Chocolate Mint Surprise Cookies

One of my favorite kind of cookies are rolo cookies even though I've only actually made them once or twice. The chocolate cookie is so easy to make but once you take a bite and get a taste of the caramel middle you'll never want to turn back. I absolutely love rolos, and I've bought them a couple more time to try to make these cookies, but they made it into my mouth too quickly to make it into the cookie middle.

When a couple of our friends invited us over to a hot chocolate party, they told us to bring a dessert. I asked Nate if I could make rolo cookies, and he said, why don't we make something Christmasy. So instead we decided upon these cookies, rolo cookies, except not with rolos in the center. Instead the center is a delicious peppermint or mint truffle kiss. And for me, mint is the perfect Christmas flavor.

The only thing these cookies were lacking is the peppermint ice cream I wanted to go with them. Yum.

1 box devil's food cake
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
peppermint kisses
mint truffle kisses
sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil in a medium sized mixing bowl.
3. Unwrap kisses.
4. Cover each kiss in a little chocolate cookie dough and roll in a ball.
5. Roll each ball in  sugar.
6. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray.
7. Place cookies on cookie sheet.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 9 mins.
9. Cool for a couple of minutes on baking sheet and then move to a wire cooling rack.

Enjoy these cookies warm with a glass of cold milk.

If you have any left over the next day, microwave for 15 seconds to make the middles gooey again. 

What is your favorite Christmasy treat?

Oatmeal Cranraisin Pecan Cookies

Every month my ward's Relief Society has a luncheon on Camp Pendleton.  The idea is to unite our sisters with those who live in Fallbrook and those who live on base.  It works sometimes. Today we had 4 base sisters and 5 Fallbrook sisters.  Each month we have a food theme, for November we had Thanksgiving food and comfort food.  I brought olives because Thanksgiving dinner must have olives to eat before, during and after.  I also brought these cookies because my favorite cookie in the whole world is oatmeal raisin cookies but I think these are just a tiny bit better.

The recipe was taken from the recipe cards you get with the Crisco sticks you purchase and tweaked ever so slightly.

3/4 stick Crisco Butter Flavored Baking Sticks

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar ( I love brown sugar and always sneak a couple of pinches to eat straight when I bake)

2 eggs

1 Tbs. vanilla

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

2 3/4 cups rolled oats

1 cup cranraisins

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly coat baking sheets with cooking spray.

Beat together shortening and sugars until creamy.  (My electric hand mixer is dead so I did this with a wooden spoon and it works just fine)

Beat in eggs and vanilla until mixed.

Add flour, soda, cinnamon and salt; mix until well blended.

Stir in oats, cranraisins and chopped pecans.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.

Bake 10 minutes (this were the perfect softness on the first day but crisper on the 2nd and if you want them to stay soft maybe baking a little less will do that - be warned though they will fall apart easier)

Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes, remove to cooling rack to cool completely.

I am guessing they passed the taste test because several of them were snatched up to go home for later.  I hope you like these.  I think the secret was the cinnamon, the original recipe called for 1 tsp but I wanted more flavor and I loved it with the 2 tsp.

Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies

've had a couple of failures in the past when making chocolate chip cookies. Shouldn't chocolate chip cookies be one of the easiest things to make? But no, baking with butter vs shortening makes a huge difference, and halving or doubling a recipe doesn't always work. But, I got this recipe to work. Hooray.

I first had pudding chocolate chip cookies when my friend Ali was my roommate. I never got the recipe from Ali, unfortunately. But Friday when I was going visiting teaching, I wanted to be able to take a treat, so after scanning a few recipes I found one for pudding chocolate chip cookies that looked delicious. 

And trust me, they tasted delicious too.

Inspired by this recipe from All Recipes

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (2 sticks)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 3.4 oz package vanilla instant pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups milk chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven. **
2. Using a mixer beat together butter and sugars in a large bowl.
3. Add in pudding mix, eggs and vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl (medium sized) combine flour, baking soda and salt.
5. Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture while running the mixer.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips.
7. Drop cookie dough onto a pregreased baking sheet.
8. Bake, until golden brown and set. **
9. Remove cookies from oven and let cool on sheet for 2 minutes.
10. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack and cool completely.
11. Enjoy with a big cup of cold milk.

** For smaller cookies preheat oven to 375 and bake for 10-12 minutes. For larger cookies preheat oven to 325 and bake for 18-19 minutes.

chocolate dipped peanut butter cookies

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 TBS shortening

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl mix together, butter, shortening, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar.
3. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
4. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
5. Slowly combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients as you are mixing.
6. Spray a cooking sheet with Pam
7. Using a cookie scoop, or your hands make heaping tablespoon sized balls of cookie dough.
8. Put balls on baking sheet, a couple of inches apart.
9. Slightly flatten the balls with a fork, making a criss cross pattern.
10. Bake in oven for about 10 minutes for softer cookies, 12 for a little harder cookies.**
11. Meanwhile, put chocolate chips and shortening in a small (microwave safe) bowl.
12. Microwave for about 1.5-2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, until chocolate is completely creamy.
13. After cookies are done cooking, cool them for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet.
14. Remove cookies and place on a wire rack. Cool for another 10 minutes or so.
15. Dip one edge of the cookies in the chocolate bowl and lay out on waxed paper to dry.
16. For a quicker hardening of the chocolate, put the cookies in the freezer for a few minutes.
17. Enjoy with a nice big glass of milk.

**The slightly crispier cookies are easier to dip in the chocolate.

Even after putting the cookies in the freezer, once removed (thankfully) the chocolate stayed hard, and the cookie got soft. Even the cookies that I baked a little longer, were still relatively soft and chewy. And as this was my first time making peanut butter cookies on my own, this will definitely be my go to recipe every time in the future.

These were seriously so good! And if you don't feel like dipping your cookies in chocolate you can use this recipe anyway. They taste so good fresh out of the oven that they melt in your mouth. Yum! Plus these cookies store well in an airtight container and will be good for about 5 to 7 days.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

On Sunday, Nate told me that I should make some cookies to give to our neighbors for watching Aspen while we were gone. If you know me, I relish in the opportunity to make desserts, because Nate hardly ever wants me to. Given the opportunity I wanted to take full advantage and try out a new recipe that I had pinned.

While I was making these cookies, Nate and his brother Dain (who is staying at our house for 2 weeks in between apartment contracts) were in the front room playing Madden. Every few minutes they would peek their heads into the kitchen to see what I was making, and by the time the cookies were done they were very eager to try a few. Each boy gobbled up about 6 or 7 cookies without a single pause for thought. And by the time the boys were done, and after I had snatched one up (to taste my handiwork) before they could eat them all, I stopped to see how many cookies were left to deliver to our thoughtful neighbors and the number was very few. The few cookies got thrown into a pyrex to stay fresh and sadly never made it to the neighbors empty bellies.

Needless to say, these cookies were obviously delicious for us to have eaten them so quickly. And also, this means I need to make another batch of these, or try a new recipe to thank our neighbors. So, if you have any cookie recipes you think I should try, please send them my way. If they turn out tasty enough I'll probably post the recipe on the blog, and I'd love to feature you.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup peanut butter, divided

1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 TBS milk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

3. In another medium bowl beat together, sugar, brown sugar, butter, and 1/4 cup peanut butter.

4. Add vanilla and egg.

5. Beat to combine.

6. Pour in the flour mixture slowly, stirring while pouring.

7. In a small bowl combine the remaining 3/4 cup peanut butter, powdered sugar and milk, until smooth.

8. Separate a heaping TBS of chocolate cookie dough and flatten with your hands.

9. Take about 1 tsp of of the peanut butter mixture and place it in the center of the chocolate dough.

10. Wrap the chocolate dough around the peanut butter middle and roll into a ball with your hands.

11. Roll the cookie in the extra sugar.

12. Repeat until you have used the rest of the chocolate dough and peanut butter filling.

13. Place the cookies onto a cookie sheet, sprayed with non-stick.

14. Flatten each cookie slightly with a glass.

15. Bake in oven for about 8 minutes.

16. Leave on baking sheet for about 2 minutes.

17. Remove to a wire rack and let cool.

18. Enjoy cookies with a nice big cup of milk!

What cookie recipes can you recommend for me to try next?

No Bake Cookies

I have always loved no bake cookies, but for some reason I never think to make them. However, on Sunday I was craving something sweet (as I always do) and I wanted to do something easy. So I though of making no bake cookies.



Also, it brought me back to a fond memory. Once upon a time when Nate and I were just dating my mom would email Nate random questions to get to know him. She emailed him asking what his favorite cookie was and he said no bake cookies. So that day I made no bake cookies for him, and I don't think I've made them since, until Sunday. But, they were as tasty as ever.

So you should make them.

1 3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
4 TBS cocoa powder
1 TBS vanilla
1 cup peanut butter
3 cups oatmeal

1. In a medium saucepan combine sugar, milk, butter and cocoa.
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Boil for 1 and 1/2 minutes. (Set a timer)
4. Remove from heat and add vanilla, peanut butter, and oatmeal.
5. Stir until thoroughly mixed.
6. Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper. **

**Nate said I made them big this time, but they were like normal cookie size. And regardless of size they still taste delicious.

What is your favorite type of cookie?

Dessert Pizza

I've always wanted to make a dessert pizza, and never actually made one, but then yesterday Jessica posted a picture of one on her blog and I decided that I needed to finally make one. So, I found the base for my recipe at allrecipes and decided to tweak it a little bit, to make it more homemade and to fit with the fruit that we had on hand.


18 oz Sugar Cookie Dough (you could also use pre-packaged dough)
2 cups Whipped Cream
1 package Neufchatel cream cheese
Sliced Fruit (Use whatever fruit you have around, or whatever fruit you like best - we used bananas, mangos, strawberries and blackberries)

1. Pre-heat oven to
2. Roll out cookie dough on a pizza pan (or baking sheet).
3. Roll out dough to fill about 2/3 of pan, . **
4. Cook 'pizza' for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown
5. Cool 'pizza' on pizza pan, above a wire rack.
6. Mix whipped cream and cream cheese together.
7. Once cooled, spread cream topping evenly on crust (I didn't use all of the cream mix that I made, but you can use however much you want)
8. Arrange fruit evenly on 'pizza', or in a decorative pattern.
9. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.


**Remember that the dough will expand as it cooks.

This turned out so yummy, and I will definitely have to make it again. The only sad thing is that we accidentally left it out overnight, so it (although doesn't yet look rotten) surely has spoiled, due to things that need to be kept cold not being kept cold.

I think in the future I might try to make 'personal pizzas' too, just for fun.

Coconut and Lime Sugar Cookies

• 1 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour

• 1 cup of  white flour (I just used white because I did not have whole wheat)

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 1 1/2 cups of white sugar

• 1 egg

• 1-2 vanilla beans, seeds removed (or 1 tsp vanilla extract) (again I only have vanilla extract)

• Zest of one lime

• 3 tbsp lime juice

• 1 cup of coconut

• White sugar (for rolling cookies)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silpat mat or parchment paper.

Combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Using a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy.

Slice the vanilla bean down the center lengthwise without going all the way through the underside. Take your knife and scrape out all of the seeds from inside the bean, place the seeds into the sugar mixture. Add the egg, lime juice, and lime zest to the mixture then beat until well combined. Gradually add the dry mixture and the coconut to the sugar mixture and mix until combined. Don't over mix.

Roll dough into small balls then place the balls into a bowl of white sugar (about 1/2 cup); roll the balls in the sugar then place on the lined baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let cool on a baking rack. Enjoy.

(Maybe it is my oven but these cookies stayed pretty light, almost just white)  they still were really good and easy.

Taken from For the Love of Cooking

Sugar Cookies

This is another recipe we got from mama Sandi, every Halloween (except this year) she's made sugar cookies and sent some out to her sons in Utah. I actually didn't follow this recipe for the sugar cookies I made this year because I didn't have it from her yet, but they're good and I want to save it.

Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cup sugar

2/3 cup shortening or butter

2 eggs (beaten)

2 TBS milk

1 tsp vanilla

3 1/4 cup flour

2 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1. Cream sugar and shortening (butter is better tasting).

2. Add eggs, milk and vanilla.

3. Sift together dry ingredients.
4. Beat dry ingredients into creamed mixture, combining thoroughly.

5. With hands shape dough into a ball.

6. Wrap and refrigerate 2 to 3 hours (or overnight) until easy to handle

7. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

8. Lightly grease cookie sheets.

9. On lightly floured board, roll out part of dough (keep rest refrigerated).

10. For softer cookies roll 1/8 to 1/4-in thick.

11. Cut into desired shapes.

12. Re-roll trimmings and cut.

13. Place cookies 1/2-in apart on cookie sheet.

14. Bake about 8 minutes until a light golden brown.

15. Remove cookies to racks to cool.

Makes about 6 dozen.

Frosting
1 TBS vanilla
4 TBS butter
powdered sugar
milk

1. Mix together all ingredients.

2. Add more powdered sugar or milk to get the right consistency.

Pineapple Coconut Cookies

Pineapple Coconut Cookies

Cookies

1 cup shortening (crisco)

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 and 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 and 1/4 cup crushed pineapple

3/4 tsp. lemon juice

3 and 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup coconut flakes

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream together shortening, salt, vanilla and sugar.

3. Add in eggs and pineapple and mix well.

4. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

5. Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.

6. Bake about 10 minutes.

7. Cool and frost.

Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 package of cream cheese (4 oz.)

2 TBS margarine

Milk (add till desired consistency)

1 tsp. lemon juice

1. Cream together margarine and cream cheese.

2. Add powdered sugar.

3. Add milk until frosting reaches desired consistency.

Nate has been telling me about how good these cookies are since we first started dating. His mom finally sent us the recipe, so we decided to try it out. The cookies turned out really delicious. And even though they probably aren't that healthy for you, you feel like you're eating something that is good for you because of the fresh fruit flavor.

 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

While Craig and I were back in Virgina we stopped at a Farmer's Market and purchased fresh fruits and vegetables and Grandma's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. We fell in love with the cookies, it was not a peanut butter cookie recipe with chips and oatmeal added, but a true stand alone cookie. I found this recipe on Jamie Cooks It Up and thought it was so close to the cookies from Virginia. Craig called them evil because they were wrecking his diet, you can not just eat one. The only thing I might do different is just use milk chocolate chips instead of the semi sweet chips because I love the simple combo of milk chocolate and peanut butter.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield: 60 cookies

1 C butter softened
1 C peanut butter ( I used chunky)
1 C sugar
1 C brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 12 oz bag semi sweet chocolate chips
1 12 oz bag milk chocolate chips


1. Make sure the butter is soft (sitting on the counter works best for this but I zapped my for about 30 seconds on power 4 in the microwave). Beat the butter and peanut butter together until it is well combined.
2. Add the sugars and eggs and beat for about 2 minutes or until the mixture is frothy.
3. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the butters, sugars, and eggs mixture, mix for about 1 minute, making sure it is well combined.
5. Stir in the chips just until well combined.
6. Place on a large cookie sheet 3 across and 5 long, in balls that are about 1 1/2 inches. Flatten the balls slightly.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Do not overbake, take them out of the oven just after they start to crack and let them finish cooking on the sheet as it cools down.
8. Eat and share or you will be getting a round belly from eating too many. :)

banana pudding with vanilla wafers

 Banana Pudding

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 t salt

1/2 cup flour

3 cups milk

3 large egg yolks

3 T butter

2 t vanilla

1 banana

1. Combine sugar, salt and flour in a bowl and stir.
2. Slowly add the milk, stirring until smooth.
3. Cook in a double boiler, over simmering water
4. Whisk frequently until the mixture begins to thicken
5. Whisk egg yolks in a small bowl
6. Gradually whisk in about 1 cup of the hot milk mixture
7. Add the egg mixture back into the double boiler
8. Stir in the vanilla and butter
9. Continue whisking and cooking until mixture reaches desired thickness
10. Separate about 1 cup of the mixture and blend with the banana.
11. Combine banana mixture with vanilla mixture.
12. Set aside to cool


We put the pan in the freezer because Nate did not want to eat warm pudding. It took a long time to cool, maybe 45 minutes. We stirred it every few minutes so it didn't get lumpy. 


Also, if you don't like bananas and just want vanilla pudding, that was what the original recipe was for, so you should be able to just leave step 10 and 11 out. 


And don't worry, this wasn't at all like the normal cooked pudding (at least what I'm used to) there was no yucky layer of skin on the top.

Vanilla Wafers

2 T vanilla

1 cup softened butter 

2 and 2/3 cup flour

2 cups sugar

1 and 1/2 t baking powder

2 eggs

1/2 t salt

1. Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl
2. Beat in eggs and vanilla 
3. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) in a bowl
4. Add this to the egg mixture
5. Drop by tbsp full (about 2 inches apart) on the baking sheet
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes (or until edges are golden brown)
7. Place on a wire rack to cool


Nate said if we do this again he'll probably add more vanilla, because they pretty much turned out to be like sugar cookies. But they were still really good. He cooked them a little extra too so they were more crispy because we wanted to dip them in the pudding. 


And this made a huge batch of cookies, so if you didn't want as many, you might be able to cut the recipe in half.

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This recipe took quite a while for us, especially with the cooling of the pudding. But we'll probably make it again sometime and be quicker at it, since we'll know more what to do.

We also cut up some bananas and put them in the pudding while we were eating it. It turned out delicious.

Graham Cracker Cookies - updated

Ingredients -
1)Graham Crackers
2)Chocolate Frosting
3)Cool Whip

Take 1 full graham cracker, spread chocolate frosting on it, then spread cool whip over the top. Do not top the cracker, eat as is.

Variation - slice bananas and put between frosting and cool whip

It was my turn for FHE treat and I had 5 minutes to prepare something. I decided we could do graham cracker cookies but I wanted it a little different, so this is where my updated version comes in. It almost tastes like chocolate pudding pie.