chocolate crinkles

A sweet friend of mine gave me this book recently and I've been dying to make something from it. The book is filled with the cutest illustrations of directions in a fun, nicely designed layout. Just my kind of book if you ask me (my friends know me oh so well)! I decided to make crinkles which I had never heard of before but reminded me of a traditional cookie I make during the holidays. Much to my surprise, the crinkles turned out to be more of a cake-like-brownie ball, even my not sweet loving fiance had a few. Needless to say, I can't wait to make another sweet treat from the cookiepedia.

Crinkles

Ingredients:
6 oz bittersweet chocolate. finely chopped
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
3/4 baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
powdered sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 325. Use a double broiler to melt the chocolate and butter slowly. Beat eggs and sugar until thick and smooth. Add the vanilla and melted chocolate mixture. Sift flour, powders and salt and gradually add to egg mixture. Cover dough with plastic and let chill for 2 hours. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Rolls 1 inch balls or dough and toss in powdered sugar. Bake for 8-10 minutes rotating half way. Cool the sheets 5 minutes before transferring to cooling racks. Enjoy!

pie heaven

In honor of pie day yesterday, I decided to make an traditional chicken pot pie but with twist. Instead of pie crust, I topped the dish off with good old buttermilk biscuits (my man's favorite) It turned out a million times better than I thought and really tasted like chicken pot pie. My two secrets were using cream of chicken soup and the biscuit topping. You can add whatever veggies you feel like that day and chicken of course, bake without the biscuits for about 20-30 minutes. Then top with biscuits and cook for 20 more. Pretty much the best comfort food, hands down. Get your pie tins friends and get to cooking! 

source

baked apples crock pot style

Ever since I pinned this beaut, I've been wanting to give these guys a try and last night's rainy weather proved to be the best time. I and every other member of my family has a huge affinity with everything apple pie. So I couldn't wait to try a spin off of the same tasty treat. I followed this recipe and despite my crock pot being on super power and cooking them a bit too long, they still tasted pretty delish with the customary scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

twice as nice chocolate brownies

Whenever we rally up our friends and have a dinner party or get together, it wouldn't be the same without me baking up some yummy treats. This weekend I decided to try my hand at brownies from scratch. Yep no box needed just lots of chocolate. I might even be bold enough to say that they were easier than the box versions. Try it for yourself!

Ingredients:

2 cups chocolate chips, divided

1/2 cup butter cut into pieces

3 large eggs

1 1/4 cup all- purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking pan. Melt 1 cup of chocolate chips and butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat and add eggs, flour, sugar, vanilla and baking soda. Stir in remaining chocolate chips and nuts. Spread into baking pan. Bake 18-22 minutes. Cool and cut into bars.

Happy baking friends! 

guilt-free pizza

This weekend we are making our annual trip up to our favorite city, San Francisco. It's kind of become a tradition between the man  friend and I that we make a trip up there every year to enjoy all that the city offers. We love to try new restaurants, relax with a drink, explore new shops, and wander the city finding new areas we've never found. There is honestly so much to do in that city that I can hardly wait for the weekend. That being said, one of the main things we do is eat and drink, therefore my goal this week is to eat a little bit healthier so I have some room to indulge in whatever I'd like on vacation. After all, isn't that what vacation's about? A few weeks ago I came across this idea for a new way to make pizza from Lauren Conrad actually and I can't wait to try it this week. A cauliflower crust pizza that's low in carbs but still as tasty as real dough. You know you want to try it too!

photo

oh nutmeg

Even though the holidays are over, I still have a large box of cookies left over that I can't seem to part with. Holiday cookies are one of my favorite things and I suppose it's something that I like to savor a little after the holiday madness is over. One of the more fun cookies to make is what my family calls nutmeg logs. It's kind of like playing with play dough, you get to roll the dough out into long strips and cut them into little logs. You then frost them with powdered sugar frosting and scrap it to look like wood. Check it out for yourself.

nutmeg logs

sift 3 cups flour and 1 tsp nutmeg. cream 1 cup butter and 3/4 cup sugar. blend in 1 egg and 2 tsp vanilla.  gradually add the ingredients and mix well. shape dough into long rolls about 1/2 '' diameter. cut into 3'' lengths and place on un-greased baking sheet. bake until light brown 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees. cool and frost with powdered sugar frosting. mark frosting with fork to resemble bark. sprinkle with nutmeg. 

sprinkle wonderland

Yesterday you could've called me master cookie maker. Like I've said before, every year I dedicate one day to making all of my grandma's traditional Christmas cookies and let me tell you my house smelt amazing. One of my favorites that I make are spritz cookies. Half of the reason they are so fun is because I dye them red and green before really decorating them, so they already have some cookie character.

Grandma's Sprtiz Recipe

Mix 1 cup soft butter, 2 1/3 cup sugar, 3 egg yolks, 1 tsp vanilla. Work with hands. Add gradually 2 1/2 cup sifted four. Chill dough and run through a cookie press onto ungreased cookie sheet. Decorate with candies and sprinkles.

Bake until set but not brown. Temp 400 for 7- 10 minutes.

* If you want colored dough, before chilling dough, half the dough and drop a few drops of food coloring in each pile and mix until desired color.

hello monday: bakery in New York

Happy Monday Folks! Today is the day when I gather up all my sweet ingredients and get down to the nitty gritty of baking ALL day. I would absolutely love to be able to do that in a rather large bakery kitchen in New York City. I would enlist my few friends who live out there and by the end of the day we would be covered in sprinkles and frosting. Now that's my kind of Monday!

Here's to a productive holiday week!

source

Russian Tea Cakes

One of my most favorite traditions is baking my Grandma's cookies for the holidays. It was something that I looked forward to eating every year as a kid and once I got old enough, she taught me how to make them and I have been making them ever since. My favorite cookie by far out of the batch, is what we call Russian Tea Cakes or I've heard them be called Mexican wedding cookies too. I think I might have shared these in the past but they are that good! 

Russian Tea Cakes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cream 1 cup butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. Blend well (working with your hands) ad 2 1/4 cup sifted flour, 1 tsp salt and 3/4 cup chopped walnuts. Chill. Form into balls. Bake 14-17 minutes. Cool, then roll in powdered sugar.

holiday traditions

The holiday season definitely holds a special place in my heart because of traditions that I love and look forward to more than anything. One of those traditions is baking my Grandma's christmas cookies every year for Christmas time. Her cookies just taste like Christmas to me and I'm beyond anxious to make them. Next week I will start sharing a few of her recipes that you might be able to incorporate in your holiday tradition. In the mean time, here is my latest holiday cookie that is almost as good as Grandma's. These little dark chocolate stars are quite tasty and next time you head into your local Trader Joe's, you'd be silly to not pick up a box, or two! 

photo

three ingredient cookie

Last night, the chilly temperature outside made me ready to get warm and bake up some treats. I had a bit of a different sweet cookie idea in mind (peppermint meringues) until I was gathering my ingredients and my man peeked his head in the kitchen and said COOKIES, that sounds good! (he's not the sweet type, ironic I know) So I compromised because it's rare that that he craves sweets and experimented with a 3 ingredient peanut butter cookie. Yes, only 3 ingredients, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup peanut butter, and 1 egg. Definitely the easiest and tastiest peanut butter cookie ever. I would recommend these for the outside cookie of a make your own ice cream sandwich.   

If you're looking for more of a Thanksgiving treat, try these pumpkin sandwhich cookies, I'll be making them this week too! 

pumpkin on pumpkin

You know it's fall when I start baking anything with pumpkin and I couldn't be happier. On one of my usual trips to the market during the week, I was able to sample a delicious take on the fall staple, pumpkin butter. I tried it with an open mind and found it delightful, not too heavy and the perfect spread for a little spice of pumpkin. I knew I wanted to accompany it with a bread of some sort, 1 because the bottle says if mixed with cream cheese, you won't eat anything else (OK it doesn't say exactly that, but as soon as I thought of the combo, I knew it's be to die for!) and 2 because who doesn't like pumpkin bread or even better, bread's little cousin, muffins. 

I can assure you that this combination of pumpkin on pumpkin is killer. Although either by themselves are equally as tasty.  So get out your pumpkin and start baking!

mr oreo & mrs brownie

My latest sweet creation married two of my favorites, brownies and oreos. I'm not quite sure why I've never tried mixing these two before but thank goodness for left over oreos. I decided to whip up this treat over the weekend because 1. sweets always make a good present for friends and 2. it was a gloomy day and baking almost always makes me feel better. 

I simply followed a normal brownie recipe and then after researching a few oreo brownie recipes, I decided to toss my crushed oreos in a tablespoon or two of flour (to prevent them from sinking to the bottom) and bake. I waited for them to cool then cut in small squares. Easy as that! For a nice package, I put the brownies in parchment and plastic wrapped with baker's twine, a tag made from a TJ's bag with "eat up" stamped on it.

nutella muffins

Yesterday morning I was craving something sweet for breakfast. I quickly went to my go-to sweet finder lately, pinterest and found multiple recipes with nutella, SOLD! I whipped up this recipe and was pretty pleased with the results, a sweet filling treat to start the morning off right.  

salted caramel

When it comes to sweets, if there is ever an option to choose between flavors I always go with the salty sweetness that is salted caramel. It has definitely become one of my favorite tastes for sweet treats. Lately, I have found some very enticing recipes and can't wait to try all of them, you should too! 

 salted caramel and chocolate pudding pops : recipe

salted caramel madeleines : recipe 

salted caramel french macaroons : recipe

pleasantly pineapple

During the summer months, it's an oven in my little apartment so deciding to bake something has to be for a super good reason. It was my dad's birthday last week and I figured that was as good enough of a reason as any to beat the heat and fire up my oven for some late night cookie making. On the menu, my dad's favorite childhood cookie, grandma's pineapple recipe. These tasty morsels are the lightest treat and the perfect cookie for summer cravings. They are not too heavy but just the right amount of sweet. Won't you hop on the pineapple train with me?

this is pretty close to what they look like, my after photo was warped because my camera is still not working, I promise to get it working soon!

grandma's pineapple cookies
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c butter
1/2 c crushed and drained pineapple
1 egg
2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 c chopped walnuts
1 tbsp pineapple juice

In medium bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Then add a beaten egg and pineapple juice. In a separate bowl, sift flour and add the remaining dry ingredients. Add dry mixture to cream mixture. Drop spoonfuls on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Enjoy!!

( 1, 2)

grandma's secret weapon

Over the sun-drenched long weekend, I thought it only fitting to bring out my grandma's secret weapon for our dinner with friends. Of course it's a dessert because thats what my grandma did best and it doesn't disappoint one bit, especially in the ingredients department (it only needs 3) Imagine a combo between a cherry cake, pie and cobbler...

Grandma's secret weapon aka easy homemade cherry cobbler

All you need is a can of cherry pie filling, a box of yellow cake mix and a stick of butter. Empty the cherry pie filling in baking dish, sprinkle yellow cake mix all over the top of the pie filling, smooth it out, melt 2/3 stick of butter and drizzle over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until crust is light brown. Serve warm or cold and for an extra kick add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It's the simplest and most delicious dessert.

sorry there are no photos of this tasty dish, but before I had a chance to snap some photos, it had been devoured.

source

rekindling my love

I first discovered Nutella when a friends sister started to promote it through the youth crowd in my neighborhood many many years ago. My second and most memorable experience with the chocolately spread was during my traveling adventures to Europe, where it was a main staple in my diet during that trip. As of lately, I have since rekindled my love affair with this yummy hazelnut cocoa spread and can't wait to try it in more recipes.

nutella sandwich cookies

my favorite anytime snack, nutella on toast

my newest pairing, nutella with fruit even green apples

a fun wallpaper

Just last night, per the warm summer weather that has already arrived in my apartment, I was craving a s'more and thought why not with nutella? Basically it was the best s'more I've ever had!

( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 )

two pizza pies

The boyfriend and I started the week off right with homemade pizza and a movie night. (we watched the king's speech, a must see if you haven't already) With a prior 'not so successful' attempt under my belt, this round of pizza making was supreme. Although these pizzas were meatless, it did not lack flavor in any bite.

his pizza - plain dough, tomato sauce, chopped onions, mozzarella, spinach, marinated artichoke hearts, tomatoes

my pizza - herb dough, pesto, sliced garlic, mozzarella, chopped tomatoes

I can't say I had a favorite because they were both so different and so tasty. I'd gladly make them again for any quick pizza craving.

Now that's amore!

On a super side note: we got a little face lift up top today. I've been trying to figure out for awhile now a simple design that I felt fit. Sorry it took me so long, but this one is here to stay!

sweet meringues

I have my grandma to thank for my love of all things sweet. She was the one that taught me how to bake and how to appreciate the hard work that goes into making the sweet morsels that you enjoy later. There was one cookie in particular that was my favorite and surprisingly because it had the least ingredients. The famous brown and whites, mostly egg whites, sugar and chocolate chips. The catch is, baking them in the oven overnight, so the build up of these cookies was what I think made them taste twice as nice.

As I passed the cutest little french bakery the other day, close to my house, I was delighted to find an array of flavors of a similar cookie, meringues. I couldn't help but want them all, but I chose these three... mint & chocolate chips, vanilla with cocoa, and strawberry.

I must say those meringues are very pretty cookies and I have decided that my next baking project is making real meringues (not my grandma's version) with this recipe. The best part about these cookies, besides feeling like a kid eating them because you have a face full of crumbs, is that they literally melt in your mouth. A sweet snack to be paired with a nice cup of tea.