Showing posts with label Cookies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cookies. Show all posts

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Baking: Frosted Easter Sugar Cookies

Last year I found the PERFECT sugar cookie recipe.
I found it on Happy Homemaker Cindy's Blog.  Click HERE for her blog about the cookies.

I've made them dozens of times and they always turn out perfectly. They are super soft sugar cookies, perfect for cutting out in shapes with cookie cutters or simply frosting them.

This year I made these CUTE bunny cookies for KidMo's preschool class.





Here is the recipe from Happy Homemaker Cindy's site along with her directions.


Cream Cheese Cut-out Cookies
  • 1 Cup Butter Softened
  • 8 oz Cream Cheese Softened
  • 1 1/2 Cup Sugar
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 tsp. Vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp. Almond Extract
  • 3 1/2 Cups Flour
  • 1 tsp. Baking Powder
  • 1 Tub Vanilla or Cream Cheese Frosting
  • Food Coloring (If you would like to make the Frosting different colors.)
  • Sprinkles
In a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese until well combined. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add egg, vanilla and almond extract and beat well. In a small bowl combine flour and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to ream cheese mixture. Beat until well mixed. Divide dough in half. Wrap each portion in plastic wrap and refrigerate until easy to handle – about 1 1/2 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out  1/4 ” think (I make mine pretty thick) on a lightly floured surface. Using cookie cutters, cut out and place 2″ apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 13 minutes depending on how thick you made the cookies or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire rack. Allow to cool completely. Ice the cookies with frosting and decorate with sprinkles.

MoMomma Tips:
-I purchased a cute bunny cookie cutter from Ross and it was a breeze to make these cookies. 
-Roll out your dough in between two pieces of parchment paper. Then, peel the top piece off and use your cookie cutter to make the desired shapes.  Peel away the excess dough and put the parchment paper on the cookie sheet.
-For 'dressing up' these cookies I used the frosting recipe below. I also used a smarties candy for the eye and a marshmallow for the tail

This is the frosting recipe I used for the bunny frosting:
Butter Frosting

4 Tablespoons butter
2 1/3 cup powdered sugar
milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
for chocolate frosting add 3 Tablespoons cocoa

Put butter in bowl and beat with electric mixer until fluffy. Then add about half the powdered sugar. Then beat in 1 Tablespoon milk and the vanilla. Slowly add in the rest of the powdered sugar. Add more milk if needed. Add food coloring if desired. 

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Dinner: Chicken Pot Pie & Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

For tonight's Dinner adventure we had homemade Chicken Pot Pie.

I promise you once you make it from scratch you will never want to eat one of those frozen meals again! This one is SO easy!

Click HERE for the recipe, or read below for the exact steps I took.
(PS- If you have a box of Bisquick - it's on the back of the box!)

For the pot-pie mixture:
1/2 bag frozen Peas & Carrots mixture (thawed)
1 Can Cream of Chicken Campbell's soup
1-2 cups cut up cooked Chicken (ours was from the previous night's recipe leftovers!)
1 cup milk

For the crust topping:
1 Cup Bisquick
1/2 Cup milk
1 Egg

Step 1: Place pot pie mixture in bottom of pie plate or similar 9 inch size baking plate.
Step 2: In separate bowl, mix three ingredients for crust topping until combined. Then, pour over pot pie mixture
Step 3: Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes uncovered.




THE FEEDBACK: 10 out of 10 - WOHOO!

KID FEEDBACK: 2 out of 10
We had to fight with "Kid-MO" a little to eat his dinner. He did like the Bisquick topping as well as the chicken inside. He didn't appreciate the "sauce" or the veggies that were touching his meat (he's four - what do you expect). We got him to to try it, and he ate enough to get full. That is success for us!

ESTIMATED COST OF DINNER: $2.00
$1.00 Cream of Chicken
.25 Chicken (leftovers)
.50 Frozen veggies- 1/2 bag
.25 Bisquick, eggs, milk

For Desert: Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

This Cookie recipe came out of the 101 Gourmet Cookies Cookbook.
I got this for Christmas. Yummy cookie ideas!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 4oz package vanilla pudding (mine was 3.5 oz and worked fine)
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/4 cups flour
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Cream butter and sugars together
3. Add vanilla and eggs along with pudding mix
4. In separate bowl, mix together baking soda and flour
5. Slowly add in flour mixture until well combined
6. Drop small 1 inch balls of cookie dough onto cookie sheets
7. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes until edges are just browned.

Enjoy!

THE FEEDBACK: 10 out of 10 - for sure.
The cookies were really yummy. The pudding makes them a little softer and sweeter than a normal chocolate chip cookie (which is fine by me - Bring on the sweet!).

Here is a photo of the Cookbook. I highly recommend it.
The yummy Cupcake to the left is my cookie jar :) SO cute.