Christmas Baking 2013

This past weekend M and I picked out a few recipes we wanted to make for Christmas this year. We usually do some type of baking, whether it be pies, tarts, cookies, gingerbread houses, etc.

Last year we made sugar cookies and in all honesty they were my least favorite to make! So this year we decided to make at least one classic cookie - which of course was my Grandma's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies. It will be the one recipe you won't find me sharing. We made 3 dozen with more dough to spare in the freezer, because we weren't sure the cookies would make it to Christmas!  But we decided we would try 2 new recipes:

Christmas Bark Cookie Crunch:

Ingredients:
1 lb. white chocolate (I use Ghirardelli white chocolate chips)
14 Oreos, broken into pieces (I use the plain)
1 and 1/2 cups pretzels, broken- I used the thin straight ones
1 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup peanuts
1/2 cup miniature Reese’s cups
1/2 cup Peanut M&Ms (Christmas Colors)
Christmas sprinkles

Directions:
Cover a cookie sheet with waxed paper or foil. Spread the broken pretzels, broken cookies & peanuts on the prepared cookie sheet. Melt the white chocolate in microwave until smooth (1 minute to 1 ½ minutes, make sure to add a little canola oil).
Drizzle the melted white chocolate over the pretzel mixture, spreading with a spatula if needed. Before it sets, sprinkle on M&Ms, Miniature Reese’s, Peanut Butter Chips and sprinkles. Place the tray into the refrigerator until set. Break into pieces and enjoy! This is a hit at my parties!!!

I found the recipe HERE.

Now we have decided to modify this recipe a little bit. We used Hershey's White Chocolate Chips, we didn't use the peanut butter chips or the reese's cups, as I am just not all that in to peanut butter right now. We also used Christmas Smarties (because M says he couldn't find M&M's - which really means he prefers smarties over M&M's. He also spent $15 on a bulk bag of them) and we put peanuts on half of it for M and Skor bits on my half!

If I am being entirely honest (with my sister as my witness via the phone) this recipe was a disaster! We didn't have oil, so M improvised with Pam.... And when that didn't smooth out the chocolate he tried butter. It was still rather clumpy after heating, reheating, stirring, adding more butter, etc. He was soo frustrated and that  was an understatement. It wouldn't spread, so he decided to add regular chocolate chips to fix it using the stove instead of the microwave and well it turned out the same. He was frustrated, poured it all on the wax paper, smooshed it all in the middle, mixing our ends up and then used his his hands to smooth it out (insert cursing as the chocolate was hot - a lot of cursing and reminders that he is not a baker). My sister and I were laughing. I was laughing soo hard I was crying. 

He ended up pouring the remainder of the $15 bag of smarties left over from the other recipe (below) over the top of it. Z

M showed me the tray when he was done.... It doesn't look soo appetizing:

Maybe it will look like the first picture when we break it up? But I don't have high hopes. I am sure it will taste alright... But I'm calling this one a fail!! 

The second recipe we tried is this one:

The Perfect M&M Cookies:

 

 

I found this recipe HERE.

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 stick/1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups all purpose Gold Medal Flour
• 3 tablespoons Instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1 or 1-1/2 cups Mini M and M’s

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large baking sheet with a silpat liner or parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl cream your butter and sugars until well combined. Add your egg and vanilla mixing to combine. Add your flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt, stirring to combine. Add chips and m and m’s stirring to combine.
3. With a medium cookie scoop, place dough 1 inch apart from each other. Bake for 10-12 minutes until cooked through. Let cool on cookie sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Enjoy!

Makes 2 dozen cookies

We doubled the recipe.
We modified this with Smarties instead of M&M's because of the same reason mention above. I would prefer the M&M's. We also used red and green ones! M was in charge of making these ones. M also broke the rules and smashed the cookies down on the cookie sheet. They still turned out!

Today I will be making the nuts and bolts. Hopefully without issues.

Then we just have tarts for Christmas dinners with our families that we will make on Saturday. We will make raspberry tarts and lemon meringue, M and I's favorites. We celebrate with my family on Sunday.