Ingredients: 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened 1-1/4 cups powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup HERSHEY’S Dutch Processed Cocoa or HERSHEY’S Cocoa 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) HERSHEY’S Premier White Chips Directions: 1. Heat oven to 300°F. Beat butter, powdered sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add cocoa; blend well. Gradually add flour, stirring until smooth. 2. Roll or pat dough to 1/4-inch thickness on lightly floured surface or between 2 pieces of wax paper; with cookie cutters, cut in holiday shapes. Reroll dough scraps, cutting cookies until dough is used. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. 3. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or just until firm. Immediately place white chips, flat side down, in decorative design on warm cookies. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Store in airtight container. About 4-1/2 dozen (2-inch diameter) cookies. NOTE: For more even baking, place similar shapes and sizes of cookies on same cookie sheet.

Christmas In July - Christmas Recipes July 22, 2007

This Week’s Christmas in July Edition of the Carnival of the Recipes is being hosted at Christmas Recipes

This very special Christmas-themed Recipe Carnival provides some absolutely amazing Holiday Recipes.

Date-Nut Macaroons

1 - 8 ounce package pitted dates, chopped
1 1/2 cups coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk, not evaporated
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine dates, coconut, and nuts in a mixing bowl. Blend in the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased and floured cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Carefully remove from the cokie sheets. Cool completely on wire racks. Store in an airtight container. Yield: about 2 dozen cookies

Edible Crawlies for Kids

Halloween Recipes

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Usually ants, beetles, and other creepy crawlies are not welcome in the kitchen. But that’s not the case with these fun snacks. Grab the kids and eat some bugs!

Note: Where peanut butter is used in these recipes for “gluing” edible body parts together, frostings may be used as a substitution for those children who are sensitive to or allergic to nuts.

Ants in the Sand

graham crackers, crushed
chocolate sprinkles
snack sized resealable plastic bags

To crush graham crackers, place inside a large (gallon size) resealable plastic bag. Using a rolling pin, smash crackers through bag by rolling back and forth over them until they are all in crumb form.

Fill snack sized resealable bags halfway with graham cracker crumbs. Add a small handful of chocolate sprinkles to the bags and seal.

Bugs on a Log

celery stalks
peanut butter
raisins

Spread peanut butter onto washed and drained celery stalks. Top with raisins. For children who are allergic to peanuts, try using cream cheese or processed cheese spread in place of the peanut butter.

Cookie Spiders

black or chocolate licorice twists
fudge sandwich cookies
chocolate frosting
red cinnamon candies

Cut licorice in half. Remove the top of each sandwich cookie; press 8 licorice pieces into the fudge center to resemble spider legs. Spread a little chocolate frosting over the licorice; replace cookie tops. Frost the tops of the spider cookies with frosting. Place red cinnamon candies on top for eyes.

Muenster Beetles

crunchy chow mein noodles
muenster cheese (or other soft block cheese)

Cut cheese into 2″ x 1″ rectangular blocks. Gently insert three chow mein noodles on each side of cheese block for legs. Using two broken chow mein noodles, insert into “head” as antennae.

Note: Cheddar makes a bright and colorful beetle, but can be very frustrating for little fingers as the cheese is a bit too hard to press the noodles into without breaking. Use softer cheese such as gouda, havarti, monterey jack, or even mozerella.

Peanut Butter Caterpillars

bananas
peanut butter
grapes
chow mein noodles

Peel and slice a banana. Join the slices together by “gluing” them with peanut butter. Carefully poke two chow mein noodles (or break a pretzel stick in half to make two pieces) through the top of the grape. Use more peanut butter to attach the head (grape) to the front of the body, with antennae (chow mein noodles) pointing up.

Potato cookie stamp

Cut a small raw potato in half crosswise. Using a pen or marker, sketch out the design of your stamp. Remember — everything will be reversed, so if you’re using letters (like R.I.P., for instance) make sure you sketch them out backwards so that they’ll come out the right way.
With a very sharp knife, cut around the letters or picture — leaving the part you want to show raised, the rest cut away and discarded. You may have to practice on a couple of potatoes until you get the hang of it — fortunately potatoes are cheap. While this is a great effect for gravestone cookies, you can also do this with other holiday designs at other times of the year.

Great Ghost Pumpkin Cookies

2 c Flour
1 c Quick oats; raw
1 ts Baking soda
1 ts Cinnamon
1/2 ts Salt
1 c Butter or margerine; soften
1 c Brown sugar; packed
1 c Granulated sugar
Egg; slightly beaten
1 ts Vanilla
1 c Libby’s solid-pack pumpkin
1 c Semi-sweet morsels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, oats, baking soda,
cinnamon and salt; set aside. Cream butter; gradually add sugars,
beating until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; mix. Alternate
additions of dry ingredients and pumpkin, mixing well after each
addition. Stir in morsels. For each cookie, drop 1/4 cup dough onto
lightly greased cookie sheet; spread dough into a ghost shape using a
thin metal spatula. Or make a qiuck ghost pattern of heavy paper. Make 2
or three poses for realism.
Bake 20-25 minutes, til cookies are firm and lightly browned. Remove
from cookie sheets; cool on racks. Spread with white royal icing. Trim
brown face features with tube-icing. Yeilds 19-20 large cookies.

Gravestone Cookies

This super-easy dough makes great basic cookies that you can decorate however you like. We’ve suggested using a cookie stamp to emboss the gravestones, but you can decorate them with icing, if you prefer.

2-1/4 cups (550 mL) all purpose flour

1 cup (250 mL) icing sugar

1 cup (250 mL) butter, melted

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp. (5 mL) vanilla

In a bowl, stir together the flour and the icing sugar. Add the melted butter, beaten egg and vanilla and beat, using an electric mixer, until the dough is smooth. It will be very soft — this is normal. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Meanwhile, make a template out of cardboard in the shape of a gravestone 2 x 2-1/2 inches. Also, for an extremely realistic gravestone effect, make a cookie stamp from a raw potato (instructions follow recipe).
Preheat the oven to 350° F (180° C). Line a cookie sheet (or two) with parchment paper and grease the paper lightly.
On a floured surface, roll one half of the chilled cookie dough out to about 1/8-inch (1/3 cm) thickness. Cut gravestone shapes using your template and place on the prepared cookie sheet. If you’re using a cookie stamp, press it into the dough firmly enough to leave an imprint, but be careful not to tear the dough.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly browned and the cookies are set. Remove from cookie sheets and let cool on a rack.
Makes 2-1/2 to 3 dozen.

Famous Pumpkin Pie Recipe

2 eggs
2 cups fresh pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4tsp. cloves
12 oz. evaporated milk

*Spices are best if freshly ground rather than store-bought.*

Pour into Flaky Pie Crust. Heat oven to 425 degrees F, bake 15 minutes.

Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake 40-50 minutes. Pie is done when knife is inserted into the middle of pie and comes out clean.

Flaky Pie Crust
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp. shortening (Crisco? Butter-Flavored is my personal favorite)
1 cup flour (use organic or Hogsdon Mill? for best results)
1/4 tsp. salt
2-3 tbsp. cold water

Blend shortening, flour and salt together. Add cold water and mix well with CLEAN hands-utensils just don’t do as well. Roll dough out with rolling pin (well-covered in flour) on a flat, floured surface.

TIP: a cold rolling pin works best, so I keep mine refrigerated at all times.

Place Pyrex glass pie pan on top of dough and then turn both over at the same time. Pat into place. Pinch off excess dough, then pinched dough all around pan edge for a “fluted” look (keeps you from having a thick, heavy crust on the edges). Do not bake crust alone unless using for chocolate, lemon-meringue, etc.

To bake, use a fork to poke holes in the bottom of the crust, heat oven to 475 degrees F and bake 8-10 minutes.

Spice Cookies with Pumpkin Dip

World Famous Recipes
 

White Chocolate-Cinnamon Triangles

Bars:
1 (18 oz.) pkg. Pillsbury Refrigerated White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
1/2 c. honey-roasted cashews, chopped
1/2 c. toffee bits
1 t. cinnamon

Glaze:
1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/4 t. cinnamon
2 1/2-3 t. milk

Heat oven to 350º. In large bowl break up cookie dough. Add all
remaining bar ingredients; mix well. Press dough in bottom of
ungreased 9-inch square pan. Bake at 350º for 23-27 minutes or until
golden brown. Cool 30 minutes.

To make glaze, combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl:
stirring until smooth, adding enough milk for desired drizzling
consistency. Drizzle over bars. Cool an additional 45 minutes or
until its completely cooled. Cut into 16 bars. Cut each bar in half
diagonally to make triangles.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1/2 cup rolled oats

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

2 eggs

3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grind oats in a food processor or blender until fine. Combine the

ground oats with the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a

medium bowl.

3. Cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla, and lemon juice in

another medium bowl with an electric mixer. Add the eggs and mix

until smooth.

4. Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture and blend well. Add the

chocolate chips and nuts to the dough and mix by hand until

ingredients are well-incorporated.

5. Spoon rounded 1/4-cup portions onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Place the scoops about 2 inches apart. You don’t need to press the

dough flat. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until cookies are light brown

and soft in the middle. Store in a sealed container when cool to keep

soft.

For the best results, chill the dough overnight in the refrigerator

before baking the cookies.

Famous Recipes