A Coupla More Cookie Recipes

Well, the holiday is fast upon us, ready or not.  I'm wrapping up today with some final baking, as I was "assigned" cookies for my part in the dinner that Tommy's family will be having.  I made the traditional Sugar Cookies (Cut Outs) with Royal Icing which was a first for me.  I have very limited cookie cutters, so we are having some Christmas ducks and Christmas hearts.

You'll notice I even made two Christmas bone-shaped cookies - one with Bender's name on it, and one with his Cousin Gert's name on it.  Not for their consumption, but just for fun.  Oh, and how sweet and I that I put Tommy's name on one of the Christmas hearts?  The Christmas ducks have green and yellow sprinkles on them, since Tommy's Dad is an Oregon Ducks fan.  Tommy (a Beaver fan) will appreciate that... 

Anyhow...  the Royal Icing was interesting to make.  If you use the recipe, be sure to beat the egg whites for long enough - that's really the key secret to this icing being successful. 

In addition, I made another new recipe that is DELICIOUS.  Uhm... let me say it again:  DELICIOUS.  It's a recipe straight from Hershey's - German Chocolate Sandwich Cookies .  Very, very good.  Two little cookies with a coconut and pecan filling in the middle.  I would rate this as a "Highly Recommend You Try It" cookie. 



They're small cookies, so these are just the right size.  I'll be mentioning these again... 


Then, lastly, in the spirit of Christmas, I made some Peppermint Bark .  Talk about a super easy but very pretty and tasty...  Although I've given you the link to the recipe, this is all ya gotta do to make this:

Put 24 peppermint candies into a zip lock bag (double bag it).  Crush them with a rolling pin or something similar.  I have a little wooden hammer thingy that I use. 

Melt 1 bag of white chips in the microwave (Heat for 1 minute; stir.  Heat for 30 seconds; stir.  Repeat heating for 30 seconds and stirring until mostly melted, and then stir well until smooth.

Using a mesh strainer that is positioned over the melted chips, pour the crushed peppermint candies into the strainer and shake out the small particles into the melted chips.  Reserve the larger pieces of candy. 

Stir the chips and peppermint dust.  Line a cookie sheet with wax paper; pour mixture onto wax paper.  Sprinkle with the reserved larger pieces of candy and press them slightly into the melted chips.  Let sit until set.  I put mine in the fridge, just so speed things up.  Break into pieces, like this:

And, voila!, this is what you get!

Pretty!

That's it for me, folks!  Now, I just gotta contain Bender.  He received a couple of presents, one from his girlfriend, Roxy, and another from a school buddy, Louie.  Bender always knows which presents are his, so I have to put them up where he can't get into them.  And, I might add, this happens every single year. 

And please disregard that annoying single, upside down flip flop.  Our house is filled with flip flops that have no matching partner these days, thanks to the rotten dog pictured above. 

I hope you all have a very wonderful holiday weekend!

Enjoy!

"With the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible."- Julia Child