Rose’s Sugar Cookies

Do you have a signature recipe? One that everybody asks for? My friend and neighbor Rose was famous for her sugar cookies.

And I mean famous.

Around these parts, those sugar cookies of hers were the first to disappear at potlucks.

She had a way of making them so thin that one bite and the cookies would crumble in your hand. Talk about melt in your mouth delicious!

The uninitiated would lose most of their cookie – but those of us who knew what to expect had our hands underneath to catch the crumbs. Trust me – you didn’t want to lose even one bite!

Her secret? She didn’t roll the dough. She scooped them out and flattened them with a water glass. I can still see her standing at her counter smashing cookies lightening fast.

At her recent funeral, her 4 daughters got together to bake these famous sugar cookies to share with those of us who came to remember the wonderful lady and good friend that she was.

Everyone said the cookies were delicious – but the girls said they just didn’t taste the same.

Maybe it was because they didn’t milk the cow, skin the cream and churn the butter for the cookies themselves.

Or maybe it was because they rolled the dough instead of smashing it.

Or maybe – in their hearts – it was because nobody can make a sugar cookie quite like their mama.

Rose’s Sugar Cookies

1 cup white sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoon vanilla
4 cup flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream sugars, butter and vegetable oil. Add vanilla, beaten eggs and mix well. Add dry ingredients. Can be chilled 2 or 3 hours or overnight.

Drop by teaspoons on a greased cookie sheet. Flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 12- 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

We did it!

The children performed our Christmas Program to a packed house last night – and did a great job!

With a quick rehearsal after church on Sunday morning, and the excitement of the performance – it was a busy day!

By the time we had taken down the set, eaten the last cookie and drove home, it was half-past too late.

Needless to say , we’re not moving very fast around here. I’m sitting around in my jammies watching the lights blink on the Christmas tree while listening to Christmas music.

I really should think about getting dressed – but I might need a mug of hot chocolate first. With whipped cream and sprinkles, of course.

But just in case you have energy today – here’s our newest favorite Christmas cookie recipe!

Can you believe I’ve lived this long without knowing that a chocolate sugar cookie exists? Oh – what I have missed! These are really yummy!

The dough was a little sticky to work with – so keep it cold. But the finished product held it’s shape beautifully and looked fabulous sprinkled with powdered sugar on a cookie tray!

Chocolate Sugar Cookies
recipe from Annie’s Eats

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
¾ cup powdered sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and salt. set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add in the egg and vanilla.

With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated and no streaks remain. Form the dough into a disc, wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 325? F. Grease a baking sheet or line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

On a work surface dusted with cocoa powder, roll the dough out to about ¼-inch thickness. Cut out desired shapes with cookie cutters and place cut outs on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake 10-12 minutes, just until set. Let cool on the baking sheet about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

You can decorate these all fancy – or you can just sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

I used mini cookie cutters and cut the baking time to about 8 minutes.

The dough doesn’t make very much – you may need to double or triple depending on many samples you eat!

Enjoy!

Captain Crunch Bars

Can I admit here and now that I am not a sugared cereal person.

Buddy- however – loves it.

So twice a year when we go camping I let him pick out one box to bring along.

This year’s choice for the our July 4th Family Camp-Out was Captain Crunch.

And it came home unopened.

Oh dear – now what to do. An entire box of sugared cereal that only Buddy likes.

I know! I’ll feed it to the youth group! They’ll eat anything!

A quick google search and I had several recipes for Captain Crunch Bars. I picked one.

Dagmar (who shares my disdain for sugared cereal) took one look at the recipe and said, “Gross”.

But she made them anyway – and hasn’t stopped eating them since.

They are really yummy!

Suddenly – sharing them with the youth group no longer seemed like such a good idea. 🙂

Captain Crunch Bars

1/2 cup melted butter
1 box yellow cake mix
3-1/2 cup mini marshmallows
8 ounces chocolate chips
3-1/2 cup Captain Crunch cereal
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Pout the melted butter over the bottom of a jelly roll pan.

Sprinkle the dry cake mix on top, followed by the marshmallows, chocolate chips, and Captain Crunch cereal.

Pour the can of sweetened condensed milk over the whole thing and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Run a knife around the edge as soon as you remove it from the oven.

It will set up as it cools. If you can wait that long.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

We’re going simple today – back to basics if you will – back to the classic Chocolate Chip Cookie.

I must confess here and now that I have always struggled with this particular cookie.

Mine usually end up all spread out on the pan – thin as a dime and flat as pancakes.

My sisters don’t have this problem. Nope. Just me. After years of failures, I all but gave up on making the elusive chocolate chip cookie.

But not my girls. Dagmar found this recipe and – believe it or not – it worked! Still not able to believe the fact that we had actually produced a soft and wonderful chocolate chip cookie – I had Angel Girl make them.

Wonder of wonders! It worked for her, too!

The chocolate chip cookie famine is officially over and there was great rejoicing in all the land. Well – at least in my house!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons corn starch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Cream the butters and sugars. Add the egg and vanilla. Mix in the dry ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Scoop into 1 inch balls using a cookie scoop. Drop on greased cookie sheets.

Bake 8-10 minutes. No longer than 10 minutes. The tops won’t brown.

Let cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Remove from the cookie sheet to wire racks and let cool completely.

Makes about 3 dozen unless you sample too much dough!

Granola & Granola Bites

There’s two recipes in one blog post today. But since you can’t make one without the other – you get a two-fer day!

Watching my teenagers down an entire box of cold cereal in 2 days, caused me to re-evaluate breakfast.

We needed something that would be more filling – and more cost effective. It was time to dig out the granola recipes.

This one has become our new favorite. It’s perfect with some yogurt and sliced fruit. It does makes a bunch, but around here it goes fast!

Granola

10 cups oatmeal (I like to use the old-fashioned)
2 cups barley flakes (can just use more oatmeal)
2 cups coconut
2 cups peanuts
2 cups slivered almonds
2 cups sunflower seeds
3/4 cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup peanut butter
1-1/2 cup brown sugar or honey

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix wet ingredients in a saucepan and cook until dissolved.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix until everything is moistened.

Pour out on 2 large baking pans. Bake at 275 degrees until golden brown, about 20 minutes, stirring twice.

Now that you have your granola made – it’s time to take some of it and make our new favorite snack – granola bites.

I got the original recipe from my friend Jami at An Oregon Cottage. These little gems are not only packed with protein and whole grains – they taste great! They make the perfect snack for a teenager who can’t make it to the next meal!

Granola Bites

1 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cup granola
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix the peanut butter, honey, and vanilla in a bowl. Add the granola and chocolate chips.

Refrigerate for 3o minutes before shaping into balls with a cookie scoop and rolling in more granola, chopped peanuts or coconut. (This helps take away some of the stickiness)

Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

You can experiment with different nut butters and add dried fruit or different chips.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Almond Macaroon Bars

I couldn’t believe how quickly Dagmar pulled this recipe out when I asked her to make something for a recent potluck!

I guess she’d been drooling over it for sometime – and trust me – it was worth it!

An Oreo cookie crust with a creamy coconut and nut filling covered with a layer of chocolate ganache – oh my!

We didn’t even wait for it to cool down in the fridge before we cut into it and sampled!

Absolutely no calories in these bars – they all fall out when you cut them! 😉

Chocolate Almond Macaroon Bars

2 cups Oreo cookie crumbs
6 tablespoons butter, melted
6 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
3-3/4 cups coconut
1 cup almond slivers (best if toasted)
1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup whipping cream (we used evaporated milk)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Combine Oreo crumbs, melted butter and sugar in large bowl. Firmly press crumb mixture on bottom of a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Stir together the sweetened condensed milk, coconut, and almonds. Carefully drop the mixture by the spoonful over the crust and spread evenly.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until coconut edges begin to brown. Cool.

Melt chocolate chips and whipping cream in double broiler on the stove. Cool until slightly thickened, spread over cooled bars. Sprinkle with the white chocolate chips.

Cover and refrigerate several hours or until set.

Cut into bars and keep hidden in the back of the refrigerator!

Enjoy!

I’ve linked this post with Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace and Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

Caramel Apple Bars & a Crazy Weekend

It was a really busy weekend.

Our Sunday activities included a church potluck at lunch and a 4H Soup Supper Fundraiser in the evening – with exactly one hour between the two.

That meant that we needed to be totally ready for both on Saturday – which made for a pretty crazy kitchen on Saturday afternoon!

I had Angel Girl, her friend Bethany and Dagmar all assisting. When we ran out of dishes we’ll call Buddy and Pedro to wash a few so we could keep moving.

In one afternoon we made barbecue venison, Grandma’s Cherry Dessert (but with blackberries) a chocolate oatmeal cake, lasagna, bread sticks, homemade caramel sauce, potato soup for 100, and a new creation – some yummy Caramel Apple Bars.

At one point – when I was mentally multiplying potato soup recipes in my head and praying that it would all turn out okay (it did!) – I handed Dagmar 2 different apple bar recipes and told her to make something work.

She did! The end result was an oatmeal crust with a gooey caramel apple filling.

We used homemade caramel sauce – since I forgot to buy caramels when I was shopping that morning – and it worked great!

Caramel Apple Bars

Crust:

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup oatmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional – we didn’t use)

Filling:

4-1/2 cups peeled and chopped baking apples (we used a fat quart of our frozen apples)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 – 14 ounce package caramels
3 tablespoons butter or margarine

Cream together the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add flour, oats, salt and baking soda. Mix well. Stir in pecans.

Set aside 2 cups.

Press remaining oat mixture into the bottom of an ungreased 13 x 9 inch pan.

For filling, toss apples with flour and spoon over the crust.

In a saucepan melt the caramels and butter over low heat and drizzle over the apples.

Top with the remaining oatmeal mixture.

Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cool before cutting into bars.

Enjoy!

I’ve linked this post up with Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace and Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

Chocolate Chip Gingersnaps

While Jan and I were adventuring in Colorado to see Matt, the other four kids held down the fort at home.

Although they can all cook and had a stocked pantry, they lived on frozen pizza, canned soup, and ham sandwiches. 🙂

But then again – they probably didn’t have time to cook. They were much too busy cleaning the entire house, filling Matt’s room with balloons – each with a handwritten message or silly family memory – and baking him these welcome home cookies.

While Matt was in Pagosa Springs he discovered a small coffee house that made the most wonderful chocolate chip gingersnaps.

He raved about these cookies so much – that Dagmar went to work to replicate them for him.

And you know what? They are really good!

So good – they have earned a place on our Christmas cookie plates this year!

Soft inside with a touch of chocolate – they are everything I’m looking for in a cookie!

Chocolate Chip Gingersnaps
(adapted from Two Peas in a Pod)

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup molasses
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 – 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 – 1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 large eggs
3 – 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 – 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips
1 cup granulated sugar-for coating cookie dough balls

Cream together butter and sugar. Add the molasses, canola oil, vanilla, baking soda, salt, and spices. Mix until well combined.

Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until smooth. Slowly add in the flour.

Stir in the mini chocolate chips.

Scoop the dough into balls and roll in granulated sugar. Place on greased baking sheets, about two inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes, the cookies will still be soft.

Remove from oven and let cookies cool on the baking sheet for five minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

Enjoy!

I’ve linked this post up with Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at At the Well.

Caramel Bars

I really should call these “panic bars” because I made them in a panic!

It was about 10:30 in the morning and I realized I had company coming at 1:00 – and that company didn’t like chocolate. (Poor kid.)

All of my favorite go-to quick recipes include chocolate (of course!)

To make matters worse – I was out of butter and margarine.

A quick thumb-through my cookbook collection yielded this recipe – and a quick perusal of the pantry yielded the needed ingredients.

I was back in business!

With just five ingredients – not only were they fast to make – but they were really rich and gooey and yummy!

Caramel Bars

1 package dry yellow cake mix
2 cups quick- cooking oatmeal (uncooked)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1- 12.5 ounce jar caramel ice cream topping

Mix together the cake mix, oatmeal, and brown sugar. Add the oil and egg; mix well. Spread half of batter in to a greased 9 x 13 pan. Press a ridge around the edge; then spread with caramel topping. Sprinkle remaining batter on top. Bake 30 minutes ate 350 degrees.

Enjoy!

I’ve linked this post up with Tempt My Tummy Tuesday over at At the Well and Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.