Churro Cheesecake Cookies

At Scott's work they do a cookie bake-off, and Scott's favorite cookie from this year were these. So he asked his co-worker for the recipe, and now I get the pleasure of trying them for myself at home too! And they are delicious! A little fiddle to make because they are a filled cookie, but worth the effort.

Churro Cheesecake Cookies

Ingredients: (makes about 3 dozen small cookies)

Cheesecake Center-

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 4 Tbl. powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Cookie Base-

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 2 tsp. vanilla

Cinnamon Sugar Exterior- (combine these together in a small bowl)

• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 cup sugar

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Filling-

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla with a hand-mixer until smooth and creamy.
2. Portion out 1 tsp.-sized dollops onto a lined cookie sheet and freeze for 20-30 minutes. Make 36 dollops.
• I like to use my 1 tsp. cookie scoop for this.

Cookie Base-

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flout, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of stand-mixer, cream together butter, sugar, and brown sugar until smooth, fluffy, and the mixture has lightened in color (about 3-5 minutes beating on medium speed).
3. Add egg and vanilla to the creamed sugars and blend until just combined. 
4. A third at a time, combine your flour mixture into the creamed sugars just until the flour is mostly combined. Once your last portion of flour has been added, only mix the dough until a smooth, pliable dough forms.

Assembly-

1. Portion out your cookie dough into 1 tbl. portions. Make 36 portions, twelve per lined cookie sheet for a total of three trays.
• Dough can dry out as it sits on the trays waiting to be formed into the stuffed cookies, so cover your tray with plastic wrap or a towel to keep dough moist. Dry dough gets crumbly and can be harder to form around the cheesecake filling.
2. Roll each dough portion into a ball and flatten into a disc. Working one tray at a time, add a frozen portion of cream cheese to each dough disc, putting the rest of the cream cheese back into the freezer until needed.
• It is important to keep the cream cheese mixture frozen so it is easier to work with.
3. Fold the dough disc around the cream cheese to cover and roll back into a ball.
4. Once all the cream cheese portions have been covered in dough and rolled back into balls, roll each ball around in the cinnamon sugar mixture until evenly coated. 
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes, or until edges are set and tops appear puffed without browning.
6. Allow cookies to rest on the hot trays for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Marsha's Notes:

Here are some pictures of the process.

Cream cheese filling portioned with my cookie scoop and ready to freeze.

Dough balls portioned with my Tbl cookie scoop, then flattened out and ready for cream cheese dollops.

Cream cheese added.

Cream cheese is now encased in the middle of the dough balls.

Rolled in cinnamon sugar.

Just out of the oven with domed tops that will fall when cooling.

All done.

2 Ingredient Pumpkin Cookies

This is seriously the easiest recipe for making pumpkin cookies. You can pull them together in as little as two ingredients, but I also like to add chocolate chips, making them more like three ingredients. While my family doesn't like them as much as my homemade pumpkin cookies, they are a decent second place, especially for the amount of work they save you. Top with optional frosting. And for what ever strange reason, we always prefer our pumpkin cookies served cold from the fridge. William jokingly refers to them as, "having a cold one."

2 Ingredient Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 box spiced cake mix
• 1 15 oz can pumpkin puree

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together pumpkin and cake mix.
3. Portion out into desired size and bake until the cookies begin to just barely brown, about 13-15 minutes. Makes approximately 16 cookies if using a 2 inch cookie scoop.
4. Halfway through baking, press down slightly on the cooking cookies to spread them out slightly. You must wait until the top of the cookie has formed a crust before you try to push them down.

Marsha's Notes:

As mentioned above, I like to add some chocolate chips to my cookies, and, for the sake of ease, will frost them with canned cream cheese frosting.

These cookies were portioned out with my (current) largest cookie scoop, I believe it's a two-inch scoop. The dough is really wet, so I did not try to flatten the cookie balls at all.

Halfway through the baking time, once the cookie had developed a slight crust on top, I lightly pressed them down just slightly to encourage a wider, flatter cookie that what was achieved by the cookie scoop.

These cookies I tried to flatten when the dough was completely raw before baking, and as you can see, they don't have as nice of an appearance as the above cookies, and instead of being domed they are more concave.

As you can see in this cross-section, they are a nice dense, moist cookie. They are a bit lighter and fluffier than my other pumpkin cookie recipe, which some might find a more desirable texture, but we really like my traditional recipe that makes a denser and more fudgy cookie.

Meringue

As part of the rewards for the boys' summer chores, I let them pick a meal for me to make for dinner. This year, Lucas picked a dessert that had baked meringue pieces. I have never made meringue before, and if I ever need to do it again, I would like to document what I learned from trial and error during this process so I will be better equipped next time. I think after my third batch, I had about mastered my meringue. For this particular recipe, I was taking the finished (purple) meringue and baking it, but I think all of these tips and tricks will mostly apply to a non-cooked meringue as well (such as a meringue on top of a lemon pie) but may require the use of a double-boiler to cook the eggs for safe eating.

Meringue

Ingredients:

• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup powdered sugar or superfine castor sugar (regular sugar pulsed in a blender works too)
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Mix your sugar and cream of tartar together, set aside.
2. Beat your egg whites at medium-high to high speed until foamy with the wire whisk attachment.
3. Once foamy, begin to to slowly incorporate your sugar mixture over the course of about a minute with the mixture on high.
4. Beat your egg mixture on high speed until you achieve glossy stiff peaks. Once the meringue starts to get glossy, you can check to see if it's done by removing the bowl from the mixer, swirling your wire whisk through the meringue and then pull the whisk out and flip it upside down to check for a nice peak on the end of your whisk.
5. Add any extracts, flavorings or food coloring at this stage and whip just until combined.
6. Once the meringue reaches your desired consistency, place into a piping bag. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a non-stick mat and pipe into your desired shapes. Alternatively, spoon the entire thing into a nest-like pile in the middle of the baking sheet for a pavlova.
7. Bake at 210 degrees for 90 minutes (or more or less), depending on the end result you are going for and how thick your meringue creations are. The rule of thumb tends to be, the meringue is done when it is dry on the outside and easily releases from the parchment paper when moved or pushed (at least for small meringues). Some meringue cookies bake in as little as 25-30 minutes, while some pavlovas take more than 90 minutes.
8. Once your are done cooking your meringue, turn the oven off (some people recommend cracking the door open for about 10 minutes with a towel to release any accumulated moisture in the oven cavity and then close the door) and let the meringue continue to cool for several hours or overnight in the closed oven.

Marsha's Notes:

The entire "whipping" portion of making meringue should usually take less than 10 minutes. If you beat meringue too much, it will become overworked and loose its structure. From my very limited experience, it seems like when the mixture starts to look glossy and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl, that is about when it's ready to be done. You can check to see if it's done by removing the bowl from the mixer, swirling your wire whisk through the meringue and then pull the whisk out and flip it upside down to check for a nice peak on the end of your whisk. The Internet has all kinds of great pictures of what it should look like, just like this picture.

The inside of Meringue should be soft and marshmallow-y, while the outside should be crisp. If you bake your meringue too long, the entire inside will cook and get crispy. If you undercook it, it might collapse or start to weep.

This is a great shot of what the inside looks like, with a crust on the outside and a nice creamy center.

Some methods of making meringue include dissolving the sugar in the eggs over a double-boiler on the stove before whisking to make sure everything gets perfectly dissolved, or making a hot sugar syrup that is whipped into the egg whites. Apparently these techniques are mostly used for non-baked meringues (like the top of a lemon pie) to cook the eggs to make them safe to eat. 

I saw different recommendations for using a combination of powdered sugar and a fine-granulated sugar. Not wanting to overly complicate an already complicated process, I opted for all powdered sugar hoping for great texture (not grainy), and everything seemed to work great like that.

Cream Cheese Cake Mix Cookies

I saw this recipe on TikTok for some fun 4th of July cookies, but I was unable to find red, white and blue M&M's, so while mine were still yummy, they were far less patriotic-looking than I had hoped for. Oh well! You can change up this recipe by using other kinds of M&M's, Oreos, and cake mixes. Have fun!

Cream Cheese Cake Mix Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 vanilla boxed cake mix (preferably the kind with "pudding in the mix")
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups (or about 14) Oreos, smashed
• 3/4 cups M&M's
• 1/2 cup sprinkles

Directions:

1. Mix your cake mix, butter, egg, vanilla and cream cheese until combined. 
2. Fold in your Oreos, M&M's and sprinkles. 
3. Form into cookie balls and chill (freezer for 30 min or fridge for 60 minutes). 
4. Then bake in batches at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until you JUST start to see some color on the bottom or top. 

Marsha's Notes:

How long you bake them depends on how big you make your cookies. 

We ended up with about 28 cookies cooked perfectly in 15 minutes, but next time I might try to get exactly 24 so I can put 12 on a sheet and only bake two batches, but they might need another minute or so in the oven at that size. The cookies didn't spread very much.

For a better presentation, press a few extra sprinkles and/or M&M's into your cookie balls just before baking. That's what I did in the above pictured cookies, which is why you can see those M&M's so well.

Sugar Cookie Icing

 We used this recipe this year for Christmas cookies (one batch sugar and one batch gingerbread) and it worked out perfectly! See the original recipe here: https://bellyfull.net/sugar-cookie-icing-recipe/

Sugar Cookie Icing (Hardens)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups powdered sugar , sifted
• 3-4 tablespoons whole milk
• 1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (use clear vanilla extract if you need the icing to be bright white)
• Pinch of salt (optional depending on flavor preference)
• Gel food coloring , optional
• Plain cooled sugar cookies , for decorating

Directions:

1. Stir together the sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, corn syrup, and vanilla in a medium-sized bowl until combined.
2. (If icing is too thick, add the remaining tablespoon of milk, until the icing is thick but pipeable. If it's too thin, add a little more powdered sugar until desired texture is reached. If you drizzle a little of the icing with a whisk, the ribbon of icing will hold for a few seconds before melting back into the icing. That is when you know it’s the right consistency and is ready to use.)
3. If coloring the icing with different colors, divide into bowls and color as desired at this point.
4. Transfer icing to a piping bag with a piping tip (I use Wilton 5.)
5. Pipe icing onto cookies and decorate, as desired. (If using sanding sugar or sprinkles, they need to be added before the icing starts to set.)
6. Allow icing to completely harden at room temperature before enjoying (this can take anywhere from 3 hours to overnight depending on the consistency and thickness of your icing.)

Marsha's Notes:

For one batch of sugar cookies and one batch of gingerbread, we made six different colors (white, blue, green, yellow, red, purple) and made a double batch of icing. It was enough, but some colors we had too much and some we ran out of. Depending on how concerned you are about waste, you can decide if it's worth making more or less. But one batch of icing for one batch of cookies is probably about right depending on how many color choices you want. We did add about an extra TBL of milk or so to get a consistency we thought would work.

Oreos

A submission by Krystal!

Oreos

Ingredients:

• 1 box Devil's Food cake mix
• 3/4 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 small cream cheese (3 oz)
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Put cake mix dry into a bowl.  
2. Stir in shortening and add eggs.  Mix with a fork.  
3. Roll into marble sized balls.  
4. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees.  
5. Filling:  Cream together butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar.  Spread on one cookie and sandwich together with additional cookie.

Cheater's Brookie

Ever heard of a brownie cookie or "brookie"? The boys were introduced to them via Oreo's Brookie-O and so William wanted some REAL brookies for his birthday. I did the SUPER cheater's way out and used prepackaged cookie dough and a boxed brownie mix, but everyone was really happy with out it turned out. So, go me!

Cheater's Brookies

Ingredients:

• Brownie Mix and other ingredients needed on the package to prepare the brownies
• Pre-packaged cookie dough (I used one tube of Pillbury chocolate chip)
• 1 package cookies (we used Chewy Chips Ahoy Reese's Peanut Butter Cup)

Directions:

1. Spray a 9x13 with non-stick spray. 
2. Press cookie dough evenly in the bottom of the pan. 
3. Layer with one package of cookies of your choice. 
4. Prepare brownie batter according to package direction and evenly pour over the cookies and cookie dough in the pan. 
5. Bake for 20-15 minutes or until the cookie dough is browned (if using a glass pan, you can check the bottom) and a knife comes out clean when you poke the brownie mixture.

Marsha's Notes:

Do not try to make the cookie part thicker with two rolls of cookie dough. When we tired that, it took so much longer for the brownie part/middle to cook that the bottom of the cookies burned.

We used the CHEWY Chips Ahoy because they are a softer cookie which would make slicing the brookies easier. I am not sure what it would be like if you used a harder cookie. I would also be interested in trying this recipe with sugar cookie dough instead of chocolate chip. This recipe worked well with a Betty Crocker brownie mix.

Cookies over cookie dough

Sugar Cookie Lemonade Crumble From SweetOrdeal.com

I saw these lemonade bars and just HAD to try them. They are pretty mild in the lemon/tartness factor, so if you like your desserts sweet and mild, then these are for you. If you are looking for a real tangy lemon bar that makes you pucker, then these are not that... unless you try upping the tart factor with citric acid or extra lemon juice.

Sugar Cookie Lemonade Crumble Bars

Ingredients:

The crust and crumble topping:

• 17.5 oz. bag sugar cookie mix (like Betty Crocker)
• 1/2 cup butter, softened

Lemonade filling:

• 16 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp. flour
• 3/4 cup frozen lemonade concentrate
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3.4 oz. box instant lemon pudding mix
• 1 egg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° and grease bottom of 13 x 9 baking dish with shortening.
2. The crust and crumble topping:
1. In large bowl, mix sugar cookie mix and butter together with a pastry blender or a fork until crumbly. 
2. Set aside 1/2 cup for topping. 
3. Press remaining mix in bottom of dish.
3. Lemonade filling:
1. Using electric mixer, thoroughly blend cream cheese and sugar until smooth. 
2. Add flour, lemonade concentrate, vanilla, pudding, and egg. Beat until smooth.
3. Drop filling evenly onto crust in spoonfuls and gently spread by pushing down with a spreader.
4. Sprinkle reserved 1/2 cup crumbles on top.
4. Bake for approx. 30 minutes. Cool 1 hour, then refrigerate 3 hours to set up. Enjoy!

Marsha's Notes:

In my oven, the crust was very done (not burnt, but VERY DONE) after 30 minutes @350 on convection, so I would try 20-25 minutes next time and go by the color on the bottom crust as seen through a glass pan. Go for lighter brown, not dark golden. I would also enjoy them a bit more tart and would try adding 1-2 tsp of citric acid to the lemon layer next time.

Chocolate Chip, Oats 'n Caramel Cookie Squares

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip, Oats ‘n Caramel Cookie Squares

Ingredients:

• 1 roll (16.5 oz.) refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• Dash salt, if desired
• 2/3 cup caramel topping
• 5 Tbl. flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts (opt)
• 6 oz chocolate chips (1 cup, which is often 1/2 a bag)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.  
2. In large bowl, break up cookie dough.  Stir or knead in oats and salt.  
3. Reserve ½ cup dough for topping.  
4. In a 9 inch square pan, press remaining dough mixture evenly in bottom to form crust.  
5. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until dough puffs and appears dry.  
6. Sprinkle walnuts and chocolate chips evenly over crust.  
7. In small bowl, mix caramel topping, flour and vanilla until well blended.  
8. Drizzle evenly with caramel mixture.  
9. Crumble reserved ½ cup dough mixture over caramel.  
10. Bake 20 to 25 minutes longer or until golden brown.  
11. Cool 10 minutes.  Run knife around sides of pan to loosen bars.  
12. Cool completely, about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Salted Peanut Chews

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Salted Peanut Chews

Ingredients:

• 1 roll (18 oz.) sugar cookie dough
• 3 cups miniature marshmallows
• 2/3 cup corn syrup
• ¼ cup margarine or butter
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 bag (10 oz) peanut better chips
• 2 cups crisp rice cereal
• 2 cups salted peanuts

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.  
2. Break up cookie dough into ungreased 9x13 pan.  With floured fingers, press dough evenly into bottom of pan to form crust.  
3. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until light golden brown.  
4. Remove partially baked crust from oven.  Immediately sprinkle marshmallows evenly over crust.  Return to oven, bake 1-2 minutes longer, or until marshmallows just begin to puff.  
5. Cool while preparing topping.  
6. In a large saucepan, heat corn syrup, margarine, vanilla and peanut butter chips over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until melted and smooth.  
7. Remove from heat.  
8. Stir in cereal and peanuts.  Immediately spoon warm topping over marshmallows; spread to cover.  
9. Refrigerate about 45 minutes or until firm.  Cut into bars. 

Marsha's Notes:

You can also try adding some chocolate chips in the marshmallow layer, or frost with chocolate frosting.

Doug and Melanie's Peanut Butter Bars

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup white sugar
• 5 Tbl evaporated milk
• 4 Tbl butter
• 1/2 cup mini marshmallows
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Cream butter, brown sugar, 1 cup white sugar, peanut butter, eggs and vanilla.  
2. Then add flour, oats and salt.  
3. Spread on a cookie sheet (with walls) and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.  
4. Cool.  
5. Spread a thin layer of peanut butter over top of cookies.  
6. In a heavy saucepan, cook 1 cup white sugar, evaporated milk and butter for 5 minutes, slowly bringing to a boil.  Then add marshmallows and chocolate chips.  
7. Stir until smooth and then spread while hot over top of cooled cookies and peanut butter.

Chocolate-Stuffed Peanut Butter Brownies

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Chocolate-Stuffed Peanut Butter Brownies

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup butter, melted
• ½ cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 1 ½ cups flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 36 peanut butter cups, bite-sized
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.  
2. Grease bottom and sides of 9x13 pan with baking spray.  
3. In a large bowl, beat brown sugar, butter, peanut butter, vanilla and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon, until well blended.  
4. Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  
5. Cut 12 of the peanut butter cups into fourths.  Stir cut-up candies and chocolate chips into batter. 
6. Spread in pan.  Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.  
7. Immediately press remaining 24 candies in brownies in 4 even rows of 6 candies each.  Cool completely, about 1 ½ hours.

Marsha's Notes:

Instead of cutting up peanut butter cups to add to batter, sometimes you can find miniature peanut butter cups in your baking section of the grocery store to use instead, but you still need 24 big candies to top the brownies with.

Chocolate Dipped Cut-Outs

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Chocolate Dipped Cut-Outs

Ingredients:

Cookie:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbl. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 to 2 ½ cups flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Coating:

• Nonpareils or coarse decorating sugar
• 2 cups milk chocolate chips
• 2 Tbl shortening

Directions:

1. Combine butter and sugar in large bowl; beat at medium speed until creamy.  Add egg, milk and vanilla; continue beating until well mixed.  
2. Reduce speed to low; add all remaining cookie ingredients.  Beat until well mixed.  Divide dough in half.  Wrap each half in plastic food wrap; refrigerate until firm (at least one hour).
3. Heat oven to 350 degrees.  
4. Roll out dough on heavy floured surface (and rolling pin), one half at a time (keeping remaining dough refrigerated), to ¼ inch thickness, but not too thin or they break when you handle them after cooking.  Dough will absorb most excess flour when cooked, so don’t worry if they have a light flour coating on them after you cut them.  Cut with cookie cutter.  Cookies are delicate when done, so use a small cookies cutter.  Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.  
5. Bake for 7-8 minutes or until edges are firm.  Let stand 1 minute.  Remove from cookie sheets.  Cool completely.
6. Place nonpareils or course decorating sugar in small, shallow dish; set aside.  
7. Combine chocolate chips and shortening in 1 qt. saucepan.  Cook, stirring occasionally, over low heat until chocolate melts.  Remove from heat.  
8. Dip half of each cookie into chocolate mixture.  Immediately roll chocolate-coated edges of cookie in nonpareils or course sugar, if desired.  Let stand on wax paper until set.

Candy Corn Cookies

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Candy Corn Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 pkg. (18 oz.) pre-made sugar cookie dough
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
• Orange and yellow food coloring*

Directions:

1. Line a 8x4 loaf pan with waxed paper, extending paper up over sides of pan.  
2. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, butter and egg until soft dough forms.  
3. On work surface or separate bowl,  place 1/3 of dough.  Knead desired amount of orange food coloring into dough until color is uniform. Do the same for another 1/3 of dough and yellow coloring.  
4. Press orange dough evenly in bottom of loaf pan.  Press yellow dough evening on top of orange.  Press uncolored dough evenly on top of yellow.  
5. Refrigerate about 2 hours, or until firm.  
6. Heat oven to 375 degrees.  
7. Remove dough from pan.  Cut crosswise into ¼ inch thick slices.  Cut each slice into triangle shaped wedges.  Round edges if desired.  Place one inch apart on greased cookie sheet.  
8. Bake 9 minutes, or until cookies are set and edges are very lightly browned.  Cool 1 minute.  Remove from cookie sheet.  Cool completely.  Store in tightly covered container.

Marsha's Notes:

The picture shows a layer that is chocolate.  To make that layer instead of the yellow, just melt 2 oz. of chocolate to mix with the dough.

Mini Chip Snowball Cookies

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Mini Chip Snowball Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) butter, softened
• ¾ cup powdered sugar
• 1 Tbl. Vanilla
• ½ tsp. salt
• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups (12 oz) mini chips
• 1/2 cup finely chopped nuts (opt)
• Powdered Sugar  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  
2. Beat butter, sugar vanilla and salt in large mixer bowl until creamy.  
3. Gradually beat in flour; stir in morsels and nuts.  
4. Shape level tablespoons of dough into 1 ¼ inch balls.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet.  
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are set and lightly browned.  Remove from oven.  
6. Sift powdered sugar over hot cookies on baking sheets.  Cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.  Sprinkle additional powdered sugar, if desired.  Store in airtight containers.

Karen's Coffee-Toffee Bars

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Coffee-Toffee Bars

Ingredients:

• 2 ¼ cup flour
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 1/2 tsp instant coffee
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts/pecans

Directions:

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.  
2. Cream together butter, brown sugar, almond extract and coffee.  
3. Add chocolate chips and walnuts.  
4. Press dough into 9x13 greased pan.  
5. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.  Do not over bake.  
6. Cut while warm.  Top with sugar glaze if desired.  Freezes well.

Marsha's Notes:

I made this as a special treat for Mom and Auntie in the Christmas of 2022. It was my first time personally making it. The "dough" is quite dry and crumbly before you press it into the bottom of the pan, so don't panic. There is not really any liquid in this recipe. Don't overmix! Just whip the butter/sugar mixture really well to get some air in it, sift the dry ingredients to get more air in it, and then blend everything together just until combined so you don't make the cookies tough. Also, at 350 on convection, it baked almost perfectly at 20 minutes, but I might even try 18 next time. If the bottom and edges are just going brown, it's DONE! Be sure to run a knife around the edge after it has cooled for about ten minutes or so and cut into your desired piece size because you will have a hard time cutting them after they are cooled.

If using pecan pieces, make sure they are in small pieces. Straight from the package, some of mine were still pretty big.

Christmas Wreath Cookies

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Wreath Cookies

Ingredients:

• 34 large marshmallows
• 1 cube butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract
• 1 3/4 tsp green food coloring
• 4 1/4 cups corn flakes
• Red Hot candies

Directions:

1. Melt marshmallows and butter in sauce pan and stir until smooth.  
2. Add vanilla and food coloring.  
3. Remove from heat and add corn flakes.  
4. Stir carefully to coat then drop by tablespoons on wax paper and shape into wreaths.  
5. Decorate with red hots.  
6. Make wreaths 3 ½-4 inches.  Butter fingers to spread them out.

Peanut Blossoms

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Peanut Blossoms

Ingredients:

• 1 ¾ cups flour
• 1 tsp. soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 48 milk chocolate candy kisses
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbl milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients (except kisses).  
2. Mix slowly until dough forms.  
3. Shape into balls and roll in sugar.  
4. Bake on un-greased sheet at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  
5. Top each cookie immediately with candy kisses, press down.

Grandma Hall's Dishpan Cookies

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Dishpan Cookies

Ingredients:

• 4 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 cups vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups quick oatmeal
• 4 cups corn flakes

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  
2. Sift together; flour, baking soda and salt.  
3. Combine sugars, oil, eggs and vanilla.  
4. Add remaining ingredients.  
5. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet.  
6. Bake 8-10 minutes.  Can also add chocolate chips.  These freeze well.

Crunchy Peanut Bark

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Crunchy Peanut Bark

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. white confectionery coating*
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 3 cups crisp rice cereal
• 2 cups dry roasted peanuts
• 2 cups miniature marshmallows

Directions:

1. Place confectionery coating in a large microwave safe bowl; microwave at 50% power until melted, about 5 minutes.  
2. Stir in remaining ingredients.  
3. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto waxed paper or divided between two greased 9 in. square pans. 

Marsha's Notes:

*White confectionery coating is found in the baking section of most grocery stores.  It is sometimes labeled “almond bark” or “candy coating” and is often sold in bulk packages of 1 to 1-1/2 lbs.