Tuesday, December 16, 2008

TWD--Buttery Jam Cookies and Chocolate Brownie Trifle

This week's recipe from Dorie's book, Baking From My Home To Yours is for Butter Jam Cookies and was chosen by Heather of Randomosity and the Girl.   I was going to skip this week, but decided today to just make the cookies anyway.  The verdict?

These cookies, in my opinion, are not the greatest.  They are just okay.  I was surprised that there wasn't more to them, but hey, they've got butter and jam, so they totally live up to their name.  I thought mine seem a bit dry and plain, so I did a few things to cheer them up.  There is some ginger in the cookies, but I can't taste it, also the apricot jam.  You can see it, but I don't feel like it really added anything to the cookie.  These aren't really as buttery as I thought they'd be and didn't spread out.  Still, that said, and they'll be fine on a multi-cookie holiday tray! 

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See.

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I made some like jam thumbprint cookies with apricot and raspberry jam and sprinkled some toasted walnuts and pecans on them.   I also happen to have a bunch of almost-gone bags of Hershey's Kisses left and thought it would be fun to try some of them on the cookies.  So, no--the candy corn Kisses don't really fit the holiday, but I wanted to try them anyway.  The orange kisses are the pumpkin spice ones that were out briefly over the fall and the cool, festive ones are candy cane Kisses (just don't tell anyone those have been in my cupboard since last Christmas.  Gasp!)  You'd never know it and I think they look cute.  I actually haven't tried tasting most of them, but the plain cookies were okay, not bad, so I'm sure they're even better with all the fun tops!

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That concludes TWD for this week.  Thanks Heather for another addition to the holiday cookies!  Click here and check out all the other baker's Buttery Jam Cookies.

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Quickly, just wanted to show you a Chocolate Brownie Trifle I made as we went to dinner at some friend's house last night and I made dessert.  So simple!  I quickly made a batch of Anna's One Bowl Cocoa Brownies, you could also use a boxed brownie mix.  I crumbled pieces of brownie in the bottom of the bowl, then layered it with Jell-o pudding and Cool Whip.  Now usually, this trifle has you also layer Heath toffee bits in it, but my kids don't really like those and I thought it would be fun to let everyone choose what they wanted to add, so I made six little cups of toppings, including, toasted, chopped pecans, walnuts, toffee bits, mini chocolate chips, marshmallows, mint chips, and my kid's favorite--sprinkles!  The trifle was a big hit and yummy!

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I meant to take pictures when the kids and everyone made their cupfuls of this, but forgot.  Yummy!

21 comments:

Engineer Baker said...

Pumpkin spice and candy cane kisses on top of these cookies sound wonderful! Too cute.

Pamela said...

I just got a bag of those candy cane kisses. Way to use up the extra candy! I was ready to not like these, but was surprised to find that I did. Nice job on the brownie trifle, too. Yum!

vibi said...

Wow! how to choose with such an array of filling flavors!
Very nice, Katrina!

Jersey Girl Cooks said...

You are such a great dessert maker!

chocolatechic said...

How wonderful.

Mine weren't dry.

Sarah said...

good way to jazz up these cookies...great job!

Brooke said...

Is it bad that I just want to stick my face directly into that trifle? Mmmmmm.....

Anonymous said...

Yours look lovely, without all the little additions, but the little additions are really very fun and look graet on the plate, so I am thinking a few of these types are so going on our Christmas Cookie Platter for Christmas Eve...thanks for the ideas...very nice!

Cathy said...

You totally saved the jam cookies with the kisses, in my opinion -- but forgive me if I am distracted by the chocolate brownie trifle. That's what I want!

Judy said...

I so love jam cookies. Wish you lived closer so I could come and get some! Katrina, the amount of butter (10 Tbsp. or 1 stick + 2 Tbsp.) is correct on my CCC recipe. It seems like a lot, but remember there's not just 3/4 cup of flour, there's also 1-1/2 cups of oats and 1/2 cup of nuts.

kimberly salem said...

i love all of the different thumbprints you made! they look beautiful :) i think they did need something to jazz them up a bit for christmas!
beautiful trifle, too!

Megan said...

Ok - will you adopt me? Because everything (esp. the trifle) looks just awesome.

And I never did find those pumpkin spice kisses - dang it!

Anonymous said...

I would say you brightened them up perfectly! And that trifle...whoa. Stopped me in my tracks.

Jaime said...

your cookies look nice but WOW look at that trifle! so beautiful :) ( i just had one on sunday at a holiday party too )

Darius T. Williams said...

Lord - who eats all of these at ur house. I need to get that invite!

Sharon said...

Love the festive cookies! I totally missed out on the candy corn kisses. Can I come over and have a cookie?

Tanya said...

It all looks wonderful!

Leslie said...

I love the way you decorated these cookies! I wasn't in love with them either but you really overcame that and made them great!

Anonymous said...

YUM, who wouldn't want a big bowl of chocolate...!?!?!

Anonymous said...

The cookies might have been meh, but your brownie trifle looks fantastic! That's a showstopper.

Unknown said...

The cookies look so pretty, makes me want to eat them all up.