Mother's Day Goodies

For Mother's Day this year I decided to put together some cute little packages of goodies for my mom, Josh's step-mom, and his grandmother. I put together smaller packages for both of my sister-in-law's and one for Josh's mom, to go with the plant she requested. Everything went over really well, so I thought I would share some of the goodies with you guys. The packages were comprised of a box of Chocolate Chip Cookies, Red Velvet Truffles, and Sugar & Spice Pecans.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Amy Sedaris and Nestle Toll House; makes 5 dozen












2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 cups flour
12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

• Beat butter and sugars together. Add eggs and vanilla and mix. Gradually add flour, salt, and baking soda. Stir in the chocolate chips.
• Chill dough for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll into small balls and flatten in palm of hand. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 9-11 minutes.
  

My notes: Amy Sedaris adds more chocolate chips and pecans, but I decided to omit the nuts since I was already using pecans in another way and I was making smaller cookies so I used just one bag of chips. Instead of rolling and flattening the dough I used my cookie scoop to drop about 1 tablespoon or so of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. This made the cookies a little smaller, and allowed me to get more out of single batch of dough.

Red Velvet Truffles
Recipe from Bakerella; Makes about 50















1 box red velvet cake mix, cooked as directed on box for a 13x9" cake
1 16 oz. can cream cheese frosting
12 squares semisweet chocolate, melted
Decorations, optional

• After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting.
• Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. Chill for several hours. You can speed this up by putting in the freezer, which I did.
• Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper lined baking sheet until firm.

My notes: I sprinkled each truffle with some red decorative sugar, to match the interior. Refrigerate after completed. I made these a little smaller than I probably should have, so I actually have cake balls in the freezer to make more truffles later. I made 50 truffles, and still have plenty extra, so the next time I make them I will definitely make the balls bigger, and I might make two 9" cakes and use just one for truffles. These truffles were the biggest hit of all though, so I will definitely make them again.

Sugar & Spice Pecans










You can see the recipe for Sugar & Spice Pecans I've made before here.











And that's what came out of my kitchen for Mother's Day!