Holiday Cooking

I tried a twist on an old favorite and a new cookie on Sunday.

The new recipe was from "Taste of Home" which is a blog that I stumbled over one day. I made the Cherry Ice Box cookies because I had found some Maraschino cherries and red cookies will fit nicely at my Christmas party next weekend.  I found the cookies good, but I would change it in the future by adding more cherry bits and some almond and cherry extract to kick up the flavor a bit. 

I took these into work, but they were not as popular as the peppermint-chocolate crinkles.

The twist on the old favorite was that I added crunched up peppermint pieces in the chocolate crinkle dough and then added peppermint crumbles on the tops of the cookies before baking.  These are a wonderfully soft cookie, so don't over bake them!  Here is something close to my personal recipe, but forget the espresso powder if you are adding peppermint!

Next time I make these, I'm going to let the cookies bake for about four minutes and then sprinkle the peppermint bits on the tops.  The bits got a little melt-y and candy coated the top more than I would have liked. 

Go forth and bake your brains out people.