Christmas Recipes - 3/9 - The Idea Room

Chocolate Gingerbread men

I don’t know who decides to rip up most of the flooring on their main floor two weeks BEFORE Christmas…Crazy people…

But we did because it was the best time that worked for us so we didn’t have to wait until the new year. I am putting an office/craft room in our dining room since we rarely use that room and it is some prime real estate. So we have been crazy busy in addition to all the Christmas business. But I am really excited! I will share some pictures here soon.

So…Christmas baking has not been happening around here. As soon as we got most of the house put back together I knew I needed to get my bake on. The first thing I made were these DELICIOUS Chocolate Gingerbread Men. I have been wanting to try a chocolate gingerbread recipe since last year seeing as how I have an addiction to gingerbread this time of year…and you can never have enough chocolate. And, I have to say…I really enjoyed these…maybe a little too much…{ahem}!!

I used a recipe I found from Ghirardelli.

Chocolate Gingerbread Men

Recipe from Ghirardelli.com

Yield: 40 cookies

Ingredients:

2 ounces Semi-Sweet Baking Bar

1/2 cup Unsweetened Cocoa

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

2 tablespoons ground ginger

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 cup molasses

1 large egg

Directions:

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, brown sugar, white sugar, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the molasses, egg, and melted chocolate and continue beating on medium speed for an additional 2 minutes. On low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Transfer the dough to a flat surface and flatten into a disk. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least hour, or up to 5 days.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Divide the chilled dough into four equal quarters, leaving three quarters in the refrigerator. Lightly flour a flat work surface and roll out one piece of dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Using a small (2 to 2 1/2 –inch) gingerbread man or woman cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as possible. Place the cookies on the prepared cookie sheets, about 1 inch apart. Gather all the dough scraps into a ball and place in the refrigerator. Take out another quarter of the dough, and continue rolling out the dough and cutting cookies until all the dough has been used. Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes until slightly raised. Using a spatula, remove the cookies from the cookie sheets, transferring to a wire rack to cool.

These cookies are so full of flavor and I like how they had just a nice amount of softness and chewiness to them. No need to add a lot of extra frosting to them. Just a few buttons to dress him up a bit should do the trick. Plus…it is a lot faster that way.

Take these to your next holiday party or gobble them up with a tall glass of cold milk.

And can you even believe that there are only 6 more sleeps till Christmas? I have a few last minute items to finish up this week and then should be ready to celebrate! I LOVE this time of year! Now we just need it to snow!

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Santa Pops

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Have you been waiting for the Christmas version? I hope so…cause I am sharing my latest Oreo Pop with you today…the Santa Pops!

1. Insert your popsicle stick or sucker stick into your Double Stuft Oreo Cookies.

2. Line a pan with parchment or wax paper.

3. Melt your Red Wilton’s Candy Melts in 20 second intervals in the microwave.

4. “Dip” your Oreo’s into the melted candy. In the past I have been saying to *DIP* your Oreos and several of you were having difficulty with them staying on the stick during the dipping process. I realized that I was actually pouring the chocolate over the over with a spoon while holding the Oreo over the cup of melted chocolate. Just turn the Oreo around as needed so that the chocolate is completely covering your entire Oreo and the stick. Hopefully this will help some of you who were having difficulty. Sorry for the confusion.

5. Place the candy covered Oreo onto the wax paper.

6. Take a piece of black licorice {I used Twizzlers} and place it near the bottom of the Oreo. The hardened chocolate will hold them it in place permanently.

7. Take three white round sprinkles down the Oreo for the buttons of Santa’s shirt.

8. Squeeze some white frosting along the bottom of Santa’s shirt.

8. Quickly pop the tray of Oreos into the freezer just to set the chocolate.

9. When the chocolate has hardened (should only need a few minutes) remove the tray from the freezer and add the belt buckle. (A strip of yellow Laffy Taffy shaped into a buckle).

This makes for a pretty fun party treat or as a gift for a classmate. The possibilities are endless for these Oreo Pops. I am a woman obsessed. But…I must admit…I am a bit sick of them. I don’t eat them anymore. I just make them for the fun of it and then I give them away! What do you think?

Need some other Oreo Pop ideas?

Check out some of these past Idea Room ideas…

Minnie and Mickey Mouse Oreo Pops

Frankenstein Oreo Pops

Eyeball Oreo Pops

Snowman Oreo Pops

Snowman Oreo Puddles

Easter Bunny and Duck Oreo Pops

Graduation Oreo Pops

Apple Oreo Pops

Reindeer Pops

December 15, 2011 · Filed under: Christmas, Christmas Gifts, Christmas Recipes, Teacher Gifts, Treats, Tutorials Tagged with chocolate covered oreos, chocolate dipped oreos, double stuft oreos, oreo on a stick, oreo pops, santa treat

How To Make Play Dough—Peppermint

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Sorry about not getting this up sooner. Things have been crazy around here with that wind storm. I just finally found some time to sit down and get this typed up. Have you ever wondered how to make Play Dough? It could not be simpler. I have shared how to make some fun Kool-Aid Flavored Play Dough and Pumpkin Spice Play Dough. Well, since it is Christmas time, I decided we needed to make some Peppermint Play Dough. So I fiddled with the recipe a bit and came up with a recipe for some yummy smelling Peppermint Play Dough.

Peppermint Play Dough Recipe

1 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
1 Tablespoon Peppermint Oil Extract
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup water

1. Mix flour, salt, & cream of tartar in a medium cooking pot.
2. Add water, peppermint extract and oil.
3. Stir over medium heat 3 to 5 minutes stirring constantly.
4. When mixture forms a ball in pot, remove.
5. Knead until smooth.
6. Play and explore with this fragrant, brightly colored dough as you would any play dough.
7. Put in a plastic bag and refrigerate to store.

A great way to entertain the kids during Christmas break. Or a great gift for a neighbor, classmates or friends. It is so easy to make and is the softest (non sticky) Play Dough recipe I have ever used. I like it better than the store bought stuff…plus…it smells amazing!! And if you are feeling extra festive…throw in a handful of red glitter to give it some fun sparkle!

And, in the spirit of giving, I have provided you with a free printable Peppermint Play Dough label for the tops of your jars or Tupperware containers to label it for a gift. The labels are 3 inch circles. If you need them smaller you can simply print the label smaller than 100% to get the size you need.

{Download Peppermint Play Dough Label}

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. I would love to hear from those of you who are planning on making some for yourself or who plan on gifting it. 19 more sleeps till Christmas…but who’s counting!!

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