Christmas Treats that are Amazing even in February!

I helped put together a recipe book for a Christmas Present this year. Here are a couple of recipes that were put in said book. These recipes are delicious all year round - seriously.

TIRAMISU COOKIE BALLS

 

You will need: a food processor, cookie sheet, wax paper, double boiler (or just use the microwave)

 

Ingredients:

 

1 8oz brick of cream cheese

1 box vanilla wafers (you could get Nilla Wafers, but the store brand is always cheaper and it tastes just as good)

1 Bag Ghirardelli White Chocolate Melting Wafers

3 Tablespoons Maxwell House International Vienna Cafe powdered coffee

Some semisweet chocolate chips

 

SOURCE: Philadelphia Brand coupon book.

 

To Make!

 

Let cream cheese sit in mixing bowl til room temperature.

 

Grind up vanilla wafers in food processor until nice and crummy. Do not use the whole box of wafers - use at least 3/4 of the box or so.

 

Mix crumbs and 2 tablespoons of the powdered coffee with the cream cheese. You can use a spoon at first, but to really mix it together you'll need to use your hands. So make sure they're clean.

 

Once crumbs, coffee, and cream cheese are mixed together, form them into rounds (big or as small as you like - I go small so that there's more to eat), then put them on the cookie sheet. Once you've used all the mix up, put some plastic over the cookie sheet (or cake pan..whatever you want to put them in) and stick them in the freezer for about an hour or so.

 

To get the chocolate on them: place a long sheet of wax paper on the counter. Using a double boiler, or just a bowl and microwave, melt the Ghirardelli melting chips. Add in about a tablespoon (or however much you want) of the powdered coffee. 

 

Toss the frozen cookie balls into the melted chocolate one at a time. Scoop them out again with a fork then plop them onto the wax paper and let them dry. Do this til you either run out of cookie balls or chocolate. If you run out of chocolate, melt more. If you run out of cookies but still have chocolate, pour the rest of the chocolate onto some wax paper on a plate, stick it in the fridge, and eat it plain later.

 

Once all your cookie balls are covered in the white chocolate, melt some of the semisweet chips in a small bowl in the microwave. Using a different fork, drizzle the dark chocolate on top of the cookie balls as decor.

 

Put the cookie balls back onto a cookie sheet and stick them in the fridge. Eat when all the chocolate has hardened. 

 

PLAIN VANILLA COOKIES

SOURCE: several recipes cobbled together until the end result was "this tastes good/doesn't give me food poisoning." 

 

You will need: cookie sheet, an oven, mixing bowls, electric mixer, wax paper, rolling pin

 

Ingredients:

 

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla extract, or more, depending on how vanilla-y you want them.

1 egg

1 and 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

NOTE - I often double this recipe to make a ton of cookies. This is the standard recipe.

 

Combine sugar, butter, egg, vanilla in mixing bowl. Mix together til creamy. Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix together until all is combined into a dough.

 

Cover mixing bowl with dough in plastic, put in fridge for one hour.

 

After an hour, take dough, roll out on wax paper with rolling pin and, using cookie cutters cut out your cookie shapes. Or not - you could just put rolls of the dough directly on the cookie sheet, however you like.

 

Heat oven to 375. Bake cookies for around about 7-9 minutes, or until just set. Not too set, or they'll end up burnt and dry.

 

 

MINT-CHOCOLATE ALMOND BARK

 

SOURCE: A bag of mint chocolate chips. 

 

You will need: an oven, a small or medium (not big) sized cookie sheet, wax paper, a spatula

 

Ingredients: 

 

1-2 Bags of mint-chocolate chocolate chips - the kind with the green chips in them.

Bag/Jar of unsalted almonds of any type - whole, sliced, slivered, etc.

 

Set the oven to bake 300. Put wax paper onto the cookie sheet. Pour the bag of mint chocolate chips onto the wax paper and spread them around so they're spaced out a bit - but not so much that your bark will be thin and brittle.

 

Stick in oven, but not for very long. Keep an eye on it until the chips start to glisten.

 

Take cookie sheet out of oven. Using the spatula, spread all the chocolate out flat. If not quite melted, just stick the sheet back into the oven.

 

Once the chocolate is spread out on the cookie sheet, toss on the almonds, then press them down ever-so-slightly so they don't fall off later.

 

Put cookie sheet in fridge. Once the chocolate has solidified, lift up the wax paper and peel it off the chocolate. Then break the chocolate into pieces. Then shove pieces into face.