Good, Old-Fashioned Cookies! #Christmas #Recipes @DonnaFaz

I'm baking and my house is filled with the warm, buttery aromas only cookies can offer. Below are three of my favorite holiday recipes, but first I'd like to share some of my favorite baking equipment. I couldn't live without my air bake cookie sheets. Since buying mine, I haven't over-baked a single batch of cookies. I also love my cookie scoop; it makes each dough portion exactly the same (although, I believe mine is larger than the one I've linked to). And cooking spray is no longer needed in my kitchen ever since my son gave me 2 Silpats; nothing sticks to these babies, and that makes clean up easy. When my Silpats don't fit, I reach for the parchment paper. Okay, on to the recipes!  

Southern Sour Cream Cookies

1 ½ cups sugar

1 ½ cups shortening

3 eggs

3 teaspoons vanilla

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons salt

5 cups all purpose flour

colored sugar crystals

Cream together the sugar and the shortening until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and stir thoroughly after each addition. Add vanilla the vanilla, sour cream, baking soda and salt. Mix well. Add flour and stir just until flour is incorporated. Drop heaping teaspoons of dough about 2 inches apart onto cookie sheet lined with Silpat or parchment paper. Decorate with colored sugar crystals. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Cookies should be light in color…not golden brown. These are delicate and delicious cookies that go perfect with tea or coffee.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip (rear) & Oatmeal Coconut

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup butter

2/3 cup vegetable shortening

2 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Cream together the sugars, the butter and the shortening until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Stir in remaining ingredients. Drop dough by heaping teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets lined with Silpat or parchment paper. Bake in a 375 degree oven until light brown, 10-12 minutes.

Note: The spatula pictured to the left belonged to my grandmother. She told me she used it when she "went to housekeeping." She gave it to me when I got married. I feel like she's with me every time I use it.   ♥  I love nice memories.

Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup raisins

2 cups oatmeal

1 cup (packed) flaked coconut

Cream the butter and the sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and the vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients. Lastly, add raisins, oatmeal, and coconut. Stir until combined. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with Silpat or parchment paper. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.

Here's wishing you a very happy holiday filled with

 love and laughter, friends and family, peace and joy.

Streusel-Topped Pies - 2 Recipes

Blueberry Pie

1 9-inch deep dish pie shell, unbaked

5 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup white sugar

½ cup flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter

Streusel-Topping

3 teaspoons butter, softened

⅓ cup brown sugar, packed

⅓ cup flour

To assemble:

Sprinkle blueberries with lemon juice. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, flour, salt, and cinnamon. Stir well to combine. Cut better into tiny bits. Combine sugar/flour mixture and butter with the berries. Pour into pie shell.

To make streusel:

Add softened butter to a bowl. Using a fork, stir in brown sugar and flour until it looks like crumbles. Sprinkle evenly over blueberries.

Place pie on an aluminum covered baking sheet (to avoid overflow mess in the oven) and bake in a 400 degree oven for approximately 30-40 minutes, or until the berries are bubbly and the topping is golden.

Apple Cranberry Pie

1 9-inch deep dish pie shell, unbaked

2 apples, peeled and sliced

1 cup fresh cranberries

1 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk

2 large eggs, slightly beaten

2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Streusel Topping

4 tablespoons butter, softened

½ cup flour

½ cup brown sugar, packed

½ cup pecan pieces

1 teaspoon cinnamon

To assemble:

In a bowl, stir to combine the sweetened condensed milk, eggs, water, and cinnamon. Add cranberries and stir. Pour into the pie shell. Arrange the apple slices on top.

Make the streusel:

Combine all ingredients with a fork until mixture resembles crumbles. Sprinkle evenly over apples. Place on an aluminum covered baking sheet (to avoid overflow mess in the oven) and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then turn oven down to 350 degrees and back for another 30 minutes.

Slutty Brownies

While surfing the net recently (do people still use that phrase?), I came across this recipe and thought it looked delicious. But I love to put my own little spin on recipes I try, so I changed it up just a bit (using fudge covered cookies, rather than plain). Here's what you'll need:

1 box chocolate chip cookie mix, 17.5 oz. (mine came in a bag)

1 box fudge brownie mix, 19.9 oz.

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)

½ cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

¼ cup water

15 fudge covered Oreo cookies 

     (or regular Oreo cookies)

1 glass of White Merlot (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray, bottom only, of a 7.5" x 10" glass baking pan.

Melt 1 stick of butter in a bowl. Add chocolate chip cookie mix and 1 egg. Stir until well combined and spread in the bottom of the glass baking pan.

Layer the Oreo cookies on top of the unbaked cookie mix.

In the same bowl (washing the bowl would be needless work…it's all good stuff in there!), add the brownie mix, the vegetable oil, 2 eggs and the water. Stir until combined. Carefully spread the brownie batter overtop of the Oreo cookies. Make the batter all nice and level.

Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until the brownies are done to your liking. Some people like their brownies more moist. This is GREAT warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

The original recipe calls for a 45 minute baking time. When I baked them for only 45 minutes, the cookie batter was cooked through, but the brownie batter was raw. Some people might like that; I do not. I made a second batch, increasing the baking time to 60 minutes.

Oh, and the glass of wine? Well, that's for the cook!

Enjoy!

Baked at 45 minutes

Second batch, baked 60 minutes