That's the way the cookie crumbles!

September 6, 2007 11:11 AM

Please share your favourite cookie recipes with me.

I will be attending KoL Con IV next week, and will be making several large batches of cookies- enough to wrap up in pretty bags for the people who have birthdays in September like I do, or to thank people for helping me with things (like giving me rides to events, etc), and some for the Asymmetric staff.

Optimally, I'd like some simple recipes that are tried-and-tested delicious, that will satisfy the largest range of people without aggravating nut allergies. I'd also like them to be easy to scale up, since I'll be baking probably at least a gross of cookies. It would be best if they didn't have too many non-basic ingredients, as I'll have to buy ingredients once I get to Tempe, as opposed to having my home kitchen at my disposal.

So, Oh Hive Mind- what are your favourite cookie recipes? Thank you in advance! (and if you see me at Con.... I promise I'll share a few with you. :) )

posted by Glitter Ninja to Food & Drink (26 answers total)

I'm not much of a baker, but here's a place to start.
posted by essexjan at 11:14 AM on September 6, 2007

This recipe for super yummy Lemon Ginger cookies is tried and true, in fact I just made two double batches for a bake sale at work this week and people were clamoring for the receipe. Good luck!
posted by Asherah at 11:53 AM on September 6, 2007

In my mind, there's a reason that the tollhouse recipe as it stands made it onto the back of zillions of bags of chocolate chips. It's the best possible chocolate chip cookie recipe out there, tried and tested by (I'm sure) plenty of folks at nestle before they put it on the bag, and plenty more home bakers since then. Plus, there's nothing weird in there for any of your recipients to have an aversion to - nuts, coconut, peanut butter, whatever. Just pure, simple goodness.
posted by vytae at 12:09 PM on September 6, 2007

Sugar Cookies

1 cup white sugar
½ stick butter
½ cup Canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon or orange flavor
2 cup sifted flour
½ tsp cream of tarter
½ tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

chill dough. roll into balls and roll in sugar (raw sugar is best) can have some cinnamon in it, press with a glass
bake at 350 F for 10 to 12 min
posted by caddis at 12:11 PM on September 6, 2007

Orgasm cookies are delicious.
posted by Anonymous at 12:13 PM on September 6, 2007

The most delicious cookies, ever, Homemade Oreos. So impossibly delicious. I've changed it up a bit by adding liquors to the icing. Super simple and always, always impresses people. These cookies are delicious.
posted by banannafish at 12:22 PM on September 6, 2007

I like the recipe on the Nestle Toll House chocolate chip bag. Use real butter and don't overbake.
posted by thirteenkiller at 12:31 PM on September 6, 2007

Better than smoochin' Cookies

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks margarine or butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
package of chocolate chips
2 cups oats
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large bowl beat the butter, brown sugar, sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add eggs 1 by 1, beating well. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips, oats, and walnuts. Bake for 9-10 minutes.
posted by belladonna at 12:37 PM on September 6, 2007

I impressed many a co-worker during the last holiday season with Barefoot Contessa's Jam Thumbprint Cookies.

Important tip: When sampling the cookies, let them fully cool or you will suffer as I did with FREAKIN HOT JAM in your mouth. Delicious, delicious pain.
posted by spec80 at 12:39 PM on September 6, 2007

I really like the Quaker Oats recipe for oatmeal cookies. But I use dried cranberries in place of raisins. Also, double the cinnamon, and add 1/2 tsp each of nutmeg, corriander and cardamom.

I don't have the box handy, but it looks like this is the recipe (it says salt is optional - it is NOT).
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 12:39 PM on September 6, 2007

Texas Governor's Mansion Cowboy Cookies... love love love these.


Ingredients

# 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)


Directions

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Bake Time: 17 to 20 minutes
Yield: About 3 dozen cookies (see note below)

1. Heat oven to 350 F.

2. Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in bowl.

3. In 8-quart bowl, beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy, 1 minute. Gradually beat in sugars; beat to combine, 2 minutes.

4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Beat in vanilla.

5. Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Add chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans.

6. For each cookie, drop 1/4 cup dough onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart.

7. Bake in 350 F oven 17 to 29 minutes, until edges are lightly browned; rotate sheets halfway through. Remove cookies from rack to cool.

Note: For 6 dozen small cookies, use 2 tablespoons dough for each. Bake at 350 F for 15 to 18 minutes.

Copyright 2000, Laura Bush
posted by chickaboo at 1:08 PM on September 6, 2007

They cook up quite large. Could omit the nuts to make them allergy proof.
posted by chickaboo at 1:09 PM on September 6, 2007

I like to use this Alton Brown recipe as a base, and throw whatever extras are striking my fancy into the batter, like m&ms or white chocolate and cran or oats... you get the idea...
posted by o0dano0o at 1:10 PM on September 6, 2007

i make these all the time. the oats keep them moist and give them a little heft.

instead of raisins, you can substitute:

dark chocolate chips
white chocolate chips and cranberries
peanut butter chips and dried cherries
sweetened flaked coconut
toffee bits
mini m&ms
chopped dried apple
chopped candied ginger

etc, etc.
posted by thinkingwoman at 1:17 PM on September 6, 2007

This is my Grandma's recipe for ginger snaps (verbatim from a typewriter copy that my Mum has scanned for me)...they're like cookie crack if you underbake them by a few minutes to leave them chewy.

"
2 cups flour
1 tbsp. ginger
2 tbsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses

Mix together well & roll in small balls, roll these in sugar & bake 12-15 mins. 350.
"
posted by Kreiger at 2:03 PM on September 6, 2007

I should have mentioned that those ginger snaps scale up like crazy. My Mum used to put us to work on an assembly line and get through about a hundred of them in one go.
posted by Kreiger at 2:09 PM on September 6, 2007

I don't know if you want them to be from scratch but my fav easy recipe is Ghirardelli Brownie mix made into cookies.
People love them.
I get the big box of 4 or 6 mixes at Costco.
I think it is called Double chocolate and has no nuts.
posted by beccaj at 3:00 PM on September 6, 2007

Toll House cookie recipe is the best, but with margarine and you can't cheat and melt the margarine, you've got to cream it or its taste is not as good.

Also, trick on the thumbprint cookies to avoid burning jam mouth, cook the cookies without the jam, and add it afterwards, that's always how we've made ours and cooking the jam seems, bizarre. Though we make ours with crushed pecans on the outside and not coconut.

Definately two of my favorite cookies and the two I bake most often..
posted by JonahBlack at 3:32 PM on September 6, 2007

these are the best cookies i have ever made, hands down. no contest. the chocolate/white chocolate chips aren't bad, but i much prefer the plain old chocolate chip.
posted by thisisnotkatrina at 4:03 PM on September 6, 2007

this is the bestest askme ever
posted by JohnFredra at 4:24 PM on September 6, 2007

I like chocolate chip cookies. I love them. I do not like oatmeal raisin cookies. This, however, is my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. My girlfriend found it on the Taste of Home website.

Oatmeal Chip Cookies

2 cups butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 cups packed brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 cups quick-cooking oats
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

In a mixing bowl, cream butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. Combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt; stir into creamed mixture. Add chocolate chips and mix well. Chill dough for 1
hour or until firm.

Bake at 350° for 11-13 minutes.

This makes an f-ton of cookies. We quarter it for just us two, half it for a small group, and haven't ever used the whole recipe yet.
posted by adamwolf at 8:21 PM on September 6, 2007

The Martha Stewart oatmeal cookies are awesome if you ditch the raisins and add chunks of chocolate instead. (The recipe has coconut AND maple syrup so how could it be wrong?) They're *insanely good*. I can't find it online, but it's in her big orange baking book, which, I'm sad to say, because she's a pain in the ass and always wants you to have an ICE BATH or some dumb thing handy, is a must have.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 9:31 PM on September 6, 2007

In fact, if you added a cup of coconut and a quarter cup of maple syrup to adamwolf's deeelicious recipe above, it's pretty darn close to Martha's. So forget her AND her stupid book.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 9:35 PM on September 6, 2007

Hershey's has a recipe for chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips on their website. I used to make them for events and have to fight to keep them away for my dad ("I'm having just one!"--every five minutes).
posted by brujita at 9:52 PM on September 6, 2007

I like these very-chocolaty cookies:
Sift:
3/4 cup dark cocoa
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
Melt together:
1 1/3 cup butter
150g dark chocolate
Mix together with 3 beaten eggs
Add chocolate chips
Bake for about 10-15 minutes on 375
posted by shokod at 1:44 AM on September 8, 2007

I am known in my family for my gingerbread cookies, a recipe that was published in the Cook's Illustrated November 1999 issue. I found it here. It's really easy and makes a delicious cookie. I make the thick and chewy version.
posted by KathyK at 7:04 AM on October 24, 2007