Texas Sheet Cake Cookies

I originally published this post in March 2014. Now having lived in Texas for over a year and a half, I’d been wanting to update this recipe as a nod to my new home. What better day to repost it than on Texas Independence Day!

These cookies are based on the traditional chocolate sheet cake but have been transformed into cookies. Texas Sheet Cake is rich, decadent, and full of cocoa flavor - the best! I grew up eating this cake, however, it was called Scotch Chocolate Cake in our house. I have no idea the origin of this name and Google didn’t help, but it is the exact same thing as Texas Sheet Cake. It’s a moist chocolate cake with the most addicting fudge-like frosting that is made in a saucepan over the stove.

I adapted these cookies from this recipe, and have continued to adapt them since I first made these 7 years ago. And now for a quote from my original post “In my opinion, I think I should rename them to Oklahoma Frosted Drop Cookies. Seems more appropriate bing the Oklahoma girl I am. Texas tries to own everything!” Call them what you want, but since I’m now an obnoxious Texas resident, we’ll keep their OG name, Texas Sheet Cake Cookies.

Texas Sheet Cake Cookies
yields 24 - 28 cookies

Ingredients:

Cookies:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted

Icing:
1/2 cup butter
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
3 Tbsp. milk of choice
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 1 minute, stopping after 30 seconds to scrape down the sides. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined. With the mixer off, add in the flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder. On low, mix to combine. Once incorporated, increase the speed until the dough comes together. The dough will be thick and look like sugar cookie dough. 

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt your chocolate chips for 30 seconds. Take out of the microwave, give a stir, and then heat for 15 more seconds. Go for a little longer if needed, but your chips should be melted after 45 seconds. Add the melted chocolate into the dough, and mix to combine. Using a 1 1/2 Tbsp. sized cookie scoop, scoop leveled balls of dough onto your prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 7-8 minutes, until just set. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Once your cookies are cool, melt the butter, cocoa powder, milk, and vanilla extract in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in powdered sugar and stir vigorously until all the lumps are gone and the icing is thin. Using a tablespoon measurer pour the warm icing over the cookies. Let that layer set. Then using the leftover icing, take a fork and drizzle in a back and forth motion over the tops of the cookies. (You may need to slightly reheat the icing before the next layer to make sure it is thin enough to drizzle). Let the icing fully harden before transferring to a container. Cookies will stay fresh in an air-tight container for up to 3 days.

Happy Texas Independence Day!

Annie

Coffee Cake Cookies with The Healthy Little Foodie

When we look back at this time 10 years from now, I’m hoping that amongst the virus and the illness and the loved ones we may have seen suffered, I hope we also remember all the games we played, walks we went on, loaves of bread we baked and cookies we ate. I love how more and more people are getting in their kitchen more, baking and cooking up a storm.

While I’m pretty used to working from home already, this new stay at home order isn’t too far from my normal. I’ve been busier which I’m so thankful for, but still working in the time to be in the kitchen. Quarantine brought a baking bug, and I’ve caught it. The baking bug has also come with a new push of creativity and confidence honestly. I started doing regular Sunday afternoon Instagram Live baking videos the first Sunday of self-quarantine and it was well, really fun.

My friend Elyse has also been bit by the baking bug and coming up with all kinds of treats in her kitchen. Elyse bakes completely gluten-free and her recipes are typically made with no refined sugars and dairy-free. You can always count on Elyse for a healthier treat recipe. With all these Live videos and people “going live”" together on Instagram, I pinged Elyse if we should bake together and we jumped on the idea.

So we would LOVE if you joined us this Sunday, April 19th at 1pm CST on Instagram! We came up with this recipe for Coffee Cake Cookies which is just really hitting all the trigger points for me right now. Crumb topping, fluffy cinnamon cookie. They taste like a buttery snickerdoodle with a crumb topping. Hi, hello, yum! The recipe can easily be made gluten-free and we give options if you want to use the OG flour and sugar or cleaner ingredients - ha!

The Healthy Little Foodie + Take A Bite Coffee Cake Cookies 
Yields 20-22 (or 10-12) cookies
disclaimer: we developed this recipe during self-quarantine and assumed people didn’t need 20 cookies lying around, so we included the measurements to easily half this recipe.

Ingredients:

Crumb topping:
6 tbsp. (3) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
1/4 cup (2 tbsp.) packed brown sugar (sub for coconut sugar)
1/4 cup (2 tbsp.) granulated sugar (sub for monk fruit sugar or coconut sugar)*
1 (1/2) cup all-purpose or gluten-free flour
1 1/2 (¾) tsp. cinnamon
1/4 (a pinch) tsp. Salt

Cookies:
1 (½ cup or 1 stick) cup of unsalted butter, softened (we prefer Kerrygold or Vital Farms)
1 (½) cup packed brown sugar (sub for coconut sugar)
1/2 (¼) cup granulated sugar (sub for monk fruit sugar or coconut sugar)*
2 (1) eggs
2 (1) tsp. vanilla extract
3 (1½) cups all-purpose or gluten-free flour
2 (1) tsp. baking powder
1 (½) tsp. salt
1 (½) tsp. cinnamon
Powdered sugar or monk fruit powder for dusting 

*if you are using coconut sugar for both the brown and granulated sugar, use ½ (¼)  cup for the crumb topping and 1½ (¾) cup for the cookies. 

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a small bowl, using your hands, a fork or a pastry cutter, combine all of the crumb topping ingredients. Work the butter into the dry ingredients until coarse crumbs are formed. Set aside.  

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until well combined. On low, add in the vanilla extract.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In batches, gradually add the dry ingredients into the mixer with the wet ingredients, until the dough comes together. 

Using a cookie scoop or spoon, form golf ball size balls of dough and place on prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart. Make an indention in the center of each cookie with the back of a teaspoon or your finger and fill with 2 teaspoons of crumb topping (be generous with your topping). Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and let cool on the pan. Then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Once completely cooled, dust with powdered sugar and enjoy!

We hope you have most of these ingredients already in your kitchen, if not, see if you can get all of the groceries delivered by Sunday so you can bake with us!

Don’t forget! Come watch us on Instagram Live Sunday, April 19th, 2020 at 1PM CST! And if you are reading this post after our Live baking date I’ll be sure to link to the video we record.

Annie + Elyse

Homemade Oreos

I originally published this post in April 2013. It was my second post in the history of Take A Bite. Nostalgia! This recipe was originally not my own. I first saw them on my favorite blogger’s site back in the day and she too was sharing them from another blogger I used to love. Along with updated blog copy and photos, I also updated the recipe making them even more quintessential to the classic Oreo flavor. Enjoy!

My cousin Clay loves these Homemade Oreos. Like brings them up about every other time he is with our family. For good reason, they are great. We were altogether about a month ago and they came up in conversation. I hadn’t made them in forever, and I’ve been loving updating old TAB archive recipes (see here and here so far), so this was a must on the “to bake” list.

Switching gears a little, but does anyone else watch Bon Appetit’s YouTube series Gourmet Makes? Being the food freak that I am, I fall asleep to Claire Saffitz episodes remaking nostalgic junk food dishes. Her episode on Oreos was one of the first few episodes she filmed, but still one of my favorites. Long story short, but I felt like Claire Saffitz for a second while I re-made these! Maybe I should be calling them Gourmet Oreos?

Homemade Oreos
yields 40 sandwich cookies

Wafer Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened 
1 cup white sugar
2 tsp. salt*
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa (you can use Hershey’s Extra Dark cocoa to resemble the dark color of a true Oreo wafer, but regular dutch process cocoa works great)
½ tsp. baking soda

Filling Ingredients:
¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature,
¼ cup shortening, room temperature*
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoons vanilla extract

Wafer Directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, and baking soda and set aside.

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream softened butter, sugar and salt on high until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Scrape the sides down and then beat in the eggs one at a time until incorporated.

With the mixer on low, slowly add in the dry ingredients. Mix until the dough is combined.

Turn the dough onto a clean surface. Divide into two and form flat discs. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes to an hour. 

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. To roll out the dough, take one disc of the dough between two sheets of parchment paper (the dough can be rolled out on a lightly floured surface, but the parchment prevents any additional flour from altering the color/appearance of the dark cookies). Roll the dough between the two sheets of parchment to ¼-inch thickness.

Using a 1½ inch round cookie cutter, cut out each wafer. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet leaving only ½ inch between each (they don’t spread much). Repeat until all dough has been used. Bake for 15 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Remove cookies from oven and let cool on a cooling rack.

Filling Directions:
In an electric mixer, beat the room-temperature butter and shortening, powdered sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. 

Assembly:
Using a pastry bag full of filling or a dinner knife, add a dollop of filling to one cookie. Top with another cookie and lightly squeeze together. 

Serve with a glass of milk and enjoy. 

Notes:
*When it comes to salt: Oreos cookies are not that sweet when you think about them. It’s the filing that makes them sweet. Don’t be alarmed by the low amount of sugar and a high amount of salt. It’s the balance you need to make the perfect bittersweet cookie to stand up to the filling. 

*When it comes to shortening: you can easily use ½ cup unsalted butter instead of the butter/shortening combo. However, I think the shortening really gives you that nostalgic Oreo cream flavor.

My favorite part of these updated posts are sharing the original photography. Let’s all just take a moment to observe the Instagram filters being used here. I think these were maybe Amaro or Lof? What a time to be alive.

With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, I couldn’t help but make a pink cream-filled version! I cut a little heart out of a few “tops” so more pink was revealed. Xoxo!

Annie

Ginger Cookies

Ginger Cookies are one of my most favorite Tucker family recipes. They are up there with my mom’s chili and hashbrown quiche. Hashbrown quiche needs to make it’s way to the blog soon now that I think about it.

Growing up, the first batch of ginger cookies signified the start of fall or the holiday season. I have vivid memories of coming home from school to my mom making ginger cookies and being genuinely so happy. Sneaking more bites of dough than the actual cookies.

The original recipe makes almost 7 dozen cookies. I am giving you half the ingredients because having 7 dozen cookies around isn’t good for anyone. I say that because you will make them and then realize you just ate 84 cookies, they are that good. However, if you are attending a holiday cookie swap, these are your cookies!!

The recipe couldn’t be simpler. No wet and dry ingredient separation. All the ingredients go into a mixer at once and you’re done!

Ginger Cookies
yields 30-32 cookies

Ingredients:
3/4 cup shortening, room temperature
1 cup of sugar
¼ cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. ground ginger
sugar

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease with cooking spray or line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Place the first 9 ingredients in a stand mixer fixed with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until the dough comes together, about 1 minute. Pour about 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar in a low dish or bowl. Roll dough into tablespoon-size balls, then roll in sugar. Place on a cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Using the bottom of a drinking glass, flatten each ball of dough lightly.

Bake for 7-9 minutes. As usual, I stress not to over-bake cookies. These are ginger cookies, not gingersnaps meaning they are to be soft and chewy, not crisp and crunchy. Mine are perfectly done at 8 minutes.

Annie

Pumpkin Pecan White Chocolate Cookies

Pumpkin cookies let’s go. But not those cakey pumpkin cookies with the icing. I can’t with those. These are dense yet fluffy, soft and chewy, but crunchy with the addition of pecans.

With a light pumpkin taste, but a heavy spice flavor, these Pumpkin Pecan White Chocolate cookies are everything I want in a “pumpkin cookie.”

Pumpkin Pecan White Chocolate Cookies
yields 30-32 cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
½ cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips (you can substitute for chocolate chips, or seasonal pumpkin chips and cinnamon chips)
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth. About 1 minute. Add in both sugars and beat on medium for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy. On low, stir in the pumpkin puree and vanilla extract until combined.

Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Once the dough has almost come together, but still a little floury, add the pecans and white chocolate chips.

*I roughly chop my white chocolate chips (just like in my Perfect CCCs). It lends to a prettier, but more rustic looking cookie which I love.

Using a 1 ½ inch cookie scoop, form golf ball size balls of dough. Place them on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Do not overcrowd the pans. I got 12 balls of dough on a pan, at most. Rough the cookies up a bit so they have pecans and white choclate peeking out. Add a few more of each to the top of the cookies if needed. Optional, sprinkle the top of each cookie with flaky Maldon salt.

Bake for 9 minutes, rotating the pan around halfway through. Bake until just barely golden around the edges, the key is to not over bake these! Shy on the underdone side.

Annie