Another new cookie in this year’s holiday cookie extravaganza, this one was cute and went over well. A twist on peanut butter blossoms.
Holiday
Holiday M&M Bars
One of the cookies for our yearly holiday cookie tins – as much as I am not a fan of chocolate, I really liked this one. Simple and makes a lot, too.
Caramel Apple Cocktail
This was a seriously delicious (aka dangerous) cocktail we served at our Halloween party. It goes fast, so make plenty! Great for any fall get-together.
Candy Corn Cake
This is actually a chocolate layer cake with vanilla buttercream frosting, decorated in candy corn colors for our Halloween party. 🙂 This was a cake recipe I hadn’t tried before, but it was pretty good even for this non-chocoholic, so I will use it again. A fun dessert for the holiday! Got the idea from an article about Halloween-themed desserts.
Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies
These were pretty little cookies that made a nice addition to our holiday tin. They were not super sweet, but still had a lot of flavor and the red and green from the pistachio and cranberry was obviously very festive. They were small cookies, but made a lot, so they were worthwhile to add some interest. They are also very quick, which is quite welcome during holiday cookie-fest!
Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
So it’s possible we ate a lot of these before we got a picture (and I forgot to take one while packing the holiday cookie tins this year). These were outstanding. I cannot resist anything peanut butter, and could pretty much have eaten the batter and said ever so sorry to the cookie tins. 😉 This is an America’s Test Kitchen recipe, and the only change I made was to use smooth peanut butter instead of chunky. I like it better that way, but it will clearly work whichever way you prefer! A definite winner.
Peppermint Mocha Cookies
These were the definite winners for the Christmas cookies, IMO. Really excellent, and I am no fan of chocolate. I messed up the first batch by not soaking the espresso granules, and they were still great, but they were exceptional when done correctly. Definitely one to make next year.
Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry sauce is shockingly easy to make from scratch, and this is my general go-to for it. You will have to adjust orange/sugar/etc. to your taste and as you cook – for example, I find the sugar just right on this as someone who doesn’t have a sweet tooth, but you might like more! This is an easy one to make ahead…one less thing on your plate for the day of.
Patriotic Iced Sugar Cookies
Possibly the most decorative dessert I’ve ever done, but also probably the one I’ve liked the best! I made these for a 4th of July picnic with Shawn’s family in Florida, and they seemed to be pretty popular! While time consuming, these are not difficult. I don’t own a pastry set – instead I use a small paint brush and toothpick for these designs. You can Google for “Royal Icing Marbling” and get some great tutorials. I used the same recipe as I did for our Christmas cookies, both for the cookie and the icing.
Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies
I heart anything peanut butter, and these cookies were no exception. We were looking for something besides the traditional to add to our Christmas gift baskets, and this went well. Definitely one I will make over and over! I originally got the recipe from Epicurious and tweaked for more peanut butter and extract (I used almond).
Om nom nom! 