"Ritzy" Holiday Cookies

About 4 years ago my older sister and I took a day-after-Thanksgiving road trip to upstate NY to visit a younger sister and her family.  While we were there our younger sister was participating in a Christmas Bazaar and had a bunch of Christmas goodies for sale, including these.  I'm not sure who originally got the idea for them, but I know I can't take credit.  I just know I could gain ten pounds every Christmas just eating the things.  And since Horse Lover is also a peanut butter lover, they are her favorite that she requested this year.


"Ritzy" Christmas Cookies

2 sleeves Ritz crackers
Creamy peanut butter
24 oz. Almond Bark vanilla candy coating
Sprinkles (if desired)

Spread a thin layer of peanut butter on a Ritz cracker.  Top with another cracker to make a sandwich.

Do this for all the Ritz crackers you are using and line them up neatly on wax paper.

Now it's time to melt the almond bark for the coating.  Some brands of almond bark are sold in big bricks (as shown in yesterday's post) and need to be broken up before placed into a bowl for melting.  However, some brands are sold in cubes as shown in this picture:

These are nice if you can find them because it is a whole lot easier to work with - especially if you're not using the whole package. Either way, you're going to melt the almond bark the same way.  Start off by microwaving it for about 1 minute, then stir.  Keep microwaving in 30-second increments, stirring in between, until completely melted.

 Drop a Ritz sandwich into the bowl of melted candy coating.  Using a fork, flip it over and make sure it's coated well all around.

 

Then pick it up with the fork and give the fork a couple of taps on the side of the bowl.  This gives you a smoother coat on top, and also knocks off some of the extra almond bark that you really don't need.

Place cookie back on wax paper to set.  If using sprinkles, be sure to put them on when the coating is still melted to they'll stick.

As you can see, my kids love to help out with these by putting on the sprinkles.

If desired, leave a few cookies plain.  I prefer them without sprinkles, myself.  But then, they don't look quite as festive, do they?

Chocolate Crinkles

Lately I feel more like a chaotic cook than a "candid cook".  Maybe it's just that time of year, but I feel like I am hanging on by the skin of my teeth and everyone else is about 3 steps ahead.  Argh!

On the up side, I am cooking more than I have been.  I just updated my family budget and realized that we spent $6.41 on "dining out" in the first half of December.  And that $6.41 was for one large pizza from Little Caesar's one Friday night to placate the daughter who was very disappointed because she was NOT going to the slumber party.  A very worthy cause, in my humble opinion.  Otherwise, I've been cooking or we've been scrounging up what's in the kitchen.  However, because I feel like I'm doing a lot of "cooking in a hurry" these days, almost all of my meals have fallen into one of three categories:

1.  Tried something new, took a few pics, not worth your time or mine to post here
2.  Fabulous, but I didn't keep track and I'm not quite sure what I put in there
3.  Same old, same old stuff

Isn't that just the way it goes some times?

Christmas is now fast approaching,  and earlier in the month when I decided not to do as much baking this year I gave each of my family members the choice of what Christmas "goody" they'd like me to make.  The Monkey chose my chocolate crinkle cookies.  Although, really, it's not my recipe.  It's Better Homes and Gardens' recipe, though I did modify it to use unsweetened baking cocoa instead of baking chocolate squares.  But they are still so, so yummy.  Like brownies dipped in powdered sugar.  Since today was her school Christmas party, I decided to make these for her school festivities.  And as has been typical for me this month, I remembered that I needed to bake them about 10:30 this morning for a 1:30 party.

Chocolate Crinkles
(Original recipe in the Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, 11th edition.  Printed here with minor modifications.) 

3 eggs
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
3/4 c. unsweetened baking cocoa
1/2 c. cooking oil
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
powdered sugar

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except for the flour and powdered sugar.

Beat until well combined and smooth.

 

Mix in as much of the flour as you can.  Because I am using powdered cocoa instead of the baking squares, I have reduced the amount of flour from the original recipe.  If you find that the dough is getting too thick before it's all mixed in, feel free to leave the rest out.  Or, if you feel like your dough isn't thick enough, add a little extra flour.  The dough needs to be firm enough that it can be rolled into balls.

 

Shape dough into small balls and roll in powdered sugar to coat.

 

Place balls on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.

 

Bake at 375 for about 8 minutes.  See why they're called chocolate "crinkles"?

 

Remove from oven and let sit for about 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  In this picture, you can see why I am a huge fan of parchment paper.  I removed these cookies with my fingers, and look - no sticky sugar baked on the cookie sheet!

Fun Fridays: Chocolate Chewies

Happy Halloween Eve! This past week for our family night we had a pumpkin night: carved jack-o-lanterns, drew pumpkins, and frosted pumpkin-shaped cookies. I have always had a hard time with making rolled sugar cookies during the holidays. The kids love to cut out and decorate the cookies, but for some crazy reason no one else in my family will actually EAT the darn things. And to be honest, I don't really like them, either. I'll usually eat them since I have an unhealthy sugar addiction, but that doesn't mean I enjoy them.

So in contemplating our pumpkin night, I was also thinking about our cookie problem. I have had some success in the past making a chocolate sugar cookie, so I starting gathering the ingredients together to bake them. Then it happened. As I was reaching for my baking cocoa, I saw the instant pudding on the shelf.

I happen to have 4 large (and I do mean large!) cans of instant pudding mix that are getting ready to expire. They were given to me by a friend who hoped I would use them more quickly than her family could. So since they needed to be used anyway... I may as well use them in cookies, right?

The end result was a delicious, chewy, rolled cookie. Heavenly. So far I have made them twice - both with the chocolate pudding. We'll try the vanilla next time! (I'm thinking we may need to make turkey shapes for Thanksgiving...)

Chocolate Chewies

1/2 c real butter, softened (1 stick)
1/4 margarine
1 c. chocolate instant pudding mix
(I think this is the equivalent of 2 large boxes)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 c. flour

Beat together softened butter and margarine.
Tip:If you are pulling your butter straight out of the fridge and don't have time to let it soften to room temperature on the counter, microwave the stick for about 10 seconds and then add it to the bowl. This isn't necessary to do with the margarine.

Add chocolate instant pudding, egg, and vanilla. Beat on low until most of the pudding is mixed in, or you'll have a fine chocolate powder all over your kitchen.

Once the powder is mostly mixed in, beat an additional 30-60 seconds on medium to high speed to mix well. Add sugar and baking powder and mix well.

Finally, add the flour. Because I now have a Kitchen Aid counter top mixer (yes, I know JUST how lucky I am!) I don't have to do any of my mixing by hand. However, I still add my flour in stages as if I were using a standard mixer. So when I add the flour, I start by adding 1 cup and mixing it in really well. Then I add the last 1/2 cup or so and mix that in. If you are using a regular mixer, you may have to do this last step by hand.

How do you know when you have enough flour? When your dough looks something like this:

If it's still a little too soft to handle, you can refrigerate it for about an hour before rolling out. However, the second time I made it I added a little too much flour and I could roll it out immediately. The down side of this is that you have to work harder to keep the dough from breaking apart as you are rolling out and cutting the cookies. I had to use a fork to transfer the cut cookies to the cookie sheet, but once they were baked they were just as chewy and delicious as the last batch.

So now that you have your cookie dough, place it on a lightly floured surface.

Roll dough about 1/4-inch thick and cut into desired shapes. These pumpkins were for our pumpkin night this past Monday.

Place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper or sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and let cool before decorating.

Decorate as desired. These pumpkins were iced and my kids made jack-0-lantern faces with chocolate chips. I found that was too sweet for my taste and prefer them just plain. You can also take ghost shapes and coat with a fine layer of powdered sugar (see picture at top of post) using a sifter for a decorated yet not-as-overloaded-with-sugar-and-butter option.

Fun Fridays: The 3-Ingredient Cookie

It's been a slow blogging week for me, but not without cause. Handsome Man, The Monkey, and yours truly got attacked by the stomach bug! Not fun. After two days, most of us have emerged triumphant. Handsome Man, however, is still fighting the battle (poor little fella!) so although I'm still too distracted to try anything fancy in the kitchen, I do have some recipes in my picture archives that are on my "to do" list for posting that I can share with you.

For years I have looked at this recipe and wondered if it was "for real". I've heard about it: peanut butter cookies made with nothing but sugar, eggs, and peanut butter. That's it. What, no flour? Nope. No butter? Nope. No salt, vanilla, or baking soda? Nope, nope, and nope. Just three things. (Or four things if you decide to put in some chocolate chips like we did.)

If it had been up to me, I probably still wouldn't have tried it by now, but Horse Lover was in charge of the treat for our weekly Family Night several weeks ago. She had recently had one of these cookies at someone's house (who, by the way is allergic to gluten) and fell in love with them. This meant that as soon as it was her turn to choose the treat again, this was what she wanted.

As for me, I still prefer the good old regular-style of peanut butter cookie to these. I can't help it - I like flour in my cookies! But there may be some of you out there somewhere in cyberspace wondering if these gluten-free cookies are worth the effort. For Horse Lover, the answer will always be yes. For anyone eating a gluten-free diet, the answer would again be yes. But for me? Probably not my first choice, but a decent alternative. Just keep in mind that they are sweeter than your typical peanut butter cookie. At least I won't be in danger of blowing my diet over these. Not like my chewy molasses cookies... Now there is a recipe I need to post on here sometime. But that's for another day.


Peanut-Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter (creamy or chunky)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
(Optional: 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips)

Gather your ingredients.

In a medium bowl, combine peanut butter, egg, and and sugar.

Add chocolate chips (if desired) and mix well.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on cookie sheet covered in parchment paper or sprayed with cooking spray.

Flatten slightly with a fork.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake about 6-7 minutes until bottom edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven and let set an additional 2 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Freezer Fudge Oatmeal Cookies

It's Monday morning, and that means chocolate. Don't these look delicious? Regardless of what they might look like at first glance, don't be fooled. These are not the chocolate-peanut butter no bake deals you can buy at the grocery store. These are served cold, chewy, and make those other ones seem like a dry crumbly imitation.

I actually grew up calling these "Helen's Fudge Oatmeal Cookies". Who is Helen? I have no idea. That's just what the little card in my mom's recipe box said. But since no one outside my brothers and sisters would know what I was talking about, I figured I'd better call these freezer cookies instead.

One other bonus of these cookies is that they don't call for much cocoa powder at all, so if you're almost out of baking cocoa yet need a chocolate fix... voila! It can be done!

Freezer Fudge Oatmeal Cookies

1 stick butter or margarine
2 c. sugar (yes, you read that right - this isn't health food people!)
2 Tbsp. unsweetened baking cocoa
1/2 c. evaporated milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 c. quick oats

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.

Mix in cocoa powder and sugar.

Add evaporated milk and stir.

Continue to cook over medium heat until mixture starts to bubble. Let simmer, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes. Don't skip this step! This helps the cookies to be the right consistency and makes sure all the sugar is completely dissolved.

Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Add oatmeal and mix well.Cover a cookie sheet with wax paper. Using a large tablespoon, drop cookies onto wax paper. Place cookie sheet in freezer (don't tilt it!) until cookies are set - about an hour. Leave cookies in freezer until you are ready to eat them.

Important: Remove cookie sheet from freezer and set out on counter for a few minutes before removing the cookies from the wax paper. Otherwise, the cookies will be hard to remove and you'll end up eating little bits on wax paper that are stuck to the bottom of your cookie!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am famous for my chocolate chip cookies. Of course, my fame only extends within my limited circle of family and friends, but I enjoy my title of Queen Cookie Maker. And though this recipe isn't a "good for you" recipe, it does use whole wheat flour. But, shh! Don't tell my fans! They don't know...

Keep in mind that there is more to making a good cookie than a good recipe. You have to know just how to bake them. Read on and discover the secret to my success!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c. butter or margarine
3/4 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 12-oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream together butter and sugars.









Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.









Add whole wheat flour, salt, and baking soda and mix well.









Stir in all-purpose flour with a spoon. Batter should be stiff. If necessary, add an additional flour a spoonful at a time until batter is thick enough.









Mix in chocolate chips.









Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Drop cookie dough in spoonfuls onto paper.









Preheat oven to 375. Bake for 8-9 minutes until cookies are almost done. Cookies will finish cooking on the hot pan. Remove from oven when bottom of cookies are nicely golden, but tops are still a little soft.









Leave cookies on sheet for at least 2-3 minutes before removing. Then transfer to newspaper or cooling rack.