Friday Favorites for the Holidays (1st Edition)

Hi friends!

It's been quite some time since I posted my Friday Favorites on the blog. In fact, it's been just over two months since I presented you with Friday Favorites. Whoops! I just felt like I needed a break from it for a bit. But, with the holiday season upon us, I thought it might be fun to bring you some ideas for holiday treats over the next few weeks!

What prompted me to bring you holiday editions of Friday Favorites was a blog post by the Cookin' Canuck that I saw today. This recipe for chocolate covered marshmallow pops needed to be shared with others! It just looks like such a fun, easy homemade goodie for the holidays - one that both kids and adults can enjoy eating and creating!

(photo from Cookin' Canuck)

And I love the three different ideas for flavors - candy cane, heath bar, and coconut. They'd all be great for the holiday season but the candy cane idea is especially festive! You could easily do others too - maybe colored sprinkles or chopped nuts?

Another great holiday recipe is this one for peppermint snickerdoodles that I saw a couple weeks ago on Taste and Tell. I saved it to one of my boards on Pinterest so that I wouldn't forget it!

(photo from Taste and Tell)

Don't those look sooo good? I've made variations on snickerdoodles before (maple, pumpkin) but I don't know if I would have thought to make peppermint ones!!! Brilliant! Be sure to head on over to Taste and Tell to check out the ingredient list too. There are only 5 items required to make these delicious little gems!

Finally, brought to you by the always creative Real Simple, here are two fun ideas for dispensing ribbon (if you are one of those people who loves ribbon for gift wrapping or crafts!!).

Use a paper towel holder:

Use a wire hanger:

I just love simple yet useful ideas like this, don't you?!?

Happy holiday season, all. :) I hope to have more fun, easy, festive ideas and recipes for you over the course of the next few weeks!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies

Greetings friends! Okay, so I have one more pumpkin recipe for you this week... So far this week I've given you a breakfast recipe of pumpkin pancakes, a dinner recipe of pumpkin mac n' cheese, an "anytime" recipe of pumpkin biscuits, and now I present to you a dessert recipe of pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies! In my opinion, I've saved the best 'til last. These cookies were AMAZING. And they're easy too! I used my shortcut of the cake mix cookie trick. ;-)

Please note that there is an asterisk by the oil... I'm updating this recipe as of October 2013 to say that it's recommended that you mix the cake mix, egg, and pumpkin first and see if the mixture sticks together and is moist enough without being too sticky. If so, you may not need to add the oil at all. Please use your best judgment with this. Everyone's kitchen and ingredients differ slightly. Thanks. :)

Ingredients:

-1 box (18.25 oz.) yellow cake mix

-1 egg

-1/2 cup canned pumpkin

*-1/4 to 1/3 cup vegetable oil (*see note above about oil)

-3 Tbsp. sugar

-1 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, and grease two large cookie sheets. In a large bowl, combine the first four ingredients (cake mix through vegetable oil). Start with about 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, but if the mixture doesn't feel like it's sticking together well or isn't quite moist enough, continue adding a bit more vegetable oil until it comes together nicely. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Form the cookie dough into 1-inch balls, and then roll each ball in the cinnamon sugar mixture until it's well coated. Place on prepared cookie sheets, and bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until the cookie springs back if you touch it with your finger. Let sit for a couple minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.

For some reason I didn't think of this until after the fact, but you could definitely add cinnamon to the actual cookie dough too if you wanted to make them have even more cinnamon flavor. I'd say a teaspoon or so should do it!

I will say that these cookies were not super pumpkin-y, but the flavor was definitely there. The soft and chewy texture of these cookies is my favorite quality of them. Cake mix cookies come out great every time I make them!! And this new recipe is no exception. Next time you need a quick dessert, give these a try. You can whip up a batch in no time at all! And they'll be devoured in no time at all too. :)

Maple Snickerdoodles

Cinnamon. Sugar. Soft. Chewy. Those are four words that help explain why I enjoy snickerdoodles. I have to admit that I haven't always loved snickerdoodles though. Gasp! I don't ever remember my mom making snickerdoodles; if she had, I know I would have fonder memories of them because she's an amazing baker. :) The only times I remember having snickerdoodles they were hard, not soft and chewy, and they weren't too flavorful. I don't know whose snickerdoodles I was eating, but I didn't really love them. :(

This all changed a few years back when I discovered a great recipe for snickerdoodles that uses cake mix to make them. Yep, cake mix. Those of you who know me or have been reading my blog for a while know that I have used cake mix to make cookies many times. When you're short on time, cake mix cookies are perfect to whip up a batch of yummy treats really quickly. Don't worry so much that they're not from scratch. Every good cook and baker needs shortcuts from time to time. :)

Back to my snickerdoodles story... So since I have been using the great cake mix snickerdoodle recipe, it's been nice to know that they can be soft, chewy, delicious, and cinnamon-sugary. Score!

Last week I was trying to decide on a new cookie recipe to make to bring to my sister, Melissa, for her birthday. I considered whipping up a quick batch of cake mix cookies (I always keep cake mix on hand for this purpose!), but I wanted to make something from scratch instead. Melissa looooves maple (you already know this if you read my May 6th edition of Friday Favorites), so my focus was on a cookie made with real maple syrup. I was short on time though, so it had to be something simple. Thankfully, I stumbled upon a great recipe for maple snickerdoodles. The recipe called for only a few ingredients, was easy, and took almost no time to make. And the other obvious great quality of this recipe? It made cookies that tasted deeelicious! They were not heavy on the maple flavor though, so if you're hoping for a strongly maple-flavored cookies, these may not be for you. The maple was subtle, yet still detectable. The cookies themselves were the perfect texture in my opinion; they had just the right level of chewiness. And the cinnamon sugar flavor was wonderful. I'd describe these maple snickerdoodles as a "comfort cookie." :)

(did you notice that you can see my reflection in the mixing bowl in the above picture as I'm taking the picture? too funny)

Here's the recipe for you (I found it on AllRecipes):

-2 cups all-purpose flour
-1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
-1/4 tsp. baking soda
-1 and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
-1/2 cup margarine, softened
-1 cup white sugar
-3 Tbsp. real maple syrup
-1 egg
-1/2 cup white sugar
-1/4 cup maple sugar (or 2 tsp. cinnamon)

Now, I did not have the maple sugar, so I just used cinnamon instead. The recipe calls for mixing the last two ingredients listed, white sugar and maple sugar, and then rolling the balls of cookie dough in that mixture. So my mixture was simply cinnamon and sugar instead. If you can find maple sugar though, I bet that would enhance the maple flavor of these cookies! I see that King Arthur Flour carries maple sugar. I may have to look into getting that...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and 1 and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon; set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the softened margarine and 1 cup of white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and maple syrup. Gradually add the dry ingredients until everything is just mixed in. In a small dish, mix together the remaining 1/2 cup white sugar 1/4 cup and maple sugar (or about 2 tsp. cinnamon). Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and roll the balls in the sugar mixture until coated. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until the cookies are "cracked" on top. They may look slightly wet in the middle still (that's okay!). Cool completely on cooling rack. Makes about 24 - 30 cookies.

The last picture above shows that the cookie, fresh out of the oven, still looks a little wet in the middle. This is okay, as that will go away when the cookie cools, but it will still allow the cookie to be nice and soft.

I enjoyed a few of these on my own but was also able to have enough self restraint to give the rest for Melissa for her birthday. :) She loved them too! Snickerdoodles, either the cake mix version or this maple version, are definitely here to stay in my kitchen. 

Do you have a favorite snickerdoodle recipe?! If so, I'd love to hear about it!

Cake Mix Cookies

This is one of my all-time favorite recipes! It's so easy and versatile. :) I started out a few years ago by following a recipe for snickerdoodle cake mix cookies (which is what I made for this post too); but I quickly realized that you can make just about any kind of cake mix cookie (CMC for short ;-))! It's a great treat to make when you're running short on time. Because you're not baking from scratch entirely, I bet it takes about half of the preparation time as normal cookies. Below is the recipe that I share with people who ask for the recipe after they've tasted a CMC...and believe me, many people ask for the recipe!

Ingredients:

-package of cake mix (chocolate, yellow, or any kind you'd like to experiment with!)

-2 eggs

-1/4 to 1/3 cup vegetable/canola oil (enough to make the mixture moist)

Mix the above ingredients (with a spoon is fine) until moist. Add whatever else you'd like, such as m & m's, chocolate chips, toffee bits, chopped oreos, peanut butter chips, etc.!

Preheat the oven to 375 and grease cookie sheets.

Specifically for snickerdoodles, use yellow cake mix and roll each ball of dough (approximately 1-inch in diameter) in a cinnamon sugar mixture (3 Tbsp. sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon). Then very slightly flatten each cookie with the bottom of a glass. I also like to sprinkle more cinnamon sugar on at that point.

Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets and bake for 9-10 minutes. Let cool for a minute or two on the cookie sheet before removing to cooling rack. The recipe makes about 18 - 24 cookies. ENJOY!

This is a picture of the batter. You can see that there are small pieces of dry cake mix not quite mixed in. It is fine this way! No need to mix them all in.

Here are the balls of dough, rolled in cinnamon sugar but not yet pressed slightly with the bottom of a glass.

This time I also added some festive red and green sprinkles. 'Tis the season after all! This picture is just before the cookies head into the oven.