Shannon here: Hope Toler Dougherty shares a yummy sounding cookie recipe, plust a chance to win a print copy of her Contemporary Romance, Forever Home (book 1 in her Forever series). Comment or answer the question in this post to enter the drawing. Deadline: Dec 7th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Hope:
In Forever Music, the first book of the Forever Series, Josie Daniels is the youngest of four siblings and the only sister. Although she’s the baby of the family, she loves to mother her older brothers.
One way she shows love is to cook for them. All four of the Daniels clan love sweets, so Josie keeps desserts on hand most of the year. One of their favorite cookies especially during the holidays is called Magic Middles.
The recipe requires much hands-on activity, so gather your family for help. Josie’s grandmother used to say, “Many hands make light work.”
I hope you try the recipe. If you do, I guarantee you’ll love these cookies.
Magic Middles
Ingredients:
Cookie dough
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter/margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 C peanut butter
1 egg
Filling
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
Directions:
- In a small bowl, combine flour, cocoa, and baking soda; blend well.
- In a large bowl, beat sugar, brown, sugar, margarine, and 1/4 peanut butter until light and fluffy.
- Add vanilla and egg; beat well.
- Stir in flour mixture until blended; set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine filling ingredients; blend well.
- Roll filling into 30 1-inch balls for 30 cookies (or smaller for more cookies. Josie makes smaller ones for as many cookies as possible.)
- For each cookie, shape with floured hands about 1 tablespoonful (or less if making smaller cookies) of dough around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely.
- Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet or baking stone.
- Flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.
- Bake in a 375-degree oven for 7 to 9 minutes or until set and slightly cracked.
- Cool on wire racks.
Question for Readers: What’s your go-to holiday appetizer, side, main dish, or dessert?
About Hope: Hope Toler Dougherty holds a Master’s degree in English and taught at East Carolina University and York Technical College. Her early novels are Irish Encounter, Mars…With Venus Rising, and Rescued Hearts. Her Forever series includes Forever Music, the novella, “A Hatteras Surprise,” featured in Candy Cane Wishes and Saltwater Dreams, Forever Home (winner of AWSA’s 2023 Romance Novel of the Year), and Forever Free.
She and husband Kevin delight in visits with their two daughters and twin sons, especially at home in North Carolina. Learn more & connect:
Hope’s Website Hope’s Facebook Readers Page Hope’s Instagram
Hope’s Pinterest Hope’s BookBub Hope’s Goodreads
About the Book – Forever Music:
College history instructor, Josie Daniels is good at mothering her three brothers, volunteering in her community, and getting over broken hearts, but meeting aloof, hot-shot attorney Ches Windham challenges her nurturing, positive-thinking spirit.
Josie longs to help Ches find his true purpose, but, as his hidden talents and true personality emerge, will she be able to withstand his potent charms or will she lose her heart in the process?
Rising star in his law firm, Ches Windham is good at keeping secrets.
He’s always been the good son, following his father’s will to become an attorney and playing the game for a fast track to partnering with a law firm. Lately, though, his life’s path has lost what luster it ever had—all because of his unlikely, and unacceptable, friendship with Josie. He struggles between the life he’s prepared for and the one calling to him now. Opposing his father has never been an option, and spending time with Josie can’t be an option. The more he’s with her, however, the more he wants to be.
When a crisis tarnishes his golden future and secrets are revealed, Ches is forced to reexamine the trajectory of his life. Will he choose the path his father hammered out for him or the path that speaks to his heart?
Can’t wait for the drawing? Worried you won’t win? Interested in the rest of the series or
Hope’s other books? Need extra copies for Christmas gifts?
Get your copy/copies now!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Come back Nov 29th for Christa MacDonald!
My go-to side is cheesy broccoli and rice casserole. I’m definitely a casserole girl!
My favorite is the stuffing.
My family’s go-to holiday dessert is pie, either pumpkin or chocolate cream depending on the occasion.
My go to appetizer is a fresh shrimp platter with a small bowl of cocktail sauce placed in the center.
My favorite holiday dish is eggnog. Some years we buy it and some we make it. So yummy!!