Welcome to SSJ Advent 2021!
It’s the first Sunday of Advent, and we’re kicking off the season with two very important tasks!
Today, we’ll be choosing a Christmas tree from the local Scouts Lot and setting it up in the house for our Tree Trimming party later in December.
Then, we’ll be filling our freezer with the dough for three of our favourite freeze-ahead Christmas Cookies: Santa Babies, Brookies, and Classic Chocolate Chip. [Recipes Below]
FOLLOW SSJ’S ADVENT CALENDAR DAILY BY CHECKING THE SMELLING SALTS JOURNAL HOME PAGE OR ACCESSING THE 2021 ADVENT EVENTS CALENDAR.
OR TAKE A LOOK BACK AT THE SSJ ADVENT CALENDARS FROM 2020, 2019, 2018, AND 2017 OR BROWSE THE POSTS OF CHRISTMAS PAST: 2011-2016!
Santa Babies
Servings: 45 Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 c unsalted butter softened
- 1 c brown sugar
- 1/2 c granulated sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 c all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 c oats
- 1 1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 3/4 c toffee bits or 4 skor bars crushed
- 1/2 c flaked coconut [sweetened or unsweetened]
- 1/2 c chopped pecans [If you have nut allergies you can leave these out, and the recipe will be just as good.]
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350.
- Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Add eggs and vanilla and mix until creamy.
- Separately, mix flour, salt and baking soda.
- Add these dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
- Separately, mix chocolate chips, toffee bits, oatmeal, coconut and pecans.
- Add as many of these mixins to the cookie batter as you can, mixing first by machine, then, fully incorporating with a spatula. The dough will be very stiff and bursting with mixins.
- Drop 1-2 tbs of dough 2 inches apart on parchment or silpat-lined cookie sheets.*
- Bake for 10-12 minutes.
- Cool on wire racks.
- Enjoy!
Notes
*FREEZE AHEAD! These cookies make great freeze-ahead cookies! Form the dough into balls & place the cookies in a single layer on a piece of waxed paper or parchment [or stack multiple flat layers] in a Ziploc-style bag or freezer safe-container and freeze. I find it best to place my a Ziploc-style bag on a tray until the flat-lay packages are fully frozen. No need to defrost. Simply bake 2-5 minutes longer than the time called for in the recipe.
Reverse Chip Brookie Cookies
Servings: 36
Ingredients
Brownie Batter
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 2 tbs cream cheese [or more butter]
- 1 c brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbs vanilla
- 3 oz unsweetened chocolate melted and cooled [or .5 c dutch processed cocoa]
- 2 1/4 c flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 c [one 226 g bag] white chocolate chips or chunks [substitute dark semi-sweet or peanut-butter chips or chunks if desired]
- [Or go “nuts’ by adding 1 c chips and 1/2 c chopped walnuts or macadamias]
Cookie Batter
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 2 tbs cream cheese [or more butter]
- 1 c brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbs vanilla
- 1 tbs molasses [optional]
- 2 1/4 c flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks
- [Or go “nuts” by adding 1 c chips and 1/2 c chopped pecans or walnuts]
Instructions
Make Brownie Batter
- In a mixer or by hand, beat butter, cream cheese [or more butter] and sugar until fluffy.
- Add egg and vanilla and beat to incorporate.
- Add cooled melted chocolate [or cocoa powder] and beat to incorporate.
- Sift in flour [1 1/2 c to start if using cocoa powder], soda, and salt and mix to combine.
- [If using cocoa powder, add additional flour by the quarter cup until dough becomes firm]
- Add chips or chunks [and nuts] and combine.
- Place brownie batter in refrigerator or freezer while making the chocolate chip batter below.
Make Chocolate Chip Cookie Batter
- In a mixer or by hand, beat butter, cream cheese [or more butter] and sugars until fluffy.
- Add egg and vanilla and beat to incorporate.
- Add molasses and beat to incorporate.
- Sift in flour, soda, and salt and mix to combine.
- Add chips or chunks [and nuts] and combine.
- If your house is warm or if the batter is soft, refrigerate for 30 minutes or freeze for 15.
Combine and Bake
- Heat oven to 350.
- Line baking sheets with parchment or silpat.
- Portion the chocolate chip batter into 2-3 dozen 1- in spheres and refrigerate while working on the brownie batter.
- Portion the brownie batter into 2-3 dozen 1-inch spheres and refrigerate if necessary.
- [You may end up with more spheres of one batter than the other. We had 3 extra balls of chocolate chip dough. You know what you can do with those…]
- Smash one chocolate chip and one brownie sphere together at a time. *
- Place brookie cookie spheres a few inches apart on baking tray.
- Press cookies down fairly flat.
- Bake cookies for 10-13 minutes. [Ours baked for 11 minutes and were just soft enough.]
- Bake only until edges are set and cookie middles have just begun to set.
- Cool cookies on the pan for 3-5 minutes.
- Cool cookies completely [or almost completely..] on wire racks.
Notes
*FREEZE AHEAD! These cookies make great freeze-ahead cookies! After smashing the chocolate and brownie spheres into one another and forming into a sphere, place the cookies in a single layer on a piece of waxed paper or parchment [or stack multiple flat layers] in a Ziploc-style bag or freezer safe-container and freeze. I find it best to place my a Ziploc-style bag on a tray until the flat-lay packages are fully frozen. No need to defrost. Simply bake 2-5 minutes longer than the time called for in the recipe.
SSJ’s Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
Servings: 5 Dozen
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ c all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 c unsalted butter [room temperature]
- ¾ c white sugar
- ¾ c brown sugar [packed]
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 c chopped walnuts [optional]
- 1 tsp cinnamon [optional]
Instructions
- Heat oven to 375 F and line two cookie sheets with parchment or silpat.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, with a hand mixer, or by hand, beat the butter and sugar together until they are creamy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well combined.
- Add the vanilla and beat until just combined.
- Beat in the flour mixture by the ½ cup or thereabouts until combined.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- [If desired, stir in the nuts and cinnamon.] *
- Drop by rounded tablespoon onto lined cookie sheets.**
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until the edges are just golden brown.
- Allow the cookies to remain on the sheet for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks and cooling completely.
Notes
* We only tend to add the cinnamon when adding nuts to the cookies. Do as you please
**FREEZE AHEAD! These cookies make great freeze-ahead cookies! Simply form the dough into tablespoon-sized balls, place the cookies in a single layer on a piece of waxed paper or parchment [or stack multiple flat layers] in a Ziploc-style bag or freezer safe-container and freeze. I find it best to place my a Ziploc-style bag on a tray until the flat-lay packages are fully frozen. No need to defrost. Simply bake 2-5 minutes longer than the time called for in the recipe.
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