Cookie Progress: Weeks 26 - 30

Week 26:
Cookies - Key Lime White Chocolate Cookies
Event - Lori's Birthday
Recipe - http://deliciousbydre.com/key-lime-white-chocolate-cookies/
Review - This week marked half way through the year!!  These were super easy cookies to make, using a key lime cake mix as a base.  I liked using the cut up white chocolate bar as opposed to white chocolate chips.  If I made these again I think I would try to add in some lime zest and or juice for an added punch of the lime flavor.  It was subtle but tasty in these cookies.  I might even add a couple drops of green food coloring to give it a nicer color.  These turned out a little more crumbly and rounded than the recipe showed, but they were still delicious.  I'm not sure what the difference was with that, but it didn't seem to be a problem with the flavors.  Lori enjoyed them and that's what matters.


Week 27:
Cookies - Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Filling
Event - Pumpkin season/fall
Recipe - http://dreamydesserts.blogspot.com/2008/10/pumpkin-whoopie-pies-with-creamy-cream.html
Review - Okay these are at the top of my list - some of my favorites!  Everyone else seemed to fall in love with these as well.  It made so many cookies so I shared with my neighbor and several friends besides my family.  Talk about some time consuming effort, though!  Not only was there a filling, but the cookies also required piping the dough out to bake them.  I was actually tired after finishing these.  They had such a wonderful balance of pumpkin spice flavors and the filling was the most delicious cream cheese frosting I've made.  I will certainly cut the recipe in half next time to save some time.  These were even gorgeous, which is always an added bonus in my opinion.  I will add these to my list of recipes to hold on to, but only for special occassions due to the effort; I like easy!


Week 28:
Cookies -Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing
Event - Fall, for Godparents and co-workers
Recipe - http://www.houseofhepworths.com/2010/10/15/pumpkin-cookies-w-cream-cheese-icing/

Review - These were tasty and everyone enjoyed scarfing them down.  My coworkers were happy to get some of my cookies and my godparents were pleased to receive a special treat as well.  It made a LOT of cookies.  I even halved the recipe and it was still plenty.  I enjoyed the little bit of cinnamon sprinkled on top of these cookies.  With the pumpkin cookies the dough is fairly sticky, so although I did use a cookie scoop, they don't turn out quite as perfectly round.  I suppose adding the icing helps the pretty factor some.  It was probably a bad idea to make these the week after the amazing pumpkin cookies in week 27.  These almost felt like a let down when they were still soft and pillowy deliciousness.



Week 29:
Cookies - Soft Frosted Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Event - Thanksgiving
Recipe - http://www.thebakerchick.com/2015/10/soft-frosted-pumpkin-spice-cookies/
Review - By the time I made these I was a little tired of pumpkin, but since it was Thanksgiving it felt like it was right.  My cookies didn't turn out quite as flat and pretty as the recipe showed, but flattening that sticky dough didn't work too well for me so I just went with it.  I did like all the spices in this one, it was quite flavorful.  I was also tired of having to frost all these cookies.  That is an added step that I don't like having to do!  It does add to the overall cookie and is an important step with these pumpkin cookies.


Week 30:
Cookies - Brown Butter Salted Caramel Snickerdoodles
Event - Carly's birthday
Recipe - http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/brown-butter-salted-caramel-snickerdoodles/#comment-234141
Review - These were heaven.  I was so excited about making these.  I snooped around Carly's Pinterest to find a type of cookie to make her when I saw that she had pinned one of the recipes in my list!!  So that was it.  Even better, the blog is two peas and their pod, which reminded that we used to say we were like two peas in a pod because we are such great friends.  :)  So, I cheated on the recipe a little.  I am a fan of simplifying things were possible.  The recipe called for caramels, unwrapped and cut up.  I bought a bag of caramel melts instead to save me the time and effort.  An unwrapped and cut caramel may melt a little gooier in the cookie, but this was just as tasty and much easier.  It was still a process to brown the butter and roll up the caramel in the cookies.  I thought you could really taste the browned butter and it might be my favorite new discovery in this process - so delicious.  The sea salt on top gave it a nice balance as well.