Cookies and Muffins (Oh My!) Weekly Snack Society!

So in my office, we have this great thing called Weekly Snack Society. We are ruled by a benevolent dictator (The Director) who sets up a calendar givining all members of the society the responsibility of bringing snacks to work on a given Wednesday. When it’s your turn, you better show up with snacks, and they better be tasty.

Well this week was my turn. And since people at work have expectations since they’re often the recipients of my baking excess, I had to make sure my snack was extra special and extra tasty.

If I had to pick a theme for my snacks this time around, it would have to be brown sugar. Yum-hum BROWN SUGAR! Why you ask? Because the two recipes I made were both fantastic variations on pretty standard recipes, made into something a little bit better with the inclusion of more brown sugar than you would normally think to add to the recipes. But the extra brown sugar gives you a wonderful, complex caramely sweetness that you simply can’t get with white sugar alone.

The first item I took is something I make so often–mainly because they are ALWAYS so well received everywhere they go–that they’ve practically made me famous. Yes, people are always asking me to bring MY chocolate chip cookies, but really I can’t take credit for them, since they’re really the recipe out the awesome Baked cookbook. With a couple of minor tweaks, this recipe has become my go-to and makes simply the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had anywhere.

The second item was a variation on one of my favorite summer treats, zucchini muffins. I love this recipe, but I think I made it last summer when I had snack society about this time, so I wanted to try something new. And I didn’t have to look far to find the great recipe for Zucchini Spice Cupcakes from Martha Stewart cupcakes, via the Food Librarian and Erin’s Food Files.

So without further ado–here are the recipes, followed by the results:

Baked Chocolated Chip Cookies

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• I cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 bag semi sweet chips

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugars until they are light and fluffy. Add each egg seperately, scraping down the sides after each addition. Mixture should still be light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and mix for 5 seconds. Add half of the flour mixture and beat for 15 seconds, then add the rest and beat until just combined. Add chocolate chips and mix until they are incorporated.

Remove cold dough, and place rounded spoonfulls (I use a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop) on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Place into oven preheated to 375 degrees and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet and let cool on racks. Store in airtight container for up to three days.

Beautiful, aren’t they? And they’re perfect–crispy on the outside and chewy in the center.

Martha Stewart’s Zucchini Spice Cupcakes
Yields: 24 cupcakes (I got 30)

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 3 cups packed grated zucchini

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. In another bowl, whisk together oil, eggs, and vanilla until well blended; whisk in brown sugar until smooth. Stir in zucchini, then add flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

To finish, use an offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting. Refrigerate up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temperature before serving.

Instead of using Martha’s cream cheese icing recipe–it just seemed like too much, plus I didn’t want to kill anyone before 10AM–I just glazed my cupcakes with a simple glaze like the Food Librarian did. The glaze was 1 cup powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and warm water until the icing was runny enough to spoon over the cupcakes.

Again, the results were beautiful, and these were all gone by 10AM, without heart attacks!

All in all, a very succesfull snack society, if I do say so myself. There were absolutely no leftovers, lots of compliments, and many happy coworkers.

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