Tag Archives: christmas

Cranberry Bliss Cookies xo

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Christmas is finally in the air in Wroclaw. The lights are up, the snow is sticking & the Rynek Christmas market is as busy as ever. And if it can get any better—my medical exams have finished for the semester annnnnnddd…. I’ve moved! Yes! I’ve finally escaped the dormitory trap and have now settled in with my lovely cousin in our cozy apartment with a kitchen! Ah, a kitchen.

After many days of unpacking and settling in—I decided some Christmas goodies were in order. I ran into these beautiful Cranberry Bliss Cookies from Gimme some oven the other day and couldn’t stop thinking about them; my favorite Starbucks cranberry bliss bar turned into a cookie!? Yes. Please.

 

Cranberry Bliss Cookies (Recipe & directions from Gimme some oven)

For the Cookies

3 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
1tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened (roughly 2 sticks)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chip
1 cup dried cranberries

 

For the Frosting:

 1 8 oz bar cream cheese, room tempature
½ cup white chocolate chips metled in the microwave or double boiler
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups of powdered sugar

 

 For The Topping:

1 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped
1/4 cup white chocolate chips, melted in the microwave or double-boiler

 

Some very sexy additions that you may consider adding to your cranberry bliss cookies:

  1. Orange zest
  2. Coconut Flakes
  3. Subsititute white choclate Lindor balls insteadof chocolate chips (fancy!)
  4. Add 1 tsp of egg nog to the frosting
  5.  GET CREATIVE!

 

Cookie Directions :

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt until well-blended. Set aside.

Using an an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating in between to incorporate. Then reduce the speed to low, and slowly add in the dry ingredients.

Increase the speed to medium, and continue beating until well-combined. Fold in the white chocolate chips and cranberries, and mix until just-combined. (Do not overmix.)

Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour. Then place dough by rounded tablespoon-fulls onto a baking sheet that has been prepared with parchment paper, at least 2.5-inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden around the edges.

Remove pan, and transfer the cookies to a cooling rack until cool. Repeat with remaining dough until all cookies are baked. Wait until cookies reach room temperature before adding frosting and toppings.

Frosting Directions: 

Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the cream cheese and melted white chocolate until combined. Add in the vanilla and mix until combined. Then reduce speed to low and add the powdered sugar. Mix until incorporated. Then use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl, and beat once more for 1 minute on medium speed until the frosting is smooth. You can add more powdered sugar for a thicker frosting.

Spread the frosting on the cooled cookies. Then immediately sprinkle the frosted cookies with the chopped dried cranberries. And use a fork to drizzle on the frosting, swishing it back and forth over the cookies.

 

 

Hope these morsels of Christmas goodness brighten your day.

Ps see you in 2 weeks Vancity.
-r xo

Perfect Gingerbread Recipe

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I have been looking for the perfect Gingerbread recipe for many years now..and I have finally found it! These are reaaaally good- nice and chewy too! Big thanks to my beautiful friend Christine for sharing these with me!

Gingerbread Recipe
Adapted from the D’Angelo family
 3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp of ground ginger
3tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp of salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp of cloves
1/2 pound crisco
1 1/2 cup white sugar
60 ml molasses
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

Sift together the flour, baking soda, ginger, salt, cloves, and cinnamon; set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together the shortening, molasses, sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth.

Gradually stir in the dry ingredients, until they are completely absorbed. Form dough into  a large ball and place in plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 2 hours. I like to grease the outer layer of my dough with a bit of butter so it doesn’t stick to the plastic wrap!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. When the cookies are done, they will look dry, but still be soft to the touch. Remove from the baking sheet to cool on wire racks. When cool, the cookies can be frosted with the icing of your choice.

Makes about 35 gingerbread cookies!

Enjoy and Happy Holidays everyone
love always
-r xo

Christmas Cake Pops

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I am so in love with these cake pops! They are the perfect party dessert and are so easy to make! No more needing to spend over $2 buying each one at Starbucks!

 

What you will need
 9-by-13-inch Cake- I used Red Velvet & White Cake. My Red Velvet Recipe can be found below.
2 cups butter cream frosting ( I prefer cream cheese butter-cream frosting)
1 package of Candy Melts (you choose your color!). You can find these at Michaels Craft Store.
Sprinkles & other edible goodies you can decorate your pops with.

 

There are only a few simple steps into making cake pops. You first need to start by making a cake. I made a simple white cake and also a red velvet cake for Christmas. The recipes for the red velvet cake can be found below.

 

Red Velvet Cake
Adapted from Paula Deen
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cocoa
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups canola oil
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 (1-ounce) bottle red food coloring
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 3 (9-inch) round layer cake pans.

Sift flour, baking soda and coco together. Beat sugar and eggs together in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl mix together oil, vinegar, food coloring, and vanilla. Add to the bowl of eggs and sugar and beat until combined.

Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk to the wet mixture by alternating the buttermilk and dry ingredients. Always start with the flour and end with the flour.

Pour batter into pans. Tap them on the table to level out the batter and release air bubbles. Bake for 25 minutes or until a cake tester inserted near the middle comes out clean.

Let the cake cool completely on a wire rack for about 15 minutes before turning it out of the pan.

Once cool you will need to cut the cake into sections and then rub the sections together to crumble the cake into fine pieces.  Next add your icing.

Mix the icing with the cake and then go ahead and form your cake balls

You can now go ahead and melt your candy melts. Read the instructions on the back of the package-although they all have similar instructions. You can either melt them in a double boiler or just stick them in the microwave in 30 second intervals as I had done. Please melt them in a glass bowl! I used a ceramic bowl and it ended up burning one package of my candy melts!

Once your cake balls are formed and your candy melts have melted- you will need to dip each of your popsicle sticks in the candy melt mixture before placing it in the cake pop. Once you have done this, you will then need to let the cake pops cool so the candy melt hardens and forms a base around the lollipop stick. This secures the cake pop for when you go and dip the whole ball in the candy melt.

Next, carefully insert the cake ball into the candy coating by holding the lollipop stick and rotating until covered. Once covered, remove and softly tap and rotate until the excess candy melt falls off. Don’t tap too hard or the cake ball will fall off, too. If you are planning on decorating your cake pops- now is the time to do so. Once done insert your cake pop into a styrofoam block to harden.

…and voilla! How simple was that!?

Happy Holidays! From my kitchen to yours xo
-romina