This was my first attempt at making any kind of shortbread. They were… okay. I’ve been calling them “marginally successful”. Comparing mine to the ones in the source picture, I’m going to go ahead and say that I let a bit too much of the juice from the maraschino cherries into the cookies. I also probably underbaked them by a bit. They still tasted decent though! Also problematic was the dark chocolate chips that I used were awfully wide at the base which made it difficult to make clean slices in order to put them in the oven.

I really don’t have much else to say about these… I wouldn’t discourage you from making them, but I would recommend making sure your chocolate chips are either smaller, or chop them up, and to make sure you drain the maraschino cherries. I’ll likely try these again at some point.

Cherry Dark Chocolate Chip Shortbread
Source: Closet Cooking

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup maraschino cherries, chopped
1/2 cup white and/or dark chocolate chips
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
8 ounces white and/or dark chocolate, chopped (optional)

Cream the butter and the sugar.
Mix the flour and the salt.
Mix the dry ingredients into the wet until it starts forming larger clumps.
Mix in the maraschino cherries, white chocolate and vanilla extract.
Form the dough into the shape that you want, wrap it in plastic and let it chill in the fridge for at least an hour. (I did a rectangular log but you could also do a circular log.)
Cut the log into 1/4 inch thick slices and place them on a parchment lined baking pan with one inch of space between them.
Bake in a preheated 325F oven until they just start to turn lightly golden brown on top, about 10-15 minutes.
Let cool completely.

I impulse purchased a jar of Nutella the last time I was at the grocery store. Call it a fringe benefit of going to the store hungry, with a half-assed grocery list, and needing to walk down the Nutella aisle more than one time due to forgetting something I was after the first time.

And boy, am I glad I did! I decided I wanted to bake something, but wasn’t interested in venturing out in the cold and snow for any supplies, so it had to be something that I had all of the ingredients for. I started looking in the same place I always do: Pinterest. Just a couple short minutes on my food board, and I found these cookies. Wouldn’t you know it? I had everything I needed, down to the impulse-purchased Nutella. It was destiny.

My mom is hoping that I’ll bring a couple of these cookies when I go to visit her in about a week, but it’s not looking promising for her… I ate a couple of them still warm off the cooling rack, and they were absolutely divine. Another one bit the dust when it fell apart between pan and the cooling rack… I was CLEARLY obligated to eat that one as well. The rest of the batch will end up going to work with me, if only so I don’t end up eating the other 37 cookies all by myself over the next few days.

Not that that would break my heart in the slightest. Yum.

Nutella Swirled Peanut Butter Cookies
Source:Buns in my Oven

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup Nutella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Mix until well combined.
Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a large measuring cup or bowl. Slowly stir in to the peanut butter mixture.
Drop spoonfuls of Nutella on top of the dough and swirl it through the dough with a butter knife.
Chill the dough for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.
Roll into balls by hand.
Place the balls of dough on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
Use a fork to lightly press the balls down and make a criss-cross pattern.
Bake until the edges are very lightly browned, about 7 to 10 minutes.
Allow to cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.

I intended to make this post about a sugar free Black Forest trifle, but unfortunately, that one met an untimely end on my kitchen floor:

So instead you get (yet another) mint themed recipe. That’s okay though. I love chocolate mint. Like chocolate and peanut butter, chocolate and mint just belong together. (Hmm… maybe it’s that chocolate goes with everything? Food for thought.)

Anyways, I’ve been eyeballing the bags of Andes mint chips in the baking aisle for ages. I kept thinking I would eventually buy them and find a chocolate cookie to put them in. I still may do that at some point in the future. In the meantime though, I decided to just go ahead and go with the recipe on the back of the bag. I am not disappointed. The cookies have also received a big thumbs up from my coworkers who have sampled them.

I still plan on making these with a chocolate cookie dough at some point in the future. I think they would be awesome! In any case, buy Andes mint chips… make these cookies. Or just eat the mint chips and eat them straight out of the bag, like one of the officers said he would do. Either way, I don’t think you’d be too disappointed.

Andes Crème de Menthe Cookies
Source: Tootsie.com

1/2 cup salted butter – softened
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 package (10 oz.) Andes® Crème de Menthe Baking Chips or 2 packages 4.67 oz Andes Crème de Menthe or Toffee Crunch Thins, chopped.
2-2/3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350° F.

Blend butter, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla and eggs until mixed.
Stir in Andes Baking Chips and then flour. Chill approximately one hour in the refrigerator.
Measure out approximately 1 oz. of dough. Form a ball and slightly flatten.
Raise oven rack one level above the middle and bake on non-stick baking pans.
Bake at 350° F for approximately 8 – 10 minutes.
Cool on pans for two minutes before removing.