Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made these for my older brother's birthday party last night and they were a HUGE hit!  It makes a large batch, which was a really good thing.  My husband even deemed them "extraordinary."  I found the recipe on allrecipes.com.  It was rated 4 1/2 stars and had been rated 7,128 times, so I figured it must be good...and it is!  As a side note, I always bake my cookies for a minute or two under what the recipe says to ensure truly soft cookies.  Enjoy!

Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 12 Minutes Ready In: 1 Hour 40 Minutes Servings: 72

"Here's an Allrecipes classic and much-loved chocolate chip cookie recipe that uses instant pudding mix in the batter."

INGREDIENTS:

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 2 cups butter, softened 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar 1/2 cup white sugar 2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla

pudding mix 4 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 4 cups semisweet chocolate chips 2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2.	In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

Red Velvet Cake

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 bottle red food coloring
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat eggs, 1 at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food coloring and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Pour batter into pan. This recipe makes more than a regular cake recipe so you can either do 2 9" pans or a 9x13 and then have some left over for a few cupcakes (that's usually what I do). Bake for 35-40 min or until toothpick comes out clean. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese
1/2 pound butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Cream butter and cream cheese until smooth, slowly add sugar. Add vanilla.

Or...


1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 box (16 ounces) confectioners' sugar 

I can't remember which one I use...

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Makes 2-3 dozen

Ingredients:
½ cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoons baking soda
1-½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

Source: ldsliving.com

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie
Recipe from Nestle via ourbestbites.com

1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust, homemade or store-bought.
2 large eggs
1/2 C flour
1/2 C white granulated sugar
1/2 C packed brown sugar
3/4 C real butter, softened (1 1/2 sticks)
1 C chocolate chips (semi-sweet or dark works best, you might find milk too sweet)
1 C chopped pecans (you are welcome to make it without nuts)

Vanilla ice cream, or sweetened whipped cream for serving (a must! I prefer ice cream)

optional: chocolate sauce (honestly, doesn’t really need chocolate sauce, but it looks pretty!)

Preheat oven to 325° F.

Beat eggs in large mixer bowl on high speed until foamy. Beat in flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat in butter. Stir in morsels and nuts. Spoon into pie shell.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until knife inserted halfway between edge and center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack or serve slightly warmed. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

*There have been several comments about pies turning out runny. First and foremost, follow the instructions, completely (no margarine or anything from a tub!) I’ve made a million of these and never had that happen so I have no idea. The recipe is correct as written, it comes straight fromNestle!

Creamy Lemon Bars

I just made these for a family party and, oh my, they were good. The recipe comes from ourbestbites.com. Definitely worth checking out!

(Note: instead of using lemon, I used lime. The coloring still looked like lemon because of the eggs, so next time I might add a drop or two of green food coloring to make it look more like lime. Also, I don't have a good zester, so I skipped the peel. It still was great. I also doubled the recipe, so it took about 3 limes to get 1/2 cups fresh lime juice. Enjoy!)

Creamy Lemon Bars

20 Nilla Wafers, finely crushed
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold real butter
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese (you can use 1/3-less fat cream cheese)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. flour
3 Tbsp. grated lemon peel, divided
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (don’t even think about opening a bottle!)
1/4 tsp. Baking Powder
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line 8-inch square baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Spray lightly with non-stick spray and set aside. (The foil isn’t too pretty, but it makes clean-up and cutting the bars a cinch!)

In a bowl, combine Nilla Wafer crumbs, 1/2 cup flour and the brown sugar. Chop butter into small pieces and then cut into crumb mixture with a pastry blender.

If you don’t have a pastry blender, just use 2 knives, or even your fingers to break up the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Press crumb mixture firmly onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake 15 min.

While crust is cooking, beat cream cheese and granulated sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 2 Tbsp. flour, and baking powder; mix well. Blend in 1 Tbsp. lemon zest, and lemon juice and then pour mixture over crust.

Bake 25 to 30 min. or until center is set. Cool completely. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight. These bars improve with time. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and remaining 2 Tbsp. grated lemon peel just before cutting into squares to serve. Store leftover squares in refrigerator. (As if you'll have leftovers!)

Easy Strawberry Cake

1 white cake mix

3/4 c. water

1/2 c. oil

2 (6 oz.) ctn. strawberry Yoplait thick & creamy (no fruit chunks) yogurt

4 oz. Cool Whip

Red food coloring

Fresh strawberries

Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour your pan(s) of choice. Prepare cake mix as the box directs, but alter the water and oil to the quantities above and add 1 (6 oz.) container of yogurt before mixing. Pour batter into pan(s) and bake for the short time listed on the box. Cool cake completely.

Frosting:

Combine the second container of yogurt, Cool Whip and a small amount of food coloring to turn the frosting pink. Frost cake and chill in refrigerator to set frosting. Partially slice strawberries into approximately 4 slices, stopping when you hit the leaves so the slices remain connected. Splay the slices and place strawberries on top of cake in a decorative manner. Cake should remain refrigerated until ready to serve.

Andes Mint Puddle Cookies

I got this recipe from my friend Anjela down the street. She is a dessert master!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 package Betty Crocker's Devils Food Cake Mix (Any type of dark chocolate cake mix would work)

2 eggs
3/4 Cup Shortening (I always use butter flavored)
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
2 boxes Andes Mints

Combine all ingredients, EXCEPT the mints, with an electric mixer.

Scoop 1 inch balls on to UNGREASED cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Do not over bake! Unwrap mints while your waiting for the cookies to bake.

Remove from oven. Immediately after you remove the cookies from the oven, place 1 Ande's mint on top of each cookie. Let it sit for a minute or two until it is melted. Once it is melted, swirl the chocolate slightly with your finger tip or the tip of a spoon, so that you now have a circle instead of a rectangle.

Let cool completely before serving.

Soft Gingersnaps

This recipe comes from my friend Marta's blog. The first time I made them, they instantly became one of my staples. Enjoy!

1 1/2 cup Shortening
2 cups Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Dark Molasses
1/2 tsp. Salt
4 tsp. Baking soda
2 tsp. Baking powder
2 tsp. Cloves
2 tsp. Cinnamon
2 tsp. Ginger
4 cups Flour

Cream together all the ingredients except the flour. When dough is creamy, gradually add the flour. Form dough into small balls and roll in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheets and flatten each cookie with your thumbprint.

Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes. (The key is to under-bake them a little for truly soft cookies.)

Lemon Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup flour
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
grated rind of 1/2 lemon (optional)

Cream butter and sugar, add flour. Spread in 8x8 pan and bake at 325 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. While crust is baking prepare next layer.

Beat eggs slightly and add sugar, flour, lemon juice and rind. Mix well and pour over hot crust after it comes from oven. Now bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 325 degrees. Remove from oven and sprinkle with sifted powdered sugar.

Layered Ice Cream Cake

1/2 cup hot fudge ice cream topping, warmed

1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed, divided

1 pkg. (3.9 oz.) JELL-O Chocolate Instant Pudding

8 OREO Cookies, chopped (about 1 cup)

12 vanilla ice cream sandwiches

POUR fudge topping into medium bowl. Whisk in 1 cup COOL WHIP. Add dry pudding mix; stir 2 min. Stir in chopped cookies.

ARRANGE 4 ice cream sandwiches, side-by-side, on 24-inch-long piece of foil; top with half the COOL WHIP mixture. Repeat layers. Top with remaining sandwiches. Frost top and sides with remaining COOL WHIP. Bring up foil sides; double fold top and ends to loosely seal packet.

FREEZE 4 hours or until firm.

Oreo Cream Cheese Pie

35 Oreo cookies, finely crushed (about 3 cups)
6 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. sugar
2 Tbsp. cold milk
1 tub (12 oz) Cool Whip, thawed and divided
3 1/4 cups cold milk
2 pkg. (4 oz. serving size each) chocolate flavor instant pudding
(candy canes)
(small carton fresh whipped cream)

Mix crushed cookies and butter in medium bowl. Press firmly onto bottom of 13 x 9-in. baking dish (or divide evenly between 2 pie pans). Refrigerate 10 minutes.

Beat cream cheese, sugar and 2 Tbsp. milk in medium bowl with wire whisk until well blended. Gently stir in 1 1/4 cups of the whipped topping. Spread over crust.

Pour 3 1/4 cups milk into large bowl. Add pudding mixes. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. or until well blended. Pour over cream cheese layer. Let stand 5 min. or until thickened. Drop remaining whipped topping by spoonfuls over pudding; spread to cover pudding.

Refrigerate at least 4 hr. Cut into 24 squares. Store leftover dessert in refrigerator. Makes 24 servings (1 square each). Top each square with crushed candy canes.

*When I made this I skipped the top layer of Cool Whip and I served it with fresh whipped cream and crushed candy canes.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars with Streusel Topping

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons, divided
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Streusel topping, recipe follows
1/2 cup caramel topping
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until mixture is crumbly. Press evenly into a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking pan lined with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned.
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with 1/2 cup sugar in an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Then add eggs, 1 at a time, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Pour over warm crust.
In a small bowl, stir together chopped apples, remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Spoon evenly over cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle evenly with Streusel topping. Bake 30 minutes, or until filling is set. Drizzle with caramel topping.
Streusel Topping:
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened (I did this in addition to the 2 sticks that I used in the crust)
In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. Yield: approximately 3 cups

Cream Filled Strawberries

8 oz cream cheese

2-3 Tablespoons powdered sugar

Fresh squeezed juice from one orange

Strawberries (desired amount)

Whip cream cheese, powdered sugar and orange juice together to taste. Cut open washed strawberries and fill with cream cheese mixture using a pastry bag. Chill until served. Enjoy!

OREO Triple Layer Chocolate Pie

32 OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, divided
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 cups cold milk
2 pkg. (4 serving size) JELL-O Chocolate Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
1 (8 ounce) tub COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed, divided

Finely crush 24 of the cookies; mix with butter. Press firmly onto bottom and up side of 9-inch pie plate. Pour milk into large bowl. Add pudding mixes. Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes or until well blended. (Mixture will be thick.) Spoon 1-1/2 cups of the pudding into crust. Gently stir 1/2 of the whipped topping into remaining pudding; spread over pudding layer in crust. Chop remaining 8 cookies; stir into remaining whipped topping. Spread over pie.
Refrigerate 4 hours or until set.

Yield: 10 servings

Source: http://food.yahoo.com/recipes/kraft/55858/oreo-r-triple-layer-chocolate-pie

Almond Joys

½ cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
3 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 Tbsp. (approx)
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
Almonds

Melt butter in saucepan. Remove from heat and add sugar, coconut and milk. Mix well. Shape rounded teaspoons of mix into balls. Make an indent in the center of each and place on a cookie sheet.

Fill centers with melted chocolate and an almond. Dust with cocoa powder. Chill until firm.

Store covered in fridge. Makes 3 dozen.

Cheese Pie

1 9-inch graham cracker crumb crust
1 8-oz pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 14-oz pkg. sweetened condense milk
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
Pie filling: cherry, boysenberry, raspberry, etc.

In mixing bowl, beat cheese until fluffy. Beat in sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Stir in lemon juice and vanilla. Pour into crust.

Chill 3 hours until firm. Top with pie filling.

Magleby’s Syrup

*Use a large pan*

1 cube butter
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar
3 Tbsp. corn syrup
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla

Melt together butter, buttermilk, sugar, and corn syrup. Bring to a low boil on medium heat. Add 1 tsp. baking soda. Stir fast—it gets BIG! Boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add 2 tsp. vanilla. Mix well and enjoy.

Serve hot over pancakes, waffles, ice cream . . . anything!

Chocolate Éclairs

1 cup water
½ cup stick margarine or butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 box instant vanilla pudding (make & store in refrigerator)
Chocolate frosting (store bought is easy!)

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Heat water and margarine to rolling boil in 2 1/2-quart saucepan. Stir in flour. Reduce heat to low. Stir vigorously over low heat about 1 minute or until mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat.
3. Beat in eggs, all at once, continue beating until smooth. Drop dough by scant ¼ cupfuls about 3 inches apart onto un-greased cookie sheet and shape each into finger 4 ½ inches long and 1 ½ inches wide, using a spatula.
4. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until puffed and golden. Cool away from draft. Cut off top third of each puff and pull out any strands of soft dough.
5. Fill puffs with vanilla pudding. Replace tops. Frost with chocolate frosting. Cover and refrigerate until serving. Refrigerate any remaining dessert.

Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball

I substitute Heath bar chips for the nuts. Use Nilla wafer crackers and chocolate or honey graham cracker sticks to dip with.

8 oz. cream cheese, must be softened!
1/2 c. butter, must be softened!
1/2 tsp vanilla (if using real vanilla I would only use 1/4 tsp)
1 1/4 c. powdered sugar
3 Tbs. brown sugar
1 bag mini chocolate chips (must be the mini size, regular do not work for this)
1/2 c. finely chopped walnuts or pecans
Cookies or sweet crackers to dip with

In medium bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth. Gradually add sugars; beat just until combined. Stir in 3/4 c. chocolate chips and 1/2 c. chopped nuts. Place on large piece of plastic wrap and form into a ball, wrap up and refrigerate for at least two hours so it can harden up a little bit. Just before serving, roll cheese ball in the remaining mini chocolate chips.

Caramel Cinnamon Rolls

With this recipe I use the dough setting on my bread machine. It’s way easy—just add the ingredients in the order listed and it does all the work! If you don't have a bread machine, mix the water and yeast together and let it dissolve. Then add the remaining ingredients and let it rise for about an hour or until doubled. The thing that makes this recipe really good is the caramel on the bottom of the pan. You really could use any cinnamon roll recipe and then add the caramel to the bottom. For frosting I usually just cheat and buy whatever cream cheese frosting is on sale!

Dough:
1 cup warm water (110 degrees f)
1 egg
3 cups bread flour
1/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons instant powdered milk
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
5 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon instant yeast

Caramel:
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup vanilla ice cream
1/2 cup brown sugar

Filling:
1/2 cup butter, softened (for spreading)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar

Directions:
1. Place water, egg, bread flour, white sugar, powdered milk, salt, 5 tablespoons butter and yeast in bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer. Select DOUGH setting, and turn machine on.
2. Meanwhile; in a small saucepan, melt 1/3 cut butter. Add 1/2 cup brown sugar and ice cream; bring to a boil, and cook for 2 minutes. Pour caramel into the bottom of a lightly greased 9x13 inch pan.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees c)
4. When machine has finished cycling remove dough from pan and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Pat dough into a rectangle. Spread with softened butter and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. Crumble 1/2 cup brown sugar over the top. Roll up, and seal edge. Cut into 12 rolls, and place in prepared pan of caramel. allow to rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees c) for approximately 20 to 25, until golden brown.