Chocolate Christmas Cookies

Chocolate Christmas Cookies
Dorcas Annette Walker

In case you haven’t noticed I’ve been a bit wild over chocolate recipes this year for the holidays. In my way of thinking how else can you properly celebrate unless chocolate is involved? For those of you though, who aren’t crazy over chocolate I’m going to give you a vanilla version or what I call my Snowball Cookies that are also rolled in powdered sugar. That’s the neat thing about cooking. You can always find or change a recipe to suit your own taste buds. I feel sorry for the folk that don’t cook. They are limited in so many ways when it comes to personalizing food. When you are the chef the sky or rather the saucepan is the limit. So this Christmas don’t be afraid to try a new recipe along with the tried and true ones.

These Chocolate Christmas Cookies are very simple to make and will go fast with their soft brownie-like texture dusted with a cracked powdered sugar crust turning a plain chocolate cookie into something fancy. The Chocolate Christmas Cookies are great dipped in a glass of milk (my son’s favorite way of eating cookies and cake) or by themselves. You can add chopped nuts if you prefer or mix in some chocolate chips for a double chocolate burst of flavor. Preparation time for my Chocolate Christmas Cookies is around twenty minutes and this recipe makes two dozen cookies.

Chocolate Christmas Cookies

2 c self-rising flour
1 c sugar
½ c cocoa powder
½ c shortening
2 eggs
¼ c milk
1 tsp vanilla & almond extract
1 c powdered sugar

In a medium-sized bowl mix together all the ingredients except for the powdered sugar until well combined. The batter will be stiff. You can add another drop or two of milk if needed. Take a heaping tablespoon of batter and form into a ball. Roll in the powdered sugar until well coated. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350º for ten minutes. Let cool for five minutes before removing from the cookie sheet. Finish cooking and then store in an airtight container!

Snowball Cookies

1 c sugar
1 c shortening
2 eggs
½ c milk
1 tsp vanilla & almond extract
3 c self-rising flour
1 c chopped pecans
1 c powdered sugar

Cream sugar, shortening, and eggs together. Add milk and extracts. Stir in flour and chopped pecans. Take a tablespoon of dough, form into a ball, and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for ten minutes at 350º. While warm roll the cookies in the powdered sugar and let cool. Makes three dozen cookies.

Weekly tip: When rolling out cookie dough or forming it into a ball the dough is often easier to work with if you chill it first. Cover and place the cookie dough in the refrigerator for about an hour until completely chilled then roll out the dough or form it into balls!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

Chocolate Peanut Nuggets

Chocolate Peanut Nuggets
Dorcas Annette Walker

Have you ever had a day when it seems like everything goes wrong? I had a “Calamity Jane” Saturday this past week. For some reason my dear hens decided somewhere along the way to go modern and stage an attack on my large white rooster that is twice as big as them. My “women libber” hens kept pecking and pulling feathers off of the rooster until they had intimidated the poor fellow to where he hid in the henhouse. Nothing deterred the hens no matter what I sprayed on or did to the dear boy to help him get his self esteem back. I finally decided Saturday afternoon that I had to move my rooster before the hens did him in. So putting on some old clothes and gloves I girded myself for the battle of catching my turkey-sized rooster. Feathers and straw flew everywhere with me biting the dust more than once until I managed to corner and catch the dear boy. By the time I put him into a large feed stack and deposited him in another pen I was out of breath. A couple of hours later I tripped over the small fence around my herb garden while gathering some chives for supper and landed flat on my face in the dirt again. By then my bones were definitely protesting. I dusted myself off and limped into the house for a cup of tea. As dusk settled in I went back outside to help my son get some firewood. We had made a couple of trips and were on our last load- Dwight pushing the wheelbarrow ahead of me- when I reached over and picked up the handle on my wagon to leave the woodpile. Just as I was getting ready to pull the wagon I heard a loud noise and looked up in time to see a dead tree falling in my direction. I screamed and totally froze. The tree twisted and thankfully landed on the workshop standing next to me. Dwight raced back in wide-eyed disbelief. I moved my body and wagon to safety while he pushed the tree over enough for it to crash onto the ground. I tell you once I got back into the house there was nothing that was going to get me out of the door again that day.

So this week I decided to do something simple and made up a batch of my Chocolate Peanut Nuggets. You can mix-match nuts, add dried fruit and/or rice crispies, or substitute white chocolate for dark. Also using decorative candy or cupcake papers will make the Chocolate Peanut Nuggets a perfect homemade candy Christmas gift. Preparation time for my Chocolate Peanut Nuggets is around twenty minutes and this recipe makes three dozen nuggets.

Chocolate Peanut Nuggets

2 lbs dark chocolate almond bark
1 (16 oz) jar of dry roasted peanuts
1 tsp almond flavoring
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a large bowl microwave the chocolate until melted. Stir in the flavorings and peanuts. Drop by large tablespoons into candy or cupcake papers in muffin pans. Chill in the refrigerator or freezer a few minutes until hard. Store in an airtight container!

Weekly tip: To help make it easier and less of a mess to get the melted candy into the papers to harden, use a table knife to first push the paper down into the muffin pan before dropping in the candy mixture!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

Holiday Cake Truffles

Holiday Cake Truffles
Dorcas Annette Walker

This year for my birthday I decided to make Holiday Cake Truffles instead of a birthday cake. I’ve been reading about these intriguing cake truffles that seem to be all the rage. It turned out that I didn’t get my Holiday Cake Truffles made for my birthday on Monday like planned as I ended up back in the hospital with my husband instead. I was out in the living room in my recliner relaxing Sunday evening when I heard my husband go into the bathroom. A minute later there was a loud noise and I realized that Dana had fallen. I raced to the bathroom in time to help my husband get up and sit on a nearby chair. I told Dana to sit still thinking that maybe he had taken a dizzy spell and ran to get my son. By the time I got back my husband he was standing, took a step, and started to fall. I tried to hold onto him, but it was like trying to stop a falling tree as Dana is taller and weighs twice as much as me. To my horror my husband hit the floor again. By then Dwight had arrived so he helped me get his dad up off the floor and with us both holding onto Dana we tried to walk him to his recliner. Dana had barely taken three steps when he passed out again. We lowered my husband to the floor, put a couple of pillows under his head, and patting his cheek while calling his name I got Dana to respond. His pulse was thready and rapid so telling Dwight not to let his dad get up, I ran to call 911. With the assurance that an ambulance was on the way, I ran around getting dressed- as I didn’t want to make a grand entrance at the hospital in my PJ’s- while keeping an eye on Dana trying to convince him to lie quiet as he was all confused. My husband was admitted and finally taken to his hospital room around midnight. Around 1 o’clock in the morning back home I collapsed into bed feeling my age and thinking, what a way to start a birthday.

These Holiday Cake Truffles are a scrumptious temptation with their soft inner cake core coated by a shell of hardened chocolate that can be made into zillions of ways. You can use any flavor of cake mix (I used lemon) and frosting then coat with melted candy, white or dark chocolate and even put these balls on sticks for holiday lollipops. The Holiday Cake Truffles can be garnished with crushed nuts, peppermint, sprinkles, mini holiday candies, and rolled in powdered sugar or cocoa. Whether plain or fancy these Holiday Cake Truffles will be an elegant addition to your holiday celebration. Preparation time (not counting freezing time) is around thirty minutes and this recipe makes twenty-eight cake truffles.

Holiday Cake Truffles

lemon cake mix
1 c vanilla frosting
1 lb chocolate almond bark
candy sprinkles & powdered sugar

Bake cake mix according to the directions, cool, and then remove from the pan and crumble. Add frosting and mix with a beater on low speed until combined. Roll into 1½ inch balls and place on a wax papered cookie sheet. Freeze for one hour to set. Melt chocolate in the microwave until runny and completely cover the cake balls. Garnish with sprinkles before the chocolate hardens or roll in the powdered sugar after the chocolate sets!

Weekly tip: Another way to cover candy or a cake truffle with melted chocolate instead of dipping is by using a teaspoon and pouring it over the top, swirl around, let harden, and then ice the bottom!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com