One Dough, Six Cookies, All Smiles!
I won’t be baking cookies this holiday season. Between moving into a new house, cramping hands from screwing together IKEA furniture, and not having another weekend in town until January, I feel completely justified with this decision.
At least I did before I got this email from my local grocer telling me that I could make FOUR types of cookies with a single dough recipe. Then I got to thinking and came up with TWO MORE TYPES OF COOKIES you can make with this dough. That’s SIX cookies with one dough. How could I pass that up?
Disclaimer: Because I’m short on time, I only tested the two cookies I came up with – Rosy Rudolphs and Reindeer Nipples. (Yes, you read that right… I said reindeer nipples.) But I can tell you without fear that these cookies are AMAZING. So amazing, that I had two for breakfast while photographing them and don’t even feel guilty about it.
What am I waiting for? On to the recipes!!!
Variations on a Dough
Super Duper Chocolate Cookie Base Dough
Makes about 40 cookies
Ingredients:
- 10 oz. chopped semi-sweet chocolate (Tip: Save yourself some money and chopping time and just pick up a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips.)
- 2 ounces chopped unsweetened chocolate
- 1/4 cup butter
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Parchment paper
Instructions:
- Melt chocolates and butter in a double boiler over low heat or in thirty-second intervals in the microwave, stirring often.
- When mixture is melted and smooth, put aside and let cool for 5 minutes.
- Add eggs and sugar, whisking mixture until combined. Then stir in remaining dry ingredients. (I used my handy, dandy mixer for this step and it was super easy.)
- Decide which variation you are making and make additions to dough if needed, then cover and refrigerate for at least two hours.
- When ready to bake, remove the dough from the fridge for about 15 minutes while you preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll about 1 tablespoon portions of dough into balls using your hands and arrange about 1-2 inches apart on baking sheet. (If making Peanut Butter Volcanoes or Rudolphs, see instructions for added step here.)
- Bake 8-10 minutes and let cool.
Cookie Variations:
CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER VOLCANOES
- Roll dough as directed above.
- Using your thumb, make a well in the center of each cookie ball then bake as directed above.
- Once cooled, fill a plastic bag with peanut butter and squeeze into a bottom corner of the bag creating a cone shape. Cut the corner of the bag to create a tip and squeeze out to fill each well with peanut butter.
- Sprinkle the top of each cookie with chopped peanuts, coconut, chocolate sprinkles or any other topping you like.
ROSY RUDOLPH COOKIES
Follow the directions above for Peanut Butter Volcanoes, but make the cookies slightly larger.- Once you’ve filled the cookies with peanut butter, top with 3 holiday M&M’s (two eyes and a red nose) and pretzel antlers. To make the antlers, I used Snyder’s Butter Snap Pretzels, breaking each square in half on the diagonal.
REINDEER NIPPLES
My family calls the traditional peanut butter cookie with a chocolate kiss on top nipple cookies. I couldn’t resist staying true to my roots when naming these.
- Roll dough into balls as directed in original recipe.
- Pour some additional sugar into a small bowl and roll each ball in the sugar until covered with a light dusting.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- While the cookies are baking, unwrap enough Candy Cane Hershey Kisses to have one for each cookie.
- Immediately after removing the cookies from the oven place a Kiss on each cookie.
REVERSE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
- Add in approximately 1 cup white chocolate baking pieces or chips before chilling dough.
- Bake as directed.
HAZELNUTS ABOUT CHOCOLATE COOKIES
- Bake cookies as directed in original recipe and let cool.
- Spread the bottom of one cookie with Nutella or other hazelnut chocolate spread.
- Top with another cookie to create a sandwich.
MINT IN YOUR MOUTH COOKIES
Bake cookies as directed in original recipe and let cool.- Make peppermint filling by mixing 3 cups powdered sugar, 4 tablespoons milk, and 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract until smooth.
- Top the bottom of one cookie with a heaping tablespoon of the filling mixture.
- Place a second cookie on top to create a sandwich and gently squeeze the cookies together to push the filling to the edge.
- Crush approximately 2 cups candy canes or starlite mints. (I like using a hammer and a plastic bag. It helps get out the holiday frustrations.)
- Roll the edges of the cookies in the crushed mints to cover.
