Peanut Butter & Candied Bacon Cookies!

You know...everyone's putting bacon in their sweets nowadays! This past weekend, I took the plunge. I had read that Monday was not only National Pig Day, but National Peanut Butter Lover's Day as well...so, the idea for the cookies was born! I'd recently heard about candied bacon (I guess they call it 'pig candy' in the south?!), so I wanted to try that and then add it into my fave PB cookies. The results were dang good - but you DO tend to think....'do I really need bacon in my peanut butter cookie?' For me, although tasty, the answer is 'no'. It's just....well...kind of unnecessary! Fun - but unnecessary. I DO encourage you to try these at least once...I mean...peanut butter, bacon, brown sugar, maple.... Nothing wrong there ;-)

I first candied the bacon by laying 10 slices of thick-cut bacon on a rack on a sheet pan.

I baked it for about 10 to 15 minutes at 400-degrees until it was about 1/3 'done'.

I then brushed the bacon with maple syrup.....

....just a nice even coating.....

..then each slice got a sprinkle of brown sugar! I LOVE brown sugar! After the bacon 'got the goods', I baked it for another 15 minutes or so. I watched it carefully to make sure it didn't burn but I wanted to make sure the bacon was done and wasn't floppy.

Look at this! It's like bacon jewelry! SO pretty! And yuuuuummmy!

Once the bacon was completely cool, I gave ot a chop. Not too small, not too big.

I whipped up my fave peanut butter cookie dough.......

....then folded in the bacon pieces.

I rolled 'smaller-than-a-walnut-sized' balls of dough and put them on parchment-lined baking sheets, and flattened each in the traditional criss-cross fashion with a fork.

All ready for the oven!

9 minutes on the dot and they were done to perfection. Slightly crisp on the edges, chewy in the middle.

They were really good -not over-powering bacon flavor, but the bacon flavor that was there was nicely complimented by it's candy coating.

So - all in all, a good cookie :-) Really glad I made them 'cuz ya gotta do a trendy thing now and then, eh?! This trend for me though - was a one-timer. Nice to have met you, peanut butter bacon cookie!

Peanut Butter & Candied Bacon Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup butter (or ½ cup shortening & ½ cup butter)
2 eggs
2 ½ cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Directions:
Preheat over to 375 degrees. Mix sugars, peanut butter, butter/shortening and eggs until well combined. Add in dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Stir in chopped, candied bacon. Place just-smaller-than-walnut-sized balls on dough onto parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 8 to 9 minutes. Remove to cooling racks.



Candied Bacon
Lay 10 strips of thick-cut bacon on a rack placed on a jellyroll pan. Bake for 10 minutes in 400-degree oven, then brush with maple syrup and sprinkle with brown sugar. Return to oven for another 15 to 20 minutes, watching to make sure it doesn’t burn. Remove pan from oven and allow to cool completely. Chop into small pieces and fold into peanut butter cookie dough...

Happy Valentine's Day Cookies!

It's almost Valentine's Day! And I LOVE making pretty, sparkly Vanlentine's cookies!

My daughter and her BFF get their very own, monster-sized cookie, 'cuz love them monster-size!

The rest get all kinds of icing, sprinkles and sugars to please everyone else I love!

Yummy.......

Hello sweet, sugary calories!

Valentine cookie jewels :-)

A tasty, good afternoon's project and a LOVEly treat for your the people you love!

Have a sweet-n-lovely Valentine's Day! I send much love to you!!!

Peppermint Melt-Aways...lighter than air.....

I came acorss this recipe a month or so ago.... As soon as I saw the word Melt-Away, I knew I'd be making these for a Christmas season treat. This cokie is light & airy yet has a creamy nouth-feel. The hint of peppermint wafts over your tongue just to tickle your senses. They are a new favorite and a definite keeper.

These delicate little balls are a cinch to make. I double the recipe...something told me it'd be worth it (turns out I was right....I am like, super smart). I made the cookies one day and frosted them the next.

The frosting itself is also, likght, creamy and hints of peppermint. And most noticeabl;e to me...the frosting is snow white - perfect for a Christmas cookie! For garnish, crush up about 5 small candy canes - there are about 8 or so in that bowl....had lots left over....

Because I thought some poeple might be turned of by the crushed candy canes on top (hard on their teeth or what-have-you), I left some cookies just plain fosted. They were so cute, small adn snowy!

I topped about 2/3 of the cookies with the candy cane - I liked those best. Plus, they just look more Chirstmassy....no mistake that these are peppermint cookies~

I served the cooies on a frosty-looking silver charger. Come and get'em!

Trust me when I say these are a mouth-watering, sincerely melt-in-your-mouth, pastry-like cookie. You will fly to heaven with the first bite.

Peppermint Meltaway Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
scant 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch

Frosting:

2 tablespoons butter, softened
1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

1/4 cup crushed peppermint candies

Directions:

In a small bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in extract. Combine flour and cornstarch; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.
Shape into 1-in. balls - I repeatedly dusted my hands with cornstarch as the dough was a bit sticky. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until bottoms are just beinging to brown (to me, the prettiest cookies had no ring of golden brown). Remove to wire racks to cool completely.
Frosting - In a small bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Add the confectioners’ sugar, milk, extract and food coloring if desired; beat until smooth. Spread over cooled cookies; sprinkle with crushed candies. Store in an airtight container

Time Flies - Fall is Here Again...

This post marks just about one year since I started this blog. I needed a place to be creative and get out what was on the inside and it’s been super fun to do so. My first blog included instructions to make this wreath that, as of Saturday, is gracing our door yet again.

My daughter and I put out a few other autumn decorations….yummy candles and pine cones – and some squishy window stickies I’d bought last year on clearance. The house felt warm and cozy and perfect for baking – so that’s what we did! It’s not too often that I get a chance to spend an entire day with my 15 year old daughter what with friends and home work taking up her time – but yesterday, that’s just what I got…the whole day. It was heaven!

These are the cookies we made – Halloween Sandwich Cookies. They were sinfully simple and super scrumptious.

The recipe for the cookies is just three ingredients:
1 cake mix of your choice
1 stick of butter softened
2 eggs

Mix all ingredients together. It’ll be stiff and you’ll think it’ll never come together – but it will. Use your stand mixer to save time and trouble. We actually made two batches at once (2 mixes, 2 butters and 4 eggs).

Once dough comes together, use a small scoop to make even-sized balls on parchment-lined baking sheets. You could roll walnut-sized balls if you don’t have a small scoop.

Bake for 11 minutes at 350-degrees and cool completely. It doesn't take long at all.

Next, whip up some creamy vanilla frosting. You probably have a favorite recipe – I just sued my basic Betty Crocker that included powdered sugar, vanilla milk and butter. Then we split the icing into thirds and tinted them with….

Green…..

…then sandwiched them together….

…and orange….

…and sandwiched….

…and purple….

….and, well, you get the idea! Aren’t Halloween colors so much more fun with the addition of the green and purple to the age--old orange and black?! We LOVE it!

My Minners did a great job filling all the cookies. And buy making a double batch of dough, we had enough to set some aside to make some of her favorites…..

Chocolate with white chocolate chips! She and I both like white chocolate way better than bittersweet for baking.

But these were what the day was about – don’t they look fun and festive?

Mmmmmmm…..Chocolaty and creamy…. You can use any flavor of cake mix and icing to make these super easy sandwich cookies any time of year! Spice with cream cheese for Thanksgiving, lemon or strawberry cake mix with tinted icing for spring or Easter….the possibilities are endless. They are quick, delicious and great baking fun for kids of all ages.

And….individually bagged and tied with a ribbon – they make fun treats for friends, coworkers and family!

Welcome Fall!!

Magical Macarons! Maracons - Part 1...

That’s pronounced, “Mawk-a-rone” ….not “Mack-a-roon” (although lots of people say macaroon anyway) - (and this post will be presented in 4 parts as I found out the HARD way Blogger only accepts so many pics per post!). While a macaroon is a coconut mound of a cookie, a macaron is a delectable, French sandwich cookie that has a light, wafer-crisp shell with a dense, moist and chewy inside and has a creamy filling of salted peanut butter, chocolate ganache, salted caramel or anything else you choose!

Holy cow….if any of you know what macarons are, you know that lots of people avoid attempting them. For having very few ingredients (almond flour, powdered & granulated sugar, cocoa and egg whites), these cookies involve many steps, many particulars and can scare people away. I’ve eaten a macaron only once when a gal at work brought some in that she’d made. I was in love after the first bite and immediately started investigating them. I have to admit, at first I was a little put off – from aging the eggs whites for a few days to possibly having to grind my own nut flour to allowing them to dry before baking not to mention any sort of humidity or missteps could affect their success (or failure) in myraid ways….. Maybe they were too daunting to try – so many blogs described trouble after trouble!

Well, macarons floated in and out of my head over the months since my first tasting and this last week, the ‘floater’ finally stuck. I studied like I never had in school! I read every blog I could find, noting kinks in others attempts. I watched several youtube tutorials – one which was so awesome, featuring a French chef going through the whole process step by step. Now, I don’t speak French, but had read so much about making these little lovelies that it was pretty clear what was being said (special thanks to Javene and friend to translating those couple of key items!). As it turned out – all the things that people are intimidated by can be avoided pretty easily or really aren’t anything worth be scared off by! I can say with surety that I was extremely clear on how to get these beauties to turn out. I was up to the challenge and I had no expectation other than success in mind.

I looked forward to my Sunday baking session like one looks forward to Christmas morning….. I was that excited! So ladies and gents….I present – The Making of Macarons!!

This pic may not be monumental to you – but is was monstrously instrumental to my peace of mind in the initial steps on the macarons and I’m a big ‘prep-girl’ in general. All ingredients (recipe at the very end of this post) in these cookies are measured in grams, not cups and tablespoons etc like here in the good old US of A. So, thanks to my sister who lent me the most awesome digital scale that had metric capabilities, getting exact measurements was a cinch. You can convert the measurements by going to various on-line sites but I was concerned with them being right on since baking is such a science – especially with these babies. Anyway…I did myself the favor of measuring out everything the night before, keeping each group of components stacked together. Oh – the top container closest to the waiter cookie jar has the 7 egg whites in it. I separated the eggs on Friday night (two days prior to baking day). All cold items were kept in the fridge, not on the counter (of course!).

On Sunday (baking day!), I began by combining the almond flour (you can buy it at Fred Meyer in the nutrition center or at Whole Foods – if you don’t buy it, you must grind raw almonds in a blender or food processor until very fine), powdered sugar and cocoa

Once combined, it looks like this – kinda mealy with lotsa lumps.

To get rid of those lumps, sift the mixture into another bowl – about a quarter at a time. I used a bowl scraper to help work it through.

You’ll have little pebbles left over.

Here’s a close-up. You can toss these. I did not try to force them through as they’d have just made tinier lumps – I didn’t want any.

See how fine this looks?! Niiiiice……

Step two….Whip it good! You whip the aged egg whites with granulated sugar – added in two parts.

Whip the whites for 5 full minutes on top speed so they get super high and tight (tightie-whities?!?!)!

Next, fold in the flour mixture – added in three parts – folding until each addition is well incorporated.