Christmas Cookie Series #3: Thumbprint cookies

I am back in the kitchen baking up my favorite Christmas time cookies. 

I took the week...okay, 2 weeks off but I am getting my act together and whipping a few batches to get us caught up. 

Has anyone ever had the Ghiradelli chocolate filled thumbprint cookies? They are delicious and I cannot find the boxed mix ANYWHERE! It is super depressing.

I figured, if I can't find the mix anywhere, I'll just have to try to whip up my own batch.

So, today I am sharing these little chocolate filled thumbprint cookies. They are so easy to make and will make a great addition to your Christmas cookie platters.

Ingredients
makes approx. 2 dozen
original recipe here

2 sticks salted butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
teeny tiny, pinch of salt
2 1/2 cups flour

chocolate filling
1/2 bag of good quality, milk chocolate chips
4 tbs unsalted butter
*1 tsp light corn syrup

Preheat oven to 350
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together softened butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. Mix for 2 minutes on medium/high speed. Slowly add in flour and mix on medium speed until well combined.

Take a tablespoon size of dough and roll into a ball. Place dough balls 1 inch apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and press *thumb* into the center of the dough to make an indentation. Place the cookies back in the oven for another 6-8 minutes, until the edges are light brown. Remove from the oven and place cookies on cooling rack.

 Once your cookies have cooled, make your chocolate filling. Place chocolate chips, butter, and corn syrup in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring each time, until your chocolate is melted and smooth. Carefully fill your cookies with the melted chocolate.

 *I use the back of a teaspoon to make my "thumb" print. I don't know about you, but sticking my finger into a hot cookie and burning the crap out of it just doesn't sound enjoyable. But if you're into that kind of thing, then by all means, go ahead and stick your finger into the lava cookie

* I made my chocolate filling sans corn syrup because I didn't want to buy a giant bottle to only use a tsp of it. So I opted out of it just added extra butter to my chocolate to help smooth it out and keep it runny. I probably used an extra tbs of butter. I think next time I will actually buy the corn syrup. The butter just made the chocolate a tad too...buttery and rich.

I hope you guys enjoy these

 and if you've missed my past posts you can check them out here.

A Black & White Halloween

Since the thought of Halloween first popped into my head, which lets be honest, was basically last year, I knew I wanted to decorate in the color scheme of black and white. I think it just looks so classic and sharp with just a touch of creepy. 

But not gory gross creepy, classy creepy. Can that be a thing?

A few weeks ago I decided to text my girlfriends to see if they were interested in doing a craft night with me. I had big plans to craft all throughout September to have Halloween set up by the 1st of October. I figured its more fun to do those kinds of things with good company. 

And let me tell you, my girlfriends are the BEST company. 

About 4 days before our craft night, my friend and I decided that we should turn it into a Halloween party as well. What was supposed to be a small Halloween craft night, quickly turned into an actual, 2 month early, Halloween party. And I'm not even a little bit mad about it. My husband looked at me oddly when I told him I was throwing a Halloween party. I told him he just didn't understand. 

After trying to get everything crafted and baked in 4 days, I was so not in the mood to actually craft the night of the party. And I didn't. And it was cool. I was a little worried about cramming 14 girls into my teeny tiny apartment, but luckily and unluckily, not everyone could come.  

I thought it was a great night. We were able to talk without our kids, and enjoy some yummy treats...without kids. That hardly ever happens. So I'd call it a success.

I'm also going to let you in on a little secret about throwing a party...do it with a friend. It makes it so much less stressful when someone else can help provide some of the desserts and crafts. It's a sanity savor and I only hope my dear sweet friend will continue to help me out :)

I have also realized that I have gotten ridiculously good at cutting out millions of tiny objects from card stock. My poor hand was ready to fall off after cutting out the dozens of bats, witches, and letters...

 I definitely know what is going on my Christmas list this year...a cricut or silhouette.

Without further ado, here is my super early Halloween party

 

 The Menu

Chocolate cupcakes

Apple pie caramel apples

Plain caramel apples

Pumpkin pie (Provided by Kendra)

Nutella cheesecake (Provided by Kendra)

Pumpkin spice muddy buddies (Provided by Kendra)
Sugar cookies

Pineapple basil juice

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