The week before Christmas is always packed full of baking an assorment of cookies for the guys in our families.
I always DIY gifts for the ladies, but what would I DIY for a guy that could be better than a bunch of homemade cookies all to himself?!
These are the yummies I decided to make this year, just in case you need some ideas:
cookies and cream oreo bark
chocolate chip pecan snowball cookies
chocolate gooey butter cookies
chocolate chip peanut butter biscotti
martha's cakey chocolate chip cookies
classic spritz cookies
via
I think cookies are definitely my favorite thing to bake.
Have you guys made any irresistible cookie recipes lately?
It's that time of year again, when I figure out which delicious treats to make for the guys in our family.
My dessert board on Pinterest is overflowing with ideas
(774 of them) and it's always difficult for me to choose just what to make. I think the next two weeks will make up for my lack of baking this year!
Here's what I'm thinking...
(it still needs to be narrowed down a bit...which ones would you choose?)
chocolate fudge peanut butter cookie stuffed cookies
bakery style xxl chocolate chip cookies
oreo truffles
(using candy cane joe joes!)
biscoff oatmeal cookies
chocolate carmel cookie brittle
(instead of saltines I might do pretzels...I can't decide)
Momofuku's cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow cookies
browned butter snickerdoodles
Check out my past years Christmas sweets posts too!
You're pretty much eating trail mix...
I have been wanting to make white chocolate, cranberry, oatmeal cookies for a long time. I was searching for the perfect recipe and I think I found it. The woman who writes the blog used to sell these cookies but she decided to share the recipe! I made these lastnight and they turned out SO good! I used cherry crasins and added roasted pecan pieces and coconut. I was never a fan of pecans before this, but roasted ones taste like honey! These are a MUST make...trust me!
White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
(Makes approx. 2 dozen)
2 sticks unsalted butter- (room temp.)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups AP flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chunks or chips
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup toasted walnuts or pecans (optional)
Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
1. Place cranberries in a small bowl and pour hot water over them, enough to cover. Let them sit about 5 minutes to soften a bit. Then drain and place on paper towels to get the excess water off.
2. If toasting the coconut, spread onto a baking sheet and place in the oven til a nice golden color ( watch it doesn't burn!). Let cool.
3. In a small bowl, place the white chocolate chunks or chips, toasted coconut, dried cranberries and oatmeal and nuts if using. Set aside.
4. Place butter and sugars in mixing bowl and beat 2 minutes, til smooth.
5. Mix in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Stir in vanilla.
7. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Gradually stir into the butter/sugar mixture, mixing just til thoroughly blended.
8. Stir in the white chocolate/coconut/dried cranberries/oatmeal/nut mixture.
9. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet, spacing 2" apart.
10. Press each cookie to flatten slightly ( it will be kind of like a hockey puck shape).
11. Bake 14 minutes or til bottom edges are a nice golden brown but don't overbake as it could dry them out too much.
12. Let cool on baking sheet 2 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.
Chris and I decided to each make a list of things we'd like to do in 2011.
My list included making biscotti. I've always wanted to give it a try but for some reason biscotti making seemed so daunting. I've had this recipe bookmarked for a while, and we had all of the ingredients so Tuesday night was biscotti night! It was a complete success and turned out so tasty!
This recipe requires you to brown butter (which I could never get quite right) but I did it this time! Don't use a spoon to stir it, just swirl the pan and you'll be able to tell when it's ready when it smells nutty (I cooked it for a little longer than five minutes). Make sure to scrape off all of the bits on the bottom of the pan...that is what you were trying to make!
Peanut Butter and Chocolate Biscotti
Ingredients
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons)
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup smooth natural peanut butter, room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups dry roasted peanuts
- 1 1/4 cups chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chunks (about 6 ounces)
Directions
Position racks evenly in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Melt the butter over medium heat, swirling the pan occasionally. Continue to cook until the butter browns and gets a nutty aroma, about 5 minutes. Let cool slightly.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
Beat the eggs in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until light and pale yellow, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar while beating. Then slowly add the butter and vanilla until evenly mixed, about 30 seconds more. Add the peanut butter and mix until combined.
While mixing slowly, add the dry ingredients to the wet, in 2 additions, mixing just until absorbed. Fold in the peanuts and chocolate pieces.
Divide the dough evenly into thirds, and put each portion in the center of a baking sheet. Shape the dough with slightly wet hands into logs about 2-inches wide and 15 inches long. Bake until set and brown around the edges, about 25 to 30 minutes. (For even baking take care to rotate the pans-- top to bottom and front to back--about half way though.) Cool logs on the baking sheets for about 10 minutes.
Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees F. Carefully transfer the logs to a cutting board. Cut logs crosswise, with a long serrated knife at about a 45 degree angle, into 1/2-inch thick cookies. Place cookies cut side down on the baking sheets. Bake until crisp, about 8 minutes. Flip the cookies over and bake until golden brown, about 8 minutes more. Cool biscotti on the baking sheets. Serve.
I've decided to re-title these posts "week in review" because that's pretty much what they are and I'm always posting them on Friday anyways, this will just save me a little guilt mmmkay?
...
Friday night was the women's night of prayer at church. This was my first year going, and frankly I was a little nervous we'd literally be praying all night long, and we did pray in our small groups (we also snacked all night and ate "breakfast" at 3am), but it mostly was about hearing women's stories, friends who I see all the time and don't really know anything about. It was awesome, and somehow I stayed awake the entire time (11:59pm-6am)! The catching up on sleep part wasn't as bad as I thought it would be either.
We've had a few really beautiful in Portland lately. We were able to actually play on the deck for the first time this year. It was lovely, except now I have a baby who tries to put every little leaf and piece of moss in his mouth. I think I need a carpet for my whole deck.
This week we made playdough monsters:
Buckley gave Rody some lovin:
Not sure where we were going, but he's so cute with his new haircut:
Yesterday I spent nap time on this:
I love chalkboard art, and ever since I saw
these videos I've been facinated by the process of creating it.
We made banana cookies:
(healthy and only 4 ingredients!)
These cookies might sound weird but they are pretty tasty and I love that Bennett was able to help with everything.
Ingredients:
(this is what we used but you could really do anything you want. Check out other versions here and here.)
(makes 12)
2 bananas
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup oats
7 graham crackers
Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl smash 2 ripe bananas (B was chief banana smasher).
In a food processor or a big ziploc bag, crush graham crackers until you get small crumbs.
Pour graham cracker crumbs into the banana bowl, and also the oats and chocolate chips.
On a silpat (or parchment) lined cookie sheet, scoop out dough and flatten a bit (they don't spread while baking). Cook for 13-15 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes before transfering. We have been storing them in the freezer so I'm not sure how they keep at room temp, but they are quite tasty cold!
Oh and Bennett totally thinks these are legit cookies.
Happy Friday Friends!
Sweet Treats
I love baking. I'm always looking for new recipes to try, try being the key word because if I ate everything I baked I would be a big fatty. Usually Chris takes whatever I make into work to give to his poor starving engineer coworkers. I'm pretty sure that after sixteen years of schooling, my high school cooking classes are the only ones I ever retained any knowledge from. For a while it was my mission to find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever and I believe I found it here:
It has four different chocolate chip cookie recipes but the one I
love is the cakey chocolate chip cookies. They turn out perfect every time (as long as you don't mix up baking powder for baking soda) ;) Seriously, this is the best book ever! Also a fave, the
double chocolate cookies.So good! I think it would be so fun to own a bakery like Maggie Gyllenhall's character in Stranger Than Fiction, except for the fact that I would have to wake up while everyone is still snug in their beds.
I'm also pretty sure this would be impossible with a baby who is once again waking up twice a night to eat. A girl can dream!
Every once in a while I get a major inkling (has anybody ever spelled that out before?) to bake.
Right now would be one of those times.
I love to bake, it's one of my favorite things to do, but since Bennett was born I haven't baked nearly as much as I'd like.
The oven in the new house is the original one from good 'ol 1954, and though it works, I'm pretty sure it's temperature is way off. I think I will be purchasing an oven thermometer before I do any baking, but until then I can figure out which one of these yummies I would like to make...
blueberry lemon buttermilk cake
chocolate cobbler
blackberry pie bars
zucchini nutella muffins
double chocolate chunk oreo cookies
coconut lime pound cake
chocolate chip sour cream muffins
carrot sheet cake with cream cheese frosting
strawberry icebox pie
coconut macaroons with meyer lemon curd
vanilla pudding chocolate chip cookies
I wanted to share with you guys how I made my advent calendar in case you want to make one for yourself (yes I know it's too late for you to do one for the whole month...but you could do "the 12 days of christmas!")
I wanted our advent calendar to focus on activities, not things or candy.
I also didn't want to spend very much money to make it...I'd rather put that money towards the activities.
I only spent $1 on the envelopes and the rest was just paper I had laying aroud and I used my stamp set for the numbers.
This was so easy to make and I like that it's not horrible to look at like a lot of the ones in the stores.
The hardest part was coming up with all of the activities. I wanted to include things that our kids would look forward to doing each December. I looked around the blogosphere for ideas to put on the cards and I made some up myself. Since I had a hard time coming up with 24 ideas I thought I'd share mine with you guys, because chances are that you will too if you make one!
go christmas tree hunting
cut out snowflakes
go out to dinner
make a card for daddy and put it in his stocking
decorate the tree
wrap a toy and take to a charity tree
do a christmas craft
have a treat
read about the birth of Jesus
decorate christmas cookies
take cookies to friends
have some hot chocolate
unwrap a new book to read
drive around and look at christmas lights
watch "a charlie brown christmas"
take a silly family picture
go out for milkshakes
make a winter treat for the birds (cover a pinecone in pb and birdseed)
make a gingerbread house
turn up the christmas music and have a dance party
go to Zoolights
have a family christmas movie night
go to the library and check out christmas books
I put it on some baker's twine and hung it on our mantle. Truth be told we forget to check the envelope most days, but I still make it a point to do the activities. I'm sure next year B will be all over checking the envelopes.
Let me know if you guys make one, I'd love to see it!
Bennett went to the dentist for the first time last week.
This was the coolest dentist office I've ever seen and everyone was so nice which helped a lot.
In the waiting room, I was happy to see that he chose low tech over high tech toys:
I was also happy to find this in the mail:
(it's going to save us $120 on our new/fancy/crazy expensive double stroller!)
I was reading Bennett a book when he said "I'll be right back",
then he ran into his room and came out like this:
(then he proceded to clean his ears and every time he would look at the q tip he'd say "eww"...haha)
Thursday was a random snow day.
We got about 3 or 4 inches!
Scout was jealous that he couldn't go play in it:
(his breed is a "Snowshoe" so it's in his blood right?)
then we warmed up with some mac 'n cheese:
(organic Annie's topped with ketchup of course)
in the afternoon I made
these dark chocolate toffee cookies with sea salt:
(I normally like fluffy, soft cookies and these were more on the flat, chewy side but were still really good...
I've never met a cookie I didn't like!)
for dinner I made
these quinoa veggie mexi bowls:
(super good, though I just used what I had)
B drew a picture of a boat:
(clearly.)
spotted dragon fruit while we were out grocery shopping on Friday:
(how pretty are they?)
B got his strawberry milk when we were done for being a great little shopper:
(bribery works people!)
this conversation took place:
For date night Chris and I went to see Hunger Games just to see what all the hype was about. Neither of us knew anything about the books other than people were crazy for them. Apparently it's a "teen flick" and it had just opened the night before. We were lucky to even get tickets. I'll say that it wasn't a bad movie, but a very strange plot for kids to be getting so excited over (killing eachother? really?).
Am I missing something?
Sunday, Chris played at church and we also started taking down some doors to
paint them and put on the new hardware:
(B's fort = makeshift sawhorse)
B and I went over to play with Lauren and Fern.
He pretty much loves her:
Our little playdate ended with some delicious froyo at
Yogurtland:
and B played keys at church Sunday night:
(no big deal)
and here is a little nursery progress:
(I just kind of threw this together, but I like it!)
and that is your weekend in review on a monday.
Hooray!
(I'm off to do a little painting and some walking to get this little man to stay head down darnit!)
