Candy Cane peppermint cookies.

Merry Christmas! A great day for cookies! 

So these are great Christmas cookies. My kids like them even d who hates chocolate chips.

This recipe is interesting because the first time I did it they were great and the second- not so much. 

So the trick here is to chill them. Don't skip this! Maybe even leave it overnight. 

1/2 lb butter. I used kerrygold butter. I like the taste of European style churned butter. However if you have a local farmer buy from them! You will think you changed the world with cookie making skills. 

1 cup brown sugar (light) 

1 1/3 cup white sugar. 

Cream 2 minutes on medium speed. 

3 large eggs 

2 tsp vanilla 

1tbsp heavy cream

Add in 3 parts 

Mix until just incorporated. 

1tsp baking soda

1tsp cornstarch 

1tsp salt

(These should all be heaping teaspoons) 

4 cups flour 

Stir dry ingredients together. Then add them to the rest in at least 4 parts. 

3 peppermint bark candy bars or the equivalent of 3 cups. 

1 bag chocolate chips. 

Cut in small pieces and stir in 1/4 inch pieces for the measurement lovers. I found awesome candy bars at wegmans the first time then when to whole foods and found adorable candy cane pieces. 

Chill 4-24 hours. 

Scoop out on sheets and let chill an additional hour. 

Bake at 375 for about 11 minutes or until done. 

#christmas, #candycane, #cookies,#recipe, #cookiesunday, #peppermint

#merrychristmas 

Christmas Butter Shortbread Cookies

Butter Shortbread Cookies

These cookies are perfect for Christmas. I have to admit that one of the things that makes cookie Sunday possible is that I don't eat very many cookies. So these ones can't be made very many times. 

1 pound butter- chilled

I cut mine into pieces to mix more easily. I used 1/2 tilamook butter and 1/2 plugra butter. I think imported or farm made butter is the best. Never use salted butter! It keeps longer so it is usually older on the shelf. 

1 1/4 cup white sugar. Extra fine is the best option. 

Mix at medium speed until just creamed. Don't let the butter get warm! 

2 tsp almond extract (optional) if you like almond spread almond paste over the completed cookies while they are chilling. I love marzipan so this is great! 

Add 4 1/4 cups flour in 1 cup parts. 

Add it gradually or you will end up over mixing and have a floury taste. 

Press into greased cookie sheet with ridges. I used the Williams Sonoma gold collection cookie sheets. I also used my rolling pin from them with silicone. I want a marble one but that's a separate topic. I love them. I greased it with a cheesecloth and crisco. I would always use a cheesecloth or paper towel to grease a pan/ and cheesecloth is best. 

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes until edges start to turn gold. 

Cover with sanding sugar or powdered sugar to taste- I used about 1 cup and out it on while the cookies were still warm so it melted a bit.

Cut into squares with sharp knife while still cooling. 

Let cool 

My children got a plate and used them as Legos with a sort of rapt intensity. It was about an hour of using their cookies as a fun game and carefully taking bites out of each piece. 

These taste better after they are a few days old. 

Merry Christmas! Don't eat too much. 

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/m/products/usa-pan-goldtouch-nonstick-quarter-sheet-pan/?pkey=e%7Ccookie%2Bsheet%7C150%7Cbest%7C0%7C1%7C15%7C%7C6&cm_src=PRODUCTSEARCH

Adding a link with my phone blogger is difficult so I'm including links here with this tacky method. 

http://www.plugra.com/ butter of champions. 

http://www.tillamook.com/products/butter.html

Everyone loves tilamook. 

http://www.deandeluca.com/pantry/baking-ingredients/dean-and-deluca-rainbow-sanding-sugar.aspx

Guys. Brand matters. Especially when it comes to butter. 

Kit kat cookies

Kit kat cookies for cookie Sunday 

The day after Halloween we have already confiscated all the Halloween candy. For kids staying up all night. After a nasty little letter from Danielle and an unapologetic parenting moment I have my kids the chance to earn back some candy by cleaning the entire house. Since they are quite young they weren't super effective, but they did a stand up job opening kit kits from Halloween and breaking them in small pieces. ( after they had baths-they seemed like a hand wash wasn't enough.) 

So we made these super fun cookies. Now if only I have enough candy left to get the bathrooms cleaned. 

1 cup white sugar

1.5 cups light brown sugar 

1/2 cup margarine 

3/4 cup butter 

Cream

3 medium eggs 

1.5 tsp vanilla 

Mix in one egg at a time 

I small package instant vanilla pudding

1.5 cups pancake mix

1.5 cups cake flour 

1 tsp salt 

1.5 tsp baking soda 

Add in three parts 

3 cups kit kat pieces 

1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips 

Stir in. 

Hooray for the tiny bowls we use to make this kid friendly. 

Pinterest and Candy Corn

I used to have adorable apothecary jars.  Some I acquired at my seasonal job at williAms Sonoma. Others at pottery barn where you can usually find a great selection and nice seasonal decorations. The last were from target and I never cared as much about those ones but they weren't as expensive.
These were some of the things I lost in the divorce. I filled three of the apothecary jars with candy corn. I don't know if you know this but candy corn is a delightful looking holiday decoration. Now I would change all the picture frames in the house to our Halloween silhouettes I made in my spare 30 hours one year and loved. Then came the jars. I really wanted orange and white and yellow gumballs but apparently if you go and buy roughly ten tons of candy corn and say no one can eat it your husband doesn't want you to traipse out to the party store and spend 300 dollars on matching gum-balls and sixlets. Weird.
So I settled for candy corn And promised that we could recycle it not just eat it.
To be fair I have to disclose that I'm not and was never one of those people who felt like I couldn't do something because my husband didn't "let me." I hate it when people say that shit. He won't let you buy a sandwich? Maybe divorce his controlling ass. Oh wait I am divorced and I digress...

So candy corn and apothecary jars. There is something delightful about matching candy. I really liked it but I also felt strongly that we should give out pretzels or goldfish to kids. Candy is for decoration! Ok always goldfish no one likes pretzels they are shit.  I loved my apothecary jars they went great with my pottery barn candles and festive little black gems my kids love to play with. I can't decide if I like them or sparkly skull votive holders more. I kept the candles but didn't think the jars could make the move.

Here I am as the Halloween decorating season is in full swing trying to think of how to budget for new apothecary jars and matching candy.
I could get some high res images of candy corn and get the unhung frames out of the garage with lovely pictures. Maybe I could re-make the silhouettes of cats and a haunted city while I was on the phone at work. Maybe I could just take pictures of candy corn cookies since cookies are important in my life now.
First I have to make good cookies.  I looked at some online and I have to tell you- candy corn melts like crazy. Like want to tear your hair out when you are trying to make them. No joke if you add them to the top 5 minutes before your cookies are done like with mini marshmallows that's not going to work. Don't even suggest adding them to the dough or I will punch you. So there are all these Pinterest cookie recipes and I'm like- I wonder if those are fake or an approximation like when people asked me how much sugar I added to cookies and I want to say as much as looked right but instead I say 2 cups and omit the give or take a cup.
Seriously when people ask how much vanilla and flour I added the answer is " enough." But most people don't understand that. So I make something up. Just like this year I'm trying to get successful candy corn cookies. This is my fourth week. I'm using a Pinterest recipe. I didn't even photograph most of my attempts and there is a very good reason for that. They looked terrible. (Tasted OK)

So next time you look on Pinterest for a recipe just know that I'm there too, thinking most of the recipes are crap and trying to learn more about bread flour in cookies. Cool right? I'm not sure I think I will have to test extensively. Luckily I have a lifetime full of cookie Sundays where I can learn more and hopefully teach my children his important it is to actively spread joy.

I got a recipe from Pinterest from Averie cooks and used it for these cookies.
I split the dough to make sure each cookie would have a base without candy corn.
I made a double batch. I also looked at her website for over an hour and thought about how her cookies would taste. It's normal to study recipes online.
You can check the recipe out on her site or I will type out what I did. Her site is pretty good. I am going to try her recipes and I will link to them when I do.

Candy Corn Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
cream together

2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
4 tablespoons heavy cream
mix together until just incorporated (I actually used whipping cream which turned out OK

Kid Bowls!

3.5 cups flour (heaping)
4 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
mix together with a wire whisk and split evenly into 3 bowls.

Add each bowl one at a time.
for the last bowl switch from the whip attachment to the dough/cookie attachment of your mixer.

Split dough into 3 parts and put one in an airtight container. Refrigerate.

1 bag candy corn (larger bag)
1 bag chocolate chips
mix into dough- do not overmix and be careful that candy corn doesn't break.

Chill overnight or freeze 1 hour.

When you are preparing your dough take the portion without candy corn in it and make a 2 inch by 1/4 inch circle. Then scoop the candy corn dough on top- it's important to have this layer to make sure the candy corn isn't touching the cookie sheet. This can lead to a candy corn explosion and the end of the world.

Baking directions- bake at 350 for 9 minutes. They won't look done. take them out and leave them on the sheet. It's a soft batch cookie so they look different.

NOTE: you can use 1/2 self rising bread flour and they will rise more.
NOTE: I don't usually use cornstarch because I feel like you can taste it. I did in this case. The candy corn sort of overpowers the taste. I'm not convinced that most people can taste it.
NOTE: I used Giradelli white chocolate chips. I will blog about different chocolate chips soon because they all have very different tastes. I have strong feelings about them which I think you get after a few years of making cookies.

The Three stray neighborhood kids that were living at my house this Sunday liked the cookies. They brought some home. I think because I make cookies I get a lot of stray neighborhood kids. It's fun.


When Candy Corn cooks it gets darker. That way you can tell your friends you put siracha hot sauce in your cookies.

Nutella Cookies

Nutella White Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1.5 cups brown sugar

1 cup nutella

mix 2 minutes on high

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

mix in each egg one at a time. I like using local eggs- if possible locate a local farm or a neighbor with chickens. Your cookies will taste WAY better. and you can feel good about yourself.

3 1/4 cup white flour 

I used 1 cup of cake flour and used general all purpose flour for the rest. 

1 tsp Salt

1.5 tsp Baking Soda

1 bags of white chocolate chips. 

Bake at 350 for 13 minutes or until done.

My daughter hates chocolate chips.

I have no idea how this happened.

I think about it all the time.

But it means I frequently make cookies with no chocolate chips in them. She picks butterscotch or white chocolate chip cookies and I don't ever love them. So she voted these pretty good.

This week my kiddos wanted to give cookies to their new friends in the neighborhood. I've been trying to get them to think about helping people and who they can give cookies to every week.

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Happy Father's Day cookie Sunday! Oreo m&ms cookies

These cookies were great for Father's Day! 

1.25 cups powdered sugar

1.5 cups white sugar 

1 cup butter

Mix 2 minutes on medium speed. 

3 eggs 

1 tbsp vanilla 

3 tbsp vegetable oil

Mix in parts- 1 egg at a time. Don't overmix. 

3.75 cups flour 

1 tsp salt 

1.5 tsp baking soda 

Mix in at least 3 parts 

2 bags mini m&ms 

Double stuff Oreos. 

Surround Oreos with dough 

Cook 14 min at 350. 

Give to someone who could use a cookie. This is an important part of cookie Sunday. Positive actions and gifts teach my kids being a good person is about action, not restriction. 

White Chocolate Cashew Smore's

White Chocolate Cashew Smores 

This week Danielle ordered Cookies with white chocolate chips. Ever week she wants that actually but since I'm trying not to eat any cookies I've been obliging her more often.

This week was extra fun because we made them together and then she delivered them to the neighbors.

1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter flavored Crisco. I like the little pre-packaged squares.

mix for 2 minutes

3 extra large eggs
3 tsp vanilla

mix in eggs one at a time

1 cup cake flour
3 cups white flour
1 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
(sift together)
add to mixture in at least three parts.

1 1/2 bags white chocolate chips

mix in
Bake 9 minutes at 325 degrees

Marshmallows and Cashews 

take out of oven and add one marshmallow or seven mini marshmallows
sprinkle with chopped cashews or almonds. (cashews are the preferred choice- I used raw cashews and almonds are pictured in some of the pictures.)

Bake at 4 minutes until done. Marshmallows should puff and just begin to brown.

Danielle added a bit of chocolate to some of the cookies after they came out of the oven. You should add it immediately after so it melts nice.

Almond Cookies

I went to a store and had a cookie.
It was almond and it was delicious.
So I decided to make some myself.

Almond Cookies

1 cup butter, cold
1 cup butter flavored crisco
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup sugar
whip together- make sure margarine and butter are cold

5 medium eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 tsp almond flavoring or 1/2 cup almond paste
mix 

3 cups flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Mix in parts
Roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper then use a cookie cutter to get the shapes you want. I let my kids use some of their own cookie cutters to make shapes. 
(optional) chill dough for at least 10 minutes

cook at 375 for 8 minutes remove just before the edges brown. Do not overcook

My little almond cookie man. or as my son calls him- a white ginger-man

Frost with
Almond Icing  (not pictured)

2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup water
2 tsp almond flavoring

whip
add more powdered sugar as needed

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Butterscotch cookies

I may have already mentioned this but my daughter hates chocolate chips.
Not just a little bit. If I can convince her to try a cookie with Chocolate chips in it she slowly picks them out and throws them away when I'm not looking.

It only confuses me.
so she likes to tell me exactly what kind of cookies I should make. When I make the wrong kind she understandably reminds me AGAIN that chocolate chips are not her favorite. So half of my cookies can't have any chocolate chips in them.

The things we do for our kiddos. One of the things I did for my kids a while back was to hide all their Halloween candy on top of the fridge so I could secretly throw it away make sure they didn't eat too much.
Since that didn't work perfectly I decided to employ their help is distributing candy into cookie "recipes." It took all of one type of candy to make these nice cookies.

Butterscotch Reeces Cookies

1 cup margarine

1 cup sugar

1.5 cups light brown sugar

whip together

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

mix

2 3/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

add in 3 parts

A whole bunch of reeces pieces candy  bags. 

Or you can go buy a bag at the store and save some time with the tiny wrappers

1 package butterscotch chips

mix

bake 350 for 12 minutes or until done.

Finally a cookie my daughter can get behind.

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