Royal Icing

4 Tbsp. meringue powder
1/2 scant cup water
1/2-1 tsp. corn syrup
few drops of clear extract (I use almond)
1 lb. sifted powdered sugar.

With your paddle attachment mix the meringue powder and water, then add in the powdered sugar.  Once those are incorporated add the extract and corn syrup.  Mix on med-high for about 5 minutes or until stiff peaks form.

The icing can now be thinned 1 tsp at a time until desired consistency is reached.

Peanut Butter Pinterest Cookies

These cookies are very close cousins to these.  So if you are a fan I definately suggest give these a go. like that these are bite size and stay really soft - the down side to those two things is that you seem to eat more of them because a bite is just never enough and they were a little difficult to form... I ended up having to smash them together a little, but that didn't effect the taste one bit.
1 cup sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 jar (18 oz ounce) creamy peanut butter
6 cups corn flakes
3 oz chocolate of your choice (I used chocolate chips)

Combine sugar and corn syrup in a medium saucepan. Place over medium-high heat and stir until the mixture comes to a full boil. Remove from heat and stir in the whole jar of peanut butter. Mix well.

Add corn flakes to a large bowl. Pour peanut butter mixture over corn flakes and mix well, taking care to coat all of the corn flakes.

With a tablespoon or cookie scoop, scoop out and form into 1-2 inch balls, depending on your preference, and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper.

Put the chocolate in a small bowl and melt in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Stir until smooth.

Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookies.

Orange Cream Cookies

2 cups flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1/2 white sugar

1/2 firmly packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tbsp vanilla

2 tbsp orange zest and the juice of one orange

2 cups white chocolate chips

(to half the batch I added dried carnberries)

Preheat over to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl combine flour, baking soda, and salt - set aside.  In mixer cream butter and sugars together, beet in eggs and then vanilla until smooth.  Gradually add half of flour mixture add orange juice and mix and then add the rest of the flour.  Stir in orange zest, chocolate chips and cranberries.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets - do not flatten the cookies.  Bake 8-10 minutes.  Do not overcook. Cookies will be thick.  Store in an airtight container.

Note:  These cookies have a short bread type texture.  If your dough still seems too dry add a tbsp of milk.

*Adapted from the Girl Who Ate Everything.

Chocolate Chip Applesauce Cookies

1 1/2 c. sugar
1 c. shortening
3 eggs
2 c. applesauce
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
4 c. flour

Cream together sugar and shortening, mix in eggs, then mix in applesauce.  Sift together dry ingredients and add to wet mixture.

Drop with two spoons onto cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes, depending on cookie sheet and oven.

Peanut Butter Roll Outs

Peanut Butter Roll-Out Cookies

1/2 c. unsalted butter

1/2 c. creamy peanut butter

1/2 c. light brown sugar

1/2 c. white sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1/4 c. sour cream

3 Tbsp. cornstarch

3 c. flour

Beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the egg, mix, then add half the sour cream, all of the cornstarch and half of the flour, beat well.  Add the remaining sour cream and flour.  Divide the dough in half, wrap in plastic and flatten into a disc.  Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Roll the dough onto a floured surface and cut out shapes.  Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees. 

I topped my cookies with Chocolate Ganache... feel free to use a peanut butter frosting instead.

*This recipe came from Bake at 350.

Oatmeal Toffee Bars

I'm not sure what pulled me to this recipe, maybe it was the oatmeal, the versatility of the recipe, I'm not sure, but I am so glad I tried it.  Can I just tell you how super simple this was?  SUPER SIMPLE!  Not only were they easy to whip together, took less than 20 minutes to bake, but they tasted great and were a huge hit.  That is my kind of recipe.  It was so easy, that I decided as soon as I pulled them out of the oven to make another batch and switch things up.  Both the original and altered recipes follow.

Oatmeal Toffee Bars
Recipe from 3B's.. Baseball, Baking & Books.

1/2 cup canola oil (I used vegetable)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp. milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 to 1 1/2 cup toffee pieces

Mix together the oil, sugars, eggs, milk, vanilla and salt.  Mix for 2-3 minutes or until sugars dissolve.  Add in baking soda and flour.  Mix in oats and then chocolate chips.  The mixture will be THICK, like cookie dough.  Transfer to a greased 9x13 cake pan.  It was easiest to spread this batter with my dampened fingers.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Variation:
Make the above recipe, but omit the chocolate chips and toffee pieces.  Add 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips, 1 cup dried cranberries and 1/2 cup coconut.

Super Easy Home-made OREOs

2 boxes Devil's Food cake mix

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup butter crisco

In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together, either use a Kitchen-Aid or a tough spoon and mix it by hand (it is really thick, it is not hand mixer friendly). Once mixed roll dough into small balls, just bigger than a bouncy ball, you can make them smaller if you'd like - it's really up to you. Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Once the cookies are cool add cream cheese frosting to the underside of one cookie and sandwich together. Cream cheese frosting can be bought or home-made.

For Valentine's Day I added some colored sugar to the edges of some, dyed some frosting red and cut hearts out of others. Let your creativity have some fun.

Sugar Cookies

(the photo is my kids Santa Cookies)

1 c. butter flavor crisco

2 c. sugar

1 c. sour cream

5 eggs

1/2 tsp. vanilla (you can do 1 tsp. vanilla if you don't like lemon)

1/2 tsp. lemon juice (optional, if you add more vanilla)

5 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

4 1/2 - 5 1/2 c. flour (add just enough to make batter stiff, don't add to much or the cookies will be dry)

Cream together sugar and shortening, once mixed add sour cream and then the eggs. Once incorporated add vanilla and lemon. Mix in baking powder and salt. Then add flour 1 cup at a time, the key is to get the dough to the "not too sticky" stage. I stop adding flour when I can touch the dough and have very little/no dough stick to my finger. The amount of flour is adjustable, I add more/less flour depending on altitude and temperature.

If you have time to chill this dough you can add less flour. Chilling is optional - you can mix these up and immediately roll them out.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes depending on pan color and oven.