Almond and Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

I had never ate or made thumbprint cookies, but again I had to make cookies for a kids christmas party....and after using so much chocolate (m&m oatmeal cookies, cranberry white chocolate oatmeal cookies, sweet marie bars, chocolate bark) I decided that perhaps jam might be a nice change and a hit with kids....turns out they like chocolate much more! But they did brighten up the plate with a deep red raspberry jam. The toasted almonds on the outside added a nice crunch and complimented the raspberry flavor really well.

Thumbprint Cookies

2/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 large egg whites

3/4 cup finely chopped nuts of choice (I used almonds)

1/3 cup jam (any flavor - I used raspberry)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a non-stick baking mat. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, vanilla extract and salt. Gradually stir in flour.

Form dough into 1-inch diameter balls. Dip in lightly beaten egg whites, then roll in nuts. Place 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheets. Press down center of each with thumb.

Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Just before serving, fill centers of cookies with jam. Or, fill centers with 1/2 teaspoon of jam before baking.

Pecan Rolo Pretzels

Yeah there are finally snowflakes in the air making it feel more like Christmas time and that I am not just baking millions of cookies for no reason. I pre-made dozens of cookies and happy that I did because it seems like there is an event every other night to attend which involve festive drinks and food. With so many cookies I decided to wrap some up as a hostess gift. These mini rolo pretzels were simple and make a great gift. You can place them in a jar or festive bag or take out food box. My sister in law made these treats with the help of her 6 and 4 year old boy, making it an easy and fun recipe to do together. They have since named them 'Paws' on the account that when you flip them over they look like dog paws!! Very creative!!

Pecan Rolo Pretzels

1 bag of mini pretzels

12 oz bag of Rolo chocolates

1 bag of pecan halves or almonds

Preheat oven to 250. On a cookie sheet, neatly lay out pretzels, single layer. On top of each pretzel place an unwrapped rolo on top.

Carefully place in the oven for 4 minutes. Remove. Immediately take pecan halves and squish them into the rolo, squishing the caramel out and making the pecan stick.

Cool for 15 minutes, and then place in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes, until the caramel hardens.Pack up and give these away before you eat them all.

Drinking hot chocolate at the tree farm.

-14C.......brrrrr

Sweet Marie Bars

Every year for the holiday season, as most of us do, I spend hours in the kitchen making festive appetizers and decadent baked goods. In order to help out for my nephews Christmas party this coming weekend I spent a good three days baking dozens of cookies. Good thing there were lots because when I asked my 2 and half year nephew said he wanted for Christmas from Santa he stated he wanted lots of cookies.

I tried making thumbprint cookies, which did not make very many, and for the effort they require, were not worth it to me. Next I made oatmeal cookies with cherry flavoured craisins and white chocolate chunks, oatmeal cookies with holiday M&Ms and these mouth-watering and easy no bake Sweet Marie Bars. Seriously if you have no time to bake and want to whip up something delicious these are the bars to make as they only take 10-15 minutes.



A traditional Sweet Marie Candy bar is Canadian in origin and made by Cadbury. It has a nougat, caramel, roasted peanuts and covered in chocolate. This homemade version will not disappoint anyone who loves the combination of peanut butter, caramel and chocolate.

Sweet Marie Bars

½ cup corn syrup
½ cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth)
½ cup packed brown sugar
2 cups rice crispy cereal
1/2 cup chopped unsalted peanuts
1 ½ cups chocolate chip

Grease an 8x8 baking pan with butter. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, melt the corn syrup, peanut butter and brown sugar. As soon as melted remove from heat and stir in cereal and peanuts.

Press the mixture into the 8x8 pan. I use the bottom of a glass the press it down.

Place in the fridge to cool. You can melt the chocolate and spread it on immediately, but I prefer to let the mixture cool a bit first.

In a glass microwave safe bowl, add the chocolate chips and melt on medium heat for 40 seconds. Take out and stir and then continue to melt in the microwave at 20 second intervals until melted. Then spread evenly over the chilled mixture. Return to fridge and let cool completely. Once cooled can cut into bars.

You can also melt the chocolate using a double boiler.

Amazingly Good Trail Mix Cookies

My mother is an amazing baker and that is no understatement. Every birthday from whenever I can remember until 18 my mother made my sister, my brother and I a homemade birthday cake so beautifully decorated in whatever theme we desired. Her talent when it came to icing cakes was impressive to say the least. From barbies, clowns, sports, halloween, roses (my sisters favorite) my mother had a cake to celebrate the event.

For Christmas she'd bake so much food from literally dozens of dozens of different types of cookies, tarts, bars, along with pies - apple, pumpkin, blueberry, chocolate, lemon meringue. She seriously had a pie to cater to each guest/family member. My friends use to hide in the cold storage and devour her christmas cookies by the handful.

I vividly remember being the kitchen as kid and watching her in her flour covered apron using her old wooden green handled rolling pin rolling out her incredibly flaky pie dough. I have always held my mothers baking (and cooking) in the highest regard and when I am baking or cooking I often reminise about being a kid in the kitchen with my mom watching her make homemade jam, pickles, loaves, stuffing a turkey...you name it... to me my mom was Julia Childs. I can't imagine not doing the same for my children someday or at least for myself and husband (okay in-laws if you are reading this - that is not to say there are any bambinos on the way anytime soon!)

As impressed as I am with her baking and cooking, what I found incredibly interesting is something I came across the other day. The other weekend I was perusing some old photo albums when I came across photos of all of her decorated birthday and holiday cakes. I certainly new I got my love of cooking and any 'talent' if you call it that from my mother, but I had no idea that the food photography also ran in my family. I was super impressed! I will have to post some of her creations.

My mom certainly enjoyed baking, I on the other hand enjoy more savoury meals and do more cooking than baking. However, I've had the urge to bake lately. Being health conscious I decided on healthy trail mix cookies. There is no need to hit the trails to enjoy these amazing trail mix cookies; although they are so packed full of healthy energy you might just get the urge to anyways. These cookies did not last very long in my house, between my husband, myself and visiting friends, they were devoured in a couple of days.

Trail Mix Cookies

½ cup butter
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups dried cran-raisins (sour cherry flavoured ones)
1/2 cup sliced almonds
2 T flax seeds
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut

1/2 cup wheat bran or germ (or use bran cereal)

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips


Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats or use cooking spray.

Spoon batter onto pans about 2" apart and flatten them slightly with a fork/spoon. Bake for 11min or until browned. Let cool on rack.

White Chocolate and Cranberry Shortbread

We had our annual christmas baking party this year where I tried an adapted recipe for shortbread cookies from the LCBO Food & Drink. I found the recipe made the dough way too dry, in fact it would not combine at all. Therefore I added more butter and some milk (did not measure, just added a bit at a time until the dough would combine) and hoped for the best. It turned out really well. Rather than roll the dough out and cut out shapes as originally planned, I rolled the dough into a log and sliced the cookies. The end result was a nice crunchy shortbread with

sweetness from the white chocolate and sourness from the cranberries.

White Chocolate and Cranberry Shortbread

¾ cup granulated sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2 cups cold unsalted butter, cubed

1 cup dried craisins (cherry flavoured)

1 cup white chocolate, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 300°F.

Add sugar into food processor. Turn on and off twice to grind sugar a little finer. Add flour and salt to food processor. Add cold butter and process until combined. Combine 1 cup (250 mL) dried craisins with 1 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate. Stir into cookie batter before combining into a ball. Do not form into a ball in food processor.

Scrape mixture into a bowl and knead together gently to form dough. This is where I added a bit of milk to combine and make a dough. Divide dough into thirds and roll into a log using wax or parchement paper and put in the fridge for a couple hours.

Take out and slice the log into 1/2 inch cookies.

Place on ungreased cookie sheet and prick each round with a fork.

Bake in centre of oven for 20 minutes or until a creamy colour. The shortbread will not be firm. It hardens as it cools.6. Remove from oven and cool on cookie sheets.

Makes about 40 cookies

Ginger Crinkle Cookies

I am always so impressed by the talent and creativity that emerges during the Christmas month, be it crafts, cooking or baking. I am particularly impressed by the vast array of cookies that are made for this holiday. Through a fellow blogger I linked to a food blog event called Eat Christmas Cookies Season 2. This great event allows bloggers to submit their christmas cookie recipes and be compiled all together for all of us to be wowed and inspired. You can check out the round up page for this awesome compilation of cookies.

I have been wanting to make many cookie recipes since the 1st of December, but somehow it kept being put off. One weekend a bunch of us girls got together for a weekend entitled "baking and boozing". It is more innocent than it sounds. We were able to cook up a storm that day with brownies, cookies, shortbread, oatmeal-raspberry bars etc.. Since then I have had the bug to cook more. So today being my day off I was determined to get a few things baked. The first cookie I baked were these simple and delicious Ginger Crinkle Cookies that I got from a coworker.


GINGER CRINKLE COOKIES

2/3 cup oil
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup molasses
2 cups sifted flour
2 tsp bakingsoda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/4 cup sugar for dipping

Blend oil and sugar thoroughly. Add egg and beat well. Add molasses. Add dry ingredients. Form in balls and dip in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet 3 inches apart. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Do not flatten before baking.

Everything Cookies

Well I am back from a long and fun week at the cottage. I have been busy catching up on all your blogs. Some great Canada Day and Fourth of July blogs out there.


The week at the cottage was amazing with hot and sunny weather the entire time. I was able to enjoy swimming, relaxing on the dock, enjoy more than enough beverages and best of all just spending time with some great friends. As it was a friends cottage, they were great hosts and cooked a great meal each night (grilled chicken kebabs & salad , grilled steak & beans and pizza). It was certainly a nice break from cooking every night in a hot apartment. I did however make some cookies for the cottage to nibble on. I found this recipe from the Joy of Baking. They are called everything cookies and as you can probably guess that is because they are loaded with ingredients from raisins, nuts, chocolate to coconut and oats. The only adaptation I did was that I did not toast the nuts as suggested in the original recipe.

1 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup raisins
1 cup sweetened coconut
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven temperature to 375 degrees F. Then l ine two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugars until creamy and smooth (about 2 - 3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and rolled oats. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat just until incorporated (the batter will be sticky). Stir in the nuts, raisins, coconut, and chocolate chips.

Drop the batter by tablespoonfuls (can use a small ice cream scoop) onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart. Flatten the cookies slightly with your fingers so they are about 1/2 inch thick.

Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. The longer the cookies bake the more crisp in texture they will be. Remove from oven and let the cookies cool a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.

Makes about 48 cookies

Hearty Chocolate Chip Bran Cookies

I love these hearty chocolate chip cookies. A recipe I obtained from my mother, a baker extraordinaire. They are soft and chewy in the middle with a crunchy texture from the nuts and bran.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cups walnuts or pecan pieces
1 1/2 cup bran cereal (flakes)
1 1/2 cups quick cooking rolled oats

In a large bowl, cream butter, shortening, both sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and then blend into the cream mixture. Stir in chips, raisins, nuts, cereal and oats.

Drop from small spoon onto greased baking sheets about 2" apart. I like to flatten them down at bit for a flatter cookie, but that is optional.

Bake at 375F for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on rack.

Makes about 6 dozen.

Chocolate Crunch Cookies

This cookie was featured in the LCBO Food & Drink magazine. The recipe is from Ottawa's Planet Coffee in the Byward Market, who offer organic fair trade coffee and delicious treats.

1 1/2 cups butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups oats

2 cusps Rice Krispies cereal

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1/2 cup pecans

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix together butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl until well blended. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, oats, cereal, chocolate chips and pecans. Stir together until combined.

Drop batter on baking sheets in mounds of 3T about 3 inches apart for large cookies, or 1 T mounds for smaller cookies and flatten with hands. Bake for 8-9 minutes or until pale gold.

Makes 30 large cookies.