Holiday Baking List

Chocolate peanut butter sweeties a.k.a. Pure bliss!

Hola from the frozen tundra! As I write this I am currently watching the snow fall on this lovely day, with a little over a week until Christmas. What a better way to get in the Christmas spirit than -45 wind chills and ten inches of snow on the ground and still falling? I admit, I have a deep hatred for winter. I despise every part of it. I have lived with the brutally cold winter temps for the past 29 years and I never seem to get accustomed to it. However, with the Christmas holiday approaching I tend to cheer up a bit! I do love Christmas. I am totally obsessed with decorating and baking for Christmas, which I most likely get from my mother. My mom goes all out and overboard with her famous Christmas baking. My momma will start baking 2 weeks before Christmas Eve and normally has Christmas treats in the freezer for two months following the holidays. (and somehow, still manages to stay under 120 lbs.) I hate her. Just kidding, I adore my mother. Anyways, these brutally cold temps have put me in the holiday baking mood since any outdoor activities would guarantee frostbite. I decided to share a few of my famous recipes with you, (and by MY famous recipes, I mean the ones that my mother likely cut out of a Taste of Home catalog in 1988). These recipes aren't necessarily holiday treats only, they can be made at any time of the year! I just choose to bake these little heavenly treasures once a year, so I can have an excuse to eat enormous amounts of sweets.
These recipes are sure to impress your friends and family and have them quickly singing your praises!

First up: Chocolate Peanut Butter Sweeties. These little darlings and simple and easy to make. They store well in the freezer and let me tell you what, ladies, they are heavenly. You are most definitely gonna wanna make these for the grazing bar on Christmas Eve. Here's how:

1 cup peanut butter (Reduced fat or generic-brand peanut butter is not recommended. Chunky peanut butter is completely acceptable!)

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

3 cups miniature pretzel twists

1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli brand)

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

Directions: In a mixing bowl, beat peanut butter and butter until smooth. Beat in powdered sugar until combined. Shape into 1 inch balls; press one on each pretzel. Place on waxed paper lined baking sheets. Refrigerate or freeze until peanut butter mixture is firm (roughly 1 hour). In a microwave safe bowl, or saucepan, melt chocolate chips and oil. Dip the peanut butter ball into the chocolate. Return to baking sheet, pretzel side down. Refrigerate or freeze at least 30 mins before serving. Store in the freezer. Yields roughly 5 dozen.

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies (positively THE best sugar cookies in the whole dang country)

What I'm about to share with you is purely heavenly. You have never made sugar cookies until you have included a super divine ingredient that makes these sugar cookies unreal. I love sugar cookies, however they are quite time consuming so I only make these at Christmas time (and occasionally for trick or treaters at Halloween....if they're lucky). There are two secrets to making these sugar cookies. The first is:



Pure Almond Extract. This gives these sugar cookies a non-boring flavor. Trust me. The second secret to making these cookies is forget what the recipe says for baking time. Every oven is different but nothing is worse than on over baked sugar cookie. Except Lutefisk. Lutefisk is worse. I like my sugar cookies to be soft with a tiny, very tiny tint of brown on the sides. I normally double this recipe because I also prefer to make my sugar cookies THICK. Like this:

The thicker the better. So don't roll your dough out too thin. Who likes a thin sugar cookie? Not me.

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies:

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter, softened

3 oz. cream cheese, softened (it is very important to make sure the butter and cream cheese is softened or else your cookies will be hard)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg yolk

2 cups flour

Directions: In large bowl, combine sugar, butter, cream cheese, salt, almond extract, vanilla and egg yolk; blend well. Stir in flour until well blended. Refrigerate dough for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 375. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough

 

Cut into desired shapes with lightly floured cookie cutters. Place one inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake until you feel they are done, (un likely that these should bake over 10-12 mins, depending on  the thickness). Next up, once the cookies are cooled completely, it's time to FROST!

Frosting recipe:

3 oz cream cheese

2 tbsp. butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Mix cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add vanilla, mix. Then, slowly add powdered sugar. Add desired food coloring and decorate cookies!

 

The next item on the Holiday Baking list is something that will make you famous. Your friends will sing your praises. Books will be wrote about you. Songs will be sung. Well maybe not, but this recipe is one that is requested on a yearly basis. I've yet to meet someone that didn't like this. That's because they do not exist. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you....CARAMEL CANDY CRUNCH

I normally make 5-6 batches of this around Christmas time. I wouldn't dare send out my Christmas goodie trays to my friends and neighbors without including this. Girls, here's how to get your boyfriend to propose to you at Christmas time:

Preheat oven to 250

Mix together in an oven proof bowl: 1 cup mixed nuts without peanuts

2 cups dry roasted peanuts

4-5 cups miniature twisted pretzels

8-10 cups Crispix

In LARGE saucepan (and I do mean large, because this mixture will boil up):

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup butter

 1 1/2 cup light corn syrup

Heat. When mixture reaches a boil, set your timer and boil for 3 minutes. Then add 1/2 tsp baking soda. Add hot mixture to cereal mixture and mix well. Bake in oven in 15 minute increments, stirring after each increment. Bake for a total of 1 hour. When finished baking, pour mixture onto table to cool and make sure you break it all up with a fork or you will have a big pile of hard candy. Stores well in the freezer.

 

 After opening presents on Christmas morning, this next item is perfect and easy to make for breakfast  Pairs perfectly with coffee. And Bailey's. Who drinks coffee without Bailey's? Anyways, this is probably Parker & I's favorite breakfast dish. I usually make these for Sunday morning breakfast, should we happen to be home on a weekend, which is a rare occurrence for us.

Amaze Balls (because they are, well, simply amazing.)
First of all, you want to start with a full thawed package of Jimmy Dean's HOT sausage. I prefer the HOT, as it gives these a little kick, but not spicy!

Preheat oven to 400

In mixing bowl, combine:

1 package sausage

1 cup Bisquick

1 cup Fiesta or Mexican blend shredded cheese

Shape into balls like this:

Add to baking sheet and cook for 25-30 mins.  Sausage Balls should be crunchy and crisp when they come out of the oven!