Christmas 2012 Special

For Christmas this year, my sister-in-law and I spent the Saturday before Christmas making sweet treats.  We made 3 different types of cookies, and she made an easy fudge.  I wanted to share the recipes and pictures from our day of baking Christmas treats.  I do not have pictures of the fudge, but it looked like standard fudge.

Easy Fudge
Ingredients:
1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 bag (12oz) semi sweet chocolate chips
1tsp vanilla
2 tbs butter

Directions:
Lightly grease a 9 inch pan.  Heat the condensed milk, chocolate chips, butter, and vanilla in a double boiler over simmering water. Stir until the chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
Pour into the prepared pan.
Chill until firm. Lift out of the pan and cut into small squares.

Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
dash salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla

***items for decorating - we used canned vanilla frosting and a variety pack of Christmas sprinkles

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375.  Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  In a separate bowl mix together sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla until well combined.  Add wet ingredients to flour mixture, combine well.
Drop teaspoonfuls onto baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:

2 sticks of butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1 bag (12oz) milk chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.  Combine flour, baking, soda and salt.  In a separate bowl combine butter, eggs, both sugars, and vanilla.  Mix wet ingredients into flour mixture and combine well.  Fold in bag of chocolate chips. 

Drop by teaspoonful onto cookie sheets.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.

White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
dash of salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup white chocolate chips

***These baked all lumped together, they were still good but very sweet and not so easy to separate.  Next time I will reduce the sugar and space them farther apart.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  In a separate bowl combine butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs.  Add wet ingredients to dry, mixing well.  Fold in white chocolate chips.
Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets.  Bake for 10 minutes.

Also, I got a really cool cooking gift for Christmas, a pie maker!  It molds for mini-pies, and I have included the picture so you can see what it looks like.  My recipe for next week will be for something I make with it!

I've also included a picture of our Christmas dinner buffet, the theme was all Italian dishes this year.  It included lasagna, stuffed shells, shrimp primavera, a chicken in white wine sauce with pasta dish, as well as grilled sausages, salad, and garlic bread.  There was a 3-layer Devil's food chocolate cake for dessert.

Yum!