Pink Kiss Cookies

If you like chocolate covered cherries, this recipe is FOR YOU! Chocolate covered cherries is one of my favorite Christmas candies, so I am thrilled with this recipe! I hope you like it too! Please let me know if you like it by commenting below.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 Tablespoons maraschino cherry juice
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 2 drops red food coloring
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 10 oz. jar Maraschino cherries, drained and chopped
• 25-30 Hershey Kisses

Directions:

1. Cream together butter and powdered sugar.
2. Add cherry juice, almond extract, red food coloring and salt and beat well.
3. Add flour 1 cup at a time, scraping bowl.
4. Fold in cherries.
5. Place quarter (or a little bigger, depending on how you like them) sized balls of dough on cookie sheet leaving a little room between them to spread.
6. Bake at 350F degrees for 10-12 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and immediately top with Hershey Kisses, pressing down slightly.
8. Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
9. Makes 25-30 cookies.

Eggnog Truffles

I enjoy serving these Eggnog Truffles during the holidays. I hope you enjoy this recipe too.

My simplified version...

Ingredients:

•1 pound white baking chocolate, divided (I use Almond Bark.)
•4 ounces (1/2 package) cream cheese, softened
•1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
•1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
•1/4 teaspoon rum extract
•ground nutmeg (for sprinkling)

Directions:

1. Melt 8 ounces of the chocolate as directed on package.
2. Beat cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, nutmeg and extract in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended and smooth.
3. Add melted chocolate; beat until well mixed.
4. Cover and refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.
5. Shape into 24 (about 3/4-inch) balls, and place on wax paper-lined cookie sheet.
6. Refrigerate until ready to dip.
7. Coat only 12 truffles at a time. Melt 4 ounces of the remaining chocolate.
8. Dip 1 truffle at a time into the chocolate, and return to wax paper-lined cookie sheet.
9. Sprinkle truffles with nutmeg.
10. Repeat with remaining 4 ounces chocolate and remaining truffles.
11. Refrigerate 1 hour or until chocolate is set.
12. Store truffles in refrigerator up to 1 week.

Makes 2 dozen.

Oreo Truffles

This is seriously one of the easiest recipes I have ever made. It requires only three ingredients.

1 pkg. Oreo cookies (regular, NOT double-stuffed)
8 oz. bar cream cheese, softened
Dipping white chocolate (I use Almond Bark.)

Directions:

1. Crush cookies into fine crumbs. (I use my food processor.)
2. Use electric mixer to blend cookie crumbs with cream cheese. Be sure they are well blended.
3. Roll cookie crumb/cream cheese mixture into 3/4" - 1" balls.
4. Melt chocolate per package directions.
5. Dip balls into melted chocolate and place on waxed paper lined cookie sheet.
6. Refrigerate until hardened.
7. Store in tin in refrigerator.

Red Velvet Cake Truffles

These Red Velvet Cake Truffles were popular at my very first Cookie Swap Sunday afternoon. What a perfect truffle at Christmas time.

My simplified version...

yield: about 4 dozen

Ingredients:

1 9x13 pan of red velvet cake, baked and cooled
1 can (16 oz) prepared cream cheese frosting
1 lb candy coating (white chocolate, dark chocolate, or both)~I use Almond Bark found at Walmart in the baking aisle.
red sugar sprinkles

Directions:

1. Crumble the red velvet cake into a large bowl. You want it to be in small pieces, but don't work it so much that it starts to get gummy and stick together. Fine crumbs is what you want.
2. Add about three-quarters of the cream cheese frosting. Don't add all the frosting at once, in case the cake is very moist and the full can is unnecessary. Start out stirring them together, but eventually you're going to use your hands to really work the frosting through the cake. Make sure it is evenly moistened, and there are no dry patches. Ideally, the cake should be very moist and hold together if you squeeze a ball of cake between your fingers, but you don't want it to be wet or greasy. If the cake mixture is still a bit dry, add more frosting to get it to the desired consistency.
3. Portion out and form the cake into generous 1-inch balls.
4. Place the balls on waxed paper-covered baking sheet.
5. Refrigerate them for 3-4 hours until they're cold and firm, or freeze them for about 45 minutes in the freezer.
6. Take them out of the refrigerator or freezer and let them sit on the counter briefly while you melt the candy coating. They should be cold when you dip them, so they hold together, but if they're really frozen, that causes the candy coating to develop cracks as it hardens. So, cold-but-not-freezing is the temperature you're looking for!
7. Melt the chocolate per package directions.
8. Dip the balls in the melted chocolate and return the truffles to the waxed paper.
9. You can store the truffles in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

German Chocolate Cake Cookies

I enjoy browsing All Recipes. This is where I found these simple and delicious German Chocolate Cake Cookies. I am getting all kinds of ideas for new cookies using this concept. I'm thinking it will be fun to try different cake mixes and different fillings! What a variety of cookie ideas!

I am learning to post the actual recipe of findings at other websites because I clicked on a link from my website tonight and discovered the website was not available. So...here't the actual recipe for Allrecipes German Chocolate Cake Cookies:

Ingredients:
• 1 (18.25 ounce) package German chocolate cake mix
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2/3 cup shortening
• 1 (16 ounce) container prepared coconut pecan frosting

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the cake mix, eggs and shortening until well blended. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto the cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Match up evenly sized cookies and sandwich them with the coconut pecan frosting.

Homemade Reeses Peanut Butter Truffles

Pinterest is the best website for finding all kinds of ideas. This is exactly where I first found this Homemade Reeses Peanut Butter Truffles Recipe. From Pinterest I found the Six Sisters Stuff Blog! They have some wonderful sounding recipes, and I can't wait to try more. This recipe was a big hit with Papa Dukes tonight! I just made a few revisions because I'm too lazy to do things the hard way. So...here's my version:

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter softened
3 3/4 cups powdered sugar (1 lb.)
1 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 cups graham crackers (Here's where I was lazy, but you could crush a sleeve of graham crackers instead.)
1 pkg. chocolate Almond Bark (found at Walmart)

Directions:

1. Mix butter, powdered sugar, peanut butter & graham cracker crumbs until well blended.
2. Roll into 1-inch balls and put on wax paper lined cookie sheets.
3. Put cookie sheets in freezer for 20 minutes.
4. After 20 minutes melt chocolate per package directions. (I melt half at a time.)
5. Dip balls in melted chocolate and return to wax paper lined cookie sheets.
6. Once chocolate is firm, store truffles in refrigerator.
Makes 6 dozen.

Cookie Dough Truffles

These Cookie Dough Truffles are YUMMY!!! I found them at one of my favorite recipe websites, Taste of Home.