Butterscotch Crunchies

The first batch of Christmas cookies are complete, and this is by far one of the easiest recipes you'll come across. There is something I love about the taste of butterscotch and then add in a little salt and crunch and I'm in heaven. Yum yum!!! I came across this recipe and while I can't pinpoint where I've had these, I know I've had them many, many times and each time, they are just as wonderful.

I hope the next few weeks will bring loads of many more cookies, cakes, and baked goods for me to taste and share, considering I've already been planning some almond spritz cookies and some chocolate peppermint cookies. Here's a good way to start the holiday cooking!!!

INGREDIENTS

1 Bag (11 oz) butterscotch chips
1/4 Cup creamy peanut butter
3 - 1/2 Cups corn flake cereal

DIRECTIONS

Melt butterscotch chips in a double boiler, stirring until melted. Add peanut butter and continue to stir (spray measuring cup with Pam first will help it release). Fold in corn flakes. Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper to cool. Once set, enjoy!

Cran-Orange Oatmeal Muffin Drops

I have been completely addicted to orange cranberry flavors lately and came across this recipe. My husband and I ate all these within 2 days and then made another batch - they are amazing! I will be making sure I always have a bag of frozen cranberries around so I can whip up a batch of these whenever the mood strikes.

INGREDIENTS

1 C Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 C Butter, soften
3/4 C Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1/4 C Milk
1 tsp Orange Zest
1 1/2 C Oats
3/4 C Cranberries, chopped
3/4 C Walnuts, chopped (optional)

GLAZE:

1 C Powdered Sugar
1/2 tsp Orange Zest
1/4 tsp Vanilla
1-2 Tbl Orange Juice

DIRECTIONS

Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add egg, milk and orange zest.

Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Mix together butter mixture with flour mixture.

Add oats and cranberries (and walnuts if you want them).

Drop by spoonful onto cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes, until edges slightly brown. Move to wire rack an allow to cool.

Prepare glaze: mix powdered sugar, orange zest, vanilla and a Tbl of OJ - continue adding OJ until it reaches the consistency you desire.

Once cookies are cooled, top with glaze as desired.

Store in air tight container, separate layers with wax paper. Cookies will increase in moisture after about 8 hours.

Mom's Chocolate Oatmeal No Bakes

These are great cookies to make, especially when you have something else baking and can't use the oven but still want to make cookies. These are also some of my favorite cookies from my childhood - and remain that way today. They don't have your typical cookie dough texture and remind me more of a fudge mixed with oatmeal, so how can you go wrong? These are perfect for those cookie exchanges or gift tins at Christmas, or even just satisfying a sweet tooth on a weeknight.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 C Butter

*Add a pinch of salt if using unsalted butter

1/2 C Milk

2 C white sugar

1/2 C peanut butter

1/4 C cocoa

1 Tbl Vanilla

3 C Oats

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients except oats in saucepan, bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute to ensure sugar dissolves. Remove from heat, add oats and mix well. Spoon mixture onto wax paper and allow to cool. Store in air-tight container.

Lemon Spritz Cookie Press Cookies

For Christmas, I received a cookie press kit and I have to admit I had NO idea what to do with it. Luckily, it came with a few recipes, one of which I tried tonight. These are light cookies that are good plain or would be even better with a little lemon frosting - or filling if you make them into sandwich cookies. I would add the frosting, but I don't need to extra sugar! While making these cookies, I've learned a few things about my handy dandy little cookie press:

1) If the recipe calls for zest, make sure to use one of the discs with larger holes. My first attempt ended in the zest getting stuck in the holes and then the cookie wouldn't form correctly.

2) You have to clean the grease off the cookie sheets between batches. If there is the grease (butter) from the previous set, the dough won't stick to the cookie sheet.

3) Don't refill the cookie press if there is still a seal of dough at the disc - you end up with a big air pocket in the middle and the cookies again don't form correctly.

4) This is totally my fault - if your cookie sheet comes with instructions to reduce ALL recipes by 25 degrees, don't forget. My first batch got a little OVER baked. Oh well.

INGREDIENTS

1 C Butter, softened

3 oz Cream Cheese, softened

1 C Sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp Vanilla

1 1/4 tsp lemon zest (I used 1 lemon, will use at least 2 next time)

3/4 tsp Lemon Extract

2 1/2 C flour

1/2 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS

Cream together butter and cream cheese. Add sugar and mix until fluffy. Add egg yolk, vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon extract. Mix well. Gradually add flour and salt and mix completely. DO NOT CHILL DOUGH.

Set up cookie press (select disc) and put dough into press. Press cookies onto UNGREASED, COOL cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.

***Extra's: dough can be colored by any food coloring, or you can use a mix of colors by creating various small colored logs that are placed into cookie press together. These will be great around holidays or other events where you can play with various shapes and colors.

Mmmmm M&M Cookies!

These are traditional cookies and my weakness anytime passing a mall cookie shop, not only because their so tasty, but because they add a little color and fun to the moment. What's nice about these is being able to make them to fit a theme, and in this case it was a baby shower. We were doing everything in pinks and browns (since the bundle-to-be is a little girl) so I took the packages of Valentine M&M's and picked out all the red candies, then I separated all the brown one's from a normal package to get the pink and brown mix - yes, this was rather tedious and time consuming, but in the end I felt it was worth it. I know have a bag of red M&M's which I can use for Valentine's Day, so it works out perfectly!

INGREDIENTS

1 C brown sugar

1/2 C white sugar

1/2 C butter, room temp

1/2 C shortening

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla

2 1/2 C flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 salt

1 1/2 C M&M's

DIRECTIONS

Cream together sugars, eggs, butter, shortening, and vanilla. Add flour, salt, and baking soda. Fold in 3/4 C of M&M's.

Drop dough by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Slighty push a few candies into the top of each cookie.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool and enjoy!

Oh-My-Snickerdoodle-Dandy!

Who doesn't love the Snickerdoodle goodness? Cinnamon and sugar covering a soft, flavorful cookie? Yummmy! So far everyone who has tasted these thinks the are great, and what's even better is they are fairly simple (even more so now that I have my wonderful Kitchen Aid Mixer!). I tend to whip these up when I'm bored, so its a good thing my husband is a cookie monster and eats most of them before I can indulge too much. These are also part of my so-many-cookies-have-chocolate-I-need-some-no-chocolate-recipes group of cookies.

***Note: You can swap 2 tsp Cream of Tartar and 1 tsp Baking Soda for the 3 tsp baking powder if desired

INGREDIENTS

1/2 C butter @ room temp
1/2 C shortening
1 1/2 C white sugar
2 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
2 3/4 C Flour
3 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp salt (reduce if using salted butter)

2 Tbls sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 C sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Blend in flour, baking powder, and salt.

Shape into small dough balls; I use about a tablespoon of dough and make smaller cookies.

Roll dough in cinnamon-sugar mixture and place on cookie sheet. Slightly flatten with back of spoon.

Bake 8-10 minutes at 400 degrees. Transfer cookies to cooling rack.

***As always, make sure to store cookies in an air-tight container after cooling.

Oatmeal Scotchies

These marvelous cookies remind me of one of my favorite people, my stepsister Melissa. She makes cookies every year around Christmas to give out to family, and this just happens to be one of the types she makes. What I love about them is the butterscotch chips ... and the cinnamon ... and the oatmeal ... well basically everything. What I also like is that while I love chocolate, these are one of the few cookies I make which is different BECAUSE there isn't any chocolate in it. Strange, I know, but true.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 C Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 C Butter (room temp)
3/4 C Brown Sugar
3/4 C Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
3 C Oatmeal
1 pkg Butterschotch Chips

DIRECTIONS

Cream together butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add oats and chips. Bake 7-8 minutes at 375. Allow to cool slightly then transfer to cooling rack. Enjoy!

Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies

My husband LOVES oatmeal cream pies, these are as much a staple in our home as bread, milk, and eggs are - maybe even more so! After watching him eat his THIRD cookie and calling it breakfast one day I decided I need to see if I can make these at home. I found a recipe way back in the summer and bought the ingredients, thinking to myself "I'll make them this weekend." Well needless to say, the past few months were so packed with wedding planning and finalizing everything that I was never able to get around to making them. So this past weekend, I got the baking itch (and wanted a reason to use my new Kitchen Aid Mixer) so I pulled out the recipe, gathered all the ingredients, and got to work. While I don't have a picture at this time since my camera is filled with honeymoon shots, I am hoping to add one in the near future!

A few notes:

• I don't know how I ever made cookies without a mixer, everything is so much simpler and quicker now! Highly worth the investment!
• My husband has determined that these are SO MUCH better than the store bought ones. I haven't decided if this is a good thing or not ... We'll see how often I have to bake!
• Molasses is messy. The cream filling in these ... Even worse!
• Finally - I accidentally forgot the salt in the filling, but they still came out great!

On to the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

Cookies
1 cup margarine
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups quick oats
Cream Filling
2 teaspoons very hot water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow cream
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

1) Preheat over to 350 degrees F.
2) In large bowl, cream margarine, sugars, molasses, vanilla, and eggs.
3) Combine flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
4) Add to the creamed mixture; mix in the oats.
5) Drop dough by TBS on ungreased sheets.
6) Bake for 10-12 minutes,or until just starting to brown around the edges. They will look moist; don't overcook.
7) While the cookies bake prepare the filling. In small bowl, disolve the salt in the hot water. Allow this to cool.
8) Combine marshmallow cream, shortning, powdered sugar, and vanilla in med bowl; mix on hi until fluffy.
9) Add the cooled salt water and mix well.
10) Spread filling on flat side of one cooled cookie, press 2nd cookie on top.