Family Around the Table

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Chocolate Orange Blossoms #ChristmasCookies

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I have never made blossom cookies before and now I’m wondering where they’ve been all my life. I’ve seen them but never had one, so I knew what they were. Classic blossoms are peanut butter in flavor but I was making these for a school party and didn’t want any nuts or nut products.

Since many people associate orange with the holidays, I decided to add a bit of orange zest to the batter for that hint of citrus. You know the orange is there but it’s not overwhelming at all. I must say that blossom cookies are a favorite for many folks. I have never made them before but have enjoyed them on occasion.

Sometimes when you mess with a classic it’s a fail. Not this time. The orange is a win. I do want to share a tip. Before you put the first batch in the oven unwrap all of the kisses. A good task for kids, by the way. When you gently press the kiss into the cookie you want it to be warm so the kiss will melt into the cookie a bit making it stick. Unwrapping the kisses is not something you want to be doing as the cookies come out of the oven.

 

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Chocolate Orange Blossoms

Prep Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 25 minutes

Yield: 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 egg
  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • Sugar for rolling
  • 48 milk chocolate Hershey Kisses

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl combine 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar, cocoa, shortening and butter; beat until light and fluffy. Add orange peel, vanilla and egg; blend well. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour for easier handling.
  2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Shape dough into 1-inch balls, using a scoop, roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets.
  3. Bake at 375 degrees F. for 10 to 12 minutes or until set. Immediately top each cookie with a Hershey Kiss, pressing firmly so cookie gently cracks around edges. Remove fro cookie sheets to cooling racks to cool completely.

Notes

Adapted from Pillsbury Best Cookie Cookbook

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Fire up the oven, soften the butter and let's bake for the holiday.

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Chocolate orange blossoms are a delicious update to an old classic.

Muddy Snowballs #ChristmasCookies

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Every year my Mom would make a version of snowball cookies during the holidays. When I found this muddy snowballs recipe in an old Family Fun magazine, I knew my boys and I had to get into the kitchen to make them. If you read my blog on a regular basis you know love to get my kids in the kitchen. This is the perfect recipe to make with kids of all ages. It’s really fun too. Why? Because you get messy. Your hands will get sticky and you will have some “mud” on your counter. Don’t shy away, though, clean-up is easy.

This chocolate version is a fun twist on the traditional snowball recipe. They are rich so be sure to have either a cold glass of milk or hot cup of coffee or tea while you indulge.

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Muddy Snowballs

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Yield: About 4 dozen muddy snowballs

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
  • 2/3 cup confectioner's sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans
  • DUST
  • 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
  • 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl, using a hand or stand mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Stir in the melted chocolate and blend well.
  3. Add the 2/3 cup of confectioner's sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and stir until combined. Stir in the flour and salt until smooth.
  4. Add the pecans and stir until combined. Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least 1 to 2 hours or until it is firm enough to roll into balls.
  5. Using a small cookie scoop form the dough into 1-inch balls. Place the balls on two parchment lined baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the tops of the cookies are set. Cool on the baking sheets for about 3 minutes. Repeat until all the dough has been used.
  6. Meanwhile, sift together the 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder in a shallow bowl. Carefully dip the warm cookies into the dust, or throw them in the mud, to coat.
  7. Cool the cookies completely on a wire rack. Roll again in the cocoa-confectioner's sugar dust.

Notes

Store in an airtight container.

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      Welcome to the 12 Days of Cookies, hosted by Family Around the Table and Cooking With Carlee.  We will be filling the season with all kinds of delicious cookies.  Be sure to check out some of the recipes below or you can follow along on Facebook or Twitter by searching #ChristmasCookies.  We also have a 12 Days of Cookies Pinterest board where you can see all of the goodness!  May your holidays be sweet!

Day 8

Almond Butter Cookies from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings 
Eggnog Hugs from Making the Most of Naptime
Hungarian Poppyseed Pinwheel Cookies from Palatable Pastime
Kourambiedes from A Day in the Life on the Farm
Melting Moments from Cooking With Carlee
Muddy Snowballs from Family Around the Table
Raspberry Coconut Cookies from Jolene’s Recipe Journal

Chocolaty Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Chocolaty Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolaty Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today starts Choctoberfest 2106! If you’re a chocolate lover you will want to follow along for a plethora of upcoming chocolate recipes from more than 35 bloggers. Choctoberfest will run for two weeks so be sure to check out the participating blogs. I’m sharing a few of my favorite chocolate recipes and this chocolaty chocolate chip cookie is one of my family’s favorite.  For a rich, deeper chocolate flavor use Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa. Use your favorite flavor of chips – semi-sweet, milk or bittersweet. I change it up every time I make these for my kids.

 

Choctoberfest-2015-1

 

Thank you to the sponsors who make #Choctoberfest possible! This year, Imperial Sugar is back as our Gold Sponsor. They have been a trusted name in kitchens since 1843, and their website is home to thousands of sweet recipes tested in the Imperial Sugar Kitchen. You can find Imperial Sugar on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube, or join their Sweet Community so you can share your own recipes, save recipes to a virtual inbox, print Imperial Sugar coupons, and connect with other sugar lovers.

Imperial Sugar and our silver sponsors have banded together to offer a huge #Choctoberfest prize pack, which you can enter to win below! One lucky winner will be chosen at random to receive the following:

  • From our Gold Sponsor Imperial Sugar: 1 case of granulated sugar (40 pounds), 1 case of brown sugar (24 pounds), 1 case of dark brown sugar (24 pounds), 1 case of powdered sugar (24 pounds bags), and an Imperial Sugar red ruffle apron
  • From our Silver Sponsor Nature Nate’s: 32 oz. Raw & Unfiltered Honey bottle, Honey Syrup, Honey Packets, a Nature Nate’s T-shirt, various kitchen supplies, and $50 Amazon gift card
  • From our Silver Sponsor Barlean’s:16 oz Barlean’s Butter-Flavored Coconut Oil, 9.52 oz canister of Chocolate Silk Greens, and 8oz bottle of Essential Women Omega-Swirl Chocolate Mint
  • From our Silver Sponsor Caveman Coffee: 1 Bag of Coffee (you choice of blacklisted or sabertooth), 1 coconut MCT oil, and 1 Cacao Butter
  • From #Choctoberfest blog hosts The PinterTest Kitchen: 1 specialty chocolate gift pack (your choice of dark or milk chocolate), 1 tin (14 ounces) drinking chocolate, and Divine’s Fair Trade Gift Set

Enter now to win our #Choctoberfest 2016 prize pack! We’ll be picking a winner at random winner on Saturday, October 22, so enter by next Friday to make sure your name is in the drawing:

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Print
Chocolaty Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Total Time: 18 minutes

Yield: About 3 dozen

Ingredients

  • 1 stick butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 cup chocolate chips (milk, semi-sweet, bittersweet - your choice)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment or a Silpat mat and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt and whisk to combine.
  3. Cream together butter and sugars in a large bowl until light in color.
  4. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add in vanilla.
  5. Add in flour mixture to egg mixture and mix just until combined.
  6. Add in chocolate chips.
  7. Refrigerate batter for 10 minutes.
  8. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet.
  9. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 7 to 10 minutes until set.
  10. Allow to cool on cookie sheet for 2 - 3 minutes then remove to cooling rack to cool completely.
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Here’s a list of all of the bloggers participating in #Choctoberfest 2016. Visit any of their blogs to get delicious chocolate recipes throughout the week:

The PinterTest Kitchen • 2 Cookin’ Mamas • A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures • addicted 2 recipes • Amy’s Cooking Adventures • An Affair From The Heart • Balancing Motherhood • Body Rebooted • Bottom Left of the Mitten • By the Pounds • Canning and Cooking at Home • Coconut & Lime • Cook with 5 Kids • Cook’s Hideout • Cookaholic Wife • Cooking with Carlee • CopyKat Recipes • Cricket’s Confections • Crumbs in my Mustachio • Elisabeth Jean • Fairyburger • Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice • Family Around the Table • Fantastical Sharing of Recipes • Feed Your Soul Too • Feeding Big • Frankly Entertaining • Full Belly Sisters • Get the Good Stuff • Grumpy’s Honeybunch • Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks • Hostess At Heart • Ink and Sugar • Jane’s Adventures in Dinner • Join Us, Pull Up a Chair • Karen’s Kitchen Adventures • Kate’s Recipe Box • Kudos Kitchen by Renee • Kylee Cooks • Letz Eat • Life Currents • Life on Food • Making Miracles • Monica’s Table • Moore or Less Cooking Food Blog • My Catholic Kitchen • My Gluten Free Miami • Our Good Life • Palatable Pastime • Restless Chipotle • Seduction in The Kitchen • Sew You Think You Can Cook • Simple Food 365 • Southern With A Twist • Sumptuous Spoonfuls • Take Two Tapas • Tampa Cake Girl • Teaspoon of Goodness • That Recipe • The Crumby Cupcake • The Flavourista • The Food Hunter’s Guide To Cuisine • The Freshman Cook • The Pajama Chef • The Redhead Baker • The Spiffy Cookie • Tramplingrose • Wildflour’s Cottage Kitchen • Zesty South Indian Kitchen


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Ellen Folkman and Family Around The Table 2010-2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material contained within this blog, either photographs or written copy, without express and written permission from this blog's author (Ellen Folkman) and/or owner (Ellen Folkman) is strictly PROHIBITED. Excerpts and links may be used, provided full and clear credit is given to Ellen Folkman and Family Around The Table with appropriate and specific direction to the original content via a link. Please do not publish recipes in their entirety. Happy to share if you let me know you've used a link. If unauthorized content is found on the world wide web, owner of copyrights (Ellen Folkman and Family Around The Table) will take appropriate action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
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