Russian Tea Cookies - A favorite around the holidays!

I know, I know - another dessert, right? But it's the holidays! And well, one New Year's resolution of mine is to start working on HEALTHIER desserts. But it's not quite the new year yet! I've got the meals pretty much down, but when it comes to desserts, watch out! I'm a monster with a sweet tooth!

This is a dessert everybody loves! My mom used to make these all the time around the holidays... Russian Tea Cookies!

Now I will admit, I have never really liked these cookies. BUT let me tell you, that all changed after making them ...for my first time.... As soon as you take these lovely cookies out of the oven, you take the cookies from the baking sheet and dip them directly into a bowl of powdered sugar to coat the outside of it. Well I decided to use tongs for this process... and let's just say there were a few fragile ones :) I made a rule: the broken ones were mine! And boy were they tasty!

David's work had a potluck on the day of Christmas Eve so I made cookies for him to take to work: Russian Tea Cookies and Gingerbread Men Cookies.

Russian Tea Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped finely

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Cream butter, sugar, & vanilla.
3. Gradually stir in flour and salt.
4. Add nuts and stir until well blended.
5. Roll into 1-2 inch balls on a greased cookie sheet.
6. Bake 10-12 min or until bottoms are light golden brown.
7. Roll in powdered sugar as soon as they come out of the oven AND after they have cooled.

Enjoy &Happy Holidays!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I recently found out one of my neighbor's is going to be having a baby girl! Totally excited for her, I wanted to do something special. I just think making baked goods for others is so much fun! I love to share my passion with others and they always make great little gifts!

I remembered I had some leftover buttermilk in the fridge from previously making red velvet cake to celebrate Liz's graduation and birthday. So I thought, PERFECT... I will make red velvet cupcakes! This time I had the right amount of red food coloring (2 oz) to go into the recipe though!

I decided to go with a cream cheese frosting, compared to the previous frosting I used (beautiful thick white frosting). Yum! I made up a cute little plate for my neighbor and delivered it to her shortly after! She was definitely surprised! I'm glad she was happy though! Since it was just before Christmas too, I decorated the rest of the cupcakes with holiday sprinkles, which went to another neighbor and David's work! Everyone loved them- so sweet, moist, and delicious! Enjoy!

Freshly baked muffins for Jacki's special, and may I add incredible, Christmas Day stuffing! Yum!

So last year Jacki, David's mom, made this fantastic stuffing to go with the turkey for Christmas Day dinner. I was so excited about it that I just had to ask her how she made this stuffing. Turns out, she had seen one of Rachael Ray's stuffing recipes where she had added some flavorful muffins to her dish. So Jacki decided to use this idea into her own stuffing! Using a combination of stale bread and moist muffins, as well as the essential stuffing ingredients, the stuffing turned out wonderful!

 

Since I just loved Jacki's stuffing so much last year, I asked her if she would make it again this year! She was happy to do it, but this time I asked if I could help out by making the muffins she would be adding to the stuffing. I decided to make a variety of muffins: Cornbread - of course, the sweet kind; apple cinnamon with walnuts, thanks to Baking Bites; and cranberry orange with walnuts, thanks to For the Love of Cooking, a blog I recently started following. To the basic stuffing ingredients of sauteed onions and celery, seasoning, butter, and broth (rather than the normal chicken broth, she used a white wine and herb broth), Jacki also added a couple of cinnamon streusal muffins, chopped apples, spices (cinnamon & nutmeg) and walnuts. She decided to only use muffins this time (rather than a combo with stale bread), and the moistness of the muffins made up for a lot of the chicken broth she normally adds to her stuffing. Well the stuffing turned out great! The stuffing came out of the oven and not only smelled delicious, but had a nice, crisp top layer. And yes, I attacked it on Christmas day :)

 

Here are the recipes for the muffins used in the stuffing:

 

Apple-Cinnamon-Walnut Muffins (Original Recipe)

 

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and shredded
• 1/2 - 1 cup walnuts, chopped
• 3 tbsp coarse sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease (or line with paper liners) a 12-cup muffin tin .
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and egg. Whisk in melted butter, vegetable oil and vanilla. Working in two or three additions, alternately stir in flour mixture and buttermilk, ending with an addition of flour and mixing only until no streaks of flour remain visible in the batter. Stir in shredded apple and chopped walnuts.
4. Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups filling each to the top, or slightly over.
5. In a small bowl, stir together coarse sugar and additional 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon. Sprinkle generously over muffins.
6. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed.
7. Cool muffins on a wire rack.
8. Makes 12. 

Cranberry-Orange-Walnut Muffins (Original Recipe)
 

Ingredients

• 1 cup (6-oz pkg) dried cranberries
• 3/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 - 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp orange rind
• 1/4 cup canola
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 - 1 cup walnuts, chopped
• Coarse raw sugar

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (see note*). Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray.
2. Place the dried cranberries and the freshly squeezed orange juice in a small sauce pan and heat over medium heat for 5 minutes. This helps plump up the dried cranberries.
3. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and orange rind together until well mixed. In a separate bowl, add the orange juice, cranberries, canola oil, and egg and mix together. Pour this mixture into the dry mixture and stir until combined. Fold in chopped walnuts.
4. Pour the mixture evenly into the prepared muffin tin. Sprinkle a bit of course raw sugar on each muffin top. Place into the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for a few minutes.

* Note: I do not recommend baking these muffins at 400 degrees F due to higher risk of burning outer part of muffins before inner portion is completely baked. Recommended temperature: 350 degrees F, but will require a longer baking time of 20-25 minutes.

 

Links to Rachael Ray's Stuffing:
Cranberry Orange Stuffing
Corn Muffin Stuffing

 

Thanks again Jacki for making a fantastic stuffing!

Gingerbread cookies for your furry little friends!

While I was baking like crazy this holiday season, I thought about Bella, my spoiled rotten dog... wouldn't it be nice if she could get a special treat during the holidays?

Ah-ha! A couple months back, David's mom had sent me a link for dog recipes. I had tried frozen doggy treats from this website, which Bella LOVED, so I subscribed to the newsletter. Sure enough, in a recent newsletter, there was a recipe for gingerbread dog treats! Yay! New treats for Bella, and an excellent Christmas/Hanukkah gift for my other friendly pooches out there!

Gingerbread Dog Treats

Ingredients

• 1 cup molasses
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 6 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the molasses, honey, water, and oil in a medium bowl.
3. In another large bowl mix the flour, the baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger.
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Combine well. Divide this dough in four sections and roll each piece into a ball, wrap each ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 – 5 hours.
5. After the dough is well-chilled, put dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll dough out into 1/4" thickness. Cut dough with a cookie cutter into gingerbread men or other fun shapes. 
6. Bake 10 – 15 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned around the edges and firm.

Now, this recipe yields A LOT of dog treats! I recommend either freezing them, cutting the recipe in half, or passing them out to friends for their furry loved ones! 

This recipe is a lot of fun because you can use all kinds of cookie cutters! It's not like your furry friend will notice a difference, except for maybe the size, but these cookies end up making nice little gifts for other people who own dogs. The small holiday tins sold in craft stores are perfect containers for these treats! Since it's the holidays, I used a few different cookie cutters: gingerbread men, christmas trees, candy canes, stars (small and large); and for basic dog treat shapes, circles (small and large).

I didn't taste these treats, but I can definitely speak for Bella... she LOVED them! As soon as she smells the ginger, her tail starts wagging frantically!

 

 

 

 

 

Cookie Exchange 2010

Click here to view this photo book larger

Happy Holidays! Homemade Gingerbread!

Happy holidays to all! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and holiday season! I have been filled with WAY too much holiday spirit this year, but it has been a lot of fun!

This year David and I decided we wanted to make our very own gingerbread house! It was a perfect decoration for my holiday cookie exchange too!

Of course, I wasn't going to buy one of the kits stores were selling, so I went on the search to find a gingerbread recipe. Sure enough, Allrecipes had my attention again (AND David's, for that matter)! I didn't realize how much he liked gingerbread! But hey, we never stop learning about our loved ones :)

Gingerbread (Click to view original recipe)

 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar until smooth. Stir in molasses and egg yolk. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg; blend into the molasses mixture until smooth. Cover, and chill for at least one hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks. Frost or decorate when cool.

David designed our gingerbread house patterns. He did a great job! I should have taken pictures of the patterns, but completely forgot about that... I will do better next year!

 

The platform of the gingerbread house was made by pressing dough into a mini cookie pan, then baked for the given amount of time. We left the gingerbread in the pan, let it cool, then began to build our gingerbread house on top of it.

The items we used to decorate our gingerbread house:

• Nilla wafers
• Mini candy canes
• Pull and peel licorice
• Swedish fish
• Dots
• Pretzel rods
• Sugar cone
• Sprinkles
• Confectioners' sugar
• Glue, to hold our house together (recipe follows)
• Buttercream icing (recipe follows)

The neatest trick I found on the web was making an evergreen tree! It is an upside-down sugar cone, then you just pipe it with frosting! It was a lot of fun!

Gingerbread House "Glue" a.k.a. Icing (Click to view original recipe)

Ingredients

• 3 egg whites
• 1 (16-oz) bag powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions

1. Beat all ingredients with electric mixer until still peaks form. 

Frosting for Gingerbread House (Click to view original recipe)

  

Ingredients

• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 5 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• food coloring

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners' sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring if desired.  

Building and decorating our gingerbread house was so much fun! We had a few mishaps along the way, but hopefully next year we will be able to master the art of gingerbread house building! 


David destroying our gingerbread house....



Once we admired our fabulous gingerbread house for quite a few days, we decided it was time to crack into it! As you can see, David got a head start! The gingerbread was delicious! The spices were perfect and it was very moist! David and I liked it so much that I decided to make gingerbread men cookies for David's work - they were having a little holiday luncheon, so I thought these cookies would be appropriate!

I got a little carried away with the decorating, but it was a lot of fun! I used a basic butter cream frosting, which follows.

Frosting used for gingerbread cookies:

Buttercream Icing (Click to view original recipe)

 Ingredients

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, shortening, and vanilla. Blend in the sugar, one cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the milk, and continue mixing until light and fluffy. Keep icing covered until ready to decorate.

** Note: Can substitute all butter for half and half (shortening and butter).

 

 Happy holidays everyone! 

"NO! Not the buttons! Not my gumdrop buttons!"
-Gingerbread Man from Shrek

To Liz: Happy Birthday to the Newest Grad!

  

The newest grad, Liz, and her proud auntie, Arabrab!

Happy Birthday Liz! Congrats on your amazing accomplishments!

The double events for Liz called for a little celebration! And oh boy, did we celebrate! Eh hem, Auntie Barbie, yes I'm referring to you and your "wine" celebrating! We decided to make a nice dinner, and of course, end it with some delicious cake! Yum!

This was a perfect opportunity to attempt the art of Fondant! Oh boy, this was going to be a challenge, but knew I may as well start practicing now since my mom, sister and I will be making Heather's (my other sister's :)) wedding cake! Time to start practicing!

So for those of you who don't know what fondant is, it's a type of hardened "icing" on a cake. Its consistancy is very similar to Play-doh!

To learn more about fondant, here are some links to check out:

What is Fondant #1

What is Fondant #2

What is Fondant #3

What is Fondant #4

I found a fondant recipe on Allrecipes. It's actually not the typical fondant used, but it seemed fun and easy for a first attempt at it! This is a marshmallow fondant. I happened to have jumbo marshmallows that I decided to use! The original recipe calls for a package of miniature marshmallows, but since I have a scale the jumbo ones were used!

Marshmallow Fondant

Ingredients 

• 1/4 cup butter
• 16 ounces marshmallows
• 4 tablespoons water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 pounds confectioners' sugar, divided plus more for kneading!

Directions

1. Place the butter in a shallow bowl, and set aside.
2. Place the marshmallows in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on High for 30 seconds to 1 minute to start melting the marshmallows. Carefully stir the water and vanilla extract into the hot marshmallows, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Slowly beat in the confectioners' sugar, a cup at a time, until you have a sticky dough. Reserve 1 cup (plus more) of powdered sugar for kneading. The dough will be very stiff.

3. Rub your hands thoroughly with butter, and begin kneading the sticky dough. As you knead, the dough will become workable and pliable. Turn the dough out onto a working surface dusted with confectioners' sugar and continue kneading until the fondant is smooth and no longer sticky to the touch, 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Form the fondant into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. To use, allow the fondant to come to room temperature, and roll it out onto a flat surface dusted with confectioners' sugar.

So a small issue with my fondant: after two pounds of confectioner's sugar was added to make the  dough, I realized I still had a very sticky dough. As I was kneading the dough, it just clung to my hands! So I decided it would be a good idea to add more confectioner's sugar! Sticking to my hands like crazy, I went to grab for more confectioner's sugar, and everything I touched had dough on it... I should've taken pictures! It was on the microwave, on the confectioner's sugar container, all over the counter-top... I mean everywhere! But the addition of more confectioner's sugar solved my sticky dough problem!

I let the dough refrigerate overnight and during that time started making the cake! I decided on a red velvet cake, something I had never tried before!

I found the recipe for red velvent cake on Allrecipes and made slight changes based on the reviews!

Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 ounces red food coloring
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup oil
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar

Directions

1. Grease and flour two 9 inch round pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Make a paste of cocoa and food coloring. Set aside.
2. Combine the buttermilk, salt and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the cocoa mixture. Beat in the buttermilk mixture alternately with the flour, mixing just until incorporated. Stir together baking soda and vinegar, then gently fold into the cake batter.
3. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

When I began making this cake, I decided to weight out the amount of food coloring  the recipe called for. Well, after emptying two small containers of red food coloring and only having a total weight of 0.5 ounces, I was thinking something was wrong! So rather than using the full 2 ounces the recipe called for, I stuck with the half ounce, thinking it was more than enough food coloring! 



Birthday girl cutting the cake and smirking
because of something Arabrab said!



The cake turned out beautifully! Allowing the cakes to cool before frosting, I began on the traditional frosting used for red velvet cakes, which turns out, is not cream cheese frosting! The traditional frosting is cooked over low heat with milk and flour, then once it thickens and cools, it is stirred into a creamed mixture of sugar, butter and vanilla extract. BUT I had a problem - after making this frosting TWICE and having the same outcome - the butter and milk separating - I decided I would have to go with a different frosting recipe! Completely upset about my frosting error that not only happened once, but twice, I began reading up on what I could have done wrong! Here is the first issue: the type of milk you are using. This recipe needs whole milk, which I didn't have. The second issue is that this frosting needs to be kept refrigerated. It has a tendency to separate at room temperature. Ok, absolute frosting FAIL!

So I began looking for a new recipe and after hours of searching for the right one, I found it!!

The Perfect Frosting for Red Velvet Cake (click link to view website)
Beautiful Thick White Frosting

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 egg whites (at room temperature) 

Directions

1. Combine sugar, cream of tartar, salt and water in heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is clear. Cook until mixture reaches 240°F on a candy thermometer (soft ball stage).
2. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Let mixer continue to run and slowly pour the sugar mixture in a thin stream down the side of the mixer bowl (don't let the sugar mixture come into contact with the beaters). Continue beating until stiff peaks form and frosting thickens to desired consistency. 

The frosting was used for the filling between the two cake layers and to frost the top and sides of the cake. Frosting the cake before laying the fondant down helps the fondant stick to the cake better! Make sure it is a thin layer of frosting, or else your fondant will look distorted once it is layed on the cake. And you only get one chance to lay the fondant on the cake!

Believe me, I am speaking from experience! Luckily, I had more than enough extra fondant, because I had to do it all over again after ripping the fondant off the cake with half of the frosting the first time because of too much frosting on the tops and sides of the cake. It was such a mess and it made the fondant not have a very "smooth" appearance. So trial number one's rolled out fondant was trashed, and trial number two cooperated much better for me!

After all my hard work on my first try at fondant, it was a success. The cake was delicious and I'm glad I could share it with loved ones!

A Delicious Fruit Dip!

So I just LOVE fruit! I eat it every day and it's just so delicious by itself - naturally sweet and quite healthy! BUT I made a little exception... I served a yummy bowl of assorted fruits at my cookie exchange and spiced things up a little bit by making a special dip to go along with the fruit! Ok, yes, I know, not quite so healthy, but it is amazing!

I found this tasty recipe online... don't ask me where because I really have no clue! The day of the cookie exchange I went looking online for the recipe I had found a couple of days prior. Yup, NO clue where I had found that recipe, I forgot to save it, and after 30 minutes of searching and hoping it would show up, I couldn't find it. LUCKILY - the ingredients were still stuck in my head and I ended up putting together a fabulous dip! Yay!

Fruit Dip

Ingredients

• 1 (8-oz) package reduced fat strawberry cream cheese
• 1 (7-oz) jar marshmallow fluff
• Juice of 1 orange (2-4 tablespoons)
• 1 cup lite cool whip

Directions

1. Blend cream cheese, fluff, and orange juice. 
2. Fold in cool whip.
3. Keep refrigerated. 
4. Serve with assorted fresh fruit.



Hawaiian Angel Food Cake

Angel food cake is one of the healthier cakes out there, but fair warning: it still has quite a bit of sugar in it! It is so delicious, light, and airy with that perfect amount of sweetness. I have this fabulous angel food cake recipe from Allrecipes, but I thought I would add something new to it this time. I added crushed pineapple and flaked coconut to give it that "Hawaiian" flare. With the addition of these ingredients, this may increase your baking time because the cake becomes a bit denser. Just be sure to watch your cake carefully toward the end of the baking time. 

Fresh fruit and a dollop of cool whip (or whipped cream) accompany this cake so well!

One other note: It is very important to have your egg whites at room temperature before mixing them. This allows them to become fluffier much faster and form such nice stiff peaks!

This recipe also requires a stand mixer or hand mixer. Mixing the eggs whites takes quite a few minutes for them to form into stiff peaks. I am fortunate to have a KitchenAid mixer, which allows me to multitask while the egg whites are mixing! I  can just step back and let the mixing take over!

Hawaiian Angel Food Cake

Ingredients

• 12 eggs (1 1/2 cups egg whites (egg beaters))
• 1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 (8-oz) can crushed pineapple, with juice (optional)
• 1/2 - 1 cup coconut, flaked (optional)
• Fresh fruit, cut-up (optional)
• Whipped cream or cool whip (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Separate eggs; discard yolks or refrigerate for another use. Place in a mixing bowl; let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, sift confectioners' sugar and flour together three times; set aside.
4. Add cream of tartar, extracts and salt to egg whites; beat on high speed.
5. Gradually add sugar, beating until sugar is dissolved and stiff peaks form.
6. Fold in flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time.
7. Carefully fold in pineapple and coconut until just incorporated.
8. Gently spoon (or carefully pour) into an ungreased 10-in. tube pan. Cut through batter with a knife to remove air pockets.
9. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Immediately invert pan; cool completely before removing cake from pan.
10. Serve cake slice with fresh fruit and a dollop of cool whip!

Homemade Hot Cocoa!

I love winter time! The weather is a bit cold but gives you a good excuse to stay inside and keep warm! Ok, so I know this is Florida, but it has been a little cold down here! Who doesn't love those chilly days where you can just curl up on the couch with a big blanket and sip hot cocoa? That warm, comfy feeling just puts a smile on my face.

As I am always the one to use the Swiss Miss hot cocoa packets, I decided I wanted to try to make this wonderful, comforting drink from scratch!

 

 

A perfect opportunity to make this was on the day of my cookie exchange: lots of cookies to sample, fresh fruit, coffee, tea and of course, HOT COCOA!

 

I found a great recipe from Diana's Desserts:

 

Ingredients

• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• ⅓ cup hot water
• 3 cups milk
• 1 cup whipping cream, or 1 additional cup milk
• Pinch of salt
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• Miniature marshmallows (optional)
• Semisweet chocolate, grated (optional) 

Directions

1. In a heavy saucepan, stir together the cocoa powder and sugar. Gradually whisk in the hot water. Stir in the milk, cream, and salt, and set the pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring often, until just steaming (do not boil).
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. For a frothy beverage, beat the cocoa with a hand-held electric mixer for about 1 minute. Ladle the cocoa into mugs, top wih marshmallows and grated chocolate, if desired, and serve immediately.
3. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

This hot cocoa recipe was a hit at the party! I only made one batch, thinking not many people would want to drink it, but I was wrong! Everyone love it! And it was gone within the first half hour! I did not use cream in the hot cocoa I made, but instead I used 2 cups lowfat (1 %) milk and 2 cups nonfat milk. The hot cocoa still turned out great with a healthier option! 

Now there is always room to make modifications! Different flavors, healthier choices, different toppings... So a few days ago, I decided I wanted to make this recipe even healthier! I decided to substitute Equal sweetener (8-9 packets) for the ⅓ cup of sugar. And instead of vanilla, I used ¼ - ½ teaspoon peppermint extract. And yes, this is even better when topped with a generous amount of mini marshmallows! Delicious!

Special Thanks

I wanted to give a special thank you to our townhome's maintenance and management crew! It's a perfect time to make baked goods, and they deserve it for all their hard work! I decided to make the chocolate, chocolate chip cookies Meagan made for the cookie exchange - they were OH so good! But I made some slight changes compared to Meagan's cookie. I crushed up a bunch of candy canes and mixed them into the cookie dough! And well, they are gigantic! Yummy!

David also brought some of these cookies to his work. He said everyone loved them, BUT there was one slightly negative comment... they look like cow patties! Ok, so I know they're ugly but it's hard making any baked goods pretty when you have double chocolate - brown and more brown. I guess I could of decorated the tops of them a bit with candy canes or sprinkles, but I'll keep that in mind for the next time :) Sorry for the ugly cookies! At least the appearance relates nothing to the taste.

Jumbo Double Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened 
• 1 ½ cups white sugar 
• 2 eggs 
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
• 2 cups all-purpose flour 
• ⅔ cup cocoa powder 
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda 
• ¼ teaspoon salt 
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips 
• 1 cup candy canes, crushed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips and candy canes. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. 
3. Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
4. Yield: Well, that's a tough one... it depends on how big or small you want your cookies to be. I wanted my extra large so I did not end up with as many :)