This time of year is one of my favorite times of year. Yes, it's cold out and I prefer summer, but I love the holidays. Mostly I love the holidays because I get to see family and friends that I don't get to see very often. But I also love the holidays for all the goodies (maybe my waistline hates me for it, but I can't resist). I found two recipe ideas on pinterest that I wanted to give a try. Both were very delicious so I wanted to share: Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (these babies are like brownies in cookie form) and Chocolate Dipped S'mores.
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup unsweetened cocoa
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
powdered sugar for rolling
Directions
1. Combine sugar, oil, and cocoa in a large bowl. Beat until well blended.
2. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add to coca mixture, beating well.
4. Cover and refrigerate dough until it's firm enough to handle. You can place it in the freezer if you want it to firm up quicker. (I put my dough in the freezer for 10-15 minutes and it was ready to bake)
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease cookie sheet (or use silpat)
6. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, then roll them in powdered sugar. Place on a cookie sheet about two inches apart from each other.
7. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
Chocolate Dipped S'mores
Ingredients
2/3 of the graham crackers from 1 box
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 bag of marshmallows
Sprinkles
Directions
1. Cover cookie sheet in foil and heat oven to 400.
2. Break graham crackers in half or into quarters (whatever you prefer)
3. Place graham crackers on cookie sheet. Place a marshmallow on half of the graham crackers. Place chocolate chips (about 6 per half graham cracker) on the other half of the graham crackers on the cookie sheet.
4. Place cookie sheet in oven at 400 for 3-5 minutes (monitor very closely). Remove when marshmallows have gotten bigger and have started to brown very lightly and the chocolate chips are just starting to melt.
5. Remove cookie sheet from oven and place chocolate half on top of marshmallow half.
6. Melt remaining chocolate chips in microwave. Heat in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second increments, stirring each time. Dip s'mores in melted chocolate and place on parchment paper to dry. Add sprinkles if desired before the chocolate has hardened.
7. Let the chocolate harden and enjoy.
Tip: Adjust quantities of ingredients for the s'mores as desired based on the number you want to make.
Credit for the chocolate crinkle cookies goes to Chef in Training. Credit for the chocolate dipped s'mores idea goes to Tip Junkie.
With the leaves changing colors and Halloween coming up I felt like trying out some pumpkin desserts. I didn't have any recipes so I checked out one of my favorite blogs, skinnytaste and tried out these two recipes: Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Chocolate Glaze and Pumpkin Cupcakes with Pumpkin Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting. Everyone who tried these really liked them. The cookies especially were a big hit. Check out the recipes below:
Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Chocolate Glaze
Ingredients
4 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp pumpkin spice
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
For the chocolate glaze:
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 Tbsp milk
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheet with silicone mat.
2. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add egg, beat well. Mix in pumpkin, buttermilk, and vanilla.
3. In another bowl, combine flour, spice, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Gradually add to pumpkin mixture. Mix well.
4. Drop by round tablespoonfuls, 2 inches apart onto silicone lined baking sheet. Bake 12-14 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire rack.
5. For the glaze: Whisk the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, milk, vanilla, and salt in a bowl. Place in a ziplock bag. Seal the bag and but the point off of one corner and drizzle onto cookies.
Tip: Don't feel like buying buttermilk for just one recipe, use this alternative.
Pumpkin Cupcakes with Pumpkin Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Betty Crocker Golden Vanilla or French Vanilla Super Moist Cake Mix
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 cup water
For the cream cheese frosting:
8 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese softened
1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
5 Tbsp packed brown sugar
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake wrappers.
2. Combine cake mix and pumpkin spice in a large bowl. Add pumpkin puree and water. Mix for about 2 minutes.
3. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake about 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
4. For the frosting, combine the cream cheese, pumpkin, vanilla, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and brown sugar until smooth. Use a spatula to put the icing on the cupcakes.
Tip: These cupcakes are good enough without the frosting if you're looking for something more muffin-like rather than cake-like.
Credit goes to skinnytaste for both these delicious recipes.
These are a favorite of my entire family's. And the great thing about them is that you can add different things (like raisins, chocolate chips, coconut, and nuts) to make them a little differently each time. I made these last month with chocolate chips and coconut for a Super Bowl party and the whole plate was gone before you could blink an eye.
Ingredients
3/4 cup margerine or butter softened
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups quick oats
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
May add:
1 cup raisins
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup nuts
1 cup coconut
Directions
1. Beat together butter, brown sugar, and egg.
2. Add milk, vanilla, and quick oats.
3. Add remaining ingredients.
4. Use spoon to get 1 inch spoonfuls and place on lightly greased cookie sheet (no need to shape or flatten as they will do that in the oven).
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
Emily's Thoughts
The trick to making cookies that stay moist is to stack them after they've had a few minutes to cool (as in the back row in the picture above). Make sure they've cooled enough so that they don't stick to each other, but I usually stack them after I've taken the newest cookies out of the oven to make room for those to cool. Also, with these cookies, I sometimes let them rest on the cookie sheet for a minute after I take them out of the oven and before placing them on the cooling rack. This lets them firm up a little.
Special thanks goes to my mom and my Aunt Marlys for this delicious recipe.
In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I made my favorite sugar cookie recipe in the shape of hearts. You can make whatever shape you want though, you just need the cookie cutter. I always get compliments on the recipe, so hopefully you like them :)
Cookies
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup margarine or butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 egg
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
Directions
1. Mix powdered sugar, butter (I prefer unsalted butter, but you can use margarine too), vanilla, almond extract, and egg
2. Stir in remaining ingredients
3. Cover
and refrigerate for at least 3 hours (I often refrigerate overnight to
spread out the time commitment to make these cookies)
4. After dough has refrigerated for enough time, heat oven to 375°.
5. Sprinkle counter-top or pasty cloth with flour. Create larger pile of flour to pat cookie cutters in.
6. Grab a section of the dough and roll out to about 3/16" thick using a floured rolling pin (as in the picture below).
7. Cut out
shapes using cookie cutter. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Or use a
cookie sheet with a silpat.
8. Bake until edges are light brown, 7 to 8 minutes. I typically let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for a minute before placing them on the cooling rack
The secret to keeping your cookies moist is to stack them after they've had 5 minutes or so to cool on the cooling rack (as in the stack in the picture above).
Frosting
Ingredients
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup margerine or butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
About 2 Tbsp milk
Directions
1. Mix powdered sugar and margerine
2. Stir in vanilla and milk
3. Beat until smooth and of spreading consistency. Add a little more milk if not smooth enough.
4. Add any food coloring desired.
Let the frosting harden a little before stacking cookies on top of each other in a storage container.
Note: Instead of frosting, you can decorate cookies with sprinkles before placing in oven. Tip for this: to get sprinkles to stick to cookies better, you can mix egg whites with a little water and paint on cookies, then add sprinkles and cook.
Credit for recipe goes to Betty Crocker (taken from the Betty Crocker cook book)
