Black Cat Cookies for Halloween

Happy Mischief Night! My office is getting in the Halloween spirit this year, with the holiday falling on a Friday, so I decided to try this cute cookie recipe as an alternative to just sharing candy with my coworkers (we're trick or treating in the office, clearly we're very mature ;) )

These didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped, but they're tasty nonetheless. As you can see from the picture, I ran into trouble with shaping the cat's "ears". If you try these, make sure to make the ears on the large side since they blend together while baking.

The recipe called for red-hots, but I used Reese's Pieces instead. I also took the cookies out halfway through and added the candy, as per a reviewer on All-Recipes.

Find the recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Black-Cat-Cookies/Detail.aspx

Magnolia Bakery Peanut Butter Cookies

Ohhh my goodness...these are amazing. I really need to put them away, or there will be none left for my coworkers tomorrow. This is post #6 on this blog, and post #2 using a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I don't know food blog etiquette yet, so I hope it's not rude to borrow recipes and drool all over my keyboard while doing so.

I had to reduce the cooking time on these a bit, down to 8 minutes. I used the Toll House chocolate chunks, and creamy JIF peanut butter.

These are *pretty* cookies too, since they're little and cute and rolled in sugar, so I'm looking forward to sharing them tomorrow. Here's the link to the recipe: http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/12/peanut-butter-cookies/

Replicating Magnolia goodness in my apartment almost makes up for the fact that I ended up in DC instead of NY after college!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

I've always thought of these classic cookies as more of a Christmas treat, however, I had Crisco left over from another recipe, and needed to find a use for it.

It's been years since I've had these cookies. My mom never bakes anything with peanut butter, so as a child I was always really excited when these showed up at a holiday party or cookie exchange.

They're just like I remembered - light PB taste, crispy outside and chewy inside. I used the recipe from the JIF peanut butter website, but reduced the cooking time to 8 minutes. These cookies hardly spread at all, so don't be afraid to crowd them onto the cookie sheet. I squeezed about 16 onto my standard baking sheet.

Homemade Oreos

The longer I look at the photos I took of this recipe, the more I think they look like mashed potatoes sandwiched by thin hamburger patties. However, I assure you that this is all cookie - crisp, not too sweet chocolate ones with a sweet vanilla cream filling.



This recipe came from one of my favorite cooking blogs, Smitten Kitchen.

The recipe for these can be found here:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-kingdom-for-a-glass-of-milk/

As per her recommendation, I reduced the sugar slightly on these - using only 1 1/4 cups instead of the full 1 1/2. The filling for these cookies is very, very sweet, so I think that was a wise choice.