Baking Tip

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Here is a tip on how to stretch your holiday baking just a little bit further:  make your cookies/bars smaller. 

Revolutionary, I know.

But in all seriousness, if you cut a pan of bars to make 24 bars, they will be larger and your guests will probably take one.  If you cut your pan of bars to make 48 bars, they will be half the size, but your guests will probably still take one!  Many times with something sweet, you don't actually need a large sampling of it, especially when there are other desserts (and there always are around the holidays)! 

So, if you have a cookie swap to attend, just make your cookies a little smaller and you'll get more out of one recipe. 

If you have to bring a dessert to two different parties, make your cookies smaller, bring half to the first party, and half to the second (freezing the superflulous cookies if there is a long time in between parties). 

See where I'm going here?  You can save yourself time, and most certainly money, by making your cookies a little bit smaller.  No one will notice except your wallet! 

And if you are usually someone who buys the pre-made cookie dough, can I encourage you to try and make the same cookies from scratch instead?  It's cheaper, you'll be able to make more cookies and it's certainly easier to make the cookies a smaller size from your scratch dough, then from pre-formed dough.  I'll be doing a whole post later about cost comparison between home made dough and store bought dough.

Happy baking!  We made sugar cookies this weekend at our house (and I did make them a tiny bit thinner and used smaller cookie cutters to make my cookies go further!) 

Recipe: Peanut Butter Squares

Here's a fan favorite to add to your holiday baking list:

Peanut Butter Squares
1 cup butter or margarine
1 box confectioners sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
12oz chocolate chips

In a microwave safe bowl, melt butter (approximately 1 minute) in the microwave.  When completely melted, add the confectioners sugar, peanut butter and graham crackers.  Mix completely.  Spread the peanut butter mixture in a 9x13 pan.

Now melt the chocolate chips in the microwave.  Start by putting them in for 1 minute.  Take out and stir.  Then put them in for 30 second increments from there, stirring in between each one, until completely melted.  (I find it typically takes just one 30 second zap after the initial 1 minute to completely melt the chocolate.) 

Spread the chocolate on top of the peanut butter mixture.  Place in the fridge to harden.  Once hard, cut in to squares and serve.

You can also roll the peanut butter mixture in to balls and dip them in to the chocolate.  It makes for much nicer presentation, but it is definitely more time consuming. 

Approximate cost of the squares:  $4.47

• Margarine cost $1 for 2 cups, so only $0.50 in this recipe
• Confectioners sugar cost $1 per box
• Peanut butter cost $2.15 per 16 oz, there's approx. 2 cups in a 16 oz jar, so 1/2 cup is approx. $0.54
• Graham Crackers I bought as whole crackers and made them crumbs myself - the box was $1.88 and I used 1 of the 3 sleeves, so $0.63
• Chocolate chips cost $1.80 per 12oz bag

*Costs may vary slightly be region or the sale you hit!  These are the actual prices I paid for the ingredients (and why I always stock up when I find these rock-bottom prices!)