Peanut Butter Rudolph Reindeer Cookies

Every year my friends and I have a holiday cookie exchange. Some years it is a competition, this year it wasn't but still kept up my game. We had a wonderful holiday brunch in our pjs and got to enjoy a variety of cookies with friends. My husband always loves to enjoy the different cookies that I don't normally make. This year I went for a cute/playful cookie, but still made sure it tasted as good as it looked. These are really easy to make and are a play on the traditional peanut butter blossom cookie.

Peanut Butter Rudolph Reindeer Cookies
Source: Tara tsp
Yields: 48 cookies

Ingredients:
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup peanut butter
⅓ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
48 large red M&M candies
96 mini semisweet chocolate chips
Pretzels, broken into 96 1-inch pieces

Directions:
Heat oven to 375ºF. Grease two baking sheets.

In a large mixer bowl beat together butter, peanut butter and sugars on medium speed until light, about 2 min. Add egg and extract; beat until combined. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt until a dough forms. Roll into 1-inch balls and place 1 inch apart on prepared sheets.

Bake, one sheet at a time, until just set and bottoms are golden, 8 to 10 min. For each cookie, immediately place 1 M&M in center for nose, 2 mini chocolate chips for eyes and 2 pretzel pieces on top for antlers. Transfer cookies on sheets to a wire rack and let cool completely. (Can be made ahead. Sore in an airtight container at room temperature, in single layers separated by waxed paper, up to 2 days.)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of those who celebrate! This is the first year we haven't had any plans and are home just the two of us. In a way it is nice to have a whole day together to relax and catch up on things around the house. One of the perks to staying home is that I am able to celebrate with my friends through at our holiday cookie exchange. A cookie exchange is a great way to try new cookies and get new recipes. Each person brought 3-4 dozen cookies and the recipe to share, so we ended up taking home 3-4 dozen of a variety. Since it was so close to the holidays this year, those that are hosting part of the holidays are able to use them instead of having to make more food! This was our second year and the group has grown, which means not only more friends, but more cookies! This year we tried to have a more crazy/festive attire, it was so much fun to get dressed up!

And of course, all of the cookies and food were delicious! I will try to post the recipes with pictures throughout the week. We are working our way through a big tin of cookies. I made Andes Mint Cookies that were a hit last year at our family Christmas. 

We voted on our favorite cookie and it seemed like everyone one voted for something different! However, we did have a winner, the soft ginger cookie, my favorite! And the best part was my friend who made them had dressed up like a gingerbread man!

Soft Ginger Cookies
Yields: 2 dozen

Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup margarine or bugger
1 cup sugar
1 egg
¼ cup molasses
½ teaspoon ground cloves
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F

2. Combine flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter on low speed for 30 seconds to soften. Gradually, add the 1 cup sugar and beat until fluffy. Add egg, and molasses, beat well. Stir dry ingredients into mixture. Shape into 1 1/2 inch balls. Roll in sugar and pace on an un-greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

4. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until light brown and still puffy. Do not overcook! Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Holiday Baking Class

I recently found out about the variety of cooking, baking and healthy living classes that Whole Foods offers in their stores. They are about an hour, cost $5 and are just something different to do. Last night I took a holiday baking class with one of my friends. I haven't taken many cooking classes anywhere because I tend to not love everything on the menu. That was not the case here, the menu online was all desserts I like. The instructor was a trained chef and it felt like I was participating in a live version of all the food shows I watch on tv, but this time could taste the end product. We learned how to make Banana Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding, Chewy Ginger Snap Cookies and a Classic Apple Tart. The great thing about them was that you could make 1 large tart or bread pudding, or individual sized ones. Below is the recipe for our favorite of the night, the bread pudding.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding
Serves: 8

Ingredients:
4 cups day old bread, cubed (brioche, challah, or baguette)
2 cups milk
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 ripe bananas
1 cup chocolate chips
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch of sea salt
Molasses Drizzle:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
2 Tablespoons molasses
2 Tablespoons butter

Directions:
If the bread is fresh, cut into 1 inch cubes and toast at 350F for 5-10 minutes until dry and toasted on edges. (This helps the bread absorb the filling without turning into mush)

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, mash 1 banana and add milk, eggs, 1/2 cup brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, chocolate chips and salt. Whisk to combine.

Slice the rest of the bananas into coins and stir into mixture. Add bread and allow to absorb for about 5 minutes.

Place mixtre in a sprayed glass baking dish, (or muffin pan if making individuals) and cook until toothpick inserted comes out clean. About 40-50 minutes for large and 15-20 minutes for individuals.

To make molasses drizzle; combine brown sugar, water and molasses in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, then add the butter (it will foam a little). Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 1 minute. Pour sauce over bread pudding as serving.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my families favorite holiday! We go all out with planning starting weeks in advance to figure out what new recipes to encorporate and which ones to keep from previous years. Regardless, it is always great to be home with my parents, brother and this year both of my grandmas.  I arrived Monday evening and my parents had already done the grocery shopping so I actually got to spend some time with just my mom, which was really nice. We made two cranberry sauces ahead of time to get a jump start on all of the food to come. I highly suggest making whatever you can in advance to cut down on what has to be done the day of Thanksgiving. Wednesday was when everyone else trickled in through out the day and night and all of a sudden it was a full house! My dad is known for his amazing pie crusts, so as soon as he got home, he was put to work on crusts so that my mom and I could make the pumpkin and pecan pies, we save apple until the day of. Finally, Thanksgiving day arrived and we were pretty much all in the kitchen most of the morning and again all afternoon. We were able to squeeze in a family walk with the dog to get fresh air and some exercise before over-indulging. We tried new recipes for all of our stuffings, two new pies and new veggie dishes, it was quite the risk but seemed to pay off. Check out our gorgeous turkey, spread and family:


Another tradition we have started is having our family friends over for dessert. We grew up across the street from each other and have since all moved all over. With everyone home for the holidays it has been really nice to have our meals with family and dessert with them. In addition to traditional pies we always make turkey shaped sugar cookies, my brothers favorite. I don't think we had any shortage of desserts!


This is also a special holiday because my brother was born on Thanksgiving, so despite it not being the same every year we are all together to celebrate his birthday, even if it was a few days early this year ;) Since he had to get back to NYC Friday we celebrated over breakfast with our favorite sour cream coffee cake, it still counts as a birthday cake right? Now it is back home and back to reality until next year.

New Year and Wedding Anniversary

Shana Tova (Happy New Year)! While some don't love the holidays, I am not one of those people. They are usually surrounded by family, food and good times. Since moving to Florida the family part is not always there. And this year Rosh Hashanah fell on our wedding anniversary! We decided to make the best of both occasions by having a holiday dinner the first night of the holiday and then going out to dinner for our anniversary. Another bonus is that we both took the day off for the holiday and were able to spend the whole day of our anniversary together. I doubt we would have taken it off otherwise. Needless to say this has been a great year and time has flown by. It seems like it was just yesterday that we were surrounded by our closest family and friends to celebrate our wedding. I guess it is pretty perfect to have our anniversary on the holiday which is the start to new a year for us as husband and wife and also a new year in the Jewish religion. 

Now onto the food! In my family we usually had what I called growing up greasy chicken for the holidays. doesn't sound healthy but there wasn't anything greasy about it, just juicy. This year, my dad sent me a recipe for a roasted chicken that doesn't require a roasting pan or standing it up in a pan either. All you needed was a skillet, and everyone has one of those! You put the skillet in the oven when you turn it on so that it will be nice and hot and help sear the thighs so that they cook in the same amount of time as the rest of the chicken.

So despite being hundreds of miles away, for that night we both were creating the same meal for our family, kind of cool when you think about it that way. Only difference was that I made our families favorite Sour Cream Coffee cake for dessert that left them wanting to be here to enjoy ;) Now this chicken was pretty easy to make and was the moistest one we have ever had.

Weeknight Roasted Chicken
Serves 4
Source: Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients:
3/4 Tablespoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 1/2 - 4 lb whole chicken
1 Tablespoon olive oil

Directions:
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position, place 12-inch oven-safe skillet on rack, and heat oven to 450 degrees. Combine salt and pepper in bowl. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Rub entire surface with oil. Sprinkle evenly all over with salt mixture and rub in mixture with hands to coat evenly. Tie legs together with twine and tuck wing tips behind back.

2. Transfer chicken, breast side up, to preheated skillet in oven. Roast chicken until breasts register 120 degrees and thighs register 135 degrees, 25 to 35 minutes. Turn off oven and leave chicken in oven until breasts register 160 degrees and thighs register 175 degrees, 25 to 35 minutes.

3. Transfer chicken to carving board and let rest, uncovered, for 20 minutes. While chicken rests, prepare pan sauce, if using. Carve chicken and serve.

Easy and Festive cake cookies

Happy Valentine's Day! I had a few girlfriends over for desserts, wine and the Bachelor. Those are three of my guilty pleasures and it is always fun to have people over. As always, the show did not dissapoint and was full of drama. This also gave me an excuse to try out these cookies. Normally, I don't buy anything that comes in a box, but made an exception for these and was glad I did. You can use sprinkles in the colors of whichever holiday is coming up to use this recipe all year round. Since Valentine's Day is today I used pink, red and white. They taste like chocolate cake but with a chewy cookie consistency. My cousin has made these and she suggested adding chocolate chips, I never say no to more chocolate and will have to try that tip next time.

Easy and Festive cake cookies
Source: Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle
Yields: 2.5 dozen

 Ingredients:

1 boxed cake mix {I used Duncan Hines devil’s food}

1/2 cup {1 stick} unsalted butter

2 eggs

1 1/2 to 2 tbsp. flour

1-2 tsp. vanilla extract

Sprinkles (optional)

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix well. Use a cookie scoop or tablespoon for evenly sized potions of dough. If you are using sprinkles, roll the ball in sprinkles and drop onto ungreased cookie sheets {or Silpat if possible}.

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on the sheet for at least five minutes then transfer to cooling rack.

Cranberry Apple Crisp

I hope everyone had a nice holiday! We spent ours with my in-laws and their family. They live nearby, which definitely makes it nice being able to avoid traveling around the holidays. I did of course do a lot of cooking this weekend which will be posted throughout the week. I tried out a new dessert for Christmas that was really easy to make and delicious. I like to have fruit desserts with turkey and pretend it is healthier. However, I am not a pro at making pie crusts so I was excited to come across this recipe with a crumble topping and no bottom! The tart cranberries are sweetened up by the apples and sugar but it is not an overly sweet dessert.

Cranberry Apple Crisp

Serves 6-8

Source: Taste of Home

Ingredients:
3 cups chopped peeled tart apples
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

Topping:
1 ½  cups quick-cooking oats
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup butter, melted
¼ cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Combine apples, cranberries, sugar and flour. Pour into a greased 11-in. x 7-in. baking dish. 

In a bowl, mix topping ingredients until crumbly; sprinkle over apple mixture. 

Bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes or until bubbling and fruit is tender.

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

I have gotten into reading a lot of food blogs, some call it fun, some call it dorky but I love it. Only bad thing is that it means I am doing a lot cooking, baking and EATING! One blog featured The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, which seemed like a  like of fun. I was able to bake some of my favorite cookies and send 1 dozen each to 3 different food bloggers that I was matched with. The best or worst part is that I also received a dozen cookies each from 3 bloggers. It was a lot of fun to receive boxes filled with delicious home made cookies on our doorstep.  I received cookies from Carol of Lucky Zucca, Jennifer from Somewhere in Between, and Mads from La Petite Pancake.

The hardest part for me was deciding which cookie out of the many that I enjoy to make for them. I decided to go with one of my favorites that my mom would make for us around the holidays and something that made a big batch. It is of course a chocolate cookie that is soft and chewy, I prefer chewy over crunchy cookies. These chocolate chewy cookies are easy to make, but do require 2 hours in the fridge so you need to plan ahead. They can also be made in advance and frozen for a party or holiday cookie platter.

Chocolate Chewies

Yields 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

½ cup unsalted butter

4 squares/oz unsweetened chocolate

2 ½ cups Sugar

3 Eggs

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups Flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt 

Directions:

1. Cream butter in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.

2. In a double boiler, melt chocolate. Blend into butter with 2 cups sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add in vanilla and mix. Then add in dry ingredients.

3. Chill dough for 2 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5. Form dough into balls and roll in remaining sugar. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Do not over bake - cookies should be chewy.

The Best Noodle Kugel

One of my all time favorite foods is noodle kugel. I don't know if it is because we only have it for Jewish holidays or what but to me this is noodles filled with yummy goodness and a sweet crunch on top. This recipe is one that my grandma's best friend used and somehow got passed down to my mom and aunt and now to me. So it only makes sense that no holiday is complete without noodle kugel and I of course made mine for both Jewish holidays. You can even freeze some of the leftovers (if there are any) and enjoy later on. Please note that this recipe needs to sit overnight so you have to plan a little bit ahead of time to make it. Below is the infamous recipe with a few healthier tweaks like lowfat sour cream, cottage cheese and milk.

Noodle Kugel
1lb extra wide noodles (I use yolk free ones to be healthier)
1 cup sugar
1 stick melted unsalted butter
1 pint low fat sour cream
3 cups skim milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1lb low fat cottage cheese
7 eggs (can substitute some egg beaters)

Topping:
1 cup crushed corn flakes
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
1. Boil noodles and drain with cold water.

2. In a big mixing bowl, beat eggs, then add in rest of the ingredients (let butter cool before adding so it doesn't cook the eggs)

3. In a very large roasting pan, pour moure than 1/2 the noodles then 3/4 of mixture, then remaining noodles and mixture. Mix thoroughly.

4. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

5. Mix topping ingredients together and sprinkle on top with a few dots of butter.

6. Bake at 350F for about an hour.

7. Let it sit for about 15 minutes before serving so that it sets and you can cut it up without the pieces falling apart.