Chocolate Chip Toffee Oatmeal Cookies

I made these cookies last week and wasn't planning on posting them for a bit. When I saw that Love & Olive Oil posted similar cookies yesterday, I decided to just put it up now. I got the original recipe from my oldest cookbook The Best of Country Cooking 2003 (it was a wedding present). It's a fantastic recipe (Toffee Malted Cookies) and I've only tweaked it a bit. Years ago, a friend gave me a tip to grind the oats in a food processor or blender. It's brilliant! You still get the nutty taste but don't have as lumpy a texture. I do it for all oatmeal cookies.

What you'll need (plus eggs *sigh*):

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 teaspoon vanilla paste (or extract)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 - 2 cups regular oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup toffee bits

1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips (the original adds 1 cup chopped Whoppers instead of chocolate chips. Both taste divine.)

Pour oats into a food processor. Pulse until powdery. 

Combine with flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

In a separate large bowl, cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add pudding mix and vanilla, beat well. Add flour and oat mixture to creamed mixture, mixing until completely combined. Fold in toffee and chocolate chips (dough will be stiff). Spoon onto parchment covered baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12-15 minutes. Let sit for 2 minutes before cooling on wire racks. Yields 5 or 6 dozen. 

(These are actually a different kind of cookie that I'm working on...but I wanted a "ready to freeze" picture)

Whenever I make cookies, I bake a dozen or so and freeze the rest. I scoop the dough into cookie sized balls and freeze them on a tray before transferring them to a ziplock freezer bag. This way I can have fresh cookies for the husband and kids in ten minutes, and cookie dough instantly for me.

Apple Cinnamon Parfait

Two weeks ago I was down with the flu. It was awful. Food lost all of it's appeal. That's how I know I was really sick. I lived off of diet Coke (does anyone else out there love the feel of carbonation on a sore throat?) and apples. 

Over the summer I got into a parfait rut. I was eating one each morning. Yogurt, berries and granola = super yummy. A friend told me that apples, cinnamon and yogurt were also a delicious combo. She was very right.

Apple Cinnamon Parfait:

Your favorite kind of apple (I used Gala), chopped
Vanilla yogurt
Granola (our favorite is Cascadian Farm but I didn't have any)
Cinnamon, to taste (I use maybe 1/2 - 1 teaspoon?)

Just toss whatever amount of each into a bowl. I put it in the cup so it would actually look like a parfait in the picture. Usually I dump it all in a bowl and have at it. I normally eat this minus the granola. The apple makes it crunchy and filling. One of my favorite breakfasts. Enjoy!

An {L} Birthday

My baby is two as of yesterday. Crazy. We had a big party for her inside our church building (originally to beat the Houston heat and humidity, but we also avoided having a rain-soaked party.). For food we had chocolate cupcakes, using the same Martha Stewart recipe I always use. It made 36 cupcakes and around 13 mini-cupcakes. For the frosting, I beat 2 cups (4 sticks!) of softened butter with about 2 teaspoons of vanilla paste (you could use extract too). Then I added enough powdered sugar to make a really stiff icing. Finally, a few tablespoons of milk to get it to piping consistancy. I split it into thirds and colored each with Wilton icing colors (leaf green, pink, and violet). I made the frosting the night before the party, so in the morning I pulled it out of the fridge and let it sit at room temp for a bit, before beating in a little more milk. Then I piped it on:

I also made sugar cookies, using cousin Brenda's recipe:

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 cup shortening

2 eggs

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350*F. Beat sugar and shortening together. Add eggs; beat. Add corn syrup, vanilla, baking powder, soda and salt; mix. Add flour and mix until combined. Chill dough for an hour. Roll between lightly floured wax paper to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out cookies with cutters. Bake for 7-10 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

I found a tutorial for flooding cookies with royal icing. I used Wilton Meringue Powder and the royal icing recipe included (I added some almond extract; around a teaspoon or two).

It was surprisingly easy to do, though it will take some practice to make them look as good as the ones in the tutorial. I need a steadier hand but they turned out just fine (and really tasty):

And finally, as if that weren't enough for a two year old, I made suckers. Same reciped from this post, just some different flavors (grape, watermelon and cinnamon):

I had some issues with the colors. Above are the cinnamon flavored ones. They're supposed to be pink......yeah. Orange happened because I added the flavor before the color. As I started dropping the coloring in, the steam caused by the flavoring hit me square in the face. Think about it: hot, cinnamon-infused steam....my eyes immediately teared up, my throat started burning, it hurt to breathe......it was awful. So I cranked the kitchen fan on and opened the nearest window. I stirred as fast as I could and slopped it into the molds, before retreating to my bedroom (the furthest away). Luckily the girls, who were already down for their naps, remained unscathed. And that's why we have green, purple and.....orange:

We invited a lot of kids (24 + older/younger siblings), so I knew we'd need some good, entertaining games. Going with the theme of "L", we had the kids "Pin [tape] the Spot on the Leopard":

My husband drew this. Pretty awesome, right? After that, it was time to "Leap Across the Lily-pads":

I traced the lid to our cylindrical ottoman on a roll of green art paper and then cut out a pizza slice.

And lastly, we made Lion masks:

My poor husband spent nearly two hours cutting out these masks. He deserves a medal (and a hand massage). We tied some elastic through punched holes and:

ROARRRRR!!!

S'mores Bite

I found a S'mores Cupcake recipe on Tasty Kitchen and immediately printed it out, they looked so yummy. After a little thought I decided to change it up (I thought it might be too sugary with the frosting.). So I came up with these:

S'mores Bite (I picked this name because it cracks me up. Be assured that these are delish.)

The cupcake batter has very few changes; just size and ingredient order. Next time I make them, I'm going to use all honey rather than half sugar.

Ingredients:

2 whole eggs, separated

1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup honey (*or 1/2 cup, but don't add sugar)

1/4 cup sugar*

1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup milk

Marshmallow fluff

Milk chocolate chips

Extra graham cracker crumbs

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325*F.

Combine graham cracker crumbs, flour and baking powder in a small bowl; set aside. In large bowl, beat butter, honey, sugar*, vanilla and salt until well combined. Mix in egg yolks.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites on high until stiff peaks form; set aside:

Alternately add crumb mixture and milk to butter mixture, beating well after each addition:

Gently fold egg whites into batter until completely combined. It takes a minute, so be patient:

Spoon batter into a greased mini-muffin tin, 2/3 full.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Keep an eye on them. They seem to brown quickly. Remove from tins to wire rack and cool completely.

Fill a pastry or ziplock bag with marshmallow fluff. Cut off tip and pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

Place "frosted" cupcakes into the freezer for 5 minutes. While they chill, melt chocolate chips in a deep bowl. Take the cupcakes out of the freezer and dip each one into the chocolate, completely covering the marshmallow.

Sprinkle with extra graham cracker crumbs.

Return to the freezer or refrigerator to set the chocolate. Serve at room temperature.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Pomegranate Meringue

I bought a pomegranate on a whim a while ago and it sat on top of my fridge for a long time.  I finally decided that something had to be done with it and I came up with this:

chocolate pomegranate meringue

meringue:

6 egg whites, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 oz bittersweet chocolate shavings

3 tbsp cocoa powder

1/4 cup pomegranate juice (I'd suggest buying a bottle of it rather than trying to juice the fruit yourself. I stuck about half the seeds in the blender before I'd thought that far ahead and after several unhappy tries, I ended up using a new pair of my daughter's tights to strain the juice out.)

Refer to the Chocolate & Berry Meringue recipe for step-by-step pictures.  Preheat oven to 350*F.  Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper, draw a 10 inch circle and set aside.  Beat the egg whites on med-high until soft peaks form.  Continue beating on high and gradually add sugar, a tablespoon at a time, until stiff peaks form and sugar is dissolved.  Gently fold in chocolate shavings, cocoa and juice.  Spread meringue onto prepared sheet and place in oven.  Immediately reduce heat to 300*F and bake for 1 hr.  Remove from oven and cool completely.  Carefully peel off parchment paper and place meringue on a large platter.  Top with freshly whipped cream, extra chocolate shavings and pomegranate seeds. 

Gingerbread Mix & Cookies

My mom would make these cookies each year, starting around Halloween.  I remember her making this mix and rolling out the dough while listening to enya or Manheim Steamroller.  Good times.  These are still some of my favorite cookies.  You can even tweak the recipe a little to make gingerbread houses (I'll post about that later when we make some next week.).

Gingerbread Mix:

2 cups sugar

8 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp salt (if you use kosher, make it slightly heaping)

1 heaping tsp ground cloves

1 heaping tbsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

2 cups shortening

In a very large bowl, whisk together the first eight ingredients:

Once combined add shortening:

Using your hands (or you could use a pastry blender, I guess.  But where's the fun in that?) work the shortening in.  It should look a bit like cornmeal:

This makes about 13 cups of mix.  Store in an airtight container (or several, if you don't have anything large enough to hold it all). It will stay good for about 3 months, perfect for the holidays.

Gingerbread Cookies: 

3 cups gingerbread mix

1/4 cup flour

1/3 cup molasses

1 egg, slightly beaten (Funny note: when I cracked the egg below, it was one of those crazy ones with 2 yolks.  Crazy!)

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Make a well in mix, add other ingredients:

Using a fork, preferably the one you used to beat the egg, mix everything together as much as you can:

Sorry for the blurry pic.  I need a new camera in a bad way (cough-cough-hint-hint, Grant).  Back to the cookies: time to use your hands again.  Knead the dough together until it forms a nice smooth & soft dough:

Now it's time to roll it out on a lightly floured surface.  (As I sprinkled flour on the table, my 3 year old came up to me and said, "Mommy, you making a big mess! That's not fair!"  She let me get away with it when I told her it was for the cookies.) Roll dough out to a 1/4 inch thickness and cut into desired shapes:

Bake for 8 minutes on parchment covered cookie sheets.  This was the perfect amount of time to achieve a beautiful and soft cookie.  If you want a crunch, cook for a minute or two more.  Really, these cookies are good either way. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

What? Do I suffer from OCD? No, why do you ask?.......Ahem....Anyway, you could serve these as is or glaze them:

Almond Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp hot water

1 tsp almond extract

Whisk all ingredients together until smooth:

Brush onto the cooled cookies with a pastry brush or just drizzle back and forth with a spoon:

Let the glaze dry before stacking.  Enjoy!

Spiced Rice Crispy Treats

I found a recipe that added cinnamon to rice crispy treats and thought that some ground cloves wouldn't go amiss. And it didn't, these are tasty:

Spiced Rice Crispy Treats:

4 cups mini marshmallows

1/2 stick of butter

1/4 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon

a pinch of ground cloves

5 cups rice crispies

Over med-low heat, melt marshmallows and butter.  Stir until smooth.  Remove from heat and mix in cinnamon and cloves.  Add rice crispies, stir until evenly coated.  Press into greased  8" square pan.  Let set and cut into squares.  Enjoy!

Sweet Cuppin' Cakes?

Never fear, dear readers! I'm back. Of course, I never actually went anywhere. I'm not really sure why I haven't posted for so long. But here's a doozy for you: Yesterday, I made these Chocolate Balsamic Raspberry Cupcakes from Love and Olive Oil. The cake part was sooooooo good. Moist, light and fluffy, and chocolaty. mmmmmmm. I didn't have any almond meal or soy milk, so I just added more flour and used good ol' regular cow milk. The frosting.........well, it was a bit tart but good.......I just didn't love it with the cake. Too make it more pipe-able, I doubled the butter and added a bit more powdered sugar (I also used frozen raspberries rather than fresh).
And it has to be said: looking at this picture makes me think of this Cake Wreck. Just scroll down a bit, you'll see what I mean.

Birthday Cupcakes & Fruit Dip

My oldest is now 3. Old enough to show preferences for things like movies. Originally, I had planned on doing a Toy Story themed party, but life got in the way and before I knew it, I'd run out of time. Instead, her birthday turned into a pink-and-purple-fest. It started with my daughter picking out Tinkerbell plates, cups and napkins. Then she wanted pink and purple balloons. So I got matching streamers and the p & p party was born: I used the same chocolate cake recipe from Martha Stewart that I used for my brother's wedding cake. I made the full recipe and got 48 mini cupcakes and 21 regular sized cupcakes. I had to tweak the cooking time. The recipe said 25-35 minutes for the mini, and they were done in about 15 minutes. Cupcakes were finished in less than 20, rather than the 35-45 minutes. I used this buttercream formula for the frosting. I made one batch but only had enough to frost half of the cupcakes. I took half of the frosting and colored it purple with vanilla extract. The other half I colored pink and flavored with cherry extract. They were delish. I loved the cherry frosting with the chocolate cake. This is kind of funny to me because I hated when my mom would add cherries to chocolate cake batter, blah! I still think that's nasty, but the cherry frosting was wonderful.To dress up the cupcakes, I melted white chocolate chips and wrote out 3's and H's on parchment paper. After they hardened in the freezer I peeled them off and plonked them on the cupcakes: Next time I'll use a mold. They were OK, but, well I like things to look nice and neat. That does not describe these H's:
Oh well. I also made a super yummy fruit dip. I love this stuff. It's fluffy and just the right amount of sweetness.

Fruit Dip:

1 7 0z jar marshmallow cream
1 8 oz tub of strawberry cream cheese
1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped and sweetened to taste (you could use Cool Whip if you wanted)

Mix the marshmallow and cheese together until smooth. Gently fold in whipping cream. Serve with any kind of fruit you have on hand.