Peanut Butter Suprise Cookies

As many of you know, my family LOVES ANYTHING with peanut butter and chocolate. The kids and I decided to try this recipe just because it looked so gosh darn yummy. Thanks again, my dear friend Martha Stewart. You came through again! :)

Just to mix things up, I followed the recipe from here, and did half the batch on cookie sheets as the directions called for and the other half I put in mini muffin tins. They were both equally delicious.

Valentine's Day Cookies

This is a recipe based on the one I found here.

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 3/4 cups of all purpose flour

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla and mix until smooth. Add the cream. Next add the flour and baking powder and mix into the mixture. Cover the dough and chill for 2 to 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters and place them 1 inch apart on the baking sheets covered with parchment paper, a silpat, or greased with butter. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until bottoms and edges of cookies are light brown. Remove from baking sheet and cool on wire racks.

Then I used the icing that we used for our Christmas cookies from my friend Jenn's recipe.

Basic icing:
4 cups of confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup of unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup of heavy cream
2 tsp. vanilla

I was feeling a little under the weather tonight, but making these sure did perk me up. Perhaps it was all the sugar in the air. :)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Most of this recipe is from Martha Stewart. I added chocolate chips because our family LOVES all things peanut putter and chocolate. You could very easily leave out the chips and put the cute little fork marks on the top and sprinkle them with sugar...makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 1/2 cups flour

about 2 cups of chocolate chips (more if we are feeling crazy)

We usually do this in our standing mixer and just start tossing things in. We put the first 4 ingredients in first and mix it until smooth. Then we add the eggs, baking soda and baking powder and mix a little more. Then we put the flour in and mix it. We stir in the chocolate chips by hand.

refrigerate for 4 hours (this is VERY hard)

roll dough into 2 inch balls--i use a 2 inch ice cream scoop

bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes

Delicious!!!

Christmas cookies for Santa!!

I needed a new sugar cookie recipe because I was unhappy with the one I usually used, so my friend Jenn offered hers up and boy are they delicious!!

Jenn's Cookie recipe

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 t vanilla extract

1.) in medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside. In large bowl with electric mixer at high speed beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. At low speed, gradually beat in reserved flour mixture just until incorporated. Divide dough in half; shape each half into a disk. Wrap disks tightly in wax paper. Refrigerate about 1 hour, or until firm enough to roll out.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees lightly grease baking sheets

3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes


Basic Icing:
4 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup heavy cream or milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Santa will surely be happy to stop at this house to have a nice snack and a glass of milk. I hope he likes sprinkles... ;)

Yummy Christmas Cookies

We made these yummy Christmas cookies. They were pretty easy to make too.

Italian Sprinkle Cookies

6 eggs

5 cups all purpose flour

2 cups confectioner's sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons baking powder

1 cup shortening

3 teaspoons almond extract

1-1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Glaze:

3-3/4 cups confectioner's sugar

1/2 cup warm milk

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Colored Sprinkles

Using a mixer, beat eggs on high speed until light and foamy, about 5 minutes; set aside in a large mixing bowl.

Combine the flour, confectioners' sugar and baking powder. On low speed, gradually beat in shortening and extracts until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Gradually add beaten eggs (dough will be stiff). Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes (tops of the cookies will not brown, but bottoms should brown slightly).

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the confectioner's sugar, milk and extracts until smooth. As soon as cookies are removed from the oven, quickly dip two or three at a time into glaze. Remove with tongs. Place on wire racks to drain. Immediately top with sprinkles.

Pajama Party!

My husband is out of town tonight, so we decided to have a pajama party! We started out having a floor picnic on some blankets (we had pizza... yummy!) and we read stories, played with our felt boards we made and made some cookies. I found a VERY yummy cookie recipe and they were awesome! My husband will be jealous we did this one without him. I wonder if there will be any left in 4 days when he returns....HAHA!

Cookies!! YUMMMMMMMY

Today we decided to make some quick cut out sugar cookies. I cheated and used a mix instead of making them from scratch. The kids loved them just as well. Who doesn't like cut out cookies with icing and sprinkles?? I was even going to color the icing but my son wanted to keep it white. Works for me!!