blankety blank blank: Christmas Baking is fun!

Today I'm sharing two chocolate recipes- both delish- and pretty easy to make. My Chocolate Chip Heath Cookies, and Chocolate Ganache Cups. The girls and I baked last night- and I decided to pretty up the Choc. Cups with holly berry sprinkles- well- needless to say- with two girls, they voted that the Heath cookies also needed dressing up- so these are a little over the top with decorations! But everyone says they are delicious- so I guess that's all that matters!
Chocolate Chip Heath Cookies- I used my every day Chocolate Chip recipe- and added heath bits to it.

I will say this- for the best unburned looking bottoms- get some parchment paper to line your baking pans with- they sell it right in the store by the waxed paper- and don't throw it away every time you pull cookies out of the oven! keep using it until you are done baking for the day!!

Chocolate Chip Heath Cookies-
1 cup stick margerine
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
cream sugars and butter together in mixer until light and fluffy.
add
2 eggs and a 1tsp ( you can add up to 2 tsp of vanilla- I love it!) and mix into creamed mixture.
add 3 to 4 cups flour, 1/4 tsp salt and 1 tsp baking soda. combine well- I add enough flour for a thicker dough. The thinner it is- the more it spreads out.
Add lots of chocolate chips- I'd say at least a full 12 oz bag- I buy the giant bags at BJ's- so I can't say for sure how much I add. Also add one full bag of Heath Bits.
drop by walnut sized chunks onto parchment paper lined sheetpans.
bake at 350 degrees for about 10-13 minutes- lightly browned.
for drizzle- see below for Ganache Cups recipe.

Chocolate Ganache Cups-
I made my own cream cheese dough- but you can substitute in packaged sugar cookie dough here!!
Cream Cheese Dough-
2 1/2 sticks butter
1 8oz block cream cheese- cream these together well
add in 2 cups all purpose flour and 1 cup confectioners sugar.
( now I'm giving exact amounts- but I made another dough and was unhappy with it- so I threw in stuff til I was happy, this made a very sticky dough- but the cookie was tasty.)
spray nonstick mini muffin pans with Pam- then place spoonfuls of dough into each cup.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 13 minutes. Let cool

Chocolate Ganache-
1 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream- ( you can also use whole milk if you have it and not heavy cream)
place in microwave and heat until chocolate is melted-stopping and stirring so you don't burn the chocolate. Top each Cookie Cup with a generous teaspoon of Ganache- or dip tops into Ganache and allow to cool on wire rack.
I had extra of this left over- reheated it gently and used it to drizzle over my Chocolate Chip Heath Cookies- yum!

and one more thing for today- I haven't shared my CardPatterns card from the weekend yet!
We did one more card with our Chris Franco sponsorship snowmen. I used Bobunny dot cardstock, some CI scalloped patterned paper, colored in my snowmen with colored pencils. added a pretty ribbon and button with twine. I also added a CI scallop spot and a Scenic Route birthday ticket. All the popping up was with scraps of chipboard!