Cranberry Orange Cookies

These cookies are as delicious as they are beautiful. So yummy; I could eat these all day. The recipe is a little more complex than what we usually do, but the results are worth it. I'd imagine these cookies would be perfect for holidays, but why not also just for fun?

Whether you use fresh cranberries or dried is up to you, but I can personally vouch for the dried cranberries for lending a soft, chewy texture. Unfortunately, we placed the cookies too close together, so they expanded into each other while baking. Regardless, these cookies tasted absolutely amazing.

Cranberry Orange Cookies

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Inspired by Roy Chen

Yields: 48 cookies

Time: approximately 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon grated orange zest

2 tablespoons orange juice (give or take)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups cranberries

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest

3 tablespoons orange juice

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth.

3. Beat in the egg until well blended. Mix in 1 teaspoon orange zest and 2 tablespoons (give or take) orange juice.

4. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the orange mixture. Mix in cranberries (and walnuts, if desired) until evenly distributed. Depending on how much you like cranberries, feel free to add more or less than what the recipe calls for. For us, 2 cups worked out fine.

5. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Cookies should be spaced at least 2 inches apart.

6. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges are golden. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

7. In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 teaspoon orange zest, 3 tablespoons orange juice and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Spread over the tops of cooled cookies. Let stand until set.

Meet Roy, the inspiration of this post.

Bon apetit!

Caroline & Monica

Piñata Cookies

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long month of drool-less food photos; alas, graduation and open houses and a whole bunch of other things have popped up, leaving us little to no time for baking. But not to worry! Summer is here, and we will be making lots of yummy stuff, including but not limited to chocolate chip cookie dough truffles and key lime pie ice cream.

For now, we made pi

ñata cookies! Yayyyy! Super duper belated Cinco de Mayo treat (Actually, I didn't . But let's be honest, you don't actually need an occasion to make these candy-filled cookies. They're fun and super easy to make on a regular basis. Seriously, these are so easy; you'll love it.

Best of all, they're filled with surprises! Who doesn't love surprises?

PS. Special thanks to Nimisha for being the inspiration of this dessert! Couldn't have done it without you (:

Piñata Cookies

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Yields: 12-14 piñatas

Time: approximately 1 hour

Ingredients: 

sugar cookie mix (or you can make from scratch)

canned vanilla frosting (or you can make from scratch)

mini M&Ms (as many as you see fit, since this is the piñata filling)

sprinkles

food coloring (optional; we used red for a more festive look.)

Directions:

1. Bake sugar cookies according to instructions. Cool.

2. Carve a good sized indent on the bottoms of each cookie and fill with mini M&Ms and sprinkles.

3. Use frosting to put the two cookies together to form an edible piñata.

Bon apetit!

Monica & Caroline

S'more Brownies

Happy AP week! Yes, lots of people might be under some stress this week. Bio and Physics down in one day. Gov, Lang, Stats, Macro and Micro coming up. But meanwhile, Andy Yang and Roy Chen made some time out of their busy schedule to make S'more Brownies!

Recipe here.

Good luck on these last two weeks of school! Remember, it's the last stretch -- you can do it!

Bon apetit,

Caroline & Monica