White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Christmas Baking is well under way!!!!  Now, to be clear, I am not claiming that these cookies are by any means "better for you" except for possibly that they are homemade with lots of love and have no preservatives in them!  I also do believe moderation is key, and having a few decadent cookies at Christmas time is not a problem if you eat well all year long...  at least that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!!!

I have been making these cookies for YEARS!  They are in fact my oldest son's favorite, as well as my 2 younger daughters.  Not to mention that we leave these out every year for Santa, and last year he left a note beside the empty plate thanking us for them and letting us know that these cookies are his favorite!!!!  And as we all know, Santa wouldn't lie!  So you may want to do yourself and your children a favour and get these babies in the oven, at least for Santa!!!  You never know, you just might find a special thank you under your tree!  ;)

To make White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies you will need:

• 3/4 cup room Crisco Golden all vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 1 large egg
• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour (I use unbleached)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup crushed candy canes or peppermint candies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  If using a pizza stone to bake cookies, place it in the oven to heat up with the oven and have 2 pieces of parchment paper ready to put cookies on.  Otherwise, line cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Mix shortening, sugars, vanilla together until well blended.

Beat in egg.

Combine flour, salt and baking soda.

 Mix into shortening mixture at low speed until just blended.  Stir in Chocolate chips and crushed peppermint.

 Shape into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on parchment.

If using stone, remove it from the oven and slide your parchment paper with the cookie balls on it.  Return to oven and bake 8 to 10 minutes until lightly browned,

 Do not overbake!  You can now slide the baked cookies with the parchment paper off  your stone  and onto a wire rack to cool. Slide the next prepared cookie sheet onto your stone and bake 'em!!!

I truly hope your family loves these cookies as much as mine does, and I wish you and your family a Wonderful Christmas!!!

Versatile Morning Glory Muffins

These days I am getting up very early with my Hubby to get him off to work (he used to work from home, so this is a huge adjustment!!!)  I have to say, it has been kinda nice having that extra time in the morning even though I am not completely thrilled with an alarm clock going off at 5am!!  The bonus is I am able to get completely ready for the day and even bake fresh muffins for my kids lunches before they even wake up.  I feel so accomplished by 7am!!!  The other beautiful thing about muffins is that there is no mixers needed, so it is a fairly quiet baking project that whips up in no time and doesn't wake up sleeping children!!!

I wanted to use up some apples in my fridge and found this old recipe that I haven't used in years, and I have no idea why I had forgotten about this one, it is one of my favorites!  I absolutely love morning glory muffins, and this particular recipe is so versatile, I can't even tell you how many modifications I have made to it over the years and it always produces tender, delicious healthy muffins, perfect for lunchboxes and also wonderful for a light breakfast or middle of the day snack with a nice cup of tea.  There is a lot of cinnamon in these- It is not a typo!!  and all that cinnamon is what makes these muffins absolutely irresistible!!  Whip up a batch now,or wait until the morning and enjoy them warm out of the oven, they are worth getting up a little early for!!!

To make Morning Glory Muffins, you will need:

• 2 cups whole wheat all purpose flour, spoon and level measurement
• 1/2 cup sugar 
• 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
• 2 Tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 large carrot, finely grated
• 2 apples, peeled and grated
• 1 cup raisins, optional, if using, soak raisins in water for 10 minutes to plump them a bit
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sour cream, yogurt or apple sauce
• 1/4 cup canola oil (I use first press)
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp wheat germ
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  spray muffin pans with cooking spray and set aside.  For me this recipe makes 12 regular sized muffins + 6 mini muffins, filling the cups 2/3 full.

In a medium bowl whisk together eggs, sour cream, oil and vanilla, set aside.

No nuts in this batch as they are going to a nut free school

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, wheat germ and nuts, if using.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

As we are heading into the Christmas season I know everyone is posting all the Christmas goodies imaginable!  Tis the Season after all!!  However, our kiddies are still in school, which means they need healthy lunches, which in turn means I am making whole wheat muffins.  When I asked this week what they would like in their lunches I got a unanimous "Blueberry muffins!!!" Unanimous does not happen around here very often, I am lucky to get 2 out of 3, usually it is 3 very different requests (which is why I very rarely ask).  I did ask this week because I just didn't know what I wanted to make, so I took a chance.  :)

I do love these muffins and had kinda forgotten about them.  They have been nick named 'to die for',  which may be a little exaggeration... I'll leave that to you to decide  :)
They are however light and fluffy with the perfect amount of blueberries, perfectly sweetened as well as a very forgiving batter... don't want to use a lot of oil (as I don't)  sub in apple sauce or even sour cream (as I did)  no egg?  use flax seed! I made this recipe twice this week as my hubby and I ate some and I didn't have enough to get through the week, and the second time I made them I increased the recipe slightly as I wanted to muffins to be a little bigger, And they were perfect!
I hope you enjoy these as much as we do!!!

To make Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins, you will need:

• 2 cups whole wheat all purpose flour, spoon and sweep measurement
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup + 7 1/2 tsp first press canola oil ( I used 1/3 cup oil + remainder sour cream)
• 1 large egg + 2 tsp ground flax
• 1/3 + 1/4 cup milk 
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. grease muffin cups and set aside.

Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl (or measuring cup) combine oil, egg, flax and milk, set aside.

In a small bowl add blueberries (I used frozen and did not thaw them!)  Add about 1/4 cup of the flour mixture to the blueberries and stir to coat.

Pour the oil mixture into the remaining flour mixture and stir to combine, but do not over mix!
Gently fold in the blueberries, being careful not to overmix!

divide batter among 12 muffin cups evenly and bake for 20 minutes,

until tops are lightly browned and the center muffin springs back when gently pressed, or check doneness with a toothpick :)
Allow to cool 5 minutes in pan, then remove the muffins from pan to continue cooling on a wire rack

Enjoy!!!