Category Archives: cookie recipes

No, no, no…these aren’t made with fish or taste like fish…so calm down! 🙂

If you’ve ever gone out for an authentic bowl of ramen, you may have seen a little white and pink swirly “cake” in your bowl. This little fish cake, or Narutomaki, often mimics the texture and color of the meat of lobster, crab and other shellfish. They’re actually way more delicious than you may think (they’re not fishy at all) and add great flavor and color to your ramen.

The pink swirl in these “fish cakes” are meant to symbolize the Naruto whirlpools of the Naruto Strait near Japan…plus they’re just so darn cute!

Often about the size of a quarter, these fish cakes are brought to life in a much bigger and sweeter way with these cute Narutomaki cookies. Made using my favorite sugar cookie dough and a sweet royal icing, these cookies are the perfect ending to any Asian or ramen-inspired meal! 😉

Narutomaki Cookies (Fish Cake Cookies)

Ingredients:

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour

For Icing:

• 1 lb. confectioners’ sugar
• 3/8 cup milk
• 3/8 cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
• Pink food coloring

Directions:

In large bowl, beat butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Reduce speed to medium; add egg. Beat until combined. Beat in corn syrup, lemon zest and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour in two parts. Shape dough into two disks, wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour. The dough might be crumbly, but use your hands to form it back together.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll out 1 disk of dough to ¼ in. thick. Using cutter (my scalloped cutter was about 2 in. wide), cut out shapes. Transfer to baking sheet. Bake until edges are lightly browned, about 10 – 12 minutes. Transfer to cooling grid; cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough. Using my 2 in. cutter, I got 21 cookies.

To make icing, combine confectioners’ sugar, milk, corn syrup and flavoring of choice. I used almond, but you could also use vanilla. Mix on medium to start, then on high until combined. Add more confectioners’ sugar to make icing medium-stiff consistency.

Prepare a decorating bag with a round tip 2 or 3 and about ½ cup stiff consistency icing. Outline your cookies. Let dry, about 15-20 minutes (use a wet paper towel or napkin to cover the unused icing and keep it from drying out).

Transfer any remaining icing back into the bowl.

Using milk (add 1 teaspoon at a time – a little goes a long way), thin the icing to thin/medium consistency.

These next few steps need to happen somewhat quickly, so read ahead before jumping in!

Prepare a decorating bag with a round tip 5 or 6 (or use a cut bag) and thinned icing. Fill in your cookies, using a toothpick to pop any bubbles and spread icing around cookie. Repeat covering remaining icing with wet paper towel to prevent drying. Transfer any remaining icing back into bowl.

Using pink icing color, tint the remaining icing light pink. Prepare a decorating bag with round tip 2 or 3 and pink icing. Pipe swirl in wet icing and let settle.

Let cookies dry, at least 24 hours, before packaging.

Every Monday is a “Reci-bee” post, where I share my favorite recipes, recipe collections, and cooking and baking hints and tips. 

Sure, chocolate chip cookies are okay. And snickerdoodles will do in a pinch. I could take or leave gingerbread cookies, but White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies…that’s where it’s at, people.

Though I have been a die-hard fan of these cookies my entire life, I never actually tried making them myself until a few days ago. WOW. Fresh out of the oven, warm and gooey and oh so buttery, these cookies are 100 times better hot off the pan.

For best results, be careful not to over bake these. They only need to be in the oven about 10 minutes, just until the edges start to brown. When you take them out, they will look puffy and raw, but let them sit for a while and cool slightly before you judge. A few minutes out of the oven and these will turn into soft, cakey mounds of happiness.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup butter, softened (1½ sticks)
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ¾ cup white chocolate chips
• ¾ cup chopped macadamia nuts

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. In a mixer, cream together butter and sugars. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Mix until combined.
3. Add flour mixture to butter mixture in small batches. Mix until all the flour is incorporated into the dough.
4. Carefully stir in white chocolate chips and nuts.
5. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill dough for about 1 hour.
6. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll dough into 1 in. balls and place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
7. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges are just slightly browned.
   NOTE: The cookies will look very soft and puffy and you’ll want to keep them in longer, but RESIST THE URGE! Take them out as soon as you see the edges browning.
8. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for a minute or two, then transfer to wire cooling grid and cool completely.

Every Monday is a “Reci-bee” post, where I share my favorite recipes, recipe collections, and cooking and baking hints and tips. 

Attention coconut lovers! Tomorrow is National Macaroon Day, a perfect time to indulge in these delicious soft and sweet cookies. While I will never say no to a plain jane coconut macaroon, I do love experimenting with flavors and trying new and strange combinations, which has led me to create this delicious Blackberry and White Chocolate Coconut Macaroon.

Now, I know these look like something out of Wonka’s factory, but they’re actually pretty good. Very tangy and sweet and these would be super cute for a tea party or themed birthday party.

I’m also the proud owner of Wilton’s Treatolgy Flavor System, a collection of eight amazing concentrated flavors that have inspired me to come up with all kinds of recipes. This kit includes Crisp Champagne, Sweet Meyer Lemon, Fresh Basil, Warm Cinnamon Graham, Juicy Peach, Salted Caramel, Creamy Vanilla Custard, and Toasted Coconut. I used the Sweet Meyer Lemon concentrate with these cookies, as blackberries and lemon are a winning combination, but you could also use lemon extract if you’d like.

If you want to try your own berry combinations, substitute blackberries for raspberries and add almond extract instead of lemon. You could also try strawberries and the Fresh Basil concentrate from Treatology! Hmm…I think I have some new experiments to try…

Blackberry and White Chocolate Macaroons

 Ingredients:

• 14 oz. sweetened coconut
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon extract (I used 5 drops of Wilton’s Treatology Meyer Lemon Flavor Concentrate)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1¼ cups fresh blackberries
• 3 large egg whites
• 6 oz. white chocolate, melted

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In food processor, process coconut for 1 minute. Add sugar and process for another minute. Add extract, salt, and egg whites and process until blended.
3. Add blackberries and pulse until berries are broken down. This might take a while. You may have to stop and push the berries down to the bottom to make sure they’re incorporated. I might even suggest pulsing them separately just to start the process of breaking them down before you add them to the coconut.
4. Scoop batter onto parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake 25-30 minutes, or until tops start to brown.
5. Remove from oven and let sit 10 minutes on pan. Transfer to cooling grid to cool completely.
6. Once cooled, drizzle or dip (or both!) cookies in melted white chocolate.

These cookies stay fresh up to one week at room temperature. No need to refrigerate them.

Every Monday is a “Reci-bee” post, where I share my favorite recipes, recipe collections, and cooking and baking hints and tips. 

There’s nothing better than the smell of freshly baked cookies on a blustery Saturday afternoon.  This past Saturday was perfect for staying inside, cozying up with some thick socks and baking a batch of warm, delicious oatmeal cookies.

So, as a slew of Modern Family episodes played in the background, I decided to browse through the ingredients I had in the apartment to see what I could whip up without having to leave my warm, cozy apartment.

I came upon a bag of coconut palm sugar, which is similar to brown sugar, but it’s made with coconuts.  You can use it as a brown sugar replacement, and is delicious in tropical desserts, like pineapple upside down cake.  It was the only form of brown sugar I had in the house, so I decided to use that to make my oatmeal cookies.

This recipe for oatmeal cookies is not specifically designed for coconut palm sugar, so if you have light or dark brown sugar, you can use that.  In fact, I would recommend it.  While I do love the coconut sugar, it doesn’t have that dark, molasses taste I love about regular brown sugar and, as a result, my cookies ended up being a tad bit bland…but they still satisfied the craving!

These delicious morsels cook up to be thick and soft, almost like cake cookies.  Don’t like oats?  Omit them for a delicious spiced cookie that would go great with chi tea.  This is a wonderful recipe that’s perfect for those who like to experiment with flavors.  Add some ginger or chi spice to the batter and drizzle them with a sweet lemon glaze when they’re done.  Ohh, the wheels are turning now…

Easy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup butter, softened
• 1 cup coconut palm sugar (or packed brown sugar)
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup raisins

Directions:

1.  In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.  Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves.  Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.
2. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined.  Add flour and mix until combined.  Stir in oats and raisins.
3. Drop cookie dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.  Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute.  Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.
   

Every Monday is a “Reci-bee” post, where I share my favorite recipes, recipe collections, and cooking and baking hints and tips.