Journey Into Deliciousness

Oreo Cookie Truffles

Grade: A+

Time it takes: 5-6 hours (5 minutes to mush up the middles, then as much time as you need to chill and melt chocolate and dip balls - I found it easier when the middles were nice and cold so I took it slow and re-chilled a lot, I bet you could knock these out in no time though if you were so inclined)

Yield: I got around 40 balls, depends on how big you roll them

Source: What Megan's Making - a food blog (oreo balls)

These are seriously simple and tasty. Three ingredients, four if you want to get fancy! I found the oreo mixture to be hard to work with when it wasn't nice and cold - I bet sticking them in the freezer would work nicely too, but I didn't do that this time. I'm not sure how easy it would be to crush the oreos without a food processor. You really wouldn't want any chunks and I'd imagine that it would take a good bit of time and elbow grease with a big bag and a rolling pin to achieve the same results as a food processor.

I kept these in the refrigerator to set and I decided against shipping them out of state because they would for one sweat and for two I didn't want any cream cheese being-unrefrigerated-even-in-the-winter issues. Chris ate these so fast I didn't even get the chance to take any nice finished product pictures; he is entirely put out that I have to make them again, really... All in the name of photography and food blogging! Out of everything I baked for the holidays these were his favourite, and I didn't even bake them technically.

I made two batches of these. One using regular oreos dipped in milk chocolate with white chocolate drizzled on top. The other using mint oreos dipped in milk chocolate with green dyed white chocolate drizzled on top. I preferred the regular oreos myself, while Chris raved about the mint ones; neither were bad though. You bite into a hard chocolate shell and find a soft rich chocolatey middle...mmmm.

Click below to expand for the recipe!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Grade: A+

Time it takes: 4 hours and 50 minutes (4 hours chilling, 30 minutes prep, 20 minutes baking)

Yield: about 40 cookies

Source: What Megan's Making - a food blog (Chocolate Crinkles)

I had never heard of crinkle cookies, let alone made them before, but they looked fantastic in the pictures I kept seeing when I did a search for Christmas cookies and the name kept popping up in blogs and cooking forums. So, that convinced me to make them for my second cookie to send out in my goodies packages this year. I wasn't sure how well they would ship because they are a soft cookie, but they held up just fine in transit.

The cinnamon comes through really nicely giving it a warm homey taste. They are soft and chewy, and leave powdered sugar on your fingers. Compared to the effort of the pinwheel cookies, these were a breeze to make. Mix up the dough, refrigerate, and then bake. Bam, done, finished. And they were just so good. I was sad to see them go, I will have to make up some for myself very soon...oh and right out of the oven!?! Fantastic! You will definitely not regret making these.

Click below to expand for the recipe!

Christmas Pinwheel Cookies

Grade: B (for taste) A+ (for looks)

Time it takes: for-ev-er (5 hours or so, lots of hands off time while the dough chills)

Yield: about 36 cookies

Source: adapted from Our Italian Kitchen and Rara Bakes - I started with the dough from Our Italian Kitchen and I absolutely hated it, it was terrible to work with and tasted horrid. But, because I really liked the look I found a new dough recipe and it went much better. However, I used concepts from each so I decided to site each, although the original idea came from my friend Atty who made pinwheel cookies a few months back.

I have a love hate relationship with sugar cookie dough. To me it tastes boring and has a random sweetness to it, but if you want to make a decorative cookie it is a good dough to work with. Similar to royal icing - tastes horrible, but can be used to make prettiness. Maybe I am still too new to the cookie world and there is some other magical decorative cookie dough out there that tastes amazing and one day I will stumble upon it! Or maybe I just think sugar cookies taste like poo, and I am one of the few...along with Chris, and my grandma, and everybody else everywhere...

I send out goodies packages to friends and family at Christmas-time. I wanted a really festive fun looking cookie to send, and I really liked the idea of a green and red pinwheel cookie. A good bit of the recipes I found are the same exact dough recipe as the one I first tried from Our Italian Kitchen - which ended in miserable results. The dough was a pain in the ass to get to the right consistency, and then it wouldn't roll properly no matter how chilled and un-chilled I got the thing. I decided to just roll it and bake them for a taste test. I put them in for the 15 minutes recommended time, and when I went to check on them they were black - pink (from a red dye miscalculation) green and black. Ugh I was so annoyed. They tasted like crap anyway! So I just threw the whole thing away and started fresh.

The dough recipe from Rara Bakes (which will be listed below) was a dream to work with compared to the above mess. I was extra careful with my liquid dye to flour ratio, but it wasn't super necessary. The dough is suppose to be rather soft, but chills beautifully...angels were singing when I rolled this stuff out I swear! Make sure to use at least half a bottle of dye to get really vivid colours and go slowly when rolling the two doughs into a jellyroll. Also use different colours and extracts to really tailor it to your specific needs. Next time I will roll out the two doughs a bit thinner and wider to get a better swirl going on, but I still think they turned out very Christmas-y anyway.

Click below to expand for the recipe!

Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies

Grade: A

Time it takes: Around 50 minutes (20-30 minutes prep, 8-10 minutes baking per baking sheet)

Yield: Makes about 2 dozen cookies

Source: Stephanie Cooks - a food blog (Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies)

I made these the same day I made the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies. These cookies are super different from each other, so I think I picked the best two recipes to try out together. The CPBC cookies were super soft and cake-like, these were crunchy and had a spicy bite to them. I loved the way the pumpkin spices tasted in the form of a cookie, perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe for the fall. Out of the two I favoured the CPBC cookies, but my husband Chris couldn't get enough of the pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies.

I also doubled this recipe so I had enough to go around, and I ended up with around 50 cookies (maybe a few more but Chris kept stealing them right out of the oven before I could get a final count).

Click below to expand for the recipe!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Grade: A+

Time it takes: Around 50 minutes (20-30 minutes prep, 7-9 minutes baking per baking sheet)

Yield: Somewhere in the vicinity of 30 cookies, depending on how big or small you decide to make them

Source: The Curvy Carrot - a food blog (Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies)

I made these cookies for no particular reason, just because I got the urge to make cookies. Really, that is reason enough for me! I decided to make a batch of these and a batch of pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies (recipe to follow). Oh my god! These were so good. They were super soft and chocolate-y and peanut butter-y and incredibly delicious. Mmmm I wish I still had some left now.

I doubled the recipe because I sent a good bit off to friends and family, and I got around 60 cookies. The only thing I would change would be to add more peanut butter cups, probably up 1 1/2 cups to 2 cups. I'd also recommend refrigerating the peanut butter cups before you chop them up to make it easier all around. I actually think these are my favourite cookies I've ever made, granted I haven't made a large variety, but these are seriously addictively yummy.

Click below to expand for the recipe!

Chocolate Thumbprint Birthday Cookies!

Grade: A

Time it takes: Somewhere in the vicinity of an hour (20 minutes prep, 30 minutes to chill, 8 minutes bake)

Yield: About 20 cookies

Source: The Curvy Carrot - a food blog (chocolate thumbprint cookies)

I saw a picture of these and immediately wanted to make them. I've always loved thumbprint cookies, but I've never made a chocolate version of them. Plus they are covered in rainbow sprinkles, how fun is that? They looked too cute not to make. And, today is my friend Silvana's birthday and my brother-in-law's birthday, so they were made with a little birthday spirit too!

Happy Birthday Silvana and Ian =)

Click below to expand for the recipe!