This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support! You may have noticed on my past posts, I've been having tons of fun in my garden this year. One of my best crops so far has been the beets! They are so beautiful when they are harvested! I've pickled some and I have to say that my Pickled Beets recipe is delicious. While delicious, you can only make so many pickled beets without wanting to branch out. You may remember that I do not love the taste of beets all by themselves, but they are so healthy, I find ways to eat them. (read about it here) So, today I'm sharing with you a great way to sneak these babies into your diet in a way that everyone will love! That's right, in cookies! Chocolate Beet Cookies to be exact! The beets in these cookies keep them moist and keep these cookies moist, the color is rich and dark and with a shmear of buttercream frosting they are the perfect snack and no one is the wiser that they contain the secret ingredient, beets! They are good without frosting as well, but I couldn't resist the frosting shmear and a few sprinkles. I based this recipe on our family favorite Fudge Mound Recipe. The batter comes out a bit thinner with the addition of the beets. I increased the flour by a bit, as well as the butter. Enjoy!
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This time of year, I really enjoy watching the Holiday Cooking Specials on TV. One of these is the Christmas Cookie Challenge with hosts Ree Drummond and Eddie Jackson on Food Network. This show brings together some really awesome cookie decorators who must bake delicious and beautiful cookies in order to win the competition.
I am not an awesome cookie decorator. But, when I saw one of the challenges was to bake puzzle cookies, I knew that it was something that I wanted to try! Puzzle cookies would make adorable gifts for friends, neighbors and grandchildren. As you can see in the above photo, I made a puzzle of Christmas Trees and Snowmen. You could make as many snowmen as family members and put a name on each one. This type of puzzle can be made as long as necessary. Maddy had the idea of making a wreath with ornaments that pull apart off of it for everyone to enjoy. This time, I stuck with this long puzzle. Here is how I did it:
I rolled out my dough on parchment paper on the cookie sheet. I used cutters to cut out the shapes that I wanted to use and decided how I wanted the shapes to fit together. When I knew that, it was easy to use one cutter to make the cookie fit into the other. Do you see how the tree on the left looks like it is in front of the snowman to the left of it? I simply used the corner of the tree cutter to cut out a portion of the snowman so that they would fit together. I used this technique all along the row of shapes. Of course, you can make your cookies any shape you would like! There are endless options!
After they were cut out, I baked them close together so that they wouldn't spread to the point of not fitting together. (I saw a contestant use this technique on the show and it seemed to work for her!) I used this recipe because it doesn't spread too much when baked. I have had my collection of many different cookie cutters for years. But, if you need some great Christmas shapes. This looks like a great set.
After the cookies are baked and you are getting ready to decorate them, use a sharp steak knife and gently break them apart. Try not to notice that I broke off a corner of my Christmas tree. I will disguise that with frosting.
Now you are ready to get your frosting ready and decorate! For the frosting, I forgo the meringue powder and use about 4 cups of powdered sugar, 1/2 c corn syrup and enough milk to get the consistency that you want. Plus, I flavor the frosting with vanilla or almond extract. Then, I divide it into bowls to make the colors that I need. For black, I usually use brown because I add cocoa to the frosting. It adds a little extra flavor and dimension to the cookies. Who doesn't like a little bit of chocolate on their sugar cookie?
The first thing I do is outline the shapes so that I can flood them with a bit of thinner frosting.
Next, I flood them with the frosting. You will be surprised at how quickly this corn syrup type frosting develops a dried top, allowing you to pipe details on top of the flooded background!
Sometimes I pipe details and sometimes I use sprinkles. This time, I used both!
I told you that I'm not an amazing decorator, but I think that they look pretty cute! I piped on Christmas Balls on my trees, but topped them with a sprinkle star. I used sprinkle holly and berry on the snowman's hats, and sprinkle coal eyes, but I piped on the scarf.
These are something that my grandchildren will love! If I added a book about Snowmen, it would be an impressive little Christmas gift at the family Christmas party, or a centerpiece on the dessert table! It was a lot of fun to try. If you try your own version of a cookie puzzle, I would love to see pictures!
Other Cookie Gift Ideas We've Shared:
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It is that pumpkin everywhere and everything time of year! And, it doesn't make us mad! It makes Lindsey downright ecstatic!
Since Lindsey's birthday is coming up this week, I thought I should stick with the pumpkin theme and do a round-up of our favorite pumpkin cookies! You are going to want to give all of these a try! Pictured above are 3 Ingredient Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies! There is everything to love about these cookies! They are simple to make, they are delicious and they have chocolate! Also, this recipe was the kick off for more 3 Ingredient cookies. If you are a subscriber, you may go to our subscribers only page to get all of the recipes. If you haven't subscribed yet, go ahead and do it and you will be emailed the link! While you are there, there is a new Halloween Card Free Printable that Alicia designed just for you that is so awesome! Plus, tons of other things just for our subscribers!
These delicious things are Pumpkin Chocolate Cookies. Lindsey loves dark chocolate, and these moist cookies reflect that. Don't they just look like they are waiting to be dunked in a glass of milk?
Snickerdoodles are always a favorite around here, especially warm from the oven. These Pumpkin Snickerdoodles do not disappoint! Be sure to click over to this post, because you will have the added treat of seeing my granddaughter giving the introduction to the recipe on a cute little video! (She loves to bake with her mom.)
My personal favorite of this bunch of cookies are the ones I don't have a photo of! I guess I should make a batch and take some pictures! These are Bakery Style Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies! They are to die for!
There you go! 4 ways to make pumpkin cookies that are amazing! 4 ways to add some Fall Flavor to your life! 4 kinds of deliciousness! So, get baking! Take some cookies to the Halloween Party at the end of the week or deliver some to friends and neighbors! They'll be glad you did!
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Most of you have already eaten Double Stuff Oreos, right? Have you tried the Mega Stuff ones? Well, I guess that those ultra creamy filled sandwich cookies spoiled me a bit because recently when my husband and I were on a road trip, we took along some of the famous peanut butter sandwich cookies (that are usually over priced, but that peanut butter flavor tempted us). The amount of filling in them was disappointing. So, of course I got to thinking that I could make a version of my own and add as much filling as I would like!
To my husband's delight, my experiment was successful! The peanut butter filling is so good because I added honey to the recipe. The cookies start out tender and crunchy, but after a day with the filling on them, they soften up a bit and take on a whole new level of deliciousness.
After I made my first batch, Maddy had the idea that Marshmallow Fluff or Nutella would be great to add as another layer of filling to these cookies! I am going to have to try that next! The cookie version of a FlufferNutter Sandwich!
To make these a little more special to look at, I simply stenciled a heart with powdered sugar. You could do a drizzle with chocolate or a thinner version of the filling if you wanted. If you are in the mood for a delicious peanut butter cookie, give this recipe a try! Then, pack them up and take them on a road trip! Can't eat peanut butter? Try some of these cookie recipes:
Look what I found!
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Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
March 2024
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