Chocolate Covered Butter Cookies Recipe

Basic Butter Cookies (Double  Dough Batch):

2 cups softened butter (I use salted, if you use unsalted add a 1/2 tsp of salt to recipe)

1 1/3 cup of granulated sugar 

3  lg. egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 3/4 cups flour

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Cream butter & sugar (and salt if needed) at high speed.  (Use a large bowl this is a double batch of dough)

3. Add vanilla and yolks. Beat til smooth.

4. Turn mixer down to slow speed and slowly add flour, just til mixed in.

5. Separate dough into 2 or 3 manageable sized balls, for rolling out.

6. Lightly flour your counter and roll out dough  to about 1/4″ and cut your shapes.

7.  Place on Parchment lined baking sheet, and bake for approximately 12-13  minutes.  (if you don’t use parchment cookies will cook a minute or 2 faster).

8. Let cookies rest a couple minutes, before removing from baking sheet, to avoid breakage.

Chocolate Coating:

The chocolate used on these cookies is basically just a thick ganache.

8 oz. semi sweet baking chocolate squares

2 1/2  tbs of milk

1.  Chop the chocolate into smaller pieces to speed melting.

2. Combine milk and chocolate in microwavesafe dish.

3. Heat chocolate in microwave for 30 seconds, then stir with fork.  Repeat, until the chocolate mixes smoothly (it will still be a little thick).  Add a little milk if you need, but do so sparingly.

4. Let Chocolate sit for a couple minutes, just til not steaming hot.

5. Place cookie flat down on chocolate.  With smaller cookies, twisting while lifting may give you a nice swirled effect.  Larger cookies will probably require the chocolate be spread out with icing spatula or the back of a spoon.  (You can sprinkle nuts or crushed candy cane on at this point if you like).

6.  The cookies will need several hours to “set-up”.  I usually leave them overnight.

The chocolate will not be enough to cover all the cookies, as it is a single batch recipe and the dough is a double recipe.  I usually serve the plain butter cookies along side the chocolate covered ones as shown here, or use half the dough for another cookie style.

Puff pastry and fresh ingredients, make these bite-size pizzas a step above the common fare.

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Puff Pizzettes Recipe:

Frozen Puff Pastry

Grape Tomatoes (sliced thinly)

Fresh basil leaves(sliced into 1/4″ ribbons)

Shaved Parmesan Cheese

2 tbs olive oil

1 clove of garlic (crushed & minced)

salt

1. Thaw the puff pastry dough thoroughly.
2. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
3. Sweat the garlic in the olive oil over medium heat with a pinch of salt
4. Smooth out the dough and cut into 1” by 3″ strips.  (A shortbread cookie cutter this size will produce the slightly ruffled edges seen in the pic. above)
5. Baste the top of the strips with the garlic oil.
6. Pick each strip 3-4 times with a fork.
7. Top with 3 slices of grape tomato.
8. Sprinkle on shaved Parmesan .
9. Top with a couple pieces of basil.
10. Place the strips on a parchment lined baking sheet.
11. Bake for approximately 12 minutes, on middle rack.

Parmesan Puff Christmas Cutouts make a quick, easy and inexpensive filler appetizer for your holiday spread. These also make a great accompaniment to soups and stews.

Parmesan Puff Christmas Cutouts Recipe:

Frozen puff pastry

1 egg yolk

1tbs. water

paprika

grated parmesan cheese

parsley

1. Thaw puff pastry
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
3. Beat egg yolk with 1 tbs of water (you can add a dash of garlic power if you like, just beat it in)
4. Use Holiday cookie cutters to cut the pastry dough.
5. Baste cutouts with yolk.
6. Sprinkle with paprika, grated cheese, then parsley.
7. Bake on parchment lined baking sheet for 12 minutes.

These are best served warm.

Recipe: Curry Chicken Skewers with Cilantro Mayonaise

2 large chicken breasts

2 dozen wooden skewers (soaked in water for at least 15 min.)

grape tomatoes

Marinate Ingredients

1/4 cup of olive oil

1 tbs. of curry

1/2 tbs. of cilantro ( I use dried)

1 small clove of garlic (crushed & minced)

1 tsp of ginger (crushed & minced)

1 tsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp kosher salt (if substituting table salt, use a little less)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Slice chicken breasts into thin strips, then cut strips into 1-2 ” long pieces.
3. Mix marinate ingredients in glass bowl.
4. Add chicken, and make sure it is fully covered in marinate. 
5. Skewer chicken  & grape tomatoes.
6. Bake for 10 minutes, make sure oven is fully preheated and flip the skewers at about the 6 minute point.

Cilantro Mayonaise

1/4 cup of mayonaise

1/2 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp cilantro

Simply mix and serve aside the skewers.  If you prefer a sweeter mayo, just add a little honey and mix well.

Poor Santa’s Yummy Banana Jam Recipe for Christmas

3 quarts. (12 c.) sliced ripe bananas (approx. 12-14 bananas)
6c. Sugar
1 ½ c. orange juice (can be substituted with pineapple juice if you prefer)
¾ c. lemon juice
Optional: ½ tsp. cinnamon

• Prep jars:
  Place jars& lids in a large pan & just cover with water. Bring water just to a boil, then shut it off. Jars are now ready for use.

• Make the jam:

3. Reduce heat and simmer until thickened (approx. 15 min.)

4. Ladle jam into hot jars and seal.

5. You will know jars are sealed when you hear them “ping”, after this the lid will look pushed in, rather than bowing out.

These go great in gift baskets, since they don’t have to be refridgerated.  They also make a nice gift, for a teacher, neighbor, postman or as a small hostess gift.  Wrap it in tulle and add a bow for festive flair.

PS. This is great over ice cream or  with biscotti, not just for PB&J.