Peanut Butter Cookies

A couple years ago I posted some flourless peanut butter and chocolate/M&M cookies, and they've been at the top of my cookie baking rotation since then. I love how few ingredients the batter has, and they come out well every time. A couple months ago I started making another very similar peanut butter cookie from the same site, which has a ton of great peanut butter cookie recipes. I don't know if one is necessarily better than the other but it's definitely another good one! I don't normally make these ones with chocolate chips, but they're always an option.

Peanut Butter Cookies
From Averie Cooks

Note: Remember to allow for 2+ hours of chill time before baking.

1 large egg

1 cup creamy classic-style peanut butter or honey-roasted peanut butter 

3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Optional: chocolate chunks

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients until smooth. Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours or up to a couple days.  When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350. Use a tablespoon measuring spoon to make balls and arrange them on a baking sheet covered with a silicon baking mat, parchment paper or foil. If you want, place some chocolate chips or chunks on top. Bake for 8 minutes. They'll still be soft and should sit for at least 10 minutes.

Lavender Peaches with Mascarpone and Amaretti

Peaches with Lavender Sugar and Amaretti Cookies

It's peach season! I've been making these for years but originally I saw the recipe while watching Giada on the Food Network. This recipe includes gram measurements for the cookies. Love and Olive Oil has a recipe that uses cup measurements. I was just really excited to use my scale.

I also made powdered sugar for this recipe in my Vitamix. It was pretty exciting! (I inhaled a lot of sugar granules in the process)

Amaretti Cookies 

• 3 large egg whites 
• 280g/9.9oz almond meal
• 280g/9.9oz white sugar
• 3/4 tsp natural almond extract (the artificial kind is too strong)
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 
  
• For rolling:
• 2 heaped tbsp. white sugar
• 2 heaped tbsp. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Fill 2 separate bowls with the different sugars.

In a large mixing bowl and using a mixer, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. If you lift your beaters out of the egg mixture, the peaks that form should not fall over.

Fold in the rest of the ingredients with a spatula. The dough will be sticky.

Scoop tablespoonfuls of dough and roll them in the white sugar first followed by the powdered sugar. The method helps all the powdered sugar not dissolve in the dough. It actually worked! 

Place cookies 1 inch apart on cookie sheets. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Let cool on cookie sheets.

The site said they're good for 3-4 days, so I froze about half of mine for later.

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I usually serve 1 peach/person, so I'll just do a general guideline.

Ingredients:

Firm, ripe peaches

White wine

Mascarpone cheese, at room temperature 

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp dried lavender buds 

Blend the lavender with the sugar or grind in a mortar and pestle. Halve the peaches neatly and take out the pit using a little knife. Sprinkle peach halves with the lavender sugar. 

Heat a cast iron pan on medium heat until pretty hot. Spray with coconut oil. Lay peaches cut side down for about 5 minutes without moving them. You want them to be a nice brown color on the edges. Alternatively grilling them would be amazing. Flip over the peaches with a spatula and cook for another 2 minutes. Add a splash of white wine and let cook down for another minute. Now you have a delicious syrup to serve with the peaches.

Serve the peaches with their natural syrup, a sprinkle of extra lavender sugar, a tablespoonful of mascarpone for each peach half, and one crumbled cookie for each peach half. Done. Easiest summer dessert.

Cornflake Marshmallow Cookies

I could write a post complaining about the winter, but instead I will brighten your day with this cookie. It is amazing. Like OMG good. For vday, we spent the day in NYC for the day eating and vintage shopping of course. I got this cookie and looking back I should have gotten the cereal milk ice cream. Next time! My homemade version is not as perfect as the one from the bakery, but it comes close especially since we get to eat it right out of the oven. For all you Pittsburghers, there's a Milk bar in Toronto! So like a 4.5 hour drive instead of 7 hours! There's also a Milk cookbook (which this recipe is from) if you want to never leave your house which I fully support. This past snow storm, we played in the snow. Rex could drag Kelly in a sled because the snow was so frozen. Now that is ridiculous. 

There's 2 separate parts- the cornflake crunch and the actual cookie dough. There will be extra cornflake crunch to snack on as you bake the cookies.

Momofuku Milk Bar Cornflake Cookies

Cornflake Crunch:

5 cups cornflakes

• 1/2 cup milk powder (I used nonfat- found in any grocery store, full fat can be found at Mexican or Asian food stores)
• 3 tablespoons sugar 
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt 
• 9 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Melt butter. Crush the cornflakes with your hands in a large freezer bag (or just in a bowl) to 1/4 of the cereal's original size. Toss the cornflakes with salt, sugar, and dry milk in a medium mixing bowl. Then add the butter and mix to incorporate. Spread an even layer on the parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes. The cornflakes should be lightly golden brown and smell amazing. You only need 3/4 of this recipe for the cookies!

Let cornflakes cool completely. While they're cooling, make the cookie dough. 

Chocolate Chip Almond Cookies

Seeing as how there is a blizzard outside, baking cookies is definitely necessary. These are nice and crunchy. It's safe to say they're actually healthy. They balance out the decadent hot chocolate I'm about to blog next! The recipe is from Bob's Red Mill's site. 

3 cups Almond Meal (I used Bob's Red Mill)

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Sea Salt

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 cup Coconut Oil

1/4 cup Maple Syrup

2 eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 cup Dark Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper (best invention ever) or silpat liner (which I gifted to myself). 

Mix dry ingredients in small mixing bowl with wire whisk.

Whisk together coconut oil and maple syrup in a medium sized mixing bowl. Then add the eggs and mix. Finally add the vanilla extract. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and whisk until incorporated. Add the chocolate chips. 

Place rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Press the cookie down with palm of your hand if you want them a little flatter. If not, they'll retain their shape. Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown. 

These are best eaten right away (like all cookies) but will still be good for 2 days.

Brown Butter Chai Spiced Snickerdoodles

At this point, I've made a couple batches of chai snickerdoodles that just didn't have enough chai spice in them. This recipe will change that! It has spices in the dough and also in the sugar coating. That makes all the difference. The recipe is from Will Cook for Friends from the great cookie exchange for bloggers. I vote we do this next year among ourselves through the mail. Also browned butter makes the cookie even better. I've made a gluten free version with gf all purpose flour mix that turned out well.

I've also been making my own chai concentrate lately! I'll be posting that soon. As you can tell, I love chai as much as I love pumpkin flavored baked goods.

When baking these you want to bake them just until they are barely set! The inside of the crackles will look bubbly and but not too gooey. Use the first tray of cookies to gauge how long you want to bake the rest of the cookies for. Remember they will continue to bake and set after taking them out of the oven. If you take these steps, your cookies will be chewy yet crispy and awesome.

By the way, happy New Year's Eve! We're on the turnpike towards Pittsburgh! I do not miss this drive but at least this year we're not all afflicted with food poisoning :)

1 cup + 4 tbsp unsalted butter 

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or gf mix

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. kosher salt 

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. ground cardamom

1/4 tsp. finely ground black pepper

1/4 tsp. cloves

1 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Saltine Toffee

Kate asked me to guest post on her blog Thriftburgher for a Christmas cookie series, and I posted Saltine Toffee, which is the easiest, best thing ever. If you've never had it before, make it immediately and report back. 

So go see the recipe on Thriftburgher and look around if you haven't checked her blog out before.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

I know that Christmas was a couple days ago but what is awesome is that there are actually 12 days of Christmas! This means more cookies and for our readers, more cookie recipes.  What really happened was that I ran out of time to blog before Christmas! Whoops.

I made these cookies for 3 different families who we spent Christmas with. I have to say this was the best Christmas so far. There were babies (human and fur babies) all around!

Also, don't skip the frosting. It really makes the cookies. What's cool is that the frosting is baked along with the cookies. I followed the recipe exactly and doubled it because the more cookies the merrier.

Recipe from The Floating Kitchen.

For the Cookie Dough:

2 dozen+ maraschino cherries

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 heaping tsp. kosher salt

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

For the Chocolate Frosting:

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/4 tsp. salt

1-2 tsp. reserved cherry juice

Gooey Butter Cookies

My sister's boyfriend's family makes a ton of cookies for Christmas. This year she got to take part in the tradition and brought back a tin of cookies. I ate pretty much all of them and these ones stood out to me the most. I knew just from the taste that cream cheese was in the recipe, but otherwise I had never had any cookie like it. After pestering my sister (and her bf) for days, we finally tracked down the recipe. It originated from Lottie + Doof. If you've ever had gooey butter cake before, you'll know what to expect but in cookie form. Nevertheless, these are amazing and should definitely be a staple from now on at my family's table!

Gooey Butter Cookies

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 pound cream cheese

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 vanilla bean, scraped 

3 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Confectioner’s sugar for rolling and dusting

First make sure everything is at room temperature. Stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.  In a large bowl, cream together the cream cheese, butter, and sugar with a wooden spoon. Then add the eggs, vanilla seeds, and extract until combined. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet. The dough will be pretty light. Then cover bowl tightly and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Since it's cold outside, I just set the dough on our picnic table for about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Fill a shallow bowl with about 1 cup powdered sugar. Form slightly heaping tablespoon size balls, roll between your hands, and roll in a bowl of powdered sugar. Place on prepared baking trays 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes and take out before any browning occurs. I let them bake until at least one of the cookies was very very lightly golden on the edges. 

Let cool on the baking sheets until the cookies reach room temperature. They will be very soft even when cooled. Store and serve cold since they are delicate. Another blog suggested adding an extra egg yolk for more stability in the dough. 

The site says the cookies will last for a week in the fridge. I stored them in a cake dome layered with extra powdered sugar.

Flourless PB&J Cookies

It's peanut butter and jelly, America's favorite combo, in cookie form! The coolest thing about these tasty little cookies is that some of them turned out like stained glass windows - the jelly sunk right through. 

Twilly, as a big fan of peanut butter, would definitely approve. The only jelly/jam/preserve I had on hand this time was plain old Concord grape jelly, but it would be fun to make a mixed batch with a variety of different centers. 

Twilly perching his front paws on a chair to gaze longingly into the backyard

Flourless Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies
Adapted from Joy the Baker

1 cup peanut butter (I used normal, creamy PB, so not all-natural or chunky but maybe you could use that?)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
jam/preserves/jelly

Pumpkin Roll Cookies

If I had to choose one word to describe Saigon, it would be chaos. From the nonexistent traffic laws to the endless crowds there is much chaos. I love it. On the plane ride here, I was feeling nervous since I had no idea what to expect from the country that my family comes from. Long term travel is nothing like a vacation and not something to take lightly. When we landed, we were welcomed by the abundant sunshine and the shouting hoards of people at the airport. I felt instantly at home. Unlike the Philippines, I was in a country  whose language I understood (at least, sort of).
We had a great welcome dinner with all the other volunteers and some of our co-workers who make up our group of friends here. There's nothing like bonding over being in a strange and foreign country to bring people together. We were thrown into a mix of Vietnamese and French speaking and I love it.
Anyways back to the chaos, which if you haven't guessed yet, is the theme of the post. I'll describe my first day working at the pharmacy so you all can get a good idea of what happens daily. So I walk in and the pharmacist (the sweetest lady!) starts telling me what my jobs will be (inventory, dispensing meds, writing up a list of what age groups of children should receive what meds, and a tobacco cessation presentation). Then after about 10 minutes of chatting, about 5 people rush in and start yelling. By the way, yelling is the normal here. I couldn't exactly understand what was happening and then all of the sudden everyone starts moving the shelves, etc. out of the pharmacy and everyone continues shouting. Things need to be discussed here (by yelling) before any work gets done. It actually reminds me of France a little bit. I slowly understood that they decided that during my first week working, they would be repainting the pharmacy. This meant that I would not really be working since the computers and drugs are...in the pharmacy. I did get to help with the heavy lifting and some packing away of files and medical supplies (my other useful skill). Instead of working the first week, I spent my time getting to know people that the pharmacist introduced me to like the people in the physical therapy rooms and the workers for Maison Chance. It was actually a lot of fun. I got to practice my Vietnamese and hear lots of people comment on how I don't actually look like a Vietnamese person. So that concludes our first week here! Pretty awesome all in all.
So pumpkin roll cookies. These are vegan and my contribution to the cookie exchange. They are from Oh Ladycakes and her pictures are much lovelier than mine. These are super soft and delicous!

Dough (makes 2 dozen cookies)

1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp almond milk
1/4 cup pumpkin puree

Filling
1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

For the dough, mix all the dry ingredients together in a small mixing bowl with a wire whisk. The in a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar, molasses, vanilla extract, pumpkin, and milk until thoroughly combined.
Line a flat surface with parchment paper and sprinkle with a little flour. Make sure to use as little flour as possible. I used too much and the cookies didn't roll as nicely as I would have liked. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a 10×18 rectangle. Brush with coconut oil then sprinkle with other filling ingredients. Roll dough tightly, starting at the long end, into a log. Wrap the log with plastic wrap and place on a plate. Put  in freezer for 15-25 minutes until firm.
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Get nonstick baking pans ready and line if desired. Using a sharp, serrated knife, cut the dough into 1/2″ segments and line on baking sheet. Bake for 9 minutes, let sit for 1 minute after taking out of the oven, and then transfer to a cooling rack. I skipped the glaze since the cookies were pretty sweet by themselves.

Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Cookie Bars

It's a 9x13 of delicious cookie!! Like a cookie cake but better than any cookie cake I've ever had. Granted, I wouldn't be surprised if every cookie cake I ever had was from Giant Eagle. 

The blog I got this recipe from calls it a Lunch Lady Bar, but I don't think my school had these - although I guess I might not know since I always packed my lunch. Maybe all the other kids were eating these every day.

Cookie Bar
Adapted from Taste and Tell

I added the peanut butter and marshmallows - it's good with them but I'm sure it's good without them, too.

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips (or mix of semi-sweet and white chips)
1 cup mini-marshmallows

Cookie Dough Truffles

This is basically just cookie dough without raw eggs, so you can gorge yourself without worrying about scary diseases! Perfect. When I was looking up stuff about this recipe, there was also talk about raw flour, but I am willing to ignore that because I don't care - cookie dough truffles!!!

I made little balls and covered one third with melted chocolate chips, one third with melted white chocolate chips and left one third uncovered, but you could easily just eat it with a spoon out of a bowl. The recipe I used is from a cookbook by the bloggers of Love and Olive Oil - I got the recipe as reposted on Bakerella.

COOKIE DOUGH TRUFFLES

Adapted from The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook, reposted on Bakerella

1/2 cup butter, 1 stick (room temp)

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

2 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup mini-chocolate chips (or normal sized)

sprinkles, optional

toothpicks or small popsicle sticks

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Our friends Kate and Mark got married this weeked! My contribution to the Pittsburgh cookie table was pumpkin snickerdoodles from A BItchin' Kitchen! They went perfectly with the Weyerbacher pumpkin beer that was served! The wedding was full of gorgeous DIY decorations and lots of great homemade food. (Kate made dozens of cottage cheese pierogies from scratch!). My only advice is to make these as soon as possible! Halloween is tomorrow : )

Cookie Dough:

3 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup cane sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 slightly heaping cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cinnamon Sugar mixture (makes extra):

1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Pumpkin Ginger Cookies

Cookies! Plan ahead so you can let the dough chill in the fridge for an hour or overnight.

PUMPKIN GINGER COOKIES

From Eating for England (adapted from Two Peas in Their Pod)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling the cookies

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 cup molasses

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

Chocolate Chip Vanilla Bean Cookies

My ideal chocolate chip cookie is thin, crispy, and deeply golden brown. This recipe incorporates an entire vanilla bean (the entire thing, not just the inside) which adds a delicous kick to a traditional cookie recipe. Currently I have a surplus of used vanilla bean pods from making my own vanilla extract. I figured I would use them rather than throw them away! I found the recipe on Epicurean Mom. I changed the baking directions so the cookies would be crispy, not chewy. So if you desire a chewy cookie, follow her directions.

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup cane sugar

1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 1/2 tbsp half and half
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 whole vanilla bean, sliced in half
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and set aside. Whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda in a small bowl.

In a food processor, process the 1/4 cup granulated sugar and vanilla bean until the bean is completely blended into the sugar. Stir the melted butter and sugars together.  Whisk in the egg, egg yolk, half and half, and vanilla extract. Stir in the flour mixture slowly. Then fold in the chocolate chips.

Refrigerate for about 1 hour. 

On ungreased cookie sheets, scoop out 1 heaping teaspoonful of dough about 2-3 inches apart. Bake for about 12 minutes, turning the cookie sheets halfway through the baking process. Bake until golden brown. Let sit on baking sheet for 1 minute, then transfer to cooling racks.
I served these cookies with some homemade brown sugar vanilla ice cream for a cookout at Nick's parents house. The rest of the cookies were saved for my cousins in Harrisburg.

Chocolate Coconut No-Bakes

No-bake cookies are so simple and delicious, but I always forget that they exist and haven't made them in years. I finally remembered how amazing they are, so I'm posting the recipe to remind everybody else! Today's actually not particularly hot, but no-bakes are, of course, especially good on summery days when you don't want to use the oven (so your house isn't too hot to stay inside and watch New Girl, read A Game of Thrones and hang with the dog).

I made the go-to, standard recipe, but there are a lot of options out there. Here are a few I was looking at: Healthy No-Bake Cookies from Two Peas & Their Pod, Coconut-Chocolate Patties from Martha, and No-Bake Chocolate Coconut Walnut Cookies from My San Franciscan Kitchen.

CHOCOLATE COCONUT NO-BAKES
From Food.com
2 cups sugar 
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cocoa
1 dash salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups oats*
1 cup coconut flakes

Optional add-ins: peanut butter, walnuts, almonds, peanuts, more chocolate, mini-marshmallows, dried fruit...

Rosemary "Punishments" (Butter Cookies)

There's butter and rosemary in these cookies!

Punitions 

Adapted from Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan

1 1/4 stick butter (5 oz)

heaping 1/2 cup sugar

1 egg, room temp

2 cups flour

1/3 cup rosemary, chopped

Salted Butter Break-ups

This is a nicely Frenchified and classy-looking version of a really easy Martha Stewart recipe for chocolate chip cookie break-up that I’ve been making since high school. This version comes from Dorie Greenspan, who suggests bringing the whole enormous cookie to the table for everybody to break off their own piece. This proves Dorie Greenspan is not only an amazing cookbook writer but also that she’s a much better host that I am because I like to save all the breaking fun for myself.

Since we’re still figuring out our kitchen storage situation, I couldn’t find any coarse salt even though we probably have some hidden away somewhere. It was still very tasty with table salt, but I’m sure it will be even better when I make it with coarser salt. 

Twilly is pretty busy these days finding his new sleep spots.

Linda, Brittany and I went to the East Liberty Farmer's Market this Monday and got some strawberries, which went soooo well with these buttery cookies. I would definitely recommend combining cookie and strawberry in the same bite. Also, I made some salad dressing with the Fresh Herb Cheese that I posted about a couple days ago by adding in some extra olive oil and vinegar, and that also goes very well with strawberries. 

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"Salted Butter Break-ups"

Straight from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3/4-1 teaspoon sel gris or kosher salt
• 9 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 18 pieces
• 3-5 tablespoons cold water
• 1 egg yolk, for the glaze

Some cookie (y)inspiration

Sister Rose Marie Tumicki, picture by Bob Batz Jr., Pgh Post-Gazette

This post is a little different. I actually didn't make anything... yet.

But just thought everyone should see this recipe list of cookies and sweets that some Sisters make at a Pittsburgh school. Can't get any more Pittsburgh than that. Recipe list here! The list includes ginger cookies, apricot empanadas and coconut macaroons. Yum!

And here's an article the Post-Gazette did about these ladies and their awesome cookies, here!

Oh yeah, one more rule. If anyone makes cookies on this list, you have to save some for me to try. :)

Pudding Batter Cookies

These cookies ROCKED.  They are very simple, nothing fancy about them, but this is what I thought made them so great.  They are the perfect base cookie and I definitely plan on trying to do more with them soon.  They are soft and fluffy and buttery, which means I ate 20 of them in one sitting. Mmmmmm

What you'll need: 

• 1-1/2 sticks butter 
• 3/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 package instant vanilla pudding mix (3.4 oz)
• 3/4 dry yellow cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2-1/4 cups flour 
• 1/2 tsp salt 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Stir together flour, salt, and baking soda.  Separately cream butter and sugar.  Add the pudding/cake mix, eggs, and vanilla to the butter mixture. Slowly add the flour mixture.  Roll into 1" balls and place on a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.  

Adapted from Chef in Training