Easter is after Christmas probably the most important baking season of the year and a festive cookie box is a showstopper on every treat table. It also makes a great and easy gift to bring to your Easter festivities. Here I made pecan chocolate chip, birthday cake funfetti white chocolate and chocolate coconut cookies but the basic recipe you can turn into a ton of other flavours.
Almost happy Easter everyone! Has it alsmost been a year since I posted a new recipe on this blog? Yes, unfortunately it has and it was an Easter recipe. You can check this post ou here (Multi-Purpose No-Rise Sweet Dough: Hot Cross Buns, Easter Wreaths and Braids), if you happen to be interested. That is a great recipe to have on hand especially when you are running out of time before the holidays. That is the story of my life. That or I forgot to buy yeast and all the stores are closed. Easter sneaking up on me again has also inspired this blog post because I honestly don’t want to spend a lot of time this year making a ton of stuff. One of these cookie boxes gives us a variety of flavours without making too many different cookies. I don’t know about you but once January is over I can get a little burned out on finishing those Christmas leftovers and all I want is a piece of cake. There’s always room for a chocolate chip cookie even after the most decadent holiday meal, which I also haven’t planned yet.
Here I will give you my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe and three different flavour ideas but you can add lots more stuff. You can vary the spices and mix ins. Use different kinds chocolate chips or caramel, butterscotch or peanut butter chips. Some of those things we just got but they are ridiculously expensive. Add peanut butter cup or M&Ms to tthe cookies if you like, make sure to add some to the top when they are still warm to give them that fancy and expensive bakery look. You can also add oats, raisins, grated carrot and cinnamon if that is your persuasion. I only judge you a little bit. Please be sure to soak those raisins or you may lose a filling.
Basic Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Yield: 12-14 cookies Difficulty: 1/5 Time: 45 minutes + chilling time
Ingredients:
- 200 gr butter, softened
- 75 gr granulated sugar
- 75 gr brown sugar
- 1 dash of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp instant coffee
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 300 gr flour
Instructions:
- Put the butter, sugar and salt into a bowl and cream them until the sugar has dissolved and it has visibly grown in volume.
- Add the vanilla extract. Add the egg and vanilla extract to the butter mix and combine until well incorporated.
- Mix the flour, the baking powder and baking soda. Add the flour mix until just combined on medium.
- Add the mix ins of choice and pulse to incorporate.
- Scoop the cookies onto a lined baking sheet, making sure to spread them apart, and chill in the fridge for at least one hour or over night.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Flatten the cookie dough lightly with the palm of your hands and bake for 15 minutes until the edges are golden and the middle is still soft. They firm up as they cool.
Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies
To the basic cookie dough recipe you have to add 100 gr of chopped pecans and 100-150 gr dark chocolate chips. To enhance the chocolate flavour you can add 1 tsp instant coffee. A sprinkle of sea salt also brings out more chocolate flavour, but that is optional. Some kids don’t like, maybe split the batch and add coffee and salt only to half of the dough. You can use walnuts instead of pecans.
Birthday Cake Funfetti White Chocolate Cookies
To the basic cookie dough you have to add 1 tsp lemon zest and 1 tsp orange zest. If you want to enhance the citrus flavour you can rub the zest into the sugar to release the aroma, obviously that only works if your are making a full batch of these cookies. You also have to add some white chocolate. I personally do less white chocolate with about 50 gr because it can be overwhelmingly sweet . You can add more. You can add as many sprinkles as you like. To improve the lokk of them you can place some sprinkles into the still warm cookies and push them in slightly. The heat makes them stick. You can do the same thing with M&Ms and other type of candies you’d like to add. Even mini candy Easter eggs.
Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookie
This is your Bounty or Almond Joy (if you are in the US) inspired cookie, They admittedly don’t look like much but the coconut goes so well with the chocolate, It tastes like a candy bar in a cookie. i have even seen Bounty cookies in stores, they probably have actual candy pieces inside. That is a more expensive option but they don’t need it. For this you just add 100-150 gr dessicated coconut and 100 gr chocolate chips to the basic cookie dough. I prefer dark chocolate but you can use milk or even white chocolate. You could also add a blanched almond on top to give an Almond Joy nod.
Well, there you have three delicious cookie varieties. It is also only my second time hand modelling so please be kind. With the basic cookie dough recipe you can make any cookie you like. As you can see these are not super thin cookies, they are on the thick and chewy side. That is by design. If you want a more Subway style cookie you should replace the baking powder with baking soda so it spreads out more. Baking times may change as a thinner cookies overcook faster. You can keep the cookie dough in the fridge for up to 48 hours or even freeze the portioned cookie dough so you can have fresh cookies when the craving strikes or some occasion sneaked up on you. I hope you enjoyed this recipe and my cookie baking tips. Have a great day!
Read more here:
Eggscellent Easter Traditions from Around the World
Colouring Easter Eggs with Food Colouring
Easter Eggstravaganza- From Nutrition to Cooking the Perfect Egg
Roguish Recipe Kitchen 