brownies from scratch may seem intimidating. You guys, it’s not. Yes, it requires a little more effort than boxed brownies, but these are still pretty simple.

Start by combining all the dry ingredients. Then melt the chocolate and the coconut oil (over the stove or in the microwave). Whisk in the honey, then the eggs and vanilla. Fold in the dry ingredients and there you have it: brownie batter.

Anything that takes four short sentences to explain can’t be that complicated. There are, however, more details and more sentences in the full recipe below.

To make these a little more fancy and flavorful I added in some chopped nuts and an almond butter swirl, because life is just better with nuts (and healthy fats). Melt some almond butter with a little bit of honey and swirl it into the brownie batter.

I used almond butter and peanuts, but you can use peanut butter and almonds or peanut butter and peanuts or almond butter and almonds. Or a mix of everything! Choose your own adventure.

I will tell you that these taste better the next day. Have one straight out of the oven, but save the rest for later. Another thing I will tell you is that you could pop these in the oven, clean the dishes, do this 20-minute plyometric tabata, and still have a couple of minutes to spare before pulling them out of the oven. If that’s not perfect, I don’t know what is.

Coconut Oil Brownies with an Almond Butter Swirl

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

1 hour

These are healthy-ish brownies made with whole wheat flour, almond meal, coconut oil, honey, and almond butter. They are free of guilt, but full of flavor!

Serves: 9 brownies

Ingredients

½ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup almond meal
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
½ cup coconut oil
¾ cup + 1 tablespoon honey
2 eggs
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup almond butter
1 cup roughly chopped peanuts or almonds (roasted, unsalted)

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8x8” baking pan, line with parchment paper, and grease again.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, almond meal, cocoa, salt, and baking powder.
In a saucepan on low heat, melt the unsweetened chocolate and coconut oil.
Whisk in ¾ cup of honey. Let it cool for a few minutes and transfer to a medium bowl.
Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract.
Fold in the dry ingredients until combined.
Stir in ¾ cup of the nuts. Set aside
In a saucepan heat up the almond butter and 1 tablespoon of honey until it melts a little bit (this should just take a minute or two). Stir in the remaining ¼ cup of nuts.
Pour batter into the prepared pan. Add spoons of the almond butter mixture. Run a knife or toothpick through the batter to create a marbled effect.
Bake for 40-45 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.

Notes

I used peanuts because that is what I had on hand, but almonds would be fantastic as well. You could also use peanut butter in place of almond butter.

You can melt the unsweetened chocolate and coconut oil in the microwave. Just put it in a microwave-safe bowl and stir it every thirty seconds until it is melted. Same goes with the almond butter and honey, which will probably only take 30 seconds. My microwave doesn’t work so I need to use the stove for all of this.

So there you have it. No blood. No sweat. No tears. No guilt. Just love, some better-for-you ingredients, and delicious brownies. Hurray!

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Almond Champagne Cupcakes

December 29, 2014 by Jenna

I hope you all had a lovely holiday and spent lots of time with loved ones eating cookies and laughing! I did. That’s fo sho.

Now that Christmas has passed 2015 is just around the corner. I made you these almond champagne cupcakes to celebrate!

Ok, if you want to get technical (Megan) they are actually almond sparkling wine cupcakes. We’ll just pretend that they are legit and from Champagne in France.

Anyways, New Year’s Eve! Do you love it? Do you hate it?

Personally, I love it. The idea of a new year is always very exciting to me. I enjoy reflecting on memories and great things from the passing year and looking forward to the new one to come. I get butterflies just thinking about all the amazing things that I want to make happen in 2015!

New Year’s Eve itself is never a particularly extraordinary night or anything; however, I love drinking champagne while wearing something sparkly and singing Auld Lang Syne (also this song & this song) with some fabulous people. It’s amazing.

Have you ever tried the almond champagne from Trader Joe’s? If not, I recommend you buy a bottle (or five) right now, because it is delicious. It is also the inspiration behind these cupcakes (along with this recipe), so you’re going to want to buy at least one bottle to make them.

These almond champagne cupcakes are light and fluffy. The almond flavor comes from the use of almond meal, almond extract, and almond champagne. Don’t worry though, it’s not too almondy, but rather just almondy enough to take a bite and think, “Hey, these are almond flavored! Yum!”

Side note: I’ve never talked about almonds so much in one paragraph before.

To amp up the champagne flavor, champagne is reduced down to a syrup and then brushed onto the tops of the cupcakes and also used in the frosting.

The batter comes together like most cupcake batter does: cream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs, and then alternate between adding in the dry and wet ingredients. Easy. While the cupcakes bake and cool you’ll have the perfect amount of time to reduce the champagne, make the frosting, and do the dishes.

After frosting the cupcakes, add some sprinkles. Never, ever forget the sprinkles. Especially on New Year’s Eve.

So there you have it: almond champagne cupcakes.

Almond Champagne Cupcakes

These almond champagne cupcakes are light and fluffy. Almond flavor comes from the use of almond meal, almond extract, and almond champagne (which is used in the batter and as a syrup to brush on the cupcakes and use in the frosting). These are the perfect treat to say goodbye to 2014 and hello to 2015! Also, don't forget the sprinkles!

Author: Adapted from Sprinkle Bakes

Serves: 15 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

1 cup all purpose flour
¾ cup almond meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup almond champagne
¼ cup buttermilk
½ teaspoon almond extract
1 cup sugar
½ cup unsalted butter
2 eggs

For the frosting & champagne syrup:

1 ½ cup + 1 tablespoon almond champagne
¾ cup unsalted butter
4-6 cups sugar

Instructions

For the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven for 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with cupcake papers.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, almond meal, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine the almond champagne, buttermilk, and almond extract. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar on medium, 3-5 minutes.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition.
Alternate between adding the flour and champagne mixture to the batter, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
Pour ¼ cup of batter into each liner and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

For the frosting & champagne syrup:

Add 1 ½ cups champagne to saucepan and heat on medium-high until reduced to 3 tablespoons. Let cool.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, add the butter, 1 tablespoon of champagne, 2 tablespoon of the reduced champagne, and 3 cups of the powdered sugar. Beat until smooth. Add the remaining powdered sugar ½ cup at a time until the frosting reaches your desired consistency.

To assemble:

Poke a few holes in the cupcake with a fork. Brush cupcake tops with the remaining tablespoon of reduced champagne.
Top the cupcakes with the frosting. Add sprinkles and enjoy!

Notes

I didn't have buttermilk on hand, so I made my own by squeezing some lemon juice into a ¼ cup of milk and then let it sit for 5 minutes.

I hope the rest of 2014 treats you well and that you welcome in 2015 with lots of champagne and sparkles and singing and dancing (and cupcakes)!

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Christmas Treasure Drop Cookies

December 15, 2014 by Jenna

I need to tell you about these Christmas treasure drop cookies, because I think you need them in your life.

Two years ago my mom and I started entering the Star Tribune’s Holiday Cookie Contest. We brainstorm. We bake. We taste test. By the end of the day the kitchen is covered in flour and we have sugar pulsing through our veins. It is always so much fun.

This year for the contest we made these Christmas treasure drop cookies based off of the classic treasure chest bars, one of my mom’s favorite Christmas treats. When my mom first brought up the idea I was a bit skeptical. Maraschino cherries in cookies? Umm… not sure about that, but I said we could try it as long as we used brown butter in the cookie dough. She agreed to my terms and we tried it out.

OH MY GOODNESS. I am not lying to you when I say that these are some of the best Christmas cookies ever. EVERRRR.

Who knew that maraschino cherries, toasted walnuts, chocolate chips, and brown butter would taste so magical together?!?

Not I.

But now I do and I need to share this with you.

The cookie dough itself isn’t overly sweet, but gets a crazy amount of flavor from the brown butter and is packed full of maraschino cherries, toasted walnuts, and chocolate chips. Oh, and love too. There is a lot of love in these cookies. Let the dough sit in the fridge for at least an hour (but overnight is best) so that all these flavors can meld together. I kid you not, the extra time is totally worth it.

After being baked and cooled these cookies are topped with a brown butter frosting. No Christmas cookie is quite complete without some sort of frosting. Right? Yes. Plus, the frosting helps get these cookies up to that perfect level of sweetness and also amplifies the brown butter taste in the dough.

We didn’t win the contest, but in the process we had a blast and discovered our new favorite Christmas cookie (these ones if that wasn’t obvious). Our first two years we made the honorable mention with these and these. This year we just got mentioned – still fun!

This year I was able to join in on The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap hosted by Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil and Julie from The Little Kitchen. Hundreds of food bloggers participate each year and help raise money for Cookies For Kid’s Cancer. I was so excited to be a part of it this year!

I instantly knew that these Christmas treasure drop cookies were the ones that I needed to send out. I baked up and bunch and sent out a dozen each to Bree from Baked Bree, Amanda from Fun in the Oven Blog, and Faith from Pixie Dust Kitchen.

I then received some ridiculously amazing cookies in return from Ellen and Aimee (Like Mother Like Daughter), Linda (Food Huntress), and Ashley (Taylors 4 You).

I had such a fun time being a part of this cookie swap! I loved sending out the boxes (I rarely mail things, so it just seemed so exciting). I loved getting all the packages and eating (and sharing) all the cookies. And I loved getting the opportunity to connect with other bloggers. The whole experience was such a treat.

So anyways, these Christmas treasure drop cookies. Please make them! I promise you won’t regret it.

Also, all the other food bloggers that participated in the cookie swap will be posting their cookie recipes today too, so make sure to check out all the links above. A full list of ALL 500+ the cookie submissions will be sent out on Friday. Get excited. But be careful, you may end up drooling all over your keyboard…

Christmas Treasure Drop Cookies

These are my new favorite Christmas cookies! The cookies are packed full of brown butter, maraschino cherries, toasted walnuts, and chocolate chips and topped with a brown butter frosting.

Serves: 4 dozen

Ingredients

For the Cookies:

1 cup walnuts, chopped
15 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 ice cube
2 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-10oz jar maraschino cherries, quartered
1 ½ cups chocolate chips

For the Frosting:

¼ cup brown butter (included in butter quantity listed for the cookies)
2 cups powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 350° F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
To toast the nuts: spread nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Stir them around occasionally (every 5 minutes or so) to ensure they are not burning. Once toasted, set aside.
To brown the butter: melt butter in a medium saucepan. Whisk the melted butter until brown specks appear at the bottom, it will froth and foam a bit. Watch closely and be careful not to burn. It should be a light brown color and have a nutty aroma. Place ½ cup of the browned butter into a heatproof bowl and whisk in an ice cube. This will be used for the cookies. Place the remaining ¼ cup aside to use for the frosting.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, add the ½ cup brown butter and the sugars. Mix on medium speed of an electric mixer until smooth and combined, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the eggs and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in the nuts, maraschino cherries, and chocolate chips.
Let the dough sit in the refrigerated for one hour or overnight.
Place scoops of cookie dough onto the prepared pans. Bake for 8-11 minutes. Let cool on the sheet for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Make the frosting while the cookies are cooling. Place the remaining ¼ cup brown butter, 1 ½ cup of powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla into a mixing bowl. Beat on medium until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add in the remaining sugar ¼ cup at a time until the frosting has reached your desired consistency. It should be thick enough to easily spread.
Once the cookies are completely cooled, spread a nice layer of frosting on each one. Serve and enjoy!

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