No Bake Cookies

The easiest cookies on the planet. They are so tasty and delicious. My family requests them sometimes once a week. Needless to say we go through peanut butter and oatmeal often.

Here the butter, sugar, milk, and cocoa powder is being mixed together.

You want to bring it to a boil and then boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat

Add in the peanut butter and stir till it is melted in. My Husband likes it when there are chunks of peanut butter in it. He says its like a treat when he gets them.

Add the oatmeal

Stir it in till all the oatmeal is coated in the chocolate mixture.

Place them on wax paper and let cool. They can be enjoyed before they are cool but can be a little messy.

I like to have all my ingredients measured out so I can quickly add them. I have had many a failed batch because the mix boiled too long or too much or not enough oatmeal was added. It is easy though to half the recipe just in case you don't want that many cookies. (but who wouldn't want that much goodness lol)

No bake cookies.
2 cups sugar
3 Tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter (you can use crunchy if you like)
pinch of salt
3 cups quick oatmeal

Add sugar cocoa milk and butter to a pan, Boil for 1 minute and take off heat.
add vanilla and peanut butter and salt stir till pb is melted.
Add oatmeal stir till all coated well with chocolate mixture.
Drop by spoonfuls on wax or parchment paper let completely cool

Makes about 30-32 two tablespoon cookies. I use the pampered chef medium scoop makes the job quick and easy.

Homemade Decorative Sprinkles

This is a recipe that I got from one good thing
how cool I just had to share it with you. when I make em I will post photos

Homemade Decorative Sprinkles

Ingredients

4 ounces (about 2 cups) confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon Just Egg Whites
1 tablespoon warm water, plus extra as needed
1/4 teaspoon vanilla, almond, or lemon flavoring
Pinch salt
Tools
Parchment or wax paper
Food coloring paste (optional)
Toothpicks
Pastry bag
Pastry tip with very small round hole, such as Wilton No. 2

Instructions

1. Lay a piece of wax paper out on a clean surface. Gather your ingredients. Decide how you want to flavor your sprinkles. You can leave them unflavored, or use vanilla or another flavoring. I used Fiori di Sicilia from King Arthur Flour, which gave my sprinkles a distinct taste of Creamsicles.
2. Sift the confectioner's sugar into a medium-sized bowl. It's very important to sift the sugar in this case, because even the tiniest lump will clog your pastry tip later. So sift the sugar through a sieve or a sifter.
3. About Just Egg Whites, or powdered egg whites: This is a substitute for raw egg. You could also use about half of a raw egg white, but I find this stuff useful for royal icing and other recipes that call for raw egg white.
4. Whisk 1 teaspoon of the powdered egg whites together with 1 tablespoon of warm water. Whisk until smooth and foamy. Whisk in the flavoring and a pinch of salt.
5. Mix the egg white liquid into the powdered sugar and stir to combine. The mixture will probably look clumpy and thick, as pictured.
6. Add additional water in 1/2 teaspoon increments until the mixture is smooth and liquid, yet still thick.
7. I am not giving a specific amount of water here, because it depends on the powdered sugar and even the humidity of the day. But you want a smooth, thick, pipe-able frosting like the one pictured above.
8. Choose your food coloring, if using. It's best to use the paste or gel type of food coloring, as opposed to liquid. The colors are more vibrant, and they don't significantly change the texture of your icing the way extra liquid will.
9. Using the tip of a toothpick place a dot of food coloring in your icing mix.
10. Stir thoroughly until the color is completely distributed.
11. Set up your pastry bag with your #2 (or similar) tip.
12. Fill the bag and press any air pockets out of the icing.
13. Pipe out a long, thin line of icing on the parchment or wax paper. It's best to keep the line as straight as you can, but it doesn't need to be perfectly straight. (See how wavy mine is!)
14. Repeat until all the icing is used up. Important: Let the icing strips dry for a full 24 hours, or at least overnight. In winter, like now, I let mine dry for about 20 hours, and they were fine.
15. When they are completely dry, line them up evenly against the edge of a flat knife, like a cleaver or santoku.
16. Chop into small pieces, or longer ones for jimmies. Store in an airtight container until using.

Here is a great recipe that I made last night. My husband went crazy for them. (note the image is from the internet) You can also mix this in a bread machine if you wish.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel frosting

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Ingredients:

• 2 T. yeast
• 1/2c. warm water
• 1/2 c. canned pumpkin
• 2/3 c. sugar
• ½ t. salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• ¼ c. melted, butter
• 1/4 t. ground cloves
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 4-5 c. bread flour
• for the filling
  
• ½ c. brown sugar, packed
• 2 T. cinnamon
• 2 T. melted butter

Method:

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Wait 5 minutes. Add pumpkin, egg, sugar, butter, salt, cinnamon and cloves and mix well. Slowly add flour one cup at a time. Scrape down sides of bowl after each addition of flour. Turn into lightly greased bowl, cover and set in warm place until double in bulk. Punch down dough and let rest for 5 more minutes. Roll dough out into a rectangle.
Brush dough with melted butter. Sprinkle the dough with sugar and cinnamon mixture. Starting with long side of dough, roll up jellyroll style. Pinch seams to seal. With sharp serrated knife cut roll into 12 1 in. pieces. Place rolls, cut side up in greased 9*13 pan. Cover and let rise until double, 30 to 45 minutes.
Bake rolls at 350 degrees about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Drizzle with caramel frosting as soon as they come out of the oven. Let cool until warm, add the rest of the frosting. Enjoy!

Caramel Frosting

• ¼ c. butter
• ½ c. brown sugar, packed
• 2 T. milk
• ¼ t. vanilla
• Pinch of salt
• ½ c. to ¾ c. sifted powder sugar

In a small saucepan, heat butter until melted. Stir in brown sugar and milk. Cook over med. Low heat 1 minute. Transfer to small bowl and cool mixture. Stir in vanilla, salt, and powder sugar. Beat with Electric mixer until well blended. If necessary, add more sugar for desired consistency.

Fancy Cookies

I thought it would be fun to make the new cookies that Nestle Toll house came out with for Easter

This is the package that they come in


After opening them this is what they look like there are 2 sheets making 24 cookies. The package also states that you can roll up the extra dough and make more cookies but I didnt do that.


Here they are fresh out of the oven


And for presentation this is them on a plate. I would of taken a better photo but my camera died and I didnt get a chance to take another one before they were eaten.

All in all I don't recommend them. They were fun cute and easy to make, but when it came down to eating them I felt (along with my Husband and Little one) they tasted like ink. I would rather make my own sugar cookies and decorate them with frosting or just have them dipped in sugar before they are baked. But it was a fun experience to try.

Almond Joy tastys (or Mounds)

I originally posted this on my other blog ritzy things but i dont have any photos for it yet.

Mounds or Almond Joy
Makes about 3 dozen bars

You will need...
5 ounces Sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar
14 ounces premium shredded or flaked coconut
one 24 ounce package semisweet chocolate chips

getting on to making them...
1. Blend the condensed milk and vanilla
2. add the powdered sugar to the above mixture a little bit at a time.stirring until smooth.
3. Stir in the coconut. The mixture should be firm.
4. Pat the mixture firmly into a greased 9 x 13 x 2 inch pan. Chill in the fridge until firm.
5. in a double boiler over hot (not boiling) water, melt the chocolate, stirring often. You may also use a microwave oven. Place the chips in a bowl and let for 1 minute on high: stir then hear for 1 minute more.
6. Remove the coconut mixture from the refrigerator and cut it into 1 x 2 inch bars.
7. Set each coconut bar onto a fork and dip into the chocolate. Tap the fork against the side of the pan or bowl to remove any excess chocolate.
8. Air-Dry at room temperature on waxed paper. This could take several; hours, but chocolate sets best at cool room temperature. (below 70 degrees). You may speed up the process by placing the bars in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

And if you feel like a nut...
1. add 1 cup dry roasted almonds to the to the list of ingredients.
2. Substitute milk chocolate chips for the semisweet chocolate
3. In step 8, place 2 almonds atop each bar before dipping.

and enjoy....
but be careful they are too good. addicting one might say. Mounds or almond joys