I'm in love with these Pumpkin Brownies

I had a bunch of leftover pumpkin puree from Thanksgiving, and I will admit that I used it up in it's entirety for three batches of this recipe. From the very first time I made it, I loved it, and I'm not even a big pumpkin fan. I love me some chocolatey brownies, but they complimented each other amazingly in this Pumpkin Brownie recipe.

Minty Sugar Cookies

One of my mom's close friends from work made these sugar cookies with minty hershey's kisses in the center, and I decided to make it my own.

So of course, I started from scratch. My base recipe was for a sugar cookie:

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

But I added about half a cup of candy canes that had gone through a food processor into the dough, in addition to a teaspoon of peppermint extract. In place of the hershey's kiss, I put an Ande's mint in the center.

Here they are before I put them in the oven:



And then afterwards :)

Recipes I Haven't Written About Yet

Pumpkin Brownies
Chocolate Chip Caramel Rice Krispies
Mint Chocolate Chip Rice Krispies
White Chocolate Chip Craisin Muffins

Coming soon!

Wingin' it with Bread

We had three old apples sitting in our fruit basket next to a bag of newly bought red delicious looking apples. I wanted to bake with the gross apples while I could, so I peeled them, sliced them, and put them in the food processor, and then into this recipe.

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 ounces butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (I replaced this with 3 apples)
  
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Honestly, it went so fast that I couldn't even get a picture of it. It was so fucking good. I had to make in it a cake pan, and guessed entirely on the time (40 or so minutes total) but it worked out. I'd recommend wingin' it.

Chocolate Chip Banana Crumb Muffins

This morning I woke up at 7am, & couldn't get back to sleep. My brain was awake -- and thinking about muffins! I wanted to use up the bananas I bought that were finally ripe, too, so I looked for a recipe & found this one for Banana Crumb Muffins.

I added chocolate chips, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, & a random amount of cinnamon to the batter. I just sprinkled cinnamon into the mix until the batter tasted good, honestly, haha. For the crumbly part, I cheated. I had some of the crumb mix from a crumb cake box mix leftover, so I just put generous heaps of that on top of each muffin.

They took a few more minutes to bake than the recipe said they would, but the wait was worth it -- these are SO good! Moist, melt in your mouth, cinnamon-y goodness. Here's what they look like:

Minty Chocolate Covered Pretzels

These mint candies have been sitting in my baking cabinet for too long! So tonight on a whim I used them to cover chocolate-y pretzels, along with a few almonds. I melted the chocolate, put the mint candies in the food processor until they were almost dust, & that was all the prep necessary! The mint adds a refreshing twist to one of my most favorite treats :)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

This recipe combines two of the best things, so I pretty much had to give it a try. I didn't follow the instructions entirely though. Halfway into the baking process, I took a knife to it and swirled the melted cookie dough around to make it look mosaic-y instead of just messy. Here's the final product:




It was good! Nice & chewy. It was mostly gone the morning after I made it, so I guess everyone enjoyed it ;)

Gorilla Bread might just be the greatest thing ever

It's been way too long since I've baked and/or blogged, BUT I did bake this and not tell you about it :X

A while ago it was requested that I do something with cinnamon, so I found this amazing recipe from Paula Deen. It's called Gorilla Bread, and it is amazing. If you're a cinnamon fan & you've never had it, you need to make it asap! Not only is it delicious beyond belief, but it's beautiful.

I substituted the walnuts for pecans, & I added chocolate chips in with the cream cheese.







I will DEFINITELY be making this again. My mom said it beat out everything else I've ever made. I would suggest this recipe to pretty much anyone :)

Peanut Butter Pie in an Oreo Crust

I wanted to make a pie with an oreo crumb crust, so I found this recipe & made it this morning.
Instead of just drizzling chocolate over the pie, I sprinkled chopped up bits of candy on top. Here's what it looked like:


It was pretty damn good!

Strawberry Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

These turned out SO good. For the strawberry cupcakes, I used a strawberry cake box mix, but I didn't follow the directions. I combined the cake mix with a 20 oz. can of strawberry pie filling & three eggs.

For the icing, I used this recipe. Then, I added whatever candy toppings I could find in my baking cabinet. M&Ms, mini hershey bars, sprinkles, chocolate chips, etc. -- they all worked awesomely. They were perfect candidates to test out my new cupcake stand! They look beautiful, if I do say so myself :P

Pillow Cookies! (Mom's personal favorite)

This recipe has been on my mind for so long, & I finally got to make it! And they are SO good. Sinfully good, actually.


Brownies + Cookie Dough = The Greatest.

A brownie INSIDE cookie dough = Even better!
I can't find any pictures of the inside, so click here to see the inside of someone else's.
Here's one of my huge ass cookies:



They're crispy cookies on the outside, with a soft & chewy brownie center. I'm in love.

Blueberry Cookies

I was at Costco the other day, & these gorgeous blueberries caught my eye. I had to bake with them. So I went to one of my favorite baking blogs to see what I could do with them, & I found this recipe.

I didn't do the recipe exactly as is though. I made the blueberry cookies the way I wanted, & dipped some of them in chocolate sauce.



I wish I had gotten better pictures, but the lighting situation was bad, & the boys in my house inhaled these so fast I didn't get a chance to figure out how to accommodate. But trust me, these are GOOD!

Cake Balls!

They are the newest baking fad & I had to try & make 'em. They're very decadent & heavy, not my thing, but everyone at my house LOVED them. I'm planning to make more as gifts in the future, for sure.

I originally read about cake balls here, but you can mix & match cake mixes, icing flavors, & toppings. For my cake balls, I baked a funfetti cake, mixed it with chocolate frosting, coated them in chocolate, & sprinkled some color on top. Here's what they looked like:
I made about 50 of these, but most of them were eaten before I was able to get a picture!

Fun with Food Coloring: A Rainbow Cupcake Attempt

My little cousins & I played around with a white cake mix & food coloring this weekend! I wanted to follow this recipe, but little kids will do what they want, so it didn't turn out as I had planned. But it was okay, because we still got some pretty cool results :) Here are some of the shots I took during this event:

Fresh Fruit Tart with Ginger Snap Crust

Last weekend was the first time I'd ever made anything like this, so I was a little tentative, but in the end, my Fresh Fruit Tart with Gingersnap Crust was delicious!

This recipe is different than most, it seems, because it calls for crushed gingersnaps as the crust. I served this at a family get together, & many people commented that they really liked this difference, which I was glad for. It would've been a lot easier to buy a premade crust, but my hard work was worth it :) Here's a pictures of the end result:

Smores Cupcakes

Immediately upon finding this recipe, I knew I had to make these. Not only were these cupcakes delicious, but they were super fun to make! These are so good that they don't even need frosting. I will use any excuse to make these again, I loved them so much. The only thing I'd do differently next time is make double ;)

Want to Spice Up a Brownie Mix? Try Peanut Butter Brownie Cupcakes!

So, I know this isn't a from scratch recipe but I made it & I'm gonna post about it anyway.

I wanted to use a brownie mix but I didn't want them to just be plain old brownies. So, I found this recipe. These little treats were eaten by a swarm of boys within an evening! So simple, yet so awesome. Here's what mine turned out like:

Raspberry Chocolate Layer Cake

For Valentine's Day, I tried my first entirely from scratch cake recipe, & it turned out AMAZINGLY! It got great reviews from my entire family, the only complaint being that it was gone too soon! This Raspberry Chocolate Layer Cake was admittedly a lot of work, but tasted like a slice of heaven -- a gourmet slice, at that.

Here's how mine turned out:

Why I Bake

The fall of 2010 was a bad time for me. Everything I'd experienced within the past year came crashing down on me, & I was miserably depressed. When I wasn't in therapy, I was in front of my TV, watching Law & Order under a blanket with my dog. There was nothing else I had the energy or motivation or even want to do. Until I re-discovered baking.

When I was younger, I used to make cookies every so often for my family. I loved everything about it. Mixing everything up, getting messy & making balls of dough & plopping them on the tray, watching the dough transform...it's all good & fun but the best part was sharing it with others. That always made me feel good, because I knew it made them feel good.

So one day my mom came home with a cookie mix because we were having some people over for dinner & she asked me to make them. I didn't want to, but I did it anyway, & the good feelings I had forgotten about came back. Since then, I haven't stopped baking. I'm starting to stray from box mixes & have begun trying recipes from scratch, which is why I created this blog. Here is where I will document & review the recipes I try.