Double Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Cookies

Double Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Cookies
Makes 2-3 dozen
bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes

1/2 Cup (1 stick) Butter--don't use margarine
1/2 Cup Vegetable Shortening--you can substitute more butter or Coconut Shortening here but shortening gives cookies a flaky crisp

*I thought the cookies were too flaky with the shortening. I prefer 1 cup butter instead of 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup shortening.

3/4 cups White Sugar
3/4 cups Brown Sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla

2 cups Flour
3/4 cup Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Salt

2 to 2 1/2 cups choc chips--appx 1 bag of chips. (I prefer mixing 1/2 bag of semi-sweet and 1/2 bag of milk chips)
1 cup pomegranate arils (those red seeds. 1 Pomegranate is more than enough)

In a Kitchenaid mixer (or in a bowl with a handmixer) cream together the butter, shortening, 2 sugars, vanilla, and eggs. Beat the mixture on medium-high for a full 3 minutes--this is important. During that time you'll watch the chemistry of the ingredients change into a very creamy mixture.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Combine it with the butter mixture and mix till everything is incorporated.

Then comes my favorite part...
Add the pomegranate arils and chocolate chips. In my opinion, more chips is better than less. So I add about 2 1/2 cups of chips (or 1 bag of chips). And I prefer using a mixture of semi-sweet and milk chips. Dump in the chips and arils and mix briefly to incorporate everything. A few seeds may burst while mixing but that's fine.

Scoop the dough into 15 small balls on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes (10 mins was perfect in my oven). And you have tasty rich cookies!

*I have a hard time telling when these cookies are done. Don't over cook!! But it took closer to 12 minutes in my oven.

Mint Capped Brownie Cookie Cups

This recipe is from the back of the Mint Truffle Hershey's Kisses. I've also made it with Cookies and Cream Kisses and Pumpkin Spice Kisses and they are all delicious!

48 Kisses, unwrapped

2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 TBS water

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

powdered sugar

48 mini muffin baking cups (paper or foil)

Heat oven to 350. Line 48 mini muffin cups with baking cups. Beat butter, granulated sugar, water and vanilla in large bowl on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, beat well. Stir together flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Gradually add to sugar mixture, beating on low speed just until blended. If necessary, refrigerate dough until firm enough to handle (very important! otherwise you end up with a huge sticky mess and can't roll the dough into balls.) Shape dough into 1" balls; place in prepared muffin cups. Bake 11-13 minutes or until cookie surface is set. Cookies will appear soft and moist. Do not over-bake. Cool about 5 minutes on wire rack. Press chocolate kiss into surface of each cookie cup. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Sprinkle each cookie with powdered sugar.

48 cookies

Chocolate Rolo Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup sugar

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter

2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

48 Rolos, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 375. Combine flour, cocoa and baking soda. In a separate bowl cream sugar, brown sugar and butter until light. Add vanilla and eggs, beat well. Add flour mixture, blend well. Shape about 1 TBS dough around 1 Rolo, covering completely. Place 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 7-10 minutes or until set and slightly cracked. Cool 2 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet to cool on wire rack.

*The original recipe calls for 1 cup chopped pecans - half stirred into the dough just before shaping into balls. After shaping the dough balls, dip one side into remaining pecans before baking.

** The original recipe also calls for 4 oz almond bark which is melted and drizzled over baked cookies.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp vanilla

2 TBS milk

40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 375. Sift flour, salt and baking soda together. In a separate bowl, cream butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar together until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add the flour mixture and mix well. Shape into 40 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan. Bake at 375 for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. Cool and carefully remove from pan.

Best Rice Krispy Treats Ever

1 cup sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 1/2 cups peanut butter (we prefer creamy)
6 cups rice krispies
1 package chocolate chips
1 package butterscotch chips

Combine sugar and corn syrup in a medium saucepan and heat to rolling boil; stir in peanut butter. In a large bowl combine rice krispies and syrup and fold together until well blended. Press evenly into large shallow pan, about 10x15" (careful, it's hot!).

Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips (the original recipe says over hot water - but I just put them in the microwave for 20 seconds at a time, stirring between. Once they start to melt, just stirring them usually melts it completely.) Spread chocolate mixture over bars and cool.

Easiest-Ever Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 spice cake mixes (just the dry mix - not the egg or oil or anything)
1 large can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling - just pumpkin)
1 bag chocolate chips
That's it. Seriously!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix cake mix and pumpkin. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop spoonfulls onto cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes (Mine actually had to bake for 16-18). Enjoy! Just as an added bonus - Stacy informed me that these cookies are only 1 point per cookie on the Weight Watchers plan. We got three dozen big cookies out of this recipe - I'm sure we could have gotten four dozen with regular size cookies.