This is a delightful little recipe, and quite easy if you use store-bought cookies, of course you can make your own if you feel up to it.  It’s always best to use a very soft cookie, crisp cookies become very messy when eating them in any cookie sandwich form.

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. butter, softened
• 1 c. sifted powdered sugar, split
• 2 tsp. milk
• Several drops extract, use any flavor you’d like, such as peppermint, almond, orange, etc…
• 12 cookies, should be soft; chocolate chip work best in my opinion (makes 6 sandwiches)

Procedure

1. In a small bowl, beat together butter and half of the sugar until fully incorporated.
2. Slowly beat in milk, extract, and remaining powdered sugar. Stir in candies, if using.
3. Spread on the bottom of six cookies and top each with another cookie.
4. Wrap and chill.

Click here for the main site version.

I know it’s not really ‘the holidays’ anymore but I do love a good caramel pecan pie, especially one this easy. I suppose it could be difficult if you decided to go all home-made, but this recipe uses a few pre-made ingredients to simplify things.

Ingredients

• 1, 9 in. frozen pie crust, thawed
• 3 eggs
• 4 Tbsp. butter, melted
• 2/3 c.sugar
• 1 (11.75 oz.) jar caramel topping (the stuff you would buy for ice cream)
• 1 1/2 c. pecan halves

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, slightly whisk eggs.
3. Add sugar and stir until fully dissolved.
4. Stir in butter and caramel until well mixed. Stir in pecans.
5. Pour filling into thawed pie shell and bake for 45 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick into the center and it comes out clean.
6. Cool and serve.

Click here for the main site page.

If you feel like moving beyond simple desserts into something a bit more challenging, such as candies, bon-bons, truffles and more, you’ll probably need to learn how to temper chocolate.

It’s a fairly precise procedure as temperature control is very important, however once you learn this technique it gets rather simple to repeat.

I wrote a nice little guide, posted on my page aptly called How to Temper Chocolate.

Once you learn to temper, try to make some chocolate truffles!

Have fun!

This simple little peach dessert is a great on-the-fly option if you haven’t prepared anything else but it can just as nicely stand on its own as a simple, small dessert.

It’s made of peach halves, meringue and ice cream and because you have to bake it with the ice cream, this dessert needs to be served right out of the oven.

Ingredients

• 2 large egg whites
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract or vanilla
• 2 large peaches, halved and pitted
• 1/2 c. vanilla ice cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450°F and place a baking sheet in the freezer.
2. Beat egg whites and salt on medium until very lightly thickened.
3. Add sugar 1 Tbsp. at a time, fully incorporating before adding next Tbsp. Beat on medium-high until stiff peaks form. Beat in extract.
4. Slice a thin piece off the round bottom of the peach halves so they don’t fall over when placed on the baking sheet, pitted side up.
5. Spoon ice cream into the center of the peach halves and place a mound of meringue on top, making sure the meringue reaches the sides of the peaches.
6. Bake until meringue is brown, about 3 minutes.
7. Serve immediately.

Click here for main site version.

These no-bakes are classic chocolate and oat (with a little peanut butter).

Of the 40 or so minutes it takes to make these from start to finish, about 30 minutes are spent with the cookies chilling in the fridge.  And like many easy recipes, these chocolate oat no-bake cookies use staple ingredients that most bakers have lying around their kitchens.

Ingredients

1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. milk
2 c. sugar
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
3 Tbsp. peanut butter, optional
3 c. oats, quick or old-fashioned
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place chocolate chips, peanut butter (if used), oats, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.

2. Combine the butter, milk, and sugar in a saucepan; bring to a rolling boil and let boil for 1 minute.

3. Combine the hot mixture with the oat and chocolate chip mixture; stir well.

4. Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper.

5. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or until firm.

Now if your a fudge connoisseur, you’ll probably wonder why this is even called fudge at all.  Well, because it is.

This easy peanut butter fudge is quite delicious if you like peanut butter, since that’s pretty much what the flavor is.  Including a 1 hour chill time, this simple dessert takes about 1 hour and 5 minutes to make.

Ingredients

1 c. butter
1 c. peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3 2/3 c. powdered sugar

Directions

1. Line 8-inch square pan with tin foil.

2. Melt butter and peanut butter in the microwave. Stir and microwave on high for 2 more minutes.

3. Add vanilla and powdered sugar to peanut butter mixture, mix well.  Pour into lined pan.

4. Place a piece of wax paper on the surface of the fudge and refrigerate until cool, at least 1 hour.

5. Cut into pieces and store in an airtight container for up to a week. 

Here’s an incredibly quick and easy chocolaty, caramely, pretzely, pecany dessert. I use rolos for mine so you might need to get to a store that sells them, I know they can be somewhat tough to find in some areas.

Once you have the rolos, these chocolate pretzel turtles only take about 7-8 minutes to make.

Ingredients

25 mini pretzels, square or bow shaped
25 chocolate covered caramels, such as Rolos
25 pecan halves

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.

2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place one layer of pretzels. On top of each pretzel place one caramel.

3. Bake for 4 minutes. While the caramels are still warm, quickly press a pecan half onto each one. Serve or cool completely then store in an airtight container.

These are great chewy coconut macaroons, and only take about 15-20 minutes total to make.

If you’re anything like me, you probably always have these three ingredients on hand; they’re simply part of my baking staples.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Ingredients

5 1/3 c. long shredded coconut, sweetened
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp. vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper to prevent sticking (important).

3. Mix all ingredients together until fully incorporated.

4. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until very light brown.

5. Transfer to cooling racks to fully cool before freezing (don’t freeze if still at all warm).

Here it is, the famous $250 Neiman Marcus cookie recipe!

This letter, now email, has been sent around for a long time, claiming, well, if you haven’t read it, read on to see what it’s claiming.

Many claim it’s nothing but a hoax.  I ask, “If you can’t trust chain emails, what can you trust?”

So, here it is:

“My daughter & I had just finished a salad at Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas & decided to have a small dessert. Because both of us are such cookie lovers, we decided to try the “Neiman-Marcus Cookie”.

It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe and the waitress said with a small frown, “I’m afraid not.” “Well”, I said, would you let me buy the recipe?”

With a cute smile, she said, “Yes.” I asked how much, and she responded, “only two fifty, it’s a great deal!” I said with approval, “just add it to my tab.”

Thirty days later, I received my VISA statement from Neiman-Marcus and it was $285.00. I looked again and I remembered I had only spent $9.95 for two salads and about $20.00 for a scarf. As I glanced at the bottom of the statement, it said, “Cookie Recipe $250.00.”

That’s outrageous!! I called Neiman’s Accounting Dept. and told them the waitress said it was “two-fifty,” which clearly does not mean “two hundred and fifty dollars” by any *POSSIBLE* interpretation of the phrase. Neiman-Marcus refused to budge. They would not refund my money, because according to them, “What the waitress told you is not our problem. You have already seen the recipe – we absolutely will not refund your money at this point.”

I explained to her the criminal statutes which govern fraud in Texas, I threatened to refer them to the Better Business Bureau and the State’s Attorney General for engaging in fraud. I was basically told, “Do what you want, we don’t give a crap, and we’re not refunding your money.”

I waited, thinking of how I could get even, or even try and get any of my money back. I just said, “Okay, you folks got my $250, and now I’m going to have $250.00 worth of fun.”

I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the United States with an e-mail account has a $250.00 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus for free. She replied,” I wish you wouldn’t do this.” I said, “Well, you should have thought of that before you ripped me off”, and slammed down the phone on her. So, here it is!!!

Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of. I paid $250 dollars for this… I don’t want Neiman-Marcus to *EVER* get another penny off of this recipe….

Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe

(Recipe may be halved):
2 cups butter
4 cups flour
2 tsp. soda
2 cups sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal**
24 oz. chocolate chips
2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 8 oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

** Measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies.

Have fun!!! This is *NOT* a joke — this is a true story..
Ride free, citizens!”

And there you go!

P.S. This style of story actually started in the 40′s with the famous Waldorf-Astoria red velvet cake!

Remember those volcano experiments as a child?  Putting a lot of baking soda and vinegar together and getting that awesome eruption?  When that’s what you get in your cake! Well… maybe not so big but the idea is the same and you end up with an amazingly fluffy cake.

To achieve this, simply add two tsp. vinegar to your liquids prior to adding into the dry ingredients (if you’re using more or less than 1 tsp. baking soda, adjust vinegar as necessary).  Once all the ingredients are mixed you’ll want to quickly get the batter into the oven to avoid losing the benefits of the vinegar.

I know some people like to combine the vinegar and baking soda together before mixing it into the rest of the batter.  This is a personal choice but the final result is the same.

Enjoy!