Heart-Shaped Pan Cookie {Giant Valentine Cookie}

My mom.  I wonder how many of my posts start out like that.  Obviously she has heavily influenced my cooking and baking.  Anyway....my mom used to bake up lots of these giant cookies for friends, neighbors, and my dad every year for Valentine's day.  It was a such a fun tradition and how could you not love someone who made such a cute, delectable treat for you?  So when I saw a heart-shaped pan at Ross last weekend, I had to have it for obvious reasons.  

I'm not sure if I'll ever grow out of making Valentines for my friends.  I guess it makes me still feel like I'm in 3rd grade, which I kind of miss some days.  Something about this holiday just gets me in the baking/crafty mood.  Last year I was in Utah for Valentines Day and my mom and sister and I made these fun little chocolate boxes.  Last week, the little man and I stapled together this fun heart garland.  Last night, when I asked little man to come help me make dinner, he started crying and said, "No.  I make cookies right now mommy."   I don't really like when he pulls out the right now on me, but I had to laugh because I don't know that many 2-year-olds that are so insistent on making cookies regularly.  This little man is a cookie monster just like his mama.  While our chicken was in the oven, we whipped up one of these babies.  It was fun and nostalgic and the little man tasted the cookie dough a few too many times to give this one away, so we kept it.  And we've been eating it all day.  

Heart-Shaped Pan Cookie {Giant Valentine Cookie}
Printable Version

Ingredients:

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1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 ½ - 1 ¾ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided

Directions:

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Preheat oven to 375 (350 If using a dark, glass, or nonstick pan).  Grease and wax paper-line 8 1/2 or 9-inch heart-shaped pan (or use a round or square pan if that’s what you’ve got).   
Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in egg. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in 1 cup morsels; spread into prepared pan.
Bake for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and leaving a border around the cookie, immediately sprinkle remaining chocolate chips in a heart shape.  Allow chocolate chips to get shiny and melty for 2-3 minutes before spreading over cookie.  (The back of a spoon worked great for my spreader)  Add any fun or festive sprinkles, if desired, while chocolate is melted.  Allow cookie to cool and chocolate topping to set up before removing from pan (this will take several hours).  

Notes:

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If you are worried about getting your cookie out of the pan or need to use the pan again before the chocolate is completely set up then follow the original recipe directions for cooling and the chocolate chip topping:
Let cool in pan for 10 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely.  Microwave remaining morsels in small, microwave-safe bowl on MEDIUM-HIGH (70%) power for 1 minute; stir. Morsels may retain some of their shape. If necessary, microwave at additional 10- to 15-second intervals, stirring until melted; spread over cookie.

This would also be super cute with these valentine morsels in the dough. Toll house used to make a raspberry semi-sweet swirled morsel that it is really tasty with as well. Maybe they are just seasonal or something, but I haven't seen them lately.  

Recipe Source:

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My mom, via Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, February 1995. Also available here.

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies {with Cream Cheese Frosting}

Homemade Oreos.  These babies are obviously not very much like the Nabisco variety, but are so very delectable in their own way.  These are definitely not new or inventive, but they are so delicious!  In the event that everyone in the world doesn't already have this recipe, I'll share it here.  My mom used to make these on occasion and they would disappear fast!  I kind of forgot about them and rediscovered them last month.  Since then, I've made for 3 different occasions!  By using boxed cake mix, they come together so quickly and can be made super cute and festive by adding a little food coloring to the frosting or rolling the cookies in some fun sprinkles.  

I've seen a few versions that use shortening rather than oil.  I have some kind of aversion to shortening, (I'm more of a butter kind of girl!) so I love that this version uses oil and doesn't give you a totally flat cookie.  Plus, the oil is much less fussy to measure.  

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies {with Cream Cheese Frosting}

Printable Version

Ingredients:

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2 boxes devil’s food cake mix
4 eggs
¾ cup +1 tablespoon canola oil

For the frosting:
1- 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened (Neufchâtel cheese works great too!)
½ cup butter, softened
½ teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
3 cups powdered sugar (use less if you don’t like it as sweet)
Food coloring (optional)

Directions:

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Preheat oven to 350.  In a large mixing bowl (or mixing bowl of a stand mixer) combine cake mix, eggs, and oil.  Mix (using paddle attachment) until uniform and well combined.  Roll dough into ping-pong sized balls and place on parchment or silicone lined baking sheets.  Using the bottom of glass (or something else flat) press the cookies ever so slightly.  Bake for 8-10 minutes being careful not to overbake.  Allow to cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.  

For the frosting, beat all ingredients with an electric hand mixer until smooth and fluffy.  If you wish, you can transfer the frosting into a quart-size ziploc freezer bag and snip the corner off for fast and mess-free cookie assembly.     

When cookies are cooled completely, match them up by size and frost as desired.  Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.  

Notes:

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I use the cake mix that has pudding in the mix with great results.  It makes for extra-soft cookies.  You can change the amount of oil in the recipe anywhere from ⅔ cup to 1 cup depending on how thick you like your cookies.  Just keep in mind that you will be sandwiching 2 together, so you don’t want them too thick.  Also, if you want to make giant cookies, roll the balls bigger and add a few minutes to the baking time.  

"Seasoning" Greetings {Savory Holiday Neighbor Gifts}

 

Last year we got a bottle of homemade seasoned salt from my uncle. We also had about 13 plates of delicious sweets too from other friends and family. I ended up freezing most of the sweets because we just couldn't eat it all! However, the seasoning salt lasted months, and we used it every day (on our eggs mostly).  I thought it was an awesome gift (Thanks again, Tom). So last year I made a mental note that I'd like to give out a seasoning mix to my neighbors for Christmas. I have a few seasoning recipes on the blog so far (Taco & Fajita), and they are ones I use on a regular basis.  The taco seasoning is one I thought would be good to pass around, I mean doesn't everyone use taco seasoning (it's even gluten-free).  I had the idea to make a catchy "seasoning" saying on my gift tag. I orignally thought of saying 'Tis' the "Seasoning"', but after talking to Leesh, I decided to go with '"Seasoning" Greetings'. I thought it was kind of fun and cute!   Thanks for always helping me out, Leesh!

So, if you're in the market for savory vs sweet gift to hand out to friends and/or neighbors, just mix up your favorite seasoning mix (or check out my taco and fajita seasoning recipes), buy some big seasoning shakers (or small salt and pepper shakers) at the Dollar Store ($1 for the big ones and 2/$1 for the salt and pepper size), fill up the bottle with your seasoning of choice, make a nifty little tag ("Tis' the "Seasoning" with Love, Your Name OR ""Seasoning" Greetings" with Love, Your Name, the options are endless here), and tie it on with some cute twine or raffia.  And your set!  

Other ideas for Neighbor/Friend Gifts - Check out all the links!

Chocolate Candy Cane Blossom Cookies 

Holiday Doodles {aka Festive Snickerdoodles}

Creamy Peanut Butter Truffles

Deluxe Chocolate Truffles {Plain Ganache or Flavored}

Johnson Cookies (with Christmas colored sprinkles)

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chips Cookies (just use Christmas colored M&M's)

S'more Cups

Sugar Cookies {Buttery Crips or Thick & Chewy} - Decorated festive with Glace Icing

Sugar Cookies {Soft & Chewy} - Decorated with Glace Icing

Cinnamon Rolls

Glazed Doughnuts (cut out with Christmas cookie cutters - add Christmas sprinkles too)

Here are a few of the things I did to assemble my seasoning shakers!

 

I made these tags by printing the phrase on some tan card stock. I found the cute Candy Cane Font here. (It's the 5th one down or so). I then glued it on to some green scrapbook scraps, punched a hole in the corner, and got some cute candy-cane twine for tying it on.

 I washed and dried the seasoning bottles and made a narrow-mouth funnel to pour in the seasonings (since I don't have a real funnel).

 The funnel helped for a no-spill project!

 I cut little circles of aluminum foil about the size of the shaker top....

 ...and then put it in the top of the lid so we didn't have taco seasoning all over the place! :) 

And to keep it fresh!

 I also had cards to hand out with my gifts so I wrote up the recipe for the taco seasoning and stuck it in the envelope. That way if they like it, they can make more, and it tells how much seasoning to use for your taco meat!

Happy Gift Giving!