I love cutout cookies.  So many fun memories from when I was little, making them with my mom, grandmothera, aunts and friends.  I have a bunch of different recipes that I use throughout the fall and winter.  Of course,with me, it is hard to tell what they ate, once decorated.  These are for Halloween, so I used pumpkin, ghost and  bat cookie cutters.  I tweaked a and doubled a recipe from Nestle. As you can see, my decorating skills are not good, but the cookies are!  Remember to use mini chocolate chips or else it will be impossible to cut out the cookies!

Ingredients – 1 cup butter (softened), 1 cup shortening, 1 cup brown sugar (firmly packed),2/3 cup sugar, 4 tsp vanilla, 2 egg yolks, 4 tbs water,   1tsp salt, 4 cups flour (scooped from flour container into measuring cup), 1 12 oz bag mini chocolate chips.

Directions – preheat oven to 350.  cream butter, shortening, sugar, brown sugar and salt.  Add egg yolks and water.   Stir in flour.  Fold in chips.  On surface that has been dusted with flour, roll out dough as thick as you want your cookies to be.  Cut our your cookies with cookie cutters.  Place on a cookie sheet lined with nonstick baking liners.  Bake 10 minutes.  Cool completely. Frost as desired. Store in covered container.

I ran out of orange frosting,so I made a small amount of blue frosting for the Yankees!

This is one of my favorite recipes this time of year – frosted Pumpkin cookies.  I love the smell of pumpkin and the spices of fall – cinnamon, nutneg, etc.  These cookies are easy to make and are very soft.  Of course, I supersized them and frsoted them with two kinds of frosting- brown butter, plus a simple vanilla frosting.  The reason for two frostings is I did not make enough of the brown butter kind.  I always make too little or too much frosting.  I guess next time I can just make a lot of frosting and bring in the leftover to work with spoons😊

Ingredients – 3/4 cup butter (softened),1 cup sugar, 1 1/4 cups brown sugar (packed into measuring cup), 1 – 15 oz canned pumpkin, 2 eggs, 3/4 cup evaporated milk, 2 tsp vanilla, 3 cups flour (scooped from flour container into measuring cup), 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp butmeg, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Directions – cream butter, sugar and brown sugar.  Add pumpkin, evaporated milk and vanilla.  Stir in eggs.  Fold in dry ingredients and spices.  Chill dough at least an hour.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  On cookie sheet lined with nonstick baking liners, place 1/4cup mounds of dough (I fit six on a my cookie sheets.  They spread a little, not too much).  Bake 12-15 minutes.  Cool

Brown butter Frosting ingredients – 4 tbs butter (softened), 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup evaporated milk.

Directions – brown butter over medium heat (brown bits form in butter).  Pour into bowl.  Add powdered sugar and evaporated milk.  Can add more powdered sugar and evaporated milk if you want a different consistency.

Butter cream frosting – 4 tbs butter, 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup evaporated milk

Directions – cream butter.  Add powdered sugar.  Stir in evaporated milk.  You can add more powderd sugar or evaporated milk,depending on the consistency you want.  I also colored my frosting orange.

hi friends!  check out my latest baking video on youtube!  cake mix chocolate chip cookies stuffed with oreos!

I made some brownies the other day with the intention of bringing the rest to work, but the recipe only made 9 and Rob ate 2.  If my math is correct, that is 7 to bring into work tomorrow. Ohhhhh, that will not work.  You see, my mom (and everyone in my family) always prepares way too much food.  Our philosophy is better too much than not enough.  So I tweaked a cookie recipe and am using  a dry  white cake mix instead of all the flour recipe calls for.  And I am adding milk chocolate chips.  And we have some open  bags Oreos,  so they will be stuffed with Oreos.  All this for a football Friday at ESPN Radio.  

You can use whatever cake mix you want, I am going with white.  I am also using milk chocolate chips.  

Ingredients – 3/4 cup butter softened to room temperature, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 cup flour, 1 1/2 cups dry cake mix, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 cup milk chocolate chips, Oreos.

Directions – beat butter, brown sugar and sugar on medium speed 1 minute. 

 Add egg and vanilla.  Then, fold in dry ingredients. 

 Stir in chips.  

Scoop out some cookie dough and divide in half.  Gently press 1/2 piece of dough  flat.  

Top with an Oreo.  

Place the other flattened half on top. 

Form around Oreo.  You may need to add a little extra dough to make cookie “disappear.”

Chill for 1 hour.  Preheat oven to 350.  Line cookie sheets with non stick baking liners.  Stagger cookies 8 to a sheet.  

Bake 12-16 minutes (you will see light golden spots on top ).  

Let cool on sheet 5 minutes.  Let cool completely and store in covered container.

I asked Rob what treat he wanted and he said “brownies like your mom makes.” That means brownies with chocolate chips.  I could have used a mix, but I decided to step it up and go homemade.  The extras come to work with me Friday.  (And I think I will need to bring in something else bc this recipe didn’t make a whole lot.. and I can’t just being in 7 brownies)

Ingredients – 10 that butter, 1 1/4 cups sugar, 3/4 cup cocoa, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 eggs, 1tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup flour.

Directions – preheat oven to 325.  Grease 8×8 pan.  Melt butter.  Stir in sugar, cocoa, and salt. Add vanilla. Fold in flour.  Stir 30 strokes.  Spread into pan.  Bake 25 -30 minutes (until toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs).  Cool completely. cut and store in covered container.

(You can leave plain, frost or sprinkle with powdered sugar.)

check out the youtube tribute video Rob and I did for our beloved Charlie.  he was such an amazing pup!

Here is my latest for tomorrow, to get everyone working at ESPN Radio through an NFL Sunday (and hopefully another Bills win).  

(This is the Bills jersey the team sent me in 2011 after their CEO heard me talking about them one Saturday morning on ESPN Radio)

These treats are simple.  You can use your favorite brownie recipe or mix, some marshmallow fluff, melted chocolate and crushed graham crackers. Smores treats and no campfire necessary. I used a recipe I saw on a blog using ht fudge and ice cream instead of water.  😊

Prepare and bake your brownie mix, as directed.  Cool.  Using a wooden spoon to poke holes throughout the brownies.  Heat 1 cup of fluff in a microwave safe bowl 30 seconds.  Pour over brownies.  Top w melted chocolate and crushed Graham crackers.  (Or you can just sprinkle pieces of chocolate on top if you prefer)

Store in covered container.

check out my latest baking video on youtube!  white chocolate brownies with chocolate chocolate chip cookie dough topping!

Cookie dough brownies are one of my favorite treats and I wanted to put my take on them, so I made vanilla brownies with chocolate, chocolate chip cookie dough on top. Woo hoo!

Brownie Ingredients – 1/2 cup butter, 1 bag of white chocolate chips, 3 eggs, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 1/4 cups flour (scooped, using a spoon, from your flour container into measuring cu), , 1/4 tsp salt.

Directions- preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9×13 pan with baking spray.   melt chips and butter in 45 second increments until you can stir the mixture smooth.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Stir in flour and salt.  Spread evenly in pan.  Bake for 15 to 23 minutes, until brownies are golden on sports in top and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out basically clean.  Cool completely. It looks like this.

Cookie dough topping ingredients – 1/2cup butter (softened or melted), 3/4 cup sugar, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 jar (or more) of hot fudge, 2tsp vanilla, 2 tbs milk (or water), 1 cup flour, 1/2 bag of chocolate chips

Directions – combine butter, sugar and brown sugar.  Add milk and vanilla.  Stir in hot fudge.  Add flour.  Fold in chips. 

Spread over cooled brownies.  Store in covered container.

Today is my hubby’s birthday.  So, I asked what he wanted me to bake and he said “a funni bone cake.” It is a chocolate cake with a layer of peanut butter in the middle (kind of like the inside of a Reese’s peanut butter cup), and frosted with chocolate frosting.  Although there is nothing wrong with Duncan Hines or Pillsbury cake mixes, I went homemade for this and used the Hershey’s Chocolatetown cake recipe.

Chocolate cake – 1/2 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup boiling water, 2/3 cup shortening, 1 3/4 cups sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 eggs, 2 1/4 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 1/3 cups milk, 2 tsp lemon juice or white wine vinegar

Directions – preheat oven to 350.  combine milk and lemon juice or vinegar and set aside 10 minutes  to make buttermilk.  Stir together cocoa and boiling water.  In a separate bowl, cream shortening, sugar and vanilla.  Add eggs.  Stir in dry ingredients, then cocoa mixture.  Blend in buttermilk.   Divide batter evenly into two round cake pans sprayed with Pam.  Bake 25 to 30 minutes (until toothpick inserted in center comes out basically clean).  Cool completely.

Funni bone filling – 3/4 cup peanut butter, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 cups powdered sugar, 2-3 tbs milk.

Directions – Combine and mix with mixer.  You can add more milk or powdered sugar to get the consistency you want.  

Frosting – 6 tbs butter (softened), 6 tbs Crisco, 3 cups powdered sugar, 2 tsp vanilla, 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/8 cup milk or water.  

Directions – cream butter and shortening.  Blend in powdered sugar.  Add milk or water  and vanilla.  Beat to desired consistency.

Place one cake layer, flat side up on a plate.  Spread funni bone layer over, like this.

  Place second cake layer, flat side on top of peanut butter layer, and gently press down,  like this.

Then you frost, like this!

Store in covered container.