12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 8-Vanilla Spritz

Here's another great recipe from Robin!

Perfect Vanilla Spritz Cookies

(with a cookie press or decorators bag and tips)

1 cup butter, room temp

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beta in eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and salt.

Add flour, beating until a soft dough forms.  (At this point you can add food coloring if desired)

Pack dough into cookie press or decorators bag and press onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake until golden, about 10-12 min.

Transfer to cooling racks.  Store in an airtight container up to 4 days.

These are a scrumdidliumtious little treat.

Enjoy your day, enjoy your family and happy baking.

Merry Christmas!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 7-Cranberry Orange Cookies

I'm playing a little bit of catch up with the Cookie Countdown.

I found this yummy recipe on Land O' Lakes' site via Bluebird Notes.

Koralee shared these beauties that her daughter made and they look so scrumptious!  I love the striped bakers twine that she used to tie them up, too.  The recipe can be found on the Land O' Lakes site.

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 5 & 6-Cookies from Cash is Chaos

Robin from Cash is Chaos is generously helping me out with the Cookie Countdown and has 2 yummy cookie recipes to share with you all today!  Take it away, Robin!

So today is my very first guest post.  Hope this works out.  I'm a little nervous.  But I am going to help out with the Cookie Countdown and I have decided to do 3 cookie recipes, I will do 2 today and one tomorrow (don't forget that Sunday is family day).  Enjoy the recipes, make sure there is some left for Santa, he will love these.

Recipe 1

Chocolate Banana Cream Pies (sorry for the messy pic, I had to take a quick pic before more little fingers got into them)

4 ripe (or over ripe) bananas, smooshed
1/4 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups four
1/3 cup cocoa

Preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Add egg and vanilla, mix well.  Stir in smooshed bananas.
Slowly add flour, baking soda and cocoa.  Stir until just mixed.
(This is probably sounding quite like a banana bread recipe, and that's cause it's adapted from one)
Your dough should be thicker than a cake dough, but thinner than a drop cookie dough.
Put dough into icing bag, with 1 1/2 inches cut from tip (I used a disposable one, but you can use a sandwich bag if thats what you have on hand). Drop cookies onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  At this point, the cookies should look something like reindeer poop (at least thats what my kids thought it was)

Bake for 10-15 minutes (I know it's not super specific, but everyone's ovens vary)
Let cool completely.

Cream Filling:
1 1/2 cup whipping cream
1 cup (+) icing sugar
sprinkles, tinted sugars to decorate.

In another bowl, on high speed, mix whipping cream and icing sugar to a thick consistency. Feel free at this pint to tint it yourself, or keep it white and roll the entire cookie in sprinkles or tinted sugar.

Once the cookies are cooled, take 2 cookies approximately the same size, and sandwich about 1 teaspoon of cream filling between them.  At this point you could leave it, or you could roll the cookie in sprinkles or tinted sugar.


Recipe 2

Those wonderful looking cookie bars in the middle are one of the easiest and most delicious recipes ever.  Not to date myself, but I have made these for ** years.  They are actually from a kids cookbook that my grandpa gave me when I was 10.  Yes I still have the book, and yes I still use it.  So here they are.

Lemon Slice Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 cup flour

Topping
2 eggs
2 tablespoons Lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon icing sugar

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9x13 baking dish
Beat butter and icing sugar until smooth.  Stir in 1 cup flour, mixing into a smooth dough.  Press evenly into prepared dish. Bake 20 min.  Set aside to cool.

Topping:
Beat eggs well, stir in lemon juice and rind.  Stir in sugar and 2 tablespoons flour and baking powder.  Stir until mixed well.
Pour over cooled base and bake again (at 350) for 25 minutes.
Let cool.  Sift icing sugar over the top and cut into squares.


Hope you all enjoy the post and the recipes.  Until tomorrow, enjoy your day, enjoy your family and happy baking.

Merry Christmas

Blech.

Guys, I'm sick.  Like REALLY sick.  And I'm four days behind on my Cookie Countdown.  If it weren't for the wonderfulness that is post scheduler, I would have had no posts last week.  The little man got sick the day after Thanksgiving and by the following Tuesday, the hubs and I both had it.  It got worse when I woke up Thursday morning to incredible pain in my mouth due to an impacted wisdom tooth (yes, I know, I'm an adult and I still have my wisdom teeth.)  My dentist couldn't get me in until Monday so I had to tough it out all weekend, while still battling a cold, complete with fever.  Top it off, Saturday was the little man's birthday party (he turned 2 yesterday.)  Thank goodness for my awesome in-laws and Mom who helped me SOOO much to get everything ready for that party.

It's now Wednesday, I'm still sick and still in pain.  I wasn't able to get in to see the oral surgeon until this coming Monday.  

So, I'm asking for your help.  I want to finish out this year's Cookie Countdown, but I just don't have the time and energy right now to do everything.  I'm looking for recipes-you can either link them up to the linky party, or you can share them as a guest blogger (just email me and let me know you're interested.)  I don't want to leave you all with nothing but I really need your help.  

And I'll need it even more in the weeks to come.  Next week is going to be so busy!  I have my surgery, my anniversary, the hubs' work party and on top of all of this, we are in the middle of moving to a new house, which means things need to be packed.  And I still need to finish up Christmas stuff!

So, if you'd like to help me out and guest blog, I'd be much obliged.  

Thank you all and thanks for being so understanding!!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 4-Caramel Marshmallow Treats

Today's recipe is from the linky party.  Link up your Christmas cookie recipes and you, too, could be featured!

Emily from Jan Dee Crafts linked up her Caramel Marshmallow Treats.

Don't these look scrumptious?!  Head on over to Jan Dee Crafts to find the recipe and 

 while you're there, take a look around.  Emily has a ton of other cute ideas and projects!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 3-Eggnog Cookies

I found today's recipe over at Baby Center (of all places) and it sounds absolutely delicious.  Unfortunately, there weren't any pictures of it, so if you give it a try, please send me a pic of the finished product-I'd love to show you off.

Eggnog Cookies

Cookies:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups white sugar
3/4 cup eggnog
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg yolks

Icing:
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons eggnog
Optional: 1 to 2 teaspoons of spiced rum or rum extract

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Cream sugar and butter until light. Add eggnog, vanilla, and egg yolks; beat at medium speed with mixer until smooth. Add flour mixture and beat at low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet 1 inch apart. (If consistency is hard to work with, cool dough first in refrigerator.) Bake 16 to 24 minutes or until edges start turning light brown. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

To prepare the icing, put the confectioners' sugar in a small bowl. Stir in the remaining eggnog one tablespoon at a time (and the rum or rum extract, if opted for) until the desired consistency is reached. Spread onto cooled cookies and sprinkle tops very lightly -- adding too much will overpower the taste -- with nutmeg.

Let icing harden. Serve and enjoy!  Makes 36 large or 50 medium-sized cookies.

Yum!

The link party is up and running, so stop by and link your cookies up!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 2-Gifts in a Jar

Today's cookie recipe is a bit out-of-the-box.  Even though it's in a jar.

I love making gifts in a jar for presents and they're equally fun to receive.  I made these ones as gifts last year.  Here are a couple great places to find cookies in a jar instructions with recipes:

Double Chocolate Cookies-Chocablog

Holiday Cookies in a Jar-Family Fun

Cowgirl Cookies-Bakerella

Butterscotch Pecan Cookies-Domino Sugar

Gramma Cookies-Purple Lemon Designs

Gifts in a Jar-Craft Bits (there are a ton of recipes on this site!)

And of course, you don't have to keep these in the jar.  You can go ahead and bake up a batch and skip the jar step all together!

Don't forget to link up your cookie recipes!

2nd Annual 12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown!

It's that time again!

If you ask my father, Christmas doesn't really come unless there's cookies (specifically cut-out sugar cookies, but you get the idea.)  To get the holiday spirit started, I like to share yummy Christmas cookie recipes with you all.  I started it last year when my blog was a baby (which reminds me-I totally spaced on my blogiversary last month!  So happy belated birthday, blog!)

I've decided to make it a tradition.  So, here it is again!

And I'm mixing it up a bit this year.  There's a linky party that will be going on and I'll be sharing and showing off your wonderful recipes so everyone can get in on the fun.  Grab the button and add it to your post if you link up so others can join in on the party, pretty please!

Without further ado, here's today's cookies:

Who loves buckeyes?  I do!  

Christmas Cookies.com has a great recipe for this holiday favorite that's easy to make.  Head on over and check it out.  I think this would be a great one to do with the kiddos.

Don't forget to link up your Christmas cookie recipes!