Chocolate Crinkles

Chocolate Crinkles not only taste good but look elegant in their black and white attire topped with a Hershey Kiss.  

These are great for cookie snacking at any time, but they do make a great addition to any cookie tray either alone or with a mixture of other cookies. 

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Nothing Like a Good Italian Cookie Recipe

Another great recipe from my husbands heritage the Italians.   Makes a nice number of cookies for the cookie tray whether it be for a wedding, christmas or anytime of year.   Simply make the dough, let it rest.   Then roll it out in a pizza fashion, cut it into pizza slices.  Slather on the filling, roll and bake.   Oops! Don't forget to roll in powdered sugar.

This recipe as a nut filling, but you can swap out the filling for jam/jellies, nutella, or curds. 

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New addition to my Christmas Cookie Tray

Every year since I married my husband (1984), I have made trays of cookies to give away at Christmas time.  Heck, I have even made cookie trays for graduation parties and a few weddings. 

For several years instead of trying to do all the baking myself I went to a cookie exchange party.   I did not host the party but the just of it is:  Everyone brings 6 dozen cookies of one kind of cookie.  You can serve appetizers and drinks and play games or even bake extra cookies for sampling and awarding prizes during the party.  The big TADA  is when the hostess tells you how many of each cookie you can take.   the equation 6x12 divided by the number in attendance.  Of course the lower number in attendance the more of one kind of cookie you get.   Sometimes the party I went to, numbers were so large we only got 3 of each kind of cookie.   But no matter the number of who was in attendance you went with 6 dozen of one particular cookie and you came home with six dozen of a variety of cookies. At this time we would all gather up our large trays or cookie tins and form a line around the trays, boxes and tins of cookies displayed for exchanging.  We would then start choosing our allotted number of cookies from each tray until we made it full circle.  Then we would cover up our treasures and head home to enjoy the spoils. 

I haven't gone to a cookie exchange party in a few years. However, each year I still manage to make up a few trays to hand out.  The past several  years I have gotten together with friends to either bake and exchange in their home or mine.   It is always a good time and makes for a busy and fund day. 

This year I decided to try out a new recipe to add to my tray, Raspberry Almond Tarts.   These cookies are made in the mini muffin tin.   I love how anything made in the mini muffin tin is just the right size, one bite for some and two bites for others.  This allows  you room to have another or simply to just taste something altogether different.   I have found a few cookie recipes to use in the mini muffin tin as well, this one of course, Pecan Tassie's, Peanut Butter Cookie Cups, Cherry Almond Delights and Fudge Puddles.  I have also found that the dough in this recipe can be used in several cookie recipes.  I have also used it in making Kolacky's, Italian Fudge Roll Cookies and Rugelach, Italian Nut Horns, Hungarian Walnut Rolls, Hamantaschen Cookies, Cream Cheese Crescents and even thumbprints at times.   All of these make great additions to any cookie tray. 

Cookies are delicious anytime of year but Christmas seems the most popular holiday with having to leaving cookies for Santa.    Yet another reason to bake cookies.   Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and hoping you have your fill of delicious Christmas Cookies during the season and all the year through.

Raspberry Almond Tarts

Here is the recipe for Raspberry Almond Tarts.....

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Cookies for Christmas

At Christmas time I get together with family and friends and we bake cookies and make candy treats to load onto cookie trays to give as gifts or use at family gatherings.  Lots and lots of treats and cookies.   We have been doing it for years.   It is a fun, tiring, messy, and delicious day.  Sometimes it is a couple of us other times it is a group.   We make several of the old stand byes and often try out a new recipe or two.  By the end of the day we have made dozens and dozens of delicious, delectable tasting cookies and other goodies.

One of my favorites to make is a called the Italian Fudge Roll.   It was a recipe I received from my mother in law over 33 years ago and who knows how long she had it.  

The recipe is very simple and easy to follow.  It uses ingredients that you can get at your local grocery store, if they aren't in your pantry and fridge already.    

The dough comes together nicely and is easy to work with. The fudge center is simple to make and after making it you well learn that you can use it to make many different kinds of fudge.  

If you have never had the chance to taste it, yes, it tastes like a rich creamy chocolate fudge wrapped in a delicate pastry making it easy to eat.     Once you have tried it you will be seeking it out on the next tray of cookies.   

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The Cookie Capers Have Begun.

The Cookie Capers have begun. One of my favorite things about Christmas is making several types of Christmas cookies and candies. This year will be no exception. Have had a little time on my hands so I am ahead of the game so far. The tree is up and decorated and today was spent, mixing, rolling, freezing, melting and dipping a few truffles and balls.
This is a new recipe that I wanted to try and I have tweaked to suit my needs. I mean who doesn't love cookie dough, brownies or chocolate?   

Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs
Ingredients¾ cup butter, softened
¾ cup brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
2 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
2 cups miniature chocolate chips, divided (1 cup for dough and one cup for decorating)
1 pkg. Fudge brownie mix, baked and cooled.
1 pkg. chocolate melts

Instructions
Mix the brownies as directed on the box and bake and cool. 

Make the cookie dough in the stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until creamy. Add the milk and vanilla; beat to combine. Lastly, beat in the flour and pinch of salt until a soft dough forms. Stir in one cup of the mini chips.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Using the smallest cookie scoop you can find. Scoop dough out in even increments and set on wax paper lined cookie sheet. Once dough is all scooped, roll each dough into a ball. Freeze the dough balls for about an hour to firm up.

Cut the brownies leaving a ½ inch edge around the pan. Place center of brownies into a Ziploc bag and smoosh together to mix evenly. Freeze for 30 minutes. Scoop out balls of dough with smallest cookie scoop and place on cookie sheet. Roll all into balls and flatten.    

Place a cookie dough ball in the middle of the flattened brownie and very gently, wrap the brownie around the cookie dough ball. Set back on waxed lined cookie sheet. Repeat until all cookie dough balls are covered, and then return to the freezer for 30 minutes.






Melt chocolate into a tall narrow mug, according to package directions. Using a toothpick, dip each brownie truffle into the chocolate, coat completely, and allow excess to drip off. Return to the foil-line sheet and sprinkle the tops with the remaining cup of mini chips, for garnish. Store chocolates in the fridge or freezer, in an airtight container.




Notes/Swaps
You need to have moist brownies to do these. If the brownies you have are to dry. Put them in the food processor and pulse until they look like fine crumbs. Then trickle in Hershey’s syrup and run processor until a soft dough forms. You will be able to tell when this happens as the dough will pull away from the sides of the processor.

I usually make several kinds of truffles or balls at this time of year. Because they can be similar in size and often dipped in the same type of chocolate, I often choose something small to place on the top of each individual ball. In this case I used a small sugar snowflake, because I had already used the chocolate chips on the plain cookie dough balls. When I make Oreo truffles I top them with chocolate jimmies and I used crushed gingersnaps to top the gingersnap truffles.

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Oreo Truffles





 Cookie Dough Balls





Gingersnap Truffles




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Puddle Jumping and Mud Pies

What could be more fun than puddle jumping and mud pies?  

My 16 month old great niece enjoying puddle jumping.   

Well the answer is Fudge Puddles and Miniature Pies.  One of my favorite cookie recipes is from my mother in law.  She called it an Italian Fudge Roll.  I just switched it up a little and turned it into a small tart and call it Fudge Puddles. 

My mother-in-laws recipe suggested making the dough, rolling it out into a rectangle shape and then form the filling onto 1/3 of rectangle and roll it as you would a sausage roll.   Then bake it off and slice it into cookies.   

I however, prefer to press the dough into my mini muffin cups and then fill with the fudge filling.  I also like to use this dough recipe and fill it with other fillings.   As you can see in the photo below I made both Fudge Puddles and then using the same dough filled them with apple pie filling and topped with a streusel topping.

Mini Apple Pie Tarts and Fudge Puddles

Fudge Puddles

Dough
2 sticks of butter
1 8-ounce package cream cheese softened
2 cups flour
Filling
1 12-ounce package chocolate chips
1 15-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup chopped walnuts Mix ingredients for dough in order given on low in mixer.  Once the dough has formed remove from bowl.  Shape into a disc and wrap with plastic wrap.   Place in refrigerator to rest.    Heat oven to 350 degrees. While the dough is firming up place the ingredients for the filling in  small sauce pan.  Cook on low heat, stirring constantly until chips are melted. Pinch off small amounts of dough and place them in the mini muffin pan.   Use the wooden form to push dough down and form a cup.     Do this for all remaining muffin cups.   Using the smallest cookie scoop available fill each cup with Fudge mixture.  Place in oven and cook for 15-20 minutes or until dough is slightly browned.   Can also use other fillings: ·         Apple Pie ·         Lemon Curd ·         Chicken Salad ·         Use Peanut Butter or Butterscotch chips in place of Chocolate chips in filling mixture. ·         Quiche fillings ·         Your favorite  pie filling ·         Your favorite fudge filling    This dough is very versatile and goes with any flavor sweet or savory. It is also very forgiving and comes out perfect every time unlike regular pie crust.   Give it a try and let me know how you like it and what you like to fill it with.      Pecan Tarts Here is a similar recipe for Pecan Tassies and Chocolate Cups Click on recipe image to open photo.  Right click on photo to save to your computer for printing. Raspberry Almond Tarts  And another recipe with a different flavor profile....  Click on recipe to open photo.  Right click on photo to save to your computer.  For more recipes, click the button below:  Follow me on Facebook   Or find me on Pinterest  Click this image to subscribe Join me on Google+ From the bottom of my heart..............