We got the year started off right with a recipe from my “new” Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book. It is full of recipes that I can’t wait to try, but we started with the Butterscotch Brownies. They are simple, chewy, and good in all the right places.
I really love old school cookbooks. I get lost in the little stories and history behind the recipes.
Also, thank you to my panda, who got me this sweet chalkboard plate for Christmas. I am still figuring out how to write neatly with the chalk.
In my house growing up, you got “fired” from certain jobs if you weren’t doing good work. I rarely got fired from anything, but I was promoted very quickly up the cookie making ranks. The cookie baking sessions at Christmas are always some of my most favorite times of the year.
Santa brought me a couple of new (and old) cookbooks, so I am looking forward to all the kitchen adventures soon to come in the new year!
For our Christmas goody bags this year, we went with a selection of candy. I have only made a couple kinds of candy before, so it was fun to experiment. Secret: candy making really isn’t all that hard.
We made gingerbread caramels (on which I burned my thumb very badly…). It was so satisfying to wrap the little squares in parchment.
We made gingerbread cookie ornaments (not candy, but still in our goody bags). I actually had to put a label that said the cookie was for your tree, not your mouth. But, despite the presence of a piece of ribbon going through a hole in its head, people still ate it!
We made sweet and spicy peanut brittle, which turned out really delicious.
And we made candied citrus peels, because we are engaged now, and these seem more grown-up and fancy.
I have the best memories of baking with my ma at all times of the year, but holiday baking is always special. There is just something about a big plate of beautiful cookies at Christmas that bring out the warm fuzzies.
If you are in the market for some cookie recipes, check out my list of 100 cookie recipes here. Now that I am looking through the list, I might make a batch of these animal cookies to give to the little ones I babysit.
Sometimes, you just need a cookie. And then sometimes, you also need one at work the next day on a post-it plate.
These chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips are chewy and fudgey, and made me really popular at the office.
I received some lovely whoopie pie pans for my birthday. I had super grand plans for some holiday whoopie pies. I wanted to make these chocolate ones, but rolled in gold sprinkles, and these gingerbread ones, with the crushed peppermints. In my head, they were going to be beautiful.
Instead, the tiny whoopie pies baked to look like tiny muffins, I had to cut the tops off to make them look right, and I got frustrated and filled them with some leftover frosting instead. Not quite what I had in my head…
But after all that, its kind of hard to mess up a cookie/frosting sandwich. Tasty mistakes.
My reasons for making a pie were threefold:
I wish I could say that it was equal part all those reasons, but I won’t lie. It was mostly because I wanted to make a perfect pie crust.
I know. I could weep with joy. It turned out exactly right. The pecan part of the pie wasn’t too shabby either.
I made these cookies as a gift for the guy’s family for turkey day. We ate them over the weekend dipped in coffee with whipped cream on top. They were buttery, and crunchy, and you should probably make them soon.
Pre-Thanksgiving preparations at our house include baking cookies. The turkey cookie cutter waits all year for this moment to shine.
Instead of doing different colors of frosting for the turkey tail, we smashed some candy corns flat, and used them as tail feather decoration. What beautiful little turkeys. Happy Thanksgiving!
I am not super adventurous with pies. I like the apple/peach variety. Pumpkin of course. Lemon meringue, but without the meringue part. Just the basics.
A friend suggested a strawberry rhubarb pie. I have never tried one. I am not really even sure what rhubarb is, but I do know that the leaves are poisonous (thank you, Martha Stewart). Rhubarb to me equals pink celery.
But guess what? Strawberry rhubarb pies are yummy. Just the right amount of not too sweet. If you are still in need of a Thanksgiving dessert, and for some reason don’t want to go classic, I would recommend this delicious strawberry/pink celery combo. (I used this recipe from smitten kitchen.)
guy and his girl 