Baking Bonanza

Over the past three weeks, I have made eight batches of Christmas goodies. I started making goody bags for gifts during finals and continued to bake at home in AZ, repeating some of the best recipes.

The first batch was "Foolproof Fudge" and I almost screwed it up because I didn't have as many chocolate chips on hand as I thought. Thankfully, I am a chocoholic, there were other sources available. And as an added bonus, now it's "Triple Chocolate Fudge!"

I also made some white chocolate fudge with cranberries and coconut and attempted nice shapes by pouring it into a heart shaped ice cube mold. It was a bit difficult to remove, hence the lack of photos.

Next up, "Peanut Butter Blossoms" These are some of my favorite holiday cookies, although it occurred to me while I was making them that there is really no reason I couldn't make them all year round. But that would make them less special.

On the back of the Hershey's Kisses bag was a recipe for "Chocolate Snowball Cookies" and the idea of baking a whole kiss inside of a cookie really intrigued me. I wanted to use mint Kisses, but when I went to the drug store, they didn't have any. I added some peppermint extract to the dough instead. I liked them so much, I made them at again at home.

I also repeated the PB Blossoms dough recipe at home, because I needed a yummy base for these awesome "Reindeer Cookies." I saw this idea somewhere on the vast internet probably sometime in late summer and was really excited to try it out.

Tip: the pretzels need to be applied right away when the cookies are taken out of the oven. Next time I will stagger the timing of the two sheets so that the second one stays hot and melts the chocolate on the pretzels. It also helps to have an extra pair of hands to help you!

I also made a batch of Double Chocolate M&M Cookies using a box of brownie mix and holiday M&Ms. They tasted fine, but came out looking like cow pies. My first ever brownie mix cookies came out great, but my subsequent attempts have all been seriously lacking in the presentation category.

And finally, the last treat I made was "Magic Bars" which were delicious as usual. My crust was a tad crumbly, but I don't think the thick topping to thin crust ratio prevented anyone from eating them.