St. Patrick's Day Chocolate Mint Leprechaun Cookies

Any leprechaun would love to steal

a plateful of these yummy mint chocolate

cookies.

Mint chocolate brownies have always 

been my favorite with that nice creamy

layer of mint frosting between chocolate

and chocolate!

These are made even easier because 

they start with a cake mix and

in minutes you have your dough

and your finished cookie.

What could be better?

Chocolate Mint Leprechaun Cookies

1 Betty Crocker's Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix

1/2 C. butter, almost melted (microwave until it is almost

fully melted)

1 egg

Mint Frosting

Chocolate Ganache

Preheat oven to 350 and line your baking sheets

with parchment paper.

Place all of the above in your mixing bowl and

mix with the batter beater until the dough is

combined.  

Shape into about 18 balls.  Place on pans

and flatten slightly.  Bake 7-8 minutes or just

until the tops are dry.  Let them cool for a few

minutes on the pan.  These cookies are so soft

that you might want to pop them in the fridge

for a minute to cool before frosting.

Mint Frosting

1/2 C. soft butter

2 C. powdered sugar

2 T. water

5-6 drops Creme de Menthe oil or peppermint oil

Green food coloring

Place all of the frosting ingredients in

your mixer bowl and whip until fluffy.

Add a little more water if necessary.  I like to

use water instead of milk or cream in a frosting

with mint flavoring.  You want your frosting to

be soft and spreadable so you don't tear your 

cookies.

Spread the mint frosting on the cooled cookies.  

Place back in the refrigerator to set the frosting.

Chocolate Ganache Frosting

1 1/8 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips

3/8 C. soft butter

Place the above in a microwave safe

bowl and melt in 30 second intervals,

stirring between each interval whether it

looks like it needs to be stirred or not so

you don't scorch the chocolate.

Let the ganache cool for about 10 minutes

so that it doesn't melt the frosting when you

place the ganache on the mint frosting.

Spoon the ganache on top of the mint

frosting, swirling it with the back of your

spoon.  Place back in the fridge one more

time to set the ganache.

Set them out where your little leprechauns

can sneak one off the plate while you

aren't looking.

Peanut Butter Cup Magic Bars

Now if your mouth isn't watering just

by looking at these pictures, you

and I are cut from a different mold!!

These yummy, gooey, chocolatey, peanut

butter cup filled cookies are 

AMAZING!

Our neighborhood has decided to do a 

Sunday Night Walk and Talk

and guess who got

called to be in charge -

yup, hubby and I.

We had our first one last night and I

was looking on the internet for 

something new to try that I

could make in a super large

batch.

Truth was, we had no idea how many we

might be feeding but we would prefer to

have too much to too little.

I saw these fabulous looking bars

on Averie Cooks

but she called them

Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Dough Crumble Bars.

When people asked the name, that was more than

I could spit out and since they remind me of

a Magic Bar with sweetened condensed milk

poured in and oozing out, I had to shorten the

name.

I quadrupled her batch that she made in an 8x8 inch

pan and made it in my huge 13x18 inch pan.  I was afraid

it would run out so I used half the amount of sweetened

condensed milk she did and it was perfect for the pan.

I made two sheet pans of cookies and cut them up into

generous sized cookies so each pan made 48 cookies.

Talk about a way to feed a crowd.  People were

already asking for the recipe and I can tell Averie is

an avid cookie fan and she has lots more gooey,

chocolatey cookies we are going to have to try.

I think we will become very good friends!

Unless you don't like sugar, or chocolate or yum, you will

love these tender, moist gems.  

We had three stations to stop at.  We spread them 

around the neighborhood and asked people to just

set up a table in the front yard.  We also had ice water

at each station.  

This one had

these and homemade brownies.  We served over

200 cookies at this station.  

The second one had 140 cinnamon rolls from

Shirley's bakery.  We have two darling twin teenagers,

Grace and Esther,

who are working there and we got them from them.

All of the rolls were eaten!  Grace also made

the brownies (what a big help).

The third station had chips and homemade salsa.  That

one was so popular that they ran out of the salsa and

ran in the house and opened some of the salsa they

had canned.  

I think the Walk and Talk was a huge hit.

Try it in your neighborhood - it is so great

to have a close knit neighborhood that you

feel like you could turn to if you needed

help.

Peanut Butter Cup Magic Bars

(Adaptaion of Averie Cooks Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Dough Crumble Bars)

2 C. butter

4 large eggs

3 C. brown sugar

1 C. white sugar

2 T. vanilla extract

6 C. flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 can sweetened condensed milk

3-4 C. Reese's Mini Peanut Butter Cups

(I found large bags of these at Wal Mart)

Line a 13x18 inch bun pan with foil and spray

with Pam.  Preheat your oven to 350.

Melt butter in the microwave and place in a large

mixing bowl.  Add the sugars, eggs and vanilla and

blend.  

In another large bowl stir together the flour, baking

powder and salt.  Add to the wet mixture and mix

together.  

Remove two cups of the dough and set aside.

Press the remaining dough in the pan.  Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the top, keeping away from the edges

of the pan.    Sprinkle

the Reese's Mini Peanut Butter Cups evenly

on top of the dough. 

Crumble the reserved cookie dough over the

top.

Bake in the center of the oven for 25-28

minutes.  

Remove and let cool for at least three hours

until the center is set.  You might want to cool

for one hour on the counter and then in the fridge.

Or as Averie suggested, if you don't want to wait

just dig in with a spoon!

(To make an 8x8 inch pan cut the recipe in 

fourths.)

Click here for a printable recipe.

We were worried about the weather for the Walk and Talk

 as the night before we had a huge storm

 that caused a lot of flooding. 

We were in the food tent at the BYU vs Univ. of Texas

game and were terrified that this giant tent was going

to collapse on our heads so we went and stood by the

doors to wait out the storm.  A lot of neighbors had

flooding in basements.  We had a little come through windows

but that was all.

I had never seen anything like it.  My son was on his way to 

the game and he said the clouds were rolling so fast with fingers

shooting out ahead of them just like something you might

see in a Harry Potter Movie.  Glad we were all safe.

And super glad that BYU won!! Go Cougars.

Fortunately the weather cleared up by 

Sunday evening and we had our 

Walk and Talk

from 6:00 to 8:00

Dusted Triple Chocolate Drop Cookies

I found these fabulous

Cookie Envelopes

from Wilton

and had to whip up a batch of cookies

to give away in them.

I found them at JoAnn Fabrics and they come in

all sorts of styles.  They make a simple cookie 

a beautiful gift.

I first had these fun and easy cookies when my 

daughter's sister in law made them for us.

She wrapped the cookie dough around a Rolo

candy.  We have since experimented with them

with Mini Snickers and Mini Milky Way Bars.

They are so easy and good.

Dusted Triple Chocolate Drop Cookies

1 box Betty Crocker Triple Chocolate Cake Mix

1/2 C. butter, almost melted

1 egg

Mini Rolos (optional)

Powdered sugar

Mix the cake mix, butter and egg in the mixer

and beat until well blended.

You can either drop by rounded tablespoons

or take a mini Rolo or Mini Snicker, etc. and

wrap the dough around the candy.

Place on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake at 350 for 7 minutes and let cool until

set on the baking sheet.  Fill a small bowl with

powdered sugar and place the cookie in,

coating all sides of the cookie.  Remove and

let finish cooling on another piece of parchment

paper.

You can have little gifts made up for friends or neighbors

in just half an hour using this easy recipe and these

fun cookie wrappers.

We made some with Rolos and some without.

Do you celebrate May Day?

We used to when we were growing up by making little

cones and filling them with cookies and hanging them on

the neighbor's doors.  These would be adorable to use

for May Day.

Enjoy!

I will be posting 

with

Foodie Friday