Classic Spritz Cookies

For my birthday my grandma gave me a cookie press, she knows my passion for baking.  Since I never made cookies with a cookie press before, I went with a basic recipe.  Since one recipe makes 40 cookies, and I don't have a family of 5 to eat them, I shared them at work. So many people commented on how the cookies reminded them of the holidays when they were younger. 

What You Need: 

A Cookie Press

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/14 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Directions:

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl on medium speed. Add flour, salt, egg and almond extract. 

Place the dough in the cookie press and place on the cookie sheet. Bake 5-8 minutes. 

Watch out, the edges can brown very quickly.  

Immediately remove cookies from the cookie sheet and decorate. 

Chocolate and Cherry Trifle

For a Christmas party with some amazing family friends, who are really just family, my mom and I decided to take a stab at a trifle.  Neither of us had made one before but it was surprisingly easy and looked beautiful!

What You Need:
1 box of chocolate cake, and any ingredients to make it
2 containers of Cool Whip, thawed
1 box of vanilla pudding
1 jar of maraschino cherries, or more if you want ;)
Extra vanilla extract if you want more vanilla flavor
Chocolate flakes as garnish

Directions:
Depending on the depth of you trfile container, make two or three cakes in 8 inch round cake pans. While the cakes are baking, make the pudding. Mix one container of cool whip into the pudding with a spatula.

Take the maraschino cherries out of the jar and drain them in a colander.  Do not rinse. You can pat them dry if you think they are still dripping.

After the cakes have cooled completely, place one cake on the bottom of the dish. Use a knife to trim it if it doesn't fit in the bottom of the dish. Next place a layer of maraschino cherries on top.  Make sure some of the cherries are up against the glass so you can seem them in the layers. Cover the cake and cherries with a layer of the pudding and Cool Whip mixture.

Keep repeating layers until you reach the top of you dish. The second container of Cool Whip will be the top layer of your dish. Garnish with a few cherries or some chocolate flakes.

This dessert was delicious and surprisingly light so we didn't feel as bad eating dessert after a giant meal. 

Mini Pumpkin Pies

This post is a little late, but better than never.  I made these adorable mini pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving and they were a huge hit. 

What You Need:

4-inch round cookie cutter (or bowl as a template)
Cupcake tin
1 package refrigerated pie crusts
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
1 tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

Directions:

Thaw the refrigerated pie crust if you bought it frozen. Preheat oven to 425°F.
Unroll the thawed pie crusts on parchment paper and use the 4 inch cookie cutter to cut out 6 circles.

Grease the cupcake tin and line the muffin cups with the 4 inch circles.

Mix pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs and pumpkin pie spice in large bowl until smooth. Pour into pastry lined muffin cups to the top. Top with a pastry leaf if desired.
Bake for 15 minutes then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F. Bake another 20 – 25 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool 30 minutes in pan and remove to wire rack to cool for another hour for pumpkin filling to set completely.