01/02/2019
WOW!!! Thank you so much everyone! We had no idea anyone would even care but we are so grateful for such kind words! Here are the basic recipes for just about everything we made. If I forgot something, feel free to ask! I’ve included how we do things but with the cakes and brownies, I’ve also included a few short cuts that I think taste just as great or maybe even better. We hope this makes your life and all those around you a little sweeter! Happy New Year!
Basic Drop Cookies:
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3.4 oz Jell-O instant pudding (powder)
2 sticks salted butter (melted)
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
(combine)
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In a separate bowl combine 2.5 cups all-purpose flour and 1 tsp baking soda mixing well
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Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and 12 oz of whatever type cookie you want to make (i.e. chocolate chip = 12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips) mixing until just combined.
Divide the dough onto cookie sheets (think mini hockey pucks to mimic our style) and top with additional chocolate chips if desired. Bake at 375 degrees until golden brown. Baking time will vary based on the size of your cookies.
Cookie Variations:
M & M, Toffee (to decorate dip the dough ball into a bowl of toffee pieces), White Chocolate Macadamia Nut (2.25 oz of chopped macadamia nuts added when adding the white chocolate chips), Reese’s Pieces, Smore’s stuffed (smore in the middle, top with semi-sweet chocolate chips and mini marshmallows), Bacon Chip
Chocolate Drop Cookies:
For Chocolate Based Cookies use the recipe above but make the following changes:
Use 3.9 oz of Jell-O Chocolate pudding and add ¼ of cocoa powder when adding the Jell-O.
For “Mocha or Espresso” based cookies add in 2 Starbucks Vias or other instant coffee also when adding the pudding.
Cookie Variations:
Double Chocolate, Triple Chocolate (semi-sweet, milk, white chocolate), Triple Chocolate Mocha, Mocha Chip, Mint Chocolate (mint chocolate chips and dark chocolate), Peppermint/Peppermint Mocha, York Stuffed (Dark Chocolate Chips), Chocolate Toffee, Almond Joy (coconut, almonds, almond joy), Chocolate Almond (almonds), Chocolate Caramel, Rolo Stuffed, Chocolate Coconut (Milk chocolate, sweetened coconut)
Caramel Drop Cookies:
Use the basic drop cookie recipe but add approximately 2-3 tablespoons of caramel sauce, a teaspoon of course sea salt, and increase the flour to 3 cups. This dough works best chilled for 20-30 minutes to keep from being overly sticky.
Cookie Variations:
Salted Caramel, Salted Caramel Chocolate Pretzel (milk chocolate chips, chocolate covered pretzels, salted caramel bits), Caramel Apple Pie (granny smith apples finely chopped in the middle like a stuffed cookie, drizzled with caramel and then topped with the salted caramel pieces.
Peanut Butter Cookies:
Use the standard drop cookie recipe but make the following changes: DO NOT use any pudding and add 16 oz of creamy peanut butter when you add in the eggs, etc. Not all peanut butters are created equally. Some can be very oily and will change the texture/flavor of your cookie. We liked Kroger brand but find your favorite and go with it. After the dough is formed, sprinkle with a ¼ cup of white sugar over the top and chill for approximately 20-30 minutes. This will help it not be sticky when you go to shape the dough.
When you have your dough balls using a wet fork, smash in a crisscross pattern for an old-fashioned peanut butter cookie look and bake. Peanut Butter cookies generally take 3-5 minutes longer than other cookies to bake.
Cookie Variations: (We used milk chocolate chips for anything with Peanut Butter)
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Reese’s Stuffed, Snickers Stuffed (top with milk chocolate and peanuts)
Oatmeal Cookies:
3 cups Quaker Oats Instant Oatmeal
1 tsp baking soda
1.5 cups flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Combine
_________
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 sticks salted butter (melted)
1 tsp vanilla
Combine
_________
Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and 12 oz of whatever type cookie you want to make (i.e. chocolate chip = 12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips and/or 2.25 oz of any nut) mixing until just combined.
Divide the dough onto cookie sheets (think mini hockey pucks to mimic our style) and decorate with additional mix-ins if desired.
Cookie Variations:
Oatmeal Raisin, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, White Chocolate Cranberry, Caramel Apple Pie, Cowboy (pecans, sweetened coconut, semisweet chocolate chips), Salted Caramel, Oatmeal Butterscotch
Two-Bite Brownies (Scratch)
1 cup flour
3 cups white sugar
2 sticks of salted butter (Melted)
1 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 egg
12 oz of semi-sweet chocolate melted
Combine everything and pour into a greased baking pan for approximately 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Brownies are done when a toothpick comes out clean.
Two-Bite Brownies (Easy!!!)
1 box Duncan Hines Brownie Mix (ignore instructions on the box)
Add 1 egg
1 stick of butter (softened not melted)
¼ cup water
¼ cup white sugar
Mix well and portion into a mini baking pan (Michaels, Joann, etc.) a melon baller (scooped overflowing) works well for portioning. Bake 15-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
Vanilla Cake (Scratch)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour.
2 tsp baking powder.
2 sticks of salted butter (Softened not melted)
2 cup granulated sugar.
4 large eggs room temperature.
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk or water for less calories
3.4 oz Jell-O instant vanilla pudding
Mix well and bake at 350 for approximately 20 minutes. Cake is done when it is a golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
Variations:
Add extracts or other liquids to change the flavor of your cake. (I.e. substitute the milk for orange juice to make an orange cake, add ¼ cup maple syrup for a maple cake, etc. For liquor infused cakes do half water, half beverage of your choice (i.e. rum, etc. do not replace all the water with alcohol or the cake will dry out).
To make chocolate cake add 1 cup cocoa powder to the recipe above and use 3.9 oz instant Jell-O chocolate pudding instead of vanilla.
Vanilla Cake (Easy!!!)
1 box Betty Crocker Vanilla Cake Mix
3.4 oz of Jell-O Instant Vanilla Pudding mix
4 eggs
½ cup white sugar
½ cup oil
1 cup water
Mix well and bake at 350 until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
For chocolate cake increase water to 1 ¼ cup and use chocolate pudding with Betty Crocker Devil’s Food cake mix.
Basic Buttercream Frosting:
3 cups powdered sugar
2 sticks of salted butter (softened)
2 tsp of pure vanilla extract
2 tsp of whole milk
Mix powdered sugar and softened butter together until smooth (If using a stand mixer use the paddle attachment – this will make it smoother!). Scrape the edges and add milk and vanilla and mix until just combined. If you over mix you will get butter LOL. If frosting is too thick add more milk, too thin add more powdered sugar. Be careful to keep your butter only softened or the frosting will “break” and look very unappetizing.
Frosting Variations:
Add ¼ cup of cocoa powder when mixing the butter and sugar together for chocolate frosting. Replace 1 tsp of vanilla with an extract or syrup to make other flavors (i.e. lemon, maple, cinnamon, etc.) Be careful adding fruit and/or too much liquid. If the ratios are off your frosting will break and you’ll have to start over.
Cake Pops:
For cake pops bake a cake as usual. Cut off the top and edges so just have the “pretty” looking cake. Put the “pretty” cake parts in bowl and mix well with frosting so it forms a sticky cake dough. Shape into balls and freeze. Ours started off at 1.8 oz of cake dough. Using “cookie” sticks NOT cake pop sticks (if making them our size) dip the stick in melted chocolate and insert in the cake ball. Once hardened, dip the entire cake ball in melted chocolate, removing any excess chocolate, and let harden. Once cooled, dip again. For “glitter pops” after the second dip, while the chocolate is still wet cover the entire pop in “sanding” sugar. Let harden and enjoy. A standard size cake pop is generally around 1 oz. Our cake pops were 1.8 oz before being double dipped in chocolate. Try not to roll the dough into too tight of a ball as it will cause cracking as they warm up and expand. If going for our size, a regular cake pop stick will not support the weight but cookie sticks work great! Cake pops are extremely finicky. They will crack or worse if they get too hot or too cold. They are very tricky to master so don’t be too hard on yourself if they don’t turn out perfect on the first try.
Quick Tips and Good to Know Info:
A standard “Sherri’s Cookies cookie” is 4.2 oz of dough by weight then topped with additional chips. A standard batch using the measurements above will give you approximately 13 Sherri’s Cookies size cookies and will take about 20 oz of chocolate chips (or whatever mix-ins) including the 12 oz in the batter. We liked Tollhouse brands the best but find your favorites and do what works best for you!
Sherri’s Cookies size cookies take up a lot of room on a cookie sheet. You can fit two small size cookie sheets (placed vertically in the oven) in a standard oven. If going with our size cookies you will only be able to fit 4 cookies per cookie sheet (8 cookies total) per bake without the cookies touching. If using a full sheet cookie sheet, we still only recommend 8 cookies per sheet. 3 on top, 3 on bottom and two in the middle. More than that and you will be running the risk of the cookies all joining together. It’s possible to fit more but also risky if you care about presentation. If not go for it!
For stuffed cookies use 4 oz of dough and a “fun size” candy. Put the candy in the middle of the dough ball making sure there is enough dough all the way around or the candy will pop out during baking. Do not put any mix in’s (chocolate chips, etc.) in the dough but only decorate the top before baking.
You can buy caramel bits that work great for cookies. Put them in a container with a lid add 1-2 tsp of course sea salt, put the lid on and shake well. The sea salt will attach to the caramel and really bring out the flavor of the caramel.
If you decide to decorate the top (and I hope you do!) don’t be afraid to really pack them on there. They will spread out as the cookie bakes. If you missed a spot before they went in the oven, you can add a couple to fill in a gap or something right after they come out of the oven but you will have to work very quickly to do so or they will get too firm and the chips will just pop off the top. We hand topped all of our cookies which does take a fair amount of extra time. Remember to work fast, as the dough can dry out if left out for too long and will alter the taste of your cookies. It will also be very difficult to add any decorations/toppings to the cookies before baking if they get dried out. Speed is key! If you’re just after taste, you can skip this step.
Adding fresh fruit will increase the soggy factor of any cookie, add extra flour and plan on additional baking time to compensate.
Oatmeal and Peanut Butter Cookies work best with lightly chilled dough (20-30 minutes) but chilled is the enemy of anything chocolate. It can turn your chocolate white looking (bloom). It is perfectly safe and just means your chocolate got too hot or too cold but to someone who doesn’t know what it is, it just makes your cookies look moldy (eww!) so beware of temperature extremes.
Do not use a cooling rack if you’re going with our standard weight cookies, they will literally fall through the racks from the weight. Do put them on a clean flat surface to cool. Bakers racks are ideal but for most that isn’t an option. A flat counter with parchment or wax paper works great also. Don’t leave them on the cookie sheet or they will continue to spread out and get hard. Due to their size these cookies will break very easily. A very hard flat spatula and a super quick scoop will keep them all in one piece while you transfer them to the flat surface to firm up. The temperature of the room and amount of sunlight will make a tremendous difference in how quickly the cookies firm up so plan accordingly.
The pudding in the cookies keeps them very moist for several days. 1-3 days at room temperature. I’ve personally never tried it but I’ve heard that they freeze well also.
When frosting cupcakes, using a 1M Wilton icing tip, go counterclockwise starting at the outer edge to make a standard frosting swirl. For “rose” cupcakes, start in the middle and go clockwise. To make a dress cake, lay out the pattern you want and pipe roses over each cupcake, fill in the gaps with frosting and decorate as desired.
Above all, remember the most important ingredient in any bake is love! Have fun with it. It’s a treat. It’s meant to make people happy. Remember even an ugly cookie will probably taste great and they all end up looking the same in the end so don’t stress about making them perfect. Unless you’re trying to sell them. Then it’s ok to be a little obsessive about freshness and presentation haha! 😉
If you do decide to sell them, let us know! We would love to support you any way we can and would be happy to send customers your way!!!
