I'm one of those people who needs to always have a box of homemade cookies. In my family we only bought Swiss cookies when we visited, and precisely because I wanted to enjoy them more often, I learned to bake them myself. There are so many varieties that I couldn't choose just a few! But there is no doubt that there are certain cookie recipes that are more successful than others.
There are very fine and crunchy ones, others more tender or even spongy, flaky or smooth, with chocolate, nuts, cereals or seeds, decorated or rustic, round or with funny shapes, filled or glazed... With so many different types, what do you think are the five most sought-after cookies on the Internet? I'm sure almost all of them are among your favorites.
1. Butter cookies
At number one in this top they had to enter these cookies or the following ones, any other option would have been very strange. Butter cookies are the mother of all cookies, even though they can also be made with other fats or with a total absence of them. There are exquisite oil cookies, others prefer them with butter or peanut butter, and they can be very tasty with just eggs... but there is nothing like the delicious flavor and texture of good butter cookies.
To make them really tasty, it is essential to invest in a good quality butter, and I would recommend not making them too sweet. The most basic recipe serves as a base for decorating them, for filling them or for adding other ingredients, such as chocolate chips, coconut or almonds. We can also play with the shape to give it different textures, letting it cool for several hours or forming directly little balls more or less crushed.
Ingredients for 40 units. 250 g of butter in ointment, 150 g of sugar, 1 egg XL, 550 g of wheat flour, 5 g of vanilla essence.
Elaboration. We beat the butter and the sugar with some electric sticks. Add the vanilla essence and the egg, beating until both are integrated. Add the flour, little by little, first with a mixer and then by hand on a clean surface. Stretch out on a sheet of greaseproof paper or baking paper, leaving 1/2 cm thick. Let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Cut the cookies with a cookie cutter, place them on a tray covered with greaseproof paper and refrigerate for another 30 minutes. Bake at 180ºC with heat up and down for 10-12 minutes, or until they start to brown. Transfer the cookies to a metal rack where we let them cool down before eating or decorating.
If they are also your favorite cookies you will surely like to try other variations where butter still plays a major role, for example Danish pastries, Breton pallets, petits beurre, Swiss mailänderli or Scottish shortbread. And if you're in a hurry, the recipe for express butter cookies is very quick to prepare.
2. Chocolate Cookies
It was inevitable to find the chocolate cookies in second place. Cocoa is a classic flavor of many desserts and also enriches many cookie doughs, again under countless different forms.
We kept this recipe from the infallible Nigella Lawson because they are very easy to prepare chocolate cookies, very tasty and perfect to prepare with children. In this case they are made with cocoa but we could also add chocolate chips to the dough, or even bathe them with melted chocolate once they are cold.
Ingredients. 250 g of butter at room temperature, 125 g of sugar, 30 g of cocoa powder, 300 g of wheat flour, 5 g of chemical yeast.
Elaboration. In a container mix the butter with the sugar and beat until white. We sift the cocoa over the butter and sugar mixture and mix gently until integrated. We do the same with the flour and chemical impeller, stirring from time to time until integrated before adding more quantity to the mixture. Cover two baking trays with paper and place balls of dough on them, making sure they are the same size. Crush them lightly with a fork and bake in the oven, preheated to 180ºC, for 12-14 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the same tray before serving the cookies.
Are you a declared chocoholic? We have many more recipes for chocolate cookies so you won't get bored at home, from the already famous chocolate crinkles to the delicious world peace cookies, not to mention cookies 3,2 1 or the chocolate rye cookies.
3. Oatmeal cookies
When did oatmeal cookies become popular? I remember my father always struggling to find a jar of oatmeal for his snacks - before porridge and gruel were trendy - and now it's a staple in any supermarket. Be that as it may, they are another classic of European and American pastries, again in many different forms.
I really like the "classic" oatmeal cookies with raisins, which despite being nutritious, we must not forget that they are still an occasional sweet. They are very easy, you don't have to complicate them with the shape and they allow you to substitute the raisins with chocolate, another fruit or simply eliminate them.
Ingredients. 100 g of unsalted tempered butter, 120 g of brown sugar or panela, 5 ml of vanilla essence, 2 g of ground cinnamon, 2 g of salt, 1 egg L, 85 g of baking flour, 4 g of chemical yeast, 140 g of fine oat flakes, 100 of raisins, 2 g of coarse salt (optional).
Elaboration. Preheat the oven to 180ºC and prepare two trays. Place the tempered butter in a medium bowl, add the sugar and beat with a mixer for two minutes. Add the vanilla, cinnamon and salt and beat some more. Add the egg and beat until it is incorporated. Then add the flour with the yeast and beat at low speed to integrate them. Add the oats, beat lightly and add the raisins. Finish mixing everything with a spatula or tongue until you have a homogeneous dough. Take portions with the help of a couple of teaspoons and place them on the trays, giving them a more or less rounded shape and leaving a couple of centimeters separation. Add some extra raisins and coarse salt flakes on top, if desired. Bake one tray at a time for about 11-13 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
You can give more variety to your recipe book with many more recipes that have oat flakes as a base; there are tender ones of applesauce and oats, of spelt and oats with almonds and chocolate chips, in a vegan version of oats and coconut, shortbread style with oat flakes or less sweet ones, with the Italian whole grain oats.
4. Gingerbread Cookies
The term "gingerbread cookies" has become popular, although it is a somewhat vague term. Ginger alone is a spice that can flavor hundreds of different cookies and candies, although it is often associated with Christmas. It is essential in the typical Christmas men or gingerbread men, whose dough is the famous gingerbread, which actually carries many more aromas.
In any case, I think that some real gingerbread cookies need to give the greatest prominence to this particular -and rich- spice, combined if possible with molasses or honey. This recipe is a delight that fills the house with an irresistible and homely aroma, and already heralds colder days when baking is a comforting pleasure.
Ingredients. 225 g of pastry flour, 100 g of sugar, 2 teaspoons of chemical yeast, 2 teaspoons of baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 100 g of unsalted butter, 100 g of liquid honey, extra sugar for coating (optional).
Elaboration. Preheat the oven to 180ºC and prepare a couple of trays. Arrange the flour in a wide container and mix with the sugar, the yeast, the bicarbonate, the salt, the ginger and the cinnamon. Add the butter cut in small cubes and work the dough by crushing it with a fork or with your hands, squeezing well. Add the honey and mix everything. Take small portions of dough, the size of a walnut, and form small balls with your hands. Dip each one in sugar and place them on the trays, about 4-5 cm apart. Crush them gently with a moistened fork and bake them for 10 minutes. Wait a couple of minutes outside the oven and cool on a rack.
To avoid leaving the gingerbread jar in a drawer, we suggest other recipes for cookies flavored with this spice. The chocolate and ginger ones are delicious, as are the crunchy spice and honey cookies or the oat, orange and ginger version. And if you are looking for the dough to make Christmas figures, the recipe on the box of cookies will help you make the shape you like best.
5. Cookies
It's funny that the fifth most popular cookie on the Internet is simply the cookie recipe. We already know that it is the generic English word for cookies, although it is true that the Anglo-Saxon world has more terms to refer to these sweets.
We therefore understand that a cookie is the cookie that we relate to American culture, round, crunchy and sweet, with a slightly more tender interior, made with butter and almost always with chocolate. They usually have huge sizes but we can make the cookie recipe of three chocolates to our taste, always watching the cooking times.
Ingredients. 130 g of butter at room temperature, 90 g of sugar, 120 g of brown sugar, 1 M egg, 190 g of flour, 50 g of dark chocolate seeds, 50 g of milk chocolate seeds, ½ teaspoon of bicarbonate, ½ teaspoon of chemical yeast, a pinch of salt.
Elaboration. Preheat the oven to 180º with heat up and down and line two baking trays with baking paper. In a bowl, mix the soft butter with the two types of sugar, and beat lightly with a spatula until they are integrated. Incorporate the beaten egg and add the sifted flour, together with the salt, bicarbonate and chemical yeast. Mix just enough until you see a soft dough. Add the three types of chocolates, stir again and make balls of the same size separated by about 5 cm. Bake for 14 minutes. Once they are golden brown, remove them from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack.