Day 6: Hot Strawberry "Cocoa"

Those who know me or follow our blog know that I'm obsessed with strawberries. So I'm sure no-one is surprised we have a couple of strawberry treats on the countdown:-) I saw this recipes on Pinterest (Babble-Family Kitchen) and Kyle made it for me. It's basically a hot milkshake but thinned out like Hot Chocolate. We rimmed the mugs with chocolate, added whip cream and chocolate sprinkles and found ourselves in love with this new dessert drink on a cold winter's night.

Recipe:
4 Tbl Butter
1/2 C Sugar
1 Pint strawberry ice cream
4 C water
Whipped cream
1 C mini chocolate chips


Pour the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and 5 seconds at a time melt the chocolate chips and stir.

Once the chocolate is melted, dip the rims of you mugs into the chocolate.

In a medium pot, whisk the butter, sugar and ice cream together. Whisk in the water one cup at a time. You can add more water if the mixture is too sweet or less water if not sweet enough. It's really up to your tastebuds.

Heat just until steaming.

Add to your chocolate-rimmed mugs and add whipped cream. Serve. I found this sweet treat very yummy. My favorite ice cream warming me up on a cold night? Perfect!!

Enjoy!

Day 5: Mint Chocolate Chip a.k.a Grinch Cookies

I was on Pinterest (Flikr) the other night, no surprise there haha, and saw a picture for these cookies. Immediately I knew I had to try them and put them on the blog. Here's the original post for the cookies. Instead of buying sugar cookie dough I decided to whip up a simple recipe of my own and then add the yummy flavors. They turned out great! It's a cross between thin mints and mint chocolate chip ice cream- yup that good! Here's the recipe...

Recipe:

3/4 C shortening

1 C sugar

2 Eggs

2 1/2 C flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp mint extract

2-3 drops green food coloring

1 C mini chocolate chips

1 C creme de menthe baking chips

Cream the sugar, egg and shortening. Add mint extract and food coloring. In a separate bowl mix together the dry ingredients- flour, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture little by little. Add additional green food coloring if needed.

Fold in both baking chips and cover. Place in the fridge for 1 hour.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough into small balls and place on a non-stick baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Let the cookies cool on a wire rack or even on a paper towel on the counter. These cookies are perfect for dunking in milk or even pairing with vanilla ice cream. They are quite delicious! For a fun family evening, read Dr. Suess', "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" while enjoying these treats. Warning: Your heart my grow three sizes larger:-)

Enjoy!

Day 4: Chocolate Pretzles

When visiting Hawaii a couple of weeks ago, my sister-in-law K brought over these treats for FHE. I couldn't stop eating them. I loved the sweetness of the chocolate and the salty-ness of the pretzel. I was in like, possibly in love. These little treats are very easy to make and perfect for Christmas parties or get togethers.

Recipe:

1 Package M&Ms

1 Package Square or Round Pretzels

1 Package Hershey Kisses

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Pour pretzels onto a baking sheet and separate.

 Unwrap Hershey Kisses and place one on top of one pretzel. We used Hershey Special Dark but milk chocolate is just as tasty. Bake in the oven for 1-2 minutes or until chocolate is soft.

 Take the baking sheet out of the oven and place a M&M in the center of each Hershey Kiss. Let cool.

 How easy was that? No real baking involved! I'm excited to take these to a Christmas Potluck with friends tonight and hope they will love them as much as I do.

Enjoy!

Day 3: Lemon Snowball Cookies

Here's a fun and easy treat that everyone will love. You have the zestyness of the lemons and the scrumptiousness of the almonds that makes this cookie brilliant. I got the recipe from TasteofHome.com.

Recipe:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
• Confectioners' sugar
• Pre-heat the over to 350 degrees

Cream sugar, egg and butter and set aside.

 Mix together the dry ingredients- flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.

Zest and juice your lemons. We used two lemons and it gave us the amount we needed.

 Add lemon juice and zest to the butter/sugar mixture. Mix well.  Add the floue mixture little by little until completely mixed into the batter. Finally, add the almonds.

 Roll dough into 1" balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies are golden brown. The top of the cookies will not brown.

 Cook on a wire rack for 5 minutes then roll of the cookie in powdered sugar.

 The end results are, as stated before, brilliant. You have a great cookie to enjoy at home or take to a holiday party. You can even stack the cookies on top of each other to decorate as a cookie snowman.

Enjoy!

Day 2- Red & White Stripped Cookies

My dear friend, K and her little son, D, came over to help me make these fun Christmas cookies. I pulled out my Betty Crocker Cooky Recipe book and found this classic. These cookies remind me of my childhood. My mom used to make them every year. I loved watching her twist the dough into small candy canes and I especially loved to eat them hot out of the oven.

Recipe:
1 C Shortening
1 C powdered sugar
1 Egg
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 C flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp red food coloring
1/2 C crushed peppermint candy
1/2 C sugar

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees


Mix shortening, egg and powdered sugar together. Add the flour and salt and mix well.

Split the dough in half and put one half in a separate bowl. Put aside. With the other dough add red food coloring and mix until the red is fully incorporated in the dough. Now comes the fun (and sometimes frustrating part.

On a lightly floured surface, take a small ball of red dough and roll it back and forth until it becomes a small rope of dough. Do the same to the white dough. Place both ropes of dough side by side and twist together to form a candy cane.

Bake for 10 minutes or until golden in the oven. You don't have to just to candy canes. You can have fun making whatever shapes and sizes you want. We had a lot of fun trying some out.

While the cookies are cooling you and sprinkle crushed peppermint candy on top for a little more holiday happiness;-) We had a lot of fun making these cookies and they may not look like incredible masterpieces but they sure tasted yummy.

Enjoy!

Day 1: Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Frosting

Welcome to our Christmas treats countdown!! We are so excited to bring you 12 delicious recipes that we enjoy during the holiday season. We will be posting a new recipe each morning. We hope you enjoy these treats as much as we enjoyed making them:-)

To kick us off, we made chocolate cupcakes with peppermint frosting. I was perusing Pinterest (The Party Dress) the other week and saw this recipe for peppermint frosting. What goes with peppermint? Chocolate of course!

Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe:

1 C. brown sugar

1/2 C butter

2 large eggs

1 1/4 C flour

1/2 C unsweetened cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C buttermilk*

1 tsp vanilla extract

*If you do not have butter milk put 1 tsp. white vinegar in a 1/2 C measuring cup and fill the rest up with milk

Pre-heat oven to 350 and line muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Cream butter and brown sugar. Add eggs mixing each in one at a time.

 In a separate bowl, add the dry ingredients together. Add half of the dry mixture to the batter. Mix well. Add the buttermilk and mix well. Mix the remaining dry mixture until fully incorporated in the batter. Fold in vanilla extract.

 Using a spoon or an ice creams scoop, pour batter into cupcake liners. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. Use the toothpick method to make sure cake is baked all the way through.

 Cool cupcakes on a wire rack and start on the frosting.

Peppermint Frosting recipe:

3 C. powdered sugar, sifted

1/2 C crushed peppermint

1/2 C butter, room temperature

3 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

3-4 Tbls Milk

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time. Incorporate milk as needed. Fold in peppermint frosting.

 Once your cupcakes fully cooled, frost them to your hearts delight:-)

 We had these cupcakes for dessert after Sunday dinner. They were a hit! I loved the settleness of the chocolate cupcakes that really helped the frosting shine.

Enjoy!

Sneak Peak!

Here's a little preview of the yumminess to come:-)