Cookie Dough Dip

Sorry I only got this one picture. I meant to snap a picture in the bowl, but oh well. 

This dip was really quick to make and plenty easy too. I made it the other night in a pinch to take as a snack for our Ladies' Night Out festivities at church and it was rather tasty! I used vanilla wafers to dip with.

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter, softened
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of white sugar
dash of half and half (about a tablespoon)
1/2 cup of flour
1 cup of mini chocolate chips
1 bag of king size M&M's

Combine all ingredients minus the chocolate chips and M&M's and blend well, adding more flour to get desired thickness. Add chocolate chips and M&M's and stir with a spoon. Dip with Vanilla wafers, pretzels, or animal crackers. Refrigerate if you're not going to use right away, but beware that will make the candies harden!

Hope you enjoy this quick and easy dip!

Love,
Casey

Raspberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was looking for something to do and wanted to bake the other day, and decided to see what I could come up with. One of the things I had was a bottle of raspberry extract that I'd bought to bake something and never got around to baking it (I don't even know what that something was anymore), and another was a bag of white chocolate chips (I think I bought them to make Christmas candy). I also had a bag of Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix and figured if I could make Mint cookies with mint extract, sugar cookie mix, and chocolate chips, I could very well try other flavors too.

All I used was:

-Betty Crocker Sugar cookie mix
-1 egg
-1 stick of unsalted butter
-1 bag of white chocolate chips
-2 tsp of raspberry extract (you can use as much or as little as you want depending on how well you like raspberry)
- a dash of pink food coloring

Combine everything but the white chocolate in a mixer, add as much food coloring as you need until you have the pink you like. I used Wilson's pink gel and so I just took a small sliver with a knife and dropped it in. A little bit of that stuff goes a long way.

When you've got everything mixed up, add your chocolate chips and stir them in. Then scoop out the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet (I like to use a cookie scoop) and bake in a 375 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes. Let them cool completely before trying to eat or remove from pan.

And viola! Easy and tasty. Husband, sister, and daddy gave a thumbs up, hope y'all like them too!

Love,
Casey

Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies

Okay, if you're a fan of Pinterest (like me) I'm sure you've seen recipes for these yummy cookies floating around on the boards. I witnessed these for the first time at a bridal shower I was helping to throw and was hooked. They're delicious, and you can tweak this recipe to your liking or to fit what is available in your kitchen. For my part, I had to do just that. Here is the original recipe. I had everything I needed, minus the creme de menthe baking chips and chocolate chunks. What I did have plenty of was chocolate chips and peppermint extract, so I decided to see what happened if I just upped the chocolate chips and peppermint. I was pretty pleased with my results. Here's what I did:

Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies

Ingredients
1 bag of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
1 egg
1 stick of unsalted butter (softened)
1 tsp of peppermint extract
6 drops of green food coloring
1 12oz bag of semisweet chocolate chips

This recipe is so simple, you'll be surprised how quickly you're done. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and combine all of your ingredients minus the chocolate chips. Be careful with the food coloring, a few drops is going to give you a light green, more is going to make these great for St Patrick's Day, if you catch my drift. Now the original recipe says to stir together the ingredients, but you've got a stick of softened butter to mix in a thick batter that has no liquid save for the one egg you've added, so I recommend using a mixer. I did. Make sure all the ingredients are fully incorporated; your batter will be thick and sticky - like cookie dough (obviously). When you're satisfied with the batter, pour in the bag of chocolate chips and gently mix them with the mixer into the cookie dough. Use a tablespoon to transfer them, two inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. I used parchment paper to avoid making extra dishes. This step depends on how thick you want and how many cookies you need. I made mine a little bigger because I'm lazy and didn't feel like making several batches or pans, so I only had twenty cookies, but you can make as many as three dozen with this mix. Bake for 8-11 minutes, allow to cool and set and then transfer to a container, plate, or your mouth. I chose the latter. :)

These came out very moist and soft, which is my favorite kind of cookie. I was really happy with them. The extra peppermint extract smelled strong as I poured it into the batter, but once cooked, it made the perfect mint cookies. This was definitely an effective substitute for mint chips. My girlfriend also used Andes Mint chips in hers and they turned out delicious too. They probably took me a total of 20 minutes to make with minimal clean up or hassle. These will definitely get made again. I think they'll be great for Christmastime and St Patty's Day, too!

Go whip yourself up some right now and thank me later!

Love,
Casey