Favorite Cookies

chomp chomp chomp

Since it's the holidays I wanted to compile some my favorite cookie recipes that I've blogged about into one post. Here are some, in no particular order:

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies - This is a favorite. A great combo of chocolate and mint!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies - Ooooh these are delicious. I love peanut butter and chocolate.

Maple Sugar Cookies - A yummy Martha Stewart recipe.

My Mom's Sugar Cookies - The BEST sugar cookies in the world!

Almond Balls - A new favorite!

So when I started writing this post I really felt as though I've blogged about a lot of different cookies. Well apparently not because the 5 cookie recipes above are the only ones I've ever blogged about! So my New Year's resolution is to: Bake more cookies and blog about all of them.

No go make some cookies. :)

Almond Balls

Rob has dubbed these cookies "Angel Balls". I'm not really sure why but I think it's funny and I laugh to myself every time I think about it. I tend to laugh to myself rather frequently but that's beside the point. I recently made something similar at a friend's house but her recipe was secret (shhhhhh) so I got this recipe from my mom. I think they're great for the holidays.

Printable Recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 cup butter (softened)
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup ground almonds - blanched (finely chopped)
2/3 cup oats (chopped)
2 cups flour
1 cup powdered sugar for coating

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl cream butter, sugar, salt and vanilla with mixer until well combined. Finely chop almonds in a food processor until they reach a consistency similar to flour. Beat into the butter mixture. Roughly chop oatmeal in a food processor and add to the mixture and stir. Add the flour, one cup at a time and stir by hand until all ingredients are well combined.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Take about a teaspoon of dough and roll into a tight ball. The ball should be just a little smaller than a quarter. Space the cookies one inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Since there is no leavening in these cookies they do not rise, therefore they can be placed close together. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the bottom of the cookies are light brown.

Remove cookie sheet from the oven and let cool for at least 5 minutes before taking the cookies off and moving them to a cooling rack. If you try to remove them from the cookie sheet right away they will fall apart....I know this because I tried.

Once cooled, toss the cookies in powdered sugar and eat. Yum!

Let it Snow!

It’s hard to believe Christmas is in five days. I am now finally feeling festive and inspired to bake (and eat!) lots of Holiday cookies. I am not a fan of snow or cold and there is snow in the forecast almost every day this week…and I’m actually looking forward to it. This is surprising even to me. I love being in my kitchen and watching the snow fall and smelling deliciously delicious cookies baking in the oven. Mmmm yum! I guarantee though once Christmas is over I will be cursing it every chance I get. But for now I shall not be a scrooge and I will enjoy it!

Let it snow!

Candle Addiction

So as some of you may know from previous posts here and here that I love candles. Specifically Illuminations candles but sadly, they are no longer in business. I took a picture last time I reorganized my candle cupboard (see below). I was making room for a new candle love. Yes, I said it...I have a new love. It's hard to let go of Illuminations but I must since I have no choice. Queue the overly dramatic music. Ha! Really, I have moved on. So my new favorite is Slatkin & Co candles. So many great smells. They also burn really evenly (probably because they have three wicks) but burn up rather quickly. I'm just happy to have found candles almost comparable to Illuminations. I think I need another cupboard....

 So many candles!