More Cookies!

Man, you would think that all we've been eating lately is desserts based on my recent posts! I'm still catching up on all of the holiday goodies I made, so I'll be continuing the trend for now.
Per usual, we spent days negotiating and scheduling to find a way to spend time with our many families here in town (Colin's mom and stepdad, my mom and stepdad, and my dad) for Christmas. I decided to bring a tin with a variety of cookies to each of our parents and came up with several tasty ones. I wanted the cookies to be a little something different--a standard chocolate chip just wouldn't do! Here are the ones I went with (even though there are so many yummy cookie options out there I could barely narrow it down!):

Macadamia Butter Cookies

2/3 cup macadamia nuts
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries, chopped
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375. Place nuts in a food processor; process until smooth (about 2 minutes), scraping sides of bowl once. Combine macadamia butter, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed. Add vanilla and egg; beat well. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg, stirring with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until combined (mixture will be very thick). Stir in cranberries. Chill 10 minutes. Divide chilled dough into 30 equal portions into a ball. Place 1 tablespoon granulated sugar in a small bowl. Lightly press each ball into sugar; place each ball, sugar side up, on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Gently press the top of each cookie with a fork. Dip fork in water; gently press top of each cookie again to make a criss-cross pattern. Place 15 cookies on each of 2 baking sheets. Bake cookies, 1 baking sheet at a time for 9 minutes or until golden. Remove cookies from pan; cool on a wire rack. Repeat procedure with remaining cookies. Yield: 30 cookies

Source: Cooking Light

Mexican Chocolate Cookies

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate (60% cacao), coarsely chopped
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash of black pepper
Dash of ground red pepper
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Place chocolate in a small glass bowl; microwave on high 1 minute or until almost melted, stirring until smooth. Cool to room temperature. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through ground red pepper); still well with a whisk. Combine sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add egg; beat well. Add cooled chocolate and vanilla; beat just until blended. Add flour mixture; beat just until blended. Drop dough by level tablespoons 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 35o for 10 minutes or until almost set. Remove from oven. Cool on pans 2 minutes or until set. Remove from pans; cool completely on a wire rack. Yield: 32 cookies

Source: Cooking Light

Spicy Oatmeal Crisps

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon grated whole nutmeg (I just used ground nutmeg)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (optional)
1 cup packed brown sugar
5 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 7 ingredients (through pepper) in a medium bowl. Place sugar, butter and vanilla in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffly. Add egg; beat well. Stir in flour mixture and oats. Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake for 12 minutes or until crisp. Cool on pans 2-3 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pan; cool on wire racks. Yield: 24 cookies

Source: Cooking Light

Festive Peanut Butter Blossoms

1 pouch Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie dough mix
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon water
1 egg
Sugar
36 Hershey's Kisses, unwrapped
Holiday sprinkles

Heat oven to 375. In a medium bowl, stir cookie mix, oil, water and egg until dough forms. Shape dough into 36 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately press 1 kiss in center of each cookie. Add sprinkles or additional decorations as desired. Remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely, about 20 minues. Yield: 36 cookies

Source: Bettycrocker.com

Emergency Chocolate Cake

I was on my own for dinner one night, so I decided to take a cooking holiday and just have a plain old bowl of cereal for dinner. While I certainly do love me some cereal, I didn't feel completely satisfied and was really craving something sweet. Luckily I had a recipe on hand for an "emergency" chocolate cake that requires really basic ingredients and no real cooking at all. Perfect!

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips
Small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips and vanilla and mix again. Put in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little and tip out onto a plate if desired. Goes especially well with vanilla ice cream!

Chili-Spiced Almonds

These were actually kind of a lot of work, but they are pretty tasty, so it was probably worth it in the end. I made these over the holidays (when I had some more time on my hands during my vacation!) and thought they would be a good little munchie that I could put out when people came over. My sister-in-law loved them so much that she finally asked me to put them away before she ate every last one of them!

1 tablespoon water
1 large egg white
1 pound raw, unblanched almonds
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon Spanish smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon chili powder (next time I will probably add a little more chili powder, but I am a little obsessed with spicy foods, so that may just be me!)
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 300. Combine water and egg white in a large bowl; stir with a whisk until foamy. Add almonds; toss well to coat. Place almonds in a colander, and drain 5 minutes. Combine almonds, sugar and next 5 ingredients (through chili powder) in a large bowl; toss to coat. Spread almond mixture in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 300 for 15 minutes. Stir almond mixture; reduce oven temperature to 275. Bake an additional 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Remove from oven; cool 5 minutes. Break apart any clusters. Cool completely.
Yield: 4 cups
Can be stored for up to a week in an airtight container at room temperature

Source: Cooking Light