Special Treat for a Special Kiddo

So long story short, a friend of mine's daughter was pretty sick for awhile and I wanted to make her something for when she felt better. I've kinda go a knack for this baking thing so I asked what her favorite candy or flavor was and if she was a cupcake or a cookie gal. After given dark chocolate and cookies as clues, I whipped up a quick and easy but delicious treat.

I didn't want to bake a chocolate chunk cookie. While delicious, they can be boring and predictable especially since I've kind of created a reputation for myself. And, I found out anyway that she ended up making chocolate chip cookies herself the day before. So I went with one of my favorites, oatmeal. I must admit, I'm not a fan of dark chocolate. Gasp! I know I know. It is a preferred taste but the oatmeal muffled it a little to where I actually enjoyed it.

The whole process was really simple. I got a giant bar of dark chocolate and put it into the Ninja, just long enough to chop it up but not too much. I wanted chunks, not fine shreds.

I learned pretty quick that dark chocolate melts really fast while you're dealing with it so you don't want to keep it in the chopper too long anyway. Mixing it into the batter may have been an issue too so I just crumbled the chunks of chocolate on top of each cookie before putting them in the oven. 

I was kind of worried about that decision at first because it looked like a pool of chocolate on top but it worked out nicely and turned out pretty tasty. So don't be afraid of dark chocolate if you're not a fan, there are ways to make it work. Plus, it's supposed to be good for you!

The Way To a Man's Heart is Through ... Brownies.

Now I'm no relationship expert but I have learned that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Seriously, try it some time. I also mentioned before that my boyfriend has been asking for normal brownies. He pretty much gets everything I bake and I do a lot of baking for him so I complied because I do tend to go a little crazy sometimes. But I couldn't help but get a little gutsy with another batch.

 Can't really go wrong with a chocolate chunk brownie, which is what he constantly tells me. And he's' right and they turned out great as usual. I had some extra supplies though and a little something else I wanted to add. Can you tell what it is?








You know it's already a good day when I get to use the Ninja. Despite it sounding like I'm grinding up silverware it was great for chopping up some Reese's Pieces. I didn't want them to be too fine and just add them to the batter so I sprinkled the partially chopped chunks on top.

They turned out fabulous too. Peanut butter and chocolate just work. Super simple too and it'll work with any candy you'd like really. I thought about M&M's but it would be a little too much chocolate for me. (Gasp!) I know I know.

Not too shabby, eh? 

Experimenting gone right!

In my previous post I wrote about something I fiddled with, a new experiment with ingredients that didn't go so well. It happened before that instance too. (I'm still not over the mousse catastrophe).

Now I've made snicker doodles before.


I made a chai glaze that I was worried about but they ended up being fantastic so I knew I couldn't screw up a basic snicker doodle. (I highly recommend the recipe from yours truly) And since I can't just keep things simple I wanted something more than just cinnamon and sugar. It's still pumpkin season and without adding real pumpkin, partially so it would last longer, I made another glaze. I've gotten better at glazes/icing, where it actually looks like it should and I'm pretty proud of this one.

I usually use a mix of spices to get that pumpkin flavor. You know, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. And in a glaze or an icing you need is powdered sugar and some sort of liquid. If you want more of a clear glaze you can use water but I wanted it to be more like icing and a different consistency so it didn't look slimey. In that case you'd use milk or half and half but I found the best of both; my favorite coffee creamer this time of year. Pumpkin Pie Coffee Mate. I just mixed that with powdered sugar and even just a touch of shortening to thicken it up and it ended up being a lot better than I thought. If you are just trying to whip it up quick like I did without breaking out the mixer, make sure you get your arm muscles ready to go so you can continually whisk to get the air it needs. A good 3-4 minutes if you can manage.

I have found this to be the easiest method for frosting cookies. Just dunk them upside down and quickly flip them over and place on a cooling rack or a plate. I fell in love with my new three tier cooling rack from Wilton and it works perfectly if you just put some paper towels, wax paper, parchment paper or even tin foil below so you don't get icing all over your workspace. 

After a dip into the pool I sprinkle some pumpkin pie spice, or you can use the extra cinnamon sugar, just cinnamon, cloves, etc. etc. Let them rest and you're ready to go. 

Once again I have amazed myself. Not to toot my own horn but, toot toot! That's twice now within a month, remember these??

This is again something I will make again, or at least a variation. I haven't given up on experimenting despite some disasters I've made, from cookies and brownies as hard as rocks and mousse that turned into soup. I'm not giving up and hope you learned as much as I have!

You Live and Learn

So I always have new ideas and love experimenting with ingredients. Sometimes its' amazing (see these cupcakes and these cookies) and sometimes I screw up. Bad. (See my giant mousse disaster). This is another one of those not-so-smart instances. I thought it'd be a good idea but maybe my execution was off.

Peanut butter and jelly brownies. Sounds like it would just work. Chocolate, peanut butter and my favorite, grape jelly. I figure I'd give it a shot, can't be too bad right? Well, there's something to be said about jelly.

Looks are deceiving. I thought I was genius and so excited to try these. But the jelly. When jelly gets hot it's gooey and would be pretty good in the center of peanut butter and chocolate. Well, once the brownies are cool enough to be removed, it kind of turns into a rock. 

You could break teeth with these things after a day. I was extremely disappointed and am currently trying to figure out ways to fix it because I still like the idea. Moral of the story: Jelly is not so good after it's been heated and cooled. Unless you need to get rid of some teeth.

I'm still going to shoot for brownies. My boyfriend constantly tells me to just make "normal brownies." I can't help it. I have to add something extra. After all, we've learned that even with cookies, I need a little something extra.

He'll get normal brownies but I'm also going to experiment with Reese's Pieces again. To Be Continued…

No Such Thing as Too Much…. Peanut Butter

So I'm not a huge fan of just regular old peanut butter cookies. I'll eat them but I'd rather make something a little more. I am a big fan of Reese's Pieces and I bought them with intensions of using them in Puppy Chow but changed my mind. I had a craving for cookies and I know my boyfriend loves peanut butter cookies. I like candy in cookies so I made peanut butter Reese's Pieces cookies. Genius. I impressed myself on this one.

I had a few worries. One being that it may be too much peanut butter. The candy coating evened it out nicely and the consistent and even taste of peanut butter in Reese's Pieces is different than that in a cookie. It was rather harmonious, if you will.

Another worry was that I got a little happy with the Reese Pieces. I put the entire bag in one batch and at one point it looked like more candy than cookie. Again, I was wrong. You really can't put too much in I guess. The more the merrier.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised and amaze myself sometimes. These will be made again.

Pretty in Pink

Last Friday I had the pleasure of babysitting my three-year-old niece for a few hours and I thought, what better way to have fun than teach her my favorite hobby: baking!

This little cutie patootie is kind of partial to the color pink. Kind of as in that's all she talks about so of course we had to translate it into a cupcake. Now I'm new to the whole "pinkalicious" movement but she loves it. So I went with it and we created the Pinkalicious cupcake.

Nothing too fancy, just some food dye, sprinkles and yellow cake. But hey, pink cupcakes are a big deal.

I've decided to always make my own frosting from now on. I never really noticed how much of a difference there is before but it's definitely there. It makes my teeth hurt thinking about the stuff in a tub so I taught Erin how to make it and well, she got a little heavy on the mixer. 

After letting the cupcakes cool we were ready to frost and no pinkalicious cupcake is complete with out some pinkalicious sprinkles. I've never seen someone so excited over pink cupcakes and sprinkles but that made it all worth it. 

And there you have it, super simple cupcakes that taste great and a super fun project for you and your favorite little one.