White Christmas Crack

 

Susan’s White Christmas Crack 

2 packages Hershey’s white baking morsels
3 cups Crispix cereal
3 cups golde2n grahams
3 cups corn chex
3 cups mini pretzels
12 oz can mixed nuts
8 oz bag hershey’s cookies and crème drops – cut in halves
2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Mix all cereal, pretzels, nuts and candy in a large bowl. Melt white chocolate baking morsels and vegetable oil together in microwave, stirring every 20-30 seconds. Pour melted mixture over cereal and coat thoroughly. Pour onto wax paper, spread out and let dry until hardened. 

Salt River Bars

 

Salt River Bars

These have been a long time favorite, first discovered at Downtown Gilbert's "Liberty Market" and a special treat that I would pick up for Jason every time I was near there. Jason found this recipe, which is a little labor intensive, but SO worth the work. WARNING - these are super rich, I highly recommend either making them for a party, or planning on sharing them with others right away. 

• 90 Club crackers
• 1 cup butter, salted
• 2 cups light brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 3/4 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup butterscotch chips
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• Maldon sea salt for finishing (available on Amazon and WORTH IT for the light, flaky salt texture!) 

1. Prepare a 9 by 13 inch pan (very helpful if the pan has straight sides, like this one) by lining it with parchment paper, leaving the two long edges a bit long so that it can be used to remove the bars from the pan later.  Spray the parchment and sides of the pan with nonstick spray.
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3. Cover the bottom of the pan with the first layer of crackers on top of the parchment.  Cut the crackers to fit as needed.  I used five rows of six crackers, which covered my pan perfectly.
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5. In a medium sized heavy bottomed pan, melt butter, brown sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and heavy cream together over medium heat, stirring constantly.  
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7. Bring the mixture to a boil, continuing to stir, and boil for 7 minutes.
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9. Pour half of the caramel mixture over the crackers, spreading it evenly to the edges of the pan.  Working quickly, add another layer of crackers over the caramel.
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11. Pour the rest of the caramel over the second layer of crackers, and then add a final layer of crackers.
12. Refrigerate the pan to chill and set the caramel layers while you make the chocolate topping.
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14. To make the chocolate topping, add milk chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and peanut butter to a microwave safe bowl.  Heat for 30-45 seconds, then stir.  Microwave the chocolate in 15 second intervals, stirring in between until smooth. 
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16. Pour the chocolate topping over the final layer of crackers, spreading it evenly to the edges.   Sprinkle sea salt over the chocolate layer to taste.  I used about 1 teaspoon. 
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18. Chill for 1-2 hours before using a sharp knife to cut into bars.  Sometimes I like to use the parchment paper edges to lift the whole thing out of the pan to make cutting easier.

This is the site Jason got this recipe from. https://lovelylittlekitchen.com/salt-river-bars/

White Chocolate Chippers / Panera Copy Cat

 

Chocolate Chippers (Panera Copycat Recipe)

1 C. butter
1 C. sugar
¾ C. brown sugar, tightly packed
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 C. flour
1 ¼ C. cocoa powder (dark or mix or dark and regular)
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 ½ C. white chocolate chips
½ C. chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat over to 350.  Beat butter and sugars until well combined, add eggs and vanilla and mix.  In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients and then slowly add, mixing just until combined.  Stir in chips, bake for 7-8 minutes until starting to firm up but soft in the middle.  Let 

Grandma's Blueberry Cake

 

Jason’s mom Grandma Wendy made this, using her mom’s recipe.  This picture doesn’t do it justice – there isn't really a streusel layer on top, but there is an amazing, buttery, brown sugar blueberry layer throughout the middle of the cake.  It is not the prettiest of all cakes, but it is delicious enough to make up for it – and then some. 

Grandma Squires Blueberry Cake

1 C. butter
2 C. sugar
2 eggs
1 C. sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1 ¾ C. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt

1 C. blueberries
½ C. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9x13 pan.  Mix all top ingredients together, then mix the second group together. Put first 2/3 of batter in bottom of pan, scoop the blueberry mixture randomly over the mix, then dollop the last third of the batter.  Cook for 55-60 minutes.  

Grandma Squires Cheesecake

 

Grandma Squires Cheesecake 

Grandma Squires, Jason’s grandma, gave us this recipe and we immediately went home and made it!  It is more of a pudding pie style of cheesecake (versus something more firm), but I love that it is completely homemade and can be put together so quickly.  

Crust: 
One package of graham crackers, smashed
One stick of butter, melted

Filling: 
One block of cream cheese, softened
One can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 C. lemon juice
1 tsp. Vanilla 

Optional – strawberries, chocolate or caramel sauce, pecans, etc. 

Mix together melted butter and graham crackers, press into greased pan and set aside.  Beat the filling ingredients together, pour into crust and chill for minimum 4-5 hours and ideally overnight.  Garnish as desired and enjoy!  

Jason's Peanut Butter Cookies

Jason made these peanut butter cookies the other day and they were SO good!  I don't remember him chilling the dough, but I am sure that wouldn't hurt anything and in fact, would probably make them hold their shape better.  I have a GF recipe that is also delicious, but this is another one worth keeping.  Enjoy!  

• 1 C. butter1 C. peanut butter1 C.  sugars1 C.  brown sugar2 Eggs2 ½ cups flour1 t. baking powder½ teaspoon salt1 ½ t. baking soda
  Preheat oven to 375.  Cream butter, peanut butter and sugars in a large bowl.  Beat in eggs.  In a separate bowl,  combine dry ingredients and stir into butter mixture.  Put dough in the fridge for an hour, then roll into 1" balls and put on baking sheet.  Flatten each with a fork, making a criss cross pattern.  Bake for 10 mins, or until cookies begin to brown.  
• Nutrition Facts 

  Per Serving:

  251.7 calories; 4.5 g protein; 29.7 g carbohydrates; 35.8 mg cholesterol; 209.4 mg sodium.

Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies

These are really, really good sugar cookies.  Kind of fluffy and ooey on the inside, but buttery crispy on the outside.  They don’t need any frosting- they’re great as is.  This recipe suggests rolling them in sugar before baking, which is great, but I think this recipe would also make a fantastic snickerdoodle, if you added cinnamon to the rolling mixture. 

Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar (additional for rolling)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.  Cream the butter and sugars together in a large mixer bowl on medium speed until light in color and fluffy. You should be able to see the change in color happen and know it’s ready.  Add the egg and mix until well combined.  Add the vanilla extract and mix until well combined.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until the dough is well combined.

It will be thick and shouldn’t be sticky. Do not over mix. Once it’s well combined, use a rubber spatula to help it come together to form a more cohesive ball.  Create 1 1/2 tablespoon sized balls of cookie dough. Gently roll into a ball, then roll each ball in the additional sugar to coat. Set the balls on the baking sheet.

Bake cookies for 7-8 minutes. The cookies will spread and the centers will look soft, but should look done. Remove just before the edges begin to turn golden. Don’t over bake. The cookies will be a little puffy when you take them out of the oven but will fall a bit as they cool.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool on baking sheets for 4-5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Original recipe came from this site: https://www.lifeloveandsugar.com/best-soft-and-chewy-sugar-cookies/

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Believe it or not, I have found myself bored of the Nestle Toll House recipe.  Total first world problem, right?  This recognition led me to search for a new chocolate chip cookie recipe, and this one was fantastic.  The cookies really held their shape and were that perfect mix of buttery crispy on the outside, but ooey goodness in the middle.  This will be my new go-to recipe.  Enjoy! 

Best Chip Cookie Recipe Ever

1 cup salted butter* softened
1 cup white (granulated) sugar
1 cup light brown sugar packed
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt***
2 cups chocolate chips (or chunks, or chopped chocolate)

Instructions: 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.  In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder. Set aside.  Cream together butter and sugars until combined.  Beat in eggs and vanilla until fluffy.  Mix in the dry ingredients until combined.  Add 12 oz package of chocolate chips and mix well.

I used my large scoop to size them and then rolled the dough, this helped them to be even prettier and I think was worth the effort.  (I also froze a few of them at this point!) 

Bake for 8-10 minutes, and take them out when they are just BARELY starting to brown at the edges.  When you remove the cookies from the oven, they will still look doughy. THIS is the secret that makes these cookies so absolutely amazing! Please, I beg you, do NOT over-bake!

Let them sit on the baking pan for 2 minutes before removing to cooling rack.

Susan's

These are a super basic, shortbread cookie with a burst of extra flavor (and texture variation) from the chocolate, which is kind of a cross between a frosting and a ganache.  I was really pleased with how these turned out, and they were fairly quick to make- probably only a couple hours max, start to finish, including cleaning up! :-)

Susan's

Cookies:
1 C. unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 C. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
2 C. flour

Frosting:
2 C. powdered sugar
4 T. cocoa
3 T. hot water
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375.  Cream the butter and sugar.  Add vanilla and salt and mix thoroughly, then blend in the flour.  Shape a teaspoon of dough (keep them smaller, use the small scoop!) into a ball.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, until cookies look dry but not brown.  Once you pull them out of the oven, they'll be a little puffy, but make either a thumbprint, or use a tool to make a ledge to fill with frosting. (I have this wooden thingie that helps make crusts fit better in my mini-muffin tin and it worked perfect for pleasing the OCD part of me...) Once they cool, put the frosting into a ziplock bag, clip the corner, and fill the divot with chocolate yumminess before letting them cool.  I let them set up in the fridge and that worked well!

Grandma Squires Cooked Fudge

Old Fashioned Cooked Fudge

I made this with Grandma Squires a week or so ago, and it wasn't that "hard," but I wanted to write down as much of the directions as I could so that next time I try it on my own, I may have better luck.  Here's hoping!  This was Grandpa's favorite fudge recipe.  

The original recipe is posted below, but Grandma says that she always makes 1 1/2 batches, because she likes to use a bigger "soup" pot for cooking.  (The smaller pan almost bubbles over, and a single batch in the soup pan is too little...). 

1 C. cocoa (Hershey's is the best, NOT Nestle)
4 1/2 C. sugar
Just over 1/8 t. salt
1 C. evaporated milk
1 1/4 C. milk (2% or whatever is fine) 
6 T. butter 
1 1/2 t. vanilla

Combine the cocoa, sugar and salt and whisk together.  

Add milk and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

Once it's boiling, let it cook for a long time without stirring often.  Seriously, it was probably a solid 15-18 minutes that we let this stuff go.  Once in a while, do a figure 8 type shape on the bottom of the pan.  You're cooking it until it forms a "soft ball" when dropped in fridge cooled water.  (Have a couple of glasses ready so you can test more than once.). It should feel sort of like a soft tootsie roll.  

Remove from heat, and add butter.  Do not stir until all of the butter melts.  

Add vanilla and stir until mixture thickens.  (Grandma puts the pan in an ice bath in the sink.). 

Pour into a greased pan, cool and cut into squares. 


Original Recipe:
2/3 cup cocoa
3 cups sugar
1/8 t. salt
1 1/2 cups milk (half evaporated makes it creamier)
4 1/2 T BUTTER
1t vanilla.

Combine cocoa, sugar salt and milk; bring to boil stirring frequently, cook to 234 degrees on candy thermometer, or soft ball stage. Remove from heat, add butter, cool to about 110; add vanill, nuts if you want, beat until thickens. Pour into buttered pan and cut into squares. MUST USE BUTTER.

Smore Bites

Made these a few times since the 4th of July and they're a huge hit, easy for the kids to help make and super yummy, even though I am not historically a Smores person.  For the chocolate part, you can use a Hershey bar sectioned into mini rectangles, or even a mini Reeses' cup!  I usually use chocolate chips, just because that's what I always have on hand.

Smores Bites

7 whole graham crackers (equals 1 cup), finely crushed
1/4 cup powdered sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted
chocolate of some sort
12 large marshmallows, cut in half

Preheat oven to 350.

Crush the graham crackers- I let the kids have at this with a gallon size plastic bag.  Combine graham crackers, powdered sugar and melted butter.

Grease your mini muffin tin!  (I've forgotten this a couple of times now, thus the exclamation point.)  Put a small amount in mini muffin tins and press down (I have a wooden dowel type thing just for this) and then bake for 4-5 minutes, or until edges are golden.  While this is baking, cut the marshmallows in half.

When the graham cracker crusts come out of the oven, I usually press them down one more time with the dowel.  Add a few chocolate chips to each cup (OK, it's more like 6-7, but I don't count them) and then top with a marshmallow.

Bake for another 2-4 minutes, until top is slightly browned.  Let them rest for 15 minutes before removing from the tins.

Enjoy within 2-3 days, but they wont last that long.  :-)

Caramel Apple Nachos

My sister shared a recipe for these Caramel Apple Nachos with me one weekend before visiting, and I think that we made them four times in the two days she was here.  It was amazing, and semi-healthy, as far as desserts go!

Caramel Apple Nachos
apples, any variety - Granny Smith would work well (I used Gala)
caramel sauce
white chocolate chips, melted
heath bar bits
pretzels

Slice your apples, then drizzle with melted white chocolate and caramel sauce.  Splash with toffee and pretzels and serve!  Then, try to resist the urge to lick the plate.  I was not successful at resisting that urge!  :-)

Homemade Chocolates

Chocolates

Jason’s Great Grandma Squires came over this weekend and taught my mom, my sister and I how to dip chocolate and make old fashioned cooked fudge.  It was fantastic, and we all have the expanding waistlines to prove it!  We used most of a 10 pound bar of chocolate and made gifts for everyone on our “nice” list.  And then we started a new family tradition of decorating cookies!  What a fun weekend.

Easy Mints
¼ C. butter or margarine
2 T. water
¼ t salt
½ t. peppermint oil (3-4 shakes of oil preferred, or lots more of extract)
3 ½ - 3 ¾ C. Powdered Sugar
Heat over low heat butter and water, add salt and extract, gradually add sugar until smooth.  Yields one pound of mints.

Fondant Cherries
Marischino cherries and juice (1 large jar or 3-4 small jars)
6 T. butter
¼ C. evaporated milk
¼ C. reserved cherry juice
2 t. vanilla
½ t. salt
Powdered Sugar until it’s the right consistency, about a 16 oz bag, maybe a touch more

Dry cherries on paper towel, reserve the 1/4 C. of the juice. Warm the butter, milk, cherry juice, vanilla and salt over low heat.  Remove from heat and add powdered sugar until it’s the right consistency, sort of like play dough.  Get some powdered sugar in your hands, flatten the fondant, wrap around cherries and then chill well in the freezer.  Then dip in chocolate.

Peanut Butter Eggs (from Aunt Kat) 
Mix together
4 C. powdered sugar
1 1/2 C. creamy peanut butter
1/4 C. butter or margarine, melted
2-3 T. milk
Mix together, adding milk last.  Shape into eggs, or perhaps next time I will make these into ball-shaped buckeyes and leave the top showing peanut butter so you can tell them from the cherries.  Freeze and then dip into chocolate.

Almond Joys
2 pounds powdered sugar
1 – 1 ½ pounds shredded coconut (large package)
1 can sweetened condensed milk (maybe a little more)
2 T. butter, melted
Almonds
Mix all ingredients.  Shape into ovals, put an almond (or two!) in the center. Chill well, and dip!  

Grandma's Peanut Butter Eggs
3 C. powdered sugar
1 ½ Cup crushed graham crackers 
1 C. peanut butter
1/2 lb (2 sticks) butter, melted

Mix all ingredients.  Shape into eggs or balls, chill well, and dip!  

Chocolate Covered Almonds or PeanutsStir whichever kind of nuts you like in the leftover chocolate, and dollop by spoonful onto wax paper to dry.

Royal Sugar Cookies

These are my friend Susan's amazing recipes... posting here for my easy reference.

THE BEST Sugar Cookies for Icing

2 C. butter {softened at room temperature}

2 C. sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. flavoring (vanilla or almond, lemon, whatever)

6 C. flour {750 grams – YES, weigh the flour!}

1/8 t. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Mix dough, then divide into thirds.  Using two sheets of parchment paper and two 5/16" dowels as thickness guides, roll the fresh dough between the pins into sheets of dough.  Place in fridge for at least 30 minutes, overnight is better.  

Preheat to 350- usually 11 minutes is enough, sometimes 12 minutes.  Try to get the cookies to pass the "push" test.  

Makes approximately 4-dozen 3” cookies. 

ROYAL ICING for Sugar Cookies 

5 T. meringue powder

3/4 C.  very warm water

1 t. cream of tartar

2 1/4 pounds powdered sugar {I weigh it – 2 lb. 4 oz. or 36 oz.}

2 tsp. clear vanilla or almond extract

gel coloring
{makes 4 cups!}

Make sure all of your tools are grease free and completely dry. Measure out your powdered sugar, so you’re ready to add it to the warm meringue/cream of tartar mixture.

In your stand mixing bowl, {bowl off of the stand for this step} hand whisk together meringue powder and warm water until foamy. Add cream of tarter and whisk again by hand.

Add all of the powdered sugar at once. Using your paddle attachment on the stand mixer's lowest setting, mix for 9 minutes. At 9 minutes, scrape down the bowl and paddle and add your flavorings and mix for one more minute.

 Divide and color your icing. When color is what you want add water to thin to desired consistency. Proceed slowly – for 1/3 of royal icing batch, I usually add 1 t. of water to start with, then add in ½ t. increments between stirrings, sometimes even a drop or two when I am close. Consistency changes quickly! I do all of my cookies using one consistency of icing. I do the 6-second test. Pull your spoon/spatula across the batch of icing you’re stirring and the spoon’s trail should “disappear” by the time you count 6 seconds. 

This recipe for royal icing makes 3 heaping cups. A Wilton disposable piping bag will hold a heaping cup of icing, so don’t ever tint more than a heaping cup of icing one color, unless you want to fill two bags with the same color.

Healthy Pumpkin Mousse

My school nurse sent out this Healthy Pumpkin Mousse recipe a few weeks ago, and after Christopher told me he had something similar at school and loved it, we decided to give it a try.  I am pleased to say that it was delicious, simple to make, easy on the eyes and completely satisfied my pumpkin pie desires, so much so that I only had a bite this last Thanksgiving weekend!  That is pretty impressive.  The original recipe called for sugar free pudding mix (if diabetes is a concern) and crumbled gingersnaps or graham crackers on top, if you are so inclined.  I just served with whipped cream and loved it as is! 

Pumpkin Mousse

1 large package vanilla pudding
1 ½ cups milk
1 15 oz can pumpkin
1 t. pumpkin pie spice
cool whip, about half of a small container, plus more for serving

Mix the pudding and milk, and then let it set up in the fridge for 5 minutes or so.  Add in the pumpkin and spices, mix to combine.  Fold in the Cool Whip until color is even throughout.  I scooped it into clear serving cups and let it set up in the fridge, garnishing with additional cool whip when serving.  Very pretty and very yummy!

I saw in a picture that it appeared as though someone had frozen it- that could be good, too!

Bristol Farms Chocolate Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies

So this recipe is getting blamed on my mom, ALL THE WAY.  First of all, every time we come to visit, she has at least a few of these gigantic gourmet cookies sitting on her counter, just calling my name.  They are worth every calorie but they're intense!  Well, she found the recipe and sent it my way, and now I've made it twice in under a week.

It is a very easy and basic recipe, no fancy ingredients needed.  I could have sworn it was chocolate on a peanut butter cookie, but it turns out, it is just a basic cookie with peanut butter in the chocolate frosting that I am tasting.  They taste good on day one, but they will knock your socks off on day two.  None have ever survived longer than that, but I would imagine, as long as you keep them covered from the beginning, they'd keep just fine and in theory, could probably freeze too.  They do not move when they cook at all- I made a double batch of small cookie scoop size balls and fit a ton of cookies on one sheet.  No eggs, baking soda or powder- nothing.  What you see is what you get.  I baked my cookies for probably close to ten minutes, both when I made them big and small.  It is kind of hard to tell that they are "ready," so I had to try to move them softly and sort of pick them up to see if there was any color on the bottom.  The recipe makes about 14 big scoop size cookies, which is not a lot!  One or two of these bad boys all satisfy you, though, in their defense.  This recipe is easy enough to double, however, and if I am making it for a lot of friends, I suggest making smaller cookies. :-)

Bristol Farms Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies
1/2 cup butter 
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1 1/2 cups flour 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
2 tablespoons milk

For the filling: 
3/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips 
2 tablespoons peanut butter 
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 375.  Cream the butter, add the sugar and then vanilla.  Mix in flour and salt.  Roll into even size balls and push your thumb into each cookie to make a depression.  Bake until light golden brown, about 8-12 minutes, depending upon size of your cookie.  Let cool. 

To make the filling, melt the chocolate chips (carefully, without burning) and add in peanut butter, corn syrup, vanilla and water.  Put into a piping bag with a large Wilton 1M tip.  Cool a bit (might need some time in the fridge, 5-15 minutes depending upon how hot your chips were) and then swirl some of that chocolate goodness on top of each cookie.  

Enjoy!  

Sugar Cookies

So my new thing is going to be making sugar cookies.  It is too easy to eat A TON of the regular drop cookies- and sugar cookies are just less appealing to me.  To eat, anyway.  It has been a turn off in the past, but now, I sorta like that they take a lot of effort- you have to chill the dough, roll them out, cut the cookies, bake them, ice them one color at a time... I think it might be good for me, in an artsy kind of way.  Here are the icing recipes that I am using so far:

Decorated Rolled Sugar Cookies
1 1/2 C. butter, softened
2 C. white sugar
4 eggs
1 t. vanilla
5 C. flour
2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt

Combine all ingredients (wet first, then the dry, just like normal) and then let chill in a fridge for at least an hour and up to over night.  Roll out on parchment paper to 1/4-1/2" thick.  Cut out shapes, pull away scraps and roll them on a new sheet of parchment paper.  Transfer the parchment paper with the cookie cut outs and bake in a 400 degree oven for 6 minutes or so.  Let cool completely before frosting. 

Icing: 
2 C. powdered sugar
4 t. milk
4 t. light corn syrup
1/2 t. vanilla (or almond) extract
food coloring

Mix everything together and then separate into different bowls, add food coloring and go to town!  This is the kind of icing that goes on shiny and dries hard, so you can stack the cookies- it looks very professional.  Well, not when I make them just yet... but it could be.  It dries just right.  Takes about 20 minutes for the first coat to dry before you can add on top of that without having it run- and then after about 90 minutes or so, they are ready to stack. 



Sugar Cookie Icing from Grandma Squires
1/4 C. shortening
1 lb (4 C.) powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
milk until it is the right consistency

I haven't made this one yet, but I think it is more of a Lofthouse cookie style of frosting... still delicious and what she uses for Christmas cookies.

This recipe also came from Grandma Squires.  I made it tonight for St. Patrick's Day (added green food coloring, of course) and they turned out really good.  I didn't have time to chill the dough and they were still delicious.

Drop Sugar Cookies 
1 C. white sugar (or 1.5 C powdered sugar)
1 C. butter
1.5 t. vanilla (or you can use .5 almond extract + 1 t. vanilla)
1 egg
2 1/3 C. flour
1/2 t. baking soda

Preheat to 375.  Beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy.  Stir in vanilla and egg, then flour and soda.  Cover and fridge for 2 hours (if you have the time) otherwise just go for it.  Bake for 6-7 minutes (if you use the big cookie scoop to measure, and then roll into a ball shape) and pull them out before they look done, as always.

This frosting is pretty darn good, very much like the Lofthouse Cookies.  Jason said the combo of these two made perhaps the best cookie he has ever had in his whole life.  He seemed genuine when he said it, too!

Lofthouse Frosting
1/2 C. butter, at room temp
1/2 C. Crisco (I use butter flavored)
1/8 t. salt
1 T. vanilla extract
5 C. powdered sugar
1/4 C. (whole) milk, added slowly until you get the consistency you like.

Combine the butter and Crisco until light and fluffy.  Add everything else.  You can use this to spread with a spatula, or you can put it in a bag and pipe it on.

Peanut Butter Fudge

Found this on Pinterest and the whole thing went from conception to being made, cleaned up and consumed in under an hour- and it was all staples that we had on hand.  Definitely a winner and the piece that did survive the night tasted even better on day two.  And, it does have some semi-healthy redeeming qualities too! :-)

Peanut Butter Fudge
1 C. peanut butter, natural is healthiest but creamy or crunchy, whatever you have
¼ C. coconut oil, melted
2 Tbsp. honey
¼ tsp. salt (sea salt)
½ tsp. vanilla (optional)
¼ C. powdered sugar, optional*

Combine the melted oil and peanut butter and oil, then add honey, salt and vanilla and stir until blended.  Add in the powdered sugar if you want to.  Pour into a lightly greased 5x7 pan (I used a bread pan) and freeze until set, 20-30 minutes.  Cut into squares and enjoy!

This only made a tiny amount.  I wouldn't make more unless it was for a party because this is so delicious and it is really easy to just eat the whole thing with a fork.  At least for me, it would be.


* You only need to add powdered sugar if you plan to keep it out of the freezer for more than five minutes.  I did add the sugar and thought the taste and texture was great- but I suppose if you wanted to keep it even more minimal, you could skip it.

Pretzel M&M Hugs

 

These take a fair amour of supplies- they are definitely not cheap or quick- it takes a while to unwrap all those hugs!  They are fun to make though, Kate and I had a good time last Christmas.  And they are really pretty!

Pretzel M & M Hugs*

pretzels, square or circle is ideal, butter crisps work well
hershey hugs (they're pretty melted, kisses would work too) 
M&M's (Christmas colors, or Valentine's, or whatever holiday you're close to) 
parchment paper


Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper. Align pretzels on cookie sheet in a single layer then top each pretzel with one Hershey's Hug chocolate. Bake in preheated oven for 4 - 5 minutes, until the chocolate is shiny and soft (but NOT melting, the chocolates should still hold their shape). Remove from oven and carefully place one M & M in the center of each soft Hug and press down on M & M to spread the chocolate.

* You can do the same thing to make Turtles using Rolo's and pecan halves- yummy!