Since I made fudge brownie cookies, I felt these sugar crusted peanut butter cookies would be a perfect companion. Because peanut butter and chocolate are a perfect combo.. just ask the folks at Reese’s!
These are a typical peanut butter cookie, except i added finely ground peanuts, which i did in my food processor
and rolled the cookies in sugar before baking.
Ingredients list
1/2 cup butter, partially melted (I put a cold stick in microwave in 2, 30 second increments
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed into measuring cup
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 tbs vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour (scooped from flour bag into measuring cup)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup peanuts, finely ground
Directions – in a bowl, mix peanut butter, butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Blend in dry ingredients. Stir in ground peanuts. Scoop out 1/4 cups dough. Roll tops in sugar. Chill a few hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or nonstick baking liners. stagger cookies on sheet.
Bake 14 to 16 minutes. Cool completely. Store in covered container.
A super chocolate recipe for NFL wildcard weekend. Fudgy brownies cookies with finely ground walnuts and mini m&ms.
Big game for the Bills, Sunday at Jacksonville. Everyone is counting us out, but i have faith, because we have Josh Bleeping Allen. Go Bills.
Remember to scoop your flour from your container into your measuring cup so you get the right amount. I also advise chilling the dough a few hours before baking. And, preheat your oven before baking.
Ingredients list
1/2 cup butter
4 oz semisweet or unsweetened chocolate
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed into measuring cup
2 tbs sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tap baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup flour
1 cup walnuts, finely ground
1 cup mini m&ms
Directions – in a microwave safe bowl, melt butter and chocolate in 30 second increments until you can stir it smooth. Add sugar and brown sugar. Beat in eggs. Mix in cocoa then flour. Stir in nuts and m&ms. Scoop out 1/4 cups dough. Chill a few hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, no longer.
Another mid week treat using a cake mix – marble cookies. I also added chocolate chips and topped them with melted hershey kisses.
These are made with a marble cake mix, vegetable oil, and egg and water.
Ingredients list
1 marble cake mix
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
5 tbs water
1 cup Chocolate chips
Directions – In one bowl, combine yellow cake mix, egg, oil and 3 tbs water. Add chocolate chips. In another bowl, combine fudge packet and 2 tbs water. Add fudge mixture to yellow cake mixture. Swirl gently with a knife to marble. Scoop out 1/4 cups dough. Chill for a few hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or nonstick baking liners. Stagger cookies on sheet.
Bake 12 minutes. Cool completely. I topped these with melted hershey kisses.
To celebrate the Sabres 11th win in 12 games – An easy mid-week treat. One for my non-chocolate loving friends at work – white cake mix cookies. Just a few ingredients – white cake mix, egg whites, vegetable oil, and almond extract. You can use 2 eggs if you don’t have egg whites and use vanilla extract instead of almond extract if you prefer. And they are topped with a simple buttercream frosting .
Ingredients list
1 white cake mix
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 egg whites or 6 tbs liquid egg whites or 2 eggs
1 tsp almond extract (or vanilla)
Directions – preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine ingredients. Scoop out 1/4 cups dough. Roll into balls and slightly flatten. Line a cookie sheet with nonstick baking liners or parchment paper. Stagger cookies on sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, no longer. Cool completely.
Frosting ingredients
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbs milk
2 tsp almond extract (or vanilla)
Directions – in a bowl, combine ingredients and blend well. Frost cookies. Store in covered container.
I felt the need to make a classic cookie, but with a couple of tweaks. So, I decided on milk chocolate chip cookies, with brown butter and finely ground macadamia nuts.
These are perfectly puffy!
Some tips – remember to scoop your flour from your flour bag into your measuring cup so you get the right amount. I like to chill the individual mounds of dough to ensure they stay puffy, but you don’t have to. And, preheat your oven before baking.
Ingredients list
1 cup butter, browned
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbs cornstarch
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup finely ground macadamia nuts
Directions – to brown butter, place 2 sticks in a fry pan and heat over medium heat until small brown specs appear, stirring occasionally. This might take 10 minutes.
Place brown butter in a bowl and let cool down 10 to 15 minutes. Add sugar and brown sugar. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Blend in dry ingredients. Stir in chips and nuts. Scoop out 1/4 cups dough. Chill a few hours. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or nonstick baking liners.Stagger cookies on sheet.
Bake 10 to 11 minutes, no longer. Cool completely.
For NFL week 18 and the final regular season home game at the place i have always called Rich Stadium, I present cinnamon sugar football cutout sandwiches with brown butter filling. I love my football cutout.
I have not been to a game there in a long time, but have a lot of wonderful memories. I went to my first game at age 7 with my family. I think we went to about a game a year until 8th grade. From Olean, we traveled up 16 through all the small towns. We stopped once so my dad could buy my brother a football so they could play catch in the parking lot. That little plaza is still there. My dad, who passed away in 2013, is the reason I love the Bills as much as I do. He would really enjoy these Josh teams. It would have been fun to dissect games with him. He will have a great seat in heaven when we win the Super Bowl. A lot of people pooh pooh the Bills and have no faith. I prefer to keep it positive. I acknowledge weaknesses and acting like Eyeore is not fun. Fandom is much more enjoyable.
I think that unless you grew up a Bills fan or married into it, it is hard to understand the connection with the team and even that building.
Anyways, onto the cookies….
Remember to scoop your flour from your flour bag into your measuring cup so you get the right amount. If you chill the dough, take it out a few hours before baking because that butter chills it up firm. Next time I might not chill the dough at all.
Ingredients list
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Directions – in a bowl, cream butter, sugar and salt. Add egg and vanilla. Blend in dry ingredients. If dough seems dry, add a tbs or two of water. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Lightly flour a flat surface and roll dough to desired thickness (I like mine on the thick side). Cut out footballs. Stagger on prepared sheet.
Bake 7 to 8 minutes, no longer. Cool completely.
Brown butter frosting ingredients
1/2 cup butter
2 to 3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Milk
Directions – place butter in a fry pan and cook over medium heat until brown specs appear.
Place browned butter in bowl. Mix in powdered sugar, then vanilla. Add enough milk to get the consistency you want. Place a scoop between 2 cookies. Store in covered container.
For my final treat of 2025, I made lemon frosted cake mix squares. I didn’t have a lemon cake mix, so I used a white one and added some lemon extract, along with the other ingredients. These are for my friend rib’s birthday and as luck for the Sabres, who go for their 10th straight win tonight against the Stars, one of the best teams in the NHL.
These are super simple, don’t require a ton of ingredients or time. You can leave them plain or frost them.
Ingredients list
1 white cake mix
1 sugar cookie mix
3 eggs
1 cup butter, melted
2 tsp lemon extract
Directions – preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 pan with baking spray. In a bowl, combine mixes. Blend in butter, then eggs and extract. Evenly spread into prepared pan. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, no longer. Cool completely.
Frosting ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tbs lemon juice
In a bowl, combine ingredients. Frost bars. Cut and store in covered container.
The German chocolate cake is a masterpiece of a dessert- German chocolate cake, pecan coconut frosting and chocolate frosting. The bakery in my hometown of Olean, NY – the former Ried’s food barn- made the nest German chocolate cakes. And I am sure the now olean food barn does too.
So I made a cookie sandwich version using a cake mix, canned coconut pecan frosting and a homemade chocolate frosting as the fillings.
You can make a homemade coconut pecan frosting, but I went with canned frosting today
Cookies ingredients
1 German chocolate cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Directions – preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside. In a bowl, blend 3 ingredients. Scoop out 2 tbs of dough. Roll into a ball and slightly flatten. Stagger on cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. No longer. Cool completely.
Chocolate frosting filling ingredients
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tbs evaporated milk
1 tbs vanilla
Directions – in a bowl, combine butter and cocoa. Blend in powdered sugar, then evaporated milk and vanilla. Add more evaporated milk or powdered sugar to get the consistency you want.
Place cookies flat side up.
On one half, spread some coconut pecan frosting. On another half, spread some chocolate frosting.
For my last Christmas cutout cookies recipe for this season, here are the traditional sugar cookies. I made most of them into cookie sandwiches so people can actually tell what they are.
This is a recipe from a family friend, one that brings back so many wonderful memories. I used a traditional buttercream frosting recipe.
Remember to scoop your flour from your flour bag into your measuring cup so you get the right amount. Make sure you flour your surface enough to roll out the dough and sprinkle flour in your cookie cutters too. And preheat your oven before baking.
Ingredients list
1 1/2 cups crisco
1 1/3 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tbs vanilla
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
Directions – in a bowl, cream crisco and sugar. Blend in eggs well. Add vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients. You can chill the door in a covered container for a few hours if you want. Or bake them right away. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Flour a flat surface with flour. Roll dough to desired thickness and cut. Place on cookie sheet. Bake 7 to 8 minutes, no longer. Cool completely.
Buttercream frosting/filling ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar (scooped from container into your measuring cup so you get the right amount)
Milk
In a bowl, cream butter and vanilla. Carefully blend in powdered sugar, a cup at a time. Add enough milk to get consistency you want. Frost or fill sandwich cookies.
Last year, I tried to make the keebler magic middles cookies. They were a shortbread cookies with mini chocolate chips, filled with a gushy fudge filling. Last year, they were more like a stuffed chocolate chip cookie. Today, I went for a more shortbread cookie, like a Mexican wedding cake. I froze the fudge filling and cookies before baking. Next time, I may just fill the cookies with a piece of chocolate baking bar.
It is important to freeze the fudge filling if that is what you want to stuff the cookies with. Then once you atuff them in the cookie dough, freeze the doughs before baking. My goal is to not have the filling spill out of the cookie.
Also, remember to scoop your flour from your flour bag into your measuring cup so you get the right amount. And preheat your oven before baking.
Fudge filling ingredients list
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup chocolate chips
Directions – in a pan, heat cream to a boil. Remove from heat and add chips. Let sit for 5 minutes. Stir smooth and put in fridge for an hour to firm up. After an hour, scoop out teaspoons of dough, place on a paper plate in freezer for a few hours.
Cookies Ingredients list
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 to 2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips
Directions – in a bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla. Mix in salt, flour and baking powder. Fold in chips. Scoop out 1/4 cups of dough. Divide in half and flatten each half. Place a frozen scoop of filling on top.
Place other flattened dough half on top and seal.
Freeze for a few hours. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Stagger cookies on sheet. Bake 25 to 30 minutes. Edges will be golden. Cool completely. Place in fridge to keep filling firm
cookies by christine 