The Cookie Craze

The past couple days the boys and I have baked 8 different kinds of cookies! We started out on Friday spending the whole day with my mom baking 6 double batches of White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies, Apricot Bars, GumDrop Cookies, Cocoa Kisses, Snickerdoodles and Chocolate Crinkles (which to be fair I helped with the dough but my mom baked on her own the next day because we ran out of time). Then on Monday the boys helped me make 9 doz Caramel Dream cookies to take to our MOPS cookie exchange which we had this morning. And then, as if we don't have enough cookies....I'm running out of room to freeze them!....my grandma Hollenbach invited us over for the morning yesterday to make sugar cookies (which I was so thankful I didn't have to do those here in our house on my own!). Unfortunately I totally forgot to take my camera to my grandma's and I also neglected to take any pictures here, so the only ones I have are from my mom's house...but basically each day looked about the same....the boys covered in flour and gorging themselves on dough:)

Noah eating a donut with Bandit (my parent's dog) waiting for the crumbs sure to come...actually Noah ended up just giving Bandit his whole donut:)

Caleb unwrapped all the Hershey Kisses for the Cocoa Kisses and all the Rolos for my Caramel Dreams...big helper!

Gotta test it mom!

Got the line-up going...

This recipe is from my friend Jen and it is awesome...I took it to MOPS today and it is one of my new favorites!!

Caramel Dreams

2 ½ cups flour
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup chopped pecans
48 rolo candies
1 Tbsp sugar
4 oz vanilla flavored candy coating (I made a glaze from chocolate chips, corn syrup, water and butter)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, and baking soda and mix well. In a large bowl, combine sugar, brown sugar, and butter and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs; beat well. Add flour mixture, blend well. Stir in ½ cup pecans. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes for easier handling. For each cookie, with floured hands, shape about 1 Tbsp of dough around one caramel candy, covering completely. In a small bowl, combine remaining ½ cup pecans and 1 Tbsp sugar. Press one side of each ball into pecan mixture. Place nut side up, 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until set and slightly cracked. Cool for 2 minutes; remove from cookie shets. Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes or until completely cooled. Drizzle chocolate sauce over cookies. Yield: 4 dozen.