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By Kim, December 23, 2009 1:06 pm

I found these awesome chocolate chips with peanut butter swirled in them at the store and found them pretty hard to resist. I am a peanut butter addict and with a little chocolate, well then I’m a severe addict! The cookies were easy and fast and turned out delicious.

After all my cookie baking for the holidays, I am done. I really don’t want to make anymore cookies for a long time. It’s completely out of my system…for now. I’m sure my husband won’t mind too much, except when he told me that he didn’t get very many cookies this year because they were all given away as gifts! Maybe I’ll have to make one more batch just for him! I hope everyone enjoys their holidays!

Here is the recipe for the cookies!

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By Kim, December 21, 2009 2:09 pm

For a long time, I have wanted to try decorating cookies with Royal Icing. The cookies turn out looking so nice and I never really like the way cookies looked with butter cream icing. So this year, I decided it was time to give it a try. With a little bit of research (thanks to all the wonder blogs out there that give step by step directions), I was able to create my own cookies with success.

The first step was to make the sugar cookies. I decided to try Dorie Greenspan’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookie recipe. I refrigerated my dough for two days before I had the chance to make them and the dough was fine. I went with cookie shapes that seemed easy to decorate in my mind. So I ended up with candy canes, Christmas trees and stars. Next it was on to the fun stuff, decorating!

The first thing you need to make sure of is that your sugar cookies are completely cool when you start decorating. Then plan and prep how you are going to decorate your cookies (i.e. colors, designs, etc.). Since this was my first time decorating with royal icing, I went with only a few colors and a minimalist approach.

After  had everything ready to go, I made the royal icing.  Then I mixed in the coloring for the different colors I wanted. After each color was mixed, I placed a damp paper towel over each bowl so that the frosting would not dry out. Then it was on to the outline. I seriously did not think outlining would take so much time! (FYI: Make sure you give yourself plenty of time for this project!) Here are my outlined cookies waiting to dry.

After the outline was dry (I waited about an hour), it was time to flood the cookie. At this step, I enlisted the help of my husband. It made the process go by much faster with his help! When the cookies are flooded then you should let them dry at least overnight.

After letting the cookies dry completely, then you are ready to decorate! I made another batch of royal icing for the decorating and bought some sprinkles and candies for the top of the cookies. I think my husband (aka “Master Decorator”) had a little too much fun decorating!

After many hours, the cookies were done! All in all, I have to say that decorating with royal icing is a little more hard work, but in the end your cookies turn out ten times better than using butter cream frosting. I can’t wait till next time! Check out the finished product and let me know what you think!

Comments (1)

By Kim, December 18, 2009 11:40 am

Last year was the first time I ever made Gingerbread Men Cookies and I am so glad I did. The cookies have a perfect blend of flavors and the icing adds just a touch of sweetness. It is fun to decorate them with family because everyone can be as creative as they want. I look forward to the day when I can make these cookies with our kids! But for now, my husband likes to be the master decorator. Check out the picture below to see his decorating skills. (Can you tell which one looks like Dwight Schrute from the Office???)

Recipe can be found at McCormick.

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By Kim, December 16, 2009 1:29 pm

For Christmas this year, we decided (well I decided for my husband) to make cookies for Christmas gifts this year. For the next couple of days, I will be sharing some of my favorite holiday cookies with you. I hope you enjoy!

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By Kim, December 16, 2009 1:24 pm

Recently we went to an awesome Christmas Sweater Party and everyone brought different appetizers to enjoy. I wanted to make something new and found the recipe for Pizza Bites. They looked so good, I knew I had to try them. I decided to buy the pre-made pizza dough (Trader Joe’s has the best) so I could save a little time. They were very easy to make, but make sure you use a flour surface and keep some flour nearby for your hands, otherwise the dough gets too sticky. You can use any filling you want, but I opted for mozzarella cheese and pepperoni.  The recipe also states that you should use the pizza sauce for dipping, but I think that the next time I make them I may try to put some sauce on the inside of the balls. The Pizza Bites turned out to be a success and everyone seemed to enjoy them.

Recipe taken from For the Love of Cooking

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By Kim, December 7, 2009 6:24 pm

I have wanted to try this recipe for so long and I finally had some extra pumpkin that I needed to finish up. I don’t know how I will ever eat regular pancakes again after I tried these. They were perfect, not too sweet and very filling. I cannot wait to make them again! Enjoy!

Recipe taken from Annie’s Eat.