Tag Archives: sweets

Party Mix

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This is too good! If you’re a fan of salty/sweet combos, this snack is sure to be a new favorite 🙂 Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Party Mix – adapted from Food.com

  • 1 (11 ounce) package pretzels
  • 1 (10 1/2 ounce) package miniature peanut butter filled butter flavor crackers (I use Ritz)
  • 1 cup dry roasted peanuts
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter or 1/2 cup margarine
  • 1/2 cup light corn syrup
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 (10 ounce) package M&M’s
  • 1 (18 1/2 ounce) package candy corn

Directions –

1. In a large bowl, combine first 3 ingredients.
2. In a large saucepan, combine sugar, butter and corn syrup.
3. Bring to a boil over medium heat; boil for 5 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla and baking soda (mixture will foam).
5. Pour over pretzel mixture and stir until coated.
6. Pour into a greased 15×10 inch baking pan.
7. Bake at 250 degrees for 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
8. Break apart while warm.
9. Cool completely.
10. Toss with M&M’s and candy corn.
11. Store in airtight container.

Oreo.Cheesecake.Cookies.

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Quick Post: I had leftover Oreos and cream cheese, and lucky me – I found the perfect recipe! Plan ahead for this one because the batter needs to sit in the refrigerator to set. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies – adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction

  • 2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 10 Tbsp salted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 2 heaping Tbsp full fat cream cheese*
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 18 Oreos, crushed into tiny pieces (*I only had 13*)

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix the flour and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. With an electric mixer or stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter, cream cheese, and sugars together. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix well. Gradually add the flour mixture and stir until a dough forms (may take a couple minutes of stirring). Fold in the crushed Oreos.

Chill dough for at least 1 hour or up to 5 days in the refrigerator.

Measure 24 2-Tablespoons worth of dough. The cookies are rather large, but if you’d like them smaller, make each dough ball only 1 Tablespoon. Drop dough onto silpat or ungreased baking sheet. Make sure the balls of dough are tall. Do not flatten them. Bake for 8-11 minutes or until edges are slightly browned. The centers should appear soft and puffy. Let cool completely and enjoy!

Blueberry Cakelets

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Quick Post: I was on a hunt for more recipes that use self-rising flour. I recently purchased a bag for these two ingredient biscuits (they’re my absolute fave!) But I only made them that one time back in October, so the remainder of the flour sat in the pantry until it finally expired…I hate wasting food. This was pretty tasty and not too sweet. I bet that it would be even better with some fresh whipped cream. I like how quickly I was able to throw this together and next time I would love to try this recipe with strawberries. That might go over well with my family as they don’t seem to like blueberries that much…oh well! Thanks for reading, enjoy!
Individual Blueberry Cakes – adapted from Top With Cinnamon
  • 2 cups blueberries
  • 1/3 cup + 3 tbsp sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup whipping cream
  • 2/3 cup self-raising flour

Optional:

  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • zest of one lemon

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Put the blueberries in a bowl, with 1/2 cup of water, the 1/3 cup of sugar (and cinnamon, lemon zest and lemon juice if you want them). Stir until the blueberries are coated with the mixture. Divide between 4 or 5 medium ramekins.

In a separate bowl, whisk together 2 tbsp of sugar, the egg and cream together. Add the flour and stir until just combined, don’t over mix it! Pour the mixture into the  ramekins and sprinkle the remaining 1 tbsp of sugar on top of the batter (or you could sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture onto the batter here…I highly recommend it!). Place the ramekins on a baking tray (to stop juice dripping everywhere in the oven).

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until well risen and golden brown.

Browned Butter CCC

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This is my first time making brown butter, but it seems like a very popular flavor among food bloggers. The browned butter smells nutty and caramely, so it’s pretty safe to assume it will add that to the flavor of these cookies. Plan accordingly if you are going to make these…I read through the instructions after I finished the butter, only to learn that the batter needs to sit in the fridge overnight. Upon discovery of this “minor” detail, I coyly sent a text to the husband who already anticipated cookies for dessert tonight – “you’re not going to like me”. He’s pretty bummed, and honestly I’m not crazy about having to wait longer for these, but in the interest of all things yummy – I will wait! 😉

In case you’ve never browned butter before, here are some helpful tips and instructions. If you have one, it’s best to brown the butter in a stainless pot or pan so you can be sure of the color. Also, it’s fairly easy to go from perfectly brown to burnt, so start slow so you don’t waste your butter. Mine took nearly 20 minutes to get to the color I was comfortable with. Now that I’m pretty confident with this new skill I’ll be sure to search for recipes or I might even try brown butter for dishes we love already.

Verdict: These cookies are slightly chewy, with nice, crispy edges; and flavor of these is buttery, nutty and caramely! I know that last description isn’t a real word, but you know what I mean 😉 Thanks for reading, enjoy!

 

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies – adapted from The Curvy Carrot

  • 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 2 and 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  • One bag semisweet chocolate chip cookies

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and cook, swirling the pan occasionally, until it is frothy and browned, about 15-20 minutes or so (the browning process goes quickly once it starts so watch it carefully.)

2.  Transfer the butter to a small bowl and let cool to room temperature.

3.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.

4. In the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the browned butter and both types of sugar, until smooth and light, about 7 minutes.

5. Add in the whole egg, the egg yolk, milk, and the vanilla.

6. Decrease the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients.

7. Gently fold in the chocolate chips.

8. Cover the cookie dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

9. The next day, let the dough come to room temperature.  Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

10. Using a small cookie dough scoop, place the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart.

11. Bake each cookie sheet (one at a time) until the cookies are golden brown on the bottom, about 8 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let cool on the baking sheets set on wire racks for 3 to 5 minutes or until set. Transfer the cookies to the wire rack to cool. Makes about 36 small cookies.

Sam’s Club/Costco Knock-Off Jumbo Muffins

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You know those giant chocolate muffins with chocolate chips from the club stores? Well, these are so similar to those it’s a little scary! The only difference is that these much less dense and a whole lot cheaper to make at home. I used to make this recipe in the recommended bundt pan years ago. I haven’t thought of it until recently when my big sister told me about it. She blogged the recipe here, and I remembered where I first saw it. Years ago I used Allrecipes all the time, but now there are so many options out there, but my most recent discovery is Pinterest. It is so easy to find new recipes that I might never find via Tastespotting.com. Anyway, I don’t normally use boxed cake mixes anymore, or the instant pudding mix but this recipe makes for a super easy, moist and chocolaty cake. I’m sending M to work with several of these so I don’t eat them all!;) (Oh – I made the muffin papers from parchment squares, it’s really easy to do.) Thanks for reading, enjoy!


Chocolate Muffins –  adapted from Allrecipes.com

makes 12 jumbo muffins, or 24 regular sized muffins

  • 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
  • 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Directions –

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour into muffin tins (3/4 fill for jumbo, 2/3 for regular sized). Bake for 20-25 minutes for jumbo, or 15-20 minutes for regular sized muffins – or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool in muffin tin for 3-5 minutes, then take them out of the tin and cool on a wire rack.

Insane, Triple Layer Brownies

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(Sorry for the bad picture, but you get the idea)

These are known over the internet as “Slutty Brownies”, and as hilarious as that name is, I can’t in good conscience title this post with that name. When I came across it last week, I just had to laugh and then find out why someone would name something so decadent after an insult. Apparently they’re called this because: “…because they’re oh so easy, and more than a little bit filthy.” (The Londoner) If you can get past the name to try these, you should – because no one likes to choose between cookies or brownies, right? 😉

Because I like to make things from scratch as much as possible, I decided to go with this version of the recipe. The original one is boxed mixes and refrigerated cookie dough. So, maybe this version isn’t “slutty” at all! I’ve redeemed you, brownies! 😉 However, they’re still pretty bad for you – eh, go for a run afterwards. Besides, holiday calories don’t count and this is a special dessert for my sweet-toothed hubby.

Verdict: These taste about at good as you might imagine – rich, sweet and chocolaty. Vanilla ice cream is a must to cut through the richness of these crazy brownies! M really enjoyed these and I’m sure he’ll request them again in the future. With all the butter and sugar amounts in this, I certainly wont make these more than twice a year at best, but we will see if I am able to get away with that! 😉 I passed some of these out to our lucky neighbors and thankfully, they don’t seem to mind too much. Before I make these again, I will have to invest in a 9×9 baking pan. These were super thick because I only have 8×8 pans in my kitchen, and that extra space would have helped. The leftover cookie dough will probably become some deep dish cookies – another one of our favorites. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

 

Slutty Brownies – adapted from Handle the Heat

Brownie layer:

  • 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Oreo layer:

  • 16 double-stuffed Oreo cookies

Cookie layer:

  • 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate cips

For the brownie layer:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9×9-inch pan with tin foil then spray foil with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium saucepan melt the butter. Remove from heat and add the sugar and cocoa powder, whisking to combine. Add salt, vanilla, and eggs. Whisk until combined. Add flour, mixing until just combined. Set aside.

For the cookie layer:
In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until combined. Add flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and mix on low until incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips. Set aside.

To assemble:
Press half of the cookie dough mixture into prepared pan in an even layer. Reserve remaining cookie dough for another use (store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months).

Layer Oreo cookies into one even layer on top of cookie dough, pressing in slightly.

Pour all of the brownie batter on top of Oreo layer and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a knife comes out mostly clean when inserted into the middle of brownies. Serve warm (will be messy) or let cool completely and cut into 16 bars.

Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie (awesomeness!!!)

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I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when I clicked this link from TasteSpotting….I love TasteSpotting! While searching for chocolate chip cookie recipes this one’s picture appeared on the first page. Immediately I knew this would be tonight’s treat, and after showing M; he mentioned the hot fudge sauce…could this possibly get any better??

Verdict: This couldn’t be easier of faster to put together. It only makes four 6 ounce ramekins worth which was just right for us. When you break it down, there is only two tablespoons of butter per serving!;) All around this makes for a special, only once-in-a-while dessert that your family will remember for its deep dish cookie goodness! Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bowls – adapted from How Sweet It Is

  • 1 stick butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/3 cups AP flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions –

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt together and set aside in a bowl.

Cream butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer until it’s light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Add in dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spray 4 oven-safe ramekins with non-stick spray and divide the dough into 4 equal parts. Press the dough into the ramekin – each one should have about 1/3-1/2 cup dough.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the middle is still slightly gooey. Set aside and let cool for 5 minutes until they can be handled then serve with vanilla ice cream.

Triple Layer Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Icing

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This week my parents came to visit, so I pulled out all the stops! But this wasn’t just to create a more memorable visit, it was mostly to celebrate our little girl’s fifth birthday. We forgot to pick up candles and I meant to put rainbow sprinkles on this, but she assured me that it was “okay”. Thankfully the lack of these items didn’t take away from the flavor and richness of this cake.

This was my first ever homemade icing and it was so easy, thanks to my trusty KitchenAid standing mixer. It is a messy process sifting all those six cups of powdered sugar, but it was worth it. Next time I will be more generous with the frosting between the layers, but I was worried I wouldn’t have enough to frost the “outside”. Once the cake was frosted, I put it in the fridge to set up. Oh, and don’t mind the wax paper – that was meant to keep the cake plate cleaner but I forgot to remove them before the rest in the fridge. Overall, this cake was really worth the effort and not at all difficult. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Double Layer Chocolate Cake – adapted from Smitten Kitchen

** This became a “triple layer” cake because I only have 9″ cake pans**

The recipe below is for 2 10-inch layers filled and coated in chocolate ganache. My adaptations were to split the layers to create a four-layer cake and use raspberry filling instead of chocolate. To do the same, use half the frosting and all of the raspberry filling, recipe at the end.

For cake layers

  • 3 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate such as Callebaut
  • 1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
  • 3 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
  • 3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Make cake layers: Preheat oven to 300°F. and grease pans. Line bottoms with rounds of parchment paper and grease paper.

Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer). Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well.

Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove wax paper and cool layers completely. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature

Quick Chocolate Buttercream – adapted from Williams-Sonoma

  • 8 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 6 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 16 Tbs. (2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 6 Tbs. milk, plus more, if needed
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp. salt

Directions –

Have all the ingredients at room temperature.

Put the chocolate in the top pan of a double boiler set over but not touching simmering water in the bottom pan. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Let cool to room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, combine the confectioners’ sugar, butter, the 6 Tbs. milk, the vanilla and salt and beat on low speed until combined, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes, then reduce the speed to low. Add the chocolate and beat until combined, then increase the speed to medium and beat for 1 minute more.

If the frosting is dry, add more milk, 1 tsp. at a time, until it is creamy but still holds peaks. Makes about 4 1/2 cups.