It's that time... the 2024 Christmas Cookie List

 

Briefly popping in to the mostly-neglected recipe blog to update my 2024 Christmas Cookie List.
I really should say 'idea' list though as I brainstormed a list a couple weeks ago, but more than likely will change and adapt it as I go along.  There are currently 17 recipes on the list but I usually end up making between 22-26 so I know I'll have more when I make up the trays and boxes.  

2024 Current Christmas Cookie Idea List

1. Russian Tea Cakes (or sometimes called Mexican Wedding Cakes)
2. Angel Bars
3. Cream Wafers
4. English Toffee (maybe)
5. Harris Fruitcake
6. Gateau Bonbons
7. Pretzel Bites with Rolos, Kisses and M&M's
8. Peppermint Meltaways
9. No Bake Cookies
10. Peanut Blossoms
11. Peanut Butter Fudge
12. Salted Nut Chews
13. Sugar Cookies - Trees for sure, maybe Mittens and Hats too.
14. A second style Tree shaped sugar cookie
15. Molasses Cookies
16. Macarons
17. Chocolate Chip Cookies with Red and Green M&M's

Reposting an older blog post page because I already have links included on that year's list and I don't feel like taking all the time/work to link anything right now.  PAGE:  https://www.housewifebarbie.com/p/blog-page_2.html

  Almond Macrons
  Mexican Wedding Cakes (or Russian Tea Cakes)
  Fruitcake Bars (no bake)
  Molasses Ginger Cookies
  Homemade Chocolate Truffles
  Cream Horns (easy with Puff Pastry!)
  Cut out Sugar Cookies with an easy Glaze
  Peppermint Meltaway Cookies with Crushed Candy Canes
  Homemade Girl Scout Style Thin Mints
  M&M Kiss Pretzels
  Cream Wafers
  Peppermint Pretzels
  Candy Striped Cookie Sticks
  Melted Snowman Cookies
  Stenciled Icing Sugar Cookies
  Peanut Blossoms
  Peanut Butter Fudge
  Sugar Cookies:  Snowflakes with Edible Glitter
  Red Velvet Cake Balls
  Gateau Bon Bons
  Swedish Rosettes
  Peppermint Teacakes
  Salted Nut Chews
Sugar Free, Low Carb Cinnamon Spice Cookies
Sugar Free Mexican Wedding Cakes
Mini Peanut Blossom Muffin Tin Cookies
Mittens and Winter Hat Sugar Cookies

 

 

Knafeh Bars (the viral Dubai Bars with Pistachio Cream Centers)

 

So apparently there was a 'viral' recipe on social media this Fall.  I had no idea.  My personality is such that I don't pay attention to what people are doing - I rarely use social media and frankly, I'm too dang busy in my own life to bother.  I actually stumbled upon this fad honestly - and accidentally.

Two things.  First, I've been wanting to find a cheap 'candy bar' style silicone mold to have on hand.  Have wanted this for about 2 years.  Didn't want one bad enough to buy one, but I'm part of a product review group and after a year of waiting, searching, keeping my eye out and looking, I stumbled upon one!  Ordered it post haste.

Within a couple weeks I stumbled upon shredded phyllo dough.  Yes please!  I LOVE phyllo dough and had never heard of nor seen shredded.  But I had it, so I had to find something to do with it.  That is when I put those words into a search engine and realized there was something called a Knafeh Bar - or a Dubai Bar.  It used shredded phyllo AND it used a silicone candy bar mold.  BINGO.

I also happened to have pistachio's on hand (always) and cream and other ingredients (always).  It was meant to be.

 

 

 My pistachios were roasted and salted. I simply ran them under water to get rid of some of the salt.  Next time I probably won't bother - I'll just not put any salt in the rest of the filling to make up for it.

I thought this was pretty cool...  My stick of butter said it was 113 grams on the wrapper.  I wondered if it would really be exactly that?  I weighed it. 

IT WAS.  Exactly 113 grams in one stick of butter.  I didn't actually need exactly one stick, I'm just a geek and wanted to weigh it.

 
The shredded phyllo (fillo) has to be cooked with butter to make it brown and crisp.

 
This is the mixing of the pistachio cream with the crispy phyllo.

 Getting ready to mix the candy bar filling - the phyllo, pistachio cream, vanilla, peanut butter, extra chopped pistachios...

 The candy bar mold was already lined/filled with a thin chocolate layer.  This is the molds being filled.

 By this point I was over it... I sent this message to my family.

 But in the end... they turned out quite well!  Here I am un molding them... they were dusted with edible gold dusting powder and drizzled with a tiny bit of green as well.

 Taste test..

 Bagged up and ready for my family to enjoy.

Knafeh Bars

In a candy bar silicone mold, dust a little bit of edible gold luster dust and green if you have it or use white chocolate colored green and drizzle that.  Or just use luster dust and forget the green - not sure why people insist there should be green.  Gold is just fine and looks pretty.

Brush or pour/spread melted chocolate of choice.  I used what I had on hand and mixed a bunch different bits.
Chocolate almond bark, sugar free chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips and some chocolate bars from Turkey.

Pistachio Cream

2/3 c pistachios
1/3 c sugar
1/2 c chopped up white chocolate or white chocolate melts
1/3 c butter
1/2 c cream or half and half
vanilla
almond extract
salt

Put into a blender and blend smooth.    Chill until needed if you've made it ahead of time.

Crisp the Shredded Phyllo

In a pan on the stove, heat some butter.
Add the shredded phyllo (kataifi)
Cook and stir until it's golden brown and crispy.  Set aside.

Filling

1 c shredded phyllo (kataifi)
1/2 cup of the pistachio cream you made
1 T peanut butter
2 T extra chopped pistachios

Fill the chocolate lined bar molds with the filling, be sure to flatten and smooth the filling and leave enough room to top with more melted chocolate.  When the bars are topped and you can't see any filling - it's totally encased in the chocolate in the molds, place them in the refrigerator to harden.

When the molds are cold and the chocolate hard, pop them out of the molds.

Pork and Lemon Ragu with Pasta

  

The photo above is when it had started to thicken upon standing a few minutes, but wasn't the finished product.  I could have taken a better 'finished' photo but honestly I was hungry, it smelled (and tasted) so good I started to eat it, and didn't really care about getting a better picture.  It's just for my personal blog - I don't make any money for posting recipes I make, and I have no income from the time I spend on this site, so... yeah.  LOL.

I would normally use a different pasta with this one, but for a number of crazy things going on in our life right now, I have cleared out the pantry except for mere basics and all I have to choose from currently is macaroni shapes and spaghetti shapes.  So, I chose spaghetti this time. 



Pork and Lemon Ragu with Pasta

Bacon, cooked and crumbled or use real bacon crumbles bought - about 1/3 cup
olive oil
1 lg onion, diced
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 t salt
1 t thyme
1 t fresh black pepper
1/2 - 3/4 c cream or half and half
1 1/2 - 2 c water
1 1/2 lb. boneless pork roast
1 t dried lemon peel
1/4 c lemon juice
12 oz. pasta of choice
Romano or Parmesan cheese

In an oven proof pan with a lid, cook the bacon bits in the oil until they start to crisp up, add the onion and cook til soft and turning golden.  Add the garlic and salt, pepper and thyme.  Add the cream and water and whisk/stir.  Add the pork roast, cutting it into half or even quarters.  Bring to a boil and then remove, put the lid on and place into a 350 degree oven.  Roast until tender (about 1 1/2 hours).

Add the lemon juice and zest.  Let it set as you cook the pasta.  When the pasta is almost done, use two large forks to pull apart the pork into shredded pieces.  Add the pasta to the sauce reserving just a bit of the pasta water in case you want to thin the sauce.  It should have a bit of liquid at this point as it will thicken as it stands.  Let it thicken about 10-15 minutes before serving.   You can stir in a bit of the pasta water to the leftovers before refrigerating, as it will absorb the liquid and become really thick by the next day. 




Stirring in the half and half or cream to the onion/bacon mixture
Adding the pork to cook
Shredding the pork
 

Add the pasta and cheese (I used quesa fresca as I didn't have Romano on hand)  It will be VERY LIQUID at this point as it hasn't thickened up at all yet.  It will in the next 10-15 minutes.

 

 

 

 

Just another Mexican Casserole (or nacho dip) featuring ground beef, refried beans and sausage

The plan tonight was to use up some of the homemade sausage in the freezer, the last glass jar of homemade salsa, a half round of my favorite queso that I had food sealed and in the fridge as well as some cheddar from the deep freezer that tastes great, but cheddar does get 'crumbly' after frozen.  I added to that some refried beans, black olives and was able to empty the last of the homemade taco sauce. 

I originally got this recipe when I was 14 years old and was babysitting for a woman who made it and had me bake it for her 3 kids while I was babysitting.  I loved it so much I had her write down the recipe for my Mom.  She then made it regularly as we all loved it - and I continued making it for my own family once I grew up and married and had kids.

It's a casserole and/or a dip for tortilla chips.  You can also put it in a flour tortilla.  Since I'm trying to use UP groceries and not BUY ANY... I don't have tortilla chips so we are having it as a casserole - which is my favorite way to eat it anyway!

 

 Mexican Casserole or Dip

1 lb. ground beef browned with 1 small onion, chopped
1 can refried beans
1 c ground and browned sausage
4 c shredded cheddar cheese
1 small can green chilies, chopped
1 - 16 oz. container sour cream
1 jar salsa or taco sauce
*optional - black olives, green olives, sliced
*optional - 1 1/2 c guacamole or avocado dip


Spread the refried beans on the bottom of a sprayed casserole dish for a meal or if you are using this recipe as a dip, spread it thinly on the bottom of a larger pan of your choice - (pizza pan, 9X13, anything you wish!) Brown the ground beef and/or sausage with the onion. Place half into a greased casserole dish or if you are using for a dip, use all of it over the refried beans in the larger pan. Sprinkle with half the cheese. Add the chilies and/or jalapenos, the sour cream, the salsa/sauce and the rest of the cheese in layers. Top with olives if you love them!

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes for a thinner pan and bake 45 minutes if you have a thick casserole dish. When the cheese is melted and it's hot all the way through, remove and serve as a dip or let set for 5-8 minutes to 'set up' when serving as a casserole. It may be more runny when hot straight from the oven and it sets up (like lasagna does) when left to stand and cool a bit. We can never wait and don't care - we dig right in!

Here are photos of what I think might be the first (1st) time I posted the recipe on An American Housewife - these were from March of 2011.  You can see what it looks like when it's not all mixed up and dished, ready to eat.

 

Stir Fry - (using a Sun Bird seasoning package)

   

I use the recipe on the back of the Sun Bird package of stir-fry mix.  

I used oil, amino acids in place of soy sauce, rice, egg powder with water, pre-cooked chicken, and used broccoli instead of peas. 

Egg powder - (I whisked with water to reconstitute).

 

Rice I made 2 days ago and refrigerated

 

The recipe - right from the back of the package.

 

Scrambling the eggs

 

With chicken and broccoli... because the only peas I have are freeze dried but I don't have any open cans right now and I'd have to dig through our storage closet to find one.  Not that important.  I used broccoli I had in the freezer.

 

(FAIL - kind of) - Freeze Dried Cheeseburgers

 

 
In storage, for 'fun' I had invested in some first run/trial McDonalds cheeseburgers - freeze dried.

The company had never done these before (when I ordered them) so they didn't really have any instructions or directions on how to actually rehydrate them.  Other consumers and I were on our own to do some trial and error.  The best the company can offer is to "steam them for an hour" to rehydrate.  That's it.

I actually agree with the steaming idea - but I wasn't sure how to do it and unfortunately I ended up being in a HUGE HURRY that day and wasn't able to do this trial very well. 

I thought about not posting this at all until my next trial (TODAY) but decided to put the FAIL here with the reasons I knew it failed.

FIRST:  the photo above is a cheeseburger, fully cooked, ordered from the restaurant and freeze dried as it was.  It looks great in the photo but believe me, it's rock hard, dry and basically cardboard.

SET UP:  I set up a double boiler situation in the pan with water below and rack above, so they would be steamed, as they didn't need to be cooked.

TRIAL ONE:  I debated taking the buns out and doing them separate, but I decided to do my first 'trial' as a whole sandwich, and steaming for an hour.  

Fail.  Unfortunately I soon found that wasn't going to work!  The bottom buns were getting steamed so quickly that within about 3 minutes they were getting soggy and saturated.

TRIAL TWO:  I then put the bottom bun on top, and had the burger patty on the bottom, nearest the hot boiling water underneath.  Better, but the buns were still reconstituting too quickly so I needed to remove them completely (which I should have done anyway to start but I wanted to do my first trial as the company package said of simply steaming the whole thing for 1 hour).

 

TRIAL THREE:  I had been making these for my husband to take with him to work for his lunch/dinner but I wouldn't have enough time so I had to come up with another idea.  I decided since I had boiling water in the pot below anyway, I'd add some pasta to it while steaming the burgers above, and I'd cook him spaghetti to take as a 'backup' to my failing burgers.

The water under it was splashing up onto the burgers, so at this point I wrapped them foil and steamed the whole burger inside the foil... didn't work, partly because I was RUSHING EVERYTHING and doing a poor job of testing as I was racing with the clock to get him 'something' made to take to work.

Here is a partially reconstituted burger in my hand.  The bun looked great, the burger was only reconstituted and soft on the sides - the inside completely rock hard and dry.  The bun on the counter below is so wet it was disintegrating.

THE END RESULTS were that my next trial (and the corrected version I believe): 

Remove both top and bottom buns
Reconstitute the burger separately either by steam or in about 1/2 inch water or broth - boil/simmer for a few minutes until moist all the way through.
Buns reconstituted by wrapping with wet paper towels and microwave, steam or even put into a Ziploc in the fridge overnight to absorb moisture until needed.

Trial of Filet O'Fish coming today.

Homemade - Airheads and Skittles

 

 

Basically just 'taffy' but flavored with some citric acid as well as whatever flavors you wish.  

 

Since I keep a well stocked pantry, I have citric acid.  I also have LorAnn flavors like cherry and grape oil extracts.  I have organic orange extracts and raspberry and strawberry emulsion.  I had a couple packs of cherry and grape Kool-Aid.  I also have some 'True Lime' flavor packets.  Lemon extract?  I've got that too.  Freeze dried strawberries and raspberries?  Yep - I can pulverize those as well.

In the end the taffy was made.

Divided into 2 parts.

One flavored like red Skittles (I used a whole mixture of things to do so - and just kept taste testing).  Mostly strawberry and raspberry emulsion flavoring along with black cherry Kool-Aid and bit of cherry oil flavoring from Wilton.

The other was colored white and I used orange extract. 

(The final orange color and bright red would be after they were coated with a hard shell candy glaze.)

 

The hardest and most mind-numbingly boring part was making the tiny dots to become Skittles.
To make the little candies, let them dry and then I have to make the hard candy shell.

After awhile I just decided it was really like Air Heads tangy taffy (or a really tangy Laffy Taffy) if I left it in larger pieces so right now on the counter we have both.

I also realized I cooked the red version about 2 minutes longer than the white version, as I was adding flavorings while they were in the saucepans.  The red is just a tiny bit more firm - and the white a little too soft.  But when I tasted them together I realized I had a huge 'hit' of taste on my hands so now I've mixed most of them together anyway as the flavor is incredible.

It started raining and storming yesterday - STILL raining and the humidity level is so high the little Skittle dots aren't getting hard yet anyway... so I'm in no hurry to finish and coat them with the hard candy shell yet anyway.

Considering everyone loves them and keeps grabbing some of the taffy every time they walk through the kitchen, I'm pretty sure if I leave it all out sitting there for a couple days until the sunshine warms things up and the humidity level goes down, it will be mostly gone and I won't have to keep  making tiny little homemade Skittles after all.   :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food Storage Breakfast: French Toast

 

 

Breakfast a couple days ago... French Toast.

Bread:  The homemade 'daily bread' I've posted about a hundred times already
Egg Powder
Powdered Milk
Vanilla
Syrup (can be homemade but I have bottles of it in the pantry storage)
Butter is home canned 2021

Food Storage: Mexican Casserole

Yesterday morning I was putting something in the freezer when I spied the extra 'fake' taco meat I had made a couple weeks ago.  I pulled it out of the freezer and placed it into the refrigerator to thaw for 'something' today.  And that is how this recipe came to be.

The idea was to use up some of this food storage imitation taco meat - which was already reconstituted for a previous post.  I saw next to it I had a food sealed package of corn tortillas leftover from last Fall (we don't normally eat them but we had a family get together so I had some random foods on hand left).  I grabbed those, a food sealed bag of frozen diced avocados, one fresh avocado a family member left here this week, one of my few remaining packages of frozen shredded cheese, and a can of enchilada sauce.  I had to go to the 2-3 year pantry to get a can of refried beans and a can of black olives.  I had some green chilies in the pantry so I grabbed those.

Lastly, the onions were freeze dried, and you all know how I hated the sour cream powder and did actually go to the store to buy a container of sour cream.  I used that in this recipe and finished it off with some homemade taco sauce (already posted).

Mexican Casserole

Reconstituted 'taco' meat
Refried beans
Green chilies
Cut up corn tortillas
Enchilada sauce
Sour Cream
Avocado
Cheese
Black Olives
Green onions
Taco Sauce

Layer the taco meat, beans, green chilies and corn tortillas.  Bake at 350 about 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and top with the rest of the ingredients.  Return to the oven for another 25 minutes.  Serve hot.  Goes well with flour tortillas and corn.

 NOTES:  I'm still using up the can of Auguson Farms imitation Taco Meat as I rotate out the oldest cans in our food storage - which are from 2012 ish.  Use that if you have it or use freeze dried ground beef, freeze dried diced beef, fresh or frozen ground beef or diced chuck, whatever you have.  Use freeze dried or canned chicken if you wish.

 

I happened to have some corn tortillas on hand in the freezer - which I normally don't.  What I do have however, is the ingredients to make them from scratch if I needed to, and I have one of the 'bucket' meals some of the popular food storage companies sell as a "Mexican Food" bucket that has a package of corn meal in it to make them as well.

 

Random... frozen avocado.  I also have freeze dried avocado if I need to break into that at some point.

 

Still blessed to have some fresh shredded (frozen) cheese and haven't had to use any of the freeze dried so  far, although I am out of cheddar cheese so if I want that I have to go dig through food storage to find a can of it.

 

Topped with my homemade taco sauce (recipe on the site a lot of times already) - and used freeze dried green onions.  Love black olives - and I have some in the 2-3 year storage.  Leave those off (obviously) if you don't like them.

 I don't have a finished picture of it.  I sent some with Mr. Husband for his dinner at work tonight and I had a LOT of it for my lunch today.  The rest is in the refrigerator and I don't  want to get up and go to the kitchen to take a picture of it.  So you get this... prior to baking.

Making blueberry cherry jelly from frozen fruit

I believe in wasting no food when there are other options.  Yesterdays canning task came about because last summer I had bought a bag of wild blueberries that were really awful - and not really good for fresh eating, as well as a bag of cherries that were also just not good; very blah.  I tossed them into the freezer for use in 'something else' down the line. 

I also do this with the last apple or two that has been ignored and starting to get old looking (peel, chop and freeze) and I pick out all the peaches from our favorite frozen fresh fruit mixture, because the peaches are never, ever ripe tasting or sweet and always sour and ruin the rest of the mix (strawberries, mango, papaya and pineapple). 

Yesterday I opened the freezer and decided it would be the day to use up these bags of yucky blueberries and bland, awful cherries.  I'd make jelly.  The fruit(s) would be great with all the sugar used to make jam and jelly - it would really bring out the flavor.

Regarding the cherries.  Normally you have to clean, pit and cut them.  Because they had been frozen and were softer than fresh, I started just taking off the stems and cutting them with my paring knife, which was a lot faster than pitting them.  But then I realized since I was making JELLY and not JAM, I was going to mash them a bit and boil them and then strain them through cheesecloth anyway... so I wasn't going to bother cutting.  Instead I took off the stems and just cut them in half quick and tossed them into the pot. 

To the cherries, I added the frozen wild blueberries as well.  Looking at them, I figured I wouldn't have quite enough juice to work with according to the directions, so I added a bag of my frozen apples as well.  As it all cooked down, I mashed with a wooden spoon.

Bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. 

Poured everything into a cheesecloth lined bowl and tied the ends so I could hang it up to drip and drain.

When it stopped dripping I squeezed it all around to get more juice out - turning and squeezing until I had nothing but pulp left in the cheesecloth.

The juice equaled right at 5 cups.  Since I was mixing cherry and blueberry, I went with the 5 cup average.

Juice according to package directions
Sugar according to package directions
Low Sugar Sure Jel Pectin

Boil for 1 minute

Ladle into jars.
Wipe rims.
Top and add rings.
Water bath the jars 5-10 minutes.
Remove and let cool.
Remove rings.
Wipe down.
Store.

 

 

 

Food Storage: Beef Stew (made in the Instant Pot this time)

 

SLOW:  I've posted this recipe many, many times over the years.  It's my favorite beef stew and I typically make it in the crock pot and let it cook 5-6 hours.  It's a no-work recipe that tastes incredible.  However, I've never tried to make it in a 'rush' before.  I've never had to.  Yesterday... I did.  And it turned out great!

FAST:  Yesterday, time got away from us and suddenly I realized my husband had to leave for work in about 25 minutes and we needed to find him a dinner to take, as we had no leftovers to throw together this time. I looked at a package of ground beef I had taken out of the freezer that was lying on the counter, and suddenly decided to see if I could throw this beef stew together SUPER FAST by using the instant pot pressure cooker, but also because since we are using food storage, most of our foods are pre-cooked in various ways already, which would cut down time.

FOODS:  The package of ground beef was one I ground from chuck roast last Fall and food sealed for the deep freeze.  However, I could just as easily used freeze-dried ground beef, canned beef, leftover steak or hamburger, diced beef (either fresh or freeze dried), etc.  I had home canned potatoes and home canned carrots on hand (again, could use freeze-dried, dehydrated, canned, etc.).  I had sliced mushrooms in the freezer, and a package of dehydrated corn I had dehydrated myself as a 'trial' last summer when I bunch leftover from a family vacation. 

I've NEVER tried to make this 'super fast' before using a pressure cooker. But it turned out perfect and so good that I ended up going back for 3rds and we plan to have it today as well. 
 

 

Beef Stew

3 c cubed, peeled potatoes  (I used home canned)
4 medium carrots, sliced  (I used home canned)
1 medium onion, cubed  (Use dried minced or freeze dried, but I had one fresh on hand)
2 lb. steak or other beef, cubed or cut to about 1" pieces  (I used frozen ground beef, thawed in the microwave)
2 T oil  (had avocado oil on hand)
3 T flour
2 beef bouillon cubes  (used 1 1/2 tablespoons beef base)
2 c boiling water  (used cold from tap)
1/4 c white vinegar
1/4 c ketchup
1 T prepared horseradish (Horseradish Cream - the kind for sandwiches, looks like mayo)
1 T prepared mustard
1 T sugar
1 c peas  (didn't have, left out)
1 c corn  (used dehydrated - added dry)
1 c fresh sliced mushrooms  (used frozen, bought, sliced and froze last summer/fall)
I added a handful of sliced cabbage as well

Place the potatoes, carrots and onions in a slow cooker.  In a large skillet, brown the beef in oil.  Lay on the vegetables in the slow cooker.  Sprinkle with flour.  In a bowl, dissolve the bouillon cubes in the water and stir in the vinegar, ketchup, horseradish, mustard and sugar.  Pour over meat in the slow cooker.  Cover and cook on high about 5 hours.  Add the peas and corn and mushrooms.  Cook an additional 45 minutes.  Makes about 5-6 servings. 

Yesterdays Instant Pot Fast Version:  Heated instant pot to saute with oil.  Added partially thawed ground beef, broke up and browned in pot.  Added onions and flour, blended.  Added the potatoes, corn and carrots along with the water, bouillon base, vinegar and ketchup.  Added the horseradish, mustard and sugar, stirred gently.  Topped with the mushrooms.  Put the top on, sealed it and put the timer on to pressure cook on high 20 minutes.

_________________________________________________

The instant pot 20 minute version worked PERFECTLY.  

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies from a Pancake Mix

  

We currently have a #10 can of buttermilk pancake mix that needs to be used up because it's been opened, but we also have a huge bag of pancake mix from Sam's Club (10 pounds).  That's a lot of pancake mix.

Today while the little ones were napping I grabbed the buttermilk pancake mix and flipped it over to the backside to see if they had any 'other' recipes to make with it.  Outside of biscuits, no.  But I didn't want to make biscuits.  I wanted to make cookies.  Considering the buttermilk pancake mix was the same basic ingredients that are in well, almost any baked good, I figured it was a good time to do some trial and error baking.

The trial commenced, the errors were null and the end result was delicious cookies.

 

This can of Auguson Farms pancake mix is from long term storage, and is 10+ years old (the date is rubbed off the bottom).  Still making perfect pancakes... and cookies.

The butter I used was home canned 2020.  I used a fresh egg in this one instead of egg powder, since I still had 1 left from baking the birthday cakes for a family member.

Buttermilk Pancake Mix Cookies

2 cups pancake mix
1 egg
1/2 c butter

1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c granulated sugar
2 t vanilla
1 c chocolate chips and optional:  nuts, like Walnuts

Mix the soft butter and sugars in a bowl.  Add the vanilla and egg.  Blend.  Add the pancake mix and blend but don't over beat.  Stir in the chocolate chips and/or nuts.   Place by spoonfuls on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake at 350 about 15 minutes.  Cool on the baking sheet about 2-3 minutes, remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Beating the home canned butter and sugars with the egg and vanilla

Adding in the pancake mix

Into the oven at 350 for 15 minutes

Chocolate Chip Cookies fresh from the oven