Chocolate for the Holidays

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.

Peach Cobbler

I was recently watching something on TV (I can't remember what now),  and they were eating peach cobbler. That made me start to crave my mom's peach cobbler. So I got the recipe from her and decided to give it a shot. I thought it turned out deliciously. The recipe is really easy. The only time-consuming thing is peeling the peaches, and that doesn't really take that long. I highly suggest trying this recipe out :)

Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp cinnamon
4 cups sliced and peeled peaches (about 6 medium)
1 tsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp butter or margarine
1 cup all purpose flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk 

Directions
1. Heat oven to 400
2. Mix 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon in saucepan. Stir in peaches and lemon juice. Cook stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils.
3. Boil and stir peaches for 1 minute.
4. Pour into ungreased casserole dish or pyrex dish (the square size is good). Keep fruit mixture warm in oven.
5. In a separate bowl combine flour, 1 Tbsp sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut butter/margarine into mixture until it resembles fine crumbs.
6. Stir in milk.
7. Drop dough by 6 spoonfuls onto hot peach mixture.
8. Bake until topping is golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm. 

Credit to my mom for making this recipe so many times over the years. And credit to Betty Crocker for giving the recipe to her initially. 

Apple Turnovers

I had some leftover pie crust in my fridge, so I decided to make up a recipe for apple turnovers. I think they turned out quite deliciously :)...They're very easy, so give them a try!
 

Ingredients

Turnovers

1 sheet of refrigerated pie crust (like Pillsbury)

1 Tbsp softened butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 large granny smith apple, peeled and diced

Frosting

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp milk

Directions

1. Unroll pie crust and spread most of the butter on the crust (save a little to spread on the top of each turnover).

2. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle half of the mixture on top of the pie crust.  

3. Cut pie crust into 4 pieces (i.e. cut in half and in half again)

4. Peel and dice up the apple and toss into bowl with remaining sugar and cinnamon mixture. Make sure to coat all pieces with the mixture. 

5. Evenly divide apple pieces into piles on top of pie crust quarters. Fold crust over apple pieces to make a triangle shaped turnover. Like so:

6. Spread remaining butter on top of turnovers and cut two small slits on the tops of each to allow for venting while baking.

7. Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes until crust is a light golden brown.

8. While turnovers are baking, combine all frosting ingredients in a bowl and mix together. After removing turnovers from oven and letting cool for a few minutes, drizzle frosting on top of turnovers. 

Yields: 4

Now enjoy these delicious treats!

Emily's Thoughts

These were really easy to throw together and I didn't need anything special in terms of tools. You can get fancy apple peelers out there, but I don't own one, so I used a potato peeler to peel my apple. If you don't have one of those, use a knife. It may take longer, but it will be worth it. 

Chocolate Guinness Cake

In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, I tried out this recipe that I found online. So use your leftover Guinness and try it out:

Ingredients
1 cup Guinness
1/2 cup butter, cubed
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup baking cocoa
2 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup sour cream
3 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Topping:
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions
1. Grease 9-in springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper; set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, heat beer and butter until butter is melted. 
3. Remove from the heat; whisk in sugar and cocoa until blended. 
4. Combine the eggs, sour cream and vanilla; whisk into beer mixture.
5. Combine flour and baking soda; whisk into beer mixture until smooth.
6.  Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Remove sides of pan.
7. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy.
8. Add powdered sugar and cream. Beat until smooth (do not over-beat).
9. Remove cake from the pan and place on a platter or cake stand.
10. Ice top of cake so that it resembles a frothy pint of beer. Refrigerate leftovers.


Emily's Thoughts
This recipe was fairly easy and delicious. A bunch of my friends tried it and liked it. And I don't own a springform pan, so I just used a round 9-in cake pan. This worked out just fine because I greased it really well before pouring the batter into it. After taking the cake out of the oven, I used a knife to cut around the edges and then let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack before removing it from the pan. 

Credit for this recipe goes to Taste of Home.

Oatmeal Cookies

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.

Sugar Cookies

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)