Blog Fail/Christmas Cookies

Ok, so I failed miserably at the Pumpkin a day recipe challenge...oops! But you know what... I'm in law school!! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Anyways, finals ended on the ninth and believe me I have been baking since (and before) then, after all I hate studying.

So I'll just start catching up for December Christmas Cookies. Now I must remind you! I'm leaving on a cruise on the 24th...so that's when the cookies end!!

Alrighty, we're going to start with...

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies!
These were a request from Robert and I couldn't find a recipe I liked, so this is my own creation!! How fun!!

Ingredients
1 C Butter
1 3/4 C Sugar
2 Eggs
2 TBS Peppermint Extract
2 C AP flour
1 C Cocoa (Dutch Process)
1 TSP Baking soda
1/2 TSP Salt
1 C Chocolate Chips

Process:
Set oven to 375 F
In a bowl mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in eggs and peppermint extract and mix until thoroughly combined. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet, you might want to do this in installments. When then is all combined and looks like cookie dough stir in the chocolate chips. Now, I added crushed peppermints! You can add these to the batter, or roll the cookies in the crushed peppermints, or sprinkle on top after baking...really whatever you want.
Now scoop them onto a parchment or silicone mat lined cookie pan and into your pre heated oven.

Bake for 7-9 minutes or until the cookies look done on the bottom. I check this by lifting one edge with a spatula. Since these are chocolate it's harder to tell, but feel the center, you don't want your finger to sink it, but you don't want it to be hard either (that's burned).

Christmas Countdown

I know it seems like I've forgotten I have a blog...ok maybe I did for a little while! But hey I'm back now!! I've been sooo busy with school and graduation plans and after graduation plans etc etc. Anyways enough of my excuses on why I've neglected you. So it's something like 7 weeks til Christmas and I've decided that every week will be a new cookie or dessert for Christmas. I don't have one picked out yet, but I should have it by Wednesday since that's when I plan on baking. So if I'm not back tomorrow I will definitely be writing on Wednesday! Until then...BYE!!

Oral Fixation, Intoxication, or Addiction?

Everyone knows I have a sweet tooth, it's obvious from my nickname, my love of baking, and baked goods. To get more to the point though on Sunday I saw a commercial for Milano cookies, I love Milano cookies and haven't had them in a while so of course a craving ensued. I jumped into the car with a friend and headed to the store to grab cookies and some beer of course. Outside of the store those sweet innocent girl scouts were advertising the last day to buy girl scout cookies. These girls seem like angels but in reality they're sirens singing their sweet song of cookies and luring you to your destruction. Their song was completely effective and I fell to my sugary death buying 6 boxes of Samoans. Then we continued our trek into the store where I bought three bags of Milanos. This wouldn't be a big deal if I possessed an ounce of self control, unfortunately when it comes to cookies I don't. Here comes the kicker, I later drove to my house and ate almost a whole bag of milanos without even realizing I was eating them, I had no idea until boyfriend pointed out the empty bag later that day. So this leads to my question, do I constantly munch on cookies because I have to have something in my mouth, because I'm high (haha...my mom suggested this, it's completely fictional), or because I have a cookie/sugar addiction?

I'm on the downhill side of the second day of my cookie free week challenge and it's not going so well. I was grouchy and shaky yesterday until I had some frozen yogurt. Today I've gotten over the shaky feeling but still feel somewhat grouchy and unmotivated. Overall I am not happy about my lack of sweets, but I guess I will appreciate the supposed health benefits of it.

Anyway, I will be updating on whether or not the cookie free week has succeeded or not and how my mood deals with the loss of sugar.

Superbowl feast...more like superbowl sugar-induced coma

"The theme for the Super bowl party is smoked meat"
"What should Cami bake then?"
"She's never made anything bad so whatever she wants"

That's a whole lot of freedom on my part if you think about it. I can make whatever I want on the treat side of the Superbowl menu. I've started out big, a yellow cake giant cupcake that I intend to ice white and blue and draw a horseshoe on...am I a Colts fan, yes. Do I enjoy annoying Dan, yes. So this cake is a win win situation.

Of course I'll make Andes mint cookies and then chocolate sour cream cupcakes. The two new things I'll add to my menu will be my new favorite cheesecake and a Texas sheet cake whose recipe is so old it still calls for Oleo. For those of you who don't know what Oleo is, it's margarine, but it's the term used for margarine in sometime around the 60's I think.

Anyways hopefully I'll remember to take pictures of all these goodies, and if you happen to be invited to the superbowl party then you'll get to partake in them as well!

3rd and 4th cookies!!

Well, I quickly flew through the 3rd and 4th cookies of the platter. The first of which was Peppermint Meltaways:

1 c butter softened
1/2 c powdered sugar
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1-1/4 c all purpose flour
1/2 c cornstarch
Frosting:
2 tbsp butter softened
1-1/2 c powered sugar
2 tbsp milk (I added a touch more milk to get a smoother consistency)
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
2-3 drops red food coloring
1/2 c crushed peppermint candies

1. In a small bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the extract. Combine flour and cornstarch; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

2. Shape into 1 in balls. Place 2 in apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

3. In a small bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Add the confectioners' sugar, milk, extract and food coloring; beat until smooth. Spread over cooled cookies; sprinkle with crushed candies. Store in an airtight container.

These cookies were super easy to make and I knocked them out in about 45 minutes! The icing was fun to apply, with a butter knife. It was also quite fun to smash the candies...I did so by leaving them in their wrapping and hitting them with a rolling pin.

After these were done, I moved onto just simple chocolate chip cookies. Now I prize this recipe and it will be included on the recipe cards that come with each platter, but I won't be posting it here. However, this recipe makes a lot of cookies! And they always seem to turn out very well, even if sometimes the oven gets too hot, or I forget to turn on a timer.

Since it made so many cookies, after this batch I decided to enjoy some cookies and milk and watch A Nightmare Before Christmas! Great night over all if I do say so myself!

First cookie of the saga...

Well the first cookie of the cookie platter saga begins tonite! And the first cookies shall be...Candy Cane Cookies! Now I've made these before and they're a huge hit with my family, they're also very easy to do...

1/2 tube refigereated sugar cookie dough (softened)
2 tbs all purpose flour
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 tsp red food coloring

In a large bowl, beat the cookie dough, flour and extract until smooth. Divide dough in half; mix food coloring into one portion.

Shape 1 tsp of white dough into a 6 in. rope. Shape 1 tsp of red dough into a 6 in rope. Place ropes side by side; press together lightly and twist.

Place on an ungreased baking sheet; curve top of cookie to form handle of cane. Repeat with remaining dough, placing cookies 2 in. apart on baking sheets.

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until set. Cool for 2 minutes before carefully removing to wire racks.

Also if you have the time...here's a quick tip for easy teaspoons of dough. Pat your dough into a rectangle on a baking sheet and freeze until almost solid. Then slice it into a grid. Pick up and roll pieces for baking! All cookies are then the same size!!

So...at least an hour and a half later...I'm done with candy cane cookies...for now at least! The problem with this recipe is that it doesn't turn out nearly as many cookies as it promises. This could be my fault because I like bigger cookies...yep it's my fault, but anyways I will have to revisit this one before sending out cookie platters!

Cookie Platters!

Alrighty, so I've decided to make cookie platters for about 7 of my closest friends households. I've bought most of the ingredients, and have the recipe list almost completely narrowed down. However, there are a few cookies I just can't decide on! So I need help:

Here are the for sure cookies:
Mint Andes Chip Cookies
Candy Cane Cookies
Chocolate Crinkles
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Espresso Swirl Cookies
Peppermint Meltaways
Butterscotch Hard Candy

Now for the maybe list (I'd like to only have 1 or 2 from this list so pick carefully!):
Chocolate Macadamia Nut Macaroons
Star Sandwish Cookies
Butter Cookies Snowmen
Chocolate Mint Dreams
Frosted Poppy Seed Cookies
Soft Molasses Cutout Cookies
Mocha Nut Fudge

Obviously I have a bias against Peanut Butter cookies...But if you have a recipe that is awesome and would like me to consider it send it to me and I'll see if it measures up to these tried and true favorites of mine.

Also, the progress of the cookie making process will be updated hopefully with pictures and recipes!