Late Night Snack Cookies by Tanya Kreter

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® chocolate chip cookie mix

1/2

cup butter, softened

1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1

egg

1 cup mix of favorite candy I used Milk Duds

2 cups mix of your favorite snack foods-- potato chips, coarsely crushed waffle cone, pretzels

and mini peanut butter cups

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick cookie sheet). Line cookie sheets with cooking parchment paper.
2. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, butter and egg until soft dough forms. Add caramels, potato chips and waffle cones; stir until well-mixed (dough will be thick). Onto parchment-lined cookie sheets, drop dough by 1/4 cupfuls about 2 inches apart; flatten to about 1/2 inch thickness.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks to cool completely. Store covered at room temperature.

Makes 12 cookies

Oatmeal Cranberry Walnut by Kat O'Brien

Ingredients

• Crisco® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
• 3/4 cup Crisco® Butter Shortening OR 3/4 Crisco® Butter Shortening Sticks
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup Pillsbury BEST® All Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. HEAT oven to 350 degrees F. Coat baking sheets with no-stick cooking spray.

2. BEAT shortening, sugar and brown sugar in large bowl at medium speed of electric mixer until blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in small bowl. Beat into shortening mixture until smooth. Stir in oats, dried cranberries and walnuts. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2-inches apart on prepared baking sheets.

3. BAKE 10 to 12 minutes or until light brown. Cool on baking sheets 2 minutes. Place on cooling rackto cool completely.

Homemade Samoas by Kim Fernandez

Cookie base:

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup room-temperature butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with parchment paper.

Mix together your butter and sugar until they’re creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla, and then mix in the dry goods. The dough will be crumbly–don’t worry. Dump it into your parchment-lined pan and use a piece of wax paper to spread it into a single layer (the wax paper will keep it from sticking to your hands). Bake for 20 minutes, or until its edges start to brown. Take it out of the oven and cool to room temperature.

Chocolate Base

1 1/2 cup dark chocolate candy discs (I got them at the craft store) or chocolate chips.

When the shortbread is totally cool, melt the chocolate in the microwave and spread it over the cookie base. I used candy discs because they don’t melt at room temperature like chocolate chips do, so it’s easier to eat the finished cookies.

Let that come to room temperature or put it in the refrigerator until it’s cold and totally hardened up. Once that happens, use the parchment paper to carefully lift your cookie out of the pan in one piece. Line the now-empty pan with wax paper, and very carefully peel the parchment off the cookie, turn it chocolate-side down, and place it back in the pan (this sounds harder than it is, but take your time). You now have chocolate on the bottom and cookie on top.

Topping

3 cups shredded sweetened coconut

12 oz caramel candies

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp milk

Line a cookie sheet (with a rim) with parchment paper. Spread the coconut onto it in an even layer and bake it at 350 degrees, stirring it every five minutes or so, until it’s toasted and brown and crunchy. Watch it carefully, gang–it burns in a heartbeat.

Once that’s done, put your unwrapped caramels, milk, and salt into a large Pyrex bowl. Microwave it in one-minute increments, stirring in between (with a spoon at first and then with a whisk as it melts) until it’s all liquid–two minutes was plenty in my microwave. Working quickly, stir in your coconut.

Spread this mixture on top of the cookie base with the back of a spoon. You want to do this while the coconut mixture is still pretty warm–once it hardens, there’s no spreading it. It’ll want to separate from the cookie at first, but have patience–it’ll work out in a few minutes.

Once that’s done, let it harden up. And when that’s done, melt another half-cup of chocolate and use a spoon to drizzle it over the top. Cool completely and slice your cookies with a large, heavy knife. A pan makes about four dozen Samoas.

Cowgirl Cookies

Prepared by Debbie Kleinbord

Ingredients:

1 and 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup cooking oats

1 and 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup (one stick) butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg and vanilla together with a fork. Then, add it to the dry mixture.

Melt the butter in the microwave, and immediately pour into the cookie mix. The hot butter will slightly melt some of the chocolate chips, giving the dough a more tender chocolate-y taste.

Using your hands, mix the ingredients together until a sticky dough is formed.

Roll the cookie dough into 1 inch balls, place on parchment paper covered baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, until just done. If you are using two baking sheets, rotate the sheets halfway through the baking time. Depending on how big you make your cookies, they may require more baking time, but start checking them at 10 minutes.

Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

Prepared by Tanya Kreter

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

Prep Time: 15 min

Inactive Prep Time: 2 hr 0 min

Cook Time: 12 min(I cooked for 10 min)

Level: Easy

Serves: 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

* 1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, room temperature

* 1 stick butter, at room temperature

* 1 egg

* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* 1 (18-ounce) box moist chocolate cake mix (I used Ghirardelli Dark

Chocolate brownie mix and 1/2 cup of flour)

* Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter

until smooth. Beat in the egg. Then beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in the

cake mix. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up so that you can roll

the batter into balls. Roll the chilled batter into tablespoon sized balls

and then roll them in confectioner's sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie

sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes. The cookies will remain soft and

"gooey." Cool completely and sprinkle with more confectioners' sugar, if

desired.

36 hour gluten free chocolate chip cookies

Prepared by Ali Hoffman

adapted from Dave Leite's chocolate chip cookie recipe

Source: http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2009/04/david-leites-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

4 cups King Arthur Gluten Free Flour Mix
1 tablespoon xanthan gum
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (we used bakers' sugar, which is extra fine)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
16 ounces Dagoba chocodrops or 16 oz mix of semi-sweet, white, and milk chocolate ghiradelli chips
sea salt

Sifting the dry ingredients. Sift each of the four flours, individually, into a medium-sized bowl. Add the xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir well (I like to use a whisk, to sift again, in a way). Set aside.

Mixing the wet ingredients. Put the soft butter and the sugars into a stand mixer. Using a paddle attachment, mix them well, until they are just combined, and then 1 minute more. (Do not over-cream, however, because this could lead to spreading in the baking stage.) Add the eggs, 1 at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Pour in the vanilla extract and mix for a beat.

Finishing the cookie dough. Sift the dry ingredients into the batter, about 1/2 cup at a time, and then mixing. When the all the dry ingredients have been incorporated, add the chocolate pieces and mix for just a moment. You don't want broken chocolate here.

Refrigerating. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and put it in your refrigerator. You might want to shove it to the back and arrange even more enticing foods in front of it, because you shouldn't touch the dough for 36 hours. Really.

Preparing to bake. 36 hours later (or as long as you could stand it), pull the dough from the refrigerator. Uncover it. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a non-stick baking mat.

Baking the cookies. Scoop generous balls of dough from the bowl. (You can determine the size for yourself. David suggested they be the size of large golf balls. Or you can weigh them at 3 1/2 ounces each. Mine were the size of the indentation of the palm of my hand, but I could still lightly wrap my fingers around the ball.) Place 6 of them onto the baking sheet. Poke any errant chocolate pieces into the dough. Sprinkle the top of each cookie with the sea salt.

Bake the cookies about 18 minutes, or until the tops have turned golden brown. The middles should still be somewhat soft, however. Take the baking sheet out of the oven. Allow the baking sheet to sit on the counter for 10 minutes. Transfer the cooling cookies onto a cooling rack and allow them to cool for a few more moments.

Eat warm chocolate chip cookies and feel grateful. Why not?

Makes 1 to 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies, depending on the size you make.

Loaded Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Cookies

Prepared by Michele Blakeslee

Ingredients:

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) and 3 1/3 tablespoons butter, softened
• ½ cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup Hershey’s cocoa
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¾ cup white chips
• ½ cup semi-sweet chips
• ½ cup milk chocolate chips
• ½ cup Macadamia nuts (chopped)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F.

2. Beat butter and shortening in large bowl until well blended. Add brown sugar and granulated sugar; beat thoroughly. Add egg and vanilla, beating until well blended. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into butter mixture. Stir in chips and nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 3-1/2 dozen cookies.