Maple Frosted Cookies

Yield: 3-4 dozen

Source: Food Network .com, link below. Recipe provided by Dennis Brady, and apparently part of Emeril's cookie contest show.

It has been years since I have experienced such an epic failure in cookie making. It was quite disheartening, to tell you the truth. But I have decided to learn from my mistakes, and share my *ahem* wisdom with you.

Honestly, these Maple Cookies sounded great when I first saw the recipe on Food Network. I love those maple donuts, so maple cookies sounded like a natural choice. Plus, it is a little unusual, something you don't have everyday. I kind of like standing out, so it totally appealed to me.

Okay, let me start with the recipe, then I will tell you a little more specifically of my experience.

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. maple extract

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 tsp. salt

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

4 cups flour

It all went well until I put in the flour. Maybe it's because I'm not big on sifting. But, I prefer to think that I just didn't follow my instincts. 4 cups of flour sounds like a lot, because it is a lot. Too much, in fact. This dough turned out seriously dry, as you can see in the picture. The thing is, I have never made this recipe before, nor do I know anyone who has made this recipe, so I had no frame of reference at all. Am I sounding too defensive here? I'd like to tell you that I didn't know it was too dry, but I did. It looked like it was going to be a problem.

The next step is to wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill it for at least 4 hours, until firm. My dough got very seriously firm. The directions call for you to roll out the dough to a 1/4" thickness, and cut out circles. (To see what that 1/4" looks like, see my post about Soft Sugar Cookies.) When I rolled it out, it practically fell apart.

I ended up with something resembling a chain of small islands, rather than nice soft cookie dough.

Anyway, they did look very pretty on the baking sheet. I baked them at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. They came out all lovely and cakey. The super heavy dough meant that the cookies didn't spread or change shape at all. Not even a little bit. It was almost creepy.

The plain cookies are really plain. The flavor was bland, almost non-existent. I had high hopes that some maple icing would resurrect these cookies.

And, that was when I noticed it. The thing I missed when I read the recipe too quickly the first time. Maple Sugar. What is that? Who buys that? And no, it's not brown sugar. Brown sugar is made with molasses, which comes from sugar cane, not maple, which comes from trees.

4 T. butter

1 tsp. maple extract

1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup maple sugar

I have a hard and fast rule about making cookies. It might be a little snobby, but I am not willing to give it up. I never use ingredients from specialty stores. I refuse to make cookies that require a trip to anything other than my local grocery store. Sorry, but rules are rules. (Well, actually, I'm not sorry, but that is a post for another day.)

I decided to make do. I just left the maple sugar out, and let the maple extract do all the talking. It did fine, by the way. The frosting actually turned out great, with a wonderful mapley flavor. It totally did remind me of the maple donuts. Once the cookies were frosted, they tasted much better. However, you will definitely need a glass of water or milk with this cookie, it dries out the mouth something fierce.

In the end, I threw away about half the dough because I had such a hard time rolling it out. And, the frosting wasn't nearly enough for an entire batch. My husband's comment was that I should never make these cookies again. I might have to disagree with him though. I committed to only posting great cookies on this blog, and this post seems to have gone against that directive. However, I think I may try them again, because I believe they have potential. If/when I make them again, I will certainly use less flour. I think these will taste much better if they are soft and pliable. I may increase the amount of maple syrup and maple extract in the cookie dough, to make the actual cookie more flavorful. But I will keep that wonderful maple frosting as-is!

By the way, if you decide to attempt this recipe yourself, I beg you to e-mail me and tell me about your experience. I'm always looking for compatriots!

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Chocolate Frosted

Yield: about 3 dozen

Source: My mom got the recipe from her aunt, who it seems learned it from her mother, who got it from who knows where?

When I started this blog, my mom told me about her favorite cookie from her childhood. Apparently, her grandmother used to make these chocolate frosted cookies, and my mom remembers loving their cakey texture and frosting. Who wouldn't? My mom had to call her aunt for the recipe, and I for one, am glad she did. Now that I have made the cookie myself, I almost cannot forgive Mom for not making this cookie when I was a child!

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk (I have never come across a recipe with buttermilk that I didn't love!)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. soda

1 2/3 cup flour

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

There's no real trick to making this dough. Just melt the chocolate, (I melted mine in the microwave) and mix the ingredients together in order. I will say that I used bread flour, only because this recipe has a tendency to get a little dry and heavy. I was definitely glad that I did.

You can skip poison checking this dough. It is not the greatest raw dough I have tasted. Instead, have a warm cookie right out of the oven, before they are frosted. Yum.

The dough does not go on in neat little balls. As you can see, they are unruly piles of dough. It's part of their charm. I made the cookies quite small, as well. I recommend making them small, because the yield is only about 3 dozen, and you will want to make use of every tool in your arsenal to make these babies last more than a day or two.

Bake them at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes. I cooked them for 10 minutes, because they were small-ish. See how they bake up all puffy and beautiful? If they are not puffy, consider adding a touch more flour. Let them cool a few minutes before adding frosting.

I have trouble putting a frosting recipe down on paper. I'm just not the type to measure frosting, or purchase ready-made frosting, for that matter. I will tell you that for this recipe, I started by melting about 3 tablespoons of butter, and it turned out to be not quite enough. So, start with about 4-5 T. Melt the butter, add a little vanilla (about 1/2 tsp) and some cocoa powder (about 1 T.). Give that a quick mix with the hand mixer to smooth all those ingredients together, and then add some powdered sugar. Once again, I don't ever measure it, I just start adding some in a bit at a time, until it gets to the right consistency.

Today, I accidentally made the frosting too thick and it turned into little frosting pebbles. Still delicious, but terrible for spreading. I added about a teaspoon of milk, and the problem was solved. Honestly, the greatest thing about frosting is that it is so forgiving. Just keep adding powdered sugar or milk until you get the right consistency. Just keep some graham crackers on hand to spread the excess frosting on, if you have any! For this cookie, I actually wanted the frosting to be just a touch thin, and as it turned out, I got the consistency exactly right. (an unusual feat for me!)

I frosted the cookies gently and left them out to continue cooling. I was disappointed that my frosting only lasted as long as 21 cookies. :( Ah, what a wonderful cookie. I'm so glad to be re-introduced to a cookie my great-grandmother used to serve her family.

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