Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Cookies

Around Christmas time I bought a bag of Andes peppermint crunch baking chips and found this recipe on the back. I adapted it a bit and discovered that it's AMAZING if you like minty things. I don't even know if you can buy those chips at this time of year, but I don't want to lose this recipe.


Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 pkg (so about 5 oz) Andes peppermint crunch baking chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter and let cool to about room temperature. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in the eggs. Gradually beat in the flour mixture 1/3 at a time, beating at low speed just until blended. Stir in Andes peppermint crunch baking chips.

Drop rounded tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart onto an ungreased or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let rest on baking sheet for 1 minute then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Pumpkin Scones

Make these. They are delicious. They are English-style scones, in case you are wondering. I got this recipe several years ago from a friend, who in turn got it from somewhere online. This is slightly adapted.


Pumpkin Scones

• 2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 7 tablespoons sugar 
• 1 tablespoon baking powder 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger 
• 6 tablespoons cold butter 
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin 
• 3 tablespoons half-and-half 
• 1 large egg

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Using a pastry knife, fork, or food processor, cut butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are obvious. Set aside. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half, and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Form the dough into a ball. 

Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle (about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide). Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal portions. Cut those three slices diagonally so that you have six triangular slices of dough. (*Side note: I like to then cut the triangles again, so I end up with 12 triangles altogether. The size of scone is much more manageable for my little people.) Place on prepared baking sheet. 

Bake for 12–16 minutes. Scones should begin to turn light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.

Spiced Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar 
• 2 tablespoons whole milk 
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
• 1 pinch ground cloves 

Combine the ingredient for the spiced icing together. Drizzle over each scone. Tip: Put the cooling rack on top of the parchment-covered baking sheet. Then the icing doesn't make a mess when you drizzle it around.

Homemade Oreos

Homemade Oreos

1 box devil's food cake mix

3/4 cup shortening

2 eggs

Mix ingredients together. Roll into balls and bake at 350. Make them into sandwich cookies with cream cheese frosting.


**Lately I've been making my own mix instead of using a box mix. When you do this you have to use three eggs instead of two. Here you go:

Cake mix ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt 

Creamy Lemon Squares

I love lemon bars with all of my heart, but it's hard to find a really awesome recipe, and sub-par lemon bars are just disappointing. I also love cheesecake with all of my heart, but sometimes I'm not in the mood to buy six packages of cream cheese. Enter creamy lemon squares. These squares combine the best of both worlds, and I've mixed and matched a couple of recipes to create one that I love (and that is super simple). Here you go.

Creamy Lemon Squares

Crust
3/4 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups flour

Filling
2 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
4 Tbsp flour
6 Tbsp lemon zest
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (important that it's fresh!)
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 tsp powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Line 13x9-inch baking pan with parchment paper or foil (if using foil, lightly grease). In a large bowl, beat butter and powdered sugar until blended. Gradually beat in 1 1/2 cups flour. Press onto bottom of pan. Bake 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.*

Beat cream cheese and granulated sugar with mixer until blended. Add eggs and 4 Tbsp flour; mix well. Blend in 2 Tbsp lemon zest, lemon juice, and baking powder; pour over crust. Bake 25-28 minutes or until center is set.* Cool. Refrigerate 2 hours. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and remaining lemon zest. Lift out of pan with parchment paper or foil before cutting.

*My crust was done in 12 minutes. The filling was done in 15-17 minutes. But my oven bakes really really fast, so just know your oven and keep an eye on it.

Chocolate Cherry Cordial Cookies

I found this recipe in Parade magazine around Christmas time, and decided to give it a try . . . good decision, these are delicious! It sounds like a lot of work to put a cherry into each cookie, but really it's not, especially if you give a jar of cherries and a bowl of dough to 3 little boys then make dinner while they get the job done.  If you don't have 3 little boys, you could maybe sub in girls. Interestingly, these cookies were better the next day once the flavors had hung around together for a little bit. Yes, I bought rum extract for this recipe, but now I have a reason to make them again, so I'm not disappointed with the purchase.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp rum extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
30 maraschino cherries, drained and patted dry with a paper towel
2 Tbsp sugar, for coating

For glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp rum extract
4 tsp maraschino cherry juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, egg, and rum extract until light and fluffy. Add flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Beat well.

Flatten out about 1 Tbsp dough. Place a cherry on top; mold dough around it. Roll in sugar.Repeat with remaining dough.

Place cookies 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8 minutes. Cool on a rack.

For glaze, whisk ingredients; spoon over cookies.

Peanut Brittle

Well, guys, it's the Christmas season. Dad made some peanut brittle last night. I'm guessing most of you don't have the renowned "JC Penney Microwave Cookbook," so I thought I'd post the recipe here.

Peanut Brittle
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1-1.5 cups uncooked peanuts
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Combine first three ingredients and cook on high 10 minutes, stopping twice to stir. Immediately add remaining ingredients, stir, and divide onto two well-buttered cookie sheets, spread as thinly as possible.

*Dad always does this in the microwave. Try it out on the stove if you want to be a little crazy.

Swedish Cookies (Gingerbread)

I don't know how I ended up with this, but I have Grandma's recipe for gingerbread cookies. Here it is basically as she wrote it.

Swedish Cookies--Gingerbread men; good for children

[word I can't read] 15 minutes: 1 cup molasses and 1 cup shortening.

Cream together 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla. Dissolve 2 tsp baking soda in 1/2 cup hot water. Add hot water & baking soda to sugar & eggs. Sift together 6 cups flour, 1/4 tsp cloves, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp finger. Add to other mixture and stir until flour is well mixed.

May need more flour or to chill first.

Roll thin and cut with cookie cutter. Bake 10 minutes at 375. This dough doesn't stick to board.

--LouCeil

Hot Fudge Sauce

People. This hot fudge sauce is amazing. Whether you're having it on brownies, ice cream, or moon pie (like I did tonight in place of chocolate syrup), it's delicious. It reminds me of the yummy fudge sauce at Leatherby's. I've made this a few times and it has worked perfectly every time---just make sure you don't use too small of a saucepan or you'll have to babysit it so it won't boil over.

Hot Fudge Sauce

3/4 cup white sugar

3 Tbsp cocoa

2 Tbsp water

1 5-oz can evaporated milk

2 Tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla

Combine sugar and cocoa in a saucepan. Whisk in water; stir over low heat until cocoa dissolves. Add evaporated milk and butter; bring to a boil over medium heat. Stirring frequently, boil gently 5-6 minutes or until sauce thickens. Remove from heat and enjoy!

*This stores well in the fridge. If you want to reheat some, just heat up the amount you want to use because heating and cooling the sauce repeatedly will make it grainy.

Lemon Buttermilk Sheet Cake

Okay, if you like lemon things, you simply MUST make this cake. It's coming to you from America's Test Kitchen via Our Best Bites. I loved it, Dave loved it, M loved it. I used regular all-purpose flour despite the dire warnings and it was great. Also I only made half the glaze and I'm glad I did. Oh, and I splashed some extra lemon juice in the glaze and I'm glad I did that too. Okay, on to the recipe so you can get baking.

Lemon Buttermilk Sheet Cake

Recipe from America’s Test Kitchen Best Summer Desserts

Ingredients:

Cake:

2 1/2 cups (10 ounces) cake flour (no substitutions)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons grated lemon zest
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup white sugar
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk

Glaze:

3 cups (12 ounces) powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons buttermilk

Instructions:

Make sure the oven rack is in the middle position (unless you’ve found that another position works better in your oven for baking) and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×13″ baking dish and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside. In a measuring cup, combine buttermilk, lemon juice, and vanilla. Set aside.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the white sugar and lemon zest on medium speed until moist and fragrant (about 1 minute). Remove 1/4 cup of the sugar mixture and place it in a small bowl. Cover and set aside.

Add the softened butter to the remaining sugar mixture and beat until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in the eggs and yolk, one at a time, until incorporated. Reduce speed to low. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk mixture in 2 additions. Mix until smooth (about 30 seconds)

Scrape the batter into the reserved baking pan and smooth out the top. Bake until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (about 25-35 minutes). Be careful not to over bake. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

While the cake is cooling, whisk the glaze ingredients together until smooth. Gently spread the glaze over the cake and sprinkle evenly with the reserved sugar mixture. Allow to cool completely, at least 2 hours.

Rhubarb Galette

People. Please make this as soon as you possibly can get your hands on some rhubarb. Thank me later. I got the recipe from my friend's blog, katesplateii.blogspot.com. She has lots of good stuff.

Rhubarb Galette

{adapted from Martha Stewart}

1/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed at room temperature

1 pound rhubarb, sliced 1/2-inch thick

Juice of 1/2 lemon

3/4 cup granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

Pinch of ground, cinnamon

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

1 large egg, beaten

Turbinado or sanding sugar

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to a 14-inch round, about 1/8-inch thick.

Place rhubarb and lemon juice in a large bowl; toss to combine. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well combined. Add sugar mixture to rhubarb and toss until well coated. Arrange rhubarb mixture on top of dough, leaving a 2-inch border all the way around. Fold border over the fruit mixture, overlapping where necessary and pressing gently to adhere the folds. Brush edges of dough with egg, sprinkle with turbinado or sanding sugar, and dot with butter. Transfer to refrigerator and chill 15 to 20 minutes.

Bake until crust is deep golden brown and juices are bubbling, 55 to 60 minutes. Transfer baking sheet to a wire rack to cool the galette. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Chocolate Lava Cake

This is the most unhealthy thing ever. But also the most delicious. I crave this like crazy. At least it's not fried . . .
I always use this recipe off of Famous French Desserts. I'm always afraid the website won't exist anymore, so I'm rewriting it here. Oh, and I don't have a double boiler, and I don't pretend to make one. I just put it on super low heat and stir constantly. It all melts fast.

6 oz. Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate (or use your favorite 70% dark chocolate bar)
6 oz. Butter (diced, room temperature)
3 Eggs
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar (reduce sugar if you prefer darker chocolate)
1/3 cup Flour
Butter for Ramekins

How to Make It:

Preheat oven to 350°F

1. Melt chocolate on low flame in a bain-marie (double boiler). When melted, take of flame, and…
2. Stir in diced butter, until it melts.
3. In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar, until it starts to whiten.
4. Stir in melted chocolate and then the flour.
5. Butter 4 individual ramekins, and pour in chocolate batter.
6. Cook for about 10 minutes.
7. Tip ramekins upside down onto dessert plates and serve.

Voilà!

Tips:
You can definitely prepare your chocolate lave cake recipe ahead of time, and then bake 10 minutes before serving. I always do it this way!

In terms of buttering the ramekins: butter the bottoms first, and then butter the sides, wiping from the bottom up to the top. It helps the chocolate to rise even more.

In terms of baking time… well, it depends on how runny you want it! I like it with a super-liquid-oozing center -- so do my guests! For this, you want the top to be cooked through, but the center to be liquid. You can check with a toothpick after 10 minutes of baking. (If your oven cooks hot, check earlier. So disappointing when it doesn't ooze.)

If you don't like liquid-center chocolate desserts, just cook for a little longer, and you will have an incredibly moist chocolate cake. So, either way, you can't go wrong!

Let it cool for around 10ish minutes before attempting to invert onto a plate. It will be very hot.

Scones!

I'm talking about frybread-type scones, not English scones. I have tried a million scone recipes over the years, and they all seemed to be either too time consuming or too rubbery and tough in the end. These, however, are the perfect scones and I'm completely in love. I've made them a few times and they've always turned out well. They're pretty quick, too. I know Rhodes rolls work in a pinch, but these are definitely worth the extra 5 or 10 minutes they take to make.

One recipe probably makes 8 smallish scones. Double it if you're making it for the whole fam. Of course they're great for Navajo tacos or simply with jam, cinnamon & sugar, or honey. Please, if you like scones, give these a try!

Oh yeah, and I got this recipe from a sister in my ward. It's in our RS cookbook.

Quick, Never-Fail Scones

1 c. milk (scald)

1 ½ Tbs. Shortening (add to milk, cool to lukewarm)

1 pkg. yeast (dissolve in ¼ c. warm water)

Combine the following dry ingredients and add to the liquids above – blend well.

2 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. sugar

Knead 20 times.

Let rise 10 minutes. Roll out to ½” thickness. Cut into squares. Deep fry.

Toffee Bars

Cindy and I have been in love with this recipe for years. We got it from an older version of the Better Homes and Garden cookbook--it's no longer in their cookbook, which is a shame because it's the best. But here it is for your eating pleasure.

Crust
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup flour

Filling
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
2 Tbsp. butter
2 tsp. vanilla

Topping*
semi-sweet chocolate chips


For crust, beat 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/4 tsp. salt until combined. Stir in 1 cup flour and then pat mixture into an ungreased 13x9 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 min. or until edges are golden brown. (Will work well with a mixture of white and wheat flour.)

While crust is baking, make filling. Stirring CONSTANTLY,** heat sweetened condensed milk and 2 Tbsp. butter in small saucepan over low heat until bubbly. Then continue heating (and stirring constantly) for about 5 min. more. It will become thick and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Spread on baked layer and bake 12-15 min.

For topping, sprinkle chocolate chips on toffee and return to oven until chips are soft (usually less than 5 min.). Spread chocolate with a rubber spatula. Let toffee bars cool slightly before serving, but remove them from pan and store in another container before completely hard or they will be stuck to the pan forever.

*I no longer have the original recipe for the fudge icing because the chocolate chips are so much easier and just as tasty. Ask Cindy if you want it.

**Also, I'm not kidding about stirring the filling constantly while you are cooking it. Just invest 7 minutes of your life in this and it's easy. Today I let a toddler drag me away for a couple of minutes and it very quickly turned into a black, burned disaster. Just a fair warning.

P.S. I'm trying to figure out how to make these not only taste good, but look good. They are usually a bit ugly because they get crumbly when you take them out of the pan, but you have to take them out early or they get too hard. Next time I'm going to line the pan with parchment paper so I can remove the whole thing from the pan without cutting it, and then once they're cool I'll cut them. I think that will do the trick.

Cherry-Pineapple Sunrise Cake

This recipe came from Kathryn's aunt, Anne Goodman. They've always called it "dump cake," but I thought you might like a name that's a little more appetizing. The beauty of this cake is that you just dump all the ingredients into a 9x13 pan with no mixing (hence the name), bake it, and eat a delicious cake an hour later. Super easy and super delicious. So, here you go.

Spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray. Put ingredients into pan in order listed below:

• 1 can cherry pie filling (21 oz)
• 1 small can crushed pineapple, drained
• 1 white or yellow cake mix
• 1 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Bake at 325 for 1 hour.

No Bake Cookies

2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup coco powder
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
2 cups oats
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla

Mix sugar, salt, and coco powder in saucepan. Add butter and milk; bring to a boil. Add oats, peanut butter, and vanilla; mix well. Place spoonfuls on wax paper and let cool.

What Our Family Calls Flan

 . . . and the Germans call Obsttorte, which is where we got it. Americans may call it a Fruit Tart, but I say who cares, just give me some!

oven- 350

Shell:
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
approx. 2 tbsp milk

Filling:
any flavor Danish Dessert
1 bag of any fruit

Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla, eggs, flour, baking powder, and milk; mix well. Spread evenly in well buttered flan pan; bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes. REmove from oven and cool. Make Danish Dessert according to pudding directions, adding only 1.5 cups of water. Mix in fruit; spread over inverted flan shell. Chill for approx. 3 hours.

Brownies

I got this recipe off of the internet (I don't remember where) forever ago, and discovered they are delicious!

oven- 350

1 cup butter, melted
2 cups white sugar
1 tsp vanilla flavoring
2 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups plain flour

Cream butter and sugar. (can be done with a mixer, but I do it by hand because you have to do everything else by hand, if you don't the brownies get really tough.) Add the vanilla and eggs and mix until just smooth. Pour in cocoa and flour. Again, mix until smooth and lumps are broken up. Remember to not go too crazy because you really don't want tough brownies. Bake for approx. 22 minutes in a 9x9 pan.

Mom's Carrot Cake

I don't know where she got this recipe, so it's hers now! (Isn't that probably how these things usually happen?)

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups grated carrots
1 small can crushed pineapple (half a large can works, too)

Sift first five ingredients together. Add egg, oil, carrots, and pineapple. Mix well and pour in greased 13 x 9 pan. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Note: That was what the original recipe said. However, I need to play with the bake times a little. 30 minutes was perfect for two 9-inch round cakes.

I liked this cream cheese frosting I loosely got from allrecipes.com. (from several recipes)

1/2 c. butter (1 stick)
1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
3-4 cups powdered sugar (according to desired sweetness/consistency)
1 t. vanilla

Cream butter and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar and mix well before mixing in vanilla. Don't eat too much of it, save some for the cake.

Caramel Corn

I thought of posting this, mainly because I need more time for my 10 hour project, and because I'm eating it while I type.

1 Stick Butter
1/2 cup Corn Syrup
1 cup Brown Sugar

In the microwave, bring to a boil (approx. 2 minutes). Then add 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk, and cook 4 more minutes (or until it forms a ball in ice cold water), stirring every 2 minutes. Take out of microwave and add 1 tsp vanilla. Pour over popcorn.

Skor Cake

We've heard this cake called by lots of names, but Sarah and I like this one. Fantastic part about this is you get a yummy cake but it's fast to make.

1 box chocolate cake mix (I like Devil's food)
whatever you need to make the cake mix
1 8 oz. tub Cool Whip
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 small jar caramel or butterscotch ice cream topping (optional - I like caramel)
2-3 toffee candy bars (Skor or Heath - I say more is better)

Prepare cake according to box directions. When cake has cooled, take a straw and poke holes all over the cake. Pour entire can of sweetened condensed milk all over cake, making sure to get some in the holes. Then, pour ice cream topping all over cake. You may not need the entire jar, depending on the size - go with your preference. Next, spread the entire tub of Cool Whip on top. Finally, break up candy bars into small pieces and sprinkle on top of Cool Whip. It will be yummy if you eat it now, but way better if you refrigerate for several hours. The goo soaks into the cake, and makes deliciousness.