Peanut Butter Cookies

These are pretty much the easiest peanut butter cookies ever.  My Grandmother's recipe. Makes about 3 dozen if you do 1 inch balls. 

Preheat to 350

1 cup white sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla

Few tsp of flour for fork. 

Mix ingredients with hands until combined.  Roll into in inch balls and put on cookie sheet a few inches apart. Flatten with floured fork (make criss cross pattern). Bake 10-12 min. 

Chocolate cookies

I am in a Christmas cookie exchange tomorrow, so I decided on 3 varieties of cookies, all chocolate. Now they are all cooling and I'm resisting (somewhat successfully) the urge to eat them myself.

First up were my favorite from last Christmas, the Chocolate Mint Cookies I found on allrecipes. Only thing I add to the batter is 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/4 tsp mint extract. Then I use 1/2 an andies mint on top of each instead of whatever the mint was they wanted you to hunt down. Andies mints are easy to find.

While the batter for those was chilling, I made the fudgey bon-bon cookie recipe; I used the new dark chocolate Hershey kisses this year, and they're good :)

Fudgey bon-bons
(recipe says 60 cookies but I don't get that many)

ingredients:
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup butter
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
60 Hershey's kisses (your favorite flavor)
2 oz chocolate
1 tsp shortening
sprinkles/decors (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. In double boiler combine chips and butter; cook and stir over very low heat until chips and butter are melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Add sweetened condensed milk, mix well. Stir in vanilla. In medium bowl add flour then pour over chocolate. Mix well. Shape 1 tablespoon of dough around each kiss, covering completely. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 6-8 minutes. Cookies will be soft and may appear shiny, but will firm up as they cool. DO NOT OVERBAKE. Remove cookies from cookie sheet and let them cool completely. Melt chocolate and shortening in microwave. Place cookies on wax paper, drizzle chocolate over cookies and add sprinkles. Store tightly covered.

Next I made the cookie dough for the brownie cups I found on the mint Hershey kisses bag (yes I have more than one kind of Hershey kisses in my house, don't judge).

Mint Capped Brownie Cookie Cups
(4 dozen)
48 Hershey Kisses mint truffles wrapped in dark chocolate
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup Hershey special dark cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
(powdered sugar optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Line 48 mini muffin cups with paper or foil baking cups. Remove kisses from wrappers. Beat butter, sugar, water, and vanilla on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, beat well. Sift together flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda. Gradually add to sugar mixture, beating on low speed until just blended. Refrigerate dough until firm enough to handle. Shape dough into 1 inch balls, place in prepared muffin cups. Bake 11-13 minutes or until cookie surface is set. Cookies will appear soft and moist. Do not overbake. Cool about 5 minutes on wire rack, then press one kiss into center of each cookie cup. Cool completely. Sprinkle each cookie with powdered sugar if desired.

bar cookies

Today I'm in a baking mood and since we're going on a walk in a park with a big group tomorrow I can bake a few things and not have to eat them all myself :)

First up are these strawberry cheesecake bars from Betty Crocker, I had some strawberries, cream cheese, and a sugar cookie mix to use up and so this recipe worked out perfectly. Didn't change anything about that, except instead of using "fruit spread" I made my own strawberry topping of sorts. I got the original recipe from a diabetic cooking site but I changed a lot so I'll just post what I did ;)

strawberry topping:

1 tsp corn starch
1/4 cup Orange Juice
1 cup Mashed OR Pureed Fresh Strawberries
couple of tsp of sugar
1 tbsp Orange Peel Slivers
1/4 tsp Coriander

I poured the orange juice into a sauce pan then sprinkled the corn starch over top and stirred to combine. Then added the remaining ingredients and stirred on the stove over medium heat. Let it come to a boil and simmered it for awhile until it thickened up. Then I let it cool pretty much completely. It made just about 3/4 cup of topping from my one standard package of berries (less a few my 2 year old berry thief stole). Smells a little orange-y from the juice/peel but that should still be good with the cheesecake. May help counteract the sweetness of the sugar cookie crust.

I texted my sister if she had any requests for tomorrow and she wanted me to make my oatmeal jam squares so here's the recipe for that too. Really easy and pretty good :) and since it involves oats you can pretend its good for you.

Oatmeal Jam Squares

2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup melted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 jam (I like seedless raspberry for these)

Preheat oven to 375, treat a 9x13 with cooking spray.

Mix everything except the jam together in a bowl (I just use a spatula, don't need a mixer). Separate 2 cups of the mixture and press the rest into the pan.

Spread the jam over top so its as even as possible. If you have thick jam you may need to warm it a little in the microwave to make it spread better.

Sprinkle the rest of the oat mixture over top of the jam. Bake 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Cool completely, cut into bars.

Amazing snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles
They were great! I didn't change a thing. I have to keep myself from eating them all.

giant peanut butter cup cookies

Making these for the party...
They smell really evil ;)Hersheys Giant Peanut Butter Cup cookies

Oatmeal Raisin cookies

Also found on the inside of the lid of your standard tube of Quaker Oats, but in case you buy another brand of oats or something...oh and Sunmaid raisins sells a "baking" raisin that is pretty good... and make sure you use real butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla or you need not bake IMO. ;) These are also the cookies Nate (my now husband's roommate) devoured in a day in college ;) got this off of the quaker website awhile ago to send to someone.

vanishing oatmeal raisin cookies

ingredients
1/2 pound (2 sticks) margarine or butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup raisins preparation

1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.

2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Servings: ABOUT 4 DOZEN

variations

Bar Cookies: Press dough onto bottom of ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. Store tightly covered,24 BARS

VARIATIONS: Stir in 1 cup chopped nuts. Substitute 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or candy-coated chocolate pieces for raisins; omit cinnamon. Substitute 1 cup diced dried mixed fruit.

HIGH ALTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Increase flour to 1-3/4 cups and bake as directed.