Christmas Baking - sweets

On 28 November I posted some sweet recipe ideas for Christmas.  I was stumbling around on Facebook and found these delicious looking biscuits on another Blog.  This blog is called 'In Katrina's Kitchen' and besides the recipe below, there are also dozens, no hundreds of other delicious looking Christmas recipes.  I particularly like the look of this one, so I think I may try and make it, just for the fun of it and because I can!

Chocolate Coated Marshmallow Red Velvet Cookies

I whipped up at batch of Red Velvet Sugar Cookie and cut out 2-inch circles with a cookie cutter. About two minutes before the cookies were done, I took the pan out and dropped a marshmallow on top. The marshmallow had been cut in half to make the cookie more uniform looking. I put the pan back into the oven for 2 minutes until the marshmallows were soft but not browned, then set them aside to cool. Then I simply coated the cookies in red, white, and green candy melts! 

Red Velvet Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

• 1-½ cup Butter (I Use Unsalted)

• 2 cups Sugar

• 3 eggs

• 4 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

• 2 teaspoons Almond Extract

• 1 teaspoon red gel food coloring

• 4 cups All-purpose Flour

• 2 tablespoons cocoa

• 1 teaspoon Salt

• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 
  

Instructions

1. In a mixer, beat butter and sugar until well combined, about 2 minutes.
2. Add in 3 eggs and mix until combined.
3. Add in vanilla extract, almond extract, and red gel food coloring, then mix thoroughly.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder. Slowly (about a cup at a time) add flour to butter mixture and combine. You can use a mixer or not, just depends on how strong you are.
5. I usually just mix ingredients until they are combined, as I have heard that if you over-mix this dough it will get tough.
6. Put dough in some Saran wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour. When you are ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough out, cut out cookies, and bake for 6-8 minutes.

Chocolate Candy Coating 

Ingredients
1 cup candy melts (can be found at Walmart or most craft stores) 
3-4 tablespoons of shortening 
microwave safe container 
Sprinkles (optional) 

Instructions

1. Place candy and shortening into microwave safe container (I found that an old cottage cheese container worked the best!) and melt for one minute. Remove and stir, then place back in the microwave for 30-second increments. 
2.  Once the chocolates are mostly melted, remove and stir to reach desired consistency. I wanted the chocolate pretty runny to make covering the cookies easier, so I added a bit more shortening. Just drop it in and stir into the heated chocolate until dissolved.

Place cookies on wire rack over a cookie pan. (A piece of parchment or wax paper underneath makes for easy clean up!) Gently spoon out chocolate over cookie, making sure cookie is completely covered. Smooth out chocolate as much or as little as you prefer. Let cookies sit for about an hour so the chocolate may harden. 

And voila!

Doesn't that look delicious?

Check out the other gorgeous recipes on this Blog at In Katrina's Kitchen.



http://www.bookdepository.com/?a_aid=pinkacquarius