Hot Chocolate on a Stick

How cute are these? I saw them on Giverslog and knew that I wanted to make them! Abby and I made them yesterday for her class and I can't wait to make more of them and play with it a little. We made these in ice cube trays, but want to try them in a sucker mold.

Instead of a packet of hot chocolate, you use one of these in a cup of hot milk! It can't get any easier than that! I did see somewhere where they flavored the white chocolate with raspberry oil, so they had raspberry hot chocolate on a stick! I am thinking peppermint! :)


Hot chocolate on a Stick

8 oz chocolate, any kind, milk, semi sweet, white
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup powdered sugar
pinch of salt

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Once it is melted, remove from the heat and add the cocoa, sugar and salt. Mix it until it is all combined. It will get really thick...like a frosting consistency. Once it is all mixed put the mixture into a baggie and snip of the corner and pipe it into your mold. I used a standard ice cube tray. Tap the ice tray on the counter to smooth it out and so that it can settle . Insert a stick and put it into the freezer for a few minutes until the chocolate hardens. Decorate it by dipping it into other chocolates or leave it plain.

Stir the stick into a 1 cup of hot milk, until it is dissolved.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies-Week 11

We are at week 11, just one more week to go! I still have so many more cookies that I want to make!!

This week I give you one of my favorites! These are really easy to make and will add a little wow factor on your platter. You can add the chocolate drizzle or leave them plain. Just make sure that you really drain and pat your cherries dry before you wrap the dough around them, or it won't stick.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

1 10oz jar maraschino cherries with stems, drained and juice reserved

1 Tbsp cherry juice

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Beat butter in bowl of electric mixer on medium high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder; beat until combined. Beat in the egg and 1 tsp reserved cherry juice. Beat in as much flour as you can with mixer, stir in any remaining flour with wooden spoon.

Shape a scant 1 tsp of dough around each cherry. Place in 1 inch paper or foil baking cups and place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until the top looks dry.

Top with melted chocolate or your favorite chocolate glaze and top if sprinkles, if desired.

Sugar Glazed Almonds

Why is it that we only make tons of baked goods and candies at Christmas time? Sure, we think of then at the other holidays too, but for the most part at Christmas we make triple the amount. Don't get me wrong, I love it! I have made these for years. They are simple, and you can change up the flavor..add some orange zest, add some cinnamon or even rose water. Or just leave them plain and they taste like a honey roasted peanut, only in almond form.

Would someone please take them away from me, I can't stop eating them!!

Sugar Glazed Almonds

1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
2 cups whole almonds

Set aside an ungreased baking sheet. In a heavy 2-quart skillet, combine water and sugar. Place over high heat and stir with a wooden spoon until mixture comes to a boil. Add almonds and stir continuously. Reduce heat to medium and stir almonds until mixture foams and turns to sugar. (This takes about 10-15 minutes.) Continue stirring as almonds become coated with sugar; sugar will begin to remelt and caramelize on the almonds. Remove from heat and turn out onto baking sheet. Using 2 forks, separate almonds into single nuts. Cool.

Variations:
For Glazed Orange-add 2 Tbsp grated orange zest at the beginning of cooking.
For Cinnamon-Add 1/4 tsp cinnamon at the beginning of cooking.
For Rose Water-At the end of cooking, sprinkle nuts with 2 tsp rose water and stir well.

Orange Vanilla Shortbread

We are at week 10 of thee 12 weeks of Christmas cookies. When we first started this, I thought it would take forever to finish it up, but now we only have 2 more weeks! There have been so many great cookie recipes during this and can't wait to see what the next weeks bring!

I saw this recipe in Sherry Yards book The Secret of Baking and was curious about the use of Orange Blossom Water. I had never seen it, much less needed to use it in a recipe. I knew that I wanted to try it. That was about a year ago. I don't know why I haven't made them sooner. I really like the flavor of them. They have a base of orange flavor with a little hint of a floral scent. And then the vanilla mellows it all out. The recipe said to roll it out to about 1/4 inch thick and cut into a shape, freeze for 15 minutes then bake. I chose to bake them in an 8x8 square dish and cut them into squares. They turned out a little more fluffy than the shortbread that I have made before. Maybe it is because I didn't roll it out? Not sure, but they still taste yummy! I think I might like to make this recipe and adapt it to this flavor.

Remember to see what Megan, Barbara, Megan, Denise and Kim baked up this week!

Orange Vanilla Shortbread

By: Sherry Yard

2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped

2 Tbsp finely grated orange zest

1/8 tsp salt

1 Tbsp orange flower water

1 large egg, at room temperature

Sift together flour and baking soda in medium bowl and set aside

Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a hand mixer, cream the butter on medium speed until pale yellow, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle. Add the sugar, vanilla extract and scraped seeds from the bean, orange zest, salt and orange flower water. Cream on medium speed until it is smooth and lump free, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle.

Add the egg and beat on low speed for 30 seconds, or until fully incorporated. Do not overbeat. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

On low speed, add the flour mixture. Beat until all the dry ingredients are incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. The dough will be gooey. Remove the dough from the mixer, scrape it onto a sheet of plastic film, press it into a 1/2-1 inch thick disk, wrap tightly, and chill for at least 1 hour. At this point, the dough will keep nicely, tightly wrapped, in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 1 month. (Thaw frozen dough at room temperature for about 30 minutes, or until you can slice it.)

Dust a work surface lightly with flour. Place the dough between 2 sheets of lightly floured parchment paper, roll it out 1/4 inch thick, and freeze it for at least 2 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Adjust the rack to the lower third of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

When the dough has frozen, carefully peel off the parchment and place the dough on a work surface dusted lightly with flour. Dip a 3 inch round cookie cutter in flour, then cut out the cookies. Place the cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets, alternating the rows like a checkerboard. Return the dough to the freezer for 15 minutes or more whenever it becomes too sticky to cut.

Bake one sheet at a time for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown around the edges, turning the sheet front to back halfway through the baking. Remove from the oven and carefully slide the parchment directly onto a work surface. Wait at least 5 minutes before serving or 30 minutes before storing the cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature.

Cake Cookies-Week 9!

I saw this recipe for these cookies in a magazine that called for a cake mix, an egg, and a carton of cool whip. The cool whip got the best of my curiosity and I had to try them out. They turned out so good that a friend and I made 4 different flavors and each batch made 4 dozen, so I was stuck with 16 dozen cookies! There could be worse things, I guess. :)

These cookies are really soft and chewy, a little messy because of the powdered sugar, but so worth it. These will definitely be going on my platters! The cake mixes we used were chocolate fudge, strawberry, orange and spice cake. I have a lemon to make and I want to try pineapple upside down.

We are coming along with out 12 weeks of Christmas, we are at week 9 and have seen some really awesome cookies!

Cake Cookies

1 box cake mix, any flavor

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 (8 oz) Cool Whip, thawed

2 cups powdered sugar

Mix the cake mix, egg, and cool whip together until combined. This will be thick, but not so thick that you can roll it into balls. Put the powdered sugar into a shallow bowl.

Once you mix the dough, put the scoops of dough into the powdered sugar and roll it to coat. You can shape it once it is covered with the powdered sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week, I asked the hubby what kind of cookie he wanted and he wanted something with peanut butter and chocolate. Honestly, I wanted him to tell me something that was sort of a challenge for me to find a recipe for this week, but I guess you really can't do that with cookie. I guess this really was a little challenge for me, because I haven't found that perfect peanut butter cookie recipe yet. This one is close, and will do, but I am always looking for new ones. :)

I found this recipe in one of my cookie magazines and was curious about it because there is no butter, I am guessing that the peanut butter takes that place, and there is only 1/4 cup of flour. This told me that it would probably be moist and chewy in the middle. And yes, I was right. With little spreadage, and a crisp outside, with the chewy in the middle, they did hit the spot. The first thing that came out the oldest sons mouth as soon as he popped one in his mouth was, mmmmmmm. I took that as a thumbs up! Will these go on my cookie platters? Probably!!

Don't forget my other cookie baker's this week, we are almost to the end girls! :)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a mixing bowl beat peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar, and baking soda until combined. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Stir in flour and chocolate chips with a wooden spoon.

Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Place balls on an ungreased cookie sheet (do not use an insulated cookie sheet); flatten slightly with fingers.

Bake in preheated oven about 10 minutes or until cookies are puffed and lightly browned around edges (centers will be soft). Cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks; cool completly. Makes 2 dozen.

Cinnamon Bun Scones

I am a firm believer in homemade scones. The ones that you buy out at the store or coffee shops, that are dry and crumbly and make you choke, are just not for me. Now, the hubby on the other hand, isn't really a fan at all of scones. He calls them fu-fu food. Let me rephrase that..until now, he was not a fan. I think that he ate half of them, and my boys ate them for breakfast this morning. I am positive that they will be requested again and again. :)

I found this recipe from the book A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman. I have made a few things from this book and so far so good. If you haven't seen it, you really should. It is full of yummy, yummy things! I didn't follow the directions exactly, though...but they still came out great. The directions say to mix the dry ingredients in the food processor, dump them out and make a well in the center, then put the wet ingredients and combine. I bypassed all of this and mixed everything in my mixer with a paddle attachment. It mixed up perfectly! :) You also scoop these out with an ice cream scoop, so I am thinking mini's would be great too!

Cinnamon bun Scones

By: Marcy Goldman

3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

3/4 tsp salt

4 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks

2 tsp vanilla

2 large eggs

3/4 to 1 cup whipping cream

Cinnamon Dip

4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 to 3 cups confectioner's sugar

Whipping cream or milk, as required

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Stack two baking sheets together and line top sheet with parchment paper. Arrange oven rack to upper third position.

In a food processor, add flour, sugar, salt and baking powder and blend briefly. Add butter and pulse to make a coarse, grainy mixture.

Turn out mixture into a large bowl. Make a well in center and stir in vanilla, eggs, and whipping cream to make a soft dough. If it is stiff, add more cream.

Using an ice cream scoop, deposit 15 to 20 scones on prepared baking sheets,or use a smaller 2 Tbsp cookie scoop and deposit 3 dozen baby scones.

Bake until scones are puffy and golden brown, about 22 to 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, for Cinnamon Dip, whisk together all ingredients until you have a thick but drippy glaze. Add more confectioner's sugar or cream as required.

Cool scones to warm and then dip into Cinnamon Dip. Dip scones again once topping is set.