German Chocolate Cookies

 

Dear Readers, where has the month of May gone?   Really, it is one of my favorite months of the year.  We made these delicious German Chocolate Cookies for my daughter's high school graduation, and then have made them several times again.  They are simply delicious, and after eating them you think, "Well, I probably won't be making German Chocolate Cake ever again." You get the taste of German Chocolate Cake without the fuss.  

 

Tatianna is the second on the left.

 

The cookies are made with three steps
 

 

This idea is not original with me.  I am sure that I saw this idea somewhere on the Internet and it hid in the back of my mind until I wanted to make something different for Tati's graduation party. 

 

The chocolate sugar cookies are from Lila Loa's blog.  She was a presenter at Cookie.Con this year.  She is a wonderful cookie maker and her chocolate sugar cookie recipe is very good. 

 

 Step 1

 Lila Loa's Chocolate Sugar Cookies

 

1 cup butter

1/4 cup shortening -- I didn't add this; I added 1/4 cup of butter

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

2/3 cup cocoa

3 or 3 1/2 cups flour (see below for guidance)

Cream butter, shortening and sugar together. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Add baking powder and salt and mix again. Stir in the cocoa until well blended. Add flour 1 cup at a time. She advises that if you are going to make the cookies right away only add 3 and 1/2 cups of flour.  If you are going to chill them or make them on another day only add 3 cups.  The dough will be soft and look all wrong, and she advises not to add more flour.  I have only made them when I am planning to bake them right away.  Bake at 375 F for 6 1/2 minutes. She rolls her cookies 3/16-inch thick.  This makes a very nice cookie -- it doesn't spread a lot.  It makes about 12 large cookies (I double it).    I always under cook the cookies a little, and then I let them cool on the pan for about 10 minutes.  I then place them on a cooling rack for at least and hour before decorating or frosting.

 

Step 2

German Chocolate Frosting

(via Betty Crocker)

 

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 cup evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 egg yolks

1 -1/2 cups flake coconut

1 cup chopped pecans

 

Mix sugar, butter, milk, vanilla , and egg yolks  in a medium saucepan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until thick, about 12 minutes.  After about 12 minutes, stir in coconut and pecans (sometimes I toast them).  Beat until spreading consistency.  Don't worry it if doesn't thicken right away; it will thicken as it cools.  When cooled, spread on chocolate sugar cookies.

 

Step 3

 

Melt chocolate chips, semi-sweet or milk, in microwave in micro-wave proof bowl, in ten second intervals, making sure to stir after each time.  Take the chocolate and a fork and drizzle over the cookies.  Allow chocolate to harden, before serving. 

 

 

I made some royal icing cookies with this chocolate cookie recipe for a friend who just had a baby.

 

These cookies are notes made for Tati's piano teacher.  She just had her last piano recital.

 



 

Thanks for dropping by my couch. 

 

 

 

I



Golf Anyone?

Hello, so I have been a bit missing this May from the blogging world.  So it is not exactly because I am a lazy blogger.....well, some of my absence is, but of course I do have excuses!  Before I go on to the golf ball cookies, I would like to share a bit of what if happening in our Red Couch life.

 

My husband and I took a trip back east to Virginia to our son's medical school graduation from Virginia Commonwealth University.  Here is the proud graduate with his wife.  They are moving to Pennsylvania for his intern year in internal medicine and for his three year residency in dermatology.

 

 

Of course we got to visit with the grandchildren!  So fun and cute!

 

 

 

We also were able to visit Mt. Vernon, the home of General George Washington and his wife  Martha Washington.  After he left the presidency, George Washington did not like to be called President Washington, but preferred to be called General Washington.   I am a history buff, so of course I loved visiting Mt. Vernon. 

 

 

Now on to the golf cookies. I just want you to know that I will always take a golf ball cookie over golfing anytime, any day! So all you need are some small sugar cookies.

 

 



 

 

A bit of fondant....

 

 Roll out the fondant, and then press a sheet of Legos into the fondant and cut it out again.  If your cookies have spread, you must use the circle cutter that is the next size up.

 



Next we are on to our oldest daughter's graduation from high school....in three days.

 

 

 

As you can see, she is a bit excited to be graduating and starting college.

 

 

My daughter's graduation photos were taken by Kylie Elizabeth Photography.

 

Life is not always full of such fun and good happenings,, such as graduations and travel, but when they do occur we should celebrate them as much as possible.

 

 

Thanks for taking time to visit us at our Red Couch.



Bubble Gum Mason Jar Cookies

 

 

Dear Red Couch Readers.  No, my blog is not turning into a cookie blog, but there sure are a lot of cookies showing up on my page recently.  My daughter is fundraising to go to FCCLA Nationals in San Antonio.  About half of the trip is paid, but she is earning the other half.  There is a lot of cookie making going on in our home these days.

 

She takes orders and also sells them at the high school.  I think these Bubble Gum Mason Jars are so cute!

 

 

 

Thanks for dropping by Red Couch Recipes.