Mint-Chocolate Chip Cookies and White Chocolate Candycane Drops

This is a recipe I got from the Family Circle website www.familycircle.com
These are awesome:)

Mint Chocolate chip Cookies
2 cups flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks)unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated (white) sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups mint chocolate chips OR semi sweet chips

Glaze:
3/4 cup confectioners (icing) sugar
2 drops of mint extract
3 1/2 teaspoons water

1. heat oven to 375 f. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into a medium sized bowl.

2 beat butter in a large bowl until creamy. Add brown sugar granulated sugar; beat until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla.

3 On low speed, beat in flour mixture. Gently fold in chips. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls, about 2 inches apart, onto ungreased baking sheets.

4 Bake in 375 f oven 9-11 min, until crisp. Cool on sheet on rack 2 min. Transfer to rack.

5 Glaze: beat together sugar, mint extract and water in a small bowl until smooth. Transfer to plastic food-storage bag; snip off corner. Drizzle over cooled cookies. Let stand until glaze is set



This is also another awesome recipe. This is from a Better homes and Gardens Christmas coookies magizine they put out in 2005. This one is always a hit:)
White Chocolate Candy Cane Drops:
8 ounces white chocolate baking squares with cocoa butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 & 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup finely crushed peppermint candy canes


1. Preheat oven to 375. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Chop 4 ounces of the white chocolate; set aside. In a small sauce pan, cook and stir the remaining 4 ounces of white chocolate over low heat until melted. Set saucepan aside to cool chocolate slightly.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt. beat until combined, scraping bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in melted white chocolate. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in the chopped white chocolate and the crushed candy canes.

3. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto prepared cookie sheet. Bake in preheated oven 8-10 min or until cookies are lightly browned around edges. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool. makes around 50 cookies.
TO STORE:
layer cookies between waxed paper in an airtight container; cover. Store up to 3 days @ room temperature or freeze up until 3 months.

Gwen’s Note:
Make sure you use parchment paper as the candy canes do bleed a bit out of the cookies. Let sit on cookie sheet a couple of minuets for candy to harden again so it doesn’t stick to your spatula and you have to fight with it. When I doubled this recipe I used ½ cup less the flour as they are super crumbly otherwise and you have to really squeeze them together to get them to hold form (side effect of living on dry Canadian prairies)







Hope you enjoy ^_^

Christmas Countdown

When I made my halloween countdown I wanted to do one for Christmas. I cut 12 different Christmas paper. I painted the blocks black and mod podged the paper onto the blocks and mod podged over the top as well.


I used letter stickers to write "Count down to Christmas on it. I also used stickers for the numbers. First cube had 0, 8, 1, 7, 6(which also doubles as a 9),2. The second cube had 1, 5, 0, 4, 2, 3.

Whats cuter then one of these? Why two of them of course.


or maybe a whole basketful:)



I had such a fun time making these.

Clothes Peg Wreath

This is an idea I got from a different blog. I have tried to go back and find out where I got this idea from but I really have no clue.
Anyhow I really wanted to try this out.

What I used:

scrap book paper, cut into small strips
50 clothes pegs
7 inch embrodery hoop (the inside hoop of the two)
cardboard cut from a pizza box lid
hot glue gun and glue
snow flake orniments
string

I measured the clothes peg, and cut the strips to match



I then mod podged the strips to the tops of the clothes pegs.



I used a pizza box lid(we had one haning around) and traced around the outside of the hoop. then I drew a circle around the outside of about 1 cm, but next time I think I will make it 1 inch as the band wasnt quite big enough.


I then put the cardboard ring around the embroidery hoop and hot glued it into place.

I then hot glued the clothes pegs onto the cardboard by putting the glue inside the where it pinches and cliped them onto the cardboard.



I then hot glued snow flake orniments I had bought from the Dollerama andtied the string onto the wreath.




When my husband saw the clothes pegs he took them out of the bag and started playing with them clipping them onto the embriodery hoop. Whe he saw me watching him he told me he was making a stockaid. I mentioned that I thought it kinda looked like a head dress. "Ooooooohhhh!!!" he said, "Good idea!" He then used my second package of clothes pegs to make a second layer.

Anyhow we both had fun. I want to make a second one that is more Christmasssy as this one is more winter/snow.
I really like how it turned out.
:)

Meatloaf Minis

this is a recipe from www.kraftcanada.com

BBQ Style:

1 lb (450 g) lean ground beef
1 pkg (120g) Stove Top Stuffing mix for chicken
1 cup water
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup Kraft Origional BBQ sauce
1/4 cup Cheese whiz process cheese product

Mexican Style

1 lb (450 g) lean ground beef
1 pkg (120g) Stove Top Stuffing mix for chicken
1 cup water
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 cup salsa
1/4 cup Cheese whiz process cheese product

Heat oven to 375 f
Mix meat, stuffing mix, water and either garlic powder or chili powder(depending on which recipe you are making) until well blended.
Press into muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray.
make an indentation in the center of each meatloaf with back of spoon; fill with sauce.
Bake 30 min or until cooked through(160 f) Top with Cheese whiz; continue baking 5 min or until cheez whiz is melted.









I made both kinds of these this week. the BBQ ones are good but the mexican ones were amazing. So simple and easy to make. Just dont forget to spray the pan like i did or they won't come out so easy and crumble apart.

Easy Oreo Truffles

This a recipe that I got from the Kraft foods website.
Easy Oreo Truffles:
1 pkg (8oz) Cream cheese, softened
1 pkg (1 lb. 2 oz)Oreo cookies, finely crushed(about 4 1/2 cups), divided
2 pkg (8 squares each) Baker's semi sweet chocolate, melted.

Mix cream cheese and 3 cups cookie crumbs until well blended.
Shape into 48 (1inch) balls. Dip into melted chocolate; place on waxed paper-covered baking sheet. Sprinkle with remaining crumbs

Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm. Store in tightly covered container in fridge.

How to melt chocolate:
Place unwrapped chocolate squares in microwavable bowl. Microwave on high for 2-2 1/2 min or until chocolate is melted, stirring every 30 seconds.

To easily coat truffles with the melted chocolate, add trufffles in batches, to bowl of melted chocolate. Use 2 foks to roll truffles in chocolate until evenly coated. Remove with forks letting excess chocolate drip back into the bowl. Place truffles on prepared baking sheet; let stand til firm.

I have recently purchaed a mavel in inventions called a cookie scoop. I have to say that it is really awesome. I have been on the lookout for one and finally found one at our local Walmart. It doesnt say what size it is but it is larger then one inch.
When i did this recipe with the cookie scoop it only made around 21 truffles. Also when i had crushed all the oreos from one bag it only came out to 3 cups, so I didn't use any for sprinkling.

Here all the oreo balls. I placed them in the freezer for about 10 min so they wouldnt be so soft.


I boiled a pot of water, then placed the chocolate in the bowl and the bowl over the boiling water. Thee chocolate melted, but had to be stirred. I left the bowl over the pot so that the chocolate wouldn't cool and harden while i was using it.



I decided that I would put mine on lolipop sticks for easier dipping.


Okay... the batch I did for my sister in law went smoothly-ish enough. As I said I decided to put mine on lollypop sticks. I then stood them into the foamy type stuff florists use. I should have thought to put these on a tray. The first block I took to the fridge went fine, however the 2nd and 3rd one I had pressed the sticks further in so when i lifetd the block half of them decided to slide through. I then tried to put the block down to get a tray but the truffles were a bit heavy so most of them slid trough on angles making it difficult to get them back up through thier holes. I had wanted to put them in the fridge to harden so most of them were still soft and wet and a bunch decided to fall into each other. Separating them caused some bald spots on the truffles.

What a gong show!!! Anyhow when the carnage was done, I had a chocolate trail. You can tell what I touched in the fridge as it has smears of chocolate on them. As I had been washing my hands in the kitchen sink it wasnt until I was gettting ready for bed that I saw that i had chocolate on my face as well. *Sigh*

So please, learn from my mistakes.

Kathleen, I have your truffles ready, I'll work on the batch of cookies next week.
Ta

Getting excited for Christmas

This is one of the blogs i follow. They will be posting Christmas goodness for the next month at least.