Lemon Macarons with Lime Curd

Light and airy lemon macarons encompass a tart and creamy lime curd filling.  This small batch recipe yields the perfect amount: just six elegant Lemon Macarons with Lime Curd.

Margarita Ribbon Cookies

Sweet, buttery and slightly tangy, these Margarita Ribbon Cookies are topped with a zesty homemade lime curd, then drizzled with a margarita-flavored glaze.  

Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

If I could only have one kind of cookie for the rest of my life, this would be it: a thick and chewy chocolate chip cookie that is soft on the inside, but slightly crispy on the edges.  Enjoy these warm from the oven with a tall glass of milk.  Life doesn't get much better.     

Chubby Hubby Cookies

Just like the famous ice cream flavor, these chewy Chubby Hubby Cookies are loaded with chocolate, peanut butter, pretzels, and a hint of malt.  And just like their namesake, they'll have you coming back for more.  

Funfetti Macaroons

Need a quick and easy treat?  These Funfetti Macaroons will remind you of eating birthday cake.  Even better, these sprinkle-filled cookies are ready in just 30 minutes!  

Coconut Macaroon Birds' Nests

Coconut Macaroon Birds' Nests feature a delicious combination of coconut, salted caramel, and malted milk eggs.  With the whimsical resemblance to a bird's nest, these little cookies are sure to delight guests at your next spring gathering!

ABC (Almond Butter & Coconut) Breakfast Cookies

ABC Breakfast Cookies may look simple and unassuming.  But with a protein-packed combination of almond butter and rolled oats, these little cookies are a tasty and satisfying way to start your day. 

Pumpkin-Peach Rugelach

Pumpkin-Peach Rugelach have a delicate cream cheese pastry wrapped around a sweet filling made with pumpkin, peach preserves, walnuts, and plenty of cinnamon.  These little cookies are easy on the eyes, and easy to make, too.

Candy Corn Granola Squares

Candy Corn Granola Squares are a chewy bar cookie filled with peanut butter, mini chocolate chips, and plenty of candy corn.  This no-bake treat is surprisingly hearty, and comes together in a matter of minutes.

Pina Colada Macaroons

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been baking lots of wedding-related desserts this week.  My husband and I will celebrate our first anniversary over the weekend, and I thought it would be fun to relive our wedding and honeymoon through desserts.  Monday's post featured a Skinny Shirley Temple Float, and today's dessert is a Pina Colada Macaroon.

My husband and I spent our honeymoon in Key West and greatly enjoyed our time there.  The Florida Keys feel so tropical that it was almost hard to believe we hadn't left the United States.  The culture was so relaxed and the pace was much more leisurely than the hustle and bustle of everyday life.  Whenever life feels particularly busy or stressful, I find myself yearning to return to Key West.

While on our honeymoon, we were certain to sample plenty of Key Lime Pie, of course.  In addition, I was served one of the best Pina Coladas that I've ever had.  It was sweet, tart, and refreshing, with a shake-like consistency and a beautiful garnish.  These Pina Colada macaroons transport me back to our brief time in Key West.  Even better -- the alcohol is so minimal that you don't have to wait until 5:00 to enjoy them!

German Chocolate Macaroons

Hi friends!   As you may have noticed, this blog got a bit of a facelift over the weekend. The most exciting change is the spiffy new header. Isn’t it lovely?   The header was designed by WinchesterLambourne, whose clipart also appears elsewhere on this blog.   Working with her was an absolute pleasure, and I am thrilled with the end result.   I would highly recommend her work to anyone.

The sidebar got a little makeover as well, and I’ve also added new social media buttons -- including a “pin it” button embedded in each post.  I'm still working on adding/improving a few gadgets, but I hope to have everything worked out by the end of the week.  Thanks for your patience!

Now, onto the desserts!   Last week, when I posted these Homemade Graham Crackers with Maple-Walnut Glaze, I promised to share more desserts featuring black walnut extract. When I bought this extract from the Savory Spice Shop, I wanted to be certain that I would find multiple ways to use it.   One of the easiest uses may be these German Chocolate Macaroons. 

Homemade Graham Crackers with Maple-Walnut Glaze

I love graham crackers, but I rarely think to buy them when I'm grocery shopping.  It turns out that they're quite easy to make for yourself, so long as you have graham flour on hand (I've also seen recipes using wheat germ).  To make my homemade graham crackers more appropriate for fall, I topped them with a simple maple-walnut glaze and a sprinkle of chopped walnuts.  The end result tasted like a cross between a graham cracker and a maple donut.  Who could resist that?  

Chocolate-Drizzled Almond Biscotti

When I was in elementary school, I relished going to Starbucks with my dad.  It was the mid 1990s, and Starbucks hadn't yet taken off in the area where we lived.  The nearest shop was at least an hour round trip from our house.  But I didn't mind the long drive; I just loved the father-daughter time.  And, to be completely honest, I knew that if I came along for the ride, there would be a chocolate-covered biscotti and kid-sized hot chocolate with my name on it.   Both the time with my dad and the chocolate-y treats made the entire experience feel like a special occasion.

Batch 7: Medical/Doctor-Themed Cookies

Hi, there!  Hope you all had a great weekend!

One of my younger brothers recently started his first year of medical school.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend his white coat ceremony due to the distance.  However, I wanted to send him a little something to let him know that I was thinking of him and cheering him on.  Since I've been on a sugar cookie baking spree recently, medical-themed cookies were the obvious answer.

Basic Sugar Cookie Recipe

After making my very first batch of sugar cookies earlier this summer, I've rolled, cut, baked, and decorated about 350 sugar cookies.  Wow- that's a lot of cookies!  I still feel like a rookie when it comes to decorating sugar cookies, but I feel like I could bake them in my sleep. I've learned that, like many things, cookie making is all a matter of practice. 

Ultimate Ice Cream Sandwich

My husband and his younger brother are quite different from each other in many regards. They look different, have divergent interests, and have unique skill sets. As an amusing example, my husband drives a compact car, while my brother-in-law drives a pick-up truck. My husband's car could likely fit in the bed of his brother's pick up truck, with room to spare.  You get the idea.  

 

 As different as they are, they agree on one thing: these brothers love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. For years, each of them has requested that I bake oatmeal chocolate chip cookies on their respective birthdays.  I've been using the same recipe since eighth grade, and it's a keeper.  My brother-in-law's birthday was last week and this year, I decided to change up the routine.  What if I were to incorporate the cookies into decadent, homemade ice cream sandwiches?  Two chewy cookies would surround vanilla bean ice cream rippled with a bittersweet fudge ribbon. As Ina Garten would say, "how bad can that be?" 

Batch 6: Citrus Sugar Cookies

After making the Hawaiian shirt cookies in the last post, I had quite a bit of leftover lime green, yellow, and orange icing.  I wasn’t sure what to do with it, but I couldn’t bring myself to dump that much icing down the drain, either.  The excess icing had already been poured into squeeze bottles, so I just stashed them in the fridge and decided to figure out a plan later.

The next day, I had an epiphany: I had seen a tutorial by Marian on Sweetopia for citrus-themed sugar cookies.  What better way to use up a bunch of lime green, lemon yellow, and orange icing? (I’m aware that the word “epiphany” should probably be reserved for topics more serious than sugar cookies.  But it felt like an epiphany at the time, so I’m comfortable with my word usage).   Since I had so much extra orange icing, I decided I could even add a few drops of red food coloring and create blood oranges.  Cute!   

Batch 5: Hawaiian Shirt Sugar Cookies

A few weekends ago, my husband's aunt and uncle invited us to stay with them at their vacation home.  Awesome, right?  I thought it would be nice to bring some vacation-themed munchies to thank them for their hospitality. 


I had seen a Hawaiian shirt tutorial on The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle that was a great source of inspiration.  Honestly, this might be one of my favorite sugar cookie tutorials ever.  The hibiscus flower design looks really intricate and complicated, right?  However, the flowers are created using an unbelievably simple wet-on-wet technique.  What's "wet-on-wet" decorating?  Well, it's basically when you create a design with two or more colors of wet flood icing.  Using toothpicks, you manipulate the icing into a design while it's still wet.  What could be better than that?  It's one of my preferred techniques because of its efficiency and ease.  The more detail you're able to incorporate with flood icing, the less detail you need to add later with piping icing.  Major time saver. 


As  you may have noticed from the post title, this is my fifth batch of sugar cookies.  My cookie decorating skills still have tons of room for improvement at this point, but I'm starting to feel more comfortable with each batch I make.  Trial and error really is a great process.  Here is what I learned with this batch:

Batch 4: Wedding-Themed Sugar Cookies

I have a really special set of cookies to share today.  These were part of a wedding gift to my brother and new sister-in-law, who were married in July (hi, newlyweds!).  I made wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, bow ties, wedding shoes, with a few hearts thrown in, just for good measure.  To make these extra special and personal, I thought the cookies should look like the actual wedding attire.  I wanted these cookies to be a surprise so I tried to avoid directly asking the couple questions about their attire.  I already knew what the wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses looked like.  With the help of the bride’s sister, I was able to find out the color of the bow tie and color of the wedding shoes, as well. 

Batch 3: Patriotic Fourth of July Sugar Cookies

After making flower cookies for my last two batches of sugar cookies, I was looking forward to trying a few different cookie cutters.  The Fourth of July presented the perfect opportunity.  I realize that posting these cookies in August doesn’t seem as seasonally appropriate as it would have been in July.  However, I think there’s something fun about patriotic displays any time of the year. 

When I made the bridal shower favors, I got lucky with cool weather.  Such was not the case when I made these cookies.  In fact, the temperature in our kitchen was 86-88 degrees, before I turned the oven on.  We live in a 1920s apartment without central air conditioning.  At the time, we did not have an air conditioner in our kitchen.  Have you ever tried rolling out cookie dough in an 86 degree room?  Plain and simple, it's nearly impossible even if you've chilled the dough for a few hours.  The dough might be perfectly cool and firm as you roll it out.  However, it warms and softens so quickly that no amount of flour can prevent it from sticking to the table or to the cookie cutters.  You may manage to cut a clean shape, but then the challenge becomes transferring the cut dough from the table to the cookie sheet without the shapes melting and warping beyond recognition.