Chocolate Truffle Cookies

I am going to add photos of the finished cookies next time I make them. I don't have photos because WE EAT THEM ALL.

This is how they look rolled in cocoa and ready to bake

The original recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe says to dip the cookies in powdered sugar, but I think they are much prettier (not to mention more rich and less sugary) when you dust them with powdered sugar instead.  But maybe it's because I love any excuse to use my OXO powdered sugar wand.  It's the most fun kitchen gadget you can own.  

Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies

Last year, Allen's parents stayed with us for Christmas, and his mom asked me before they arrived if I had molasses and ground ginger on hand.  I did.  But I never guessed that these two pungent ingredients could combine to make the most heavenly Christmas confection known to man.

They are beautiful and crackly and festive.  They are soft and rich.  They are so fragrant and chewy and sweet, with the perfect hint of spice.  They may have actually TIED WITH CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES (gasp!) as my favorite cookies of all time.  In fact, these ginger molasses cookies differ specifically from CCCs in that, once I have eaten one, all I can think about is having another.  I can limit other kinds of cookies to one or two, but I feel like I never want to stop eating these.

This particular holiday treat comes with a pretty sweet story, too.  My mother-in-law clipped this recipe from her local paper years ago and everyone raved about the cookies . . . but then she somehow lost the clipping. Years later (tortured years of pining for the most-perfect-holiday-cookie-ever, no doubt) she went to the library and used the microfilm machine to look through years' worth of the Northwest Arkansas Times until she found it again.  The librarian copied it for her, and the rest is Renfroe family holiday history!

I love how Mom wrote out the triple-batch
amount to the side, which is what I put on the
recipe card below.  Go big or go home, people.

Mollie and I had so much fun making the cookies with Mom last year, made more fun by the adorable, matching, chicken-print aprons she sewed for each of us as an early Christmas present.

She gave me the recipe while she stayed with us, but then history repeated itself and I misplaced it.  Fortunately, I didn't have to use a microfilm machine--Mom just used her telephonics machine (read: iPhone 6) to snap a picture of her well-used recipe and send it to me via electronic mail . . . all taking about three seconds and zero research trips to the library.

I have made this tripled-recipe twice this December and am going for a third time tomorrow.  If you're going to make 24 dozen of any cookie during Christmas, this is the one . . .

My cookie helpers!

Brer Rabbit never tasted so good . . .

I hope we'll have some left for Santa--he might have to settle
for Oreos if we scarf through all seven dozen in the next four
days.  I wish I was kidding . . .

My house smells like Christmasy heaven . . .

Perfect cookies for large family / social / holiday functions!

Gingerbread House Mortar

Best possible recipe for holding together your Christmas time creations.

Those windows are made out of a sliced
3 Musketeers candy bar . . . the only good use for
said candy bar, in my opinion . . .

Here is a HOT TIP I got from my sweet sister Hanna: save unwanted Halloween candy for making gingerbread houses.  It only costs you the miles you put on your sneakers on Halloween night.  Since 2012 is the year our family SHATTERED our former candy record (we got 603 pieces of candy total!), we had a ton of candy to work with.  And you can mold Laffy Taffy and Tootsie Rolls into anything.

Leftover Halloween candy for decorating . . .

I assemble all the houses (just with graham crackers) while my kids are at school, and then we decorate them when they get home, usually on a Monday for Family Home Evening. This stuff only takes about 10 minutes to dry and harden.

Our 2010 creations

Our 2012 creations

2016

2020

2021

 

My best friend Cori's beautiful creation--
she used licroice to make the "bricks"
Check out Cori's delicious recipes on this site.

My pink and purpaliscious g-bread house.

Pumpkin Bread

This is one of my favorite breads to make as a "gift."  I like to take mini loaves of this pumpkin bread when I go visiting teaching, to bake sales, or to add to a Christmas goody platter.  Plus, it makes your house smell like heaven when it's in the oven.

Bex Tip: I buy lots of small baskets at Deseret Industries (best local thrift store ever), clean them, then use them to take baked goods to people, lining each with a square of gingham fabric.  I tell them the basket is part of the gift: it's pretty, inexpensive, and no one has to worry about returning a plate or dish.

Cream Cheese Pumpkin Bundt Cake

I made this cake for the first time earlier this week.  It's a favorite recipe of my sister Bonnie, and every time she talked about it, my mouth started to water.

Pumpkiny baked goods always remind me of Thanksgiving and Christmas, but since there's STILL a foot of snow in my back yard, a Winter dessert didn't seem inappropriate for the end of March.  I justified making this dessert with the idea that I'd take some slices to the women I visit-teach . . . but I also ate half the cake myself.

Since it was my first time to bake this cake, I don't feel too bad that I under-greased my Bundt pan.  But that's the beauty of frosting--you are able to disguise your mistakes.

It was delectable.  You can wait for the holidays to roll around at the end of the year . . . or go ahead and bake a "trial cake" to make sure you'll like it come Thanksgiving.  I'm sure you will.

PS- I had about 3/4 cup of frosting leftover, and I was as liberal with it as I could be.  I think you'd be totally safe to halve the frosting recipe and just drizzle it on the upper half of the cake instead of the whole thing.

Oreo Bonbons

Um, hello.  It's a Christmas miracle.  

So, my sister-in-law, Heather, was the first person to introduce these to me in 2007--she got them from a mutual friend of ours in the ward.  I think that was the year this yummy goodness started spreading like wildfire.

Heather didn't really have a name for them, and so I took it upon myself to dub them "Oreo Bonbons." (I have seen them called "Oreo Truffles" on the Internet) When I first ate one, I thought it was some sort of miniature cake or brownie that had been dipped in chocolate. But there are actually only three ingredients: Oreos, cream cheese, and almond bark. 

And winning ingredients they are. 

If someone had told me about this dessert and what it was made out of, I know I wouldn't have been very keen on trying it. But the proof is in the pudding, people. {Bonus: The only "cooking" it involves is melting the almond bark in a double boiler.}
 

Truman helping in 2007

Brigham AND Truman helping crush the Oreos in the food processor

I am ashamed to admit that I got a food processor just so I could crush a whole package of Oreos in a matter of seconds . . . instead of taking forever with a rolling pin (and yes, even a hammer).  But I do use my food processor for all kinds of things--this dessert was the thing that pushed it from the "want" category to the "need" category.  

Sometimes I leave the toothpicks in and dip the bottom of each bonbon in white chocolate or different colored sprinkles . . . or both.  They are sinfully delicious, and should only be made once a year.  

Truman helping in 2011
(don't be freaked out by how
greasy they look before dipping)

Another way to prepare these, that I didn't include with the directions, is to puree everything in a blender and then inject the ingredients intravenously . . . for a faster holiday fix. 

I hope it adds enjoyment to your holidays.

Klejner

This is the biggest food tradition of my husband's family, right along with their other Danish food: aebleskiver. At Christmas time, my mother-in-law has several tins filled with these yummy fried treats--the love child of a cookie and a doughnut. How can you go wrong?

Hershey's Peanut Butter Blossoms

Did I really put my name on this card? It's the recipe that is in every cooking magazine as an ad insert in the December issue. It's Hershey's all the way, and my kids' favorite holiday cookies.

Gingersnap Dip

Who says you can't dip cookies?

Gingerbread House Mortar

Updated recipe card here.

Best possible recipe for holding together your Christmas time creations. I assemble all the houses (just with graham crackers) while my kids are at school, and then we decorate them when they get home. This stuff only takes about 10 minutes to dry and harden.