Cinnamon Blondies

Cinnamon Blondies

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp salt
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract

* * * * * * *

directions

* * * * * * *

- preheat oven to 350

- cream the butter and sugar together

- add eggs and vanilla

- stir the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together

- slowly add to butter mixture

- grease the bottom of a 9x13 pan

- press the cookie mixture in the pan

- bake 20 minutes

- stir 1/4 cup of sugar with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and sprinkle over top of the blondies

- cool, cut and serve

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

3 large eggs

1 15 ounce can of pumpkin puree

1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 premade pie crust

* * * * * * * *

directions

* * * * * * * *

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Make pie crust according to directions

Mix all of the filling ingredients together until combined

Bake for one hour and place on a wire rack to cool

no bake chocolate & peanut butter bars - I'm Back..

My new job doesn't really give me a lot of time to blog much anymore. I am going to try to actually post all the new things I've made. I do bake and cook a lot, I just don't get the chance to update everything on here.

no bake chocolate & peanut butter bars

***Filling***

* 1 jar (16 oz) peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
* 2 cups of graham cracker crumbs

* 2 cups powdered sugar

* 1 stick of butter

*** Topping ***

* 1 bag of chocolate chips (any kind you want)
* 1 stick of butter

--directions--

-On the stovetop, put one stick of butter in a pot and melt slowly

- add peanut butter and graham cracker crumbs and powdered sugar

- stir until combined

-- grease your pan

(however thick you want them - the above bars were 8x8)

-- press the warm peanut butter mixture in the bottom

-- on the stovetop, put one stick of butter in a new pot and melt slowly

-- add the chocolate chips on low and stir until melted

-- pour melted chocolate over peanut butter filling

-- spread until it covers the peanut butter

-- refrigerate for at least an hour

-- cut and serve

Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake

I had some fresh blueberries sitting in my fridge that I didn't know what to do with. I've been wanting to make a coffee cake for awhile since my husband loves coffee cake. So I decided to find a recipe for a coffee cake to make. So I went to my favorite recipe hunting ground - recipezaar and found one that looked good.

Ingredients

Cake
1 cup blueberries
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
1 egg

Streusel
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, softened

Combine the blueberries and 2 T flour;
toss gently and set aside.

Combine 1/2 cup butter, 2 cups flour,
2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 cup sugar
and 3/4 cup milk in a large bowl.

Beat 2 minutes at medium speed with an electric mixer.

Add egg; beat one minute.

Fold in blueberries.

Spread batter evenly in a greased and floured 9-inch square pan.

Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon in a bowl;

cut in 1/4 cup butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Spread this mixture over the batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Grandma's Cinnamon Apple Cake

DH's grandma made this cake today. We had some when we visited and it was soo good! I asked her for the recipe. So this is not something I made, but it is really very good!

Grandma's Apple Cinnamon Cake

Ingredients
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Braeburn apples, peeled, cored, and grated
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Directions
Heat oven to 325 degrees.
Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
In large bowl, beat eggs, sugar, and oil until blended.
Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt
mix until well combined.
Stir in apples and nuts.
Spread batter in pan and bake 65 to 70 minutes

S'mores Cookie Bars

I love smores. Who doesn't. We were talking about them on the knot board and I had the worst craving for them. I found this recipe along time ago and knew it was finally time to make these. They came out great. They were a big hit when I brought them to my friend's house for after dinner dessert.

They only thing is they are sticky and messy and a pain in the butt to cut and get over to her house for dinner. I kept having to put them back in the oven because they weren't done. Plus having to wait for them to cool didn't make them exactly quick either.

So only make these if you are not in a hurry. I thought oh I have two hours - thats plenty of time. Wrong! Prep took me about 20 minutes. Plus cooking and waiting for them to cool, I was thirty minutes late. I almost gave up on these and left without them. I'm glad I didn't though.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 8 graham crackers)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (my store was out of plain king sized bars - so I just bought milk chocolate chips and it turned out just fine.
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and/or line an 8-inch square baking pan.
2. Pulse graham crackers in a food processor until there are no big pieces left and there is only crumbs.

3. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined. Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan.
5. Place chocolate bars over dough (2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate if necessary to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick).

6. Spread the marshmallow fluff over the chocolate.

7. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff



8. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until lightly browned.
9. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Super Chocolatey Fudgy Brownies

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
6 oz chocolate chips
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

* Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
* Grease an 8x8 pan
* In a saucepan melt the butter and the chocolate chips together. You can use any type of chocolate chips you want. I used milk chocolate.
* Remove from heat and pour into a bowl.
* Stir in sugar, eggs and vanilla
* Stir in the cocoa powder
* Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together
*Stir a little at a time into the wet ingredients
* Pour into pan
* Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

This goes great with my chocolate frosting recipe

Super Easy Chocolate Frosting

This makes the best frosting and it is so easy!!

2 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup butter (softened)
5 tablespoons milk (any kind)
3/4 cup cocoa powder

* Combine all ingredients together in a bowl and mix together.
* I find its easiest to go in this order - powdered sugar, milk, cocoa, vanilla, butter
* You can adjust the recipe to include more cocoa if you want it more chocolatey

Fudgy Blondies

These blondies are moist and rich. Ooey gooey, everything I look for in brownies without the chocolately goodness.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 large eggs
4 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease a 9x13 pan
3. sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside
4. Whisk melted butter, brown sugar and vanilla together in a medium bowl until combined
5. Add eggs - one at a time and whisk together
6. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture
7. Pour into pan, smooth out with a spatula and bake until top is shiny and golden - 22-25 minutes.

Magnolia Vanilla Cupcakes

I have never been to Magnolia Bakery in New York. I have heard of it. I don't know how they taste, or if this recipe is the same. The cupcakes were really good. I'm not sure I'd want to keep using two different flours in the future. I made them for my sister who lived in new york for awhile.

Here's the website: http://www.magnoliacupcakes.com/

This recipe supposedly came from their cookbook... I found it online.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups self rising flour
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 350
• Sift two flours together
• cream butter until smooth, add sugar gradually and beat until fluffy. About 3 minutes.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each
• Add some of the dry ingredients, and then milk, and then some more dry, and then the vanilla, and then the rest of the dry ingredients.
• Mix until combined remembering to scrape down the sides, but do not overmix.
• Scoop into a cupcake pan with liners. Fill them 3/4 full
• Bake 20-25 minutes

I did not make the frosting, as I haven't ventured to try it yet. Maybe one day. :) I just used a plain vanilla frosting in a can.

Gingerbread People

One of the cookies I made this year for christmas was Gingerbread Men People.

This was a relatively easy recipe. I think I rolled them too thin because they were pretty fragile. My platter looked like a battlefield - broken heads, legs, arms, people broken in half... but they were pretty tasty anyways.

An important lesson I learned was do not frost when you are tired. Seriously.. some of them just looked ragged or messy... and I had a failed attempt at red frosting that turned out hot pink.. lol..

Oh and I didnt take much pictures because i forgot..

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup butter at room temp

1/2 cup molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 350
• sift together flour, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and cinnamon and set aside
• cream butter and sugar until smooth
• Beat in the molasses, water and vanilla
• Gradually mix in the flour mixture a little at a time
• Cover with plastic wrap and refridgerate 2 hours or until firm.
  (I left mine in for about half a day)
• On a lightly floured surface - roll out dough just under 1/4" thick.
• Use cookie cutters of your choice
  

• Place cookies on a greased cookie sheet
• Bake 9 - 12 minutes
• Let cool five minutes and then move to a wire rack to cool
  
  

  

• Frost (or not) and enjoy!
  
  

Mint Chocolate Brownies

These brownies are really good. I love the ooey gooey brownies that are still soft days later.. and well this is it. I was kind of worried when I looked at the batter and it didn't look like the typical store bought mix batter. It was lighter - much lighter. I doubled checked the recipe and I didnt think I had missed anything. So I figured, I'll just bake them and see if they get darker.. and they did..

Ingredients
1 cup of Butter

2 cups of sugar

4 eggs

2 tablespoons of vanilla

1 package of andes mint chips (in the baking aisle)
OR a package of whole andes mints chopped

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Grease a 9x13 baking pan
• Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat - let sit for a minute or two to cool down





• Add melted butter to sugar, vanilla and eggs





• Sift together the flour, cocoa and salt
• Slowly add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture
• Add 1/2 cup of chopped andes mints and fold them in





• Pour the batter into a pan and spread it out
• Bake 35-40 minutes
• Right when the brownies come out, pour the rest of the mint chips on top
Wait for them to melt a little and start spreading the chocolate out with a spoon




Cut the brownies right away and let cool for 5 minutes or until you can safely touch the pan with your bare hands
remove brownies and let cool on a wire rack

Enjoy! :)

This made 12 brownies

Chex Muddy Buddies

I first had these when I was a kid. Who wouldn't like chocolate, peanut butter and powdered sugar together. Yum.

Its super easy, very snackable and people of all ages love it. I know I still do. I make this for movie nights when I don't feel like eating buttery popcorn.

Ingredients

6 cups chex cereal (any kind you like)

1/4 cup butter

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Now you can find two sets of instructions for this - stove top or microwave. I never really feel comfortable melting chocolate in the microwave. Its better to melt it over low in a saucepan - but to each their own.

• In a saucepan over low heat, melt the butter.
• When the butter has melted, add the peanut butter and chocolate chips.
• Stir until melted and immediately take off the heat.
  



• In a big mixing bowl, measure out 6 cups of cereal
• Pour the chocolate mixture over the top and stir until all the cereal is covered - you can add more cereal if you think there is enough chocolate to go around.
  


• Put the chocolate covered cereal in a big Ziploc bag and pour the powdered sugar on top.
• Close the bag and shake until the cereal is covered with powdered sugar.
• You can pour the cereal on foil or wax paper to cool and dry, or you can just pour in a bowl and eat while its still gooey. Which is my choice. Its not really sticky or anything, it will eventually set. I'm a big fan of eating stuff while its still gooey or melty... but if thats not your thing. Then let it cool and dry first.

If you haven't tried this - I really recommend this. It satisfies both my crunch cravings that popcorn does AND my sweet cravings. Anything thats left, put in a Ziploc bag or a Tupperware on the counter.

nom nom nom

Red Velvet Cupcakes

A lot of people have been talking about red velvet lately. I think the first time I saw red velvet cake was in the movie Steel Magnolias. I love that movie and that crazy armadillo cake.

When I read the ingredient list of red velvet cake, it seemed like something that both my chocolate hating husband and I would like. It has a little chocolate, but not enough to make my husband turn up his nose. It seemed like the perfect compromise.

I think these cupcakes came out really nice, moist and flavorful. Definetly worth a try. I'm sure there are tons of recipes out there. This is just one that was recommended to me.

Ingredient List

3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
3 eggs
2 tablespoons red food coloring
1 1/4 teaspoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons water

1. Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.
   
2. With a flour sifter, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder in a bowl and set it aside.
   
   If you don't have a flour sifter, I use can use a handheld strainer. Really though they arent expensive. I bought mine for $12 at Macy's.
   
   

   
   
3. In a seperate bowl, mix the vegetable oil, sugar and buttermilk together until combined.
   



4. Then add the eggs, food coloring, vinegar, vanilla and water and mix well
   



5. Slowly start to mix in the powdered ingredients a little at a time. Be careful to not over mix. Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
   



6. Line a cupcake baking pan with cupcake liners and scoop the batter in using an ice cream scoop. I used a medium cookie scoop.


7. Do a couple of test cupcakes, if you want. This batter does not rise much, so make sure to fill the liners at least 3/4 of the way up.


8. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean


9. Remove from cupcake tray and let cool on a wire rack.
   



10. When the cupcakes are cool you can frost them and add decoration.