Cinnamon Roll Sugar Cookies These are divine. Truly. They taste just like your favorite breakfast treat but in fabulous cookie form. I wish I could take credit for the idea, but I stumbled on something like it and thought I would give it a whirl. My tummy is glad I did, but my thighs? Not so much. Cookie Ingredients:- One batch sugar cookie dough (you can make your own, or just buy a roll)- 1/4 stick butter, melted- Cinnamon- Brown Sugar Cookie Instructions:- Roll out sugar cookie dough into a large rectangle (flour your rolling surface to avoid stickage!) Glaze Ingredients:- Butter, melted- Milk, warmed- Powdered (Confectioner's) Sugar- Vanilla Glaze Instructions:- Mix equal parts butter and milk- Add a dash off vanilla to butter/milk mix for flavor- Very slowly drizzle butter/milk mix into confectioner's sugar, stirring constantly until you get desired consistency
Chocolate Brownie Cookies I know it’s hot out and the last thing you want to do is turn on your oven. I get it! But for these little gems I think it’s worth it. These flourless cookies popped up on my radar this past spring when I was really at the height of my low carb experiment. I found them over at Recipe Girl and added them to my long list of recipes to try. The fact that they didn’t have flour intrigued me, and their texture just makes them look ooey gooey good, right? So when vacation time rolled around last month I figured it was the perfect opportunity to make these. Let’s just state something I’m sure most of you already know……wax paper is NOT the same thing as parchment paper. Ten minutes later we were wondering why there was an awful lot of smoke pouring out everytime I opened the oven door. The girls still devoured them though they were STUCK to the wax paper. I didn’t let that deter me though, and the next day I set to making them again. Flourless Chocolate Brownie Cookies Prep time: Cook time:
Cheesecake with Whiskey Butter Sauce. Yes, Really. Cheesecake. With whiskey? And butter? My husband’s most favorite food in all the land is cheesecake. My husband likes his cheesecake with peanut butter and chocolate drizzled on top, but this time I decided to live a little and change it up with this whiskey butter sauce. The first rule of cheesecake baking is to get all of your ingredients to room temperature. Oh, and don’t forget to pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. While we’re waiting let’s make the crust. Pull out two little packages of crackers (16 crackers total). Um, I mean 15 crackers total. If you have a food processor, go ahead and put that baby to use. Put half of the crackers in a gallon size bag. Seal the bag tight and crush the heck out of those crackers. Dump the crumbs into a medium sized bowl and pour four tablespoons of melted butter over the top. Now get out your 9 inch springform pan and grease it up. Yep. Now, because we are going to bake this cheesecake in a water bath, we want to wrap the pan in foil. Mm. Oh man.
25 Killer Websites that Make You Cleverer It’s easy to forget that we have access to a virtually limitless resource of information, i.e. the Internet. For a lot of us, this is even true at our fingertips, thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones and an ever-increasing push for online greatness by tech engineers all over the world. As a result, there are countless websites out there that are geared to make you smarter and more brilliant for either a low or no cost. Here are just 25 killer websites that may just make you more clever than ever before. 1. This isn’t the first time I’ve recommended this language-teaching website (and app), and it certainly won’t be the last. 2. Have you ever wanted to pick up a subject you’re not well-versed in, but you didn’t have the money to invest in a college course? 3. Guitar is one of the few instruments out there that’s actually pretty easy to learn if you’re a little older, making it one of the most accessible instruments. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.
Apple Rings With the hot summer months upon us, I have found myself buying container after container of fruit. Whether it be strawberries, blueberries or even apples, when it comes to summer I love to sit down with a big bowl of fruit and satisfy my sweet tooth. The best future sister-in-law ever went berry picking the other day while I was out of town. She came home with an over abundance of raspberries and cherries. Thoughts of syrups, tarts, scones, and muffins danced in my head...and the more ideas I came up with, the more I failed to realize that as I was brainstorming, I was also popping one raspberry after another into my mouth. At that point, I was back to square one...until I looked at the kitchen table and saw apples that were begging to be enjoyed. Next on my to do list? Apple Rings For the rings: Ingredients: What is your favorite way to bake with apples? * Recipe slightly adapted from Wikia.
Rainbow Cake For Cake: 2 1/4 cups cake flour (9 ounces) 1 cup whole milk, at room temperature 6 large egg whites (3/4 cup), at room temperature 2 teaspoons almond extract 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar (12 1/4 ounces) 4 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon table salt 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened but still cool Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple gel food coloring For Frosting/Filling: 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar 10 large egg whites 2 pounds (8 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, softened 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 1 pound best-quality white chocolate, melted and cooled Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your cake pans by first liberally buttering the pans, then line the bottoms with parchment paper rounds. Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into 2-cup glass measure, and mix with fork until blended. Divide batter evenly between six medium bowls. Let cakes rest in pans for 3 minutes.
Sweet Potato Whoopie Pies This may be a tiny bit early but I figure, school's in and the weather is changing... it's time. I've already started Autumnal baking. This means cinnamon scents and pumpkin flavored treats are well underway. Though I'm saving my pumpkin stash for goodies like this, I'll gladly take sweet potatoes as a very Southern stand-in. This was my first batch of Whoopie pies ever. With all the baking I've been doing lately for the book, there's always a bit of extra fondant or nonpareils hanging around here and there. Cakes: 3 cups all purpose flour 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda 3/4 teaspoon salt 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature 3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar 3/4 cup sugar ½ cup vegetable oil 3 large eggs 1 ¼ cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes ½ cup milk Nonstick vegetable oil spray Sift first 5 ingredients into large bowl. Arrange 1 rack in bottom third of oven and 1 rack in top third of oven; preheat to 350°F.
Out of the Campfire, into the Oven: S'mores Pie There is just something about a s’more that brings out the kid in me. The toasted marshmallow, the melted chocolate, the crunch of the graham cracker. You put them together and it’s bliss. We love them so much, we eat them year round, we’ve even grilled marshmallows in our wood burning fireplace, over our gas stove, and made them in the microwave in a pinch. You could even take more shortcuts and use a pre-made graham cracker crust and use pre-packaged pudding {you’d need 8 snack packs for that} What you’ll need: 1 sleeve of honey graham crackers – 9 crackers 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/3 cup dark brown sugar pinch salt 7 tablespoons unsalted butter – melted 1 large package of chocolate pudding {+ ingredients to make} 8 ounces whipped cream topping 10 ounces marshmallows What to do: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.