Almond oreo balls

Oreo balls are delicious and incredibly easy. If you don’t mind the calories (which I didn’t look up, thank you), they’re the best holiday treat that will be your  New Year’s resolution motivation. And they are made in four simple steps. So incredible easy; it’s one of those bites that tastes so good it really isn’t fair. But that’s what baking during the holidays is all about! And for a cookie swap, use dark chocolate almond bark, sprinkle crumbs on top and call it a lump of coal. Perfectly easy and no oven needed!

Almond oreo balls

1 package of oreos
1 package of cream cheese
1 package of almond bark (whatever flavor; I used white chocolate and dark chocolate)

Step 1:

With a food processor, finely chop up the entire package of oreos. Set aside 1/4 cup of oreo crumbs as garnish.

Step 2:

Blend in a room temperature package of cream cheese. This will take considerable time and patience blending in a large bowl, but it’s important that the mixture is well blended. Let chill for 30 minutes.

Step 3:

Form oreo mixture into 24 1-inch balls and place on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Allow to set for one hour.

Step 4:

Melt almond bark in microwave (about 2 minutes, mixing almond bark every thirty seconds). With two forks, dip oreo balls in almond bark and cover completely. Set on parchment paper and let set in fridge completely (about 1 hour). Optional: when almond bark is freshly applied, sprinkle oreo crumbs on top as a garnish.

Happy dipping!

Reindeer cookies

I love to pretend that I’m a Southern belle; that all I do is lunch with ladies, be glamorous and bake adorable little treats for my neighbors and handsome beau. Well, I do bake for my handsome beau most of the time, but I made these reindeer cookies for a cookie swap I organized at work with about half a dozen co-workers. They were adorable and time consuming, but not really complicated. I would recommend freezing the cookie dough for an hour to make it more manageable, but the cookies’ taste is always more important than the shape of the reindeers’ noses, right? At least that’s what I tell myself.

Merry Christmas from Sprinkles & Sugar! I hope these adorable little cookies help make your season and cookie swap merry and bright.

Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies

3/4 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 egg
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
Chocolate-colored mini pretzels
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
40 regular-sized M&Ms

Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine brown sugar, peanut butter, shortening, milk, and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until well blended. Add egg; beat until just blended. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended. Form dough into 1-inch balls. To make reindeer-shaped cookies, pinch the bottom of the ball slightly to form a point, then gently flatten with your hand. Space cookies about 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 7 to 8 minutes, until set or just beginning to brown.

Remove from oven and immediately and delicately press two mini pretzels into the tops of the cookies for the reindeer’s antlers. Press two mini chocolate chips in for the eyes and one red or brown M&M for the nose. Allow to cool 2 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack or paper towel to cool completely. Yields about three dozen reindeer cookies.

 

Marathon Cookies

Photo by L.G. Patterson

The first time I made marathon cookies was when my good friend Derek had just finished the St. Jude’s Marathon in Memphis. He was completed exhausted, of course, but wanted me to bake him something. I was happy to oblige since he ran for such a good cause (St. Jude’s is one of my family’s favorite charities), but I didn’t quite know what to do. I wanted a sweet, crunchy but still protein-rich cookie to help him recover with a smile. Thus, marathon cookies were born.

I think you’ll enjoy these easy, after-school cookies as much as Derek did. Maybe even more.

Yum.

Marathon Cookies
Yields about 3 dozen large cookies

The chocolate and walnut combination in these delicious cookies will satisfy any crunchy craving.

2½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup margarine
½ cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
¾ cup chopped walnuts
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda in a small bowl. Cream together margarine and butter in a large bowl, and then add sugars. Blend well; beat in eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients to mixture. Slowly add chocolate chips and walnuts. Form into 1-inch balls (about a tablespoon of dough), evenly spaced on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool slightly for 2 minutes, then cool completely on a cookie rack.

Walnuts pack a punch in these snacks — high in protein, minerals, vitamin e, antioxidants and omega-3s.

[Originally posted here]

Brownie Pillow Cookies

Kelsey, my little “sister” (as in the younger friend, mentee sense)  and fellow baker, showed me a Pillow Cookie on Pinterest and I fell in love with not only the idea but the challenge of the recipe. It’s a pretty impressive idea, a baked good within a baked good, but it’s one of the few things that I literally could not stop eating. The cookies are massive, simply massive, so only one cookie per serving should do you right. Make sure you leave plenty of time for this project, though – start to finish, it took me about 90 minutes. And I take no credit for this recipe – it’s all Bakerella. Bless you, dear. Thank you for this gem of an idea.

Brownie Pillow Cookies

1 package brownie mix

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 oz. bag miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Make brownies according to the package’s directions. Cool completely, and cut into one inch squares. You’ll only use about a quarter of the brownies, so find something else to do with them (I suggest your neighbors). For the chocolate chip cookie dough, beat butter until creamy. Add brown sugar, and beat until smooth. Add eggs, yolk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Combine flour, baking powder, soda and salt in a medium bowl with a fork. Add flour to butter mixture and beat until combined. Stir in mini chips. Let dough chill for at least an hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

It’s easiest to do this part with parchment paper. Scoop about 1/2 cup of cookie dough out onto the paper. Push down with your thumb an indentation, place a brownie in the indentation  and surrounding it with cookie dough. You can do this by shaping the dough around it with your hands. Place six cookies onto a large cookie sheet, baking for 18 minutes. While they bake, place the dough back in the refrigerator. Cool for four minutes on the sheet, then about 5 minutes on the wire rack until they set completely. Yield about 10.

Ooey Gooey Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

My step grandfather has always been a fan of chocolate, almost obsessed with it, so when I was going up to my grandmother’s house last weekend for her birthday I decided I’d contribute by trying out a new gooey chocolate chip recipe from AllRecipes.com. It was pretty good, but a little too chocolatey for my family’s taste, so I left the plate behind the next day, but was still good with a bowl of ice cream.

Ooey Gooey Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt with a fork; set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes (this is how long the recipe calls for, but it actually ended up being around 22 minutes in my oven) in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Catch-a-man 3-Chip Cookies

My girlfriends Ellen and Lindsey came over last night to watch the Bachelor with me, and we’re in love with it! Lindsey wanted to make monster cookies, so we altered a recipe that I already have of Catch-a-man 3 chip cookies and used a cupcake 1″ baking scoop to make these huge, delicious cookies. They were appropriate for the Bachelor – this recipe is one that you, according to the superstition around my family with it, give to a man that you have maybe a crush on. And I kind of have a crush on Brad Womack, not going to lie.

Catch-a-man 3-chip cookies

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups (three sticks) butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cpu brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup premier white chocolate morsels
• optional: 1 cup chopped nuts

Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and, if you wish, nuts. Drop dough by 1/4 cup measuring cup or a 1″ baking scoop 2 inches (or three fingers) apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees. Yields about two dozen cookies.

What I love about this recipe is that you can mix and match how much you want of milk chocolate if you want a creamier cookie or a more bitter with more semi-sweet morsels. For example, I had about 1 cup of white chocolate chips and about 1/2 cup of semi-sweet and milk chocolate morsels because I’m obsessed with white chocolate right now. Delicious! I’m going to be baking a lot today because I’m snowed in, so look forward to more posts.

A touch of Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

A new twist on my great grandmother’s peanut butter cookie recipe. I’m baking for the annual Chili Cook Off auction for my church as my last act back home in Springfield for Winter Break, and I volunteered to bake wacky cake cupcakes (see post below) and some kind of cookie. I hadn’t made my great grandma’s peanut butter recipe in a long, long time, and I absolutely adore it. Why? The peanut butter in the recipe doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the flavors; it just has a hint of that goodness that I love so much.

Peanut butter has a bit of salt for a cookie, so I decided to have my mom purchase some semi sweet chocolate chips to put in this recipe. The combination is so delicious. I hope you enjoy it!

A Bit of Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten slightly
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 2 tsp vanilla

Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda. Cream together both oleo (margarine and butter) and peanut butter, then add sugars. Blend well, beat in eggs and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder and baking soda mixture. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, cook 8-10 minutes. Yields about three dozen large cookies.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

Every year for a long, long time, I have been making my great-grandma Frink’s sugar cookie recipe with my mom. As I’ve gotten older and my mother has expressed over and over again how much she hates to bake, I’ve appeased her and started baking them on my own. I love this recipe and have made it a holiday tradition, and I hope you cook with your family as much as I do.

Sugar Cookies

• 1 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Combine. Place in the, as my great grandma Frink has on her original recipe card, icebox for 30-45 minutes or until chilled. Bake 5 to 8 minutes at 425 degrees. Yields three to four dozen. For my own personal touch, I sprinkle sugar over the cookies to make them a little sweeter. I also used my great grandmother’s cookie cutters, rolling out the dough in flour and cutting them out. Green sprinkles always make them a bit more festive.

Oh, and I’m way behind in my blog posts; I’ll be adding several more this week.