Lemon Crinkle Cookies

I found this recipe on Pinterest.  It originally came from LDS Living's website and it's delicious!

Lemon Crinkle Cookies 
Makes 2-3 dozen

Ingredients:
½ cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoons baking soda
1-½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

Sugar Cookie Bars

I made these for a church social this summer and they were a huge hit!   The only problem is that all of my favorite things to make don't qualify as dinner or health food.  I found this recipe on Real Mom Kitchen's blog.

1 cup butter; room temp.
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
5 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. soda

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg.  Add vanilla and mix well.  In a separate bowl combine flour, salt and soda and stir with a whist to combine.  Add to wet mixture and mix until just combined.  Spread on a greased baking sheet (use a 13x18 pan). Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 min., until light golden brown or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool completely and frost.

Frosting
1/2 cup butter, room temp.
1/2 cup shortening
1 tsp. vanilla
pinch of salt
4 cups powdered sugar
5 tbsp. milk
food coloring (if desired)

For frosting combine butter and shortening until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla and salt.  Add powdered sugar in 1-2 cup increments until combined, then add milk and mix until smooth.  Spread over cooled cookie.

Chocolate Cut-Out Cookies

My favorite recipe blog has done it again!  They've provided me with another fabulous recipe that I know I 'm going to be using over and over again!  This time it's a cookie recipe!  When I saw this post on the chocolate gingerbread shaped skeleton/mummy cookies I knew I had to try it!  So today my second grader's class gets to make mummies for a Halloween treat during their Halloween party.  But, because I couldn't take cookies to school that had not been properly taste-tested, I've already eaten a sufficient number of cookies to be able to say that these chocolate cookies a delish!  And super simple to whip up too!  I got 24 gingerbread men out of one batch of cookie dough, because I wasn't quite sure if that was enough (dang big classes at our school), I made a second batch and made a few extra gingerbread men then put the rest of the dough in the freezer for another day.  Hopefully it freezes well!

Chocolate Cut-Out Cookies
Recipe slightly modified by Our Best Bites from Cookie Craft via Bake @ 350
Ingredients:
2 & 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. cocoa powder (dutch-process or natural works)
1 cup (2 sticks) regular salted butter
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla


Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment or a silicone baking mat if you have either of those.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light an fluffy (1-2 full minutes). Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined.
Whisk flour and cocoa powder together and then slowly add to the butter mixture by spoonfuls with mixer at low speed. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl as needed.
Lightly dust rolling surface with coco powder or flour or a mixture of both.  (I use cocoa powder).  Roll dough about 1/4 inch thick.  It helps to roll soft dough in between sheets of plastic wrap or parchment and then place them in the fridge for about 15 minutes (or the freezer for 5-10) until firm.
Cut out shapes and place on baking sheets.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, until set.  Sometimes it’s hard to tell with chocolate cookies when they are done, so just watch for the dough to not look “wet” anymore and the edges should be holding their shape nicely.
Let cookies cool for 2-3 minutes and then use a spatula to place them on a cooling rack.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

My Mom always called these cookie bars, My mother-in-law calls them blondies. Either way they're delicious! I found this recipe here www.jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com and it looks like she found it here Mel's Kitchen Cafe. I made them today and they were fast, easy, and delicious!

Time: 45 minutes
Yield: about 30 bars

2 1/8 C flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
12 T butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 C brown sugar
1/2 C white sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 t vanilla
2 C chocolate chips (I used semi sweet, buy you can use what ever suits your fancy- I also only used 1 1/2 cups and that was plenty of chocolate for me and believe me, I like chocolate)
You could throw in some nuts too, if that's your thing- it's not my thing though

1. Melt your butter in the microwave. Add the brown sugar, white sugar, egg, egg yolk, and vanilla to the butter. Whisk it around until well combined.
2. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients.
3. Add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
4. Fold in your chocolate chips.
5. Line a 9x13 pan with tin foil. Spray it down with some cooking spray and press your cookie dough into the pan. The tin foil is going to make it super easy to pull these bars out of the pan.
6. Bake at 325 for 24-28 minutes.
7. Let your pan cool on a wire rack for a bit. I didn't let mine get all the way cool before I cut them, and it worked out fine. I like to eat my cookies warm!
8. Pull the tin foil out of the pan and on to a cutting board. Cut the bars as desired. ENJOY!

Buttercream Frosting

I love Wilton's frosting recipe! Delicious! I use it for nearly all of the cakes and cookies we frost around here!

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup barely softened butter
1 tsp. clear vanilla extract (regular works too) or 1 tsp. almond extract
4-5 cups of powdered sugar
2-4 tbsp. milk

Put shortening and butter into mixer bowl and mix together until well blended (I love my Kitchenaid for this). Add 4 cups of powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Add vanilla or almond extract. Add 2 tbsp. milk. Add more milk a little at a time until desired consistency is reached whipping well after each addition- don't forget to scrape to sides of the bowl occasionally. If it gets a bit too runny add a bit more powdered sugar.  Frost away!

Can be stored for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container in the fridge.

NOTE: For years I preferred the frosting flavored with almond extract, but lately I've been using just vanilla.  I have a few friends who are allergic to nuts and I worry that the almond extract might do something horrible to them.  Maybe it wouldn't, I'd rather not find out.  Anyhow, I've been loving the slightly different flavor!

Snickerdoodles

My Mom was always making cookies when I was a kid. Delicious, yummy cookies. I especially remember how she would often mix up a batch of cookies before school and baking enough that we could take some to school in our lunch! I've gotten most of my cookie recipes from my Mom including this fast and easy one for snickerdoodles.

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Cream sugar and margarine together. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add all dry ingredients and mix well. Dough will be quite soft and sticky. Scoop into 1 inch round balls and roll in cinnamon sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 min. Do not overcook and do not press balls down on cookie sheet!

Fudge Jumbles

I first had these at Young Women Camp this summer. And YUM! They are so delicious! So of course I had to get the recipe and make some! Justin loves them too- but was a little distraught when he saw me mixing the melted chocolate, sweetened milk, and butter all together. I assured him that the 3 cups of oatmeal made up for anything else that was less than healthy in the recipe. He didn't believe me of course, it was a pretty flimsy lie. However, this yummy treat has earned a new name at our house "Oatmeal Excuses".

Ingredients:

1 c. butter
2 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
3 c. quick oatmeal
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 oz.) pkg. chocolate chips
2 tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. chopped walnuts
2 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and brown sugar. Add eggs and mix. Add vanilla. Sift flour, soda and salt, stir. Add oatmeal and stir. Spread 2/3 of mixture in a greased 9 x 12 pan.

Melt in microwave sweetened milk, chocolate chips, butter, salt. Stir in nuts and vanilla. Pour over mixture in pan. Drop remaining dough in dots over chocolate mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Glazed Frosting

This is super easy and a fun, different way to frost sugar cookies. I got this recipe from Our Best Bites. You should check out that site, it has some fun ways to use this frosting.

4 cups powdered sugar
6 tbsp. milk
6 tbsp. light corn syrup
1 tsp. almond or vanilla extract

Whisk the powdered sugar and milk together until all the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the corn syrup and extract. Whisk together some more. Add desired coloring. Use a spoon to put a small amount on each cookie and then spread to cover the entire cookie. Or if you're in a hurry pour a bunch on each cookie, spread a little, and the extra will just drip over the edges. YUM!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my Mom's recipe and I've been making it for years. I love them right out of the oven, though they're pretty good once cooled off too- just as long as they aren't overdone, so don't forget to set the timer!

1/2 butter
1/2 cup shortening
12 tbsp. brown sugar
12 tbsp. white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2/3 a bag of chocolate chips

Cream butter, shortening, and sugars together (I love my kitchenaid for this). Add vanilla and cream. Add eggs and cream. Add chocolate chips and mix well. Add flour, soda, and salt and mix thoroughly. Test dough for consistency- it needs to be just past the sticky gooey mess stage, but firm enough to form into soft balls. I use my cookie scooper to scoop out even sized cookie dough balls. Place on a cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes at 365 degrees until slightly golden in color.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

This recipe came from a dear friend of my Mom's named June Jerney. It's long been one of my favorite cookie recipes. This type of cookie is at its best once it's completely cooled.

Blend together...
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Then add...
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa

Refrigerate overnight (I never do this- I simply don't plan far enough ahead!). Roll dough into nickel sized balls and roll each ball in powdered sugar. Flatten to 1/2 inch thick on a cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for 8 minutes or until the edges fall down but the center is still puffed. Leave on cookie sheet to cool.

Thumbprint Cookies

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 small egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt


sprinkles (I prefer the longer skinny ones to the hard little balls)
chocolate icing

Mix the first group of ingredients together. Roll into small balls and then roll in sprinkles. Place on cookie sheet and use a finger or thumb to press down the center of each dough ball about halfway. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. Make chocolate icing and put a Hershey's kiss sized dollop of icing in the center of each cookie! Store in a sealed container.

Homemade Oreos

1 devil's food cake mix
1/2 cup shortening (don't use less, but a tbsp. or 2 extra won't hurt, especially if the dough seems dry- it varies slightly depending on the cake mix)
2 eggs

Mix all ingredients together. Roll the dough into dime-sized balls and place onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 35o degrees for 8 minutes. Cool cookies.

Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz. cream cheese
2 tbsp. of butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2-3 cups powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Frost the backs of the cookies and place two cookies together.

Mom's Sugar Cookies

In my opinion, this is the best sugar cookie recipe ever. Just don't forget the cream of tartar- they're never as good without it!

3 cups flour
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Sift together flour, cream of tartar, soda, and salt. Cut the shortening into the flour mixture. In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, sugar, and vanilla and mix well. Now add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix well. Roll out to about 1/4 an inch thickness (I like them on the thick side) and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool and frost with your favorite icing.