It’s hard to believe that here we are at the end of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies. Back when we started in September, December 15th seemed so far away. I have so enjoyed hosting this blog hop these last few months, reading everyone’s updates and collecting so many terrific new recipes.
For my last sweet treat, I’ve saved a simple but delicious candy that everyone loves: Easy Peppermint Bark. The recipe is not rocket science but I’m always surprised at how many people can’t believe I made it myself! I love to make this up in big batches and give away to teacher, friends and neighbors. It’s great because it is so quick and easy to make for last minute gifts or holiday parties.

Here’s how to make it yourself!

Easy Peppermint Bark
One package of chocolate bark (I use Kroger brand)
One package of white chocolate bark
2 tsp. peppermint extract
About ½ cup crushed peppermint candies or canes

Line 11×15 jellyroll style pan or baking sheet with edges with aluminum foil. Melt chocolate bark according to package directions. Add peppermint extract and mix until well blended. Spread melted chocolate mixture evenly into pan reaching to all edges and corners.

Place baking sheet in freezer for 5 minutes. Do not leave in any longer or your second layer will not stick to the chocolate.

In the meantime, melt white chocolate bark according to package directions. Once the 5 minutes is up, take tray out of freezer and spread melted white chocolate over chocolate layer.

Immediately sprinkle crushed peppermint candies over white chocolate and pressing in candies if necessary.

Let bark harden at room temperature, about 30 minutes (or you can put it in the freezer again for a quick freeze). When harded, remove bark and foil from pan and break up bark into chunks. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks or in freezer for up to three months.

Gather all the ingredients--simple though!

I used my food processor to crush the peppermints which were already broken candy canes I bought on clearance last year!

Just a few pulses and they're crushed in a flash!

Spread the melted chocolate into foil-lined baking sheet (with edges!)

After chocolate is set, work quickly to spread white chocolate. If you're too slow, the white chocolate will begin to harden too!

All the layers are there--just leave on the counter to harden (or put in fridge/freezer if you want to speed it up).

This is our final week of this blog hop and it’s now over, but be sure and check back in the New Year for details on the two new Blog Hops that I’ll be hosting. The first is an Eating The Alphabet Challenge—all about fruits & veggies and the second is a New To Me Recipe Challenge to help us try out recipes from all those that we’ve collected in cookbooks, magazines, online or wherever! And as always, happy baking!
Be sure to visit all the other bloggers shown below to see what they’ve baked up today!

No, you’re not dreaming. Yes, there really is a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough fudge that you can make!

Last month was my first time to participate in the Crazy Cooking Challenge hosted by Tina at Mom’s Crazy Cooking. The theme was mashed potatoes and since she started the challenge only a couple of months ago, there have been more than 60 bloggers participating. It’s been fun seeing everyone’s interpretations of one type of recipe.

This month’s theme is FUDGE! This would be a real challenge for me for sure because although I’ve made fudge in the past, my experience has been hit or miss. You see, here in southeast Texas, the conditions must be just right like:

–A low humidity day helps (rare where I live)
–It must be a cool day (hot + humid=not fudge friendly)
–It takes time (like, about 45 minutes of time, at least, where you can really watch the stove—or else you’ll have burned sugar! TIP: It’s not so great to try and multitask during the process).
–The planets must align (ok, kidding about this one but sometimes it feels like that!)

I wasn’t just going to make the mix and pour refrigerator fudge. Not knocking that type but I wanted to try and make fudge that required boiling the sugar to the soft ball stage over the stove. A REAL challenge, remember?

In case you missed it last month, you may be asking how does this Crazy Cooking Challenge work you ask? Well, once month (on the 7th specifically), a group of food bloggers get together to feature one food item for that month. We all make that item, in our own kitchens and in our own way, but add our own special touches.

The other unique twist on the Challenge is that we don’t just make a recipe from our personal files. We are to choose an all-new recipe found on another blogger’s blog! Even though I used my master Googling and Pinterest searching skills, I found it to be a little tougher than I thought finding a recipe. And then, there it was: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough fudge. You read that right—cookie dough fudge! I found it on one of my favorite baking blogs, Bake at 350.

And although I did end up finding a few other contenders, I kept coming back to this one. I mean, who can resist cookie dough and fudge all rolled into one? Not me.

So read on for the recipe and to find out how it turned out:

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH FUDGE
Originally found on the Bake @ 350 baking blog and adapted by her from the book Sweet Confectionsoil for the pan
1 & 3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. dark brown sugar
1/2 c. cream
1/4 c. milk
1 TBSP corn syrup
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
2 TBSP unsalted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Oil an 8×8″ pan.

Bring the sugar, dark brown sugar, cream, milk, syrup and salt to a boil in a3-quart saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally with a heatproof spatula.

Boil to 242 degrees, stirring frequently (use your candy thermometer or a digital thermometer like I did).

Remove from heat and stir in the butter, vanilla, and flour.

Pour the syrup into a 9×13″ pan and let sit undisturbed at room temperature about 20 minutes, or until it reaches 110 degrees.

Scrape the syrup into the bowl of a stand mixer.

Beat on medium speed with a paddle attachment until the fudges thickens and holds its shape, 3 to 5 minutes. Scrape into the prepared8x8″ pan and spread evenly with an offset spatula.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top, lightly pressing them into the fudge.

Let the fudge cool and set, at least 2 hours. Chill in the fridge for 30minutes if the chocolate chips are still soft.

Store in an airtight container or in the refrigerator.

My Notes:
You need to watch the temperature ALL the time and stir it constantly or it will boil over. When you are bringing it to a soft boil it will seem like it’s staying stuck at the same temperature for a long time, then boom! It’s at 242. Also, when you are cooling it down, it will stay warm, warm, warm, then it starts to cool off quickly. If you wait too long, it will begin to harden and you don’t want that. i had to rewarm the mixture so I could scrape it out of the pan. Also it WAS a bit more humid outside than I would have liked. I’m not sure how much that affected my final result. All in all, it turned out ok. But be warned, this is a serious shot of sugar so cut the pieces small and share this with friends. You don’t want to eat all of it yourself or you may pass out from a sugar coma (kidding but it IS sweet!)

Bring the sugars to a boil--keep stirring!

Stir constantly to keep mixture from burning and boiling over.

Almost there! The sugars are beginning to thicken and caramelize.

I put the mixture on a rack and out of the kitchen so it would hopefully cool down faster. Kind of backfired because it got cool faster than I thought and go kind of hard.

I was able to crack up the mixture and scrape it out of the pan.

Using paddle attachment, break up the mixture until it is fluffly and smooth.

Spread mixture in a greased pan and sprinkle with chocolate chips.

Fudge is ready to go into the refrigerator for setting up and cooling!

You can enjoy visiting the other Crazy Cooking Challenge participants through the links below. And the extra twist? If you like my recipe, please click the ‘like’ by my entry to vote for me. Enjoy!

HELP US VOTE: Yep, this is how we will find the ULTIMATE RECIPE. There is a “LIKE” button on the blog-hop linky party and we want you to help us VOTE for the recipe that you think is the ULTIMATE FUDGE RECIPE. Next Wednesday, I will be featuring the ULTIMATE RECIPE voted on by all the readers.

The 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies is rolling right along and before you know it, we’ll be all done and enjoying sharing our cookies with family and friends. There’s still time to begin your baking if you haven’t already and I hope you’ve been inspired to try some new recipes.

This week’s selection is another one that my son picked from the cookbook he looked through. I thought the combination of cinnamon and chocolate sounded interesting so I couldn’t wait to try them out. He helped me make them all the way up until the rolling in the powdered sugar when a better offer came along—a chance to play with a friend!

One word of warning…these have a whole cup of butter in them so they are certainly not low-cal! But they are worth the indulgence in my opinion. My family had mixed reviews but I did love the cinnamon chocolate combination and will be adding these to the permanent holiday cookie baking list. I hope you enjoy them too!

CINNAMON-CHOCOLATE CHIP BUTTERBALLS
This recipe is from Betty Crocker Kitchens

PREP TIME: 35 Min
TOTAL TIME: 1 Hr 25 Min
SERVINGS: 36

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold butter
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 400°F. In large bowl, mix flour, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon and the salt. Cut in butter, using pastry blender or fork, until mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Stir in chocolate chips and vanilla (mixture will be crumbly).

Using hands, shape dough into 1-inch balls. On ungreased cookie sheets, place balls 1 inch apart.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes or until set but not brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool slightly, about 20 minutes.

In small bowl, stir together 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Roll cookies in sugar mixture, shaking off excess back into bowl. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

My notes:
When the recipe says the dough will be crumbly, they are not kidding. We found it better to work as a tag team—one person scooped the dough in the mini-scoop and the other person did the rolling of the dough balls. We had to kind of squeeze the dough to get it to combine enough to roll it.

They balls did kind of flatten out during baking so don’t expect them to stay totally round. Still tasty though!

Gather all the ingredients.

Measure out the cinnamon.

Using a pastry blender, cut in butter pieces to form a crumb mixture.

Measuring chocolate chips for crumb dough mixture.

Using scoop tool, press crumb dough mixture into it to form a ball.

Use hands to form dough ball.

Cookie balls after baking--they spread a bit!

After waiting 20 minutes, roll cookies in cinnamon sugar mixture. Place on rack to continue cooling.

Are you a blogger that would like to join our blog hop? Then join us every Thursday (or any Thursday you can make it!) from now until December 15th. And if you’re not a blogger or just not up for blogging about it, then join us anyway and fill your freezer.

Each week we’ll be bringing you lots of new inspiring recipes. Put on your baking cap and collect all those recipes from your recipe box, magazine cuttings, cookbooks or online. Now is the time to make those cookies you’ve always wanted to. And feel free to make a bar or even a candy—any sort of sweet treat will do!

TO JOIN/LINK UP: Add your link using the linky tool below. Link-ups require approval so if you don’t see your link appear right away, that is why. When adding a link it MUST be a post dated 2011 and your post must mention the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies blog hop. No links from previous years to any old random Christmas cookie recipe just to get extra traffic to your blog, sorry! If you want to join the blog hop for future weeks and add the thumbnails to your blog for future weeks, please email me and I will send you the code and .jpg image to use. Thanks so much!

Be sure to visit all the other bloggers shown below to see what they’ve baked up today!

Here we are at the 7th week in the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies Blog Hop! I have to admit that although I had planned to keep my baked stash of cookies primarily for the Christmas holidays, I found them to come quite in handy recently! Last night I hosted a committee celebration/get together last night and pulled out some of my Cherry Chocolate Kiss Cookies from the freezer and to add to a plate of goodies for everyone to munch on. Love it!

This week I made Cheesecake Pops, a recipe I found in Taste of Home’s Fall Baking book.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006584RGY?ie=UTF8&tag=meaplamag-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B006584RGY

I saw these and knew I had to try them! I LOVE cheesecake and since my cake pop efforts had been pretty sad, I thought these would be easier. And other than the extra time involved, I’d say they were much easier and totally worth it for the yummy little bites.

I did learn a few things along the way though….here are my lessons learned from this week’s adventure:
1) Always read the whole recipe through and pay attention to how long things will take. Ok, unlike last week I DID know that I needed to give myself some extra time to get these made. But what I didn’t realize was the amount of in and out of the freezer time.
2) Do not try to make these when you have a lot of distractions. Or during busy after school/homework/dinner time. I thought I could do that a little bit. It didn’t work so great.
3) Try to make these when your hand are cool. Run them under cool water if you need to. My hands were warm and they got a little gooey when rolling the balls. Still ok, just a little messier than I thought.
4) Even if something doesn’t turn out exactly like you think they should (i.e. mine were not perfectly round), they can still taste delicious—which these did!

All in all, although these take some time to make, if you like cheesecake you’ll love these sweet and festive little bites!

CHEESECAKE POPS
recipe from Taste of HomeS

Ingredients
3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
1 teaspoon Spice Islands® pure vanilla extract
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
45 lollipop sticks (4 inches long)
3 packages (10 to 12 ounces each) vanilla or white chips
3 tablespoons shortening
Toppings: grated coconut, grated chocolate, assorted sprinkles and chopped nuts

Directions
Line the bottom of a 9-in. springform pan with parchment paper; coat paper and sides of pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in sour cream and vanilla until blended. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Pour into prepared pan.

Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Cover and freeze overnight.

Remove from the freezer and let stand for 30 minutes. Place cracker crumbs in a shallow bowl. Working quickly, scoop out 1-in. balls of cheesecake; roll each in cracker crumbs and insert a lollipop stick. Place on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Freeze for 1 hour or until firm.

In a microwave, melt vanilla chips and shortening at 70% power; stir until smooth. Place toppings in shallow bowls. Dip cheesecake pops in vanilla chip mixture; allow excess to drip off. Roll in toppings. Place on waxed paper; let stand until set. Store in the refrigerator.

Yield: 45 cheesecake pops

The ingredients for coating and decorating the cake pops. Missing the graham cracker crumbs though--oops!

Are you a blogger that would like to join our blog hop? Then join us every Thursday (or any Thursday you can make it!) from now until December 15th. And if you’re not a blogger or just not up for blogging about it, then join us anyway and fill your freezer.
Each week we’ll be bringing you lots of new inspiring recipes. Put on your baking cap and collect all those recipes from your recipe box, magazine cuttings, cookbooks or online. Now is the time to make those cookies you’ve always wanted to. And feel free to make a bar or even a candy—any sort of sweet treat will do!

TO JOIN/LINK UP: Add your link using the linky tool below. Link-ups require approval so if you don’t see your link appear right away, that is why. When adding a link it MUST be a post dated 2011 and your post must mention the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies blog hop. No links from previous years to any old random Christmas cookie recipe just to get extra traffic to your blog, sorry! If you want to join the blog hop for future weeks and add the thumbnails to your blog for future weeks, please email me and I will send you the code and .jpg image to use. Thanks so much!

Be sure to visit all the other bloggers shown below to see what they’ve baked up today!

Seriously, I cannot believe we’re halfway into the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies Blog hop! What I am especially loving is the fact that I’m filling my freezer with these yummy treats. A friend today just asked me if I was hosting my annual cookie exchange again. You bet. And I thought to myself I might actually be able to attend one of the other ones I’m usually invited to but stress out about making cookies the night before!

This week’s cookie is Cherry Chocolate Kiss Cookies. It’s another recipe from one of those seasonal grocery store cookbooks. I’m noticing a cherry trend considering the last three things I made had cherries in them! I think it must be a subliminal craving since I didn’t really plan it. Although I was glad to be able to use up that leftover half jar of cherries from the Merry Cherry Swirl Brownies I made a couple of weeks ago. Yay for me for meal planning without really planning! Although I did learn a couple of things this week:
1) always read the recipe the WHOLE way through (because these required 30 minutes of chilling which I did not plan on)
2) because of not doing #1, I had to push back dinner which was supposed to also bake in the oven for about 30 minutes—ooops!
3) And another because of not doing #1, do not put the kisses on BEFORE you bake…do it after like it says to do. Although they still turned out ok.

Just like the Chocolate Cat Face Cookies I told you about last week, this week my daughter pretty much took over and made these cookies herself. I was right there but she wanted to do most if it alone. I could get used to this baking-for-me trend. Although there are cherries in the dough, the flavor is subtle and I’d say these are more like a shortbread cookie. The chocolate kiss on top is just the right touch. A few years ago, Hershey’s would sell unwrapped kisses during the holidays. I’ve not been able to find them in about four years so I think they stopped making them. Boy, were they handy for cookies like these! With their festive color and the kiss, I sometimes make these cookies for Valentine’s Day too. I hope you like them!

CHERRY CHOCOLATE KISS COOKIES
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cherry juice
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2-3/4 cup chopped or crushed maraschino cherry
1 cup granulated or decorator sugar (as needed)
12 ounces Hershey’s chocolate kisses (1 per cookie) or 12 ounces Hershey’s Hugs chocolates (1 per cookie)

Directions:
Beat butter, add sugar and salt. Beat in cherry liquid and almond extract. Beat in flour. Fold in cherries.
Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes (you don’t have to, but dough is easier to work with when cold).

Roll dough into balls, coat in sugar and place on cookie sheet. These cookies will flatten on their own, but I typically put a thumb print in the center to flatten some.

Bake at 325 degrees for 14 minutes. Let cool on pan for 1-2 minutes.

Add Hershey Kiss/Hug to center of the cookies. (Hugs melt especially fast, you may want to let the cookies cool a little longer before adding Hugs, but cookies should still be warm so chocolate can melt into the cookie).

Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Are you a blogger that would like to join our blog hop? Then join us every Thursday (or any Thursday you can make it!) from now until December 15th. And if you’re not a blogger or just not up for blogging about it, then join us anyway and fill your freezer.

Each week we’ll be bringing you lots of new inspiring recipes. Put on your baking cap and collect all those recipes from your recipe box, magazine cuttings, cookbooks or online. Now is the time to make those cookies you’ve always wanted to. And feel free to make a bar or even a candy—any sort of sweet treat will do!

TO JOIN/LINK UP (READ THIS FIRST!): Add your link using the linky tool below. Link-ups require approval so if you don’t see your link appear right away, that is why. When adding a link it MUST be a post dated 2011 and your post must mention the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies blog hop. No links from previous years to any old random Christmas cookie recipe just to get extra traffic to your blog, sorry! If you want to join the blog hop for future weeks and add the thumbnails to your blog for future weeks, please email me and I will send you the code and .jpg image to use. Thanks so much!

Be sure to visit all the other bloggers shown below to see what they’ve baked up today!

I can’t believe we’re already at the fourth week of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies blog hop! So many wonderful, tasty looking treats being shared by all the bloggers. Have you been baking along with us? If not, I hope you will begin soon so you’ll be organized for the holidays and fill your freezer with yummy treats to pull out during that busy time of year. Remember, if you’re telling yourself, there’s no way I can eat or serve all those cookies, then consider hosting a bake sale to help out a great organization in your area or one that I support, Cookies for Kids Cancer.

This week I chose another selection from a seasonal grocery store recipe books (I buy them every year—like I need any more recipes! These Merry Cherry Swirl Bars from a Gold Medal/Betty Crocker cookbook. It’s another new recipe for me! I LOVE bar cookies and treats. They are so easy to whip up and just as tasty as an individual cookie. http://www.mealplanningmagic.com/2008/11/meal-plan-magic-holiday-style-baking.html

I actually made these last week, two days in advance of a weekend gathering and they became a little fudge-like. Still edible (and some people LOVED them that way!) but wanted to give the heads up to you all that even though they’re stored in the refrigerator, the cream cheese might make them a little fudgy.

Also, on the afternoon I made these, I had an incredible amount of interruptions! I realized after they were in the pan that I had forgotten the nuts. And I like nuts! So I added them on top and kind of tried to swirl them in…that may have contributed to the more fudgy texture because the cream cheese was blended in a bit more. Oh well! Live & learn!

Now on to the recipe:

MERRY CHERY SWIRL BROWNIES
Brownies
4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts

Cherry Cream Cheese Filling
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped red or green maraschino cherries
2 teaspoons red or green maraschino cherry juice
1 egg

Directions:
Heat oven to 350ºF. Grease rectangular pan, 13x9x2 inches. In 1-quart saucepan, melt chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring frequently, until smooth; remove from heat.

Cool 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in medium bowl, beat all Cherry Cream Cheese Filling ingredients with spoon until smooth, set aside.

In large bowl, beat chocolate mixture, 2 cups sugar, the vanilla and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed 1 minute, scraping bowl occasionally. Beat in flour and salt on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl occasionally. Beat on medium speed 1 minute. Stir in nuts.

Spread half of the batter (about 2 1/2 cups) in pan. Spread filling over batter. Carefully spread remaining batter over filling. Gently swirl through batters with knife for marbled design.

Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour. For brownies, cut into 8 rows by 6 rows. Store covered in refrigerator.

NOTES: Obviously I made mine with red cherries but green ones would be fun too! How about a combo platter of both?

Chop the cherrie easily with a food chopper. Great stress buster too!

Add the cream cheese mixture and swirl with knife before putting in oven. Pretty!

Are you a blogger that would like to join our blog hop? Then join us every Thursday (or any Thursday you can make it!) from now until December 15th. And if you’re not a blogger or just not up for blogging about it, then join us anyway and fill your freezer. Each week we’ll be bringing you lots of new inspiring recipes. Put on your baking cap and collect all those recipes from your recipe box, magazine cuttings, cookbooks or online. Now is the time to make those cookies you’ve always wanted to. And feel free to make a bar or even a candy—any sort of sweet treat will do!

TO JOIN/LINK UP: Add your link using the linky tool below. Link-ups require approval so if you don’t see your link appear right away, that is why. When adding a link it MUST be a post dated 2011 and your post must mention the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies blog hop within the body of the post. No links from previous years to any old random Christmas cookie recipe just to get extra traffic to your blog, sorry! If you want to join the blog hop for future weeks and add the thumbnails to your blog for future weeks, please email me and I will send you the code and .jpg image to use. Thanks so much!

Be sure to visit all the other bloggers shown below to see what they’ve baked up today!