These cookies, affectionately known as “the franks,” named after a friend of ours, are Rob’ s favorite cookie. So he asked for these as the Monday Bills victory treat (in addition to the cookie cake I am bringing in). The win was a big one and worthy of double treats! I stood the entire time I watched and yelled. A. Lot. And maybe used some bad words. 7-2!!! Also the Sunday ticket is a blessing and a curse!

• Ingredients
• 3/4 cup Crisco
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup white choc chips
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions – preheat oven to 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Cream Crisco, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, salt, baking soda and vinegar. Add egg. Blend in flour. If dough seems too dry, add a tbs or two,of water. stir in chips. Scoop out 1/4 cups of dough. Scatter on a cookie sheet lined with nonstick baking liners. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. (There will be light golden patches on top ). Cool completely. Store in covered container.

Today’s Bills win over the Seahawks (one of the best teams on the league) was worthy of two victory treats. For the first, I present chocolate chip,cookie cake with cream cheese frosting. It is made in a 9 inch springform pan. If you don’t have one, try using 2 – 9 inch round cake pans if you have them, dividing the batter evenly. If you don’t want to make cream cheese frosting, you can make regular vanilla or,chocolate frosting.

• Cake ingredients
• 12 tbs butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbs vanilla
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions – preheat oven to 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Line a 9″ springform pan with parchment paper and spray with baking spray. Cream butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Fold in dry ingredients. Add chips. Spread into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center basically comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes, then invert on a plate and cool completely.

• Frosting ingredients
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened (I used neufactel, which is lower in fat and calories)
• 2 tbs butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Heavy cream

Directions – cream butter and cream cheese. Blend in powdered sugar. Add vanilla. Add enough heavy cream to get the consistency you want. Frost cake. Store in covered container.

These cookies are a perfect one for fall – pumpkin sugar cookies with a cinnamon sugar buttercream.   Quick note – these call for canned pumpkin, cornstarch, pumpkin pie spice, and cream of tartar so make sure you have them in stock. You can probably use cinnamon if you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, but don’t substitute the other things.   The cookies don’t spread much either, so you may want to flatten them slightly if you want a flatter cookie.  Remember to scoop your flour into your measuring cup so you get the right amount and preheat your oven to 350 degrees for 20 minutes before baking. 

• Ingredients
• 1/2 cup Crisco or butter
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tbs cornstarch
• Cinnamon sugar

Directions – cream butter or Crisco, oil, sugar and powdered sugar.  Add eggs and pumpkin.  Blend in dry ingredients. Scoop out 1/4 cups of dough.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.  Chill 1 hour or so.  Preheat oven to 350 for 20 minutes.  Scatter on a cookie sheet lined with nonstick baking liners.  Bake 13 to 15 minutes.  (They will seem a little undone, will be lightly golden on bottom).  Cool completely. 

• Frosting ingredients
• 2 tbs butter, melted
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Milk or heavy cream

Frosting directions – combine and frost cookies. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Store in covered container.

A lot going on with this week’s Bills victory cookies. Today’s win was quite stressful and came down to the last minute. Only the 3rd win,in the last 21 at home versus New England! Nothing ever easy with this team, but 6-2 after 8 games is one good thing in an awful year. So I am here for whatever goodness we have. I wanted to make peanut butter cookies.. And I had brownies leftover (I made some for Rob and he ate a grand total of one, per usual). And I also wanted to use up the rest of my mini M&Ms. And Rob suggested putting melted chocolate on top. So that is how we can to this cookie.

• Ingredients
• 1 cup Crisco
• 1 1/2 cups peanut butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 tbs milk
• 1 tbs vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup mini m&ms
• Brownies, baked, cooled and cute into smalls squares

Directions- preheat oven to 375. Cream Crisco, peanut butter, brown sugar and sugar. Add eggs,vanilla and milk. Fold in flour and baking soda. Stir in m&ms.

Scoop out a tbs of dough, slightly flatten.

Place a brownie square on top

Place another tbs of slightly flattened dough on top.

Completely cover brownie.

Scatter on a cookie sheet lined with nonstick baking liners. Bake 12 minutes. Cool completely.

Top with melted chocolate. Store in covered container.

We had a little debate at work during one of the shows yesterday regarding candy corn. Some think it’s great. Others (like me) think it is sugar wax. Saturday is Halloween, and I need an appropriate holiday treat for football Friday (go Bills), so I am bringing in candy corn (sort of). Actually, they are sugar cookie bars cut into triangles ans decorated with white, orange and yellow frosting. ☺

• Ingredients
• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbs vanilla
• 5 cups flour

Directions – preheat oven to 350 for 20 minutes. Line a 9×13 pan with parchment paper. cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix in flour. Press evenly into pan. Bake 14 to 16 minutes. They will seem undercooked. Do not cook too long because they will be on the dry side. Cool completely. Cut into triangles. Frost with white frosting on top, orange frosting in the middle and yellow on the bottom. Store in covered container.

These celebratory brownies are for today’s Bills win over the Jets. It was not pretty, but they won, so who cares, right? I believe it was the eternal philosopher – Bears qb Nick Foles, who said he ” would rather win ugly than lose pretty. ” amen, Nick! So although this was not the best game to watch today (if I was not a Bills fan, we likely would have opted for Steelers-Titans or Browns-Bengals), the end result was enjoyable! Rob suggested brownies to celebrate because the jumbo cupcakes I made won’t be nearly enough for everyone at work.

These are adapted from Nestle. These brownies are one of the first things I made my myself many years ago. I actually made a mistake my melting the entire 2 cups of chocolate chips, because I didn’t correctly follow the directions… But they came out great, so I kept repeating that mistake every time I make them! Remember to spoon your flour into your measuring cup to get the right amount. And, preheat your oven to 350 for 20 minutes before baking.

• Ingredients
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups chocolate chips
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp chocolate extract (or vanilla)
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

Directions – line an 8×8 square pan with tin foil and spray with Pam. In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips and butter in 30 second increments, until you can stir mixture completely melted. Add eggs and extract. Fold in flour and baking soda. Spread into pan. Bake 22 to 28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Sprinkle with powdered sugar immediately after removing from the oven. Cool completely. Store in covered container.

Doesn’t get much more fall-like than today’ “Go Bills” treat. It’s made with a snickerdoodle cookie mix, molasses, cinnamon, ginger and allspice. And the house smells so good. You can use a sugar cookie mix if you want. I also opted to frost them with a simple buttercream frosting and added some cinnamon sugar because more sweetness is always good – with food and in life.

• Ingredients
• 1 snickerdoodle cookie mix (set aside cinnamon sugar packet)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 stick of butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp allspice

Directions – preheat your oven to 350 degrees for 20 minutes before baking. Line a square baking pan with tin foil and spray it with baking spray. Combine all the ingredients and mix well. Press into foiled pan (you likely will have to flour your hands to do this. Sprinkle some of the cinnamon sugar from the cookie mix on top. Bake 20 to 25 minutes. These are kind of hard to tell when they are done, but you don’t want to overbake them. Cool completely.

• Frosting ingredients
• 2 tbs butter, melted
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• Milk
• Cinnamon sugar

Directions – combine powdered sugar and butter. Add milk, a little at a time, to get the desired consistency. Blend in 1 tbs or so of cinnamon sugar. Frost bars. Store in covered container.

Happy Friday friends! Today’s recipe is a chocolate chip cookie variety (one of nearly 2 dozen in my collection). These are made with powdered sugar instead of regular granulated sugar. I also like to use 1 tbs of cornstarch in my chocolate chip cookies because it helps keep them a little puffier. I used 3 kinds of chocolate chips and even tossed in some mini m&ms. Because m&ms make things better!

Remember to 1) spoon your flour into your measuring cup to get the right amount and 2) preheat your oven for 20 minutes before baking

• Ingredients
• 8 tbs butter, softened
• 2 tbs Crisco
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbs vanilla
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbs cornstarch
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup mini m&ms

Directions – cream butter, Crisco, brown sugar and powdered sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients. Mix in chips and m&ms. Scoop out 1/4 cups of dough. Chill a few hours in a Tupperware container. Preheat oven to 330 degrees for 20 minutes. Stagger on a cookie sheet lined with nonstick baking liners.

Bake 10 to 15 minutes (light golden patches on top). Cool completely. Store in covered container.

I am trying to rally the troops, as my beloved Buffalo Bills are trailing the Titans early 3rd quarter. I am using bad words, but not yelling, so Gracie is calm. I am not fun to watch a game with at all.

Usually I bake for game day, but had no time for this one. So I made super fudgy brownies during the game.. As opposed to fudgy brownies, or regular brownies. I think perhaps what makes them super fudgy is the corn syrup. You can also try honey instead if you want. Remember to preheat your oven to 350 degrees before baking… And spoon your flour into your measuring cup. Damn you Ryan Tannehill!😳

• Ingredients
• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbs chocolate extract (or vanilla)
• 5 eggs, beaten
• 1cup plus 2 tbs flour
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions – preheat oven to 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cover a 9×13 pan with tin foil and spray with baking spray. In a microwave safe bowl, melt butter and chocolate chips in 30 second increments, until you can stir mixture smooth. Stir in sugar and brown sugar. Mix in eggs and extract. Fold in flour and baking cocoa. Spread into prepared pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out w just a few moist crumbs. Cool completely. Store in covered container.