CD Mohatta asked:


Christmas is a wonderful time of year to bake cookies and it is a great chance to make family memories, too. Have your children help you bake cookies and all of you can enjoy the sweet smells as the cookies bake. You can take turns telling stories while you share a cup of hot chocolate. The wonderful family memories will last a lot longer that your cookies will! My all-time favorite cookies are TOLL HOUSE chocolate chip cookies. I can almost smell warm chocolate chip cookies as I am writing about them; they are so deeply imbedded in my memories of Christmas.

TOLL HOUSE chocolate chip cookies

Nestles has made different types of morsels to suit everyone’s personal desire and taste. They now have white chocolate morsels, swirled milk chocolate and caramel morsels, semi-sweet chocolate swirled with white chocolate morsels, mini morsels and the regular semi-sweet chocolate morsels. Each bag has its own recipe but each type of morsels uses the same ingredient, with the exception of the White Chocolate Chip Cookies which have one additional ingredient for the “dry” mixture (Nestle’s TOLL HOUSE BAKING cocoa).

If you want to double the recipe in order to be part of a cookie exchange group, the main ingredients for each type of cookie can be doubled. Then it would be necessary to double the amount of morsels. The basic ingredients doubled are:  4 & ½ cup all purpose flour, 2 teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoon salt, 2 cups butter softened (4 sticks), 1 & ½ cup granulated sugar, 1 & ½ cup of packed brown sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and 4 eggs.

For:

White Chocolate cookies you will need to add 1 additional ingredient to the dry mixture. It is 1 & 1/3 cups Toll House baking cocoa to the dry mixture and 2 packages (12oz.) of Nestle’s TOLL HOUSE Premium White Morsels.

Milk chocolate and caramel cookies you will need 2 packages (12oz.) of Nestle’s TOLL HOUSE Milk Chocolate and Caramel Morsels (1 cup chopped pecans, if you want).

Swirled semi-sweet white chocolate cookies you will need 2 packages (12oz.) of Nestle’s TOLL HOUSE swirled Real Semi-Sweet & White Chocolate Morsels (2 cups of nuts, if you like).

After you have gathered all your ingredients, heat the oven to 350*. You will need 2 bowls:  a medium one for the dry mixture and a large one to mix all the ingredients for the cookies. In the medium bowl, mix the dry ingredients (4 & ½ cup all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons baking soda). In the large bowl, add the 1 & ½ cup of granulated sugar and 1 & ½ cup of packed brown sugar, 4 sticks (2 cups) softened margarine, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and beat until creamy. Add 4 eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after adding each one.

Now, gradually add the dry mixture. Stir in 2 bags of your choice of morsels (and nuts if you choose). Drop a rounded tablespoon of dough onto ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Place a few morsels on top of each cookie and bake 9-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes then remove to wire racks. This will make about 9 dozen of the best tasting cookies you will ever have!

It is fun to see if someone in your family or a close friend wants to share their favorite cookies with you by becoming part of a Christmas Cookie Exchange. Because many people have favorites of their own, you will be able to enjoy a variety of cookies. It is simple when you double your recipes. You will be able to share ½ of your baked goods and receive ½ of theirs so you will have a bigger selection.

My family loves my Christmas cookies but they also love and enjoy eating different kinds of cookies baked by their aunt. In Favorite Christmas Cookies 1, you saw how I made Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies. In Christmas Cookies Part 3, you will see another kind of cookie called Swirled Turtle Brownies. You can also see other recipes in the article entitled “Cookie Exchange Will Save at Time at Christmas”. Enjoy the time you spend making Christmas cookies and memories and remember, make it fun.



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Sunil Punjabi asked:


Busy men and women dash in the morning to reach their offices on time. What about breakfast or lunch? Forget about it! ‘We can order something from the office canteen’. Hey look! This is our modern lifestyle. Does anyone think that the breakfast and lunch offered by the office canteen or a roadside fast food center can provide adequate nutrition to the body? Surely NOT! Remember! The canteen owner or the fast food centers located on the roadsides are not concerned about your nutrition and health. They are present there just for money making, not for any kind of social work. Eating conventionally outside not only has a bad effect on health but it is also an expensive deal.

It is an undeniable fact that, when it is about better health and better life then the worth of home cooking cannot be overlooked. If we can control our eating habits and prefer home made food in contrast to outside food then we can easily prevent various forms of diseases and disorders including diabetes, deficiency of vitamins, cholesterol problem, obesity, etc. It is an old saying that, ‘health is wealth’, and this is the reason why it is better for us to go back to our traditional home cooking methods. It is the duty of the parents to prevent their children from consuming excessive junk foods from outside. They should make it a habit to go for homemade food as much as possible. Parents should also manage their schedule accordingly so that they can spare time to prepare their own food as well.

If you are fond of the taste of food available outside then you can bring the same taste in your home cooking along with nutrition with the help of free recipes. You can bring home a recipe guide and can make your home cooking more yummy and delectable. There are an immense number of veg, non-veg, and vegan recipes available in the market. If you have failed to find your favorite recipe guide in the market then you need not get disappointed. The Internet can make the task easy for you. There are some good sites available on the internet which are dedicated to vegetarianism. You can look for one such good site, which can help, in your home cooking with their free recipes. Yes, it is possible for you to bring home the taste of restaurant food, and that too without compromising with your health. Just try with the recipe guide available on the Internet and tackle majority of health issues by your own!

Please do visit our site for hundreds of free home cooking Recipes – http://www.veggievixen.com/recipes.aspx – for Veg Recipes, Vegan Recipes, appetizers, salads, soups, main course dishes, chili recipes, desserts, Cookie Recipes, Chocolate recipes and an extensive cooking guide.



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Jill Seader asked:


We all know that the way to a woman’s heart is through chocolate. And chocolate treats that you make yourself is sure to win her heart this Valentine’s Day. These three chocolate baking recipes are simple ones to make that hardly take any time at all. She will love the fact that you took the time to make something yourself. It always means more to get something that you have made for her than something you bought.

Chocolate Creams

1 package (8 squares) semi-sweet chocolate squares

2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup butter

1 3/4 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

finely chopped pecans

In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate squares with the butter over low heat. Take it off of the heat and add in the confectioners’ sugar, cream and vanilla. Chill in the refrigerator until it holds together when shaped (about 1 hour). Form into balls and roll them in the pecans. If you want to take a little more time to make your Valentine’s Day treat even more special, shape the dough into hearts and put red and pink sprinkles on them. Make sure to store them in the refrigerator.

Chocolate Pudding Cake

1 package chocolate cake mix

1 large package (6 ounces) instant chocolate pudding mix

1 cup water

1/4 cup oil

4 eggs

1 container chocolate frosting

pink and red sprinkles

In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, pudding mix, water, oil, and eggs. With an electric mixer, beat the mixture for 2 minutes. Grease (take butter and smear it over the bottom and sides of the pan) and flour (put about 1/4 cup of flour in the pan after you’ve greased it and shake it around, covering the bottom and sides completely) a 9 x 13-inch pan. Pour the mixture into the pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until cake tests done (put a toothpick in the center and when it comes out without anything on it, it’s done). Allow to cool for 30 minutes to an hour and then frost with the chocolate frosting. Shake the red and pink sprinkles evenly over the top of the cake for added Valentine’s Day decoration.

Fudge Cookies

2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 square semi-sweet chocolate

1/2 cup milk

3 cups oatmeal

1/2 cup pecans

1/2 cup coconut

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, stir together the sugar, butter, chocolate, and milk. Stir almost constantly. When mixture starts to boil around the edges, start to stir it constantly. Allow the mixture to boil for one minute. Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the oatmeal, pecans and coconut. Drop the mixture by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets covered in waxed paper. For an added Valentine’s Day touch, put a candy heart on top of each one. Put in the refrigerator to set until hardened (overnight works best). Be sure to store them in the refrigerator.



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RogInc asked:


Hi everyone,
I’m in Eastern Europe, trying to find some good cookie recipes to make for friends/family here from local ingredients. Unfortunately…
– No brown sugar or unusual sweeteners (only white sugar)
– No shortening
– No peanut butter
– No chocolate chips (M&M’s are available and work as a good substitute, or chopping up chocolate bars)

Things that I have found that might be useful for recipes:
– Cream of tartar and cinnamon (I brought from the States)
– Butter, margarine, eggs, flour, milk, basic food stuffs like that
– Good selection of dried fruits and nuts
– Baking soda, baking powder, yeast
– There are lots of variations of condensed milk and caramelized condensed milk (dolce de leche) sold over here
– Corn flakes, cheerios
– Some candy bars: Snickers, milky way, twix, M&M’s (plain and peanut filled)

Thanks in advance!

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