Happy New Year!

I hope your New Year is blessed and everyone has a wonderful 2012!

Kahlua Gingerbread

Stop And Smell The Rosemary....I received a NEW cookbook! A friend brought it to me as a hostess gift for Tony's Christmas party.  I am in love with it! It is one of those cookbooks everyone should have. It's filled with neat facts and histories of traditions.  A. Must. Have! Thanks Erin!!

The first recipe I tried was Kahlua Gingerbread and it was a huge success!


~Recipe~

1/2 cup of unsalted butter at room temp
3/4 c sugar
1/3 c dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 large egg
1 c molasses
2 c all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1 /2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cu hot water
1/3 cup Kahlua
2 Tbsp cold brewed coffee


Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 baking pan.  Cream butter and sugars, mix in egg, molasses, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt, water, coffee and Kahlua.  Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.  Serve warm or cold with whipped cream.

Enjoy~

Santa hats!

I made these yesterday for my sons basketball team.  I had to borrow the photo on the website I got them from because I forgot to take a picture.  They are so easy and very cute!

*photo compliments of daisyt13.wordpress.com*




~Recipe~


The recipe calls for you to make the brownies(any recipe will do)and use a circle cutter...I took that step out and used my mimi muffin pans.  I cut the top of the brownie bite off and put a  dab of frosting on the bottom of the strawberry and then piped the frosting(I used cream cheese but vanilla butter cream would be great as well) around the base.  The strawberries were just the right size.  They will be bigger if you use the regular brownie pan

Chewy Gingerbread Bars

Love the smell of Christmas cooking! The boys ate these bars before I got the frosting on them....so I have no photo, but they were obviously good.

~Recipe~
3/4 cup melted butter
1 c sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves

Pour the melted butter, sugar and molasses in a bowl and beat well.  Add the egg and beat until smooth.  Whisk together the dry ingredients and add to the mixer and mix until just incorporated.  Spray a 9x9 pan with cooking spray with flour and press the dough into the pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes.  Do not over bake.  Mine was not done at 12 minutes, I baked(watching carefully) for 16 minutes. Frost with cream cheese frosting if they are around after they cool, which in my case they were not!  Enjoy~

Almond Butter Cookies

I have been promising to get this done.  The delay was due to me hosting Tony's company Christmas party! Oh what fun that was! What a great team he has.  Anywhoo....Christmas baking in is full force this year as we are not going to Wyoming for Christmas! The cookies are not what I think the name says, I , too thought it used almond butter....no, it is a marriage of butter and almond flavoring.  They were great and the frosting added a little(lot) of sweetness. I am on the hunt for a good almond butter cookie.....

~Recipe~

Cookies:

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 c sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp almond extract

1 tsp butter flavoring

3 c flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Frosting:

1  8 oz package cream cheese, softened

1/4 c butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

3-4 c powdered sugar

2-3 Tbsp milk

Cream the butter and sugar for at least 2 minutes to get mixed well.  Add eggs, vanilla, almond and butter flavoring*I added a bit more almond because I LOVE  almond*  Beat for another 2 minutes to the fluffy stage.   Grab another bowl and whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Throw that in with the creamed mixture and mix just til combined.  Roll into 1 1/2 inch balls and place on a prepared cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 6-7 minutes, just until the tops begin to crack, let them cool on a cookie sheet for a while *they need to cook a while 

longer*. Cool completely on a wire rack and frost!

Frosting~ *

Make sure the cream cheese and butter are soft, it will make the frosting creamier. Mix them together until smooth.  Add the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and inch of salt, beat well.  *If too thin, add more sugar, if too thick add a bit of milk*Add coloring of you want to and mix in.  decorate your cookies! Enjoy~

Egg Nog Bundt Cake

I do not care for egg nog...BUT I DO like nutmeg, so I thought I would give this easy recipe a try. Everyone agreed that is was good,  I will be making another recipe this weekend to see if that one is better then I will decide what to make for the neighbors for Christmas.

~Recipe~

1 butter yellow cake mix
4 Tbsp melted butter
1 1/2 cups eggnog
2 large eggs
1/4-1/2 cup milk
1 tsp rum extract
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Glaze~
2 c powdered sugar
2 Tbsp melted butter
3 Tbsp eggnog
1 tsp vanilla
dash nutmeg

In a large bowl, add the cake mix, eggnog, milk, eggs, rum extract, nutmeg and melted butter.  Mix all together on low for 30 seconds and then again on high for 2 minutes.  Pour batter into a greased and floured bundt pan or a large loaf pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until the cake tester comes out clean.  Remove the cake form the pan after sitting for 10 minutes, cool completely.  For the glaze , whisk all the ingredients together and drizzle over the cake or loaf.  LEt the glaze dry completely before cutting. Enjoy~

Snickerdoodle Cheesecake Bites

Who doesn't like Snickerdoodles? This is a little bite of yumminess.  My friend, Stacy, forwarded this recipe to me to try and we love it! I am making it again very soon.

~Recipe~
Crust~
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cups sugar
1 egg
1/2 whole batch of cinnamon-sugar mixture*below*

Cheesecake~
12 ounces of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt
1 egg
1/2 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 whole batch of cinnamon-sugar mix*below*

Cinnamon-Sugar Mix
1 Tbsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp sugar
*Stir together and set aside*

Crust~
Heat oven to 350 degrees
Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt, set aside.  Beat butter and sugar together on high until well combined.  Stir in the egg. Add the flour mix until all combined.  Turn into a greased 8x8 pan and press dough into the pan.  Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mix over the top*remember only 1/2 of the batch* Bake the crust for 20 minutes.  Remove and poke holes in the crust and allow to cool.
Cheesecake~
Cream the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and fluffy.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients untikl all combined.  Pour this over the crust and sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon-sugar mix on the top and bake for 35 minutes in the 350 degree oven.  Let cool at room temp for 1 hour and then chill for at least 3 hours.  EAT!!! You will want more than 1!! Enjoy~