Tag: sugar cookies

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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

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

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
Cookies Dessert

Sugar cookies had me at ‘Jell-O’

Jell-O sugar cookies with Jell-O frosting can be made in every color of the rainbow.
Jell-O sugar cookies with Jell-O frosting can be made in every color of the rainbow.

A few months ago, Joey and I moved into a new house, and I must confess that my pantry is still an absolute mess.

I often reference my pantry in this column, but up until we moved, my “pantry” has always been a large, open bookshelf in my kitchen, so a lot of my food items are tucked into containers and baskets to give it all the semblance of organization.

Now I have an entire, floor-to-ceiling cabinet, and I haven’t quite figured out how to get it into a state I’m proud of yet.

While digging for some rarely used Christmas spices, I came across a stash of gelatin, which I totally forgot existed. I added it to another stack of Jell-O I already had, wondering how and why I had so many boxes of the stuff, when I don’t really use it all that often.

(If someone understands the finer points of gelatin reproduction, you might enlighten me.)

But, in following with my new resolve to rid my pantry of its overabundance, I found a recipe that let me use up two whole boxes of gelatin, which I was pretty excited about.

I found a cookie recipe on the blog “Family Cookie Recipes.” You can find it at https://familycookierecipes.com/jello-sugar-cookies/ .The author suggests a frosting recipe, too, but I decided to go a different direction. The frosting recipe I used came from “Little Delights Cakes.” You can find that one at http://littledelightscakes.com/jello-frosting/. The recipe author notes that sugar-free Jell-O shouldn’t be used for making this. My only changes were to add a bit more vanilla to the frosting and bring these two great recipes together.

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Jell-O Sugar Cookies

Jell-O sugar cookies with Jell-O frosting can be made in every color of the rainbow.
Course Dessert
Keyword colorful, cookies, frosting, gelatin, Jell-O

Ingredients

Cookie Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 ounces Jell-O any flavor
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Frosting Ingredients

  • 3 ounces Jell-O any flavor
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/2 cup boiling water

Instructions

  • For the cookies, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  • Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth, and then beat in the Jell-O.
  • Beat the eggs in until the mixture is smooth, and then finish out by beating in the dry ingredients.
  • When everything is well-incorporated, scoop the dough by the tablespoon onto a prepared cookie sheet, spacing them about two inches apart.
  • Bake for 8 minutes or until the edges just start to brown.
  • Let the cookies cool completely before frosting them.
  • For the frosting, combine the Jell-O, sugar, vanilla and egg white in a mixing bowl and beat together until they’re well combined.
  • Add in the boiling water and beat the mixture for about 7 minutes to get the frosting nice and fluffy. To make it easier to spread on the cookies, refrigerate it for about 30 minutes to let it set up a bit.
  • Spread or pipe the frosting onto the finished cookies and store them in an airtight container. (Fair warning: this frosting is more like a whipped cream, so it won’t harden, and you won’t be able to stack the finished cookies.)

These were really good. I had an overabundance of strawberry gelatin, so that’s what I used for both the cookies and the frosting, but you could use any flavor combination that sounds good to you.

I also wondered if you could make two different colors and swirl the dough together to get a fun look.

It felt nice to get a couple items cleaned out of the pantry, but I’m still going to need to get to work on my food organization. There may be even more surprises just waiting to be discovered.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 2, 2020.

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

Sprinkle in some fun this Fourth

Cheesecake sprinkle cookies come together quickly and add lots of color to your dessert table.
Cheesecake sprinkle cookies come together quickly and add lots of color to your dessert table.

For July 4th this year, Joey and I were invited to spend the afternoon and evening with my sister and brother-in-law, and of course, my wonderful niece.

She’s quickly approaching 2 years old, and although she probably won’t stay up long enough to see any fireworks this year, I’m sure we’ll have plenty of fun playing in the backyard before it’s time for bed.

I’m also going to bring along a little treat to spoil her just a bit, since that’s what aunts are for (at least that’s what I decided long ago).

So, when I was looking online for a recipe to use a box of cheesecake flavored instant pudding, I found in the back of my pantry, I discovered the perfect Fourth of July treat to share: cheesecake sprinkle cookies.

They’re perfect for the Fourth because there’s no frosting to melt, they don’t require refrigeration, and they’re full of bursts of color, just like Fourth of July fireworks.

The recipe I found came from the blog “Simple Sweet Recipes.” You can find the original post at http://simplesweetrecipes.com/sprinkles-cookies/. I doubled the vanilla in my version.

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Cheesecake Sprinkle Cookies

Cheesecake sprinkle cookies come together quickly and add lots of color to your dessert table.
Course Dessert
Keyword cheesecake, cookies, instant pudding, sprinkles

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup butter room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3.4 ounces cheesecake instant pudding mix
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup sprinkles plus more for topping cookies

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
  • Add the baking soda, pudding mix, and one cup of flour and mix until combined. Add the other cup of flour.
  • Once everything is combined, mix in the sprinkles.
  • Roll the dough into about one-inch balls and place them about one inch apart on a baking sheet. Press a few extra sprinkles into the top of each cookie.
  • Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until the cookies are set (they won’t really brown on top). Let them cool for a bit on the cookie sheet before transferring them to an airtight container.

I didn’t think there was anything that screamed “cheesecake” about the flavor of these cookies. Really, they’re just excellent, soft sugar cookies that look super fun.

The recipe author suggests that you could use other types of instant pudding, too, so you could easily toss in some vanilla or even lemon with these if you don’t want to use the cheesecake flavor. I’m tempted to try using chocolate, but then again, I’m always tempted to use chocolate.

After I finished this batch, I couldn’t wait to get them over to share with my family, but since I decided to bake several days early, I’ll just have to let them sit in their container on the counter until then.

But, since I also believe in sampling my own baking, I’m just hoping they last that long.

This piece first appeared in print on July 4, 2019.

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

It’s time to sprinkle in some sugar cookies

If you want a quick cookie recipe that holds its shape, look no further than these sugar cookies.
If you want a quick cookie recipe that holds its shape, look no further than these sugar cookies.

I have a bad habit of skipping over steps in recipes when I look over them, trying to decide whether or not I should give them a try.

More than once, I’ve started baking something, only to realize halfway through that I have to stop and chill an ingredient for an hour or overnight before moving on to the next step.

You’d think after doing this on multiple occasions that I’d be more careful, but I never seem to learn my lesson.

That’s one of the reasons the recipe I’m sharing with you this week was so attractive to me. In all capital letters, right in the recipe, the author noted, “Do not chill the dough.”

Excellent.

That meant I could quickly mix up these cookies, pop them in the oven and be enjoying fresh sugar cookies in no time.

I found this recipe on the blog “In Katrina’s Kitchen.” You can find it at http://www.inkatrinaskitchen.com/best-sugar-cookie-recipe-ever/. I doubled the vanilla in my version.

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Sugar Cookies

If you want a quick cookie recipe that holds its shape, look no further than these sugar cookies.
Course Dessert
Keyword cookies, sugar cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Cream the butter and sugar together for several minutes until it’s smooth and creamy.
  • Beat in the vanilla, almond and egg.
  • Mix in the rest of the ingredients.
  • Pull out about a softball-sized portion of dough and roll it out to about one-quarter inch in thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut out your desired shape and transfer them to a baking sheet—about one-inch apart.
  • Continue cutting out shapes with the rest of the dough.
  • Bake each batch of cookies for about 8 minutes or until the cookies look like they’re just set around the edges. Let them cool completely before icing and store in an air-tight container.

If you don’t have almond extract, you could toss in even more vanilla if you wanted, but I highly recommend including it. It adds just a little something extra to the flavor of these cookies, which is nice since sugar cookies can easily end up in the bland category.

These also held their shape really nicely. I just used my biscuit cutter to make boring round cookies, but if you have some fun shapes, this is a good recipe to try them out on.

And it’s good because there are no hidden steps or long processes to go through. You just mix them up and start baking, which is my kind of recipe.

This piece first appeared in print on March 15, 2018.

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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