Peanut Butter Snickers Cookies - July 29, 2012

Did I have you at peanut butter and snickers? Mmmmm I've been making these cookies for many years. I got the recipe from a family friend and they are always a hit wherever I take them. My sister in law begs for them at Christmas. You'll have people begging for them too. Guaranteed.

Peanut Butter Snickers Cookies

Ingredients:

1 C. butter

1 C. brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 C. sugar

1 C. peanut butter

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking powder

3 C. flour

1 (1 lb) bag mini Snickers

Cream together sugars and butter. Add peanut butter, eggs, and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients. Add 2 mixtures together slowly until completely mixed together. Wrap about 1 Tbsp.mixture around a mini-Snickers. Place on cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Don't let them get too brown. This will be trial and error for you. I usually take them out right at 12 minutes. They don't look brown at all. Once you take them out of the oven use the back of a spatula to flatten them a little bit before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Husband Review:

I don't think these are his all time favorite cookies, but they are definitely in the top 5. Everyone likes these cookies. They are a hit everywhere. The only thing I don't like about making these is how time consuming it is to unwrap all the Snickers and then rolling them in the dough. But, it's well worth the time put into it.

Monster Cookies - July 22, 2012

Another recipe I got from the the hospital where I used to work. All yummy cookie ingredients combined in one massive cookie. Yes please!

Monster Cookies

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1 sugar

1 1/4 cup peanut butter

4 1/2 cups oatmeal

1/2 cup M&Ms

1/2 cup chocolate chips

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 Tablespoon vanilla

1/4 Tablespoon corn syrup

1/2 cup butter

Cream together eggs, sugars, vanilla, corn syrup, butter and peanut butter. Add dry ingredients and mix well. (I added a few Tablespoons of flour to the mix. It seemed too wet. I recommend you do the same.) Drop on cookie sheets using a LARGE scoop. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

Husband Rating:
He actually used the "D" word for these... delicious! These were awesome. Everything you could want in a cookie. So good!

Scotcheroos - July 15, 2012

Mmmmm. That's all.

Scotcheroos

Ingredients:

1 C. white corn syrup

1 C. sugar

1 C. peanut butter

6 C. Rice Krispies cereal

1/2 bag chocolate chips

1/2 bag butterscotch chips

Heat corn syrup and sugar together on the stove until dissolved, then add peanut butter and mix until creamy. Stir Rice Krispies in until completely coated. (You can use more or less Rice Krispies depending on how they are coating.) Spread into a 9x13 greased pan. While that's cooling for a minute, combine the chocolate chips and butterscotch chips in a microwavable bowl and nuke for 30 second intervals until they are melted together and smooth. Spread over the Rice Krispy bars. Let the chocolate topping harden a little before cutting and serving.

To make into scotcheroo rolls like the picture below, spread the Rice Krispy mixture onto a jelly roll pan and cover with the chocolate/butterscotch chip mixture. Let cool just until the chocolate isn't so melty, and start rolling up the whole bar from one end cinnamon-roll-style. (I put wax paper under the bars to make the rolling process easier.) Once the bar is rolled up completely, cut off sections from the flat end of the roll. (I got a little excited and didn't really wait for the chocolate to harden a bit, so when I rolled it and cut it, it got pretty gooey and messy. I would recommend after rolling them up to have them sit in the fridge until the chocolate is set and hardened. It will make it easier to cut.) I just learned this trick this summer. Rolling them up like this makes them a lot easier to transport because you can stack them and don't have to worry about the chocolate sticking to the bottom of the top ones.

Husband Review:

Who doesn't love scotcheroos?! These are a personal favorite of my father-in-laws. They are perfect sized to just grab and enjoy. Just make them. They take no time, and are SO worth it.

Fruit Pizza - July 8, 2012

I love fruit pizza. I think the first time I had it was in middle school, and since then, I've been a big fan. I'm not a huge fan of sugar cookies, but this sugar cookie crust just works. And seriously, when can you go wrong when you use cream cheese in desserts?!

Fruit Pizza

Ingredients:

1 roll refrigerated sugar cookie dough

1/4 c. sugar

1 8 oz package cream cheese

1 tsp. lemon juice (I almost always forget this)

your choice of fruit toppings: strawberries, blueberries, kiwis, bananas, grapes, pineapple, mandarin oranges, etc.

Press dough out onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet (a smaller one) and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. In a mixing bowl, mix cream cheese, sugar and lemon juice until smooth. (Usually I double this part of the recipe... but I like the "frosting".) Spread frosting evenly over cooled cookie crust. Top with your favorite fruit. Store in fridge.

I like the frosting more than the fruit, so I don't heavily coat mine with fruit as you can see. :)

Husband Rating:

Yum! This is a great dessert to make for Easter or any other spring/summer event. Dan likes them a lot. We'll cut it into squares and eat it for breakfast and snack on it during the day. I made personal fruit pizzas where I made sugar cookies, and had everyone frost and top their own. That was a hit because then you didn't have the people picking off the fruit they didn't care for... Mom - that's right I'm talking to you. You and your strawberries. :)

BONUS!

Plus when you make fruit pizza, you may have leftover fruit, so make yourself a nice fruit salad!

Strawberry Cheese Rolls - July 1, 2012

Sorry I missed a week. We've had some pretty devastating news pass our way in the past couple of weeks and it's been hard to focus on anything but the recent events. Here is a recipe I had typed up before and kept in my "vault". I hope you enjoy.

Yup, another Pinterest find. The recipe I saw called for blueberries, but I like strawberries better, so I made them my way.

Strawberry Cheese Rolls

Ingredients:

2 pkgs crescent rolls

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese

4 Tbsp sugar

1 cup strawberries divided

Heat oven to 375. Unroll dough into four rectangles per pkg of crescent rolls; firmly press perforations together to seal. Combine cream cheese and sugar; spread onto dough rectangles to within 1/2 inch of edges. Top evenly with strawberries. Bring opposite corners of rectangles together; press together to seal. Place on ungreased baking sheet. (I used parchment paper). Bake 11 to 13 min. or until golden brown.

Husband Rating: 

Not bad. They have potential, but they weren't perfect. These puppies are worth trying over and over until you get it right. They are very easy to make, and only take about 11 minutes to bake. I didn't think they were sweet enough. They needed more filling and a sweeter filling. My husband and I agreed that we think the filling that I used for the cream cheese bars would be excellent in these. (2 bars cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, and egg yolks.) I made a little frosting/glaze to put on them this time hoping to sweeten them up a bit, and it worked. (a little butter, a lot of powdered sugar, and a splash of milk). Try it out, and use whatever fruit you want (or skip the fruit and just stick with the cheese filling or maybe add a Nutella or chocolate filling.)