Chocolate Conversation Hearts Sour Cream Cookies

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Chocolate Conversation Hearts Sour Cream Cookies

I do not know if you remember but back around Christmas time I shared with you a family recipe called Cream Cookies.

Well ever since then I have been thinking about how I could make these for Valentine’s day.

I have seen all over the Internet conversation hearts and different types of recipes and techniques.

Chocolate Conversation Hearts Sour Cream Cookies

I really wanted to try my hand at them but having 4 kids and seeming to be so busy all of the time I wanted to get these done the easiest way I could.

A few years back at Christmas time whenever this cookie was made some family members started buying cream cheese frosting to smear onto the tops of these cookies and eat them like that.

So I thought to myself why not make my cream cheese frosting, color it and bingo. Conversation Heart Cookies.

I made them chocolate because it’s Valentine’s Day. You gotta have chocolate.

Chocolate Conversation Hearts Sour Cream Cookies

I also did some without the frosting as well, so you could see how these look plain. You can also spruce them up a little with just a touch of powdered sugar.

Chocolate Conversation Hearts Sour Cream Cookies

Again these are so versatile that you can top them even with red sprinkles and you still will have a really good cookie.  My husband likes to spread strawberry jam on them. It is actually pretty good that way as well.

If you do not have too much time in the day, this dough can be made the day before then refrigerated and finished up the next day. I made this into a three day project. The first day I made the dough and 20 minutes later I was done.

The second day I cut them and baked them. That took a little longer so I was in the kitchen for about an hour. On the third day I decorated them. Again I spent another hour in the kitchen.

Whichever way you decide to make these and serve them up I hope you enjoy and  have fun with it!

Chocolate Conversation Hearts Sour Cream Cookies

CHOCOLATE CONVERSATION HEARTS SOUR CREAM COOKIES

YIELD: 4 dozen

PREP TIME: 1 hour and 30 minutes

COOK TIME: 10 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour and 40 minutes

Ingredients for Cookies:

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 egg beaten

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 to 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Ingredients for Icing:

4 tablespoons butter, cold butter

5 oz cream cheese directly from the refrigerator

2 cups powdered sugar

1 and 1/2 tablespoons milk

Food coloring

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325. Prepare cookie sheet using parchment paper.

2. In mixer beat shortening and sugar. Add in egg and mix.

3. In separate small bowl dissolve baking soda into sour cream.

4. Alternate adding flour and sour cream into mixing bowl.

5. Incorporate all for a nice soft dough and put on countertop.

6. Roll the dough out using more flour if needed so it is not sticky.

7. Use cookie cutters to make your heart shapes.

8. Place on cookie sheet. Decorate with sprinkles if you are using sprinkles instead of frosting.

9. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool before decorating

10. For the icing mix butter and cream cheese in mixer for 30 seconds.

11. Mix in powdered sugar one cup at a time.

12. Mix in milk.

13. Separate into bowls and mix one to two drops of food coloring.

14. Spoon into piping bag or sandwich bag. Decorate and ENJOY!

This icing was made thick so I could pipe onto the cupcakes and so it would hold its shape.

You can add more milk to make it more spreadable if you would like to spread the icing on.

**notes**
1. These cookies can be cooked longer if you like a crunchy cookie, which my husband does so I make a tray just for him.

2. You can decorate after the cookie has cooled using frosting of your choice.

3. This is the half recipe, it can be doubled.

4. I only use sandwich bags for decorating. I cut the tip of one end to the size I want to pipe.

Chocolate Conversation Hearts Sour Cream Cookies

this is link over at bunsinmyoven

Raspberry HUGS Hot Chocolate Muddy Buddies

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RaspberryHotChocolateMuddyBuddies1

Oh wow. That is a mouth full but seriously they are good. So good that we polished them off and my husband was around the kitchen looking for them.

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Say what! He does not go around the kitchen looking for sweets, normally. When I placed these in front of him yesterday he decided to try them. And he liked them! This is a great feat of mine. To get my husband to really like sweets. Because I am obsessed with sweets, I want him to be too.

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Ok so back to these muddy buddies. I had some Raspberry HUGS left in my cabinet that I wanted to use up before Valentine’s Day. So I started searching the Internet and I found this recipe.

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Well I decided to change it up just a tad bit and this is what we got! Something quick, easy and super tasty. This is great for something a little different to have around the house for Valentine’s!

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RASPBERRY HUGS HOT CHOCOLATE MUDDY BUDDIES

recipe adapted from here

YIELDS: 6 servings

PREP TIME: 5 minutes

COOK TIME: 5 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

5 cups chex mix cereal

1/2 white chocolate chips

15 Hershey’s Raspberry HUGS, unwrapped and chopped

1/2 teaspoon shortening

1 cup powdered sugar

1 single package Land O Lakes Raspberry & Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix (1 1/4 oz)

Directions:

1. In a bowl using a double boiler melt white chocolate, Raspberry HUGS and shortening together.

2. In the mean time in a smaller bowl whisk powdered sugar and hot cocoa together and set aside.

3. In a large bowl measure out the cereal. When chocolate mixture has melted pour over cereal and mix well.

4. In large plastic bag add half of the powdered sugar mixer.

5. Then add all of the cereal and the remaining half of the powdered sugar.

6. Close bag and shake, shake, shake until all is incorporated.

7. Pour into bowl and ENJOY!

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Sour Cream Pound Cake Zebra Style

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Sour cream pound cake1This pound cake recipe has been in my immediate family for 28 years. This recipe actually came into the family from my Stepdad’s side of the family. My mom acquired the recipe from his sister 28 years ago and she has been making it at home ever since. My Stepdad even remembers his mom making it for him and he just turned 79. So this recipe has been around awhile. What I do know is that this pound cake never last long in my mom’s house. It is pretty much the family favorite and one of the first desserts that goes when it is baked.

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As long as I can remember this cake has always been made plain without an additional flavors and served with fresh fruit. Well that is about to change. I decided to try and mix things up a little bit by adding some cocoa to the batter.

I was over on Pinterest and saw this pin from Bakers Royale. I totally love the design of this cake. So I took my recipe and made it this way. Mine is not as pretty but not too bad with the first try. I understand the technique better now that I did it once.

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This recipe seems to be pretty versatile. So it looks like you could add just about anything to this. Keep in mind this is not a sweet cake nor is it a moist cake. It is somewhat in the middle on both accounts. But what is so great about it, is that you can pretty much do what you would like to it. I have split the recipe in half when I didn’t want a full cake and made it in a bread pan. I found out my brother made them into cupcakes as well.

So what do you think? How else can we spice this up?

SOUR CREAM POUND CAKE

YIELDS: 10-12 servings

PREP TIME: 10 minutes

COOK TIME: 1 hour and 15 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour and 25 minutes

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter, room temperature

3 cups sugar

6 eggs

3 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup cocoa

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325. Spray bundt pan or tube pan with non stick cooking spray and flour.

2. Cream butter and sugar together in mixer.

3. Add one egg at a time, mixing well between each one.

4. Sift flour, soda and salt together.

5. Add  about 1/2 cup of  flour to mixer. Then alternate with about 1 tablespoon of sour cream till all is incorporated.

6. Add vanilla.

7. Take out 2 cups of batter and put into a smaller bowl. Add cocoa and mix well.

8. Using a spoon or ice cream scoop layer your vanilla batter and chocolate batter in your tube or bundt pan.

9. Make small layers one on top of the other and allow the batter to spread out into the pan.

10. After making 4 or 5 layers rotate pan and add another 4 or 5 layers. Continue to do this till you have filled your pan and used all of your batter.

11. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool for about 5 to 10 minutes before you release your cake from your pan. Cut and ENJOY!

sour cream pound cake5

Bacon Pancakes in honor of IHOP National Pancake Day

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National Pancake Bacon Pancakes

Today is  IHOP National Pancake Day! Did you hear? There are places actually giving away free pancakes!! What I didn’t know until I start writing this post is that this day has a purpose. It actually is created for charity purposes.

This is so great because they take donations and then give it to the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals©

Seriously! Could this get any better??

I am not sure I will make it out of the house to get those pancakes because of sick kids but I HOPE YOU DO!!!

These bacon pancakes are just an inspiration for the IHOP National Pancake Day! ENJOY!

National Pancake Bacon Pancakes

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BACON PANCAKES

YIELDS: 12 PANCAKES

PREP TIME: 5 minutes

COOK TIME: 20 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

For the pancakes:

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoons oil

6 slices cooked bacon

1/2 tablespoon bacon fat

Directions:

1. Mix flour, baking powder, sugar and cinnamon in large bowl.

2. Whisk together milk, water and oil in small bowl.

3. Add milk mixture to flour and mix well.

4. Stir in bacon and about 1/2 tablespoon of the bacon fat.

5. Cook on griddle or in non stick pan till bubbles form and break.

6. Then flip and cook for 2 minutes more or until brown.

7. Serve warm and ENJOY!

*** I added a little of my cream cheese frosting with maple syrup to cover the pancake. I just mixed them together and poured! It was divine!***

All opinions expressed here are my very own.

Sausage and Peas Quinoa

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Sausage and Peas Quinoa1So the latest rage on the Internet world of food has been quinoa. KEEN-wah. Say it slowly, it’s ok, KEEN-wah. I seriously must be from the south. I could not even pronounce it. I had to Google the phonetic. Quinoa is a type of grain from South America. I kept seeing recipes using this and I was immediately intrigued.

Sausage and Peas Quinoa2 When I was shopping in my local discount warehouse I found a huge bag of it for a really cheap price. So I said to myself, “we’ll I guess it is now or never.” I am so glad I did. I absolutely love quinoa. I think I am the only one in the house who really likes it. The first time I made it, I added lima beans and lemon. That really didn’t go over well, bit I liked it! On Tuesdays I lunch alone because my husband goes to staff lunch and my kids are in school. So I took the opportunity to make a quinoa for myself. I am so glad I did. This time I decided to do it right. I added some sausage, onions, peas and a little wine. YUM,YUM YUM!

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So come out of the little square food box with me and open your taste buds to a whole new world of deliciousness. And it’s healthy for you too but whatever.

SAUSAGE AND PEAS QUINOA

recipe adapted from here

YIELDS: 2 servings

PREP TIME: 5 minutes

COOK TIME: 25 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

olive oil

1 small onion chopped in large pieces

2 sausage links

1 cup quinoa

1 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 vegetable bouillon cube

1 cup frozen peas

shredded parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. In large pot sautée onions in olive oil.

2. Take sausage out of casing then add to the onions and cook for 5 minutes.

3. Mix in quinoa and cook for 1 minute. Stir in water, wine and cube.

4. Add frozen peas, stir and cover for 18 minutes.

5. Sprinkle with cheese and ENJOY!

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