Santa Cupcakes

I think the funnest thing to make!! They turned out even cuter than I hoped. The head is a mini-cupcake turned on it's side and then stuck on top of a regular sized cupcake (secured by a toothpick). The hat and beard are gum drops rolled out flat and cut to shape. The nose is a red hot. The eyes are mini chocolate chips. The fluff on the hat and the rosy cheeks are piped icing. The green mittens are green gumdrops and the red body is red icing rolled in red sugar sprinkles. Anyway, just a lot of fun!!

HO HO HO! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I also made these mini-cupcakes that turned out really cute too.

The whole santa lineup, ready for some Christmas action.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Raisin and more Cookies

These turned out so yummy. I found the original recipe online at cooks.com but I made so many modifications that I feel it is my own now. Perfect for that pumpkin and spice crave. Sorry no picture, we ate them too fast.

Ingredients:

1 C Flour

1 C Whole-wheat flour (I used hard-white wheat in case you wanted to know or cared)

1 1/3 C Old-Fashioned oats

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

1/4 tsp Ginger

1/4 tsp Cloves

1/2 tsp Salt

2 sticks Butter (I used real butter - I never trust margarine in cookies)

1 C Brown Sugar

1 C Granulated Sugar

1 C Pure Pumpkin

1 Large Egg

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 C Raisins

1/2 C Dried Cranberries

3/4 C Chocolate Chips

**After it was all mixed up together I ended up adding an extra 1/3 C Oats and about 1/4 C White Flour because I felt it was too moist and sticky. Use your judgement.

PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees.

Combine 1st 9 ingredients (all dry). Whisk together well. Set aside

Cream butter and sugars. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla. Beat until well mixed.

Stir in dry ingredients along with raisins, cranberries and chips and if you want walnuts or something that would be yummy too ;)

Check if it needs a little more flour and oats.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Yielded 3 1/2 dozen and a couple of my batches were really big cookies.

Hope you enjoy!!

Key Lime Bars

Key Lime Bars

America's Test Kitchen

This recipe makes an 8x8 size pan, double it for a 9x13. These have a very intense lime flavor and I loved it! So yummy!

CRUST:

5 ounces animal crackers (any brand)

3 TBSP packed brown sugar

4 TBSP butter - melted and cooled a little

FILLING:

2 ounces cream cheese - soft

1 TBSP lime zest (the zest of about 3 regular limes)

1/8 tsp salt

1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup fresh lime juice (do not use bottled lime juice)

GARNISH:

3/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted

Heat oven to 325. Spray 8x8 pan with oil spray. In a food processor, pulse animal crackers until broken down and evenly fine. Add brown sugar and salt; process to combine. Drizzle butter over crumbs and pulse until evenly moistened. Press crumbs evenly and firmly into bottom of pan. Bake until deep golden brown, 18 -20 minutes. Cool on wire rack while making filling.

While crust cools and before making the filling - toast the coconut; spread coconut in rimmed baking sheet. Bake in 325 degree oven, stirring often until golden brown and crispy (about 10-15 minutes). Set aside.

While crust cools, stir cream cheese, zest and salt until soft, creamy, and thoroughly combined. Add sweetened condensed milk and whisk until combined and no lumps; whisk in egg yolk. Add lime juice and whisk gently until incorporated (mixture will thicken slightly).

Pour filling into crust. Bake until set and edges begin to pull away slightly from sides, 15 - 20 minutes (about 25 minutes if 9x13 pan). Cool on wire rack 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Cover and chill in fridge for at least 2 hours.

Before serving top with toasted coconut. (coconut will go soggy if you top the bars and then cover and refrigerate, add it just before cutting and eating.)

Homemade ice cream sandwiches

These are the easiest things in the world to make, and so worth it. I've had homemade oreos, or chocolate sandwich cookies. While very yummy, they are always so rich. Even after just one bite I'm not sure if I get through the whole thing. These ice cream sandwiches were light and refreshing and perfect.

I started with cake mix cookies - very simple

1 cake mix (any flavor really, but I chose Devil's food)

1/3 cup oil

2 eggs

**side note - I substituted the oil in the recipe for 1/3 cup bean puree. Bean puree???, yep. You can substitute it for oil in a lot of baked goods and you don't know the difference. In fact, in my opinion, if you're substituting oil in cakes, breads, and muffins - things that are supposed to be light and cakey and fluffy, they turn out better with the beans (more moist). If you are substituting beans for butter in things that are supposed to be flat and chewy like cookies and brownies - they don't turn out right, they're too cake-like. Anyway, for these cookies though, it made them the perfect texture for the sandwich - PERFECT. Go to this link to see where I got the idea for using bean puree and information on how to do it http://everydayfoodstorage.net/?s=bean+puree.

Mix the cake mix, oil (or beans), and eggs together until you get a dough similar to sugar cookie dough. I had to add some water because I used the beans. Roll cookies into a 1" ball and flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in powdered sugar (or you could use cocoa powder). Bake at 375 for 9 minutes or until done. Let cool on cooling rack.

After cooled, scoop a large ball of any flavored softened ice cream you want (I used reduced fat cookies and cream). Place on one cookie (turned upside down) flatten with spatula then top with another cookie and press.

So simple! The slightly warm soft chocolaty cookie, the cool ice cream. My husband kept saying "mmmmmm" with every bite.

Try it (if you haven't already!)