Slice N Bake Lemon Gems

These come from Taste of Home:

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 cup colored nonpareils
• LEMON ICING:
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Directions

• In a small bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in lemon peel. Combine flour and cornstarch; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.
• Shape into a 1-3/4-in.-diameter roll; roll in nonpareils. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours or until firm.
• Unwrap and cut into 1/4-in. slices. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 9-11 minutes or until set and edges are lightly browned. Cool for 1 minute before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
• In a small bowl, combine icing ingredients. Spread over cookies. Yield: 28 cookies.

***Excellent!  Great lemon flavor!  Kind of like a shortbread cookie.***

Lemonburst (or Orangeburst) Cookies

Found these on The Sisters Cafe and knew they would be great for Mother's Day!

2-1/2 to 3 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 Tb finely grated orange or lemon zest
1 cup white chocolate chips 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light.  Beat in egg and vanilla until smooth.  Gradually add flour mixture until combined.  Stir in  orange zest and chips.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets.  Bake about 10 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.  Cool for several minutes on the sheets before transferring to rack to cool completely.  Store in airtight container.

***Yummy!  I will add more zest next time, because you could barely taste it.  Might also play with the recipe a bit, the flour/egg/butter ratio seemed to be off a bit. But a great concept.***

Cranberry Ecstasy Bars (just like Starbucks!)

Found this recipe in a FOODday several years ago:

Cake:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup minced dried cranberries
1 1/2 oz white chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup minced crystallized ginger

Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
3 Tbs unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup plus 3 Tbs powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp grated lemon zest
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup minced dried cranberries

Drizzle:
1 oz white chocolate
1/4 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp milk

Preheat over to 350
Line a 9x13 pan with parchement paper, and lightly greased (or spray Pam) the paper

To make the cake:
Cream together butter and sugar
Add eggs and vanilla
Sift together flour, ground ginger and salt; add to butter mixture until well incorporated
Fold in dried cranberries, white chocolate, and minced ginger
Spread the batter in the prepared pan
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown
Let cool completely in the pan

To make the frosting:
Mix together cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and salt until well mixed
Remove cake from pan and trim edges until cake is uniformly flat
Spread frosting onto top of cake
Sprinkle minced cranberries over top
Refrigerate for 1 hour

To make the drizzle:
Microwave white chocolate in glass bowl, in 15 second increments, stirring after each
Once fully melted, whisk in powdered sugar and milk
Scrape into a sturdy plastic bag, cut a tiny piece off the corner, and squeeze to drizzle decoratively over cake

To serve, slice the cake lengthwise down the center
Cut each rectangle into 4 equal portions, and slice each of these diagonally

Enjoy!

***LOVE these! It seems overwhelming at first, because there are so many steps, but really it's pretty easy! So much better than the Starbucks version, and I love knowing exactly what is in my treat! We cut them even smaller, because they are so rich!***

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

2/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 Tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 372
Mix butter, baking powder, sugar and salt together.
Beat in egg, milk and vanilla.
Add flour.
Do not over mix!

Chill dough for 1 hour in fridge
Roll dough out to about 1/4 inch thick
Use cookie cutters, any shape for any occasion!
Place on cookie sheet (I line mine with parchement paper)
Bake for 7-8 minutes (Just until ever-so-slightly starting to brown on the bottom edges)

Allow to cool before frosting!

***Super fun activity to do with kiddos! My nieces love to come over and decorate for different holidays!***

Gooey Butterscotch Bars Recipe

Ingredients

1 recipe sugar cookie mix
2/3 c butter, softened
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 c sugar
1/4 tsp salt
*Mix well*
1 egg
1 Tbs Milk (I used soy)
1 tsp vanilla
*Mix well*
2 c flour
1 package (3.4 ounces) instant butterscotch pudding mix
1 package (14 ounces) caramels
1/2 cup evaporated milk (I used soy)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup butterscotch chips

Directions

Add the pudding mix in at the end with the flour. Press into an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until set.

In a large saucepan, combine caramels and milk. Cook and stir over medium-low heat until melted. Remove from the heat. Stir in vanilla.
Pour over crust.
Sprinkle with butterscotch chips.
Cool completely. Cut into bars. Store in an airtight container.
Yield: about 3 dozen.

Adapted from Taste of Home!

***Delicious! Of course, I made mine GF. Which meant no packaged sugar cookie mix. I like things from scratch anyway! Oh, and the original recipe called for nuts...which I left out! Not my favorite thing!***

Cinnamon Sugar Flatbread Crackers

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (I used GF)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons warm water

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons sugar + 3/4 tablespoon cinnamon for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl and mix well. Add water and olive oil and mix until a dough forms, using your hands at the end. Form it into a ball.

Dust a baking sheet with flour (or use parchment paper) and roll the dough as thin as you can with a rolling pin. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture all over top and cut with a pizza slicer into small or large crackers. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden and crisp. Let cool completely.

Adapted from How Sweet Eats, found HERE!

***Great Flavor! I did not get mine thin enough, so they were not super crispy, but still good. Would make excellent plain crackers without the cinnamon and sugar. And since it was the afternoon, and I have been craving Smores...oh yeah, I went there!***

Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies

Mix together:
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2-1 tsp cinnamon

In another bowl, cream together:
1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Add flour mixture to butter mixture.
Add in 3 cups oats and 12 oz bag of cinnamon chips (or butterscotch or white chocolate chips).

Bake at 375f for 8 minutes!


***Original recipe for Oatmeal Scotchies (butterscotch chips) by Nestle. I am now obsessed with cinnamon chips (made by Hersheys) so often sub these in during the holidays! Love the cinnamon flavor, not too overpowering. Hubs will sit and eat most of the batch in one evening if I don't hide these!***

Caramel Brownies

What to do when your Salted Caramels don't completely set? Make homemade Caramel Brownies of course!

I use a basic brownie recipe from Baker's Chocolate:
4 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
3/4 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour

Microwave unsweetened chocolate and butter in large bowl on high 2 minutes. Stir until chocolate is completely melted (I usually put the chocolate in for a bit first, as it takes longer to melt than the butter).
Stir in sugar, add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add flour.
Spread into greased, foil-lined 9x13 pan (or pan with parchement paper).

Now you take the caramel and spread it on top, taking a knife and swirling it a bit.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 or until toothpick in center comes out with crumbs.

Place pan on wire rack and let cool completely. Try to keep husband out of the pan.

Pull parchement paper and brownies out of pan and cut into squares.

Pumpkin Blondies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1¼ cups brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
3/4 cup pecans, chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a 9×13-inch baking dish with foil. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt. Stir together and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined. Mix in the pumpkin puree. With the mixer on low speed add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Fold in the white chocolate and butterscotch chips (and pecans, if using) with a rubber spatula.

Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs, about 35-40 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely before cutting.

To serve, lift the cake from the pan using the foil and transfer to a cutting board. Peel off the foil and using a sharp knife, cut into 24 squares.

Found HERE!

***I used parchement paper rather than foil because I think it is easier to use! No pecans for me thanks, although hubby would love them! Great flavor! Basically tastes like awesome pumpkin bread!!!***

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

1 cup organic unsalted peanut butter

3/4 cup granulated cane sugar

1 large egg, slightly beaten

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup dark chocolate, roughly chopped

1/2 cup roasted unsalted peanuts, chopped

fine grain fleur de sel to finish cookies

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line the bottoms of two 12-by-18-inch sheet pans with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, stir the peanut butter, sugar, egg, baking soda and kosher salt until combined.

Stir in the chocolate and peanuts.

Using a small, greased ice cream scoop, measure out the dough in teaspoon sized balls.

Place the dough on the prepared pans, spacing them 2 inches apart.

Bake on the middle shelves of the oven, rotating the pans 180 degrees halfway through the baking time, until lightly golden and spread to a puffy mound, about 12 to 14 minutes.

Sprinkle lightly with fleur de sel.

Let cool completely on the pans on wire racks.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to week.

Found HERE!

***I cooked these for about 10 minutes and it was plenty...although I do like my cookies a little on the soft side! I used chocolate chips...I definitely recommend getting some good dark chocolate! And I used chunky peanut butter, so I left out the chopped peanuts. Yummy! Great flourless recipe!!!***

Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2 sticks softened butter

3/4 Cup granulated sugar

1 Cup packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 Tablespoons pure vanilla

1/4 Cup burnt caramel sauce (any caramel sauce works)

3 3/4 Cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

12 oz bag mini chocolate chips

1 1/2 Cups chopped good quality chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a stand or electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until well combined. Beat in the eggs and vanilla, then the caramel sauce until well combined.

2. Place the flour, salt and baking soda into a large bowl; mix. Slowly add to wet ingredients, then add chocolate chips.

3. Place 1/4 Cup of cookie dough into muffin top cups. Press down, then sprinkle with a pinch or two of sea salt, then press chocolate chunks over top. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until just golden around edges. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Serve with milk!!

18 Large cookies

Found HERE!

***Sadly, I am without a muffin top pan...so I used a regular muffin tin and made smaller cookies. I actually think this was a good thing...you can eat more than one if you really want to, ya know? :-) I'm all about eating multiple cookies! Definitely make sure to let them cool a bit before trying to take them out of the pan! I cooked mine for about 8-9 minutes (regular sized muffin tin). And I decreased the sugar by 1/4 cup since there is also caramel in there...I'm a sugaraholic, but I have my limits :-) Pretty good!***

~Oh dear! I went to bed, Scott came home, and...He nearly finished a dozen of these!!! His advice: Have a LARGE glass of milk available :-) ~

Molasses Crinkles

Pretty much my new favorite recipe for Molasses Cookies...

Makes 4 dozen cookies

3/4 C butter
3/4 C brown sugar, packed
1 egg
heaping 1/4 C molasses
2 1/2 C flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger

Cream together butter, sugar, egg, and molasses until creamy.

Sift together flour, soda, salt and spices. Add to the creamed mixture and mix well.*

Heat oven to 350. Roll dough into balls the size of large walnuts. Roll in sugar.

Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. (For a more cracked cookie, sprinkle each ball of dough with 2-3 drops of water).

Bake about 10 minutes, just until set, but not hard.

Remove from the cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack.
Store in an airtight container.

*You may wish to chill the dough...

Found this one here: