Chocolate Peppermint Sugar Cookie Bars

During the holidays, I love chocolate and peppermint anything! Peppermint mocha...yes please! Peppermint hot chocolate...mmmm! Peppermint sprinkled on homemade brownies...double yes! So when I saw this recipe for chocolate peppermint sugar cookie bars I knew I had to give them a try! They turned out really delicious, but you have to eat them pretty quickly because the cookie base hardens quicker than other cookies. 

Strawberry Lemon Bars

Strawberry and lemon is a great combination for sweet and sour! It also makes a great dessert. Bring these to your next summer potluck and everyone will leave happy.

Soft Gingerbread Cookies (Vegan-style)

I love reading, but mainly Kindle books which makes me unusual among other readers (at least the impression I get from my book club is that they prefer real books). For this past month's book, we read Washington's Spies. I thought it sounded interesting since I enjoy history, but for some reason this book fell flat with me. But, as usual, I gave it a try and finished it in time for our book club meeting.

This month I hosted book club at my house. When I host, I like to cook and bake. It's just part of hosting, in my opinion. One of our regulars follows a vegan diet which proves to be slightly challenging when I menu plan. But luckily I was able to come up with a couple options that were pretty tasty.

For a sweet treat, I baked soft gingerbread cookies. I have made them before, but not a vegan version, so I was a little nervous about how they would turn out. They came out great! Maybe a little too good because I can't stop eating them!

To make them vegan, I substitute coconut oil for the butter and a flax seed mixture for the egg. Easy as pie...well, cookies. Here's the original recipe if you want it: One Little Project.

Design: Cookie Drive

Do you remember last year when I shared about an event called Cookie Crunch? Well, it's that time of year again! Our current base calls it "Shower (Base) with Cookies!" We are in the process of gathering volunteers to help with the loading, unloading and packaging of the thousands of cookies that the town collects. It's such a fun cause! Last year we had just arrived when they were doing this event so I did not volunteer, but I am hoping to help out this year.

Design: Cookie Crunch

I have been in a flier-creating frenzy before the move. I am absolutely loving it! My latest creation was for an annual event at our base called Cookie Crunch. Many (if not all) bases do something similar. Cookies are donated and sorted to give to all the military members that live in the dorms. This helps spread some holiday cheer to those single guys and gals. I have to admit that I have never actually participated in this event either as a volunteer or by baking some cookies, but I really need to at our next base. It's such a fun reason to bake up a big batch of cookies. This year our base has to collect something like 500 dozen cookies to cover all the dorm residents. It's a huge undertaking, but so worthwhile.

Fonts Used:
Little Lord Fontleroy NF
Janda Elegant Handwriting
Quicksand

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I love chocolate. I love oatmeal cookies. Combine the two and it is pretty awesome. I found this recipe on Pinterest a while back and finally decided to make them. It makes a whole bunch, so I sent a tray to work with Charles. He came home with an empty tray and tons of compliments. I altered the recipe just slightly, but you can see the original recipe by visiting Something Swanky.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
2 eggs
1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 t vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat together the butter, brown sugar and applesauce until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix in-between each addition. Add the salt and vanilla. Mix well. Mix in cocoa powder, flour, oats and baking soda until dough forms, but don't over mix. Add the chocolate chips and mix.

Scoop onto cookie sheets by rounded tablespoons. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes, until edges are set.

Bake-Off

For work I planned a Bake-Off as a resident event. Since I am also a resident I figured it would be OK if I participated. We had three categories--cake/brownies, cookies and pie. I entered one thing in each category:

Cake/brownies: Gooey Chocolate Brownies
Cookies: Lemon Glazed Cookies
Pie: Oatmeal Chocolate Pie

The Bake-Off was a hit! There were 10 entries in the cake category, 4 in cookies and 3 in pie. I ended up taking 2nd place in both the cookies and pie category.

It was really easy to set-up. This could be fun for a church, sorority or any other group event.

We gave out a first and second place prize in each category. The medals were ordered through TrophyDepot.com. We had them engraved with "The Properties at Wright Field." They turned out really great! First place also received a $25 gift card to Kroger. Second place was awarded a $15 Kroger gift card.

We had 4 judges, but residents could also place their votes.

Look at all those cakes! My brownies are the second item.

Pie A is mine! The third pie, Caramel Apple Pie, won first.

The cookies were super yummy! Mine are A.

Me and my prize!

Chocolate Cinnamon Snowballs

When I was in college, there used to be a local coffee shop called the Roasting Company. My husband (he was just my boyfriend at the time) and I went there one evening for a date night. We ordered cinnamon hot chocolate. It was so delicious and I have not been able to find anything like it anywhere else.

Today I was looking through the paper and the coupons. One of the ads had a recipe for Chocolate Cinnamon Snowballs. They look really yummy. And it seems like an easy Christmas cookie recipe. *Disclaimer: I have not made these, so I don't know if they actually taste as good as the picture makes them look. 

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened (the recipe says not to use butter substitutes)
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 cups all purpose flour
Extra Powdered sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Beat butter, powdered sugar, cocoa, vanilla and cinnamon with an electric mixer until light. Gradually add flour, mixing until just blended.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place one inch apart on greased baking sheet.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer from baking sheet to wire racks; cool slightly. Roll in powdered sugar; cool completely on racks. Re-roll in powdered sugar.

PB Filled Cookies

I love anything chocolate and peanut butter. I saw a recipe on another blog (and I can't remember for the life of me what blog it was) for peanut butter filled cookies. They looked so delicious that I had to try them for myself. I also wanted to pass along the recipe.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter (we used crunchy, but creamy would work out great, too)
1 egg
1 Tablespoon milk (I ended up needing another splash of milk to make the dough stick together better)
2 teaspoons vanilla, divided
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter (again, we used crunchy, but in this case creamy peanut butter probably would have worked out a little better)
sugar for coating (I didn't do this step)

With a mixer, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar, 1/4 cup peanut butter, egg, milk and vanilla.

In a small bowl, using a fork, combine powdered sugar, 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla. I again needed a splash of milk to hold this mixture together better. I think it's because I used crunchy peanut butter.

Flatten a tablespoon of the chocolate dough in your hand*. Roll a teaspoon of the peanut butter mixture into a ball and place in the center of the dough. Wrap the dough around the filling and place onto a parchment lined cookie sheet (I skipped the parchment and it wasn't a problem). Flatten the cookies with the bottom of a glass and gently press one side of each cookie into a small bowl of sugar (I skipped this step). Bake, sugar side up, at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes.

* I ended up having to put the dough in the freezer for a few minutes half way through because it was getting too warm and my hands were too warm so it just wasn't working out great. It might be good to put the dough in the fridge or freezer for 10-15 minutes before you start.

* This post was shared on the following Link Parties:

This Chick Cooks
Lolly Jane 
C.R.A.F.T.
Someday Crafts 
Night Owl Crafting
Reasons to Skip the Housework