Butter meltaways with Cream Cheese Frosting

I hope that everyone has had a Merry Christmas, and is ready for the New Year. I know that I am. These cookies are the easiest cookies that you will ever make. These are my sister in laws favorite and she asks for these every Christmas. I first made them for Abby's tea party one year and have made them ever since. Just 4 ingredients for the cookie base, things that the bakers should already have as a staple and a quick 10 minutes in the oven and you have it. These cookies are tender and crumbly like a shortbread cookie. I have rolled these into thumbprint cookies as above, and I have rolled them out and cut them into shapes. This dough is that easy to deal with.

Butter Meltaways with Cream Cheese Frosting
By: Paula Deen

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup confectioners sugar

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed until fluffy. Separate dough into 4 equal parts and roll each into a smooth log. Wrap each log in flour dusted wax paper. Chill dough for at least 6 hours. After six hours, allow dough to sit out for 15 minutes to soften.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheets. Slice dough into 1/4 inch thick slices and place on prepared baking sheets. Bake 10 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.

Frosting:
1 cup confectioner sugar
1 (3 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 to 1 drop food coloring

In a medium bowl, combine all frosting ingredients. Beat with an electric mixer until creamy. Pipe or dollop a small amount on top of cooled cookies.

***Here are my notes on this recipe. This recipe calls to make 8 dozen cookies. That is why you roll it into logs. I did not do this. I also did not chill my dough. Once it was mixed, I rolled it into 1 inch balls with floured hands and it worked fine. When I roll it out and cut into shapes, then I chill it, but not for 6 hours. Only until it is firm enough to roll.***

Merry Christmas and a Red Velvet Cheesecake!

I have seen this recipe pop up all over blogland here lately, and it sounded fantastic, and well, it is. It is perfect for this time of year because of the colors, red and white, but it really is worth the time to make it. I made this to take to my inlaws Christmas celebration on Monday night and this is the before picture. The one below is the only one that I could snap before it was finished off.

Merry Christmas from my home to yours!!!

Red Velvet Cheesecake:

1 1/2 cups chocolate graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whole buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
2 (1-ounce) bottles red food coloring
1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Stir together graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar; press mixture into bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.

Beat 3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese and 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar at medium-low speed with an electric mixer 1 minute. Add eggs and next 6 ingredients, mixing on low speed just until fully combined. Pour batter into prepared crust.

Bake at 325° for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 300°, and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until center is firm. Run knife along outer edge of cheesecake. Turn oven off. Let cheesecake stand in oven 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven; cool in pan on a wire rack 30 minutes. Cover and chill 8 hours.

Beat 1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese and 1/4 cup butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth; gradually add powdered sugar and vanilla, beating until smooth. Spread evenly over top of cheesecake. Remove sides of springform pan.

Thumbprint Cookies

These cookies are one of my favorites to make, they always turn out. They are from Gale Gand's book Butter, Sugar, Flour, Eggs. I make them when I am in the mood to bake and nothing is sounding worth the time. These are worth the time, trust me. This time around I used the raspberry jam that I received from the jam exchange, and they were just as good.

Giant's Thumbprint Cookies

from: Gale Gand

8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, soft insides scraped out

1/8 tsp salt

2 cups plus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour

1/4 cup jam of your choice

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter 3 sheep pans or use 1 pan and bake the cookies in 3 batches.

Cream the butter and sugar in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer) until fluffy. Add the vanilla scrapings and salt and mix until incorporated. Add the flour and mix at low speed until incorporated.

Using your hands, roll the dough into golf ball size balls and arrange them 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet flattening them out a bit as you go. Using your thumb, press the top of each cookie to make a shallow well. Roll your thumb back and forth to widen the well. Using a small spoon, fill the wells with jam.

Bake until very lightly browned around the edges, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool slightly on the pan, then transfer to a rack to finish cooling. Store in an air tight container.

Gingerbread Popcorn

I am not sure if I like this or not. I love popcorn, I love gingerbread, but put them together and I am not sure about it. I have a ton of recipes that I have collected over the years from magazines or ones that I have printed from places while web surfing. I have had this one for a couple of years, but I am not sure where I found it.

Making it was pretty simple, but I think that it needs to be tweaked some. I think next time, I will add a little cloves and maybe a little more brown sugar to it. Here's the recipe in case you want to try it out, and let me know if you make any changes to it and how it turns out.

Gingerbread Popcorn:

15 cups popped popcorn
1 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 Tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Line 2 large baking dishes (I used a 9x13 inch) with foil and coat with cooking spray. Fill each with 7 1/2 cups popcorn.

Combine butter, brown sugar, molasses, corn syrup, ginger, cinnamon, and salt in a large, heavy bottom saucepan. Heat over medium heat until mixture boils. Boil for 5 minutes; stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add baking soda. Pour over popcorn; toss to coat.

Bake at 250 degrees for one hour, carefully stirring the warm mixture about every 15 minutes. Cool completely.

Trim the Tree Thursday

Yes, I am a total slacker this week! I completely forgot about this weeks Trim the Tree. You know when you have one of those weeks when you know that you need to do something on a certain day, and think that you still have time? But, then it is brought to your attention that this is the day to post? (Yes, you know who you are) Well, this is one of those weeks. So head on over to The Southern Hostess and check out her list of blogs to check out.

Ma Tanta Minnie's Chocolate Peanut Butter Blossoms

I am starting to think that Megan and I should call this cookbook project, Chocolate with Marcel instead. For the last 3 weeks, we have chosen recipes from this book. There are so many more that I want to make, and it is sure to cure the chocolate craving.

This weeks recipe was Megan's choice and she picked a great one. But then, there hasn't been one that I haven't liked. This is a great one right here at the holidays. Who doesn't like a good cookie?

I think that Megan was going to get a little fancy with these cookies, go and check out her take on them too! Next up, is my choice of recipe. Not sure what it will be yet...

Ma Tanta Minnie's Chocolate Peanut Butter Blossoms
By: Marcel Desaulniers


1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1 Tbsp pieces and softened
4 oz. semi sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 large egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
16-18 Miniature Reese's Peanut butter cups, unwrapped




Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or wax paper.

Place the flour, butter, chocolate, 1/2 cup of the sugar, the peanut butter, egg, milk, baking soda, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of a stand electric mixer fitted with a paddle. Mix on low for 1 minute, until combined. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle, then beat on medium for 10 seconds, until a dough forms (it does not take very long) and comes off the bottom of the bowl. Remove the bowl from the mixer. (At this point you will notice this dense dough exudes and amazingly seductive aroma of peanut butter and chocolate, giving you an indication of the good things to come. But due to the presence of raw egg in the dough, please refrain from nibbling any.) Just for the record, I did not pay any attention to this little warning! :)

Portion 3 level tablespoons or 1 level #50 ice cream scoop of the dough for each Blossom. Use your hands to form each portion into a smooth ball. Roll the balls in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, lightly coating each.

Place the balls on the baking sheets, about 4 inches apart width wise and 2 inches apart lenghtwise. Place the baking sheets on the top and enter racks of the oven and bake for 10 minutes, until light golden brown, switching the sheets between top and center and rotating each 180 degrees halfway through the baking time.

Remove from the oven and immediately top each Blossom with a peanut butter cup, pressing down so the cup is positioned about halfway into the cookie and creates cracks around the edges (it now resembles a flower blossom). Cool on the baking sheet until room temperature. Store in a tightly sealed plastic container.

Chewy Granola Bars

My two youngest kids are allowed to bring a small, healthy morning snack to school. It really makes no sense to me, because when I was in school, we were not allowed to bring snacks. Well, I guess alot has changed since then too, but back to these bars. Blake and Abby really like granola bars. They like the peanut butter and chocolate chunk ones. Week after week, I buy them for more than $2 for a box of 8. That really isn't that bad, but when I came across this recipe from Make and Takes, I just had to try. I made a couple of minor changes, but you could change them up however you would like. The verdict on these? Great. My kids loved them, and the hubby loved them too. I made them into an 8X8 baking dish, and got 12 bars. I will definitely be making these, instead of buying them in a box from now on.

Chewy Granola Bars Recipe:

2 1/2 c. Oats - quick rolled oats
1/2 c. Rice Krispies
1/4 c. coconut (I did not add this)
1/2 c. M&M minis (I used peanut butter and chocolate chips here)
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/4 c. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla


Add all of the ingredients and mix together until combined. Press into a square 8×8 pan. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and score into bars. Let it set completely and then cut into bars. For thinner bars, press mix into a 9×13 pan. They seem to set a little better in the 9×13 pan.

Have a great weekend!

Trim the Tree Thursday!

Here we are again for Trim the Tree Thursday, hosted by Brett from The Southern Hostess. My house is all decorated so for this week, I thought I would share with you my gingerbread kitchen.

I have a 4 foot tree in my kitchen decorated in only gingerbread or candy land decorations...



Here is the tree topper....

And next are some ornaments....

Oh, and let's not forget my little Christmas frog, he is even holding his own gingerbread man!

This little guy greets me by my stove.

And this is my new favorite thing. I found it at Cracker Barrell! It is fiber optic and the top spins. You can plug it up or it has a place for batteries. Love it!

Hope you enjoyed my kitchen, don't forget to check out everyone else's Trim the Tree Thursday!

Coconut Chocolate Chunk Macaroons

For this edition of the cookbook project, it was my choice of recipe. Now, I know that the whole point of a cookbook project is to cook out of different cookbooks until you have used every book that you have. Well, I have a little problem with that, when Megan sent me this book I read it from cover to cover and there are so many that I want to make now. And since we have no rules on this cookbook escapade, two recipes, from the same book, in 2 weeks in a row, was completely fine.

You see, I don't really care for coconut. I think that the older I get, the more it grows on me and flipping through this book these macaroons just stuck in my head. They were easy enough to mix together and a little bake in the oven for 15 minutes, and they were ready to be sampled. My first thought was, well, I really don't know what I thought. They were ok, but not great. Probably won't make them again. They are a little crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. But, when I came home and sampled them again, they changed my mind. I think that they are better the next day. Still crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle. So, with that said, I may make them again. I haven't written them off completely, yet.

Coconut Chocolate Chunk Macaroon
By: Marcel Desaulniers

2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup tightly packed light brown sugar
4 large egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
6 oz. semi sweet baking chocolate, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat 2 baking sheets with some of the melted butter. Line the sheets with parchment or wax paper, then lightly coat the paper with more melted butter.

In a sifter, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Sift onto a large piece of parchment or wax paper.

Place the almonds and the sugars in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse for 10 to 12 seconds until combined and the almonds are coarsely chopped.

Place the egg whites and the cream of tartar int eh bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a balloon whip (the bowl and the whip need to be meticulously clean and dry, otherwise the egg whites will not whisk properly). Whisk on high until stiff peaks form, about 2 1/2 minutes. Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a rubber spatula to fold in half the almond mixture. When combined, fold int eh remaining almond mixture. Fold in half of the sifted dry ingredients, when combined, fold in the rest. Now fold in half the chocolate and coconut, and when incorporated, fold in the rest until thoroughly combined.

Using 2 slightly heaping tablespoon or 1 heaping #50 ice cream scoop of the dough to portion 9 macaroons, about 2 inches apart width wise and 3 inches apart lengthwise, on each of the baking sheets. Place the baking sheets on the top and center racks of the oven and bake for 15-16 minutes, until light golden brown, switching the setts between top and center and rotating each sheet 180 degrees halfway through the baking time. Remove from the oven, and immediately transfer from the paper to a cooling rack to cool to room temperature (if the macaroons are not removed from the baking sheets within moments, they will stick to the paper). Store the cooled macaroons in a tightly sealed plastic container.

Barbie Cake For Saylor's 3rd Birthday!!!

This is Saylor. She is my good friend Megan's daughter, who just turned 3 yesterday. This little chick will be the next Ms. Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart, she knows exactly what she wants!

Happy

Birthday

Saylor!!!

Just for the record, this was my first Barbie cake. I can't wait to make her again! She wasn't as hard as I thought she would be. :)