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Two sisters who love to bake...

Archives for December 2019

Peanut Butter Balls with Graham Crackers

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Peanut Butter Balls with Graham Crackers.

I had never had these until I met my husband (they are his favorite), his mom makes them every Christmas. I love them! She makes the plain creamy ones, but then a friend made the ones with graham cracker crumbs in them, and I like those even more. Now I make this kind every year, so my husband gets double.

I hate making things that you have the to dip in chocolate, and I hate melting chocolate chips even more. I find it much easier to buy the melting chocolates. I usually mix some of the good stuff (Ghirardelli melts) with some of the chocolate almond bark. I think it melts much better than chocolate chips, but that’s just me. I know some people add paraffin wax to the chocolate chips instead of oil, but I have never tried that before.

Also a lot of people dip them in chocolate with a toothpick, but I find it easier to just use a fork, but it’s what ever is easier for you.

   


Peanut Butter Balls with Graham Crackers
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups creamy peanut butter
  • 1 cup butter soft
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3½-4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1⅓ cups graham cracker crumbs
  • Chocolate Dip:
  • 3-4 cups chocolate chips &1 tablespoon shortening or oil
  • (Or you can just use chocolate or vanilla melts, or almond bark)
Instructions
  1. Mix together peanut butter, butter, vanilla, sugar, and graham cracker crumbs. Shape into 1 inch balls. Place in freezer for 20-30 mins.
  2. Melt chocolate chips and shortening/oil in double boiler (or follow directions on chocolate melts/almond bark). Dip balls into chocolate mixture with a fork or toothpicks. Let dry on waxed paper.

 

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Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

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Chocolate Crinkle Cookies coated in powdered sugar.

I love making these Chocolate Crinkle Cookies at Christmas time. I just made a batch to give away to neighbors and friends along with several other kinds of cookies. This recipe is for all the chocolate lovers out there because not very many Christmas cookies are chocolate.

I think this recipe is a little finicky when it comes to how much flour to add. I think it depends on several factors including: how you measure your flour (the scoop & knife method or packing it down), the brand of flour you use, whether you hand mix or use an electric mixer, and even the climate. My sister makes this recipe as listed below to a T. When I made it I used cheap $1.49 flour from Aldi (love Aldi prices), the climate was humid, and I used a stand electric mixer. I needed to add about 1/4 cup extra flour to thicken up the batter. I blame this on one of the factors above. From past experience I find that if you hand mix batters they turn out thicker, maybe it is just me.

  

I heard that the powdered sugar will stick better if you first lightly coat it in regular sugar first so I used 2 bowls: 1 for regular granulated sugar and 1 for powdered sugar. It seemed to work well, the cookies stayed coated in powdered sugar without any melting off.

Recipe makes about 60 cookies depending on the size you make them. If you don’t need a ton then you can cut the recipe in half.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • -For Coating-
  • 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
  • ½ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
  1. Mix cocoa powder, sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla together.
  2. Mix in flour, baking powder, and salt. (*You may need to add up to an extra ¼ cup of flour, see note below)
  3. Chill dough covered in the frig for at least 3 hours or overnight.
  4. After dough has been chilled Preheat oven to 350 F. degrees.
  5. Line a cookie sheet with a non stick baking mat or grease cookie sheet.
  6. Scoop dough into 1" balls and roll lightly in granulated sugar then roll generously in powdered sugar.
  7. Place on greased cookie sheet.
  8. Bake for 10 -12 minutes. Move to cooling rack about 5 minutes after taking out of oven.

*The batter for these cookie will be a little on the thin side compared to other cookie doughs recipe but if the batter is very thin add up to 1/4 cup extra flour to thicken it up. *Please Note* the batter will thicken up quite a bit after refrigeration.

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Stamped Shortbread Cookies

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Stamped Shortbread Cookies.

My sister bought me a cute cookie stamp that says Home Made on it quite a while ago and I tried making some recipes with it but none held their shape so I gave up on it for a while. I started researching how to make the best cookie stamp dough again and thankfully this recipe is a keeper. The dough worked great for making stamped shortbread cookies. No need to chill the dough either!

I rolled the dough into about 2″ balls and then dipped the stamp in sugar and pressed the balls down to stamp them. This recipe was really easy to make.

Recipe makes about 18 large cookies.

Stamped Shortbread Cookies
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 18
Ingredients
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 F. degrees.
  2. Add butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla to a mixing bowl and hand mix.
  3. Add in flour and mix until combined.
  4. Scoop dough and roll into 2" balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.
  5. Dip cookie stamp into a shallow dish of sugar or powdered sugar and stamp the dough ball, repeat with each dough ball.
  6. Bake at 400 F. for 10-12 minutes until cookies look set and slightly golden on edges.

 

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Christmas Sugar Cookie Bites with Cream Cheese Frosting

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Christmas Sugar Cookie Bites with Cream Cheese Frosting.

These are great little Christmas cookies! Easy to make with only a few ingredients. If you don’t want to frost them, you could always add food coloring to the dough or add sprinkles to the dough before baking. But I love the cream cheese frosting!!

I used a mini cookie scooper, I’m not sure of the exact size, but it’s about 2 teaspoons.

     


Christmas Sugar Cookie Bites with Cream Cheese Frosting
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 48
Ingredients
  • Cookies:
  • 1¼ cups flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ cup butter soft
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • Frosting:
  • 4 oz soft cream cheese
  • 3 tablespoons butter soft
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • sprinkles
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven. to 350 degree. Place parchment paper on two cookie sheets.
  2. In small bowl combine flour and baking soda. In large bowl combine butter, vanilla, sugar and egg. Slowly add in the flour mixture.
  3. Scoop 2 teaspoons dough and roll into a ball, place on parchment paper cookie sheets.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees for 7-10 mins. Let cool completely before frosting.
  5. For the frosting, mix all the frosting ingredients together and frost cooled cookies. Add sprinkles.

 

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Christmas Tree Peanut Butter Spritz Cookies

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Christmas Tree Peanut Butter Spritz Cookies drizzled with chocolate.

Christmas Tree Peanut Butter Spritz Cookies. I love making spritz cookies during the Christmas season. These cookies along with several others are being mailed out as gifts this week.

You can leave these as plain peanut butter spritz cookies or use some melting chocolate to drizzle over the tops. Ghirardelli Chocolate Melting Wafers (amazon affiliate) are one of our favorites to use or you can use any melting chocolate you prefer.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies. You will need a cookie press (amazon affiliate link) to make these and a Christmas tree disk.

Christmas Tree Peanut Butter Spritz Cookies
 
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Serves: 48
Ingredients
  • ½ cup salted butter (softened)
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1 Tablespoon hot water
  • 1¼ cups all purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • -Topping-
  • Ghirardelli Chocolate Melting Wafers
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
  2. Cream butter and sugars together. Beat in egg, peanut butter and hot water.
  3. Mix in flour and baking soda until well combined.
  4. Add Christmas tree disc to cookie press. Fill cookie press with dough. Form cookies on ungreased cookie sheets.
  5. Bake for 10 minutes or until edges are just starting to turn golden. Move cookies to cooling rack right after they come out and allow to cool.
  6. Drizzle tops with melting chocolates if desired.

 

 

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Soft M&M Christmas Cookie Bars

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Soft M&M Christmas Cookie Bars.

These are super easy and cute Christmas Cookies, and they have CHOCOLATE! There are not too many Christmas cookies out there that actually have chocolate in them :(

Don’t forget to save a few M&Ms and sprinkles for the top (before you bake).

Don’t over bake these. Just let the edges get a little golden and they are done.


Soft M&M Christmas Cookie Bars
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 20
Ingredients
  • 2¼ cups flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1½ sticks melted butter (12 tablespoons)
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1½ cups M&Ms
  • ¼ cup mini or regular chocolate chips
  • sprinkles optional
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven. to 325.
  2. In medium bowl mix together flour, salt and baking soda.
  3. In large bowl cream together butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. Slowly stir in the flour mixture until combined.
  4. Add M&Ms, chocolate chips and sprinkles (you can save a little bit of each to sprinkle on top before you bake).
  5. Press into 9x13 baking pan. Bake at 325 for 25 to 30 mins. don't over bake, just until the edges get a little golden. Cool and serve.

 

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