Labels for the Holiday Mix in a Jar Recipes

Well, like many of you I am swamped with the hours spent at work, holiday gift creating and shopping plus trying to get the home decorated, cards mailed and the blog kept up (whew, tired just thinking about it).  I’ve been promising more on wrap for food gifts and am taking a moment to toss up a PDF file you can download of holiday labels for the recipes in a jar I’ve posted. I’ve added a blank label page as well. They fit easily on any regular mason jar. Ever pragmatic, I prefer the label right on the jar as I’ve received jar gifts (bean soups from the kiddies in kindergarten) where the jar and the tag became separated.  I want the instructions stuck on as the vast majority of my gift recipients truly prefer pragmatism as well.

 A square or circle of cloth or paper over the lid could be the finishing touch instead of a bow. If you want to use the blank labels as lid toppers, just print at 125% – any bigger and you won’t see the label on the jar. For labels on the jars just print at 100%. Stuck on the ribbon for the photo – but in the basket I’m planning full of things, I’d trim the ties up a bit maybe use a deep purple for contrast. I won’t truly decide finishing touches until I have all the items together with the “vessel”.

The pumpkin muffins will be packaged the mix, the small can of pumpkin (I used a purchased cello bag for in the photos above and below) plus a cello bag with the molasses in a 4 ounce jam jar and a packet of cream cheese.  I’ll also include some sourdough in a jam jar with a mix for multigrain or gingerbread waffles and maple syrup (chosen recipe to come), plus the oatmeal tea loaves with the oatmeal mix jars of those as well. So many folks I know work oodles and oodles of hours per week and take off over the holidays. One of the joys of that time is being able to enjoy leisurely breakfasts. So the brunch baskets are always a treat. If I were giving the muffins with extras alone or a two mix jars – a simple hand sewn stocking (or purchased) would be a perfect holder.

I simply used the paper I normally run through my HP printer (Costco or Office Depot stock). Cardstock might be too hard to wrap easily; this label mirrors the Classico sauce label in that it wraps the jar ever so slightly. Brush the back with Modge Podge or something similar and place it on your jar. Really press the edges but be careful not to rub with your fingertip over the indented lettering if your choice of jar has that. I simply used the flat part of an extended finger to smooth and press over that area. I deliberately chose to use regular print, not photo quality and no spraying clear gloss or Modge Podge over the top as I like the handmade non-glossy look and feel of the jars.

The photos are mine on the labels with photos, clip art courtesy of Microsoft Office Clipart download for the labels with clip art. I’ve put links to the recipe on the labels, as with the muffins you’ll find the dry ingredients aren’t included should the recipient want to replicate them. There simply wasn’t enough room. I only ask that if you post your gift with my labels to your blog, you note labels courtesy of http://coedraiocht.wordpress.com  and link to the download on my site – do not copy and upload the PDF files to your site. Of course, don’t sell the labels or add the labels to a collection to sell.  I don’t sell items; I’m simply sharing what I’ve created for my own gifts.  All 3 pages of labels are in the one PDF file.

Jar Mix Label  

This post is participating in linky parties noted below.

Victory in a Jar

I enjoy writing. My days are spent in business where good business writing is concise, clear, three points, short words, never confuse anyone with multi-syllable words, descriptors are clutter to the message and sentences should be short. This is important with global audiences where English is a second language to many. For my blog, I love the freedom of “stream of consciousness” (sounds more intelligent than run on sentences, doesn’t it?) and like to push myself to remember simple things like adjectives and descriptors. When pondering terms to use for this post, antediluvian is what I settled on. It means “from the time before the biblical flood”. Marvelous word – don’t you think? Why is this post antediluvian? Because this post is about Mix in a Jar recipes.

Why victorious for my title? Because this mix in a jar recipe is sheer bliss once it’s made into a loaf. Victory, found what I needed, settled on my “theme” to work up (baskets, various wrapping ideas and the theme with another recipe in a future post; you may want to subscribe so you don’t miss it J  I will tell you that for folks I know, I like to include a baked version, plus the mix for them to make and enjoy again later ). If there were blog police, I think they should go after anyone who posts mix in a jar recipes and hasn’t actually made and eaten them or has not posted pics of the finished cooked/baked product. I want to know there’s firsthand experience and what I’m gifting isn’t some gummy oily monstrosity once baked. So, I’m Maggie and I approve this recipe.

Sunset’s Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Quick Bread in a Bottle 

My slight variation, substitute some of the white flour with whole wheat and use dried fruit instead of chocolate chips:

Dried Cranberry Walnut Oatmeal Quick Bread (or Raisin Walnut)

Layer:

 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup dried cranberries, lightly chopped (or raisins) 

Follow Sunset recipe for wet. For gifts I recommend you add the notation that 1 ½  TBL vinegar added to 1 ½ Cup milk can be substituted for the buttermilk (not everyone you gift may have it handy and although buttermilk would be a smidge better, this will still make a fine loaf). * Since originally posting this, I’ve become a fan of dry buttermilk (once the America’s test kitchen folks gave it their approval, I gave it a go. I now add the buttermilk powder to the dry and the corresponding amount of water to the wet. Follow instructions wiith the brand you get for amounts.

 At first I was very concerned. The batter seemed MUCH looser than most tea breads I make. I was reaching for the flour thinking just another ¼ cup but made myself resist as Sunset is usually pretty reliable. I truly had my doubts when putting these into the oven that they wouldn’t be a bit soggy. No worries – do not give in to the temptation to add flour, it bakes up beautifully.

 

 

As I’m testing out gifts, I thought about making the loaves just a tad easier to wrap by lining the pans with parchment (long side only see photo. I didn’t bother with the pan that was for me). As the cooking sprays come out pretty wet – I usually tip the pans over and let them drain a tad, figure the manufacturer doesn’t want any sticking, thus the heavy hand – I placed the parchment in the wet pan then turned it over so batter side had some of non-stick goo. I also sprinkled the tops with a light dusting of white sugar as I like the little extra crunch it gives the final product.

 

My smaller pans took about 40 minutes (I am in the mountains and seem to have to cook all baked goods a tad longer). 

Jars

I realized I wanted to do another wash of my jars (they’d gotten dusty), so you won’t see mine here. But they are something you can ready ahead of time. A nice add is to check the expiration on the flours you use and note that expiration date on the bottom of your recipe cards.  For jars, I use thoroughly cleaned Classico sauce jars (get the sauce in a 3 pack from Costco).  Yes, linking this post to food sites and I have jars of premade sauce confessed to in it. Just mush a few olives, capers and caper juice into it and it transforms. So, the jars – I like that the Kerr regular lids fit precisely and there are no vendor marks on the jars. You might have to use an adhesive remover to get the labels off. A final run through your hot dishwasher and your jars are probably more sterile than what you buy.  I know some paint and reuse the sauce lids, but new Kerr lids cost virtually nothing and take the package up a notch.

 

Wrap

 Experimenting with wrapping alternatives and found another keeper. These loaves can be boxed in one 8 ½ X 11 sheet of cardstock (U.S. Letter). My example is showing you only the cardstock “plain” (having guests for U.S. Thanksgiving and am not dragging out the Christmas stuff yet). Crafters reading this post will realize the decorating ideas are endless – they include paint (simply sponge or wash your holiday colors over the paper and let dry), rubber stamping, pen and ink, decoupaged tissue, composing whatever combo you like and running your sheet through your printer, purchased cardstock or downloadable sheet images. I used a heavier cardstock and scored all lines using a clean pan as my guide. No tape – the ribbon at the end holds it together. Plan to make and print round labels for the tops (something original like “From Maggie’s Kitchen” in holiday hues). I’ve scanned the folded one so that I can work the pattern in my design programs.

         

 Special thank you to ’SnoWhite’ for featuring this post on her blog.

This post is participating in the linky parties noted below.

Giving Back

Women Giving Back. There are a few groups that use this name.  Over in Sonora, it is a group of generous women who hold a monthly fundraiser for a local charity. It started when one woman had lunches in her home and each of those invited would donate a certain amount of money.  They’d have a speaker from a local charity come and gift that money to the speaker’s charity. It is now significantly larger.  The local blood bank allows the use of their banquet room and kitchen as long as a certain number of folks donate blood in Women Giving Back’s name during a quarter. About 10 women purchase all supplies for lunch and host it (one is a professional caterer). Those attending make a donation of $25.00 to that month’s charity. The amount includes a raffle ticket, with additional raffle tickets available for only $5 for 3.  Prices are very reasonably set so that, even in this economy, many can attend. I donate a raffle basket once/year and chose this month as it is Sonora Library’s Literacy Services program. I read constantly and thought it would be a good fit.

A Good Book, some Hot Cocoa and Snacks in Murphys is my theme (I’ve mentioned I love my little town and like to lure folks here). I’m not the best with baskets, the two previous years I’ve picked up a beautiful plant or two from local garden centers in a nice basket container. Every time I went to buy something locally to put in the basket I thought “if it were me I’d rather have a gift certificate so I could pick what I really want”.  After all, I’m an avid reader – but it’s of fun fiction not the kind of books so many book clubs settle on. I was an English Literature major in college and have done my duty trudging through the work of so many depressing suicidal geniuses. If someone put books in a basket for a literacy raffle, I can bet it wouldn’t be something I’d be dying to read. So, gift certificate to the local bookstore, Murphys Books aka Paul’s Books, it is. The recipient can choose what they like.  

Then on to Creative Cookware, our marvelous cooking store.  The owner, Barbara, made a few suggestions in my price range for the basket – and again I was thinking “would the recipient rather have a new cookbook, a snack of gourmet jams or chutneys or a snack of an Ina Garten mix?  Why decide for her? Second gift certificate done.  To round out the Murphys theme a stop at the very deadly if you have any sweet tooth at all, Nelson’s Candies. Their locally handmade candies (you can watch in their Columbia shop – a popular stop for school field trips) are not only delicious but they are beautiful. Their large handmade candy ribbons are a staple of my Christmas repertoire – they add such beauty to dessert tables. This was easy, a small box of chocolates and a small box of fruit chews.  Stunning new black and white mugs and a four pack of gourmet flavored cocoas rounded out the purchase. Topping it off would be some treats baked by me.  I settled on Baker’s Chocolate Nut Loaves.

It’s an easy recipe to put together and something on my list to try. This gets another Maggie Gold Star gotta try it recommendation. I did alter it just a tad by adding one heaping tablespoon of cocoa to the mix for a deeper chocolate flavor. The smaller cakes took 25 to 30 minutes to bake (I’m at an altitude in the mountains, start checking something as small as the leaves at 20 minutes).

 

Cooks Illustrated has some special editions out for the holidays. One (with an updated Tunnel of Fudge cake) talks about cooking in Bundt pans. They recommend melting 2 tablespoons of butter, mixing in the same amount of flour and then pasting that into your pans with a pastry brush so the cakes come out easily with the added bonus that they won’t have that white coating you get with a flour dusting or Pam Baking Spray.  Also recommended was to use cocoa instead of flour for chocolate cakes.  Decided to give it a go as I wanted to drag out the fancy pans for this effort. It can be confusing with cocoa as it so looks like chocolate, that your brain keeps telling you it’s going to burn.  Although I’ve found America’s Test Kitchen and Cooks Illustrated to be correct and informative, I made one pan with Pam Cooking Spray in case there was anything off about this method. I also used a silicone brush which worked well. It turned out fine and you get fingers covered in chocolate powder anytime you touch those treats – be careful using it with any finger food. The batter is actually a bit thick for the detailed pans.  I’d pushed the batter into all the corners but did end up with lots of bubble marks (and I’d tapped the pans to release them). Luckily – lots of icing covered the little pock marks but if I wanted a clearer shape (like the Nordicware leaf pans with leaf vein lines) I’ll use a different recipe.

 

 The small book had a recipe for bittersweet glaze, and although I had the unsweetened Baker’s chocolate, I was concerned it might be too strong for some. So, I substituted the unsweetened with semi-sweet squares and then followed their recipe.

Semi-Sweet Glaze

 2 squares Baker’s semi-sweet chocolate

2 TBL butter

Dash salt

 1 ¾ Cup Confectioner’s sugar

3 TBL hot water

Melt chocolate with butter over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add salt. Alternately add sugar with water, making sure to stir until smooth (may look lumpy after a sugar addition). Enough for a 9 or 10 inch cake (tube or square). Completely yummy.

 

 

 The cupcake boxes can now be found in the Wilton area of your craft stores.  The leaf pan fits cupcake bottoms and in the cupcake boxes quite well.  For others, you can pull out the cupcake insert piece of cardboard and use it as a small bakery box. 

These cakes with glaze are superb.  After the luncheon, shared some with my neighbor over a glass of light white wine and we agree this is a winner (yes reds with chocolate when you want to balance, but believe me, white works J ). Oh, and it is a bit different than a traditional chocolate cake – truly something about it is more of a “loaf” texture. 

   

For folks who know me, one of my favorite containers is saved and washed ice cream containers (don’t soak them or put in the dishwasher or they fall apart, but quick hand washing is fine). Works great for single layered cookies, excellent for shipping them as you can pad outside the small container, works for single cupcakes, here you see the raspberry bars en route to neighbors.  Also works for a few small rubber stamps with one inch type stamp pad or special Christmas ornaments. They are just so dang cute (and I am an ice cream fan). However, not fancy enough for the basket so went with the cupcake boxes. The Cupcake Queen over at 52 Cupcakes I believe I saw recommend Plastic Container City. I’ve also seen folks recommend Candyland Crafts. I’ve not used them but have them bookmarked to try if I don’t find what I want at the craft stores. For those of you who like to craft your own, Wilton’s single cupcake box is 10 1/2 inches by 16 inches. You could use glossy 11 X 17 cardstock to replicate them.

 I ran out and didn’t nab photos of the raffle basket with mugs and treats – it did turn out lovely and the Sonora library got almost $800 for their new book fund from the lunch plus raffle activities (and I have extra chocolate nut loaves to share with my neighbors).

This post is participating in the linky parties noted below.

Can you say Scrumptiliumptious?

Oh oh – can you say Scrumptiliumptious?  I’m starting to think the image of a pufferfish might be too dainty for me if I can’t stop baking and indulging in luscious treats warm from the oven. Perhaps I should paste a photo of a big, bloated multi chinned manatee in the kitchen?

For those of you not in the know, I signed up for the Twelve Weeks of Christmas Cookies blog hop where some fabulous food bloggers are posting positively scrumptiliumptious cookie recipes right up until mid December.  Luckily no one had to commit to posting in all 12 weeks or the fact that I don’t have the requisite will power to deny myself tasty treats when the aromas of said treats baking perfume the entire house would demand an entirely upsized wardrobe prior to the holiday season. You can tell I’m not trying to be the next Food Network Star – food writers don’t open their posts with big “Warning”, “Might be too luscious”, large ugly animal photos. But I feel it is only right to alert you to the fact that these cookies are addictive.

There’s no such word as scrumptiliumptious you say?  Well, first try this MAHVELOUS cookieand then tell me there’s no such word.

Short break for a history lesson. Once upon a time there was no internet for home users (gasp, horror, but t’is true). Surfing for recipes wasn’t an option.  Manufacturers of all sorts of food and beverages would make offers – send us a letter and we’ll send you a recipe book. As a munchkin, I liked to help out in the kitchen and I loved getting my own mail. Off these offers for little treasures would go.  I still have some, plus assorted cookware, tourist and other recipe pamphlets. That Seafood one you can see is even from a Boston bank. Been browsing the stash for recipes others may not be posting and found this one.  It’s a keeper.

This week’s recipe is brought to you by Pillsbury, Holiday Classics.

I made only 2 minor changes to the recipe.  I replaced the cherry pie filling with seedless red raspberry jam (I like jam cookies) and, as this sharing was with only other adults not wanting to do the pufferfish/manatee thing (the neighbor munchkins had rampant success in Halloween candy gathering) omitted the icing.  You can see from Pillsbury’s photo above, the icing does make them look just a tad more festive.

The jam was placed in a pan of boiling water and removed from the burner to warm and become more easily spreadable over the dough.  Modern mixer conveniences make creaming the butter, sugar and vanilla until light a simple process.

The resulting dough is a bit stiff and should hold its shape. I wet my hand to more easily press the dough into the pan – you can see my fingerprints, but that’s ok as it will be covered. I had considered making a half recipe, but had a few adults to share with and just went “whole pan”.  It would be very easy to halve this recipe and cook in a 9X9 pan.

I used an offset icing spatula to spread the jam – added a bit more after this photo but not so much that you’d get pockets that would drip on unsuspecting souls. Wet my hands again and pulled bits of dough to drop over the top, then tapped down a bit once I was done.

The kitchen was filled with the heady fragrance of raspberry plus cookie dough.  The cookies were screaming their presence before they were even out of the oven.

These are faster than jam thumbprints and the dough is moist with a wonderful texture.  Next time I might try half the pan jam and half lemon pie filling – two cookies from one baking effort. Recipients of this batch have let me know they’ll happily assist with the dispersal of future batches .

I’d like to give a special call out to Barbara of Barbara Bakes, who, in addition to posting scrumptiliumptious recipes herself, lends a helpful hand to many of us in maneuvering the blog hop.  I’ve mentioned before that for security reasons, WordPress doesn’t allow the script/Javascript commands that allow these to work (and that’s ok with me). 

Special thanks to Krystal over at http://recipesofacheapskate.blogspot.com/ for highlighting this post on her blog.

This post is also participating in the linky parties noted below.

Pure Temptation in an 8 x 8 pan

 Well, I’d said I was participating in 12 weeks of Christmas Cookies, but after making my absolute favorite cookie, the hermit, I needed to take a few weeks off baking so I don’t blow up like a startled pufferfish J.

Seeing the first few week entries in the blog hop I was getting concerned. I only have so many favored cookie recipes and they were starting to show up before I baked and blogged about them.  I thought about publishing my list – a sort of blogosphere dibs – neener, neener, neener, I dibbed shortbread on week 5.  But, I decided that was more childish than the person I like to be.  Besides, blogging is about my experience with a recipe and if there are 15 others of the same, so be it.  Once I got past my hissy hurdle I considered a list for me would be useful. I’ll have some plan of which cookies/candies to write about when. For instance, since I’m pawning them off, generously sharing the delicious treats with neighbors, I won’t do Christmas decorated cookies until December.

I dragged out favored cookbooks, bunches of Americas Test Kitchen (they’re by year), Martha, Julia, Jacques and a few specifically for tea time that would be heavy on cookies and browsed through them.  The notes also give me shopping lists, a smart move on my part as might otherwise hit a “rainy great baking day” and not have all the ingredients on hand.

Decided this week’s cookie will be from Boston Tea Parties, recipes from the Fine Arts Museum (side note I started collecting cookbooks when I was in Junior High).  It’s a fun little cookbook – instead of pictures of food you get pictures of museum tea sets, paintings about tea and so forth. It’s copyright ’87. Some of you may have read my food nazi post where I discussed that I was a vegetarian and healthy whole grains only kinda gal for 15 years, during which time my extended family was not enamored of my cooking (understatement).  Some recipes in this cookbook reminded me of those days –I may have a taste for such concoctions as carrot drops (only cooks for 10 minutes so the grated carrot probably still tastes like, well, grated carrot), whole wheat drops (what chocolate loving kid won’t jump for joy when presented with these?) and my favorite, hard boiled egg cookies (yep, cut up some hard boiled yolks and toss them in).  I chortled out loud thinking of the strongly negative reaction I’d get showing up at my brother’s for the holiday with a box of only these. It would be like showing up with stockings of coal and nothing else.

 

But, I LOVE cranberries. Tart homemade cranberry chutney from Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home, cranberry tea bread from the OceanSpray wrapper, cranberries in stuffing, in pies, in scones, dried cranberries – it’s all good.  And, this book had a recipe for Cranberry Spice Squares. Love spice cookies, love cranberries, however I remained cautious in thinking anyone but me may like these cookies given the book’s other inclusions.

 

I’m an Irish soda bread kinda gal – you know, flour, soda – toss it in the oven and if you don’t eat it in the next few hours it makes a great doorstop. My sister referred to it in our Ireland trip as akin to eating sawdust. So, I know baking soda has a rather distinct taste.  These cookies call for soda – I considered substituting it but the references I found said 3 times as much baking powder for baking soda and I knew that would throw the flavor off – I decided to bake them as instructed.

 

The long and short of it?  These things are GOOD! They’re better than good; they’re one of my new favorite spice cake recipes. Took every ounce of my willpower to not devour at least half of it warm from the oven.  Even now, the day after at room temp, I have to carefully allot myself a certain amount and wrap it up out of sight. I could just finish the darn thing for dinner. It calls to me – the marvelous heady spice (I added ¾ tsp allspice to the recipe), the perfectly tender and moist crumb, the delectable cranberries. It’s my ideal tea cake and it’s one I can share with my family – sans disdain and disappointment.

You will notice I’m calling it a tea cake. The book called it squares and listed it as a cookie.  I’d been imaging something much denser and, well, cookie like. This is a scrumptious tea cake cooked in an 8 X 8 pan that can be cut into squares. The book offers a recipe for cream cheese frosting (see recipes above) to go with it; I opted out of that one. For a dinner dessert try it, for a brunch/breakfast cake – skip it.  If you too don’t want to blow up like a pufferfish, be sure to have a few folks on hand to help you devour it. With or without assistance, it won’t be around long.

This post is participating in the following linky parties noted below.

In search of

In Search of …

De de de de    de de de de (in the highest pitch you can muster).  Okay, maybe a few of you don’t remember the TV show. But, I’d been thinking they would have better luck at finding existence of extraterrestrial beings than I would of finding the Hermit cookie of my childhood.

Believe me – I tried. I’d made recipes I could find – Epicurious.com (my always very first “go to” web recipe place), four recipes from the now-defunct Berkeley.edu’s SOAR’s (Searchable Online Archive of Recipes), Joy of Cooking’s and even Martha Stewart’s – but none were the cookie I remembered.  My memories were of a cookie deep brown from molasses, moist and chewy in bars, spicy.  They were a treat from a bakery called Laura’s. No drop cookies, no light colored cookies, certainly not dry or crispy cookies, but also not doughy or undercooked. These were made in New England – walnuts our nuts of choice.

But tonight, I’ve seen the light and am doing a little happy dance.  I’ve found what’s eluded me all these years – my perfect New England Hermit cookie. I adapted this from one by Cook’s Illustrated using a few hints from the America’s Test Kitchen folks.

 New England Hermit Bars

(adapted from Cook’s Illustrated)

8 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (freshly grate if you can)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (less if using salted butter)
1 cup raisins
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. America’s test kitchen hint “Most hermit recipes involve creaming the butter, but this produced dry, biscuit-y cookies. Melting the butter instead delivered a chewier, moister cookie. We took this one step further by cooking the butter in a saucepan until light brown and fragrant, which added a nutty flavor to the hermits”. Add the spices to the butter for the light cooking to bloom their flavor. “This avoids a dusty texture from too much ground spice.” If you have any questions, better to undercook than overcook the butter. Remove from heat and add sugar, stir. Let cool.

Beat eggs and molasses into your butter and spice mix. In a separate bowl, stir together all dry ingredients. Stir dry ingredients into molasses mixture. Stir in raisins and nuts.

Line baking sheet with parchment paper (or a silpat). Divide dough into 2 sections and form two logs of about 14×2 inches. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes. Slice each log at an angle about 2 inches thick.

These are what America’s Test Kitchen says they should be “old-fashioned cookies that bake up soft and chewy, with a perfect balance of sugar and spice”. My recipe has more spice than the Test Kitchen recipe called for (I still think they’re mild).  They also suggested steeping the raisins in melted butter to soften them, and pureeing them with some crystallized ginger into a rough paste. This” distributes raisin-y flavor into every bite, while the pureed ginger lends pungent sweetness and chew”. I had fresh soft raisins and I LIKE raisins in a cookie.  Much as I love crystallized ginger, my childhood cookie memories were of a hermit sans crystallized ginger, so I skipped these steps. I also did not include the Test Kitchen addition of a simple glaze of orange juice and confectioner’s sugar drizzled over the just-baked cookies. The cookies are perfect for me without the extra sugar of a glaze.<  If you prefer your cookies more sugary, go ahead and add it.

These are so good, I’ll probably double the recipe in future.  Other than that, no changes for me. Because of the amount of raisins and nuts, they break easily and would not ship well. If you must ship cookies – I’d puree the raisins with crystallized ginger as instructed and (gasp, no!) omit the nuts.

This recipe is participating the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies Blog Hop.

Best Ever Easy Chocolate Mocha Cookie

It’s been skipping about the high 90 temps for the last few weeks; we’re all hoping it’s that last great blast of summer. Thinking about getting some of the inside Halloween décor out, but before its even fall?  My mountain location gets fall and I really want it now. Feels too strange, so haven’t cracked those décor boxes open yet.

Then, as I’m marvelous at meeting deadlines and do intend to write about recipes here, I decided I’d sign up for April’s Attic Twelve Weeks of Christmas Cookies and I need to get BAKING today.  But, hey – it’s dipped to the mid 90’s and might hit the 80’s this week; my air conditioner can handle the oven warming up the house (not exactly good green thinking, but I’ve got a blog deadline   ).

Nevertheless, I have two types of recipes I create for the holidays.  There are the really fast “been way too busy with work”; “stayed up too late reading a book or finishing Christmas presents”; and “I’m just too dang tired” easy recipes.  Then there are the “messes up the entire kitchen, takes a day to make and another half day to clean up after” recipes. Guess what I’m going for in this heat?

You might find this hard to believe as my first recipe of the 12 is starting with a mix, but I do have a rather discriminating palate. I would never have believed cookies from a mix could taste this good, having relegated most mixes to the category of “you can taste the graininess of the sugar since the recipe doesn’t make you cream butter and sugar”.  If you are also a “must be completely homemade, never a mix” snob – try these cookies.  You’ll be pleasantly astounded.  I know I was.  Last Christmas this recipe became a staple of family on the other side of the country (we have a family Facebook where we consistently tempt one another off diets) and friends and family here who know of my mix snobbiness and were delighted to find I’d uncovered something they too might whip up one day.

This recipe is a variation of Betty Crocker’s Mocha Toffee Chocolate Cookies.

Best Ever Easy Chocolate Mocha Cookie

Oven 350.  Have cookie sheets and parchment paper ready.  I use a 3TBL scoop to measure as I like bigger “bakery style” cookies.  Original recipe called for “rounded teaspoons”.

In a medium bowl mix:

4 tsp instant espresso coffee (dry)

4 tsp vanilla

Until coffee is dissolved.

Add:

1/2C vegetable oil

2 eggs

Beat with fork to blend eggs.

Add one good quality chocolate cake mix (today I used Devil’s Food Moist cake mix by Betty Crocker, if Duncan Hines is on sale – that’d be the one. I just wouldn’t go for German chocolate as I like the deepness of the chocolate flavor the dark cake mix brings).

The batter should be shiny and hold together.  On occasion I’ve had to add a TBL or 2 of water.  The first time I made this I broke the spatula I was using – now I use a strong fork.

Add:

1C semisweet chocolate chips (I use regular size)

1/2C plus chopped walnuts (I don’t quite add 3/4C but do add more than 1/2C)

Mix. Use scoop to drop same size balls of dough onto parchment lined cookie sheet.

Flatten a tad.

Bake 11 to 13 minutes.  Wait 5 minutes then slide parchment paper with cookies onto cooling racks and cool at least 15 more minutes. They are very moist inside.  You can easily bake only part of this recipe and refrigerate the remaining. I wrap the dough tightly in plastic and put it in a tightly sealing plastic container (a la Tupperware) and refrigerate.  I do bring the dough to room temperature before scooping and baking.

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