Tag: cookies

Posted in christmas making and baking, Cookies, Gluten Free, Holiday/Christmas, Recipes

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Blossoms

Posted on by traci

I’ve been sick most of this Christmas season so I have not made ANY Christmas cookies.  Okay, I’ll take it back.  We made peanut butter blossoms and then we ate them.

I decided to update my peanut butter blossom recipes using gluten free flour.

I noticed that the dough does not stand up as well as the gluten dough so you will need to place it in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes before forming it into balls.

Even with that little inconvenience, the cookies are absolutely delicious.

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Blossoms

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Blossoms

  • Servings: 3 to 4 doz.
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients

  • 48 Hershey’s Kisses
  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 3/4 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1-1/2 cups gluten free flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • Granulated sugar

Directions

  1.  Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates.
  2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended.
  3. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy.
  4. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well.
  5. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
  6. Place the dough in the fridge for about 15 minutes
  7. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.
  8.  Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.
  9. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges.
  10. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.
  11. Cool completely.
  12. Enjoy!

Happy eating,
Traci

Posted in christmas making and baking, Cookies, Dessert, Holiday/Christmas, Recipes

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies – Christmas Making and Baking 2016

Posted on by traci

During the Christmas season, I enjoy finding new recipes to try.  So when I saw the recipe for Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies, I knew I needed to try them.

Continue reading “Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies – Christmas Making and Baking 2016” →

Posted in Cookies, Recipes

Pretzel chocolate chip cookies

Posted on by traci

I originally posted this recipe in 2010.  I recently made them and made sure I took a much better picture of the cookies.  So I’m going to repost the blog post.  I think it’s fitting because the last time I posted this recipe, we had just formed a new church.  Our church now has a new pastor.  Tomorrow is going to be the ceremony installing as our new pastor.

The Wee One loves these cookies.  He kept snacking on them.  It must be the saltiness and sweetness of the cookie that appealed to him.

IMG_0099

I enjoy reading murder-mysteries.  One of my favorite authors is Joanne Fluke.  The main character in her books is Hannah Swenson.  Hannah has a knack for finding dead bodies which drives her mother absolutely batty.  With the help of her mother, sisters, and friends, she investigates murders.  Since Hannah owns a cookie shop, the author includes recipes for different types of baked goodies plus other food.  In the past, I’ve tried different cookie recipes.  Usually I am impressed with the end result.  One such recipe was for pretzel chocolate chip cookies.

Last month, our new church had a get together.  We were suppose to bring a different type of dish to share.  I decided to take a batch of these pretzel chocolate chip cookies.  Everyone’s reaction to these cookies was a positive one.  Since the only other dessert was strawberry shortcake which also good, it was nice to have a cookies there also.

The boys enjoyed crush the pretzels into tiny bits.  I put a handful or two of pretzels into a zip lock bag, hand them a meat mallet, and a plastic cutting board and then let them pound away at the pretzels.  I’d rather have them pound out the pretzels rather then each other.

Without further ado, here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup softened butter (2 sticks, 1/2 pound)
  • 2 cups granulated sugar (white)
  • 3 Tbsp. molasses
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 2 beaten eggs (just whip them up in a glass with a fork – poke the yolks first)
  • 2 cups crushed salted thin stick pretzels (measure after crushing)
  • 2 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 and 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Use an electric mixer if you have one because the dough gets really stiff.

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix the softened butter with the sugar and the molasses. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, and the molasses is completely mixed in.
  3. Add the vanilla and baking soda. Mix them in well.
  4. Break eggs into a glass and whip them up with a fork. Add them to your bowl and mix until they’re thoroughly incorporated.
  5. Put your pretzels in a zip lock plastic bag. Seal it carefully and place it on a flat surface. Get out your rolling pin and run it over the bag, crushing the pretzels inside. Do this until there are no large pieces and the largest is a quarter-inch long.
  6. Measure out two cups of crushed pretzels and mix them into the dough in your bowl.
  7. Add one cup of flour and mix it in. Then add the second cup and mix thoroughly. Add the final half cup of flour and mix that in.
  8. Measure out a cup and a half of chocolate chips and add them to your cookie dough. If you’re using an electric mixer, mix them in at the slowest speed. You can also pu the mixer away, and stir in the chips by hand.
  9. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto greased or sprayed with nonstick cooking spray cookie sheets. Place 12 cookies on each standard sheet.
  10. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until nicely browned. (I do it for 11 minutes.)

This post is part of Potluck Sundays, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, and Eat at Home.

Posted in christmas making and baking

The Boys’ Top 5 Favorite Christmas Treats

Posted on by traci

We will start our annual Christmas-making and baking as soon as Thanksgiving is over. The boys look forward to this annual tradition.

Hopefully, this tradition will become a favorite childhood memory. I know they look forward to the treats and have been begging for “test runs” of some of their favorite treats.

Here are some of their top 5 favorite treats I make every year:

 Mock Thin Mints – The Imaginative One loves this treat. This year I need to get a picture of this treat.

Christmas boys

#1 – Watermelon Cookies – We changed the flavors of the Kool-Aid used in the cookie. I highly suggest a flavor of Kool-Aid, such as cherry, for red cookies. You can use green sugar for a cookie that looks festive.

#2 – Peanut Butter Blossoms – The boys have already begged me to bake this one treat for them. They love to help roll the cookie balls in sugar and then put the Hershey Kiss on top. The batch of cookies we baked was eaten within 3 days.

#3 – Snickerdoodles – This is one of the Imaginative One’s favorite cookies. We roll them in green and red sugar to make them more festive.

#4 – Rolo Turtles – This is another treat the boys begged me to allow them to make. They like the turtles with M&M’s instead of pecans. We made a small batch on Monday. We divided them up into 3 parts so that they each only had a certain amount to eat.

What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?

Happy Eating,
Traci

Posted in Dessert, Family, Family Recipe, Grandma, Holiday/Christmas, Pecans, Recipes, Snacks

My Aunt Janet’s Pecan cookies – Christmas Making and Baking

Posted on by traci

This blog post was originally posted in 2013.  I did not have any pictures of the actual cookie so I’ve added a picture of the cookie.

Sunday was All Saints’ Sunday.  I got nostalgic so I decided to make these cookies.  I didn’t realize when I made the cookie that it made a BIG batch.  I made at least 6 dozen cookies.  

So I decided to take some of the cookies to school to share with my co-workers.  They thought they were delicious.

My Aunt Janet's Pecan Cookies

Here is the original post:
The other night, the Wee One handed me a box and asked me what was in it. As I looked through it, I found blank cards and recipe cards. The treasure was two recipe cards written by my grandma. She died Christmas Eve of ’08 so it was nice to see her handwriting one more time.

My aunt Janet was actually my grandpa’s sister so technically she was my great aunt. I still called her aunt without the great. We spent a lot of time with her. She and my Uncle Mitch had a farm that had willow trees and a pond. I remember going up to the farm for family gatherings and walking around the pond.

She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2004 and within less than a week had passed away. My whole family misses her.

Pecan Cookies

aunt janet recipe
20130303-125522.jpg

Stars of the recipe:

  • 1 C. shortening, margarine, or butter
  • 2 1/2 c. brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2 1/2 C. flour
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1 C. pecans

Steps:

  1. Cream shortening, margarine, or butter with the sugar.
  2. Add eggs and beat well.
  3. Add flour, salt, and soda. Mix well.
  4. Fold in nuts.
  5. Drop from spoon onto greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
  6. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.
  7. Cool for about 1 minute and then remove to wire racks to completely cool.
  8. Enjoy!

Store in an airtight container.

Christmas Making and Baking

Happy Eating,

Traci

Posted in Cookies, Holiday/Christmas, Recipes

Watermelon cookies

Posted on by traci

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I enjoyed reading murder mysteries. One of my favorite authors is Joanne Fluke. Her main character Hannah Swenson owns a cookie shop. Joanne includes recipes in her books. This is one of the many recipes I have found in her books.

Even though the recipe calls for watermelon kool-aid, you do not have to use watermelon flavored kool-aid. You can use any flavor, which is great for holidays. You could use lime kool-aid for one batch and cherry (or any other red kool-aid) for another batch at Christmas time. Your choices are endless.

When I made these, people loved the cookies’ color and flavor. I even shared some grape ones with my students. They thought they were delicious. In fact, one of the students was still talking about it at the end of the school year. They must have been memorable.

IMG_2357

Without further ado, here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 1 package (.16 ounce) watermelon (or any other flavor) Kool-Aid powder (Don’t get the kind with sugar or sugar substitute added.)
  • 1 2/3 c. white sugar
  • 1 and a 1/4 c. softened butter (2 and 1/2 sticks, 10 ounces)
  • 2 large eggs, beaten (just whip them up in a glass with a fork. I usually poke the yoke first, so it is easier to beat them.
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
  • 1/2 c white sugar in a bowl

Steps:

  1. Mix the watermelon Kool-Aid (or whatever flavor you choose) with the white sugar.
  2. Add the softened butter and mix until it’s nice and fluffy.
  3. Add the eggs and mix well.
  4. Mix in the salt and the baking soda. Make sure they’re well incorporated.
  5. Add the flour in half-cup increments, mixing after each addition.
  6. Spray cookie sheets with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray.
  7. Roll dough balls one inch in diameter with your hands.
  8. Roll the cookie balls in the bowl of white sugar and place them on the cookie sheet, 12 to a standard-size sheet.
  9. Bake the Watermelon Cookies at 325 degrees F. for 10 to 12 minutes or until they turn golden around the edges. Don’t overbake.
  10. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheets for a minute, and then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yield: Approximately 6 dozen pretty and unusual cookies that kids will adore, especially if you tell them that they’re made with Kool-Aid.

This recipe has been linked up to Potluck Sunday.

Posted in Cookies, Recipes

Pretzel chocolate chip cookies

Posted on by traci

I enjoy reading murder mysteries.  One of my favorite authors is Joanne Fluke.  The main character in her books is Hannah Swenson.  Hannah has a knack for finding dead bodies, which drives her mother absolutely batty.  With the help of her mother, sisters, and friends, she investigates murders.  Since Hannah owns a cookie shop, the author includes recipes for different types of baked goodies plus other food.  In the past, I’ve tried different cookie recipes.  Usually, I am impressed with the end result.  One such recipe was for pretzel chocolate chip cookies.

Last month, our new church had a get-together.  We were supposed to bring a different type of dish to share.  I decided to take a batch of these pretzel chocolate chip cookies.  Everyone’s reaction to these cookies was a positive one.  Since the only other dessert was strawberry shortcake, which was also good, it was nice to have cookies there.

The boys enjoyed crushing the pretzels into tiny bits.  I put a handful or two of pretzels into a zip lock bag, hand them a meat mallet and a plastic cutting board and then let them pound away at the pretzels.  I’d rather have them pound out the pretzels rather than each other.

Without further ado, here is the recipe.

Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients

– 1 cup softened butter (2 sticks, 1/2 pound)

– 2 cups granulated sugar (white)

– 3 Tbsp. molasses

– 2 tsp. vanilla

– 1 tsp. baking soda

– 2 beaten eggs (just whip them up in a glass with a fork – poke the yolks first)

– 2 cups crushed salted thin stick pretzels (measure after crushing)

– 2 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour

– 1 and 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix the softened butter with the sugar and the molasses. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, and the molasses is completely mixed in.
  3. Add the vanilla and baking soda. Mix them in well.
  4. Break eggs into a glass and whip them up with a fork. Add them to your bowl and mix until they’re thoroughly incorporated.
  5. Put your pretzels in a zip lock plastic bag. Seal it carefully and place it on a flat surface. Get out your rolling pin and run it over the bag, crushing the pretzels inside. Do this until there are no large pieces and the largest is a quarter-inch long.
  6. Measure out two cups of crushed pretzels and mix them into the dough in your bowl.
  7. Add one cup of flour and mix it in. Then add the second cup and mix thoroughly. Add the final half cup of flour and mix that in.
  8. Measure out a cup and a half of chocolate chips and add them to your cookie dough. If you’re using an electric mixer, mix them in at the slowest speed. You can also put the mixer away, and stir in the chips by hand.
  9. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto greased or sprayed with nonstick cooking spray cookie sheets. Place 12 cookies on each standard sheet.
  10. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until nicely browned. (I do it for 11 minutes.)

This post is part of Potluck Sundays, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, and Eat at Home.

Printable Recipe