Cookie Recipes {Flavor of the Month}

It's the end of the month, and time for Bake at 350's Flavor of the Month party!! This month's theme is.......COOKIES!!!

This should be a fun one, I'm sure most of us baked some cookies in the past month - come along and share your recipes!!

I spent so much time baking and decorating butter cookies for Drop In and Decorate, and another 100 for my family and friends, I didn't do too many other types of cookies this year.

You can find my Butter Cookie and Royal Icing recipes here.

I also tried Bridget's Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookie recipe as well. Our recipes were similar but just enough different for a nice change!! I also tried Bridget's tip of using cold butter so I didn't have to refrigerate my dough! GENIOUS!! - Was a little difficult to mix up when you don't have a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer {cough cough}.....but it was nice not having to chill my dough!

Rum Balls (top left)
print recipe here

3-1/4 cup crushed vanilla wafers	1-1/2 cups chopped walnuts
3/4* cup powdered sugar (*additional sugar needed for rolling)	3 Tblsp light corn syrup
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder	1/2 cup rum

1. In a large bowl, stir together crushed vanilla wafers, sugar, cocoa and nuts. Blend in corn syrup and rum.

2. Shape into 1" balls, and roll in additional* powdered sugar (tip- I cover my hand in powdered sugar while I roll the balls, so they don't stick to my hands so bad). Store in an airtight container for several days to develop the flavor.

3. Roll again in powdered sugar* before serving.


Shortbread Spritzer Cookies Ingredients (center)
I use the recipe that comes in the box with my Wilton Cookie Press

print recipe here

3 Sticks butter; softened	1/2 tsp Almond extract
4 c Flour	1 Egg
1 c Sugar	2 Tblsp Milk
1 ts Baking powder	Food coloring (optional)
1 ts Vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream butter and sugar till fluffy; add flavorings, egg, and milk and stir till well mixed. Sift or mix flour and baking powder together, then add to dough (this is more easily done in two or three parts), mix with hands if necessary. Dough will be very stiff. If you want to color the dough, divide your dough and add color now and mix well. Push dough into spritzer gun and press shapes onto ungreased cookie sheet. You can press sprinkles into the cookies before baking. Bake at 400 degrees for 6 minutes, no longer! This is a rich cookie but holds its shape well and does not need to be refrigerated before shaping.

Krispie Peanut Butter Balls (bottom right and the one above it)
print recipe here

My family has made these for years, it wasn't until I started blogging that I realized how many other's make these and how many variations there are. Most people call them Buckeye's. What ever you call them, and how ever you make them... peanut butter balls covered in chocolate are ALWAYS a big hit!

2 cups Powdered Sugar
2 cups Rice Krispies
1-1/4 cup Chunky Peanut Butter
1 pkg Chocolate Chips
1 T shortening

Mix powdered sugar, peanut butter and Rice Krispies with spoon, then use hands to combine. Roll into 1-2" balls. (yields about 5 dozen depending on the size)

Put chocolate chips in bowl with shortening and melt in the microwave. Roll peanut butter balls in chocolate (I tip the bowl to the side and use a spoon to push around), and place on wax paper until chocolate sets. Chill covered in refrigerator or freezer. When hard you can store in the refrigerator or freezer. Wrapped them well and they can stay in the freezer for months. They are really good right out of the freezer!


Chocolate & Caramel Covered Pretzel Rods
print recipe here

This year I tried something different with my Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods....I added caramel between the chocolate and the pretzel!! These went over REAL well- the caramel ones were gone before the plain chocolate pretzels!

1-2 bags of Pretzel Rods
1 package Caramel wraps (by the apples)
1 bag Wilton Light Cocoa Candy Melts
Sprinkles

1. Take one of the caramel wraps and cut it into strips

2. wrap strips around pretzel rods (I pulled caramel and I twisted and wrapped, so usually one strip of caramel was all that was needed for each pretzel rod.

3. Place a handful of candy melts on 2 pieces of wax paper on a plate. Microwave for about 30 seconds, the stir with a spoon, microwave for another 15 seconds and stir again, repeat until melts are all soft and blend together when you stir.

4. Dip pretzel rods in chocolate. By having your chocolate on the wax paper, you are able to lift the wax paper and get the pretzel covered real good! - Use your spoon often to scrape all of the chocolate back to the center. When you run out of melted chocolate, melt some more!
I used one bag of chocolate melts for 2 bags of pretzel rods.

*add sprinkles right after you roll in chocolate and place on wax paper to set. (I sprinkled Jimmies on the caramel pretzel rods, and colored sugar on the chocolate only rods- so it was easy to tell which ones had caramel!) Last year I drizzled with white chocolate as well, you can see those here.

Head over to Bake at 350 for more cookies recipes and link up some of your own while you're there!!