Our Favorite Homemade Goodies For The Holiday Season

Here are our favorite holiday goodies from the Elizabeth Erin Designs team!

Jodi:

Swig Sugar Cookies

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Ingredients: 1 C Butter (room temperature)           3/4 C Vegetable Oil            1 1/4 C Sugar                3/4 C Powdered Sugar           2 T Water         2 Eggs          1/2 t Baking Soda       1/2 t Cream of Tarter       1 t Salt        5 1/2 C Flour

Cream together butter, vegetable oil, sugars, water and eggs. Combine dry ingredients and slowly add to butter mixture. Mix until everything is combined. Your dough should be a little crumbly and not sticky at all. Roll a golf ball sized ball of dough and place it on your cookie sheet. Now it’s time to give these babies their signature rough edge. Put 1/4 of sugar and pinch of salt in a dish (this is in addition to the sugar and salt listed above). Stick the bottom of a glass in it. This is going to be your cookie press. Firmly press it into the center of your dough ball. You want your dough to spill out over the sides of the glass. If there is a lip it’s even better. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. They should just barely be browning on the bottom. Move cookies to a cooling rack. Once they are cool put them in the fridge.

Sour Cream Frosting Ingredients: 1/2 C Butter (room temperature)      3/4 C Sour Cream      Approximately 1- 2lb package of Powdered Sugar ( I never use the whole thing but love having extra on hand just incase I add too much milk)   1 t Salt     1/4 C Milk     Red Food Coloring

Start by creaming together butter and sour cream and salt. Slowly add powdered sugar. When it gets so thick it’s not frosting like, add a splash of milk. Alternate this process until your frosting is desired consistency. Add 1 drop of red food coloring and whip on high for 1 minute.

Keep cookies in a sealed container until they are ready to serve. The magic of a Swig Sugar Cookie is that the cookies are cold and the frosting is room temperature. Frost RIGHT BEFORE serving (if you make them in advance and need to refrigerate the frosting make sure you give it time to warm up before serving).

 

Ashley:

My family calls them Reindeer Poop but they are also called Oreo Balls

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Ingredients: 36 OREO Cookies, finely crushed, divided             1 pkg.  (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened              4pkg.  (4 oz. each) BAKER’S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, broken into pieces, melted

Reserve 1/4 cup cookie crumbs. Mix cream cheese and remaining cookie crumbs until blended. Shape into 48 (1-inch) balls. Freeze 10 min. Dip in melted chocolate; place on waxed paper-covered rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs. Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm.

Tips: Place chocolate in microwaveable bowl. Microwave on HIGH 2-1/2 min. or until chocolate is completely melted, stirring every 30 sec. To easily coat truffles with the melted chocolate, add truffles, in batches, to bowl of melted chocolate. Use 2 forks to roll truffles in chocolate until evenly coated. Remove truffles with forks, letting excess chocolate drip back into bowl. Place truffles on prepared baking sheet; let stand until firm. Store in tightly covered container in refrigerator.

Andrus:
White Trash
Mix by hand or with a large spoon anything you would want in a trail mix. My suggestions: Pretzels          Nuts      M&M’s         Chex Mix
Melt a bar of Vanilla Almond Bark in a pot or in the microwave and pour it over the mix. Stir and layout all of the almond bark covered mix on wax paper or cookie sheets. When it hardens, eat it!
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Jordin:
Pretzel and M&M Hugs
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Ingredients: 70 square pretzels               70 Hershey’s Hugs chocolates (from nearly 1 full 12 oz package), unwrapped             70 Milk Chocolate M&M’s (red and green ones make it more festive)
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper. Align pretzels on cookie sheet in a single layer then top each pretzel with one Hershey’s Hug chocolate. Bake in preheated oven for 4 – 5 minutes, until the chocolate is shiny and soft (but NOT melting, the chocolates should still hold their shape). Remove from oven and carefully place one M&M in the center of each soft Hug and press down on M&M to spread the chocolate. Place in refrigerator and allow to rest until chocolate has set, about 5 minutes. Store in an airtight container.