Gingerbread Men and Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

I wanted to squeeze in a couple of cookies before Christmas, so I wanted to make a classic gingerbread cookie and Paula Deen's Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies!

First off, I must say that this year has flown by! I can't believe it's Christmas Eve and there is a week left in 2011! Where has the time gone!? Hopefully next year won't fly by so quickly...

So this holiday season, I have decided not to do gifts in order to get my bills paid. As Mrs. Lovett said: "Times is hard." So instead of making meat pies out of alley cats, I'm making cookies!

For the Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies, I used Paula Deen's recipe. This was quick and easy since the base was chocolate cake mix.

• 1 8-oz brick cream cheese, room temp
• 1 stick butter, room temp
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 18-oz box moist chocolate cake mix
• confectioner's sugar, for dusting

1) Cream the butter and the cream cheese until smooth.

2) Beat in the egg, then the vanilla, then the cake mix.

3) Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours so the dough is easy to roll.
4) Once chilled, preheat the oven to 350. Roll the dough into tablespoon-sized balls.

Then roll the balls into some powdered sugar...

And place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.

5) Bake for 12 minutes and dust with additional sugar after completely cooled, if you want.

And these little guys will be eaten up in no time! They have a brownie- cakey- cookie- type of quality, and they are so good! Using exact tablespoons, I got about 4 dozen instead of the 2 dozen the recipe said it would make! :)

Chocolatey goodness!

Next up is a classic gingerbread cookie recipe. Instead of a teaspoon of lemon zest, I put in about a teaspoon and a half of orange zest (I think orange tastes much better with ginger).

• 3 c all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp ginger
• 1 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cloves (I substituted nutmeg)
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
• 3/4 c dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 c molasses
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp lemon zest (or orange)

1) In a bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together until blended.
2) In a mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar, and egg on medium speed until blended.

3) Add molasses, vanilla, and zest. Mix well.

4) Gradually stir in dry ingredients until blended and smooth

Yum!

5) Divide dough in half and wrap each half in plastic. Then let stand at room temperature for at least 2 hours.
6) Preheat oven to 375. Grease or line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
7) Place one portion of the dough on a floured surface and roll out to 1/4" thick.

*The dough will look dry, but keep working at it, and it will come together!*
Cut cookies into whatever shapes you choose.

8) Space cookies 1 1/2" apart  and bake for 7-10 minutes.

I had some royal icing left over from the gingerbread house party, so I mixed that up and added some color. That was not a good time to find out I was out of red! Grrr! Green and blue worked fine, though! I had some basic gingerbread men...

Then some clothed ones...

Then some stars...

And some decorated circle shapes...

And I got a little snacky, so I got creative...

Following the recipe, I got a little under 4 dozen with this recipe as well! Nice! The cookies were a bit soft because I baked them for exactly 7 minutes. If you want crispier cookies, roll them thinner or bake them a bit longer.
These cookies are going to go in cute little Christmas Chinese food boxes for gift-giving!

I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season! Be safe, and have fun!

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

Since there's a definite snow-blivion going on outside (yes, in Virginia Beach, VA), I'm in the mood for baking. What to bake? Well, I just have this cream cheese getting to room temp on the counter, a couple of sticks of butter that are begging to be melted, and a yummy can of pumpkin puree. Hmmm.... Paula Deen's Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake! A couple of people I know that have made this cake and they LOVED it, even non-pumpkin-lovers. So of course, I just had to try it! Be forewarned: this recipe involves 2 sticks of butter! This is not for the health-conscious! The recipe goes a little like this:

Cake Bottom:

• 1 (18 1/4 oz) package yellow cake mix (I used butter recipe golden)
• 1 egg
• 8 tbsp (1 stick) butter, melted

Filling:

• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (15 oz)n can pumpkin puree
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 8 tbsp (1 stick) butter, melted
• 16 oz of powdered sugar (about 2 cups)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 13 x 9 baking dish (I used an 8 x 8 Pyrex dish)
2. Combine cake mix, egg, and 1 stick melted butter into a bowl and mix with electric mixer (you can use an old-fashioned wooden spoon). Pat the mixture into the bottom of the baking dish.

3. For the filling: In a large bowl (this part I used the Kitchenaid for), beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the 3 eggs, the melted butter, and the vanilla.

 4. Add the powdered sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, and mix well (don't forget to scrape down those sides!)

5. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake bottom and bake for 40-50 minutes for the 13 x  9 and about 55-65 minutes for the 8 x 8. The center should be a little gooey-- set, but gooey.

Gooey success!

For best results, serve with whipped cream (as seen above).

Some variations I found were a chocolate peanut butter flavor (with chocolate cake mix and 1 cup peanut butter used instead of pumpkin) and a pineapple flavor (with 1 cup crushed pineapple instead of pumpkin).