Category: Cookies

Recipes for cookies.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

Earn brownie points with your friends with these awesome cookies

Brownie cookies are soft and chocolaty with a little crunch from mini M&Ms. They’re a great cookie to share with friends.
Brownie cookies are soft and chocolaty with a little crunch from mini M&Ms. They’re a great cookie to share with friends.

Last weekend, our house was the scene of an end-of-season party for Joey’s bowling team.

I always love when that crew comes over. They are a super nice group, and it’s always fun to share a big meal and hear them tell stories and tease each other about their bowling gaffes.

It’s also a great excuse for me to try out a new recipe.

This year, I decided to make a cookie recipe I have had my eye on. The good news: they were awesome. The bad news: there wasn’t one cookie left over at the end of the night.

This recipe comes from the blog “Cookie Dough and Oven Mitt” by Miranda Couse. You can find the original post at https://www.cookiedoughandovenmitt.com/brownie-cookies/. I added extra vanilla in my version.

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Brownie Cookies

Brownie cookies are soft and chocolaty with a little crunch from mini M&Ms. They’re a great cookie to share with friends.
Course Dessert
Keyword brown sugar, chocolate, chocolate chips, cookie exchange, M&Ms, semisweet chocolate chips, soft cookies, vanilla

Ingredients

  • 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 10 ounces mini M&Ms

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set them aside.
  • Add the chocolate chips and butter to a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between each heating, until everything is melted. Set it aside.
  • In a mixing bowl, beat the brown sugar, sugar, eggs and vanilla for a couple minutes until the mixture is light yellow and well combined.
  • Beat in the melted chocolate mixture, baking powder, salt and flour until the dough is smooth, and then fold in the M&Ms.
  • Using a cookie scoop (I used a two-inch scoop), place scoops of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, keeping them about two inches apart.
  • Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the tops and edges of the cookies are set. Let them cool, and then store the cookies in an airtight container.

These were just as advertised: a nice combination of brownie flavor in cookie form. If you wanted to double down on the chocolate flavors, you could easily sub in dark chocolate chips for the semi-sweet or even use mini chocolate chips instead of the M&Ms.

I wish I could tell you these cookies were the most popular thing on the table last weekend, but since Joey smoked a pork shoulder, I came in second. But who can be mad when you’re fighting those odds?

The only unfortunate thing is I guess I’ll have to make these cookies again if I want to eat another one. Such is the burden of greatness—and great friends.

This piece first appeared in print June 5, 2025.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert Snack

‘Orange’ you glad these weird cookies made an appearance?

Cheetos cookies are a novelty that brings lots of conversation to a get together. With cheesy dust both in the dough and on the outside, these are an interesting take on a sugar cookie with a savory twist.
Cheetos cookies are a novelty that brings lots of conversation to a get together. With cheesy dust both in the dough and on the outside, these are an interesting take on a sugar cookie with a savory twist.

Joey puts up with a lot of weird stuff when it comes to this column.

The poor guy watches me put random ingredients in our shopping cart all the time and never knows what I’m going to come up with next.

With that said, he’s a terrific sport. He tries all my experiments and gives his honest opinion—sometimes helping me raid the spice cabinet to try to improve upon a first attempt.

That was not the case with this week’s recipe.

In this case, he refused—point blank—to try it.

In Joey’s defense, I probably went off the deep end a bit with this one: Cheetos cookies.

This comes from the blog “The Spiffy Cookie.” You can find the original post at https://www.thespiffycookie.com/2018/03/05/cheetos-cookies/. I didn’t change the recipe, because, honestly, I had no idea how this was going to turn out.

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Cheetos Cookies

Cheetos cookies are a novelty that brings lots of conversation to a get together. With cheesy dust both in the dough and on the outside, these are an interesting take on a sugar cookie with a savory twist.
Course Dessert, Main Course
Keyword cheese puffs, Cheetos, cookies, sugar cookies

Ingredients

  • 4 cups Cheetos puffs divided (I used a 7-ounce bag)
  • 1/4 cup butter softened
  • 1/4 cup shortening
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • a few dashes orange food coloring
  • 1 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

  • Crush all of the Cheetos until they are fine by either smashing them in a Ziplock bag or by running them through a food processor.
  • In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, shortening and sugar for a couple minutes until it is a light yellow.
  • Beat in the egg and food coloring. (You don’t have to use the food coloring, but it does make for a striking vision to have these a super bright orange.)
  • Beat in half of the crushed Cheetos, the flour, cream of tartar baking soda and salt. Once everything is well combined, scoop the dough out in about one-inch balls.
  • Put the rest of the Cheetos dust into a bowl, and roll the balls in the crumbs to coat them. Put the balls on a plate, cover it, and refrigerate for at least one hour.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper, and place the chilled dough about two inches apart on the sheets.
  • Bake for eight to 10 minutes or until the cookies are set up and just starting to brown on the sides.
  • Let them cool, and then transfer them into an airtight container.

These smelled really nice while they baked. It reminded me of warm, cheesy popcorn. For the flavor, they weren’t as cheesy as I thought. They were more of a corn-chip forward sugar cookie.

I actually made these a few weeks ago, and several readers helped sample them in Joey’s stead. The reaction was mixed, but most thought they were an OK little cookie. Really, these are more about what they are than how they taste. They are definitely a conversation starter.

That being said, this is probably a one-and-done recipe for me, and not just because I would have to eat another batch totally by myself. Joey can only take so much.

This piece first appeared in print Feb. 6, 2025.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert Snack

Overcome old assumptions with something sc‘rum’ptious

These balls can be made with rum or bourbon and feature cocoa, vanilla and chopped nuts, along with a hint of alcohol.
These balls can be made with rum or bourbon and feature cocoa, vanilla and chopped nuts, along with a hint of alcohol.

It must have been sometime when I was in middle school that a family acquaintance gifted us with a basket of homemade goodies during the holidays.

Most of the items were run-of-the-mill, well-done treats, but there was one none of us could identify initially. Upon further inspection, we discovered a sweet that none of us liked: the rum ball.

In our fabulous, pre-teen humor, my sister and I deemed these as “baby poop balls.” Of course, as an adult, I realize we (A) probably shouldn’t have been eating mildly alcoholic candies and (B) there has to be a better way to make this classic treat that doesn’t induce gagging.

So, with a gathering coming up, I decided it was time to find a recipe and redeem the “baby poop balls” once and for all.

The recipe I settled on comes from the website “Food.com.” You can find the original post at https://www.food.com/recipe/christmas-rum-balls-or-bourbon-balls-13214. I added vanilla to my version.

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Rum or Bourbon Balls

These balls can be made with rum or bourbon and feature cocoa, vanilla and chopped nuts, along with a hint of alcohol.
Course Dessert
Keyword boozy candy, bourbon, bourbon ball, cocoa powder, light corn syrup, no-bake dessert, pecans, powdered sugar, rum ball, spiced rum, vanilla, vanilla wafers, walnuts

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoon cocoa
  • 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar divided
  • 11 ounces vanilla wafer cookies finely crushed
  • 1 cup pecans or walnuts chopped
  • 1/2 cup spiced rum or bourbon
  • 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

  • Process the wafers in a food processor until they are fine crumbs. Pulse in the chopped nuts.
  • In a small bowl, stir the rum or bourbon with the corn syrup until the corn syrup is totally incorporated.
  • Add the alcohol mixture, along with the vanilla, to the processor and process until the mixture looks like wet sand.
  • Finally, sift the cocoa and one cup of the powdered sugar into the processor and process until the mixture is well combined.
  • (All of these steps can, alternatively, be done in a mixing bowl.)
  • Once the mixture is done, place the rest of the powdered sugar into a small bowl.
  • Roll the mixture into about one-inch balls, and then roll them in the sugar. Store the finished rum balls in an airtight container.

I liked these. I’m sure part of that is that I don’t mind the taste of a little spiced rum, and the texture in this particular recipe was very nice.

Rolling them into one-inch balls instead of the approximately three-inch behemoths I tried long, long ago also allowed the added vanilla, along with the powdered sugar on the outside, to help mellow the rum flavor a bit, which I appreciated. I’m interested to see what the bourbon version would taste like, too.

And, since these do contain some booze, I will caution that they should probably be for adult-only enjoyment, despite the fact that I think you’d have to eat quite a few of these before the rum had any effect on you.

With this recipe in the books, I feel like I have redeemed rum balls in my culinary memory, which also feels nice. Now I’ll just have to make another batch to convince the rest of the family that we can lay the “baby poop balls” to rest.

This piece first appeared in print Jan. 16, 2025.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

Let a youngster chip in on making these yummy bars

Potato chip krispies treats trades out the traditional rice cereal to create a sweet and salty no-bake treat that is absolutely delicious.
Potato chip krispies treats trades out the traditional rice cereal to create a sweet and salty no-bake treat that is absolutely delicious.

A few weeks ago, when the county fair carnival was in town, Joey and I decided to host our 6-year-old niece for a sleepover.

Well, I should say I decided to host her, and Joey was allowed to participate as the fun uncle who was then relegated to sleeping in the guest room with the dog.

We spent the whole of Friday night on all of the rides at the carnival. We might have gone on the big slide over a dozen times. I lost count.

Our niece came away with a stuffed animal, thanks to Uncle Joey, and a stunning face full of bright paints. We also fulfilled her one food request: a funnel cake. It was a long evening but a lot of fun.

On Saturday, after a lunch of macaroni and cheese, my little helper and I decided to make a treat recipe to share with all of you. These bars are a perfect recipe to make with a young, budding chef or just on your own. Regardless, the end result is the perfect combination of sweet and salty, and these were absolutely delicious.

This comes from the blog “Life of a Foodie.” You can find the original link at https://lifestyleofafoodie.com/ruffles-krispy-treats/. I added a little chocolate to my version.

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Potato Chip Krispies Treats

Potato chip krispies treats trades out the traditional rice cereal to create a sweet and salty no-bake treat that is absolutely delicious.
Course Dessert
Keyword butter, cookie exchange, mini marshmallows, no bake, potato chips, semisweet chocolate chips, sweet and salty

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons butter plus more to grease pan
  • 4 cups miniature marshmallows
  • about 8 ounces wavy potato chips
  • about 2 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips
  • Coarse or flaked salt to taste

Instructions

  • Liberally grease the bottoms and sides of an eight-by-eight-inch baking pan with butter, and set it aside.
  • Add the three tablespoons of butter to a large saucepan over low heat. Once the butter is melted, add in the marshmallows, and stir constantly until they are melted and smooth. (This may take awhile, so it’s a good spot for a helper to step in to help stir.)
  • Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the potato chips. Don’t worry about whether they break and crumble as you go. Once the chips are well combined, dump the mixture into your prepared baking dish, smoothing it out evenly.
  • In a small, microwave-safe bowl, microwave the chocolate chips, 30 seconds at a time, until you can stir them and they are completely melted.
  • Drizzle the melted chocolate over top of the bars, and then top with a big pinch of coarse or flaked salt.
  • Let the mixture cool completely before slicing into bars. Store leftovers in an airtight container.

I loved the flavor combination in these, and so did the 6-year-old, although our bars turned out a lot chewier than I expected. If I were to bet why, I’m guessing it was a combination of having a bag of older marshmallows in my pantry and having a cooking assistant who insisted on taste testing quite a few of them before they went into the pot.

It’s always a great time to have our niece for a visit, and I love being able to share my interest in cooking with her, too.

I can’t wait for our next adventure together, but for now, I just need a nap.

This piece first appeared in print Aug. 29, 2024.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

No one will razz you about these yummy cookies

Raspberry sugar cookies are not overly sweet and have a nice, light fruity flavor that is complimented by vanilla and butter. Plus, they’re just a pretty cookie to feature on your dessert table.
Raspberry sugar cookies are not overly sweet and have a nice, light fruity flavor that is complimented by vanilla and butter. Plus, they’re just a pretty cookie to feature on your dessert table.

As I promised, I’m back in this week’s column with the second recipe in my raspberry series.

After my triumph over Joey and his usual dislike of raspberries with last week’s recipe, I was feeling pretty confident about the others I picked out to try on him.

People often tell Joey just how lucky he is that he gets to try all these new recipes I make each week, but what they don’t realize is how often I push culinary boundaries with him.

He really is a good sport.

So the good news is that this week’s offering isn’t something super strange. I decided to see how he’d feel about a very simple cookie recipe.

I loved these, because they weren’t overly sweet (despite having sugar in the name), and they were really pretty, thanks to the natural color from the berries.

This comes from the blog “Chasety” by Chase Curtis. You can find the original recipe at https://chasety.com/raspberry-sugar-cookies/. I put extra vanilla and raspberries in my version. I also left out some extra sugar and food coloring.

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Raspberry Sugar Cookies

Raspberry sugar cookies are not overly sweet and have a nice, light fruity flavor that is complimented by vanilla and butter. Plus, they’re just a pretty cookie to feature on your dessert table.
Course Dessert
Keyword butter, cookie exchange, fresh raspberries, raspberry, sugar cookies, vanilla

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup butter softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup fresh raspberries chopped finely

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare one or two baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper, and set them aside.
  • In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until the mixture is light yellow and fluffy (about three minutes). Beat in the egg and vanilla until smooth.
  • Beat in the flour, baking powder and salt until everything is well combined.
  • Dump in the raspberries and mix them in until they’re well incorporated. (Mine were especially ripe, so I just beat them in and didn’t worry about trying to preserve larger chunks of fruit. If you’d rather have visible raspberries, I’d recommend folding them in.)
  • Using a one-inch cookie scoop, place the cookies about two inches apart on the prepared baking sheet(s).
  • Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the centers are set and the edges are just starting to brown.
  • Let the cookies cool completely before transferring them into an airtight container.

I really liked these. They just had a subtle, sweet flavor that I could definitely get behind.

On Joey’s end, he said he’d give these a five out of 10, but he was also quick to note that he’s not much of a sugar cookie fan as a general rule.

Regardless, after having the container out for a get together we had, I didn’t have any leftovers, so the rest of our friends apparently voted them a little higher than he did.

This particular raspberry experiment wasn’t quite the hit I was hoping for with my raspberry-averse husband, but the good news is that I saved the big guns for last. Just wait until you see what I have in store for you—and for him—next week.

This first appeared in print Aug. 15, 2024.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

‘Guava’ your friends a tropical dessert to try

Guava bars combine the sweetness of guava with the nuttiness of oats and the buttery goodness of a shortbread crust to create a delicious combination of flavors for your dessert table.
Guava bars combine the sweetness of guava with the nuttiness of oats and the buttery goodness of a shortbread crust to create a delicious combination of flavors for your dessert table.

Several months ago, I decided, for some reason, I needed to get ahold of a can of guava paste to bake with.

I didn’t have a recipe picked out yet, but I’m sure I found some video about guava that convinced me I needed it in my life. I found a can while traveling and promptly stored it in my pantry, where I completely forgot about it.

That is until this past week, when I needed a new dessert to bring to a cookout.

I knew it needed to be something interesting—this particular crew appreciates creativity—but it also had to stand up to being out in the heat of July in Kansas for several hours. Enter the guava paste and a recipe for some bar cookies that looked too good to pass up.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Mission Food Adventure.” You can find the original post at https://mission-food.com/guava-bars/. I added extra guava paste in my version.

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Guava Bars

Guava bars combine the sweetness of guava with the nuttiness of oats and the buttery goodness of a shortbread crust to create a delicious combination of flavors for your dessert table.
Course Dessert
Keyword brown sugar, butter, cookie bars, cookie exchange, guava, guava paste, oatmeal, shortbread, tropical dessert

Ingredients

Crust Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups flour

Topping Ingredients

  • 21 ounces guava paste cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
  • 1 cup old-fashioned or quick oats
  • 1/2 cup butter cold and diced
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup flour

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Prepare a nine-by-13-inch baking pan by lining the bottom and up and over all four sides with parchment paper to help remove the bars after they’re done. Set it aside.
  • For the crust, beat the butter and sugar together for several minutes until it is light and fluffy. Beat in the salt and flour until the mixture is smooth, and then press it evenly into the bottom of the prepared baking pan.
  • Cover the entire surface of the crust layer with slices of guava paste. You can cut it into smaller pieces to fill gaps, too. (You may have just a bit left over for you to snack on.)
  • Add the oats, butter, salt, sugar and flour to a food processor and pulse until the mixture kind of looks like wet sand and everything is well combined.
  • Sprinkle the topping evenly over the guava and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until the topping is golden brown.
  • Let the bars cool completely before using the parchment paper to remove them from the pan. Slice them and store in an airtight container.

I came home with one guava bar leftover from the cookout, so I guess you could say they were a success. They were absolutely delicious. If you’ve never worked with guava paste before, it’s jelly-like, but it’s also super sticky.

The flavor is fruity but not overly sweet, so it is an especially good filling for people who aren’t into sugary treats. That, combined with the buttery shortcake crust and the nuttiness of the oatmeal topping, makes for a great dessert.

It turns out I was right about my guava obsession. The next time I manage to spot a big tin of it at the grocery store, it will probably land in my pantry again. This time, though, it probably won’t last nearly as long.

This piece first appeared in print on July 11, 2024.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

Turn over a new leaf with basil lemon sugar cookies

Basil lemon sugar cookies are the perfect combination of fresh herb and citrus flavors, paired with a light sweetness. They are a great summer treat or great for teatime, too.
Basil lemon sugar cookies are the perfect combination of fresh herb and citrus flavors, paired with a light sweetness. They are a great summer treat or great for teatime, too.

Something I probably haven’t mentioned often is that I have a constant helper in the kitchen when I try recipes for this column.

Sometimes she gets to sample something, and sometimes she is informed that the particular creation at hand is “not good for puppies.”

Regardless, our 15-year-old schnauzer, K.C., hopefully follows me around the kitchen or gazes at me from a good napping spot, hoping I will be clumsy enough to drop something or gracious enough to share.

Often, she gets lucky, and this week’s recipe is one of her favorite kinds: one that only uses half an egg. Because guess who gets to eat the other half?

As far as the recipe itself, there was no schnauzer taste testing, because once I tried one of the cookies I made this week, I barely wanted to share them with any of my beloved humans, let alone my sweet dog.

This week’s experiment comes from the blog “The Deeper Living.” You can see the original post at https://www.thedeeperliving.com/blog/lush-lemon-basil-sugar-cookies. I doubled the amount of basil sugar for coating in my version below.

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Basil Lemon Sugar Cookies

Basil lemon sugar cookies are the perfect combination of fresh herb and citrus flavors, paired with a light sweetness. They are a great summer treat or great for teatime, too.
Course Dessert
Keyword fresh basil, fresh lemon, lemon zest, sugar cookies, teatime

Ingredients

Cookie Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2/3 cup fresh basil leaves stems removed
  • 1 cup two sticks butter, room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 2 heaping teaspoons lemon zest
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Basil Sugar Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • about 12 fresh basil leaves stems removed

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper.
  • Starting with the cookie ingredients, pulse the sugar and basil leaves in a food processor or blender until the leaves are completely pulverized, and the sugar is a bright green color.
  • In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter for one to two minutes until it is a light yellow color.
  • Add in the basil sugar you created and beat again for about two minutes, making sure everything is well incorporated and the butter is a light green shade.
  • Beat in the vanilla, lemon zest, egg and egg yolk for another two to three minutes until the mixture is smooth.
  • Leaving your mixer on a low speed, add the dry ingredients—flour, baking soda and salt—a little at a time, making sure it is just combined but not over mixing it.
  • Make the basil sugar for coating the cookies in the same way you made the mixture for the cookie batter, and pour it into a shallow bowl.
  • Using a one-inch (two-tablespoon) cookie scoop, scoop out the cookie dough and drop the balls of dough into the basil sugar, rolling each lightly to coat it in a thin layer of sugar, and then place them on the prepared baking sheet, at least two inches apart (they will spread).
  • Bake for 8 to 9 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are very lightly browned (they’ll finish setting up out of the oven). Remove the cookies from the oven and let them rest until they’re cool enough to handle (about 5 minutes) before transferring them to an airtight container.

OK, so I know these sound a bit scary at first. Basil is, after all, generally a savory ingredient. But I can tell you with absolute certainty that these are delicious. The basil and lemon meld well, and the basil sugar is so good that I made an extra batch to rim glasses for some cocktails over the weekend.

These cookies sort of taste like something that would be perfect to enjoy with a cup of tea. They’re unlike anything I have ever had, and I was absolutely on board with it.

So was K.C., after she cleaned up the egg white from her dog bowl. Her opinion was I should have made a double batch, but I suspect that was a self-serving request.

This piece first appeared in print on May 9, 2024.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Breakfast Cookies Dessert

Combining cookies and cinnamon rolls is totally friend‘chip’ goals

Chocolate chip cookie cinnamon rolls are exactly what the name implies: a gooey, delicious combination of cookies and sweet rolls. Since the recipe uses pre-made ingredients, it’s extremely easy for even amateur bakers to accomplish.
Chocolate chip cookie cinnamon rolls are exactly what the name implies: a gooey, delicious combination of cookies and sweet rolls. Since the recipe uses pre-made ingredients, it’s extremely easy for even amateur bakers to accomplish.

Every once in awhile, I run across a food idea so dumb but so obviously delicious that I just have to try it.

It happened when I made poutine tacos. It happened when I decided to try Mountain Dew and Doritos cupcakes.

And it happened again this past week, when I saw a simple recipe that promised to combine two high-calorie, delectable treats: cinnamon rolls and chocolate chip cookies.

So I went to the store, dumping a package of pre-made cookies and pre-made rolls into my cart and hoping no one who regularly reads my column saw me and wondered if I was losing a step.

And then I made magic in my kitchen.

I was right. They were dumb. But they were so, so good, and now that I have the knowledge that this can be done, it’s only right that I share it with all of you so you can shame buy packages of refrigerated dough and try this out at your house, too.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Dude Foods” by Nick Chipman. (If you’re into weird food experiments, he’s your guy.) You can find the original post at https://dudefoods.com/chocolate-chip-cookie-stuffed-cinnamon-rolls/. There were only two ingredients for this, so I didn’t change those up, but I did clarify some directions that should make your life a little easier when trying these.

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Cinnamon Rolls

Chocolate chip cookie cinnamon rolls are exactly what the name implies: a gooey, delicious combination of cookies and sweet rolls. Since the recipe uses pre-made ingredients, it’s extremely easy for even amateur bakers to accomplish.
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Keyword canned cinnamon rolls, cookie dough, easy dessert, quick dessert

Ingredients

  • 16 ounces refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
  • 12.4 ounce package of refrigerated cinnamon roll dough with icing

Instructions

  • Let the cookie dough come up to room temperature before starting assembly.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set it aside.
  • Cut two large pieces of parchment paper or waxed paper, and sandwich the cookie dough between them. Using a rolling pin, roll out the cookie dough to about one-quarter inch in thickness, trying to keep it in as much of a rectangular shape as you can.
  • Carefully remove the top layer of paper and set it aside. Unroll the cinnamon rolls and place them, lengthwise, evenly across the cookie dough. It’s OK if you end up with a little space between or if they hang off the end a little.
  • Take a table knife or pizza cutter and cut a line in the cookie dough between each cinnamon roll, making long strips.
  • Place the paper back on top of the dough. Slide it onto a baking sheet, place another baking sheet on top, and flip the stack over.
  • Now, peel the top layer of paper off and begin tightly rolling the cinnamon roll/cookie dough lines into rolls, and place them on your prepared baking sheet, spacing them at least an inch apart.
  • Once all of the dough is rolled, bake for about 15 minutes or until the dough is soft but set up on the bottoms. While the rolls are hot, cover them with the icing included with the cinnamon rolls. Serve them immediately and store any leftovers in an airtight container. This will make eight rolls.

I was seriously almost angry that these were so stinking good, because they were way too easy to make. They were soft and cinnamon-y and chocolaty and would be phenomenal with a big glass of milk. We were lucky to have a get together the day I made these, so I managed to get away with only eating half of a roll, which I shared with Joey, before passing these calorie bombs off on our friends. (Sorry, gang!)

I can officially cross another weird recipe off my to do list, though, and that’s pretty cool. I have discovered that curiosity is a large part of what drives my kitchen experiments, and I was happy to answer the “what if” of this food combination.

This piece first appeared in print on March 28, 2024.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

Try a cookie recipe that is a piece of cake

Spice cake cookies are made very simply with a cake mix and a couple other ingredients. These are a great recipe when you need to bake something in a hurry.
Spice cake cookies are made very simply with a cake mix and a couple other ingredients. These are a great recipe when you need to bake something in a hurry.

For a recent get-together at our office, I decided I wanted my snack table to look ready for fall.

I set up a mini scarecrow, laid a garland of orange and red leaves along the back of the table and sprinkled candy corn strategically around the plates of goodies.

To compliment the look of fall, I decided it was time for some fall spices, too, but I had almost zero time leading up to the event to do a lot of baking.

Thank goodness for this week’s recipe, then, that let me use a cake mix and a few other ingredients to create some yummy cookies to share with our crew.

The recipe comes from the blog “Sizzling Eats” by Amy Desrosiers. You can find the original post at https://www.sizzlingeats.com/spice-cake-mix-cookies/. I did not add anything this one, because it was so easy. I did, however, roll my cookies much smaller than the original directions, which resulted in small, crispy cookies rather than big, soft ones. I made sure to note both options below.

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Spice Cake Cookies

Spice cake cookies are made very simply with a cake mix and a couple other ingredients. These are a great recipe when you need to bake something in a hurry.
Course Dessert
Keyword cake mix, easy cookies, fall dessert, fall spices, spice cake

Ingredients

  • 15.2- ounce spice cake mix
  • 1/2 cup oil vegetable or canola
  • 2 eggs
  • 3-4 tablespoons sugar

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and line a couple cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  • In a mixing bowl, beat the cake mix, oil and eggs until everything is well combined.
  • Pour the sugar in a separate, small bowl.
  • Roll the cookies into about golf-ball-sized balls for larger, soft cookies or about one-inch balls for small, crispy cookies, and roll them in the bowl of sugar to lightly coat each.
  • Place the balls one to two inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
  • Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until the cookies are lightly browned and set. Let them cool a bit before transferring them to an airtight container.

This made a ton of cookies, especially with making them a bit smaller, and they were perfect for everyone to have a few on their snack plates while they chatted and nibbled.

I do think you could still get a soft cookie out of the smaller option, but you’d want to under-bake them a bit to make sure they stay more pliable. I want to try these again sometime with the soft option—I’m a sucker for chewy cookies.

I was really happy with how these turned out, and I was especially excited to have cookies with a hint of cinnamon and clove sitting on the snack table. No matter how many mini scarecrows or candy pumpkins you have, it’s just not really fall until the right spices make their debut.

This piece first appeared in print on Oct. 26, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

Chewy cookies can be a real ‘raspberry’ in blue

Raspberry white chocolate cookies feature fresh raspberries in a soft, chewy cookie, with plenty of white chocolate chips to take these to a whole new level of delicious.
Raspberry white chocolate cookies feature fresh raspberries in a soft, chewy cookie, with plenty of white chocolate chips to take these to a whole new level of delicious.

“They have some gross cookies over here,” a gentleman said into his cell phone at a Hesston event we held this weekend, making sure to say it just loud enough for me to hear.

Luckily, he was joking. Or at least I think he was.

The cookies, made with lots of fresh raspberries ended up with a little bit of a strange, green-blue hue from the fruit juice spreading throughout the dough, and he teased that I was trying to give away moldy cookies. I guess that’s what I get for using fresh fruit instead of buying something fake or freeze-dried.

But, darn it, they were far from gross. Instead, they were downright delicious, and I ended up being very happy I doubled the recipe, since my first Tupperware container emptied out extremely quickly. Plus, doubling let me use a full bag of white chocolate chips and a full 12-ounce container of raspberries. I always appreciate not having random bits and pieces of ingredients sitting around after trying a new recipe.

If you want to give these “gross” cookies a try, the recipe comes from the blog “Erhardt Seat” by Caitlyn Erhardt. You can find the original at https://erhardtseat.com/raspberry-white-chocolate-cookies/. I doubled the vanilla, added a few extra chocolate chips and added some salt in my version.

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Raspberry White Chocolate Cookies

Raspberry white chocolate cookies feature fresh raspberries in a soft, chewy cookie, with plenty of white chocolate chips to take these to a whole new level of delicious.
Course Dessert
Keyword brown sugar, fresh raspberries, raspberry, soft cookies, vanilla, white chocolate chips

Ingredients

  • 8 tablespoons butter room temperature
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 1 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup raspberries chopped

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a couple baking sheets by spraying them with cooking spray or lining them with parchment paper.
  • In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugars until the mixture is light and fluffy.
  • Beat in the vanilla and egg until they are well combined.
  • Beat in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Once the dough is smooth, carefully fold in the white chocolate chips and raspberries, trying not to squish them too much.
  • Using a one- to one-and-one-half-inch cookie scoop, scoop the dough into about ping-pong-ball-sized mounds onto the prepared cookie sheets, placing them about two inches apart.
  • Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the tops of the cookies are starting to turn golden brown. Let the cookies cool almost completely before storing them in an airtight container.

Like I said, these were fantastic. Joey hates raspberries as a general rule, and even he really enjoyed these. The fruit and the white chocolate paired great together, and the cookies were soft and chewy, just how I like them.

I suppose another benefit, if you want to keep these all to yourself, is if yours turn a little bluish, too, you can just sadly tell your family how disappointed you are that the cookies went bad, and you’ll have to dispose of them before anyone accidentally eats one.

I won’t spoil your secret, but there is a guy in Hesston who might.

This piece first appeared in print on Oct. 12, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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