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December 25th, 2015

12/25/2015

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The 12 Days Of Christmas Cookies Day 12

12/23/2015

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*Shout out to Crazy for Crust*

Note:

The dough requires chilling, so be sure to plan for that.
Be sure to use instant pudding, not cook-n-serve. You just need one of the small boxes, which is about 3.4 ounces, depending on the brand.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 box (3.4 ounces) Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix (not sugar free)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup red and green sprinkles (or any colors)
3/4 cup Christmas M&Ms (or any color of M&M)

DIRECTIONS:

Note: This dough requires chilling.
Cream butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. (You can also use a hand mixer.) Mix in egg and vanilla until smooth. Add pudding mix, baking soda, and salt. Mix until combined. Mix in flour, then stir in sprinkles and M&Ms.
Scoop 2 tablespoon balls of cookie dough onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment or a silpat baking mat. There’s no need to space them out, you’re going to chill them. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpat baking mats. Place chilled cookie dough balls 2” apart on cookie sheet. Bake 9-11 minutes or until the edges just start to turn brown. Cool 5 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to a rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days or freeze for up to one month.

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The 12 Days Of Christmas Cookies Day 11

12/22/2015

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It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
It could be his head wasn’t screwed on just right.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

YIELD: 3 dozen cookies
PREP TIME: 20 minutes
COOK TIME: 8 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

1 box french vanilla cake mix (I used Duncan Hines 16.5 oz)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
green food coloring, 1 drop
Confectioners (powdered) sugar for dusting
Sprinkles or candies, large heart-shaped

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350° F.
In the bowl of your mixer cream together cake mix, food coloring, oil, and eggs.
Chill the dough for 10-15 minutes.
Drop by Tablespoon into confectioners sugar and roll into balls. **Please see NOTES**
Place on baking sheet and press 1 large heart candy/sprinkle.
Bake for 8 minutes until just set.
Let cool 2 minutes on pan before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

NOTES:

If your cookies are spreading too thin, you can put them back into the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes after step 4.
Some people have reported reducing the oil to 1/3 Cup. I have since tested the recipe 2 more times (once with 1/2 Cup oil, once with 1/3 Cup oil). Results were preferable using 1/2 Cup, but still fine with 1/3 Cup if that's what you would like to do.
My son's class had a Grinch party at school and we whipped up these cookies in no time. For a Grinchy treat that comes together even more quickly you can pop a bag of popcorn and drizzle it with green chocolate candy melts. Sprinkle it with with heart candy sprinkles and let cool completely before enjoying.

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The 12 Days Of Christmas Cookies Day 10

12/21/2015

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Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Total time: 30 mins

Ingredients

Makes: One 12x16 baking sheet

For the Base

1½ sticks butter (softened, not melted)
½ tsp salt
1¼ cup packed brown sugar
1½ cup flour
3 eggs
½ tsp baking powder
2 tblsp minced crystallized ginger or 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1½ tsp vanilla extract
¾ –1½ cups Craisins (dry cranberries)
4 oz. white chocolate chips

For decoration

½ cup Craisins (dry cranberries)
2 oz white chocolate chips

Frosting

4 oz cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar (put only 1½ - 2 cups if you do not like them very sweet)
4 tsp lemon juice (about 1 lemon)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F with the rack in the middle. Line a 12x16 inch baking sheet with foil or parchment paper. Set aside.

Make the Base:

Cream together brown sugar, salt & butter. Add eggs & vanilla extract, one egg at a time creaming the mixture in between. Add grated ginger, flour & baking powder and stir everything together. Add Craisins & white chocolate and fold them in. Using wet hands or wet spatula spread the batter evenly in a 12x16 inch baking pan. Bake for about 10 minutes until the middle is baked through. Do not overbake or the bars will be very dry. Allow to cool.

How to make the frosting:

Add the cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon juice & vanilla extract to a bowl of a mixer. Using a beater or a whip attachment beat/whip everything together until creamy, about 4-5 minutes.
Place the white chocolate in a cup and microwave for about 40-50 seconds in 7-8 increments stirring with a spoon in between, until it just starts to melt. Continue stirring until all chocolate is melted. Transfer it to a ziplock bag and twist the end around the chocolate. When ready to drizzle, snip the end with scissors.

Assemble:

Spread the frosting over the cooled down crust. Sprinkle the craisins on top. Drizzle melted white chocolate on top. Allow the bars to set until the top of the cream cheese frosting is not sticky to the touch, about 2 hours. This will make it easier to cut the bars
Trim the ends of the bars, for even edges. Cut the bars into squares, then cut the squares diagonally into triangles.

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Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice...

12/21/2015

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The 12 Days Of Christmas Cookies Day 9

12/20/2015

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Day 9 is an old school fav. And the longest name out of all 12 days. In my house we just call them thumbprint cookies.

Yield: 3 dozen

Ingredients

2 cups + 2 Tbsp (300g) all-purpose flour*
1/4 tsp salt
Coupons
1 cup unsalted butter, cold and diced into 1 Tbsp pieces
2/3 cup (140g) granulated sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup raspberry jam, seedless if preferred

Glaze (optional)

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp almond extract
2 - 4 tsp water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour and salt, set aside.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, blend together butter and sugar until combined (it will take a minute or two since the butter is cold. If you don't have a paddle attachment that constantly scrapes bowl, then occasionally stop mixer and scrape down sides and bottom of bowl). Mix in almond extract then add in flour blend until mixture comes together (it will take a bit of mixing since the butter is cold, so be patient, it will seem really dry at first).
Shape dough into 1-inch balls, about 1 Tbsp each, and place 2-inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Make a small indentation with thumb or forefinger in each cookie (large enough to fit 1/4 - 1/2 tsp of jam). Fill each with 1/4 - 1/2 tsp jam. Chill in refrigerator 20 minutes (or freezer for 10 minutes). Bake in preheated oven 14 - 18 minutes.
Cool several minutes on baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool (at this point you can add a little more jam if you'd like to, it just won't be set like the other is). Drizzle cookies with glaze when when cool. Store cookies in an airtight container.

For the glaze:

Whisk all glaze ingredients together in a small mixing bowl, adding enough water to reach desired consistency. Pour or spoon mixture into a sandwich size resealable bag, cut a small tip from one corner and drizzle over cookies.

*To measure flour scoop with measuring cup and level with a butter knife. Don't whisk or sift first and don't spoon into the measuring cup.

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The 12 Days Of Christmas Cookies Day 8

12/19/2015

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Preparation: 45 min
Cooking time: 10 min
Yield: 24 cookies (it will depend on the size of your pan)

Ingredients
Cookie dough:

400 g all purpose flour
125 g confectioners’ sugar
200 g butter
1 egg
pinch of salt

Filling:

100 g sour cream
200 g cream cheese, room temperature
100 g sweetened condensed milk
2 tbs lemon juice
strawberry jam *or your favorite jam*

Preparation

Let’s start preparing cookie dough. In a medium mixing-bowl, mix together all ingredientes to form a ball.
Divide the dough in two, and gather each portion into a slightly flattened ball.
Working with one ball of dough at a time, roll it out between two baking papers to a thickness of maximum 0,5 cm.
Using a beveled cookie cutter, cut out circles and drape one circle over each bowl cavity of pan, pressing to form smooth surface. (I used a mini cupcake pan)
Chill whilst preheating oven to 350º F (180 ºC)
Slip cookies into the oven to bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden. Remove from oven and let them cool on the pan for about 10 minutes
Let them cool completely on a wire rack
When cold, prepare cheese filling. Mix sweetened condensed milk, sour cream (or whip cream) and cream cheese on a medium bowl, until combined. Add lemon juice and mix well.
Place two tablespoons cheese cream on a small bowl, and another two tablespoons on a separate small bowl. Tint one of the bowls with red food colouring, and the other one with green food colouring.
Place 1 teaspoon strawberry jam on every cookie bowl. Fill with cheese cream. Use wooden skewers and red and green mixes to decorate
Keep in the fridge until set (about 4 hours if using sour cream, at least 24
hours if using whipping cream). They are better the next day. Can be stored several days on the fridge

To decorate:

red and green food colouring, and wooden skewers

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The 12 Days Of Christmas Cookies Day 7

12/18/2015

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Today's cookie is one of my personal favorites. We always make them for Christmas.

Ingredients:
Premade peanut butter cookie mix
1 egg
3 tbs. vegetable oil
1 tbs. water
Hershey kisses
2 tbs sugar
Mix everything together except sugar and Hershey kisses until a dough forms. Roll into 1 inch balls and roll each ball in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.
After baking, immediately place one Hershey kiss in the middle of each cookie.
After placing the Hershey kisses, put the cookie sheets in the fridge for a bit so the chocolate doesn’t melt.

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The 12 Days Of Christmas Cookies Day 6

12/17/2015

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Yield: 2 dozen

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking soda
2 1/4 cups flour
1 small package (3.9 oz.) vanilla pudding mix
1 cup sugar
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup crushed peppermints or candy canes (you can also use Andes Peppermint baking chips)

Instructions

Cream together butter and sugar
Beat in dry instant pudding mix
Add eggs and vanilla and mix well
Add baking soda and flour and mix well
Stir in peppermints and white chocolate chips
Roll into 1" balls and place on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat (or a greased baking sheet)
Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees.

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Having A Cookie Overload?

12/16/2015

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Why not try these Gingerbread Cupcake? *I already have my Christmas Cupcakes planned this year. otherwise I may have done this.*

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