Ready, set, BAKE!

I got my bake on this week.

And mostly achieved sweet success {literally}

Two of the three recipes, of course,

borrowed from the all-too-fabulous Bakerella.

She makes my culinary heart go pitter-patter....

  First challenge: Oreo Truffles

This one I had to try.

It has only three ingredients.

You'd be a fool not to...

Oreos

Cream Cheese

& White Chocolate Bark

'Nuff said.

If you like cheese cake, this is the recipe for you.

I myself, am not so much a fan and don't really fancy white chocolate too much either....

But it's not about me.

It's about your peeps and how your going to wow-the-pants-off-of-them with your clever truffle making abilities.

With that said....

Crush, blend, pulverize the Oreos (delicious cream filling included).

Mix in the cream cheese.

Roll into balls.

Chill balls (ha!) in the fridge or freezer for about a half hour.

Then get your white chocolate dip on.

Apparently, I made a rookie mistake and bought the wrong chocolate?!

Aaactually, what really happened was I went all fancy and bought nice expensive Bernard Callebaut chocolate

.......desiring fancy balls, of course.

But, what you really want is 'dipping' chocolate....

It "dips" better.

Duh.

The chocolate I used was a bit thick and therefor harder to get a good coat.

Where I went right,

was sprinkling the tops of my truffles with crushed candy cane.

Makes for minty-good Oreo awesomeness.

And unfortunately, I have not one photo to share with you.

Fail.

But Bakerella does, here.

Next Up:

Whoopie Pies w/ Salty Peanut Butter Filling

~H-e-a-v-e-n-l-y~

From the book, 'whoopie Pies':

As featured on Bakerella.

For the recipe and instructions, click here.

I did manage to snag a few photos of the beginning process:

Photos courtesy my 'old' camera.

.........But neglected to get photos of the final product.

Sigh.... Fail.

And lastly,

my own recipe.

'Kay, actually it's not my own recipe, per sayyyyy....

I really don't remember who I got it from,

(flashbacks of a cookie swap from, like, 9 years ago I think?!).

But, it is the best Ginger Snap recipe I've ever used.

Always, ALWAYS results in soft, ginger-cookie perfection!

Soft Ginger Snaps

1 cup sugar

1 cup margarine (I use butter)

1 cup molasses

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1 Tbsp hot water

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

3 1/2 cups flour

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, and wet in another.

Slowly add dry ingredients to wet and mix well.

Refrigerate dough for about an hour.

Roll Tbsp-sized balls.

Roll balls in white sugar.

Leave in ball form when baking (in other words-- don't flatten).

*Bake for 8-10 mins (7 mins was enough in my oven)

at 375 degrees C.

And, once more,

no photos.

F-A-I-L.

Stay tuned, lovely readers,

because there's alot more festive baking where that came from.

I plan to tackle even more festive holiday recipes in the next few weeks:

{Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows)

{Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies}

{Christmas Crunch}

{etc}

 And this time--

there will be pics.

Oh yes, there will be pics....