Cinnamon Cookie Butter Mini Muffins

Merry Christmas Eve!  Is everyone ready for Christmas? In case you are still trying to decide what to serve for breakfast tomorrow, I have the perfect recipe for you.  Mini cinnamon muffins with cookie butter!  Mini muffins are just so cute. They are the perfect food to have out around the holidays when people are around because they are so poppable!  Is that a real word?  I don’t think so, but it should be because it describes mini muffins perfectly – you just pop one in your mouth!  

Chocolate Saltine Toffee aka Christmas Crack

Are you sick of cookies yet? Wait, is that even possible? I really don’t think so. I know that I could NEVER get sick of cookies. But in case you are, I have a non-cookie Christmas dessert recipe for you. It is called Christmas Crack, aka Chocolate Saltine Toffee. Why is it called Christmas crack? Because you can’t stop eating the stuff! It is sooo good. I don’t know why I did this to myself. I love toffee, so naturally I haven’t been able to stop eating this since I made it. I finally had to hide it in the back corner of my freezer. Let’s hope I forget it is there today!

Chewy Sugar Cookies

Can you believe that Christmas is only 6 days away?  I have a lot of baking to do this weekend, and I’m quite excited about it.  I love Christmas baking.  Bring on the cookies!  There are so many amazing recipes that I want to try, it is really hard to narrow it down to just a few.  But each year I know that sugar cookies will be on the baking list in one form or another. 

Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies {Guest Post on Twin Stripe}

It’s the most wonderful time of the year….cookie season! I really can’t get enough cookies around Christmas, so I am excited to share my cookie love today as a guest poster on Twin Stripe.  Twin Stripe is my friend Katie‘s lovely blog all about food, design, parties, and the fun things in life!  She is going to have some great Christmas recipes this week, so be sure to check them out.

There have been a lot of cookie recipes on Chez CateyLou lately like these gingerbread cookies and these white chocolate cranberry cookies, but I saved my favorite one to share with you today.  These Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies are the cutest cookies I have ever made!  Look at those little faces – aren’t they precious? And as an added bonus, they taste amazing too.  

Gingerbread Cookies and St. Frank Textiles

Is there any kind of food that says Christmas  more than a gingerbread cookie? There is just something about the flavor of gingerbread that makes me think about decorating the tree by a cozy fire while Christmas music is playing in the background. And they are so much fun to make because you can choose any shape that you want! I love to get out my cookie cutters each Christmas season and play with them – it makes me feel like a kid! Of course the standard gingerbread man is adorable, but there are so many fun options.  This year I was inspired by these gorgeous ornaments  from St. Frank.

St. Frank sells handmade textiles that are sourced from artisans around the world. This holiday season they are featuring a limited edition Birds of Peace ornament set that consists of four embroidered birds, each one with a unique and beautiful pattern. So I added a new cookie cutter to my collection and got to work.

Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Muffins

Happy Sunday! It is bright and sunny here in NYC, a nice change from yesterday when it snowed literally the entire day. But I didn’t mind – it gave me an excuse to bake the day away. Not that I need an excuse to do that 🙂 Plus when you’re all warm and cozy inside, the snow is so pretty. It made the city look so calm and peaceful. It wasn’t quite as pretty and peaceful when I left to go out to dinner. The streets were not plowed, so let’s just say our cab did not have the easiest time driving! Ah the joys of city living.

Paris Part Deux

We’re back for more Paris discussion.  If you missed the first part of our Paris travelog, check it out here.   Today, we have Bistrot Paul Bert, Le Cinq Mars, steak frites, the best ice cream in Paris, a great spot for an late night glass of wine, and some very French French Toast. 

Paris Part 1

Confession time. Cate may have had ulterior motives for getting all of her Thanksgiving cooking done a week ahead of time. Yes, part of her motivation for making all of those delicious recipes was so that she could share them on the blog. But for the first time ever, we were not going to be celebrating Thanksgiving in America (traitors, I know). Cate and I spent the week of Thanksgiving and Cate’s birthday – aka the two biggest food holidays of the year – in Paris and Brussels.

White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

Monday. Morning. Cold. Gray. Wintery-mix.  All words that I do not like, but that unfortunately are a reality right now.  So I think we need some cookies to brighten up this dismal day!  It is definitely a cookies for breakfast kind of Monday morning, don’t you think?  Well I have the perfect recipe for you – white chocolate cranberry cookies!  Dried cranberries = fruit = breakfast food, right?

French Butter Cookies (Sables)

Ever since we got back from Paris, I can’t stop dreaming about our amazing trip and all things French. So I just had to bake up a French cookie to pretend I was back in France. Sables are delicate butter cookies that are slightly crunchy and slightly crumbly in texture. Sable means sand in french, and the texture is kind of sandy – hence the name! They are simple in flavor but absolutely delicious. Plus you can decorate them with colored sugars, making them the perfect little treat around Christmas! We encountered cookies like this or some variation of a sable all over the bakeries of Paris. They are served when you order afternoon tea or coffee, and we even had some served to us with a cocktail after dinner one night! That is my kind of after dinner drink!