Cookies

CHEERY CHERRY MACAROON BARS

Prep Time: 15 min.
Start to Finish: 3 Hrs. 45 min.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine,
  melted
  
• 3-3/4 cups (10-oz. pkg.) MOUNDS
  Sweetened Coconut Flakes
  
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 egg whites
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 13 red or green Maraschino cherries,
  halved and drained
  

Instructions:
Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 8-inch or
9-inch square baking pan.
Stir together crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar and melted
butter. Press onto bottom of prepared pan.
Bake 5 minutes. Remove from oven; leave oven on.
Stir together coconut, remaining 3/4 cup sugar,
flour and salt. Add egg whites, egg and almond
extract. Spread mixture carefully over crumb
mixture. Press in cherry halves.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until lightly browned
around edges. Cool completely in pan on wire
rack. Cover; cut into bars. About 25 bars.

The Practically Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

This recipe was developed by Consumer Reports,
known for their high standards. Here are their

prefacing remarks:
We wanted a cookie with a chewy interior, crunchy
edges, and well-blended flavor. Above all, we
wanted a cookie with a high overall chocolate
impact to give a sensuous rush to the chocoholic.
After much experimentation and perhaps a few
cumulative inches to staffers' waistlines, we
created a cookie with all those assets. Our recipe
makes 40 medium-sized cookies.

• 2-1/4 cups flour
• 1 level teaspoon baking soda
• 1 level teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup each white and packed dark brown
  sugar
  
• 2 sticks (1/2 pound) sweet butter, room
  temperature
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 12-ounce package Nestle semisweet chocolate
  chips
  

Preheat oven to 375F.
Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and
set aside.
Use a stand-type electric mixer to mix the two
sugars briefly at low speed.
Add the butter in small gobbets, mixing first at
low speed and then at high. Beat the mixture until
it's pale, light, and very fluffy.
Add the vanilla at the mixer's lowest speed, then
beat at high speed for a few seconds.
Add the eggs, again at the lowest speed, switching
to high speed for the final second or so. The eggs
should be well beaten in, and the mix should look
creamed, not curdled.
Add the flour mixture, a half cup at a time,
mixing at low speed for about one minute, then
at high speed for a few seconds.
Scrape down the bowl's sides with a spatula, add
the chocolate chips, and mix at low speed for
about 10 seconds. If need be, scrape the bowl's
sides again and mix for a few more seconds.
Put tablespoons of the mix on an ungreased
cookie sheet.
Bake until the cookies are pale golden brown
(nine minutes in an electric oven, 10 to 11
minutes in a gas one).

Remove and let cool on a rack.

Makes about 40 medium cookies.