Black Forest Pudding Pie

I made two of these for a family potluck dinner. They were easy to make, didn't bother anyone's egg or nut allergies, and tasted pretty yummy. However, they were a little soft and sloppy when they were cut. If I made them again, I might try a little less milk so that the pudding becomes even thicker. 

Black Forest Pudding Pie

 
Ingredients:

Oreo pie crust (8-inch)
3 oz. chocolate instant pudding
1-3/4 cup cold milk
1/2 tub of Cool Whip
1/2 can of cherry pie filling

You can either make your own Oreo cookie pie crust or buy the prepared kind. If you make your own in a 9-inch pie plate, I'd recommend doubling the remaining ingredients.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the pudding mix and the cold milk for two minutes. Pour into pie crust. Refrigerate at least one hour.

While the pudding is setting, be sure to put the Cool Whip into the fridge to thaw it. Spread the Cool Whip on top of the chocolate pudding.

Spoon the cherry pie filling on top of the Cool Whip.

Yummy! You really can't go wrong with cherry and chocolate, can you?

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

On New Year's Eve, I wanted to make a small batch of cookies to take to a party. I started with a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe that said it made 30 cookies. Because I didn't really want leftovers, I cut the recipe in half. I figured if I did a half recipe with a small cookie scooper, I'd still get a decent number of cookies but not the 30 large cookies that the original recipe said I'd get.

So I made the necessary changes to the recipe and then started scooping the cookies with my small cookie scooper. Sixty-four cookies later, I was done! That's right. Sixty-four cookies. So much for not having leftovers.
  

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1-1/4 cups oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup pecan chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a large mixer bowl, beat butter until creamy. Beat in both sugars. Then beat in egg and vanilla. Add as much flour mixture as possible. You made need to use a wooden spoon to finish the combining.

Stir in the chocolate and pecan chips.


With a small cookie scooper, drop onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes until edges are light brown. Cool one minute before removing to cooling rack.

Yields: about 60 small cookies

Rugelach

This will surprise some of my friends, but I had never heard of rugelach until they made some a couple years ago. I did a little history search on it and found out it's a Jewish pastry. So when did my friends and I make some rugelach? For Christmas, of course. When else do you make Jewish pastries? :)

 Rugelach 

Ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup butter, softened
2-1/4 cups flour
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, divided
1/4 cup Solo brand raspberry cake & pastry filling

Beat cream cheese and butter on medium speed. Gradually add flour. Divide dough into four portions. Pat into 1-inch thick circle with flour hands and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheets with foil or parchment paper.  

Mix walnuts, 1/2 cup sugar, and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. On lightly floured surface, roll dough into 11-inch circle. Dough should be very thin by now. Spread each circle with a tablespoon of raspberry filling. Sprinkle with 1/4 of nut mixture. Using a pizza wheel, cut circle in 16 wedges. Roll up each wedge, starting from wide end. 

Place point side down on prepared cookie sheet. Sprinkle with extra cinnamon and sugar. 

Bake 25 minutes until lightly browned. Remove to wire rack for cooling.   

Fruit-Filled Almond Shortbread Cookies

A friend saw another friend post a picture of these on Facebook, so off I went in search of a recipe online. There are several similar ones.

My friends and I decided to follow this recipe on food.com, but we used cherry cake and pastry filling as well as lemon curd instead of the prescribed raspberry jam. 

A couple weeks later, I made these cookies again. This time I used seedless black raspberry jam. All three variations were yummy.

Fruit-Filled Almond Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups flour
1/2 cup fruit filling*
1 cup powdered sugar
3 teaspoons water
1/2 teaspoon almond extract     
 *you can use Solo brand cake & pastry filling, lemon curd, or seedless jelly or jam

In a mixer bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the almond extract. Gradually add flour until dough forms a ball.

Cover and refrigerate for about an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll into small balls. We discovered small (less than 1-inch) balls worked better than bigger ones. Place onto ungreased cookie sheet. With the front knuckle of your forefinger, make an indentation in the cookie. 

Fill this indentation with a small amount of fruit filling. (I found it easiest to use a pastry bag fitted with a large round opening to fit the jam into the indentation.)

Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes. Remove and place on wire rack for cooling.

When the cookies are cool, combine the last three ingredients to make a glaze. Drizzle glaze over cookies in a zig-zag fashion.