Easy Monster Cookies

From Betty Crocker's website

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® chocolate chip cookie mix

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® peanut butter cookie mix

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

3 eggs

2 cups candy-coated milk chocolate candies
  
 Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, stir all ingredients except candies until soft dough forms. Stir in candies.  On ungreased cookie sheets, place about 1/4 cupfuls dough about 3 inches apart.
Bake 12 to 13 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely. Store in covered container at room temperature.

To make 36 smaller cookies, place 2 heaping tablespoonfuls dough about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes.

Easy Cake Mix Cookies

• 1 box Cake Mix - either extra moist or with pudding in the mix
• 1- 8 oz container Cool Whip, thawed
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar (for rolling)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. In medium bowl, beat cool whip, egg and cake mix until well blended. Dough will be thick and sticky.
3. Drop by teaspoonfuls into a bowl of powdered sugar and roll to coat.
4. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 10- 12 minutes

I used chocolate cake mix and added peanutbutter chocolate chips. Lemon and Strawberry are good too!

Easy Sugar Cookies

I love this recipe because it uses the whole egg.  I also like that you don't necessarily have to chill it before rolling out shapes. You can, but don't have to if you roll it thickly enough. 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup butter, softened 1 1/2 cups white sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon almond extract

1.	Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
2.	In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets, or roll out and make shapes.
3.	Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

IMPORTANT:
1. The butter needs to be REALLY soft but not melted. If the dough seems crumbly, it won't stick together so you're going to need to use your mixer to stir it at high speed for a while longer until it comes together better.
2. These probably won't look done at 8-9 minutes but take them out anyway. If you wait just 2 minutes longer, they'll be hard. Better to undercook these than overcook. If they're a little cracked, they're ready.

Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies

There's a lot of bacon around our house lately. This low carb diet has us eating it at least once a week. As I prepped some bacon cheddar ranch bread sticks last night, I was also baking off a few batches of cookies. Then it hit me. I always sprinkle the tops of my chocolate chip cookies with a little sea salt for a better flavor.  Why not use the smoky-salty flavor of the bacon to do the same thing?  I mean really... why not? So I did.
The result was fabulous! Do not poo-poo this recipe until you've tried it. Then it's fair game.

To make these little pieces of heaven:

Use your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe to make the cookie dough.
(Or heck, buy it at the store. Who am I to judge??)

Cook 1 slice of bacon for every 3 cookies in the microwave for 3 minutes. (They need to be very crispy.)
Chop or crush them into very fine bits. The smaller the better. You're not going for chewey chunks, but rather a hint of bacon-ey flavor.
Place the bacon bits on a paper towel. That keeps them in place while rolling and pulls some of the grease off.

Scoop or roll the cookie dough into balls.
Roll the cookie dough balls into the bacon and place on a cookie sheet.
Bake according to your recipe's directions.
D E L I S H.

Oatmeal Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are to die for. The little bit of salt on top makes all the difference.


1 Cup Butter, melted (melt butter for nice chewy cookies or don't melt for fluffy cookies.)
1 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Large Eggs at room temp
2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 Cup Wheat Flour (or white)
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Salt
3 Cups Old Fashioned Oats
9 oz Bag of milk chocolate chips (or semi sweet chips)
Sea Salt  - Don't use table salt on top of the cookies. It's not the same thing.

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Using a standing or hand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy, about 4 minutes (getting this really fluffy is key to great cookies.)
3. Add salt, baking soda, vanilla, and the eggs. Mix until thoroughly combined.
4. Stir the flour in on a low setting.
5. Stir in oats and chocolate chips mixing well until combined. *
7. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchment or silpat lined cookie sheet.
8. Press down a little bit on each cookie, and top with a light sprinkle of sea salt.
9. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.
10. Cool and serve.

*These freeze well. After step #6, dump your dough onto a big piece  of plastic wrap or parchment paper. Smooth into a rough log shape. Then bring up one of the long sides of the paper and tuck it around the log. Smooth into a uniform log. Roll the rest of the way and twist the ends. Place in an airtight container or zip top bag. Toss in the freezer for up to 3 mos. When baking, cut into rounds and add an extra minute or two in the oven.

No Fail Sugar Cookies

I call these no-fail sugar cookies because I can't remember where I picked up the recipe and when I made them, they turned out okay. (Which is uncommon in my household. I'm not the best baker.) 

These don't spread out much so you can fit quite a few on the pan. They turn out pretty light and fluffy as well.

1 1/4 C sugar
1C butter
____________ cream those together on high speed until they're really fluffy - it makes a difference.

3 egg yolks
1tsp vanilla
___________ add those in one yolk at a time

mix the following in a bowl:
2 1/2 C flour (I used half white and half white whole wheat flour)
1tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
________________ then add those to the wet mix.

It's a little dry looking but it sticks together. Use your hands or a cookie scoop to make little balls about the size of a walnut. Then roll them in sugar. (or not)

Place the balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Don't flatten.
Bake at 350 for 10-11 minutes, until the top starts to crack and they're just turning a little golden.

Cookie Pizzas

Easy as pie... er pizza pie.

Buy a premade dough at the grocery store (any flavor - be creative) or do a cookie mix. (Or make it from scratch if you must. I can't be bothered to measure all that stuff.)

Fit the dough into a 12 inch pizza pan and top with whatever you want.
Some ideas: reece's pieces, m&m's, marshmallows(cook 10min add marshmallows, cook another 5min), candy bar pieces, nuts, candy corn, etc...

Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown

You can also make a fruit pizza this way by adding cream cheese frosting or yogurt and fruit after baking and cooling.

Same goes for a coolwhip topping if you'd rather do that.

You can also make a chocolate topping by melting semi sweet chips over the top, or peanut butter filling by mixing 1-2/3C peanutbutter chips with 1-14oz can of sweetened condensed milk and adding that mixture after the cookie crust is baked.

I'm In Love Cookies

I'm calling these "I'm in love cookies" because I love anything that is 1) chocolate 2) this stinkin' easy and 3) this light and gooey.

This was an experiment based on the fact that I was craving cookies and didn't have the typical cookies ingredients in the house. I had pumpkin and I had a cake mix. I know you can substitiute the eggs and oil with diet soda or apple sauce so why not pumpkin, right? When I mixed up the batter I first thought it wasn't going to work. It looked like there was too much cake mix for the pumpkin to absorb but I got it mixed in. Then I tasted it and, I love pumpkin but it was not the best. I threw it in the oven anyway and these marvelous, light, gooey cookies came out. mmmm....

Oh. You want the recipe? Okay here goes...

In a bowl mix:
one small can of pumpkin
one box of cake mix

Stir really well and then add some chocolate chips.
Ghiradelli makes really great choc chips because they're big and it's good quality chocolate.

Plop them on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
You can put them fairly close together because they don't really go anywhere.

I really thought they'd be dense like the soda+cake mix cookies but they're really light and fluffy.