Snowballs revisited

I had another opportunity to make the Dirty Snowball cookie dough this past weekend for my friends and their children. Just like last time, the cookies disappeared off the cooling rack before I could even move all of them. My kids complained how they missed out so I made another batch. This time I rolled them in confectioners powdered sugar. Fancy results - a very pretty cracked chocolate cookie! The biggest difference, aside from being visually pleasing, was that the powder residuals make your fingers sticky. My niece Bianca added white chocolate chips to her dough and said they turned out awesome! This is one of those excellent basic cookie doughs that you can do so much with =)

Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

One of my favoritest cakes is carrot, but being pressed for time, I haven't had the opportunity to bake one from scratch. I found this recipe from Duncan Hines using their Decadent Carrot Cake mix to satisfy my carrot cake craving. It's a carrot cake cookie that was more like a muffin top (even better!). I topped it with a simple cream cheese frosting recipe from Martha Stewart. And let me tell you, the frosting alone is eat-from-the-spoon deelish!

The great thing about the mix is that it includes dehydrated carrot shreds and raisins. Since I dislike raisins, I removed them before hydrating the carrots. It was an interesting dough that was more like a very thick batter. A small cookie scoop would come in very handy since it's also a very sticky dough.

Carrot Cake Cookie
Ingredients:

• 1 box Duncan Hines Classic Carrot Decadent Cake Mix
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
  
• 1 cup hot tap water (used to hydrate carrots and raisins)
  
• 1 cup oatmeal
  
• 1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350°
  
• Hydrate the carrots and raisins in 1 cup hot tap water; Allow to hydrate for a minimum of 5 minutes; Drain and squeeze out excess water.
  
  
• Beat butter and cake mix, add the two eggs; Add drained carrots and raisins to batter; Mix in the 1 cup of oatmeal and nuts
  
  
• Spoon heaping teaspoons of batter onto lightly greased cookie sheets; Press batter out slightly with back of spoon(cookies do not spread)
  
  
• Bake for 12 minutes at 350°
  
• Cool on cookie sheets and then transfer to wire rack and allow to cool completely
  
• Frost cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
  
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
  
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

• Place cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl. Using a rubber spatula, soften cream cheese. Gradually add butter, and continue beating until smooth and well blended. Sift in confectioners' sugar, and continue beating until smooth. Add vanilla, and stir to combine.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have you ever had the pleasure of eating an Oatmeal Chipper cookie from Paradise Bakery? It was my sweet indulgence when I worked at the Great Mall while going to SJSU. I haven't found a recipe that comes close (they must put some secret ingredient in there!), but here's one that still satisfies the sweet tooth. And you can claim it's healthy since there's oatmeal in there!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
  
• 1 cup sugar 1 cup packed brown sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 cups old-fashioned oats 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  

Directions:

• Cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl and beat in eggs and vanilla
  
• Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture.
• Stir in oats and chocolate chips
  
• Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 11-12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

I found that these cookies tasted even better the more they sat. Days later, they were super tastier than when I baked them =). This dough also made about 48 cookies - it was a lot of dough!

I now understand why people pay just a smidge more for the bigger mixer. I had to mix the oatmeal and chips in by hand because it was too much dough for my mixer. But lookie here! I had one of my little helpers in cow pj's to ease the burden!

Dirty Snowballs

My niece Bianca gave me this easy-peazy boxed cake mix cookie recipe. She was right when she raved about how pretty they looked with their cracked topping, but she didn't push how super scrumptious they would be! The first dozen I baked were gone from the cooling rack immediately! Ben's mom and grandmother each had two and loved them. Reese said they tasted like brownie cookies... mmmmmmmm

Ingredients:
- Box of Betty Crocker Super Moist Devil's Food Cake Mix
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- Small bowl of sugar (to roll cookie dough in)

Directions:
* You will not be following box instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Pour cake mix, oil, vanilla extract and eggs into mixing bowl. Mix until dough forms

- Shape dough into 1" balls and roll in sugar. Place dough on ungreased cookie sheet (I line all my cookie sheets with parchment paper)

- Bake for 8-10 minutes (I baked some smaller portions since they were disappearing, which took 8 minutes).
- Allow to cool, but my family ate them before they could =)

Enjoy with a glass of milk!

Raspberry Thumbprints

I decided to try this recipe to bring to the Mendaros Christmas Celebration. My sister-in-law ended up eating a bunch of them after they cooled! It's such a simple butter cookie recipe but super fabulous!

It was titled "Raspberry Ribbons" since they are made to be long finger shaped cookies, but I found that it was easier to make them into individual cookies versus shaping and cutting the dough.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup raspberry jam

Glaze Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup confectioners'sugar
- 1 tablespoon evaporated milk
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
- In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla.
- Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.
- Roll dough into 1" balls and line on baking sheet about 1 to 1.5 inches apart. Press your thumb in the center of each cookie creating a well. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven and fill depressions with jam. Bake an additional 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for 2 minutes. Place on colling racks.
- In a small bowl, combine glaze ingredients until smooth. Add additional evaporated milk to thin glaze as needed. Drizzle over warm cookies. (I actually divided the glaze ingredients in half).

I guarantee that they will disappear!

Baking Party!

What a wonderful way to spend the day with girlfriends catching up!

I spent the afternoon with my high school girlfriends Gail and Michelle baking holiday treats. We had a bunch of recipes, but it took us some time to decide which to do first. Next time, we need a timeline! Here are a few of the treats we created while spending quality time.

Chocolate Fudge, Whoopie Pies, Magic Cookie Bars, Peanutbutter Cup Cookies, Peppermint Bark Snowflakes (not pictured)