Debbie's Best Cookies

1/2 c. shortening
1 c. butter
3/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1(3 oz) box instant jello vanilla pudding
4 c. flour
1 bag milk chocolate chips

Cream together shortening, butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well
Blend in baking soda, salt, and pudding. Add flour, combine, then add chocolate chips and mix well.
Drop on greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

Biscotti

Courtesy of Mom

Yield: 1 loaf or about 20 slices

Ingredients

• 1 C sugar
• 1/2 C butter
• 1 T brandy extract
• 1 T almond extract
• 1 T vanilla
• 2 t water (as needed for texture)
• 1 C chopped almonds
• 3 eggs
• 2.5-3 C flour
• 1.5 t baking powder
• .25 t salt

Instructions

1. Cream everything except the last three ingredients, and then add the last three.
2. Form into a wide, flat loaf on a greased cookie sheet. 
3. Cook 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees.
4. Slice the loaf. Put slices back on the cookie sheet on their sides.
5. Cook 15 minutes at 350 degrees, until turning golden brown.
6. Flip and cook 15 minutes at 350 degrees, until turning golden brown.

Apple Crisp

2 C flour
2 C oats
1.5 C brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 C melted butter
Mix these ingredients and press half of the mixture into a 15x10" jelly roll pan (cookie sheet that has sides works too). Set aside the remaining to add to topping.

2 1/2 C apple slices
I put a lot more apples on than this because I was trying to use up some soft apples, just go with what ever you have. You'll need to bake it a little longer if you add extra apples.

1 1/2 C Carmel ice cream topping
1/2 C flour
Whisk together, heat to thicken a little. Pour over apples.

1/2 C craisens
1 C chopped nuts (pecans were great)
Add these to the topping you held back and that's the last layer.

Bake 350 degrees for 25 - 35 minutes or until the apples are soft or it's looking brown enough. Basically you just want to crisp up the topping.

Snickerdoodle Dessert Hummus

http://www.thewannabechef.net/2011/01/17/snickerdoodle-dessert-hummus/

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Dessert Hummus

http://www.thewannabechef.net/2011/01/11/peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-dessert-hummus/

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

Original Courtesy of AllRecipes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups peanut butter
• 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 bag of semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

• Melt butter or margarine over low heat.
• Add peanut butter and vanilla. Mix well.
• Add sugars. Mix until smooth but be careful not to burn.
• Spread into a 9 x 13 inch pan.
• Spread chocolate chips over the top. Cool.

Fast Food Recipes

http://lifehacker.com/5665491/top-10-fast-food-recipes-you-can-make-at-home

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Recipe from OurBestBites

1 C butter flavored Crisco
1 C creamy peanut butter
1 C sugar
1 C packed brown sugar
1 t vanilla
3 eggs
3 C flour
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

filling:
1 C creamy peanut butter
1/2 c real butter, softened
4 C powdered sugar
2 t vanilla
5-6 T milk

For the cookies:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream shortening, peanut butter, and sugars together until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).
Add in vanilla, and eggs one at a time.
In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt and add to dough. Mix to combine. The dough will be very soft- that's normal!

Roll into balls, roll in sugar, place on cookie sheet (no need to grease it) and do the little forky criss-cross thing.

Now, not only are these cookies doubly sweet because they're sandwiched, but the dough spreads, so make your balls small. I use a regular size 40 cookie scoop and I separate each scoop of dough in half to form 2 cookies, and they're still pretty good sized. A mini scoop is perfect.

Okay, so pop the cookies into the oven and bake for 6-7 minutes. You want them to say super soft, so don't let them get brown. In my oven, and for the size of cookies I do, 6 minutes exactly is perfect. Remove them from pan and cool on a cooling rack.

To make the filling:
Whip the peanut butter and butter together until smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Then add milk one T at a time. You may not need it all. You want the filling to be on the thick side, it should just have enough milk in it to make it easily spreadable. If you add too much milk (like a normal frosting consistency) it might squish out of the cookies when you take a bite.

I put the filling in a piping bag, or a hefty zip-lock with the edge cut off to make filling easy. Place filling on one cookie and sandwich another on top. I designed the recipe to have enough filling to be generous :)

With the size I do, I get about 8 dozen cookies, which makes about 4 dozen sandwiches.

Just a note: I think these are actually even better the 2nd day. The flavors mellow together and you get a cool sweet n' saltly thing going on. Plus, after they sit with the filling in them, the cookies get really soft. Mmmm...

Snickerdoodles

Courtesy of Mrs. Sigg on AllRecipes.com

Prep Time: 20 Min
Cook Time: 10 Min
Ready In: 1 Hr

Yield: 4 dozen

Ingredients
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1/2 cup shortening
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons white sugar
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
• Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

try cream puffs

Courtesy of Tiffany Sorenson

Puff Pastries:
1 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c butter
1 c boiling water
4 eggs

Sift flour with salt. Combine butter and boiling water in saucepan; cook on low heat until butter is melted. Add flour all at once and stir vigorously until mixture forms a ball and leaves sides of pan. Cook about 2 minutes until mixture is very dry. Remove from heat. Add unbeaten eggs one at a time, beating well with hand mixer after each addition. Continue beating until a thick dough forms. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. (I used a small cookie scoop and it made about 36) Bake at 425 degrees about 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake for 15 more minutes. (Mine only baked a total of 25 minutes) Bake about 30-40 minutes total, or until beads of moisture no longer appear on surface. Do not open oven door during early part of baking. Remove to wire racks to cool. When cool, cut slit in side of each puff'; removed doughy centers, if necessary.

Cream filling:
3 c milk
1 large instant vanilla pudding box
8 oz cream cheese
Mix together and fill cream puffs. Drizzle with chocolate syrup.

Oatmeal Bars

1 cube butter
1/4 c oil
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
1 egg
1/4 c water
1 tsp vanilla Mix well. Add remaining ingredients.

3 c oats
1 c flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda
Add raisins, nuts or chocolate chips as desired. Mix well.
Bake in a well greased 13 x 9" pan at 350 for about 20 minutes.