Friday Foodday

Happy Friday! Here are my favorite holiday cookie recipes!

Candy Cane Crinkles

℅ Lauren's Latest

Ingredients

3 whole candy canes, crushed
½ cups Butter, Softened
1 cup Granulated Sugar
½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 whole Egg
¼ teaspoons Salt
¼ teaspoons Baking Powder
⅛ teaspoons Baking Soda
1-½ cup All-purpose Flour
½ cups Powdered Sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non stick cooking spray, line with parchment paper or use silicone baking mat and set aside.

Place candy canes into a plastic food storage bag and crush using a rolling pin. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla and egg. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir all dry ingredients together in a small bowl and then in pour into mixer and slowly mix until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Stir in crushed candy canes. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Chocolate Milk Cookies

℅ Cassie Craves

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1/4 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened 

1/2 cup granulated sugar 

1/2 cup chocolate milk powder 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3 to 4 tablespoons chocolate milk

Red and green sugar or sprinkles for decorating, if desired

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. In a large bowl, mix butter, sugar, chocolate milk powder, and vanilla extract until smooth. Add eggs one at a time. Gradually add in flour mixture and mix until thoroughly combined.

3. Drop by teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten cookies with the back of a spoon.

4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheets, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Combine powdered sugar and chocolate milk. Glaze cooled cookies, then garnish with red and green sugar or sprinkles if desired.

Chocolate Peppermint Patty Cookies

℅ Buns in My Oven

Ingredients

1 box devil's food cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
18 peppermint patties (the small ones)
powdered sugar, for sprinkling

Directions

Beat together the cake mix, eggs, and oil until well combined and a sticky dough forms.
Place dough in the fridge for 20 minutes to chill. If you skip this step, the dough will be very hard to work with, but if you're in a hurry just make sure your hands are cold by running them under cold water after you shape each cookie.
Grab a golf ball sized ball of dough, roll into a ball, and flatten it into a disc.Place a peppermint patty in the center and bring the excess dough up and around the patty to cover it.
Repeat with remaining dough and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet 2 inches apart from each other.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 9 minutes.
Remove from oven and sprinkle on powdered sugar.
Cool on a wire rack.

Friday Foodday

Hey lovebugs! It's Friday Foodday! I'm so excited! Today I am featuring a special recipe and holiday tradition from a fellow blogger, an awesome recipe from a great friend and a classic holiday recipe from my friends from Orlando.


If you have a holiday recipe or tradition that you would like featured, please send it along to me! I would just love to see it!!!!

Macaroni and Cheese with Bacon
c/o Stilettos and Diaper Bags

With the holidays around the corner and the snow outside keeping everything cold, I decided it was time to make my yearly savory dish of macaroni and cheese with bacon. I make this dish just once a year because it is not very good for you, but it is VERY good! I'm sure you could tweak the recipe and make it lower fat, but what fun is that?! Here's what you will need to make this dish:

Ingredients

1 box of elbow macaroni

6 slices bacon, diced

1 tablespoon butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups 2% milk

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

8 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

1 cup (4oz.) shredded colby-jack cheese

1 cup (4oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese

8 slices (6oz.) american cheese 

Directions

1) pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 3-quart broiler-safe dish with nonstick cooking spray. Bring a large post of lightly salted water to boiling.

2) cook elbow macaroni in boiling water, then drain. Meanwhile, in medium size sauce pan, cook bacon over med. heat until crisp. Transfer to paper towels. Carefully pour off drippings, returning 2 tablespoons to pan. Add butter

3) whisk in flour until smooth. In a thin stream, whisk in milk. Stir in onion powder, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil over med. heat, then reduce heat and simmer 2 mins. In a large bowl, toss together cheddar, colby-jack, and mozzarella cheese. 

4) remove milk mixture from heat. whisk in american cheese and 1 1/4 cups of the cheddar mixture. Toss bacon pieces with remaining shredded cheese. 

5) in pasta pot, combine cooked pasta and cheese sauce. Pour half into prepared dish. Sprinkle with a generous cup of the bacon-cheese mixture. Repeat layering. 

6) Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Then broil for 3 mins or until top is golden brown. Cool slightly before serving.

ENJOY! This is one of my favorite recipes. I pulled it out of a magazine a few years ago and don't remember which one. Sorry! Hope you all have a wonder holiday season! For more recipes check out my blog the week of Dec. 20-24 for cookie week. 

Cream Wafers*

c/o LPU

My family fights over them every year and they never last until Christmas!

Ingredients

1 cup softened butter                                        

1/2 cup granulated sugar

½ cup whipping cream (the real stuff)             

1 cup Creamy butter filling

2 cups flour

Directions

Mix butter and whipping cream together.  Whipping cream does not need to be whipped.  Measure flour.  Mix butter cream and flour together. Chill dough for at least an hour.

Heat oven to 375 °.

 Roll dough to 1/8". Cut into circles or stars.

 Place sugar in a pie tin.  Transfer cookie to sugar and coat both sides with sugar.

 Place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Prick cookies several times with a fork.

 Bake for 7-9 minutes, or until cookies are slightly puffy and lightly browned. Put on cooling rack. They're delicate so be gentle with them.

Put two cookies together with filling.

Butter Cream Frosting

1/4 cup soft butter

3/4 cup confectionary sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together.  Add powdered sugar until the filling is stiff enough to frost cookies.  Add food coloring of your choosing to make them festive!

*Note- I had the honor of stuffing my face with about 7 of these.  They're amazing.

Marshmallow Filled Chocolate Chip Cookies

c/o Ritz Carlton Grand Lakes Orlando Pastry Team

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

2 cups of chocolate chips

1 bag mini marshmallows

2 sticks of unsalted butter

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 large eggs

Directions

-Preheat oven to 375.

-Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.  Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a large mixer until creamy.  Add eggs, beating well after each addition.

-Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Scoop out about one tablespoon of the cookie dough and shape into a ball.  With your finger make a hole in the center, stuff 2-3 marshmallows into the dough and then seal back up.

-Place each ball of dough onto an ungreased baking sheet and press lightly.  Bake for 9 to 11 minutes until golden brown.  Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes.

If these recipes don't warm up your holiday, I don't know what will!  I hope you have a wonderful weekend! 

Be fabulous today!