Karen Rose Smith Is Helping Send Books to the Military for the Holidays

Please join me in welcoming USA Today Bestselling Author Karen Rose Smith! Karen and I are in the same RWA local chapter and she generously agreed to share some of her holiday treats with us.

What do you like to make, bake or create (or purchase!) for the holidays, Karen?

I come from an Italian tradition of cooking and baking, so it was only natural that after I got married and we had our son that I kept up these traditions for Thanksgiving and Christmas. From cookies to pies to filling for cannoli, I enjoy feeding loved ones over the holidays. When we attended a friend’s Thanksgiving dinner last year, I took along two of our favorites—peanut butter pie and pecan pie.

My sleuth in my mystery series creates her own recipes, as does her sister, mom and Nana. My heroines in my romances usually like to cook too. Inventing recipes is something like putting a plot together and I enjoy coming up with original recipes as well as plots for each book. This is one of the recipes I developed just for my readers’ holiday enjoyment. I hope you enjoy it too.

CAPRICE’S CHOCO CHUNKS AND CHIPS COOKIES

1/2 cup salted butter softened
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
3 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 oz milk chocolate (I use two 3 oz DOVE bars broken into small pieces or chunks. These bars break or cut up easily.)

Preheat oven to 375F

In a mixer, cream softened butter and peanut butter. Mix in brown sugar and granulated sugar until creamed. Add eggs and mix well. Add cinnamon and vanilla. Add baking powder and baking soda. Blend well. Add 2 cups of flour, a quarter cup at a time with mixer on low speed, constantly scrapping bowl. Stir in the other cup of flour, a quarter cup at a time, by hand until completely blended. Stir in chocolate chips and chunks.

Roll into 1 1/2″ balls, place on cookie sheet 2 inches apart and press down slightly with palm of hand. (I usually put 12 on one cookie sheet.)

Bake 11 – 12 minutes until golden brown and set. (The type of cookie sheet you use can affect the baking time. Darker cookie sheets bake faster.)

Remove from the oven and let the cookies sit a minute on a cool surface. Remove from pan.

Recipe makes about 30-36 cookies. Let cool until the chocolate hardens. Unless you eat all of them gooey warm!

Karen’s latest is A Match Made by Baby from Harlequin Special Editon. Check it out here.

Thanks for stopping by today, Karen! Find Karen in the usual places:

Website: http://www.karenrosesmith.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarenRoseSmithBooks

Twitter: https://twitter.com/karenrosesmith

Please help me send books to the military! All you need do is sign up for my newsletter here. That’s it, really. Harlequin is sending 1 book for every 20 new subscriptions. Thank you!