Ice cream is a no-brainer dessert during the hot summer months, but when I want to make it really special, I pull out the stops with my homemade Ice Cream Cake.

It’s really the best way to eat cake! Guaranteed to bring you HUGE smiles and maybe a giddy squeal or two. No need to get out all the extras to serve ice cream on the side, it’s already there. Just slice and you’re good.

Homemade Ice Cream Cake

My favorite kind of ice cream to use is Blue Bunny Cookies and Cream. I’ve tried others in the past, but always ended up having to add extra cookies to the ice cream to make it taste right. With the Blue Bunny kind I get at Walmart, I never have to do that.

You can make this recipe into a round cake by doing the exact same steps, but using a round cake pan and cooking the cake for 20 minutes less. But I really like the rectangle shape because it fits so easily in the freezer.

While the cakes cool, I soften the ice cream at room temperature. Then I cut the tops off the cakes and put one in the bottom of my rectangular pan.

My daughter helps me add raspberry preserves to the cake and then the softened Blue Bunny Ice Cream on top. You can put whatever filling you like. Chocolate syrup is delicious too. On top of that goes the other piece of cake flipped upside down.

I cover it and put it in the freezer for a few hours to harden which makes it easier to put the frosting on. My favorite frosting recipe for this cake is a Vanilla Whipped Buttercream. It is totally optional and you could just top it with a little whipped cream to make it easier. I just like the look and taste the frosting adds.

Chocolate Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Cake

 

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Prep time

2 hours

Cook time

50 mins

Total time

2 hours 50 mins

 

The BEST Ice Cream smothered between moist chocolate cake

Author: True Aim

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

• 1 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter or margarine
• 1¼ cup granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1½ cups milk
• 3 cups Blue Bunny Cookies and Cream Ice Cream
• ¼ cup Raspberry Jam or Chocolate Syrup

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare bread pans with cooking spray.
2. Combine chocolate chips and butter in a microwave safe bowl and melt them together until smooth.
3. Mix sugar and chocolate with a mixer until well combined. Add vanilla and eggs 1 at a time and beat until fluffy.
4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Be careful to spoon your flour into your measuring cup and level instead of scooping it directly with the measure cup and compacting the flour.
5. Add the dry mix ½ cup at a time to the wet batter and then add in the milk and mix well.
6. Pour into prepared pans and bake 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. If using round pans decrease cooking time to 35-40 minutes.
7. Cool cake completely while softening Ice cream at room temperature.
8. Cut the tops off of your cake making the surfaces level. Grease one of your pans again and return 1 layer of cake to the pan.
9. Top with jam or syrup and cover the cake with the softened Ice Cream. Top with second cake layer cut side down.
10. Freeze for a few hours or until the ice cream has hardened. Remove your cake from the pan with the help of a knife and put on a serving platter or plate.
11. Top with whipped cream or cover with your favorite frosting and freeze until the frosting hardens. Serve with sprinkles or extra cookie crumbles.

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If you’d like to try Blue Bunny Ice Cream for yourself, they are partnering with Chips Ahoy for a yummy in-store demo on the 4th of July at your local Walmart.

Check out even MORE recipes you can make with your favorite Blue Bunny Ice Cream or just follow them on Pinterest! Leave a comment below, which recipe would you like to try and with what flavor?!

The post Chocolate Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Cake first appeared on True Aim.

I was in line at the checkout and a woman in front of me had piles of OREOs and other goodies on the checkstand. “That looks like it’s going to be delicious,” I said. She went on to tell me about these yummy little balls one of her friends made at a party. She was making some for her family because they were so good. I got the whole recipe and instructions from her right there in Walmart.

#OREOCookieBalls are good, but they are even better with a little peppermint for the holidays.

How to Make OREO Cookie Balls

When I was little, I had the best memories making cookies with my aunts. So, Audrey joined in the fun and helped me make the Cookie Balls. We went to the store and were happily surprised with a coupon for .50 off each package of OREOs! You’ll need 2 packs for the recipe.

We customized our cookie balls by using mint OREOs, peppermint extract, crushed peppermint candy and we used neufchatel cheese instead of cream cheese.

First, we crushed 36 Mint OREOs in a large bowl. I added a few more regular cookies without the cream filling to make the balls a little more dense and chocolaty.

If you have a food processor you can coarsely chop them up in there.

Then we transferred them into our stand mixture and Audrey added the Neufchatel cheese. Audrey likes controlling the mixer so I let her handle it and she blended those cookies up until they were completely mixed up with the cheese. She added some crushed peppermint candies for a little more peppermint flavor and a nice crunch.

Now to the fun part, we used our hands to roll the OREO cookie mix into small 1 inch balls. I’ve seen a little tool you can get to roll the into perfect balls without getting your hands messy, but Audrey thinks it’s so much fun to use our hands, so we’ve never tried the tool.

Pop those balls into the freezer for 10 minutes and get your chocolate ready. I used white chocolate for the coating and warmed it up in the microwave in a measuring cup. Instead of pouring the chocolate over the balls, we dunked them in the cup and fished it out with a fork.

Tapping the fork on the side of the cup helps get extra chocolate off of the cookie ball so the chocolate isn’t too thick.

Finally, my other daughter woke up from her nap to help us coat the balls with chocolate and sprinkle them with crushed peppermint candy.

Into the refrigerator they went to harden up for an hour.

Original Oreo Cookie Balls

 

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Prep time

1 hour 30 mins

Total time

1 hour 30 mins

 

Yummy OREO cookies rolled up in truffle form.

Author: True Aim

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Serves: 40-48

Ingredients

• 1 pkg (8 oz.) brick cream cheese, softened
• 36 OREO Cookies, finely crushed (about 3 cups)
• 4 pkg. (4 oz. each) semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted
• Optional, extra OREO Cookies without cream, ½ tsp peppermint extract and ¼ cup plus 1 tbs crushed peppermint candies

Instructions

1. MIX cream cheese and cookie crumbs until blended.
2. SHAPE into 48 (1-inch) balls. Freeze 10 min. Dip balls in melted chocolate; place in single layer in shallow waxed paper-lined pan.
3. CUSTOMIZE it with your own ingredient additions.
4. REFRIGERATE 1 hour or until firm.

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They really do taste as good as they look.

We can’t eat all of these little balls ourselves, so I made a little printable to help turn them into gifts. Click here to download Christmas Snack Gift Tags.

These holiday gift tags are perfect for gifting a few OREO Cookie Balls to the neighbors.

Just use a Ziploc bag and staple the folded tag over the closure for a festive snack gift bag.

For more Oreo cookie recipe ideas, join me for the #OREOCookieBall Pinterest party taking place on Pinterest on Saturday, December 6 at 12pm ET!

The post Oreo Cookie Balls with a Peppermint Crunch first appeared on True Aim.

I’m so excited.  Never did I think making my own ice cream sandwiches would be this easy.  The chocolate cookie encasing the fresh mint ice cream is WAY better than store bought.  You’ll never want to buy the ready made ones again.

For these Ice Cream Sandwiches, I used a homemade mint chocolate chip froyo, but you can use any of your favorite flavor of ice cream.  Just let your Ice cream soften at room temperature until it is spreadable so you don’t break your cookie.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches

We recently made some of our own Mint Simple Syrup, so I wanted to use that up as quickly as I could.  Audrey helped me mix the yogurt mixture up for our ice cream.  Her favorite part was adding the food coloring and watching the mixture turn into that minty green color.  My favorite part is watching her curious expressions.

Our froyo took a little longer to freeze up than I thought it would, so if you are making these for company, I recommend making them the day before.

You don’t want to wait until the ice cream is totally solid to put your sandwich together.  I just put my cookie back into the baking pan after it was cool, poured the half frozen froyo on top and sandwiched it with the other cookie.

After our cookies were ready, I took the opportunity to get the kids outside and have an Ice Cream Sandwich picnic.  I put our sandwiches in a cooler along with some Wet-Naps I got at Walmart to help clean up our mess.

They’re also great to use before the meal at a picnic because they kill 99.9% of germs.  I know my kids won’t be putting anything in their mouth along with their food that will make them sick.

The kids devoured their sandwiches and I was able to clean them up quickly with just one Wet-Nap.

These things are strong, but they’re also soft and they moisturize with Aloe so I don’t have to worry about drying out their little faces.

Then they were able to get on to their favorite part of the picnic, Play Time!

You can find Wet-Nap products at Walmart in the Napkin Aisle.  Save .55 off any Wet-Nap product right now with this Coupon while supplies last.

Homemade Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches

 

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Prep time

4 hours

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

4 hours 30 mins

 

Easy chocolate cookie dough for Ice Cream Sandwiches with a simple Mint Chocolate Chip frozen yogurt .

Author: True Aim

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Serves: 9

Ingredients

• ½ Cup Butter Softened
• ½ Cup Packed Brown Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 Tsp Vanilla
• ½ Tsp Baking Soda
• ¼ Tsp Salt
• ¼ Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 1¼ Cup Flour
• 3 Cups of your favorite Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt Recipe Follows

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 9x9 inch baking pan with parchment paper.
2. Cream butter and sugar together with a mixer and then add the egg and vanilla and mix until incorporated.
3. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined, but do not over work.
4. Spread half of the dough flat in the baking pan with a spatula or clean fingers.
5. Bake for 13-14 minutes or until darkened slightly on the edges. Remove the cookie from the pan with the parchment and cool on a wire rack.
6. Repeat with remaining dough.
7. To assemble the ice cream sandwiches, place one cookie back in the pan along with the parchment. Top with softened Ice Cream, and then press the other cookie on top.
8. Return to the freezer for 2-4 hours or until the Ice Cream has solidified. Remove from the pan and cut into 9 large squares. or 18 small bars.
9. For the Frozen Yogurt: 2 Cups Vanilla Yogurt, ½ Cup Mint Simple Syrup, ½ Cup Milk, ¼ Cup Chocolate Chips, Green Food Coloring (optional)
10. Whisk everything together in a large bowl and freeze for 2 hours or until thick and spreadable but not liquid.
11. Spread onto Cookies for Ice Cream Sandwiches or Whisk every 30 minutes until the desired consistency.

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The post Homemade Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches first appeared on True Aim.

What all the verbiage of “cookie-gate” obscured was the true value in cooking with your child.

The world is a complicated place. We often never see how things are made, from the family car to a loaf of bread. Anytime a parent can expose a child to the many facets of how things work, they help prepare their child for the big wide world.

Of course, baking the food we eat is only one aspect of our lives. Changing the oil in the lawnmower, building a tree house or putting money aside in a piggy bank all offer valuable lessons in mechanics, construction and finance.

But baking is easy, accessible and a great introduction to chemistry (baking soda makes the cake rise), agriculture (from where the flour, eggs and milk come), production and assembly (the coordination of systematically following a formula to make a batch), and even marketing (“is the homemade one better than the store bought one?”), all with the added bonus of learning fractions.

A retired school teacher once told me after decades of teaching fractions with measuring cups, they now teach fractions using a pizza as the visual aid because so few children have baked. But she felt the hands on experience of filling and emptying the measuring cups was a far more tactile and understandable introduction to the concept of fractions for a young child.

So with that in mind here is an easy, fun recipe for shortbread cookies that has long been a favorite in our family. It has all the basics: an easy recipe of ingredients you usually have in the pantry, the fun of rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters, and the delight of decorating with sprinkles and frosting.

Lessons in fractions, agriculture, production and artistic expression all hidden inside one simple recipe.

How to Make Shortbread Cookies

3⁄4 Cup of butter

3⁄4 Cup of sugar

1/8 Teaspoon of salt

2 Teaspoons of vanilla

2 Cups of flour

Method: Cream butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl with a mixer or with a spoon. Add and mix in the salt and vanilla. Add and mix in the flour.

If you aren’t using a mixer you may have to knead the last of the flour in by hand (little ones love this). Roll dough out on a floured surface about 1⁄4 an inch thick and cut out shapes.

Place cookies on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Allow baked cookies to cool for one minute on the sheet.

Then remove them from cookie sheet and continue cooling on a rack. Ice with homemade or store bought icing and decorate. Enjoy!

Printing off some thank you cards like the ones below to go along with your cookies as a gift makes another lesson of appreciation!

Dianne Miller is a landscape painter who lives in Virginia with her husband and two daughters. Her work includes the Little Bunny series written for her children when they were preschoolers. The simply written and illustrated books gently guide Little Bunny through the challenges of life. Click here to find tons of original, free printables and the Little Bunny series.

The post Cooking with Kids: Cookie Lesson first appeared on True Aim.

These cookies and cream bars were a huge hit!  Biting into one of these is like eating cookies and cream ice cream, just in a solid cookie form.

Cookies and Cream Cookie Bars

I don’t want to make a regular cookie again.  These are just so good it is ridiculous.  A little too good if you eat more than 4 at a time, you might get sick.  I know from experience.

My little suss chef loves helping make these because I always let her have the ‘left over’ cookies.  She is especially good at breaking them up with the rolling pin.

After she breaks up the cookies and cream candy bars, licking fingers is permitted.  It definitely encourages her to cook with me more!  Add more candy bars if you want, (maybe some to the top right before you take it out of the oven), but don’t add to many Oreos because it makes them dry and crumbly.  I was overly zealous with the Oreos one time.  I mean, who can resist?

They take a little longer to bake than regular cookies, but you could try a bigger pan to cut the time in half.

Cookies and Cream Bars

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Packed with cookie pieces and made with pudding for an Ice creamy taste.

Author: True Aim

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter at room temp.
• ¾ cup white sugar
• 1 box instant white chocolate or Oreo pudding
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 4-5 Oreo cookies crushed
• 1 Cookies and Cream Candy Bar

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare an 8x8 square baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined.
3. Mix in the pudding, flower, baking powder and salt until just incorporated.
4. Add the oreos and candy bars and mix them in by hand. Spread the dough evenly in the prepared pan with a spatula.
5. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Cool completely and cut into 16 bars.

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Next thing you know, my kids wake up in the morning and the bars are all gone!  Who did that?!  I hate looking into their sad eyes and telling them that DAD ate all of them.

Do you like cookies and cream?  If you have a favorite cookies and cream recipe I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

For more family recipes, like us on Facebook or follow along on Pinterest! 

The post Cookies and Cream Cookie Bars first appeared on True Aim.

Audrey was excited when I said the word cookies, but then I got the avocado out and her smile turned into a frown, “Avocado! You don’t put that in cookies!”

Actually, I started using avocado a lot more in recipes to replace some of the butter.  I just never told anyone

I make these cookies when I want a healthy indulgence, if there is such a thing.  Gluten-free and paleo, these are great for almost any diet.

The trick to make these look smooth and round is a DIY pastry bag.  I tried it without and they look really funny, but if you are in a hurry it doesn’t taste any different without one.

Double Chocolate Avocado Cookies

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

12 mins

Total time

22 mins

 

Double Chocolate Avocado Cookies taste like fudge, but they're gluten-free and Paleo!

Author: True Aim

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Gluten-Free

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 Medium Ripe Avocado
• 3 tbs Honey, Agave, or Stevia
• 1 Egg
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• ½ cup Peanut Butter or Almond Butter
• ½ cup Cocoa Powder
• ¼ cup Chocolate Chips (Cacao chips)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 and prepare a baking sheet with parchment.
2. Cream together the avocado and sweetener until smooth. Then add the egg and mix until no lumps remain.
3. Next add the peanut butter and slowly add the Cocoa Powder 2 tbs at a time. If the mixture looks too sticky, leave 1 or 2 tbs out. You want the consistency to be smooth just like the peanut butter.
4. Stir in the Chocolate Chips by hand and put the mixture in a plastic sandwich bag. Cut a hole the size of a nickle in one corner and squeeze out 1 inch rounds onto the parchment.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the middle of the cookies look set, not shiny.
6. Makes 12-18 cookies. Store in the refrigerator.

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I could eat the whole batch by myself, but I wouldn’t be able to stand the sad little faces that peak in the cookie jar only to find crumbs.

For more easy and delicious family recipes, like me on Facebook or follow on Pinterest! 

The post Double Chocolate Avocado Cookies first appeared on True Aim.

I used to live in a military town.  Memorial Day weekend was just about as busy as Christmas.  Invited to at least 3 BBQs, I was always asked to bring either dessert or a salad.  Although simple, I’m horrible at making salads!  So I opted for something sweet.  These Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars layered with TWIX Bites are perfect to share with family and friends!

Although there were lots of fun festivities, Memorial Day was also a somber holiday in that town.  We took all the events as an opportunity to show our appreciation, and gave out cookies & other deserts to service members and their families.

It was hard to talk to my daughter about Memorial Day back then.  She was only 2.  Now, she is fully aware of the sacrifice many have made for us; people they don’t even know.

When we went to Walmart to pick up our TWIX Bites, my daughter noticed the American flag was everywhere.  She was very curious as to why and asked, “Mom is it going to be the 4th of July?  When IS the 4th of July?”  Of course when I told her when it was, she laughed and turned a little red.

I told her is was going to be Memorial Day soon.  She didn’t know what that was and so, as we made these cookies bars, we talked about the holiday and everyone we know who has served.

We have a lot of neighbors and friends who have given many years, so we’ll definitely be sharing these with them

Make sure you cook the bars until they are dark golden brown on the edges.  The pudding with help keep them moist so it is really hard to over cook them

TWIX Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars #EatMoreBites

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

45 mins

 

A Decadent Cookie Bar with lots of gooey chocolate and caramel!

Author: True Aim

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Serves: 16

Ingredients

• 1 cup Butter at room temp
• ¾ cup Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Package Instant Vanilla Pudding
• 1¾ cup Flour
• ¾ tsp Baking Powder
• ½ tsp Salt
• ½ cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 1 Package TWIX Bites Refrigerated

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and generously grease a square 8x8 baking dish.
2. Cream butter and sugar together until smooth and add vanilla.
3. Beat in the eggs until incorporated and then mix in the vanilla pudding.
4. Add your flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix just until you can't see the flour, but no more. Stir the chocolate chips in by hand.
5. Spread half of the dough on the bottom of the prepared baking dish and top with the TWIX bites. Top with remaining dough and bake for 30 - 40 minutes or until very dark golden brown on the edges.
6. Cool completely on a wire rack and cut into 16 bars.

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Before you makes these awesome cookie bars remember to print off your coupon and receive $1.00 off when you buy two 2.83 oz. or larger bags OR $3.00 off when you buy two 6 oz. or larger bags of TWIX Bites.

What do you do to for Memorial Day weekend?  Do you have any family traditions or great recipes?  I would love to hear about them!

Check out these Candy Bar Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes for more baking ideas with Mars Bites!

The post TWIX Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars #EatMoreBites first appeared on True Aim.

Each time I go to my home town to visit, it’s like a little family reunion.  Almost everyone on my Mom’s side of the family lives in and around the same small town.  She has 12 brothers and sisters; add my cousins and in-laws into the mix and I’m bound to see someone in the family each time I go out!  I really miss being with them, so it was so nice of my Aunt Julie to come visit and cook for me!

We don’t usually cook gluten free, but love healthy alternatives and like to use natural sweeteners.  These cookies were soo easy and soo good; like crunchy little granola bars with a soft center.  They were gone in about 10 minutes!  I found a very similar recipe that uses dried blueberries and pecans.  I think dried apricots or raisins would be good too.

Cranberry Harvest Gluten Free Breakfast Cookies

 

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Taste like the holidays and are packed with protein.

Author: True Aim

Recipe type: Breakfast

Cuisine: Gluten Free

Ingredients

• 1½ cup Old Fashioned Oats
• 1 cup Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
• 1 Tablespoon Flax Meal
• ½ Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
• ¾ Cup Slivered Almonds
• ½ Cup Chopped Dried Cranberries
• 3 Ripe Bananas, Mashed
• 1 Tablespoon Honey
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly oil a baking pan or line with parchment.
2. Mix together all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the mashed bananas, honey, and vanilla extract.
3. With clean hands, form into cookies with 2-3 tablespoons of the mixture and place on the baking sheet ½ inch apart.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

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Can’t wait to hear what you think about these!  Got any good flavor combination ideas?  Maybe a little peanut butter could be substituted for the honey?  Yum!

For more Family Recipes, follow me on Pinterest!

The post Cranberry Gluten Free Breakfast Cookies first appeared on True Aim.

These easy shortbread cookies are one of my go-to cookie recipes for the holidays.  You can make them ahead of time and add mix-ins to create all different kinds of cookies with just one dough.

Continuing the cookie buffet tradition this year, I whipped up a double batch of this shortbread cookie dough.  Making this up and freezing it ahead of time helps lessen meal prep on the big day.  Plus, I can easily create 4 different flavors of cookie from just one batch of dough.

Easy Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

1 Cup Unsalted Softened Butter

2/3 Cup Confectioners Sugar

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 Egg Yolks

1/4 Teas Baking Powder

2 Cups Flour

Directions:

My daughter Emma helped me whip up the dough.  She added the softened butter first and whipped it until it was creamy.

Next she put in the sugar and whipped it until it was smooth.  Then added the extract and eggs and mixed until they were incorporated.

The flour and baking powder were last and she mixed it up until it just disappeared.  You don’t want to mix the dough too much with the mixer after adding the flour.  If any flour is left, just mix it with a spatula when you add your mix-ins.

Mix-ins: 

Use 1 cup of dried fruit, nuts, chocolate, candy or a combination to create your favorite flavors.  You can also add any spices, extra extracts or zests.  I usually split my dough in half and make two different kinds of cookies, using 1/2 cup of mix-ins in each mound of dough.  You could also try splitting it up into 4 mounds and adding 1/4 cup of mix-ins to each.  This time I made a double batch and 4 different kinds.  Here are the flavors I tried:

Cranberry Pistachio:  1/4 cup dried cranberries chopped and 1/4 cup shelled pistachios finely chopped

Mini Chocolate Chip: 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Brown Sugar Pecan: 1 tablespoon brown sugar and 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

Sprinkles: 1/2 cup sprinkles separated in half; 1/4 cup stirred in and 1/4 cup used to roll the cookies in

Other mix-ins that would taste great:

dried apricots, dried cherries, almonds, almond extract, peppermint candies, toffee pieces, lemon zest, lemon extract, lemon head candies, cinnamon chips (chopped), poppy seeds.

After mixing my flavors, I put the dough in plastic wrap and chilled it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.  You could also try putting it in the freezer to make it a little quicker.

Then I formed my dough into 1 and 1/4 inch logs and wrapped them in plastic and wax paper.  I put mine in the refrigerator for 2 hours, but again, you could speed that up by putting the logs in the freezer.  If I’m not baking any cookies that day, I keep my dough in the freezer.  It can be kept there for up to a month!

To bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  If you’re working with frozen dough, put the cookies in the refrigerator the day before, or leave them on the counter for 30 minutes.  If you want to coat the outside of the cookies with some mix-ins, do that now and then cut them into generous 1/4 inch thick slices.

Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a non-stick mat about 1 inch apart and bake them for 12-14 minutes, trying not to let them get brown on the edges.

Cool them on a wire wrack and try not to devour them before your guests come!  With the cranberry pistachio ones, that was really hard to do!

Sometimes I make this dough just to have cookies on hand.  To bake a little at a time, I slice off a frozen chunk and put it in the refrigerator to defrost.

What flavors would you try?

For more family recipes, like me on Facebook or follow me on Pinterest.  Thanks for your support!

The post Easy Slice and Bake Shortbread Cookies first appeared on True Aim.