BYU Mint Brownies

INGREDIENTS

Brownies
1 c. margarine
1/2 c. cocoa
2 Tbsp. honey
4 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. chopped walnuts
12 oz. chocolate icing (Use your own icing recipe or purchase some chocolate frosting. You can also search the Internet for chocolate icing recipes.)

Mint Icing

5 Tbsp. margarine
dash of salt
3 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup
2 1/3 c. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. mint extract
1-2 drops green food coloring

Chocolate Icing

2/3 cup butter

2/3 cup coco

4 cups powder sugar

3 tsp vanilla

4 TBS milk

DIRECTIONS
Brownies:  Melt margarine and mix in cocoa. Allow to cool. Add honey, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Add nuts. Pour batter into a greased 13 by 18 inch jelly roll baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Mint Icing:  Prepare mint icing: Soften margarine. Add salt, corn syrup, and powdered sugar. Beat until smooth and fluffy. Add mint extract and food coloring. Mix. Add milk gradually until the consistency is a little thinner than cake frosting.


Chocolate Icing: Spread mint icing over brownies. Place brownies in the freezer for a short time to stiffen the icing. Remove from the freezer and carefully add a layer of chocolate icing.

MAKES ONE 13 BY-18 PAN OF BROWNIES.
PREP AND COOK: 90 min. COOL: 1 hr.

Recipe from BYUMagazine

Photo by Haley Rencher

Jamie's Soft Sugar Cookies

Ingredients
7 c flour
1 t salt
2 t baking soda
1 c butter (can use baking quality margarine)
1 T vanilla
1 c sour cream (can use light)
2 eggs
2 c sugar

Directions
Cream sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and sour cream (will be quite runny). In a separate bowl mix flour, soda & salt. Add to the creamed mixture. Dough should be somewhat firm, but not too much since you will add flour as you roll them out.

Bake @ 400 for 5-10 mins until bottoms are *very* slightly browned. I usually double up my baking sheets to prevent the bottoms from browning too much, so they are like bakery cookies. Parchment paper is nice, but don't use those dark non-stick pans, they will brown them way too much.

Buttercream Frosting
1/2 c butter
1 T vanilla
powdered sugar (about 1 lb or so)
milk or whipping cream




Recipe from Jamie Mansfield

My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2 c flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
3/4 c butter, softened
1 c brown sugar
1/4 c white sugar
1 T vanilla
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 c choc chips
1/2-3/4 c chopped nuts (optional)

Directions
Mix flour soda and salt. In another bowl cream butter and sugars. blend in vanilla, egg and egg yolk until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients until just blended. Stir in chips (and nuts) by hand. Bake @ 325 for 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. They WILL look slightly doughy in the center. This is what makes them chewy. Cool on cookie sheets 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks.



Recipe from Jamie Mansfield

Soft Ginger Cookies

These cookies flatten and crack as they cool. The secret in keeping them soft is to remove them from the oven as soon as they are set but before they start to brown.

2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses

4 1/2 cups flour
4 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ginger
l/2 tsp. cloves
l/2 tsp. salt


Cream together the sugar and shortening. Add eggs and beat until thick. Add the molasses and stir until combined.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt. Add to creamed mixture and stir just until blended. If the dough is very soft (hot day? warm kitchen?), wrap it in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes (or freezer for about 10-15min;).

Shape into 1” balls and roll in granulated sugar. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350º for 7 - 10 minutes or just until set but before they start to brown. It is about 9 minutes in my oven. I look at the bottom of the cookies to see if they are browning. 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup shortening

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 cup oats

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl cream together sugars, butter, shortening, egg and vanilla. In another bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to wet ones and mix. Stir in oats and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake until slightly brown (10 minutes). Immediately remove from baking sheet and let cool.

Makes about 2 dozen


Recipe from Tricia Green

Cake Balls

Ingredients 1 cake mix (any flavor) 1 tub store bought frosting (cream cheese is good) 1 package almond bark (aka candy coating) any special additions you want! Directions Make cake mix according to package When cake mix is just out of the oven, break it up and put it in a large bowl Mix in frosting. Put mixture in freezer for 20-30 minutes until cool and easy to handle. Scoop 1-2 TBS into a ball. This ball can be as big as you want Put balls on a cookie sheet and back into the fridge or freezer until cool and firm (about 10-20 min) In the meantime, melt almond bark in a double broiler. When balls are ready, coat in the almond bark. Add more almond bark through the process if it starts to get too clumpy. Put coated balls back on cookie sheet until firm (5 min or so) Recipe by Jessica Nye

Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients:

1 cup butter/margarine
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 TBS vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 cup flour, or more
3 cup oatmeal, or more
Peanut Butter for top
chocolate frosting or melted chocolate chips for top

Directions:

Cream together butter, sugars, vanilla, and eggs. Add peanut butter, baking soda, salt flour, and oatmeal. Spread in a large cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes. Do not over bake, just until lightly brown. Let sit for 10 minutes and then spread thin layer of peanut butter over top. When completely cool, frost with chocolate.

Recipe from Laura Johnson
Photo by Haley Rencher

Lemon Cookies

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup butter or butter flavored Crisco
2 c. granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon extract
the zest from one lemon
1 cup lemon head candy, crushed
5 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Lemon Glaze Ingredients
1 cup powder sugar
juice from one lemon

Directions
Cream butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and lemon extract. Add lemon zest, lemon head candy, flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Roll into balls and place on a cookie sheet with parchment on it (YOU MUST USE PARCHMENT PAPER). Flatten the cookie dough balls slightly. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350. After the cookies are baked, leave them on the pan for 2-3 minutes then glaze with lemon glaze. Remove from pan and let cool on cookie rack. Serve!

Recipe from Paula Carter

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 (4oz) package instant vanilla pudding

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs, beaten

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour and baking soda. In a large bowl beat brown sugar, sugar, butter, shortening, & pudding. Mix vanilla and eggs. Mix well. Beat in the flour mixture and stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls and bake 10-12 minutes.

Recipe provided by Haley Rencher

photo by Haley Rencher

Cinnamon Rolls

DOUGH INGREDIENTS
(makes about 65 rolls)

2 squares margarine (1 cup)

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups warm water or milk

2 yeast packages in 1/2 cup warm water

1 TBS sugar in yeast water

1 tsp salt

3 eggs beaten

6 to 7 cups flour (more or less depending on the texture of dough)

CINNAMON / SUGAR MIXTURE

1 cup white sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 TBS cinnamon

1/2 cup butter (for spreading on the dough)

DIRECTIONS

In a small bowl, put 2 packages of yeast (or 4 1/2 tsp) into 1/2 cup warm water with 1 TBS sugar. Allow yeast to sit in warm water and sugar until it become foamy (about 5-10 minutes).

In your mixer, beat margarine and sugar until sticky and pour warm milk over. Add eggs and yeast. Add salt and flour. Beat together and kneed. The dough should be sticky, but workable - it shouldn't stick to your fingers if you touch it, but it should be very soft. Put the dough in a greased bowl and allow it to rise 1-2 hours. (until it doubles in size)

Punch down the dough and let rise 45 more minutes. (a little trick I use is to heat the oven to 200 degrees while I am mixing the dough. As soon as the oven reaches 200 degrees, turn it off and continue mixing the dough. That speeds up the rising process - it just needs to double in size)

Split dough into 4 balls. On a greased surface, roll one ball at a time out in a rectangle. Make the rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Spread softened margarine or butter on the rolled out dough and generously put the cinnamon/sugar mixture on. Roll the dough along the long side of the rectangle, so that it is one big long roll.

Use string or dental floss to cut the dough into individual cinnamon rolls (about 1 inch thick). Like this.

*Set rolls out on greased cookie sheet and let them rise until they have doubled in size (about 30 - 45 minutes). Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. (This dough also makes good dinner rolls!) Once the rolls have cooled a bit, spread frosting generously on top and serve.

**If you want to pre-make the dough and bake them fresh in the morning, you can roll out the cinnamon rolls and put them on the pan, cover them with plastic wrap and immediately put them in the fridge overnight. Once they are removed from the fridge, allow them to rise about 1 hour. Then bake and frost them as instructed above. 

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

8 oz container cool whip

8 oz package cream cheese

1 cup powder sugar

Beat sugar and cream cheese together until creamy. Fold in the cool whip. refrigerate until ready to frost.

Dough Recipe given to Haley Rencher by Rosemarie Deppe, 
Frosting recipe from Laura Johnson.
Photo by Haley Rencher