Cookie Butter

Can you believe it's less than a week until Thanksgiving?

Where has this year gone? Wasn't it just April?

I'm really trying not to think about the fast approaching holidays because I still have so much to do... I haven't gotten a single Christmas present yet. Pure Awesome...

It's OK, this butter makes up for not being Holiday ready. It literally TASTES like the Holidays, all bottled... urm... jarred up!

It whips up really fast too so this is the perfect last minute holiday gift or dessert. Serve with cookies, apples, crackers or on little toasts. People will love it... Trust me!

For the butter:
(slightly adapted from Betty Crocker)

2 (8.8 oz) packages of Biscoff Cookies
2 Tablespoons light brown sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon molasses
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2-1 cup water

• In your food processor, pulse the cookies into fine crumbs. Turn off the processor and add in the cinnamon, brown sugar, ground nutmeg and vanilla. Process until combined.
• With the food processor running, through the spout, stream in the molasses and oil. Allow to mix and the crumbs dampen.
• Continue running the food processor and slowly stream in the water, you will need anywhere from the amount  listed. You are looking for the consistency of peanut butter.
• Pour cookie butter into airtight container and place in the fridge. It will thicken a bit.

Enjoy!

Almond Poppyseed Bread

I know, I know... another bread recipe!

I honestly can't help it. I'm a bread addict. I need bread eaters anonymous... For the sake of my THIGHS people!

I adapted this recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything blog. Have you seen her blog? Check it out. SUPER CUTE!

This makes 6 little loaves (hello, perfect for Christmas gifts) or 2 big loaves to hoard and eat all for yourself... I mean...

For the Bread:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 large eggs
1 1/8 cups vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
2 Tablespoons poppy seeds
2 teaspoons Almond Extract
1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 teaspoons unsalted butter, melted

For the Glaze:
1/4 cup orange juice
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 teaspoons unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease your loaf pans (I use aluminum foil to insure no sticking).
Place all of the ingredients in your stand mixer and beat to combine. Seperate evenly into your pans and bake for 60 minutes, check on the bread the last ten minutes, if still undercooked cover with aluminum foil so the top doesn't get too dark. (The 60 minutes baking time will be around 20-30 if choosing to use the small laof pans). Remove loaves from oven and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, place all of your glaze ingredients in a small pot set over medium heat and stir until the sugar has completely dissolved.

Poke the loaves with a toothpick and brush multiple times with the glaze, it should be thick enough to stick to the top without dripping too much down the sides.

Enjoy warm with coffee, by itself, with a fork... You know!!

(Look at the sun glistening off of the glaze... mmm)

Grandma Vi's Russian Tea Cakes

I've grown up making these cookies for Christmas as far back as I can remember. These cookies, cut out sugar cookies, and pecan fingers are a custom in our home. I hope to pass on this tradition to my children as well.

This is my Grandma's recipe that comes form a tiny red book my mom typed up in the 70's. I cant wait to go through and try all of her recipes one day. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to meet my grandmother, but I like to think my cooking abilities come from her. I hope I'm making you proud Grandma!

I hope you make these cookies this holiday season, you might have even made them yourself and called them a Mexican Wedding Cookie. Whatever you call them, they are my ultimate favorite! Biting into them brings back so many childhood memories!

Happy Holidays everyone...

Cookie Dough:
(Makes about 2 dozen)
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Extra powdered sugar, in a bowl,  for coating

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. With your hand mixer, combine the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add in the flour and salt and mix until a crumbly dough forms. Stir in the nuts.
3. Working with your hands, shape the dough into 1-inch balls and place about an inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 10 minutes or until slightly golden. Cool for 2-3 minutes and then transfer to your bowl of powdered sugar. Roll warm cookies into the sugar and cool completely on a wire rack. Roll once more in the powdered sugar and enjoy!!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

(Do you see the chunk missing? That's from my toddler who likes to stand there and grab pieces of whatever I'm shooting. Ha!)

This pie is so right. It's wrong. 

You know when you see something on TV and you just HAVE to make it. I was super sick last weekend, where even the thought of a cracker conjured up awfulness, and I WANTED this pie.

The recipe comes from Pioneer Woman and I have to say, I just love everything she stands for. 

I mean, when does cream cheese + peanut butter + Oreos make a bad thing!?

So lets cut the chit-chat and make this sucker.

It's the bomb diggity...

For the Crust:

25 Oreos

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Pie Filling:

1 (8-oz) package cream cheese, softened

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 container of defrosted cool whip

Chopped up, left-over, Halloween candy (of the peanut butter cup variety)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In your food processor, pulse the cookies until crumbly. Pour in the melted butter and pulse 4-5 times, just to get it incorporated. Press the cookie crumbs evenly into the bottom and sides of your pie pan. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 5-7 minutes. Remove and let cool completely.

With a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and peanut butter until combined. Slowly add in the powdered sugar and beat to incorporate. Add in the container of thawed cool whip and beat mixture until smooth, scraping the sides as needed. The mixture will be fluffy and delicious (trust me folks, lick the beaters on this one. With it off... of course.)

Pour filling into the prepared crust, smooth the top and sprinkle with the candy.

Place in your fridge for MINIMUM an hour and your freezer for another 30 minutes. The longer its chilled the better it tastes.

Enjoy this peanut butter cream heaven...

Snickersnaps!

I have been far too excited about this recipe not to share with all of you anymore. I apologize for the Christmas theme, as it is only November 3rd, but I had to prepare it in advance for a Christmas Lineup over at the Frugal Girls. Please keep an eye out for this feature recipe the morning of December 18th! Enjoy everyone. (Did you know there is only 52 days left for shopping? And then again, not really, because who shops on Christmas? oh wait,  my husband! Ha!)


Christmas is a time of joy, love and peace. Yet we often lose ourselves in the craziness of the holidays. We try to buy the best, most expensive presents for our loved ones when we should be creating memories with them instead.

So I say, there's no better way than getting in the kitchen and baking with the ones we care about most.

This is a fantastic treat to give as gifts or start as a cookie tradition for your family. I introduce: Snickersnaps!

"Snicker what!?" you say.

A Snickersnap! (or Gingerdoodles). This delicious cookie is a combination or two traditional Christmas treats: a Snickerdoodle and a Gingersnap. The spicy-gingersnap cookie pairs so well with the neutral cinnamon Snickerdoodle. I knew I HAD to make this recipe when I saw the idea over at BakerGirl. 

This recipe takes a little extra time, as you are essentially making 2 batches of cookies, but the end result is well worth it.

I used my favorite recipes for the cookies to make it my own.

Enjoy! And remember to cherish the holidays with the ones you love. Bring the kids in the kitchen to bake with you and snap lots of photos as you go!


Classic Snickerdoodles:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs

Gingersnaps:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon gloves
pinch of salt
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg

Snickerdoodle coating:
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 cup granulated sugar


Gingersnap coating:
1/4 cup granulated sugar


Start the Snickerdoodle dough:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the butter, shortening and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in the eggs and mix until no yellow remains. Reduce the speed to low and add in the flour mixture, mixing just until combined. Place the dough in a separate bowl, cover and place in fridge while you make the Gingersnap dough.

For the Gingersnaps:
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In the bowl of your *cleaned* stand mixer, beat the brown sugar, molasses, vegetable oil and eggs until smooth and combined. Mix in the flour mixture, stirring until the dough comes together. It may be crumbly but this is normal, work dough into a ball with you hands. Place in a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and chill both dough's for 20-30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, whisk together the Snickerdoodle coating ingredients.
On a plate, pour the granulated sugar for the Gingersnaps.

Taking a quarter size amount of Snicker doodle dough, roll into a ball and toss around in the cinnamon-sugar coating.
Take a quarter sized amount of the Gingersnap dough (you may need to work it with your hands) and roll in the sugar.
Place both doughs together gently and squeeze. Roll into a large ball and place on your prepared cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes or until puffy and slightly golden.
Let cool on the sheet for a minute before transferring to a cooling rack.

*Depending on the size of your cookies, this will make anywhere from 2-3 dozen*

Your house will instantly smell like Christmas!

Happy Holidays to you all!

Halloween Slutty Brownies

We JUST got back in from trick-or-treating with the boys. We had SUCH a blast this year because the boys finally learned to say "trick-or-treat". I know its probably too late, but I just had to share 1 more fun Halloween recipe with all of you.

Plus, change out the Halloween Oreos for Christmas colored ones and it will work just as well! Or even plain ones are fine. Oooo or double stuffed...

I'm sure you have all seen this bar recipe floating around the internet and I just had to make them Halloween style. Because what's Halloween without a little slutty?

As said in Mean Girls, and I quote, "In girl world, Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it"...And if you haven't seen Mean Girls, I don't think we can be friends... Just kidding. We still can. Just not BEST friends!

But it's the truth. Throw bunny ears on top of some matching lingerie and you're set. Now that I'm a mom with two little ones I don't like more that an inch above my knee caps to show.... Call me old fashioned. So I make up for it by eating slutty brownies. Take that Mean Girls!

Enjoy everyone and have the Happiest Halloween!

For the Brownies:

• Your Favorite Chocolate Chip cookie recipe
• A package of Oreos
• Betty Crocker Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix

1. Grease an 11x7" baking dish and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Press the Chocolate Chip cookie dough into the bottom of the pan in an even layer.
3. Top with as many Oreos as will fit.
4. Make your brownies, according to the box directions, and pour evenly over the top of the Oreos. 
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
6. Cool completely and cut into pieces.

These are deliciously sinful. Goodnight everyone!

Snickerdoodle Bread

I honestly have nothing creative to say.

I was stuck in bed all day yesterday with the flu (the stomach variety) so I'll spare you the gory details on that one. But, I just had to share this delicious bread with all of you!

I finally found Cinnamon Chips (can I get a Hallelujah!?) WalMart is the place to go. Unfortunately, they are only seasonal so STOCK UP!

I adapted the recipe from  Lil' Luna.

This bread tastes like a moist snickerdoodle with an extra crunchy exterior. I slathered mine with Apple Butter and it was divine...

Enjoy Everyone.

For the Bread:
(makes 2 regular sized loaves)

2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup butter
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 whole fat sour cream
3/4-1 whole package Hershey's Cinnamon Chips

Topping:
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans.

1. In your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar, salt and cinnamon until fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time, until combined. 
2. Add in the vanilla and sour cream and mix well.
3. In a medium bowl,. mix together the flour and baking powder. Add, in 2 additions, to your wet ingredients. 
4. Add in your desired amount of cinnamon chips and stir into batter. Pour into prepared loaf pans.
5. In a small bowl, mix together your topping ingredients and sprinkle evenly over the tops of the batter.
6. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
7. Let cool for 15 minutes in the pan and then invert unto a cooling rack.