Bready or Not: Soft Gingerbread Bars
We’re kicking off the Christmas season with a recipe that’s been a favorite of mine since 2003: Soft Gingerbread Bars!
My original recipe was clipped from the inside of a Land O Lakes butter box. Before trying that recipe, I had associated gingerbread with dry, hard cut-out cookies.
Land O Lakes enlightened me. They taught me gingerbread could be rendered into soft, chewy bars that were a sugary equivalent to crack cocaine.
These bars have been a household favorite ever since. You can cut the gingerbread into fancier shapes, but I prefer basic bars. These bars are soft and luscious, embodied with the divine scent of Christmas itself.
Plus, this is the perfect recipe when you’re low on time–it mixes together quickly and bakes in under 20 minutes. No standing around the oven for an hour, waiting for batch after batch of cookies to be done.
As soft as these bars are, they are surprisingly durable. When my husband was deployed in the Navy, I mailed several batches to him overseas. I packed them in Gladware with napkins for padding, and they survived the journey, intact and tasty.
Modified from the original recipe at Land O Lakes Butter. Originally posted at Bready or Not back in 2012 on Live Journal.
Bready or Not: Soft Gingerbread Bars
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups white sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 egg
- 3 Tablespoons molasses
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
Topping
- 2 - 3 tablespoons white sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Line a jelly roll or large bar pan with aluminum foil.
- Combine the 1 1/4 cups sugar, butter, egg, and molasses in a large mixer bowl. Mix until creamy. Add the flour, baking soda, and spices and mix until just combined.
- Press the dough evenly into the pan. Sprinkle a few tablespoons of sugar across the top. Dust the sugar with your fingers to fill the nooks and crannies.
- Bake the pan for 16 to 20 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges. Cool completely. Cut into bars or other shapes. Try to resist eating them all.
- OM NOM NOM!
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Bready or Not: Maple Walnut White Chocolate Cookies
These Maple Walnut White Chocolate Cookies are light, crisp, and full of maple goodness.
Story prompts inspire stories. Cookbooks inspire new spins on already-great recipes. In this case, I found my inspiration in the cookbook MAPLE, which also provided the basis for my Maple Pear Galette and part of my Maple Apple Pie (aka Voltron Pie).
I loved the look of the original recipe, but right off the top, I knew I needed to make some adaptations. I don’t keep whole wheat pastry flour around. I decided to substitute with cake flour since it was also lower in gluten.
As a result, the cookies are surprisingly light and crisp. However, this also means they can overcook–and fast! Keep an eye on them as they near the end of baking time. Better to have them slightly underdone when you pull them from the oven, as they’ll finish cooking on the cookie sheet.
I also went with white chocolate rather than milk or dark chocolate. I find the mellowness of white chocolate better works with maple flavor.
Now, maple sugar can be pricy stuff at supermarkets, if you can find it at all. I buy it in bulk at Amazon. If you glance through my maple recipes, you’ll find plenty of ways to use it up!
Walnuts–and other nuts–are easy to roast in your oven. Line a rimmed pan with foil. Add the nuts in an even layer. Bake at 350-degrees for like 7 to 10 minutes, shifting them once sometime in there, until the nuts are fragrant. Let’em cool, then use them or eat them.
The combination of flavors here–maple, white chocolate, walnuts–makes these the perfect cookies for autumn.
… Except, well, if you know me, I believe in summoning up the goodness of maple all year round. Awesome things shouldn’t be confined to one season.
Bready or Not: Maple Walnut White Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup maple sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 Tablespoons avocado oil or canola oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 1 cup walnuts roasted and chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 375-degrees. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper or a silpat mat.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and maple sugar until creamy. Beat in the egg followed by the oil and vanilla. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
- In another bowl, whisk together the two flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mix until they are just combined. Stir in the white chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Use a tablespoon scoop to dole out dough onto the prepared sheet pan, leaving space for each cookie to spread. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, or until cookies puff and are just turning golden--watch them carefully at the end, as they can overcook quickly! Let them cool on the sheet about ten minutes and then transfer to a rack to completely cool.
- OM NOM NOM!
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Bready or Not: Chocolate Chip Pecan Pumpkin Pudding Cookies
Every fall, I like to bake goodies using Jell-O’s Pumpkin Spice Pudding. Every fall, I’m frustrated when Walmart doesn’t carry it until later in October, and not for long.
This stuff is like a secret weapon if you love autumn flavors. Pudding mix of any kind creates extra softness and a lovely texture whether you’re making cookies or bundt cake; this version adds delicate pumpkin and spice flavors, plus a lovely shade of orange.
This cookie dough doesn’t need to be chilled. Just whip it together and bake. The resulting cookies are plump, soft, and downright pretty to behold. Oh yeah–another advantage of using pudding mix is that the cookies stay soft and fresh for upward of a week.
Other Bready or Not recipes featuring both pumpkin flavor and pudding mix:
– Pumpkin Pudding Snickerdoodle Cookies (pumpkin spice mix)
– Pumpkin and Pudding Mix Pound Cake (vanilla pudding mix)
Modified from Boys Ahoy.
Bready or Not: Chocolate Chip Pecan Pumpkin Pudding Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, room temperature
- 3/4 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 3.4 oz Jell-O Instant Pumpkin Spice Pudding 1 box
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup pecans chopped
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
- Combine flour and baking soda in a small bowl; set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and both sugars. Beat in pudding mix until blended, followed by the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Add the flour mixture. Stir in pecans and chocolate chips until just combined.
- Using a cookie dough scooper, place dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 -10 minutes. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before moving to a cooking rack. Store in air-tight container. Makes two dozen.
- OM NOM NOM!
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Bready or Not: Double Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Chewy. Dense. Loaded with peanut butter in the dough and in the candy morsels. These cookies have it all going on.
I used creamy-centered peanut butter M&Ms for this (yay, clearance shelf) but you can also use tried-and-true Reese’s Pieces, or mix of peanut butter and chocolate chips. Just having a slight touch of chocolate in these cookies really makes the peanut butter flavor pop.
You’ll need to smash the dough balls flat before baking; these won’t spread at all, really. They will likely be even denser if you use all rolled oats. I like to use a mix of oats. That way some blend, and some stay chewy.
If you’re not in the mood for oatmeal cookies, I have a recipe for regular double peanut butter cookies, too–and these are a favorite because they are great to ship!
Modified from Crème de la Crumb.
Bready or Not: Double Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup oats rolled or quick (or a mix)
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 egg room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup Reese's Pieces or similar candy, or mix of peanut butter chips and chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and oats. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars together until they are fluffy. Mix in the peanut butter, followed by the egg and vanilla. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet. Fold in the Reese's Pieces.
- Use a scoop to dole out the dough onto a cookie sheet. The dollops stay fat, so flatten them by hand or with a glass. Bake teaspoon-sized scoops for 11 to 13 minutes.
- Let them cool on the sheet for about 10 minutes, then move them to a rack. Store in an airtight container.
- OM NOM NOM!
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Bready or Not: Bacon Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies
As you might have noticed, I am gradually reposting all of my Holy Taco Church recipes here on Bready or Not. I knew I needed to move this cookie recipe forward in the queue when I was emailed by a woman who was dismayed the HTC website was gone and she needed this recipe again.
She described them as by far the best chocolate chip cookies she had ever made. There’s just something magical about the combination of bacon and chocolate. I’ve worked that alchemy in some other recipes like chocolate-covered bacon toffee (aka BACON CRACK).
Here, the combo plays well together in cookie form. The addition of the bacon fat infuses dough with savory flavor. It’s amazing that the single tablespoon of fat makes such a huge difference.
These are not cakey, soft cookies. They are crisp and chewy–more like the old Fanny Farmer recipe cookies my mom used to make me when I was a kid. Except with added bacon.
Try this out. Maybe you’ll join the club that thinks these are the chocolate chip cookies of all time!
Modified from the recipe at Something Swanky and originally posted at the Holy Taco Church.
Bready or Not: Bacon Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 Tb bacon fat solidified
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups milk chocolate chips or semi-sweet
- 1/2 cup bacon cooked and chopped, about 4 thick strips
- additional sea salt for tops
Instructions
- Beat together the butter, bacon fat, brown sugar, and white sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.
- Add the flour, salt, and baking soda to form the dough. Gradually mix in the chocolate chips and then the bacon.
- Chill the dough for a minimum or two hours, covered with plastic wrap, up to a few days.
- Preheat oven to 375-degrees. Use a teaspoon scoop to dole out dough onto a pan and sprinkle a little extra sea salt over the tops to add some savory oomph. Bake for 10-12 minutes; let cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes, then transition to a rack.
- Recipe will make 55-60 teaspoon-size cookies.
- OM NOM NOM!
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Bready or Not: Double Chocolate Cheesecake Cookies
It’s been like a month since I posted a hardcore chocolate recipe on here. Chocoholics have NEEDS. Therefore, here are Double Chocolate Cheesecake Cookies.
Choice adjectives: Dense. Chocolaty. Rich. Luscious. Pillowy.
Seriously, these are thick in the best kind of way. Pair these cookies with a tall glass of milk or some hot coffee.
Cream cheese is magical when it’s mixed into cake batter or cookie dough. Some past examples include Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound cake and Philly Snickerdoodles.
Modified from How Sweet Eats.
Bready or Not: Double Chocolate Cheesecake Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder sifted
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 cube, softened
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 8 ounces cream cheese 1 block, softened
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add in the cream cheese until combined; it's okay if there are still small clumps. Follow with egg and vanilla extract.
- Slowly mix in the dry ingredients. As soon as everything is incorporated, stir in the chocolate chips.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for a few hours or several days.
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Using a tablespoon scoop, dole dough onto a baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Let sit on sheet a few minutes to set before transitioning to a rack to completely cool.
- OM NOM NOM!
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