Any killer recipes for Christmas cookies out there?

California Girl · Post by **California Girl** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 2:04 pm

Lindy, you're blowing me away with your cookies!! How about with those mint ones, you put 3 or 4 mint chips inside a ball of cookie dough, and slightly flatten it? I want some! If I send you my address will you send me a cookie care package?

Connie · Post by **Connie** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 2:18 pm

OK , here's the ultimate cookie. I didn't give this out to friends, family or people i work with for so long until I thought that they would find it on the back of the bag of toffee chips.

These are Oatmeal Toffee Cookies Connies Cookies

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1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups quick-cooking oats
1 1/3 cups (8 oz. pkg) Heath bits toffee bits
1 cup sweetened coconut flakes (optional)

Heat oven to 375. Beat butter, eggs, brown sugar & vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon & salt; beat until blended. Stir in oats, toffee bits & coconut, if desired, with spoon. This is a very thick dough. I found it best to make small meatball size balls, put them on the sheet and use the palm of your hand to flatten them down a bit. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 1 minute, remove to wire rack. Cool completely. About 4 dozen cookies.

Enjoy! And let me know how you liked them. Even people who are not coconut fans love them.

XOXO · Post by **XOXO** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 2:24 pm

Thank you Connie! I have been checking back waiting for this recipe. I have a house full of teens here today so I think I am going to whip some together--sans coconut.

Gina

mindehankins · Post by **mindehankins** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 2:27 pm

Lindy, tell me about freezing cookie dough! I never heard of that, and it could revolutionize my baking. I'm "the one," in our group of family and friends, that is expected to put out millions of cookies each year. I've got the shopping list done, to buy tomorrow. If I could mix the batters this weekend, and bake in the next two, I think that would REALLY make things less confusing!

Lindy · Post by **Lindy** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 3:05 pm

Mindy - It sure revolutionized MY baking! I started doing this last year because I was having to bake multiple kinds of cookies each week for various functions...ie. Christmas party one weekend, church bake sale the next, another party the following weekend, etc., etc. right up until New Years. Now I simply start in November and make up triple, quadruple or as much as my Mixmaster can hold and then I roll things into loaves, logs, balls, whatever and freeze them on a cookie sheet. DON'T decorate them yet. The logs and loaves, get wrapped in waxed paper, then plastic wrap and then store them in a big zip loc bag (leftover from St John trips hahahaha!!). If there's a lot I kinda stack them up in a plastic bin or carboard box so they won't crack when they're moved. Cookies that are rolled into balls can just be dumped into the bag once they're frozen solid. Label the bag with a Sharpie with the name of the cookie and the baking instructions to make things easier. (Beats digging out the recipe every time!)The only problem I had with this method last year were the molasses cookies because the dough is so sticky. I'm going to try rolling them in sugar before I freeze them this year to see if that works better. When you do this you can take out however many cookies you need for each function. The bigger items should thaw overnight in the fridge, but the ones already rolled into little balls thaw in just minutes. I roll them in nuts, sugar, sprinkles....whatever, make thumbprints, flatten slightly or do whatever that particular kind of cookie needs and bake them on parchment paper so that I only need to change the paper in between different kinds of cookies. I've even started using a recipe for sugar cookies where you roll the whole log of dough in colored sugars and then slice them. The sugar only around the edges of the cookies and your friends can't figure out how you did that!! Plus they look more uniform and sophisticated for bake sales. Last year I used Andes candies for the mint ones but they were a little odd shaped because of the rectangular candy. I'm going to see if I can melt 3 or 4 chips together in the microwave to get more of a coin shaped piece of choclate to put inside the batter. I form those with the mint inside and then freeze them. By doing it this way I was able to provide my husband's church with at least 50 dozen cookies for their fund raiser sale last year. (My kitchen has two ovens.) And if you're wondering if the freezer makes them taste funny....I found a log of sugar cookie dough at the bottom of my freezer about two weeks ago and baked it as an experiment. I had several friends taste them and no one could tell that the dough had been in the freezer for close to a year!!! Woohoo!! SO much more efficient. Next time I go to St John maybe I'll take some froaen cookie dough along with the meats and cheeses. Pretty soon I won't have any clothes...just snorkel stuff and food in my luggage. LOL!!

Lindy · Post by **Lindy** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 3:16 pm

CG - Here's the mint cookie recipe. It was originally done with Rockwell mints or I think Brach's also had something called Starlight Mints that came in a little box at the grocery store. Remember those?

Starlight Mint Surprise Cookies
Recipe #143064 | 25 min | 15 min prep | add private note

These cookies won $10,000 for Miss Laura Rott from Naperville, Illinois in a long ago Pillsbury Baking Contest. I can remember my mother making them for us and how good they were. I still have the original recipe that my mother used and since the paper is becoming a little brittle, I'm going to copy it here so I won't damage the original.
4 1/2 dozen

Ingredients
3 1/4 cups sifted pillsbury's best enriched flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup Crisco
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla

1 (9 1/2 ounce) package Andes mints candies
walnut halves

Directions
1Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
2Cream together the butter and Crisco.
3Add sugars and mix well. Add unbeaten eggs, water and vanilla and mix well.
4Blend in the dry ingredients and mix well.
5Chill dough.
6Open and unwrap the chocolate mint wafers (Eight O'Clock or Andres)
7Enclose each wafer in about 1 Tablespoon of dough and top each cookie with a walnut half.
8Place on ungreased baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
9Bake in moderate oven (recipe says 375°)for 10-12 minutes. You might consider a moderate oven to be 350°.

mindehankins · Post by **mindehankins** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 7:44 pm

Thank you, Lindy! I'm going to try this. It would be nice to have a mixing day and a baking day, or two or three!
Question: Starlight mints are those hard candies that are peppermint, red and white and individually wrapped. They aren't like Andes mints at all. Have you tried these with the Starlight mints?

mindehankins · Post by **mindehankins** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 7:48 pm

Here's a link to what I was referring to: http://www.staples.com/office/supplies/ ... 61-5538197
I wonder....were these the original intended fillings? I did google and I see a bunch of sites recommending the Andes. I just wondered...

Lindy · Post by **Lindy** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 12:26 am

Minde - not the hard candy.Back in the 50's and 60's there were chocolate mints that were the same shape as nonpareils only without the little white sugar sprinkles.I'm showing my age talking about the old candy counters in the dime store or the department store. Then Brach's started putting that kind of candy into little boxes for the grocery store...they had things like bridge mix, choc covered peanuts and that kind of stuff. Now they do the stuff in the bins in the produce department but it's not as good. Make sure you use a chocolate mint, not the hard candy otherwise it won't turn out right.

Hey Connie - Thanks for posting your recipe. I'm going to give them a try!

California Girl · Post by **California Girl** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:11 pm

Lindy, I remember those candies! The Andes mints sound like they'd work really good, though! I still need to print out the recipes and get my butt to the grocery store! LOL!

cocosmom · Post by **cocosmom** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 8:32 pm

Oreo cookie goodies!

Here is a to-die-for NO BAKING recipe.

One bag of Oreo cookies & one bar of cream cheese.

Put in a food processor until it forms a ball. ( I did half of the cookies & cream cheese at a time)

Roll into small balls ( very rich, don't make them too big)

Melt Wiltons candy melts or any chocolate chips in microwave or double boiler. Dip each cookie ball in the candy. Place on wax paper to harden.

I have been asked to make these over and over again!

California Girl · Post by **California Girl** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 9:09 pm

Now THAT sounds dangerous! I'm adding the ingredients to my grocery list!

cocosmom · Post by **cocosmom** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:31 pm

Cal girl..watch it everyone will be asking you to make them...sometimes I want to say it took hours and the recipe is very complicated LOL

Oh yea, you can also use the mint or peanut butter oreos...never tried that but I bet the mint would be great.

P-600 · Post by **P-600** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:20 pm

Cocosmom....Those are definitely on my to do list along with the Baileys truffles in an earlier thread..YUMMMMMM

cocosmom · Post by **cocosmom** » Thu Dec 03, 2009 9:10 pm

Making the "balls" with mint oreos covered with pink wilton candy wafers for a girl baby shower this weekend. Let ya all know if they are as good as using the regular oreos

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Any killer recipes for Christmas cookies out there?