The holidays are my favorite time of year. And sure, I love to give and receive presents, but my favorite thing about the holidays is simply spending time with my family over great food. I love the smell of a turkey roasting, apple cider brewing, and holiday cookies baking in the oven.

There’s really no better place to gather the family together than in the kitchen. Kids especially love to help out with the holiday cooking, and there’s nothing kids like more than a cookie (or two or three!). So get your kids in the kitchen with some of these great holiday cookie recipes.

Mini Peanut Butter Cup Tarts

These great and easy-to-make cookies are a terrific way to use up some leftover Halloween candy. They use mini Reese’s peanut butter cups together with a peanut butter cookie dough to shape pretty (and tasty) mini peanut butter chocolate tarts. You can also use prepackaged dough to make these even easier.

Ingredients:

36 miniature Reese’s cups, unwrapped

1/2 C. creamy peanut butter

1/2 C. butter, softened

1/2 C. sugar

1/2 C. brown sugar, packed

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/4 C. all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

+A set of miniature muffin pans

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl, beat together the peanut butter, butter, and both sugars with electric mixer until fluffy. Add in the vanilla, egg, flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

Shape dough into balls about one inch in diameter. Place one ball in each miniature muffin tin. (No muffin papers needed.)

Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes. After removing from oven, immediately press one of the unwrapped peanut butter cups into middle of each peanut butter cookie.

After placing the Reeses cups in all of the cookies, place the muffin pan back into the oven for approximately 30 seconds to one minute to melt the chocolate slightly and soften the hard edges of the peanut butter cups. This helps them to appear more like a real chocolate tart.

Allow the cookies to cool completely before removing them from the pan. Recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies.

 

Cake Mix Cookies: Easier than Pie

These are easy Christmas cookies that are a lot of fun to make. The finished cookie is soft and wonderful, and there’s no end to the combinations of flavors you can make. They’re simple enough to allow the kids to help. Simply buy the cake mix of your choice and any add-ins you want to use. This is a great way to let your kids get creative– they can make up their favorite flavor combinations and see how they turn out. Ever tried Strawberry with Jelly Bean cookies??

Ingredients:

1 (18 oz.) package of your choice of cake mix (not with pudding)

2 lg. eggs

1/2 C. shortening

1 tbsp. water

1/2 C. chopped nuts, dried fruit, or chocolate chips (or other ad-ins of your choice)

powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer, combine all the ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Chill the dough in the refrigerator 30 minutes.

Shape dough into 1″ balls. If desired, roll in powdered sugar at this time. Bake cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for about 10-12 minutes, til set.

Recipe makes about 3 to 4 dozen cookies.