Christmas Cookies - A decadent memory from 2014!

The week before Christmas I was busy making a wide variety of cookie dough and baking. The recipes are all courtesy of very talented food bloggers who receive full credit with the recipe links below.  Every one of these turned out perfectly and some are clearly my new favorites!

Soft Gingersnap Cookies

These were coated in sparkling sugar. 

The sparkling sugar gave them a little festive sweet crunch!

Eggnog Snickerdoodle Cookies

A combination of cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg  is the perfect holiday taste treat

Cherry Almond Shortbread

Dough balls ready to bake - and oh so good

Chocolate Crinkles -- oops - totally forgot to photograph these at ANY stage (but they are in the cookie platters - covered on powdered sugar goodness...


Peppermint Oreo Truffles

Need to work on my candy dipping technique...

Creamy goodness on the inside....  scrumptious!

Yes they were all fabulous - all soft and chewy and full of flavor.  I could not wait to share them with family and friends and they were indeed a hit. I may have finally found a combination of tastes that I can successfully recreate every year (instead of having to dream up a new array every year!)

I was so busy baking that I failed in the photograph department. I didn't get each recipe in all of the same stages - I have some in the dough stage, some freshly baked but there is no consistency except that they are all represented on the cookie platters! (ok - not true either - the truffles were in the refrigerator til the last minute so didn't make the platter photos - photo fail!) Hopefully you can use your imagination - I will do better next year (I hope - no promises!)

If nothing else,I hope that this inspires you to try new things even when you aren't sure of the results. I took a bit of a risk and I am so glad I did!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

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Skinny Banana Raspberry Chocolate Chip Muffins - Low Sugar

It's muffin time again.  I know that the fresh fruit of summer will be gone soon, so I want to take advantage of every tantalizing combination that I can!

My bananas have been ripening faster than I can use them, so this recipe was the perfect one to pair my mushy bananas and super sweet and LARGE raspberries!  My neighbor loved the combination so much that she made the recipe using white chocolate chips.  That was a great change and I will do that next time (see picture at the bottom!)

SKINNY RASPBERRY CHOCOLATE CHIP BANANA MUFFINS - low sugar

adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 c. honey

1/4 c. Splenda brown sugar blend

1 cup mashed banana (about three medium bananas)

1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt (I used Yoplait honey vanilla)

1 egg, beaten (I use x-lge)

3/4 cup milk (I used 1/2 cup vanilla coconut milk & 1/4 cup Coffeemate GS Caramel & Coconut Creamer)

1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used a combination of dark and milk chocolate chips)

 1 3/4 cups fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 325.  Spray regular muffin tin with non cooking spray.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together.  Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk the honey and Splenda brown sugar blend together. It will be VERY thick.  Add the mashed bananas, yogurt and beaten egg. Gently pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold them all together. It will be very thick.  Add the milk slowly and continue to gently fold the ingredients together. The milk will thin the batter a little.  Then fold in the chocolate chips.  Finally fold in the raspberries just until blended so they don't crush and turn the batter red!  Overmixing will cause tough muffins.

Divide the batter into 12 muffin cups.  Fill them to the top.  Sprinkle the tops with sparkling sugar if desired.

Bake for 17-18 minutes or until golden brown.. Allow the muffins to cool on a wire rack.

 These are chock full of raspberries and chocolate.  The flavor combination is soooooo good!

Sparkling sugar makes everything better!

Brimming with raspberries. You can see the steam on the plate!

Spotlight on this muffin with the white chocolate chips.

I love all of the photo editing you can do with Pic Monkey.

Enjoy!!

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