If your family is as nuts over chocolate chip cookie dough as mine, maybe you can relate to my thoughts of, “Why even bother baking the cookies?” After years of my family begging me to not bother, I finally came up with a recipe to their liking – no oven needed.
Cream together one and a half sticks of butter
2/3 cup of packed brown sugar
and 1/3 cup of superfine white sugar
Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of salt
and 1 cup of flour and mix together well.
Stir in 1 bag of semi sweet chocolate chips – Amount optional & chopped walnuts are optional too!
Roll into one inch balls, place on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and place in freezer for about a half an hour.
Melt about 1 bag of semi sweet chocolate with about a tablespoon of added shortening for shine and dip cookie balls into chocolate. If you are making these for Christmas, you can put some red & green sprinkles on top to add a festive touch.
Of course, if you are a teenager who happens to be roaming through the kitchen while mom is blogging, you’ve just hit the jackpot. Why not add little ice cream balls too?
Yummers! Best if stored in refrigerator or freezer, and far away from anyone who is trying to diet!
T’was the week before Christmas and all through the inn, the innkeeper’s patience with making cookies wore thin.
What more could she do to spread sparkle and joy around town; even while shopping others looked down.
Something that brings much Christmas cheer; it would require a latte to get her thinker in gear!
That’s it she proclaimed as she drove to the coffee shop, “I’ll make one of those with powdery sugar atop!”
Gingerbread Starbucks!
Brrr… a latte in this snow warms the heart!
Shorty baby gingerbread boys with their red latte cups - Non-fat with whip, thanks!
What’s that? A drive-thru too?
“May I interest you in a gingerbread latte today?”
And the innkeeper exclaimed as she drove out of sight…
“Thank you for making my latte just right!”
Merry Christmas to our favorite Starbuck’s baristas! 
It’s amazing what a little snow and the holidays will do for relationships. Here is a picture of our kids. They actually liked each other this week. They must know that Santa is watching. I hope you and your family are having a not-too-crazy Christmas season!
I just love this picture so much that I had to share it with you.
Today’s Christmas Cookie Crunch recipe is one we made up but you might notice a strong resemblance to a certain Seattle-based coffee shop’s cranberry bar… just in case you don’t have them available on every street corner like we do here. Yeah, right.
3/4 cup of white sugar & 1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of shortening & 1/2 cup of butter
Cream together.
1 egg
2 cups of flour & 1 teaspoon of salt
Now for one 6 oz. package of Craisins…
Ready?
Set.
Go!
Mix dough well & spray 11×15 pan with baking spray or line with parchment paper.
Optional step: Chop about 2 cups of walnuts and place on the bottom of your baking sheet.
Gently spread dough over walnuts.
Yummers! Bake at 350 for 15 minutes (or less for chewier bars) until light golden brown.
Melt 12 to 16 oz. white chocolate in double boiler. You can add a tablespoon of shortening to make it shiny if you like.
Frost bars with melted white chocolate.
Sprinkle more Craisins on top and cut into bars. These are great for freezing!
Optional topping if you really want to be just like the coffee shop: Wait for bars to cool & ice with a container of store bought cream cheese frosting then drizzle white chocolate over the bars in pretty design. Finish with Craisins and cut into triangles instead of bars… now charge an arm & a leg for just one and you will be talented and rich!
Mmmmmmm…… now all I need is a latte in a red cup! Coffee anyone?
Would you like to create some extra special cookies this year? Something that will be pretty enough for a centerpiece or a gift? You’ve stopped by the right blog! These cookie ideas are full of sugary sparkle and easy peezy to make!
That moment.
First, “that moment.” The moment that an idea hits you and you have to make sure no one else caught you while you did your dorky “what an awesome idea I just had” dance! Mine was in Target the other day in the Christmas decorations section. I came across this beauty. I still have a candy cane version of this ornament that I got when I was little so the sparkly coating brings back fun, sugar plumlike memories.
Let’s get started!
Just roll out your favorite sugar cookie dough recipe (or there is a recipe at the end of this post) to about 1/4 inch thick & cut 2 1/2-3 inch circles out.
Place cookies on cookie sheet - I added a light coat of baking spray because we’re going to add sticks to these & I wanted to be sure they came off easily.
Gently place sticks
Bake as long as your recipe calls for. Smells great!
Pour some sugar onto a plate. Make sure you have plenty! We’re doing this now since we’re working with royal icing which dries very quickly.
Make up a batch of royal icing. You can find mixes
one half red. You can keep a damp towel over the royal icing to help keep it from hardening.
Using the white, make a swirl on each cookie like this.
Do the same in between the white swirls with the red. You can fill in a little but they don’t have to be perfect since lollipops are not perfect.
“Oh no, Mr Bill!” Gently press cookies into the sugar to coat with sugar and to press frosting flatter so that there’s no more gaps between the red and white frosting.
Out of control!
Once I got started with the sugar, I couldn’t stop so before I give you the big reveal, how about I show you a few of my other creations?
Candy cane
Wrapped peppermint candy
A little mitten with fluffy white sugary trim
Where did I get the energy for all of this?
I do believe this is the smallest amount I have ever dropped in a trip to Target!
And now for what happens when you stock up on Diet Coke and inspiration at Target!
Lollipop lollipop. Oh lolli lolli lolli. Lollipop lollipop…
Wait… maybe I didn’t even need to go in the store for inspiration. Oh well, I needed the Diet Coke energy anyhow.
Sugar Cookies
Using an electric mixer, beat until very fluffy and well blended:
1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup (4.75 ounces) sugar
Add and beat in until evenly incorporated:
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
(Make sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl during this step to get a totally homogenized mixture before going on to the next step)
Stir in until well blended and smooth:
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
Roll out & cut into desired shapes, bake and decorate!
You’d think most kids might run if you were to mention coconut and walnuts in the same cookie but when I was little, this was my favorite holiday cookie. I still love making them today because they are as yummy as I remember and easy too!
The recipe as I wrote it out many, many years ago.
2 cups of pitted & chopped dates – To make it easy, I purchased this container & it is just the right amount without the work! Yay!
2 cups of mini marshmallows – Have you ever imagined roasting one of these? I have imagined it and it hurts because the stick is to short.
1 cup of chopped walnuts – Sometimes I think about how many times I have taken a picture of chopped walnuts and wonder if you’d start to notice if I just recycled the same picture over & over again. Do you think you’d notice? Don’t worry, these are fresh.
2 cups of graham crackers
…and to think, I lived without a food processor for 40 years! Crazy!
Turns out that each package of graham crackers is one cup so 2 packages made the 2 cups that I needed! Sometimes it’s the little things…
Enter this recipe’s better half – 1 can of sweetened condensed milk.
Pour in & stir until it forms a dough – Work your magic sweetened condensed milk. Work your magic!
About 1/2 a bag of coconut or more – (singing) Oh what a lovely bunch of coconut!
Roll dough into about 1 inch balls – My high school friend always said that my hands should be in pictures. This is for you, Susie! I’ve made it! I’d give you my autograph but my hands are too sticky.
Roll each dough ball into coconut.
I just hate it when I don’t get even rows. I’m a little compulsive that way.
And there she is in all her glory – the Christmas platter filled with Mom’s coconut date balls! They aren’t the cutest kids in school but they will be a favorite this holiday season. I promise!
We begin with the good, the bad and the fatty… butter.
2 cups margarine or butter, softened
8 cups peanut butter
I hope no one was planning on having PB & J tomorrow!
Holy cow! That’s 1456 fat grams you’re eyein’! Good thing these are little treats!
8 cups powdered sugar
The after-shock of baking is always pretty messy here.
14 cups Rice Krispies® – I hadn’t ever made peanut butter balls with Rice Krispies before today.
The Kitchen-Aide is beautiful, but she does have her limits.
Place 6 cups semi-sweet chocolate morsels & 8 tablespoons vegetable shortening into double boiler & melt slowly over a low heat, stirring often until fully melted.
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Roll peanut butter mix into a zillion 1 inch balls.
Allow to harden in a cool place. If you make a small batch, you can place the in the fridge. – The original recipe calls for 1/4 of all the ingredients here and will be the version that I’ll post in my printable recipe section because I realize that most bakers are not as insane as I.
I’m sorry to share a recipe that isn’t new but I was so glad to be introduced to Rice Krispies peanut butter balls that I had to share it. It’s really yummy!
P.S. These can be kept in the fridge or freezer for Christmas. Package carefully so they stay pretty!
printable version (single batch)
The inn is Christmas cozy. We’ve put up the Christmas tree, pulled out the comforting seasonal breakfast recipes and have started baking for our Christmas Cookie Crunch! You can click on the link above to find Christmas cookies and packaging ideas which we will continue to update for you. We’ve just started so be sure to visit back often!
Taste of Home
I am a cooking magazine and cookbook addict and my daughter is catching the bug too. She found these treats in a Taste of Home Christmas edition and just had to make them for you. She adjusted them to her liking and came up with these pretty cookies to add to our Christmas Cookie Crunch fest!
Our favorite part came first… melting the white chocolate in a double boiler (make sure not to let even a dribble of water to mix into your chocolate!) The smell of this is Christmasy to me because my mom made white chocolate almond bark every year when we were kids. It quickly became one of my favorites.
While the white chocolate melts, place foil on a cookie sheet.
Smear – love it when verbs sound like the action “smeeeeaaaarrrrr” – the white chocolate onto the foiled pan. Then chill while you prepare the peppermint and red candy.
Place some candy canes in a baggie (let out air) and seal. Roll over with a rolling-pin until crushed. Our Christmas Cookie Crunch just became very literal!
Net, melt one packages of red Wilton candy disks in the microwave about 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between cooking time until they are smooth and melted.
Stir in 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract.
Spread the red love all over the white chocolate evenly.
Ooooo… Ahhhhh….
Sprinkle the peppermint pretties all over the red chocolate layer! Then place candy in fridge to chill again until hard (about 10 minutes or so.)
Finally, carefully separate the candy from the foil. Easy peezy!
Break into small (or XXL in this case) pieces!
Hurry and take the picture before mom comes over & gets all particular about the lighting!
We’ve been serving these as our evening treat to our guests and they love them. Brittany even got a sincere compliment from her little brother – that is no small feat!
Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! So much for baking without sampling! I just made these bars for church and they are Hoops & YoYo delicious!!
1 cup brown sugar – I do love a leveled measuring cup!
1 cup butter – softened
1 egg yolk – I’m pretty proud of this picture
2 cups flour- Nothing better than Christmas music while you bake using a red Kitchen-Aide!
1/2 t. salt
Can you tell I have been traumatized by stubborn baked goods that won’t come out of the pan one too many times? Baking spray is my new best friend even when recipes don’t call for it!
Press mixture into 11 x 15-inch cookie sheet – Peanut butter jelly spread out, peanut butter jelly spreeeeaaad out… funny and a little embarrassing, the things that go through your head while bakin’.
20 oz. semi-sweet chocolate – Semi-sweet chocolate always makes me 100% happy!
1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds – or if you find that you have a little of each, you mix them together like I did.
Bake for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Bake until light golden Be sure not to over bake – Wow, not sure what angle I was at when I took this pic!
Melt chocolate & gently spread over baked dough.
Sprinkle with almonds. Cut into bars while still warm. - Go nuts! Seriously worthy calories right here!
Stunning, really, don’t you think? Happy baking!
printable version
We were up early today as many of you have been putting the turkey in the oven. My husband and I have gotten the turkey prepped and it’s roasting. He is trying to take all of the credit but I’ll only let him have it if the turkey is still frozen in the middle at serving time like it was when he made it 17 years ago. As we slid the pan into the oven, I could not but help thinking what is a blog about food without a Thanksgiving post?
What do I love about food? Why do I write about it? It seemed fitting to take a moment to reflect on being thankful for food and to consider the special memories around it – the joy, the tears, the traditions and thankfulness.
One of my happiest and scariest memories of my life happened in the kitchen. My mom always did a lot of baking for the holidays and even worked in a bakery for about 25 years. I loved watching her do her magic, especially during the holiday season. One happy day when I was about 5 years old, I was helping her. I was mesmerized by the spinning of the electric mixer, watching it go around and around until I was so caught up in it that my long brown hair was literally caught up in the mixer too! Thankfully, mom was standing right next to me and immediately turned the mixer off. She remembers my hair being tightly wound up in the beater and having to carefully and lovingly untangle it. I have asked her why she didn’t have pictures and she recalls being too worried about me to even consider a photo – bless her heart!
Some of the most significant moments created with food at the table are embedded in my memories forever – every funeral, reunion, and wedding. Meals delivered to someone’s home with loving care in celebration a new baby, a successful surgery, or perhaps in a time of grief have brought people together in ways they never thought possible. Anyone who has ever delivered a meal to our door on one of those occasions has changed any prior judgments I may have had of them before that moment. They were from that point on seen as a caring person. Anyone willing to make a meal and deliver it to your door with love has to be a good person.
Besides the partly frozen turkey, there have been dinner rolls that could pass for rocks, far too many dirty dishes to even count and mincemeat pies left almost whole if it weren’t for grandpa’s piece taken out of the pie. There will be no mincemeat pie this year. I will miss grandpa and his contagious laugh so much.
The years of avocado green Kitchen-Aide mixers, grandma’s massive leftovers from making too much food and even lumpy gravy have made me appreciate everything I have and most of all the people I love for they will not all be around the same table forever.
