Chocolate Sugar Cookies

I've always loved sugar cookies. You really can't go wrong. I mean, you can make them into any shape you want (Yoda, anyone?). And you get to decorate them and make them pretty with frosting and sprinkles. 

I also love chocolate. That one's pretty self explanatory. And I began to wonder a few months ago what it would be like to combine the two??? Amazeballs. That's what. They were so good, I took them to our Friendsmas and did a "decorate your own" and they were mostly gone that night. Then I took them to my in-laws and they were most definitely gone. Very quickly.

I found the recipe from Smitten Kitchen and they turned out great. A fun new twist on the classic Christmas sugar cookies. Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

// 350 degrees // 8-11 minutes //

Ingredients

3 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter, softened (I used sweet cream butter)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Directions

1. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and cocoa

2. Add in flour, salt, baking powder (recipes usually say to combine the flour mixture first, but I never do and it usually turns out fine!) and mix until smooth

3. Wrap and place in fridge to chill for an hour or so

4. Roll out dough using flour so it won't stick.

5. Cut in desired shapes

6. Bake on parchment-lined baking sheet for 8-11 minutes

7. Enjoy!

Soft & Chewy Molasses Cookies

Molasses cookies have to be one of my favorite cookies. Of all time. My mom made them when I was growing up, usually around Christmas. Molasses cookies are one of those cookies that are like comfort food to me and are always delicious when you eat them warm with a hot cup of cider/coffee/tea. Yum. 

Seriously, you should make these this holiday season. They are so soft and chewy and have the best flavor. I made them last weekend and the whole batch was gone in a day. One day! Don't worry. We had friends over. It wasn't just us (although it very well could have been). Here's my mom's super good recipe for Molasses Cookies.

// 325 degrees // 8-10 minutes // 

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter 

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon ginger

2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Melt butter, let cool.

2. In a bowl, mix together all ingredients with melted butter. I followed the order listed above and mixed as I went.

3. Chill dough overnight (I let it sit covered in the fridge for about and hour and they were perfect).

4. Make one inch dough balls (I use my trusty cookie scoop).

5. Roll dough balls in white sugar to lightly coat.

6. Place on cookie sheet, don't flatten. 

7. Bake at 325 degrees for 8-10 minutes. 

8. Optional - Frost with white icing. We didn't, and they were amazing without!

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Cups

Happy Monday! I can't believe it's already October!!! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I was so glad Zachy was home for the weekend! We ended up just hanging out and doing normal stuff. Having him gone all week sure makes it nice to just have him here to do the normal things. Saturday we went down to Puyallup to watch my brother coach his team to victory (Go Linfield!). It was a beautiful day and we met my parents there to cheer them on. After the game, we went to Home Depot and got supplies for a super awesome project that hopefully I'll be sharing soon! It was definitely a learning experience for both of us... 

Anyways, back to the point of this post, which is cookies! I first made these a few years ago with my mother-in-law (I can't take any credit - it's her brilliant idea!) and have been wanting to make them since but needed to get a mini muffin pan. Finally I bit the bullet and paid the $10 (I bought this one and so far it's really good!).

I used my trusty Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe and then used Hershey's Kisses and Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for the middle. 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Make dough as directed from this recipe.

3. Use cookie scoop to place one inch balls into the mini muffin pan.

4. Unwrap enough kisses and peanut butter cups to fill one per cookie.

5. Bake at 375 for 7-9 minutes or until tops of "muffins" are lightly browned.

6. Remove from oven and put the kisses and peanut butter cups in the middle of the cookies right away. I put the kisses in upside down.

7. Let cool for a few minutes and enjoy! 

Old Fashioned Peach Pie

I wanted to make my mom her favorite cake for her birthday and I had to ask her what it was (embarrassing, right?) because I couldn't for the life of me remember. Rightfully so, because she said her favorite is not cake, but any kind of fruit pie. That made me feel slightly better. 

We made homemade peach pie because it sounded so good, the peaches were ripe, and I'd never made it before. The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen and it was delicious. 

Ingredients

3 1/2 pounds peaches (I used 7 medium sized peaches)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 cup white sugar 

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I always add more cinnamon though)

Dash of nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons corn starch

Pie crust (instead of homemade, I just used the pre-made pie crust)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Poach (optional) and peel the peaches. I'd never done this before, but it was a simple step that helps to peel the peaches easier. First, boil a pan of water. Second, make an ice bath in a separate bowl. Cut a small X in the bottom of each peach and then put as many peaches as you can in the boiling water for two minutes. Transfer peaches using a slotted spoon into the ice bath for one minute. Remove from ice bath and start peeling. The peach skin should just slip right off, but we had to still peel them slightly.

3. Cut up the peaches into 1/3 inch slices.

4. Toss peaches with lime juice in bowl.

5. In a separate dish stir sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and corn starch until mixed.

6. Combine with peaches and toss until evenly coated.

7. Place the pie crust in the pie dish and fill with peach filling.

8. Put the top crust on - here's were you can get fancy. We went with the lattice top, but you can also just put the whole top crust on and then cut decorative Xs or +s on top. For the lattice top, we spread out the crust and used the pizza cutter to slice even strips and then wove them together on top.

9. Brush pie with melted butter and sprinkle with white sugar.

10. Bake your pie! 20 minutes at 425 degrees. 30-40 minutes at 375 degrees. If the crust starts to brown, you can put tin foil on top and continue to bake.

11. Apparently you are supposed to let the pie cool fully before eating in order to let the filling congeal and thicken. But, if you are anything like my family, we let is sit until it's just cool enough so we can take a bite without burning ourselves. Hot/warm pie is the best!

What's your favorite kind of pie? 

P.S. Apple pie and more yummy baking goodness here.

Snickers Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookies

You heard me. These cookies are packed with yummy goodness - they're essentially two cookies in one and they taste just as good as Channing Tatum looked in Magic Mike. Yeah, that good. I found the recipe via Pinterest on the blog Bakergirl (originally adapted from Picky Palate). I wanted something with Snickers in it, since that's the hubby's favorite candy. These turned out to be the perfect combo!

// 350 degrees // 9-12 minutes //

Ingredients

Peanut Butter Dough

2 cups creamy peanut butter

2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

1 cup chocolate chips

Chocolate Snickers Dough

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 cup cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 regular sized snickers bars, chopped (I used 16 mini snickers)

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Peanut butter dough. Combine peanut butter, sugar and eggs until creamy. Add chocolate chips.

3. Chocolate snickers dough. Cream the butter and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.
5. Add dry mixture to the butter/sugar mixture until combined.
6. Add snickers and chocolate chips.
7. Take a teaspoon of each dough and combine, rolling gently into a ball. Place on parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
8. Bake for about 10-11 minutes at 350 degrees.

Enjoy!

Raspberry Cobbler

There's something about summer that just screams Pies! Cobblers! Anything with fresh fruit! After we got some raspberries at Pike's Place Market last weekend we immediately came home and made some raspberry cobbler. 

Here's the recipe we used (adapted from here): 

Ingredients

3 cups raspberries

2/3 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice (we left this out since we didn't have any on hand)

2 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 cups Bisquick biscuit mix

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup milk

whipped cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Wash raspberries and combine with sugar (and lemon juice if you have it).

3. Use butter to grease an 8x8 pan and spread the berries along the bottom.

4. Place dollops of butter on top of the raspberries.

5. In a separate bowl, mix Bisquick, melted butter, beaten egg, and milk. Stir until combined.

6. Drop over berry mixture in spoonfuls.

7. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.

8. Serve warm with whipped cream and gobble that up!

Messy, but delicious! Perfect for a summer night in front of the fire! What are your favorite summer desserts?

P.S. This looks pretty darn tasty too!

S'mores Cookies: The Perfect Summer Cookie

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? Ours was lazy, which was just what I needed to recover from a stressful last week. We watched a lot of Lost. A. Lot. Of. It. We're on season two now... it is so good! Have you seen it? Don't tell me anything! :)

I made these cookies this weekend for a little get together with friends and they were a hit! Pinterest came through again. It always does. It's not like I'm surprised. These cookies were really really really good. Like, win the lottery good. Like, give away your first born good. Well let's not go that far, but they are deeeee-licious. 

I got the original recipe from Kevin & Amanda and I only did two things differently: I used regular graham crackers instead of cinnamon and regular mini mallows instead of the mallow bites. Otherwise, this is some of the best cookie dough I've had. Seriously yummy. These might become our favorite "summer" cookie this year. They have the same flavor of s'mores with a lot less of the messiness! 

S'mores Cookies

// 350 degrees // 10-12 minutes // makes 2 dozen //

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/3 cup flour

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 7 graham cracker sheets)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet)

1 cup mini mallows

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Cream butter and sugars until fluffy

3. Mix in vanilla and egg

4. In a separate bowl, whisk graham crackers with flour, baking powder, and salt

5. Slowly add dry mixture to butter and sugar mixture

6. When the dough just comes together, add chocolate chips and mallows

7. Place in dough balls on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper

8. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes

Enjoy!

Cinco de Meg-o and Sombrero Cookies

That's right. I may have just made my own holiday. I'm clever like that. Maybe you saw a little of my inspiration here, maybe you didn't. In any case, we had a great party this weekend to celebrate our birthdays (Zach's was a couple weeks ago), the end of busy season, and Cinco de Mayo (ahem, Meg-o). 

I had fun going all out Cinco de Mayo... I cut up some brightly colored tissue paper and attached it to some yarn to make some pretty garland to put up around the house. We even caught the Derby on TV - way to go, I'll Have Another. It really is pretty exciting for those two minutes!

I've been waiting to use these empty cans for something for a while now. The perfect size to hold some silverware. I just added some scrapbook paper to the outside to make them a little more festive. A great (and cheap!) way to add a little color.  

I even added a little colorful paper around the little cacti pots too. I got them for about $3/each at Home Depot. I love how colorful and tiny they are!

Probably my favorite thing was the Sombrero Cookies! Aren't they cute? I used my trusty Sugar Cookie recipe - it never fails! After you let the cookies cool, just add a little vanilla frosting around the outside and then a small circle in the middle (I used store bought frosting and put it in a bag). Turn it upside down and dip in a plate full of sprinkles until its covered. Then I added a dot more of frosting in the middle and put on the gum drop for a little mini sombrero. Ay ay ay!

I bought a yard of colorful fabric to make a table runner. Anything to add color for the festivities!

We served Salsa Chicken Tacos and they were delicious! Super easy too - in the crock pot, just add chicken breast, salsa and some onions. Mmmmhmmm. Such a fun party and my favorite food too. Any excuse to be a little creative and get together with friends!

Did you have a good weekend? Do any celebrating for Cinco de Mayo or maybe the Derby? 

Chai Latte Cupcakes

I don't usually make cupcakes, but had to try these out. It's my friend's recipe and they are delicious (Thanks, Sutira!). It's a little complex for me - lots and lots of steps! I guess I'm just not used to making cupcakes and frosting from scratch (box mix is much easier! and faster!) but it was well worth it for these ones.

Chai Latte Cupcakes

// 350 degrees // 15-18 minutes // makes about 12 regular cupcakes //

Chai Spice Mixture

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1 teaspoon ground ginger 

1 teaspoon ground cloves 

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom 

Combine the spices together in a small bowl.

(FYI - cardamom is super expensive... like $12 for a little itty bit. So being on the spending diet that we are, I ended up using about 1/4 teaspoon each of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice. It's not an exact substitute for cardamom, but I think it did the trick.)

Vanilla Chai Cupcakes

1 ½ cups cake flour 

1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder 

½ teaspoon salt 

2 teaspoons chai spice mixture 

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature 

1 cup sugar 

1 egg plus 2 egg whites 

½ cup whole milk 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees 

2. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners

3. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl

4. Stir in the chai spice mixture

5. Cream the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer with paddle attachment on medium speed until soft and creamy

6. Add in egg and egg whites, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition to combine before adding the next

7. Add in the flour mixture and milk mixture in three alternating additions, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Beat just to combine each addition before adding the next

8. Using a spoon or a cookie scoop, fill each cupcake liner about ¾ full with batter

9. Bake in oven for 15 to 18 minutes

Now for the frosting... I've never made buttercream or meringue before, so this was interesting. A lot of work if you ask me (and a lot of butter!) but it was pretty darn tasty.

Swiss Meringue Honey Buttercream

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar 

2 teaspoons honey 

4 large egg whites 

1 ½ cups unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into 1-in pieces 

1 tablespoon vanilla extract 

Directions

1. Combine the sugar, honey, and egg whites in a medium metal bowl and place over a pan of simmering water

2. Whisk the sugar mixture constantly over heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture looks smooth and shiny. Continue whisking until the mixture reaches 160 degrees

3. Remove mixture from heat and pour into a stand mixer bowl. Whisk on medium speed for about 5 minutes until the mixture has cooled

4. Switch to the paddle attachment and with the speed on low, add the butter a few pieces at a time, beating until smooth. Do not add the butter too quickly or beat too quickly or the buttercream may 

break

5. When all the butter has been added, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed for about 6-10 minutes until it is very thick and smooth. It may appear to separate briefly but continue beating and it should come back together

6. Add in the vanilla extract and beat to combine. Place a piece of plastic wrap against the surface until you are ready to use it to prevent it from drying out. 

Enjoy!

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

Only one week until Valentine's Day and I'm starting to get into the spirit. Last year, I made sugar cookies for my sweetie - some of the heart variety and some of the Star Wars variety. The hubby loved them. This year I wanted to try something red velvet-y since I've never really attempted it before. And because anything red velvet screams Valentine's Day. It's kind of perfect. 

I found this recipe on Pinterest (of course) from A Small Snippet (original recipe from Bakerella) and it was delicious. I've made them twice this week so far! Once for Zach's school potluck and once for the Super Bowl party we went to. 

The best part is it's super easy! 

Ingredients

Red Velvet Cake Mix

2 eggs

1 stick butter, softened

Frosting

1 stick butter, softened

1 8 ounce package cream cheese

1 1 pound box confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine cake mix, eggs, and butter.

3. Place on cookie sheet in balls (I used my cookie scoop the first time, and then used smaller dough balls the second time)

4. Bake about 10 minutes.
5. If desired, use a cookie cutter to cut hearts out of cooled cookies. I did this for a few, but decided to leave them as full cookies for the rest. 

6. I didn't make the frosting this time, just used some pre-made pink vanilla frosting. (Once I ran out of the frosting, I used Nutella and it was really good too!) Frost one side of the cookie and then put two cookies together to make a little sandwich.

So delicious!

These are so fast and easy to whip up. I hope you enjoy!

Peanut Butter Kisses

I think we all know that my favorite food combo is peanut butter and chocolate. It's been a love affair that dates back to my early childhood and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. They were (and still are) my mostest favorite candy. Well, this little cookie has the best of both. My favorite flavors all in one. So yummy and delicious. 

I used the regular peanut butter cookie recipe (from here), minus the chocolate chips, plus the Hershey's Kisses). Bake the peanut butter balls according to the recipe (but without chocolate chips or kisses) and then right after you take them out of the oven, put a kiss in the middle. There you go! 

They are so tasty. The best time to eat them is after they are slightly cooled, when the kiss in the middle is still warm and a little gooey. I seriously had to stop myself from eating a dozen all at once. That good.

Have you made any chocolate and peanut butter treats lately? Know of any other chocolate/PB recipes I would like to try?

Nutella Cheesecake Brownies

Time for a little Pinterest baking! These bad boys had me at nutella. They were pretty different than anything I've made before - kind of half cake/half brownie/half cheesecake/half delicious goodness. I realize now that there are way more halves, but that's just how good it is. Here's the recipe (found here).

// 350 degrees // 40-50 minutes // makes a pan full //

Ingredients

Cake:

1 package devil's food cake mix

1 egg

1/2 cup butter, melted

Filling:

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 cup nutella

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 (16 ounce) package powdered sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix devil's food cake mix, egg, and butter together until combined. Pat into the bottom of a 9x13 pan (lightly greased).

3. Beat the cream cheese and nutella until creamy.

4. Add eggs, vanilla, and butter. Slowly mix in powdered sugar until blended.

5. Spread nutella mixture on top of cake mixture. 

6. Bake for 40-50 minutes. Don't overcook! It should be gooey at first and then will congeal if you let it sit overnight (it's much better once congealed!).

Enjoy! It's sinfully good!

Fudge

Over the holidays I did a bit of baking, but it was most of the good old favorites like sugar cookies, crinkle cookies, and spritz cookies (gluten free!). I did make some fudge though. It's my bro's favorite holiday treat, so I had wanted to make some for him. Who am I kidding, it's one of my favorites too (and so addicting)! 

I've had trouble in the past when making fudge. It gets stuck in the dish and then it becomes really hard to cut pieces out and then Megan gets mad because all she wants is a little piece of chocolate-y goodness. Yes, apparently I sometimes talk about myself in the third person. Sooooo... when I was at IKEA back in November sometime I picked up a variety pack of cupcake liners in their cute Scandinavian prints (I loved all their Christmas stuff this year and went a little crazy!). The liners came in three sizes and I thought the mini-cupcake size was perfect for little bite-size balls of fudge. No sticking to the dish and no trouble cutting a piece here!

Anyways, short story long, here's my Fudge recipe:

// No baking required! //

Ingredients

3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup butter

1. Heat all ingredients in a pan on the stove until completely melted (you can also heat it up in the microwave).

2. Pour into an 8 x 8 glass pan and refrigerate until hardened (I think if you put some tin foil down before you pour in the fudge batter it will be easier to get out of the pan too). 

3. OR, if you want you can use a cookie scoop and put the fudge batter in little cupcake liners for the perfect bite-size fudge balls like I did!

They were delicious! What kind of holiday or New Year's treats did you make this year?

Gingerbread Cookies

Well, we didn't make it to Leavenworth this weekend (boo-hoo). I know, I know, all that hype and no results. Lame. I wasn't feeling very good on Saturday... huge migraine and all that, so we postponed our little day trip until next weekend (weather permitting). 

We did have a great time at my work Christmas party! I even got a new dress and got all gussied up (that's right, I said gussied up). Then we had a little Friends-mas celebration last night. So much fun to celebrate with friends for the holidays!

Anyways, let's get down to business. I made some gingerbread cookies this weekend. It was my first time making them (it's been my goal to try new recipes lately) and they turned out great. I even made them into cute little gingerbread men (and women)! They were very chewy and delicious. Although, I didn't add any gum drop buttons (not my gum drop buttons! - name the movie... Go!) Here's the recipe (found from Martha, here):

// 350 degrees // 10-18 minutes // makes 36 //

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened (I used sweet cream butter)

1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/3 cup unsulfured molasses

1 large egg

Sprinkles! Lots and lots of sprinkles!

Directions

1. Whisk together dry ingredients (all but the brown sugar) in a separate bowl.

2. Beat butter and brown sugar until smooth.

3. Add molasses and egg.

4. Mix in dry mixture on low. 

5. Put dough in plastic wrap (make sure to put some flour down first) and form into 8-inch .

6. Chill in fridge for 1-2 hours (I only chilled for one hour and they were fine).

7. Roll out dough with rolling pin to about 1/8 inch thick and then freeze for 20 minutes (I only put it in the freezer for about 5 minutes and they still baked well).

8. Cut out with a cookie cutter of your choice.

9. Bake at 350 for 10-18 minutes (depending on cookie size - the bigger the cookie, the more time you need). I baked for about 10 minutes since my gingerbread men (and women) were not too big. 

Enjoy!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Let me just start with this: these cookies are Amazing! With a capital A. They really are that good. Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are the hubby's favorite Christmas cookie and I can see why. I made these for him a while ago and failed miserably, so I've been a little hesitant to try again. I finally did and it paid off! The crew at work gave it two thumbs up and the hubby went back for 4...5...6 cookies last night? So yeah, they are pretty tasty. 

Here's the recipe - originally from Betty Crocker (found here):

// 350 degrees // 10-12 minutes // makes 72 //

Ingredients

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled (Remember: you can substitute 3 tablespoons cocoa and 1 tablespoon cooking oil for every 1 ounce of unsweetened chocolate)
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions
1. Combine oil, chocolate, white sugar and vanilla.
2. Stir in eggs, one at a time.
3. Mix in flour, baking soda and salt.
4. Refrigerate for 3 hours (I only put it in the fridge for 1 hour though...).
5. Grease cookie sheet or use parchment paper (I used parchment paper - it's my new favorite).
6. Make 1 inch round balls and roll in powdered sugar so they are covered and place on the cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Trust me, these are so good. I hope you enjoy!


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