Day 19: Fudge Fiasco into Fudge Fantastic

Soooooooo...yesterday I sang the praises of making Fantasy Fudge with Jumbo Marshmallows instead of marshmallow cream. Let me just tell you, there is a reason the recipe says to use the cream instead of the marshmallows. Yeah, my fudge did not set. It tastes really good, but it is not "fudge". Rather than cry over runny fudge, I decided to find a way to use it. and what goes better with chocolatey fudge than peanut butter. Lo and behold I think I have finally created my very own cookie recipe (that actually tastes good). This is the day I have been waiting and "practicing" for since I was 8 years old. And what is this cookie marvel you ask?******Drumroll******
Peanut Butter Shortbread Fudge Sandwich Cookies
Okay okay, I don't really have a great name for them yet but I will take suggestions.
The recipe:

• 1 8X8 pan of ruined fudge (just kidding-read yesterday's post to see how I made the fudge and let it sit overnight
• if you do not happen to have any ruined fudge on hand, I think a chocolate frosting might work very well
• 1/2 c peanut butter (chunky or smooth-which ever you prefer)
• 1/2 c butter
• 1 c superfine sugar
• 1-1/2 c flour
• 1 t baking soda

Beat peanut butter, butter  and sugar until light and fluffy; should resemble frosting. In smaller bowl combine flour and baking soda. Stir flour mixture into butter and sugar mixture. Dough will be crumbly. Chill dough covered for at least an hour. Preheat oven to 275.
With your hands press 1/4 of the dough into a ball then gently roll between wax paper to just less than 1/4 inch thick. Cut with a round cookie cutter - I found the little cocktail glasses we always bring home from Vegas to be the perfect size. Transfer to baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake about 12-15 minutes. Cool on pans for about 2 minutes then transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

hoping the next batch isn't so gooey

Spread fudge onto the bottom of cookie and top with another. Depending on how bad your fudge turned out you may not want to spread it to the edge of the cook as it will run down the sides after you place the top cookie over it.

Day 15: Tic Tac Toe Cookies

I found the recipe for these Tic Tac Toe cookies right in my own refrigerator, staring me in the face for months. It comes from the back of a bottle of Heinz Ketchup, that's right...a cookie recipe from Heinz's ketchup. My son Steven eats everything with ketchup, my nephew Cameron had to have it at our Thanksgiving dinner...so for them, for my own curiosity, I had to give this recipe a try.
Basically this is a peanut butter cookie recipe. I imagined the good people in the marketing department at Heinz sat around one day and discussed ways to sell more ketchup. Someone mentions cookies as a joke, but then for lack of a better idea, they run with it. Since there is no way possible anyone can come up with a good cookie recipe with ketchup in it, the team, now weary and wanting to go home for the day, decides to just add ketchup to a peanut butter cookie recipe. Peanut Butter cookies: Good. Ketchup: Good. Peanut Butter cookies made with ketchup???
After mixing the dough, my husband and I both stared and sniffed at it, then nervously tasted it. He said, "Are we going to bake it or dip french fries in it?" I said, bake it. He said "oh, because it tastes like buffalo a@#". My oldest son Patrick wouldn't even taste the dough, he sniffed it and said it smelled "disgusting".
The dough also seemed way to wet and sticky to bake. the recipe says to press each cookie with the back of a fork in a cross pattern. I suggest spraying your fork with cooking spray, then dipping in flour before trying to press the fork onto the cookie. Better yet-don't make them at all.
If you have been following this blog, I hope you have found some cookies you would like to make, or have even already made. This time I took a bullet for you...do not make this cookie.


at least they look good

 My son, the ketchup lover, after tasting these said, "that was a mean trick by Heinz".

HOWEVER.....

I did make a back up cookie, well sort of. You know those outrageously delicious Magic Cookie Bars on the back of the condensed milk cans??? The ooey gooey chocolatey ones? Yeah those!! My grandma always called them "Hello Dollies", I'm calling these "How You Doin'?Dollies"! I took some of my chocolate chip cookie dough made with pecans and pressed it into a lightly greased 10X10 square cake pan. Top it with sweetened coconut, more pecans and then more chocolate chips. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over the pan and bake a t 350 for about 30 minutes. YUM!!!

Day 7: Buttery Gingerbread Santas

Confession, I hate any kind of ginger based cookie! The only reason I ever even tried this recipe was because I wanted to make a gingerbread house, and I fell in love with them, must have been the butter!! It's always the butter. The recipe comes from a cookbook I bought when my kids were little and I still had Christmas visions of granduer. Those visions were met by reality, but still I dust it off every November and plan to make most of the recipes in it. This is typically the only one that gets done.

Today I will only be making the dough, I just do not have time to decorate them in the anal retentive, painstaking manor I enjoy. Once I do though, I will certainly post pictures of the decorated cookies. For now though, here is a picture of my boys when they were little and cute making their Christmas Cookies...enjoy and happy baking!!

Day One: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal

   This is my "go to" cookie. I try not to bake them very often. Which reminds me of an episode of Friends...Phoebe doesn't make her cookies very often because they are so good she doesn't think its fair to the other cookies. These cookies are that good, but the real reason I do not make them very often is that I usually end up eating more than half of the batch myself. That is of course if I do not eat all of the dough first.