S'More Cookie Bars

With the recent increase in outside temperatures here in Sunny Florida my mind has started drifting to previous summers and camping. When we go camping there always has to be an evening of S'Mores! Which for those of you who know me know that I love S'Mores, but oddly enough in general I do not like chocolate or marshmallows. With my mind on camping and my cravings for S'Mores intensifying I knew something must be done fast. I began googling S'More bars in order to find a recipe that does not require camping and campfires :) I was amazed at the amount of S'More bar recipes on the Internet, but I decided to stick with the S'More Cookie Bar recipe from the trusty Hershey Chocolate site. Boy oh boy am I glad I tried this recipe! It was so yummy, moist and definitely took care of my S'More craving :)

S'More Cookie Bars

Yummy, Moist and Curves Your S'More Cravings

1/2 cup butter or margarine; softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 (1.55 oz. each) Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bars
1 cup marshmallow creme

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease 8-inch square baking pan
3. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy
4. Add egg and vanilla; beat well
5. Stir together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture, beating until blended
6. Press half of dough into greased pan
7. Arrange chocolate bars over dough, breaking as needed to fit
8. Spread with marshmallow creme
9. Scatter bits of remaining dough over marshmallow creme; carefully press to form a layer
10. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until lightly browned
11. Cool completely in pan on wire rack
12. Cut into bars. 16 bars.

Recipe from Hershey's Kitchens

Shortbread Cookies

My Uncle owns a bakery in North Carolina and one of my favorite cookies at his bakery is shortbread. Being that I only get his yummy goodies a few times a year, when I came across this recipe I knew that I had to give it a try. Of course, I don't come anywhere close to my Uncle's from scratch bakery but this recipe was yummy enough to hold me over till my next North Carolina trip :) The day I was making this recipe I just so happened to be on the phone with him. He asked me what I was doing with the noise in the background so I proceeded to tell him I was cutting butter into flour lol. He of course made sure I was using REAL butter! So, my advice handed down from my Uncle the baker when you make this recipe use REAL butter :)

Shortbread Cookies

A Treat that Is Not Super Sweet

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup butter; I let the butter sit out to room temperature in order to cut it into the flour with ease

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. In a medium bowl combine flour and sugar. Using a pasty blender (or I use 2 butter knives to cut the butter in) cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs and starts to cling
3. Form the mixture into a ball and knead until smooth
4. To make shortbread wedges, on an ungreased cookie sheet pat or roll the dough into an 8-inch circle
5. Make a scalloped edge
6. Cut circle into 16 wedges (I only got 8 wedges out of it)
7. Leave wedges in the circle
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until bottom just starts to brown and center is set
9. Cut circle into wedges again while warm
10. Cool on cookie sheet 5 minutes
11. I sprinkled the cookies with sugar while they were still warm and cooling
12. Transfer wedges to a wire rack and let cool (I skipped this last step)

Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens New CookBook 15th edition

Peanut Blossoms

Every year at Christmas time my Aunt and her 3 children would come over to my parent's house and we would have an all day bake-off that ended with enjoying our baked goods, a Christmas movie, and a sleep over. It has always has been one of my families favorite traditions. This year it was different due to the passing of my mother, but we decided to carry on the tradition. This recipe is 1 of the 9 delicious kinds of cookies plus streusel bread that we made this past Christmas!

Peanut Blossoms

A favorite family tradition

Here is a look at the 9 different cookies we made that totaled a little over 100 cookies!

1 3/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar plus sugar for rolling

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 bag of milk chocolate Hershey Kisses

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Sift flour, baking soda and salt; set aside
3. Cream together shortening, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar
4. Add egg, milk and vanilla to creamed mixture and combine all together
5. Add sifted ingredients and combine all together
6. Shape dough into small balls and roll in white sugar
7. Place cookie balls on an ungreased cookie sheet
8. Bake for 8 minutes
9. Remove from oven and place one Hershey Kiss in center of each cookie
10. Return to oven for 2-3 minutes longer
11. Cool cookies on a wire rack

Recipe from Simply Delicious cookbook



A Yummy Dog Treat

Pumpkin Dog Treats with Peanut Butter*

Yes, I even spoil our dogs in the kitchen :) My girls gobble these yummy cookies up!

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup canned pumpkin (only use pure pumpkin puree, not the pie filling)
1/4 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy, I used smooth)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
water (I used 1/4 water, you may need to use more or less)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Place all ingredients in a bowl and stir until thoroughly combined
3. Add more water if needed to combine all the ingredients
4. I rolled the dough into small pieces and placed on a ungreased cookie sheet and then pressed with a fork**
5. Bake for 20 minutes (If you want a really crunchy cookie bake for an additional 5-10 minutes longer)
6. Turn off the oven and leave overnight to cool or completely cool on a wire rack

*These cookies will stay fresh in a cookie jar for a week or less, 3 weeks in the refrigerator, and 2 months in the freezer.
**If desired you can roll out the entire cookie dough and use cookie cutters for designs. I personally found this dough to be to sticky to roll out unless you add a ton more flour.

Recipe taken from dogtreatkitchen.com

Pumpkin Cookies with Icing

These pumpkin cookies are absolutely delicious and moist. I enjoy eating these cookies year round.



Pumpkin Cookies:
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup canned pumpkin (not the pie filling)
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cream together shortening and sugar.
3. Beat in egg.
4. Add pumpkin.
5. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients together.
6. Add mixed dry ingredient into pumpkin mixture.
7. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly brown.
8. Allow cookies to cool before frosting.

Icing*:
6 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
8 teaspoons milk
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups confectionery sugar, sifted

1. Cook butter, vanilla, milk, and brown sugar together in a saucepan over low-medium heat till melted and combined.
2. Remove from heat and stir in confectionery sugar.
3. Frost cool cookies with warm icing**.

*This icing can be very sweet and make too much so in the past I halved the ingredients and still have left over icing at the end.
**This icing begins to thicken fast so ice cool cookies quickly with the warm icing. 

Recipe from my Mom's Cousin