S'mores Cookies Yesterday was busy with swimming, BBQing, and relaxing. My Laundry Monday turned into Laundry Tuesday topped with an additional load of damp swimming towels. Being the good parents we are we counted swimming as baths for the kids and sent them to bed smelling of sunblock. Then as I snuggled on the couch to write a post about these cookies I brought to our BBQ I just…could not…keep…my eyes…open. These S’mores Cookies are a perfect hello to summer. These cookies have a graham cracker base with a chocolate chip cookie sprinkled with chocolate and marshmallows topping it. Ingredients 11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 1 cup brown sugar, packed ½ cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon sea salt (optional) 1 teaspoon cinnamon 2 ½ cups flour 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 cup mini marshmallows 3 regular sized Hershey’s bars, broken into pieces 1-2 packages graham crackers, broken into squares Instructions Notes
No-Bake Nutter Butter Nutella Pie Ok, guys! While I’m in Chicago, I thought I would post a recipe that was just featured on my friend, Jenna’s blog: EatLiveRun {she just did a guest post, remember?!} Anyways, this is what I made for her site that I thought you all would want to know about! No-Bake Nutter Butter Nutella Pie! Above I mentioned that this takes minutes to make and it honestly does. FYI-I fly home Monday, so on Wednesday I’ll have all the details of my visit to Chicago, the Oprah show and lots of other fun stuff! No-Bake Nutter Butter Nutella Pieyield: 8-10 servings Print This Recipe Ingredients: for the crust- 24 nutter butter cookies 1/4 cup butter for the filling- 2-8 oz. packages cream cheese, softened 3/4 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 cup nutella 1/2 cup whipping cream for nutella ganache {optional}- 1/4 cup nutella 1/4 cup cream {or more if you like a thinner ganache} Directions: Spray 9-inch pie plate with non-stick cooking spray and set aside. {2}Press into prepared pie plate.
Sugar Cookie Squares with White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Frosting I just can’t get enough of the sugar cookie squares! Yesterday I was making the original Sugar Cookie Squares with Vanilla Frosting and was thinking of what other combinations would be good with these squares. The best that came to mind, these Sugar Cookie Squares frosted with decadent White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Frosting. They basically melt in your mouth while the combinations of sweet yet tangy cream cheese with natural berry goodness tantalize your taste buds. White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts so I thought this would be a great combination of cookie and cheesecake. Also, this frosting would be incredible on a vanilla, chocolate or angel food cake, just keep in mind it has a slightly runnier consistency than your average butter cream frosting so it not ideal for piping. Sugar Cookie Squares with White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Frosting Ingredients White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Frosting Directions
Nikki's Healthy Cookies Recipe I keep in touch with one of my best friends from high school. Her name is Nikki and she lives in rural Pennsylvania with her husband and four kids. Four! She's an inspired cook who can throw a meal together on a whim from a refrigerator she keeps packed with all manner of whole, natural foods. She's an enthusiastic supporter of local growers and producers and regularly sends me emails highlighting recent cooking triumphs and trials. A few months back she emailed me her recipe for butter-less, flour-less, egg-less, and potentially sugar-less cookies - I promptly filed it under "can't possibly be good." When I made a trip to Philadelphia a few weeks back and spent the day with Nikki the topic of the cookies was revisited. Wayne and his brother Greg drove me out to see Nikki in Kennett Square, and for those of you who find yourself in the area I'll list off a few of the places Nikki took me to visit that day. Give the cookies a try and let me know if you like them as much as I did.
Homemade Oreos Lately, my husband has been getting me into a bit of trouble. You see, he’s my taste tester. He’s not afraid to tell me when something I make is awful (it has happened before… believe me!), so I know he’ll give me an honest opinion. So, when I’m baking and working on a new recipe, I often take him a plate of samples. A few times lately (including yesterday when I was working on this particular recipe), he has raved on Facebook about what I made for him. In this case, the homemade oreos that my hubby was taunting his friends with on Facebook were already spoken for… Most of the cookies were destined for the cafe at our church. These homemade oreos are easy to make. Homemade Oreos(Makes approximately 3 dozen) For the cookies: 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened1 cup granulated sugar1 egg1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract2 cups all purpose flour3/4 cup dutch process cocoa powder1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder1 teaspoon salt For the filling: Begin by preparing the cookies.
blueberry crumb bars I uploaded pictures of this recipe yesterday onto Flickr, but didn’t get to telling you all about it because I was feeling a little lackadaisical after that whole seven days in a row of posting thing. Three hours later, I received this comment: “Omg, post the recipe already!” Hmmph! I thought. But who could blame them? It could get ugly. But if there ever were a dessert worth getting ugly for, it would have to be this. “Omg, post the recipe already!” As you wish. Blueberry Crumb Bars Adapted from AllRecipes.com Recipes like this make me wonder why I don’t use AllRecipes.com more. I could imagine easily swapping another fruit or berry for the blueberries–I’m especially thinking something tart like sour cherries or cranberries in the fall (I’d use orange instead of lemon with cranberries). These are easiest to cut once chilled, and store even better in the fridge than they do at room temperature–something unusual for cookies! Yield: I cut these into 36 smallish rectangles 1. 2. 3. 4.
Tiny Gingerbread Houses Earlier I made gingerbread houses meant to perch on the edge of a mug, but I wanted to work on a few more things. First, since these are meant to be eaten I wanted to cut down on the amount of royal icing. I still used it to assemble the houses, but to get sugar decorations to stick to the roofs I decided to use simple syrup. Second, I added a chimney. I think it turned out very cute, though I found that the taller chimneys looked incongruous, so I’ll stick to very short chimneys. Third I decided to see what whole happen if I moved the door shape, the part that fits over the mug, off to one side to allow more of the house to hang on the outside of the mug. Last I wanted to see if it would work out using sugar cookie dough.
zucchini bread If any thing could tear me from my at times maniacal devotion to small spaces, walk-up apartments, crowded sidewalks and our crystal rattling at 11:30 p.m. on a Sunday while the stench of hot tar seeps in through our leaky windows because the City decided this would be a good time to repave the avenue below, it would be the suburban pastoral longing for a backyard garden where I could grow tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and herbs. Growing up, this is what my parents set aside a space on the side of the house for, lined by a raspberry bush and just steps from the sour cherry tree. Sadly, the tree died just as I developed a taste for the tart cherries, the raspberry bush became overrun with poison ivy, and the last round of landscaping whittled the garden area to half its size, but I swear, somewhere in the back there is still a matted indentation from the Summer of the Zucchini Bats. Which brings me to my very first cookbook, aptly titled something along the lines of My Very First Cookbook.