A Great Cookie To Make With Kids: Russian Teacakes aka Snowballs

I've been making this recipe with my mom since I can remember; it's kind of our Christmas tradition. I have many fond memories of making these cookies.

At any rate, the teacakes are not only one of the easiest things I've ever baked, but are also very kid friendly. There are many jobs kids can participate in while making these; measuring ingredients, rolling the dough into balls, and covering them in confectionery sugar when they come out of the oven. The best part is, however, is that there are no eggs in this recipe, so mom's don't have to worry about their kids taking a little nibble of the dough or licking their fingers.



Russian Teacakes
Makes approximately four dozen cookies

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 confectionery sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour, sifted
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup finally chopped (walnuts) nuts (optional, to be stirred in last)
extra confectionery sugar for rolling





Sift the dry ingredients (flour, salt) together and set them aside.





Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together.





Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and stir together.



Once the mixture starts coming together, use your hands and form a ball with the dough.



Refrigerate the dough until firm (usually 30 minutes to 1 hour). Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.



Form once inch balls with the dough by rolling them in the palm of your hand.



Place the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet quite close together (they don't really spread much).



Bake for approximately 10 minutes. I can tell they are cooked with they start to slightly crack at the top.






Cool for a few minutes, but while still warm, roll all the cookies in confectionery sugar. After rolling all the cookies once, roll them for a second time. Then allow them to cool completely before storing.

COOK TO BANG ME NOW PLAYLIST

You can't argue with sound arithmetic!

I’m often asked, “What is the Cook To Bang soundtrack?” Chances are good that you will be listening to music while you cook, eat and bang. So how do you create a sound scape that will move you towards your goal of banging? This is subjective. What some consider a great tune, others would prefer to hear the death rattle of their own child. It speaks volumes for our over-privileged and self-indulgent culture that we have the luxury to debate it ad nausea. Entire social cliques are built around musical tastes. Beatniks, hippies, punks, hip hoppers, grunge rockers, ravers, hipsters and whatever comes next all have a soundtrack to their lives.

My own conundrum is that the hottest women listen to the worst music. Ever been to a trendy club with the beautiful people? I’m picky about my music and Top 40 makes me nauseous. Sometimes I just swallow my pride and pretend to enjoy it for the sake of my libido. But that cheesy soundtrack can follow onto your date. Shelve your obscure and cacophonous grooves unless your date shares your love for Tuvian throat singers. Try to find a happy medium that doesn’t inspire you to administer a self-lobotomy.

The clever Cook To Bang chef has music prepped before their date arrives. Technology leaves you with no excuse for prepping the perfect seduction mix. You don’t want to fumble around in the midst of macking to find that one song by that one band on that one album. Don’t find yourself sucking face while listening to a sexy Massive Attack track when suddenly a Spanish-language lesson kills the moment. Right as you were about to boldly go where some have gone before, you hear, “Hola! Soy Juan. Donde esta el banque?” Funny? Yes. Sexy? No. Sexy music is in the ear of the beholder.

Below is a list of songs that have led to my most succulent success stories. These are the sexiest songs I know that create a vibe you can exploit. Some of you will dismiss my suggestions and pure poppycock. What do I know besides how to COOK TO BANG?

• Air – “Highschool Lover”
• The Beastie Boys – “Hey Ladies”
• Beck – “Debra”
• Belle & Sebastian – “Stars of Track & Field”
• Boards of Canada – “Olson”
• Blur – “Jets”
• The Brian Jonestown Massacre – “Anenome”
• Manu Chao – “King of the Bongo”
• The Chemical Brothers – “Get Yourself High”
• Cornelius – “Tone Twilight Zone”
• Depeche Mode – “Enjoy the Silence”
• Diggable Planets – “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)
• Electric 6 (w/ Jack White) – “Danger! High Voltage”
• Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong – “La Vie En Rose”
• Fatboy Slim – “The Weekend Starts Here”
• Fischerspooner – “Emerge”
• The Good, The Bad & The Queen – “History Song”
• Groove Armada – “At the River”
• Chris Isaak – “Wicked Game”
• Jane’s Addiction – “Summertime Rolls”
• Kid Koala – “Drunk Trumpet”
• Kraftwerk – “Autobahn”
• Kruder & Dorfmeister – “Original Bedroom Rockers”
• LCD Soundsytem – “Disco Infiltrator”
• Peggy Lee – “Fever”
• Morcheeba “Moog Island”
• Mos Def – “Ms. Fat Booty”
• Portishead – “Only You”
• Prince – “Darling Nikki”
• Radiohead – “Nude”
• RJD2 – “Smoke & Mirrors”
• Nina Simone – “My Baby Just Cares For Me”
• Tosca – “Worksong”
• Tricky – “Hell Is Round the Corner”
• Ulrich Schnauss – “Knuddelmaus”
• The Velvet Underground – “Pale Blue Eyes”
• The White Stripes – “You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket”
• Zero 7 – “In the Waiting Line”

Cookie Madness: Homemade Oreos

When most people get a sugar craving, they reach for the candy bar. Not me. When I get a sugar craving, I bake cookies.

These little gems are the ultimate cure for that craving. Chewey chocolately cookies with sweet vanilla frosting. Taylor thinks they are too sweet… (treason I say! no such thing!). But I might reduce the sugar in the cookies themselves a bit next time. Or not, it just means more for me!

I first saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and knew I had to make them… immediately! The cookbook this recipe comes from is called Retro Desserts – and might be one I need to get for myself!

Homemade Oreos

Makes 25-30 sandwiches.

INGREDIENTS
For the chocolate wafers:
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 to 1½ cups sugar
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (1¼ sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
¼ cup (½ stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
¼ cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375 degrees.

In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.

Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2-3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. (No pastry bag? Just spoon it on). Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Yes, you heard me. Cookie dough cupcakes.

Could there be anything more perfect?

It was my birthday yesterday, and in my mind, the world’s best birthday that consisted of these decadent cupcakes and a heart-racing new episode of Lost. Oh I love Wednesdays. Especially when it’s my birthday. (Also take note of the lovely new cake stand – thanks Grandma! It’s a perfect size for cupcakes!)

But back to the cupcakes – the best part might just be the frosting. I mean, you could eat this stuff with a spoon. It’s a standard American buttercream mixed with real chocolate chip cookie dough (eggless, of course). The result is a brown-sugary, vanilla scented, chocolate dotted, whipped to perfection dollop on top of an already delicious golden cupcake. And the cupcake itself, well, it has a few surprises of it’s own. See, I submerged a frozen ball of cookie dough in the batter before putting it in the oven. Frozen so it wouldn’t fully bake (or else they’d be just chocolate chip cookie cupcakes, not quite the same).

Lucky for me I have a go-to recipe for an eggless cookie dough. You know those times when you think you are craving chocolate chip cookies, but after a spoonful or two of dough realize maybe it was just that you were craving, and don’t really feel like baking the rest of it? Yea. That’s when this recipe comes in handy. It’s not meant to be baked (in fact, I make no claims whatsoever that it won’t turn into a bubbling pile of melted goo in the oven – I’ve never baked it and can make no guarantees should you try). Perfect for eating by the spoonful. Or even better, rolling and coating in chocolate. Mmmmm.

The only thing was the cupcakes with the dough in them sunk ever so slightly (I know, as I had one extra cupcake without a dough ball, and it puffed and browned much more than the others). This recipe would also be delicious with a chocolate cupcake batter. Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough? Seriously?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Makes 14-15 cupcakes.

INGREDIENTS
Cookie Dough:
1 1/8 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
3/8 cup granulated sugar
3/8 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons soy milk or milk
3/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cupcakes:
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Frosting:
3/4 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons soy milk
3/4 cup eggless cookie dough, room temperature

DIRECTIONS
Make the cookie dough:
Beat the butter, sugars, and vanilla with electric mixer until creamy. Add the soy milk and beat well. Add in the salt, baking soda, and flour and slowly mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Form teaspoon-sized balls (approx. 1″ across). Roll and place on a foil-covered baking sheet. Make approximately 14 dough balls, reserving at least 3/4 cup of the dough for frosting (extras? eat it!). Freeze dough balls for at least 2 hours until solid.

Make the cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Whisk together soy milk, coconut milk, sugars, oil, and vanilla. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix until no large lumps remain.

Fill cupcake liners one-half of the way full (approximately 3 tablespoons of batter each). Do not overfill. Drop one frozen cookie dough ball into the center of each cup. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until tops are puffed and golden. Transfer to a cooling rack, and let cool completely before frosting.

Make the Frosting:
Cream butter with electric mixer until fluffy. Slowly add powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until well-incorporated. Add soymilk and mix until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Add cookie dough, approximately 3/4 cup of it, and mix until combined. Taste, and add more cookie dough if you like. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes, and sprinkle with more mini chocolate chips.