Butterscotch Blondies

When I was a little girl, my mom would occasionally make Butterscotch Brownies (Blondies) out of her old red and white Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.  (This is the original recipe.) They were magnificent. This recipe differs slightly in that it has more flour so they are more like chewy cookies instead of candy. Mom’s Butterscotch Blondies would get hard and chewy, so they were best eaten warm.  If I close my eyes, I can […]

Continue Reading

Oat and Irish Butter Shortbread Cookies Recipe for St. Patrick’s Day

These tasty, melt-in-your-mouth butter shortbread cookies are based on my grandmother’s shortbread cookies recipe. I’ve used grass-fed butter from Ireland and oat flour to give these cookies a little Irish flair. My daughter came home from school yesterday asking me if leprechauns were real and “what do snakes have to do with St. Patrick’s Day anyway?”  I smiled.  I remember how fun it was to look for four-leaf clovers and wonder about tiny men in […]

Continue Reading

Gluten-Free Vegan Linzer Cookies

Gluten-Free Vegan Linzer Cookies | CafeJohnsonia.com #glutenfree #vegan

Linzer cookies are a holiday favorite. These Gluten-Free Vegan Linzer Cookies are as good as the original. Fill them with your favorite jam or chocolate hazelnut spread. I had so much fun making these Gluten-Free Vegan Linzer Cookies! Three years ago when I was baking with the Tuesdays With Dorie group, I made Dorie’s lovely Linzer Sable Cookies from Baking: From My Home To Yours. They quickly became a family favorite. Since then, my eldest […]

Continue Reading

Pfeffernusse Cookies

Classic Pfeffernusse Cookies | CafeJohnsonia.com

Pfeffernusse cookies are a family favorite recipe lightly adapted from my very favorite cookbook, Joy of Cooking. The pfeffernusse are lightly sweet, spicy, chewy, and utterly delicious. Christmas cookies are wonderful, aren’t they? Baking favorite recipes together is one of my very favorite parts of the holidays. My husband is the first one who introduced me to pfeffernusse. I’m sure I’d seen them or even tasted them before, but he’s the one who insisted we […]

Continue Reading

Vegan, Gluten-Free Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

My favorite Christmas cookies are Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies from Martha Stewart.  I played around to make them gluten-free and vegan.  Some of you, I’m sure, don’t think it’s possible to make delicious vegan, GF cookies.  These are the cookies that will shatter that.  I’ll admit I haven’t adapted some recipes successfully.  But this one I have.  And what a miracle. :) A tip I’ve learned while experimenting is that most GF cookies I’ve adapted […]

Continue Reading

Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

  C is for coconut, chocolate chip, and cookies. While we’re talking letters, V is for vegan and GF is for gluten-free. All of which describe these tasty, tasty gluten-free vegan chocolate chip cookies. The name is a mouthful, just like the cookies.  As I’ve dabbled in creating vegan and gluten-free recipes, it’s hard to not experiment with cookie recipes. Who doesn’t like cookies? No one. Absolutely no one. In fact, people who are vegan […]

Continue Reading

Gluten-Free Lemon Almond Cornmeal Cookies

These cookies aren’t cheap to make.  I have to throw that out there before I tell you anything else.  Why?  Because of the almond paste.  The gloriousness and expensiveness that is almond paste. No one besides real chefs have as much almond paste in the cupboard as I do.  I cleaned out the store shelves one day a few months ago because of some miscalculations I did in my head while standing in front of […]

Continue Reading

Peanut Butter Brownies with Milk Chocolate Ganache

It must be said, my kids would not eat these.  I know, right?  Chocolate and peanut butter.  They wouldn’t eat them?  Are they crazy?  I’m blaming it on the post-holiday sweet overload.  My husband and I greatly enjoyed this yummy little bars.   (This is pre-detox, of course.) I cut them into bars and put them between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container in the fridge.  I thought it would help me forget […]

Continue Reading

Eggnog Creme Cookie Sandwiches with Eggnog Buttercream

This time of year brings memories of my Grandma Maxie and her Christmas cookies.  She was a fabulous cook and baker.  I still remember her hands, speckled with age spots and knuckles swollen with the beginnings of arthritis, spooning out dough onto a baking sheet. My grandmother and my mother would make spritz cookies when I was a little girl. They were darling little cookies. I remember their tender, melt-in-your mouth butteriness. Sometimes there were […]

Continue Reading

Malted Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Malt. Let’s talk about malt. I love it. It’s so….malty. And it’s one thing that was definitely meant to be paired with milk chocolate. (Another point goes to malt!) There’s something comforting about the slightly sweet flavor of malt. When paired with whole wheat in these cookies, it’s even better. My husband said these cookies reminded him of soft graham crackers. Not too shabby. We love graham crackers, too. The cookies are made entirely with […]

Continue Reading