Happy New Year

The 2001 year has come to an end and 2012 has stared with a bang! I am sick as can be, running so behind on the blog due to Cole's surgery and feel like I havent cooked anything in awhile. So this is what I have come up to help, me, the blog, my readers and my life. I now have OFFICAL blog hours! I will be blogging every Tuesday and maybe once a weekend depending on my course load in school, and my outside life. I will say, I do have giveaways and reviews to put up, a winner to announce and a lot of recipes to share!

So the NEW BLOG will include the following:
A review and giveaway
Recipes at least twice a month
My trials in school, life and hopefully work soon
My job hunt
Ashley's family life
Ashley's side of being a mom
Frugal Tips


So with this said, here is your first reciepe for 2012 from me!

Churro Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup superfine sugar (see note below)
1/4 tsp salt
16 T unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces and softened
2 T cream cheese, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
2T melted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2T plus 2 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt


Note: If you can't find superfine sugar (castor sugar), simply process 1 cup granulated sugar in a food processor for about 30 seconds, then measure out 3/4 cup for the recipe. 

Directions:
1. Whisk the flour, sugar and salt together in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat the butter into the flour mixture, one piece at a time. Continue to beat the flour-butter mixture until it looks crumbly and slightly wet, 1-2 minutes.

2. Beat in the cream cheese and vanilla until the dough just begins to form large clumps, about 30 seconds. Knead the dough in the bowl by hand a few times until it forms a large cohesive mass. 

3. Roll cookie dough into rods about 3/4-1 inch in diameter. Cut the rods into 3 inch pieces, place on a plate and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes. Combine 1/2 cup sugar, 2T plus 2tsp cinnamon and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. 


4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place cookies on a baking sheet, with about an inch between each cookie. Using a pastry brush, brush each cookie with melted butter, and then sprinkle with a generous amount of cinnamon sugar mixture. 


5. Bake cookies for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and immediately place indentations lengthwise along the cookies using a wooden skewer. Let cookies cool for five minutes on the cookie sheet, then place on a cooling rack to cool completely. 

Optional - For more cinnamon-sugar flavor, brush cooled cookies with more melted butter and sprinkle again with cinnamon sugar. 

Serving Ideas- Vanilla Ice Cream or Custard or some amazing Spiced Apples or Apple Pie Filling maybe even some Apple Butter

Hope everyone has a great 2012!