Holiday Favorites on Fast-Forward: Holiday Dessert Microwave Recipes

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By Rachel Derry
Staff Writer LIFamilies

With the holiday season here chances are that a hundred extra tasks have landed on your already packed schedule. Presents need to be found, purchased, stored, and wrapped for all of your closest family and friends. Your house needs to be at peak cleanliness as you're never sure when loved ones will pop over with season's greetings. If you have little ones as well, surely the energy and excitement level is amped up even more with the immanent holidays and recess. The last thing you need on your plate is to also think about the cookies!

Holiday cookies have become a big part of a lot of family traditions. Beautiful cookies of multiple assortments seem to be the hip dessert of the holidays, but who has time to get all of those cookies together while taking care of work, home, and family? Well, why not cheat this year? Don't feel like buying a try, well why not make your own in record time without ever turning on the oven? We've found a couple great, microwave ideas to make your holiday a little more relaxed, while still having the cookies to show for it!

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What's better than a good, old fashioned sugar cookie? Great as traditional drop cookies or cookie-cutter shaped cookies; the traditional sugar cookies are a simple hit that should make even the pickiest cookie critic content. Here's a simple microwave versions:

Ingredients: ¾ cup of butter, 1 cup of sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla, 2 beaten eggs, 2 2/3 cups of flour, 2 tsp of baking soda, and ½ tsp of salt.

Start with softened butter (nuke it in the microwave for a few seconds if you're making cookies quickly). Cream the butter with your sugar until it's fluffy. Beat in your eggs and vanilla. Blend your dry ingredients together separately, and then add them in slowly. Stick your dough in the fridge to cool for about an hour.

Once your dough is firm, roll it out to ¼ in thickness, cut into shapes, arrange 6-8 on wax paper, and cook for 2 minutes on high. For drop cookies, ball up your dough (smaller than you usually would for the oven), place on the wax paper, and cook for 1 ½-2 ½ minutes, or until they're starting to firm and brown.

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Now that you have your sugar cookies covered for the season, how about celebrating with another, year-round favorite? Whether you're cookie connoisseur or a traditionalist; all cookie lovers can appreciate a good, chocolate chip cookie.

Ingredients: ¼ cup of vegetable oil, 1 cup of packed brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp of vanilla, 1 ½ cups of Bisquick, ½ cup of chocolate chips, and an optional ¼ cup of chopped nuts.

Start with your vegetable oil in a bowl, and then stir in the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Blend your mixture until it's smooth and lump-free. Slowly stir in your Bisquick mix until it is totally blended, before gently folding in your chocolate chips and nuts (if you want). Once they're completely blended in, you can drop your cookies onto a microwavable dish (again, smaller balls than you'd usually make for oven cookies) and cook they for 2-4 minutes on medium.

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Not everyone is going to be a cookie fan. If you'd like to have a yummy, sweet alternative, you can whip up a quick batch of chocolate, chocolate-peanut butter, or peanut butter fudge.

Ingredients: ½ cup of butter, ¼ cup of milk, 3 cups of powdered sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla, and 1 cup of chocolate chips. If you'd prefer, replace 1 cup of chocolate with 1 cup of peanut butter chips or do ½ cup of each.

Combine your butter, milk, and chips in a large micro-safe bowl. Microwave for 2-3 minutes, or until mixture is entirely melted. Stir in the sugar and vanilla, and then beat at a medium speed until smooth.

Line a 8 inch square pan with aluminum foil, extending the foil over the edges, and then butter the foil. Spread your fudge mixture around the prepared pan and refrigerate for 1 ½ hours, or until firm. Use the foil edges to lift out the fudge, and then cut into squares and enjoy!