I've been busy in the kitchen making party favor treats for a birthday party we're hosting Saturday evening. These peanut butter balls are so easy to make and everyone loves them! The recipe is from Gale Gand's, Just a Bite.
I like to place each one in a little paper candy cup and package them up in cellophane bags.
I've also baked trays of these chocolate chip cookies. I've never come across a chocolate chip recipe I like more than this one. I think the addition of ground up oatmeal in the recipe is what makes them so delicious.
After placing the cookies in cellophane bags, I stapled the top and affixed a strip of tissue paper garland with double stick tape.
I made tissue paper pom-poms to hang as decorations in beautiful aqua, blue and mint colors. You can see a peek of them in the photos. They are a surprise for the birthday girl so I'll post some photos after the party. Not sure where the recipe for the cookies originated from, so I'm posting it here:
The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie
Cream together: 1 cup room temperature butter with 1 cup granulated sugar and 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar.
Add: 2 room temperature eggs and 2 teaspoons of vanilla
In a separate bowl: Combine 2 cups all purpose flour, and 2 1/2 cups of oatmeal which has been previously ground in a blender into a powder. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1 teaspoon baking soda.
Mix the dry ingredients into the creamed butter mixture and then add 12 oz chocolate chips and 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts. Place golf-ball sized cookies 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheets. (I place them on parchment paper.)
Bake at 375 degrees for 11 minutes. This is the most important part of the process. After 11 minutes it will appear as though the cookies are not done. However, remove them from the oven and leave them on the hot cookie sheet for five minutes before placing them on a cooling rack. This leaves the cookies so moist on the inside and a bit crisp on the outside.
Let me know if you try them.