Pecan Praline Cookie Triangles

Any type of confection with the word praline in it and I am all over it! When my husband and I first got married we found an ice cream–Pralines and Cream made by Frusen Glädjé. (Whatever happened to that ice cream anyway?) It was a Friday night treat for us and it may have been one of the best ice creams ever made! Consequently, I am a huge praline fan!

This would be a great cookie to add to any goodie plate. Buttery, rich and full of pecans. I caught my hubby sneaking one last night and he said something to the effect that they were out-of-this-world good. Yes, I have to agree!

Pecan Praline Cookie Triangles

Ingredients

Crust

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup butter, melted

Filling

• 3 cups pecan halves, divided
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For the crust, combine flour, powdered sugar and baking soda. Add the butter and mix until crumbly. Lightly press the crumb mixture into the bottom of a 10 x 15 1/2 inch cookie sheet (9x13 will work as well, cooking times may be a bit longer). Bake for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, for the filling, reserve 1 cup of the pecans for garnish; chop the remaining pecans. Combine the chopped pecans, brown sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla, and salt. Mix well. Pour filling over the warm crust, spreading to the edges of the pan.

Arrange the remaining pecan halves over the filling.

Bake 17-19 minutes or until filling is set in the center.

Remove from oven, cool completely.

Sprinkle with additional powdered sugar, if desired.

Cut into 32 squares. Cut each square in half diagonally.

Yield: 64 triangles (if using 10 x 15 1/2 inch pan)

M & M Cookies

I am going to try to post as many cookies, treats, and desserts as possible between now and Christmas. Since I like to have goodies on hand between Christmas and New Years,I don't like to get my baking done too far in advance. My plans are to freeze some, give some away, and still have plenty to go around.

This particular cookie recipe was given to me when I first got married, almost 30 years ago, gasp! There was a sweet older woman in the church my Dad pastored that made these and I had to have the recipe. That same year I made them for a cookie swap and it won first prize! I'm happy to share it with you today.

Our family began a tradition years ago that includes having hot apple cider and cookies—right out of the oven—while we put up the Christmas tree. It's always a real tree, of course! Usually we put it up around the 10th of December. This year we had a bit of trouble finding a tree so we went to a tree farm and cut our own for the very first time. Had so much fun! Our only regret is that that we forgot to take the camera.

This cookie is a great alternative to chocolate chip cookies–its wonderful counterpart. I love the addition of oatmeal—Yum!

M & M Cookies

• 1 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup butter (softened)
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 Tablespoons Milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups oatmeal (quick cooking or old fashioned)
• 1 1/2 cups m&m's

Directions

Preheat oven to 375.

In a mixing bowl combine the shortening, butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Beat until creamy. Add eggs, one at at time. Beat well. Add vanilla, mix.

In a separate bowl combine flour, soda and salt. Gradually add to the butter mixture, beat until incorporated. Add oatmeal and chocolate chips. Stir until mixed.

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly, remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Note: This makes a lot of cookies (6-7 dozen). You can bake some right away and freeze the rest of the dough. Frozen cookie dough will need more time in the oven.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

I had never made whoopie pies before. I see them all the time, and was anxious to try them. A pumpkin variety seemed perfect for my first attempt. The ingredients were a bit surprising to me, 1 whole cup of vegetable oil and no butter? I wasn't too sure about that, but these cookies do have more of a cake like texture. The addition of the molasses contributed to a deep rich pumpkin flavor.

The other surprise was that the batter was more on the runny side, again, more like a cake batter. They spread out nicely and yet not too thin at all.

These were a lot of fun to make and I am looking forward to trying many varieties of this yummy treat!

They're filling enough to make a great dessert or to just have on hand as a sweet treat for the holidays.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Ingredients

• Parchment paper
• 1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 cups flour

Filling

• 4 ounces (1 stick) butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

For the cookies: Preheat oven to 375. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using

an electric mixer, blend the pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar , oil and molasses together on

medium speed until well combined - approximately 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the

bowl, and add the salt, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and baking soda.

Mix until incorporated. Add the flour to the wet ingredients and beat until well combined,

approximately 1 minute. Drop batter onto baking sheets 2 inches apart making 28 cookies.

Bake 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to rack to cool.

For the filling: Using an electric mixer, whip together butter and cream cheese on high

speed until fluffy - approximately 3 minutes. Add sugar a cup at a time and vanilla, beat

until smooth.

To assemble: Spread flat side of the cookies with approximately 2 tablespoons of filling.

Top with remaining cookie, flat side touching the filling. Serve.

Note: For best storage, wrap each pie individually in plastic wrap.

Yield: approximately 14 pies

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

School is in full-swing now. This year, my kids seem kind of all spread out. I am home-schooling my youngest who is in his sophomore year. I have a son who started his junior year of public high school, one who started his senior year of college and then of course, my newly married son, far removed from the nest now...they seem to grow-up overnight! Ah, so bitter-sweet.

Along with some other home-schoolers, my youngest has started up again with his Lego Robotics group. This year they will be meeting at our house, so I anticipate new opportunities to make snacks and goodies for the group. I was looking for a different cookie to bake and ran across this one that looked new and interesting (and delicious).

Starting out with a combination of dry ingredients, including cocoa.

Mixing it all up.

Next up—the wet ingredients.

Forming them into a ball and rolling in powdered sugar.

All ready to go in the oven.

Crinkly, on the top, warm and gooey in the middle. I actually modified the recipe and put some chocolate chips in the middle while forming the balls.

Here's just part of the team enjoying their afternoon cookies! All the kids seemed to think they were pretty good. After all, I had an empty plate when it was all said and done.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetned cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• chocolate chips (opt)

Directions

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Grease 2 baking sheets with butter.

Put the confectioners' sugar into a bowl and set aside.

In another bowl, using a wooden spoon, stir together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add 1 egg and beat on medium speed until blended. Add the other egg and vanilla and beat until blended.

Turn off the mixer and add the flour mixture. Beat on low speed just until blended.

Using a tablespoon, scoop up a rounded spoonful of dough. Scrape the dough off the spoon into the palm of your other hand. If desired, put 4 chocolate chips in the middle before rolling. Roll the dough into a ball. Roll the ball in the confectioners' sugar until covered. Place the balls on a prepared baking sheet. Repeat, spacing the balls about 2 inches apart.

When 1 baking sheet is full, put it in the oven and bake the cookies until they are crackled and puffed, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and set it on a wire rack for 15 minutes.

Using a metal spatula, move the cookies onto the rack and let cool completely. Repeat with the rest of the cookies.

Yield: 24 cookies

Chocolate Chip Bars

Believe it or not, I have actually made these 3 times in the last week and a half. These treats were my contribution to a couple of different church functions. One was for our "5th Sunday Sing" that we had (a week postponed) at our church this past Sunday.

In spite of my intention to take all the pictures before I left for the event, I ran out of time and didn't get any shots of the finished product. I came home with a completely empty plate, so I knew I would have to make them again. Was the empty plate a sign of their popularity? Oh yeah! Many people raved.

I have had way too many cookie bars that are, on the dry side. So I went to a very trusted source to find the best of the best bars and cookies.

Anna over at Cookie Madness has a whole treasure trove of great recipes for cookies, bars, brownies and desserts. I knew I could trust her to come through and these were perfect.

They were moist, full and flavor and loaded with chocolate. Now we have plenty for all my hungry boys to eat over the next few days.

Anna's version was larger and went in a 15x10 inch pan. I cut the recipe in half to fit in a 13x9.

Chocolate Chip Bars

Adapted slightly from Cookie Madness

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) regular salted butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all purpose four
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 1 (12 ounce) package of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream the butter and sugars, beat in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients and blend in. Add chips and nuts. Spread in a greased 13x9 inch baking pan and bake for 20 minutes or until bars appear set. Cool and cut into bars.

Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

This post has been linked to Eat at Home.

This will be my last "food made from my kitchen," post for a while. The big wedding is upon us and we will be traveling to exotic locations. Okay, not really, how about a beautiful destination! See if you can guess. No cheating, if you already know. Whatever you do–keep checking back because I will be posting wedding pictures and photos of other places and other foods. I will want to share with you some of the memories that we make along the way.

I was appalled to discover that this is the very first cookie recipe I've posted. That just doesn't seem right. How can I even consider myself a true food blogger without any cookie posts? I hope to redeem myself, by sharing this awesome recipe with you.

Behold the featured stars of this delicious cookie production! The players are coconut for toasting and dark chocolate.

These cookies were hot out-of-the-oven, just waiting for us to grab a glass of milk and indulge. Oops, bummer, we were out of milk. Off to the store for some. We couldn't bear to eat cookies this good without milk.

Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup flaked sweetened coconut
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
• Cooking spray

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°.

Arrange coconut in a single layer in a small baking pan. Bake at 350° for 7 minutes or until lightly toasted, stirring once. Set aside to cool.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl; stir with a whisk until blended. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Beat in vanilla and egg. Add flour mixture, beating at low speed just until combined. Stir in toasted coconut and chocolate.

Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until bottoms of cookies just begin to brown. Remove from pan, and cool completely on wire racks.

Caramel Nut Bars

Do you keep well-stocked pantry? By well-stocked, I mean chocolate chips of course—all varieties, semi-sweet, milk, white, butterscotch etc.… Also, its important to keep on hand a bag of caramels. These things are critical so that when the mood strikes or you've forgotten about that potluck that's tomorrow night—you don't have to get in the car and make yet another trip to the store for this or that. Such is/was the case with these bars. With ingredients on hand they are pretty easy to whip up and always a crowd pleaser.

The most time-consuming part of putting these together is unwrapping all the caramels. I would suggest getting somebody in the family, who is doing something mindless (TV), to unwrap them. I might let them eat one (and only one) of the caramels for their effort.

It's a winning combination with gooey caramel, chocolate, butter… Mmmmmm, the buttery goodness! It really stands out—yum! Not to worry however. Each square is just 154 calories (with nuts). The question is, can you stop after eating only one little square? Regretfully, I failed in my attempt.

Caramel Nut Bars

Taste of Home

Ingredients:

1 cup quick-cooking oats

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 package (14 ounces) caramels

1/3 cup milk

1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients until crumbly;

sprinkle 1 cup into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan (do not

press).

Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. In a small heavy saucepan, cook and stir caramels and milk until caramels are melted.

Pour over crust. Top with chocolate chips and nuts. Sprinkle with

remaining oat mixture. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. Cool on a

wire rack. Refrigerate until set. Yield: 3 dozen.

Yield: 36 Servings

1 serving equals 154 calories, 7 g fat (4 g saturated fat), 11 mg cholesterol, 104 mg sodium, 22 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 2 g protein.