My first (Martha) cookie of the season...

[schuh]

was her peanut-butter surprise cookies. I made them for a cookie exchange so wanted to have plenty for that plus tasting. :)

My dumb mistake was tripling the recipe -- and then it not fitting in my KitchenAid mixer (duh).

They are delicious but very big. They may look strange on a cookie platter unless everything else is oversized.

[Angela]

My mom made these too and they are very good. I think the people at the cookie exchange will appreciate these!

[BethH]

I've made those and Torie's Cherry Chocolate Chunk cookies, both to rave reviews! I bet the peanut butter surprise cookies will go over great! I thought they were both very yummy. :)

[Grace]

Tonight I'm making the Torie's Chocolate Chunk Cookies (made them last year - they were a hit!), and Martha's Apricot and chocolate Rugelach (first timer for those). Our supper club/cookie exchange is tomorrow night.....can't wait!! :D :D

[lindrusso]

I made the Florentines in the cookie issue tonight and they are very good. They are a bit greasy (a problem with Torie's cookies as well - though I love them anyway!), which doesn't thrill me, but once they finish cooling completely, it's less noticeable. I'm taking these to a cookie exchange tomorrow night. I did, however, use chopped dried cherries instead of apricots and I also used Ghiardelli's bittersweet chocolate in place of the semisweet - I like a really dark chocolate when drizzled on a cookie - otherwise they usually end up being too sweet.

Keep the cookie reviews coming! :D

[SweetSueDonym]

I'll third the positive review for Torie's cookies. ... Made them last weekend & DH & our friend gobbled them up.

[AmyBeth73]

I just burned two batches of the Chocolate Espresso Wafers, and I cannot figure out how. I started smelling smoke after 18 minutes during the first batch, and then after only 15 during the second batch. The cooking time reads 20-25 minutes, so I cannot figure out what went wrong. AND, I made the slices thicker than the recommended 1/8 of an inch. I have the third batch in the oven now, and I'm going to check them at 10 minutes. Anyone else made these and have some advice?

[lindrusso]

AmyBeth,

Two things come to mind.

First, what kind of cookie sheet do you use? Martha tends to use the shiny, light colored sheets. If you are using dark pans (usually the nonstick type), this can cause your cookies to bake faster. Reducing the time and/or temperature should help.

The second thing that comes to mind is that your oven temperature may be off. You can buy an oven thermometer quite cheaply just about anywhere they sell kitchen supplies. You place this in the oven and then check your oven temp against the thermometer. This could be the cause of your problem.

Oh, and one more thing - did you use all of the ingredients as called for or did you make any substitutions?

Hope you have better luck!

[AmyBeth73]

Thanks, Lindrusso. I do have an oven thermometer, so I know I'm good there. I did use a dark-ish cookie sheet, so I will lighten up next time--thanks! DH also thinks my top rack may be too high, and offered to help me lower it. I wonder if that may be the root of the problem, and a few others I've had with burning the tops of some dishes.

[LAM]

The Tories cherry chocolate chunk cookie sounds wonderful! Could anyone post the recipe? Thanks

[lindrusso]

Here you go :) . If I am baking these right away, I don't bother rolling them into logs - I just bake them as a drop cookie. Seems like extra work for no reason to me :) .

TORIE'S CHOCOLATE CHUNK TOFFEE COOKIES

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 cup dried cherries
1 cup bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup toffee pieces

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour and baking soda and set aside.

2. In an electric mixer, using a paddle attachment cream the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice during mixing. Add egg, mix on high speed to combine. Add vanilla extract; mix to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the sifted flour in additions on low speed until combined. On low speed, add the oatmeal, cherries, chocolate and toffee pieces and mix to combine.

3. Divide the dough into 3 equal portions and roll into logs using plastic wrap, approximately 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Dough can be frozen, chilled in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days or baked immediately. Cut logs into 3/4 inch pieces. Bake on parchment-lined baking sheets, until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to a baking rack to cool. Store in covered container with wax paper between layers.

[schuh]

Just wondering -- how were these?
Everything sounds awesome (except for the cherries --I don't love dried fruit in most cookies.)

[Nirak]

I made the chocolate espresso wafers several years ago and I know I burned at least one batch. Half the things I bake take twice as long and half take less time ... I've learned to just camp out in the kitchen and keep an eye on things. I really liked the chocolate espresso wafers but they aren't very pretty on their own.

[lindrusso]

Originally posted by schuh
Just wondering -- how were these?
Everything sounds awesome (except for the cherries --I don't love dried fruit in most cookies.)

I almost never like dried fruit in anything, but I LOVE dried cherries! They are awesome! I use them in cookies in place of raisins, in salads, in my cereal and in oatmeal. YUM!

[schuh]

Oh, I like the dried cherries in a lot of things that you mentioned -- salads, snack mixes, etc. I just don't care for dried fruit in baked goods (with a few exceptions). It's a strange aversion since I'm not otherwise a picky eater.

I'm considering making this recipe but just leaving out the cherries.

[Linda in MO]

Hmmm, I just don't think they'll be the same without the dried cherries. I guess they would still be good, just not as unique. Just my humble opinion! :cool:

[aggie94]

Yesterday was my cookie baking marathon. I got a late start, but hey - it's still the holidays!

I did my usual sugar cookies, fudge, and chocolate-dipped almond shortbread crescents. The rest of my cookies this year were from Martha's holiday cookie issue. Here's the reviews:

Chocolate Gingerbread: Delicious and easy! My ground ginger was old, so the ginger flavor didn't shine through as much as it could have. I should have thought to pick up some ground ginger at Penzey's when I was there. :(

Chocolate Chunk Macaroons: Also delicious and easy! My first batch was a little overdone (my fault, not Martha's), but the rest were perfect. If I had known it would make so few, I would have doubled the batch.

Lemon Drop Wafers: Good, but not as lemony as I had hoped. I think I crushed the lemon drops too fine.

Chocolate Piped Peanut Butter Cookies: I'm not a huge fan of peanut butter, but these were very pretty with the chocolate piping and tasty, for a peanut butter cookie.

I'd make any of those again, but the macaroons were by far my personal favorite. If I liked peanut butter, I think the PB cookies would have also been a winner.

As for the one Martha cookie disaster, it was the Chewy Orange Almond Cookies. Yuck. For starters, the addition of anise was not a good idea. The smell of the dough already turned me off. If I were going to attempt these again, I'd leave it out. Second, the egg whites never reached a glossy peak. I beat the heck out of them, but no go. I knew from that point on that it was a lost cause, but I went ahead and added the egg white mixture (not at glossy peaks, but still kinda drippy and runny) to the other ingredients. I scooped them out onto the cookie sheet, but after about ten minutes, they had all run together into a giant slobby cookie. It looked horrible and didn't taste much better. I ended scrapping the whole mess. (And thank god for silpats, which made the clean-up so much easier!). NOT a keeper.

My overall consensus on the Martha cookies was that they were good, but not spectacular. And they were for the most part, pretty easy to throw together. Some of my personal recipes would stand up to some of hers, IMO.

[schuh]

Thanks for the reviews. I may make some notes for next year. The only other Martha cookie I tried was the praline cookies. The praline topping never hardened and the overall flavor was sicky sweet. I wouldn't make them again.

About those peanut butter surprises. as well as the Rolo cookies on other threads, the two of them got crumbly well before the other cookies I baked did. I'd be curious to know whether others had the same experience or any tricks to prevent this from happening.

[SWOMAN]

I made the Sarah Bernhardt Cookies from Martha's special cookie magazine on Christmas Eve. I made a huge mess, but it's worth it! They were very rich and delicious. My whole family loved them.

[ama47369]

Well, I was so excited to get my hands on the MS cookie magazine, that I tried quite a few of her recipes. We found most of them to be pretty good. A few fantastic.

I made the Peanut Butter Surprises-I thought these were really good, but next time I will under bake them a bit to make them softer.

The Jam thumbprints were really good, pretty, and fairly easy. They got rave reviews.

I had never made Linzer sandwiches before, so I had a lot of trouble trying to roll out the dough to make cut outs in the middle of the cookies like hers in the picture. I ended up cutting out a few of the middles, and then just making flat sandwich cookies with the rest of the dough. They tasted pretty good, but definately not my favorite.

My Lemon Drop wafers turned out much different than expected. They were completely flat and very chewy. I thought they would have a bit more cookie-like consistancy. I assume I ground the Lemon Drops too finely.

I tried to make the Bullseye refrigerator cookies, but did not follow the instructions exactly when rolling out the dough. They tasted good, and were pretty, but didn't look as they were pictured. My parents loved the way these tasted.

And, her sugar cookies got wonderful reviews. I bought some snowflake cookie cutters at Williams-Sonoma and then decorated them with light blue and white royal icing. They looked really nice, and I had lots of fun decorating them.

And, the Lime meltaways went over really well. Very easy, tasty, and the recipe makes tons!

I pretty much made a few at a time, and stored the dough in the freezer until I wanted to bake them for my cookie baskets. I also made peppermint bark with my MIL, and the Rolo cookies (absolute favorite!!!), my mother made these pecan sandwiches with a powdered sugar, butter, and cream cheese mixture inside them(these got really good reviews, too). It was a lot of fun, a lot of mess, and now it's time for me to get back to eating healthier!:)

[Grace]

I made the Sandbakelse which turned out FABULOUS! Everyone raved about these, including me. And the best part is that they were incredibly easy. I also made the Apricot and Chocolate Rugelach, which was my first attempt at Rugelach. I liked them very much and woudl definitely repeat them. The only thing is I made the first round (the recipe makes 3 "rounds", 8 cookies per "round") the way the recipe stated, 4 wedges with chocolate and 4 wedges with apricot. I decided on the other two rounds to mix both the chocolate and the apricot together on every cookie. I liked that much better and will do that again the next time. And the Torie's Chocolate Chunk Cookies are killer. I have made those a couple times before, and they are now a standard here. I had only good experiences so far with Martha's cookies, although I only made 3 recipes this year. I plan to make more throughout the year though, for other special occasions! I had fun making all these cookies!

[ladygeeza]

Forgive an ignorant Brit... but is cookie baking one of your Christmas 'traditions'? Possibly the equivalent of our mince pie marathons.

It sounds as though you all make hundreds of cookies. I'm fascinated as I've never made a cookie in my life! Is there a simple recipe you could suggest to start me off? (one that the children can do would be perfect)

Bee

[Melman]

I'd say it's certainly a tradition in many households. I can't remember when I first started making cookies to use primarily as gifts for neighbors and relatives. I've always liked making cookies but have become sort of a cookie-fiend over the past dozen years or so. It seems the more I make, the faster they disappear. Just can't figure out that logic!!

There are dozens and dozens of really easy cookie recipes. Unfortunately, I'm at work, and I don't have any simple recipes with me. I'd say a sugar or chocolate chip "drop" cookie recipe might be the easiest. A "drop" cookie is basically sugar and butter creamed together, and then eggs added. The dry ingredients are often mixed together and then added a little at a time to the butter/sugar/egg mixture. With chocolate chips, you'd then add the chips and possibly nuts after everything is mixed together. All you do after that is just drop spoonfuls on the baking sheet, bake them at about 350 degrees, and then remove them from the oven to cool.

I'll look for a couple of recipes when I get home. Most likely, you'll have quite a few recipes added to this request long before I get here. We definitely like to share recipes on this board!!!!

[dcornelius]

Ladygeeza- I would say that if you want to try an easy cookie recipie that will surely be a hit try the chocolate carmel cookie recipie that everyone raves about on here. (when I am done with this post I will try and attatch a link to the recipie, I have never done that before though so I I am not successful maybe someone else could do it?)This recipies is so easy and absolutly wonderful. I am assuming you can get Rolos where you live. I also tried them with York Peppermint Patties and liked that even more! I figure most any soft candy would work in this recipie.
I baked a bunch of Martha's cookies from her cookie magazine and loved them all. I really enjoyed both short bread recipies (regular and brown sugar) I did the chocolate peanut butter surprise, the sugar cookies and used the choclate part of the thumbprints to make a peanut butter thumb print with chocolate filling but my cookie recipie flattened out a bit to much and didn't make a good thumbprint. Does anyone have a good peanut butter cookie recipie to use for a thumbprint cookie? I sent a bunch of these out to my family and everyone loved them!
ok, I don't know how to add a URL can anyone help?
Sorry Ladygeeza

[KellyD]

I also made the jam Thumbprint cookies and they got rave reviews from our holiday crew as well. They are rolled in a ground almond and sugar mixture - which makes them different from any similar recipe I have. Then used a homemade peach jelly I received as a gift for the filling - yum!