Still deciding on what I'm making this year(better decide soon LOL). I am definitely making cookie bouquets for my dd's teachers. I will probably make caramel chocolate peanuts, white chocolate pistachio cranberry bark and the chocolate covered pretzels. I was going to give the teachers some hot chocolate cones but I gave one to another mom in my dd's class today and she's talking about making them for the teachers-how dare she steal the idea that I stole already!!!
Thinking about making marshmallows, cutting them in christmas shapes and dipping them in chocolate-I'll probably put them on sticks and add them to the cookie bouquets.
I have to make another birthday cake for my dd this weekend and something for her to bring to school on her actual birthday-thinking sugar cookies in the shape of a cake with a candle on it but not sure if I want to decorate that many cookies PLUS all the other cookies I'm making.
Sandra
I am really behind this year, haven't started. Was supposed to bake the Toronto stuff Sunday, Monday and Tuesday but have an ongoing big honkin' headache, as they say, so it looks like today is the day. Fortunately my sister made two of the five kinds they like, so I only have the other three left. Normally I would make up the total and freeze and ship out what needs to be, but since I feel so rotten, I think I will just make the Toronto batches.
Hubby has offered to help, which he can with the chocolate chip ones, however, hhmn, have to triple the recipe so there are some left to ship out, haha! Some helpers are samplers.
I am really mean when I bake, I only let him have 4 or 5 cookies and I freeze the rest as soon as they are cool.
One year when I got really sick, he made up three kinds of cookies for me and he did a pretty darn good job, except for the over sampling part, haha!
Don't know if anyone else is like this, but I don't touch any of this stuff until a week or so after New Year's. I think from smelling it while I bake, I just cannot eat it.
I have made up to 30 types of cookies at Christmas, is that nuts or what, haha! Now I make what I know people like.
Your address, haha!
Hugs Squirrelly
Still deciding on what I'm making this year(better decide soon LOL). I am definitely making cookie bouquets for my dd's teachers. I will probably make caramel chocolate peanuts, white chocolate pistachio cranberry bark and the chocolate covered pretzels. I was going to give the teachers some hot chocolate cones but I gave one to another mom in my dd's class today and she's talking about making them for the teachers-how dare she steal the idea that I stole already!!!
Thinking about making marshmallows, cutting them in christmas shapes and dipping them in chocolate-I'll probably put them on sticks and add them to the cookie bouquets.
I have to make another birthday cake for my dd this weekend and something for her to bring to school on her actual birthday-thinking sugar cookies in the shape of a cake with a candle on it but not sure if I want to decorate that many cookies PLUS all the other cookies I'm making.
Sandra
Those all sound like great ideas! Lucky teachers!
Hugs Squirrelly
Cindy, I am useing an easy one.
3 c. dry fondant
90 cherries (maraschino)
the liquid from the cherries
dipping chocolate
place the fondant in a dish to roll the cherries in. Drain cherries and roll kin the fondant, spray with the liquid and repeat 2 or 3 more times. If useing stemed cherries dip in the chocolate, or use a candy mold and drop the cherries into chocolate coated mold and add a small amount of liquid to mold then seal. Cool and release.
Hope this works for you, I got the recipe from www.cooks.com they had alot of different ones. Enjoy
My favorite is the one on the Quaker container! I use a cookie scoop almost the size of an ice cream scoop and they come out moist and chewy!
Taken from the Quaker Oatmeal site:
Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
1/2 pound (2 sticks) margarine or butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup raisins
Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.
Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.
ABOUT 4 DOZEN
BAR COOKIES: Press dough onto bottom of ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. Store tightly covered.
24 BARS
VARIATIONS:
Stir in 1 cup chopped nuts.
Substitute 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or candy-coated chocolate pieces for raisins; omit cinnamon.
Substitute 1 cup diced dried mixed fruit.
Could someone give me a really good Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe? One that is chewy like the ones you get at the cookie stores in the mall.
Yeppers, let me go and get it and be right back.
Hugs Squirrelly
I'm making gift baskets for my sister, brother and my dh sister's families. I am including choc. covered pretzels, choc. covered spoons, coffee, hot choc., molded choc., homemade salsa, tortilla chips and much more. I just can't figure out what to buy for everyone this year. I found some nice plain white mugs at Wal-Mart for 48 cents each so I'm including them in there, too.
Could I have the coffee and hot chocolate recipes please? [email protected]
Thank You
This is the best oatmeal cookie I have ever tasted but you have to use exactly the kind of oatmeal specified. That is part of the trick with oatmeal cookies, often we use the wrong type of cooking oat. The longe you cook, the harder a cookie will get so watch the cooking time, perhaps experiment with half a dozen first batch out.
Let me know how you like them, we now only make this kind. Heehee, I have 7 standing orders for these from friends, every Christmas.
Hugs Squirrelly
The Best Oatmeal Cookies
1 1/2 cups of butter, softened
1 1/2 cups lightly packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs - I always use large ones
4 tbsp. water
4 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
6 cups Robin Hood Old Mill 100% Naturally Nutritious Large Flake Oats - this is really the key to excellent oatmeal cookies, the make and type of oats
3 cups of seedless raisins
Cream together butter, sugars, eggs, water and vanila until light and fluffy. Combine flour, salt, soda and cinnamon in a bowl and stir them together. Add to the creamed mixture. Now add the oats and the raisins. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. Bake about 10-15 minutes at 350F - leave them mounded for chewy cookies or flatten them out for crispy cookies.
These freeze very well. To freeze, I line a cookie tin with waxed pper and place waxed paper or plastic wrap between each layer, plastic wrap on top, close lid and seal tin in a plastic bag or two - the grocery store bags work well for this. Alternatively, I bag them into freezer bags, like the extra large Ziploc bags, label them as to type and amount. They will freeze for up to 6 months and longer.
Hmmm where do I find the oats exactly?
Hhmn, depends on your grocery store, they could be in the baking section near the flour or they could be in the cereal section. These come in bags, not boxes. There are different kinds of oats made by the same company but the kind stated is the one you want.
Mamafrog's recipe looks wonderful too! Heehee, we posted at the same time.
Oatmeal cookies are a thing with us because we experimented so many times over about 40 years. When I was a kid, I started because my mother didn't bake cookies.
I have never made them up huge, but I can't see why not, just play with the time if you want them larger.
Hugs Squirrelly
Squirrely,
R U the one who posted the Snickerdoodle recipe? Do they come out soft? I bought some at the store once but they were hard and if all snickerdoodles are hard they will not be something I am interested in.
Yes, that was me. No, I personally am not a fan of hard cookies, these come out chewy. But the trick to getting cookies chewy, with almost every kind, is not to cook them so long. Some cookies set up on the cookie sheet, so you have to let them cool a bit before removing or they will be mush. I think it is just experience that tells you how long you need to cook them. What I suggest to people not used to making cookies, is to make the first batch but only 1/2 dozen, to get an idea.
Also, never put your cookie dough on a hot cookie sheet, that is why you need spares. The cookie sheet should be room temperature or your dough will spread out and cook much faster, but not as evenly.
I tend to store cookies like this in well sealed tins or in freezer bags so that they don't harden quickly. We keep cookies in the freezer only defrosting what we need when we need them, at Christmas time. Many cookies will start to harden up in 3 or 4 days, so you don't want them sitting for a week or two, that is why I freeze them. Cookies have a fairly long freezer life when well sealed, usually up to 6 months. It is supposed to be 3 or 4 months, but I am going by our experience with our chest freezer. A couple of times I have forgotten about cookies in the freezer and took them out 6 months later and they still tasted great.
The recipe I posted is actually the one I have used for many years.
Hugs Squirrelly
Sorry moderators, I guess we should have put these recipes under the cookie site, didn't think!
Hugs Squirrelly
Oatmeal Cookies
1/2 shot Butterscotch Schnapps
1/2 shot Baileys
1/2 shot Goldschlagger
OOPS! guess you meant real cookies! HEE HEE! LOL!
Hhhmn, this sounds better than the recipe I posted, liquid cookies, I think I can handle that! Heehee, don't even need a Kitchen Aid for that one, maybe a drive home though!
Thanks!
Hugs Squirrelly
ill be doing cookies cakes breads muffins and chocolates also cake balls 
so pretty much alittle bit of everything.
i'm just tired tonight and not in mood to bake, but always in mood to eat, squirly, you make enough to feed an army, so why dont you just send me some???? i'll be a sampler, free of charge.
hahaha
i think this year i am giving everyone cake balls.. they are so easy and so fun, if i could just stay out of them so i have some to actually give.
happy baking,
do you need my address squirly?
you could just attatch some to one of your squirl friends, dont they go south for the winter? (haha) i have lots of squirls here too....lots of big trees. hey, you could train them like they do delivery pigions. then they could drop off cookies to all your cc friends.
Heehee, it is such a busy time of year, isn't it? The days just zoom by and you do lose track of time.
Heehee, the squirrels actually are here in the open all year, the chipmunks go below ground though. Yes, I wish I could train them to deliver.
Well I got 2 dozen mincemeat tarts done, 2 dozen shortbreads, have my creamcheese pinwheels ready to bake and tomorrow will get the chocolate chip cookies baked and off to Toronto. I was busy after supper tonight!
Hugs Squirrelly
I will probably also make some chocolate truffles because they are so easy and they last for ages without going stale.
Could I please have the truffle recipe? [email protected] you
Hi mjones17,
Here is the recipe that I use for chocolate truffles. They are so easy to make and they last for ages because there is no cream in them. They are delish! Do you have the Cadbury brand in the USA?
Serves 30
INGREDIENTS
2 cups crushed plain biscuits
1 cup coconut
2 tablespoons Cadbury Bournville Cocoa
400 g condensed milk
1. Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly.
2. Shape into small balls and roll in some extra coconut.
3. Chill for 30 minutes.
Those look yummy..mind if I use the recipe too?
Hey Squirrelly, what kind of squirrels do you have? There is black ones here which is foriegn to me..in Manitoba we only had the grey ones. DH makes fun of me cause I just can't stop staring at the black ones they are beautiful....so tell your furry friends, its not bad and I'm not crazy.. I love them lol lol
Those look yummy..mind if I use the recipe too?
Hey Squirrelly, what kind of squirrels do you have? There is black ones here which is foriegn to me..in Manitoba we only had the grey ones. DH makes fun of me cause I just can't stop staring at the black ones they are beautiful....so tell your furry friends, its not bad and I'm not crazy.. I love them lol lol
Ahh, a squirrel question! Well, interestingly enough, the black squirrels are actually what they term 'black phase" Eastern Grey Squirrels, how is that for confusing, they are actually Grey Squirrels but some of them turn out black What is quite fascinating is that in the 1960's I believe it was President Kennedy or another high official from Washington was visiting Canada's capital and had never seen black squirrels, so black squirrels were sent to Washington. So for whatever reasons, the Eastern Grey Squirrel only breeds some "black phase" squirrels in some areas.
We have mainly the black ones with some grey, but they are far fewer, in fact growing up here I never saw a grey coloured one until I returned here 7 years ago. We also have a few little red squirrels, now they can be pretty darn aggressive because they are not social and they are very territorial. When I lived in Sault Ste Marie, we never saw black squirrels or Eastern Grey, only the red squirrels. And they were much smaller than the red ones here. Haha, of course my sister tells me that all squirrels everywhere are much smaller than the ones I feed in my backyard and I have to admit it is true. When we go downtown, the squirrels that have to fend for themselves are much tinier.
Hugs Squirrelly
Ok, I've never baked so many gifts before in my life. i wanted to get ahead with my holiday baking but realized that most of the people I am giving these gifts to won't get them until Christmas which is 2 weeks away. I am making
Peppermint Fudge
Orange Biscotti
Lemon Cookies
Chocolate Covered Pretzels
Chocolate Covered cake balls
A triple chocolate sandwich cookie
I am making them all today and tomorrow. Can I freeze them until Xmas? Which ones can be frozen and which can't? If I do freeze them, when should I remove them from my freezer so that I can box them and wrap them for Xmas? Thanks for any and all help you can give me!!
6 cups Robin Hood Old Mill 100% Naturally Nutritious Large Flake Oats - this is really the key to excellent oatmeal cookies, the make and type of oats
Squirrelly,
I'm sure I won't find this brand of oats here in Germany...do you know what I should look for in an oat for this recipe? I've seen "zart" oats which are the equivalent of American quick cooking oats, and I've seen instant oats wich disappear in liquid (they look like instant mashed potato flakes) and lastly, I've seen "kernig" oats which are, I think, regular whole oats (not quick-cooking, not instant, but the thicker, denser type that you would normally boil on the stove top...I think) Are any of these the right type of oat? The kernig ones say that they are whole steel cut oats ??
Thanks for any enlightnment you can provide, I am not very oat savvy, even though I eat oatmeal nearly every morning for breakfast, lol.
Sad
That's a gourmet little list you have going on there, I want to be your friend and get some of that too lol.
Same here I'm going to make a whole bunch of goodies, starting from
cream puffs
Biscotti (still looking for a good recipe)
Fruit tartes with fresh fruits or cooked fruits
Cake balls(a must this year)
Cake, a good moist cake.
I am going easy since my sister in law is bringing the cookies for Christmas, I am making candies. Last week I went to a candy making class at a local cake decorating store and I can't wait to try out what I learned. I have to make 2 things for Friday holiday events and then something else on the 21st for another event at my husbands office, then obviously Christmas. I cant wait to read through everyone elses ideas. Maybe I will get up energy and try some baking too.
After baking 40 dozen cookies to send overseas for the troops, I'm kind of baked out when it comes to ungrateful family. However, that probably won't stop me from doing so.
I'm losing valuable time for baking this week,a nd will most likely get my out of town pkgs arrive late, but hopefully, I'll be forgiven.
Just wanted to share a cute idea I saw at a store yesterday. They cut out a piece of fudge with a house cookie cutter(about 2"), left the fudge in the cutter, put some coarse sugar on the fudge and wrapped it up. Once the fudge is gone, you get a cute cookie cutter.
Sandra
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