Butter Twist Cookies

These are a perfect cookie to bake when you want to throw something together really quick, you only have "the basics" in your pantry, but yet of course you want it to be simple, pretty and most importantly, delicious. These Butter Twist cookies by Martha Stewart are a winner for sure.  They are crisp and crunchy, making them the best kind of cookie for dunking, if you are into that sort of thing.  Which we all are in my family; coffee, an ice cold glass of milk, hot tea... almost no beverage goes undunked!  Yum!  They have a lightly sweet flavor, and a wonderful feel in your mouth from the flaky butter taste to the crispness of each bite.  These will be bookmarked as a do again, a perfect playdate cookies, lovely for tea parties and just great with a nice cozy mug of hot chocolate at the end of a long day.

Butter Twists
recipe courtesy Martha Stewart's Cookies

1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg white
1 1/2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Put butter and sugar in the bowl of and electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until creamy.  Mix in vanilla and egg white.  Reduce speed to low.  Add flour and salt; mix until combined.

Roll dough into 3/4 inch balls. Roll each ball into a 6-inch log. Bend log in half, then twist.  Space 1 inch apart on baking aheets lined with parchment paper.

Bake, rotating halfway through, until cookies just begin to turn golden, 13-15 minutes.  Let cool on parchment on wire racks.  Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature.

*I added sprinkles to make them a little festive for a tea party the were baked for.  But the sprinkles are not necessary- just fun.  

Ohio Blogging Association Blog Swap! (With a Sugar Cookie Bar Recipe)

As a part of today's Ohio Blogging Association's Cleveland November Blog Swap, I'm happy to introduce you to Sarah from Cooker Girl. On this day, bloggers from around the Northeast Ohio area are guest posting on one another's blogs as a way to help to get to know each other in our blogging community. For a full listing of blog swap participants, please visit Poise in Parma today.

I am sharing one of my favorite recipes on Cooker Girl today so please visit me there as well!

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Hi, I'm Sarah from Cooker Girl.  I like to cook and I love to bake.  I created my food blog to keep track of recipes I've tried so I can go back to them later.  Most of the time they are adaptations of existing recipes, but there are some originals and family recipes that I've shared as well.  I hope you'll stop by sometime!

The holiday season is approaching, and for many people that means making and decorating cut-out sugar cookies.  It's a great project for the whole family, but they're time consuming.  For this reason, I only make cut-out cookies about once a year.

During the rest of the year, when you want the sugar cookie flavor (and frosting) without all the work, these bars are the perfect solution.  This recipe is made using a jelly roll pan, but it can easily be halved and baked in a 9x13 pan.

Sugar Cookie Bars
Adapted from Beantown Baker

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
5 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 375.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg. Add the vanilla and mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Spread dough onto a greased 11x 17 jelly roll pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes until light golden brown, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely then frost.

Buttercream Frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp milk
4 cups confectioners' sugar

In a large bowl, mix the butter, vanilla and milk with an electric mixer until fluffy. Gradually add the sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. Keep mixing until all the sugar is incorporated and the frosting is white and fluffy.

A big thanks to Amie for letting me take over for the day!

Soft and Chewy Trail Mix Cookies

What an exciting weekend this past one was!  Early Saturday morning my beautiful sister gave birth to my very first nephew!  As with many births, especially those that begin with an induction, was a very long process.  Baby Neil was just so comfy in there he wasn't sure he was ready to come out.  So all day Friday and well into the early morning on Saturday my brother in law, my parents and I waited patiently for his grand arrival at the hospital.  Lots of magazines, chit chat, fidgeting and of course bad vending machine food helped pass the time.  I tried to make a good decision, but after 10 hours of hospital lighting it was increasingly difficult.  There were these cookies by Sunmade that sounded super yummy. They were Trail Mix Cookies, crunchy little cookies full of all the great stuff you would find  in a bag of trail mix.  Although they tasted great, they were anything but healthy.  So once I got home I was determined to recreate these guys in a more healthful way.

These cookies are pretty healthy, replacing the fat with applesauce, using only egg whites and full of lots of stuff to bump up your energy level but also satisfy those mid-day cravings.  They remind me a ton of a granola bar, but the nice thing is that they are small so there isn't a big commitment that a whole bar has.  You get to eat a cookie and not feel too bad afterwards.  Nice trade off!

I think I will be playing around with the recipe, replacing some of the brown sugar with white sugar to give more of the "crunch" that I like in a cookie.  But this recipe is definitely a keeper.

print this recipe

Soft and Chewy Trail Mix Cookies
makes 3 dozen cookies
recipe adapted from allrecipes

1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 egg whites
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/4 cups quick cooking oats
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
3/4 cup sweetened coconut
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with silpats, parchment paper or grease with nonstick cooking spray.

Beat applesauce, brown sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. In another bowl, use an electric mixer to beat egg whites until they are frothy and begin to firm up. Fold egg whites into applesauce mixture. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Fold into the egg mixture. Stir in the oats, chocolate chips, almonds, sunflower seeds, coconut and raisins. Drop by heaping teaspoons on prepared baking sheets.  These cookies don't spread out at all remaining in a mound after baking.  If you would rather have a flatter cookie, press down lightly with greased finger tips.

Bake cookies in preheated oven until set and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Remove immediately to wire racks to cool.

I linked up!

Fridays, Feasting With Friends- Featuring Kelly Roshelli

One of the delights of life is eating with friends, second to that is talking about eating. And, for an unsurpassed double whammy, there is talking about eating while you are eating with friends."

~Laurie Colwin 'Home Cooking'

Kelly Roshelli

Kelly and her beautiful daughter, Avery

Our guest for todays Fridays, Feasting with Friends is my lovely college friend Kelly Roshelli.  We met while attending Ohio University, what seems like simply ages ago!  Kelly is just about the most bubbly person you will ever meet.  She is silly, full of life, and enjoys every. single. second. of it!  It is impossible to not feel happy and have a wonderful day when you are in her company.  I used to always say that Kelly was my wild and crazy friend, but that isn't at all the right way to describe her.  What I always meant by this statement was that she was always so brave and outgoing.  I have always been a more reserved person.  I love letting loose, but I tend to shy away from the limelight; which usually means taking the backseat to many things (although deep inside I would love to be that one on that stage singing my heart out to a crowd...)  But with Kelly, I feel braver, stronger and so much more outgoing.  She brings out those sides to me that I seldom see any other time.  I admire her zest of life and in that way wish I could be just like her.  Thank you Kelly for bringing out in many ways, my best self, the one I am usually too afraid to let loose- but makes me feel so great when I actually do!

Kelly lives with her sweet husband Erick and their stunning daughter Avery, just outside Washington D.C. Although the distance stinks, for I would love to see her more often, she is amazing at making time for her friends back here at home when she comes to visit.  One of the coolest things she and I got to share was being pregnant at the same time and now bonding over the joys of motherhood like we never have before.

Kelly and I, both wonderfully pregnant at her baby shower

Maybe one day (forever fingers crossed) she and Eric will decide to move back to Ohio.  But until then I will enjoy our phone conversations and live up every second I get to spend time with her family at each visit.  I love you Kel!  Thanks for your beautiful friendship and for always making time.

Please enjoy todays Fridays, Feasting with Friends.  And I hope that one day you too can experience the Joy of Kelly.  Because it really is an awesome thing.


What is your favorite thing to cook?
I love to cook my dad's homemade spaghetti sauce! I usually whip up a huge batch on a weekend afternoon and freeze it in 2 person servings!

How about your least favorite thing to cook?
I'm not a big fan of cooking anything on the grill; that's Erick's job!

What is your favorite local restaurant and what is one you are dying to try out?
a fun favorite restaurant is called Marrakesh. It's Moroccan and super fun. I love taking people there from out of town!

Music and food go together so beautifully. You are hosting a dinner party, what would be on your playlist?
Good question....I'm not super big into music, so maybe some Jack Johnson?

What would you choose to be your last meal on earth?
Cheese!!! I LOVE cheese, all kinds, if I could eat cheese for every meal every day, I would! Kinda cheesy, haha.

What are you currently reading?
I'm not much into novels, so right now I'm reading Baby Led Weaning. It's a book on how to start my 7 month old straight on solids instead of puree's first since she seems to like to feed herself instead of me spoon feeding her!

don't you just want to eat her up?!!

What is your favorite Kitchen Gadget?
My garlic press....couldn't live without it!

Do you have a signature go-to dish?
Lately I've been making a variation of a greek styled quinoa dish or a mixture of the pad thai dish from Amie's website using the peanut sauce instead of the traditional pad thai sauce.

What is your favorite thing about where you live in Alexandria, VA?
My favorite thing about living in Alexandria, is how it is so close to so many things to do. 15 min to DC, about an hour to the mountains and wine vineyards, and not far from the beach. I also love the weather! We get all 4 seasons with a fairly mild winter which is great and makes it so there is almost always something in bloom!

Do you have a favorite meal from your childhood and do you cook it today?
I love grilled cheese and mac and cheese....go figure, they are both with cheese!

Top 3 Movies of all time?
I love SO many movies! Favorite Comedy is Multiplicity, Favorite Kids is Hook, and I love Vampire movies, the super hero type movies like X-Men and Iron Man, and loved Inception last summer!

What was your happiest moment in life?
Seeing my daughter's heartbeat on the sonogram for the first time, I still cry when thinking about it!

Where do you do your grocery shopping?
Harris Teeter or Whole Foods

What is your favorite guilty pleasure when it comes to food?
Chocolate. I love those little dark chocolate Dove Promises.

Can you tell me about what you are most proud of?
My daughter, Avery.

Kelly, Eric and Avery

Do you have Culinary Resolutions that you would like to accomplish this year?
I am trying to learn to cook more healthy meals and getting my family to enjoy different types of foods.

One word that best describes you is: 

no clue! My husband just called me Dynamic :)

I actually asked Kelly for this recipe.  She was baking a batch the last time I talked to her and it got me in the mood!  I have never tried making them before so I am excited to use her recipe.  Thanks Kel!

Print this Recipe

Meringue Cookies
Meringues are egg white-sugar cookies that are baked for a long time at a low temperature.

4 large egg whites
1/2 tsp distilled white vinegar, or cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 200ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with foil.

In a large bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until frothy. Add vinegar; beat until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high and gradually add sugar; beat until glossy stiff peaks form. Beat in vanilla.

Spoon tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets about 1 inch apart each, making about 44 cookies.
**Actually I put the mixture into a cookie decorating funnel (not sure the correct name) and squeeze out the cookies. This makes them look much prettier like the ones from Trader Joes.

Bake until meringues feel dry and crisp all the way through, about 3 hours. Turn off oven; leave meringues in oven for 1 hour. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks to cool completely. Peel meringues off foil and store in an airtight container.

Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.

This recipe is such a winner because of so few ingredients and relatively low calories for what you get...fat free. and Very versatile, you can use tons of variations with extracts such as lemon, peppermint, chocolate added to make many flavors...I even thought of maybe using food color to make for different holidays!

Fridays, Feasting With Friends- Featuring Rachael Smith

"One of the delights of life is eating with friends, second to that is talking about eating. And, for an unsurpassed double whammy, there is talking about eating while you are eating with friends."

~Laurie Colwin 'Home Cooking'

Rachael Smith

My guest for today's Fridays, Feasting with Friends is my sweet friend Rachael Smith.  Rachael and I have known each other for simply ages, something like 7 or 8 years.  Which may not sound like a long time except for the fact that she and I have never met in person!  I first met Rachael on a Tori Amos forum (my most favorite musician ever).  This was my very first experience making online friends.  In the begining on the forum everyone mostly just talked about Tori, but after a while these "online people" started to become actual friends.  We had a common bond in this musician but soon realized we had more in common then we first would have thought.  I have made quite a lot of wonderful friends through this website and I will be forever grateful for the sincere friendships I have built with these online buddies.  Some I have had the opportunity to meet in person, but alas Rachael isn't one of them (at least not yet!  I am still holding on hope it will happen one day!!)  Rachael lives in England, so it isn't as easy as hoping in the car for a quick visit.  But thanks to the power of the internet, online forums, social networking sites and blogs, she and I have remained close after all these years.

Rachael and I both share some funny facts- we were pregnant with our first children at the same time.  They were both born with FULL heads of hair. I mean, we are talking some serious hair!  We always joked that they should start a rock band because they were born looking like naturals for the job.  And now, four years later I just had another baby and Rachael is now pregnant with her second.  My Owen again has a headful so I am super curious if Baby Smith with also be blessed with it!  If we lived closer our little ones would be the best of friends, I am sure.

Rachael is an amazingly strong woman, full of compassion and also just as much silliness.  She has this job that I am blown away with- she is a mental health nurse for children 10-18.  Wow, talk about challenging!  But in the meantime she also makes time for some wonderful outlets; she is a dancer and writer, takes stunning pictures and also bakes the most delicious looking cupcakes (do you think it would make it in one piece by airmail for me to have a little taste?!)  Rachael has started a fun blog called Little Cupcake Dreams where she shares her recipes for all the yummy treats she bakes.  Be sure to pop over to be inspired!  I promise you leave with a serious cupcake craving.  So without further ado, I bring you Rachael Smith.

What is your favorite thing to cook?
Cupcakes!!

How about your least favorite thing to cook?
Cottage pie.... I find it a vey boring meal. (I asked Rachael what Cottage Pie was, I had never heard of it.  It sounded very Brittish to me.  She told me that it is like Shepards Pie, but with beef.  And all this time I thought Shepherds Pie was supposed to be with beef, but I guess tradionally it is made with lamb. Learn something new every day! Thanks Rach!)

What is your favorite local restaurant and what is one you are dying to try out?
My favorite local restaurant is La Vista which is Italian or Loch Fyne (fish)

Music and food go together so beautifully. You are hosting a dinner party, what would be on your playlist?
Jack Johnson happy chill out music :)

What would you choose to be your last meal on earth?
Ooo very tricky.... crab linguine... or chinese food?

What are you currently reading?
Derren Brown - Confessions of a Conjurer, I am slightly obsessed with Derren Brown at the moment. His illusions and mind tricks are flawless!

What is your favorite Kitchen Gadget?
hmmmm.... I love my stone bake tray. Its really good for meat, as it absorbs all the juices/fat then you wash it... then when you use it again it makes it cripsy goodness :D

Do you have a signature go-to dish?
Curry, I love cooking curries! You can put anything in them and they are so quick to make!

What is your favorite thing about where you live?
I live about 30 minutes on the train from London, so it's really easy to get to for theatre (and I go to the theatre a LOT!), its on the coast... its a rural town, so though there are big cities near by its still in the country side. There is everything you need here :)

Do you have a favorite meal from your childhood and do you cook it today?
Hmm... thats really tricky. I love food, dont know if I could pick one. My mum does awesome Christmas dinner! I've never cooked Christmas dinner because we usually go to my Mums :)

Top 3 Movies of all time?
Finding Neverland
Twilight
Most Disney films

What was your happiest moment in life?
Getting married, or having my son.

the handsome men in her life 

Where do you do your grocery shopping?
Tesco supermarket.....

What is your favorite guilty pleasure when it comes to food?
I have an awful sweet tooth.. I frequently have days where all I eat is chocolate...

Can you tell me about what you are most proud of?
My family. They are amazing and I wouldn't be where I am today without them.

Do you have Culinary Resolutions that you would like to accomplish this year?
Hmm, too cook more. I work shift work so sometimes I will go a few days without cooking a proper meal.

One word that best describes you is: Scatty :)

Rolo Mini Tarts 
This is a GREAT recipe to do with young children! My 3 year old loves moulding the pastry in the tray!

Ingredients:
Pastry
Rolos
White chocolate buttons

1. Make or buy some desert pastry.
2. Break off small pieces of pastry and roll into little balls. Place in baking tray. I am using a mini cake tray.
3. Use the end of a rolling pin or simular to squash your pastry balls into tart shapes!
4. Place a rolo in the middle of each tart, and top with a chocolate button.
5. Place in the oven (150'C) for 10-15 minutes. (which comes to 300 degrees F)

Please visit Little Cupcake Dreams for some pictures demonstrating the technique for these yummy tarts- super helpful!




**Don't forget to entre my giveaway to win the cookbook Best of the Best Vol. 11: The Best Recipes from the 25 Best Cookbooks of the Year and a vintage inspired apron! You can find the contest {here}**

Compost Cookies

Have you heard about these things? Oh man, if not be prepared to have your life changed forever. At least as far as snackfood and cookies go. The world famous chef, David Chang of Momofuko, Milk Bar and a number of other restaurants in NYC, has designed a cookie that changes everything we have all thought of mix-ins for cookies. Sure you have heard of adding chocolate chips, nuts, coconut, or even candy. But have you ever thought of adding potato chips, pretzels, goldfish crackers or breakfast cereal?! All at the same time. Well that is exactly what these cookies are all about. Wonderfully amazing idea, huh?!

I have been dying to try these things out ever since I first heard of them ages ago. But as you can tell by the list of ingredients- they aren't the most healthful cookie. Well I finally decided, who cares about healthy all the time!? Not me, that's for sure. I will just have some wonderful deliciousness to share with friends and neighbors (to keep me from eating the entire batch!)

Well first things first, go on a hunt through your pantry and pull out your favorite baking ingredients (chocolate chips, nuts, candy, cereal) and then choose any snack foods that intrigue you- remember anything goes!  Potato chips, pretzels, goldfish crackers, etc.  I decided to go with semi-sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, rice crispies, cocoa crispies, plain potato chips and pretzels.  If you're going to do something then do it right.  Right?

The Momofuku Milk Bar Compost Cookie
recipe by Christina Tosi

Ingredients:
1 cup butter (that's two sticks, unsalted)
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 Tbsp corn syrup (I left this out because I didn't have any in the house. They turned out just fine. I probably wouldn't even bother trying them again with the syrup.)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsps Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups your favorite baking ingredients (options: chocolate chips, Raisenettes, Rollos, Cocoa Krispies)
1 1/2 cups your favorite snack foods (chips, pretzels, etc.)

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream butter, sugars and corn syrup (which I left out because I didn't have any in the house- you don't miss it one bit) on medium high for two to three minutes until fluffy and pale yellow in color. Scrape down the sides with a spatula. On a lower speed, add eggs and vanilla to incorporate.

Increase mixing speed to medium-high and start a timer for 10 minutes. During this time the sugar granules will fully dissolve, the mixture will become an almost pale white color and your creamed mixture will double in size. When time is up, on a lower speed, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Mix 45 - 60 seconds just until your dough comes together and all remnants of dry ingredients have incorporated. Do not walk away from your mixer during this time or you will risk over mixing the dough. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a spatula.

On the same low speed, add in the hodgepodge of your favorite baking ingredients and mix for 30 - 45 seconds until they evenly mix into the dough. Add in your favorite snack foods last, paddling again on low speed until they are just incorporated.

It tastes just as good as it looks.  But be careful, it does have raw egg in it!

Using a 6 oz. ice cream scoop portion cookie dough onto a parchment lined sheet pan. (This makes HUGE cookies.)  I did one baking sheet this size, and then reduced to a two tablespoon scoop. I liked this size much better.

Wrap scooped cookie dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of one hour or up to 1 week. DO NOT BAKE your cookies from room temperature or they will not hold their shape.

Heat the oven to 400 F. Take the plastic off your cookies and bake 9 to 11 minutes. While in the oven, the cookies will puff, crackle and spread. At 9 minutes, the cookies should be browned on the edges and just beginning to brown towards the center. Leave the cookies in the oven for the additional minutes if these colors don't match up and your cookies still seem pale and doughy on the surface.

Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pan before transferring to a plate or an airtight container or tin for storage. At room temp, they'll keep five days.

I thought, with all the stuff you would be adding to these cookies that they would turn out super fat, but surprisingly they did not.  The cookies flattened out quite a bit, so be sure you leave enough room in between cookies on your baking sheet.  They were exactly how I like my cookies though- crisp on the edges and nice and chewy on the inside.  The best of both worlds, in my opinion.

I will definitely be making these cookies again.  They were so delicious, the perfect combination of salty and sweet- neither one stronger then the other.  Compost Cookies are so much fun, because I am sure that they would taste slightly different depending on what you threw in there.

Homemade Oreo Cookies, version 1

Homemade Oreo Cookies, version 1

Cookie Dough
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room-temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cream Filling
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room-temperature,
1/4 cup vegetable shortening (Crisco)
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flou, cornstarch, cocoa and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and granulated sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and then the vanilla, and beat until blended. On low speed, beat in the flour mixture. Divide dough into 3-4 pieces, shape each into a disk and wrap in waxed paper. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with either parchment paper or a silpat.

Pinch off nickle-sized chunks of dough and roll in a ball. With slightly damp fingers, lightly press down on the balls creating a disk about 1/8 of an inch thick.  Smooth them out to make a nice smooth cookie.  Originally I tried using a greased measuring cup to flatten, but the cookies kept sticking to the cup.  So I switched to my fingers and had a much easier time.  Place the cookies about 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.  Using a toothpick, poke decorative holes into each cookie, if desired.  Bake for about 9-12 minutes or until firm to the touch (my oven runs a little hot so I found 9 minutes made a crisp, but still slightly chewy cookie and 10 minutes made a crisp and crumbly cookie).

To make the cream filling: place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

To assemble cookie's: place a teaspoon-sized ball of frosting in the center of one cookie and lightly press another cookie, equal in size, together to make a sandwich. You want the cream to work its way all the way to the edges. Repeat to use up the rest of the cookies.

Serve with a huge glass of ice cold milk and be sure to dunk!

I have been wanting to make a yummy homemade Oreo for some time now and in my search have found two different recipes to give a whirl.  One uses Dutch Process Cocoa and one uses regular, natural cocoa.  The difference in the cocoa is supposedly in flavor and color and the way you bake with them.  I really wanted to try the Dutch Process version first because those are to be truer in color and flavor to Original Oreo's, but all I had in my pantry today was Hershey's Natural Cocoa.  So this version came first!

Although I very much liked these cookies, I will be giving the Dutch Process version a try next, for sure.  These ones seem to be very, very sweet- you definitely need a glass of milk to wash them down!  I tasted a cookie after baking my first batch and decided to make sure I made them slightly smaller in size to help with the sweetness factor.  That seemed to help quite a bit.  These were a fun experiment, and one I will play around with, maybe adding different flavors to the cream filling (mint, peanut butter, etc.) to get them just right.

my little helper.... someone needed to lick the spoon!

Cornflake Cookie Hearts

February I was in charge of bringing something yummy to share to my monthly MUMs group (Mom's Uplifting Moms).  I usually bring an egg dish of some sort, but as I said in my last post, grocery shopping still hadn't been done and I didn't have anything good to mix into my eggs.  And just plain old baked eggs with nothing yummy like cheese, peppers, or sausage is oh so boring.  So with a little brainstorming (and scouring around my pantry for ingredients) I decided to make one of my favorite cookies from my childhood.  We would always make them with my Grandma Trapp at Christmas time, and it was something my sister and I would always look forward to.  They are traditionally died green and made into wreaths with Red Hot's posing as berries, but since Valentine's Day is right around the corner I was inspired to make cookie hearts instead.

Cornflake Cookie Hearts

Ingredients

1 bag large marshmallows

1/3 cup butter or margarine

6 cups cornflakes

a couple dashes food coloring, in this instance I used red for the hearts

Pam, or other nonstick cooking spray (olive oil will work too if you don't have Pam onhand)

Directions

In a large pot under low heat melt your butter until completely smooth.  Add your marshmallows and continually stir until all of them are melted and smooth.  Add a few drops of your red food coloring and mix well until completely blended and is the color of your liking.  Remove from heat and add your cornflakes.  Mix well.  Using a small measuring cup sprayed with Pam, spoon out your cookies and place onto a Silpat or wax paper/ parchment paper that has also been sprayed with Pam.  You will want to move kind of quickly so your batch doesn't begin to harden in the pot.  While the dollops of cornflakes are still warm, spray fingers with Pam and carefully form your mounds into little hearts.  Let cool completely and store in a single layer in an airtight container.  If you need to stack, place be sure to lay parchment paper in between the layers so they don't stick together.

I hope you have a lovely Valentine's Day!