Samoas Cookie Bars

Have you ever craved Girl Scout Cookies when it's NOT that time of year? Nope...neither have I! haha...but seriously, sometimes you just have a craving for one of those good old Samoa cookies that they sell. I knew when I found this recipe, that I would have to try them. It took me a long time to actually accomplish trying them, but I finally did it. Now it's taken me almost a month to get them onto this blog. Between working at my job, working out, and taking a Martial art a few nights a week, I am one busy gal! When I made these, I promised myself to only try one little bite and I actually succeeded. I took them to work and the students and staff gobbled them up fast enough that I didn't have to fight my temptations.
Woo Hoo!! Thank goodness, because if they hadn't, I am positive I could have consumed the entire pan all by myself. Yes...they are THAT good!

Recipe Source: http://bakingbites.com/2009/02/homemade-girl-scout-cookies-samoas-bars/

Makes 30 bars

For the cookie base:

1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla 

 2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt

Start by  making the cookie base. Preheat your oven to 350°
Spray a 9 x 13 pan with Pam or line with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, beat together sugar and butter, until light and fluffy.
Beat in egg and vanilla. Put your mixer on low speed and gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly. It will probably look somewhat like wet sand.
Pour the crumbly dough mixture into your greased pan and press it all out into an even layer.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until it is set and the edges are lightly browned. Cool completely before before putting the topping on.

For the topping:
3 cups shredded, sweetened coconut

1 (12 oz) pkg of Kraft caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp milk
10 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

 

Preheat the oven to 300°
Spread out the coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Toast the coconut for  20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until the coconut is a light golden color. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
Unwrap the caramels and place them in a large microwave safe bowl. Add the salt and the milk. Cook on high for 1 minute and stir. Cook 1 more minute and stir. Continue this process for 3-4 minutes until the caramel is all melted.
When the caramel is smooth, fold in the toasted coconut with a spatula.
Using a spoon, plop dollops of the topping all over the cookie base. Using a spatula, or the back of a spoon, spread the topping into an even layer. Let topping set until it is completely cooled.
When it's all cooled, cut into 30 bars with a large knife or a pizza cutter.
Once the bars are cut, melt the chocolate chips in a small bowl by heating on high for about 30 seconds and stirring. Then heat them 15 more seconds and stir. Continue until they are completely melted, but be sure to stir in between or they will scorch and burn.
Dip the bottom only, of each bar into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper. Place the remaining chocolate  into a Ziploc baggie. Snip a small corner off with scissors and you can now drizzle the chocolate over the bars to finish them. .
Let chocolate completely set.
Store in an airtight container.

Peanut Butter Christmas Tree Cookies

I think everyone in their lifetime has tasted Peanut Butter Blossoms. Good old peanut butter cookies with a scrumptious Hershey kiss on the top! These cookies were a part of my childhood. My mom didn't make them often, but when she did....oh boy....I couldn't eat enough of them. This might explain why I am dieting AGAIN lol. When I saw on Pinterest that you could take this simple little cookie and decorate the Hershey kisses to look like Christmas trees, I was so excited. This was super easy, lots of fun and even my 3 year old grand daughter enjoyed helping with these. She got to put all those cute little sprinkle dots all over them. Yes, I will be sweeping up the excess off my floor until next Christmas, but it was worth it, to watch her eyes light up as we made these!

Recipe Source: http://javacupcake.com/2013/12/christmas-tree-peanut-butter-blossoms/

48 Hershey's Kisses chocolate candies
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling the cookies in before cooking
green frosting
holiday sprinkles

Heat oven to 375°F and line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Remove the foil wrap from the Hershey kisses and set aside.
Beat shortening and peanut butter in a large mixing bowl until well blended.
Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat until fluffy.
Add egg, milk and vanilla. Beat well.
In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually beat this mixture into the peanut butter mixture.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar and place on prepared cookie sheet.
Bake 7-8 minutes or until lightly browned.
Immediately press a chocolate, gently,  into the center of each cookie. The cookie will slightly crack around the edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. You have to make sure your cookies are completely cooled before decorating the kisses. I baked mine the day before I decorated them.
Either color white icing until it's the desired shade of green or use green icing if you can find it. Fill a baggie with the icing and cut a small hole on one of the corners. Gently squeeze the baggie (you don't want to cause it to break the baggie open) and starting at the base of the Hershey kiss, pipe a line of frosting swirling around the kiss and up to the top. Immediately sprinkle with the holiday sprinkles.

Ginger Cinnamon Chip Cookies

Do you sometimes want to make an entire batch of cookie dough, just to eat the dough? Or is it just me? Admit it, you like cookie dough too. I think almost everyone does. As I was making these cookies, I was finding it so hard to stay out of the dough. It was so yummy! My solution? Pop a piece of peppermint gum in your mouth and then you won't want to ruin that wonderful peppermint breath, by continually eating cookie dough. It worked for me.  Well ok...AFTER I had gotten into the dough, but trust me, if I hadn't have had gum, I'm fairly sure there would have been no dough left to make into cookies!
Thankfully there was some left and I could take this picture and type up the recipe for you. This one is easy, and truly tastes like Fall. 

2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup (or 1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
1 bag Hershey's cinnamon chips (these are usually found in the Fall season only. I find mine at Wal Mart)
sugar for rolling the cookies

Heat oven to 350°

Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.

Using your mixer, cream together the butter and the brown sugar. . Add in the egg and molasses. Beat until mixed well.

Add in the dry ingredients and combine until mixed well together. (Don't overmix)

Pour in the bag of cinnamon chips and mix only until the chips are spread throughout the dough well.

Roll the dough into balls the size of a small golf ball. and then roll each ball in sugar.  Place the dough balls onto the parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12--14 minutes. (I baked mine the full 14 minutes because the hubby likes his cookies on the firm side.) If you like them chewier, take them out at 12 minutes. Let them sit for about 5 minutes on the hot cookie sheet and then remove them to cookie racks to cool completely.

Crispy Double Chocolate Chip Caramel Cookies

Menopause is bringing out the creative baker in me! Believe me when I say, this is the ONLY good thing it's doing. I mean, what else can you do besides bake at 3:00 in the morning, when you have insomnia, you are waking up sweating from night sweats and you are having hot flashes? I wasn't even sure I would need the oven to cook these. At any given moment during a hot flash, I could just hold them up to my forehead and trust me.....they would cook in no time at all.
When I woke up and decided to bake, I started  rummaging through my pantry to see what I had on hand and how I could create a new and tasty cookie. These have a bit of crunch from the Rice Krispies, ooey gooey caramel and lots of white and semi sweet  chocolate. Sounds good...right?
It was! All the staff and students at school today loved them. The  students sure didn't like it though, when I had to wake them from their sugar comas and tell them to get back to work ;)

3 cups semi sweet chocolate chips, divided
2 2/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups Rice Krispies
6 oz white chocolate, chopped (or 1 cup white chocolate chips)
20 Kraft caramels, unwrapped and sliced into 5 slices each

Heat oven to 375°

Melt 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips in a double boiler or a heavy saucepan over low heat. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir together and set aside. 

Mix together: butter, brown sugar, sugar and vanilla and eggs, until blended. 
Mix in melted chocolate. Slowly mix in flour mixture. 
Stir in Rice Krispies,1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate and sliced Kraft caramels. 

Bake for 9 minutes and remove from oven. Let cool on the cookie sheet for 4 minutes. Remove  to cooling rack to continue cooling. (If the cookies seem to be getting stuck to the cookie sheet, use a sharp knife to loosen them. Sometimes, the caramel sticks to the cookie sheet).

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

I wish I could take credit for thinking these up but no such luck on my part. I almost wish I hadn't found this recipe as it could be a danger to my diet! These are the easiest bar cookies I can think of to make. My grand daughter even helped me make them. Oh and they are srumpdiddlyumptious. Yes that's a word! Just ask my 3 year old grand daughter. They taste a lot like Reese's peanut butter cups. Next time I will use milk chocolate on the top instead of semi sweet chocolate chips. I think that would make it taste like Reese's even more!

Recipe Source:
http://addapinch.com/cooking/2012/09/19/peanut-butter-bars-recipe/

Peanut Butter Bars:

1 cup butter, melted (2 sticks)

2 cups graham cracker crumbs (2 sleeves ground to a fine crumb)

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1½ cups peanut butter

 

 Chocolate Topping:

 

¼ cup peanut butter

2 cups chocolate chips

 

Combine first four ingredients in a large mixing bowl until well-combined and smooth. Spread evenly into a 9×13 baking dish.

 

Combine ingredients for the chocolate topping in a medium bowl. Melt in the microwave for 45 seconds to 1 minute, stirring at 30 second intervals. Remove from the microwave and stir until smooth. Spread on top of the peanut butter bar base and place in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Remove from the freezer and cut into individual bars. 

White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

My hubby happens to love oatmeal cookies. Me? I'm not a fan! So for once it was nice to make a cookie that would not tempt me to eat it at all. Or so I thought. Ok, I never gave into the temptation, but let me tell you, my house smells so wonderful right now as the hot cookies are just coming out of the oven, that I want to go run into my kitchen and bite a chunk out of one of these cookies. I guess I don't want my 3 mile walk today to be for nothing, so I will continue to fight off the temptation. Maybe if I just go get a clothes pin and put it on my nose, I will no longer be able to smell the amazing smell that is wafting through my home as I type this. Then I would show up at work tomorrow looking like Rudolph from having my nose pinched all evening with a clothes pin. So for now, I will just do my best to convince myself that what I am smelling would not taste good at all. Maybe if I chant it to myself, it will work. What do you think? "Those will not taste good...those will not taste good...those will not taste good..."
Oh forget it. I'll be right back, I'm going on a cookie run ;)

Based on Quaker's Best Oatmeal Cookie Recipe:

1-1/4  cups butter, softened 
3/4  cup firmly packed brown sugar 
1/2  cup granulated sugar 
1  egg 
1  tsp vanilla 
1-1/2  cups flour 
1  tsp baking soda 
1  tsp cinnamon 
1/2  tsp salt 
1/4  tsp nutmeg 
3  cups oats, quick or old fashioned
1 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
white chocolate, chopped into chunks (as much or as little as you like in your cookies) 

 Heat oven to 375°. 

In large bowl, beat butter and both sugars until creamy. Add egg and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. 

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Stir together to mix well. Add the flour mixture to the mixed butter and sugar combination. Mix well. Add oats and mix well again. 

Stir in Craisins and white chocolate chunks. 

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 9 minutes for a chewy cookie or 10 to 11 minutes for a crisp cookie.

Almond Orange Lace Cookies with Dark Chocolate filling

Have you ever stumbled onto a recipe and you just know as you are reading it (and salivating) that it's going to be a winner? This is exactly that kind of recipe. My mom is visiting tomorrow, so I wanted to make a cookie that I knew she might like. I'm sure she will love these! They are fairy simple to put together and they sure taste great.

 Original Recipe:
http://myjerusalemkitchen.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/dark-chocolate-almond-orange-lace-cookies-florentines/

Ingredients:

1/2 c brown sugar

2 Tbsp room  butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp milk

1/4 c honey

1/3 c flour

1/2 c almonds, ground coarsely in the food processor

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 heaping tsp orange zest

1/2 c dark chocolate (to melt for filling the cookies)

 The original recipe states that you should follow the order of the instructions carefully. I did so and they turned out great. So take her advice and follow these carefully.  Have 2 cookie trays handy to bake the cookies or if you only have access to one cookie sheet, then bake one tray and be absolutely sure your cookie sheet is cooled off completely before baking the rest of the cookies.

 

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Spray your cookie sheets with Pam or you can line them with Parchment paper. I sprayed mine and they worked fine. 

3. Bring the brown sugar, butter, vanilla, milk and honey to a boil, over medium heat, stirring continuously. Once it reaches a rolling boil, cook for one minute and remove the pan from the heat and set aside. 

4. In  bowl, mix the flour, almonds, cinnamon and orange zest together. Slowly add this dry mixture to the wet mixture and making sure it is stirred together well. Let sit for about 10-12 minutes. 

5. Drop a rounded teaspoon of the cookie mixture onto your greased pan. Make sure you leave at least 3 inches between each cookie, as they will spread a lot. Bake at 350° for 8 minutes. They should be a golden brown color and bubbly. If you used parchment paper, remove the paper from the cookie sheets and let the cookies cool on the counter. If you used Pam, then just remove the cookies from the oven and leave them on the cookie sheet away from the hot stove to cool for about 3-5 minutes.

 6. While the cookies are cooling, in a double boiler or in the microwave, melt the dark chocolate. 

7.  After the cookies have cooled for 3-5 minutes. Remove one cookie and place it upside down on a flat surface. Spread a bit of melted chocolate onto it. Remove another cookie from the cookie sheet and place it on top  of the chocolate. So now you should have a sandwich type  thin cookie with both "pretty" sides facing out. Do this with all the cookies until they are all sandwiched together. Place the cookies into the refrigerator for about 20 minutes until the chocolate firms up.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cookies

There is not much I can say about these cookies except OH MY! I'm not quite sure if I'm super happy that I found this recipe online, or if I'm scared to have found it because they are so incredibly good that I can almost hear them calling out to  me from the kitchen, even as I'm typing this. I made these for my beautiful mom for her birthday. She LOVED them!! In fact, she asked for the recipe so she can make them for her church group. So be warned before you make these that it will be impossible to stop at one two three four....ok TEN cookies. Yes, they are that yummy! Then again, with chocolate and peanut butter, what could possibly go wrong? Perfect marriage of flavors!

I am so thankful to have stumbled onto the original recipe on Pinterest.
It can be found here:
http://easybaked.net/2011/04/01/black-bottom-peanut-butter-cookies/
This is a great site and if you get a chance you should check out some of the wonderful recipes on her blog!

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
12 oz semi sweet chocolate chips (you can substitute dark or milk chocolate chips)

*This will make about 18 cookies. You can double the recipe if you wish to  make more!

Preheat oven to 350°
In a bowl, mix together the peanut butter sugar and egg. Mix until combined well. Roll the dough into medium size balls and place on cookie sheet. Use a fork to make the criss cross design on the top of the cookie. Bake at 350° for 12-14 minutes. Cool completely.

Melt the chocolate chips in the top of a double boiler or in the microwave. Lay out a sheet of wax paper. On the wax paper, dollop a "puddle" of 2 teaspoons of melted chocolate. Push a cooled cookie into the puddle of chocolate until it seeps out the edges evenly on all sides. Do this with all the cookies. Take the extra melted chocolate and scoop it into a baggie. Cut off one teeny tiny corner of the baggie. Squeeze the chocolate out while making back and forth motions over the cookies. This will drizzle the melted chocolate over the tops of the cookies. Let them sit for about an hour or until the chocolate has completely lost all it's gloss and has firmed up completely.

Flip Flop Nutter Butters

For those of you who know me personally, you know that I am on a new wellness journey to good health and weight loss. This might answer your question as to why I have not been "blogging" lately. I am on a whole new nutrition and health plan that includes ONLY natural and organic foods. That being said, I stopped blogging because I haven't been able to make anything terribly exciting lately with my limitations in the food department as of now. But good  news...I feel fantastic and it's working! When I can begin to add some foods back, I will start blogging some good eats again. :)

Doesn't this make you wonder why I am posting a recipe for cookies I just made? We have an end of summer, family BBQ to attend tomorrow. I pondered whether or not I should make a dessert, but I decided in the long run, that temptations will always be in my way, so I better start learning how to resist them. I made these cute little summer cookies to take tomorrow and NO, I did NOT eat a single one. Not even a crumb!! *Thank you...Thank you* (I would take a bow, but if I did, I just might be tempted to pick up one of those cookies in my mouth on the way back up!)   ;)

1 pkg Nutter Butter cookies
1 tub store bought white frosting
Food coloring (I used gel color as it's easier to mix)

These are super easy to make. Lay out all your nutter butters in a single layer on a cookie sheet or foil. Place small amounts of white frosting in a few separate bowls. Using food coloring, dye each small amount of frosting the color you would like to decorate your cookies with. Using a small round tip, pipe the colored frosting onto each cookie to resemble the straps. Continue with each color using a new bag or cleaning the bag in between colors. **(It might be easier if you just use baggies and snip the corner off to decorate these, then you can just throw  away the bag...no muss, no fuss. But I was out of baggies!) Change the tip to a small flower tip if you want to put the flower at the top of the flip flop. If not, it looks just as cute without one! Make sure you let the frosting completely harden before you try to store the cookies, and they must be stored in a single layer.
**Recipe Source: http://www.paisleypetalevents.com/2011/07/24/surfs-up-summer-party/

Swirled Lime Meringue Cookies

If you could have heard the conversation that transpired over these cookies, you would have laughed. I had these cookies sitting out after I had baked them. My hubby comes in and actually says to me "Is that pepper on those cookies"? My answer "oh my goodness no, are you serious...pepper on cookies?" He proceeds to say "Well you do put some crazy things together and they generally come out tasting great." So I told him that it was green colored sugar on the cookies and we both had a good laugh.

 I found a recipe for swirled meringue cookies on marthastewart.com but after looking in my pantry and realizing that I ran out of vanilla a few days ago, I had to come up with something different. So I substituted lime for the vanilla and lime zest for the orange zest in the original recipe. They actually turned out great. The texture may not have been perfectly "meringuey" (Is that a word?...well it is now) but the refreshing lime taste made these wonderful. I suppose because of the added lime juice, they are a little more "chewy" then traditional meringue, but I would definitely make these again.

3 large egg whites, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
Lime juice (half of one small lime)
Large pinch of salt
Large pinch of cream of tartar
1 teaspoon fresh lime zest
Green, gel-paste food coloring


Preheat oven to 200°  Combine egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl. Add the lime juice. Set the  bowl over a pot of simmering water, and stir until sugar dissolves and mixture is warm, about 3 minutes. Add salt and cream of tartar.Beat with a mixer on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form and meringue is mostly cooled, about 8 minutes. Add in the lime zest and mix together. Using a small paintbrush, paint 3 vertical stripes of green food coloring inside a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round tip.  Using a spoon, fill the bag with meringue, and pipe circular shapes 2 inches apart on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet.  As you finish piping the circle, swirl the tip off in a circular motion. Bake meringues until crisp on the outside but still soft inside, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool completely.

Lemon Raspberry Cookies

You just have to love a cookie that is so easy to make, looks great and tastes great. I'm pretty sure the people at church that these are for, are going to love me. Wait...they love me anyway. Maybe I'll get extra loving. :) Can't beat that!
I decided to make these cookies this afternoon, after hiking for 5 miles with my hubby, daughter and some great friends. I didn't want to be on my feet for very long as they were pretty darn tired. So this was the perfect recipe. The only thing time consuming was piping out the dough onto the cookie sheet, but once I got going and found my rhythm it wasn't too bad. If you like citrus and fruit taste in your cookies, you will enjoy these!

The original recipe can be found at: http://www.grandmaskitchen.com/recipes/keepsake-cookies/lemon-heart-cookies/

*The only change I made to this recipe is that I added 2 tsp of lemon juice to the dough

1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened

1 cup butter (2 cubes)

1 cup sugar

1 tsp zested lemon peel

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

dash of salt

2 1/4 cups flour

lemon curd

fresh raspberries

Preheat the oven to 400°. Using your electric mixer, combine the cream cheese, butter, sugar, lemon peel, lemon juice, salt and beat until it's creamy, 2-3 minutes.  

Add the flour and mix until a dough is formed. Place half of the dough into a pastry bag with a tip of your choice. Pipe circles and fill in the center with dough. 

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until very lightly browned.  Cool on wire racks. When the cookies are cool, pipe lemon curd or spoon lemon curd into the center of each cookie. Top with a whole raspberry or a slice of a raspberry.