Cooks and Cookies

My family is filled with cooks. It starts with our grandmother, she is a wonderful cook, my mother is an excellent cook, my aunts are great cooks, my cousin's a chef, I think even my uncle is a good cook. I have one sister who doesn't really like to cook, but I'm sure that if she wanted to cook, she'd be great. So you see, we come from cooks and we are cooks which is why it doesn't surprise me that my nieces love to cook. They like to bake most of all, but what kid doesn't love to make cookies right? I'm sure when they are all grown up they are going to be marvelous cooks!

I mentioned I had five nieces right, yep FIVE girls and they all want to bake cookies every single day of course! Just the other day, my third niece decided to alter the recipe for Grandma's Cornstarch Cookies and add chocolate chips, just like that, let's add chocolate chips. Well, they turned out great! Then I decided to roll some around in coconut before baking, just to mix things up some more and those turned out really good as well.  So I guess anything can happen to recipes with a family filled with cooks!

If you would like to try these new cookies we came up with, follow the recipe for Gradmas's Cornstarch Cookies omit the guava jam and add chocolate chips accordingly. I made 1/4 of the recipe and added 3/4 cup of chocolate chips and then rolled them around in coconut. But I like lot's of chips in my cookies, if you want less chips cut down to 1/2 cup and so on. If you don't like coconut just take it out. Remember to flatten the cookies some with your fingers so they spread out rather than puff up.

Enjoy!

Grandma's Cornstarch Cookies

These cookies are very common in Costa Rica and a family favorite.

This recipe comes from my grandmother and it's truly what I would call a comfort cookie. It's crumbly and buttery and it just disappears as soon as you put it in your mouth. The dough is a breeze to work with and it's so simple to make you won't believe it!

Traditionally these are made with guava fruit jam but you can use any kind of jam you like, they will taste just as great!

The recipe I have makes a ridiculous amount of cookies. I'm posting the full recipe but I usually make only 1/4, at the most 1/2 of the recipe because of the massive quantities of cookies that come out. Although, I'm pretty sure I could eat them all in one sitting!

Ingredients:

2 cups cornstarch
2 cups confectioner's sugar (sifted)
4 cups flour
6 sticks of butter at room temperature (that's right SIX!!!)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions:

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.

Line cookie sheets with non stick mats or use a cooking spray.

Using a standing mixer with a paddle attachment cream the butter and vanilla until it is very light in color, approximately 10 minutes.

Add the dry ingredients and then mix on low until a uniform dough forms.

How easy is that??!!!

To form the cookies, you can make balls or use a pastry bag and drop the dough in about 1/2 inch circles.I like the pastry bag personally.You can use another pastry bag for the jam or a with a spoon add a small drop in the middle.

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes until the bottoms are slightly brown.

Make sure to leave enough space between these cookies as they expand in the oven!

Like so

When the cookies come out of the oven they will look like this

See how they grew? Doesn't seem like much, but they do grow quite a bit.

 

That jam center is great and makes all the difference!

 

Enjoy!!