Meltaways (Ty's Grandma's Recipe)

I think I did mine for like 8 or 9 minutes, but my oven seems to be on the faster side for baking.

Dough:
1/2 pound soft butter (two sticks)
3/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup flour Cream butter until fluffy.

Add cornstarch and powdered sugar and blend well. Beat in flour until thoroughly mixed. Drop by small teaspoons onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Cool and spread with frosting.

Frosting:
Blend together 3 oz. soft cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Add food coloring as desired.
You probably already do this, but here are some tips: - To shape the cookies, I make small balls of dough and place them on the cookie sheet. Then, I spray the bottom of a glass with cooking spray and dip the glass in flour; I use this to gently flatten the cookies so that they are about a quarter inch thick. -I try not to overcook-if even one cookie looks a little bit golden brown on the edges, I take the whole tray out of the oven.

The Best Copy Cat Swig Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup Butter room temperature
• 3/4 cups Vegetable Oil
• 1 1/4 cups Sugar
• 3/4 cup Powdered Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Water
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tarter
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 5 1/2 cups Flour

Sour Cream Frosting

• 1/2 cup room temperature butter
• 3/4 cup Sour Cream
• 2 cup Powdered Sugar

Instructions

1. Cream together Butter, Vegetable Oil, Sugars, Water, and Eggs.

2. Combine dry ingredients and slowly add to butter mixture.

3. Mix until everything is combined.  Your dough should be a little crumbly and not sticky at all.

4. Roll a golf ball sized ball of dough and place it on your cookie sheet.

5. Now its time to give these babies their signature rough edge.  Put 1/4 c of sugar and a pinch of salt in a dish (this is in addition to the sugar and salt listed above.)  Stick the bottom of a glass in it.  This is going to be your cookie press.

6. Firmly press it into the center of your dough ball.  You want your dough to spill out over the sides of the glass.  If there is a lip its even better.

7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes.  They should just barely be browning on the bottom.    Move cookies to a cooling rack.  Once they are cool put them in the fridge.

8. Start by creaming together butter and sour cream and salt.  Slowly add powdered sugar.  When it gets so thick its not frosting like add a splash of milk.  Alternate this process until your frosting is the desired consistency.  Add 1 drop of red food coloring and whip on high for 1 minute.

9. Keep cookies in a sealed container until they are ready to serve.  The magic of a Swig Sugar Cookie is that the cookies are cold and the frosting is room temperature.  Frost right before serving (if you make them in advance and need to refrigerate the frosting make sure you give it time to warm up before serving).

(Says to refrigerate the cookies and then frost with the frosting at room temperature. I tried that but didn't like the cookies cold. They weren't soft and crumbly. I just bake them and then frost when cooled and store them at room temperature. Obviously if there was extra frosting, I would store that in the fridge :) I also add a drop of vanilla to the frosting. I bake them for 8 minutes if I use a regular cookie sheet and 7 minutes if I use a dark cookie sheet. I like them on the softer side. Other than that, I follow the recipe exactly! It makes around 4 dozen. And yes, you will use almost an entire 2lb bag of powdered sugar for the frosting! The frosting makes a ton. You could really do 1 1/2 recipes and one batch of frosting.)

Pecan Pie

1 C. white corn syrup               1 C. dark brown sugar

1/3 C. butter (melted)               3 eggs (slightly beaten)

1/3 tsp. salt                              1 tsp vanilla

1 heaping cup shelled pecans (whole or cut in half)

          Combine syrup, sugar salt, butter vanilla and mix well.  Add slightly beaten eggs.  Pour into 9 inch unbaked pie shell.  Sprinkle pecans over all.  Bake in pre-heated 350 degree oven for approximately 45 minutes.

(Note:  I usually use a 10” pie pan so I add one more egg, 1/3 Cup more brown, 1/3 Cup more corn syrup, 1 ½ Tb. more butter, and a little more vanilla and dash more of salt.)    

 -Recipe courtesy of Barbara Leary

Fresh Peach Cream Pie By Armelle Blog

{Fresh Peach Cream Pie}

Serves 4-6

For the Crust:

2 packs (a little less than 3 cups) graham crackers, crushed (I prefer the Honey Maid Honey Graham Cracker.  I did NOT like the Keebler brand graham crackers.  I also like Trader Joe’s Graham Crackers if you can find them.

1 1/2 sticks of butter, melted
3 tablespoons powdered sugar

Combine crushed graham crackers (I place mine in my food processor and I like to pulse them not totally fine, but just a little coarse), melted butter (enough for it to hold together well when pressed), and powdered sugar, and mix well (or pulse together in food processor).  Press into the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate. (You may have extra)
*If the crust is having a hard time holding together, you may need a little more melted butter.

For the Cream Filling:

1 cup heavy whipping cream, whip until Medium to Stiff Peaks. (you don’t want it runny)

1 cup powdered sugar                              

4 oz cream cheese (1/2 brick), softened at room temperature. *it must be room temperature or it will be clumpy

1 tsp vanilla (I prefer vanilla bean paste!)

1 tbs fresh lemon juice

2 tbs milk

Whisk heavy whipping cream until it forms medium to stiff peaks, and set aside.
Mix together in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment room temperature cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla bean paste, and milk.  Mix until combined well.  Next, carefully fold the cream cheese mixture into the whipping cream, and layer unto the bottom half of the graham cracker crust, and let it set up in the fridge. *You may have a little extra cream cheese filling

For the Peach Sauce:

1-2 medium peaches, peeled and sliced
1/4 cup water
1/2 tbs fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbs corn starch

In a blender.  Add peaches, water, lemon juice,  corn starch and sugar.  Blend together well, until smooth.  Pour mixture into a small saucepan, and bring to a boil.  Whisk until the sauce thickens. Careful not to burn it. Remove from heat, and allow to cool in the fridge.

For the Fresh Peaches:

4-6 medium peaches, peeled and sliced

Place the sliced peaches in a bowl, and then cover with sauce just until well coated, (you may have extra peach sauce, which is good since it’s yummy on pancakes and waffles!) Spoon the peach mixture over the cream cheese layer, then allow to set up in the fridge for a few hours, then serve!  

Be sure to keep it stored in the fridge!

Homemade Almond Toffee

2 C butter.
2 C sugar.
1/4 tsp salt.
2 C chocolate chips.
1 C chopped almonds.

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Combine butter, sugar and salt. Melt and bring to boil, stirring occasionally, until it turns to caramel color (be sure not to wait too long or the bottom will burn).

Pour mixture on cookie sheet and spread evenly. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top and once melted spread evenly.  Sprinkle chopped almonds and let it cool.

Break up into pieces when fully cooled off. (If you like a lot of almonds, you can spread the cookie sheet with almonds before you spread the toffee mixture.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Mix together:

3 C. flour                                 2 C. sugar            

½ C. cocoa                               1 tsp. salt                 2 tsp. soda

Add:

2/3 C. oil                                 2 C. water                 2 Tb. vinegar                      2 tsp. vanilla

          Fill cupcake papers 2/3 full of above mixture

Filling:

1 lg. pkg. cream cheese            1 egg

1/3 C. sugar                                      ¼ tsp. salt

Mix together until fluffy then add 1 pkg. chocolate chips. 

          Drop one heaping teaspoonful of cream cheese mixture into each cupcake.  Bake for 25 min. at 350.  

**After they cool from baking, I refrigerate them over night and serve them cool the next day. I like them better this way! Refrigerate to keep fresh because of the cream cheese.