Tag Archives: kids

December 3, 2017 · 8:08 am

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Cinnamon Brown Sugar Blondies

DAY 3: Cinnamon Brown Sugar Blondies

These bar cookies are as simple as they come: One Bowl, No Mixer Needed, No Waiting for Butter to Soften, No Last Minute Trip to the Store for Ingredients, No Scooping Multiple Batches of Cookie Dough, No Waiting by the Oven to Switch Baking Sheets

And they are super good: like snickerdoodles, but without all of the work.

Some days it is just all about simple.

RECIPE:

Cinnamon Brown Sugar Blondies

Makes 32 squares

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 ½ cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
Cinnamon Sugar: 1 Tbs sugar + 2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 8” square baking pans (or spray with Baking Pam).

Melt butter in a large bowl in the microwave. Use a wooden spoon or curved spatula to stir sugars into melted butter until incorporated. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

Spread the batter into the prepared baking pans. Sprinkle with Cinnamon Sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes before baking.

Bake at 350°F for 26-28 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely and then cut into squares.

NoEmptyChairs.me

2 Comments

Filed under Cookies, Desserts

Tagged as blondies, brown sugar, christmas, Christmas cookies, cinnamon, cookie bars, Cookies, easy, kids, recipe

January 28, 2017 · 12:22 pm

Cookies by Julias: Valentine Shortbread Cookies

2 Julias + 1 day off of school = Tons of cookie fun

These 2 cute girls wanted to bake cookies on their day off of school, and since one of them is allergic to eggs, they decided to make shortbread cookies. But traditional rectangles were way too boring, so they went with hearts. And chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.

And once the chocolate melting and dipping started, their creative juices really got flowing!

If you are looking for more traditional shortbread cookies, you can always go with plain-old-boring-rectangles:

RECIPE:

Valentine Shortbread Cookies

2 cups butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs vanilla extract
½ tsp salt
4 ½ cups flour
Dark chocolate and/or colored candy melts

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Make sure that butter is very soft, but not melted. Cream butter and brown sugar with a mixer for 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla and salt. Gradually add flour, mixing well.

Lightly sprinkle flour on a pastry board or mat. Gently press or roll dough until dough is about 1/3” thick (dough will be softer than a normal cut-out cookie dough). Use a heart cookie cutter to cut out shapes and use a thin metal spatula to transfer hearts to ungreased cookie sheets, leaving a small space between cookies.

Bake at 325°F for about 20 minutes. Do not brown. Cool on a wire rack.

In a small microwave safe bowl, melt about 1 cup chopped chocolate in microwave by cooking in 30 second increments, stirring after each heating, until completely melted. Dip cookies as desired. To drizzle chocolate, place chocolate or candy melts in a Ziploc bag and cook for 30 seconds in microwave. Squish bag and repeat as needed until melted. Use a toothpick or skewer to poke a small hole in one corner of the bag and drizzle melted chocolate over cookies.

Place cookies on parchment paper or wax paper to harden. You can chill them in the refrigerator, if desired, to speed up the setting of the chocolate. Higher quality dark chocolate will take longer to harden than the candy melts.

Makes 2 ½ – 3 dozen cookies, depending on the size of your cookie cutter.

NoEmptyChairs.me

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

DAY 5: Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Balls of peanut butter cookie dough baked in a mini muffin pan and then squished by a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Definitely a kid favorite! Both to make and to eat.

RECIPE:

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

½ cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup creamy peanut butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups flour
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 pkg (12 oz) Reese’s Miniature Peanut Butter Cups, unwrapped **

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a mini muffin pan (or spray with non-stick baking spray).

In a mixing bowl, beat together butter, sugar and brown sugar. Beat in peanut butter, egg and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to mixing bowl and beat until well mixed.

Roll dough into 1” balls and place in greased muffin pan. Bake for 8-9 minutes, or until dough puffs and just barely begins to brown on the bottom.

Remove pan from the oven and immediately press a Peanut Butter Cup into the center of each cookie, pressing down until top of peanut butter cup is level with the top of the cookie. Cool completely in the pan and then remove to a wire rack. To remove cookies, hold the cookie by the top edge and twist gently.

Makes about 32 cookies.

**NOTE: A 12 oz package of peanut butter cups usually has 40 candy pieces. The recipe makes about 32 cookies, so you may have a few extra.

NoEmptyChairs.me

4 Comments

Filed under Cookies, Desserts

Tagged as baking, christmas, Cookies, cooking with kids, kids, peanut butter, peanut butter cups, recipe, Reeses

October 13, 2016 · 7:34 am

Halloween Spider Cookies

Looking for an easy way to turn a chocolate chip cookie into a chocolate spider cookie? A few melted chocolate chips and a piping bag are all you need!

Use your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe (mine is below) and cut the normal amount of chips you use about it half. After baking, add 3-4 chocolate chips to the tops of the hot cookies. Melt some more chips in a piping bag (or Ziploc bag) and use a narrow tip to pipe legs onto your spider bodies.

RECIPE:

Chocolate Chip Spider Cookies

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 Tbs cornstarch
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups chocolate chips, divided

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, egg yolk and vanilla.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Beat into butter mixture. Stir in ½ cup chocolate chips.

Drop by tablespoonsful onto baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Gently press 3-4 chocolate chips onto the top of each HOT cookie (these will be the spider bodies). Cool cookies on wire racks.

Place remaining chocolate chips (about 3/4 cup) in a pastry bag or Ziploc bag. Microwave for 30 seconds. Knead bag with your fingers to melt chips. Heat for an additional 10-15 seconds, if necessary.

Using a very thin tip, pipe legs around the spider bodies (chocolate chips). Let chocolate harden completely before storing.

Makes 3 dozen cookies

NoEmptyChairs.me

Partying with Penguins

Today is my baby girl’s 9th birthday. We worked together to create this fun Penguin Cake. She has a delicious cotton candy belly.

Here is the penguin without the cotton candy:

We love having Little J in our family. She is just as sweet as her penguin friend.

Happy Birthday Little J

We love you always!

Inspiration for cake from an Australian Women’s World Cookbook magazine from 1998. Cake frosted with this Buttercream Frosting (with the addition of orange extract).

Quick & Easy Nutella Crescent Rolls

A quick and easy idea today that isn’t really a recipe, as it only contains three ingredients: a tube of packaged crescent rolls, a jar of Nutella and some chopped nuts. I used walnuts, but chopped hazelnuts, pecans, or almonds would also be good. These are the jumbo-sized rolls, but you can make them with any of the varieties.

Great for kids to make for a Mother’s Day breakfast (or dessert). And always popular with hungry teenagers after early-morning seminary.

Open tube of crescent rolls; separate dough into triangles. Spread with Nutella. Sprinkle with chopped nuts.

Roll into crescent shape, beginning with wide end. Curve ends into crescent shape. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicon liner. Bake according to package directions until golden brown. Serve warm.

RECIPE:

Nutella Crescent Rolls

Servings: 8
Print

1 tube Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (regular or jumbo)
Nutella
Finely chopped nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds or pecans)

Unroll and separate raw crescent roll triangles. Spread with Nutella. Sprinkle with chopped nuts. Roll into crescent shape, beginning with wide end. Curve ends into crescent shape. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicon liner. Bake according to package directions until golden brown (about 15-18 minutes at 350°F for the jumbo size).

Cool slightly. Serve warm.

NoEmptyChairs.me

1 Comment

Filed under Breads, Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts

Tagged as baking, breakfast, brunch, chocolate, crescent rolls, dessert, easy, kids, mothers day, Nutella, nuts, quick, recipe