25 Days of Baking: Day 24

Happy Christmas Eve to all! Can you believe it?!? I'm not sure it feels like it should really be Christmas Eve? There is a little snow where we are spending Christmas, but not the norm. I'm sure that it's helping it any!

Today's treat is sugar cookies. This recipe came from a friend from schools mom. It is the best I have ever had. She used to make all her kids AMAZING valentine cookies to bring to school as their valentines. They were always impressive and so good. I now try to make them for my kids friends, but man they are a lot of work! But so worth it.

Sugar Cookies

• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup margarine
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 large eggs

Directions

1. Sift flour, salt and soda together.
2. Cream remaining ingredients together; add dry ingredients. 
3. Dough can be used at once without chilling.
4. Bake at 350 for 10 min.

Buttercream Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 lb. powdered sugar
• 2 Tbls milk

Directions

1. Cream butter, shortening and vanilla.
2. Add sugar 1 cup at a time and cream together.
3. Add milk.
4. Mix until it is the right consistency you want.If too runny add more powdered sugar. If to hard add more milk.

I love sugar cookies! If I could have them in my house all the time I would. I love to frost them. Sometimes with this buttercream frosting recipe and other times with a recipe that allows for a little more decoration. I am slowly working on my cookie skills.

The pictures today are lacking, but with the craziness of the holidays it is just going to have to do.

25 Days of Baking: Day 16

Today's cookie just goes with Christmas in my opinion! Gingerbread! I remember reading a story growing up about gingerbread men who came to life at night and finished things around the house for the family to help them get ready for Christmas. I always think of that book when making these and it brings a smile to my face.

Gingerbread Cookies

Group 1

~ 5 cups flour - sift before measuring

~ 1 1/2 tsp baking soda

~ 2-3 tsp ground ginger

~1 tsp ground cinnamon

~ 1 tsp ground cloves

~ 1/2 tsp salt

Group 2

~ 1 cup shortening

~ 1 cup sugar

~1 large egg

~ 1 cup light molasses

~ 2 Tbsp white vinegar

~red cinnamon candies

Directions

Sift group 1 together. In a large bowl, beat sugar & shortening. When creamy beat in egg, molasses & vinegar. Stir in flour mixture 1/4 at a time, mixing well after each addition. (Mixture will be stiff - you may want to use your hands.) Cover dough and chill 3 hours or longer. Heat oven to 375. Cut dough in half. On a lightly floured board, roll dough 1/8" think. Use your favorite cookie cutters to cut dough and decorate with cinnamon candies. Bake.

I like to make big and small men, small bears, and reindeer. However on this particular day I couldn't find my reindeer cutter or my cinnamon candies. I know I have both, but they are currently lost in the twilight zone (aka my corner cupboard filled with baking supplies). So we did without and all is well. I do someday want to get a big gingerbread bear and heart shaped cinnamon candies, so my cookies could be just like ones in the book I remember.

 I have eaten so many Christmas cookies this season, I am starting to think I have had more than Kris Kringle himself! These are sugar cookies are my absolute favorite!

25 Days of Baking: Day 15

Another day for peanut butter and chocolate, I told you I liked these two! Today's recipe I cheated on. But with the craziness of the holidays and not enough hours in a day (well that's any time of the year), sometimes you need an easy alternative. 

I made Peanut Butter Blossoms. I cheated because I used the Betty Crocker Peanut Butter cookie mix pouch to make these. In my opinion they taste just as good, and take so much less effort to make!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

~ 1 package Betty Crocker Peanut Butter mix

~ 3 Tbls. vegetable oil

~ 2 tsp. water

~ 1 egg

~ Hershey's Kisses, enough for 1 for each cookie

~ green frosting

Directions

Follow the package directions to make the cookies. Once you take them out of the oven, immediately press 1 Hershey's Kiss candy in the center of each cookie. 

To make these more festive and to add more to them I made some green frosting and swirled it around the Kiss to make it look like a tree (sort of). They kind of remind me of something from Whoville.

25 Days of Baking: Day 14

Well, I am over half way done with my baking, which is a good thing as my counter and freezer are filling up with sweets and my scale isn't thanking me either. Today I made a Christmas staple in the cookie category. Candy Cane Cookies. These can be a little time consuming, but they are fun to have on a cookie platter.

Candy Cane Cookies

~ 1/2 c. butter or margarine, softened

~ 1/2 c. shortening

~ 1 c. powdered sugar

~ 1 egg

~ 1 1/2 tsp almond extract

~ 1 tsp. vanilla

~ 2 1/2 c. flour

~1 tsp. salt

~ red food coloring

~ 1/2 c. crushed peppermint candy

~ 1/2 c. sugar

Directions

Mix thoroughly butter, shortening, powdered sugar, egg and flavorings. Blend in flour and salt. Divide dough in half. Blend food color into one half. Shape 1 tsp. dough from each half into 4 inch rope. For smooth, even ropes, roll them back and forth on lightly floured board. Place ropes side by side; press together lightly and twist. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bend top down to form handle of cane. Bake at 375 degrees for 9 min or until set and very light brown. Mix cookies and granulated sugar. Immediately sprinkle cookies with candy mixture. Remove from baking sheet.

 

The cookie gods were shining down on me today, because my dough mixed up perfectly! A lot of times I find that my dough wants to break apart when I attempt to move it from the mat I rolled it out on and the cookie sheet. Today they were perfect. 

I also always find that I have extra of the sugar/peppermint mixture. So last year I got smart and stored the extra in a small tupperware container. I had enough for the cookies this year and next year! It beats crushing peppermints every year. I inevitably end up with a huge mess when I do that.

25 Days of Baking: Day 10

Whew, 10 days of goodies (I'm not even half done), but my counter is filling up with sweets like nobody's business. Seriously if you are in the neighborhood stop by for a sugar rush! Today I made Monster Cookies, per my husbands request. I fancied them up by using holiday m&m's!

This recipe is from a family friend and it is wonderful. It also makes a TON of cookies, so I suggest halving it, unless you want a bunch. That is what I intended to do today, as we have enough other things currently in the house. Alas I started halving the ingredients, but then dumped in a full amount of the brown sugar and it wasn't until I started mixing that I realized what I had done. SO...I was now making a full batch of Monster Cookies! Seriously people please stop by!

Monster Cookies

~ 6 eggs

~ 1lb. brown sugar

~ 2 cups white sugar

~ 3 cups peanut butter

~ 1 cup butter

~ 1/2 Tbls. karo syrup

~ 9 cups oatmeal

~ 1/2 tsp. vanilla

~ 4 tsp. baking soda

~ 12 oz. chocolate chips

~ 16 oz. m&m's

Directions

Mix all in order given. 1 quater cup per cookie. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. *Don't overbake*

These are very easy to make and have realistic ingredients! A win for any recipe. Plus with the peanut butter and oatmeal in them, I don't feel so bad when that's what my kids eat for breakfast.

25 Days of Baking: Day 9

Today's treat is a must have at Christmas around our house. Spritz cookies! Always in red and green with coordinating sprinkles on top. I have an old Pampered Chef cookie press that I would highly recommend. You would probably need to go on Ebay to find it though. They give you a recipe with the press, but I find that this one works better.

Spritz Cookies

~1 cup butter, softened

~ 1/2 cup vegetable shortening

~ 1 1/2 c sugar

~2 large eggs

~ 4 tsp almond extract or vanilla 

~4 cups flour

~ 1/2 tsp. baking powder

~ 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

1. Place butter and shortening in large mixing bowl. Cream together on medium speed.

2. Add sugar gradually. Beat until light and fluffy, about 5 min.

3. Add eggs and vanilla or almond; mix well using medium speed.

4. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in separate bowl. Add to butter.sugar mixture in 3 additions; mix well after each addition. Dough will be stiff.

5. Press cookies on ungreased, uncoated baking sheet.

6. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 min. or until lightly brown around edges. Do not overbake.

I used almond extract for my cookies. I also only baked mine for 7 min. So make sure that you test this with your oven! I always use parchment paper on top of my cookie sheets, and of course tried with these as I hate having to scrap off baked on sprinkles when I'm done. But these have to be placed right on the cookie sheet or they don't come off the press.

I love how light and buttery these cookies are. They are also small enough that they can easily be popped into your mouth while chasing kids, running out the door or when you find 30 seconds of peace!

25 Days of Baking: Day 7

I had the pleasure of participating in a cookie exchange this year. I was so excited to get the invite as I have always wanted to do one, but never had enough people to really give it a go. I did a small one last year with some girlfriends, but nothing to this magnitude! In all there were 14 gals that participated. Originally 16, but 2 backed out last minute (so I had already made enough cookies for 16). My kids didn't mind this as they didn't want me to take the ones I made.

I knew there was potential for a number of people so I wanted to make something fun, yet easy enough to mass produce. I knew decorated sugar cookies was out of the question as I would have been at that for days. I ended up deciding to make Christmas Pinwheel cookies. I hadn't made these before (again, something I had pinned) and thought they would be great for it!

I got the recipe here, but there are many versions of these out there. After eating them, they reminded me of Spritz cookies.

Christmas Pinwheel Cookies

3 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cups granulated sugar

1 cups butter (2 sticks)

1 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

red and green food coloring

1 cup holiday sprinkles

Christmas Pinwheel Cookies Directions

Cream sugar and butter until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl and add to butter mixture, mix well. Separate the dough in half and color one part red and one part green. Put one of the freshly made dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll 11 x 9 inches and 1/4 inch thick. Repeat with the other color dough. Put the rolled dough including the parchment paper, on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes or longer. Take the top layer off both dough’s and lightly wet the tops. Sandwich the two colors together, using a paring knife trim the edges to make straight edges. Remove the top layer of paper and start rolling up and use the bottom layer of paper to pull it tight. If the dough tears you can just pinch it together. Poor the sprinkles onto a large platter and roll the log onto the sprinkles and press them in. Place the dough into the fridge for 15 minutes or longer. slice the dough into 1/4 inch slices and bake on parchment lined sheets. Bake at 325° F for 10 -15 minutes. Let cool.

Each batch makes about 4 dozen cookies, so I needed to make 5 batches of these. The first batch I split the dough and colored each half. My hands were stained red and I knew I was not going to get through 4 more batches of doing that. So for the last 4, I added food coloring in after I mixed the sugar and butter together. 2 green, 2 red. This was SO much easier and I would highly recommend just doing this. These cookies are delicious and excellent to eat while drinking your morning coffee. So save your hands and just make 2 batches. 1 red and 1 green (or whatever colors float your boat!)

In the end my cookies won most festive at the exchange, and I had a blast. One of the gals tallied up the cookies and figured that we had around 2866 cookies total! Can't wait to participate again next year!