Tuesday, December 13, 2011

On the 2nd Day of Christmas Creativity...

It's Ileana's day to host the 2nd Day of Christmas Creativity over at her blog, I Scrap Designs.  Be sure to head on over there and give her some love today!

My thoughts on the 2nd Day of Christmas Creativity are.... "What did you say????  Less than two weeks until Christmas?  What the heck?!?!"

Oh sorry, I was supposed to say something serene like, "I hope you are having a most blessed and merry Christmas!"  Right?  Sorry!  Well... I hope you are having a most blessed and merry Christmas, but seriously???  Less than two weeks???

Time to get some holiday baking done.  We always like to take plates of treats around to our friends and neighbors the weekend before Christmas.  The girls really look forward to it. Samantha is now old enough to help with the baking, which is fun.  And by help, I mean stand next to me and ask, "Can I do that?" for every step.  It's sooooo hard for me to give up control but I want her to learn to do things, too.

On some of the days I'm not hosting the 12 Days of Christmas Creativity, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite Christmas treats recipes!  I hope you'll enjoy them as much as we do.

Today I'm sharing my recipe for Melt In Your Mouth Sugar Cookies.  These are frighteningly addictive so watch out. Normally, I prefer a soft chewy cookie over a crunchy one, but I make an exception for these.  I didn't tell Samantha the name of these, I promise, but when she and Hailey were taste testing the first batch out of the oven, she turned to Hailey and said, "Wow! These just melt in your mouth, don't they?"  And they do, they really do.  Give them a try!



Melt-in-Your-Mouth Sugar Cookies
Makes: about 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 300° F. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, shortening, and 2 cups sugar.
3. Beat in baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. 
4. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla.  Beat until light and fluffy.
5. Mix in flour.
6. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Dip tops in sugar and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 14 minutes or until edges are just set. Do not let the edges brown. 
8. Cool cookies for 1 minute on cookie sheet. Remove cookies from sheet and cool on a wire rack.
You can store these in an airtight container for a few days on your counter. If you need to store them longer, just put them in layers between waxed paper and freeze.

I made the ones pictured above dipped in colored sugar.  I actually prefer them with sparkly white sugar, but the girls are always after color, so that's what we did.

Hope this recipe helps you decide to get creative in the kitchen!

Remember that I said you would have a chance to enter to win my prizes every day?  In case you forgot what the prizes were, here's a recap.

Here are the prizes:

1) The whole set of 12 Days of Christmas Tags
2) $10 gift code to Sam & Hailey Designs
3) $10 Michaels Gift Card
4) The December VDBC Grab Bag (or a $7 gift code to Sam & Hailey Designs if you have already purchased it)

How can you win them? On the 12th Day (that will be the 23rd for our little blog-fest) I'll hold a drawing for each one of the prizes (that's four drawings in one day... I think I can handle it!). All you have to do to enter is comment on my blog to enter. You can comment on my blog on each of the 12 days so you'll have up to 12 entries in the drawings! Each day I'll have a new thing I'll ask you to include in your comment so keep an eye out for that. It's as simple as that! 

Today's comment requirement:

Leave a comment and tell us your favorite holiday treat! Share the recipe (or a link to the recipe) if you feel so inclined!

Be sure to include some way to contact you in case you win the drawing (for example, your VDBC forum name, your email address, etc.). If you don't, I might not be able to get your prize to you!

Time to get crafty, people!

18 comments:

Margie said...

yum, yum! I love gingerbread cookies!

Val said...

my favourite Christmas treat is shortbread made the old Scottish way YUMMY!!!!!

hrk_md said...

My favorite holiday treat is M&M cookies. My DH and boys love to eat the batter before it is even cooked.

Kathy Serrahn said...

those cookies sure look yummy
Favorite cookie for Christmas is Russian Teacakes

Angela said...

Chocolate caramels with the sea salt on them. love them!

Angela Young
angeladyoung618@yahoo.com

Sandra from NC said...

Sugar Cookies are one of my favorites too. But my most favorite is making cut cookies and decorating them for Christmas. We invite my son's friends over to decorate now. It is so much fun to watch teenage boys decorate cookies - lol. Of course they get to eat what they decorate ;-).

Jun Bug House said...

Fudge......
Fudge......
and did I mention FUDGE????
LOLOLOL
**U**
Nance

Esther W-B said...

Your cookies look yummy! My favorite treat is lemon bars.

Caroline said...

yummy recipe! my favourite treat is fruit mince pies :)

Renae said...

My favorite holiday treat is homemade gingerbread cookies. They are soft and moist and delicious! I just use the recipe in the Betty Crocker cookbook.

Renae
rpcrafter at gmail dot com

Kelly S said...

Your cookies look delicious. Thanks for the recipe. My favorite Christmas treat is my mother's chocolate raspberry fudge. Yummy!

Anna said...

Thanks for sharing a yummy looking recipe. I will have to try these. I love most cookies and peanut butter fudge but my favorite thing at CHRISTmas for the treat would be a punch that my mom made and now I do. It has vanilla ice cream orange sherbet frozen pineapple and orange juice and Karo syrup and ginger ale. I am so looking forward to have this. I may not be able to eat a lot of the food but I think I can drink the punch LOL.

Lynn C. said...

My favorite Christmas treat is penoche or penuche. Love, love, love it. It ties with another favorite - schnecken (pronounced shnek-en.



wordperfectqueen@yahoo.com

lilred said...

your melt in your mouth sugar cookies sound so yummy. My favorite holiday treat is a lemon flavored cookie my neighbor friend makes but she won't share her recipe.

Pam S said...

Homemade fudge that you have to cook to the soft ball stage. My mom was so good at it. About half the time I get it perfect! Two of my daughters are getting good at it too.

momof5 said...

My favorite holiday treat is "Easy Fudge".

Jeanette said...

my daughter makes fantastic almond cookies from Land O'Lakes website. We all love them, although in my book you cannot beat peanut butter criss-cross!

Denise Foor Studio PA said...

My Mom's peanut butter cookies, for sure.

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