Shortbread Cookies - Super Easy and Only A Few Ingrediants

On my quest to find the perfect cookie for my daughter's birthday party this Saturday I came up with two recipes. This is the only recipe that I liked but I am super picky!

**I used this recipe in my cookie press but it will work without a cookie press too.**

Beth's Shortbread Cookies 

1C butter, softened
1 1/2C All-Purpose Flour
1/2C Confectioners Sugar
1/4tsp Vanilla extract
1/2C Corn Starch
2tbsp Granulated Sugar (not normally in shortbread but after I mixed the ingredients together I was not happy with the taste so I added sugar)


Preheat to 350F.

Cream the butter, confectioners sugar, and vanilla together until smooth. Stir in the flour and corn starch.

Press into the cookie press and press onto ungreased cookie sheet. (If it is greased or has foil/parchment paper on the sheet it will not allow the dough to grab the sheet and come out of the cookie press.)

Bake 8-10 minutes until the tops are golden.

Half the recipe above made about 3 dozen cookies about 1" in size and flower shaped.

These are melt in your mouth good and taste similar to my mothers wedding cookies she makes.

They are blue since I added some blue neon food coloring to the batter to go along with the Cinderella theme my daughter asked for.  The other half will be pink.

The cookies came out two ways.  One when I held the press down for 4 counts it made them a little bigger and fluffier.  When I held the press down for 3 counts the cookies turned out like the 3 in the bottom right hand corner of the photo.

Sugar Cookies

I cannot remember the recipe I normally use so I just whipped this up.  I finally found my recipe book that I kept all the family recipes in so I will start trying them out over this year.  I just got a beater blade for my kitcheaid and it is awesome!!!

2 cups flour (I used all purpose so that is why I have the baking powder and salt below, omit both if you use self-rising)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter, room temp
1 egg
1 1/4 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sugar and butter and then add the egg and vanilla, mix well. Add the baking powder and salt.  Lastly add flour, mix well.  Bake for apx 10 minutes until turns golden brown.

 I decided to roll them in sugar. :)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

From Nestle Toll House

(one of the few times I'll try a recipe but I was not in the mood to think.  I just needed to bake.)

Prep: 20 mins

Cooking: 8 mins

Level: Easy

Yields: 42 cookies (3 1/2 dozen)

 

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups (11.5-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Milk Chocolate Morsels
Granulated sugar

DIRECTIONS:

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour and baking soda in small bowl. Beat butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in egg. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels.

DROP dough by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. Press down slightly with bottom of glass dipped in granulated sugar.

BAKE for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are set but centers are still soft. Cool on baking sheets for 4 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

PAN COOKIE VARIATION:
PREPARE dough as above. Spread dough into ungreased 15 x 10-inch* jelly-roll pan. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes. Cool in pan on wire rack.

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*I used my Calphalon 12*17" jelly-roll pan and it puffed up so much that I thought it was going to overflow.  The cookie itself was about 1/4" tick once it cooled.  I baked it for 15 minutes.  I was still a little cake like which is how I like my cookies.  It also crumbled easily but I literally tried it right out of the oven.

Review of the new choose your flavor icing

I make my own icing but I am up visiting my parents for Easter and my mom was making cupcakes.  We ended up buying the orange Dunkin Hines cake mix, a tub of the icing you can flavor, and the orange cream flavoring.  Overall the cost was not bad.  At winn-dixie it was $2.29 for the tub of icing which was bigger than the $1.98 tubs. The flavor packets where $.99 and had a ton of yummy sounding flavors including cinnamon roll and strawberry something.

The Orange Cream flavoring tasted just like a dreamsicle. Everyone loved them!


Note: this icing did not harden up over time and actually slid off the cupcakes the next day.  Not sure if it was the humid weather that we have all the time here in Florida or what but I know that I was enjoying my cupcake and all of a sudden the icing slid off into my hand.



*there was no compensation for this review.  I did this on my own free will and my own "dime". :)

Oatmeal Cookies

These are in my oven as I type!!!

3/4c butter
1c packed brown sugar
1/2c granulated sugar
1tsp baking powder
1/4tsp baking soda
1/2tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla
1 1/2c AP flour
2c rolled oats


I have them baking right now at 375 degrees F for 8 minutes on parchment paper.  No oil.

I cannot wait to see how they turn out but I know the batter tasted great.  This is my first attempt at Oatmeal cookies.  I was thinking of adding Flax Seed to add something healthy to it but was not sure how it would taste so I made just a regular batch to see if I even liked the recipe.

NOTES:
Batch 1: bland so added a lot more cinnamon
Batch 2: still bland
will pick up some ground clove at the store tomorrow as I think that might help
Batch 3: after sitting overnight in the fridge they turned out better.***

PHOTO TO COME once I make them again.  My 19 month old daughter loved them a little too much...

Chocolate Covered Strawberry cake (uses box)

1 box strawberry cake mix
1 can vanilla icing
fresh strawberries (frozen would work after being thawed)
milk chocolate chips


I started with a boxed cake my mother sent me for Valentines day since I did not want it to go to waste.  I added in chopped strawberries and half a big bag of milk chocolate chips.

I baked them in 2 9" round pans.  Iced with one can of vanilla icing my mother sent with the cake mix.
I added in chopped strawberries and more chips between the layers.
Keep in the fridge as there are strawberries in it.

This was amazing and so fresh.

I burnt the top of my mouth on hot pizza and this was the only thing I could handle as it healed.

Easy Chocolate Icing

Ingredients:
3tbsp butter
1oz semi-sweet chocolate (can use unsweet too)
1c powder sugar
2tbsp milk
pinch of salt
2-3tbsp cocoa powder


In a saucepan melt 1oz semi-sweet chocolate and butter on low heat.  I just waited till the chocolate was "squishy" and did not spread it around as I wanted most of the chocolate to go into my recipe.

Stir butter and chocolate into powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and salt until smooth. (I used my Kitchenaid to mix)
Add milk as needed to make a creamier consistency.


NOTE: any left over icing can be eaten as fudge.  I put it in the fridge not knowing what was going to happen and looked at it after 24 hours and it was hard like fudge and tasted so good!

I left the cake out with this icing and it did not melt.

Easy Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
1c all-purpose flour
1c sugar
1/2c unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2tsp baking soda
1/4tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
3/4c milk (I used whole since that is what we have)
1/3c cooking oil
1tsp vanilla
1 egg

Preheat to 350. Use 8*8*2 baking pan or 9*1.5" round.  I used a 9*9*2 and the cake came out very thin.
Grease and flour pans.

Stir in flour, sugar, cocoa powder, soda, baking powder, and salt.  Add in milk, oil, and vanilla.  Combine on low until all combined.  Beat about 2 minutes on medium speed.  Add the egg and beat for another 2 minutes.  Pour into pans.

Bake 30-35 minutes.  I had to bake for 32 minutes in the 9*9*2 pan.
*done when toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

See: Easy chocolate Icing for the icing I use on this cake


I did not even get to take a photo before they dug in...