Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies + Buttercream Icing

It's time for February's "cookie of the month!" I mentioned last month that one of my husband's stocking stuffers was a coupon book full of monthly cookie coupons. Last month I made Oreo Chocolate Chip cookies and they were delicious! 

February is "love" month with Valentine's Day and all so I knew this month's cookie had to be filled with love (I mean red food dye) because for some reason we all associate the color red with love, hearts and roses....so Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies with Buttercream Icing had to be it! 

I adapted this recipe slightly from Sally's Baking Addiction and then added my own special touch by drizzling the cookies in a buttercream icing. They turned out delicious! 

I hope you enjoy them as much as Kevin did! (Maybe these will last longer than the 48 hours the oreo cookies did ;0p). 

Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies + Buttercream Icing

adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

For the cookies: 

1 and 1/2 cups
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1-2 Tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1.5 Tablespoons red food coloring
1 cup milk chocolate chips

For the Icing

1/2 cup butter, room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract 

2-3 cups powdered sugar (depending on how you like the consistency of your frosting)

1-2 Tablespoons milk (again, depending on how you like the consistency of your frosting)

Directions

Mix together flour, cocoa powder and baking soda and set aside. 

In a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth. Add in the brown sugar and granulated sugar and mix well. Mix together the egg, milk and vanilla and add to your sugar/butter mixture. Cream together. 

Add in your red food coloring. It should be a bright red color. When you add the cocoa powder to the mix it will deepen the red. Don't feel shy about adding even more red food coloring after you add in the cocoa powder...as you can see from my photos above, they're more brown than red and that's because I didn't quite add enough food coloring. 

Slowly add in your dry ingredients and combine well. Stir in chocolate chips. 

Refrigerate dough for 1 hour. Roll dough into balls and place on a cookie sheet. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-11 minutes. Cookies may not have flattened out as much as you like. Simply press lightly on the warm cookies and they will flatten out. 

While cookies are cooling, make your frosting. 

I wanted my frosting to be more of a glaze so I made the consistency much wetter than usual for a buttercream. 

Combine your ingredients until you get the correct consistency. Put the frosting/icing into a ziplock bag and cut a small hole in one of the corners. Drizzle icing back and forth over your completely cooled cookie. 

Enjoy!!

Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookies

my husband is a cookie monster! i think i may have mentioned this before, but if i haven't, now you know. he would eat cookies all day if he could. so it was kind of a no brainer stocking stuffer idea this year to give him a year of cookies! cookie coupons that is. i made a cookie coupon for each month of the year and put a different/new cookie on each one. january's cookie is an oreo chocolate chip cookie from two peas and their pod and it was amazing!

recipe below!

Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookies
Recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod
Makes about 18 cookies (after some taste testing of course)

1 stick softened butter

6 Tablespoons sugar

6 Tablespoons brown sugar

1 egg

½ teaspoon vanilla (I used 1 tsp.)

1 ¼ Cup flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

10 Oreo Cookies, broken up/chopped

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter, and sugars until well combined. Add egg and vanilla until mixed well. Place flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl, stir to combine. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients then stir in Oreos and chocolate chips until just combined.

With a medium cookie scoop, scoop onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Bake for 7-9 minutes (I had to bake mine for 10) or until cooked, but still soft. Let cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Super Soft M & M Cookies

so i recently learned that my husband loves cookies. like really really love cookies. he seriously rivals the cookie monster.

so i set out to make the softest, chewiest, yummiest m & m cookie i could find and boy did i succeed. so much so, that husband ate an entire batch of cookies in a 24 hour period. these are that good. they have a secret ingredient in them too, and you know how much i love secret ingredients. it's CREAM CHEESE. who knew?

i officially never have to bake him a birthday cake again. these cookies will suffice.

and i have bright eyed baker to thank for the recipe. find it here!

Life Lately...

woah! this is a long one...thanksgiving dinner, holiday decorating, work christmas party, christmas crack, santa approved christmas cookies, christmas eve highlights, caprese christmas breakfast frittata, christmas morning presents, a christmas dinner tablescape, and a classic alexander family photo ;0) 

Santa Approved Sugar Cookies

i realize i may be a little late in the game posting a christmas cookie recipe the day before christmas eve, seeing as every other food blogger out there has been giving you cookie recipe after cookie recipe since halloween.

but. this is the best christmas cookie recipe out there for santa. i promise you. especially because the frosting to cookie ratio is easily 2:1. that's two parts frosting, one part cookie, in case you were confused.

my family has been making this frosted sugar cookie recipe for thanksgiving and christmas since i can remember. we look forward to these all.year.long. no joke.

they're pretty simple and easy to throw together and they look so festive with their red and green frosting and sprinkles, that if you need just one more cookie recipe, you know, for the jolly fat guy in the big red suit....you should make these.

merry christmas!

Mom's Sugar Cookies
makes about 48 smallish cookies

1.5 c granulated sugar
1 c butter
1 egg
1.5 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp milk
1.5 tsp baking powder
2.25 - 2.5 c flour, plus more for later

preheat oven to 325.

cream together the sugar, butter and eggs. add in the vanilla, milk and baking powder. slowly add the flour. the dough will be slightly sticky.

roll the dough into one inch balls. in a small bowl, pour your additional flour and using a the bottom of a glass, dip the glass in flour and flatten out the balls of cookie dough.

bake for about 9 - 10 minutes. the cookies may not look done on top, but the bottoms will be brown.

Buttercream Frosting

3.5 c powdered sugar
3/4 c butter
1.5 tsp vanilla
3-4 tsp milk
green and red food coloring
green and red sprinkles

cream together about 1.5 cups of the powdered sugar with the butter, add the vanilla. slowly alternate between adding additional powdered sugar and milk until your frosting is the correct consistency.

divide your frosting into two bowls. put 1-2 drops of green food coloring in one of the bowls and the same amount of red food coloring in the other bowl. mix together till you get the color green and red you want. i prefer mine on the lighter side, because the sprinkles are darker in color.

frost and top with sprinkles!

these cookies freeze really well, so you can definitely make a double batch for thanksgiving and they will last till christmas!

Secret Ingredient Sugar Cookie Bars!

i have a confession to make. i'm an impulsive baker. it's true and now that i've said it and it's out in the open, i feel so much better. :)


i don't know how it happens, i'll be sitting on my couch, reading, watching tv, blogging, or doing whatever and then the urge will strike. i have to bake cookies right now! it happens more often when i'm perusing pinterest, which is where i found these amazingly delicious sugar cookie bar recipes i'm about to share with you....so really it's pinterest's fault. not mine.

anyways, i'm sure you've seen these on pinterest too. they're all over the place. those pretty pink sugar cookie bars, staring you in the face, begging you to make them. well i finally did, randomly on a wednesday night while husband was at school (see i was home alone and bored which is never good for an impulsive baking addict) and they were so delicious.

they're not as pretty as some others on the internet, but they sure did taste good!

but i started them and then i realized i didn't have all the ingredients. and there was no way i was running to safeway on a wednesday night in my pajamas. so i improvised. i was out of vanilla extract (probably from all the other random baking i've done) so i added my own secret ingredient...BOURBON! bourbon went into the cookies and bourbon went in to the frosting and it was delicious!

i also ran out of all purpose flour so i substituted one cup of whole wheat flour, which wasn't bad, but i don't recommend doing unless you run out of flour halfway through making sugar cookie bars too. that being said, i didn't include the whole wheat flour substitution into the recipe below, but you're darn right i included the bourbon substitute. vanilla schmanilla ....bourbon is where it's at ladies and gents!

happy  baking!

ps...i bet if you had a christmas tree cookie cutter and some green food coloring, you could make some pretty cute and pretty delicious christmas tree cookies with this recipe. i may or may not have that planned for my christmas cookie baking binge i'll be starting on in the near future.

Secret Ingredient Sugar Cookie Bars

3/4 cup butter, softened to cool room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon bourbon (SECRET INGREDIENT!!)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Frosting:
8 tablespoons butter, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk or cream
1/2 teaspoon bourbon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, granulated sugar and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and bourbon and mix for 1-2 minutes. Mix in the flour, baking powder and salt. 

Lightly grease a 9X13-inch baking pan. Press the mixture into the pan.

Bake for 10-13 minutes. The bars shouldn't have any color around the edges and barely be set in the middle. Let the bars cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting, cream together the butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Add in the bourbon and mix. Add the milk or cream and mix until the frosting is light and fluffy. Add food coloring, if desired.

Best Ever Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

the weekend is for baking. and i baked a lot this weekend. which is why i'm starting out this monday with a recipe for literally the best peanut butter cookies i've ever tasted in  my entire life. you should definitely go make these as soon as physicall possibly. that is all.

oh yeah...happy  monday!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 c butter, softened
3/4 c peanut butter
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp milk
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 c all-purpose flour
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl, set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter and sugars for 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla.

Gradually add in the flour mixture on low speed.

Place spoonfuls on a cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes (cookies will not spread much at all).

Vegan Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

 i embarked on a 21 day cleanse no more than 10 days ago when right in the middle of it i had a craving for chocolate chip cookies. let me tell you. it is the worst feeling in the world when you're supposed to be all "i'm only eating vegan food" and your body's like "psych! give me sugar." i had to remedy this situation immediately.

so i perused my list of "allowed ingredients" on the cleanse and then i did what any normal, sane person would do. i scowered the internet for a cookie recipe that could be made from said allowed ingredients. and you know what....internet did not let me down. i found a vegan dark chocolate chip cookie recipe from the detoxinista and armed with all "healthy" ingredients i got to baking. immediately.

and you know what happened. my idea of a yummy chocolate chip cookie was completely blown away. these are so good! i like them better than normal chocolate chip cookies and they don't have any icky ingredients like butter (who am i kidding i love butter...but you know, the cleanse is screwing with mind) in them. score one for the internet. score one for the detoxinista. and score two points for me for not breaking my cleanse and still getting to eat chocolate chip cookies.

so even if you're not on a cleanse...you should still go make these.

Vegan Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies
taken from detoxinista 

2 c almond meal

1/4 c coconut oil, softened

3 tbsp pure maple syrup

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 c dark chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Combine almond meal, baking soda and salt. Add coconut oil, vanilla and maple syrup and stir well. Once combined well stir in the dark chocolate. 

Spoon cookie dough onto a cookie sheet and bake for 8-9 minutes. 

Enjoy!!

Avocado Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

say what?!?!

yup! that's right! i put avocados in my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. 

but why?!?! why ruin a perfectly good batch of delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies by putting avocados in them?!?! 

no i'm not crazy. and no it's not some weird pregnancy craving (and no i'm not pregnant!) 

but apparently putting avocados in everything is a thing. don't believe me? check out my avocado egg salad here,  or this recipe for avocado goat cheese crostini (side note: i'm dying to try this!)

see told you.

it's a thing. 

so when i saw this recipe for avocado oatmeal chocolate chip cookies on eat. live. run i first thought.....gross! who would put avocados in their cookies? but as much as i tried, i couldn't shake it. 

i had to try them myself. 

i'm so glad i did. 

they really make the cookies so light and fluffy and delicious. 

and just plain good.

so go make these, i promise you'll thank me later ;0)

get the recipe here!