White Chocolate Chip Red Velvet Cookies

I LOVE trying new recipes, its always so fun and adventurous.  I wanted to make some cookies with the white chocolate chips I had sitting in my cupboard, and these looked yummy, and fun for Valentines day!

(If you are making these to share, or you have a big family like mine, I would suggest doubling the recipe as this didn't quite make 2 dozen cookies)

Ingredients:

1/2 C butter at room temp
1 C Sugar
1 t distilled white vinegar
1 large egg
1 t vanilla extract
1 1/2 t red food coloring (I didn't use quite that much b/c I only had the food coloring that squeezes out one tiny drop at a time, and I didn't feel like waiting to measure out 1 1/2 teaspoons, but it would be prettier if you use the correct amount :) )
1 1/2 C flour
2 1/2 T Cocoa
1 t cornstarch
3/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 C white chocolate chips (plus more for garnish if desired)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Beat sugar and butter in a mixer until fluffy.
3. Add vinegar and mix just until combined. Add the egg just until combined. Scraping the sides of the bowl. Add vanilla and red food coloring and combine.
4. Sift together the flour, cocoa, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.  Add half to the butter mixture and mix until just combined. (scrapping the side of the bowl)  Mix in the remaining flour mixture just until combined.
5. Mix in white chocolate chips.
6. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and place on parchment lines cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.
7. Bake for 9-11 minutes. While still warm, press a few white chocolate chips into cookies, point side down. (this is mainly just for looks, you can skip this all together if you don't care too much about presentation ;) )  Allow to cool on pan for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

My kids really enjoyed these cookies, I hope you do too!

Pumpkin Spice Cookies Made with 3 ingredients

Yes, you read that right, Pumpkin Spice cookies made with 3 ingredients! These are some of my favorite fall cookies (and my kids' favorite all time cookies) and they are SUPER easy to make.  All you need are these 3 ingredients:

 

1 (18.25 ounce) package spice cake mix

1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1 C chocolate chips (milk chocolate or semi-sweet, what ever you prefer)

OR you can skip the chocolate chips all together and frost the baked and cooled cookie with cream cheese frosting.

My picture is a little deceiving, I used a 29oz can of pumpkin and doubled my recipe, because apparently you can never find a small can of pumpkin in our small town. (well, that and the cookies disappear so fast that doubling the recipe is NEVER a bad thing at our house)

You literally just dump the ingredients into your mixer and mix until it is combined.  I usually start with the cake mix and the pumpkin, mix until all the cake mix is wet, then stir in the chocolate chips.

 

With most cookies you don't grease the cookie sheet because they already have a lot of fat in them (butter, shortnening, etc.) but since these cookies do not have any added fat you NEED to grease your cookie sheet, don't forget to!!  Drop by rounded tablespoons onto your greased cookie sheet, and bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes.  The cookies don't spread a lot, and you want them to be soft, you can check to see if they are done by poking them with a tooth pick if you are not sure.

Here is the finished product:

And here is one of my little monkeys enjoying her cookie:

Magic Cookie Bars

My mom made these yummy cookie bars all the time when we were growing up, and I LOVE them!  I decided to make them tonight for our family night treat, and thought I would share the recipe.

1/2 C butter
1 1/2 C graham cracker crumbs (we usually take one package of graham crackers out of the box, put it in a ziplock bag and crush it up with a rolling pin)
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/3 C shredded coconut
2 C chocolate chips
1 C chopped pecans

Place butter in 13x9 pan and place in oven while it preheats to 350 degrees to melt butter.  Once butter is melted, sprinkle graham cracker crumbs evenly in bottom of pan.  Spread sweetened condensed milk over graham cracker crust.  Sprinkle coconut, chocolate chips, and pecans evenly, and press down.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until golden brown.