Browsing Tag

baking

Food, Savory

Winter Cookies

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Pretty Italian Cookies

Not sure if you’ve figured it out yet, but I’m Italian. So anise cookies are kind of this thing my family likes to make. I’m not a fan of licorice, so the cookies aren’t my first go-to cookie. However, I have no problem making them, especially since I get to decorate them.

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Gather the goods, just no need for the remote

 

You will need:
2 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1 1/4 teaspoon butter
2 tablespoons anise oil

Icing:
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 teaspoons milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs and anise oil and continue mixing until combined. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder. Add dry mixture to wet in small batches until combined.

With a spoon, drop small one inch cookies onto baking sheet. Bake for about 12-15 minutes. Let cool on cooling rack.

While those are cooling, mix the icing ingredients until smooth. I added some red to make the icing colorful, then dipped them into the icing and put back onto the rack. Decorate with sprinkles or whatever you’d like. Enjoy!

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Food, Sweet

Marshmallows – Chocolate Peanut Butter

Start with the basics.. oh yeah, and peanut butter too

I had a craving. I wanted peanut butter, chocolate, and marshmallows. So what do you do when you have a craving like that? Make something with all of it! So I melted some chocolate in the microwave until it was smooth, dipped in a marshmallow and put it on some wax paper. Into the fridge for 10 minutes and I pulled them back out. Microwaved some peanut butter in the microwave until it was smooth and dipped the marshmallows in that. Back into the fridge for 5 minutes. And then I had a snack! Nom nom!

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Food, Sweet

Caramel Apple Rice Krispy Treats

Who doesn’t like caramel apples?

So I still had apples hanging around the house, but there was no way I was going to just eat an apple. Seriously, I’ve been in a slump of not making anything too exciting, so I took an evening of being lazy around the house and decided to do something about my sweet tooth. So what did I come up with? A craving for Rice Krispy Treats that lead to a great dessert. If you like caramel apples, you’ll like this.

Basically, it’s the same as a Rice Krispy Treat, but you’ll have to also buy some additional ingredients.

Get:
6 cups of Rice Krispy cereal
A 10 oz bag of regular marshmallows
3 Tablespoons of margarine
1 Granny Smith apple
1 Tablespoon of cinnamon

For topping:
15 caramel candy cubes
1 Tablespoon of water

Peel and dice up the apple. Saute in a pan with 1 of the tablespoons of margarine and the cinnamon. Cook down until the apple is softened.

The house started smelling like apple pie at this point.

Add in the bag of marshmallows and the rest of the margarine. Cook down until all the marshmallows are melted.

Almost there….

Start folding in the Rice Krispies, one cup at a time until everything is in. Put into a brownie pan and let it cool.

While that is resting, in a clean pan, add the caramels and cook on low with the water until it melts and is smooth. Then drizzle over the treats, let rest, cut up, and enjoy!

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Food, Sweet

Halloween Party Planning – Graveyard Dirt

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You’d never know that Milano cookies make the perfect gravestones, but they do!

Oh goodness, I love this one! My co-worker actually did this, but it came out great and had to share it! And it’s quick (as long as you remember to use instant pudding.) 🙂

What you’ll need:

Two boxes of instant chocolate pudding
Milk for the pudding
Milano cookies
Black icing (the kind you can buy in the cake aisle at the grocery store that is already made for you)
Oreo cookies
Duff Chocolate Rocks
Gummy Worms

Get a very large serving bowl, glass of course, so you can see the dirt. Pour your two already made batches of instant chocolate pudding in the bottom, dropping gummy worms in the mix as you go.

On the side, bash some Oreos in a bag to get them all crumbly. See exhibit A:

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Get your anger out in a healthy way. Bash this.

Pour the crumbled Oreos on top of the pudding.

Next, write “RIP” on the top half of the milano cookies. You can then stick them into the “dirt” you’ve created. Top with some of the Duff chocolate rocks and you’ve got yourself a tasty graveyard! Party ready and a hit with the kids.

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