Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

 

 

 

 Normally I stick to the same recipes every year for my Christmas cookie trays. Each year I look at neat new recipes and think I am going to try that this year and then they just end up saved in the back of the drawer or as a pin on one of my Pinterest boards.

2020 I decided to give a few of these a try that has just been sitting there looking yummy, but I never knew if they actually were.

These are old fashion crinkle cookies and in the photos, they look amazing, on the tongue they taste delightful and for the soul, they are a hug of Christmases of past.

The recipe is super simple too and guess what? they make that crinkle pattern all by themselves!! Even better news right?

What you need:

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used Canola oil)
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons  pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa  
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon  kosher salt (I used normal salt)
1/4 cup confectioners sugar (I used more like 1/2 a cup)

What you need to do:

1) Whisk together the oil and sugar in a large bowl (I used my kitchen aid mixer). Add in eggs and vanilla and whisk until well combined.

2) Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Slowly pour the flour mixture into the sugar mixture and stir until well combined.

3) Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 15 to 30 minutes. (it was more like an hour as I started and finished another recipe while these were in the fridge)

4) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls (I use a tablespoon).

5) Place confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl and roll each cookie in the sugar.

6) Place cookies onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake 8 to 10 minutes (mine were 10 minutes), or until the cookies are slightly crisp around the edges and soft in the middle. Allow to cool on the pan for 2 minutes, and then transfer to a cooling rack. (I gave them a little squish to flatten them a bit because I was worried they would not flatten outright)

You can eat them right away and their centers are amazingly soft. Each of the children and adults got to try 1/2 of one before I put them into containers and into the freezer. I put parchment between each layer of cookies in the containers. Now with these ones, I didn't freeze them for long maybe a few days and once they came to room temperature open the taste and texture were the same as the day they were baked!!!


After looking at A LOT of crinkle cookie recipes I found this one to the best!

Reindeer poop

So many recipes to try so little time

I miss my drive to bake, I miss the energy I had to be in the kitchen all the time.

The kids LOVE being in the kitchen with me whether it is baking or cooking dinner they don't want to miss a minute of it.

This year I have been baking with each little one to make cookies for the cookie trays. For this, my OCD has to take a back burner which is hard for me to do. Years of baking cakes and so many other sweet treats for clients where everything had to be perfect will do that to a person.

No, I don't let the kids pick their own recipes only because they don't know enough about the millions of different cookies to make choices. For example, every time I bake with "H" she wants to make oatmeal cookies, that would make for some pretty boring cookie trays if they were only filled with oatmeal cookies.

This year I am winging the cookie trays, it will be whatever I feel like baking that day on each of them.

Thus far we have made oatmeal, oatmeal chocolate chip, what I call reindeer poop, confetti squares, and whipped shortbread.

The oatmeal, oatmeal chocolate chip, and reindeer poop all made it to the freezer. The confetti squares seem to have been eaten by our house hippos. We will be remaking those.


The oatmeal cookies are one recipe that I will never give out.

This is the recipe for the reindeer poop cookies. I LOVE these cookies and have been making them since I was about 12, it is a recipe my grandmother taught me.

Reindeer poop

What you need:

3 cups quick oats
1 cup flaked coconut (you can use sweetened or unsweetened)
2  cups white sugar
1/2  cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 milk
1/2 margarine

What to do:

1) Mix oats and coconut in a large bowl

2) In a heavy saucepan or a normal pot (I use a special heavy saucepan that is only used for baking) mix butter, cocoa, milk and margarine together. Over medium heat melt everything together. Bring to a boil and allow to cook for 2 more minutes.

3) Line a cookie sheet with parchment (I like when recipes tell me to do things like this while I am waiting for things to mix from step 1)

4) Once it has cooked for 2 minutes pour over the oats and coconut in your large bowl. Mix well.

5) By the tablespoon put scoops onto your lined cookie sheet and put in the fridge until hard. Eat right away, store in a container or freeze like what we are doing.

Let me know how yours turned!!! I would like to see pictures of your creations!



 

Christmas Magic?

 

 

https://www.pngkit.com/bigpic/u2e6i1t4e6t4q8y3/

 

Maybe I want to be told that I haven't screwed up my child.
 
Christmas has never been about "magic" and all that other stuff. I don't tell him if you are naughty or nice is the only way you get presents or coal. We don't put conditions on love like that.

I have always done most of the Christmas shopping all year round and normally when he is with me. I tell him it is not for now and he always has know okay that means it is for Christmas and I put it up in the laundry room.

This year we have the girls and they know about the magic and Santa. So that means I have to do at least some shopping without them so I don't ruin things for them.

At the dollar store yesterday I didn't even think, I put a ton of stocking stuffers in the cart and I said to the kids nope nothing in our cart. They loved the game but when it comes to Christmas I am worried that they are going to see it was the stuff we bought when we were out.

Also, this is the first year that Blaine went in and checked out the Christmas stuff, he has never bothered with it before and then he was very upset when I told him I was disappointed that he broke my trust. L the oldest girl just thought it was funny.

I have done a little bit of shopping without them and hid those presents well.

Normally I have the stocking from Santa and a few presents. They are wrapped in Santa paper to let the kids know it comes from Santa.

As I watch the girls excited that "chippy" at nanas house moves around. Blaine could careless and just says "it is stuffed that means he isn't real"

He has always been very logical and never played "pretend" even when I tried over the years to play fun imagination games with him,
he says "ya know mom that isn't real" "you know mom there are no transformers in real life it's just a movie". Lol, thanks for ruining it for me kid.

He would rather do things that he is learning or things that don't involve playing pretend.

Did I make him like this because I never made a big deal about Santa coming or that he is magic?

Did I ruin his childhood because I never made a big deal about the figures around the holidays?

He is the same with Easter never cared about the rabbit, gets bored with finding the eggs.

He gets more excited about visiting Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandma and other family members and playing with them.

Should I try and fix this? Should I suddenly have an elf that moves around?

I am feeling some huge mom guilt over this and it is driving me crazy!

What do you do to have the magic of Christmas in your house?

I know its a pretty simple thing to have a ton of mom guilt about but for me it is important.

Slacking Christmas edition!!

Between Lexi being sick, dying and Christmas (7 of them to be exact) I have been slacking to say the least on, well, EVERYTHING.

When you have a disease such as Fibromyalgia doing day to day tasks can be draining but add on everything else this time of year and losing a foster baby it makes things even worse.

I know excuses, poor pity me well, no that's not why I am writing this post. There is a few reasons and none of which is poor pity me.

Millions of people all around the world suffer from chronic diseases (Fibro is just one of them) and the holidays are extra hard requiring more recovery time afterwords. I know its hard for someone outside looking in to understand, but those who have someone close to them battling daily need to keep this in mind when expecting them to just get over it and push forward. Let them sleep, rest, do nothing, even help them with that and other daily tasks that need done during this recovery period. Do your best not to judge, criticize or belittle! They are fighting a battle that they hope you will never have to experience.
To those going through it just remember you will get through it, just like last time, and just like the next time. You are important, loved, needed and YOU GOT THIS!!!

I slacked on Christmas this year big time. I suffered an injury that I still haven't recovered from a week before Christmas due to an altercation with a young women at the police station. My right wrist, elbow and shoulder were dislocated and currently my elbow is still out of place and cannot be put back until the swelling comes down, so the baking didn't get done and the orders didn't get out as fast as they normally do.

This year I did the bare minimal for decorating as in the tree went up and the kids decorated it. The presents got wrapped minus the fancy ribbons, bows and Santa Sleighs. The only baking that got done were a few cookies and the pies that had to be done for the dinners. The kindness isn't finished yet but it will get done and I figure after the holidays is when people could use the uplift the most. We made gingerbread houses but they were not from scratch.

Limited school based learning got done. I wont say limited homeschooling because over this holiday season Blaine learned a lot!

Normally I would say I will do better next year, not going to say that this year because I can't say I wont have a foster die next Christmas, I can't say something wont happen to cause slacking again.

What I can say tho is no one noticed. The kids didn't care that the gingerbread came from a box, or the house and yard wasn't decorated to the nines. No one at the 7 Christmas's cared that my bake trays were lacking or the presents didn't have fancy bows or Santa Sleighs.

There was something this Christmas that made my heart sing. I watched my dad play with my son (tears as I write this). My dad and I had a tough relationship and he wasn't a huge part of my life growing up. I have some memories of some good things but not a whole lot (the brain injuries took many of my memories away and in some cases its a good thing and in others it sucks), Christmas at my grandmothers triggered a memory of building go carts together and racing them. My dad bought my son these race cars that smash into each other. My dad and him had a blast playing with them, I watched my dad smile and laugh and my son call him "My grandpa" all day, "my grandpa come play, my grandpa watch this" I watched my dad light up in a way I haven't seen since I was very very young (under 7).  On the way home my son kept asking when he can see "my grandpa" over and over. A feeling of pride, love and happiness that my dad gets to have this time with him and wants to have this time with him was beyond words.