Friday, December 04, 2015

Peanut Butter Blossom or Kiss Cookies


These cookies are chewy and peanut buttery and delicious. You can use a Hershey's chocolate kiss in the middle or a Brach's Chocolate Stars. I like the stars because they come in milk or DARK chocolate and as far as I'm concerned, the darker the better when it comes to chocolate plus they look so pretty. We love these not only at  Christmas but any time of the year.
Ingredients
• 48 Hersheys' Kisses or Brach's Chocolate Stars
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Granulated sugar to roll dough balls into before baking
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees 
  2. Beat butter and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. 
  3. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. 
  4. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. 
  5. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
  6. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Do NOT put the chocolate on the cookie yet.
  7. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. 
  8. Remove from oven and immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie, the cookie will crack around edges. 
  9. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. 
  10. Cool completely. 
Makes About 4 dozen cookies

Wednesday, December 02, 2015

Scandinavian Almond Bars- Easy and delicious


Scandinavian Almond Bars


These cookies are so good and very fast to make- ready in 30 to 40 minutes. They are delicious, unique and pretty.We make them all year long but love them during the holidays. This recipe came from my husband's Swedish Grandmother and is a family favorite.
   Makes 4 dozen

Dough
1 cup softened butter
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp of almond extract
3 1/4  cups all purpose flour
4 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt

Topping
1 cup sliced/ slivered almonds
3-4 TBS milk

Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
6-8 TBS milk
  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
  • In a small bowl sift or stir together the flour, baking powder and the salt. Set aside.
  • In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy.

  • Add the egg and almond extract and beat until light and fluffy.
  • Slowly mix in the flour, baking powder and salt; mixing just until combined.
  • Divide dough into 4 pieces, and roll each one into a log about 12 inches long. Place 2 logs onto each well greased or preferably parchment lined cookie sheet-  4 to 5 inches apart. 
  • Flatten each roll by hand until it is about 3 inches wide. The dough is sticky so you may need to flour your hands a bit. They don't have to be perfect, once their cut you can't tell if they weren't totally even. I love that about this recipe!

  • Brush flattened roll with milk and   sprinkle with slivered almonds.
  •  Place both sheets into preheated oven.





  • Bake in preheated oven 12 to 15 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Rotate trays half way through. 







  • While the cookies are still warm,  cut them crosswise at a diagonal, into slices about 1 inch wide.





    • Make the Glaze: 
      • In a small bowl, mix together powdered sugar, almond extract, and milk until smooth.
    • Place glaze into a small zip lock bag and snip a small corner off. 
    • Drizzle the glaze, out of the corner hole, over the completely cooled cookies.
       Store in a sealed container. These freeze really well.

    Tuesday, December 01, 2015

    Soft Candy Cane Kiss Cookies with a Chocolate Star

    I found this great recipe on Pintrest and just had to try it. It looks so festive and I love peppermint so it was a great recipe to try. I combined parts of the original recipe from Recipe Girl and parts of the Hershey's Candy Cane Blossom cookie recipe to make these. I wanted the cookie to be soft and chewy like a little pillow of goodness!

    As I was taking the first batch out of the oven I had to move the bag of Brach's dark chocolate stars, from making these peanut butter blossom cookies, out of the way and inspiration hit me. Why not put both the chocolate star and the kiss on top? In many places the Chocolate stars are hard to find, I have to order mine on Amazon now. You can substitute Hershey's drops or any kind of chocolate disk or melting wafer.  You could even use 5-6 chocolate chips on top then press the kiss into them once they've melted a bit.

    Click here for a Printable version of this recipe!

    Candy Cane Kiss Blossom Cookies

    Yield: 2 1/2 dozen cookies
    Prep Time: 30 min 
    Cook Time: 12 min 
    When the fall holidays arrive, the Candy Cane Kisses begin to appear on supermarket shelves too. These are an incredibly delicious flavor delivered by the Hershey’s Kisses people. And they’re amazing tucked into a cookie too.

    Ingredients:

    1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
    1 1/4 cups butter, at room temperature
    1/2  teaspoon peppermint extract
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    1 large egg
    2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
    1 teaspoon baking powder
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    1/2 cup Candy Cane flavored Hershey's Kisses, finely chopped- 15-20
    granulated sugar
    additional, unwrapped Candy Cane Kisses- about 30-32
    Chocolate stars- about 30-32

    Directions:

    1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Make room in either refrigerator or freezer for your cookie sheet. Or you can do what I do which is to just let them sit out for an hour and they'll set up.
    2. In large mixer bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter, extracts and egg. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often until creamy (2-3 minutes). 
    3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to wet mixture and beat, scraping bowl until just blended.  Stir in chopped Kisses.
    4. Shape dough into 3/4-inch to 1-inch balls; roll in granulated sugar. Place 1-inch apart on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set.
    5. As soon as they come out of the oven, press a chocolate star  point side down in the center of each cookie. They'll crack a little around the edges, so just use your fingers to kind of hold the cookie together while you press the chocolate on.  Do all the cookies on the tray then go back and place a kiss on top of the chocolate star pressing down until the chocolate squeezes out from under the kiss forming a flower around it.


     You can leave the cookies out to set up or put cookie sheet (with cookies) immediately into the freezer (preferred) or refrigerator so that the Kisses will set quickly. Store in a covered container- at room temperature for up to a week. In the freezer they should be ok for a month.
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