Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Do you love peanut butter so much that you take the entire jar and  a knife and sit down to eat it?!  I personally don’t do that … although I know some people who do.  But I do love peanut butter and especially with chocolate.  This is a new recipe I tried and I love it … I’ll be adding it to my list of cookies to make again!  If you  haven’t tried this cookie  yet and you like Reese’s peanut butter cup … you need to make this … now!  ENJOY!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 36 mini peanut butter cups

 directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Unwrap the mini peanut butter cups and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the sugar, butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and vanilla. Add the egg and beat until combined. Add in the flour, salt and baking soda and mix until just combined. Roll the dough into small balls using about 1 Tbsp of dough each (should get around 36 balls). Place into mini muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Immediately press a peanut butter cup into the center of each cookie. Let them cool in pan completely before removing. (note: If they are still warm when you take them out of the pan, the cookie may fall apart.)

Recipe Source: www.whatmegansmaking.com

Christmas Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing – Snowmen and Snowflakes

I baked and decorated a lot of sugar cookies this year!  I love the way sugar cookies look decorated with royal icing.  They can be elegant or whimsical and this sugar cookie recipe is so good!!  Not only does it taste fantastic but the dough is so easy to work with.  The cookies are baked at a high temperature for a short period of time so they don’t spread and lose their shape.

It’s hard to believe I started decorating cookies 2 years ago … time flies!  I’ve learned a lot about decorating, picked up valuable tips, and am much quicker since I first started decorating.  There are great sources of inspiration and tutorials on the internet.  A good place to start is here at The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle.  She has numerous tutorials and tips and is the “Queen of Sugar Cookies”!  Seriously, her cookies are amazing.

One of the best tips I picked up is that you don’t always have to make two consistencies of icing for flooding and piping,  And you do not have to wait to let the outline dry before flooding your cookie.  In fact, if after piping your outline and you flood your cookie immediately you create a seamless cookie which is much more attractive!  The more cookies you do, the better you get!  Go ahead … give it a try … you’ll love the results!

Decorated Sugar Cookies – It’s All in The Presentation

Happy Boss’s Day to all you bosses out there!  I left one cookie out of the basket which looked great but as I was writing on it I messed up and it ended up looking like “Happy Bossy Day”!  Ha ha … there are a probably a lot of deserving people for that bossy cookie!  However, my boss is not one of them.  I lucked out in the “boss department” and have a super great boss to work for … I’m one of the lucky ones! This year I wanted to do something a little extra special that showed some creativity and thought rather than just running to the store and picking up a gift card.  I really had fun making these cookies and putting together my first golf themed cookie basket.  Use your imagination and creativity and create a one of a kind beautiful cookie basket.  Go ahead … it’s fun … use your favorite sugar cookie recipe and get baking … and get your creativity on!

You can find the royal icing recipe here and read more detailed instructions on decorating sugar cookies.

To make “cookie pops” pick up some sticks (they come in different lengths) found at craft stores like Michael’s and Hobby Lobby. Roll your cookie dough out thick enough so that you can easily place the stick in the middle of the cookie dough.  Bake as usual.  Be sure not to remove the cookies from the baking sheet until they are cooled, otherwise you will have a mess and you won’t be happy!

To assemble the basket I traced cardboard and laid it on the bottom of the basket.  I then took Styrofoam and put that on top and hot glued the Styrofoam to the cardboard.  Fill any extra space with shredded paper filler and make sure it is packed in tight so the Styrofoam will not  move around.

Cut out 7×7 squares of tissue paper and poke a hole in the middle.  Slide the tissue paper up the cookie pop, just below the cookie.    Pinch it around so it looks good and adhere the tissue paper to the pop stick.  Arrange your cookies by placing in the Styrofoam.

When all cookies are arranged, place your basket in a clear gift bag and secure with a large bow.  Now … stand back and admire your hard work!  🙂

How to Package Sugar Cookies Beautifully

Packaging Sugar Cookies

Okay, so you’ve spent all that time decorating your sugar cookies.  Now they deserve to be packaged as beautifully as they look!

I came up with this packaging idea:

To make personalized tags:  I searched google images – for the lavender cookies I searched for “lavender polka dots”.   Once I found an image I liked, I copied and pasted it into a blank Publisher document and “saved as” a jpg file.  I then copied the jpg into a blank Word document and manipulated it to the size I needed for my “treat bags”.  I added a text box for the “Merry Christmas”.  I grouped the image and text box, then copied the image and text box and flipped it over above the other tag, printed, and cut it out, and folded it in the middle.  This way the image and wording is on both sides of the bag.  Then I cut some coordinating ribbon, put a dab of hot glue on the middle top of the tag and glued the ribbon and tied it.  I put the cookies in the bag, folded over the top of the bag several times and stapled the gift tag to the top.