Mint Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies

 I made these with my son for St. Patrick's Day. 

They would also be perfect for Christmas and Halloween!

Mint Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies

2 C sugar

1 C shortening

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla 

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

1 C sour cream

3 1/2 C flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 package Guittard milk chocolate chips

Cream sugar and shortening together. Add egg. Then sour cream. Mix in vanilla & peppermint. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Then add in chocolate chips. I use a 1 1/2" cookie scoop to place even amounts of dough on parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake @ 375* for about 7 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE! They will not look done when they are done. Take them out when they look dry. Golden around the edges means they are overdone. Let them cool completely. You will have chewy, moist, delicious cookies!

Mint Brownie Cookie Pizza

 Ingredients:

1 box brownie mix

3/4 C shortening

2 eggs

1 package mint chocolate chips 

1 package andes mint pieces (or just chop some bars up)

2 Tbls coconut oil

Preheat oven to 350*. Mix brownie mix, shortening and eggs until it forms a soft dough. It will be very dry at first, keep mixing! Now, I baked mine on a pizza stone because I wanted a crispy crust. A regular cookie sheet will do just fine. Roll dough into one big ball. Cover stone/cookie sheet with parchment. Shape dough into a flat round circle on parchment about 1/2-2/3 of the size you want it to be. It will spread while baking. Bake for about 15 minutes, give or take due to size of cookie. You want the top to look dry and barely begin to crack, then it's done!

While your brownie pizza is baking, melt your mint chips with the coconut oil over double boiler until melted, then set aside. When pizza is done and mostly cooled spread your melted chips all over like pizza sauce. Sprinkle with Andes bits. Let cool until set. Slice & Serve! This is a very easy, fun, rich dessert for St. Patricks Day or even Christmas.

Soft Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Valentine's day cookies!

 Chocolate covered chocolate sugar cookies you say?!?

 Pucker up baby!

Soft Batch Chocolate Sugar Cookies

2 C sugar

1 C shortening

2 eggs

1 C sour cream

2 tsp mexican vanilla 

4 C flour

1/2 C cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cream of tarter

1/2 tsp salt

Cream sugar, shortening and eggs. Then add sour cream and vanilla.
Add dry ingredients and mix well. I like to chill the dough for a few hours or overnight so I do not have to add as much flour when it's time to roll, cut and bake. You will need an additional 1/2 -3/4 cup flour for rolling out, about 1/4" thick.
Don't forget to lightly flour your cookie cutters before cutting! 

Bake @ 350* for 8-10 minutes. 

These will spread a little, to decrease spreading use 2 tsp baking powder and omit the baking soda.

Icing: I used chocolate!

I melted 1 bag Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips with 2 T coconut oil in a glass bowl over simmering water. The oil doesn't ruin the flavor of the chocolate but solidifies after its cooled and is still soft enough that it doesn't crack. Gently place the cookies face down in the melted chocolate mix until just the face of the cookie is covered. Let the extra chocolate drip off, because it is runny, then place on parchment covered cookie sheet to cool. 

Then decorate however you like...frosting, sprinkles, chocolate, etc.
 (I used royal icing on the chocolate)

Enjoy!

Mickey's Christmas

My donation for the Festival of Trees. Obviously I chose a Mickey themed house. I made the pattern out of cardboard first. Baked the gingerbread (leave out the baking powder/soda so it keeps its shape). Made the windows out of isomalt sugar. Assembled the house and began to decorate. The black Mickey shapes are made of royal frosting. All of the white snow, piping, green tree are made with royal frosting. The tree base and chimney are made with rice krispies. All of the red and green decor on the house are M&M's of different sizes. No, I did not make the characters out front :) I purchased them as part of my donations from Toys'R'us.

Black & Gold

This is a December birthday cake. The top layer is lemon cake with vanilla frosting. The bottom layer is chocolate cake with hazelnut frosting. The whole cake is covered in fondant. The top layer has gold brush strokes (they really are gold, not yellow) with gold sanding sugar for texture. The bottom layer is wrapped in three different color/sized ribbons for depth and dimension. The dots are simply black frosting. Happy Birthday Shawna!

Brown Paper Packages

I was able to help throw a party for the ladies at our church. We ended up having a "Favorite Things" party, which ended up being SO fun! Of course we had to have some 'brown paper packages tied up with string' at the party. So I went to the dollar store, naturally. I found a roll of brown paper, different sized snowflakes, multiple size bells, and some silk flower bouquets. I bought the white string and cinnamon scented pinecones at Micheals. I already had the tea light candles from a previous party (purchased at Hobby Lobby), the mason jars, and the epsom salt (snow in the jars) in my cupboards. This ended up being very inexpensive and classy decor.

For our theme we had each lady bring one of their favorite things to give away; socks, treats, candles,  dishes, gloves, scarves - anything under or around $5. When they arrived they wrote their name on a piece of paper and placed it in a bowl. After we finished our dinner we had one person start the game by sharing what they brought. When they finished they drew a name out of the bowl and that person received their gift. Everyone came with something and everyone left with something. Everyone had a wonderful time!

Halloween Spider Cupcakes

We had our annual neighborhood/church trunk-or-treating Halloween party tonight. Lots of games were set up for the kids to play including a cake walk. I love cake walks, but get tired of bringing home multiple plates of cupcakes/cakes/brownies/cookies! This year I was determined to make it easier to hand these bad boys out so the kids could get more than one and the parents not overwhelmed with confections.

I bought some clear plastic 8oz cups at the grocery store and some fold over sandwich baggies. I actually cut the folded side of the baggy to open the tops & make it easier to tie (I couldn't find any that weren't gift bags and I was trying to do it on the cheap). 

And, voila! cheap and easy cupcake carrier to please little kids and parents alike :)

The cupcakes were made with a BC devils food cake mix, with homemade vanilla buttercream. I decorated them AFTER I put them in the cups. Nobody wants my finger marks on their frosting!

Peppermint Swirl Cupcakes

These were fun, cute and delicious! These were made with a moist vanilla cake recipe from The Cake Boss' cook book. The frosting was a yummy experiment. I remembered always loving those homemade butter-mints you'd get at weddings or your grandma's, so I tried to make a frosting with the same flavor, mission accomplished! I found a gingerbread man chocolate mold at Baker's C&C and created the peppermint swirl with this technique. I used disposable bags just to make it easier. 

Butter-Mint Frosting:

2 sticks butter softenend

5+ C powdered sugar

1-2 tsp vanilla

1/4 -1/2 tsp peppermint extract

up to 1/4 C milk

Cream butter & flavoring. Add sugar 1 cup at a time, thinning with milk as needed, always adding sugar last! Whip it with your mixer, and whip it good! Lots of air will make the frosting light. Enjoy :)

Christmas for Graham

Each year since moving to Utah, I've wanted to do a gingerbread house for the Festival of Trees. This year I decided to stop putting it off and just do it! If you don't know about the Festival of Trees all things made and donated are then auctioned off and all money is donated to Primary Children's Hospital. 

Thank you Centaurus Financial for purchasing my gingerbread house!

Our cousins were blessed with a sweet little baby boy, Graham Jacob. He was only able to be here on Earth with them for about six months. His life was spent in Primary Children's Hospital having surgeries, recovering and trying to 'Be Brave' and strong. 

He was a smiley, sparkly blue-eyed, boy that brought lots of love and joy to his family. 

Graham, this one's for you!

 H & J

 Graham and Claire building a snowman, having a snowball fight, and playing in their 'snow fort'.

At the Festival of Trees.

Spring time

Worlds largest cupcake!

Just kidding. It's a regular cupcake in a terracotta pot, ready for a place setting at the Easter dinner table.

 Baby blues for the bride-to-be! 

                                      

Valentine's 2013

 If you start your swirl in the middle of the cupcake instead of the outside, it looks like a rosette!

Cream filled strawberries... always a hit 

 Cute packaging, found at Wal-mart.

 Mousse swirled, raspberry topped brownies.

Cute packaging found at Dan's for about a quarter!

I was asked to teach another class on Valentine's desserts, and again it was so much fun! While I was walking into the building, the tray of cupcakes slipped out of my hand. Some fell on the plastic wrap, some fell on the ground. We saved what we could, re-frosted some and put the rest in the kitchen to throw away later. Funny note* some ladies liked them so much they decided they would eat the ones that fell on the asphalt anyway, I suppose that 's a good sign :) 

Some ladies asked me about using milk/dark chocolate mousse instead of white in the strawberries. We tried it and it was delicious. It tasted a bit like a chocolate covered strawberry without the crunch!

Chocolate Mousse:

1 c melted chocolate chips cooled but still liquid, any flavor

1 8 oz package cream cheese (may use only 4 oz to make it lighter)

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla 

8 oz container cool whip

-Melt chips in double boiler, set aside to cool. Beat cheese, sugar & vanilla in separate bowl until creamy. When chocolate is cooled gently stir in to cheese mixture. Fold in 1/2 of the cool whip until combined. Then fold in the rest until completely combined. Then mix with beaters. You can use right away or set in fridge until ready to use. 

*This is also great in cakes, fruit, alone etc... enjoy!

We also made a raspberry frappe!
1/2 gallon raspberry sherbet
1/4-1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream
1-2 cups 7up
fresh raspberries for topping
 *Mix together in large bowl with beaters until milkshake consistency, top with berries.

I hope everyone has had an amazing Valentine's Day!

Gingerbread 2012

T & M's house.
Love the double doors of gum & the peppermint fence! 

C & B's house.
Had to mark his territory with the "T".

 (C &B) Love the HO, HO, HO!

S & J's house.
Can't beat a pebble sidewalk & of course shutters.

By my 4 & 7 year olds.
They had soooo much fun! They were quite proud of the garden hose (the dark green coil of a twizzler). 

My 4 year old was quite proud of her fenced in area for the dog (pretzel balls).


Everyone should have a gingerbread night with their family.  It so much fun, you can't beat the memories :)