Recipe review: Cinnamon Roll Cookies

Recently I came across this recipe from Picky-plate for cinnamon roll cookies and I really wanted to try them. 


I did. Make them. They are so tasty. And like she says, surprisingly better cold. I don't know why but the cold does something that makes me want eat them all. These are chewy, just the right amount of sweet, buttery and fantastic. 

   I didn't take pictures of my cookies, so here is one from her blog 

just so you know what you are getting yourself into.  

  

The recipe straight for her lips blog:


"Cookie:

2 Cups sugar
1 Cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup sour cream
6 Cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling:

1 1/2 softened butter
1 1/2 Cups packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon

*You can find the recipe for frosting on her site, I bought a tub of cream cheese frosting because I was being lazy but I didn't frost most of the cookies, I actually liked them better without the frosting.* 

Cream the sugar and butter. Add eggs, vanilla and sour cream until combined. Add the baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour one cup at a time until well combined.

Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Once chilled, cut each disc into thirds and roll into a 1/8 inch thick oval. Spread each rolled pieces of dough with 2 Tablespoons softened butter, 1/4 Cup packed brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. *I took the filling ingredients and mixed them all together like a spread. But do however you wish. I like being different.*

Start rolling from the long end closest to you, rolling into a log shape.  Using a sharp knife, cut 1/2 inch pieces of dough.  Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes before removing from baking sheet."

Seriously of you don't make themse I just might disown you. Check out her website. I just saw her recipe for walking tacos (the one good thing about middle school) and I want. 

Decorating cookies

I decorated cookies with the little bros over the weekend. I'm a little cookied out so I just used one of those cookie mixes that you just add butter and an egg. They were good, probably even better because I didn't really have to do much except mix.

I busted out my holiday sprinkles, a few tubs of frosting, some food coloring and the cookies I had made the night before and we were ready to decorate.

Any one up for some caroling around the christmas tree? I did have Gingerbread men to go with the Gingerbread ladies but someone ate all the men so the women are lonely now. Poor ladies, better get out the milk. 

When I was getting ready to make the cookies I was looking through my cookie cutters and found all my little tiny cookie cutters. I almost forgot I had them. A friend of mine gave them to me freshman year in high school way before I ever thought baking was fun. Mia? How the heck did you know my future would lead to much baking and I would find these necessary to my life someday? 

Look how cute

Oh how adorable these little candy canes look next to the giant one. Is it weird that I think a cookie is adorable? They are also delicious if that makes a difference. Delicious and adorable. 

 

This little Cyclops isn't as cute but I like him. 

Betcha never had a Colonel Sanders cookie. Be jealous. Why is Colonel pronounced Kernel? I never understood that and doubt I ever will. It should be pronounced Colon-ell....wait... I think I just answered my own question. Who wants to be called a digestive system. Sorry this cookie post took an unexpected turn. Disregard everything after "jealous".

This is what happens when little brother number 2 gets bored. He stacks 4 cookies with frosting and calls it a day. 

And this is what happens when I tell he needs to help finish decorating the enormous pile cookies I baked. He piles on the frosting and calls it a day. 

Little brother number 2 also "accidentally" messed up a bunch of cookies he was decorating and had to eat them. He couldn't figure out why he didn't feel good 7 cookies later.

Have you finished you holiday baking yet?

Not feeling up to holiday baking? You could always buy one of those pre-made Pilsbury holiday cookie logs. You know the ones that have the holiday image on them and you just slice the cookies. Actually, I think you don'y even have to cut them anymore, they come in a sheet and you just have to bake them. Just get some of those, a tub of frosting and some sprinkles and your done! Easy peasy.

(via)

Kay

Gingersnaps!

GINGERSNAPS!

Recipe

       3/4 cups butter

  1 cup sugar

          1/3 cup molasses

1 egg

               2 cups plus 2 T. flour

1/2 t. salt

2 t. soda

                                   1/2 t. cinnamon, cloves, and ginger

Mix the above ingredients together. Chill in the refrigerator 2-3 hours.

3 T sugar- make small balls of cookies and dip into sugar. Place cookies on greased cookie sheets.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes. Makes about 3 dozen medium delicious cookies.

Holiday Thumbprints

Trying to think of another holiday cookie I could make, holiday thumbprint cookies with a Hershey Kiss in the middle came to mind. I always see them at Christmas parties or on cookie plates but I've never had one. These are good cookies but have a cake like texture.  
            
Yields approx. 36 cookies
         
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of Butter
1 Egg
1 1/2 cups Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 cup Milk
1 cup Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/3 cup Cocoa powder
1/4 tsp Salt
Approx. 36 Hershey Kisses, one 10 oz bag had more than enough. I used the peppermint ones


Preheat oven to 375º
Beat the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in a bowl until well blended. Mix together in a separate bowl the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Than add this to the butter mixture alternately with the milk in about three additions. Blend well. Cover and refrigerate the dough for about one hour. 


**Scoop the dough, a tablespoon full, onto the baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cool a few minutes on cookie sheet then transfer to a cooling rack. 


**Here is one thing I can't decide on; when to add the Hershey Kisses. I pressed some into the dough balls before I popped them into the oven and let them bake with the cookies. They held their shape nicely but the tips of the kisses did start to brown a little, which isn't really a big deal. 

These were baked with the Hershey Kiss. See still pretty. 

And I added some powdered sugar to distract from the brown candy. 

I also pressed some of the Kisses into the dough right after they came out of the oven. These ones melted into a nice puddle of chocolate, which also isn't a big deal. But to me they just weren't as pretty so I sprinkled them with a little bit of crushed candy cane and I was happy with the results. You could sprinkle them with red and green sugar or some nice festive holiday sprinkles. 

Both look nice and they taste the same so it's completely up to you!

recipe adapted from Hershey's
  
Kay

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies w/Orange glaze

I'm not a fan of oatmeal raisin cookies but I love oatmeal cookies of every kind. I also really like dried cranberries, so instead of making plain oatmeal cookies or chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, I made Cranberry Oatmeal cookies. 

And since the combination of orange and cranberry seem so popular, I wanted to make an cranberry orange cookie. I was going to add the orange zest to the cookie dough but I really wanted to be able to taste it so I made an orange glaze that adds a hint of orange and sweetness to the cookie. 

Yields approx. 48 cookies
Ingredients

For Cookies: 

1 cup Butter - softened

1 1/4 cups firmly packed Brown Sugar

2 Egg

2 tsp Vanilla 

1 1/2 cups Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp Salt

2 cup Old Fashioned Oats

1 1/2 cups dried Cranberries

For Orange Glaze:

1 1/2 cups Powder Sugar

3 tbs Orange Juice

1 tbs Orange Zest


In a bowl mix the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and baking soda. In another bowl cream the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla and eggs mix until smooth. Then add in the flour mixture, once combined add the dried cranberries. 


Using a sorbet scoop or a tablespoon, scoop dough on to a cookie sheet and bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Leave on the cookie sheet for a few minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. 


While the cookies are in the oven, begin making the Orange Glaze. 
Whisk together the powder sugar, orange juice and orange zest. Add more O.J. for a thinner consistency OR add more powder sugar to thicken it up as you wish. It should be thick but pourable, not super runny. If you have one, pour the orange glaze into a squeeze bottle otherwise just leave it in the bowl.


Once the cookies have cooled drizzle the orange glaze over the cookies. If you don't have a squeeze bottle, dip a fork into the glaze and drizzle over the cookies. The icing will set up if you let them sit out for about half an hour. Store in an air tight container. Enjoy! 

Kay

Salted Caramel Cocoa Cookies

Have you had the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate from Starbucks? Don't dismiss this drink for its trendiness, it's one of my very favorite things this season. I love it so much that I decided to model a cookie recipe after it. I give you the Salted Caramel Cocoa cookie!

Salted Caramel Cocoa Cookies

Yields approx. 3 dozen cookies

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon regular salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 bag of Rolos chocolate caramel candies

3 tablespoons coarse sea salt

Preheat your oven to 350*. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, regular salt, and baking soda. In a separate bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs one at a time, and stir in the vanilla. Slowly mix in your sifted, dry ingredients until just combined. 

Drop the dough by tablespoonful, roughly two inches apart, on a parchment covered baking sheet. Using your fingers, or the back of a spoon, press down on the top of an unwrapped Rolo until lightly squished* (Yes, that's such a scientific term..) Place a squished Rolo on the top of each round of dough and press down. Sprinkle a dash of the coarse sea salt on top of the Rolo.

Bake at 350* for 8 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on a rack before eating. 

Note: I recommend allowing the cookies to cool completely before taking a bite, no matter how delicious they smell. The caramel will be hot and may burn.

Adapted from All Recipes

Have you enjoyed this week's recipes so far? What's your all time favorite cookie to eat during the holidays?

xo Nicole

Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies

I mentioned in the peppermint bark post that I would be using it in some cookies. I didn't have a recipe for the cookies I wanted to make but I knew what I wanted, a chocolate chocolate chip cookie using peppermint bark instead of chocolate chips. 

While I am all for playing with recipes and tweaking them to see what you get and how great you can make them, I don't do well with baking failures. So Instead of playing with a recipe I scoured the internet looking for a good chocolate cookie that I could use but nothing looked good enough. Then I came across 101cookbooks and they have a fabulous recipe for Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies. 

Yields approx.: 48 cookies

Ingredients:

3 cups Flour

1 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp Salt

1 cup  Butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 Eggs

1 tbs Vanilla

2 cups peppermint bark, roughly chopped  

Optional crushed candy canes

Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. 

In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, be sure to scrap down the sides of the bowl a few times. Then stir in the vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients in increments, stirring between each addition.  Stir in the peppermint bark by hand until it is evenly incorporated. 


Reserve a bit of the bark to sprinkle on top of the cookies before you pop them into the oven. And if you want, crush up a few candy canes to sprinkle on top for some extra color once you take the cookies out of the oven.

Using a sorbet scoop or a table spoon, scoop onto baking sheets 1 inches apart and bake @ 375º for about 10 - 14 minutes. The recipe says that the cookies will flatten out but mine didn't so what I did was dust the bottom of a glass with some cocoa powder and press the cookies down.  Cool the cookies on the cookie sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. While they are still a little hot, sprinkle with the optional crushed candy canes. 

Kay 

Molasses Drop Cookies

If you're like me, the smell of molasses makes you queasy. Don't be fooled though, these cookies are delicious!

The molasses cookies are a sweet alternative to gingerbread if you just don't have the time to roll out a ton of dough. They pair especially well with a hot apple cider. Perfect for a snowy day!

This particular recipe was adapted from the recipe of a family friend, Aunt Paula. Thanks to her for sharing such a great recipe!

Molasses Drop Cookies

Yields: approx. 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients: 

2 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 c. shortening

1/4 c. sugar

1 egg

1/4 c. milk

3/4 c. molasses (unsulphered) 

Preheat your oven at 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, ginger and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.
Cream together the shortening and sugar. Then, stir in the egg. Add in the milk and molasses.
Mix in the dry ingredients. Drop by the tablespoonful on a greased or non-stick cookie sheet. (I line my cookie sheet with parchment paper.)
Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly brown around the edges. Let cool on the cooling rack.

Tip: For a crunchy top to the cookie, sprinkle a little sugar on the rounds before baking.

Quick and Easy Holiday Decorating tip

You are probably busy, running around all day, working, trying to get everything on your "To Do" list accomplished. With Christmas quickly approaching there just doesn't seem to be enough time to do everything. Christmas quickly coming up also mean you or someone you know is probably doing a lot of holiday baking.

I don't know about you but I bake when I am stressed. I'm guessing for others, baking is stressful. So if your boyfriend/girlfriend/in-laws/other miscellaneous family or friends are visiting and you want to impress them with wicked baking skills all you need is a tub of frosting and some sprinkles. Oh sweet sprinkles. How you can make anything look festive. 

What you need: 

Sprinkles, any shape, color size depending on the holiday or your mood

A tub of frosting an flavor

homemade cupcakes or cookies OR store bought or cookies  

See this sad,pathetic cupcake? He is all naked and vulnerable and DANG IT! He doesn't like it one bit! 

So mister cupcake, this is what we will do. COVER YOU IN SPRINKLES!

I feel the holiday spirit blooming already. 

There are so many varieties of sprinkles. I had no idea. When I was little my parents only bought the colored sugar. I never knew about the delightful world of sprinkles. There are all sorts of colors of jimmies like the one pictured above. Really, you could find any shade you desired if you looked hard enough.

There are sprinkles shaped like snowflakes. I feel like I'm in a blizzard of sprinkles.

Here is the standard colored sugar. There are so many colors available. Red and green (and white if you so choose) make this ordinary cupcake extraordinary and christmas like.

You can smear a cookie, store bought, homemade or semi-homemade with some frosting and throw on some nonpareils! What exactly are "pareils" and why can't these little guys be them? Just doesn't seem fair. 

There are these large confetti sprinkles just hoping to help some poor old Scrooge feel the Joy of the Holidays with their giant size and colorful appearance. 

And finally here are some festive red jimmies, some white stars and green tree sprinkles. 

It's so festive it makes me want to slap a clown carrying christmas presents. I don't really know what the means but thats not the point. The point is, they turned the plain cupcake into a christmas extravaganza in a mere 2 seconds. 

No need to stress over doomed christmas baking! Just buy some sprinkles, and slather on a good layer of store bought or homemade icing and cover that sucker with sprinkles and everyone will think you are a baking genius. 

Bake it Pretty has a fantastic selection of sprinkles and other baking goods. I'll probably end up in the poor house because of them but at least they will be able to stay in business.

Kay

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

Tomorrow is National Candy Corn Day! Or so, that's what the internet says. Confession though, I do not like candy corn.

There, I said it. Candy corn lovers, shun me now. I do, however, think candy corn is super cute, so I decided to celebrate the holiday in another way; with cookies.

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

Recipe adapted from here

Yields 4 dozen cookies

2 cups of powdered sugar

2 cups of butter, room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla 

5 cups of flour

Orange & yellow food coloring gel

Mix the powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla thoroughly together. Slowly add the flour to the mixture. Divide your dough into three bowls evenly. Mix orange food coloring into one bowl of dough and yellow into another. I start out with just a little amount of gel on the end of a toothpick and keep adding it in small amounts until I achieve the right color. 

Put your dough in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes. Form each bowl of dough evenly into rectangular shaped logs. Then stack the logs on top of each other and use your hands to mold it into a long pyramid of triangle shape. Wrap your pyramid with wax paper or parchment paper and freeze for several hours. 

Preheat your oven to 400* when you're ready for baking. Slice the log into pieces about 1/4 inch thick and bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the edges of the cookies start to brown. These cookies will burn easily, so keep an eye on them.

Then, you'll have some super cute (non-waxy) cookies to enjoy!

Hamburger Cookie. WHAT?!?!

Ever eat a hamburger cookie? What? You don't know what a hamburger cookie is? WHELLLLLL let me tell ya! 


Are you ready for this? They are cookies, that look like hamburgers. Mind blown. 

There should be sesame seeds on the top but I didn't feel like doing a scavenger hunt at the store, so I went without it. 

My dad used to make these for us when we were little. I loved them! These are a great thing to make if you have kids, are babysitting kids, know some kids,  or are yourself a kid at heart. 

All you need  to make these are:

• Vanilla Wafers 
• Keebler grasshopper cookies or any other chocolate cookie
• Vanilla frosting
• Shredded coconut
• Green and red food coloring 
• Sesame seeds 
• Honey or maple syrup

The quantities just depend on how many of these little guys you want to make. You need two vanilla waffers for every chocolate cookie. 

First you need to turn that Coconut green! And please don't leave it in a warm place for months to turn it a moldy green, we are not making penicillin here. 

Add a few drops of green food coloring to the coconut and stir it around until its green. A little goes a long way, so start with a few drops of food coloring and then add more to get the color you want. 

Then, pretend it's Christmas and you are coloring frosting for christmas cookies.

Place some white frosting in a bowl and add a few drops of yellow, and in a seperate bowl do the same with the red. Again, start with a few drops then add more to get the color you want. I had to add a lot of red and it still wasn't a red as I wanted but oh well my stomach doesn't care. 

Volla! Ketchup and Mustard!

There is some white in with the "ketchup" and "mustard" because it is going to be used to hold the bottom of the cookie to the "bottom bun".

See! Anchor that cookie to those buns! Wait......that felt a little too personal. It sort of felt like I just called myself fat....

Ok nevermind that self inflicted fat joke.

Put some of the red and yellow colored frosting on the top cookie "bun". I smeared them a little over the edge so you could see it when it was all put together.

Then all you have to do is sprinkle the coconut on top of the chocolate cookie and place both halves together. 

This is where you would brush a little bit of warm honey or syrup on the top cookie and then sprinkle on sesame seeds. But once again, I was a lazy shopper today and didn't want to go on an epic search for them that would result in me going down the same isle 50 times. Ever been to Wal-mart? Thats a lot of isles to go down that many times. 

COOKIE! HAMBURGER! COOKIE! 

I got a little bit of yellow food coloring on my finger. Please don't judge me.