French Onion Soup

I love french onion soup.. and this recipe NAILS it!! Like, I'm talking restaurant quality french onion soup. I was SO impressed with how this turned out - and it was really easy to make!

1/2 Cup Butter
4 Medium Sized Onions Sliced Thin
2 Cloves of Minced Garlic
1/4 Tsp Ground Thyme
1 Bay Leaf
1/2 Tsp Salt
A Dash of Ground Black Pepper 
3 (10 oz.) Cans of Beef Consomme
1 1/4 Cup Beef Broth
1 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
6 Thick Slices of French Bread (Cut 2 of those slices in half so you have 4)
2 Cups Shredded Kraft Italiano Cheese

Melt the butter in a stock pot, add in the onions, garlic, thyme, bay leaf and salt and pepper.

Cook that mixture, stirring often until the onions are soft and caramelized (about 30 minutes).

Add in your beef consomme, beef broth and vinegar. Simmer for another 30 minutes.

Broil your bread for a couple minutes, flipping once until they are nice and toasty (I butted mine a little bit and added my herbed garlic sea salt).  Remove the bread once it's toasted, but keep the broiler on.

Remove the bay leaf, and ladle your soup into 4 oven safe serving bowl (or french onion soup bowls, if you have them). Place a slice and a half of french bread into each bowl and top with 1/2 cup of cheese.

Broil for about 5 minutes until the cheese is nice and bubbly. Remove from oven and let sit for a minute or so (it'll be super hot - obviously).

Enjoy!!

Christmas Crack

This stuff is amazing.. it's no wonder they call it Christmas Crack!! I can't get enough, it's addictive and is hands down my favorite thing that I've made in all the Christmas baking I've done this year!!

And best of all - it's SO easy to make!!

1 Sleeve of Saltine Crackers (approx)
1 Cup Butter
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Cups Chocolate Chips
1/4 Cup Toffee Baking Bits
1/3 Cup Christmas M&M's

Preheat your oven to 400 F.

Line a pan with parchment paper, grease the parchment with oil or pam and place crackers, salt side up on the tray - you may have to cut some in half to get them to fill the entire tray properly.

In a saucepan, melt the butter, then add the brown sugar. Bring it to a boil and cook for about 3 minutes whisking constantly. Once the sauce has thickened a bit, pour it over the saltines (spread around with a spatula to coat all the crackers).

Bake for about 5 minutes until it is bubbling. Take the tray out of the oven and pour chocolate chips evenly over your crackers. Pop back into the oven for about 2 minutes.

Take the pan out of the oven - the chocolate chips should be very soft. Use a spatula to spread the chocolate around to coat the cracker/brown sugar layers completely.

Immediately scatter your toffee bits and M&M's over the chocolate layer and place pan into the fridge to set.

Once the layers have all set and are solid, you can peel the tinfoil off the underside and break the Christmas Crack into pieces.

I dare you not to get addicted. 

Enjoy!!

Turtle Cookies

These Cookies are SO good.. like crazy good!! If you love turtles, you'll love these cookies!

 Cookies
 1 Cup Flour
1/3 Cup Cocoa
1/4 Tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Butter (softened)
2/3 Cup Sugar
1 Egg Yolk (separate and keep egg white in another bowl plus 1 additional egg white)
2 Tbsp Milk
1 Tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 Cups Pecans (finely chopped - I put mine in my magic bullet)

Caramel Filling
20 Soft Caramels (I used Kraft Caramels)
3 Tbsp Heavy Cream

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Combine your flour, cocoa and salt - set aside.

Cream together your butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in your egg yolk, milk and vanilla and mix until well combined. Slowly add in your flour mixture.

Wrap your dough in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for about an hour, or until firm.

Whisk your egg whites in a bowl, and place chopped pecans into another bowl.

Roll your dough into 1" balls, dip in egg whites, followed by pecans and place on a greased baking sheet (I just spray mine with Pam). Using a tsp to put an indent in the center of the cookie.

Bake for 12 minutes. Once they are done and removed from the oven, use your tsp to make the center indent again (just deep enough to hold some caramel).

While your cookies are cooling, make your caramel filling by microwaving your caramels and heavy cream for a couple minutes (stir after 1 minute).

Fill each cookie with about 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp of caramel sauce. Let that set for a few minutes before transferring to your racks to cool.

Enjoy!

 Recipe adapted from: The Kitchen is my Playground

Chocolate Peppermint Blossoms

Here is another recipe that was made with the help of some American goodies!! Peppermint cream filled Hershey's Kisses! You can sub out the peppermint kisses we get here too if you want, and I saw some mint ones at Wal-Mart.

1 1/2 Cups Flour
3/4 Cups Cocoa
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp salt
1/2 Cup Butter
1 1/4 Cups Sugar
3 Eggs
1/2 Tsp Vanilla
1 Tsp Peppermint Extract
1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar (for rolling)
Peppermint Hershey's Kisses (I used about a bag and a half and I think I made about 40 cookies)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt - set aside.

Pour your powdered sugar into a small bowl and set aside. 

Cream together your butter and sugar until fluffy. Then beat in the eggs and extracts until combined. Slowly add the flour mixture until well combined.

Chill the dough for about an hour.

Once the dough is more firm, roll into 1" balls and roll them in the powdered sugar.  Place them onto cookies sheets lined with parchment paper.

Bake for about 12 minutes. Once baked, let them cool for a couple of minutes before pressing your kiss into the center. To keep the kiss from melting, you can pop the trays into the fridge or freezer for a few minutes too - with my really melty ones, I added another kiss on top of the melted one (I bought a lot, so I had kisses to spare!).

Enjoy!

 Recipe Source: Bake@350