<p>My daughter signed me up for a cookie-making contest and of course I want to win. Any recommendation on what to make? Calories do not matter; butter is welcome. Judges are all active cyclists and therefore always hungry.</p>
<p>Maybe this will help:</p>
<p>[Bicycle</a> Cookie Cutter](<a href=“http://www.karenscookies.net/Bicycle-Cookie-Cutter_p_799.html]Bicycle”>http://www.karenscookies.net/Bicycle-Cookie-Cutter_p_799.html)</p>
<p>If she signed you up, did she have a cookie of yours in mind that she thought you could win with??!!</p>
<p>For those judges here’s what comes to mind:
A granola type cookie (nuts, fruit, chocolate) - chunky and full of stuff!</p>
<p>An oatmeal/cranberry or dried cherry/white chocolate/some kind of nut cookie.</p>
<p>Maybe a nice biscotti? You can add the fruit and nuts (and chocolate) you choose.</p>
<p>These are some of my favorites - tons of butter and nuts… and typically made in a single bite format which is nice when you are riding a bike:</p>
<p>[Pecan</a> Sandies Recipe - Allrecipes.com](<a href=“http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pecan-Sandies/Detail.aspx]Pecan”>http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pecan-Sandies/Detail.aspx)</p>
<p>Abasket: no, she’s also competing. (She won today’s round with a chocolate spice cookie that includes ancho chile powder. It was yummy.) Granola and oatmeal type cookies are what we make all year around, I have good recipes…</p>
<p>This is Portland, even cyclists are serious foodies! I need a knockout blow, here!</p>
<p>Peanut Butter Blossoms. (Peanut Butter w/Hershey Kiss)</p>
<p>But you have to make them right. You can’t over cook them so they are melt in your mouth chewy. This poor little cookie is always cooked too hard IMO. I have a great receipe for them if you want it.</p>
<p>Also, the receipe on the back of the butterscotch chip bag is really good. It is oatmeal based and a complete beast.</p>
<p>These are my all time favorite cookies; they are not fussy-looking but the flavor is fabulous. They call for freshly grated ginger, which gives them a little bite, and I like to use Scharffen Berger extra dark chocolate for depth of flavor. I roll them in Wilton’s large sugar crystals to make them sparkly and give them a hint of crunch. Though they may sound a little homely, they are really quite elegant. I bake a lot and I give these as gifts at Christmas because people always love them.</p>
<p>[Chewy</a> Chocolate-Gingerbread Cookies - Martha Stewart Recipes](<a href=“http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/chewy-chocolate-gingerbread-cookies]Chewy”>Chewy Chocolate-Gingerbread Cookies Recipe)</p>
<p>Can it be bars? I have a recipe for maple-pecan sticky bars that’s out of this world.</p>
<p>Edit: Just found it on Epicurious:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Maple-Pecan-Sticky-Bars-108648[/url]”>http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Maple-Pecan-Sticky-Bars-108648</a></p>
<p>Alright, here are my two favorite cookies:</p>
<p>Laura Bush’s Texas Governor’s Mansion Cowboy Cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1-1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups sweetened flake coconut
2 cups chopped pecans (8 ounces)</p>
<p>Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in bowl.</p>
<p>In 8-quart bowl, beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy, 1 minute. Gradually beat in sugars; beat to combine, 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Beat in vanilla. Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Add chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans.</p>
<p>For each cookie, drop 1/4 cup dough onto ungreased cookie sheets, placing 3 inches apart. Bake 17-20 minutes, until edges are lightly browned; rotate sheets halfway through. Remove cookies to rack to cool. This makes 3 dozen Texas-size cookies. For 6 dozen smaller cookies, use 2 tablespoons dough for each. Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes. Make sure not to overcook.</p>
<p>I’ve only made these once, but they were realllllly good.</p>
<p>Magic in the Middles
Dough
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar plus extra for dipping)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg
Filling
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.
To make the dough: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In another medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the sugars, butter and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the egg, beating to combine, then stir in the dry ingredients, blending well.
To make the filling: In a small bowl, stir together the peanut butter and confectioners sugar until smooth. With floured hands, roll the filling into 26 one-inch balls.
To shape the cookies: Break off about 1 tablespoon of the dough, make an indentation in the center with your finger, and press one of the peanut butter balls into the indentation. Bring the dough up and over the filling, pressing it closed; roll the cookie in the palms of your hand to smooth it out. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.
Dip the top of each cookie in granulated sugar and place on the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Grease the bottom of a drinking glass and use it to flatten each cookie to about 1/2 inch thick.
Bake the cookies for 7 to 9 minutes, until they’re set. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack. Makes 26 cookies.
— ‘King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion’</p>
<p>If bars are not barred from entering the competition, I highly recommend Nanaimo bars. This link was posted by crabbylady: [Nanaimo</a> Bars Nanaimo Bar Recipes](<a href=“http://www.nanaimo-info.com/gpage.html]Nanaimo”>http://www.nanaimo-info.com/gpage.html) Yum.</p>
<p>Here is a CC thread with some yummy cookie recipes: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/824802-cookies.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/824802-cookies.html</a></p>
<p>Oh - the scharffen berger chocolate reference reminded me of these - over the top chocolate cookies with a peppermint filling…</p>
<p>[Chocolate</a> Peppermint Patty Cookies - Main - Sunset holiday and Christmas recipe guide - Photos - Sunset.com](<a href=“http://www.sunset.com/food-wine/holidays-occasions/easy-christmas-cookie-recipes-00400000059782/page11.html]Chocolate”>Easy Christmas Cookie Recipes)</p>
<p>STOP IT!!! I’m on a diet. I hate you all. </p>
<p>But bookmarking this thread for future reference.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any good ginger cookie recipes. I had a wonderful one several years ago but lost it in a move. It was neither a hard nor soft chewie cookie, not spicy gingerbread type. All the recipes I seem to find in my search have a bunch of other spices and molasses. This was just a really ginger flavor and just melted in your mouth. it was so good.</p>
<p>I used to make a ginger cookie from one of the Silver Palate books; it had fresh grated ginger, crystalized ginger and powdered ginger. (I quit making it when I found the recipe above.)</p>
<p>swimcats, FindAPlace on the 2014 thread has a ginger cookie recipe that others on the thread tried and raved about. You could search for it or PM her. Or get her to re-post because I’d like to try it but didn’t bookmark it when she posted the first time.</p>
<p>Nothing fancy, three great cookies rolled into one. Something for everyone. Bet nobody can eat just one! </p>
<p>[Peanut</a> Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies | Brown Eyed Baker](<a href=“http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2010/02/24/peanut-butter-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies/]Peanut”>Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies)</p>
<p>This is also perfect timing for our cookie exchange. We’ll also be baking for the servicemen based in our area who aren’t going home for the holidays. Keep the ideas coming!</p>
<p>I just had the BEST cookie. I don’t have the recipe but I’m sure it’s not hard to create. It was an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie…with both white and regular chocolate, craisins, walnuts. The person who made them made large ones (mabye 4 inches in diameter…I have done this using 1/4 cup measuring cup). When done, she drizzled a nice frosting over the top. I’m telling you, they were so good.</p>
<p>youdontsay - that recipe is on page 756 (!) of that thread
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/953396-parents-college-class-2014-beyond-756.html#post1065770668[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/953396-parents-college-class-2014-beyond-756.html#post1065770668</a></p>
<p>But it is not like the one I am searching for - has too many other spices in it. The one I had was just ground ginger for the spice - it was so easy as well - you just dropped teaspoons of the mix on the baking sheet and squished it a little with a fork. So good Someone gave me the recipe when we moved to Egypt then I lost it 3 1/2 years later when we moved to the US - that was 22 years ago and I am still pining for those cookies, so you know they were good. Of course any recipe I find is bound to not live up to what I have built up in my mind in all these years. Even the original recipe might fall short!!!</p>
<p>Thumper! You cannot just describe the cookies like that. You have to go and beg for the recipe and post it. Sheesh!!!</p>
<p>My favorite coffee shop does wonderful cookies - huge, including my favorite, an amazing peanut cookie using reese’s pieces. One of the best cookies I have had anywhere, ever. The owners got divorced and the wife got the coffee shop but “lost” the cookies in the divorce (mum in law was the baker). A few weeks ago I noticed the cookies were back, I guess ex MIL missed the income or something. Have been avoiding the coffee shop for now as I cannot resist the cookies and I am sure they contributed heavily (pun intended) to me having to now be on a diet. (but if anyone has an amazing recipe for a big cookie that has reese’s pieces - do feel free to share - despite the wonder of the internet I have not found one)</p>
<p>alwaysinterested those look amazing. Definitely bookmarking that link.</p>