Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Cheesecake Cookie Cups

Ingredients


1 package (16 oz.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Ultimates™ Refrigerated Dark Chocolate Delight Cookie Dough
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 can (14 ounces) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
24 peppermint candies, unwrapped
Directions

PREHEAT oven to 325° F. Paper-line 24 muffin cups. Cut each square of dough in half. Place one half of dough in each muffin cup.

BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookie has spread to edge of cup.

BEAT cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, eggs and vanilla extract in medium bowl until smooth. Set aside.

PLACE peppermint candies in heavy-duty plastic bag. Then place bag between towel layers. Crush candies using rolling pin or other heavy object to about 1/4-inch in size. You should have a little over 1/2 cup. While holding strainer over batter, pour crushed candy into strainer. Shake to release all small candy pieces into batter; stir. Reserve larger candy pieces.

SPOON about 3 tablespoons cream cheese mixture over each cookie in cup. Top each with 1/2 measuring teaspoon of reserved candy pieces.

BAKE for additional 15 to 18 minutes or until set. Remove from oven to wire rack. While still warm, top cheesecakes with additional 1/2 measuring teaspoon of candy pieces. Cool completely. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Decorations made from anything

Braided Bread

Apple Braid
Makes 1 bread (approximately 12 servings)


For the Apple Filling
3 medium-size Granny Smith apples
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons lemon juice

For the Bread
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon instant yeast (I prefer SAF Instant Yeast)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons vegetable oil

For the Glaze:
1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted
5 teaspoons whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of kosher salt
Pinch of nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Make the Apple Filling: Peel, core, and slice the apples into thin slices, then cut the slices in half. Toss the apple pieces with the sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Bake the apple filling in an 8-inch square baking pan (or 9-inch pie tin) for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside. (Note: Do not turn the oven off at this point. You will be using it to bake the finished braid.)

Make the Bread: While the apple filling is baking, begin preparing the bread dough. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Add the water and oil and mix the dough for 6 minutes using an electric mixer on medium-high speed.

Spray a smooth clean surface with cooking spray and turn the dough out onto the surface. Knead the dough briefly to give it a smooth surface (this will only take several turns of the dough to accomplish). Spray a rolling pin with cooking spray and roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about 12-inches by 16-inches in size. Lift onto a greased baking sheet.

Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut each side into strips about 1-inch wide down each side, leaving the center third of the dough uncut. Spread the apple filling down the middle third of the dough. Fold strips of dough into the center, crisscrossing the filling by alternating strips from each side. Lightly press ends to seal, and straighten out the braid with your hands, if necessary, to straighten.

Bake the braid in the oven for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let the braid cool for several minutes.
Make the Glaze: Whisk together the glaze ingredients in a small bowl until blended and smooth.
Brush the glaze in a thick coat over the entire surface of the apple braid while it is still cooling. Carefully transfer the braid to a cooling rack set on a baking sheet (to catch drips) to finish cooling and prevent the bottom of the braid from becoming soggy from sitting in any pooling glaze. Slice and serve.

Peppermint Cake

Peppermint Cheesecake Layers:
Ingredients
3 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup crushed hard peppermint candies
Sour Cream Cake Layers:
1 (18.25-oz.) package white cake mix
2 large eggs
1 (8-oz.) container sour cream
1/3 cup vegetable oil
White Chocolate Mousse Frosting:
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup white chocolate morsels
2 cups whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Garnishes: White chocolate curls, peppermint candies
Preparation
1. Prepare Peppermint Cheesecake Layers: Preheat oven to 325°. Line bottom and sides of 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with aluminum foil, allowing 2 to 3 inches to extend over sides; lightly grease foil. Beat cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and 2 Tbsp. butter at medium speed with an electric mixer 1 to 2 minutes or until creamy and smooth. Add 3 eggs, l at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Add flour and next 3 ingredients, beating until blended. Fold in candies. Pour batter into prepared pans. Place cake pans in a large pan; add water to pan to depth of 1 inch.
2. Bake at 325° for 25 minutes or until set. Remove from oven to wire racks; cool completely in pans (about 1 hour). Cover cheesecakes (do not remove from pans), and freeze 4 to 6 hours or until frozen solid. Lift frozen cheesecakes from pans, using foil sides as handles. Gently remove foil from cheesecakes. Wrap in plastic wrap, and return to freezer until ready to assemble cake.
3. Prepare Sour Cream Cake Layers: Preheat oven to 350°. Beat cake mix, next 3 ingredients, and 1/2 cup water at low speed with an electric mixer 30 seconds or just until moistened; beat at medium speed 2 minutes. Spoon batter into 3 greased and floured 8-inch round cake pans.
4. Bake at 350° for 15 to 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks, and cool completely (about 1 hour).
5. Prepare White Chocolate Mousse Frosting: Cook 2/3 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring often, 3 to 4 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Add morsels; cook, stirring constantly, 2 to 3 minutes or until chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Cool to room temperature (about 30 minutes), whisking occasionally.
6. Beat cream and 2 tsp. vanilla at high speed with an electric mixer 1 to 2 minutes or until soft peaks form. Gradually fold white chocolate mixture into whipped cream mixture, folding until mixture reaches spreading consistency.
7. Assemble Cake: Place 1 cake layer on a cake stand or plate. Top with 1 frozen cheesecake layer. Top with second cake layer and remaining cheesecake layer. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread top and sides of cake with frosting. Chill until ready to serve. Garnish, if desired.

Holiday Appy

Inside some cresent rolls add some chopped spinach and goat cheese bake until golden. Yummy

Pinecone and sticks wreath

Mother nature makes great decorating ideas

Oh so googie

Layers Of Love Chocolate Brownies~

Ingredients

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Baking Cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut in pieces
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 large eggs, divided
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Premier White Morsels
1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping
3/4 cup NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
Directions
PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease 8-inch-square baking pan.

COMBINE flour, cocoa and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract; mix well. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Reserve 3/4 cup batter. Spread remaining batter into prepared baking pan. Sprinkle nuts and white morsels over batter. Drizzle caramel topping over top. Beat remaining egg and reserved batter in same large bowl until light in color. Stir in semi-sweet morsels. Spread evenly over caramel topping.

BAKE for 30 to 35 minutes or until center is set. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.

Drop cookies

Holiday Fruit Drops

Ingredients

2 cups packed brown sugar

1 cup shortening
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups candied cherries, cut in half
2 cups chopped dates
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
Pecan halves, if desired


1. In large bowl, beat brown sugar, shortening, buttermilk and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed until blended, or mix with spoon. Gradually stir in flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in cherries, dates and chopped pecans. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.

2. Heat oven to 375ºF. Grease cookie sheet. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto cookie sheet. Place a pecan half on each cookie.

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until almost no indentation remains when touched lightly. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Tiny Recipe Links

Panna Cotta

Find these recipes at the link above and so many more. Great for the upcoming Holiday's

Jelly Bean Xmas Trees

Jelly Bean Christmas Trees

Ingredients 

1 dozen 12-inch plastic decorating pastry bags (available at party supply stores)

4 cups green jelly beans
1 cup total yellow, white, and red jelly beans
Tape
12 brown pipe cleaners

Place a few yellow jelly beans in the tip of the plastic decorating bag. Then carefully pour about 1/3 cup of green jelly beans into the bag. For lights and ornaments, you can mix the green jelly beans with yellow, white, and red. For the tree's trunk, tape the bag shut and twist a brown pipe cleaner around the base. Trim off the excess plastic. Makes 12 trees.

Xmas Pancakes

Christmas Tree Stack Pancakes

Ingredients

4

cups Original Bisquick® mix
2
cups milk
2
teaspoons green paste food color, if desired
4
eggs
Snowy Vanilla Glaze
2 1/2
cups powdered sugar
3
tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons milk
Toppings and Garnishes, If Desired
Powdered sugar
Candy sprinkles
Small candies

1 In large bowl, stir all Pancakes ingredients until well blended. Heat nonstick griddle to 375°F. or 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. (To test griddle, sprinkle with a few drops of water. If bubbles jump around, heat is just right.) Brush with vegetable oil if necessary (or spray with cooking spray before heating).

2 Each pancake tree is a stack of 8 different size pancakes. Make only one tree at a time. Pour 1/4 cupful, 3 level measuring tablespoons, 2 level measuring tablespoons and 1 level measuring tablespoon batter onto hot griddle. Watching each pancake carefully, cook until bubbly on top and dry around edges (small pancakes will get done first). Turn; cook other side until light golden brown around edges. Keep warm. To make remaining 4 pancakes to form one tree, pour 2 level measuring teaspoons, 1 level measuring teaspoon, 1/2 level measuring teaspoon and 1/4 level measuring teaspoon batter onto hot griddle. Watching each pancake carefully, cook until bubbly on top and dry around edges; pancakes quick will cook quickly. Turn; cook other side until light golden brown around edges (they will cook very quickly). Repeat with remaining batter to make 5 more trees.

3 To assemble trees, stack on serving plate starting with largest size pancakes on bottom and stacking each smaller size pancake on top. Drizzle with Snowy Vanilla Glaze and garnish with sprinkles or candies, or, just sprinkle with powdered sugar and garnish with sprinkles or candies.

Reindeer cookies

Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies

Ingredients 

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
96 small round pretzel twists
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (96 chips)
1 tablespoon candies (48 candies)


1. Heat oven to 375°F (if using dark or nonstick cookie sheet, heat oven to 350°F). In large bowl, beat peanut butter, butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Stir in flour and baking powder.

2. For each cookie, shape 1-inch ball of dough into triangle shape about 1 1/2 inches long. On ungreased cookie sheet, place 2 pretzel twists about 1 inch apart to look like antlers; press top of dough triangle gently into pretzels. Repeat with remaining dough and pretzels.

3. Bake 5 to 10 minutes or until edges just begin to brown. Immediately press 2 chocolate chips for eyes and 1 cinnamon candy for nose onto each cookie. Let stand 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely, about 30 

Snowman Cake

Snowman Cake

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups cake flour

1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups vanilla frosting
Shredded coconut (optional)
2 black licorice drops
1 large orange gumdrop
Red shoestring licorice
Red fruit leather
3 starlight mints
3 small gumdrops
2 sticks chocolate licorice



Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour two ovenproof glass bowls, one slightly larger than the other. (Note: For our cake, we used one bowl with a 1-liter capacity and 6-inch diameter and the other with a 1 1/2-liter capacity and 7-inch diameter.)

To make the cake, mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. Sift the ingredients onto waxed paper and return to the bowl.

In a separate bowl, blend the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla extract.

Alternately, add the flour mixture and the milk to the batter in thirds, combining well after each addition. Fill the bowls about two thirds full. Bake the smaller cake for about 50 minutes and the larger cake for about 65 minutes.

When done, the surface will spring back when touched and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean. Cool in the bowls for 10 minutes. Then invert onto a large, rectangular platter (about 17 by 12 inches) so the cakes resemble a snowman. Cool completely.

Ice the cakes with the vanilla frosting, then sprinkle with shredded coconut, if desired. Add licorice drop eyes, insert an orange gumdrop nose and fashion a broad smile with shoestring licorice.

For the scarf, cut two 2-inch-wide strips of fruit leather, notch the ends and wrap around the neck of the snowman. For the buttons, use starlight mints topped with gumdrops. Finish off the snowman with two chocolate licorice arms.

Heartland Gourmet Product Review

Today I received four boxes of mix's from a company called Heartland Gourmet. The mix's I am about to test are red velvet cupcake mix, cornbread, carrot cake mix and lemon cupcake mix. But before I get ready I want to tell you a little about the company.

Heartland Gourmet is a family business, that use's fine ingredients in all their products. The mix's are gluten free, and are purely organic for your baking needs.

First up for the gluten free southern cornbread mix. With this I made, yes, what else corn muffins. They were very flavorful and moist, and they held together very well. And with a pat of butter, the muffin just melted in your mouth. The mix is gluten free so its healthy for everyone. With this mix you can also make one loaf of cornbread or two mini loafs.

Next up I used the gluten free carrot cake mix. With this I made one dozen cupcakes. But the box will also produce a 9 x 13 cake. With this mix I added some shredded carrots, and topped the cupcakes with a homemade cream cheese icing. Again the cupcakes were very moist and very flavorful. It was a step back in time when Grandma used to make these fav's. The whole house just smelled yummy. On the box was a recipe for icing as well.

The mix's so far are easy to use, and you need little ingredients from your pantry.

Next I made a cake with the gluten free lemon cupcake mix. I also added into the mix grated lemon peel and for the liquid needed, I substituted lemon aide. It came out with a flavorful lemon flavor. For the icing on the cake, I made the lemon cream cheese icing that was suggested. You would never know these products were made with gluten free flour.

For the gluten free red velvet cupcake mix, I made, you guessed it cupcakes. I topped them this time with vanilla icing and took some cake crumbs and sprinkled them on top. Again the mix made very moist and flavorful cupcakes.

All the mix's were easy to use, and produced quality cakes.

If you are interested in trying Heartland Gourmet's products please go to their website and check out what they have to offer. www.heartlandgourmet.com

There is a ton of information on the site for you, including some great recipes for their mix's.

Disclaimer: Momzblotter has personally reviewed the product listed above. Momzblotter has not received any monetary compensation for her review. Momzblotter did receive a free product to try out so Momzblotter could evaluate and use it for her review. Momzblotter's thoughts & opinions in this review are unbiased & honest and your  opinions may differ.

Xmas cupcakes

Ornament cupcakes

Ingredients 

1 box (1 lb 2.25 oz) Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix

Water, vegetable oil and egg whites called for on cake box
6 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 to 4 tablespoons milk
24 small candy canes
Red and green jelly beans
Red cinnamon candies
Red string licorice
Red and green candy-coated chocolate-covered sunflower seeds



1. Heat oven to 350°F. Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups or spray with cooking spray.

2. Make and bake cake as directed on box for cupcakes, using water, oil and egg whites. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

3. In large bowl, mix powdered sugar and butter with spoon or electric mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and 3 tablespoons milk. Gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. Frost cupcakes generously.

4. Create ornament designs using assorted candies. Use top of candy cane to create a “hook” on each cupcake.

Doggie Prayers

Wild West Kitchen Rack

Copper colored iron rack has eight hooks for your pots and pans. Its longhorn, lasso and lone star adornments above the flat rack give this handy piece a true Texan theme for your decor. 

Weight 6.8 lbs. UPC# 817216010965. 23 1/2" x 13 1/2" x 32 1/4" high. Iron.

email me for price