Carrot Cake Cookies

Total Time
Prep: 30 Min. 

Bake: 10 Min./Batch + Cooling
Yield About 54 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 medium carrot, shredded
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained and patted dry
1/2 cup golden raisins

FROSTING:
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
3-3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 to 3 tablespoons 2% milk
Toasted chopped walnuts, optional

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. 
2. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Beat in eggs and vanilla. 
3. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into creamed mixture. Stir in carrot, pineapple and raisins.
4. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. 
5. Bake 10-12 minutes or until light brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
6. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and enough milk to reach a spreading consistency. Frost cookies. If desired, sprinkle with walnuts. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Nutrition Facts
1 cookie: 129 calories, 4g fat (3g saturated fat), 18mg cholesterol, 81mg sodium, 22g carbohydrate (16g sugars, 0 fiber), 1g protein.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 24 Cookies
Calories 170kcal

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour 120g
1/2 tsp baking soda 3g
1/2 tsp salt 5g
1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature, 113g
1/3 cup granulated sugar 65g
2/3 cup light-brown sugar 140g, packed
2 tsp pure vanilla extract 10mL
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups rolled oats 135g
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips 150g

(can add raisins & chopped nuts too)

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda & salt; set aside.
2. Combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.
3. Reduce speed to low; add vanilla & eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute.
4. Add flour mixture; mix until almost combined.
5. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips (together with optional raisins & chopped nuts). Chill dough for 2 hours to overnight.
6. Preheat oven to 200°C. 
7. Use a small ice cream scooper (two tablespoons) to drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
8. Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 12 minutes.
9. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely.

Shortbread

Prep 15 mins

Bake 35 mins
Total 50 mins
Yield 2 dozen shortbread wedges

Ingredients
16 Tbsp (227g) salted butter, at cool room temperature*
1 cup (113g) confectioners' sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 tsp almond extract, optional, or the flavor of your choice
2 cups (240g) All-Purpose Flour

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C. Lightly grease two 9" round or 8" square cake pans. If you worry about the shortbread possibly sticking in your particular pans, line them with parchment and grease the parchment.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, and extracts, then beat in the flour. The mixture may seem a little dry at first; keep beating until a stiff dough forms. If necessary, dribble in up to 1 tablespoon of water to bring the dough together. 
3. Divide the dough in half (if you have a scale, each half will weigh about 300g), and press each half into one of the prepared pans, smoothing the surface with your fingers or a mini rolling pin. If you're having trouble pressing the shortbread flat in the pan because it's sticking to your fingers, cover it with a piece of plastic wrap and push on the wrap. Remove the wrap before baking.
4. Use a fork to prick (dock) the dough all over; this allows any steam to escape, and prevents the shortbread from bubbling as it bakes. Prick the dough in a random pattern, or create a pretty design.
5. Bake the shortbread until it's a light golden brown across the top surface and a deeper golden brown around the edges, about 35 minutes.
6. Remove the shortbread from the oven and turn it out of the pans and onto a clean work surface.
7. Immediately cut the shortbread, while it's warm; if you wait until it's cool, it won't cut easily. Using a pizza wheel or sharp knife, cut each round into 12 wedges. If you've baked squares, cut each square into four smaller squares, then cut each of those into thirds to make a total of 24 strips (12 per pan). Transfer the shortbread wedges or strips to a rack to cool.
8. Serve as is, or garnish as desired (see "tips," below).
9. Store shortbread, well wrapped, for up to a week; freeze for longer storage. The flavor improves as the shortbread ages.

Tips from our Bakers

1. In this case salted butter is preferred because, with no liquid in the recipe, it's impossible for added salt to disperse itself fully through the shortbread dough; you end up with unpleasantly gritty bits of salt in each bite.
2. Vary the flavor of your shortbread with the following simple additions.

• For ginger shortbread: Add 1/3 cup finely diced crystallized ginger and 1 teaspoon ginger.
• For butter-pecan shortbread: Add 1/8 teaspoon butter-rum flavor and 1 cup finely diced toasted pecans.
• For chai-spiced shortbread: Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon cardamom, and 1/8 teaspoon cloves.

1. Want to garnish your plain shortbread? Drizzle the baked wedges or strips with melted caramel, or spread them with melted chocolate and sprinkle with nuts. Or set aside two cookies and spread the remainder with a thick layer of jam or preserves; crumble the reserved cookies and sprinkle the crumbs lightly over the jam-topped cookies.
2. Want to make shortbread drop cookies? Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Flatten each ball of dough to about 3/8" thick; use the bottom of a drinking glass, the tines of a fork, a cookie stamp, or whatever implement you think will make a pretty pattern. Bake the cookies for about 25 minutes in a preheated 300°F oven, until they're set but not really beginning to brown. Remove them from the oven, and cool on the pans or on a rack. Yield: about 4 dozen small (1 3/8") cookies.

Recipe from King Arthur Baking Company

Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 11 mins
Total Time 21 mins

Servings: 8

Ingredients
225g Cold Butter cut into small cubes
213g Brown Sugar
100g Sugar
2 Eggs
1 1/2 cups Cake Flour*
1 1/2 cups Flour
1 tsp Cornstarch
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Salt
340g Chocolate Chips
240g Walnuts roughly chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 210 degrees Celsius.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together cold cubed butter, brown sugar, and sugar for 4 minutes or until creamy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each one.
4. Stir in flours, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Mix until just combined to avoid overmixing. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.
5. Separate dough into large balls and place on lightly colored cookie sheet. They are bigger than you think! You will fit 4 cookies on one large cookie sheet. The dough makes 8 extra large cookies.
6. Bake for 9-12 minutes or until golden brown on the top. Let them rest for at least 10 minutes to set.

Notes
*can substitute all-purpose flour for cake flour
*Levain Bakery has stated they don't use vanilla extract in their cookies. If you would like to add vanilla extract, I would suggest adding 1 teaspoon when adding the eggs to the batter.

Author: Melissa Stadler, Modern Honey 

2-Day Chocolate Chip Cookies

PREP TIME: 45 MINUTES 

COOK TIME: 20 MINUTES 

TOTAL TIME: 2 DAYS 65 MINUTES 

INGREDIENTS 

Toffee 

85g unsalted butter 

150g light brown sugar, lightly packed 

1 tsp kosher salt 

Water, as needed 

Cookie Dough 

226g unsalted butter 

4 ice cubes 

150g granulated sugar 

300g light brown sugar, packed 

2 tsp espresso powder 

2 tsp kosher salt 

½ tsp baking soda 

2 large eggs 

2 tsp vanilla extract 

300g all-purpose flour 

168g 50-70% cacao chocolate, chopped 

Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling 

PREPARATION 

1. Make the toffee: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
2. In a medium nonstick saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter, brown sugar, and salt, stirring until evenly incorporated. If there are grainy lumps or if the fat starts to separate, add a couple splashes of water and stir vigorously to emulsify. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches 143°C, about 10-15 minutes. 
3. Pour the toffee onto the prepared baking sheet and spread out slightly with a spatula. Freeze until ready to use, about 30 minutes. 
4. Make the cookie dough: Add the butter to a medium nonstick saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the butter turns dark brown and smells nutty. Watch carefully so the butter does not burn. Remove the pot from the heat. 
5. Add an ice cube to the butter and slowly let it melt. It may froth and bubble. Add the remaining 3 ice cubes and gently stir until melted. 
6. In a large bowl, combine the granulated and brown sugar, espresso powder, salt, and baking soda. 
7. Pour the brown butter into the sugar mixture and mix until combined. Don’t worry if it looks separated. 
8. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla. Pour into the sugar and butter mixture and whisk until glossy and smooth. 
9. Add the flour and fold with a rubber spatula to incorporate until the dough has no visible flour streaks. 
10. Remove the toffee from the freezer (it should be a frozen disc) and break it into chunks that will fit inside a gallon zip-top bag. Double bag the toffee and seal both bags. With a rolling pin, break the toffee into small pieces. 
11. Fold the crushed toffee and chopped chocolate into the dough until evenly distributed. 
12. Using a large ice cream scoop or a ½ cup measure, scoop the dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Wrap the baking sheet in plastic wrap, but leave a small opening at the corner of the tray. 
13. Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for at least 48 hours. This will allow the flavor to develop and the dough to dry out a little as it rests, which will result in less spread when it bakes. 
14. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 163°C. Line 2 baking sheet with parchment paper. 
15. Arrange the cookies on the baking sheets, leaving at least 2 inches of space between the cookies and away from the edges of the pan. 
16. Bake until the cookies are golden brown with crispy edges, but are still slightly soft in the center, 18-20 minutes. Immediately sprinkle the cookies with flaky sea salt. then let cool completely. The cookies will be very soft at first but will set after they are fully cooled. 

Gemma's Famous Fluffy Scone Recipe (Thermomix)

Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 15 mins
Total Time 20 mins

Servings: 10 large scones

Ingredients
400 g self-raising flour
60 g sugar
60 g butter cut in cubes
150 g cream
1 egg
1 pinch salt
100 g milk

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven 220 degrees Celsius. Prepare a tray with baking paper.
2. Place self-raising flour and sugar in TM bowl. Blend 9 sec/ Speed 9.
3. Add cubed butter to the flour. Blend 9 sec/Speed 9. 
4. Add cream, egg, salt and milk to the TM bowl. Combine 30 sec/Speed 4. (the ingredients should have only just come together.)
5. Flour your bench or Thermomat and turn the dough out onto the bench or mat. (Use lots of flour as the mix will be very wet).
6. Gently pat the dough into a 2cm thick rectangle. Avoid overworking the dough.
7. Using a cookie cutter cut 10 scones.
8. Place scones on the tray so they're just touching each other.
9. Brush the top of the scones with a little milk.
10. Bake for 15 mins or until golden brown. 

Recipe Notes
Butter is added straight from the fridge. Cut into small cubes to allow easy mixing

Shortbread

YIELD: 20 FINGERS

PREP TIME 10 minutes
COOK TIME 30 minutes
TOTAL TIME 40 minutes

Ingredients
340 g (2 1/4 cups) all purpose flour
113 g (1/2 cup) sugar
227 g butter, (2 sticks) softened
a little extra sugar for sprinkling on top of baked shortbread

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 375º F (190 ºC)
2. Mix all the ingredients together by hand or mixer, to a stiff consistency (the butter shouldn't be too soft, but also not straight from the fridge, especially if you use a mixer). Don't overwork the dough; stop when it just comes together
3. Roll out into the shape of a pan or tin you want to bake them in. I baked this in an 8 x 8 pan. Trim the edges to the approximate size.
4. FINGERS: Place it in the pan of your choice. One mistake many people make is rolling the shortbread too thin. Proper shortbread should be quite thick (no less than 3/4" or 2cm if making fingers). Tip: make sure your fingers are wide enough that a fork can prick them. Use a bench scraper or knife to cut the dough into fingers. Next, prick the shortbread with a fork, about half way through.
5. ROUND: You can also shape the dough into a ball, roll it out into a round, and score into triangles, then prick with a fork.
6. MOULD: (brush the mold with a little oil, and sugar first to ensure it comes out nicely). Roll out the dough, place over the mould and roll again to press into it. Remove the excess dough then turn out onto a tray. If your shortbread mould doesn't have a pretty design, prick it with a fork
7. Place in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until slightly brown on edges. Sprinkle with sugar immediately upon removing from the oven. Shortbread shouldn't be darkly colored. Let your shortbread cool on or in the pan or tray before moving to rack to cool completely.

Notes
Store in a sealed container (an old Walker's tin is excellent) and keep in a cool, dry place. Shortbread will keep well for weeks, but is also excellent after being frozen.

If you plan to keep your shortbread for more than two weeks, I'd suggest freezing it.

Nutrition Information:
YIELD: 10
SERVING SIZE: 1
Amount Per Serving:

CALORIES: 333

TOTAL FAT: 19g

SATURATED FAT: 12g

TRANS FAT: 1g

UNSATURATED FAT: 6g

CHOLESTEROL: 49mg

SODIUM: 147mg

CARBOHYDRATES: 38g

FIBER: 1g

SUGAR: 12g

PROTEIN: 4g

Nutrition information is only estimated.

Source: https://www.christinascucina.com/how-to-make-shortbread/

Kuih Makmur Inti Susu

Ingredients (can get 100++ pieces, depending on the size):

1. 1kg all purpose flour
2. 450g ghee
3. 2 litre full cream milk
4. 1 cup of sugar
5. 1 packet of icing sugar

Steps to make the filling:

1. Boil the milk and sugar until thickened like caramel. Mix intermittently but constantly because otherwise the mixture might overflow. It is ready when you stir the mixture and u can see the bottom of the bowl. At this stage, it burns easily so mix constantly.
2. Then cool the caramel in the fridge. 

Steps to make the dough: 

1. Dry Fry the flour in a wok under low heat until it is warm.
2. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl.
3. Then mix the ghee with the flour bit by bit until it becomes a dough.

Step to make the makmur:

1. Take a small ball of dough and flatten it on your palm.
2. Take a bit of the caramel filling and put it in the middle of the dough and cover the caramel with the dough. 
3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 until you finish all the dough.
4. Bake at 200°C for about 10minutes. You will see some cracks. Do not panic. This means it is cooked. (If the cracks are too big, means the oven is too hot. Make sure to put the tray on a grill, not on a pan in the oven) 
5. Take out from the oven and let it cool down for a while.
6. Once it is cooled down, cover the makmur with icing sugar. (If you handle when hot, it crumbles easily)

Sablés Chocolat à la Fleur de Sel

Ingredients

3 g fleur de sel
150 g butter
120 g brown sugar or coconut sugar
50 g caster sugar
150 g coating Guanaja 70% cocoa (@valrhonausa)
175 g flour
5 g natural liquid vanilla extract
30 g cocoa powder
5 g baking soda

Method
Cut the chocolate into small pieces. Mix and sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. Soften the butter and incorporate both sugars (brown and caster), the salt and liquid vanilla, then add the flour/cocoa/baking soda and roughly chopped chocolate. Mix as little as possible, as with a shortcrust pastry. Shape into rolls of about 4 cm diameter. Put in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Cut into slices of a good centimeter large. Put on an oven rack covered with silicone paper.
Bake for 11/12 minutes at 170°C in a preheated oven.

Notes, advice and tips:
The baking time is highly important, in order to be good, the shortbread must be underdone.
The use of fleur de sel allows to tone down the effect of saltiness, if you choose to replace it with table salt, you have to reduce the weight to 2 g.

Conservation:
You can make the dough a couple days ahead, store it in the fridge or freezer and cook it as you need it. A few days in a sealed container, shielded from the humidity.

Melting Moments

Ingredients:

250g unsalted butter, room temperate
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
250g plain flour
85g icing sugar
40g custard powder
1/2 tsp salt

Filling
75g unsalted butter, room temperature
150g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Pinch of salt
Raspberry jam

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160C (140C fan) and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
2. Place the butter and vanilla into a large bowl and beat together until smooth and creamy. Soft the remaining biscuit ingredients into the bowl and gently mix together until you form a uniform dough, this can easily be done by hand with a wooden spoon or with a stand mixer.
3. Using your hands roll the dough into small balls (I weigh these, 20g each) and place onto the prepared baking trays, leaving about 2 inches between each biscuit. Using a fork that has been dipped in flour press onto the back if each biscuit leaving an indent.
4. Bake the biscuits in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a light golden brown colour. Allow to cool on the baking trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Filling 

1. Place the butter into a large bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. Slowly incorporate the icing sugar. Once all has been incorporated add the vanilla and salt and beat together until light and fluffy. Place the filling into a piping bag fitted with a small plain round piping tip, about 1cm in diameter.
2. To finish the biscuit pipe a circle of the filling onto the base of half the biscuits, filling the centre with raspberry jam and finish by topping with a second biscuit.
3. Kept in a sealed container these will keep for about three days.