Snickerdoodles

These were pretty tasty snicker doodles!  Unlike chocolate chip cookies, these were best a day later, they seemed to soften up.  The cinnamon was perfectly balanced and these were not too sweet.

Soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies

This is a new recipe I've been wanting to try and finally got around to it.  The recipe calls for each recipe to be 1/4 cup big, but I made these smaller.  I made them with peanut butter and chocolate chips.  I will most likely not use this recipe again.  "Mom's chocolate chip cookies" are way better!

Recipe from a cooking book.

Cranberry and chocolate chip biscotti with peanuts

Oh how I love my biscotti!  The dried cranberry, peanut, chocolate chip mixture adds a special touch and looks gorgeous. 

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are quick and easy to whip up while the oven is pre heating.  I used chocolate and peanut butter chips.  These were very good, just like my mom used to make! 

Moms chocolate chip cookies:

3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter or margarine softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
Heat oven to 375 F
Large bowl beat sugars, butter until creamy with an electric mixer. Add vanilla, and egg. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips.
Bake 8-10 mins

Parmesan and Bessemer Cheese Bread

This bread is, again the basic focaccia recipe, but I added 3/4 cup of parm and 3/4 cup of bessemer cheeses. I can't decide if I don't like bessemer cheese, or what, because i didn't love this bread.  I will not make this bread again.

We also ate fresh cheeses and olives that I picked up from the Market District in Robinson (fresh cheese was used for the bread as well). There were Brie, fresh mozzarella, asiago and bessemer cheese, the olives were plain green, asiago and feta stuffed, a green pepper stuffed with prosciutto and feta and purple olives.

Chocolate Chip Biscotti

These are hands down the best biscotti I've ever eaten.  This master recipe can be made any way you prefer.  Today I made it into chocolate chip biscotti, but it can be dipped into melted chocolate, white chocolate chips can be substituted, or even nuts or dried fruit can be added.  When baking these I bake mine about 2 minutes less than the recipe calls for, just because that's how it turns out perfect in my oven.  These are great, low fat cookies by themselves or dipped into hot coffee, either way they are the most delicious biscotti you will ever have!

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/american-style-vanilla-biscotti-recipe

Halloween Sugar Cookies

These cookies are so cute and so tasty!  After letting the dough firm up in the fridge for about an hour, I started to roll them out.  The dough was still a little too moist so I had to add a lot more flour to the table and on top of the dough as well as the rolling pin so it wouldn't stick to anything.  After that, it was smooth sailing.  The cookies baked very evenly and had slightly crunchy edges and a softer center.  The egg white icing was very easy to make also, it dried hard but not too hard.  I think i found my new favorite holiday sugar cookie cookies recipe!

http://www.joyofbaking.com/SugarCookie.html

Parmesan bread with fresh herbs and garlic

There is honestly nothing better in the world than biting into a freshly baked piece of bread right out of the oven.  This was so easy to make, its just a basic focaccia recipe with about 3/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and maybe 4 tbs of fresh parsley, about 1 tsp of fresh sage and basil, and 2 tbs of fresh minced garlic.  i let it rise for about 2 hours then let it rise again about 1 hr on in the pan.  I love having a master recipe that I can manipulate any way I feel like that day.  This was very, very good bread, I will definitely be making it again.