Roundup of Christmas Cookie Recipes

I have been a buys little baker lately. I have a few favorites recipes that I make every year around the holidays, but I try to add in a few news one here and there to see if they could become favorites. Every year I make shortbread cookies from an old family recipe, and oatmeal craisin cookies from a Southern Living at Home book that I have. Last year I added Candy Cane Kiss sugar cookies (pictured above) from Recipe Girl to my annual baking.

This year I decided to try these:

Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Peppermint Frosting. I used the whoopie pie recipe posted on bakerella.com, but I bought Betty Crocker Peoppermint Frosting to pipe between the cookies. I used a Silpat liner instead of parchment paper and it worked like a dream!  I haven't tried these yet, but I rolled the edges in red and green sprinkles so they look very festive!

Butter Toffee Cookies from recipegirl.com. Instead of sprinkling bright white sugar on top, I dipped half the cookie in milk chocolate. They look fancy!

Peanut Brittle from recipegirl.com. This was my first attempt at peanut brittle. I bought a new candy thermometer, just for this recipe. It turned out awesome!

Peanut Butter Blossoms from allrecipes.com. These are fantastic! The recipe made about 7 dozen cookies too!

Holiday Baking Spread 2011

(ETA: I also made chewy coconut cookies and eggnog pound cake. Both were awesome!)

For breakfast I'm going to make these to go with our traditional cinnamon rolls:

 Blueberry Danish Puff from Chef in Training

The Puff I made at Thanksgiving

and Mini Maple Pancake Muffins from Bakerella.

These are so great when you have a crowd for breakfast!

I'm looking forward to eating all of these yummy treats, but I'm not looking forward to the diet I'm going to be on in January!

Merry Christmas!!! 

Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies

Last fall I bought a Taste of Home magazine in the grocery store checkout isle. It was a Fall Baking Cookbook with 200 "Oven Fresh Treats" inside. I initially thought that I would try several of the recipes, because they all looked so scrumptious! The problem was that after I made this recipe, I didn't need to make anything else! Every time I made these oatmeal cream pies, they disappeared with requests for more! I've now made them several times, and I now have my own version, which is only slightly different from the original.  The way I make them, you can get almost 40 sandwich cookies from each batch, but don't try to make a double batch unless you have a HUGE mixer. This recipe has a lot of batter!

Oatmeal Cream Pies

Adapted from Taste of Home

Cookie:

1 1/2 C.   Shortening

1 1/3 C.   Dark Brown Sugar

1 1/3 C.   Light Brown Sugar

         4     Eggs

 1 Tbsp.   Vanilla Extract  ( I use the good stuff, not imitation)

2 1/4 C.   All Purpose Flour

    2 tsp.   Ground Cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda

     1 tsp.  Salt

  1/2 tsp.  Ground Nutmeg

        4C.  Old-fashioned Oats 

Filling:

   3/4 C.  Shortening

      3 C.  Confectioner's Sugar

    1 Jar   (7 oz.) Marshmallow creme

1-2 Tbsp. Milk

Directions: Cream the shortening and sugars together in your mixer bowl until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping the bowl with a spatula between each one. 

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg and stir with a whisk. Add these dry ingredients to the wet ingredients already in your mixer bowl and mix slowly. Stir in the oats by hand. 

Using a small cookie scoop (for similar shape and sized cookies) drop the cookies onto a non-stick cookie sheet (or a lightly greased cookie sheet) and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the tray for a few minutes before removing them to wire racks to cool completely. 

Once the cookies are cooled completely, put the filling mixture into a piping bag (or ziploc bag with the corner snipped off) and pipe a swirl on half of the cookies like this: 

 Don't get too close to the edges because, if you do, the cream will spill out when you put the top on!

When you are done you should have about 38-39  Oatmeal Cream Pies to devour ravenously enjoy! I promise, you will never want another Little Debbie oatmeal cream pie again!

Chocolate Chip Irish Creme Cupcakes with Bailey's Buttercream Frosting

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

If you have Irish heritage, I'm sure you've been looking forward to this day for a while. It's a great day to eat stew or corn beef and cabbage, and drink lots of beer! Since we aren't as young as we once were and can't drink ourselves silly anymore  we don't have a lot of Irish heritage, we don't really make a big deal of St. Patrick's Day. I did want to do something though, so I decided to bake something...shocking, I know! I found this post from Recipe Girl (one of my favorite go-to blogs) for Irish Creme Cupcakes with Bailey's Buttercream frosting. How could I say no to that? We LOVE Bailey's around here, only we tend to only drink it around Christmas time for some reason.

So first I had to go the ABC store, because we didn't have any Bailey's on hand. I decided to buy some Creme de Menthe as well to maybe put on top of the frosting (which didn't turn out so well). The only other thing I needed was mini-chocolate chips, which was easily remedied with a quick trip to Walmart. Let the baking begin!

Fresh out of the the oven

The cupcakes baked up nice and moist. I think that this was the first time I've made cupcakes with cream cheese in the batter, and I loved it! :)   The frosting is basically a simple buttercream with 4 Tbsp. of Bailey's in it. Did I mention these aren't for children? The Bailey's flavor is definitely stronger in the frosting, but it is oh so yummy!  I sprinkled the frosting with green sugar and then made these cupcake toppers from TomKat Studios and voila! The perfect adult cupcake for St. Patrick's Day!

Brownie Bites from Scratch

I have been craving chocolate something fierce lately. Since I worked out 4 out of 5 days this week, I decided to indulge myself tonight. Besides, I was tapping into my inner Betty Crocker already today.

I've used this recipe a few times now and just love it. It's a recipe from Betty Feezor who used to be on TV. Because I always have the ingredients on hand, I never buy brownie mixes anymore!

Scratch Brownies from Betty Feezor via Cyndi Allison

• 1 cup butter or margarine (melted)
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla flavoring
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup cocoa
• 2 cups plain flour
• optional - nuts, raisins, chocolate chunks, caramel pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream margarine and sugar. This works well with a mixer, but you can do it by hand.
3. After the creaming stage, do switch to a spoon for mixing. Brownies tend to get tough if worked too much.
4. Add the vanilla and eggs and mix just until smooth.
5. Pour in cocoa and flour. Again, mix until smooth and lumps are broken up. But, don't go to wild on the mixing.
6. If you want to add extras, just fold those in easily.
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes in 2 pans size 8 inches by 8 inches. You can use a larger pan like the 9 x 9 and cook for a little longer-25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees F. If you use a single pan, then the Scratch Brownies are thicker.

I have made this recipe in an 8x8 pan and they turned out fantastic. Tonight I split the batter into two bowls and added white chocolate chips to one, and Andes mint chunks to the other. Then I scooped the batter into greased mini-cupcake pans and baked them for about 14-15 minutes. The result was delicious, homemade brownie bites, perfect for indulging my chocolate craving! 

Top 10 Projects from Online Tutorials

In the last few years I have really gotten into sewing, baking and blogging. I owe almost everything that I know about these subjects to my fellow bloggers! I have used so many tutorials, ideas and recipes from free online sources that I thought it would be fitting to share some of them, and give the original bloggers some credit!

Tinkerbell Crayon Roll

1. Crayon Rolls from Skip To My Lou: I got the basic measurements and techniques from her tutorial, and have made several of my own version for friends, family and neighbors. They make great gifts, and come in very handy at restaurants and when travelling!

2. Zippered Pencil Pouch from Annie Get Your Gun: I used this tutorial to make a pencil pouch for my middle child. Never did get around to making one for my oldest!

3. Fabric Covered Art Journal, From Little Big Girl Studio: I forgot the extra elastic to hold it together, which was a huge mistake, but it's still functional. I also can't find the right size paper for the inside, but that's a whole different story!

4. Blueberry Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting from Naturally Ella: I friggin' LOVE these cupcakes. I use the vanilla cupcake recipe as my go-to cupcake. It makes 12 cupcakes which is perfect. Most recipes make 20 or more. This was my first attempt at filling cupcakes and it was so easy after following the tutorial.

5. Basic Tote Bag from Colorfool Creates: I have made a bunch of these, with all different types of fabric. I can't seem to find a picture of one of mine though!

6. Fabric basket from Pink Penguin: I love this tutorial. It is easily adjusted for different sizes, and you can make them with any combination of fabrics. I have one on my kitchen counter that holds my earrings and other things I leave laying around!

7. Fabric Wallet from Confessions of a Fabricoholic. I made this wallet on a whim, and I absolutely love it! I was so excited when I figured out the zippered pocket! I use this wallet everyday!

8. Fabric Key Chains from The Idea Room. I've made a few of these, but I haven't mastered the last step quite yet. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong!

9. Shallow Basket from Coats and Clark. I made several of these, but my favorite is the one I made with Christmas fabric that hold cocktail napkins!

10. Mini Maple Pancake Muffins from Bakerella: Bakerella is known best for her cake pops, but the one time I tried to make them I failed miserably. I had a lot more success with these!!!

Thank you to my fellow bloggers for all their hard work in putting together these posts! I have a few tutorials in the works, but haven't found the time to properly put them together yet! 

New Christmas Cookies

My husband took our older boys to the elementary school tonight for the holiday fun night that they go to every year. So that meant I was home alone with the little one (who would not have enjoyed the crowd at the school), who happily played with his brothers' Beyblades and watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while I baked.

First I made the Toll House Recipe for chocolate cookies. Instead of the white chocolate chips that the recipe called for, I added Andes candy bits. I'd been having a wicked craving for mint and chocolate! The cookies came out fantastic and I was inspired. 

Next up: Candy Cane Kiss Cookies from Recipe Girl. I followed the recipe and her directions (almost) exactly. Instead of cutting up a bunch of Hershey Kisses to put in the batter, I used Andes peppermint crunch bits. I omitted the peppermint extract, and I was very happy that I did. The flavor from the Andes candies and the kisses were plenty! To be perfectly honest, the cookies are so good all by themselves, I'll be making them again just as sugar cookies!  

When it came time to put the kisses on the cookies, I made my first mistake. I had them all open ahead of time, but I took my time putting them on. Then I put them in the refrigerator instead of the highly recommended freezer. Huge mistake! My kisses ended up looking like this on the first dozen: 

So for the next tray, I put the Kisses on a little faster and put the entire cookie sheet directly in the freezer. What a huge difference it made! This time, they looked like this: 

Of course, because sometimes I just can't help myself, I had to try one more change. I didn't like how small the diameter of the cookies were in comparison to the Kisses. So after rolling them into balls and coating them in sugar, I flattened them with the bottom of a glass. This made much bigger cookies (with the same amount of dough), but they didn't look nearly as charming. I actually really like the cracks that are created when you squish the cookie with Kisses.

Festive cookies on a festive plate!

The recipe states that this recipe makes 2.5 dozen. I managed to make 39 cookies, and since I didn't chop up the Kisses for the dough, I had a few Kisses left over for my little munchkin to eat!

So all in all, these cookies were a huge success. They taste amazing, and they go quite nicely with my new Christmas platter! :) This recipe will be definitely be added to my repertoire!

The Cupcake that Crashed My Diet

Evil Cupcakes

This is it. It's the cupcake that made me cheat on my diet. I was already working on a 2 layer vanilla butter cake for my son's 9th birthday when he told me he wanted chocolate cake. Great! So I compromised and made a small batch of cupcakes. I made 9 regular sized ones, and 12 mini cupcakes. I used left over frosting from the Halloween cupcakes I made for my youngest son's class, and the result was what you see above. It must have been the sugar in my system (from licking my fingers while making the frosting for the cake) that made me do. Or it was just my vain attempt to prove to myself that I am a baking Goddess...but I had to make sure they tasted as good as they smelled. After all, I'd never made chocolate cupcakes before. So I did it. I ate a mini chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting. It was amazing, and I don't even really like chocolate cake!

The problem is that it didn't stop there. I had a few Doritos, and some corn souffle, and some baked beans- all with sugar/starch in them! Then I made the ultimate cheat....I ate some cake and ice cream.  I couldn't help myself! I knew the cake was delicious and I couldn't stand watching everyone eat it while they told me how good it was! And boy were they right...it was friggin' fantastic! I did only have a small piece, and a very small scoop of ice cream, but then I had a sugar cookie too! Damn sugar! It hypnotized me!

The birthday cake I couldn't resist

So this morning I woke up expecting the scale to hate me, and it wasn't so bad! I had managed to eat pretty good the rest of the day yesterday, so I guess it balanced out a bit. But then this morning I was giving my neighbor a plate of left over sweets and I ate a bite (just a bite this time) of cake- and then a sugar cookie. I'm so ashamed! I made it through the entire Halloween season without cheating, and I couldn't make it through one measly birthday party. I think if I hadn't baked the sweets, so I didn't know how good they were, I might have been able to resist. Maybe not. 

Anyway, tomorrow is my official weigh in for the week so for the rest of the day I will be a dieting angel!  I am going to do some Tae-Bo which is sure to burn some calories, and I hope to walk with my walking buddy tonight. I just need to stay strong and stay away from the sweets in the kitchen!

I can do this! Right?

My First Homemade Cake

I grew up with a Mom who made all (or most) of my birthday cakes and Halloween costumes. Unfortunately, I didn't appreciate it much then, but as I get older, I realize that she may have been on to something! I've been a sewing fool lately, and I'm really hoping that while my Mom is hear for the boys' party next weekend, she will show me how to do a few things that I haven't tried yet, like putting in zippers, and making clothes! She made all of her own clothes throughout high school, so she is a good resource for me!

Anyway, the point of this post is about the cake. I made my first ever, made from scratch yellow cake with homemade buttercream frosting. It is my intention to make both of the cakes for next week's party, and since today is my middle son's actual birthday, I thought it would be a good time to practice my technique. It's a good thing I did, because it didn't go quite as planned! Here's a picture of the cake baking in the oven:


Notice how it's overflowing onto the cookie sheet below it! I had to cut the top off when it was done and then part of the middle sank as it cooled.



Here is the finished product. I'm actually pretty proud of it!



Hopefully it will taste as good as it looks!

Edited to add: This cake was good, but I have come a long way since then! I have taken up baking as a hobby!