Holiday Baking: Peppermint Mocha Cookies

Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday! I've been so off my game this year and since I wasn't planning to ship any cookie gifts to my family and friends, I didn't bake anything special until the other night. I had picked up Andes peppermint crunch baking chips earlier this year and have been dying to use it since. With the holiday drinks out in full force, I wanted to make a Starbucks inspired peppermint mocha cookie and was lucky to discover Tracey's blog!

My butter didn't come to complete room temperature, so my dough ended up being a little crumbly. I recommend putting the dough in the fridge for a good 30 minutes before scooping and dip the top of the dough in a plate filled with the peppermint baking chips before baking.



Peppermint Mocha Cookies
recipe from Tracey's Culinary Adventures

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons instant coffee granules
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 1/2 cups peppermint baking chips
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Jumbo marshmallows, cut in half (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, instant coffee granules, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt together. Cream the butter and both sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg and egg yolk, and then the vanilla and peppermint extracts. With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients, beating just until combined. Mix in the peppermint baking chips and chocolate chips.

Bake for 8 minutes and add half of the marshmallow. Bake an extra 3 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are set (don't overbake!). Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks and let the cookies cool for a few minutes then remove the cookies to the wire rack to cool completely.

Holiday Baking: White Chocolate with Pistachios and Cranberry Cookies

Today I'm sharing with you my last holiday baking recipe that was sent out to my closest family and friends. I honestly can't tell you how these taste since I baked and packaged, but hopefully Melissa will leave a comment and let me know how it is taste wise. The original recipe calls for rolled oats, but I omitted that and added pistachios instead. Let me tell you, if you can, buy the deshelled ones... It will literally make your life so much easier! I used what I had on hand and it was not fun whatsoever standing there for a good 10 minutes.

White Chocolate with Pistachio and Cranberry Cookies
Recipe from Brown Eyed Baker

1¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2-1 cup pistachios

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and the vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the white chocolate chips, pistachio and the dried cranberries.

4. Drop dough onto baking sheet. Bake until cookies turn slightly golden about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack until completely cool.

Holiday Baking: Confetti Cake Batter Cookies

Simple recipes with minimal ingredients makes holiday baking stress free and I will take all the help I need. These are seriously so simple to make and you can also make the dough, scoop out into balls and freeze ahead of time. I'm not a fan of cake batter flavor anything (except candles), but these cookies turned out super moist and really good!

P.S. Sorry for the poor quality of photos... gloomy skies make ugly photos :(



Confetti Cake Batter Cookies
Recipe from Sallys Baking Addiction

1 box (18.25 oz) vanilla/white cake mix
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable/canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350F. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix together everything but the sprinkles. Gently fold in the sprinkles.

Drop rounded 1-inch balls of dough onto baking sheet. You can also roll the top of the cookie dough in more sprinkles.

Bake for 9 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Holiday Baking: Chewy Nutella Cookies

It's already December 5th and I've been searching and testing a couple recipes for a good couple weeks now and I am so glad I tried this recipe from Buttercream Blondie because it is so so so good! The last recipe I tried from her site was a bit of a fail on my end, but these cookies are far from that! If you like a nice chewy cookie, this is it! Next time I'm going to add more Nutella... I'm not even sure I added 3/4 cup since I didn't measure and only added what I had left.

Chewy Nutella Cookies
recipe from buttercream blondie

8 ounces unsalted butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup nutella
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 & 1/2 cups AP flour

Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Add nutella and continue to mix.
Add eggs and extract, mixing till combined.
Mix in dry ingredients.
Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate a few hours or over night.
Scoop dough using a 1 ounce cookie scoop.
Bake at 325 degrees for approx. 15-16 minutes rotating once halfway through.

Holiday Baking: Chai Pumpkin Spice Kiss Cookies

Been testing out some recipes for this years cookie gram to my family and close friends and I personally love Chai anything and everything. Plus, I was stuck with 2 bags of the Pumpkin Spice Kisses and I desperately needed to get rid of them.... not to mention, I'm still stuck with a bag of them!

I ended up chopping up the kisses and mixed it in the dough since my last thumbprint recipe was a disaster which I had to turn them into a cookie bar. Thankfully these cookies turned out really good! Very cake-like, moist and delicious. The chai flavor wasn't as strong as I hoped for and the original recipe only called to sprinkle the chai spice on top, which I ended up adding it into the dough. I recommend putting in less cinnamon, more cardamon and maybe add in more chai concentrate.



Chai Pumpkin Spice Kiss Cookies
Original recipe from Pass the Sushi

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup chai concentrate (I used the brand Oregon Chai)
1 large egg
1 teas vanilla extract
1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teas baking soda
1/8 teas salt
1/2 teas chai spice mix (recipe below)
10-12 pumpkin spice kisses, chopped, optional
OR 22-24 Pumpkin spice Hershey’s Kisses to top on cookie

Chai Spice Mix:
1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer and cream at medium speed until fluffy, or with a hand mixer, for about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg, chai concentrate, and the vanilla, mix until combined. Add the flour, baking soda, chai spice mix and salt, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl as necessary. Mix in the chopped kisses.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 325F.

Using your hands, roll the dough into 22 to 24 1 inch round balls. Place the dough balls on parchment paper lined baking sheets.

Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes. Meanwhile, unwrap kisses.

Remove the cookies from the oven and immediately place pumpkin kisses in the center of each cookie. Don’t touch or the kisses will turn into puddles! Cool completely.

Holiday Baking: Candy Cane Cookie Bars

November is finally over and I've been thinking about what treats I plan to send out this year. I really wanted to make the candy cane kiss cookies which I made a few years ago, but I don't know what happened, but the "dough" was extremely crumbly. I did refrigerate it for awhile, but trying to form a ball was a huge mess! I already used up a whole bag of the Hershey's candy cane kisses and I really didn't want to waste it. Instead, I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper, poured crumbly mix on to sheet, pressing down evenly and baked it for about 15-20 minutes. The cookie is really good, like a shortbread. Even though I won't be remaking these for Christmas presents, but definitely give it a go! Maybe you'll have better luck than me :)

Spiced Pumpkin Kiss Cookies

It's that time of the year to start thinking about holiday baking whether you already have a set list of goodies you bake year after year or if you're like me, you like to test out new recipes. A couple years ago, I did send out candy cane kiss cookies, eggnog shortbread, chocolate covered gummi bears and chocolate bark. This year... I'm still thinking whether I want to send out goodies or not, but I do have a couple recipes set aside and these spiced pumpkin kiss cookies from Buttercream Blondie were one of them.

When stores started stocking shelves with Halloween candy, for the life of me, I couldn't find these pumpkin kisses which everyone on twitter and instagram was boasting about, but when I eventually did, like a crazy person I bought 3 bags!! I actually do not like them. I have no clue what I'm going to do with them, but I saw this recipe and figured I'd give it a go. First off, I don't drink. Maybe once year? Or every other year? Obviously I don't own Bourbon so I omitted that, but I'm sure if you added it, it would of tasted a lot better. Sadly to say, this cookie will not be appearing in this years Christmas box. It was a little bland... probably from omitting the Bourbon? I'm not sure, but I wish the cookie itself had more spice because adding the kiss itself doesn't make the cookie that much better. Oh well, I ended up freezing the rest of the dough and will bake them when my mom is here. I know she'll gobble them up :)



Spiced Pumpkin Kiss Cookies
recipe from buttercream blondie

1 stick unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon Bourbon
1/2 cup mascarpone
2 & 3/4 cup AP flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bag Hershey's Pumpkin Kisses

Cream butter and sugars till light and fluffy.
Add egg, extract and bourbon.
Mix in mascarpone.
Sift dries together & mix in till combined.
Scoop cookies using a half ounce cookie scoop and roll.
Chill cookies for at least 30 minutes before baking.
Bake at 325 degrees for 12-13 minutes rotating halfway through. While they're baking, unwrap the kisses.
As soon as you remove cookies from oven, place them on a cooling rack and press a pumpkin kiss into the center of each one.

100th Post: Pumpkin Bread Muffin

Pumpkin Bread
Original recipe from Peabody

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1 cup plain pumpkin puree
½ cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 ½ cups granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 325F.
Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
In a bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices; set aside.
In another bowl, mix pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, eggs and sugar for about 1 minute.
Add flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture and mix just until combined.
Pour batter into each cup.
Bake for 22-25 minutes or until the middle is done.
Cool completely before frosting- optional of course :)

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup Butter (1 stick), room temperature
8oz. Cream Cheese, room temperature
1 tsp Vanilla extract
2-3 cups Powdered Sugar

Cream butter and cream cheese til creamy. Mix in the vanilla. Add 1 cup of sugar (i used 2 1/2) at a time to desired sweetness.

Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

Candy Cane Kiss Cookies
Recipe from Recipe Girl

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/4 cups butter, at room temperature
1 tsp peppermint extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup finely chopped Candy Cane flavored Hershey’s Kisses
granulated sugar
additional, unwrapped Candy Cane Kisses- about 30

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. In large mixer bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter, extracts and egg. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often until creamy (2-3 minutes). In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to wet mixture and beat, scraping bowl often until well blended (1-2 minutes). The mixture will be a bit crumbly. Stir in chopped Kisses.

3. Shape dough into ¾-inch to 1-inch balls; roll in granulated sugar. Place 1-inch apart on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set. As soon as they come out of the oven, press a Candy Cane Kiss in the center of each cookie. They’ll crack a little around the edges, so just use your fingers to kind of hold the cookie together while you set the kiss inside.

Egg Nog Shortbread

Egg Nog Shortbread
Original Recipe from The Fig Tree

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 and 1/4 cup of unsalted butter, softened
1 cup of white sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 egg
1 tablespoon of eggnog
3 and 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
3 cups of icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
3 to 4 tablespoons of eggnog (enough to make a spreading consistency)


In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer on high for about 30 seconds. Add the sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Beat until combined.

Beat in vanilla, egg and eggnog into the dough. (note: I added a lot more eggnog because my dough was really dry and crumbly or some reason)

Beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer. If it becomes too tough, mix in the remaining dough by hand.

Divide dough in half, cover and chill for 1 hour.

Pre-heat oven to 375'F.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the dough portions to 1/4 inch thick. Using a fluted 3 inch round cookie cutter, cut out the dough. Place dough rounds 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet (I used parchment paper).

Bake cookies for about 8 to 10 minutes (or until the edges look lightly golden).

Transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool. Repeat with second portion of dough.

Once cooled, drizzle or ice the cookies with the eggnog drizzle/icing.

Eggnog Drizzle/Icing

Stir 3 cups of icing sugar with 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Slowly add in 3-4 tablespoons of eggnog or until you get the right consistency to either drizzle the icing or spread it.**

** I added about 2 cups of powder sugar for mine.

Rustic Double-Crust Apple Pie

Rustic Double-Crust Apple Pie
Recipe from Pies, Pies & More Pies by Viola Goren

Pastry Dough

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup cold heavy whipping cream

Filling

1 stick unsalted butter
3 Granny Smith Apples and 4 Delicious apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (I squeezed a lemon over mine to avoid browning)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Egg Wash

1 egg yolk with 2 tsp of water.

Prepare Pastry In an electric mixer fitted with paddle, mix flour, sugar and butter until texture is sandy. Add egg yolk and cream, mixing until dough forms. Shape into a thick round, wrap with plastic cling wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Divide chilled dough into two pieces, with one piece about twice as big as the other. Return smaller piece to fridge. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough about 1/4 inch thick and cut into a 12-inch round. Wrap dough loosely around rolling pin and transfer to 9-inch pie pan. Trim edges and freeze for 30 mins.

Preheat oven to 340F. Line chilled pie shell with parchment paper and fill with baking weights (or raw beans). Bake until crust is dry and lightly golden, about 15 minutes. Remove paper and weights and bake until crust is golden and baked through, 10-15 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Prepare Filling In a large pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add apples, sugar and cinnamon, cook for about 10 minutes, until apples are soft. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Transfer apple pie filling to baked pie shell and even out. On a lightly floured surface, roll out smaller piece of dough into a 10-inch round. Place dough on top of filling and crimp edges to seal.** Cut out shapes to make slits on top to vent. Brush with egg wash and bake until top crust is golden, about 40 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

** We lattice weaved ours.