Magic Cookie Bars

These are MY favorite.


My FAVORITE bar that I make for the holidays. Step by step will not be until the end of the month but you can handle these without.

1/2 C Butter cut into chunks
1 1/2 C Graham Cracker crumbs
14 oz can Condensed Milk
1 C chopped Walnuts
1/2 -3/4 C Coconut
6 oz Chocolate Chips

Heat oven to 350. In 13x9 cake pan, melt your butter in the oven a few minutes. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn. Sprinkle crumbs over the butter, mix it up and press into the pan with your hand or a fork to form the crust. Pour the condensed milk over the crust making sure it covers the entire crust. Top with coconut, chocolate chips and nuts. Press down a bit. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the edges are golden. Cool, cut and serve.Roll graham crackers into crumbs
Sprinkle graham crackers into butter
Drizzle condensed milk
Coconut
Sprinkle Chocolate chips
Chopped nuts
Done

Whipped Shortbread

I received this recipe from my friend Karol and they are so easy and yummy that I make them every year for Christmas. These are Alanna's favorites:)

Hope you like them.

1 C Soft Butter
1 1/2 C Flour
1/2 C Powdered Sugar

Whip all of this with your electric mixer for 10 minutes. I don't use the whisk attachment, just the regular paddle.

Place by small spoonfuls on a cookie sheet~I get about 6 dozen. You can put sprinkles on them if you want. Bake until lightly browned in a 300 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes. Cool.

Here's where I added my own touch. I melt white chocolate (I accidentally bought Mint flavored milk chocolate one year and those were a huge hit too) with a bit of red of green food coloring and I dip half of the cookie into the chocolate and then add some Christmas type sprinkles. Put on wax paper to harden.

I have never frozen them but Karol says they freeze well.
Out of oven
Dip in Chocolate

Rolo Cookie

These are a favorite in the cookie basket.

You also don't need to put any drizzle but I think it makes the cookie so much prettier.

2 Eggs
1 C Butter softened
2 t Vanilla
2 1/2 C Flour
1 C Brown Sugar
3/4 C Cocoa
1 C Sugar
1 t Baking Soda
1 bag of Rolos unwrapped

Mix your wet ingredients, add the dry and mix. Take a heaping tablespoon of dough and wrap around the Rolo making a ball. Make sure that the Rolo is completely wrapped, you don't want the caramel to seep out while baking.

Bake at 350 for about 8 minutes. Take out of the oven and whack on the counter to flatten a bit (you don't have to do that but I like a more uniform looking cookie, plus I like the element of surprise when someone bites into the cookie). Put on waxed paper to cool. Drizzle with white chocolate.

Put your Rolo in the middle of some dough and roll into balls
This is about how big they should be, about the size of a large gumball.Give them a whack on the counter before you take them off the pan
Drizzle

Peppermint Bath Salts

The holidays are coming whether we like it or not. It seems like you need a little something for everyone. We made these a couple of years ago and decided that we'll give it a go again this year. Claire was able to do this all by herself at the age of seven so buy the goods and let your kids have fun.

4 C Epsom salts
1 C Sea Salt
6 drops Peppermint Oil (not extract and you better get to the craft store soon, these sell out quick in December)
10 drops Red Food Coloring
peppermint candies or candy cane, for decoration

In one large sized bowl, stir together both salts, and peppermint oil.

Mix until distributed evenly.

Pour half of mixture into separate bowl and add red food coloring and stir well.

Layer each color into your 2 Glass Jars with lids (20 oz size) with alternating layers of each color, making it look like a striped peppermint candy.

Put lid on and decorate jar with peppermint candies or candy canes glued on.

Thanks to food.com for the photo because I didn't have one of the ones we made but they looked pretty close to this and we also used the mini canning jars and made a bunch for the extra people who she has contact with at the school.

Sugar Cookies

The tried and true. The cookie that Christmas wouldn't be the same without. The photo is from when I made them from Valentine's day but you get the idea:)

I will try to show you how to avoid the mistakes that make sugar cookies tough or dry. The two big tricks are to handle the dough as little as possible and watch the flour.

I always double the recipe because if you are going to take the time to make cut out cookies, you might as well make a bunch. These freeze very well. This is the "single" batch recipe.

2 1/2 C Flour
1 C Sugar
1 t Baking Powder
2 Eggs
2 t Vanilla
1/2 t Salt
12 T Butter ~ soft

Combine butter, eggs, vanilla and sugar at medium speed. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined and dough forms. Cover and chill at least 4 hours or up to 4 days. Roll dough and bake at 375 for about 8 minutes.
I did use my trusty KitchenAid Mixer but up until a year ago when I got it, a regular hand mixer and bowl did the trick. Here's your butter, eggs, vanilla and sugar ready to mix.
Make sure your wet ingredients are well mixed. Now it's time to add the dry.
The dough will form and look like this. Put in the fridge to chill. Make sure you chill at LEAST 4 hours, if you don't...the dough absorbs more flour when you are rolling it out and your cookies will NOT be good.
Sprinkle your counter with flour and divide the dough in half.
Push your dough down so you don't have to do so much work with the rolling pin.
Sprinkle the top with flour. You don't want your rolling pin to stick.
Start rolling out your dough, applying even and steady pressure with the rolling pin. Try to keep the dough a consistent thickness as you roll.
Cut your cookies as close together as you can. The less you have to re-roll the dough, the better the cookies.
This is a good thickness for your cookies. If they are thinner, watch them closely when baking because they will cook fast and be more crispy. If they are thicker, they are going to have a more doughy consistency even when fully cooked.
They don't spread much so this is how close you can put them. Bake for about 8 minutes at 375
In my opinion, a good sugar cookie should NOT be browned on the top at all. If you've rolled the dough so the thickness is consistent, they shouldn't be brown even on the edges. The bottom should look like this...lightly browned.
After you've rolled out the first batch, these are your leftovers, set aside. Roll the fresh batch same as the first.
This is your second time around. Mold dough ever so slightly into new ball. Use less flour on your counter because the dough is less sticky the second time around and re-roll the dough.
Save the sprinkle cookies until the end because your pan is going to have some sprinkles left over on the pan. Don't OVER sprinkle because the cookies don't cook evenly. This amount is perfect.
Here's the frosted ones drying and ready to bag.

To make butter cream frosting
1 stick soft Butter
4-5 C Powdered Sugar
2 t Vanilla
4-7 T Milk

Start out with 1 stick butter, 4 C powdered sugar, vanilla and 3 T milk. Mix it with your mixer. Keep adding milk by the T until it's the consistency you want. IF you add too much milk, add more powdered sugar. I've never used a true recipe for frosting, it was an add and adjust philosophy. When it's done, separate into different bowls and add food coloring. If you are using liquid food coloring remember it will thin the frosting a bit more.

Penguin Cupcakes

I saw these darling cupcakes here and just had to make them for Claire's dance class. I decided to use canned frosting just because I wasn't in the mood to make "homemade". That made them super easy. And, they were a hit! How fun would these be at your holiday party??

What you'll need:

Cupcakes that you've made from a box mix
Canned White Frosting
2 Tubes of colored frosting~Red and a color for the eyes, I had gold;)
Coconut...probably about a cup
Oreos

Separate your Oreos. The side without the filling, cut those in half, those are the arms. I probably broke about every 3rd or 4th cookie. If you don't have a child like Max who is standing behind you asking if he can eat them, you could put them in a ziploc and use for ice cream topping later or simply toss.

Frost your cooled cupcakes. You will want to immediately put the cookies on because you don't want the frosting to start to harden. Stick the filling side on the top for the face. Put a half on each side for the arm and sprinkle with coconut in the middle. Go back and put the faces on the Oreos with your tubes of frosting.

You're done!

Something to note...I made these about 4 p.m. for a 9 p.m. dance class and they were fine. The next day at lunch time, the Oreos had softened. Tasted fine, just a different texture.


As you can see this was a tad messy. Make sure you have a full container of Oreos for the breaking.

One little penguin all by itself.

The whole crew or here's a little of my Dad coming out...if they were real penguins on land, they would be called a Waddle.

It's December

We all know what that means? In 24 days, we'll be waiting for Santa Clause to come down the chimney and leave presents for all the good kids. It also means that for the most part, this month is a month of repeats because I want all of you to make some cookies, my favorite cookies!!

For all my loyal followers, I decided to make this year more fun. I've decided to share some photos of Christmas past because a friend of mine did that last year and I LOVED watching her kids grow up all over again.

This is the annual shot on Christmas Eve before the kids go home to sprinkle Reindeer Food and climb under the covers to wait for Santa.

This one is a tradition photo and it's typically my favorite of the season.