Prep Time: 20 minutes + 20 minutes chill  Makes: About 3 dozen "lumps"

Ingredients:

3 tbsp butter

6 cups (1 bag) marshmallows

5 cups Rice Krispies

1 cup Oreos, crushed

Black food coloring

Instructions:

Combine the Rice Krispies and Oreos in a large bowl.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium high heat until melted. Turn the heat down low and add the marshmallows. Stir until the marshmallows are melted.

Add in the vanilla and black food coloring (add as much as you want until you get the color you want).

Pour marshmallow mixture over Rice Krispies/Oreo mix. Stir to combine until everything is black.

Cover a baking sheet in wax paper, then form the mixture into golf-ball sized rounds and place on the baking sheet.

Chill in fridge for at least 20 minutes.

Personal Note: Worked out really well, and they really do look like little lumps of coal! :)

COOKIES

Prep Time: 15 minutes + 40 minutes chill Cook Time: 30 minutes Makes: About 3 dozen

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup butter

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

Beat butter and sugar until well mixed. Add egg, mix until blended, then add vanilla.

Add flour 1 cup at a time, then add baking powder. Mix until dough begins to clump together.

Gather up dough and knead it with hands. Roll it into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and chill for 20-40 minutes.

Roll out dough 1/4" thickness and cut into desired shapes.

Bake at 350 F for 7-11 minutes. Let cool completely before icing.

ICING

Prep Time: 15 minutes Makes: Enough for about 3 dozen cookies to be iced twice (or once, thickly...)

Ingredients:

4 cups powdered sugar

6 tbsp whole milk

6 tbsp light corn syrup

1 tsp extract (I used vanilla)

Food coloring

Instructions:

Whisk together sugar and milk until smooth. Stir in corn syrup, extract, and food coloring.

To get the "perfectly iced" look, add only 4 or 5 tbsp of milk at first, then pipe the icing around the edges of the cookie. Add the rest of the milk to thin the icing, then spread the thin icing on the cookie inside of the piped icing.

Personal Note: So due to circumstances beyond my control, I ended up leaving my cookies chilling in the fridge for nearly 4 hours. When I got the dough out, it was hard as a rock. If this happens, just leave it out until it's soft enough to roll. I ended up leaving mine out for a little too long, so I popped them in the freezer for a few minutes before they went into the oven. This really is to help them keep their shape.

Prep Time: 40 minutes Cook Time: 35 minutes Makes: About 12 2" squares

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

8 oz semi-sweet chocolate

1 1/4 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

1/4 tsp peppermint extract

Food coloring

2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Instructions:

Adjust the oven rack to the lower third position and preheat oven to 350 F.

Line the bottom and sides of an 11x7 baking pan with aluminum foil. Set out 8 oz of cream cheese to soften while preparing the brownies.

Brownies: Melt the butter and semi-sweet chocolate in a medium saucepan on medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool for 5-10 minutes.

Stir in sugar to chocolate mixture. Add eggs one at a time, stirring until well mixed between each addition.

Add vanilla, then gently fold in the flour and salt. Pour batter into prepared batter, saving about 1/4 cup for later.

Cheesecake layer: Beat the softened cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, egg yolk, peppermint extract, and food coloring until completely smooth. Manually stir in chocolate chips.

Drop spoonfuls of cream cheese mix onto the brownie layer and carefully spread around with a knife.

Add the remaining brownie batter on top of the cream cheese layer and swirl the two tops layers around with a knife. Add more chocolate chips on top, if desired.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out almost clean.

Personal Note: So beautiful and delicious. Instant favorite!

Prep Time: 40 minutes Cook Time: 1 hour Makes: About 3 dozen

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups flour

4 tsp red food coloring

2 tsp cocoa powder

1/2 cup sugar

4 oz cream cheese, softened

1 egg yolk

1/4 cup sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 300 F. Line a baking sheet with either parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Beat together the butter, brown sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Mix in the flour, food coloring, and cocoa powder until a soft dough forms.

Make tsp-sized balls with the dough, then roll in sugar. Place on the baking sheet. Use the back of a round teaspoon to make a small indentation in the dough. Bake for 10 minutes.

While the cookies are baking, mix together the cream cheese, egg yolk, sugar, salt, and vanilla.

When the cookies come out of the oven, use the rounded teaspoon to deepen the indentation in each cookie. Spoon the filling into each indentation and bake for an additional 12 minutes.

Personal Note: So when you're putting the cream cheese filling into the indents, DON'T fill the entire indent with cream cheese (unless you want a ton of cream cheese, I suppose)--it will expand in the oven. Also the amount of cream cheese filling is about exactly what you need for these cookies, so if you go overboard on some cookies you'll end up with some cookies that have very little or none. So ration it! Also I would suggest just skipping the whole 'rolling in sugar' business, I found the cookies to be a bit too sweet for my liking. I also added green food coloring to the cream cheese mix so that they'd be extra christmas-y :)

Prep Time: 30 minutes Makes: About 1 lb

Ingredients:

12 oz white chocolate, separated

6 oz semi-sweet chocolate

1 1/2 tsp canola oil, separated

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

3 candy canes, crushed

Instructions:

Line the bottom of a 9" or 8" baking pan with foil, smoothing out any wrinkles.

Melt 6 oz white chocolate and 1/2 tsp oil in a double boiler, stirring constantly. When the chocolate is melted, add 1/4 tsp peppermint extract.

Pour melted chocolate into the baking pan smooth. Place the pan in the fridge and cool until hardened, at least 20 minutes.

Melt semi-sweet chocolate and 1/2 tsp oil in a double boiler, stirring constantly. When the chocolate is melted, add the remaining 1/4 tsp peppermint extract.

Pour melted chocolate over the hardened white chocolate and smooth. Place the pan in the fridge and cool until hardened, at least 20 minutes.

Melt the remaining oil and white chocolate in a double boiler, stirring constantly. Pour melted chocolate over the hardened semi-sweet chocolate and smooth.

Sprinkle the crushed candy canes over the melted white chocolate and place the pan in the fridge to cool.

Personal Note: So easy, so delicious, and a good amount to make at once (though easy to halve, double, or triple if need be!)

Prep Time: 1 hour + 6 hours chill Cook Time: 45 minutes Makes: About 2 dozen

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup sugar

2 1/2 sticks butter, cold

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 tube gel food coloring

2 tbsp flour

1 cup sprinkles

Instructions:

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugars in a large bowl. Add butter and mix until the mixture has a cornmeal consistency.

Add the vanilla and process until the dough forms a ball.

Divide the dough in half. Set one half aside, and put the other half back into the bowl. Add the almond extract, food coloring, and 2 tbsp flour and mix until combined.

Roll out each half between two sheets of wax paper in an approximately 8x11" rectangle, with about 1/4" thickness. Stack the dough and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Remove the dough from the fridge and peel off the top pieces of each dough half. Lift the colored one and flip it over onto the other half. Trim the short edges so the sides are straight and even.

When the dough becomes pliable, roll the dough from the long end into a log.

Pour the sprinkles into a shallow, rectangular dish. Carefully lift the log into the sprinkles and roll it around until the outside is completely coated.

Wrap the log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 F. Slice log into 1/4" rounds and bake on parchment-lined sheets for 15-17 minutes, or until the cookies are no longer shiny.

Personal Note: So I tried to make mine red, and just using a single tube of gel food coloring just made them pink. So I had to add at least 1 tsp (didn't exactly measure it...) of liquid food coloring to make them actually look red.