Peppermint Melt Away Cookies

I do realize that it is March. Seriously. I do. But I uncovered this holiday recipe booklet from Publix the other day and realized that one of the reasons I saved it was this recipe. (The other reason is a quiche recipe to be shared another day.)

For those of you who don't know, I started this blog to not only share recipes with others but to also be able to find recipes I love more easily. I LOVE my cookbooks. I ADORE my magazines that include wonderful recipes. But finding them later can be a challenge. For me anyway.

So even though it's March, these cookies sound fabulous! Besides, anytime is a good time for peppermint!

 

Peppermint Melt-Away Cookies

Pam Original Canola Spray
1 8-oz. package cream cheese
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
large zip-top bag
1 cup starlight mints (or candy canes), finely crushed
1 large egg (or 1/4 cup egg substitute)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 16.5-oz. box Duncan Hines Class White Cake Mix, divided
1 cup Nestle Premier White Toll House Morsels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Coat baking sheets with spray. Cut cream cheese and butter into small pieces; place in large bowl to soften. Crush mints in zip-top bag using metal mallet.

Add egg, vanilla extract, and 1/2 of the cake mix to the cream cheese and butter mixture. Mix with electric mixer 1 to 2 minutes or until thoroughly blended. Stir in remaining half of cake mix, along with the white chocolate morsels and 1/2 cup of the mints until blended. Place remaining 1/2 cup mints in shallow bowl.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls and press tops of dough into mints. Place on baking sheets, mint side up and 2 inches apart. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden and center is barely set. Let stand 3 to 4 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool.

Makes approximately 48 cookies.

White Chocolate-Peppermint Mousse

Over the holidays I developed a rather unfortunate love of peppermint flavored milkshakes at Arby’s. I’m not even a huge milkshake fan. It’s just that one night the picture looked good and I ordered one. And I was hooked.

This recipe comes from the December 2012/January 2013 issue of Coastal Living magazine. It looks absolutely wonderful. What a great dessert for the holidays or for Valentine’s Day or for, well, anytime you can find an excuse for an absolutely luscious dessert.

White Chocolate-Peppermint Mousse

1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream, divided
12 oz. white chocolate, chopped
¼ teaspoon peppermint extract
Garnish: crushed peppermint candies

Heat ¾ cup cream in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until hot but not boiling. Remove from heat, and add chocolate, stirring until melted. Stir in peppermint extract. Cool completely.

Beat remaining ¾ cup cream until firm peaks form. Fold chocolate mixture gently into whipped cream mixture. Spoon mousse into 8 (3-oz.) cups or glasses. Garnish, if desired. Chill until ready to serve.

Makes 8 servings.

White Chocolate Fudge

This is another great recipe from the folks over at Kraft. I would love to try this with the variation using red and green candied cherries rather than the cranberries. Perfect for Christmas!

 

Also, I'll substitute pecans for the almonds. I love almonds but we have pecans in abundance here in the Deep South.

 

One of the things I love so much about Kraft recipes is that they always includes tips, such as using red and green candied cherries. Or telling us what to do with that leftover sweetened condensed milk. Be sure to check out their website for more great recipes and tips.

 

White Chocolate Fudge

2 pkg. (6 squares each) BAKER'S White Chocolate

3/4 cup canned sweetened condensed milk

1 cup coarsely chopped PLANTERS Almonds, toasted

1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 Tbsp. orange zest
 

LINE 8-inch square pan with foil, with ends extending over sides. Microwave chocolate and milk in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 to 3 min. or until chocolate is almost melted; stir until completely melted.
ADD remaining ingredients; mix well. Spread into pan. Refrigerate 2 hours or until firm.
USE foil handles to lift fudge from pan before cutting to serve.

What To Do With Leftover Sweetened Condensed Milk

Store leftover sweetened condensed milk in tightly covered container in refrigerator up to 1 week. Serve over cut-up fruit or hot cooked oatmeal. Or for extra flavor, stir into your cup of hot brewed coffee or tea instead of regular milk.

 

Premier Cheesecake Cranberry Bars

This recipe comes from the folks over at Nestle. I found it on one of those little recipe cards they place by their products for you to tear off and take home -- hopefully with said product in your cart. It worked for me. LOL These look wonderful and Nestle always does a wonderful job with desserts.

 

For more recipes head over to tollhouse.com.

 

Premier Cheesecake Cranberry Bars

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups quick or old-fashioned oats
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2 cups (12 oz. pkg.) Nestle Toll House Premier White Morsels
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 can (14 oz.) Nestle Carnation Sweetened Condensed Milk
¼ cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 can (14 oz.) whole-berry cranberry sauce
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13 x 9-inch baking pan.

Combine flour, oats and brown sugar in large bowl. Add butter; mix until crumbly. Stir in morsels. Reserve 2 ½ cups morsel mixture for topping. With floured fingers, press remaining mixture into prepared pan.

Beat cream cheese in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice and vanilla extract; mix until smooth. Pour over crust. Combine cranberry sauce and cornstarch in medium bowl. Spoon over cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle reserved mixture over cranberry mixture.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until center is set. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cover; refrigerate until serving time (up to 1 day). Cut into bars.

Makes 30 bars.

White Chocolate Raspberry Pie

Some pies are made to be savored. This would be one of them. Another great recipe from the folks at Pillsbury. I also love the feedback from other cooks. One suggested using extra creamy Cool Whip instead of the whipping cream. Another used strawberries instead of raspberries and found it to be wonderful. For me, anything with white chocolate is wonderful!

White Chocolate Raspberry Pie

1 Pillsbury® refrigerated pie crust, softened as directed on box

5 oz white chocolate baking squares

3 tablespoons milk

5  oz cream cheese, softened                                      

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 to 1 teaspoon grated orange peel

1 cup whipping cream, whipped

3 cups fresh raspberries                                           

Heat oven to 450°F. Make pie crust as directed on box for One-Crust Baked Shell, using 9-inch glass pie plate. Cool completely.

In microwavable bowl, microwave 4 squares of the white chocolate and the milk uncovered on Medium about 2 minutes or until almost melted. Stir until melted. Cool to room temperature.

In small bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar and orange peel with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Beat in white chocolate mixture. Fold whipped cream into white chocolate mixture. Spread in bottom of cooled baked shell. Arrange raspberries on filling.

Melt remaining square of white chocolate; drizzle over pie. Refrigerate about 2 hours or until set. Cover and refrigerate any remaining pie.

Expert Tips
White chocolate is made of a mixture of sugar, cocoa butter, milk solids, lecithin and vanilla. Check to see if the label states it contains cocoa butter; if not, it's not white chocolate

White Chocolate Cake

A year and half or so ago, my Mother and I stumbled upon an awesome deal. We were grocery shopping in that time when Christmas has come and gone and people only shop for necessity food. We happened on a whole bunch of chocolate baking bars on sale. With the attached coupons, each bar ended up only costing 9 cents. Yeah. You read that right. Needless to say, we purchased an entire shopping bag full of chocolate.

There were all types of chocolate, including white chocolate. I’ve never done a great deal of baking with white chocolate. I love it but I mostly used it to make Peppermint Bark.

This recipe is an old one from the Houston Chronicle. I hope you enjoy it!

White Chocolate Cake

4 ounces white chocolate
½ cup boiling water
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 egg yolks, unbeaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ½ cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
White Chocolate Frosting (recipe follows)

Melt chocolate in a the microwave in a microwave safe bowl, stiring every 30 seconds until melted. Cool.
With a mixer, blend butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg yolks and beat. Add chocolate and vanilla. Stir in flour with soda, salt and buttermilk. Beat until smooth. Fold in beaten egg white.
Pour into 3 greased and floured layer pans. Bake at 350 degrees 35 to 40 minutes or until cake tests done. Turn out on rack to cool.

White Chocolate Icing

2 egg yolks
1 ½ cups evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
¼ pound margarine
4 ounces white chocolate
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix egg yolks and 1 cup milk. Add sugar and margarine. Cook in the top of a double-boiler over simmering water until thick.
Melt chocolate in remaining milk which has been heated; add to mixture. Add pecans, coconut and vanilla and stir until thoroughly mixed in.
Frost cake.

White Chocolate Cheesecake

This recipe came from the Houston Chronicle sometime in the 1980s. I know this only because that is the time period in which I lived in Texas.

White Chocolate Cheesecake

1 ½ cups sugar
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 ½ lbs. cream cheese, softened
2 oz. white rum
1 lb. white chocolate, melted
6 eggs
Graham Cracker Crust (recipe follows)
White chocolate curls for garnish

Blend sugar, sour cream, cream cheese and rum; mix in melted chocolate. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Pour mixture into Graham Cracker Crust. Bake 40 minutes at 375 degrees; turn oven off and leave cake in oven 2 hours with door closed.

Garnish lavishly with white chocolate curls; serve chilled.

Makes 10-12 servings.

Graham Cracker Crust

½ stick butter (4 tablespoons), melted
8 teaspoons sugar
1 box graham crackers, crushed (about 1 ½ cups crumbs)

Mix melted butter with sugar and graham cracker crumbs. Pat evenly over bottom and sides of pan. Set aside.

White Chocolate-Raspberry Pie

White chocolate and raspberry? Sounds like a winning combination to me. It comes from the Pillsbury site. Apparently, this recipe is for the top prize-winning pie from the 2010 State Fair Pie Contest.

White Chocolate-Raspberry Pie

1 Pillsbury® refrigerated pie crust, softened as directed on box
5 oz white chocolate baking squares
3 tablespoons milk
5 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 to 1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1 cup whipping cream, whipped
3 cups fresh raspberries

Heat oven to 450°F. Make pie crust as directed on box for One-Crust Baked Shell, using 9-inch glass pie plate. Cool completely.

In microwavable bowl, microwave 4 squares of the white chocolate and the milk uncovered on MEDIUM about 2 minutes or until almost melted. Stir until melted. Cool to room temperature.

In small bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar and orange peel with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Beat in white chocolate mixture. Fold whipped cream into white chocolate mixture. Spread in bottom of cooled baked shell. Arrange raspberries on filling.

Melt remaining square of white chocolate; drizzle over pie. Refrigerate about 2 hours or until set. Cover and refrigerate any remaining pie.

Hershey's Perfect White Chip Chocolate Cookies

It all started with an amazing sale on white chocolate chips. I can never resist a really good buy. And I love white chocolate. Oh, I know. It's not really chocolate. Maybe that's why I love it so much.

There are so many wonderful things to bake with white chocolate. But I needed something quick and easy and yummy. And there's nothing quite like the recipe on the back of the bag. My only complaint? Make the words LARGER folks!

The cookies are wonderful and have a taste that makes you want to eat another one and another one and another one and...well you get the picture. Give them a try. You'll love them.

Hershey's Perfect White Chip Chocolate Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups (12-oz package) Hershey's Premier White Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy.

Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Gradually beat into the butter mixture.

Stir in white chocolate chips.

Drop teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. (I recommend spraying lightly with Pam!)

Bake 8 to 9 minutes (8 minutes in my oven).  Do NOT overbake. Cookies are supposed to be soft. They will puff while baking and flatten when cooling. Let the cookies cool slightly, then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Store in an airtight container.