Cookies and Cheesecake

No rest for the weary and since we spent Saturday helping prep Monday's Christmas Eve appetizers, Sunday was all about dessert!

After much debate, RRR and I decided to make chocolate peppermint cookies, lemon cookies (last Christmas cookie hit) and our holiday favorite, Patti's oatmeal raisin cookies (recipe below):

Patti's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Sift: 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp salt.

In another bowl combine wet ingredients: 1 well-beaten egg, 1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp molasses, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup melted shortening.

Mix dry ingredients into wet. Add 1 3/4 cups quick oats. Add 1 cup baking raisins and 1/4 cup milk. You may find that you need to add up to one additional cup of oats to get the desired consistency of the batter. Chill for at least 20 mins and bake at 325 degrees for about 12 minutes. Enjoy!

Cousina and her daughter stopped by to help us out and the cookies came out pretty good, although the lemon cookies were a bit 'puffier' last year.

We are not quite sure what went awry but RRR's suspicion is that Ms. Foodie didn't put in enough baking soda. Being a bit of an OCD-baker, I disagree.

Regardless of looks, all the cookies were delicious and we made some revisions to the chocolate peppermint cookie recipe (link to recipe above).

The recipe calls for peppermint extract and confectioner's sugar for the glaze. RRR thought that melted chocolate chips with the peppermint extract would be a better option and who am I to argue against melted chocolate?

In addition to our cookie-fest, we tackled our first cheesecake, a ginger pumpkin cheesecake courtesy of the fine folks at McCormick.

This recipe was passed on to me by Bacon, who is the Queen of Baked Goodness. Bacon brought this cheesecake over for Thanksgiving a few years back, and I've been itching to make it ever since. We struggled getting the gingersnap crust firmly pressed into the springform pan, but overall, it was a noble effort and the cheesecake was quite tasty. Our Grandmother (another cheesecake Queen) would have been proud!


NOTE: more pictures to come... Ms. Foodie misplaced her camera and was relegated to RRR's old school point and shoot!