Mini Brownie Cookies because I love you. 

My mom always told us that if you get a plate of goodies from a friend or neighbor, you should never return an empty plate. Kinda like a tasty cycle of treats! Well I made these for my friend, Tegan when returning some tupperware. Mom would be proud.

Original recipe found here: Bam!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup butter, softened 
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon espresso powder
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa 

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 350 degrees (325 if using convection). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Whisk flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside. 
3. Mix butter, sugars, eggs, vanilla, espresso, and cocoa in mixer (if your butter isn’t fully softened, whip it around a bit by itself first to loosen it up, so you don’t end up over-mixing the eggs to get butter chunks smoothed out later). 
4. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. 
5. Split dough and wrap in plastic in two disks. Chill for about one hour, longer if you have time. 
6. Roll out cookie dough on floured counter, 1/4 inch for thicker, softer cookies or 1/8 inch for thinner cookies, good if you’re making ice cream sandwiches or like cookies a bit crisper. Cut into desired shapes, brushing extra deposits of flour off the top. 
7. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes (the former for 1/8-inch thick cookies, the latter for 1/4-inch cookies) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

I felt like the cookies needed a bit of something so I dipped them in white chocolate that I melted in my double boiler. 

Nothing like trying to dip your tasty tasty cookie into your cup of lactose free milk or cup of coffee just to find out that with your cup is too small or your cookie is just too big. I call this the Goldie Locks. Lets solve this first world problem with some Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Sticks! Original recipe found here: Bam!

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups  all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, combine the oil, peanut butter, sugars, egg and vanilla. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture and mix until well combined. Fold in the peanut butter chips and divide dough in half. Place in fridge for about 20 minutes. Sometimes I forget to do this step. DO NOT FORGET TO DO THIS STEP. the dough doesnt seem to ‘stick’ when I bake it right away.

3. On the prepared baking sheet, shape each portion into a 15-in. x 3-in. rectangle about 3 in. apart. Sprinkle with chocolate chips; pressing them lightly into the dough.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 6-7 minutes. (Bake for 8-9 minutes for crispier cookies.) Cool for about 10 minutes. Cut with a serrated knife into 1-in. strips; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Pull Apart Cinnamon Muffins

I ate all of these in 2 days. Sure there were only 6 of them, but I basically ate a loaf of bread. I found the original recipe from here: Bam!

Seriously, what would I do without Pinterest?

Ingredients

• Pillsbury Simply Rustic French Bread dough
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. In a small skillet, brown butter over medium-low heat, about 5 minutes.  You know the butter is browned when it turns a light caramel color and smells slightly nutty.  ((Be careful not to burn the butter!))  Once browned, set the butter aside to cool.
3. Remove bread dough from tube and place on a cutting board.  Starting in the middle, divide the dough with a small slit.  The divide again and again until you have 31 slits.  Using a very sharp knife, slice the dough.  You should end up with 32 slices.  Flatten each slice with you hands or a rolling pin and place on a sheet of parchment or wax paper. 
4. In a bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
5. To assemble the muffins, brush each dough slice with the brown butter.  Then sprinkle with the entire sugar mixture.  (Yes, ALL of the cinnamon sugar!)  Stack the dough slice on top of each other. (some stacks will have five slices and some will have six.)  Using a sharp knife, slice the stacks down the middle.
6. Place two of the sliced stacks, side by side, cut side down into a greased muffin tin.  Repeat with the rest of the stacks.
7. **This step is very important!!**  Before you put the muffin tin in the oven place it on a larger, rimmed baking sheet.  This will catch any butter/sugar overflow and avoid a very smokey oven.
8. Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes until tops are golden brown.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes.  Gently remove.

Hangover Blueberry lemon scones. 

During the holiday’s my best friends and I had our traditional dinner and slumber party. After wine, vodka and tonics and a minted white russians- not wanting to make breakfast for the next morning is completely understandable. I took this recipe thinking I was going to make it as a cranberry lemon scone but since it was the 27th of dec- cranberries where no where to be found. So I used blueberries instead. Here is a link to the original recipe: Bam!

Ingredients

• 1-⅔ cups all-purpose flour
• 1-⅓ cups rolled oats
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• Zest of 1 lemon
• ⅔ cup unsalted butter
• 1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• ½ cup skim milk
• 1 egg
• ¾ cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 1 egg, beaten
• Raw sugar for garnish

Directions

1 Preheat the oven to 400°F. Whisk together the flour, rolled oats, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. Cut the butter into small pieces and work it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal.

2 In a medium bowl, mix together the lemon juice and skim milk to create buttermilk. Let sit for 5 minutes and then whisk in the egg.

3 Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and, using a spatula, fold everything together until the flour is moistened (batter will be chunky). Add in the blueberries and fold through.

4 Pat out the dough to about ½” thick and cut into rounds using a cookie cutter or knife.

5 Place the scones on a non-stick baking sheet and brush with the beaten egg. Sprinkle the tops with raw sugar. Bake for about 18 minutes, or until golden brown.

Prep time: 10 minutes.

Makes 14 scones.

Tis the season where everything is pumpkin flavored!. Pumpkin Lattes! Pumpkin Pie! Pumpkin Beer! Here is an easy recipe for Pumpkin Cookies (with Chocolate chips). Original recipe found here: Bam.

1 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 cup pumpkin puree I used it from the can. )

1 egg

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon 

1 tsp. salt

chocolate chips- any amount you want I did like half a cup. It wasn’t enough for my chocolate needs.

INSTRUCTIONS

Cream shortening, sugar, and pumpkin.

Add egg and mix well.

Add sifted dry ingredients and mix.

Mix in desired amount of chocolate chips.

Drop from spoon onto greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.

I have never cooked for my boyfriend. Not because I can’t, but mainly because he is a chef and who wants to make some boring mac and cheese for their chef boyfriend? So while cruising through Pinterest I found a recipe for a chicken pot pie. I thought I could definitely do this. A) I don’t have to cook the chicken and B) I don’t have to make the pie crust (something I have yet to master).

So on my trip to Whole Foods I picked up some turkey with a chipotle rub, some wine and a Pillsbury gift to me- pre made pie crust. And guess what? The pie turned out awesome! Sure I burnt the roux the first time around because I was busy instagraming my carrot hearts but the boyfriend really liked it! SUCCESS. Original recipe found here: Bam!

2 cups cooked turkey, diced
2 small potatoes, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 rib celery, chopped
1/2 cup frozen peas
4 T. butter
4 T. flour
2 cups milk
½ tsp. poultry seasoning (optional- meaning I didn’t do it. Which is why I added in some Thyme)
¼ tsp. black pepper
3 tsp. chicken bullion
3 cups hot water
Thyme to taste
Half of a small onion chopped 

Pare-boil veggies until tender in water. Once cooked, drain. Stir in chicken.
Melt butter and add flour to form a roux.
Add milk and stir constantly until sauce thickens.
Add seasonings and onion.  
Stir in veggies and chicken.  
Pour into a large deep-dish pie tin (I had a bottom layer of pie crust- you don’t have to do this if that is too much crust).  
Top with piecrust. 
Cut air vents with sharp scissors- or cut a cute design before topping the pie. Damn you Pinterest and your cute ideas!  
Bake 20 minutes at 400° or until golden brown.

Orange Poppyseed Cake

It was my good friend Katie’s birthday and I just happened to have the day off of work so what did I do? Made a cake clearly. Everyone should have cake on their birthday. The original recipe can be found here: Bam!

I had to do some converting because I don’t know how to measure in grams. Thank you google!

Browned Butter Brownies

because how much butter is too much butter? Here is a link to the original recipe: Bam!

I really need to stop baking so many sweets. Its a pity because my boyfriend doesn’t even like sweets, or cakes, or pies… more for me then!

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 sticks salted butter
• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp water
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup high quality semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare a 9x13 baking dish by spraying with non-stick cooking spray and lining with parchment paper (optional, but I like to do it so I can lift the brownies right out of the dish).
3. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Stir constantly until butter has reached a light brown color and little “bits” have formed.
4. Pour the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the sugar and cocoa powder and beat until smooth, almost creamy.
5. Add the salt, water, and vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing in between each addition.
6. Add the flour and chocolate chips and mix well. Batter will be VERY thick.
7. Use a sturdy rubber spatula to spread batter in the 9x13 pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
8. Let cool, then cut into 2” squares to serve.

People really like red velvet for some reason. Perhaps its the sexiest of the batter community. Like when you see someone really hot and you are all like ‘that is a sexy mix of something.’ No? you don’t do that? oh…

well in this case, its red food dye. 

Original recipe found here: bam!

Ingredients:

For the brownies:

3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 oz red food coloring (or a scant 2 tbsp)*

2 tsp pure vanilla extract, divided

1/2 cup (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

*I added a wee bit of water also just to get a better consistency 

For the white chocolate buttercream frosting:

1/2 cup (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

4 oz good-quality white chocolate (not chips), melted – I used Callebaut found at whole foods

1 – 2 tbsp heavy cream

Directions:

To make the brownies:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8″x8″ baking pan.

In a small bowl, slowly stir together the cocoa powder, food coloring, and 1 tsp vanilla into a thick paste until no lumps of cocoa remain. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then stir in the remaining 1 tsp of vanilla. With the mixer off, add in the cocoa mixture, then turn the mixer to medium and beat the two mixtures together until they are one uniform color. Slowly add in the flour and salt and mix on medium-low speed, just until combined. Do not overmix.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir up the batter with a rubber spatula once or twice just to ensure all of the flour has incorporated from the sides of the bowl and there isn’t anything stuck on the bottom of the bowl. You’ll want one uniformly colored (red) batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the brownies. Allow brownies to completely cool in the pan on a baking rack, about 45-60 minutes. Frost brownies in the pan, cut into 12 bars, and serve, or remove the entire batch from the pan to a cutting board, cut into 12 bars, frost, and serve.

To make the frosting:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until soft and fluffy then beat in the vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time; allow the sugar to mix in before adding the next 1/2 cup. Once all of the sugar has been added, beat on medium speed for 30 seconds and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add in the melted white chocolate and beat on medium speed until incorporated. With the mixer on low, add in heavy cream 1 tbsp at a time and beat at medium speed until the frosting has reached your desired consistency.

Banana Smores!

I was flipping through my pinterest when I came across this delightful gooey healthily (there is a banana in there) treat. i would link this posting but I can’t find it! Man, the internets is so vast sometimes. So who ever posted this and I’m not citing- I’m sorry. Anyhow here is what you do:

First you take the banana out of the peal and slice a little pocket to put you goodies in. I made a little V to make it easier.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

stuff in chocolate chips and marshmallow (or even nutella- why the hell not!)

wrap in tin foil and bake for 4-6 minutes.

Sprinkle with crushed graham crackers for a little crunch factor and enjoy!