holiday baking review: peanut butter cookie cups

These were a big hit with my family at all our holiday celebrations this year. They're so simple and quite adorable.

Peanut Butter Cookie Cups

1 cup smooth peanut butter (I like Jif)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

24 mini peanut butter cups (Reeses, of course)

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Unwrap 24 mini peanut butter cups; set aside.
• In a medium bowl, thoroughly combine peanut butter, sugar, egg, baking soda, and vanilla. (Yes, all at once. I told you it was simple.)
• Grease mini muffin tins. This recipe makes 24 cookie cups, so you'll need 24 mini muffin wells, or 12 in two batches.
• Drop a blob of cookie dough into each well of the mini muffin tin. Your blobs should be approximately 1" balls.
• Using your thumb, press down into the center of the blob to spread the cookie dough evenly in the muffin well, and to make an indentation in the center.
• Bake for 6-8 minutes, maybe 10, or until lightly browned around the edges, like this:

• Remove pans from oven, place on wire rack, and gently press peanut butter cups into the center of each cookie cup. Don't push too far, just enough so the cookie holds it a little. It should fit perfectly.
• Allow the cookie to cool completely. Pop cookie out and transfer to wire rack until the peanut butter cup has become solid again (not melty).
• Store or serve.

Other big hits from my cookie tray this year were the Lemon Snowballs and Gluten-Free Gingerbread Cookies. Check back tomorrow for the Gingerbread recipe.

santa claus is coming...

...to my house very soon, so I'll be away from the blog for a few days. I have lots of things saved up to share with you, but no time with which to edit all my photos. :)

New posts should return Monday the 28th. To those of you that celebrate Christmas--Merry Christmas! To those of you that only celebrate the commercial-santa-and-decorated-tree hoopla--Hope it's a fun one this year! To the rest of you--Have a great weekend! Hope you have a few extra days off to get in some crafting. :)

recycled wrapping

As I said in my last post, my goal was to avoid buying any new wrapping materials this year. So I saved a few mesh produce bags...

(please don't laugh at my bow)

...and the bags that held my garlic planting bulbs. They were just the right size to hold tissue-wrapped gift cards. (Also shown are a few bulbs from my garden this year. I love growing garlic!)

I also knitted a bunch of these vintage-look dishtowels...

...and used them to wrap gifts, as well.

It's probably too late for you to implement these this year, but they can be used any time of year for any kind of gift. I love that the dishtowels are a gift in themselves.

Also to add to the "gift idea" list are these teacher gifts made by Courtney from two straight lines. Fabulous idea!!

recycled post

Photo source

I saw this over on Giver's Log today, and figured some of you could use a few crafty ideas to wrap those gift cards that are still sitting on your counter. I love that at least two, and up to all five, can be made from recycled materials you probably have around the house.

Check back later this week for my own recycled wrapping. I didn't buy any new wrapping materials this year. I used up paper rolls from holidays past and wrapped several gifts with non-traditional materials.

I'm hoping to have that posted tomorrow at the usual time, but please forgive me if my posts these next two weeks are a bit sporadic. H is out of school, we're preparing for guests, and finishing a few last-minute gift projects. Oh...and I still need to do my baking. Hmm. It's going to be a busy week.

teacher holiday card

I struggled this year with what to give to H's kindergarten teacher. We all love her teacher so, and wanted that love to be reflected in the gift we gave. So I did some searching online and kept finding comments from teachers saying that they truly appreciate any gift, but simple thank you notes from kids and parents are the ones they most remember--and often keep.

So we did contribute a few dollars to a group gift certificate for her favorite coffee shop, but I put most of my effort into some thoughtful words for her card. The card itself turned out pretty cute, so I wanted to share it with you. H helped me with the decorative-edge scissors to make the tree, and I hung the tiny tag. Love that. I also popped the tree forward with a little foam tape to give it some dimension.

We gave it to Mrs. T this morning. I'll update this post if she has any noteworthy comments after school. :)

crafts to do with kids (or not)

Photo source

I'm volunteering in H's class today. We're making gingerbread graham cracker houses! So fun.

And for you, I have a handful of ideas for crafts you can do with your kids...or on your own if you'd rather not have "help." :)

• 3D Felt ball ornaments on How About Orange
• Homemade marshmallows and Gumdrop Trees on Make & Takes
• Xylophone replica table from OhDeeDo...if only it actually made music!
• Cookie Cutter Wreath from Good Housekeeping (via OhDeeDo)
• Tree Stump Trivet from Queen Martha (via Twig & Thistle)...anybody want to make one of these for me?

lollipop cookies

My friend Jillaire made these lollipop cookies for her daughter's school birthday treat. I thought they were so cute, I had to try them for myself. I made them to take to H's ballet performance of The Nutcracker (cookies are sold at intermission as a fundraiser), and they were a big hit.Lollipop Cookies
recipe originally from The Cake Mix Doctor (I really need to get that book), via Family Bean

1 package (18.25 oz) plain yellow cake mix (I used lemon flavored cake mix)
1 cup flour
1 stick butter, melted
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
1 cup colored sprinkles (I used one 1.25 oz container, but just covered one side of the cookies)
48-55 wooden craft sticks (I must have made mine huge, because I only ended up with 25 cookies, thus needing only 25 sticks)

• Preheat oven to 375° and lightly grease two cookie sheets with shortening, or line with silicone mat.
• Place cake mix, flour, melted butter, honey, and eggs in a large mixing bowl.
• Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute.
• Stop the machine and scrape the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
• Mix on low for another minute. The cookie dough will be thick.
• Shape dough into 1-inch balls.
• Pour the colored sprinkles into a shallow bowl and roll the balls in them. Or just coat one side, like I did.
• Place the dough balls two inches apart on the greased cookie sheets. I staggered the rows of balls to allow room for placing the sticks (see below).
• Bake the cookies until the edges are light brown, 8-12 minutes.

• Remove the pan from the oven and immediately insert a craft stick halfway into the side of each cookie. (This was much easier than I expected.)
• Let the cookies rest on the cookie sheet for 1 minute.

• Carefully remove the cookies (also easier than anticipated) with a spatula and place on wire racks to cool completely, 30 minutes.
• Repeat with the remaining cookie dough.

Be warned--they're crunchy. But really, you wouldn't want a cookie on a stick to be soft, would you?

So, since this is my first time since starting the blog to bake something on a stick, I thought I would experiment with my camera a little, to see if I could get one of those awesome Bakerella shots.

My results were not so spectacular. But to my credit, I was working with less-than-optimal props. I didn't have any styrofoam around to hold the sticks, I don't have a fancy light like she does, and I don't have the coordinating fancy board to hold my scrapbook paper. See? Here's my setup:

Amateur hour, to say the least. But it was fun to try. :)