World's Best Vanilla Cut-Out Cookie Recipe

I have long held a love/hate relationship with cut-out cookies.  I think they can be so delicious and look gorgeous, but MAN are they a lot of work and so easy to screw up.  I have searched for years for the perfect cut-out cookie recipe (you know, not constantly searched, but I have tried literally SEVERAL recipes.)  I am nearly bursting with jubilation to announce that perfect recipe here.

First, when searching for a cut-out cookie recipe discard anything that mentions Crisco.  Butter, my friends, butter is the magical ingredient that blissfully clogs our arteries while we dream of Christmas.

Triple batch, baby!  (Note to self: overkill - maybe double batch next year.)

Second, you need to take some time with your cookie decorations.  I don't know when it became acceptable to just slap on some nasty tasting white "frosting," throw some red sugar crystals in the general direction of the cookie, and call it a day.  Not on my cookie tray.  Go big, or go make some rice krispie treats with my four year old. (Just kidding, but they do look nice when you take the time.)

Third, roll them out THICK.  Some people enjoy really thin, crispy cut-out cookies, but those people, I feel, are the minority.  A thicker, chewy on the inside cookie is going to balance the frosting better and accentuate the vanilla-y buttery deliciousness.

World's Best Vanilla Cut-Out Cookie Recipe:
from Bon Appetit December 2003 (with slight changes)

Cookies

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (get the real stuff, not the imitation kind)
• Additional sugar

For cookies:
Sift first 3 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and 1 cup sugar in large bowl to blend well. Add egg, sour cream, and vanilla; beat 1 minute. Beat in dry ingredients in 2 additions until just blended. Gather dough together; divide in half. Flatten each half into disk; wrap in plastic and chill 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled. Soften dough slightly at room temperature before rolling out.)

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Sprinkle work surface and top of dough disks with additional sugar. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough to no less than 1/4-inch thickness. Dough may be very soft and sticky, so roll out the dough between two pieces of wax paper or parchment paper. Using assorted 2- to 3-inch cookie cutters, cut out cookies. Transfer to prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Gather scraps and roll out on sugared surface; cut out more cookies. Repeat until all dough is used. Chill all cookies on baking sheets at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until very light golden appears just at bottom edges, about 11 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely.

Icing

• 4 cups (or more) sifted powdered sugar (sifted, then measured)
• 3 tablespoons (or more) whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• (I also add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract)
• Colored sugar crystals, sprinkles, and/or decors

For icing:
Combine 4 cups powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, and vanilla in medium bowl. Stir until icing is well blended, smooth, and spreadable, adding more milk by teaspoonfuls if too thick or more sugar by tablespoonfuls if too thin. Use a food coloring gel, such as Wilton's, and stir a tiny bit into a portion of your icing to make a pretty color.  Using small icing spatula or table knife, spread thin layer of icing atop each cookie.  If using colored sugar crystals, sprinkle over cookies before icing sets. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Store airtight between sheets of waxed paper at room temperature.)

HOSTESS TIPS

1. Don't make your icing colors too bright.  A pastel blue is nice, but some people are turned off by a dark blue frosted cookie.  You just know it is going to give you blue teeth!

2. When decorating, get a bottle of those rainbow jimmies.  They are great for giving eyes to your snowman or Santa. 

3. You can freeze the cookies frosted or unfrosted, but sometimes the frosting gets a little blotchy in the freezer.  They will still taste awesome and it's not like those tiny imperfections would prevent anyone from eating them.  You really can't tell at all on the ones with lots of sprinkles, but if you look closely at the plain iced cookies, you may see a couple imperfections after they come out of the freezer - such as a couple spots that are a shade lighter.  If you want perfect, freeze the unfrosted cookies if you need to, then decorate them just a day or two before you need them.  Store in an airtight container.

4. Red food coloring added to icing often just looks pink.  If that bothers you, a delicious fix is to put some red colored sugar over the top of the pink icing.  You can see that effect on the cookies in the picture above. 

5. Cookie pans.  I highly recommend using a light-colored alumnium cookie sheet.  Use parchment paper so your cookies don't stick.  The cookies are very fragile when they first come out of the oven.

6. This is the same recipe I used to make the wedding favor cookies in this post.  But I used royal icing to decorate those.  Although royal icing arguably does not taste as good as the icing in this post, it gets really hard.  This quality makes it ideal for wedding favors because it dries quickly and the colors don't run much.

Kate's Monster Cookies

Some foods take on a legendary status in families.  For my family those foods include Dad's chili, chicken paprikas, Mom's cheesecakes, and most importantly Monster Cookies. 

Monster Cookies entered our lives sometime around 1990 through a recipe my Grandma Emily discovered.  The recipe was actually called "Kate's Monster Cookies", so I knew they were meant for me.  We never looked back.  If my friends knew two things, it was that they were always welcome at my parents' house, and that there would always be Monster Cookies.

When I moved away for college, the recipe for Monster Cookies came with me.  I made a slight variation to our original recipe - less white sugar.  The variation was made by mistake, but as the taste and consistency of the cookies was actually improved, the variation became the law.  My college roommates couldn't get enough of these beloved "Monsters".  Later, my co-workers demanded that I make them again and again and begged for the recipe.  I'm really not over-selling these cookies to you.  They are, quite simply, the best cookie ever.  These cookies have oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and M&Ms.  There are chewy and crunchy.  They are alpha and omega.  They are ying and yang. 

Hope you love them as much as I do.

KATE'S MONSTER COOKIES

makes 7 DOZEN (And don't even think about halving this recipe.  You will want them all.  Plus, they freeze really well.)

1 C (two sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/4 C creamy peanut butter
2 1/4 C brown sugar
2 Tbsp sugar
6 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp light corn syrup
1/2 C flour
1 Tbsp baking soda
9 C Quick Quaker Oats
2 C M&Ms
2 C chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer, cream butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and sugar. Mix in eggs, one at a time.  Add vanilla and corn syrup and mix until blended.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking soda together.

Add the flour mixture to the batter.

Add the quick oats, one cup at a time.  Mix at the lowest speed.  The mixture will start to really fill up your mixing bowl.  The more you can do with the electric mixer though, the better, because the dough is very thick and difficult to stir by hand.

Add M&Ms and mix at low speed.  Add chocolate chips and mix.  Mix in by hand if you have to/want to.

Refrigerate dough for one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll dough into 1.5 inch balls.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet, one inch apart. Bake for 11-12 minutes at 350 degrees.  They are done when you just start seeing a little golden brown on the tops of the cookies.  Let cookies sit for a minute on the pan, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool.


TIPS
1. Refrigerate the dough between batches. 

2. If the dough is too sticky for your liking while you are rolling them into balls, add a little flour.  But don't go overboard adding extra flour or the taste will be adversely effected.  My hands are absolutely covered with sticky dough when I am rolling the dough into balls, so don't be surprised by that.

3. Take the rings off your hands before shaping the dough into balls.  Like I said, it gets messy.

4. Use RED and GREEN seasonal M&Ms and voila!  You have the perfect Christmas Cookies.

5. You can make the dough one day ahead of time and refrigerate the dough overnight in a covered bowl if you want. It takes kind of a long time to make these since the recipe makes so many cookies, so I often make half of the Monsters one day, and finish them up the next day.

6. These cookies do not break easily, so they are the best kind of cookie to make and ship to friends.  If you know anyone in college, they are a wonderful study food - you get the sugar rush plus all the protein from the peanut butter. 

7. Do not over bake.  They should be a bit chewy inside.

Easy Fruit Pizza - Delightful!

Looking for the perfect summer pot luck dish or bridal shower snack?  Fruit pizza is a hit with the very old, very young, and everyone in between.  As a guest, I always a appreciate when there is something sweet on the appetizer table.  I really cannot wait all the way until dessert is served to get a sugar fix, you know?  And fruit pizza is just appetizer-y enough that it fits right in with the apps.  Of course, if you have the willpower to wait, it makes a light and refreshing dessert. 

I first made Fruit Pizza at Camp Libbey Girl Scout camp during the summer of my 12th birthday.  (Man, sometimes I wish I could go back to carefree summers like that one.) Fruit Pizza just a really fun thing to cook, and if you have kids, they will like to help you in the kitchen for this one.

You can choose the fruit based on what is in season and what your family likes, BUT make sure the fruit is not too watery.  After you wash the fruit and cut it to a good size, let the fruit sit on a paper towel for a few minutes so the fruit has a chance to dry.  If you use bananas or apples, make sure you serve the dish right away before things turn brown.  I put the fruit I chose into the recipe below, but substitute whatever!

RECIPE (revised from the Kraft web site)

1 pkg.  (16.5 oz.) refrigerated sugar cookie dough

1 pkg.  (8 oz.) Cream Cheese, softened (can soften for 10 seconds in the microwave)

3 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 tsp.  vanilla

1 pint strawberries cut in half

1 pint blueberries

24 raspberries

2 kiwi fruits, sliced

HEAT oven to 375°F or baking temperature directed on the refrigerated sugar cookie dough.
LINE 12-inch pizza pan with foil; spray with cooking spray. Press cookie dough into prepared pan to form pizza crust. Bake 14 min.; cool. Invert onto plate; carefully remove foil. Turn crust over.
Meanwhile... MIX cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until well blended. Spread over crust after crust cools.
CUT the crust.  (Yes, cut it BEFORE adding fruit and the finished product will look better.)
TOP with fruit. (You can serve it right away, or keep it in the fridge until you are ready to serve.)

Number of servings depends on how big you cut the pieces.  I got about 16 pieces. 

Recipe Link

One of my favorite blogs to follow, Cookies and Cups, posted a recipe for

Pretzel Crusted Key Lime Squares

O.M.G. I just had to share the link! They look ah-mazing.

Tropical Dinner Party

I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but we have gotten tons of snow and cold weather this winter – much worse than usual, it seems – and I am ready for some sunshine!
A cure for the winter blahs? Why not host a dinner party that evokes the tropics!? Warmth, beaches, rum.... Yes, please!

Here are a suggested menu and other party touches to add the right "island oasis" atmosphere.

Start with a Bob Marley, steel drum band, or Hawaiian music CD playing over the stereo system. Spread out your most cheerful tablecloth. Buy some fresh flowers or tropical fruit for a centerpiece. Get real crazy and turn up the thermostat an extra degree! Whoohoo!!

My mom made the Coconut Cheesecake (recipe below) - how cool is the star fruit on top? (Photo by Pat Hamilton.)

Menu: (click the links for recipes)
Appetizers – Sweet and sour meatballs or Coconut shrimp. You can totally get either one of these all prepared in a bag in your grocery store's frozen food aisle. I won’t tell! (Hey, this site is for PRACTICAL party tips. It's not Martha Stewart!)

Salad - Spinach and strawberry salad with poppyseed dressing

Main Course - Teriyaki chicken skewers on the grill. The grill still works when it’s below freezing outside, did you know? It will only take two minutes of actually standing outside to cook this food, and your guests will really appreciate the luxury of grilled food in the middle of winter. So, suck it up and turn on the grill! Toss a couple red peppers on the grill for extra color.

Side – Tropical Rice

Dessert – Coconut Cheesecake with Passion Fruit Glaze from Bon Appetit. This was a fabulous cheesecake. The best part was it didn’t crack due to the innovative cool down method in the recipe. NOTE: passion fruit was not available in my city – not fresh, not frozen, not canned, and not juiced. I substituted a can of Dole Tropical Fruit (it's pineapple and papaya in passion fruit juice) for the glaze. I also found a can of Goya Guava Nectar and added a little bit to the glaze. It worked great and tasted divine. TIP – I doubled the recipe for the glaze and it was a wise choice. You may want to add additional gelatin because the glaze was more of a syrup and didn’t quite gel for me. We did find fresh star fruit, mangos, and pineapple and they were all wonderful in the compote.

Drink ideas:
Mai Tai1 (1.5 ounce) jigger spiced rum
1 (1.5 ounce) jigger coconut-flavored rum
1 tsp grenadine syrup
5 ounces orange-pineapple juice (or you can buy the two juices separately, but who wants to
end up with extra pineapple juice?)
ice cubes
Shake and Strain into a glass of ice.
Piña ColadasStrawberry Daiquiris

Chocolate Toffee Trifle

Here's a dessert I made for a Going Away party at work that got glowing praise. (Don't get too excited, people at my work will eat week-old burnt-bottom cookies if you put them in the break room.) But, in my opinion, this dessert actually deserved the praise! Also, it's not a bad dessert to transport in the car because the top won't get squashed even if you make a crazy turn and the plastic wrap sinks onto the dessert. (Not that that's ever happened to me.)

I got 16 servings out of this trifle. People don't need a huge scoop of the stuff because it's a rich and creamy dessert.

The BEST part of this recipe is that I got to use my TRIFLE DISH!!!! *squeals* How fun is it to use those tools in your kitchen that are only good for one thing? (I'm looking at you, waffle maker.) Now, you can make this dessert in any large bowl, although hopefully it's at least a clear glass bowl so you can see the layers, but you won't get the WOW factor that comes with a trifle dish.

Please note that the brownies have to be made, then cooled, AND the assembled trifle has to be refrigerated for 8 hours before serving. So, you probably want to make this the day before you need it.

Chocolate Toffee Trifle
Modified from a recipe by "Wayne" on allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
1 (19.8 oz) package brownie mix
1 (3.9 oz) package instant chocolate fudge pudding mix
1/2 Cup water
8 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1 (8 oz) container of Cool Whip (or equivalent) - THAWED
2-3 Heath or Skor candy bars, crushed
1 pint heavy cream
6 Tbsp sugar
1 jar of caramel ice cream topping

Directions:

1. Take the Cool Whip out of the freezer since it needs to be thawed. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions. Cool completely. Cut into inch squares or smaller.


2. In a large bowl, combine pudding mix, water, and sweetened condensed milk. Mix until smooth and then fold in 8 oz Cool Whip until no streaks remain.
   
3. Use the whisk attachment on your mixer and make whip cream by mixing the heavy cream and sugar on medium speed for a minute, then turn it up to medium high speed until soft peaks form.
   
4. In a trifle bowl or glass serving dish, place half the brownies, drizzle some caramel topping, toss on some crushed toffee bar, add half the pudding mixture, add half the whipped cream. REPEAT layers. Add some drizzled caramel and toffee on the top as garnish.
   
5. REFRIGERATE 8 hours before serving.

MY TIPS -
1. If you don't cool the brownies completely before assembling the trifle, you will end up with a runny, melted mess.

2. Think about substituting raspberries for the toffee chips.

3. If you plan to transport the thing, wait to add the garnish until you arrive at the location. Then you won't have any worries about the top getting messed up en route.

4. Crushing the toffee bars with the back of an ice cream scoop is strangely cathartic. And loud.

5. If there is a "cake like" or "fudge-like" option on the brownie box, go with "fudge-like" brownies. I tried it both ways and although the cake-like soaks up the pudding better, the consistency was almost soggy. The fudge-like brownies were divine and took this dessert from nice trifle, to ooh-la-la trifle.

Buried Cherry Cookies

Cookie Exchange! What to bring? Your Cookie Exchange goals: cookies that are easy to make, the recipe makes alot, and the cookies are delicious. Additionally, it's my opinion that all the cookies should be uniform. I don't really like cut-out cookies for exchanges because some always look way better than others. Plus, they are so much work, that if I go through the trouble to make them, MY family is going to get to eat them!!

Here is my go-to recipe for the annual Cookie Exchange. It's nice to have a chocolate cookie, because it seems that many bakers bring vanilla or spice cookies to exchanges. But I usually have to make two batches because my husband would complain if he didn't have 40 of these for his personal consumption!

Buried Cherry Cookies
Modified from a recipe in my trusty old Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Ingredients:
1 10-ounce jar maraschino cherries (42 to 48)

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1.5 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1.5 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate pieces

1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk or low-fat sweetened condensed milk

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain cherries, reserving juice. Halve any large cherries. In a medium mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in cocoa powder and the flour with the mixer.

2. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place balls about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press your thumb into the center of each ball. Place a cherry in each center.

3. For fudge topping, in a small saucepan combine chocolate pieces and sweetened condensed milk. Cook and stir over low heat until chocolate melts. Stir in 2-4 teaspoons reserved cherry juice. (If necessary, fudge topping may be thinned with additional cherry juice.) Spoon 1 teaspoon fudge toppping over each cherry, spreading to cover.

4. Bake about 10 minutes or until edges are firm. Cool on cookie sheet 1 minute. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. Makes 42 to 48 cookies

MY TIPS -
1. Refrigerate the balls of dough for a few minutes before baking. Stops them from becoming too flat in the oven.

2. Don't make the dough balls bigger than 1-inch. I made mine smaller and smaller each batch because I liked the way the little ones looked!

3. Don't put a dripping wet cherry on a cookie. After cutting your cherries, let them sit on a paper towel so some of that excess juice soaks up. Otherwise your dough will get wet, and your cookie will flatten.

4. Also, you read it correctly, the fudge topping does get baked. I usually add extra cherry juice to the fudge topping to get it to cover the cherry evenly and easily. But don't add too much or your fudge will get watery. It should be like frosting consistency.

5. Alternatively, you could probably drizzle the fudge topping over the cookies in a zig-zag pattern, and that way the bright red cherry would be visible. Not so much "buried" then, but visually appealing! I haven't tried this option, so if you do, let me know how it turns out. You would probably bake the cookies with cherries, let them cool, and THEN add the topping if you want this effect.

6. Use parchment paper on the trays for easy clean up.

7. Bribe your significant other into cleaning the mixing bowl and fudge topping bowl in exchange for cookies, sex, whatever it takes - what a mess!

These freeze really well. And taste great right out of the freezer if you want a snack and just can't wait for one to thaw! Not that I've ever tried that. ;-)

Turned out a little flatter than I wanted. I think my butter was too soft. You want it so you can mix it, but if the butter is too soft (such as mine after I microwaved it a couple seconds too long) your cookies can flatten. Oh well, I tried one and they are still fantastic!

Marshmallows for Toasting

"There'll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting, and caroling out in the snow!" It really is the most wonderful time of the year! If you want your holiday party to be so amazing that people compose songs about it, you'd better make it pretty special.

Taking a cue from the song quoted above, let's talk marshmallows.

What a fun addition to your party to be able to offer S'mores in the middle of winter! If you live in a warm climate, head on outside and make a bonfire on which to roast your 'mallows. Even if it's a little chilly, nothing beats a bonfire. Giving people an excuse to go out for fresh air will be appreciated. However, if you live in frickin' Ohio like I do, it is waaaaaay too cold to spend time outside longer than it takes to plug in the Christmas lights. So, I offer some alternative suggestions.

1. Fireplace - oooh fancy you! I'll bet having a fireplace was a selling point of your house, wasn't it? Well, now you can get some use out of it, in addition to it just looking pretty. You might want to avoid those Duraflame logs, or your S'mores might start tasting like dangerous chemicals. Note: remove stockings from over the fireplace if you don't want them to catch on fire. Another note: remove drunk people from around your fireplace if you don't want them to catch on fire. If you are uncomfortable with the thought of people holding a stick with a flaming marshmallow in your highly flammable living room, you might consider grilling the S'mores. Just fully assemble the S'mores (graham cracker, chocolate bar, big marshmallow, graham) and place them on a grilling rack or cast iron pan in the fire. When you remove them, the marshmallow and chocolate will be all melty. Yummers!!

2. Stove - Whether gas or electric, just turn on a burner and let your guests toast their marshmallows over the stove. Provide all the ingredients for S'mores nearby. Sing carols. Eat S'mores. Repeat.

3. Microwave - It doesn't seem nearly as festive to me, but if you feel this is the only option, it is possible! Just nuke the marshmallow on a plate for 15-20 seconds on LOW power. The marshmallow might double in size and be careful, because the center could get very hot.

4. S'mores making kit. This one is available online from Cosi. So cute and would make a great gift.



For the S'mores connoisseur in your life at http://www.getcosi.com/




If you are a peanut butter junkie like I am, try using a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup in place of the chocolate bar on your S'mores. Any other ideas for variations on the basic S'mores recipe? Leave it in the comments!

Pudding Shots

 Thank you to my dear friend Julie who introduced me to pudding shots! I'm going to make a bold claim here - Pudding shots are the new Jello shot. If these have not made an appearance at any of your friends' parties yet, then prepare to become an instant hero among your group. These are imperative for any Girls' Weekend or Bachelorette Party. They are also going to be amazing at my upcoming Halloween Party.

Pudding shots are creamy little alcohol-infused spoonfuls of HEAVEN. They are great for you, the hostess, because you can make them a week ahead of time and freeze them. There are a million flavor variations to suit your party and your tastes.

Here is the basic recipe:

1 small box of INSTANT chocolate pudding

3/4 C Milk (skim works fine)

1/4 C Vodka

1/2 C Bailey's Irish cream

8 oz Extra Creamy Cool Whip

Mix the pudding mix with the milk with an electric mixer. Then add the booze and mix. Then add the cool whip and mix. Put into small cups and freeze. Serve with little spoons. Makes 24 2oz. servings.

Variations:

• White Chocolate instant pudding mix with Kahlua instead of Bailey's. (Use slightly less than 1/2 Cup or it will taste too boozy.)
• Turtle instant pudding mix (they only carry this flavor around X-mas, so stock up when you see it!) with Caramel Bailey's.
• Chocolate instant pudding mix with Mint Bailey's or peppermint schnapps.
• French Vanilla instant pudding mix with 1/3 C Amaretto instead of the Bailey's.
• I haven't tried this one yet, but imagine that Banana instant pudding mix and Brandy or Rum would be divine. If someone tries this combo, let me know how it turns out!
  

HOSTESS TIPS:

1. You can get 2 oz plastic cups with lids at GFS or other restaurant supply stores. I know GFS has mini spoons, too. The lids are key because then you can stack the shots in your freezer.
2. If you have a hard time getting the pudding shot mix into the little cups, you might try putting the pudding shot mix into a large plastic bag and cutting off the corner of the bag, thus creating a way to "pipe" the mix into the little cups. Personally, I did okay just scooping the pudding shot mix with a measuring cup and dripping it into the little cups.
3. Top the shot with a little dollop of whipped cream for extra flair.