Cranberry Pistachio Cookies

Cranberry Pistachio Cookies

With Christmas just around the corner I start thinking of Christmas cookies. This is a recipe I saw on Pinterest and just had to try. It comes from The Girl Who Ate Everything  and they are really very good. My picture doesn’t do the cookies justice, they are much greener than the picture shows and the cranberries are much redder. (No photography definitely isn’t my strong point, but I figure any picture to give you an idea of what the recipe looks like is better than none – I’m right – right???) Zip on over to The Girl Who Ate Everything and check out her pictures – now that’s how the cookie really looks!! The color makes them a perfect Christmas cookie and the flavor – wow! This is a cookie you can be proud to give as a gift or serve at a holiday get-together.

Snowy Chocolate Cookies

Snowy Chocolate Cookies

I have been seeing these cookies around the web and since I was craving something chocolate and didn’t have a lot of time I decided to give them a try. My rating on them – so so. They were super easy to mix up, since they are made with a cake mix, but basically, to me, just tasted like a very sweet chocolate cookie. I’m sure that’s because before they are baked they are rolled in powdered sugar. I guess I expected the powdered sugar to get a little crispier than what it did. It stayed soft and sticky so they were a little messy to eat and as I said, very sweet. So, though they were a good basic, soft, chocolate cookie, they really didn’t have anything distinctive about them that made me want to devour them and then make another batch. I have no doubt that kids would love them, sticky and all. I’ve read good and bad reviews on them and would love to hear your opinion if you have, or do give them a try.

White and Butterscotch Chip Cookies

White and Butterscotch Chip Cookies

I seem to be on a cookie jag lately. Cookies are a fairly easy dessert to make and take to get togethers and picnics and seem to be enjoyed by everyone. I saw these on Pinterest and just had to give them a try. The recipe was from Jamielyn at I Heart Nap Time and they turned out every bit as good as she said they would, and that I hoped they would. These cookies have less sugar than some cookie recipes, are soft and the butterscotch and white chips give them a great and very butterscotch flavor. Give them a try, I really think that you will like them.

Homemade Oreo Cookies

 

I have seen many recipes for Homemade Oreo Cookies on the internet and most of them are very similar. This is the one I decided to try, and was very pleased with the result. These vary only slightly from the other recipes so I have no doubt that all of them are very, very good. I know that I love Oreos, who can resist these favorites we grew up with? Not me, that’s for sure! And, everyone I have had sample them has thought these cookies were delicious. To me they don’t taste just like Oreos but I find the difference to be one that I really like. These cookies are softer and can have as much filling as you might want to put in them. Anyway I look at it, I and my friends thought these cookies were definite winners!!!

White Chip Chocolate Cookies

White Chip Chocolate Cookies

My family has a big get together each year over Labor Day weekend and I usually supply the desserts. This year I was looking for something a little different than what I usually make. So in addition to the tried, true and requested that I make each year I decided to try some additional, easy to eat on the run items. I made up some of my Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies the first night and when they disappeared quickly decided to do another cookie the next night. I found white baking chips in my cupboard and found this recipe on the back of the Hershey’s Premier White Chips bag. Since chocolate is always a big favorite I decided to give it a try. The cookies baked up really nicely and had a really good flavor. They were soft and chewy and got rave reviews! But then, with my family, anything chocolate always goes over big. If your family is like mine, these are a winner!

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

This is a great recipe from the Betty Crocker site made with sugar cookie mix. I was in a hurry when I needed to make up a batch of cookies and since I had a pouch of the mix I decided to give these a try. I plan on making some soon from scratch with my sugar cookie recipe and basically rolled up and sliced the same way – not that these are bad, they are actually very tasty. I just prefer to have things made from scratch. This dough was not hard to work with and rolled out easily and rolled into a log with only a couple of very small cracks. After chilling they sliced up nicely and baked up looking pretty. They also taste great – so what more could you ask for???? They are definitely worth trying since the idea of them is different and will get positive comments, plus who doesn’t like the taste of cinnamon rolls?

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe at Rachel Schultz’s blog and decided to give them a try as she lists them as the “Softest Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever”, and the recipe uses pudding mix rather than white sugar. Intriguing! Well, the cookies do cook up soft and they do stay soft for days. The only changes I made in Rachel’s recipe was that I used sugar-free instant pudding, rather than regular, and semi-sweet chocolate chips, rather than milk chocolate chips. I really like the idea of less sugar in the cookies, though you certainly can’t tell from the flavor that they aren’t chock full of sugar! Nestles Toll House Cookie recipe calls for 3/4 cup white sugar and 3/4 cup brown sugar. In this recipe I used only 3/4 cup brown sugar, and so I feel much better about eating them at only 1/2 the sugar – I love cookies so I’ll take any little rationalization I can get (and no, I’m not even going to think about all the butter that’s in them, lol!) Rachel has some great recipes on her site so wander on over if you have the chance. And, these cookies are really worth trying!

Peanut Butter Mallo Cookies

I saw this recipe on the Just a Pinch Recipe Club site and just had to give them a try. I couldn’t imagine what Ritz crackers, peanut butter and marshmallow cream would taste like, but I was very pleased, they are very GOOD! The recipe calls for dipping in melted chocolate. I’ve used melted chocolate in recipes or to decorate desserts before but have never dipped things in melted chocolate but I thought “how hard can it be?” Well…..it can be harder and messier than I had thought. But it was well worth it as these are really tasty.

I would recommend melting the chocolate in a double boiler and leaving over hot water while you are working with these OR melt in the microwave in a narrow bottom bowl or 2 cup glass measuring cup. I used a bowl with a fairly wide bottom and it was hard to get the cookies covered and the chocolate tended to harden around the edges before I was done. I also found that using a metal tongs to dip and then remove them worked for me.

The nice thing about this recipe is that you can make however many cookies you want. I used 1 sleeve of Ritz crackers and 1/2 a package of chocolate bark and got 17 cookies. So, make a few or make a lot. I think you’ll like them if you like chocolate and peanut butter!

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

Christmas always makes me want to bake cookies and these are one of my favorites. They stay soft and chewy and just say Christmas! They remind me of the ones you see at the grocery stores, but much better as they are seasoned with love. They are easy to roll out and work great for using Christmas shaped cookie cutters but also look very festive just cut out with a biscuit cutter, or a glass, into round shapes, frosted and sprinkled with colored sugar.