I have been wondering recently what makes a better cookie? Butter or shortening in the recipe? I have always been more a butter person for my cookies and only when I don’t have any butter soft do I use the butter flavored crisco.

Recently I have been having the worst time with my cookies, they are flat and VERY crispy. Sometimes this is ok, but for the most part we like the soft and a little under baked cookies.

Now, I have been just making one sheet and seeing how they turn out. If they are too thin I will add some flour. This isn’t even working well lately and I am beginning to think I have an oven issue.

I am not a cookie making rookie! We are talking at least once a week for the past 17 years, I am no beginner.

I thought maybe I would switch over to crisco and see if those would turn out better.

They scooped up  nice and tasted good raw.

I also made sure to use a Silpat baking mat on one batch and sure enough they were much prettier coming out of the oven.

I used the standard chocolate chip cookie recipe on the butter Crisco box, following it perfectly.

The kids are not as picky as I am, but they seemed to like them!

I think that I like the flavor of the real butter better, but I like the way the Crisco bakes.

What do you like to use? Butter or Crisco? Do you have a perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe?

Easy. Simple. Homemade Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups/Bar Recipe. This is AWESOME for the summer time when you don’t want to heat up the oven!

Cookie recipes for kids, or ones that are so easy to make they are perfect for kids are my favorite. This simple meltaway cookie recipe is just right for kids to make with little help from you.

If you have not had these cookies before they are very light and can be fragile. But once you have frosting on them they hold together better! They remind me a lot of Ice Box cookies.

The super simple 5 ingredient recipe calls for 1 c. flour (sifted), 1 c. cornstarch, 1 c. butter (softened), 1/2 c. powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. vanilla.

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy, whipping in the salt and vanilla. Add in the flour and cornstarch until mixed in well.

Now you are going to form it into a log, wrap up in saran wrap and place in the freezer for an hour or so. Once frozen, unwrap and slice into 1/2 inch slices.

Bake at 375 for 12-16 minutes. I used my silpat (they are actually on sale) to make sure that the edges didn’t get too brown.

Once baked they really don’t have a lot of flavor, so you will want to frost them. I had key lime frosting left over from yesterday’s cupcakes and so I am using that. You can see the Key Lime frosting recipe HERE.

I had to add some more powdered sugar and grab the mixer out to make the frosting the right consistency again. When it thawed the butter got a little soft and needed some powdered sugar again.

I always have a lot of help in the kitchen and I love it! They hear the mixer come out and a crowd gathers 🙂 I am happy to hand off some of the work, and my daughter Paige frosted the cookies for me.

 I makes for good hand eye coordination and fine motor skills right?!

These cookies are not called “Meltaways” for nothing! When you take a bite they literally melt in your mouth! They also look very pretty and would be great as a shower cookie or very pretty on a plate as a gift.

If you are looking for something over then the standard sugar cookie, I would give these a try!

Products that I use in baking: 

•  Artisan Silicone Baking Mat set of 2
•  Wilton 23 – Piece Cake Decorating Set 
• WearEver Commercial Nonstick Bakeware 17×11 Cookie Sheet
• Sunbeam 6-Speed Hand Mixer
• Bosch Universal Kitchen Machine ( the big Daddy!)

I am still working my way through a bag of Key Limes that I bought for $1! The girl’s and I made some Key Lime cupcakes with a recipe that we saw on TV and you can find online from Sprinkles Cupcakes.

Personally, we thought the cupcakes were a little dry, but since their’s are normally to die for I am sure it is something that I did to make them that way? Just don’t over bake them!

You can find the recipe HERE.

For the frosting, I just made my standard butter, powdered sugar and milk frosting, but replaced the milk with Key Lime juice.

Start with 2 sticks of butter softened, cream that until fluffy. Add in slowly 3 cups of powdered sugar… now add 2 t. vanilla, 3T key lime juice and 2T key lime rind. Mix real well and you will probably need to add about another 1 cup to 1 1/2 cup sugar.

This is where I add a little sugar to a TINY bit of liquid (milk) to get the right consistency. Not too thick that you can’t really spread it and not too thin that it wont hold it’s shape.

I couldn’t decide which frosting tip to use, the star one or the large round one. But after doing 2 I liked the large round one much better.

Since there was no graham cracker crust, I sprinkled graham crackers on the top so that you get the real key lime taste! You could also top with coconut!

This is the microplane that I have used to years to zest any citrus fruit, and things like nutmeg HERE.

This is the Ateco 6-Piece Pastry Tube and Tips set that I have HERE.

This is the best chocolate frosting ever. It also happens to be the easiest. I almost feel a little silly posting it, because I am sure you have made it. This post might be for that one person who has not, and now I can change your life! 🙂

You really don’t even need a recipe, all amounts are estimates. There is also nothing specific you put this frosting on, put it on whatever you want!

Brownies, cookies, ice cream, graham crackers, pretzels, you get it…. everything!

You can also add anything you want to the frosting. Leave it plain. AWESOME. Add heath bar. AWESOME again. Chopped pecans. Even more AWESOME. Marshmallows, Oreo, walnuts, and more!

The only problem is… it doesn’t last long!