cookin' up cookies

I have a whole list of cookie recipes I want to make this holiday season.  There are so many, I don't know if I'll ever get to them all, but today Logan and I started to fire up the KitchenAid and we made two kinds.  Its a start!

These first ones are great to make first if you're going to indulge in a day of baking, since the dough has to

refrigerate for at least two hours before you can work with it and then bake them.  My neighbor told me about the recipe and its Paula Deen's so I'm not taking a single ounce of credit.  But they're easy peasy (you use a chocolate cake mix as your base, so no fooling with flour/baking soda/sugar, etc.), and fun for the kids to roll them in powered sugar.   Paula calls them Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies, but I think an equally good name would involve the words "chewy" and "brownie" because that's what they taste like to me.  They're good, ya'll.

Paula Deen's Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies



1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (18-ounce) box moist chocolate cake mix
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg. Then beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in the cake mix. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up so that you can roll the batter into balls. Roll the chilled batter into tablespoon sized balls and then roll them in confectioner's sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes. The cookies will remain soft and "gooey." Cool completely and sprinkle with more confectioners' sugar, if desired.


Next up, I love white chocolate.   The kids love Craisins. And we all love oatmeal (well, all of us except Logan but since he only eats about a total of 10 foods his opinion doesn't factor in here...).  So these are delicious, and the recipe is on the back of the Craisins bag.  I got the Craisins that taste like cherries - yum.  I imagine these would be just as tasty if you used milk chocolate chips, too.

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies


2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened  (had to look this up... its 10 TBSP of butter, plus 2 TSP)
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 6-ounce package Ocean Spray® Craisins® Original Dried Cranberries
2/3 cup white chocolate chunks or chips

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Using an electric mixer, beat butter or margarine and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. Combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a separate mixing bowl. Add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each addition. Stir in dried cranberries and white chocolate chunks. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes until edges start to turn a golden brown. Cool on wire rack.   Repeat until all dough is used. Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.