Tie Dye Cookies

The Christmas Cookie Project 

Day 6

Tie Dye Cookies 

These cookies are inspired by my loved for hand dyed items, particularly tie dye! In my non-cookie blogging world, I am an artist and I own a photography & design studio in my hometown. This year my design studio has grown in a huge way, and my hand dyed scarves have really taken off so now I have hand dyed cookies too! These cookies also remind me of one of the first things I learned to cook, which was a red and green Jello poke cake that I entered into a contest for 4-H when I was a kid. I was never the kid that liked to hang out in the kitchen. I was much more concerned with collecting rocks outside and dressing my Barbies to be bothered to cook. Besides, my mom was an excellent cook so there was always food, I never really thought about learning to cook to be honest. 

1 tube of sugar cookie dough

(or enough dough to make 24 cookies)

red food coloring

green food coloring

toothpicks

2 large baking sheets sprayed with nonstick spray

pre-heat oven to 350

place cookies 2 inches apart on baking sheets

flatten with a spoon

dot with food coloring (2-3 tiny dots per color, per cookie)

drag toothpick through dots of food coloring

bake about 12 minutes

Enjoy...........cause Christmas calories don't count!! 

ALTERNATE IDEA: 

Don't just make these for Christmas! Use the other colors of food coloring to make tie dye cookies in the colors for your favorite sports team!! 

Classic Sugar Cookies

THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE PROJECT

Day 5 

Classic Sugar Cookies

I buy butter once a year, only to bake during the holidays. Otherwise, we do not eat butter at our house. Mainly because I love butter. Real butter! So for the majority of the year we eat some sort of margarine spread that kills you much more slowly and butter is a holiday treat. Needless to say, I adore the butter loving Paula Deen and her recipes during the holidays. The woman put melted butter into a shot glass, threw some lobster in there and served butter shooters as an appetizer for Pete's sake! The two biggest things I learned baking these cookies--yes you DO really need the baking soda and buy the smallest container of tartar possible when buying ingredients, the stuff lasts forever when you use it a teaspoon at a time! 

     

This is the yummiest sugar cookie recipe ever from

THE BUTTER QUEEN PAULA DEEN!!! 

1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted 

1 cup (2 sticks) butter 

1 egg 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1 teaspoon pure almond extract 

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1 teaspoon cream of tartar 

3 tablespoons granulated sugar (for sprinkling)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter, then mix in the egg and vanilla and almond extracts. In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and cream of tarter; mix the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, then cover and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours, or overnight.

Divide the chilled dough in half and roll it out on a lightly floured pastry cloth to a 1/4-inch thickness. Lightly grease some baking sheets. Cut the dough with a floured cookie cutter; sprinkle with sugar. Transfer the cookies to the prepared sheets and bake for 9 minutes.

Enjoy.........cause Christmas Calories Don't Count!! 

Peanut Butter Sugar Sandwiches

The Christmas Cookie Project

Day 4

Peanut Butter Sugar Sandwiches

As I mentioned before, this blog was partially inspired by my purchase of a huge tub of sugar cookie dough at Sam's, which is a place I frequent often. Needless to say, I purchase many things in bulk (Mt. Dew, peanut butter, paper towels and apples in particular) so don't be surprised if you see some ingredients on repeat in my recipes. I am a firm believer that EVERYTHING is better with peanut butter, so today's recipe is peanut butter sugar cookie sandwiches. 

24 sugar cookies

1 cup peanut butter

Bake cookies (approx 12 minutes at 350 for most recipes)

Match up cookies into pairs based on size/shape

Spread 12 cookies with peanut butter

Top with the other cookie

Enjoy......cause Christmas Calories Don't Count!!

Makes 12 sandwiches

ALTERNATE IDEA:

Throw nuts, dried cranberries or chocolate shavings into the peanut butter!

Spiced Up Sugar Cookies

The Christmas Cookie Project

Day 3

Spiced Up Sugar Cookies

Sugar Cookies are such holiday standards but I always like a modern twist on a classic. This recipe takes classic sugar cookies and spices them up with a burst of flavor on the bottom. You could probably even use store bought cookies to do this and still get homemade credit! 

1 small tube of refrigerated sugar cookie dough

(or enough to make 24 cookies) 

1 tsp apple pie spice 

(or pumpkin pie seasoning, or cinnamon sugar mixture)

2 tbsp unsalted butter (melted) 

large cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray

pastry brush

pre-heat oven to 350

place pieces of dough 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet

bake for approx. 12 minutes

while cookies are baking, melt butter

mix spices into butter

just before cookies are completely cooled, brush the bottom of the cookies with the spiced butter mixture with a pastry brush


Enjoy.........cause Christmas Calories Don't Count!! 

ALTERNATE IDEA: 

Add a few drops of vanilla to your butter mixture for a super rich flavor! 

Acorn Cookies

The Christmas Cookie Project

Day 2

Acorn Cookies

Everyone who knows me knows that I am pretty cheap! I don't like to waste stuff and I love to save money so today's recipe uses a lot of leftover ingredients from yesterday's recipe. It uses the same sugar cookie dough, pecans and caramel. It was actually a boo-boo recipe but turned out to be pretty cute and super tasty! I was trying to make what I intended to call "Southern Belles" and they would be cute little bell shaped pecan sugar cookies but I didn't use the recipe for cut out cookies and the results looked nothing like bells. I am SO not the kind of girl to throw away a cookie just because it is ugly, so I decided to "make it work" in the words of the wise and wonderful Tim Gunn from Project Runway. I flipped those bells upside down, dipped them in caramel and make yummy fall acorns!



1 batch sugar cookie dough
(1 small tube of refrigerated dough or enough to make about 24 cookies)


1/2 cup chopped pecans


1 bottle caramel syrup (or caramel sauce)


bell shaped cookie cutter


1 large baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray (with flour)

pre-heat oven to 350

mixed chopped nuts into the sugar cookie dough

prepare according to the package directions for cut out cookies

cut with bell shaped cookie cutters

place on pan and bake until cookies have started to brown

remove from pan and let cool

dip the wide end of the cookie into a shallow bowl of caramel 

Enjoy...........cause Christmas calories don't count!! 

ALTERNATE IDEA: 

Leave the pecans out the dough recipe and sprinkle them on the caramel! 

Oh the things you will learn.....

So, if you are going to have a daily blog, it is probably a good idea to make sure your posts actually publish! This is lesson #2 in the blogging life for me. Lesson #1 is that the name you originally came up with for your blog will inevitably be taken by some chick who was bored for 5 minutes, 10 years ago and typed 3 whole sentences.

Pecan Pizza Cookies ~As Seen in Down Home Magazine~

The Christmas Cookie Project

Day 1

Pecan Pizza Cookies

The recipe was recently featured in the November/December issue of

Down Home Magazine because it was easy to make but fun and creative! These pecan pizza cookies can be made with all homemade ingredients

 (cookie dough, caramel sauce), but you can use store bought ones 

(ready made dough, caramel ice cream topping) just as easily. My idea of homemade is pretty broad. I love to cook and bake, but I don't have nearly enough time to achieve my Betty Crocker dreams so I say that if i make it

 at home, it qualifies as homemade!! If you can make slice and bake cookies, then you can make these and impress everyone, especially your kids! 

Pecan Pizza Cookies 

1 batch sugar cookie dough

(1 small tube of refrigerated dough or enough to make about 24 cookies)

1 teaspoon cinnamon sugar mixture (divided in half)

1/2 cup chopped pecans (divided in half)

about 60 pecan halves

1 bottle caramel syrup (or caramel sauce)

1 large baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray (with flour)

pre-heat oven to 350

break cookie dough into 2 pieces

knead 1/2 of cinnamon sugar mixture and 1/2 of chopped nuts 

into each ball of dough

refrigerate 5-10 minute until it gets firm

flatten each ball of dough into a circle (about 6 in across) 

on the sprayed cookie sheet

top with the pecan halves in the shape of an X

crush remaining pecan halves into big chunks and fill in corners

cook 12-16 minutes, until the center sets

remove from oven & cool

drizzle with caramel syrup while they cool 

cut each cookie pizza into 6 triangles with a pizza cutter 

Enjoy.....cause Christmas Calories Don't Count!! 

You can download the recipe from Down Home Magazine on page 34.

The Christmas Cookie Project

One of my goals/resolutions for 2012 is going to be to blog regularly in both my personal and my professional blogs. I thought a great way to do that would be to blog daily in December (you know, since I have so much free time this time of year) so that I could get into the habit. After a little thinking, seeing my first recipe published in a magazine and the discovery of a HUGE tub of sugar cookie dough at Sam's, I decided that cookies would be the subject of my month of blogging. I will be sharing a new cookie idea every day,  from now til Christmas. Mine will all be from pre-made dough, but if you have the time, energy and know how to make your own, then you go right ahead (with my utmost respect), but little leopard print Christmas hat wearing elf will be using pre-made dough for those of us less fortunate. :) 

 Since Christmas calories don't count, sit down and have a snack with me!!