The holidays are here and so are the yummy treats. Many families around the world make so many different kinds of cookies and treats for the holidays. Whether it’s traditional cut-out sugar or gingerbread cookies to a snickerdoodle or layered jelly filled confection, everyone has their favorite. This year I thought it would be nice to share some of my favorite recipes with you. Happy Holidays and happy baking!!

Holiday Cracker Bark

This yummy, sweet and salty treat is sure to make you want more and more. Bloggers in the 2010s and 2020s made this cookie go viral. It is made with layers of saltines covered in a sugary butter mixture, then topped with chocolate chips and your choice of slivered almonds, chopped pecans or mini M&M’s. The end result is not uniformed perfection, but a randomly cracked cookie that makes even beginning bakers feel like a cooking show star.

Ingredients
Saltine crackers (enough to fill a cookie tray)
1 stick of salted butter
½ cup sugar
1 package of mini chocolate chips
Slivered Almonds (optional)
Chopped Pecans (optional)
Mini-M&M’s (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Completely cover a baking sheet with saltine crackers.
3. In a saucepan, melt the butter and sugar over medium heat until combined. Pour all over the saltines.
4. Bake the saltines in the oven for exactly 10 minutes.
5. Take out of the oven and immediately put the mini-chocolate chips on top. Let them sit for 5 minutes.
6. Once the 5 minutes is up, spread the melting chocolate chips carefully over the saltines.
7. Then top with the toppings of your choice. Once they are cooled down enough, break pieces into cookie-sized bites and store in an airtight container.
Enjoy!!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Peanut Butter Blossoms combine two popular American flavors – peanut butter and chocolate. With their chewy peanut butter cookie rolled in sugar and topped with a melty Hershey Kiss, they have become a holiday cookie plate favorite since Freda Smith, an amateur baker from Gibsonburg, Ohio, entered the idea into The Pillsbury Grand National Bake-Off in 1957. Originally called “Black-Eyed Susans,” she used Hershey’s Kisses as a last-minute addition when she ran out of chocolate chips. Over the years, this cookie concept has also been adapted to fit the variety of Hershey’s Kisses, such as a chocolate cookie base with a peppermint Kiss on top. They’re best eaten warm but still hit the spot once cooled off. If you’re like my brother, you might just keep coming back for more and more every year.

Ingredients
1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup shortening (Crisco)
½ cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
Hershey chocolate kisses

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or with cooking spray.
2. Combine the wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl until fully combined.
3. Once combined, mix in the dry ingredients until a dough forms.
4. Roll the dough in one to two inch balls and roll in sugar. Place onto the baking sheets.
5. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until golden brown on the edges.
6. Unwrap the Kisses while you are waiting.
7. Once the cookies are done and out of the oven, immediately top with the Hershey Kisses. Wait one hour to eat.
Enjoy!!

Seven-Layer Bars

For people who want all the holiday flavors in one delectable bite, Seven Layer Bars need to make an appearance on your holiday dessert table. These treats go by many names including Magic Bars or Hello Dolly Bars and became popular in the 1960s when the recipe was featured on the labels of Bordan’s Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk. The seven layers included are graham crackers and butter to create the crust topped with butterscotch bits, coconut, chocolate chips and pecans, all held together with the condensed milk. These are easy and fast to make, especially because it is a bar cookie. I hope you enjoy this recipe just as much as my family does during the holidays.

Ingredients
½ cup butter
1 ½ cup graham cracker crumbs
1 6-ounce bag of butterscotch bits
1 cup coconut
1 6-ounce bag of chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup pecans (crushed)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl melt the butter. Once melted, mix in the graham cracker crumbs until it looks like wet sand. Pour in a 9-by-12 inch pan.
3. Add a layer of the butterscotch bits.
4. Then a layer of coconut.
5. Next a layer of chocolate chips
6. Once all layers are put on, spread on the sweetened condensed milk.
7. Lastly put the chopped pecans on top of it all.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
9. Let cool and enjoy!