Double Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:

1 box of devil’s food cake mix
½ cup of oil
2 eggs
1 cup of chocolate morsels

Important: Do not follow the box instructions for making a cake.

Mix cake mix and oil in a mixing bowl; add eggs and mix until well blended

Add chocolate morsels

Drop by teaspoon on to cookie sheet

Bake at 350 for 9 minutes

Makes appox. 3 dozen cookies

Note: To give this recipe a peanut butter twist, use peanut butter morsels in place of the chocolate ones.

Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:

1 cup of shortening
1 ½ cups of sugar
2 eggs
2 ¾ cups of flour
2 tsp. of cream of tartar
1 tsp. of baking soda
½ tsp. of salt
1 tsp. of sugar
2 tsp. of cinnamon

Mix together the shortening, sugar and eggs

Sift flour and pour into a separate mixing bowl (If you don’t have a flour sifter, pour the four into a bowl and use a whisk to stir it up)

Add cream of tartar, baking soda and salt to the flour and mix it together

Add the dry ingredients to the shortening mixture and mix well

Cover bowl and refrigerate 1-2 hours

Roll dough into balls the size of a walnut

Roll one side of each ball in a mixture of 1 tsp. sugar and 2 tsp. of cinnamon

Place on cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 8-10 min

Cookies should still be soft when taken out of the oven. They will flatten and harden as they cool.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Ingredients:

½ cup of butter (softened)
½ cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup of sugar
½ cup of brown sugar
1 egg
½ tsp. of vanilla
½ salt
1 ¼ cup of flour
¾ tsp. of baking soda
Approx. 36 small peanut butter cup candies

Heat oven to 375. Remove any wrappers that may be on the candy. Line small muffin cup pan with paper baking cups. (or spray lightly with cooking spray)

In a large mixing bowl beat butter, peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla, set aside

In another bowl, mix salt, flour and baking soda and then add to the wet mixture and beat until blended

Roll mixture into one inch balls and place into prepared pan

Place 1 piece of candy into each ball and gently press the candy into the ball until ¼ inch of the candy is still sticking out

Bake 8-10 minutes

If you used baking cups, cool completely in pan. If not, cool a few minutes and then remove cookies from the pan using a spoon; not a spatula.

Basic Cookie Recipe

By using this basic cookie recipe, you can then make three different types of cookies. It saves time and money. Hint: make three batches of the dough one day, refrigerate and bake all three another day.

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups of flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar
½ tsp. salt
2 sticks of butter softened
1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 large egg
1 ½ tsp. vanilla

Whisk together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt in a bowl and set aside

In a large bowl, beat together butter and confectioner’s sugar with an electric mixer at med-high speed until fluffy

Beat in egg and vanilla

Reduce speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until blended

Divide mixture in half. Shape each half into a disk shape. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator. (Chill at least 1 hr. before using; can be chilled for three days.)

Variation #1 – Traditional Cut out Cookies

Preheat oven to 350. Take 1 pack of dough out of refrigerator and roll into 12 inch round, 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick.

Using your favorite cookie cutters, cut out shapes and using a metal spatula, transfer to cookie sheets. Sprinkle with your favorite Christmas decorating sugar or nonpareils. (If desired)

Bake cookies 8-10 minutes

Notes: Re-roll dough scraps only twice. If rolling dough on a flour surface is difficult, roll dough between two pieces of wax paper.

Variation #2 – Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients needed:

1 cup of raspberry seedless jam (If you prefer, you may substitute another kind of jam)
1 cup of coconut flakes

Preheat oven to 350. Remove one pack of dough at a time from the refrigerator and pull one piece of dough at a time from the disk and roll into one inch balls.

Place on cookie sheet. Using the back of a teaspoon of your thumb, make an indentation in the top of each cookie

Fill each cookie with a ½ tsp. of jam. Sprinkle a little coconut on the top of each cookie.

Bake 10-12 minutes

Variation #3 – Rolo Candy Cookies

Ingredients needed:

Approx. 48 pieces of Rolo candy, unwrapped
Red and Green decorating sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Remove one pack of dough at a time from the refrigerator. Take dough 1 tsp at a time and roll into a ball.

Using your index finger, push one piece of candy into the bottom of the ball and reroll to cover the candy.

Roll one side of the ball into either red or green sugar and place on cookie sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes