Bake with Melynn, part 3: Peanut Blossoms, Melting Moments, and Pretzel Turtles (oh my!)

If you’ve been following along, Melynn, TDS’ employee and “Baking Goddess” is making 24 different kinds of holiday treats this year. By following her technique, you can too—and she’s even sharing some of her most popular recipes along the way.

This week, Melynn stayed on schedule and made her Spritz (below) and her Cranberry Nut Triangles (below, before they were cut):

She also made, much to her husband’s delight, her Peanut Blossoms. Apparently these cookies are so good, and so tempting, Melynn stores them in an off-site, undisclosed, safe location (her mother’s freezer) to keep her husband, Jeff, from filching them. In fact, when Jeff talks about these Peanut Blossoms he calls them his “precious” (he’s a big Lord of the Rings fan :-)).

It seems only fair that you get to enjoy Jeff’s precious Peanut Blossoms too, so Melynn sharing her recipe:

Peanut Blossoms

• 1-3/4 cups flour
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• 1 t baking soda
• ½ t salt
• ½ cup butter (1 stick)
• ½ cup peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 2 T milk
• 1 t vanilla
• chocolate kisses, unwrapped

Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars. Add egg and vanilla and milk. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt and add to wet ingredients. Stir until thoroughly combined. Shape into balls and roll in sugar (I use mix of red, white, green sugars for Christmas). Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 min. Remove from oven and press a kiss into each cookie. Cool thoroughly.

Melynn also recommends giving Melting Moments cookies a try. She says, “These are a hit, especially with kids. They literally melt in your mouth due to the cornstarch!”

Melting Moments
1 cup (2 sticks) butter (not margarine)
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 cup flour
¾ cup cornstarch
Mix all until uniform lump of dough is formed. Make 30 balls and place
on ungreased shiny aluminum cookie sheets. Bake 15 minutes at 375 degrees or
until bottoms are lightly browned and tops are firm. Cool on cookie sheet.

Frosting :
1 cup powdered sugar (2-1/2 cups)
2 T butter (5 T)
½ t vanilla (1-1/4t)
milk to thin to spreading consistency
food color if desired

Mix powdered sugar and butter. Add vanilla and milk (and optional food color) and beat until smooth. Frost cookies. Recipe can easily be doubled or if you like more frosting, for a single batch, you can make 1-1/2 batches of the frosting with 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar, 3 T butter, and ¾ t vanilla.

If you’re not really a baker (or maybe you’re just looking for something fast and easy to make), Melynn’s got you covered. The Pretzel Turtles she makes requires no measuring or mixing—only warming in the oven for 2-3 minutes.

Pretzel Turtles/Chocolate Pretzels
Square grid pretzels
Hershey Kisses
Rolos
Plain M&M’s (use Xmas red/green for the holidays)
Pecan halves

Place pretzels on Silpat or parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Place kisses or Rolos on pretzels and bake 2-3 minutes at 275 degrees until soft. Once removed from oven, press plain M&M into each Kiss/Rolo for the chocolate pretzels.

By using pecans, instead of M&Ms to “smush” the Rolo, you can make turtles instead.

Let harden and store in a cool place.

Only 10 more days and 11 more recipes left until Melynn will have all 24 holiday treats completed for December 10th!

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