Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie Bars

For Christmas, we put together a cookie sampler in cute little Christmas tins for coworkers at The Messy Mister’s work.  We have had several requests for some of the recipes, so I thought I would post them all here.  The general consensus was that these cream cheese sugar cookie bars were everybody’s favorite.  A few people claimed they were “the best sugar cookies I’ve ever had!” 

As far as sugar cookies go, I love these over a regular sugar cookie because you frost the entire pan at once and you’re done!  No chilling, no cutting, no individual frosting.  It simplifies the process so much, and that cream cheese makes them just melt-in-your-mouth delicious!

I’m not surprised everybody loved them; they truly are delicious.  But I almost didn’t make them because 1.  I worried how well they would package with the frosting and 2.  I didn’t think they seemed very “Christmas-y”.  But The Messy Mister insisted, and a little waxed paper between layers kept them from being a huge mess in presentation.  Cute Christmas sprinkles didn’t hurt, either.    recipe courtesy Real Mom Kitchen; I can’t remember where I got the image (if it’s yours, let me know and I will give credit where credit is due!)

The original recipe is for a full jelly roll pan size, but I’ve listed both the full batch and a half batch recipe here.  Sometimes, my kids want these cookies and I don’t want an entire pan lying around (I usually end up being responsible for WAAY more than my share), so I often times will make just a half batch. 

The original recipe also called for almond flavoring, of which I’m not always a huge fan, so I have modified it to use butter flavoring instead.  Yum!

Quick & Easy Hot Fudge Sauce

When I recently made the Better-Than-Christmas poke cake, I didn’t have any hot fudge sauce on hand.  I didn’t really want to leave this element out, so I was excited to find this quick & easy microwave-and-blender recipe.  I was even more excited with how delicious it turned out!  I’ll be making this for sundae night ASAP!  recipe & image courtesy The Café Sucre Farine

“Better-Than-Christmas” Poke Cake

I made this over the holidays, and we LOVED it!  Such a fun, festive, holiday take on the poke cake! 

recipe and photo courtesy Something Swanky

I didn’t have any hot fudge sauce on hand, so I used this quick and easy recipe, and was thrilled with how it turned out!

Hawaiian Haystacks

Did you have these growing up? My mom used to make them for us all of the time. This is a good meal to up leftover veggies, chicken or rice!
We haven’t had these in two years because I couldn’t find an EASY substitute for the Cream of Chicken soup. (I probably didn’t look very hard)
The other night I found an easy peasy recipe that I thought tasted great, found here.
I’m so excited to start having these on a regular basis.

Classic Apple Pie

My Father-In-Law requested I bring an apple pie to Thanksgiving.  This caused me to panic more than just a little bit.  I have never been able to make a very good apple pie; they always turn out really soupy and no matter what I do I have never been able to cook them long enough to get them to set up without burning the crust at the same time. 

But I couldn’t let my FIL down.  He’s such a super guy, and he never asks for anything. 

I ended up using my new favorite buttery, flaky crust recipe, and shielding the top crust for a good portion of the cooking time, but the pie turned out beautifully.  We were all pretty impressed, including my FIL, who claims it’s important to eat apple pie with a slice of cheese. 

recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen; image courtesy Martha Stewart

Pecan Pie

I recently brought this pecan pie to a family function.  There were several pecan pie lovers there, which made me nervous, but each of them enjoyed it, and I think it might have been the best pecan pie I’ve ever had.  Go the extra mile and make the buttery, flaky, from-scratch pie crust recipe here.  You won’t believe your taste buds! 

image courtesy Picture Perfect Meals; recipe courtesy The Pioneer Woman

Pumpkin Dump Cake

 

This is my go to dessert.  I love it! I crave it!  (I can eat the whole pan.)

I’ve made this many times without the pecans and just recently made it with them.

OH MY! Try it with the pecans! They really make it 10X better.

 

source : thepickyapple.com