Sometimes you feel like baking... sometimes you don't...

Have you ever been in the mood for cookies, but don't really feel like baking? Or maybe it's in the middle of the summer and you just don't want to turn on your oven because it's too hot. One of our family's favorite "go to" recipes when we want something sweet and quick has always been NO BAKE COOKIES. There are several different versions... chocolate without peanut butter, chocolate with peanut butter, and peanut butter without chocolate. My friend Sarah asked if I had a good no bake  cookie recipe, and of course I did, so Sarah, this post is for you. 

Here's our family's favorite recipe... it has cocoa and a little coconut... because we LOVE coconut.

Leavitt Family Favorite No Bakes

Mix the following ingredients together in a bowl and set aside:

3 cups rolled oats

5 Tablespoons cocoa

1/2 cup coconut

Bring the following ingredients to a rolling boil:

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup milk

Boil for 1 minute and combine with dry ingredients. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper or parchment paper and let set until firm. I like to use a small cookie scoop. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bakes

Bring the following ingredients a rolling boil:

1/2 cup butter

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup cocoa

Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add:

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

Stir until peanut butter is melted, and then add:

3 1/2 cups oats

Drop spoonfuls onto wax paper or parchment lined baking sheet. Allow to cool until set. Some people also like to spread the mixture into a pan, cool, and then cut into bars.

This last recipe is for those who love peanut butter, but want to leave out the chocolate.

Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup milk

1 cup peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups rolled oats

Mix together sugar, butter, and milk. Bring to rolling boil and then boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla, stirring until peanut butter is melted. Stir in oats, and drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper or parchment paper.

ENJOY!!!

Yes, you can eat the "wrapper!"

 

When I want a really special little finger dessert, one of my "go to's" is always my mousse filled chocolate cups. Very pretty AND tasty... and you can even eat the wrapper! Sometimes, it will take your guests awhile before they realize that the wrapper is chocolate. 

So here's the process. Get out your mini muffin pan, and line it with mini muffin wrappers. Melt your favorite chocolate, dark or light. I usually melt mine in the microwave, being careful to stir it at 30 second intervals so it won't burn. Pour your chocolate in a squirt bottle, and then squirt a generous amount of chocolate into each wrapper.  Using a paint brush, paint the insides of the wrappers with the melted chocolate. Make sure the sides have adequate chocolate or they will break when you try to remove the wrappers. After all the wrappers are painted, stick the muffin pan in the freezer for several minutes. When they are nice and firm, take them out and CAREFULLY remove each wrapper. At this point, you can stack them together until you are ready to fill them with the mousse. 

Here's a simple mousse recipe that you can make just about any flavor you want. You can leave it plain for a vanilla mousse, or add things like peanut butter, cocoa, mint, raspberry (my favorite), strawberry... let your taste buds go wild! 

Cream Cheese Mousse

(1) 8 oz. package cream cheese

About 1 - 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (I never really measure it, just put enough in so it's the sweetness that you like)

1-2 tsp. vanilla (or other flavoring) (Again, use your judgement for the flavor you like)

Put these ingredients in a mixer bowl and beat until smooth and fluffy. Then add:

(1) 8 oz. tub of Cool Whip (you can add more if you like)

Beat until nice and fluffy. Be sure to scrape the bowl on the bottom to get all of the cream cheese mixed in. Now you can fold in any other ingredients that you want. If I'm making chocolate or peanut butter mousse, I usually add the cocoa or peanut butter into the cream cheese mixture before adding the Cool Whip. 

The next step is to get out a large decorating bag and a large round or open star tip. Fill your bag with the mousse and pipe it into your pretty little chocolate cups. Now sit back and wait for your guests to be impressed!

Keep them cool until just before serving.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup... it's good for the soul... and the tummy!

Here's another favorite soup recipe, given to me from a dear friend, Lynne, many years ago. She brought it over one day when I was down sick with a terrible cold, and our family has loved it ever since. This is the original recipe with just a little tweaking on my part as far as spices. 

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

3 cups chicken broth or stock

2 tsp. chicken bouillon (I sometimes leave this out to cut down on the sodium)

2 cups chopped carrots

2 cups chopped celery

3/4 cup chopped onion

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup milk (if you want it richer, use cream)

2 cups cooked, diced chicken (I use the canned chicken from Costco)

4 cups cooked noodles (don't overcook)

Poultry seasoning, thyme, and pepper to taste

Bring chicken broth or stock to boil. Add chopped vegetables and cook until tender. Add cream of chicken soup and milk. Bring to boil. Add chicken, cooked noodles, and spices (I love thyme) and heat through. Makes a large pot, about 10 servings. This is good warmed up as leftovers, like most soups. 

Grandma lives in an apron!

I think my grandkids believe that I live in an apron. For all they know, I sleep in an apron. It seems that everytime they see me, I have an apron on. It's probably because I'm always and forever in the kitchen, partly my choice and partly out of necessity. I had the "grandma privilege" this year of baking and decorating sugar cookies with 5 of my grandchildren. The other little grandson that was here was still too little to participate, even though we did give him a couple bites of cookie. I had leftover icing from cupcakes that I made the day before, and cookie dough in the freezer that I had made a few days before, so we were good to go. I rolled out the dough, let them cut out the ones they wanted, and after we baked them, I turned them loose with the icing and sprinkles... lots of sprinkles. I think everyone had fun, including Grandma!

  

Christmas Cupcakes...

I  don't always like doing cupcakes... they are very time consuming, and are hard to keep fresh, but I saw these cute little latching plastic containers at the dollar store with red on the bottom and clear on top with a little handle, so... I couldn't resist. This is what my neighbors and a few others got for Christmas this year. I ended up making 10 dozen cupcakes... 5 different flavors of cake, with 5 different fillings, 5 different frostings, and 5 different decorations. Why can't I ever do something simple? The leftover frosting was perfect for decorating sugar cookies with the grandchildren the following day (subject for another post.) One little perk about living in Colorado in the winter... your garage can act as a huge refrigerator if you need to keep cupcakes fresh until the following day. My son with the expensive camera was visiting from California for Christmas, so he had fun taking pictures of my little creations. 

Here are the flavors:

• Dark chocolate with peppermint mousse filling and peppermint buttercream frosting
• Spice with cream cheese pecan filling and cream cheese frosting
• Dark chocolate with raspberry mousse filling and chocolate buttercream frosting
• Coconut with coconut creme filling and lemon coconut frosting
• Chocolate with peanut butter mousse filling and chocolate peanut butter frosting

What to do with broken candy canes? Make cookies, of course!

'Tis the season for candy canes, but what do you do with the broken ones? One solution is to make cookies. For years, I have made candy cane cookies that are sprinkled with crushed candy canes. Our family loves them, but they are quite time consuming, and I needed something a little quicker to make. Besides, I was in the mood for chocolate. So, I went to Pinterest, typed in chocolate peppermint cookies, and found a great recipe. Now, don't get me wrong... I do not think that every recipe that I find on Pinterest is wonderful. By now, I can tell by looking at the ingredients whether or not it will be a recipe worth trying. This one sounded good, so I gave it a try... yummy! I used dark chocolate chips instead of chocolate chunks and I did add my extra secret ingredient, corn starch, but other than that, followed the recipe as printed. Hint: I have found that you can add a small amount of corn starch (about 2 tsp.) to any cookie dough that has about the same consistency as chocolate chip, and it will keep your cookies from going as flat as pancakes. (At least at our high altitude) Give these a try if you like the taste of chocolate and peppermint... a nice holiday treat! 

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT COOKIES

 Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp peppermint extract

2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

2 tsp corn starch

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups chocolate chunks or dark chocolate chips

1/2 cup candy cane pieces

Instructions

1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.    Beat butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and peppermint until light and fluffy.

3.    In a large bowl stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, corn starch, and salt.

4.    Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture until well combined.

5.    Stir in chocolate chunks or chips.

6.    Use cookie scoop to drop cookies onto parchment lined baking sheet.

7.    Press candy cane pieces on top.

8.    Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Be sure not to over bake.

9.    Cool slightly then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Here's the recipe for our traditional candy cane cookies...

PEPPERMINT CANDY CANE COOKIES

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

1 egg

3 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix sugar, butter, milk, vanilla, peppermint extract and egg.  Stir in flour, baking powder and salt.  Divide dough into halves.  Add 1/2 teaspoon red flood color to 1 half.  Chill.  Heat oven to 375 degrees.  For each candy cane, shape 1 teaspoon dough from each half into 4-inch rope by rolling back and forth on floured surface.  Place 1 red and 1 white rope side by side; press together lightly and twist.  Place on ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheet; curve top of cookie down to form handle of cane.  Bake as directed.  Mix 2 tablespoons finely crushed peppermint candy and 2 tablespoons sugar.  Immediately sprinkle over baked cookies.  Makes about 4 1/2 doz.

Candy cane cookies amidst other yummy sweets in Christmas goodie tray.

Christmas and homemade candy... the perfect combination!

It just doesn't seem like Christmas without making some kind of homemade candy. Just the thought of making fudge or peanut butter balls brings back a flood of happy memories. I still have some of the recipe cards or little pieces of paper with the original recipes tucked carefully into my recipe binder ... the peanut butter ball recipe from Bruce's Grandma or the fudge recipe from my mom.  I'm still trying hard to stay on my Weight Watchers program, so probably won't make any candy until just before Christmas this year... maybe a fun activity to do with my granddaughters who will be here. Here are a few of our favorite family recipes ... enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

MILLION DOLLAR FUDGE

Combine the following ingredients in a large bowl:

3 large (7 oz.) Hershey Almond bars, broken up

1 (12 oz.) package chocolate chips

1 (7 oz.) jar marshmallow cream

2 tsp. vanilla

Bring the following ingredients slowly to boil, stirring frequently:

1 cube melted butter

6 cups granulated sugar

1 12 oz. can evaporated milk

 Boil 7 minutes at a rolling boil; then pour second mixture over first mixture and let stand for a few minutes. Stir until smooth. Add 2 – 4 cups of nuts. Spread in greased pan. 

GREAT GRANDMA LEAVITT’S PEANUT BUTTER BALLS

2 cups peanut butter

½ cup butter

4 cups powdered sugar

3 cups crisp rice cereal

Mix together and form into balls. Chill and dip in chocolate coating.

TERRIBLY TERRIFIC TOFFEE

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
40 saltine crackers

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a 15x10-inch jelly roll pan or a 12x17-inch cookie sheet with foil and spray with non-stick spray. Lay a flat layer of crackers out on the foil. Melt the sugar and butter until a boil is reached. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5-6 minutes or until mixture is thickened and sugar is completely dissolved. Pour this mixture over the crackers and spread to coat evenly. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the toffee becomes bubbly. After removing the pan from the oven, let it sit for 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle on the chocolate chips, let them soften and melt, and then spread them into an even layer. (You can add nuts, cracker crumbs, etc. at this point.) Let cool or refrigerate until hardened. Break into pieces the size of your choice. 

EASY OREO TRUFFLES

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 package ( 1 lb. 2 oz.) Oreo cookies, finely crushed (about 4 1/4 cups), divided

2 packages semi sweet dipping chocolate, melted

Mix cream cheese and 3 cups of the cookie crumbs until well blended. Shape into 48  (1 inch) balls. Dip in melted chocolate; place on lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. Store in tightly covered container in refrigerator.

COCONUT DIPPED CHOCOLATES

1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk

1 (2 lb.) bag powdered sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) melted butter

1 (14 oz.) package coconut

Your preference of amounts and kinds of nuts and fruit

Combine ingredients, roll into balls, chill, and dip in chocolate coating.

This last recipe I have catergorized under my cookie recipes, but it is so simple, unbaked, and dipped in chocolate, that it could also be thought of as a candy. We make tons of these every Christmas. It is one of my most popular catered items at Christmas time. 

RITZ PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

Ritz Crackers

Peanut Butter

Chocolate candy coating

Spread small amount of peanut butter between two Ritz crackers.  Dip in melted chocolate and decorate or sprinkle with red and/or green sprinkles.  Set on wax paper to harden.  You can melt the dipping chocolate in the microwave, 30 sec. at a time until you can stir it smooth. 

EASY MINT COOKIES

Ritz Cracker or Oreos

Chocolate candy coating

Peppermint oil

Melt chocolate candy coating and add a few drops of peppermint oil (Make sure you use oil and don’t use too much as it is very strong.)  Dip Ritz crackers or Oreos.  Decorate or sprinkle as desired.  Set on wax paper to harden.

Some Christmas party trays...