Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies and Christmas Cut-out Sugar Cookies

Alas, Christmas break has begun! To celebrate, I spent the past 5 hours doing nothing but baking.

With finals this entire past week, I haven't had a chance to do any Christmas baking (or really even do anything festive), but now I have all the time in the world (er.. a week) to get everything done that I haven't had a chance to do yet. Being a soon-to-be-wife and college-student, I've decided to go with homemade goodie gifts this year, since I'm living on a pretty tig

ht budget. I'm pretty pumped about it though, because I really enjoy making Christmas cookies and enjoy seeing people's reactions when they try one of the made-from-scratch-and-with-love cookies. It's such an appreciated gift, and is a fun process making it, too.

I've decided split up my baking over a span of a couple days, mainly today and Monday, so I'm not stuck making six different kinds of cookies all in one day. It looks like I may even get to do it tomorrow, since we're scheduled to get our first big snow storm of the season, and I will not be going in to work if it is as bad as they're predicting

(Namely, an hour drive from my house to where I work, and the area I work at is supposed to get 14 inches of snow...). I could go off on a whole 'nother tangent about that, but I'm not.

Anyway! Cookie time. Yes. Today was full of warm, sugary, buttery goodness. Which leads me to today's adventures with...

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies and Christm

as Cut-out Sugar Cookies !

My first task of the day was to make the Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies. I ran upon this recipe over at TasteSpotting (which brought me to this) and knew I had to try this recipe. A hint of mint, gooey chocolatey centers... what more could you want from a cookie? For me, this cookie had it all, and was every bit as wonderful and delicious as I anticipated!

The Sugar Cookie recipe has been my go-to cookie recipe for years, infact, I really don't even remember where I got it! Anyway, I made Christmas tree cutouts with green piped icing and sparkling sugar, stars with piped yellow tips and yellow sparkling sugar, and some plain circular cookies with sparkling sugar baked ontop of it. That's what I love about sugar cookies... the possibilities are endless!

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. of salt
• 1/4 tsp. of baking soda
• 1/2 cup of butter at room temperature
• 1/2 cup of tightly packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 1/4 tsp. of mint extract
• 1 cup of chopped dark chocolate

1. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a larger bowl, beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). On low speed, slowly add the beaten egg and peppermint extract. Beat to combine, scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Add the flour mixture and beat just until there are no more streaks of flour. Stir in the chopped dark chocolate by hand. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 375F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out well rounded tablespoonfuls of the dough and roll them into balls. Leave about 2 inches between each ball. Bake for 8-9 minutes. If you prefer crispier cookies increase the baking time by 1-2 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before removing.

Fresh out of the oven!

Christmas Cut-Out Sugar Cookies with Icing

• 3/4 c. butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

• Frosting:
• 8 tbsp. butter, softened
• 1-2 tbsp. cream or whole milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 4 c. powdered sugar, sifted

Cream the margarine or butter and sugar well in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add in the vanilla and eggs; mix well to combine

In a separate bowl, sift the baking powder, salt, and flour together. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mix until thoroughly combined. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled and firm. Remove the cookie dough from the fridge. On a well-floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4" thickness. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Cut out cookies in desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 6-8 minutes. Check often to prevent over-cooking or burning.

Remove from oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack.

To prepare the frosting, cream butter, milk, and vanilla together until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar until the desired consistency is reached (Add extra milk if necessary). Add liquid food coloring if desired. Decorate cookies once they have cooled.

Home for the Holidays.. and back in the kitchen again!

So I start a new journey with a new post on a new blog. A lot of new-ness, a lot of exciting adventures ahead! Just a couple weeks ago I came across Taste Spotting through Stumble Upon and I've been frequently refreshing and bookmarking new recipes several times a day ever since! It also got me thinking, after seeing so many blogs, that it'd be fun to try one out myself. I've done some blogging before to document and update information for several group trips I've been on, so I'm not too new to this realm of things. I have not, however, kept a blog for myself, especially with food. Being a girl raised to cook (considering my mom's side is Polish/Italian.. cooking is pretty much in my blood), I love the idea of being able to post and see different recipes and have reaped in so many cooking ideas just from the countless hours of blog scanning. So thus sparked the idea in my mind of blogging!

I figured I should probably introduce myself so you can better understand the person behind the posts. I am Alyse, and I'm a cooking addict. My love for cooking has been put temporarily on hold with the lack of proper facilities in my living arrangement at my college. In addition to cooking, I am a "coffee artist", aka Barista, at Starbucks. When I'm not dishing out lattes, I'm either a.) spending time with my fiance, Joe b.) doing homework or c.) both a and b. Speaking of my fiance, we're going to be getting married May 8th! Not only will I be marrying the love of my life, but it will be the start of finally regaining a facility to be able to cook for my new hubby! Now that we've become acquainted, onto what's been going on in recent news...

So, these days, back home means back in the kitchen. I never knew how much I took the oven and stove in my house for granted until I was plopped in the middle of Valley Forge, PA in a dorm without any of the above available to use. Now as a girl who was born with a mixing whisk in her hand, raised as a 3 year-old with lessons on how to mix dough to the perfect pie crust consistency, and relient to bake whenever her little heart desired, this was a huge lifestyle shock for me. The whole semester, I've been dreaming of Thanksgiving break, and even Christmas, with visions of a steaming hot box capable of producing a pile of liquid into a beautiful cake dancing above my head. Heck, I even started planning out every single cookie and dish I would bake for my friends for Christmas back at the end of August!

Anyway, today was my first day of Thanksgiving break, and what better way to spend it then baking? Yes, I woke up at the wee hours of 8 AM on my first day of vacation just to spend every glorious second I could bonding with my oven. It seems like I got out all my baking angst built up over the past 4 months in the short 5 hours I spent in the kitchen today. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though! The middle of May I will be moving into an apartment with my fiance (well, by that time he'll be my husband) with a fully workable stove and oven! Not only will I be able to bake and cook to my hearts content, but I'll also be able to escape the food served in my college's cafeteria. But back to todays bake-fest...

Today I got to make 3 Impossible Pumpkin Pies (using my late grandmother's recipe), 2 pumpkin breads (with the leftover pumpkin), 2 apple pies, and a Chocolate Pudding Pie, as well as make some Taco Soup to get rid of some of the leftovers in the fridge in preparation for the cornucopia of food that will be taking over the refrigerator as of tomorrow.

We still have 2, count them, 2 cans of pumpkin left over, so I'm having a fun time scheming up what to make with it before I return back to school. I have to jet and start getting ready for the night ahead. Tonight is my church's annual Thanksgiving Eve service, and after I'm going to spend some time with my fiance, his family, and some Chocolate Pudding Pie. What could be more of an incredible way to kick off the holidays than that?