Nutella Chip Cookies

Apparently today is World Nutella Day.
Forget Valentine’s and President’s Day, we need more holidays like this.
Because Nutella really is something to celebrate.

Nutella Chip Cookies
Adapted from Culinary Concoctions, via Erin's Food FilesMakes about 4 dozen cookies.
Ingredients:

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup Nutella or other hazelnut chocolate spread

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream butter with an electric mixer about 1 minute until smooth. Add in both sugars. Beat on high speed about 3 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
With the mixer on low, add the egg and vanilla. Then add Nutella and mix until well combined.
In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, and mix on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and mix just until the dough is smooth. Fold in chocolate chips.
Using a small ice cream scoop (or a teaspoon), form the dough into balls and place on parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake 6-7 minutes or until set. Let cookies cool about 5 minutes and transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Oreo Cookies

1 package of Devils Food Cake

1/3 cup oil

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350. Mix ingredients, roll into balls onto cookie sheet. Cook for 8 minutes

Frosting- You make your own cream cheese frosting or you can cheat like me and buy it already made :)

Peanut Noodles with Vegetables

Peanut Noodles with Vegetables
source: Eating Well
Yields 4 servings

Ingredients

1/2 cup smooth natural peanut butter
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons chile-garlic sauce, or to taste
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
8 ounces whole-wheat spaghetti
1 12-16 oz bag frozen vegetable stir-fry medley, such as carrots, broccoli, snow peas
Preparation

Put a large pot of water on to boil for cooking pasta.
Whisk peanut butter, soy sauce, garlic, chile-garlic sauce and ginger in a large bowl.
Cook pasta in the boiling water until not quite tender, about 1 minute less than specified in the package directions. Add vegetables and cook until the pasta and vegetables are just tender, 1 minute more. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Rinse the pasta and vegetables with cool water to refresh. Stir the reserved cooking liquid into the peanut sauce; add the pasta, vegetables and chicken; toss well to coat. Serve warm or chilled.

Oreo Truffles

For some reason I had it in my mind that truffles were hard to make. I was wrong, they are so easy! Enjoy

Oreo Truffles
from Kristy Denney

1 package (18 oz.) Oreo cookies (or Nutter Butters), crushed into small pieces
1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
White or Chocolate melts for dipping

Mix crushed Oreos and cream cheese until well-combined. Either use a food processor or a ziplock and blend with your hands (a lot harder but all I had). Roll into 1-inch balls and place on baking sheet or tray. Refrigerate until firm, 3-4 hours (or stick in the freezer for about an hour). Using 2 forks (or a spoon, but forks always work better for me), dip Oreo balls into chocolate coating and place onto waxed paper to harden. Chill and serve cold or room temperature. Makes about 30 truffles.

Cream Cheese Filled Cookies

Cookies:
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-3/4 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling:
1 8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla


Topping:
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips melted

Directions
In a large bowl, cream the butter, shortening and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla.


Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Refrigerate at least 2 hrs.


Unwrap and cut into 1-in. slices. Place 1 in. apart on greased baking sheet.


Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.


Immediately make an indentation in the center of each cookie using the end of a wooden spoon handle.

Combine the filling ingredients in mixing bowl and beat on medium until smooth

Place 2 teaspoonfuls in the center of each cookie

In a microwave, melt chocolate chips over 50% power in 30 second increments until smooth.


Drizzle over cookies. (I used a ziplock)
Store in the refrigerator.

Bacon Pinwheels

I am all about quick, easy and good tasting food and this recipe is just that! I made these for our New Years Party but they would be great anytime- a snack, Baby or Wedding Shower or Super Bowl Party! Give them a try! You will need to double or triple this recipe because they go quick!

Bacon Pinwheels

From Our Best Bites Blog

1 tube of crescent roll dough

2 ounces cream cheese

5-ish bacon slices, fried and chopped

Bunch of green onions, chopped (optional – I left these out and they were still amazing!)

Handful or two of cheddar cheese

Sprinkling of garlic salt

Unroll the crescent roll dough and smoosh together all the seams. Roll it out with the rolling pin to flatten it a bit. Spread with 2 ounces of softened cream cheese, right out to the very edges. Sprinkle with garlic salt. Sprinkle on the cheese and bacon (and green onion, if using) as evenly as possible. Roll it up from long end to long end. Slice into 1/2 to 1 inch (ish) slices and place on a baking sheet. Bake as directed on the crescent roll package.

Easy Hot Fudge Sauce

This sauce was beyond delicious, cheap and so easy!! I found 4 containers with lids at Walmart for only $3.65

3oz semi-sweet chocolate* (3 squares of baking chocolate, or about 1/2 C chocolate chips

1/4 C butter (that's a half of a stick folks. Admit it, at least one of you didn't know that)

1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk

*I wouldn't use milk chocolate for this, it's way too sweet, however both dark and bittersweet are awesome

1. If you're using baking squares, chop them up into small pieces so they melt easier. I chop the butter up into small chunks too.


2. Put it in a pan on medium heat and melt it all together till it's smooth, creamy, and just looking at it gives you happy thoughts.

3. If you have leftovers (but let's be honest, you'll have to quadruple the recipe to have leftovers) then put it in an airtight container in the fridge. It will harden into a soft, gooey fudge like consistency. Then keep a spoon handy on the counter and dip it in every time you pass by.

Holiday Neighbor gift ideas

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

I made these for my friends and they loved them. Also I found the sticks at Smiths.

1) Tasty as homemade caramel is, it's too thick, rich, and chewy to work on pretzels. You wind up with a mouthful of stickiness that's too hard to eat. Just buy a bag of Kraft caramels and don't beat yourself up about it. Also, homemade caramel is too thick on the pretzels. And they kept snapping in half after the caramel hardened. It just did not work for me on so many levels.


2) The cinnamon sugar, while great in theory, was too sweet on the pretzels. Also, it wasn't very pretty. I've toyed with the idea of mixing cinnamon (no sugar) in with the white chocolate before drizzling it on the pretzels. Someone do me a favor and try that and let me know how it goes! :)


3) You can do this however the heck you want. Try caramel. Chocolate. White chocolate. Sprinkles. Crushed candy canes. Get creative and festive and have fun!


This isn't so much a recipe as it is an idea, so I'll just give you some helpful tips I've discovered along the way.


--Walmart pretzel rods are the worst. I guarantee, at least 1/2 the bag will be broken when you buy it. Rold Gold pretzels look pretty in the bag, but the snappage factor is pretty high. I actually have found that Kroger pretzels are perfect for dipping! Who knew...


--If dipping in chocolate, melt 1 c. chocolate chips (or white chocolate chips) with 1-2 tsp. SHORTENING or vegetable oil (never, ever butter or olive oil; it will end in disaster) in the microwave, stirring at 30 second intervals. For drizzling, dip a fork in melted chocolate and drizzle as desired. Almond bark and Chocolate bark works great too.


--Keep the layers thin. It's tempting to load those puppies up, but pretzels are pretty fragile and you still want to be able to taste the pretzel underneath everything else.


--You want to dip the base layer about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way down the pretzel. To make any dipping easy, you can either melt the chocolate (or caramel...or whatever) on the stove top and transfer it to a mug or just melt it directly in the mug in the microwave. Then you can hold the pretzel in one hand and the mug handle in the other and maneuver it however you need to to coat the pretzel.

--After dipping, allow the excess to drip back into the mug. You can also roll the pretzel rod between your hands to spin the excess back into the mug.

--Try to be patient and let the layers cool completely before dipping or drizzling. This is especially important if you're using two different kinds of chocolate. Otherwise, they'll melt right into each other and that ain't pretty.



After these had completely hardened, I placed them in cellophane treat bags and tied each one with holiday ribbon (9" of ribbon each, if you're super curious) and delivered the lot in a holiday gift bag.

Magic in the middle Cookies

Ingredients:


1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar-packed
1/2 cup unsalted butter-softened

1/4 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a small bowl, blend flour, cocoa, and baking soda



3. In a large bowl beat white sugar, brown sugar, butter and 1/4 cup peanut butter, until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg, beat until blended. Stir in flour mixture until blended. Set aside.

4. Make the filling by combining the confectioners’ sugar and 3/4 cup peanut butter. Beat well with electric mixer until mixture comes together.

5. Roll filling into 30 1 inch balls. Form exterior part of cookie by sectioning dough into approximately 1 tablespoon pieces. Form exterior part of cookie around filling and cover completely. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with a glass dipped in sugar.


6. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-9 minutes. (I baked mine for 7 minutes) Allow to cool on cookie sheet for 10 minutes then remove to a cooling rack and cool completely.

Orange Cookies

I halved the recipe and it was the perfect amount of cookies

5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons orange zest
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup orange juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and stir with a whisk to combine.

Combine buttermilk and orange juice in a 2-cup measuring cup.

Cream the butter and sugar, and zest in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape the bowl as needed.

Alternate adding the flour and buttermilk mixtures starting and ending with the flour mixture. Drop by tablespoons or by a cookie scoop onto a cookie sheet lined with a Silpat mat or parchment paper (dough will be very wet). Bake for 10 minutes or until the bottoms are just beginning to brown. Do not overbake!Cool completely before topping with orange icing (recipe follows).

Orange Icing
3 tablespoons butter, softened
3 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar (1 pound box)
4 to 5 tablespoons orange juice (approximately)
1 1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange peel
a pinch of salt

Cream butter, orange zest and salt in a bowl with an electric stand or hand mixer. Add sugar gradually, alternating with enough orange juice to make frosting the right consistency for spreading. Makes 4-5 dozen.