Sugar...

I think the only 2 recipes I haven't shared with you are the sugar cookies and brown sugar bars (or blondies as some call them).

The sugar cookies?

-Not outrageously sweet, leaning more toward a shortbread type of sugar cookie. But they are superbly soft and beautifully complimented by simple white icing.

Super Soft Sugar Cookies:
(I halved the recipe)

• 1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 4 1/2 cups flour

Cream the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add in sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla and beat until well combined. Add the flour in a little at a time until it is all mixed in.

Again, this dough needs to be refrigerated for about 2 hours, and again I pre-rolled my dough between 2 sheets of wax paper. However, since this dough is kind of sticky, I did put just a tad bit of flour on the bottom sheet of wax paper to make cookie cutting easier.

Once chilled, bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes - just until it's barely beginning to turn gold. Cool, decorate, and devour!

As for these little gems?

A very rich blondie-brownie, also known as a brown sugar bar. These are baked in a jelly roll pan instead of a 13x9 so that they can easily be made into a chocolate sandwich. I also have an awesome, awesome nonstick jelly roll pan. Against my better judgement, I let a recipe persuade me into using wax paper. This is what happened:

Yeah, a mess when I tried to remove the bars from the wax paper. So my advice? -Use a good nonstick pan, or grease the bajeebers out of your jelly roll pan.

Brown Sugar Bars:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 3/4 cups brown sugar (I used half dark brown, half light brown)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla

Sift together the flour and salt in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla until well combined. Slowly add in the flour mixture, mixing until it has just been blended.

Spread your batter in a well greased or nonstick jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, just until the edges begin to look done and the center is set. Remove and cool for 30 minutes.

You can stop right there and serve, or you can make this glaze and make brown sugar sandwiches.

To make the sandwiches, cut the bars in half right down the middle of the jelly roll pan. Spread the glaze on one half of the bars, and flip the other half right on top. There you have it: Brown sugar sandwiches.

Chocolate Glaze:

• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 Tbsp powdered sugar

Bring the butter and cream to a boil in a saucepan on the stove. Once boiling, remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until melted and smooth. Stir in powdered sugar until smooth.

Happy Christmas baking to you!

Let's talk men

Gingerbread men that is.
I'm not a gingerbread fan myself, but I do recognize its place as a staple in the traditional Christmas cookie baking repertoire. So, taste tested by my husband himself, here is a recipe for a molasses gingerbread, easily rolled and cut out into adorable little shapes.

Gingerbread Molasses Cookies:
*I got about 25 gingerbread men out of this dough using a 3 inch cookie cutter*

• 3 cups of flour
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 Tbsp ginger
• 1Tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cloves or allspice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup butter, cut into cubes
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 2 Tbsp milk

In a large bow, mix together your flour, sugar, soda, spices (all of them), and salt. Then, using and electric mixer, add in the butter cubes and mix until it resembles fine, sandy crumbs. Slowly add in your molasses and milk and mix until moistened.

Now, you can handle the dough however you want, but it does need to be refrigerated for 2 hours (or you can stick it in the freezer for 30min). What I did before chilling, however, was roll out the dough between 2 pieces of wax paper (I think I divided the dough in half before doing so). That way, when I pulled it out of the fridge, it was ready to cut and bake, making the handling of the cookie cutting much easier.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for right about 8 minutes (don't let them go too long or they'll be dry and crispy), cool, decorate, enjoy!

Oreo Truffles

I am feverishly trying to post as many of my weekend baking recipes as possible while simultaneously making (and hopefully not ruining) dinner. It's a chicken a hummus night here (double yum - I think I could eat hummus for every meal and not tire of it!), and I know that if I don't get some of these recipes posted tonight they will have to wait until I reach Florida. Have I mentioned how excited I am to be going home for Christmas?!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVED our first snow:















But I am also very ready for my 80 degree Christmas and more so to see my family! :o) If you're a vegan recipe lover, watch out because home for the holidays means some vegan home cookin' for the best vegan brother and sister in the world!

And I know you're wondering if this post, that captured your attention with the title of "Oreo Truffles", is ever going to get to the point....

Ah, that scrumptious little truffle. The recipe seemed so easy when I stumbled across it that I just HAD to try it! And if you love oreos, then this recipe is for you!

Oreo Truffles:

• 1 package of oreos (or immitation oreos)
• 1 8oz package of cream cheese
• chocolate for dipping (I used white chocolate melts, but I bet dark chocolate or mint chocolate would be heavenly!)

Okay, here goes (and yes: it really is this easy! -Just like cake balls, but with oreos!):
Crush your oreos into fine crumbs using a food processor (or a blender or a hammer... whatever is handy and whichever method you prefer). Mix your crumbs and cream cheese together (I started with a mixer and ended with a wooden spoon). Form your mixture into little balls (as big or little as you so desire) and place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Put the cookie sheet in the fridge to cool for 30 minutes or so (I say or so because if you're like me, you could be off doing 14 other things before that light bulb dings back in your head and you say "Oh yeah, those oreo things are in the fridge!").

Remove your sheet from the fridge and sloooooowly melt your chocolate in a saucepan on the lowest of the low settings on your stove. Dip the truffles in, place back on the cookie sheet, top with sprinkles if desired, and then let them cool in the fridge until set. Viola!

*If you're wondering, comparatively, between these and cake balls:
The cake balls are more fudgy. These definitely have more of a cookie taste. Also, I can make 60+ cake balls from 1 recipe, and these truffles make about 40. Both are yummy, though.*

Peanut Butter Chocolate Duets

This weekend I baked. And baked. And baked.

And one of the many cookies I made were these delightful Peanut Butter Chocolate Duets.

These little beauties have cream cheese and 2 different kinds of M&Ms in the dough making them soft, chewy, and delicious!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Duets:

• 1 8oz package of cream cheese (softened)
• 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup butter (softened)
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (I always use closer to 1 cup)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups of M&Ms (I use regular and peanut butter. You could use regular and peanut, all peanut, all regular, etc.)
• 2 2/3 cups flour (divided: 1 1/3cup and 1 1/3 cup)
• 1/3 cup baking cocoa
• 1 tsp baking soda (divided: 1/2 tsp and 1/2 tsp)
• 1/2 tsp salt (divided: 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp salt)

Okay, to make these cookies, begin by mixing the following amounts: 1 1/3 cups flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 1/4 tsp salt into 2 different bowls (you should have 1 different bowls with the same exact ingredients and amounts). Into one of the bowls, add 1/3 cup baking cocoa powder.

Set those aside and in a large bowl, cream together your cream cheese and sugars using an electric mixer, mixing until well blended. Then add in your peanut butter and butter and mix until smooth. Add your eggs and vanilla and beat until well incorporated. Divide dough in half. To half of your dough add your bowl of flour mixture without the baking cocoa. To the other half of the dough add the flour mixture with cocoa. Stir 1 cup of M&Ms (I use half PB and half regular) into each dough.

Let both doughs refrigerate for 2 hours (sometimes I stick them in the freezer for 30 minutes and call it a day).

Once your dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On an ungreased cookie sheet (I have Wilton nonsticks and they are phenomenal), roll about a teaspoon of your light dough into a ball and a teaspoon of your dark dough into a ball and push the two mounds together so they are touching/joining/etc. Do this for each cookie and bake for about 10-15 minutes until the edges are just golden.

Ler cool and eat your heart out!

Mid afternoon blog break! - Dipped Chocolate Crinkle Cookies!

Today is my Christmas baking extravaganza: Virginia edition (for I am sure that I will also have a Florida edition in just mere days!). And as my gingerbread dough chills in the fridge, I thought I'd check in.

This morning I made cake balls, which you already know about.
And the oatmeal cookies you saw here.
But I also made these heavenly chocolate crinkle cookies dipped in melted white chocolate with crushed candy cane pieces mixed in. Yum!

So I'll go ahead and blog the recipe and then get started on those gingerbread men!














Oh My Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup bread flour (or all all purpose if you're not cookie challenged like me)
• 1/2 cup baking cocoa
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Mix these dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.
Meanwhile, gather these ingredients:

• 16 oz. semisweet chocolate (I used Baker's - sometimes chocolate chips can melt funny in this large of a quantity) in chunks
• 10 Tbsp butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (*I left these out because I was planning to dip my cookies in melted white chocolate and didn't want those eating my cookies to have their teeth fall out! However, the chips would be heavenly!)

I'll share with you how I did this and then you can decide what method works for you.
I put a pot on the stove on the lowest heat setting. Then I threw in my semi-sweet chocolate chunks (not chips) and let them begin melting as I combined my melted butter with the 2 sugars, mixing with an electric mixer until smooth.

Going back to the stove, I have the chocolate a few good stirs (not melted completely yet!) and then lightly beat my 4 eggs and vanilla together and poured into my sugar mixture, beating until well incorporated. By the time I was finished with this step, my chocolate was melted and so I poured it in and beat until combined. If you're using them, stir in your chocolate chips.

*Now, chocolate is finicky and burns easily, so if you do it "my" way, make sure you keep a good eye on your chocolate. Because it's a full 16 oz, it does take a while to fully melt. But you could also melt your chocolate, set aside and then: mix your butter/sugars together, lightly beat the eggs/vanilla and add, and stir in your melted chocolate and then the chips. -Or you can make up a way that works for you!

Regardless, at this point refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Once dough is ready, roll into balls (the general size of the cookie you want: they don't spread out very much) and bake about 10 minutes. Just until the edges are set. The middles might seem goey still, but they firm up as they cool.

You can stop there, OR:
Then, melt some white chocolate (to coat all of them I used about 16-20 oz of white chocolate bark, but I melted it a little at a time to make sure I wasn't wasteful) on low in a saucepan on the stove.

Crush up some candy canes or starlight peppermints (until you have the desired amount - I had my dearest hubby crush 6 candy canes and it was perfect). Stir those candy cane pieces into your melted chocolate and begin dipping!

Place cookies on a baking sheet lined with wax paper, sprinkle with festive sprinkles if desired, and chill until set. Yum!