ISO Cookies with Semi-Crunchy Goodness!

[puppymomma]

It seems that whenever people speak of good cookies, they talk about them being chewy and soft. But I don't like those so much. Cakey is out in my book. Are there cookie eaters like me out there?

I want my cookies to have a little bite, and not just because of added nuts. Even a little crunch is good, but I'm not looking for something that turns to dust when you bite it, and I don't lke them to be hard as rocks (excluding biscotti). I love biscotti, and I have plenty of recipes for them. But I'd love to have recipes for chocolate chip, peanut butter, etc.

Please share your more substantial cookie recipes here!

Meryl
http://theoccasionalcook.blogspot.com/

[katecm]

Don't forget that you can alter your favorite recipe to make them the way you like. Replace Crisco with butter and you'll get a crispier cookie. If your recipes have a 2-1 ratio of brown sugar to white sugar, switch that around. Brown sugar makes cookies chewier, while sugar makes them crispier. Just those changes should give you a very different cookie while keeping your favorite recipes.

[pastrytroll]

Here's a crunchy, and very sweet, cookie recipe I've used for years.

Grapenut cookies

Butter 1 ½ cup
Almond extract 2 tsp.
Sugar 1 ½ cup (plus more for topping)
Eggs 2
Flour 3 cups
Baking powder 1 tsp
Grapenuts 1 cup
Rolled oats 1 cup

Cream butter/sugar/extract until fluffy, beat in eggs

Stir in baking powder. and flour, then grapenuts and oats.

Roll into logs, chill and slice about 1/4" thick, sprinkle with granulated sugar
or form into balls, flatten with the bottom of a glass or your fingers(damp helps in both cases), sprinkle with granulated sugar.

they don't spread much. I use parchment paper on the cookie sheets

Bake at 375 for 8-10min unitl just light brown around edges - burn easily

[puppymomma]

Mmmm, I love grapenuts! Thanks for the recipe. And thank you for the info katecm! I didn't know that.

But if anyone still has recipes, I'd love to check them out! Cookies are my favorite things!

Meryl
http://theoccasionalcook.blogspot.com/

[bigjimbray]

I make a chocolate peanutbutter snickerdoodle and that add some cinnamon
to your requests.

[ScarletB]

Could you post the recipe for the snickerdoodle? Sounds delicious! Thanks!

[LoN]

Here's a family recipe for crunchy oatmeal cookies....just the way I like 'em!!

1 c. salad oil
1 c. margarine
1 c. br. sugar
1 c. wh. sugar
1 c. crushed cornflakes
1 c. oatmeal
½ c. coconut
½ c. chopped walnuts
1 t. salt
1 t. vanilla
1 t. baking soda
3 1/.2 c. flour

Cream margarine and oil. Beat together and add both sugars. Add egg. Add corn flakes, coconut, oatmeal, and nuts. Add vanilla and flour and soda. Ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with a fork to make them thin and
crispy..Bake at 375 for 10 min. Makes 100 and freezes well.

[Katie Nell]

I like all kinds of cookies, but some kinds of cookies I prefer to be chewy, like chocolate chip. I think I might like a peanut butter cookie better if it were a little crunchy, but I haven't run across a recipe like that- might make them less rich, which is why I sometimes don't like them.

I made these again last night, and think they have just the right amount of crunch- I LOVE these cookies, and they are going fast at work right now! They are from The Good Cookie.

Toffee Pecan Cookies

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 t. baking powder
¼ t. baking soda
¾ t. salt
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 t. vanilla extract
2 cups toffee bits, Skor or Heath
1 ¾ cup pecans, toasted and chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and set aside. Beat the butter and sugars at medium-high speed until light, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. At this point, the dough will look curdled. At low speed, add the flour mixture, mixing until just blended. Stir in the toffee bits and pecans. Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing the cookies 2 inches apart. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges. Let the cookies cool on the sheets for 2 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack.

Also, another quick change: If you let the cookies cool entirely on the cookie sheet, it produces a chewier cookie. So, you might try removing your cookies right away to get a crunchier cookie.

[jinet12]

I love "potato chip cookies"...If you have never tried them, you must...Crunchy and tasty...Emeril does a good rendition of them on www.foodtv.com...He actually dips half of them, when cooked, in a chocolate sauce...I have never done this, but sounds good...Of course, I think that leather dipped in chocolate would be good!! LOL...I, myself, have shaken them in powdered sugar when done....Give them a try!

[macca]

I had some no cook cookies at a shower a few weeks ago. I asked for the recipe, and the woman gave me the ingredients, but said she did not measure.

Peanut Butter ( she used creamy)
Fluff
Rice Krispies

MAke into balls, then dip in chocolate.

They were really good- I haven't tried them yet, but I would bet they would be fun for the kids to make, too.

[katecm]

That reminds me of a great recipe. When making chocolate chip cookies, stir in about 2 cups of Rice Krispies and substitute chopped Nestle Crunch bars for the chocolate chips. Even if you make a chewy cookie, you still get a lot of crunch.

[macca]

that sounds good. My neice is a great choc chip cookie maker- I will give her this tip.

[jinet12]

Mrs. Field's cookie recipe book has a recipe for these..They were crunchy and very good..Especially for those of us that prefer milk chocolate...

[emily]

Here is my go-to crisp chocolate chip cookie recipe. Lots of others seem to like it as well:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Giant-Cr...

By the way, the picture shown is pretty bad -- mine usually come out looking much more round and flat.

[Emme]

I make these http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-... w/ regular and/or steel cut oats or a mix, but I also add toasted, salted pumpkin seeds... So unique and always get requests for the recipe with that addition.

[puppymomma]

That recipe looks intreguing. I'll have to try it really soon. Did you add extra spices like so many reviewers did?

Meryl
http://theoccasionalcook.blogspot.com/

[Emme]

Personally, I can't stand nutmeg and cloves, so if I'm making a batch for me to eat, I just double the cinnamon and up the vanilla a little, along with adding the pumpkin seeds or cinnamon chips.

For others, I have used nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom along with ginger (tried both powdered and crystallized chopped variations with both well received...) for another variation.

[bite bite]

My favorite chocolate chip cookie is on the Scharffenberger site. They call it the best and if not, it's pretty damn close, crisp at the edges, chewy in the centers -- which is my favorite consistency for these suckers.
http://www.scharffenberger.com/re0301.asp

A great peanut butter cookie recipe comes off Epicurious. Has no flour, which made me suspicious and curious at the same time. Loved how they turned out. Wonderfully peanutty and completey crsip. Kind of crumble in your mouth when you eat them in a good way. Thanks Mom-Mom Fritch, whoever you are.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/rec...

[Old Spice]

These pecan sandies (from "The Last Course," by Claudia Fleming) are wonderfully crispy, and just might be my all-time favorite cookie. Just made a batch today. At the suggestion of a friend's mom, I no longer do the rolled out dough, cut into squares, in the recipe. I chill the dough in a disk, as directed. Then I make the dough into logs. (The dough is a bit too soft to form logs before it's been refrigerated.) Wrap logs in plastic and refigerate about an hour more, and slice-and-bake. Less fussy and every bit as delicious as Fleming's way.

If you prefer very sweet cookies, this might not be your cup-of-tea. Buttery; a tad salty, offset with the wonderful hit of turbinado sugar sprinkled on top. I'd call this a "grown up cookie," except that a friend's daughter often requests these.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recip...

[TerriL]

Here's my favorite cookie with a crunch. So good, and sooo easy:

Ranger Cookies

1/2 cup Butter
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1 cup Flour
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 cup Rolled Oats
1 cup Rice Krispies

Cream together the butter, sugar and brown sugar.
Add the egg and vanilla and beat well.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture.
Add and mix in oatmeal, rice Krispies and nuts.
Drop dough by teaspoonful and slightly flatten on lightly greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350° for 8 to 10 minutes.
Cool slightly on sheet before removing.
Makes 3 dozen cookies.

[chef chicklet]

I'm in search of good refrigerator cookies. I made Carmel Cookies that I prepared late last night, rolled them into a log in plastic and parchement paper then I took them out of the fridge this morning and sliced them at about half an inch.

Baked them at 350 for about 15 minutes. I waited patiently for them to melt down and spread out. Since they were mainly butter, a carmel mix butter, cream and sugar cooked, so I thought they would melt. But they didn't and they were fantastic.

Don't laugh since I don't bake tjhat much and now learning. I really had no interest in eating baked goods either but all that seems to have changed. I seriously wouldn't know a refrigerator cookie if it hit me in the head! I have no idea if they are suppose to be chewey and soft or what.
But we loved this crunchy carmel cookie today and I say it's a keeper. I would use these at a dinner party along with little bowls of homemade ice cream, they are that good and so cute.

Let me know, I can post the recipe in the morning if you wish.

[chef chicklet]

I just recieve a call from my husband, happily crunching on a carmel cookie. He says they are harder today, but still likes them!

I only made a few yesterday morning, and covered them in plastic wrap, they harden obviously because of the cooked sugar factor. Best the first day, and second day still good just extra crunchy.

[mungus]

Recipe would be great for the caramel cookies - thanks!

[morebubbles]

Me too, I'd like to see the recipe for the caramel cookies - please, cc? Thank you!

[chef chicklet]

Remember I have no idea about refrigerator cookies!! Im trying to post pics so you can see what they look like - having tech difficulties....
Caramel Cookies - Refrigerator

¾ C Baking Sugar
1/3 C water
½ Vanilla bean or 1 T good vanilla
2 T Cream
¾ C butter cut into ½ inch cubes
2T golden brown sugar packed
¼ t salt
2 C All purpose flour
Combine ¾ C sugar with 1/3 cup water in heavy sauce pan bring to a low boil scrape seeds from the vanilla bean into the syrup
Stir over med heat until sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and boil without stirring until the syrup is deep amber color, occasionally brushing down the sides of the pan about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat. Pour in the whipping cream (mixture will bubble vigorously) Add butter and whisk until smooth. Cool 5 minutes Stir in brown sugar & salt.
Add flour a little at a time, stir until well blended and dough forms.
Turn the dough onto a well floured work surface, divide the dough in half. Form each dough half into a 9 inch log. ( it is not really stable because the dough and the butter want to spread) wrap it in plastic wrap and roll the log using a ruler to help create the log, then wrap in parchment paper and store in the fridge. Chill overnight.

When ready to use, slice ½ inch slices. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I found that the cookies took longer than the recommended 13 minutes, more like 17. They did not spread out either like a drop cookie. Cool on a rack. Delicious the first day, they get harder after the first day, but they still taste good! Here are pictures of the dough and after baking…

[chef chicklet]

one more time...

[xnyorkr]

Epicurious.com has several shortbread recipes that call for rice flour. I tried it, and the shortbread indeed comes out, er, crunchy. You could pave your driveway with it if you don't like it....kidding. They used just butter, flour, rice flour, and sugar if I recall. Mix and line a pan, bake -- that's it.

Next time I'd use a smaller proportion of rice flour, but they are quite crunchy.