Celebrate National Cookie Month with recipes from DINE

October is National Cookie Month.  It’s a month-long celebration of the sweetest treats, enjoying cookies and sharing them with friends and family. It’s also a reminder that the best cookies you’ll find are served every day at Distinctive Inns of New England.  Enjoy a romantic getaway to any of the eleven DINE inns and cookies are bound to be a part of your culinary adventure.  Whether served at tea time, during afternoon refreshments or in bottomless cookie jars, you’ll find cookies worth remembering at our inns.  National Cookie Month is also a time to celebrate that there’s nothing cookie-cutter about the eleven distictive member DINE inns.  Each offers a different sophisticated decor and culinary experience culiminating in the sweetest of memories and a New England getaway filled with sugar plums dancing in your head!
 
In honor of National Cookie Month we offer a few recipes for some guest favorites from DINE inns. 

Chocolate Nutella Cookies from Cliffside Inn

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar (we’ve used light and they turn out fine).

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon hazelnut extract (or extra vanilla if you are out of hazelnut)

1/3 cup Nutella

1/3 cup milk

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325°.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth – approx. 2minutes. Add the extracts and beat for another 30 seconds or so. Add the Nutella and beat until smooth.

With the mixer running, add half of the flour mixture and mix until combined. Add the milk, mixing until combined completely, then add the remaining flour mixture and mix completely. Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least 15 minutes (and as long as 2-3 days).

When you are ready to bake the cookies, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll tablespoons of dough into balls and place them on the lined cookie sheet, allowing about 2″ between the dough balls.

Lightly press the dough balls with the bottom of a drinking glass (or fork) and then bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are crackly on top and soft, but starting to set. Remove from the oven and allow them to stand for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Consider adding a few chocolate chips if you are a true chocoholic.

Chocolate Chip Biscotti from  Gateways Inn & Restaurant

Ingredients:

8 tbls. (1 stick) of butter, softened

¾ cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

8 oz. (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips

 Instructions:

Using a paddle attachment of stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, then the vanilla. Sift together the dry ingredients and add to the wet, mixing thoroughly. the dough will be stiff.   Stir in the chocolate chips.

Divide the dough into thirds. for each third, drop the dough by spoonfuls onto a sheet of plastic film (saran wrap). Shape the dough into a log, about 2” x 10” x 1” high. Wrap the plastic neatly and tightly around log, closing first the long sides, then the ends.  Place in freezer for 10-15minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees f. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, or aluminum foil. Unwrap the logs and place onto the lined sheet.  Bake for 25 minutes, until logs become lightly browned.  Remove from oven.

Reduce the oven heat to 300 degrees f. Slide the paper or foil with the logs off baking sheet, and onto a cutting board. let cool for 5-10 minutes. Using a thin, sharp knife cut the logs, at an angle into slices about ¾” to 1” wide. Slide the paper & slices back onto baking sheet. Lay each cookie slice on its side. Return to oven. Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven. turn each cookie slice to the opposite side & bake again until golden for a final 10 minutes.

Next time you have a hankering for a cookie and just don’t have time or desire to make them, pull out your calendar and book your next delicious culinary vacation to one of the eleven Distinctive Inns of New England.