Remember way back when I told you I had a recipe that would use up your extra topping from the pumpkin snickerdoodles AND the extra glaze from the eggnog cookies? Well, it's finally here. My obvious solution to having extra stuff lying around was to make scones. They turned out to be pretty stinking wonderful. Especially wonderful warm out of the oven! I kind of combined ideas from several recipes I found on Pinterest to create my own, but this one, from Tea Time Magazine, is really what I mostly went off of. I picked it because it used the least amount of butter which, in my head, makes it healthier...yeah, right.
Eggnog Scones
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar (I used the sugar mixture left from the pumpkin snickerdoodles, about 1/4 cup, then added white sugar to get 1/2 cup)
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (I used a heaping 1/2 tsp)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (I added this even though there was already cinnamon in the sugar mixture)
4 TBSP unsalted butter
2 TBSP shortening
1/2 cup eggnog (the original calls for 1/4 cup plus 3 TBSP, but I needed more than that to moisten up the dough. Start with 1/4 cup and then slowly add more to get the right texture.)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter and shortening into dry mixture until the mixture resembles a dry meal or coarse crumbles.
In a small bowl, whisk together eggnog and egg. Pour this wet mixture over the dry mixture and stir until moistened. (Add extra eggnog, if needed.) Dough should be moist and sticky.
Place dough on lined baking sheet and form into a circle, about 3/4" thick. Bake, oh I don't know, for like 20-25 minutes. Maybe. I don't remember. It should be golden on top, and a toothpick should come out of the center clean. Then, you can take it out of the oven and drizzle some eggnog glaze on top. Enjoy!
My favorite cookie this year would have to be the eggnog one. I love eggnog. It's REALLY good that it's only around once a year...because it's terrible for you...but so tasty. I was a little concerned about how the eggnog cookies would turn out. I think sometimes things like this turn out tasting really processed or just end up with a weird flavor. These cookies, however, turned out wonderfully. Very soft. Perfect eggnog taste. Definitely a hit. Definitely a keeper.
Eggnog Cookies
Original Recipe from Your Cup of Cake
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups white sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup eggnog
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
1 tsp nutmeg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. (I probably used a little more cinnamon and nutmeg than called for.)
Cream sugar and butter until light.
Add eggnog, vanilla and egg yolks; beat at medium speed with mixer until smooth.
Add flour mixture and beat on low speed until just combined. Do not over-beat.
Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Sprinkle lightly with nutmeg.
Bake 15-18 minutes or until the edges barely start to brown.
While the cookies are baking, you can whip together some eggnog glaze. Just combine eggnog with powdered sugar until you get the quantity and consistency you want. Make a little extra to drizzle on some eggnog scones! (The recipe for those should be coming tomorrow.)
Merry Christmas! Well, I got somewhat side-tracked in my holiday blogging. I thought I'd have lots of time on Saturday to get totally caught up, but obviously that didn't happen. I really wanted to make some kind of cookie with candy cane and white chocolate in it. I don't really know what I wanted to do this because I'm not generally a fan of white chocolate and I basically totally despise mint (like I still use bubblegum toothpaste because I hate mint). Anyway, I could NOT find a recipe for exactly what I wanted. I looked on Pinterest and Google, which both sent me to various websites and blogs, but none of it was what I wanted. I decided to just hunt down a recipe for a good, chewy sugar cookie and go from there. It was a good plan. I found a great sugar cookie recipe from The Food Network and tweaked it to my fancy. The cookies turned out fabulously. Huge hit. My favorite comment (from one of the brother's friends) was, "Why does this have candy canes in it? Because it is fantastic."
White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tsp peppermint extract
3-4 TBSP buttermilk
4 candy canes, crushed (I used a food processor...make sure it doesn't turn to powder!)
6 oz (give or take) white chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and peppermint. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Add enough of the buttermilk to moisten the dough and make it soft, NOT wet. Stir in candy canes and white chocolate chips.
Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls and place on cookie sheet. You might want to cover the cookie sheet with waxed or parchment paper and something like Pam. (The melt-y candy cane likes to stick.)
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until slightly golden.
All my cookies for this year's Holiday Bake-A-Thon are new. And considering this fact, it's impressive that this year's production took much less time then year's past. I think I finally figured out multitasking. Ha. I wanted to incorporate the season's flavors: pumpkin, peppermint, and eggnog. (I probably could have added something gingerbread-y too...but I didn't want to be too ambitious!) I chose this Pumpkin Snickerdoodle recipe from the Six Sister's Stuff blog (there's lots of great stuff here). These cookies, of course, turned out tasting delicious! They're so soft and pumpkin-y. I love it.
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Ingredients:
1 stick margarine (I used real butter...Paula Deen would be proud)
1/2 cup shortening (I used the butter flavored kind because that's what we already had)
1 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup unsweetened pumpkin puree (do NOT use pumpkin pie filling!)
1 large egg
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
*Topping:
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger (or more to taste...I went with a whole tsp)
*Note: You probably will not use all of this, but it's okay! I used the extra up in a recipe for scones, which I'll be posting soon.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix together the margarine/butter, shortening, sugars, pumpkin, and egg, beat
well. Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon
and mix until well-blended.
Chill dough until it's a better consistency for rolling into balls. (I cheated and put it in the freezer so it would go faster.)
Roll into balls the size of small
walnuts.
In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon, and ginger. Roll dough balls in sugar
mixture until completely covered.
Place dough balls about 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 7ish minutes until lightly browned, but still soft.
Makes a ton of cookies (at least 4-5 dozen).
Oreo Balls. A classic. I have made these every year that I've been doing a holiday bake-a-thon. They are so simple, yet so delicious. They are always a hit! Plus, if you make them small enough, they're really like Oreo vitamins so the calories don't count.
Oreo Balls
Ingredients:
- 1 package of Oreos, crushed (I recommend using a Ninja food processor...turns the cookies into dust in seconds)
- 1 package (8 oz) of cream cheese, room temperature
- 12-16 oz of chocolate, melted (I recommend Velata...yum!)
Directions:
Mix together the crushed Oreos and cream cheese until well blended. Put them in the fridge for a little bit, so it's easier to roll the dough into balls. To make the balls, I use a teaspoon to scoop the dough out of the bowl with. Then, I just roll it up. After that's all done, I recommend putting the balls of dough back in the fridge for a little while to harden up again. Melt your chocolate (be careful not to burn). I recommend putting your melted chocolate into your Velata warmer to keep it melted and perfect for dipping (or else you get stuck having to re-heat your chocolate as it cools). Drop the balls of dough into the chocolate and coat. Use a couple of forks to pick them up and remove the excess chocolate. Place on a baking sheet covered in waxed paper and let cool. Enjoy!
The first cookies I made since being on break were peanut butter. The brother requested them for his winter band concert. I was pretty short on time, so I needed something really quick and easy. I picked out a 5-ingredient recipe from Claire Robinson (Food Network...I love Food Network...). It was SO easy, and the cookies turned out really well. The were very peanut butter-y and had a nice flaky texture. Would've been perfect with a glass of milk. Click here to get the recipe!
Warning: Be prepared for an onslaught of recipes for cookies and baked goodness. It's the holiday season. And apparently I'm on the "Elf" diet...not really, but you may think so after you see what all I've been up to!
In other news, I managed to pull off a 4.0 for the semester. Pretty miraculous considering I had been fairly confident I would end up with solid B's...only to discover the week before finals that I had 90's...which made me feel like I needed to try to do well on finals. Apparently, it worked out okay. My hamstring is getting better. Definitely not 100%, but I can touch my toes! (Which is really good because they need painted.) Well, I'm off to try to get everything done that needs to be done...it's a REALLY long list...that continues to get longer.
This is one of my most favorite times of the year! (Not just because I only have one week of school left, plus finals...) I like getting to wear big comfy sweaters and boots. I like curling up in a big, fluffy blanket with a warm drink and a book or good movie (preferably with a fire going in the fireplace). I enjoy all the decorations...especially the lights. I love baking like a crazy person (and giving it all away). The giving and receiving of presents, of course, is fun too. I actually really like just wrapping presents...which might be weird. However, my favorite Christmastime memories are those spent with family and friends.
Getting pictures taken with Santa at Lighting of the Commons.
Rocking awesome Christmas sweaters at Gamma Rho's progressive dinner party.
Sledding and playing games in Minnesota.
These are a few of my favorite things.
