It’s that time of year where the back to school supplies are hitting the shelves and everyone is starting to talk about donation drop of locations, if one’s school is switching to the “balanced calendar” etc.  To me… this only means one thing… the sooner we are to cooler weather, fall decorations, Halloween, and comfort food (ok, I guess a few things).

Over the last couple of months, I have learned that I am a comfort cook. I love to make casseroles, slow cooker meals, soups, etc. In the spring and summer months, we survive on grilled chicken/pork, rice and veggies. Nothing really too fancy… BUT bear with me and I will have a more diverse set of recipes come this next spring and summer.

ANY WHO….. yes back to school. I will always remember that sometimes my mom would have milk and cookies for us kids after school for when we were doing our homework.  This would be a great recipe for that first day of school for either lunches or as a way to coax information out of your child about their first day (ha!)

Michigan Ingredients: Peanut Butter, Butter, Farm Fresh Egg(s), Sugar, Brown Sugar

Seriously working it with the Meijer items eh? What can I say, I love that store.  Then of course the farm fresh eggs as you can recall from my little rant in my last post.

Combine your dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl (flour, oats, baking soda, and baking powder)

Cream your butter (which is softened) and peanut butter. I know that a lot of peanut butter cookie recipes do not include butter, but these are gourmet cookies and hey, why not?

Add your sugars….

Add one whole egg and one egg white, vanilla… and a splash of milk. The splash is maybe 1/2 a tablespoon. Not too much.

Try not to consume this.  I know it will be hard to do as *I* had a difficult time.

Add your dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Imagine a picture of me doing that here :).

This recipe is what got me my KitchenAid (Professional KitchenAid).  My husband loves this recipe and would see me struggle when I would add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. If you are using a hand mixture, it will come together; it just might fight you a bit…. totally worth the battle. If you have a KitchenAid, it will seem a little more violent rough than most cookies, but it won’t break it. PROMISE!

Another piece to the Gourmet puzzle…. One cup of peanut butter chips. I know that when I was testing this recipe out a few years ago, I started out with adding more peanut butter but decided that if I added more  I would have to had more dry and yada yada yada… so the thought of adding the peanut butter chips came to mind. It was the missing piece.

Add your peanut butter chips and mix until just combine.

Grab some dough and start rolling. You want to make them about the size of walnuts. You don’t have to measure (weigh), you can just eyeball them.  Roll them in sugar (you will not need that much sugar – I always have sugar left over which sadly gets thrown away). This is the point where I would turn my oven on to preheat to 350 degrees.

The secret to making these cookies look fancy: a potato masher. I always have had a hard time using the fork method; I don’t know why. BUT… my husband had this amazing idea to use the potato masher and see if that would work. This does wonders and the “indents” actually stay; whereas when I would use the fork method, the indents would bake out and not look fancy. Press the masher length and width wise.

Look at these beauties. When you make the indents, the cookie might separate (meaning the edges might crack and not have the perfect shape), so be sure to try and press the cookie back together to make it “shapely.”

Bake for 11-13 minutes. This recipe makes about 30-33 cookies. I know that these are not like my typical mega large cookies. It shocks me too; however, it is one of those recipes where you have to think about when you put the cookies on the pan and you have to press them down (flatten but not flatten). I would recommend eating at least 5 2 cookies. Enjoy!

Gourmet Peanut Butter Cookies

 

Author:

Michigan from Scratch

Recipe type: Cookies

Serves: 30 cookies

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 13 mins

Total time: 28 mins

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A gourmet cookie that is perfect for after school or impressing your friends

Ingredients

• 2 cups Flour
• 1 cup Old Fashioned Oats
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• ½ stick of Butter, softened
• 1⅔ cups of Peanut Butter
• ½ cup White Sugar
• ¾ cup Brown Sugar
• 1 whole Egg
• 1 Egg White
• 2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla
• Splash of milk (roughly ½ tablespoon)
• 1 cup Peanut Butter Chips
• Additional white sugar for rolling

Instructions

1. Combine your flour, old fashioned oats, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl.
2. Cream together your softened butter and peanut butter until creamy. Add your white and brown sugars and cream again.
3. Add your egg, egg white, vanilla, and splash of milk. Mix until well combined.
4. Add your dry ingredients to your creamed mixture until well combined.
5. Add your peanut butter chips and mix until just combined (don't over-mix).
6. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
7. Place some white sugar in a bowl, no more than a cup and measure the dough into walnut-sized balls. Roll the cookie balls into the sugar and place one a cookie sheet.
8. Use a potato masher and press the indents in the cookie to make it look fancy and press any cracks in the edges together.
9. Bake your cookies in your preheated oven (350) for 11-13 minutes.

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This particular recipe comes from my awesome mother-in-law (Hi!!).  This is one of my husband’s favorite cookies and it is one that I could honestly make all. the. time.  It has veggies in it, so it must be a health food right? Right. Glad we are on the same page.

Michigan Ingredients: Sugar, Zucchini, Cinnamon, and a farm fresh egg.

Seriously how delish are farm fresh eggs? My little family loves them and to us they just taste so much better. Maybe it’s mental… [maybe it’s Maybelline].

There is a fresh produce stand that I pass everyday on my way home from work and we stopped there this weekend to get some delicious veggies. I would have taken a picture… but a big storm was rolling in and it was starting to rain. I will be stopping there more often, so believe you me; you’ll get to catch a glimpse.

Shred (grate) your Zucchini.  You will need about a cup after the juice has been squeezed out.

Cream your butter, sugar, and egg until fluffy-ish.

Add Zucchini…

Mix until well combined.

Add your dry ingredients…

Mix until well combined. I promise that these cookies are not pink. For some reason, the lighting must have changed a bit… like…. the sun came back out for a second. It was storming when I was making these cookies.

Chop your walnuts and raisins. You don’t have to chop the raisins if you don’t want to, but I did this time so that my sweet Doll-Face (daughter) could eat a cookie (or 2).

Fold in the chopped walnuts and raisins until evenly distributed. Now would be time if you want to chill your cookie dough for a couple hours.

I decided to forgo that this time and bake right away. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and drop (by large spoonfuls… because c’mon… we’re making cookies people!) by spoonfuls. The size of your cookies will determine how many this recipe will yield. My size cookies yield roughly 18 cookies.  Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Seriously, these are the best cookies. They have a cake-like texture, which is fluffy and omg so good.  I am so appreciative of my mother-in-law for introducing me to these a while (and I mean a while) back.  You could…. not I’m not saying that I do… all the time eat these for a quick breakfast – just saying!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Zucchini Cookies

 

Author:

Michigan from Scratch

Recipe type: Cookies

Serves: 18 cookies

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 40 mins

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A simple Zucchini cake-like cookie recipe that one would consider healthy.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Sugar (white)
• 1 stick Butter (1/2 cup), softened
• 1 Egg
• 1 cup grated Zucchini
• 2 cups Flour
• 1 tablespoon Cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• 1 cup Chopped Walnuts
• 1 cup Raisins

Instructions

1. Beat your sugar, butter, and beaten egg together in a large bowl.
2. Squeeze the excess juice out of your zucchini and mix into your sugar and butter mixture.
3. Combine your flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt into a separate bowl. Add to the zucchini mixture and mix well.
4. Fold in your chopped walnuts and raisins.
5. Chill for two hours (if desired) or set oven for 375 degrees.
6. Drop dough on a cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes.

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Now that’s it’s starting to get hot out and you still want to indulge in something sweet and handheld, by all means make No Bakes! This is a cookie that people typically make during the holidays; but in my family, we make it all year round.  One mega bonus is that it doesn’t heat up the kitchen to a blazing million degrees. During the summer months, if we want chocolate chip cookies or any cookies that you have to use the oven, we usually either make them in the evening or early morning hours.

This recipe comes from my husband’s grandmother. The one thing that I modified with this recipe is changing the quick cooking oats to old fashion as using old fashion oats tends to have the cookie set better. I know that every other recipe I had used would not set right and this is such a simple recipe that you should have no problem.

Michigan Ingredient: Sugar

First things first, place your sugar, cocoa, butter, and milk in a pan. Bring it to a boil while constantly whisking.

Once the mixture is violently rapidly boiling, start your timer for one minute. It will seem like it will boil over, but it won’t. Do not be intimidated or scared. Trust me.  After the minute is up, remove from the heat and add your vanilla and peanut butter.

Please imagine this mixture being perfectly poured over3 1/2 cups of beautiful old fashioned oats. Mix until combined.

After it is combined, you can either use a scoop or a spoon to “spoon” the mixture onto wax paper. Try to patiently wait to let the cookies set (15-20 minutes).

If you use a scoop, there will more than likely be some left in the scoop at the end; which is ok, because you can have a tiny taste just to make sure it won’t poison your loved ones.

I love making these cookies all year round (as previously stated above) not only because of the simplicity; but also because it reminds my husband of growing up. It’s amazing to me how a smell or foods can bring memories flooding back.

No Bake Cookies

 

Author:

Michigan from Scratch

Recipe type: Cookie

Serves: 18 cookies

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 15 mins

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A cookie that can be made year round and is especially great in the hot summer months so you don't have to turn on the oven.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of Sugar
• ¼ cup of Cocoa
• ½ cup Milk
• 1 stick of Butter
• 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla
• 1 cup Peanut Butter
• 3½ cup Old Fashion Oats

Instructions

1. Bring sugar, cocoa, milk and butter to a rapid boil. Boil for one minute.
2. Remove the mixture from the heat and add vanilla and peanut butter.
3. Pour over oats and scoop (spoon) onto wax paper.
4. Patiently wait 15-20 minutes for cookies to set.

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This is one of my husband’s favorite cookies. It is a “treat” when I make these as macadamia nuts are a bit on the pricier side of nuts. For almost $6, you can get a whopping 1 ½ cups of nuts. It’s worth it, by all means; but it is a far cry from the Snickerdoodle.

I remember when I stumbled upon this recipe like it was yesterday. I was in college, trying to find a “healthy” cookie (I know I know…) and somehow came across this gem. The recipe stated that it is 99 calories per cookie (and that the recipe makes 48 cookies…); which I don’t believe applies to when I make cookies because A) I make real-sized cookies and B) these taste simply divine.

Michigan Ingredient: Big Chief Sugar and Meijer Brown Sugar.

Please keep in mind that I am in the process of getting fresh ingredients for recipes, as fruits and veggies are starting to become more in season. In Michigan, not many fresh ingredients are in season during this time of year BUUUUUUUTTTTTTT….. once more items are in season here, it will be glorious.  

First things first, cream your butter and your sugars. Add the vanilla and the egg. Combine your flour, baking soda, and baking powder together. Add your dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and beat.

Combine your oats, chips and nuts and add to creamed mixture. Make sure all yummy goodness of nuts, chips and oats are distributed all throughout.  You should now have heaven in a bowl.

Preheat your oven and start getting your cookies prepped. I actually have one of those cookie scoop thingers (technical term) because I would get annoyed with using the two spoon (or let’s be honest, when no one is looking, spoon and finger) method. It works well with some cookies, and sometimes it does not as the dough will coat the inside and the cookies will get smaller and smaller as the scoop gets “clogged.” Luckily, with this recipe you shouldn’t have a problem; but if you do, my apologies.

You can tell a lot about someone by the way their cookie sheet looks. If it looks brand spanking new they either just A) bought it, or B) do not really bake a lot…or C) have one of those slip-mat things. Now I’m not saying you should JUDGE someone just by their cookie sheet…. but….. you know… with baking comes love <3

Bake your cookies for 10-12 minutes. Now keep in mind what your oven temperature is like. Mine runs a little hot sometimes, so I always check in 9 minutes to be safe.

This recipe should make roughly 18 medium sized cookies. If you want to make more, simply double the recipe.

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Cookies

 

Author:

Michigan from Scratch

Recipe type: Cookies

Serves: 18 cookies

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 30 mins

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Ingredients

• ½ cup Butter, softened
• ½ cup White Sugar
• ½ cup Brown Sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1½ cups Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1½ cups Old Fashioned Oats
• 1 cup Chopped Macadamia Nuts
• 1 cup White Chocolate Chips

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, cream together your butter and sugars until smooth.
2. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
3. Combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Add to the creamed mixture.
4. Combine the oats, nuts, and chips. Add to the mixture until evenly combined.
5. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Drop cookies by whatever size you want onto a cookie sheet.
6. Bake until the tops start to become slightly golden, roughly 10-12 minutes.

Notes

Recipe adapted from All Recipes

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This is the type of cookie that you can eat all year round. Snickerdoodles are actually known as the poor man’s cookie, as there are minimal ingredients and you don’t have to have any form of chips to add. Usually that is the most expensive part of the cookie, the chip; as they are somewhere close to $3.50+ for the name brand and a little under $3.00 for the generic brand.

Every household (at least where I’m from) has their own version of the Snickerdoodle. This is the version my parents would make all the time because it is that good of a cookie. It’s light, fluffy, and puffy. One of the tricks to making the cookie so puffy is to chill the dough when  your oven is preheating before baking.

Michigan Ingredients: Big Chief Sugar, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg.

For some reason, whenever I buy sugar, I am always looking to see if it is sugar from Michigan. Big Chief and Pioneer are typically my go to brands when it comes to sugar since they are Michigan based. The Cinnamon and Nutmeg were an added bonus (because when I gathered my ingredients, I noticed that this company is a Michigan company :).  Not only do I love buying my spices in “bulk;” I will now be trying to use this brand more often).

First things first, grab your softened butter (which, if you are like me and not think ahead to soften your butter, please feel free to use the microwave… BUUUUUTTTTT…. don’t over do it  because you do not want to have melted butter and the cookie to fail. Use 10 second bursts) and cream the butter with either your stand-up mixer or hand mixer. Creaming the butter ahead of time helps aid in the fluffiness of the cookie.

Add your sugar and cream together until there is no graininess. I know it might be hard to wait that long; but trust me, it is worth it.

Once your creamed mixture looks like the photo above, add your flour, baking powder, and nutmeg to the mixture. Beat until the cookie dough is fluffy and place the dough in the fridge to chill out while your oven preheats.

Now one would note that this recipe creates a dozen cookies. Trust me that this is a minimum amount as you can make your cookies however small or somewhat large you want. One thing that gets on my nerves is when you are making cookies and the recipes advises that you should “drop by tablespoonfuls.” Seriously? Adults will have self esteem issues as they will have to eat 3-4 cookie to satisfy that sweet tooth that encouraged them to even make the cookies to begin with. Keep in mind for future reference, that this site will make medium to large cookies so that one does not feel as guilty eating cookies. Now by all means, if you are dieting or making cookies for a crowd/your child’s class, then abide by the “tablespoonfuls” guideline to make your cookie dough stretch. OTHERWISE, realize that you are making an indulgent treat, and make it worth while (lol).

ANYWHO….While you are waiting for the oven to preheat, create your cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar mixture. This is where you can make the cookies taste more unique to your family’s taste by playing with the ratios. Some people like a balance, some like it to have a more cinnamon-y or nutmeg-y taste.  Experiment!

Once the oven is preheated, grab your chilled cookie dough and drop the cookie dough onto a baking sheet by whatever sized cookies you are going to make (please see rant above) and then sprinkle the cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar mixture over your cookies and bake for 8-10 minutes until the tops are golden.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Snickerdoodles

 

Author:

Michigan from Scratch

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 1 dozen

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 30 mins

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Also known as the poor man's cookie, every family should have a homemade snickerdoodle recipe. The secret to this recipe is the nutmeg

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons of butter
• 1 cup of Michigan sugar (white)
• 1 Egg
• ½ cup of Milk
• 2 cups of flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• additional sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon for sprinkling

Instructions

1. Cream the butter until fluffy; gradually beat in the sugar. Beat in the egg and stir in the milk.
2. Add your flour, baking powder, and nutmeg to the creamed butter mixture and beat until fluffy.
3. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and place your cookie dough in the fridge to chill. This will help create a fluffy/pillowy cookie.
4. Meanwhile, create a cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg mixture for sprinkling. This is where you can experiment with family taste. I usually do ½ cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and ½ teaspoon of nutmeg.
5. Drop cookie dough onto a pan and sprinkle the cookies with the cinnamon/sugar/nutmeg mixture.
6. Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes until cookies are slightly browned on top.

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