A five-star rating from ME for a cut-out cookie recipe says a lot! I made this dough about two days ago, then my plans fell through so it sat in the fridge, tightly wrapped in plastic, all this time. It was rock hard when I first took it out, so I let it soften for maybe a half hour or so at room temperature - the dough was still cold, but a bit more flexible once I started rolling it out on a liberally floured surface. I ended up using about half to make some cookies, sticking the rest back in the fridge for later use. It does get sticky if it warms up too much, but really, I had no issues at all working with it. Most importantly, the cookies are delicious - not too crispy, not too soft. Very, very happy with this recipe! Thanks for sharing, Jill, and thank you to all of those who recommended it to me!

I had a tough time with the dough in the beginning - probably between baking with a four year-old and working in a very warm kitchen, my first half batch of red and white just wasn't meant to be...so when I went to do the green ones, I chilled the dough before rolling it out, rolled each color out on waxed paper, which made assembly a snap, then chilled the log for maybe 4 hours...the result was very easy to work with! The cookies came out beautiful and taste great! I had a few scraps of dough from cutting and I rolled them into balls, dipped in sugar and baked as little round "marble cookies". If I ever have a problem with the dough again, I'll just do that, but I think with the extra chill time this recipe is a total winner! Thanks Gitano! :)

These were very good, and although some of the reviews made me a little apprehensive, I found these to be very easy to make. Even though they seemed a little small, I rolled the dough into 1" balls and when they baked they were the perfect size for the mini-muffn cups - no overflowing. In fact, there were already little wells formed in the dough, but I did use my steel measuring spoon (teaspoon-sized) to further form the wells - it was the perfect shape and size! I actually baked them at 350 degrees for 12 minutes and they were perfectly done. Before trying to remove from the pans, I gave each cookie a little spin to loosen it, and they came out easily. I used all semi-sweet chocolate chips for the filling, using a plastic zipper-type bag with one corner snipped off to fill the cookies. I did have a fair amount of filling left over, though. Finally, I wanted to decorate them with various holiday sprinkles, but I found the filling isn't sticky enough to make the sprinkles adhere, so I gently dipped the tops of the cookies into bowls of sprinkles and that worked perfectly! The cookies have great flavor and are very attractive - we love 'em! Thanks for sharing, debzy! This will be a regular for us!

These cookies are sure to please any chocolate lover, but especially those (like me!) who love dark chocolate - the bittersweet chocolate makes these rich and dark, and the texture is perfect for a crackle cookie. I used 1/4 tsp orange extract instead of rind (didn't have any). Just delicious!

These muffins are delicious! I used whole wheat "white" flour (whole wheat ground extra fine) and they were moist, light and yummy! They freeze beautifully, too!

These were pretty good - I did misread the directions a bit and added the whole 3/4 cup sugar to the dough instead of reserving 1/4 cup for rolling - no harm done, though, as the cookies tasted good. We're not cherry fans, so I skipped those and did a mix of white and semi-sweet chocolate chips in the centers. Pretty tasty, but does require some work. My only recommendation is to use Ghirardelli White Chocolate Chips, as they melt much nicer than any other brand I've tried.

These were very good! Hollowing out the tomatoes was the most difficult part, only because I was ill-equipped - a grapefruit spoon would have done wonders. Instead I used a paring knife to loosen the insides, then a 1/2 tsp measuring spoon for scooping. I used canned baby shrimp for this and added parsley and chives into the mix, which I piped into the hollowed out tomatoes. Had a little trouble getting then to "stay still", so if serving to guests I would nest them something - shredded lettuce, maybe even cooked couscous - as they tend to wobble.

Our dear family friend, Hilda, made these buttery, melt-in-your mouth treats for us. She always used pecans, but her written recipe stated that ground almonds could also be substituted. They are also known as Mexican Wedding Cakes, Russian Tea Cakes and a host of other names, but we call them Swedish Tea Cakes in honor of Hilda's Swedish heritage.

I love these - I'm a little fearful of cutouts, so making balls of dough is much less stressful to me! The cookies don't spread or rise a whole lot, so what you see on the cookie sheet before baking is pretty much what you'll get. They should stay as white as possible, so be careful not to overbake. They are melt-in-your mouth delicious, and subbing orange or lemon extract for half the vanilla gives them a wonderfully uniquie flavor.

I love these - I add a little orange extract to the dough and use the dark chocolate kisses. One of my Dad's favorite cookies!! Sometimes I refrigerate the dough for an hour or so for easier handling, particularly if I've been baking and the kitchen gets hot.

I made these last year for the first time and loved them! They are crisp and spicy, and a great addition to my Christmas cookie platters.

I'm rating these primarily on flavor, as my patties did not stay together well because of the way I made this. First, I used leftover mashed potatoes and in hindsight I realized they probably had a fair amount of milk and butter in them, and secondly I know I did not drain the cabbage/carrot mixture as well as I should have, so as the patties started to cook the liquid came out and they got pretty mushy and difficult to flip. However, they tasted AWESOME! I thought it would be too much onion - it was not at all! And I also kind of wrinkled my nose at the mustard, but it really worked in this, giving them a little extra twang of flavor. Funny thing is, as I was eating this I remembered that my grandfather always put mustard on his boiled cabbage, so I guess it's not as strange as I thought! :) I'll definitely make them again, but I'll used plain potatoes, mashed, and be sure to drain out as much liquid as possible. Thanks, Sanzoe! I definitely waited too long to try this recipe!

This was absolutely delicious and came together beautifully, resulting in a very tall, smooth, creamy and rich cheesecake. Even though there were no cracks (used all the tricks - waterbath, greasing sides of springform pan, cooling slowly) I ended up topping with a strawberry glaze. I actually think next time I'll use a 10" pan - this cheesecake looked very impressive, as it was tall, but it was so rich that a normal sized slice was almost too much to handle. Otherwise, perfect flavor, texture and will definitely be repeated in our house.

Very nice banana bread - I made two loaves, so I doubled everything except the oil, used egg substitute and half whole wheat "white" flour, and didn't quite double the sugar as it seemed like a lot. I also had a total of 6 small bananas to use up, and I noticed that a lot of reviewers used three instead of two when making one loaf, so I used them all. Great banana flavor, nice moist texture - the hint of cinnamon is just right for this if you use a little more banana. I did skip the whole blender part and just mushed everything up instead. Thanks Sharon!

Simple, but delicious! I actually like peas as they are so this was perfect for me as the other flavors did not overwhelm the dish. Only change was to use vegetable stock instead of chicken because that's what I had open. Nice way to dress up peas! Thanks!

Easy and very tasty! As simple baked pasta dish, but very attractive when it comes out of the oven. Mine didn't really cut into wedges or anything but I wasn't really expecting it to. I only had 1/2 pound of ground beef so I chopped up a bunch of mushrooms and added them to the saute pan, had no tomato paste so I just skipped it, and I used 1/2 cup egg substitute for the eggs. I used leftover spaghetti that had just a little sauce on it, too. I had grated a little extra parmesan, so I sprinkled that on top before baking. Very tasty dish - one that I will definitely make again! Thanks Jennifer!

So good! I followed the ingredients part to a T, but used a slightly different process - mix sugar, cornstarch and salt together, add milk and beaten egg yolk, place on heat and as mixture starts to heat up, add choclate. I whisk the whole time (well, pretty much, anyway), bring to a boil over medium heat (takes a few minutes) and boil and stir for one minute. Then remove from heat and add the butter, vanilla, pour immediately into serving dishes as it will set up quickly. This recipe is very similar - other than quantities of cornstarch, milk and egg yolks - to the old Hershey's recipe from the 1920's, and I've never had an issue with the eggs scrambling, texture problems, etc. You could also temper them as others mentioned, but I think this process is easier :) I'd definitely make this one again, Mimi! I'd just use the process I'm more comfortable with!

This was very good! I actually like the string cheese (I used mozzarella) better than the traditional Swiss, and I liked dipping the chicken rolls in melted butter instead of my usual egg wash (which I end up topping each one with a pat of butter anyway). I used preseasoned Italian bread crumbs and added some sweet paprika (mostly for color). The only down side was I found that leftovers did not reheat well - the cheese sticks were nice and melty right out of the oven, but after refrigerating and reheating they lost that meltiness and were kind of like globs of cheese. So, no leftovers next time! But I will make this again! Thanks Holly!

I loved this, but thought it needed more veggies so I add chopped zucchini and mushrooms. Delicious!

This was very good! I went a little light on the orange juice - maybe a scant 3/4 cup - and added a half of a frozen banana - couldn't resist! I like smoothies to be really cold, but I don't like ice. I didn't really taste any avocado, but it added a nice smooth creaminess to it, and the orange flavor was very refreshing.