EASYBAKED

Love Bug Oreo Pops!

Posted on February 10, 2017 by Ruthanne

Show a little love this Valentine’s Day with these Oreo Love Bugs!

Easy to make ahead and wrap up as gifts!

I just have to keep making Oreo Pops… there are so many possibilities and all of them are yummy and cute! I’ve pretty much failed at cake pops, but these? My favorite!

I made Lady Bugs Oreo Pops a couple of years ago, and when I was visiting Florida last month I was subjected to everyone’s horror stories about some awful little bug called a Love Bug. I guess people hate them down south, but when I heard “Love Bug” I immediately pictured these. Sweet little pink bugs with hearts and sprinkles!

Aren’t they fun? Cuteness overload….! These really aren’t hard to put together- especially if you’ve made Oreo Pops in the past. (If you haven’t ever made them, click here for a tutorial).

Here’s how we created these little love bugs! (printable recipe here)

INGREDIENTS: (makes 25-30 Oreo Pops)

1 package of Oreo Double Stuff cookies
1/2 bag of Wilton’s candy melts in white
1 bag of Wilton’s candy melts in bright pink
1/2 bag of Wilton’s candy melts in black
Heart-shaped sprinkles (I used these), pink/red jimmies or sugars
Candy eyes

DIRECTIONS:

(If you want to simplify these- don’t add a stick. Just dip the Oreos using a fork, and skip the following steps for inserting a stick!)

Gently twist apart all Oreos.
Melt white candy melts in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between until melted and smooth.
Dip one end of a lollipop stick into the white chocolate, spread a little on the top of the white Oreo filling and then press the stick flat into the center of the filling.
Place top of Oreo on, and set on a cookie sheet. When all Oreos have sticks inserted, pop these in the freezer for 15-20 minutes (until they are nice and firmly set).
Melt pink candy melts in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between until melted and smooth.
Have parchment paper spread on your countertop and have your sprinkles ready.
Dip an Oreo into the pink melts, spooning melts over top and sides. Tap on edge of bowl to get rid of excess and slide bottom of Oreo along edge of bowl to remove drips.
Place on parchment paper and while melts are still soft, sprinkle with hearts and sugar or jimmies, leaving these OFF the top 1/3 of the cookie. Allow these to harden.

Melt black candy melts in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between until melted and smooth.
Spoon black melts over the top 1/4 of the cookie and then tap to remove excess and slide bottom across bowl edge to remove drips.
Set on parchment paper and place two eyes on top.
Once all heads and faces are done, spoon remaining black melts into a small zip-top bag. Clip a corner, and pipe a center line down the middle of the cookie as pictured.
Allow Oreo pops to harden. Bag them up individually or store them in an air-tight container.
Enjoy!!

My thoughts: One of the main reasons I love Oreo Pops is that you can make them ahead for events. I’m baking quite a few things for an orientation next week and these are DONE. Wrapped in cute bags, tied with cute ribbons and ready to go. Cross one thing off my list! I also made some of my personal favorite Valentine’s treats: Frog Prince Oreos. If you need hearts for the 14th, you have these Love Bugs. If you’ve kissed one too many Frogs this year… well. These other Oreos are for you:)

Happy Valentine’s Day !!!!

Other Valentine treats here on Easybaked (click on a photo to see the recipe):

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Posted in Candy, Cookies and tagged bug cookies, easy valentines recipe, edible valentines, heart bugs, heart sprinkles, Holiday Oreo Pops, Love Bug cookies, Love Bug Oreos, Love Bugs, love cookies, Oreo dessert, Oreo Frogs, Oreo Pop ideas, oreo pops, oreo recipe, valentine cookies, Valentine frogs, valentine gifts, Valentines Day cookies, Valentines Oreo Pops. Bookmark the permalink.

Blooming Marshmallows for Cocoa! Make your own!

Posted on February 4, 2017 by Ruthanne

Have you seen the latest food fad? A friend sent me this video and I couldn’t stop smiling! Genius!!! These fun little marshmallows, when set into hot chocolate, bloom and reveal fun sprinkles at the center. These are the creation of chef Dominique Ansel (creator of the Cronut, for all you foodies out there) and he serves them up in Tokyo and New York.

So what’s a girl from Indiana to do? Obviously figure out a way to make them herself! And just in time for Valentine’s Day!

It seemed like rule-breaking to use from-scratch marshmallows for this (we are called Easybaked for a reason, you know!). So I melted marshmallows and spread them out to cut. I got REALLY good at this because I made about a billion batches of these before I got them to work well.

I learned a few things.

Get the off-brand of marshmallows, they all melt the same.
That marshmallow has to be spread pretty thin (I will tell you how to accomplish this..)
That cocoa has to be as hot as lava to melt away the chocolate cup these sit in.
Use tongs to place the bloom into the hot chocolate so you don’t splash yourself with the lava.

I’m not kidding you- this recipe was a labor of love. But now I can tell you how to do these in SUCH an easy way- and you can surprise your family with these fun treats!

Here is how we made these: (printable recipe here)

INGREDIENTS/SUPPLIES: (makes about 10 blooms)

1 bag of regular sized marshmallows
1/4 stick butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup cornstarch
1/2 bag of white Wilton’s candy melts (I used pink on some of these so you could see them better).
Jimmies or candies to fill the center of the flower
Hot (HOT!) chocolate
A flower shaped cookie cutter
Mini paper nut cups

DIRECTIONS:

Liberally butter the bottom and sides of a sheet cake pan
In a small bowl, mix together the powdered sugar and cornstarch.
Place about 1/2 of this mixture into a sugar shaker or sifter (I love my Pampered Chef one!) and coat entire pan with mixture.
Liberally butter the inside of a large mixing bowl
Place marshmallows in bowl and melt in microwave for 30 seconds, stir and melt again for 30 seconds- until completely smooth.

Pour marshmallow mixture down the center of the pan and sprinkle top with sugar/starch mixture.
Coat your hands liberally in the powdered sugar/corn starch mixture and gently press the melted marshmallows flat across the pan. If you hit a sticky spot, sprinkle it with the sugar/starch.
Try to get the marshmallow layer as even as possible across the pan. You will have a few holes and maybe not get it all to the edge, but remember that you will be cutting flowers out of this- so you can work around bad spots.

Allow this to harden for 30 minutes.
Coat cookie cutter in sugar/starch mixture and carefully cut out a flower. Coat cut edges in powder and set aside while the rest are cut.

Have some sprinkles or Sixlets candy ready to place into the center of the flowers- but don’t place them yet.
Melt Candy Melts in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between until melted and smooth.
Spoon melts into paper cup and spread up sides. Tip cup to drain out excess.
Brush excess powder off a flower, add sprinkles/candy to center and pull all petals up to the center, leaving the bottom center open.
Place bottom center of flower into candy-coated cup (before it hardens). Allow this to harden with the flower inside.

Once this has hardened completely , use a scissors to clip the top edge of the cup, and peel the paper away.

Make a cup of HOT hot chocolate. I found that using milk rather than water resulted in the best “openings” of the flowers.
Use tongs to carefully set the unopened flower into the cocoa and let it bloom!

I stored my extra marshmallow flowers in an air-tight container and they still bloomed a few days later- but slowly. I think that the more fresh they are, the better they bloom.

Click on the photo below to see my (terribly shot!) video of a not-so perfect bloom. It illustrates the biggest problem I had with this project- getting the flower to bloom without allowing hot chocolate to seep into the center. I’d say about 50% of my flowers had some leakage of chocolate- and, if you watch the “professional” ones, you see this happens to them too.

I think that the key things to reduce this are:

Use HOT chocolate made from milk instead of water.
Marshmallows that aren’t too thick, and that aren’t still sticky on the edges (remember to cover those cut edges with powder early on!)
Placing them into those chocolate cups as evenly as possible. If one side weighs more than the other, the cup will tip when placed in the cocoa, allowing some cocoa into the center.

I have to say though- that even when the centers filled a little with cocoa, people LOVED these! They wanted to drink more than one cup of cocoa to see it bloom again. So-not perfect, but really, really fun.

My thoughts: I feel like I’ve made progress toward figuring out a good DIY method for these. AND I’m pretty excited about how easy it is to take store-bought marshmallows and turn them into ANY shape! There are always unexpected things I learn when I experiment. I hope you get a chance to try these- and even improve on them! If any of you come up with a way to keep the cocoa out of the center on MOST of them, let me know! I feel like we could improve on 50%… 🙂 Enjoy! ~r

We love marshmallows here- because money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you marshmallows, and that’s nearly the same thing!! Try a few more marshmallow-y recipes: (click on photo to see recipe)

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Valentine’s Day Mug Topper Cookies!

Posted on January 28, 2017 by Ruthanne

Mug Topper Cookies

These adorable little cookies hang on the edge of a cup of coffee, cocoa or milk. Handy for dipping, and a perfect Valentine’s Day treat!

Aren’t these fun? When I have a few minutes of spare time, I like to wander around online looking for fun new kitchen and baking tools. I saw these cookie cutters and had to click on the photo to read more, because they didn’t make sense to me. They had several cute little shapes- but each one had a wedge cut out on one side. WHY?? I quickly discovered that the little wedge makes them not just cookie cutters- but mug-hanging cookie cutters! I happen to love dunking cookies in my coffee- so I knew I had to try them!

Valentine Mug hanging cookie

Does a cookie get more fun than that? I think not.

I was already making two different sorts of cut-out cookies for an event, so I set aside a little dough from each batch to make these. Here are the two recipes I used:

Chocolate Espresso Cut-out cookies (recipe here)
Buttery Cut-out cookies (recipe here)

I kneaded some red and pink jimmies into the buttery cut-out dough before I rolled it out to cut it.

You can use either of my recipes, or use your own- but you must choose a recipe that doesn’t puff up and get bigger in the oven. I have a fabulous gingerbread cookie recipe that would never work with these. If the dough changes shape as it bakes, that little wedge will not be big enough to slide onto the edge of a mug.

I also baked these on parchment paper, so I could slide them all off the cookie sheet and onto a counter to cool, without having to use a spatula to pick them up.

Because they are tiny little cookies to handle.
Because the wedge makes them more fragile until they cool and harden up.

Those are my “helpful hints”. They really are easy to make and so fun!

So a Valentine idea?

Make some of my Spiced Mocha Mix (recipe here).
Spoon 3-4 teaspoons into a cello bag.
Place a cookie into a second cello bag.
Print these tags (open link here).
Staple tag over the tops of the two bags.
Give away as a fun Valentine gift! (instructions for making mocha are on back of tag)

I hope you get a chance to try this little cookie cutter idea out! If you were careful, I suspect you could even use a knife to cut a little wedge out of a plain old heart cookie too…? More time consuming, but then you don’t need to purchase a new cookie cutter. Enjoy!! ~r

Other Valentine’s treats here on Easybaked (click on a photo to see the recipe)

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Posted in Cookies and tagged buttery cut-out cookies, chocolate, chocolate cut-out cookies, cookie recipe, easy valentines recipe, edible valentine, mocha, mocha mix recipe, mug topper cookies, over the edge cookies, specialty cookie cutters, unique cookies, unique holiday cookies, valentine cookies, Valentines Day cookies, Valentines gift idea. Bookmark the permalink.

Maple Snowflake Candy!

Posted on January 14, 2017 by Ruthanne

maple-snowflake-candy

These adorable maple candy snowflakes are made with only one ingredient- maple syrup! Such a delicious and easy-to-make winter treat!

Every winter for most of my life, my mom would tell us about making maple snow candy. It involved pouring hot maple syrup into snow, and it would harden into delicious candy bits. She said they made it at school when she was little, and she loved it.

I’ve never made it- and the thought of pouring anything edible into snow from my backyard? I don’t think so. 🙂 I was thinking about the candy and saw cute snowflake silicone molds online and decided I would try my hand at maple candy. It is a well-known technique, probably made for many years in some families, but a new technique for me- and I learned some things about how to make them well! 🙂

Here is how we made them: (printable recipe here)

INGREDIENTS/SUPPLIES:

1 cup of pure maple syrup (grade A)- I used Wal-Mart brand because it was the least expensive 🙂 Worked great!
A few drops of vegetable oil- if desired to prevent boiling over
Silicone molds (the ones I got are discontinued- which is so sad!!! I just got them about 2 weeks ago!) Here is a link to very similar sized ones (2 inch diameter).
A candy thermometer

DIRECTIONS:

Prepare molds by setting them on a small cookie sheet (to keep them flat). One cup of syrup will make about 8, 2 inch diameter and 1/3 inch deep candies.
Pour syrup into a medium saucepan. Clip a thermometer on the side with tip in syrup.
Add a few drops of oil on the top to keep it from foaming up when it heats.
Heat to soft-ball stage(about 240F degrees on the candy thermometer), stirring slightly to prevent scalding .
Remove from heat, remove thermometer, and do not stir for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, start to stir the mixture. It will (fairly quickly) start to form little bubbles and change color. It will feel like you are scraping sugar off the bottom of the pan. At this point, quickly spoon into molds and then tap the entire cookie sheet on the counter to flatten out the candy in the molds.

Now. I experimented with this a little. I placed my 1st batch in the freezer to harden for about 15 minutes and they had a sugary film on them when I took them out. I left my second batch in the freezer while I went out for dinner (several hours) and they came out beautifully. I repeated this with 3 more batches and it worked perfectly every time. If you are going to make a lot of these, get a couple of molds to save time!

Here’s a photo of the second batch (several hours in freezer) vs the 1st batch (15 minutes in freezer)

Just pop these out of the molds and keep them in a sealed container for up to several weeks.
Enjoy!!

My thoughts: These are particularly good with a cup of coffee… the sweet and the sugar… yum! I put these on my Christmas cookie trays for friends and they LOVED them. My gluten-free friends were particularly excited about them 🙂

Since the syrup is so expensive, I just did one-cup batches for the 1st two sets- so I could experiment without ruining a whole 2 cups of syrup. My remaining batches, I boiled 2 cups at once and used 2 sheets of molds. You have to pour very quickly when you use 2 cups- so that it doesn’t thicken up before you get it into the mold. Other than that, it worked great and was actually a VERY easy and fun treat! Hope you get a chance to try them! ~r

Other snowy day desserts here on Easybaked: (click a photo to see the recipe)

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Posted in Candy and tagged candy, christmas, easy maple candy recipe, family recipe, hard maple candy, January recipe, maple candy, maple snow candy, maple snowflakes, maple syrup, maple syrup candy, silicone snowflake molds, snowflake candy, snowflake dessert, winter candy, winter dessert. Bookmark the permalink.

Winter Garden Cupcakes

Posted on January 7, 2017 by Ruthanne

Winter Garden Cupcakes

Blue velvet cupcakes topped with icy white buttercream and pastel shimmery flowers. Who says you can’t have a little summer in the middle of January?

It was my birthday last week, and I treated myself to the COOLEST kitchen gadget ever- or so I thought. Have you seen the piping tips for frosting that make whole flowers? I saw this video and I was in AWE of these! I’ve never taken cake decorating classes, or ever really attempted frosting flowers, so these little tips seemed perfect for me! I got a set of 12 on Amazon and I couldn’t wait to try them! My goal? A variety of white buttercream flowers dusted in edible pastel powders- like ice-covered flowers- on each cupcake.

The tips didn’t work. I tried a variety of frosting types and consistencies. I tried using the pastry bags included, I tried using a zip-top bag. Argh! Failure!

If the frosting was whipped (my typical buttercream- light and fluffy) it did not keep it’s shape when piped. If the frosting was a nice firm buttercream it simply didn’t pipe out of the tip at all- and squeezing harder either forced a hole in the bag or forced the tip and connecter to separate from the bag.

So, I had the cupcakes and decided to just go with what I had. Topped these with my very favorite buttercream and used a little fondant for the flowers 🙂 I think they are perfect!

Here’s how we made them (printable recipe here):

INGREDIENTS: (makes 24 cupcakes)

One blue velvet boxed cake mix- plus water, oil and eggs to make according to package. I used Duncan Hines to get this fun wintery blue color- and it was delicious!!!
2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter (softened)
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter (softened)
3 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons clear vanilla
A little white food coloring (if desired) to whiten the frosting even further
White fondant- I used a bit of Wilton’s boxed fondant, but you can make a little too- recipe here.

DIRECTIONS:

Make cake mix according to box and bake in 24 cupcake liners. Cool.
Place butters, powdered sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and beat on high until light and whipped (this takes 3-5 minutes, and it will whiten up considerably as you beat it. If you want it whiter, add a bit of white food coloring.
Place into a large zip-top bag fitted with a piping tip and pipe swirls on top of each cooled cupcake.
To make flower decorations, roll fondant out and cut into leaf and flower shapes using small cookie cutters or fondant cutters.
Dust leaves with edible green dust and flowers with edible pastel dust. I use a brand called “Sterling Pearl” and it comes in a wide range of colors, and is available on Amazon or many cake supply stores.

Place decorations on cupcakes and ENJOY!!

My thoughts: I think that when your “dream” idea dies, that there isn’t really any second option that can replace it. That said- I got SO many compliments on these cupcakes. Everyone loved them. The blue velvet cake mix is really great- if you haven’t tried this one yet, it really is worth it- really great flavor! Anyone want a set of 12 piping tips? 🙂 I hope you enjoy these wintery treats! ~r

We have loads of unique cupcakes here on Easybaked- like these! (click on a photo to see the recipe)

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Posted in Cupcakes and tagged blue velvet, blue velvet cupcakes, cupcake, cupcakes, edible dusting powder, flower piping tips, fondant, fondant flowers, icy cupcakes, January cupcakes, January desserts, Russian piping tips, sparkling cupcakes, winter cupcakes, winter dessert, winter flowers. Bookmark the permalink.

A New Year’s Collection of Top Recipes on Easybaked!!

Posted on December 31, 2016 by Ruthanne

Happy New Year, friends! One of my favorite parts of marking the end of one year and the beginning of the next is looking back at all the things that made the previous year wonderful! One of the really fun things to look at is my statistics for this blog. A LOT of you visited us here this year! Thank you!!! I am always fascinated by which recipes really took off and became HUGE hits- and I’m always a tiny bit disappointed by the ones that I thought were AMAZING, that didn’t really catch anyone’s attention.

I have lots of fun recipes lined up to share with you in January, but this week- as we welcome 2017- here are the top picks from 2016.

Just click on a photo to see the recipe- and enjoy!!! ~r

Viewed 203,655 times in one month alone! The cupcake version of these is really popular too.

Seriously, that cheesecake is maybe the best recipe on this blog. You have GOT to try it!!!! 🙂

When this was 1st posted, there were NO other Oreo Pops on the internet- so I like to think that the Oreo Pop craze started here! We certainly have had fun creating all sorts of them for every holiday!

This recipe was from a failed audition for The Great American Baking Show, and a new friend!

This is the most recent big hit on Easybaked- and it is really easy to make!

So, those were the top 5 in all-time views this year… but what were my favorites from 2016? These three!

new-years-collection8

This is the star of 2016. It is SO yummy and got rave reviews every time I made it. A massive layer of cookie dough in the middle of a cake? Does it get any better than that???

2016 was also my year to turn those healthy little Oreo Thins into amazing stuffed Oreos! These marshmallow ones… oh my! We also stuffed Oreos with Key Lime Pie, Pumpkin Pie and Cookie Butter!

These win my personal “cutest” recipe award for 2016! I loved making them and making cute little stickers to seal the bags I gifted them in too! So fun!

I’ve been asked many times what my all-time favorite recipe on Easybaked is. I’ve got SO many favorites- but if I had to pick one, it would be my Caramel Fudge Brownies. I love them because they are my mom’s famous mint brownies with my favorite caramel added in place of the mint- and they are just the BEST chocolate fix ever.

I hope you have enjoyed this round-up of recipes!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

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Posted in Brownies, Cake Pops, Cakes, Candy, Cheesecakes, chocolate, Cookies, Cupcakes and tagged Best dessert collection, best of the year dessert recipes, cake, cheesecake, Cookie, cupcake, cupcakes, dessert collection, layer cake, new year dessert, oreo, oreo pops, top dessert recipes. Bookmark the permalink.

Strawberry Cream Confetti Cups!

Posted on December 26, 2016 by Ruthanne

Nothing says “Happy New Year” like confetti!!! These cakes, baked in cups, have confetti in every fun bite!

Confession: I am a confetti addict. I LOVE it. I don’t mind vacuuming it up for months after New Year’s Eve- at all! A few years ago we piled as much confetti as we could on my ceiling fan blades and at midnight we turned on the fan. Ah— SO much fun!!!! You should totally try it. As a side note… on Cinco de May0 we also piled little candies on the fan and turned it on. We called it a “FAÑATA” ! 🙂 It hurt a little…but the memories!!!

Someday I want to be in Times Square on NYE…mainly for the confetti, but this year I will celebrate at my dad’s, and I have serious doubts about the level of confetti at our party…but he reads my blog, so maybe he will be inspired by my ideas! (*hint *hint dad…!)

Whether your party includes real confetti or not, these cups of cake will add some edible confetti to the celebration! Plus the strawberry and cream flavors… oh my.

Here’s how we made them: (printable recipe here)

INGREDIENTS: (makes 12-16 cups of cake, or 24 cupcakes)

One boxed strawberry cake mix (plus water, oil and eggs to make according to package)
2 cups (seriously- or more…) confetti sprinkles
2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, softened
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons of clear vanilla
A little white food coloring to brighten up the frosting (if desired!)
12-16 (8 oz.) party cups. I got mine at Target in the dollar section, but there are all sorts on Amazon- like these. (or make these as cupcakes with polka dot cupcake liners!!)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees and place cups on cookie sheets (preferably the sort with edges, to prevent sliding!)
Make cake according to package.
Mix in a cup of confetti sprinkles, and spoon batter into cups, filling them about 1/2 full.
Bake according to package directions for cupcakes- but add a little extra time since they are bigger, and test with a toothpick. When it comes out clean, they are done!

*Note: I was a little uncomfortable baking in these paper cups- so I kept a constant eye on them. I’m not sure if they can burn- I suppose it depends on the cup- and I read about people who made cupcakes in Starbucks coffee cups and just did it with no problems. Please be careful though- and use your good judgement about baking in paper cups. If you have any hesitation, use cute cupcake liners instead! 😉

Remove from oven and allow them to cool completely.
Make frosting by combining butters, powdered sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat on high until very light and fluffy (about 4-5 minutes). Add white coloring if desired.
Scoop frosting on top of each little cake and then press the frosting into a bowl filled with confetti sprinkles to coat the top completely.

My thoughts: These are a delicious and pretty way to say “Happy New Year!!!” I hope you love them as much as I do!!!

Other fun New Year’s treats to make for your party! (click on a photo to see the recipe)

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Posted in Cakes, Cupcakes and tagged butter cream, colorful cupcakes, confetti cupcakes, confetti dessert, confetti sprinkles, cream frosting, cupcakes, dessert, fun holiday cupcakes, fun holiday dessert, New years, New years cupcakes, New Years dessert, New years eve, New years eve dessert, NYE dessert, strawberry. Bookmark the permalink.

Sparkling Glass Christmas Cookies!

Posted on December 18, 2016 by Ruthanne

Buttery cut-out tree cookies with sparkling candy-glass ornaments! Not only beautiful Christmas treats- but delicious ones!

These fun candy-filled cookies are not an original idea- just an idea I’ve seen around for years and always wanted to try. These turned out great. You need a cut-out recipe that holds it’s shape and size well- otherwise when the cookie bakes, those little holes will expand shut and you won’t have any room to put candy. You also need a cookie that tastes AWESOME without icing. I think these accomplished both goals!!! These were just delicious 🙂

Here is how we made them: (printable recipe here)

INGREDIENTS: (makes about 24 cookies- depending on the size cutter you use)

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of butter flavoring
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Green food coloring
1 large bag of Jolly Rancher candies
Star sprinkles (if desired- plus a tiny bit of melted chocolate to attach them)

DIRECTIONS:

Unwrap candy and divide into colors.
Use a hammer on a solid surface (one that can’t be damaged by a hammer) to crush the candy. Crush it very finely- mine was a little big still, and it made it harder to spoon into the openings. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth.
Add eggs, vanilla and butter flavoring and mix well.
Add all dry ingredients and mix until able to knead into a firm ball of dough (add additional flour if necessary).
Add green food coloring and knead with hands until dough reaches desired shade.
Roll out on a floured counter with a flour coated rolling pin to desired thickness (I made them fairly thick)
Cut into Christmas tree shapes
Place on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet.
Use a straw to poke “ornament” holes. I used a small straw and a jumbo one to give different sizes.
Bake at 350F degrees for 4-5 minutes.
Remove from oven and use a small spoon (I used a tiny little appetizer spoon) to spoon candy colors into each hole.

Bake at 350F degrees for an additional 4-5 minutes until candy is entirely melted. Check after 2-3 minutes and add a little candy if needed, as the pieces melt and settle.
Remove cookies from oven and slide the parchment papers off the cookie sheet onto a counter to cool.
Use a bit of melted chocolate to attach a star on top (if desired).
Enjoy!

My thoughts: These were fun to make and they are just so cute and yummy! A few changes I will make the next time: I’d use bigger straws. The larger size was fine, but the mini size holes were hard to fill. I would also crush the candy to a sugar consistency. I had a few bigger pieces that made it harder to fill those tiny holes. I loved the flavor of those buttery cookies with the sweet fruity candy bits- I will definitely make these again! Enjoy! ~r

Other fun treats for Christmas: (click on a photo to see the recipe)

6 Comments

Posted in Candy, Cookies, Seasonal dessert and tagged best cut out cookie recipe, Christmas cookies, christmas tree cookies, cookies filled with candy, fun christmas cookies, jolly rancher candy, jolly rancher cookies, sparkling cookies, stained glass christmas cookies, stained glass cookies. Bookmark the permalink.

Oreo Ornament Pops!

Posted on December 11, 2016 by Ruthanne

Celebrate the Christmas season with these fun ornament pops.

Made with Oreos, mini peanut butter cups and sprinkles, they are sure to make everyone in your family smile!

Goodness. I love cute Christmas cookies. These were SO fun to make, and decorating them is a blast. I pulled out all of those Christmas sprinkles and just went crazy. I highly recommend these for a fun project with your kids!!

The dilemma for making an edible ornament is always that little cap. I solved the problem by painting mini peanut butter cups with a little bit of edible gold dusting powder (the same stuff I used on my shortbread cookies last week). I love how they turned out! Happy shiny tops for these!

Here is how we made them: (printable recipe here)

INGREDIENTS: (makes about 24-28 pops)

One package of Oreo Double Stuff cookies.
2 bags of Wilton’s Candy Melts. As you can see, I used pink and aqua, plus I had a little green and red extra from other projects. You can use as many colors as you want- but you will need at least 2 full bags to cover the Oreos.
One bag (8 oz) of Reese Peanut Butter Cup Minis- in white chocolate
Edible gold dusting powder (I used this brand)
Fun Christmas sprinkles and jimmies

DIRECTIONS:

Make gold “caps” for ornaments first.

Spoon a little of the gold powder into a small bowl or plate, and add a bit of water until it is the consistency of a thick paint.
Use a food-grade brush to paint the gold on the bottom and sides of 24-28 peanut butter cups. Paint them all and then go back and give them a second coat to smooth out the parts that didn’t stick the 1st time.
Set aside to dry.

Prepare Oreo Pops (there is a tutorial for these, if you have never done them, here)

Twist apart all of your Oreos.
Melt a small amount of Candy Melts (<1/4 cup) in the microwave in 3o second increments, stirring between until smooth.
Dip the end of a lollipop stick into the melts, and press into white filling of Oreo. Place other half of cookie back on top and press together.
Place Oreo and stick on a cookie sheet. Repeat this process with remaining Oreos, and then freeze all Oreos until firm (10-15 minutes).
Melt remaining Candy Melts using method from above.
Once Oreos are chilled, hold with stick and dip into Candy Melts until completely coated.
Tap on side of bowl to get excess off, and drag across lip of bowl to scrape excess off back of cookie.

Set on parchment paper and immediately set a gold “cap” on the top edge to harden there as the candy melts solidify.
If you want to add sprinkles, do so before the Candy Melts get hard (stripes in other colors can be added later)

Allow Oreo Pop to harden completely
Decorate with other colors of Candy Melts, as desired. To make the stripes, I placed melted candy in a small zip top bag, clipped a corner and piped lines onto the Oreos.
Once everything has completely hardened, place into individual cello bags, or into an air-tight bag or container. These will stay good for weeks when sealed up.
Enjoy!

My thoughts: Well, by now you know how much I love my Oreo Pops! These were fun to make and a little peanut butter on top of that Oreo? Yes, please! 🙂 These make great little gifts and stocking stuffers! Enjoy! ~r

Don’t stop with just ornaments! We have two other fun Christmas Oreo Pops! (click on the photo to see the recipe)

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Posted in Candy, Cookies and tagged Baked Christmas gifts, Christmas baked goods, Christmas cookies, Christmas Desserts, Christmas Oreo Pops, Christmas Pops, Christmas sprinkles, DIY Christmas gift idea, easy Christmas DIY gift, edible gold dust, Kid friendly recipe for Christmas, oreo, Oreo Ornaments, oreo pops, Ornament Pops. Bookmark the permalink.

Shortbread Christmas Cookies

Posted on December 2, 2016 by Ruthanne

These pretty shortbread cookies are delicious all on their own- but topped with a piece of gold-dusted chocolate? Then they are perfect.

I’d never made shortbread before. Crazy, I know. The inspiration was those AMAZING Starbucks snowmen cookies. You know.. the ones that are soooo cute and topped in chocolate rather than icing?

I was telling a friend about my love for those little Starbucks cookies and she said, “I know! Shortbread cookies are the best!” and I thought to myself…. “Shortbread? What exactly is a shortbread cookie?” So I investigated and tried a few recipes and FELL IN LOVE with these cookies!!! Buttery and flakey happiness with every bite!

I wanted to add chocolate on top, and found these ADORABLE silicone molds by Silikomart. (and then I got sucked into the world of Silikomart and all the beautiful things they make that are mostly available only in Italy….) I found these on Amazon though. I dusted them with a little bit of edible gold dust to give them an especially elegant feel.

So. Much. Christmas. Fun.

Here’s the recipe: (printable version here)

INGREDIENTS: (makes 24-30 cookies)

1 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
About 16 oz of dark chocolate wafers. You can use Wiltons candy melts, but for these cookies I used Ghirardelli Melting Wafers. They cost more- but they are SO good!
Edible gold dusting powder (I used this brand)

DIRECTIONS:

Place butter and sugar into a mixing bowl and using a mixer, beat until light and fluffy (think buttercream frosting…!)
Add vanilla and mix until well combined.
Add flour and baking powder to butter/sugar mixture and beat on low speed until incorporated well (don’t over-beat this).
Use clean hands to form this mixture into a ball. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

While dough is chilling, make chocolate toppers.

Melt chocolate wafers in the microwave in 30 second increments, mixing in between until melted and smooth.
Spoon into a large zip-top bag and seal it well.
Place mold on a cookie sheet to keep it flat and easy to move.
Carefully pipe chocolate into molds, filling them up to the top and then tap entire cookie sheet on counter to remove bubbles.
Freeze for 5-8 minutes until they can be peeled out of the molds. Repeat until you have about 24-30 toppers.
Squeeze extra chocolate back into a small bowl and set aside.

Set toppers aside, and cut/bake cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out on a floured countertop. Cut into rectangles. I used this cookie cutter set and I needed 2 different sizes because the molds are different in size. Place on a cookie sheet that has parchment paper laid on top.
Bake at 350F degrees for 10-12 minutes.
Slide parchment paper (with cookies on top) off baking sheet and onto a clean counter. Cool completely.

Assemble cookies.

Re-heat the extra chocolate you set aside from earlier, using instructions given earlier for melting.
Use a knife to spread melted chocolate onto the back of a chocolate topper, and gently place it on top of a cooled cookie. (I used gloves to handle the chocolate so I wouldn’t leave fingerprints on it!)
Allow topper to harden- sticking it firmly to the top of the cookie.
Use a food-grade brush to gently brush gold dusting powder over each chocolate piece. You can skip this step– but the wow factor increases A LOT with this touch of gold glitter!!!
Enjoy!!!!

My thoughts: These are SO (soooooooooooo!) yummy! I keep kicking myself for never making shortbread before this! These are a fragile cut-out cookie. The chocolate on top adds much-needed stability, but be gentle with them before that chocolate is added. They are fragile because they are a light, flaky, buttery piece of heaven- but they are fragile nonetheless. I made these in early November- working ahead for Christmas blogging- but I am definitely making these as one of my Christmas cookies this year- this is a do-not-miss recipe! Hope you and your family enjoy them as much as I did!!! ~r