Chocolate-Cherry Bonbons

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. A good number of cookies have been baked in the last two weeks, so I should have some good blog content for the next month or so. 

I'll start off my Christmas cookie wrap-up with a cookie I made in early December. It's a variation of Rachel Ray's Chocolate-Orange Bonbons. Since I had no candied orange peel around, I used dried cherries instead. Yummy! 

Chocolate-Cherry Bonbons 

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1 egg 
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1 egg white 
1/2 cup cocoa powder 
1-1/4 cups flour 
1 teaspoon baking powder 
1/2 cup chopped dried cherries 
1/3 cup white chocolate chips 
1/4 cup powdered sugar 
4 ounces semisweet chocolate 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

In mixer, cream sugar, butter, and salt until well blended. Add egg, vanilla, and egg white. Beat for one minute. 

Add cocoa powder and blend at medium speed. Add flour and baking powder. Blend until thoroughly combined. Stir in half of chopped dried cherries (save other half for topping) and white chocolate chips. 

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Shape dough into balls and roll in powdered sugar. Place on prepared pans. Bake one pan at a time. If you have a second pan ready, place it in the refrigerator until first pan is finished in oven. Bake 15 minutes. Cool two minutes before removing to wire rack. 

Melt semisweet chocolate in microwave-safe bowl, stirring occasionally until chocolate is smooth. Top cookies with melted chocolate and chopped dried cherries. Let set (about 1 hour) before storing.

Homemade Twix Bars

This recipe comes from the Kraft website. They called them Chocolate-Caramel Cookie Bars, but basically they are homemade Twix bars. Pretty simple and definitely yummy.

Homemade Twix Bars

Ingredients:

1 box of Lorna Doone shortbread cookies

1 package of caramels (the kind you use for making caramel apples)

1 tablespoon milk

3 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

3 oz. white chocolate

Line 9x13 pan with foil, leaving enough to hang over the sides for a handle later. Use the Reynolds non-stick foil if possible. If not, give the foil a light dusting of cooking spray.

Create a single layer of shortbread cookies on the foil. I had to break some cookies in half to make them fit.

Melt the caramel and the milk in the microwave for two minutes, stirring every thirty seconds. Pour over shortbread cookies and spread until even.

Microwave both types of chocolate in a small bowl for two minutes, again stirring every thirty seconds. When chocolate is smooth, pour it over the caramel layer.

Refrigerate for two hours. Before serving, take it out of the refrigerator and let it soften for fifteen minutes before cutting into bars.

Marble Brownies

These brownies didn't turn out as moist as I would have liked, but I did enjoy the combination of white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate on top.

Marble Brownies

Ingredients:

3 ounces semisweet chocolate

1 ounce unsweetened chocolates

1/2 cup butter

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x9-inch pan with aluminum foil. Leave some foil over the edge for handles. Spray foil with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, melt the 3 ounces of semisweet chocolate, 1 ounce of unsweetened chocolate, and butter for one minute on high. Add cocoa powder and stir. The butter should be all melted, but the chocolate won't. Microwave another 30 seconds and stir until smooth.

In a large bowl, combined the sugar and salt. Stir in the melted chocolate mixture. Add the eggs, stirring after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Place flour and baking powder into sifter and sift into mixture.

Spread in pan and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven.

Sprinkle semisweet chips and white chocolate chips on top. Bake one more minute. Then use knife to swirl the two types of chocolate on top. Use foil handles to lift brownies from pan.

Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies tasted good, but they were a little crunchy for my liking. The centers were still chewy, so if you like that kind of crunchy outside, chewy inside cookie, then this one's for you!

Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm going to do something a little different today. Usually, I take an old recipe or two, make some changes, and then come up with my own version.

For this cookie, I didn't change a thing from the original recipe. I found it on two different websites: The Curvy Carrot and How Sweet It Is. The second site claims the cookies are supposed to be chewy, so maybe I simply left mine in the oven a tad too long.

Nonetheless, since I didn't make any changes, simply click on the link to either website if you want the recipe. I'll be a kind blogger and throw some traffic their way. :)

White Chocolate Kahlua Balls

These cookies have a taste similar to tiramisu. When I made them, I discovered that many of my friends don't like tiramisu. Oh well, more cookies for me!

White Chocolate Kahlua Balls

Ingredients:
20 mini Nilla wafers (about 1 cup), finely crushed
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons Kahlua
6 oz. white chocolate
4 Wilton candy melts

Mix the crushed Nilla wafers with the softened cream cheese and the Kahlua. Roll into small balls and refrigerate on waxed paper for 10 minutes.

Melt the white chocolate in a small bowl. Roll the balls in the white chocolate and return to waxed paper to harden. Refrigerate one hour.

Melt Wilton candy melts (you could use chocolate chips instead) and place in a decorating bag with a small tip like #3 or #4. Drizzle chocolate over cookie balls.

Keep refrigerated.

Yields: 16 cookies

Holiday Cookies: Melting Snowman Oreo Balls

The inspiration for this cookie came from this Kraft website. Their recipe used Nutter Butter cookies, but I decided to try this with the Oreo balls recipe instead. The only problem was that the white chocolate did pick up some of the dark Oreo cookie crumbs, but they seemed to melt right into the white chocolate eventually.

Melting Snowman Oreo Balls

Ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 package Oreo cookies, finely crushed
16 oz. white chocolate
about 48 mini Oreos
colored icing for decorating
(I used the Wilton Icing Writers.)

Finely crush the Oreo cookies. (You can use a blender, food processor, or--my personal favorite for letting out aggression--a Ziploc bag and a rolling pin.)

Mix the crushed cookies with the cream cheese. Line a couple cookie sheets with waxed paper. Roll the cookie mixture into 1-inch balls on placed on waxed paper. (You should get 45-50 of them.) Freeze for at least ten minutes.

Melt the white chocolate. (Follow instructions on baking chocolate box or white chocolate chip bag.) Working with just one cookie sheet at a time, dip the cookie balls into the melted white chocolate. Before the chocolate hardens, top each one with a mini Oreo so that it looks like a top hat for your snowman. (The mini Oreos come in the Snak-Saks as pictured to the left.)

Next, decorate the snowman's face by giving him a nose, a smile, and two eyes. You can use colored icing that you made or store-bought decorating icing. I used the Wilton icing writers for this. They worked pretty well, although I had to knead the little tubes first or they came out too runny. (Maybe my icing writers are getting old?) Also, I wish they had an orange one for the nose.

The decorating works best if the cookie is still cold when it is dipped in the white chocolate. That way the chocolate begins to harden fairly quickly but not too quickly. You'll want to get the little Oreo hats on right away, and then add the face as soon as the chocolate gets a firm surface. A goopy chocolate snowman means facial features that melt right off!

Yields: about four dozen cookies

Kahlua Orange Fudge

This fudge recipe is extremely sweet! A small bite is all you need. My recommendation is to make it only when you are having many people over for dinner. :)

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Kahlua Orange Fudge

Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons Kahlua
1 package (12 oz.) white chocolate chips
1 jar (7 oz.) marshmallow fluff
1 tablespoon grated orange peel

Line a 13x9 inch pan with foil, leaving some extra foil over the edge. Lightly butter the foil.

Lightly butter large microwavable bowl. Combine sugar, sour cream, butter, and Kahlua in prepared bowl. Microwave on high for 10-12 minutes, stirring every 2-3 minutes. Continue microwaving until mixture reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer.

Add white chocolate chips, marshmallow fluff, and grated orange peel. Stir until smooth. Pour into greased and lined pan. Use a buttered spatula to smooth it into corners.

While the fudge is still warm, score it into small pieces. When it has fully cooled, lifted it out of the pan using the excess foil on the sides. Place it on a cutting board and slice it along the scored lines.

Store in airtight container.

Yields: about 80 small squares

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

I've tried two different recipes for white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. I think I prefer this one. The first time I tried making them I couldn't find any macadamia nuts. Guess where I found them? Target! They were pricey, but on the bright side, they were already chopped. :)

White Chocolate
Macadamia Nut Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 3/4 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

Melt butter. (You can do this in the microwave or on the stove top.) In mixer bowl, beat brown sugar and melted butter.

Add egg. Beat again. Add milk and vanilla extract. Beat.

In small bowl, combine baking soda, flour and salt. Slowly add flour mixture to butter/sugar mixture. Beat on low until thoroughly incorporated.

Stir in white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.

Scoop onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake 9-10 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes before moving to cookie sheet.

Yields: about 3 dozen cookies